As the semester begins, The Chronicle’s Claire Ballentine spoke with senior Tara Bansal, Duke Student Government president, about what DSG hopes to accomplish this year and how it plans to combat misperceptions of student government.
The Chronicle: What are your primary goals for this year and how do you plan to accomplish them?
Tara Bansal: First is encouraging a diverse social scene, and part of that is really trying to bring students from different parts of campus together, trying to eliminate some of the tension that we saw at the end of last year. This is going to use a lot of our time and attention especially when it comes to the new construction. It’s about really critically thinking about what housing could look like, how we could encourage not only a diverse party and social scene but also a diverse academic scene, getting people to interact with each other more.
The second theme has to do with intellectual curiosity at Duke and trying to see the new living and learning program expand and really flourish. Looking into the development of Duke 101, which is going to be a course that all freshmen take when they come to Duke and also having a huge role in the curriculum review as the curriculum starts shaping up. We’re working on building a new Durham-based focus program as well.
Third is elevating student services to the next level. Just trying to have better data collection for our research unit so we can better understand what services students want. Better connecting students with administrators, giving them more say in construction. DSG is also opening up a wellness room in Perkins that we’re going to be furnishing, a room for any student to go in with no technology, just sort of sit there and relax.
The last part has to do with internal efficiencies. We’re going through the first major reorganization since about five years ago, so we’re going to be reconfiguring the whole organization.
In terms of a couple of personal goals, one is communicating more with students. I think the biggest thing I heard during the campaign is that students didn’t know if DSG actually does anything, and I think a big part of that is that it doesn’t communicate the work that its doing with students. So making sure we have a great relationship with The Chronicle, with different campus leaders so that they know the work that we’re doing as well as making sure that we understand the issues that are most important to you guys.
TC: What have you done this summer to prepare for the year?
TB: There’s a ton of preparation that we did over the summer. Some of that included every vice president coming up with one big idea for their committee, something that they’re going to work on all year to change the fabric of Duke. There’s someone who’s creating a Durham-based service program, like a once-a-month DSG service project. Another one is going to talk with administrators about creating a new social life and alcohol policy, with the new campus houses being built. How to have a more on-campus party culture.
Second, all the vice presidents worked on collecting a list of five or six projects after consulting with other student groups on campus. And at the beginning of the year, we’re going to distill which of those are most actionable and applicable to the student body.
TC: What worries you the most about DSG right now?
TB: I think every year we start out with students coming to campus, and they don’t know what DSG is. I think after the first round of people run on platforms that aren’t always well-developed, people are immediately turned off. My worry is that if this continues, people are going to be turned off, not realizing that DSG is an incredible resource for them to get some of the changes that they need on campus. So one of the things we’re going to try to do to mitigate this is reach out to freshmen before the campaign season, tell them about how useful DSG can be but only if students take advantage of it. And then also trying to change the freshmen election cycle.
TC: What are your thoughts on Duke Students and Workers in Solidarity and the protests last Spring?
TB: DSG hasn’t been involved too heavily with the organization, so I can’t speak to how DSG interacts with them. First, I hope that when it comes to campus activism, students know they can come to us first to either communicate with administrators or give them some resources about the issue at hand. In terms of DSWS’ actual demands and protest, I think [Steve Nowicki, dean and vice provost for undergraduate education] said a couple of years ago to question authority which I think is a great model and I hope students feel that way about DSG as well—question authority but do so with thoughtfulness, with respect.
And so I think a lot of the protests that have happened on campus have not been that respectful to administrators and so I encourage students to bring up their concerns in a respectful and thoughtful way. I can say from my experience working with administrators that these administrators really do, or at least very often, have students’ best interests at heart. I would say before you try protest, try asking them and you never know what might be in the pipeline or what their thoughts might be right off the bat.
TC: DSG’s reputation took a hit last semester with things like Senate attendance issues, backlash over funding for nap pods and massage chairs and controversy over the Peer Advocacy for Sexual Health Center. What do you think of the public perception of DSG and how are you working to improve that?
TB: I think that there are probably three big perceptions or misperceptions of DSG. One of them is that students involved are very self-interested. And this isn’t always false. Students involved in any organizations have some self-interest. And I understand why. The big thing I would say is remember that 95 percent of people in this organization are dedicated because they actually care about their projects. It would be impossible to spend 30 or 40 hours a week working on student issues if you didn’t care about what was going on on campus.
The reason I think this perception exists is because the people who are the loudest during the campaign season particularly among first-years are the outlandish ones who don’t really know what’s happening. So people immediately associate DSG with false promises when they’re freshmen.
I think things like the attendance policy play into that misperception and to a certain extent, people not coming to meetings is evidence sometimes that they don’t care about student issues and one way we’re trying to address that is to reduce the size of DSG. I’m proposing to cut it nearly in half, so that should be one of the solutions to that problem.
I think the second misperception is that DSG doesn’t actually create valuable programs, and I think that’s a communication issue. For example, DSG created Project Arts and no one really knows about that. DSG created the FLUNCH program. DSG is the organization that created Fix My Campus. So it’s about communicating that.
TC: What are your thoughts on the 2016 presidential election?
TB: I think that it’s interesting to watch and an exciting time to be able to vote. One thing I would like to see in regards to this election is students, particularly progressive students, don’t use this as a time to demonize conservative or right-wing students. I hope students take this as a time to better nuance and discuss political issues.
TC: Okay, now for some fun questions from the staff. What was your favorite semester at Duke?
TB: I think my favorite semester was my sophomore Fall because I think at that point I sort of knew the path that I wanted to take. That’s when I took the classes that were most engaging to me. I think some of the anxiety of freshmen year is gone by that point so you have sort of built a network of friends and feel more settled but you’re not yet too comfortable.
TC: What’s your favorite spot to hangout on campus?
TB: I love the swings on the BC plaza. If I can snag a spot, I love to plug my laptop in and get some work done.
TC: What’s your favorite eatery in the West Union?
TB: I haven’t gotten to eat at all of them, but the place I’m most excited for is nitrogen ice cream because I’m a big ice cream person, and I don’t think there was really any ice cream on campus. There was frozen yogurt, but we all know that’s not really ice cream.
Correction: Tara Bansal is a senior, not a junior. The Chronicle regrets the error.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.