Duke Student Government senators recognized the Duke Pro-Life Club and chartered two other student groups at its Wednesday meeting.
In its application for recognition, the Pro-Life Club wrote that “members of [the] organization work to defend all lives threatened by abortion, euthanasia, and destruction of embryos.”
“We wanted to start a group for pro-life voices just to have a conversation,” said Amanda Beach, a senior and president of the group, at the meeting. “I know it is a hot-button issue these days. So we’re not here to incite any rallies or anything, just to have our voices heard and have conversations around it.”
The group wrote in its application that it anticipates needing funding for promotional materials, and Beach told the Senate that members might also volunteer in the surrounding community in response to a question about the group’s other activities.
“There’s a Pregnancy Support Services Center in between here and Chapel Hill,” Beach said. “So we would volunteer with them and kind of work behind the scenes. So there would be no invasion of privacy or anything like that.”
The Senate also chartered satirical publication The Fluke News and Duke DreamCatchers, which “will seek to make the last wishes of patients who were diagnosed with terminal illnesses come true” by connecting Duke students with hospice patients, according to its application.
“Unlike other other student groups that work with the elderly population, the Duke DreamCatchers seek to close generation gaps by not only coming in close contact with the elderly population in the Durham area, but also forming a special bond with the older generation through the accomplishment of dreams of patients who are going through the last phases of their lives,” the group wrote in its constitution, also submitted to the Senate.
The Fluke News, which noted that it already has social media accounts that reach Duke students, is trying to fill a niche as the only satire-only publication on campus.
Meanwhile, the Duke Sports Management Club was approved to change its name to the Duke Sports Business Conference. The name change reflects its new focus, which included hosting a 700-attendee conference featuring former New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez. That event branched out into the broader sports business world, rather than focusing narrowly on sports management.
The Senate also approved more than $403,000 in student group funding on Wednesday.
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Carter Forinash, Trinity '21, was the news editor for The Chronicle's 116th volume.
Ayra Charania is a Trinity junior and a senior editor of The Chronicle's 118th volume.