Election Results!!

Hello All,

The election results from Monday's election have been certified by the Election Commission, released to the Chronicle and again verified by the Attorney General. They are as follows:

For the four referendum questions:

Reform of the Judiciary: Passed, 93.75% voting in favor
Incorporation of DUSDAC: Passed, 95.87% voting in favor
Removing the Vice President of the ICC: Passed, 84.56% voting in favor
Creating a Gender Neural Constitution: Passes, 80.77% voting in favor

Freshman Senate Winners (2013)
o Academic Affairs: Ari Ruffer and Kenneth Gould
o Athletics and Campus Services: Cameron Oswalt and Douglas Hanna
o Durham and Regional Affairs: Chris Brown and Gordon Wilson
o Student Affairs: Molly Superfine and Gurdane Bhutani
Junior Senate Winners (2011)
o Academic Affairs: Dmitri Jean and Matt Stansky
o Athletics and Campus Services: Ben Bergmann and Kendyl Tash
o Durham and Regional Affairs: Lauren Kottis and Danielle Starks
Senior Senate Winners (2010)
o Academic Affairs: Daniel Lewin and Kristen Yang
o Student Affairs: Steven McAlpine
Special Secretary for the ICC
o Amanda Turner (757 to 628)

Turnout was 27%

Thanks for participating in your democracy!

- Gregory

Elections Tomorrow

Hello Everyone,

Fall elections are tomorrow! Poll will be open from 7am until 8pm. On the ballot will be the following important items:

8 Freshman Senate Seats, 8 Junior Senate Seats, and 5 Senior Senate Seats.

Additionally we'll vote for a SPECIAL SECRETARY TO THE YOUNG TRUSTEE PROCESS. This position will make recommendations to the Senate on how the reform the Young Trustee Process; making it MORE TRANSPARENT.

Finally, FOUR Referendums are on the ballot:

1. REFORMING THE JUDICIARY, making it independent and creating separation of powers.

2. BRINGING DUSDAC INTO DSG, to guarantee that their dining recommendations will have the weight of the student body behind them in the future.

3. DISSOLVING THE OFFICE OF VICE PRESIDENT FOR THE ICC, so that the ICC (a council of student organization presidents) can be an independent voice on campus.
Both ICC and DSG support this move.

4. MAKING THE CONSTITUTION GENDER-NEUTRAL, to make the student body's governing document more inclusive.

Please vote. We need 25% of the student body to vote for the referendums to be valid. Please read the oped written by Exec that ran this past Friday: http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2009/09/11/Columns/Guest.Commentary.A.Yes.Vote.Is.Key.To.A.Better.Dsg-3768784.shtml

Thanks everyone!

GO VOTE! GO VOTE! GO VOTE!

New By-Laws

Interested in how DSG works? Awesome.

We just passed new Senate and Executive By-Laws to bring the By-Laws up to date with the recently passed constitution. They replace the former Legislative and Cabinet By-Laws. They make significant improvements and are available on the DSG website if you'd like to read them.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at gregory.morrison@duke.edu and I'll do my best to answer you!

Seven Days Notice

Hey All,
The referendum on the new constitution will take place at the same time as the DSG Exec elections on March 31st. You will receive an email from DSG with a link to the election site. From there you just sign in with your net ID and vote.

If you haven't already done so, please read the proposed document. It is available on the DSG website: http://student.groups.duke.edu/Duke_Student_Government

There is a link to the word document under the governance section.

This post serves as a public notification given before the referendum as required by the current constitution.

Thanks so much!
-Gregory

Read the Constitution

Hey folks!
The new draft Constitution has been posted online on the DSG website. You can download the document and read it for yourself now!

The link is "Proposed New Constitution" under the "Governance" section on the main page.

Enjoy!

-Gregory

New Draft Constitution

Hey everyone,
Wednesday was a big day in the Senate. We passed a draft a new DSG Constitution. I've been working with the Rules Committee on preparing this document to completely replace the current constitution for about two months.

The draft new Constitution will soon be on the DSG website for you to read and review. The student body must pass it in referendum for it to come into force. It will appear on the Exec election ballot on March 31st.

These are some of the major changes from the present Constitution:

VP titles
The name of the Senate
The allocation of representation
The distinction between DSG and the student body
The budgetary process/SOFC
The signing of legislation
Separation of the "Joint Statement of Rights and Freedoms of Students"
Reduction in mandatory Cabinet members
Reduction in ex-officio Senators
Clarification of recess/vacancy appointments
Referendum requirements

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to send me an email (gsm8@duke.edu)

The other members of the drafting committee were:
Senator Ryan Clark (ACS '12)
Senator Ben Getson (AA '11)
Senator Alex Levy (AA '11)
Senator Andrew Schreiber (AA '11)
Former Attorney General Will Passo ('11)

I'll keep you updated as we move through the process. Thanks!