The Office of Access and Outreach is at two locations at once, according to different pages of Duke's websites.
The Office, which provides support for first-generation and low-income students on campus, is listed on the Duke Office of Undergraduate Education website as being located at the Karsh Office of Undergraduate Financial Support on Campus Drive. However, the Office of Access and Outreach website lists its location as Room 255 in Trent Hall.
Gary Bennett, vice provost for undergraduate education, said the online discrepancy was part of a larger change in the way the Office delivers programming to the students it serves.
“The Office has a very broad mission in the sense that its directors have to anticipate the needs of a relatively large and growing section of the student population and to deliver programming to assist them when and where [it's] necessary,” he said.
As the population that the Office serves has grown, he continued, the need to scale up its programming has risen. Although the details of the restructuring may change, Bennett laid out its major points for The Chronicle.
One of the changes, he said, was that the Office of Access and Outreach and the David M. Rubenstein Scholars Program—which provides merit scholarships for first-generation, low-income students—will be moved out of the Office of Undergraduate Financial Support.
Justin Clapp, who previously directed both programs, will serve only as the director of the Office of Access and Outreach. His office will fall directly under the Office of Undergraduate Education.
Bennett explained that Duke will find a new director for the Rubenstein program, which will fall under the Office of Undergraduate Scholars and Fellows.
"The need was too great for one job," Bennett said. "You need to split those roles to ensure that students' needs are being met."
Bennett confirmed that Clapp's office has moved to Trent Hall as a result of the move out of the financial aid department. The websites are in the process of being updated to reflect the change.
"We should have been able to do that more quickly," he said. "I know some students were confused."
Clapp confirmed the change in a recent email to first-generation students, in which he also stated that the restructuring will "allow me to better serve our large community of first-generation students, as well as high-need and undocumented undergraduates."
Bennett added that, prior to the change, some students found it difficult to make it to the Office of Undergraduate Financial Support in order to attend Access and Outreach programming. Now, he said, the Office of Access and Outreach will host its programming in easier-to-access locations around campus. He cited a meeting that Mr. Clapp recently held in Perkins Library as an example.
However, he noted that the current arrangements for both the Rubenstein program and the Office of Access and Outreach may change in the future.
"If I hear from students and they say 'We need a gathering space immediately someplace off-campus, then we'll do our best to make that happen,"' he said.
The Rubenstein Scholars Program is now located in Bay 8N in Smith Warehouse.
Bennett emphasized that the changes are intended to make the Office more accessible for the growing body of students that it serves.
"Our fundamental principle here...is making sure that we're taking good care of our students," he said.
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Matthew Griffin was editor-in-chief of The Chronicle's 116th volume.