Weeks of frenzied campaigning on East Campus concluded Thursday night as polls closed in the Duke Student Government freshman elections.
The 12 newly elected freshmen senators are Antoniu Chirnoaga and Jonathon Gillespie for academic affairs, Moses Wayne and Noor Tasnim for services, Riyanka Ganguly and Jacqueline Monetta for equity and outreach, Gwen Geng and John Lu for Durham and regional affairs, Tionne Barmer for social culture, Anna Sun and Lizzie Speed for residential life and Jack Dolgin for facilities and the environment.
Polls opened Thursday morning at 7:00 am and closed at 10:00 pm. A total of 807 votes were cast—representing a turnout of just under half of the freshman class and an increase of more than 150 votes from last year's election. The number of candidates per committee ranged from three to six, with 44 total.
DSG Executive Vice President Abhi Sanka, a junior, said he felt that the elections were characterized by “great creativity displayed by a lot of the campaigns and candidates.”
Tasnim, for instance, decided to forgo the usual Chapel photoshoot and instead took humorous campaign photos of himself at Monuts Donuts.
"What really made me want to run were the various issues my colleagues reported throughout our first three weeks on campus," he said.
Tasnim said he plans to work on solving problems that affect the average Duke student on a daily basis, whether it be reducing the length of the line at Marketplace’s stir fry station, making Duke Counseling and Psychological Services more accessible or creating an “unsubscribe” button for listservs.
Geng said she was pleased to have been elected and is excited to start implementing her platform. She noted that she would like to see students form relationships with Durham that go beyond community service and partying.
Sanka added that although the freshmen senators may still be getting used to Duke, he believes they will bring good leadership skills and a fresh energy to DSG.
“One of the themes from the campaigns was that [the candidates] were still learning about campus,” he explained.
Sanka noted that this election is “just the first opportunity” for freshmen. He encouraged all students, including those who did not win their campaigns, to stay engaged with campus affairs.
“There are so many leaders on campus who have made an impact, a real change on campus, who were not successful in their first endeavor here at Duke," he noted.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.