Duke Student Government met to confirm its elected first-year senators and gave updates on committee plans at its Wednesday meeting.
Chief Justice Randi Jennings, a senior, swore in first-year senators to their various committees.
Rachel Talcoff was confirmed as a first-year senator for academic affairs, Angela Chen and Annie Nam for campus life, Kartikeye Gupta and Haiden Bowling for Durham and community affairs, Angela Xiong and Katie Li for equity and outreach and Aarav Dagar and Margaret Berei for services and sustainability. In addition, first-year Namit Kapoor was confirmed as senate secretary.
Senators extended at-large first-year senator applications to Friday, and the full senate body is expected to be present at next week’s meeting.
Committee vice presidents also gave updates for their respective committees.
Junior Heather Raslan, vice president of academic affairs, discussed hopes to establish a program in which Duke undergraduates would be paired with alums for guidance, reinstate GRUNCH, a program in which undergraduates receive funds to have lunches with graduate or professional students, and centralize Duke resources for easier access.
Sophomore Katelyn Cai, vice president of Durham and community affairs, stressed the importance of Duke students’ votes in upcoming primary and municipal elections. She noted that unlike many previous years, the Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center would no longer be a voting center. Cai explained that DCA also plans to arrange for transportation to nearby voting centers on election day.
Senior Sophie Smith, vice president of campus life, shared plans to collaborate with Durham and community affairs for Democracy Day and emphasized the importance of revamping the DukeAlerts system to be more informative and useful, saying that it has been a “huge concern.”
Junior Yadira Paz-Martinez, vice president of equity and outreach, outlined her committee's plans to reach out to organizations such as Duke LIFE.
Sophomore Matthew Xu, vice president of services and sustainability, spoke about the committee’s discussions with the Undergraduate Environment Union about the Duke Climate Commitment, environmental policy and the integration of climate policy into the Duke curriculum.
In other business
Chief of Staff Chase Barclay, a senior, gave executive board updates, mentioning that DSG’s executive board signed Define America’s statement on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Barclay explained the importance of DSG’s support of the statement, stating that the actions taken against DACA harmed “undocumented and DACA students, both in our community here at Duke and Durham and more broadly across the nation.”
DSG senators allocated $6,115 to reimburse the A Cappella Council’s O-Show and $4,280 to the Stargazing Devils Astronomy Club to send six students to Albuquerque, New Mexico to see the solar eclipse on Oct. 14.
In addition, a statute was passed to allocate $2,410 to Krzyzewskiville head line monitors to cover bonding activities, new jackets and food.
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Jeremiah Fang is a Trinity sophomore and a staff reporter for the news department.