As Duke Student Government executive campaigns enter the home stretch today, candidates for president and executive vice president have each thrown in their two cents on the organization's restructuring.
That issue, which has divided the student government over the last month, stems from President Joshua Jean-Baptiste's proposed plan to change the student government, citing the current structure as the source of inefficiencies and ineffectiveness.
Presidential candidate stances on the subject ranged from supporting the restructuring to seeing the issue as largely irrelevant.
On one end of the spectrum, creating a new system of organization is central to junior Shaomeng Wang's platform. Wang said he hopes to implement Jean-Baptiste's restructuring plan--including a ticket system during elections and the creation of a new chancellor position--with the ultimate goal of making the executive board more efficient and increasing the organization's overall financial and advising support for student organizations.
"The exec[utive] board should be more cohesive and not necessarily free from differing opinion, but free from dissent from personal tiffs," Wang said.
By contrast, Adam Katz, a junior and two-year DSG legislator, has identified other issues, such as improving student services, as more important than restructuring the student government.
Junior Taylor Collison--who cited the organization's inefficiency as his major reason for leaving DSG after one year as a freshman legislator--favors restructuring but has said he would wait until being elected to specify a proposal.
From a different perspective, junior Mike Sacks is running from Los Angeles on a campaign to shake up DSG. Although he has characterized recent discussion regarding restructuring as petty, Sacks wants to move away from the legislative inaction he believes has plagued the organization.
"DSG is a pre-political bureaucracy club which does nothing and the biggest event of the year is some restructuring," he told The Chronicle last week. "I have little or no regard for a constitution that supports such bureaucracy."
Candidate Matthew Slovik has addressed the internal workings of the student government but has not offered a specific restructuring proposal. Having served as a freshman legislator and vice president for facilities and athletics as a sophomore, Slovik said he has seen DSG function well.
"I think there are some aspects of DSG that need to be addressed, but it's important to remember that no amount of restructuring will guarantee strong leadership and managerial skills from the president," the junior said.
Last year, campaigns focused primarily on improving campus safety, but no such external issue has emerged as the theme of the election this year .
Both executive vice presidential candidates have strongly supported restructuring the student government, although they differ in their approaches.
Junior Cliff Davison, who currently sits on the executive committee as DSG vice president for facilities and athletics, has said he advocates a ticket system but will allow the president to present specific proposals. Freshman Russ Ferguson has proposed his own restructuring plan, including reducing the legislature to 40 members from 50, implementing a ticket system for the president and executive vice president and creating a speaker pro tempore position to be elected by the legislature.
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