The media coverage of Duke this semester has gone beyond the pages of The Chronicle. Gawker, Jezebel, Deadspin, The Huffington Post, The View, Forbes Magazine, Bro Bible and even the New York Times have chimed in on PowerPoint-gate and Fraternity E-mail-gate.
Partly in response, women at Duke in multiple organizations are gaining traction in their quest to highlight gender disparities on campus. If you were to pick the average Duke student off the plaza, he or she probably wouldn’t know about the proliferation of new groups just in the past two years.
For the University that’s as polarizing as the Yankees or Sarah Palin, the progressive initiatives on campus get little exposure. It’s a shame, because there are campus groups which are putting forth original goals not just associated with what’s already happened, but what we need going forward.
The question that then has to be asked is: what is newsworthy? Do these groups deserve more exposure than the typical blast e-mail or fliering campaign? Or do we need to wait on tangible impacts before championing their efforts?
The first area of recent change is advocacy. The Greek Women’s Initiative, started this Fall, aims to “empower greek women, initiate dialogue and propose solutions to the dilemmas men and women face at Duke.” I initially wondered why Panhel isn’t already doing these things. Sophomore Kelsey Woodford explains that as “Panhel represents traditionally white sororities, just doing it through Panhel wouldn’t be intercouncil.” The GWI has representatives, both men and women, from almost every chapter on campus going through facilitator training with the Center for Race Relations. After that, they will go back and promote discussions within their chapters on what issues they see as being important. Indeed, Woodford added that facilitation is the first step because “[the GWI] don’t want it just to be just 10 people deciding what the gender issues are right now—that would be unfair.”
To me, there are obvious issues that must be addressed, but it makes sense to field feedback from within the community before coming up with a plan of action. GWI leaders characterized the infamous fraternity e-mails as “a symptom of a greater problem… with campus culture.” It’s important to acknowledge that these problems affect independents, too, but the GWI limits itself to matters within greek life.
And that’s where non-affiliated groups come in. The Women’s Collective is, as senior Taylor Damiani said via e-mail, “a place where women can discuss frustrations with gender inequity they encounter on campus AND take action on those problems.” Damiani adds that their goal is to “affect deep structural change regarding gender inequity on Duke’s campus.” I think that a positive for the WC is recognizing that any isolated example of inequity has deeper roots. There’s even an all-male group, Men Acting for Change, which adds the other gender to the equation.
There have also been housing changes in response to student demands. The Women’s Housing Option on West Campus and Panhel housing on Central Campus both are new living communities instituted this year. Yet both serve a limited number of women and are more band-aid solutions than long-term ones. Furthermore, Campus Council approved gender-neutral and co-ed housing options for 2011. These all got coverage when they were being discussed as possibilities, but we haven’t seen follow-up as to what their impact has been.
There are yet more new initiatives, as two publications launched this past week. Womyn Magazine, a publication about queer women at Duke, and The Develle Dish, which “aims to connect women from all over campus, whether they identify as feminists or not.” Both provide a forum for student voices.
We can still make more tangible progress. First, our campus and leadership organizations need to foster a culture of encouraging women to run for positions. It’s simply easier for fraternities to support their members who are up for election. As a member of a sorority, I haven’t experienced a similar culture or thought that I would have the same campaign base if I were to run. It’s imperative that more women, either affiliated or independent, are represented in student government (there are nine women in the DSG Senate, which has 40 spaces).
Housing changes need to be made to address disparities in our current model. The independent sophomore woman with the bottom-of-the-barrel lottery number who’s pushed to Central because she would otherwise be living alone in Edens... just shouldn’t be in that situation. We need to realize the full implications of quirks like this in the system.
Every one of the above groups is part of a broader movement toward gender equity at Duke. I hope they get more exposure and members because we all have a stake in their success and momentum.
Samantha Lachman is a Trinity sophomore. Her column runs every other Thursday.
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