Duke Student Government will begin weighing options for funding and supporting student groups following the failure of the student activities fee referendum, President Jordan Giordano said at its weekly meeting Wednesday.
"We want to minimize the impact to student groups and maximize the bang for our buck," he said in an interview after the meeting.
The Readership Program and The Chanticleer are some programs that may be considered for cuts, said Giordano, a senior. He added that plans are still in their infancy.
Created by former University President Nan Keohane in 2000, the Readership Program offers students free newspapers-The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and The (Raleigh) News and Observer-at various locations on campus. DSG spends about $25,000 annually toward the initiative, which Campus Council also funds.
The program, however, might be a student favorite, said Vice President for Athletics and Campus Services Mike Lefevre, a sophomore. He added that DSG will prioritize students' preferences for campus programs and then decide which programs to cut down on.
"I don't know what people expected," Lefevre said. "We didn't get the money, we weren't lying, we really meant we needed the money. But this is so preliminary that I haven't even sat down to begin to have my own opinions yet-we haven't even come close to making a decision."
Giordano said DSG plans to assess all student groups and their needs to determine appropriate funding allocations, but financial changes will be spread according to assessments DSG plans to make, so that not just one group bears the impact.
The Chanticleer's $134,850 budget is the Student Organization Finance Committee's single largest annual expenditure. During the Sept. 10 Senate meeting, DSG announced plans to gradually decrease funding for the yearbook by $75,000 over three years. Giordano noted Wednesday that DSG and the Chanticleer leaders had been discussing changes for several months.
Vice President for Campus Services Kemel Dawkins also spoke at the meeting to debrief the Senate on recent developments regarding DSG initiatives such as ZipCars-a campus-wide car rental service-and a bus-tracking system. These initiatives were part of DSG's original proposal for the referendum.
"We reviewed [ZipCars] over the summer and ran into a number of technical glitches," he said. "We're still ultimately interested in bringing ZipCars to Duke."
Dawkins also addressed concerns about safety on Central Campus. He said Duke University Police Department employs a total of 60 to 65 police officers and 170 security personnel, and at any given time there are about 30 officers on duty.
In other business:
The Senate voted to support Campus Council's proposed resolution to overhaul the current ban on lofting in dorm rooms imposed by Residence Life and Housing Services this Fall.
"We're proposing a new resolution that highlights and debunks the [claim] that lofts are a fire hazard-because that's simply not true-and articulate to our administration that this has student support," said Campus Council Vice President Kevin Thompson, a senior.
To improve communication between the student government and the student body, DSG will publish a newsletter every other Monday informing students of committee accomplishments and plans.
DSG Public Relations Director of Publications Wonnie Song, a sophomore, said the single-sheet newsletter may be on newsstands within the next week to provide a "constant flow of information" to students.
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