Duke Student Government confirmed its incoming executive board and presidential cabinet at its last meeting of the year Tuesday.
In a session that lasted more than three hours, President-elect Pete Schork, a junior, introduced his new vision for a dual cabinet—an internal cabinet to deal with DSG administrative affairs and an external cabinet to handle relations with the student body and Duke community.
“I think one of the benefits of this new cabinet is that we’ve really brought some different voices to the table who haven’t usually been involved in DSG,” Schork said in an interview. “I’m very optimistic about the kind of impact they can have in our community.”
After a year of events that prompted evaluation of Duke’s campus culture, the Senate confirmed Schork’s cabinet unanimously. The cabinet includes several new positions aimed at reaching out to formerly underrepresented members of the student body.
Schork announced that sophomore Chris Brown, the current vice president for athletics and campus services, will serve as external chief of staff, overseeing and coordinating the efforts of several new community and advocacy leaders. Junior Alex Alston will serve as director of campus dialogue, charged with community building and promoting student understanding of cultural issues; junior Ubong Akpaninyie, current vice president for Durham and regional affairs, will serve as director of multicultural outreach and affairs; junior Shane Hunt will serve as director of religious outreach and affairs; freshman Jacob Tobia will serve as director of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer affairs and policy; and junior Kim Solow will serve as director of arts advancement. The new director of women’s affairs and policy has yet to be named.
“I think that both groups will be a great nexus for dialogue for their respective functions,” Schork said.
The Senate also confirmed freshmen Audrey Adu-Appiah and Daniel Strunk to the DSG judiciary committee. A third nominee, junior Pierce Pandolph, was determined to be an unconstitutional appointment, however, as he is unable to serve the full two-year term—a stipulation of the DSG Judiciary Bylaw.
“I felt that the applicants we put forward were the very best for the position,” senior Greg Halperin, an academic affairs senator, said in an interview. “It’s unfortunate that I didn’t know about this clause that says you have to serve for two years, and therefore one of our candidates was ineligible, but I do feel that—had he been eligible—he would have done a fantastic job.”
Halperin, who was selected as chair of the judiciary selection committee two weeks ago, noted that the incident indeed revealed a gap in the bylaws.
“There is no procedure for filling vacant seats,” he said. “That’s something that I’m confident that Pete and the Senate will consider next year and resolve because that’s obviously a major loophole in the bylaws.”
In other business:
The Senate passed a bill to donate $500 in aid to Shaw University after severe weather damaged its student center.
The Senate also approved a measure to establish action-based focus groups, which will parallel the cabinet’s new direction of community engagement. The specialized focus groups will deal with women’s life, LGBTQ life, multicultural life, civic engagement and greek life.
Senior Ben Bergmann, a senator for athletics and campus services, proposed an amendment to add a group for independents. The amendment passed.
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