At its Wednesday meeting, the Duke Student Government Senate approved budgetary statues for several pilot programs.
A budgetary statute was approved to fund two library pilot programs. One program will provide money for 600 pairs of headphones for students to use in Perkins Library, similar to the program currently implemented in gyms on campus.
The second program proposed adding two FitDesks to Perkins. Sophomore Monika Dharia, senator for services, introduced the statute, noting that these desks—which allow users to exercise while writing or typing—would help students de-stress.
“The FitDesks will help increase the larger awareness for movement and especially movement while studying,” Dharia said. “You often see students just sitting there for long periods of times, and the FitDesks will help with that.”
Dharia added that several universities have created active study spaces with FitDesks and have had success. In addition, the FitDesks could be put in quiet spaces in the library because they create almost no noise.
The Senate also approved a statute to fund a pilot program for the Duke Smart Home to construct a solar lighting system for the swinging benches around campus.
In other business:
The Senate approved a budgetary statue to increase the DSG portion of the Student Activities Fee to $127.64 per semester. The Chronicle recently reported that the allocation of the Student Organization Funding Committee programming fund portion of this fee is no longer public.
It also approved program funding for the Jewish Students Union, Asian Students Association, Delta Sigma Theta and DukeAFRICA.
A new SOFC bylaw change, which was introduced last week, was approved. The amendment requires non-SOFC recommended budgetary statutes and statutes that exceed $10,000 to have a second reading in the Senate before receiving approval.
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