This is the first story in a five-part series profiling this year's candidates for Duke Student Government president.
It has been two years since Taylor Collison left Duke Student Government, an organization he remembers as unfocused and plagued by an excess of internal politics. Now, as a junior who has remained active in campus life, he hopes to lead DSG.
This year, Collison serves as Craven Quadrangle president and social chair for Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. He said his experiences with these groups have allowed him to stay in touch with a wide cross-section of students and have helped him hone his abilities to take student concerns from discussion to action.
Collison, who hails from Winter Park, Fla., said recent questions regarding DSG's effectiveness arose from student leaders' inability to think beyond a one-year term.
"That's not the way you want to go into DSG, thinking that everything is an August to May issue," said Collison, a public policy studies major. "You have to be willing to sacrifice being able to say, 'Here's what I did for you this year,' to say, 'This is what you'll have in 10 years.'"
Nevertheless, Collison said he has some immediate student concerns that he hopes legislators will address in the 2003-2004 academic year. The Academic Affairs Committee should conduct a reassessment of Curriculum 2000 by next December, and should help the Honor Council educate students on the new student honor code, known as the Duke Community Standard, Collison said.
He also outlined three primary areas for DSG's Facilities and Athletics Committee to address--the planned "student village," library renovations and roads. In regard to the village, Perkins Library and Bryan Center, Collison said DSG should try to include additional group meeting space, additional computing terminals, increased social venues, and alternative independent and selective housing.
Creating dialogue has been one of Collison's major goals since freshmen year, when he tried to elicit feedback from upperclassmen on courses they had taken. This experience led to the creation of EZDevil.com, an independent, online, course evaluation system that helped shape the current system, SACES. Collison advised those working on SACES and gathered student input on what they wanted the site to include. Since then, Collison has expanded his efforts to increase interaction not only among students but between the University and the broader Durham community.
One of his projects is Rock-N-Wrap, a food recovery program that will eventually encourage all campus eateries to donate excess food to off-campus charities. In addition, Collison organized an ATO Halloween Carnival that hosted local children from the Boys and Girls Club in Durham.
ATO President Tyler Smith lauded Collison's ability to integrate social aspects of the fraternity with community service.
"It takes a lot of effort to get 50 guys to participate in community service, but Taylor is very good with the brothers and helped make the event a success," Smith said.
Collison described himself as an active leader not easily intimidated by administrators and open to student input. He cited his experiences as both a non-greek student and a fraternity member--he did not join ATO until his sophomore year--as well as his distance from DSG since serving as a freshman legislator as positive experiences that have allowed him to garner a variety of student perspectives.
Craven Quad Treasurer Monique Bruinsma, who has been on the quad council for two years, said Collison would be an effective president if elected. "He is a very good moderator at all meetings and he makes sure opinions are heard.... Quad Council has been a lot better because of it," she said.
Collison stressed the demand for an ideological change within DSG, noting the need to distinguish between issues that should be handled by DSG and those that other groups such as Campus Council should address. With regard to recent proposals to alter how DSG elections are run or change the organization's structure altogether, Collison said that he would wait until after the election to offer a specific proposal.
"Right now there is not a cohesive student group working on student policy," Collison said. "DSG has unbelievable potential that hasn't been fulfilled. The organization is going to have to go through a lot of changes, but when you're concerned about long-term viability... next year is going to be a sink-or-swim year."
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