Duke Student Government decided it is time for undergraduates to make a plan.
More than 60 students gathered to discuss gender inequity during Duke Student Government’s first Campus Gender Summit, held over three days.
Women and men met separately Monday and Tuesday respectively to discuss gender issues and then reconvened Wednesday to talk together about tangible action plans that could be implemented on campus.
“The goal of the Summit is to propose concrete recommendations that will improve the climate of gender issues on campus,” according to a Wednesday press release from DSG.
Liaison to Gender Issues Michelle Sohn, a senior, said she hoped the forum would address what she called a “problematic gender dynamic on campus that... a lot of students are frustrated about.”
The problem of gender inequity on Duke’s campus is pervasive, said Sohn, a member of The Chronicle’s editorial board, noting that DSG is 70 percent male and there are no female vice presidents.
This week’s forum could lead to a larger movement by University officials and DSG to engage students in positive change. President Richard Brodhead, who earlier this week sent an e-mail urging students to “visualize a change” in Duke’s campus culture, wants to take an active role in the discussion on gender issues, said DSG President Mike Lefevre, a senior.
“President Brodhead had actually asked if he could be invited to speak [at the forum],” Lefevre said. “Having him on board could really help the agenda move forward.”
Brodhead was out of town this week, but will be involved in follow-up conversations, Lefevre said.
During Wednesday’s session, men and women—many of whom represented a wide range of campus groups—collaborated to come up with three primary action points, derived from concerns expressed in the single-sex sessions. The three issues to be addressed are sexual assault, general gender climate on campus and housing and campus space, Lefevre said.
The finalized action plans will be made public to the rest of the student-body after Thanksgiving, Sohn said.
“The way we’re going to pursue the items on that agenda is going to be really inclusive,” Lefevre said. “The people who attended [Wednesday night]... feel like they came up with this plan, and now they want to see it through.”
DSG will create a Google spreadsheet so students can log on and continue the discussion about gender and express what they would like to see in future campaigns to address inequity.
After the forum’s conclusion Wednesday evening, most students were optimistic about the progress that had been made.
“I think people are really going to take responsibility for and implement [the action plans],” said Elizabeth KonKolics, a senior and chair of Baldwin Scholars. “I think we will see a lot more discussions like this, a lot more action and campaigns next semester that I think will be really meaningful to this campus.”
Junior Alex Alston said although the discussions were frustrating at times, he thought overall the forum was successful.
“I feel like there were a lot of things brought to the table and the group here represented a lot of opinions and a lot of views, and we did actually get somewhere,” he said.
Both Sohn and Lefevre emphasized that the forum was not created as a result of a single event.
“There hasn’t been a month this semester that gender hasn’t been in the news, or in the national media at Duke,” Sohn said.
Still, the association between gender inequity and controversial Halloween invitations sent via e-mail by one on-campus and one unrecognized, off-campus fraternity—Sigma Nu and Alpha Delta Phi respectively—is apparent, as noted in the DSG release. Neither Alpha Delta Phi nor Sigma Nu fraternities had representatives at the forum.
President of Alpha Delta Phi, Tim Shaughnessy, a senior, said in an e-mail Wednesday night that his fraternity was not aware the forum was happening, and otherwise would have sent a representative.
Sigma Nu President Sam Zakria, a junior, did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.