ExecVP race pits experience v. youth

In a student government divided by debates over the organization's very structure, the race for executive vice president may become a referendum on its future, pitting a current member of the executive committee against a younger, self-proclaimed "fresh face."

Clifford Davison, a junior and current DSG vice president for facilities and athletics, and Russ Ferguson, a freshman and DSG legislator, face each other in the election, and the largest difference between the two is experience.

Davison is a two-year DSG insider, has been part of executive committee discussions for the past year and ranks among the organization's top enthusiasts - his platform slogan is "There is still HOPE for DSG."

As facilities and athletics vice president, Davison replaced his committee's smaller individual projects with fewer and more targeted committee action projects. "As [a committee] vice president, you set a vision for your committee and you guide individuals, but you give them enough independence to do what they're passionate about," Davison said.

His committee also organized a 38,000-can food drive, led administrators on a walk last fall to assess campus safety and supported the Duke Greening Initiative - a project to create a more environmentally-friendly campus.

Davison, who has also been DSG's point man this year for discussion about the creation of a "student village" on West Campus, has worked since his sophomore year to improve transit by adding more buses and creating new and more efficient routes - a passion that he said may stem from his great-great-great-grandfather, who brought the first car to the Korean peninsula in the late 1800s.

Ferguson, as a one-year legislator and the only freshman running in this year's executive elections, served on the Community Interaction Committee and worked on the young trustee nomination process; he also served as a representative on the FOCUS Program's student advisory council.

"It's obvious that we've had problems with the committee this year... so I think it would be nice to have a fresh face," he said.

Specifically, he hopes to continue funding the Newspaper Readership Program that provides free copies of national and local papers to students, gather student input for the proposed student village, work with administrators to revitalize Central Campus and dedicate part of the DSG website to student suggestions.

"I'd like to see more things on the [general body meeting] agenda that went through the executive committee," Ferguson said. "I would stay away from petty politics a little more."

Davison is basing his "Still HOPE for DSG" campaign on four themes - human resource management, organizational development, professionalism and ending DSG elitism. Specifically, Davison's platform calls for addressing the DSG "state of the union" every semester, adhering to parliamentary procedure, making students more aware of opportunities to get involved in DSG and instituting an application process for high-level DSG cabinet positions - such as chief of staff and head line monitor.

Although Davison was not nearly as specific in his platform as Ferguson on the issue of DSG restructuring, he agreed that change is necessary and said that he would leave specific proposals for the president to articulate. He added that constitutional changes could not take effect for another year, and that implementation would be a difficult process.