DSG academic affairs senate candidates

Sep 18 2011, Written by Andrew Luo in News, 1 Comments

Special to The Chronicle

There are nine candidates for the DSG position Senator of Academic Affairs: Grant Petersen, Nikolai Doytchinov, Tiffany Lieu, Raymond Liu, Nika Duan, Leighanne Oh, Max Lipscomb, Anjali Sawh, and Josh Izzard. The campaigning period started on Monday September 12th and the official election will be held on Monday September 19th online. Candidates Nika Duan and Leighanne Oh were unavailable for interview.

The Chronicle: First off, where are you from? What previous experiences (if applicable) do you have with student government or other related roles?

Nikolai Doytchinov: I am from the Bancroft School in Worcester, Massachusetts, where I served in student government for five years—including terms as Secretary and Treasurer—and rewrote the SG constitution.

Josh Izzard: I’m from Dallas, Texas, and my previous experience with student leadership was on a Junior Board of Governors for my local community club.

Max Lipscomb: I was born in raised in Palo Alto, where I did direct social media campaigns for Meg Whitman’s 2010 Gubernatorial bid, political science research at Stanford, and worked at a start-up funded by the same venture capital firm as Facebook.

Tiffany Lieu: I am from Seattle, Washington, and I was part of student government for four years. I also had the privilege to serve as the treasurer and President of my high school SG. As President, I instituted fundraising and alumni connection programs.

Raymond Liu: I’m from San Jose, CA, where I was the president of the largest and highest-ranked high school Speech and Debate team in the nation.

Grant Petersen: I am from Littleton, Colorado and I served as four year class president at my high school on student government as well as serving on numerous district and administrative councils.

Anjali Sawh: I was originally born in Kingston, Jamaica, but the town I now hail from is Edmond, Oklahoma. In high school, I was the Secretary of Service for my school’s National Honor Society chapter, the president of my Girl Scout troop.

TC: What platform are you running on and what ideas do you have if elected?

ND: Some of the changes I want to make include convincing professors to post to syllabi, getting the drop period extended so that students can get some grades back before deciding to drop the class, and making departments and professors post their policies on grading online. Lastly, I also want to fix the current DSG website so that it can be user-friendly and up-to-date and join with other Senators to fight for a more flexible meal plan.

JI: I believe in openness with an emphasis on strengthening student and administration communication. For example, I want to innovate and improve the curriculum and implement Academic Advising a bit sooner than what it is currently. I am also a Pratt student who plans to take courses in Trinity. This way, I will better understand the academia of both schools.

ML: As a senator I’m hoping to create a new class review system so that students can get very realistic feedback from their peers. I also want to end the few remaining block exams which are still distributed on campus and eventually return tailgate in some form of its former glory.

TL: If elected, I want to serve as a liaison between students and administration to increase faculty-student interactions (especially for freshmen), improve the academic advising system, and work on ACES to make it more streamline and user-friendly.

RL: There are several ideas I want to implement. First, I want to increase guidance and host activities for students, particularly for people on the fence between Trinity and Pratt. Also, I want to work with university administrators and staff to host activities to help students discover their own passions and provide insight to courses through multimedia. This way, professors can share their passions and students can get a better idea of the course and individual professor’s teaching styles. Lastly, I want to improve course/instructor evaluation systems and make a cohesive website from it.

GP: I want to enhance programs such as designing-your-own-major and work closely with deans and advisors to ensure that Duke is really engaging in the best system for registering for classes, creating classes, and achieving graduation requirements.

AS: Well, I hope to get more students involved in working with the administration by allowing the administration to be more accessible. Also, I want to change some of the requirements (quantitative sciences for humanities majors is just not fair) so that it caters more to the interests of students. Lastly, I want to create a policy that requires all work-study jobs to advertise available positions on DukeList.

TC: What is something special that you can bring to the table if elected to Senate?

ND: I have developed very strong negotiation skills through high school debate and student government. I want to use these to fight for change that matters to all students and for a more open government. This combination of insider skills and outsider mentality makes me unique.

JI: I would say that the amount I am involved in with regards to Pratt, Trinity, and athletics all adds to my “X-factor”. This range of involvement lets me see all sides of the student body at Duke, and I think it will prove helpful when trying to make the biggest impact I can.

ML: From what I’ve seen working in environments with adults, trying to get your way as a younger representative is mainly about having the persistence and excitement about an idea to see it through to its actualization. I’ve got that drive, persistence and excitement, and I intend to use it to lobby and bring my ideas into reality.

TL: I have a lot of experience not only in matters pertaining specifically to student government, but also in listening to people and acting upon their requests. I am a diligent, dedicated and thorough.

RL: Personality, personable-ness and legitimate concern for education. I’ll keep it at that for now.

GP: I can promise that I will work for the students of Duke University harder than anyone else. I am a great listener and am willing to sit down with anyone to address the issues at Duke and how to correct them.

AS: I know how to work closely with administrators, what it takes to actually get things done, and what sorts of things are feasible. I will honestly push for all of my platform ideas to be implemented.