New Union leadership prepares to take over

Outgoing members of the Duke University Union executive board held their last meeting Tuesday night. New DUU President Yi Zhang, a junior, officially assumes her position later this week.
Outgoing members of the Duke University Union executive board held their last meeting Tuesday night. New DUU President Yi Zhang, a junior, officially assumes her position later this week.

Duke University Union finalized its three new committees and will welcome new executive board members next week.

At their meeting Tuesday night, outgoing DUU committee chairs participated in the weekly meeting for the last time, and the new committee chairs sat in.

“The changeover was more difficult and longer this year because of the new committees we created,” said President-elect Yi Zhang, a junior.

Last week, DUU confirmed the creation of three new committees—Annual Events and Parties, Speakers and Stage and the Innovation committee—and appointed the respective committee chairs. Annual Events and Parties will sponsor the usual events like Homecoming and Duke Royale, while the Innovation committee will host newly created ones. Speakers and Stage is a combination of the Major Speakers Committee and LiveEnt.

Next year, a new organization, the President’s Cabinet, will be formed to encourage interaction between Office of Student Activities and Facilities advisers and DUU executive members, Zhang said. It will be a weekly meeting to provide guidance for DUU committee chairs.

Zhang said the current executive board held more interviews to fill the new positions. She added that DUU postponed the changeover until the Cameron Rocks concert Thursday because the outgoing Major Attractions Committee planned the event.

Incoming committee chairs will submit budgets by April 3, said junior Ben Condon, incoming chief financial officer.

“We are looking to make some [financial allocation] changes based on last year’s budget,” Condon said. “We will have a higher budget due to increasing tuition, so the student activity fee is higher.”

DUU received $665,000 in student activities fees this year and expects the figure to rise next year, though nothing is certain until students matriculate and pay their fees, said junior Annie Kozak, outgoing chief financial officer.

In other business:

As of 2 p.m. Tuesday, about 870 tickets remained for the Cameron Rocks concert, said Major Attractions Director Liz Turner, a senior.

She noted that DUU sold more than 80 percent of available tickets, surpassing the break-even point of 60 percent.

Radio stations from Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will host WXDU/WXYC Prom at 10 p.m. April 3 at the Coffeehouse. The event will feature DJs and musicians from both radio stations, said WXDU Station Manager Marc Loeffke, a junior.

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