Elliott Wolf is not a typical Duke Student Government president-elect.
When he assumes the position in late April, the Chronicle columnist and Angier B. Duke Scholar will become the first rising junior in recent years to be DSG president.
An outsider to the DSG stage, Wolf has never served in a University leadership position-a fact he acknowledges but does not view as negative.
"I'm excited that this is a different thing, but I do have a lot to learn," he said. "I'm going to do whatever I have to do to be an effective DSG president."
During the next few weeks, Wolf said he plans to create new positions in his cabinet. By establishing specific job descriptions, he hopes to help the organization achieve more concrete goals.
"I will be defining positions throughout the year as issues arise and projects are created," Wolf said. "I just want DSG to be able to point to things and say, 'We accomplished them.'"
As of now, Wolf plans to create two new positions-a community liaison and a webmaster.
In addition, he will try to reinstitute a University-wide server and continue to promote the online course evaluation system he founded last year.
The community liaison will regularly attend community meetings in order to establish better communication between the University and Durham residents, he said.
Wolf explained that the position would have been useful in addressing recent concerns about allegations against members of the men's lacrosse team and the University's purchase of properties in Trinity Park, a neighborhood near East Campus.
"When Trinity Park is discussing obnoxious Duke students, there should actually be a Duke student there," Wolf said.
The second position, the webmaster, will be responsible for keeping DSG's website up to date.
Wolf said the website has been sub-par in the past. He added that he will begin to revamp the website over the summer to make it more reflective of student needs.
The improved website will feature student polls and a running list of the ideas DSG will present to members of the administration.
"As the student voice, we want to make sure we're actually representing the student voice," he said.
"We want to be able to back our positions with clear evidence that there's support from students."
Wolf said students have responded favorably to projects he has already undertaken during his time at the University. He added that he will continue to improve these efforts as president.
He said the administration has granted the course evaluation website, which he created in November, a server and staff so that it can become a permanent feature of the University's databases.
Wolf also described another major online initiative-pushing the University to fund a news subscription server that would replace the website Wolf was forced to shut down in February.
The site allowed students to download freely from a library of thousands of movies, television shows, music videos and sports clips. By funding a subscription server, Wolf said the University would follow the lead of schools such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Indiana and Purdue University.
"I've personally been told that the consequences would be very high if I put my server back up," Wolf explained. "Someone else could start one up, and I'd be fine with that."
Wolf's other goals for next year include inviting administrators to general body meetings of DSG and implementing preliminary plans to increase funding for student activities from outside sources, namely from alumni.
"The way most divisions of the University operate is through donors," he said. "If the administration can ask for money on the students' behalf, then we should be able to ask for money."
As an outsider to DSG, Wolf said he will approach all of his goals with a fresh perspective.
"I don't have hang-ups about how things should go," Wolf said. "I like to think I'm more objective."
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