After meeting with the three candidates for Duke Student Government President, the Duke Muslim Students Association has unanimously voted to endorse Tara Bansal. We were inspired by Tara’s commitment to inclusivity and outreach, as evidenced by her extensive work on the “Duke 101” program for first year students. Furthermore, Tara greatly understood the needs of Muslim students on campus; we believe that many of the policies she outlined would provide real benefits for our community and similar organizations. We were particularly impressed by her clear goals for the use of DSG surplus funds, which included increased support for cross-cultural and interfaith programming. Lastly, we believe that Tara’s experience working with the Board of Trustees and other leading administrators leaves her uniquely well-prepared for the role of DSG President.
While we support Annie Adair’s commitment to making DSG more accessible to the student body and agree that the organization needs restructuring, we wish her platform had a larger emphasis on external affairs. Although we fully appreciated John Guarco’s understanding of Islamophobia and how it affects our community, we question if his proposed petition system could favor some on-campus groups more than others (based on size). Ultimately, however, we truly enjoyed speaking with all of the candidates and believe all of them would make meaningful contributions to the school as DSG President.
Good luck to all of the candidates with the election!
Yossra Hamid, Trinity '16
President, Duke Muslim Students Association
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