Durham College (DC) students voted last week to elect a student governor to the school’s Board of Governors. Megan Bent from project management was elected to the post with 112 votes, according to the result declared on Friday, March 28, 2025.
Along with Bent, Tahseen Huda and Muhammad Moazzam Khan and Ava Prince were the other three candidates for the position, with 19, 17 and 14 votes, respectively.
A student governor is part of DC’s Board of Governors, serving a term of one year from September to August, on a volunteer basis. The board has 17 members: 12 external, four internal (representing students, faculty, administrative staff and support staff) and one college president.
Student governors “help shape the future and strategic direction of the college, providing the student perspective,” according to an email from DC. Their role also involves attending board and standing committee meetings.
Nominations were filed from Feb. 14 to March 6, and the campaigning period ran from March 12 to March 26.
Three candidates posted their statements for students on the college website.
Muhammad Moazzam Khan, a first-year nursing student, previously served as student body president at City College of New York. He said he’s ready to represent Durham College to external stakeholders “to give them a better view from the perspective of students.”
Khan also mentioned his “connections” to some Conservative leaders at the local and provincial levels as a strength. “If there is something required politically [involving] the college, I have some connections, and I can connect them properly and ask for help from the right people so they can direct us to the right place,” he said.
Tahseen Huda, a finance student, said in an emailed response that his “job as the student governor is to make sure that the college isn’t put first, but that the students are put first. I get the same voting abilities as the rest of the board’s members, so I am an equal and therefore my voice, which represents everyone at school, matters.”
Huda told Durham Chronicle that he aims to “balance the two wants” of the college’s profitability and student interests.
Megan Bent, who also won the election to the Executive Chair of the Durham College Student Association (DCSA) on March 13, could not be reached for comment.
Her candidate statement said she “will focus on ensuring that student perspectives are thoughtfully integrated into board discussions on academic policies, financial planning, and institutional growth,” and “lead the way in providing insights that help bridge the student experience with long-term institutional strategy.”
Bent now holds both the positions of student governor and executive chair of the DCSA.
Student participation and turnout remain low
Both the DCSA and student governor elections have consistently seen low voter turnout. In the 2025 DCSA elections, Charles Wilson, returning officer, said that 1,081 votes were cast out of 14,795 voters. Bent secured 561 votes.
Last year, 708 students voted in the student governor election. Voting numbers have increased over the past few years, from 142 votes cast in 2021, 219 in 2022 and 559 votes in 2023, according to results provided by Melissa Pringle, chief returning officer, DC Board of Governors.
When asked about what the college does to encourage student participation, Pringle said, “We attempt to communicate with students about the election using email and social media.” Pringle added messages are displayed on screens across campus and flyers are distributed. She also said she answers questions in person during the nomination period.
Wilson said, “Ultimately, it is the role of the candidates to get voters to vote. We provide emails and information regarding voting, but it is the campaigns [that] get students to vote.”
Sahil Mehra, a candidate for the DCSA executive chair received 418 votes, said that “mostly people don’t care because some say we don’t want to be a part of politics, [and] some say it doesn’t matter who is part of the student union.”
However, Khan said participation from a diverse student body is important to not overlook anyone’s needs and to better understand what is “missing.”
“If you want your voice to be heard, you have to be involved,” he said.