the chronicle tuesday, september 7, 2010 | 15 commentaries
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Solving the collaborative action problem
ave you ever heard of the Inter-Community Coun- of vice president for the ICC and the Senate subsequently cil or its rebranded successor, the Council for Col- repealed the ICC bylaw, struck all mention of the organilaborative Action? zation from DSG statutes and repealed its funding allocaProbably not. tions. Indeed, last year’s brouhaha over the Young Trustee And that’s because the organization isn’t really for process all began with our need to replace the ICC’s inoryou, as an “average” student. dinate power on the Young Trustee NomiIt’s a council exclusively for the presinating Committee and in the final vote. dents of the 30 or so “prominent, repreAfter that assault, totally lacking a raisentative” student groups, the criteria for son d’être, the ICC should have died a being “prominent” and “representative” quiet, obscure death. determined, of course, by those self-same But it survives as the Council for Col30 presidents. laborative Action—replete with a new To be a member, a group must do constitution and taken under the wing of two of the following: “uniquely represent gregory morrison Dean Steve Nowicki. a distinct student interest,” serve as an And I see no reason the CCA will be any finish the thought umbrella organization for more than 15 more useful to students than the ICC was. subsidiary organizations, have a funding base of at least DSG President Mike Lefevre should take care of this. $10,000 and/or receive recognition or financial supHe should convene a President’s Council instead port on a continual basis from a high-level university of attending the CCA meetings. This council, squarely office, according to the CCA constitution approved by placed to advise the DSG president, could provide a last year’s Council. How simple! hugely useful avenue for DSG to be in touch with stuNews flash: that structure is not representative of dent opinion and to gauge student needs and responsme. Or likely of you, either. es to potential policy changes. Frankly, a CCA which makes The members of the council, who Are we to have two student claims of representation gets have unique perspectives and in the way of good student lobvaluable opinions, could then be governments? bying of the administration. given the same guidance as DSG And this is an old problem. in general and student-driven A 1997 Chronicle article details the Council’s (then policy making could be coordinated. the ICC’s) involvement in “Race Day,” a day of campusUnder this system, the presidents of the council wide dialogue to assist in then-President Nan Keo- would be convened by the DSG president to review hane’s trademark sensitivity efforts and an appropriate certain specific actionable items relevant to his or her endeavor for the leaders of the largest student groups. agenda and to current University policy debates. Each But a 1998 article details a lawsuit (heard by the meeting of the President’s Council might focus on a DSG Judiciary) filed against the organization by The single issue. For example, the Council might be conChronicle over secret meetings. Meetings open to stu- vened to consider and critique proposed changes in judents would seem a basic requisite at least to maintain dicial policy or to help formulate a student response to the facade of a representative body. the Socioeconomic Diversity Initiative. The presidents, A sampling of ICC agenda items includes campus by informing the student government, would become safety, campus political activism, event registration, un- an integral part of University decision-making. dergraduate research initiatives, student group funding President Lefevre could go a long way in improving and Duke branding. Guest speakers have included such communication with student groups and in leveraging luminaries as Mayor Bill Bell and Provost Peter Lange. a wide array of perspectives if he were to convene his Does any of this sound familiar? own President’s Council: such a body could pose sucIf you read the DSG Senate’s agendas, it surely does. cinct questions and provide meaningful feedback. The new CCA mission is relatively unchanged from With a strong President’s Council associated with that of the old ICC: “To bring a balanced group of stu- DSG and with real power to influence policy, the president leaders together in a forum for collaboration to dents’ fondness for the CCA will vanish. address and act on topics relevant to the undergraduSchisler is 100 percent correct in wanting to use the ate student body.” Kate Schisler, a senior and chair of CCA as “a means of using the power of diverse groups the CCA, sees the council as “a collaborative body and a to come together, understand what the Duke experithink tank.” Her vision is commendable in that it is fo- ence is like for differing groups and work towards crecused more on student group development and commu- ating one Duke.” Unfortunately, the CCA is a flawed nication and less on representation and policy making. vehicle for those aspirations. But, legally speaking, there remains no substantive A council which is a formal advisory body to the difference between the CCA mission and the mission president and which is chaired by the president is emof our student government. powered to effect, in deep and meaningful ways, the Are we to have two student governments? One elect- steps your real representative government can take in ed and one a club open only to your traditional “cam- making Duke a better place. pus leader” types? The end result is stronger advocacy for us “average” When I served as executive vice president of DSG, I students. pushed hard for the ICC to be set loose from DSG’s legitimizing umbrella. Students passed a constitutional amendGregory Morrison is a Trinity senior and former Executive ment passed in September 2009 abolishing the position Vice President of DSG. His column runs every Tuesday.
lettertotheeditor Administrators should be on campus for Labor Day I enjoy teaching my classes: that is why I didn’t mind coming in Monday for Labor Day to teach. Not only was my class full, no absences, but my colleagues were there, teaching their own classes and holding office hours. I also rode the bus, found the library open and took advantage of available food services—the campus was bristling with activity. However, when I made the climb from my classroom on the first floor of Allen up to the second floor of the University administration that afternoon, I found the lights off, hallways vacant. I knocked on doors and got no answers. It was clear that everyone was off for the holiday, as has been the case for most, if not all, of the Labor Days since I have been at Duke. Now, I would not suggest that anyone be forced to work
on Labor Day—it is, after all, a national holiday. Nor do I know what those administrators were doing that day—for all I know, they were working at home, or off on a retreat or simply left before I came by. However, it seems a little inconsistent with what I know of effective management to take the day off while your employees have to work. Ergo, I would suggest, for unity’s sake, that the administration consider at least making themselves visible on the holiday, especially if faculty and students are here, enjoying the beautiful weather out the window while sitting under the fluorescent lights of a classroom. Daniel Griffin Graduate and Professional Student Council President Ph.D. Candidate, Classical Studies
A diamond is... controversial
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man walks into a bar.... Ouch. No, but seriously. Imagine this: A man walks into a bar. It’s your typical Saturday afternoon—the sun is shining, birds are chirping, the flowers are in bloom. Yadda yadda yadda. The perpetual smell of stale beer lingers in the dingy bar. You see, he’s a regular here and has been ever since he can remember. Saturday afternoon molly lester happy hour is a tradition for our man. It allows him more taste, to reflect, relax and, most less filling importantly, talk sports with the bartenders who all know him by name. “How ‘bout them Blue Devils?” he always asks with a grin. As he saunters back to his stool, he catches the slightest sparkle out of the corner of his eye. Startled by the sudden shimmer, he looks again, certain his eyes have deceived him. The man rubs his eyes in disbelief. Prepared to see nothing upon reopening them, he takes another look. Lo and behold! A diamond, or more likely, a cubic zirconium, lay neglected on the floor. But hey, hope springs eternal. The man looks around. No one else has seen the jewel nor does anyone appear to be looking for it. The contrast between the iridescent shimmer and the dirty bar floor is too much for him to handle. He picks up the stone and puts it in his pocket. Is this diamond his for the taking? Does the ancient common law of “finders keepers, losers weepers” hold validity in this situation? This hypothetical man has led an honest life; he’s never stolen from another and never asks for much. Have the planets fortuitously aligned on this particular Saturday? What if I told you that I know this “man” and that “he” did in fact find a diamond lying on the ground. No, it wasn’t on the floor of Shooters, but it was lying alone and forsaken somewhere in the greater Durham area. Suspicious of its pedigree, he had the stone appraised only to learn that he was the new possessor of a diamond —a genuine, bona fide, honest-to-God, big ol’ shiny diamond. And guess what? It was appraised at $10,000. $10,000! For our man, or any man for that matter, $10,000 is a life-altering amount of money. With 10 grand, he could buy a new car or a new wardrobe or new purebred puppy and pay for all of its shots. He could put the money in the bank or start a small business or pay for, oh, I don’t know, half of his fall semester’s tuition at Duke. He could take a trip to Las Vegas or invest in some unfamiliar stock or buy season tickets to the Durham Bulls games for himself and a few of his closest friends. Our man could quadruple his food points, eat at the Angus Barn twice a week for the entire fall semester and still have enough money left over to satisfy his hall’s late night Randy’s cravings. He could get his ears pierced, buy an identical diamond to the one he found and, as my good friend Lil’ Wayne once so elegantly stated, rock “more ice than a super-sized drink.” I know what you’re thinking. The man should find the rightful owner and return the diamond. It obviously fell out of a jewelry setting and belongs to someone who lives close by… And now I’ll play devil’s advocate. Let’s assume anyone who wears a $10K bauble in college doesn’t need the money. And besides, the man hasn’t seen any posters for a missing diamond. No one has asked him about a lost jewel. As far as he is concerned, it belongs to no one. He can’t simply put up a sign displaying “FOUND: A big diamond. Does it belong to you?” So should he give it to charity? If yes, how does he decide which one? Who needs the money more? The children of Durham or the children of New York? The addicts on the street or the dogs in the pound? The future farmers of America or the under-funded opera? What would you do? I know what he did… Molly Lester is a Trinity senior. Her column runs every other Tuesday.