Duke Student Government senators heard a DSG 101 presentation on how to be effective leaders in their positions, presented committee updates and allocated Student Organization Funding Committee funding in their Wednesday meeting.
Committee updates
Junior Mariam Gulamhusein, vice president of the services and sustainability committee, gave updates on the committee’s biking safety initiative, which began tabling on the Bryan Center Plaza to get feedback from the student body.
The committee also reported having “conversations with library staff” regarding the recent changes to library hours, with a form that will be sent out to students for their input soon.
Gulamhusein also reported that the first napping pods were being purchased, establishing the next step in a multi-semester-long project to install them around campus. Lastly, the committee planned a meeting with the Wake Forest student government to learn about its wellness initiatives.
A representative for the Durham and community affairs committee discussed DSG’s partnership with QuadEx for Democracy Day. More progress has also been made on the fireside chat project, which is designed to create a space for “discussion with faculty.” Lastly, the committee has met with several local business owners to potentially establish discounts for students.
DSG 101
DSG Adviser Juwan Jacobs also gave a brief seminar to senators to assist in “training and onboarding,” with the program intended to be a part of a broader, annual program to educate both new and returning senators in DSG’s mission statements. This included the themes of advocacy, involvement and leadership.
“You put a student government in a room. And you are so surprised at what comes out of that,” Jacobs said. “We want to be a microcosm of what life is like at Duke.”
He led students through a discussion about how to effectively advocate for issues, stressing that prioritizing specific issues, setting clear goals and regularly communicating with both students and administrators were all crucial to the workflow of DSG senators.
In other business
Senators voted to approve the full $2,000 in SOFC funding for Duke Sanjeet’s VV Subramanya & VVS Murari concert, the full $2,751.35 for Duke Sports Analytics’ Carolina Hurricane trip and the full $1,750 for Something Borrowed, Something Blue’s fall concert.
Senators also voted to approve $6,000 in funding of a requested $10,000 for the Duke Partnership for Service for speakers, events, transportation, executive programming and merchandise. An amendment to increase the funding allotted to dPS to $7,500 was voted down after a brief moderated caucus.
All OCF spending has been allocated for this semester.
Two new members of senate staff were also confirmed this week in Senate Secretary Emily Huang, a first-year, and Legislative Outreach Coordinator Apphia Lall, a sophomore.
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Jeremiah Fang is a Trinity junior and a staff reporter for the news department.