Senior Jesse Panuccio's playful dream before graduation is to have his own show on Cable 13 - he calls the concept Totally Panuccio, which would amount to Panuccio's 30-minute rants on a variety of University issues.
With little over three months until graduation, don't count the show out yet. Panuccio is the president of the Duke University Union, which oversees the student television station, and anyone who's met Panuccio knows he has plenty to say, whether he's rooting for his hometown favorites, the New York Jets, or passionately discussing the direction of intellectual life on campus.
Panuccio has criticized what he says has been the dominant role the Athletic Department holds at the University, an undergraduate experience that does not quite match up with what is advertised to prospective students and Curriculum 2000 for not going far enough to create a senior capstone experience.
"I stand by my convictions and principle, and I let people know that," Panuccio said. "I think I'm a straight talker. I'm not coming with a specific agenda, other than doing what I think is right. If the Board is doing what it's supposed to be doing, then it will appreciate that."
Beyond his often direct style, Panuccio has made academics the heart of his campaign for young trustee - highlighting the academic experience for undergraduates, overseeing the physical changes to campus and enhancing life outside the classroom - all three of which amount to bolstering the intellectual infrastructure of the University.
Starting off as the head of the Union's Major Speakers Committee sophomore year - when he brought in inaugural Survivor winner Richard Hatch - Panuccio rose to executive vice president his junior year and took a semester off to study in New York before taking the Union's reigns last summer.
Panuccio, who has said a lack of social options can make the campus seem boring, said he has worked to bring more options to students in his time as Union president, such as starting the concert series at Armadillo Grill, revamping the website, enhancing the Union's advertising and generating more student interest in Broadway at Duke. He points to a referendum this spring on raising student fees as proof that the Union is not only thriving, but aiming for a state of expansion in the options it provides students.
In an unorthodox field of finalists that highlights the rise of alternative student organizations on campus, Panuccio has strong personal and professional ties to his opponents - he served as Brady Beecham's top lieutenant in the Union last year and is a fraternity brother of Andrew Nurkin.
Yet his greatest notoriety comes not from his work at the Union, but from a column he wrote in December's issue of TowerView, criticizing the lack of intellectualism on campus.
"One of the things that impresses me about him is how both highly organized he is and how his interests go beyond the narrow definition of the positions he's held," said Peter Coyle, associate dean for University life and an adviser to the Union. "He's interested in campus-wide issues, simply beyond what the Union does."
Reynolds Price, a James B. Duke professor of English who spoke on the same issue in a legendary 1992 Founder's Day address, distributed the column as suggested reading for members of his Milton course. One professor in African and African-American Studies even quoted Panuccio's column on the syllabus.
"I only knew that because one of my fraternity brothers said he almost walked out of the class when he saw it was on the syllabus and almost dropped his pen," Panuccio said.
"The most surprising thing has been a seeming dissatisfaction among professors about those things I pointed to in the article," he said.
Faculty do not vote for young trustee, however, and Panuccio has had to walk a fine line between being too critical and offering suggestions for how to improve academics at Duke.
"I don't want it to come off like I think Duke is a terrible place or Duke students are dull - I think that a lot of the people are involved, captains of our community," he said. "The question is when you look at the larger community, how many people tapped into that? Less than you might hope."
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