Duke Student Government senators passed a resolution Wednesday night condemning Residence Life and Housing Services for changing the move-out date for West Campus residents to May 10 from May 17.
Joe Gonzalez, associate dean for residential life, sent West Campus residents three e-mails Aug. 18, Sept. 2 and Jan. 11 notifying them of the early move-out date. But Vice President for Student Affairs Spencer Eldred, a senior, presented a resolution to prevent RLHS from changing the dates without the consent of Campus Council and DSG, if school is in session.
“There are legitimate reasons to change [student housing] contracts,” Eldred said. “But things like this have become a trend and it’s very detrimental to student needs.”
The bylaw also states that RLHS took advantage of its “lucrative housing monopoly” in making this change.
“It is unjust to obligate students to agree to a housing contract without specifying for how long that housing contract will grant residence,” the bylaw states. “Students deserve both sufficient notice and a voice in deciding what merits such changes.”
The e-mails note that the date change cuts costs and allows for more extensive summer renovations, but DSG President Awa Nur said the administrators have other reasons in mind.
“They don’t want kids here during Beach Week, so they don’t want kids to be able to store their items,” said Nur, a senior. “And if that’s a decision that they are going to make, they need to make that decision public.”
Senators also discussed the results of Tuesday night’s undergraduate Young Trustee election.
Senior John Harpham, former chair of The Chronicle’s independent editorial board, won the election by a margin of three votes against finalist Chelsea Goldstein, a senior, in the runoff. Initially, none of the candidates received a majority of the votes. When the election went to instant runoff, the second choices of voters who selected finalist Zach Perret, a senior, were added to Harpham and Goldstein’s totals. Forty-four people, however, ranked Perret first, second and third, and their votes were discarded.
Goldstein is current senior policy adviser and former vice president for academic affairs. She was also a member of The Chronicle’s editorial board.
Athletics and Campus Services senator Ben Bergmann, a junior, proposed that DSG further debate instant runoff voting.
“Forty-four people yesterday didn’t know how to use [the voting system],” Bergmann said. “Usually, it doesn’t matter but in an election so close it does.... I think we should think about revisiting a system, about actually having a runoff.”
Academic Affairs senator Danny Lewin, a senior, also brought up the conflicts of interest on the Young Trustee Nominating Committee. He added that the YTNC should have stipulated stricter requirements for determining campaign tactics.
“It’s ludicrous that we were so ill-prepared for this election,” said Lewin, who was involved in Goldstein’s campaign and is a former Chronicle columnist.
In other business:
Senators also approved a resolution supporting the creation of the Group of Duke Independents, which would serve to represent unaffiliated students.
Lewin, who presented the resolution, said such an organization would strengthen independents’ voices on campus.
“Due to the disjointed nature of independents on campus, we are functionally left without a voice basically anywhere,” Lewin said. “Most of the tables where housing decisions and those sort of things are involved there is a major disproportion of representation of selectives on campus.”
Although senators passed the resolution overwhelmingly, some expressed concerns about the lack of details in the resolution.
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