Project Updates
2018-2019
DSG has been working super hard all year long to pursue projects aimed at helping Duke University and the student body. Below are the updates for each committee's projects. Many projects will continue into next year. To see the update, click on the graphic (or scroll further down).
To learn more about the projects themselves, click here!
Academic Affairs
Duke Common Hour, Saheel Chodavadia
Now institutionalized, this program is running through the logistical gauntlet to also encompass First Lecture, a university-wide lecture (mandatory for first-years) during Orientation Week.
Duke Mentorship Program, Saheel Chodavadia
Now institutionalized, this program is running through the logistical gauntlet to also encompass First Lecture, a university-wide lecture (mandatory for first-years) during Orientation Week.
Hate & Bias Documentation, Saheel Chodavadia
The Office of Undergraduate Education, the Academic Council, and the Office for Faculty Advancement are all collaborating on this project with DSG Academic Affairs to ensure wording is within legal guidelines and that the most effective institutional pipeline for incidents to be redressed is created.
Quint-Ennial Academic Integrity Survey, Saheel Chodavadia
The Office of Undergraduate Education, the Academic Council, and the Office for Faculty Advancement are all collaborating on this project with DSG Academic Affairs to ensure wording is within legal guidelines and that the most effective institutional pipeline for incidents to be redressed is created.
Engineering Basics for Trinity Students, Jackson Kennedy & Beepul Bharti
Project is pending approval from the House Course Committee, but was viewed prior to submission by chair of said committee and was given positive feedback. Faculty sponsors are Dean Franzoni and Dr. Santillan, both influential members of Pratt. Will be taught in Fall 2019.
DAEs Expansion Initiative, Catherine McMillan
This project is the collaboration between the Academic Advising Center as well as the Student Peer Advising Group. The goal of this initiative is to better market the purpose and role of the DAE for first-year students.
Humanities and Social Sciences Research Visibility, Catherine McMillan
This project is in collaboration with Dean Russell, who states that a current initiative is already underway to better represent research opportunities in the fields of Humanities and the Social Sciences. Although still in its development, Dean Russell says that it will be the Humanities equivalent of MUSER.
Duke-Ternships/Collaborating with Career Center, Meghna Mahadevan
Met with Teri Mills and she said that they’ve tried projects similar to this but issues with funding, liability, and getting people to sign up! Going to try and come up with solutions to increase freshman interaction with the career center but will continue to consider other project ideas in the meantime.
Asian American Studies, Manish Kumar and AASWG
Coordinating 2nd annual AAS Research Symposium in April. I have compiled a list of faculty contacts and recruitment methods we will use to get people signed up. Graphics have been made and are pending release after Spring Break
Indoor Accessibility Project, Manish Kumar and Team
Correctly working on simplifying maps of West Union. We have obtained access to GPU clusters that will be necessary to simulate a fluid model of accessibility and accessibility, and are going to present our tactile map project to Innovation CO lab to see if we can outsource parts of that project to them, using DSG surplus.
Undergraduate Research Workshops, Manish Kumar and Catherine McMillan
Natural Science research workshops have been passed on to Dr. Lutzoni and Dean Russell. Catherine and I are currently looking for ways in which research can be better advertised for first years.
Standardizing Graduate TA Education, Dina Qiryaqoz
After a couple of meetings with Dean Crumley and Dr. Klingensmith, Academic Affairs is working on changing graduate TA policy to require certification before they actually teach undergraduates to ensure they know how to teach students effectively.
Increasing Spring Break Alternatives, Dina Qiryaqoz
Academic Affairs is working on increasing Spring Break Alternatives (Or at least conglomerating all opportunities in one area) so that students are aware of their existence and do not miss out on an opportunity to learn, do community outreach, create new friendships and alliances, and engage in social issues.
Peer Advising, Dina Qiryaqoz
In order to ensure students are aware of their peer advisor’s existence and know that they have them as a resource, Academic Affairs is working on having their names listed on DukeHub along with each student’s financial aid and academic advisors.
Wellness Representatives for All First-Year Dorms, Shrey Majmudar
After a couple of meetings with Dean Crumley and Dr. Klingensmith, Academic Affairs is working on changing graduate TA policy to require certification before they actually teach undergraduates to ensure they know how to teach students effectively.
First Year Roommate Pairing Reform, Shrey Majmudar
The current roommate form is quite limited in scope and significantly shorter than every one of our peer institutions, resulting in roommate pairs which are either exemplary or passable at best. Academic Affairs worked closely with Dean Joe Gonzalez to institute an additional few questions for the Class of 2023, with an expanded overhaul (continuation of this project) planned for Fall 2019.
Integration of STINF and Mental Health, Shrey Majmudar
In collaboration with VPUE Bennett, Dean Blackshear, and others, Academic Affairs played a role in the reformation of the STINF to the Incapacitation Form, so that mental health related absences are fully recognized and destigmatized. There is still an open dialogue between AA and Dean Wood Crowley as to certain aspects of the new form (i.e. how many absences are allowed).
Transition of Peer For You’s Care Model, Shrey Majmudar & Saheel Chodavadia
Academic Affairs has been working closely with the student group Peer For You, as well as relevant administrators, to help the group shift their care model from online only to in-person, with a full scale release aimed for Fall 2019.
Increased Dining Hours During Finals Period, Shrey Majmudar
Academic Affairs is working with Duke Dining to concentrate the additional operating hours for West Union eateries to one location, such as keeping Vondy open until 2 AM rather than many restaurants open for an additional hour. Future collaboration with Duke Libraries planned as well.
Openness of Course Evaluations, Shrey Majmudar & Sean Bissell
To ameliorate the incredibly low opt-in rate for professors to show their numerical course evaluation data for future students, Academic Affairs is working with Chair Rodríguez García, Registrar Blalark, Dean Ashby, VPUE Bennett, EVP Francis, and others to explore potential plans of action (such as a DSG resolution).
Increased Sense of Community at Blue Devil Days, Shrey Majmudar
Academic Affairs is collaborating with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to pilot minor changes for 2019 Regular Decision BDD, as well as a complete overhaul for 2020 and beyond, in order to increase admitted students’ sense of community when they are on campus (modeled after our peers’ admitted days).
Adjustment of Library Hours to Better Address Students’ Needs, Shreya Bhatia
Library administration is currently reviewing financial ramifications of library shifts to evaluate the feasibility of a one-hour shift on the weekends to adding in an hour for earlier opening.
GRUNCH, Joel Mire & Jake Satisky
The pilot program for the 2018-2019 academic year is in its final weeks, with 200 GRUNCHes either complete or scheduled. The GRUNCH managers are working with Dean Petters and Dean Bennett to secure funding for another year of the pilot program.
Peer Tutoring, Vignesh Alagappan
Academic Affairs is working with the Duke Academic Resource Center to redesign the Peer Tutoring experience: Creating a more comprehensive and accessible application; Increasing the proactiveness of marketing and outreach; Standardizing the training process for Peer Tutors to be congruent with general course policy.
Services and Sustainability
Sustainability Rewards App, Noor Sandhu
I have been working with Sustainable Duke to implement a sustainability app on campus called Pips. Pips is an interactive app that rewards users for doing sustainable acts like like taking the bus, biking around campus, refilling water bottles, donating time or recycling, and more. Users are rewarded with PIPs (positive impact points) - a 'currency of good' that can be redeem for great deals on food, fitness classes, responsibly made clothing and gear, textbooks or other school expenses. It is a great way to get people motivated about sustainability, while also getting rewarded for it. I am hoping for this app to be implemented in the fall of 2020 on campus!
Resources for Undocumented Students, Steven Herrera
Earlier this year, I worked with the Assistant Vice President of Campus Life on developing a website with resources for undocumented applicants, undergraduates, and graduate students. Information such as financial aid, admissions policies, and opportunities for undocumented students at Duke are just some of the things we discussed to include in the website. With the return of Assistant Vice President for Intercultural Programs, Dr. Li-Chen Chin, I plan to continue finalizing my project and working alongside administration to continue supporting undocumented students.
Increasing Vegetarian options, Raksha Doddabele & Dev Seth
A sizable portion of the student body is vegetarian or vegan, and we can agree the meatless options on campus are not as diverse and abundant as we would like. We met with Marcus Carson to start a Meatless Mondays campaign in WU, where each vendor would highlight a meatless option on Mondays with educational information about the environmental benefits of forgoing meat. We are working on creating a survey for the meatless population on campus to tell us what types of options they would like to see, so we can submit the results to dining.
Not-Rich Guide, Kaitlyn Boncaro, Zac Johnson, & Steven Herrera
Since the beginning of this semester, we have continued to fill out the guide. We have reached out to various student groups to get their input on the content of the guide, as well as administrators to get their help in sending out the guide to incoming freshman. We recently met with Director of Student Affairs Jordan Hale who helped direct us towards relevant administrators and inform us about the ways we can distribute the guide. We will continue to meet with administrators and student groups to finish the guide, and we hope to figure out a way to ensure the sustainability of this project past our years at Duke. ed applicants, undergraduates, and graduate students. Information such as financial aid, admissions policies, and opportunities for undocumented students at Duke are just some of the things we discussed to include in the website. With the return of Assistant Vice President for Intercultural Programs, Dr. Li-Chen Chin, I plan to continue finalizing my project and working alongside administration to continue supporting undocumented students.
Composting Education, Dan Garcia & Sonia He
Currently editing a composting educational video that explains the best way to dispose of dining waste. Hopefully one video in a series of environmental educational videos to be promoted by DSG and the Green Devils.
SOFC Events Green Certification, Ivy Jiang, Liv McKinney, & Jimmy Xiao
Met with the current head of SOFC, and director or Sustainable Duke to determine if this project was doable. Both parties think incentivizing or requiring groups to get events Green certified before getting SOFC funding is a realistic project to pursue, with updates done to the Green Event certification checklist. We want to reach out to student groups to get their opinions on how to best implement Green Certifications (requiring vs incentivizing) and start looking at how we can update the certification checklist with Sustainable Duke and environmental student groups.
E-print awareness campaign, Zac Johnson & Jimmy Xiao
With members of OIT we began brainstorming ways to reduce printing on campus. We’ve set goals to launch a full campaign in April reminding students of their printing use. We are also studying printer use among different students and faculty.
Increasing Financial Literacy Resources for First-Years, Ned Sullivan
Since returning from abroad, I have been working with the Personal Finance @ Duke Office to improve transparency in the programs Duke offers to improve students’ financial literacy. The Personal Finance @ Duke Office has agreed to fund the design and printing of a brochure that will include all information on financial literacy resources on campus, whether through the Personal Finance Office, Karsh, the Career Center, free VITA tax services, CPA services, the Wellness Center and Duke Credit Union. The brochure will be distributed to first-year academic advisors during o-week so that they can in-turn give the brochures to their advisees.
Metal Straws for Students, Ivy Jiang & Luke Longo
Received Green Grant funding and distributed straws in West Union all last week with Sustainable Duke.
Improving Student Study Spaces, Nikki Mahendru & Dani Yants, Ivy Jiang & Luke Longo
For the large majority of the year we have been working on collecting and collating student input regarding study spaces across campus. We’ve found that a large majority of students would like to work in more outdoor and collaborative spaces. However, student currently spend an overwhelming portion of their study time in libraries, resulting in a toxic library culture on campus wherein students spend hours at a time cooped up and alone indoors. Upon collating student input and preferences with respect to outdoor study spaces we contacted Deborah Jakubs, Vice Provost for University Libraries to show her our results and present our project. After seeing immense support for more collaborative spaces across campus, Jakubs will be putting us on a task force for the Lilly Library renovations and discuss the possibility of integrating outdoor spaces on east alongside the library renovations. Since the meeting, we have contacted the OIT regarding WiFi connection improvements across outdoor spaces on both east and west campus. In this next stage, we are also looking to contact the relevant figures in Fix My Campus and Facilities to bring power/outlets to existing study spaces and discuss what kinds of new spaces we can implement in the short term on both east and west for this semester, while also aiming to discuss long term outdoor study space implementation.
Metal Straws for Students, Ivy Jiang & Luke Longo
Event happened in January through Sustainable Duke, DFX, UCAE, and DSG and allowed students to come drop off or shop around for free items in the Broadhead Center. Great student turnout!
Campus Life
Transparency Committee, Avery Boltwood
Created an online, searchable database of this year’s projects. Working on institutionalizing the committee (renamed “Senate Staff”) in the DSG Constitution. Developing a system for tracking Senator’s progress to increase accountability, and devolve enforcement from the VPs to the Senate Staff.
Student-Housekeeper Relations, Gianna Affi, Jake Sheridan
I am currently involved in helping with the Housekeeper/Maintenance Appreciation week occuring April 1-5. After emailing Dean Bergene, she directed me to Aneshia Jerralds (Assistant Dean on Central Campus & Central 2 Residence Coordinator). We met last week and spoke about my role in this process, and we decided that I could get in touch with RCs on East Campus to share my ideas. A few of them have responded, excited and willing to help with my vision!
Goal: Get banners in the common rooms of all East Campus dorms set out on Sunday, March 31, for students to sign or write a little thank you message. That night, we’ll hang up the banners so that housekeepers see them first thing on Monday morning. I have support in this plan, but now it’s a matter of getting all of the RCs on board, and then seeing if FIRs and RAs want to help encourage students to come by. I’m currently in a long email thread with RCs in an effort to work out details, but I’m confident that we can make this happen!
Club Guide, Ramya Ginjupalli, DonoVaughn Tulloch, Avery Boltwood
Sean Ferguson (UCAE Student Development Coordinator) was opposed to collecting data during Activities Fair (our determined source of information). He was also concerned about the usefulness of the Club Guide, given DukeGroups will be renovated in the near future. As a compromise, he is implementing changes to DukeGroups, adding new categories of information required during re-registration. This project will be reviewed once we are able to see whether this newer version of DukeGroups is able to serve the same purpose as the Club Guide would.
Duke Rides, Ramya Ginjupalli, DonoVaughn Tulloch, Avery Boltwood
We are currently in contact with multiple universities that work in partnership with Lyft or Uber to provide safe and cheaper rides back to campus. We have reached out to the long term partnership office at Lyft. We also conducted a survey of undergraduate students to gauge interest and determine logistics.
Housing Website Update (360-Degree Dorm Photos), Tommy Hessel
I have reached out to and secured at least one member of every accessible dorm room on West campus (Crowell, Edens, Few, Hollows, Keohane, Kilgo, Wannamaker) and 300 Swift, so that I can take 360-degree pictures of their rooms. Pictures will be captured 3/17 - 3/19 after Spring Break. Still figuring out logistics on HRL side on how to post photos, but the class Facebook groups always serve as a fallback way to ensure the photo is still able to be manipulated in a secure group. Crowell and Few currently have photos of one double layout each. Working with Dean Joe and Sophie Williams on how to integrate the photos onto the Duke Housing Website.
History of DSG (Project Archive), Tommy Hessel
Collecting Data — I have been compiling dsg projects from the 2000-2009 and 2009-present online chronicle archives, as well as the Rubenstein archives, in order to better understand what kinds of recurring problems dsg has dealt with and how to make more progress in these problem areas with our new projects moving forward. I would ultimately like to compile together the full history of relevant projects from dsg’s inception in 1993.
DSG x WiP Panel on Sexual Assault and Politics, Merrill O’Shaughnessy
I have been collecting a list of clubs, organizations, professors, and institutions on or around the Duke Campus who would be willing to act as speakers, collaborators, or sponsors for the panel because after meeting with BJ Ruddell from Polis that seems to be the best way to get a project like this off the ground. I’m waiting on WiP to approve the list and fill in a few names before I begin contacting leaders from these organizations, but I’m hesitant to proceed because they don’t seem invested in the project. I’ve been instructed to talk to a new set of members within their organization, but I haven’t noticed an improvement in communication. While well intentioned, I’m worried the project is a bit ambitious for such a new campus organization and if it needs to be moved to the fall, will it be completed at all?.
RAD training, Brennan Halkidis and Divya Juneja
Making big strides — met with police department and they back us hard. They want to make it a concrete and solidified house course, so after break we will reach out to academic departments to see if they can find a place to accommodate this course. Then, us, the police department, and the women’s center will have a conversation with Larry Moneta. The police department said they can easily convince him. So, prospects looking good.
KVille Common Room, Jordan Taxay, Jake Jeffries
The KVille Common Room was set up in KVille this tenting season, complete with bean bags, board games and flooring. It has now been taken down and stored away for next year with help from the Line Monitors. A document has been compiled outlining key lessons learned to ensure this runs smoothly in coming years. A survey has been sent out to gauge student response. Future requirements of the Common Room will be included in the Line Monitors’ annual budget.
The KVille Common Room was set up in KVille this tenting season, complete with bean bags, board games and flooring. It has now been taken down and stored away for next year with help from the Line Monitors. A document has been compiled outlining key lessons learned to ensure this runs smoothly in coming years. A survey has been sent out to gauge student response. Future requirements of the Common Room will be included in the Line Monitors’ annual budget.
Sexual Assault Prevention on Duke’s Campus, Jake Jeffries, Eden Schumer
Three potential goals identified for the semester with the first being to investigate a lacking role in sexual assault prevention at Duke in which non-mandatory reporters have no power to enact change to aid members of our community who have been affected by sexual assault. This includes a research aspect into Duke policy that is currently underway and reaching out to ranking officials in the Duke administration with a pitch for a position to fill this void or an adaptation to existing roles to allow for change
A second program that is soon be started in conducting a survey on locations on Duke and within the Durham community which people have been sexually assaulted or do not feel safe with an anonymous reply to gather data for use in combating sexual assault as well as to provide a map of these places and present it in a public setting in an attempt to demonstrate the impact and breadth of the issue on our campus
A third program hoping to be attempted at the end of the year to set up a panel on sexual. Assault with ranking members of the Duke community at the beginning of Fall semester 2019
SLG Reform, Sanya Kochhar, Uwa Ihionkhan,Rebecca Torrence
Nearing completion — finalized details with Dean Gonzalez to require non-Greek SLGs to have to formalize a trainer position on their Exec Boards, and thereafter have the trainer carry out Implicit Bias training and Let’s Talk Consent training. Each trainer will be trained by the Women’s Center, who will also help facilitate a quiz to ensure students have been trained. Consequences for not carrying out training will be a freeze on UCAE funding and a freeze on rush. This will be rolled out in an email from HRL soon, with the SLG Reform Caucus following-up with SLGs to ask for feedback and accordingly make changes to this model.
Upcoming — will look into the concept of a stronger support system for ng-SLG rush, loosely modelled after the Gamma Chi system in Panhel in order to provide students with better resources and more information as they go through the process.
Dining Accessibility during Breaks, Sanya Kochhar, Priya Parkash
Following up with Dr. Bennett with data from survey to advocate for a stipend based on a large number of students still feeling the gap in food access during breaks.
Complete on the Duke Dining end in terms of working out schedules that better suit student needs to the best of the abilities of vendors.
Hollows Transition, Sanya Kochhar
Worked out the transition of houses from Central to West to allow for the least possible number of West Campus groups to have to be relocated. Coordinated with Dean Joe Gonzalez and student representatives from houses for the house selection process.
Facilitated student feedback for furniture choices in the Hollows with help from the Campus Life Committee. Furniture has now been ordered and a follow-up visit will be scheduled after Spring Break.
Durham Regional Affairs
Duke-Durham History Advocacy, Valeria Silombria, Allison Bunker
Contacted the Office of New Student Program and we have plans to revamp the Durham-specific video in the 30 Days To Duke video series. The long-term goal remains to add a Durham page to the First Year Blue Book.
Durham As Portrayed By Duke Admissions, Luke Evans, Ava Changnon
Finalized our recommendations for the admissions office regarding Durham’s representation in the admissions materials. With our contact in the admissions office, we have opened a line of communication that is key in the advancement of our goals. We will continue to work with the admissions office as they develop admission materials in order for Durham to be included.
City of Durham Flag Displayed By Allen Building, Aly Diaz, Mike Schoenfeld
Senator Aly Diaz has been communicating for months with VP of Public Affairs and Government Relations, Mike Schoenfeld, in regard to this project. The major roadblock have been finding a feasible, permanent, and visible location on campus and securing the hefty funding required for the proper flag pole. ct in the admissions office, we have opened a line of communication that is key in the advancement of our goals. We will continue to work with the admissions office as they develop admission materials in order for Durham to be included.
Bartender Bystander Intervention Training, Kyle Melatti, Sanya Kochhar, Uwa Ihionkhan
Student groups and student activists on campus held a Town Hall to address the issues of sexual assault at Shooters II Salon. This prompted a response from Kim Cates, owner of Shooters. In this response Cates asserted that she personally hired “a private consultant [who trained my staff on January 5th, 2019 in] rape-crisis community education and Raise-the-Bar training.” Additionally DSG representative have worked to implement policy against sexual assault in living communities at Duke. Senator Kyle Melatti was essential in forming the SLG caucus that is currently chaired by VP Uwa Ihionkhan. Along with the efforts of VP Sanya Kochhar, a reform policy has been established with Housing and Residence Life. This policy will be implemented during the next academic year leading into the 2020 Rush cycle.
Duke Hunger and Homelessness Week, Gabi Marushack, Sophie Dalldorf
Senators Gabi Marushack and Sophie Dalldorf worked on the Executive Board of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week at Duke to help recruit vendors and speakers. I reached out to potential speakers for the hunger aspect of the awareness week and tabled outside of the Bryan Center to raise awareness of the week. We had a successful Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, and I hope to continue my involvement on the Executive Board next year.
Recognizing Community Colleges in Regard to Financial Aid, John Honeycutt
Senator John Honeycutt contacted the financial aid office to collect data on students affected by Duke’s disregard of the financial burden of community college. However, the FAO doesn’t currently collect data on this. Senator Honeycutt plans to further this effort by distributing a self-report survey to students and colelcting the stats to support this cause.
Duke The Vote, John Honeycutt, Uwa Ihionkhan
Senator John Honeycutt contacted the financial aid office to collect data on students affected by Duke’s disregard of the financial burden of community college. However, the FAO doesn’t currently collect data on this. Senator Honeycutt plans to further this effort by dIn collaboration with various student groups (Duke ASA, North Carolina Asian Americans Together, DSG, Duke BSA, ASA, BSA, BDU, Diya, DCR, DPU, DSG, Duke Democrats, Mi Gente, NAACP, and YAL), Senator John Honeycutt and VP Uwa Ihionkhan contributed to the party at the polls efforts. Additional work was done to carry the momentum through the elections and to increases turnout every yearistributing a self-report survey to students and colelcting the stats to support this cause.
Duke/NCCU week
“Duke and NCCU are furthering our collaboration, this time through service in the Duke community. In mid-April, the two schools will be hosting a service week with fun activities to raise money and do service in the Durham community, home to both schools. Currently, DRA is working with Habitat for Humanity to set up the service week and looking to have parties, a giving competition between schools, and a food truck rodeo.”
Audacity Labs
Audacity Labs is currently in the middle of its pilot iteration hosted at Hillside High School. With 13 students enrolled, the classroom meets twice a week for two hours a day: the first hour is spent in curriculum cohorts while the second is in their project teams. Planning is taking place surrounding the wrap-up event and next summers subsequent iteration.
Durham Internship/Career Fair
Currently, few undergraduate students seeking summer opportunities approach their search with local organizations as an option in their mind. Our mission is to provide students and local employers with a unique chance to network and engage in hopes of creating more sustainable and mutually beneficial relationships between both parties. This initiative will be executed in the form of a regional-based career fair in which professional opportunities from the greater Research Triangle area will be showcased.
Minority owned business support, Gabi Marushack, Allison Bunker, Sophie Dalldorf
Gabi Marushack, Allison Bunker, and Sophie Dalldorf are working on promoting minority owned businesses in Durham to Duke students. We are in the starting stages of this project. So far, we have created a list of minority-owned businesses and a list of possible people to contact to help us complete this project. We are currently starting to reach out to some of these contacts.eir project teams. Planning is taking place surrounding the wrap-up event and next summers subsequent iteration.
Durham 150th Birthday Celebration
Over the past 2 weeks, Durham 150 celebration has coordinated events with 2 student groups at the Wellness Center and MUSE at the Nasher. We also met with VP Williams who will provide the institutional support necessary to make this a recurring event. The main goal is to raise student awareness about Durham.
Civic Engagement training
First-year senators received an added Civic Engagement training from the Duke Office of Civic Engagement as part of Senator 101 training.
Equity and Outreach
Career Center Resources, Daisy Almonte
In light of resistance from the career center to push back internship funding deadlines, my project shifted largely to restructuring the way the career center markets and interacts with groups on campus, particularly identity groups. With an advisory committee consisting of students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds at Duke, we have been advising the Career Center how to best cater to the needs of students at Duke. We have changed the intake form filled out by students upon initial contact with the center, have been tasked with planning a series of workshops addressing hidden costs of navigating internship and career recruitment activities that will be held prior to diversity recruitment events the upcoming fall and spring semesters, and will be established as a formal mechanism by which the Career Center Diversity Office will receive student input and look towards new initiatives.
Menstrual Management Flyer, Nehal Jain
I’m currently working with DuWell and Student Health to develop a flyer that increases transparency about students’ access to menstrual management options on campus. The flyer is going to be distributed on the BC plaza March 25-27 at the DuWell hut during PanHel’s menstrual hygiene product drive. We are working to get the flyer online, in Student Health, the Women’s Center, and distributed to first year’s during orientation week. Furthermore, I am working with the women’s center to modernize their sexual assault hotline.
E&O Institutional Memory, Adam Bullock
I created a directory of all substantial project documents from 2015-16 and 2016-17 (with a sprinkling of 2017-18 stuff) in our Equity & Outreach drive so that we have a central place for referencing recent work as sources of background, project inspiration, etc.
Financial Aid Policy Change Principles, Adam Bullock
I am waiting on Dr. Bennett to get back with me about financial aid policy change principles. Resolution on financial aid policy change passed last semester included a section asking administration to commit to abide by certain principles. I’m emailing him this week to bump the topic.
LGBTQIA+ & Ally Invitational, Ivan Robles
Big update is that all the programming for the LGBTQIA+ & Ally Invitational is finalized! The major next step is advertising it to prospective students and getting them registered. We are now working on social media campaigns and outreach.
Duke Disability Alliance Collab, Ivan Robles
For Duke Disability Alliance, we are hoping to have the digital accessibility model and the tactile map model of West Union completed by the end of the semester. After break we're going to meet with the Innovation CoLab design team to create tactile maps and others from our group are working on the digital modeling.
Preferred Name Updating, Tori Pinedo
The last thing that happened with the The last thing that happened with the Preferred Name Updating project was an email that I sent to Dr.Blalark about adding DukeHealth information on the preferred name updating guide he created on the registrar after our discussions. I also spoke to Provost Kornbluth about pronoun implementation on DukeHub with Kristina Smith. We had a brief 10-minute meeting where she affirmed to us that she would be moving along with the pronoun implementation as an optional write-in instead of a drop-down bar. The timeline is still a bit tentative as she said that all of her colleagues were on board but she had to contact Dr.Blalark again to ensure that it would be implemented for the next school year was an email that I sent to Dr.Blalark about adding DukeHealth information on the preferred name updating guide he created on the registrar after our discussions. I also spoke to Provost Kornbluth about pronoun implementation on DukeHub with Kristina Smith. We had a brief 10-minute meeting where she affirmed to us that she would be moving along with the pronoun implementation as an optional write-in instead of a drop-down bar. The timeline is still a bit tentative as she said that all of her colleagues were on board but she had to contact Dr.Blalark again to ensure that it would be implemented for the next school year.
Increasing Latinx Faculty’s Visibility, Sujeiry Jimenez
My initial project to create initiatives to increase Latinx faculty has taken a turn to focus on increasing the visibility of current Latinx faculty. I am currently working alongside Dean Ashby and her office to create a database of current Latinx faculty at Duke University. Through said database, students will have access to Latinx faculty at Duke and the courses they offer. With this project I hope to highlight the number of Latinx faculty and create a way for students to find mentors.
SOFC
Auditing Improvements, Ben Hubsch
SOFC is attempting to come up with a solution to our current lack of robust auditing, in order to reclaim unspent funds more easily. The committee has also been busy with Annual Budget preparations of late and continues to allocate money from the Programming Fund on a weekly basis.