Party-monitor training is now online.
In an effort to diversify the offerings of Duke night life, Duke Student Government and the Office of Student Activities and Facilities have enacted a policy that allows students to become trained as party monitors online, simplifying the process and drastically reducing the trainee's time commitment.
Since last week, students have been able to enroll in a Blackboard course, after e-mailing OSAF Program Coordinator Leslie Grinage.
Once enrolled, aspiring party monitors review a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation and then take a 15-question quiz, OSAF Director Chris Roby said. If they pass, Roby estimated that students can pick up their orange party monitor T-shirts within two to three days of e-mailing Grinage.
Grinage said about 10 students, primarily members of the International Association, have enrolled in the course and five have passed the quiz as of Sunday.
The process of becoming a party monitor has gone through several evolutions, Roby said. Initially, three three-hour training sessions were offered at the beginning of each year. Because of limited enrollment, larger social groups like fraternities ensured their members received training, but smaller organizations had more trouble, said DSG President Paul Slattery, a senior.
"It [was] a limiting factor on the groups that [could] throw events," he said.
At the beginning of this academic year, groups could sign up for 90-minute training sessions with student trainers at a time of their choice. But Slattery said the latest incarnation of the process, which can be completed on a personal computer, is more convenient for students and accessible to smaller organizations.
"In an ideal world, you would want all groups to have the ability to contribute to the social scene," Slattery said.
In this way, Roby said simplifying training for party monitors relates to the Campus Culture Initiative.
"We're looking at social opportunities for student organizations and how to create less red tape for groups to socialize and have a good time on campus," he said. "Party monitoring is just one element of that larger conversation."
Slattery said without face-to-face instruction, students will retain just as much, if not more, information from the course.
"You can zone out during personal training," he said. "This may actually lead to a higher level of retention."
Wayne Manor President Ellis Wisely, a junior, said all 28 sophomores in the selective living group were required to undergo party-monitor training in a group session this year. Now that training is online, Wisely said he worries it will be difficult to track which members have completed the training session on their own time.
He said he does not think online training will be much more convenient for members, adding that they might have trouble remembering to enroll in the first place.
Junior Jordan Charles, a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, said he became a party monitor after attending a training session as a sophomore and would have preferred to complete the process online.
"I know how to handle party stuff," he said. "Training wasn't that useful for me. I would [have] preferred to do it online because it would [have] been so much faster."
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