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The Chronicle T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2016
WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM
ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH YEAR, ISSUE 112
DSG Judiciary Protestors remove tents outside Allen Building overturns funding veto Amrith Ramkumar and Neelesh Moorthy The Chronicle The Duke Student Government Judiciary overturned President Keizra Mecklai’s lineitem veto that stripped the Chanticleer, Duke’s yearbook, of $20,000 in funding. It also declared a bill that decreased the funding allocation for the Peer Advocacy for Sexual Health center “null and void” following Monday’s arguments. Petitioners Executive Vice President John Guarco, a junior, and junior Tanner Lockhead, vice president for Durham and regional affairs, had argued that Mecklai’s line-item veto of $20,000 Chanticleer funding from the annual budget was unconstitutional since it was not an overall veto of a statute. The Judiciary agreed, meaning that the annual budget as passed last week remains in effect. “I am pleased that the Judiciary has accepted the argument put forth by Tanner and myself on the unconstitutionality of the line-item veto. This is a victory for the student body,” Guarco wrote in an email. Mecklai’s veto of a separate $20,000 transfer of funds from DSG’s surplus to fund the Chanticleer was not challenged and remains in effect. Mecklai wrote in an email Tuesday afternoon that the decision establishing the budget as a single piece of legislation, rather than multiple pieces, may limit the president’s ability to veto the budget at all. “There isn’t time for the annual See DSG JUDICIARY on Page 4
Kristen Shortley | The Chronicle The DSG Judiciary declared a bill to decrease funding for the PASH center null and void.
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Carolyn Chang | The Chronicle After a rally Tuesday evening, student protestors took down their tents on Abele Quadrangle but said they plan to continue organizing during the summer.
Abigail Xie and Adam Beyer The Chronicle Twenty-six days after the student protestors first walked into the Allen Building, students took down tents they erected in solidarity outside the building on Abele Quadrangle. Duke Students and Workers in Solidarity, the group that organized the recent Allen Building sit-in and protests, held a rally and vigil Tuesday evening as the group took down its tents in A-Ville. Protestors said that they would continue organizing during the summer and into the Fall semester. “This is not the end of A-ville. This is only the beginning,” said sophomore Jazmynne Williams, one of the nine students who occupied the Allen Building for eight days. “We will be taking a break and re-gathering our strength and coming back.” Williams read demands from the 1969 Allen Building takeover and reiterated the demands that the administration has yet to complete. Approximately 50 people attended the rally commemorating the end of A-Ville for the semester. Sophomore
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Dipro Bhowmik, another former occupier, criticized administrators for failing to continue negotiations after protestors left the building. “Both DSWS and administrators agreed to act in good faith. More than two weeks after the sit-in ended, the administration continues not to act in good faith,” Bhowmik said. “They committed to start negotiations within seven days of the sit-in ending, but we have not heard anything from them.” Following the rally, protestors hosted a vigil to reflect on the past year and the removal of pride flags and discovery of a white supremacist pamphlet at the encampment. Several students pitched tents earlier this month to support the nine students occupying the Allen Building. The sit-in began following allegations of discrimination within the Parking and Transportation Services department and a Chronicle article describing a 2014 incident in which Executive Vice President Tallman Trask hit contract parking employee Shelvia Underwood with his car and allegedly used a racial slur. Anastasia Karklina, Trinity ’14, a Ph.D. student in literature and African and African-American studies and a media
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liaison for DSWS, noted that one of the main accomplishments of the protest has been highlighting the issue of worker abuse at the University despite adversity. “To me, it has been about what is possible all along, and I think it is true to say that many did not think this kind of community, this kind of resistance, was possible, but it has been,” Karklina said. Karklina explained that the group would work to continue its efforts next semester by mobilizing and healing during the summer. DSWS is attempting to create a sustainable movement by bringing together undergraduate, graduate students and faculty together. Although Karklina said the group was unsure of the exact form the protest would take in the Fall, she noted that discussions are ongoing and several students have expressed interest in continuing to tent. Williams noted that the students who occupied the Allen Building in 1969 did so after two and a half years of attempting to work with administrators and connected it to DSWS’ current work. “We will be back and we will be fighting for these demands because we stand on the ground of our ancestors that fought before us,” Williams said.
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