The Duke Student Government Research Unit will tackle questions regarding academics, residential life, social culture and more in their first year.
In a meeting Tuesday night, Duke Student Government approved a resolution in support of DSGRU's data collection and analysis methods. Over the course of a seven-part presentation, DSGRU investigators described their plans of action for the data gathering and analysis of various questions posited by the Senate earlier in the year.
The first question is a curriculum review which will examine why students take certain courses, in classes which fill a particular Trinity or Pratt requirement. It will gather information from ACES and course evaluations to see what classes are signed up for by whom. It will also rely on student surveys for more personal data.
The next question examines infrastructural inequality around campus and whether students decisions’ to return to their dorm through the housing model or seek other living arrangements are influenced more by community, infrastructure or other factors. This question will be investigated through student surveys and help from the Office of Institutional Research and the Housing, Dining and Residence Life department. The analysis will focus on isolating the most important factors students consider when thinking about returning to the same dorm.
Community in unaffiliated houses was also brought up as a question. DSGRU will investigate how some unaffiliated houses are more effective at building community. It will use existing HDRL data, house budgeting, residential blocking data and a student survey to gather data.
The dining plan is also subject to research. DSGRU will ask whether or not the freshman meal plan is fair to students on financial aid who are less able to add food points to their plan as they run out. DSGRU will use existing HDRL data, food point and FLEX usage rates. Data for students on financial aid will be compared to similar cohorts of students not on financial aid to see how their behavior differs.
Another question will focus on identity and recruitment for selective living groups and greek life. This study will look at the demographics of students who rush different groups, and will be based on student surveys at the beginning, middle and end of the different recruitment periods. The analysts will work with the OIR to limit duplicating samples. The analysis will enable investigators to create an ideal recruitment candidate based on student surveys saying whether or not they get bids from different living groups.
The Mental Health Awareness Month will also be the focus of an investigation, which will use pre-surveys and post-surveys to see whether or not student knowledge of mental health services increased during the awareness month of February.
Finally, Student Organization Finance Committee funding will be examined to see if there are any patterns in what groups are more or less likely to receive funding.
After data is gathered for all these different questions, DSGRU investigators will analyze them and draw conclusions to present to DSG Senate at the end of the spring semester.
In other business:
Election bylaws were amended to reduce the number of members on the DSG board of elections from seven to four. It also adds a training session for new board members led by the attorney general and the executive vice president. The bylaw modification was introduced by Senator for Academic Affairs Jacob Zionce, a senior.
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