Duke Asian Students Association endorses Heather Raslan for DSG president

The Duke Asian Students Association is excited to see three accomplished candidates who contribute unique strengths for the DSG Presidency this year. After reviewing each candidate’s platforms, watching the Presidential Debate, and meeting all candidates who reached out to ASA, we have chosen to endorse Heather Raslan for DSG President. This decision comes after careful deliberation — while all candidates have shown clear passion for how they can best serve the undergraduate student body, ASA believes that Heather has the most promising and thoughtful platform for the next academic year.

Representation is not simply ensuring the existence of particular identities in decision-making spaces; rather, as Heather quoted from Paola Ramos during the debate, it is more pertinently about acknowledging one’s position of power by looking around the room and consciously inviting the people who should be there but are not. In our experience as ASA co-presidents, we believe that Heather, during her tenure as Vice President of Academic Affairs and throughout her campaign, has exemplified this principle in ways that value the voices of affinity groups and students. We are impressed by her goals for the Presidency that center sustainable partnerships, transparency and open channels of communication, as well as her initiative in providing avenues of accountability for her as an individual and DSG at large. In addition, her VP role and three years of experience within DSG have set her up to best represent students and navigate the interfaces between students, organizations and administration.

Heather will have the most positive and influential impacts serving our campus, and we support her thoughtful goals for our student body and for DSG. Her desire and dedication to make DSG a more inclusive and effective organization are reasonable and remarkable, and we are excited to offer her our endorsement.

Carina Lei, Trinity ‘25, and Joy Shijia Tong, Pratt ‘25

Duke Asian Students Association Co-Presidents

Recused: None

Absent: None