At its meeting Wednesday, Duke Student Government Senate voted to table the election bylaw changes proposed at last week’s meeting.
The election bylaw change—introduced by Senator for Academic Affairs Kushal Kadakia, a freshman, and Executive Vice President John Guarco, a junior—proposed to put in place a plurality system rather than the current runoff ballot system. Kadakia and Guarco said this system would force students to focus on the policies and productivity of candidates and increase transparency and turnout—just 20 percent in September's freshman elections.
“I would have liked to see an approval for the plurality system because there is a common consensus among the Senate that there will be higher voter turnout [under such a system]," Guarco said. "Now, we will discuss with University Center Activities and Events to see which course is the best one ahead of us."
One of the main objections from the DSG Senate, as voiced by freshman Jackson Dellinger, senator for Durham and regional affairs, was that the Senate should spend more time making a better system rather than approving one that “marginally improves the existing system” and “allows select interest groups to push their people forward."
Special interest groups mentioned by senators included Greek life and large dorm communities which would be able to mobilize voting blocs to elect specific candidates.
Senators supporting the proposal argued that approving the change would ensure discussion of further improvements to the system beyond the plurality voting method. Others, however, accentuated the unlikelihood of UCAE approving so many changes so quickly.
“I think it’s tragic that the legislation [was not approved]—this just evidenced how powerful a small group can be in influencing a decision," said senator for services Michael Brunetti, a freshman. “It’s a shame that DSG is beginning to look like Congress.”
In other business:
Several senators and Guarco introduced a bylaw change that would require a short-term and long-term period for DSGRU research. The short period would end in December and the long period in March. In addition, question commissioning, which currently occurs in October, would be moved to September. This would allow DSGRU to get on track earlier in the year, Sanka said.
The Student Organization Finance Committee approved funding for two organizations: the Muslim Student Association received $1775 towards its speaker event "Rohina Malik: Unveiled," and Duke Cru received $2284 towards their speaker event "On God and Race," presented by Bill Tate.
DSG also approved an allocation of $7967 to HackDuke for food and logistical costs, though though they were not SOFC-approved because the event was time-sensitive. The money was pulled from the surplus fund.
Correction: This story was updated to clarify who introduced the DSGRU bylaw.
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