This is the first story in a five-part series profiling various student leaders this year.
In his spare time, Joshua Jean-Baptiste can be found hanging out with his fraternity brothers at Alpha Phi Alpha, or catching up with old friends.
"I'm pretty laid back," the Duke Student Government president said. "I like when things are relaxed, in a welcome environment."
As the leader of one the largest undergraduate organizations, however, the Orlando, Fla., native plans to extend that welcome environment to all Duke students and to make DSG more accountable to its constituents.
Jean-Baptiste said one of his top goals is to run DSG more effectively as a voice for the student body.
"I feel as if students think we're ineffective," he said. "We're ineffective because we don't have any power. The only power we do have is to influence the administration. If we act and work effectively, our reputation will be changed."
Clifford Davison, vice president for facilities and athletics, said Jean-Baptiste's leadership style works well in a diverse DSG cabinet.
"We have almost every ethnicity represented," said Davison, a junior. "Josh lets people bring ideas first, and then he provides direction." While the variety of ideas may create more conflict, Davison added, it allows for an open environment that can hear the needs of more students.
Part of that effort will be to focus DSG's resources on a few key areas to effect the most change, rather than the disparate nature of many goals.
At the end of the year, Jean-Baptiste said he hopes students will remember DSG as an organization they can trust. "I would like students to expect support from the student government," he said.
At the top of his slate for a more responsive DSG is building community.
"I would like DSG to be more of an umbrella group that supports all students on campus," Jean-Baptiste said. "Our mission this year is to build a stronger Duke community."
Over the summer, he prepared for the upcoming year with eight discussions at Duke for students, faculty and administrators--topics included planned renovations for Perkins Library and the Bryan Center, women's issues on campus, parking and facilities, and the honor code.
Jean-Baptiste said he hopes the discussion will continue through the creation of a student web portal by the spring semester, allowing students to access e-mail accounts, Blackboard course websites and ACES Web, as well as information about on-campus events and news.
"I'm trying to create a community through technology," Jean-Baptiste said. "If everybody reads the important news of the day, it's a way of developing communication."
Jean-Baptiste also plans to help institute a campus-wide distribution of The New York Times and USA Today, to foster discussion groups and house courses on current affairs.
"While we're being educated here, we need to keep up with what's going on outside," he said. "There are a lot of problems out there, and the world is counting on us to answer them."
While encouraging intellectual life, Jean-Baptiste said he also wants to revive the social scene on campus, creating more social events where all students feel welcome.
"I feel as if there's not that much Duke space, where you, me, or any other student could go and hang out on a Friday night," he said, pointing to bonfires as one of too few community-wide events.
Last year, as vice president for student affairs, Jean-Baptiste organized a weekend bus route that transported students to popular venues off campus. This year, however, he hopes to provide students more on-campus social options, such as concerts at The Loop and Armadillo Grill.
"Our goal should be to develop some informal environments, so that on Friday and Saturday nights, if I don't want to go off campus, there's something for me to do," Jean-Baptiste said.
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