Duke Student Government confirmed new officers and reviewed its policies Wednesday during the first senate meeting of the 2024-25 academic year Wednesday.
The senate unanimously confirmed junior Tara Singh as vice president of campus life and sophomore Yash Sharma as vice president of Durham and community affairs. Singh and Sharma’s predecessors, who had been confirmed in April alongside the other new officers for the 2024-25 academic year, resigned from the executive board over the summer.
President Heather Raslan clarified that their decision to resign was “nothing personal” and that both previous vice presidents are now “working on other fabulous projects.”
Singh was previously director of residential experience and policy, while Sharma was previously a senator on the academic affairs committee.
Policy changes
Speaker of the Senate Dylan Cawley, a junior, reviewed the House Rules of the Senate and introduced several policy changes from last year’s operations. The revised House Rules will be voted on at a future DSG meeting.
Legislation must now be submitted to the speaker of the senate 36 hours before the meeting at which it will be considered.
DSG is “overhauling” their new member education training — DSG 101 — which will be overseen by Executive Vice President Akhilesh Shivaramakrishnan, a senior. A new finance training for senators will soon be introduced.
Representatives from the Student Organization Finance Committee will now be required to “talk through lists and requests that they did not approve.” In support of the rule, Cawley cited prior comments from senators that SOFC was spending large amounts on events, “when in reality SOFC actually says no to a lot of requests.”
In March 2024, SOFC rejected $71,000 of $100,000 in student organization funding requests following an abnormally high volume of requests.
The decision followed February reductions in meal funding allocations and two separate planned executive sessions, at least one of which was to discuss “financials.” Student organizations later reported limiting their program due to insufficient funds.
In April, then-SOFC liaison Ariella Ruiz announced that SOFC would be reviewing its policies and guidelines.
While not a new policy, Cawley stressed that non-DSG members are welcome to attend sessions and bring matters before the senate or comment on pending legislation.
“In case you have anybody from the student body who feels passionate about a subject, we want to [emphasize] that they are allowed to speak at the discretion of senate staff,” Cawley said. “ … We codified that legislation is also open for debate from interested guests — anybody who comes in — even if it’s not related to SOFC.”
In other business
DSG senators confirmed members of the operations teams and presidential cabinet.
The senators also passed a budgetary statute, approving an operating budget of $31,000. Treasurer Connor Biswell, a junior, clarified that the amount would not be DSG’s full budget for the year but rather would provide funding that was “more needed on a time-front end in order for senate and other parts of DSG to function wholly” as the semester begins.
Senators then voted to approve the by-laws for first-year elections and approved a new six-member Board of Elections. Attorney General Chloe Decker, a senior, presented the election rules and proceedings for fall 2024, which the senators approved in the spring.
One change from the original version consisted of redefining “public locations” to campus spaces readily accessible to more than 10 members of the Duke community instead of over 20 members.
The senators allocated $3,700 to the Asian Students Alliance for its Sept. 7 Cultural Connections Fair, which will provide first-years with the opportunity to “meet all the various cultural/affinity groups on campus” with the goal of “help[ing] them find a community.” They also gave $3,301 to the group for their Sept. 14 first-year picnic.
Additionally, the senators gave $5,485 to the A Capella Council for their annual showcase to be held Sept. 1, $3,325 to the Muslim Students Association for a speaker event and $2,100 to Sustainable Ocean Alliance for a Sept. 13 Summit for Ocean Stewards.
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Zoe Kolenovsky is a Trinity junior and news editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.