‘One Person, One Vote’
Cook’s Last Home Game
Students, faculty worked with SNCC veterans on website detailing grassroots fight for civil rights | Page 2
Duke’s lone scholarship senior looks to lead his teammates to a victory against Wake Forest Wed. | Page 4
The Chronicle T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2015
WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM
ONE HUNDRED AND TENTH YEAR, ISSUE 90
Mecklai, Guarco and Gavai victorious in DSG elections Alex Griffith The Chronicle
Thu Nguyen | The Chronicle
Junior Keizra Mecklai has been elected Duke Student Government President after a race against fellow junior Tucker Albert, with 60.67 percent of the total votes. A total of 2,531 students, or roughly 30 percent of the Duke student body, voted in the election. Mecklai received 1,536 votes, Albert received 929 votes and write-in candidates received 66 votes. There were no candidate complaints during the vote-counting process, and results were officially released an hour after the polls closed at 10 p.m. Tuesday. Sophomore John Guarco was elected DSG executive vice president with 63.19 percent of the votes, defeating sophomore Shaker Samman. Junior Nikhil Gavai was elected Student Organization Funding Committee chair with 55.7 percent of the votes after an instant runoff, with sophomore Sanford Morton receiving the other 44.3 percent. Sophomore Apara Sivaraman was eliminated in the instant runoff. “Obviously, I was overwhelmed and sur-
prised and excited and I feel ready to take on the challenges in the coming year,” Mecklai said after receiving the results. Mecklai ran on a platform focused on the University’s sexual assault policy, housing guidelines and DSG transparency—ideas she worked on as vice president of equity and outreach. She will serve a one-year term as DSG president. “The first things I want to work on are working with the new curriculum which I talked about a lot during the election, [in addition to] cooperating with the Women’s Center and Office of Institutional Equity to talk about sexual assault policies going into the coming year and lastly working with Duke administration and [current DSG President] Lavanya Sunder,” she said. Albert expressed support for Mecklai after the results of the race were announced. “I’m very sad to hear that I won’t be able to represent the student body next year, but I know that Keizra will do a great job,” he said. Mecklai is the fourth consecutive female DSG president—meaning that juniors will spend the entirety of their undergraduate See DSG on Page 3
Future Young Trustees to alternate White defends Athletics’ handling two and three year terms of misconduct allegations Patricia Spears The Chronicle Following a resolution passed by the Graduate and Professional Student Council, the Board of Trustees voted to change the structure of the Young Trustee position. In December 2014, GPSC passed a resolution urging the trustees to add a third Graduate Young Trustee position. At their February meeting, the Board discussed this proposal and opted to find an alternate solution. Starting with the 2016 election cycle, the
undergraduate and graduate schools will alternate years of electing a representative who serves three years instead of two. “Even though as a collective body [graduates] outnumber undergraduates, we have a marginalized position with respect to our representation on the Board of Trustees, so now we get a sense of parity over the long run,” GPSC President Ben Shellhorn said. Each Young Trustee that is elected to serve three years will only have one nonvoting year. Currently, the Undergraduate
See Trustee on Page 3
Carleigh Stiehm Editor-in-Chief Kevin White, vice president and director of athletics, released a statement to local news sources stating that the athletics department follows proper procedure when cases of misconduct are brought to their attention. This release comes one day after The Chronicle reported that many members of the athletics department were made aware of allegations of sexual assault against Sulaimon in March 2014. Sulaimon was dismissed from the team in January 2015.
The statement leads with White stating he wanted to “clarify the role of Duke athletics staff and coaches in the student conduct process at Duke.” Member of the athletics department consistently follow the pro- Kevin White cedures for reporting cases of sexual assault and other misconduct, White said in the statement. Staff and coaches report allegations that they are See White on Page 9
Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) Specialized for the Treatment of Eating Disorders 919.908.9740 · iop@veritascollaborative.com durham, nc · veritascollaborative.com
|
|
|
|
INSIDE — News 2 Sports 4 Classified 9 Puzzles 9 Opinion 10
|
Serving the University since 1905
|
@dukechronicle
|
© 2015 The Chronicle