Head Line Monitor Steve Rawson made a special presentation at Tuesday night"s Duke Student Government meeting to describe the 'catastrophic success' of White Tenting registration. In addition to the tenting update, other major business included the Senate"s vote to allocate funding for speaker and performance artist Jose Torres Tama"s appearance.
Rawson--who was pursued from his dorm room to the Blue Zone en route to the baseball field, the secret registration location--said he was surprised by the overwhelming turnout for registration. With the 38 tents that participated in Blue Tenting already staked in Krzyzewskiville, 62 official spots remained to fill up the 100 tent cap. Rawson, a senior, said he expected no more than 50 tents to register Wednesday. He was surprised when 95 groups showed up. '[The] turnout blew my mind,' he said. 'It was awesome to have that many people.'
Only five minutes after posting the location on-line the first tent turned up to register at the baseball field, and within 20 minutes all 62 spaces were occupied. Rawson said that between 25 and 30 tents turned in their rosters to be added to the wait list. Wait-listed groups will be added when registered tents are bumped, or in the case of double registration, which Rawson said he thinks took place Wednesday.
'The first five tents on the wait list are in great shape,' Rawson said.
Seniors Bridget Newman, a member of Students Against Sweatshops and a columnist for The Chronicle, and Natalie Lamela, Public Relator for Lambda Pi Chi Sorority/Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad, Inc., addressed DSG in public forum regarding the Lambda Pi Chi-sponsored Tama lecture and performance, scheduled for Feb. 16 and 20 respectively.
Both Newman and Lamela said Tama"s statements regarding Mexican immigrants and Jews in Germany were interpreted out of context at the previous DSG meeting. Newman and Lamela stressed the importance of fostering different view points. 'Duke is a young institution that has always embraced controversy and debate,' Newman argued.
Senior Dave Rausen, chair of the Student Organization Finance Committee, told DSG 'If you use your check on the student activities fee to censor events it"s really arbitrary.'
Sophomore Joel Kliksberg, vice president for community interaction, disagreed. 'It"s our job to scrutinize every single cent that is spent by SOFC,' Kliksberg said. 'We"re not a rubber stamp in any way.'
Senators scrutinized the meaning of SOFC bylaws when sophomore Senator Matt Hoekstra challenged the funding of Tama, based on the definition of Tama as a political speaker. 'I believe that we are not to pay for political speakers... he is a radical speaker,' he said.
Rausen corrected Hoekstra and said DSG can allocate funding for a political speaker, but not for a politician running for office.
Hoekstra contributed the sole nay, and aside from two abstentions, the remainder of the Senate voted to allocate $2350 in funding for the event to Lambda Pi Chi.
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