Administrators met Wednesday morning with a group of students and faculty members to discuss a list of demands relating to minority issues on campus. Although the meeting did not include a discussion of specific responses to the 12 demands, administrators agreed to provide a concrete set of responses to the proposals the week after fall break.
The meeting included President Nan Keohane, Provost Peter Lange, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta, Director of the Office of Intercultural Affairs Julian Sanchez and about a dozen students and faculty members.
"It was a good conversation in which members of the delegation expanded on the points made in the demands document, making clear their reasons for concerns and their hopes for the future," Keohane wrote in an e-mail. "With the Board of Trustees and the board of the Duke Endowment in town for the next few days, and then fall break, we will not have time to prepare an appropriately thoughtful response by Oct. 15, as they had asked. But we will do so by the end of the next week after that."
The group's demands were drafted after Sigma Chi fraternity's "Viva Mexico" party sparked discussions regarding the status of Latinos and other minorities on campus. Demands ranged from the formation of programs in Native American studies and Asian American studies to the creation of a student task force to ensure that potentially offensive events do not occur.
Administrators involved in Wednesday's meeting did not wish to speculate prematurely about the University's response to the demands. Moneta noted that although none of the demands came out of the blue, the administration still wanted time to consider each proposal carefully before crafting a formal response.
Lange said the meeting served as a time in which the students and faculty members could contextualize some of the demands that were not immediately clear. He cited as an example a demand that the University replenish, extend and update its Latino, Asian American and Native American collections in the library system.
Deborah Jakubs, director of collections services for the library, noted that the University has already been focusing on expanding its collections in the areas targeted by the students and faculty members in their demands of the administration.
"For the last five years, we've been very conscious to expand, especially in terms of targeting additional funding toward the area of Latino studies," Jakubs said. She added that the library has been sensitive to the need to enhance Native American and Asian American collections over the last few years as well.
"I'd like to reassure students that we do have an active collection program that involves 35 people, all of whom are attentive to what's going on in the University," she said. "This group's demand does not come as a surprise to us."
Another demand the students and faculty members presented to administrators called for a response from the offices of Judicial Affairs and Fraternity and Sorority Life, codifying the measures taken if the Duke Community Standard's principle of respect for others is violated at student events.
"I'd like to sit down and have further conversations with the people making this demand to talk about what they're looking for," said Todd Adams, assistant dean of students for greek life. "In some ways we have begun to address the issue."
He noted that his office has been working with the presidents of the Interfraternity Council, Inter-Greek Council, Panhellenic Association and National Pan-Hellenic Council to discuss the Community Standard and the role it plays in the greek community.
Adams said the demand for a student task force to prevent racially charged or offensive events from taking place is also something that warrants further discussion.
"I don't know that I'm ready to say that we need something along the lines of a greek task force," Adams said. "The four presidents have already begun discussions and many of the groups are already participating in discussions with culturally based organizations and with other campus groups they don't normally associate with."
He added that fraternities and sororities have been operating under a relatively new process for planning and hosting events. "It still needs to be refined, but it's most important to talk with students as they're going through that process," he said.
Rick Gardner, director of event advising, said his office has been working to address some of the issues that arose after members of the University community were offended by Sigma Chi's Mexico-themed party a few weeks ago.
"We're already trying to do what they're looking to do with the task force," Gardner said. "We've been thinking about what kind of questions we should be asking when people are registering parties. The whole issue with the Sigma Chi party reminds us that there are questions that always need to be asked that are sometimes forgotten to be asked." Gardner added that the incident highlighted a need to keep advisors closely involved with their respective organizations.
Zoila Airall, assistant vice president for student affairs, said the demand for an increase in resources and advising support for minority students and minority student groups is one the University is already trying to address.
"Advising for everybody--not just minority groups--needs to improve, and we're working on that," Airall said.
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