Undergraduates overwhelmingly supported Thursday's referendum for a new student government.
Almost 94 percent voted in favor of the Duke Student Government proposal. 1,467 supported the proposal, while 97 voted against. About one-quarter of all undergraduates voted in the election.
"I am ecstatic that this DSG proposal passed," said Trinity senior Hardy Vieux, ASDU president. "This is why I ran. `Mission accomplished' is all I can say."
"I just thank all the students and the executive and legislative branches of ASDU for being behind this," Vieux said.
Trinity junior Paul Hudson, president-elect of the student government, shared Vieux's excitement for the referendum results. "I'm really excited because I think the vote today culminated two and a half years of re-examining the constitution," Hudson said.
"On the other hand, this is just the beginning of the process of real change."
The next step in the restructuring process is to review and refine bylaws. Executive members of DSG must also conduct a close review of the new constitution during the summer, Hudson said.
The referendum replaces the current ASDU student government constitution with a new one for DSG. The executive branch of ASDU introduced the proposal in January, and the ASDU legislature approved a revised version in February.
The restructuring process began last year when Tonya Robinson, ASDU's immediate past president, co-sponsored a proposal to dissolve ASDU and create a new student government.
In a referendum last April, the proposal failed, 1,051 votes to 890, although students supported a mandate for ASDU to change.
They also elected Vieux, who campaigned on the platform of change.
Vieux and others created the DSG plan in response to students' disappointment with ASDU, which has often been criticized for its ineffectiveness. Most significantly, the new proposal consolidates the executive and legislative branches of government.
The new student government will be led by the president of the student body, the executive vice president and four vice presidents. The executive vice president will serve as the president of the senate.
Each student senator will also be required to serve on at least one University committee.
Certain parts of the new constitution still need to be determined, such as the bylaws that govern parliamentary procedure and the composition of the legislature. Currently, up to 125 representatives from living groups, Central Campus and the at-large community serve in the legislature. In the new constitution, each living group will have at least one legislator, but the final distribution and total number must still be fixed.
Many students strongly favored the proposed changes to ASDU. "I think DSG will streamline [the student government] more and hopefully get it under control," said Trinity sophomore Jen Sneider.
Some voted for the new proposal despite having little knowledge. "I don't know much about [the DSG proposal] but everyone knows ASDU doesn't work," said Trinity sophomore Renee Moenning.
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