The 2025 Duke Student Government presidential and executive vice presidential candidates answered questions from the Duke community and DSG members in a forum moderated by DSG Attorney General Chloe Decker, a senior.
The two presidential candidates, juniors Katelyn Cai and Tara Singh, joined executive vice presidential candidate Dylan Cawley, also a junior, to discuss their goals and experiences ahead of the election, which will run from March 31 at noon to April 1 at noon.
Opening remarks
Cai stated her four-pronged goal of being a “transparent, practical advocate for students” by empowering student groups, increasing communication, cutting costs for students and bringing social life — including Greek life and selective living groups — back to campus.
Singh shared that when she started out in DSG, a senator said to her that student government was not meant to be productive. Since then, Singh said she has worked to prove that statement wrong — pointing to her work this session improving first-year equivalency and providing airport transportation.
Cawley, the only EVP candidate, stated he is excited to make “DSG that much better” and emphasized that his “ideas and programming will be in tandem with whoever is selected as president.”
Q: Over the last three years at Duke, in what student community or project have you made the biggest impact? How would this experience influence your leadership as DSG president or executive vice president?
Cai pointed to her role running Democracy Day, where she interacted with University stakeholders, ultimately doubling voter turnout at the Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center and reducing event costs. During a “time where higher education is under attack,” she said she would be willing to make difficult, practical and unconventional decisions that are most important to the student body.
Singh spoke to her experience on Blackwell House Council and as Keohane Quad president in navigating “programming, … logistics and event planning” as informing how she approaches her work in DSG, where she centers “authenticity, creativity and adaptability.”
Cawley cited his experience as director of finance and operations for the Duke Partnership for Service Fellowship. There, he said he navigated Student Organization Finance Committee funding requests weekly, which has informed his goal as EVP to make the process more accessible and efficient for student groups.
Q: What area at Duke do you believe is the most in need of improvement, and how would you mobilize DSG to change that?
Cawley pointed to creating more effective lines of communication between DSG and University administration, noting that they typically collaborate “only in the circumstances where admin[istration] reaches out.” He aims to continue to advocate for students in the context of “threats to higher education.”
Cai mentioned the rising costs of attending Duke, highlighting a need to defend “bread-and-butter issues” for students. She aims to draw from her experience as a journalist to “use public pressure” and to hold administration accountable via “practical solutions,” like publishing budget breakdowns.
Singh similarly spoke about the issue of rising costs, stating her vision of advocating for underrepresented communities on campus through “visible” solutions, such as expanding first-year equivalency or providing DukeLIFE a space outside of the library.
Q: How do you plan to lead DSG in improving our campus social culture, especially in terms of off-campus and on-campus divides in the implementation of QuadEx over the last several years?
Cai wants to take a “both-and approach” to social life, which would attempt “to bring Greek life and SLGs back to campus” by proposing partnerships between QuadEx and disaffiliated groups to hold joint events.
“People deserve to party safe,” she said. “People deserve to have [an] active social life on campus. If you walk around on West Campus on a Friday night, it should not be as quiet as it is.”
Singh hopes to “rebuild trust” with off-campus organizations to ensure those groups feel like “Duke has [their] back.” She is currently working to do so by engaging in conversations with leaseholders and disaffiliated groups to discuss the potential of a house party protection system, similar to that at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Cawley plans to strengthen channels of communication between the student body and DSG to ensure that “off-campus” voices are represented in DSG’s project work pertaining to campus’s social culture, as well as in relevant decision-making processes with University administration.
Q: Every candidate in the history of DSG has promised to make DSG more efficient and effective. What are some specific ways that you will go about optimizing a bureaucratic body like DSG to work better and more efficiently?
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Cai spoke about the importance of improving both internal efficiency as well as external efficiency. If elected president, she said she plans to utilize public pressure mechanisms, announce approved resolutions and inform the Duke community of DSG's work by writing a biweekly column in The Chronicle or sending out newsletters with updates.
Singh wants to improve communication strategy to involve student groups in coauthoring proposals to address issues that impact them. Regarding effective internal efficiency, she aims to revive DSG’s research unit, requiring senators to perform quantitative assessments before formulating project proposals to ensure that their work is “more impactful” and “student-centered.”
Cawley stated that a “large part” of efficiency is holding DSG members accountable and ensuring that there are adequate incentives and opportunities for mentorship to increase the retention rates of DSG senators.
Q: As president or EVP, how will you approach relationship building with different segments of campus, including but not limited to identity and culture groups, transfer students, international students and student workers like resident assistants and teaching assistants?
Cai wants to ensure that DSG is a “diverse space” by ramping up recruitment to attract a “diverse student body.” She also aims for multicultural group leaders to have access to her calendar in order to allow them to be represented at meetings that impact them.
Singh stressed the importance of reducing “hurdles” and “stressors” for multicultural organizations on campus. She wants to make “small quality-of-life changes” for Duke students, including those related to food insecurity.
Cawley believes that DSG’s strength as a student group lies in its connection to “diverse coalitions.” He aims to address various student interests through project work that “center[s] diverse voices into all of [DSG’s] work.”
Ishita Vaid is a Trinity junior and a senior editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.