- The fee applied to all undergraduate students to support the DSG programming fund was raised by 1.7 percent.
- A resolution was passed supporting changing the name of the Women’s Studies department to the Department of Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies.
- A resolution was passed supporting changing the requirements for history majors to create two concentration paths.
The Duke Student Government Senate voted to raise the Student Activities Fee to counteract inflation.
At a meeting Wednesday night, the Student Activities Fee—a fee applied to all undergraduate students which supports the DSG programming fund—was raised from $126.50 to $128.65 for the 2015-16 academic year, an increase equal to the 1.7 percent rate of inflation. Two different parties came out in debate over the statute—one in favor of increasing the fee and one in favor of using money in the surplus fund to cover the increase in inflation.
Junior Max Schreiber, senator for services, led the opposition to the increase. Although he argued against the increase, he also championed a new system to fight inflation. He proposed that the Senate use money from the surplus fund instead of increasing the Student Activities Fee and hold a referendum in 2020 to raise the fee once existing funds have been exhausted. This cycle, he proposed, would continue with referenda every four years to raise the fee by more than its current 1.7 percent.
Treasurer Nikhil Gavai, a junior, opposed Schreiber, saying that the surplus fund should be preserved as a safety net for the programming fund, which has run out of money in four of the past 11 years. He pointed to this year’s consumption, which is 15 percent ahead of the usual consumption rate as yet another reason why the surplus fund is necessary.
Adoption of a plan like Schreiber’s, Gavai argued, will be unfair to future students, who will be forced to absorb an increase in the Student Activities Fee of much more than 1.7 percent to account for multiple years of inflation.
Ultimately, the Senate voted in favor of the 1.7 percent increase.
Whether to raise the Student Activities Fee is always a contentious issue in the Senate, said Executive Vice President Abhi Sanka, a junior.
“The management of the student activities fee is our biggest responsibility," Sanka said. "It’s the one thing that we can control and if we vote on it, it happens. Some years people say that we should adjust by inflation, and some years we don’t adjust for inflation because we have a lot of money and don’t need it.”
In other business:
The Senate approved a resolution to support changing the name of the Women’s Studies department to the Department of Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies. The change was proposed by sophomore Tara Bansal, senator for academic affairs. She argued that the stigma of “angry feminism” and the exclusionary nature of the name “Women’s Studies” were reasons to change the name.
The name change reflects both gender equality and a shift towards acceptance of different sexualities, Bansal explained in her presentation. The resolution has received support from the director of women’s studies, many women’s studies majors, Baldwin Scholars and donors, she said.
The proposed curriculum changes include a different set of core classes, a possible FOCUS program and a concentration in the renamed department.
“Those are details that are going to be ironed out a little more by the department and administration,” Bansal said in an interview after the meeting. “Some of the changes will include courses specifically about understanding sexuality studies today and understanding gender in the context of modern society."
Fix My Campus was added to DSG Affiliate By-Law after being tabled for two weeks.
Sophomore Kavita Jain, senator for academic affairs, proposed a resolution to support change to the major requirements for the history major. Students majoring in history are currently required to pursue one of two course paths. One path requires students take courses on three of four world regions—the United States and Canada; Europe and Russia; Latin America and the Caribbean; and Asia, Africa and the Middle East. She argued that Asia, Africa and the Middle East are diverse regions with extremely varied histories and should be split into three individual areas of study. She maintained that history majors would still only be required to take courses on three of the six regions. The resolution passed.
The Senate withdrew $1,500 from the surplus fund to replenish the legislative discretionary account.
DSG recognized three groups—the Duke Union for Media and the Arts, which provides resources for student in arts majors, minors and concentrations; Duke Women’s Club Rowing; and First Conversations, a group devoted to helping students find their place at Duke and beyond.
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