Officials announce candidates for spring executive elections

Fifteen students will contend in this year's Duke Student Government executive elections March 5, and all but one of the organization's top positions is contested.

"We have a good group," said DSG Attorney General Will Fagan, who collected applications until 5 p.m. Tuesday. "We're looking forward to a good election, and hopefully we'll have some good campaigning going on."

Candidates--including one student long-distance, from the Duke in Los Angeles program--will begin their campaigns a week from Saturday.

The five presidential candidates--Taylor Collison, Adam Katz, Mike Sacks, Matthew Slovik and Shaomeng Wang--all juniors, have all worked with DSG in some capacity, although only Slovik has previously served as a committee vice president. Sacks is currently studying in Los Angeles, and will travel to Duke at least once over the next several weeks for endorsement interviews with various student organizations.

Among the 15 students running, only four are female, with the presidential race made up entirely of male students. "We don't have very many minority candidates to my knowledge," Fagan further observed, a stark contrast to the current executive makeup.

Of the six positions, only one--vice president for community interaction--is uncontested, with sophomore Andrew Wisnewski a lock for the position.

Junior Clifford Davison, current vice president for facilities and athletics, and freshman Russ Ferguson are running for senior Justin Ford's position as executive vice president.

Sophomore Maggie Peloso and junior Avery Reaves will battle for senior Lyndsay Beal's spot as vice president for academic affairs.