In an attempt to relieve student concerns about access to sufficient meeting space on campus, the administration has decided to reverse its policy of restricting availability to rooms that hold expensive audio visual equipment.
Richard White, dean of Trinity College and vice provost for undergraduate education, issued a memo to the registrar's office Tuesday morning requesting that students be allowed to reserve such rooms under the standard reservation policy for all classroom space.
Melissa Mills, assistant dean for computing in Arts and Sciences, said the previous policy of restricted access was put into effect in the spring of 1995 to prevent damage to expensive equipment.
White said that the room reservation contract signed by a student group representative will hold that individual responsible for any damage to audio visual equipment that occurs, as is currently the case with a reservation request for any type of on-campus space. White added that the former policy made sense when only a few of the larger rooms on campus were technologically upgraded.
A large number of the more sizable lecture halls on both East and West Campuses-those that hold 50 or more students-were recently upgraded with equipment. White said that although priority for reserving such rooms should remain with the faculty, there is no reason to prevent students from using them as well.
As a result of the policy changes, students can reserve any room that holds 70 or more people up to six days in advance of the event and any room holding less than 70 people at any point in advance of the event.
Many student leaders-who have been working to change the policy since its inception-lauded the University's decision to open up the desired rooms.
"I was excited to hear of the change because the University was responsive to student needs," said Trinity senior Takcus Nesbit, president of Duke Student Government. "Meeting space was probably mentioned in almost every DSG candidate's speech last year."
Trinity senior Shannon Roche, president of the Panhellenic Council-an organization that has been struggling to find a permanent location in which to host large events such as sorority rush-agreed with Nesbit. "It is fantastic that space has been made available in a more equitable manner," she said. "Hopefully this will now free us up to work on larger issues and find a more permanent solution."
Roche and Nesbit both said that student leaders will now have to make sure they educate their organization's members on how to use these facilities properly.
"Students have a responsibility not to damage any equipment that happens to be in those rooms," Nesbit said. "If we can fulfill our responsibility, this should be a good relationship between students and the administration."
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