By Aaron McGuire

One year ago, the dining plan contract fee increased $70 — from $19.50 to $90. This came at the end of a long, protracted dispute between DSG and Campus Services. The fee increase was suggested for the purpose of reducing the Duke Dining deficit, which had then ballooned to $2.2 million. Finally, after the administration allegedly agreed to adhere to a list of stipulations, the fee increase was agreed upon. The most important stipulation was that the increase was to exist for only one year.

Unfortunately, that’s not happening. Early last semester, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta announced that the $90 dining fee will remain in place until at least 2013. The main argument behind the administration’s sudden change of heart is that the leadership in place now is not the leadership that was in place then. Whereas the agreement was proffered between DSG representatives and former Vice President for campus services Kemel Dawkins, this summer led to the dissolution of Campus Services altogether and the responsibilities of the defunct office were routed to Student Affairs.

While representatives stated publically at the conclusion of the fee negotiations that Dawkins gave them his word that the fee would be in effect for just one year, the administration is now saying that there was no written agreement from the negotiations – only a verbal promise from an administrator no longer employed by the university. DSG asserts that the intention was draft a written contract last year, but nobody signed it.

There is no doubt that DSG failed to take the necessary precautions to protect the student body – while the administration likewise failed to find methods of closing the deficit that are more amenable to the student body. If DSG is not going to apply adequate pressure to make that happen, it is hard to blame Student Affairs for going forward with a permanent fee increase. Though we would like to think that the administrators spend a majority of their time working to make campus better for us, the fact remains that Duke is running a massive deficit in many areas and it is their responsibility to close that deficit by any means possible. You know, except for dipping into the endowment. That would be impossible.

I digress. The fact is: this isn’t as big of a deal as it seems. A $70.50 fee increase sounds pretty stark, but it is important to place it in context – Duke tuition goes up several thousand dollars a year. The more important takeaway, for me, is that DSG settled for nothing more than a transient personal promise from an administrator who was not guaranteed to be at the university when it came time to enact the promise. While the fee increase – relative to tuition – is not very large, the tuition is not something we have any avenue of fighting. This fee increase is the opposite – it is something that DSG has more than enough power to negotiate, and the fact that DSG failed to protect the student body speaks rather poorly of the DSG officials involved, and the general health of our student government.