This is the third story in a five-part series profiling this year's candidates for Duke Student Government president.
Mike Sacks wants to be a rock star.
He's studying in Los Angeles this semester, working at Interscope Records as director of publicity for Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst. He plays bass guitar in a band and has written music since discovering his love of it as a child.
He also has three goals for next year--two of which revolve around music.
"I want to find a girl who likes the rock and roll, get a recording contract and change Duke's climate for the better," he said.
Sacks, by the way, is also running for Duke Student Government president on an unconventional platform striving to revolutionize the campus climate.
"Duke is so type-A. It needs to chill out," said Sacks, calling the campus a nimbus of apathy. In fact, his slogan is "F-ck Apathy."
Sacks, who until this semester served as Class of 2004 president, hopes to take advantage of the new quad-based residential structure to boost campus activity.
As vice president of Bassett Dormitory's house council his freshman year, he brought baby pools and watermelons to East Campus. He further boasts that before arriving on campus, he organized an e-mail list of Class of 2004 members-a list that has become institutionalized for incoming freshmen ever since. This year, he used class funds to pre-pay vendors-from Wimpy's Grill to Vertical Edge rock climbing-and printed stickers for juniors' DukeCards so they could get discounts at those venues.
"I want to bring something to students on every nice day, have some sort of student group in their quads, shoving it down their throats that there's something to do," he said-pointing to everything from step shows to a capella concerts.
"The same time, same place, every week, until students see it, respect it, recognize it and accept it," Sacks said, slamming his fist on the table at every point, in a rage of excitement.
The challenge for Sacks is to convey that enthusiasm from 3,000 miles away; no candidate has ever successfully run for president from another campus.
Sophomore Margaret Mash, his campaign manager, has taken a prominent campus role, filling in for Sacks during the campaign and communicating his ideas to students.
"I'm pretty much trying to be him for the next three weeks," she said. "And believe me, he is a machine. He will not stop until he gets what he wants."
Claiming that DSG needs a strong leader who is intolerant of politics and bureaucracy, it seems that at times, Sacks--a complete DSG outsider-is running more against the student government's constitution than any of his four opponents.
"DSG is a pre-political bureaucracy club, which does nothing and the biggest event of the year is some restructuring," he said, decrying what he called petty squabbles, legislative inaction and inefficiency. "I have little or no regard for a constitution that supports such bureaucracy.... The DSG constitution isn't sacred to me."
The Yardley, Pa., native went to a private boarding school in Lawrenceville, N.J., and says he has always had a passion for stirring up the social climate.
"I came in here all anti-frat," he said. "I was prejudiced. I saw it as something I thought was evil."
Yet Sacks added that he's found greeks have something to offer in campus social life and pointed to this year's growing interaction among selective groups of different racial ethnicities.
And despite grumbles that greek leaders are unenthusiastic about Sacks' campaign, his supporters say he is almost infectiously commanding as a leader.
"He's likable, easy to work with and a pretty effective communicator. He would do a good job," said junior Gloria Borges, a Sacks supporter who assumed the 2004 class presidency this spring. "Mike's [class council] has had a very organic feel to it. We all contributed and all of us were president in a way."
Sacks may well have the charisma for it--back on campus for a weekend, he worked the tables at Alpine Bagels and Brews on a Friday afternoon, going out of his way during an interview to say hello to at least a dozen friends who reciprocated with hugs and welcomes. He claimed that he knows almost every member of his class and hoped juniors would push him over the top Tuesday.
"DSG's screaming for someone to turn it on its head," he said. "Duke's screaming for someone to turn it upside down and leave a lasting impact."
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