Duke University Union has selected its new leadership team and will continue to streamline its various channels in the coming year.
Junior Nathan Nye, who currently serves as DUU’s vice president of internal affairs, will serve as president of the organization—responsible for events such as the Last Day of Classes celebration and Homecoming—in the 2012-2013 academic year. Nye and the rest of next year’s executive board were selected by current executive board members through an application and interview process in February. The current board also appointed committee chairs to 14 of the DUU’s 16 programming committees.
“I’m excited to move into a role that can facilitate all of our programming under one big umbrella,” Nye said. “I have the chance to look at the union holistically and make sure that we’re meeting our goals.”
Nye said that one of his main goals will be streamlining DUU’s 16 programming committees and improving efficiency and coordination between the various committees. Due to DUU’s large and varied nature, it is difficult to avoid overlap and redundancies.
That vision is shared by sophomore Jacob Robinson, current co-chair of the LDOC committee and incoming vice president for internal affairs.
“Being LDOC co-chair, I’ve led a committee of 17 of my peers, both older and younger than me,” Robinson said. “Efficiency is one of the things I’ve learned a lot about. I’m going to take the things I’ve learned in my LDOC experiences, and I’m going to help implement them into other DUU committees.”
Integration of committees has already proven successful in one area. This year, DUU absorbed the previously independent LDOC committee.
Senior Nathan French, co-chair of the LDOC committee, said that integrating the LDOC committee into DUU has proven to be a beneficial decision because it joined the committee with a larger network of planners, providing it with new resources. The collaboration helped DUU intentionally design a varied program of concerts throughout the year.
Another main goal for next year is ensuring that DUU brings diverse programming to campus, Nye said.
“My vision is to create the best programming on campus possible,” he said. “Our mission statement is very clear that we need to bring cultural and academic programming as well as entertainment, and I want to stress that.”
Senior Rachel Sussman, current DUU president, was unavailable for comment.
The chairs of the LDOC committee and the Campus Concert Series committee are yet to be determined. Interviews for the chair of the Campus Concert Series are scheduled for later this month.
French said next year’s LDOC co-chairs have not been chosen due to scheduling problems that prevented LDOC selection from coinciding with the rest of DUU’s selections. Applications for the position of LDOC co-chair are currently being accepted, and the LDOC committee hopes to make selections by April 1.
Robinson noted that DUU has a large influence on campus life and that he is looking forward to his upcoming role.
“Next year more than ever, DUU will have a huge role in bringing students together, fostering inclusivity and creating positive memories for the students,” Robinson said.
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