From planning the details of the house model to dealing with the merger of Campus Council and Duke Student Government, next year’s vice president for residential life and dining will be kept busy.
The four candidates campaigning for the new position have expressed an interest in overseeing the development of the house model—set to be implemented in Fall 2012—as well as handling other ongoing housing and dining issues.
The position—which will oversee a number of decisions that Campus Council has handled in the past—received the most applicants of all DSG vice presidential races, with six students initially running for the position. The four candidates still actively campaigning have experience in Campus Council or DSG. Freshman Wally Gurzynski and juniors Jeremy Moskowitz and Esosa Osa currently serve on the residence life and dining committee, which was established in light of Campus Council’s merger with DSG. Freshman Philip Srebrev currently serves as a student affairs senator in DSG.
The other two candidates who entered the race have since reconsidered their decisions. Freshman Leila Alapour withdrew her candidacy, and freshman Samuel Kebede wrote in an e-mail to The Chronicle that he is “probably not” going to run for the position, although he has not officially withdrawn from the race, said DSG Attorney General Ryan Clark, a junior.
All the candidates running expressed support for the decision to merge Campus Council and DSG, largely because the merger will allow students to lobby for residential life and dining issues more than they were able to do as a part of Campus Council.
Gurzynski, who ran unsuccessfully for the position of interim vice president of residential life and dining in March, said he hopes to improve campus culture by dealing with inequities in residential life, improving the freshman dining experience and increasing accessibility to nutritional information. He also hopes to improve the perception of Central Campus.
“Right now you have an inequity between the living experience for [students in] selective living groups and independents,” said Gurzynski, an independent. “I think you need to make them equal.”
He noted that he hopes to ensure that the number of students allowed to block on campus remains high and added that he supports the inclusion of sororities in the new house model as well as a smoking ban on campus.
In achieving his goals of reforming freshman dining, Gurzynski proposed allowing freshmen to use their meal swipes at Trinity Cafe more often and adding more venues to the Marketplace. He hopes to utilize social media to obtain student input on food options beyond what the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee already offers.
Gurzynski said his status as a freshman running against two juniors is an advantage because of the long-term nature of dealing with residential life policy.
“I will be able to plan, implement and evaluate the house model—I think that is something you are going to really need,” he said.
Moskowitz, who is campaigning from abroad because he is on a service mission in Ethiopia and Israel, also noted the need to enhance the living experience for independent and selective houses, citing his involvement in greek life and in a quad council. He added that the housing process for students studying abroad needs to be simplified and more clearly defined and that he aims to improve the system by which houses in the new model are evaluated.
He added that the University should provide more incentives to encourage students to live on Central.
“Renovations to apartments are only one piece of the pie,” Moskowitz wrote in a March 29 e-mail. “Despite efforts from the administration, there is still a stigma that is associated with Central.”
Moskowitz also mentioned the need to push for healthier eateries on campus.
“Fast food culture has taken over campus, and there are very few places where you can sit down and eat a healthy, well-balanced meal,” he said.
Like many other candidates, Osa also took the position of ensuring that discussions of the house model are “rooted in equality... and student input.” She added that improving the perception of Central will also be crucial for the success of the model, proposing subsidized bike rentals, increased use of van services and increased lighting—especially on Oregon Street.
“We do not want to create a model where people are... going to houses based on location,” Osa said, noting that housing placement should not affect a student’s involvement in campus life.
The University should also make the nutritional content of its food more accessible and increase its options for vegetarians and vegans, Osa said. She added that the freshman meal plan should be more flexible and should potentially include a swipe at the Devil’s Bistro on Central.
“I think [a Devil’s Bistro swipe] would help freshmen have a better understanding of Central... because most students don’t know how to navigate Central until they live there,” she said.
Srebrev said he would hope to form an exploratory dining committee that would look into eating options on other campuses with “superior dining programs,” such as Virginia Tech and Cornell University.
He also emphasized the need to raise awareness about the actions of DSG, adding that he has already been involved in projects that seek to increase knowledge among freshmen.
“One thing I noticed is that the student government at Duke is not nearly as visible as what I imagined it to be,” Srebrev said. “The administration is one huge obstacle to any sort of project, which is why I feel like [my] projects, while still in progress, have given me an incredible amount of experience in learning how to deal with the administration and its intricacies.”
Although he is an independent, Srebrev noted that he plans to work with the Interfraternity Council to ensure that the transition to the house model is as “seamless as possible” for fraternities, adding that he hopes the new model will foster greater collaboration between living groups and independents.
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