Health-related student groups can now unite under the Medical and Health Student Organization Umbrella, which was designed to create a sense of collaboration among the organizations.
Sophomore Alex Crable, chair of the Duke Student Government Student Organization Finance Committee, initiated the plans for the umbrella in the fall.
Crable said he noticed a large jump in the popularity of medical organizations in the past two years, particularly those related to a specific health issue.
"What we've decided is that the way it's currently set up, [SOFC doesn't] have the resources to oversee an organization for every disease," Crable said in October, when the plan for an umbrella was still in its nascent stage.
The Medical and Health Student Organization Umbrella will be modeled on the three umbrella organizations currently in existence: the Community Service Center, Sports Club Council and the Undergraduate Judicial Board.
Crable said the new umbrella will benefit student groups by providing them with resources and will simplify SOFC's oversight of health-related groups.
"What we want to do is to create some structural organization, some umbrella organization that will help organize them, help them collaborate, help them gain resources," he said at the organization's first meeting Monday. "Things that affect medical and health organizations but that SOFC might not have the greatest knowledge of."
Crable added that he went through the Office of Student Activities and Facilities' list of student groups and and invited ones related to health to be a part of the umbrella organization.
The groups include Healthy Devils, Know Your Status, Operation Smile and Rural Health.
The umbrella will address issues specific to medical and health organizations better than SOFC could, Crable added.
Crable said he hopes the umbrella will foster more discussion among groups and could possibly lead to an organized activity fair or other special events.
"From what we've seen, [the umbrella] increases the impact of the groups involved to a significant degree, both organizationally and gaining additional resources," Crable said.
Like all umbrellas, it will be considered an independent student organization and therefore a part of SOFC.
It will also receive automatic SOFC charter status, which will qualify it for an annual budget.
Currently, the umbrella is composed of presidents or representatives of health-related student organizations who are all on an equal footing.
Future members can decide to have a hierarchical structure.
In the beginning, member groups may fall under the purview of the medical umbrella as well as a different group, but the goal is for each to fit under one in the future, Crable said.
Several attendees at the first of the scheduled biweekly meetings expressed concern about the organization.
Senior Jessica Ballou, a Chronicle columnist, said she was unsure how the organization differed from the Global Health Forum, of which she is a co-founder. Crable said the umbrella would not negate the forum's mission, which is to coordinate the endeavors of global health groups.
Christine James, a senior and the representative from Healthy Devils, said she was concerned the umbrella was just focused on collaboration among a variety of groups, something her group does little of because it is concerned with issues specific to college students.
"I feel like this is more of a forum thing, which could be good, so that we could find out what everyone is doing and then get help," James said.
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