Senate should speed up

Controversial legislation can take a long time to become law. But sometimes levelheaded proposals get short shrift in legislatures where expediency takes a back seat to fussy debate and excessive emendation.

This is exactly what happened to a recent proposal to consolidate the Duke Student Government executive board and Senate elections into the same day. Originally introduced at DSG’s first meeting in August, this all too reasonable proposal has been gathering dust and amendments in the DSG office for more than a month. But instead of dusting it off, the DSG Senate has watered down the bill and put it back in the cellar.

The original proposal, introduced by DSG Executive Vice President Gurdane Bhutani, sought to consolidate executive board and Senate elections into the same two-week period and, presumably, into the same day. This idea has the weight of history behind it. Former DSG President Awa Nur split the executive board in 2009 elections by holding the contests for president and executive vice president separately from vice presidential contests. This backfired. The change aimed to allow unsuccessful candidates for president and EVP to run for VP positions—but no candidates took advantage of this in 2010, and student turnout for the VP elections bottomed out at an unimpressive 26 percent. Splitting elections to give losers a shot at the consolation prize shrunk the vote and consoled no one.

This was reinforced in 2010, when the executive board was elected in unison. The combined ballot managed to excite the student body enough for an almost 50 percent turnout—the highest percentage in four years. In short, consolidation worked.

These lessons bear directly on the current proposal. A combined election ought to maximize voter turnout and cut against the student apathy that follows from the virulent cases of election fatigue that foment in stretched out political campaigns. Combining the Senate and executive board elections will preclude failed executive board aspirants from running in the Senate elections, but we aren’t too concerned about this: Anyone who wants to join the Senate can apply for an at-large position at a later date.

The original bill could have done this. But after being tabled for more than a month in August, the original proposal was revivified, batted about and amended before being put back to sleep for a week. In the process the bill lost much of its force:—it now only aims to hold the Senate elections after, but not concurrent with, the executive board elections. This might manage to dampen election fatigue, but it strips the bill of its original potency; one consolidated election seems sure to beat two held closely together.

The DSG Senate ought to reintroduce this bill in its original form and pass it without fanfare. The election calendar is conceptually controversial but covers well-traveled ground—Duke election history strongly favors a consolidated election. The Senate should lift itself above the argumentative sand and pass this overdue bill.

That this will have taken a month and a half reflects a primary concern about the DSG Senate—that it is more loose talk than substantive process. Much good has come from student government this year, but more expediency could not hurt.