- New Provost Sally Kornbluth spoke to DSG about the areas she plans to work on as she begins to lead academic planning and organization for the University.
- The inaugural director of the Duke Student Government Research Unit, junior Kshipra Hemal, was introduced to the Senate.
- DSG committees such as Internal Affairs, Financial Oversight and Appeals and Judiciary were confirmed.
In a meeting laden with committee formation, approvals and statutes, new Provost Sally Kornbluth spoke to Duke Student Government about her vision for the University's strategic plan.
The meeting opened with a moment of silence for the deaths of two students this weekend, fifth-year graduate student Kaila Brown and sophomore Alexander Rickabaugh. Kornbluth then took the floor to speak about the areas she plans to work on as she begins to lead academic planning and organization—less than a week after she announced the beginning of the University's foray into "pre-planning" for Duke's next strategic plan at an Academic Council meeting.
Of the many things her job entails, she said that she wishes to focus on things such as research, particularly increasing its scope beyond the sciences. Kornbluth also noted that she wanted to work on the role co-curriculars and extracurriculars play in student life and to investigate the relationship between these activities and the classroom curriculum.
In response to questions regarding her vision for students’ experiences over their four years, she said that she didn’t want students to have “millions of one-off experiences” and wanted them to focus on a few key, prolonged experiences through their entire stay at Duke.
When asked about the strengths of Duke in comparison to other top-tier universities, she explained that—from what she had seen through the eyes of her children at Yale University—she recognized that Duke was more capable of making changes in a shorter period of time. She fielded questions about the engineering curriculum, which she wishes to address in order to allow engineers to go abroad more and study more than their engineering requirements.
Following Kornbluth’s address to the Senate, the inaugural director of the Duke Student Government Research Unit—junior Kshipra Hemal—was introduced to the Senate by Executive Vice President Abhi Sanka.
Sanka, a junior, explained that the application process included case-study questions about how applicants would lead certain studies. He also said that the questions were indicative of real life studies he wants DSGRU to study after Senate commission. These examples included studies concerning voter turnout among students, data analysis of the new LBGTQ-inclusive question on the Duke admissions application, DevilsGate and the ability of some student living groups to form stronger communities over others. During a question-and-answer session with the Senate, Hemal said that she would be open to doing longitudinal studies that would collect data beyond the four-year university experience as well.
In an interview with The Chronicle after the meeting, she said that she wished to explore beyond the commissions of the Senate.
“I’m open to studying questions of interest that are not necessarily long-term," she said. "So I’d be willing to answer questions about existing DSG initiatives like the Zagster program’s efficacy and the LGBTQ question from an efficacy standpoint, like how many applicants actually used it and how effectively was it used by the administration."
In the coming weeks, the Senate will begin the DSGRU survey commission process.
In other business:
A myriad of presidential committees were confirmed by Chief Justice Will Giles, a senior. These committees will advise the president of Duke University about a variety of groups and interest items, including athletics, investment, environmental sustainability and transportation.
A statute concerning Student Organization Finance Committee’s guidelines was passed unanimously. The statute explains SOFC’s rules and criteria for new clubs to have a charter and also explains allocation of funds to certain clubs, such as the refusal of fund allocation to alcohol and t-shirts.
Legislation concerning the charter of the Harmonies for Health club, which helps disabled children living at the Durham Ronald McDonald house play instruments, was passed.
The members of several committees were also confirmed. The Internal Affairs committee addresses the organizational structure, bylaws, and general vision of DSG. Chaired by Sanka, its new members are senators Tanner Lockhead, Annie Straneva, John Gaurco, Ilana Weisman and Michael Norwalk, all sophomores. Senators Tara Bansal and George Mellgard—both sophomores—and Nick Andrade and Brian Hopkins—both juniors—formed the Financial Oversight and Appeals Committee, which oversees the budget and fund allocation of DSG. Finally, the Senate Judiciary Committee, which nominates justices and looks at impeachment cases, was assembled. Its members are sophomore senators Annie Adair, Dustin Hadfield and Cindy Wang and freshman senators Sean Gilbert, Moses Wayne and Amy Vitha.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.