The platforms for each candidate in Duke Student Government's executive elections may differ on some issues, but they all have one thing in common--proposals to improve campus safety.
Most candidates have discussed the need for more lights, locks, security guards and other tangible security measures. Still others point to underlying causes for student fears, from their peers' behaviors to the nature of campus life.
DSG President C.J. Walsh said the issue was virtually non-existent when he ran one year ago. Since then, several reported crimes--a sexual assault in Randolph Dormitory on East Campus, an attempted assault in Perkins Library and several on-campus muggings--have prompted DSG to more closely examine safety concerns.
Those concerns are emerging in the most unlikely of races--including that for vice president for academic affairs.
Candidate Lyndsay Beal, a junior, said security in Perkins Library should be a top initiative for next year's vice president.
"Places like a library should not be a concern," she said. "My role might be somewhat more limited. I'm not facilities and I'm not even student affairs, but there's certainly room in academic affairs to improve safety."
Sophomore Alex Niejelow, a candidate for vice president for student affairs, said he began working on the issue last fall as a legislator because of his experiences growing up on other campuses.
"I came from an urban environment in West Philadelphia where I saw a similar trend in the ways the crimes were occurring," he said. "I realized it was time for student voices to really push for strong mobilization... of the administration to deal with this issue."
Niejelow has hosted forums and worked to increase lighting and police presence on campus this semester. He said the issue has soared to the top of many candidates' agendas in light of recent crime reports.
"I'm not surprised at all," he said. "I think this is an issue that permeates every aspect of University life."
The issue has permeated every other race, as well.
Sophomore Clifford Davison, a candidate for vice president for facilities and athletics, said his committee will examine the safety of individual facilities.
"At facilities, we will look at how the buildings themselves create unsafe situations," he said.
Freshman Eileen Kuo, a candidate for vice president for community interaction, said safety will be a key issue for her committee as well and that she hoped more forums might help allay student fears. "I find it disturbing that it took that event on East Campus for it to be an issue addressed by the administration," she said.
Like other presidential candidates, junior Brady Beecham, now president of the Duke University Union, has made campus safety one of her three top issues.
She said her concept of campus safety involves not just deterring crimes of those from outside the Duke community, but also preventing violence and sexual assault committed by students.
Walsh said now that the issue has moved to the forefront of DSG, he expects it to remain atop the Legislature's agenda.
"I don't think it's going to go away," he said. "It will definitely be on the marquee projects the Legislature takes on."
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