With the start of a new semester, students will also be greeting a new congressman.

On Thursday, New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul approved a new set of congressional district lines for New York state, moving Binghamton and large portions of Broome County into New York’s 19th Congressional District (NY-19), run by U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado (D-NY). The rest of Broome County, including portions of Chenango, Cortland and Tioga counties, will now be part of the 23rd Congressional District (NY-23), currently represented by U.S. Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY).

Every 10 years, the United States requires all federal, state and local election district boundaries to be redrawn or revised.

While the process was previously handled by state lawmakers, a 2014 amendment to the New York State Constitution created an independent commission to draw the district lines for the state senate, assembly and congressional districts. The committee, known as the New York State Independent Redistricting Commission, failed to reach an agreement on a set of maps, and the process of handling the redistricting was handed back to state legislature. On Wednesday, the New York State Legislature, in which Democrats hold a majority, voted to approve a new set of maps, which were then signed into law by Gov. Hochul on Thursday.

U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), who formerly represented Binghamton and other portions of Broome in NY-22, announced her candidacy in the newly drawn NY-23 district on Twitter on Monday.

“I have a strong conservative record of advocating for our upstate values, fighting for our small business community including our local farmers, defending election integrity, fighting for Second Amendment rights, supporting the natural gas industry and holding the Biden administration accountable,” Tenney wrote. “I look forward to meeting and earning the support of even more New Yorkers and getting to work for our region in Congress.”

Republican-led voters filed a lawsuit against New York state’s new congressional maps on Thursday, describing the initiative as “undeniably politically gerrymandered.”

On Thursday, New York State Sen. Fred Akshar (R-NY), voiced his discontent with the new district lines in the Senate.

“Today the so-called leaders in Albany put their shamelessness, callousness and their arrogance on full display by putting an end to independent redistricting and drawing their own political lines for their own political benefit,” Akshar said. “Easily the most shameful, undemocratic and un-American piece of legislation the Senate has taken up in my six years in Albany. Today I voted for the voice of the people over politicians and proudly voted ‘NO.’”

The redistricting will also shift the lines for state assembly and state senate. New York State Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo said the new district lines were largely a result of population shifts in upstate New York, and that students would be well-represented by their new congressman.

“While it’s unfortunate that these upstate districts are so geographically large, I’m confident that we will have excellent representation in the newly formed 19th [Congressional District],” Lupardo wrote in an email. “I have already spoken with the current incumbent, Congressman Antonio Delgado, who is very enthusiastic about potentially representing the campus.“

Ryan Feeney, political director of BU’s College Democrats and a senior majoring in biology, said the College Democrats approved of the decision, describing it as a response to Republican gerrymandering.

“The map has been made in a political climate where Republicans have both continued to gerrymander red states like Texas, North Carolina and Georgia, and also repeatedly blocked the efforts of the congressional Democratic majority to end gerrymandering nationwide,” Feeney wrote in an email. “For both of these reasons, we strongly support the decision of Gov. Hochul and the New York State Legislature to give no ground unduly.”

Dominic Bossey is team leader of Generation Vote — a progressive advocacy group that originated at BU in 2017 — and a junior double-majoring in political science and human development. Bossey said the new district lines will remove what was formerly one of the most competitive districts in the United States — NY-22.

“The new district (NY-19) will still be quite competitive, but it will lean slightly more blue,” Bossey wrote in an email. “Instead of being in the same district as northern counties like before, the district housing Binghamton reaches out east to Columbia, Greene and Delaware counties. Still, the population of [BU] can sway an election, 15,000+ students of voting age in elections decided by just [thousands] of votes. Look into Delgado, learn about him. He’ll probably be representing [BU].”