Class of 2024 elects first-year DSG senators

<p>The DSG Senate heard updates from several of its caucuses at its Aug. 26 meeting.&nbsp;</p>

The DSG Senate heard updates from several of its caucuses at its Aug. 26 meeting. 

The Duke Student Government will welcome new first-years to the Senate.

The elections for the Class of 2024’s DSG senators lasted from noon Thursday to noon Friday, with 542 first-years casting ballots and more than 425 voting in each individual election for the Senate’s five committees. Attorney General Jason Scharff, a senior, shared the results with The Chronicle by email. 

To be eligible for the ballot, candidates had to collect 25 electronic signatures from other first-years by Sept. 6 and submit them to Scharff, in accordance with DSG’s 2020-21 election statute. While write-in candidates could also run, none made it past the first round of voting, Scharff wrote in his email. 

In DSG’s instant-runoff voting system, voters rank candidates in order, with votes being redistributed in successive rounds as the lowest-ranked candidates are eliminated. At the end of the process, two first-years were elected to each committee.

More first-years will enter the Senate through the at-large process, decided by interviews with a selection committee rather than elections. At-large applications were due Friday, and the senators chosen that way will join the following winners from this week’s election: 

First-year senators for services and sustainability: Ashley Bae and Shreya Joshi

First-year senators for equity and outreach: Kai Chen and Brooks Finby

First-year senators for Durham and regional affairs: Mark Kabai and Zoe Tishaev

First-year senators for campus life: Matthew O'Stricker and Sophie Smith

First-year senators for academic affairs: Chase Barclay and John Lee

Editor's note: This article was updated Saturday with the total number of students who participated in the election. It was updated again Sept. 14 with a photo of the Senate from the current academic year. 


Carter Forinash

Carter Forinash, Trinity '21, was the news editor for The Chronicle's 116th volume.

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