A common room tent is coming back to Krzyzewskiville.
At its Wednesday meeting, the Duke Student Government Senate allocated $3,200 out of its surplus fund for a new common room tent in K-Ville after last year's version was destroyed by the Carolina walk-up line. The tent will include the same amenities as last year's—including 12 bean bag chairs and $200 worth of board games and storage—although the total cost slightly exceeded the last tent.
"It's the responsibility of the Line Monitors [to take down and store the tent]," said first-year Jordan Taxay, senator for campus life and co-sponsor of the budgetary statute.
The sponsors of the statute also suggested that funding for the tent may come from elsewhere in the future.
"[Duke basketball] is willing to help fund certain aspects of this in future years," said first-year Jake Jeffries, senator for campus life and the other co-sponsor of the statute.
Junior Liv McKinney, vice president for services and sustainability, proposed an amendment to make the common room tent a part of DSG's annual budget if basketball and Duke Athletics do not agree to fund it. The amendment passed unanimously, and the budgetary statute passed by a voice vote.
The Senate also heard a report on Duke's climate outlook.
Duke Sustainability Director Tavey Capps updated the Senate on the status of the Duke University Climate Action Plan. The 2009 plan set the goal for Duke to be carbon-neutral by 2024.
The update to the plan reassesses the the University's approach to the carbon neutrality goal, incorporating experience from the past decade. It outlines more feasible approaches to reduce energy use in areas such as the University's transportation, Capps said.
"We really overestimated what we could do in transportation," Capps said.
She emphasized that the emission burden of employee commutes and air travel is driven by factors out of the University's control. Instead of restricting commuting, Duke is focusing on advocating for better regional transportation and incentives for employees to try different commuting options.
She explained that these improvements will help Duke reach an 85 percent reduction in emissions by 2024.
The Climate Action Plan Update is open to public comment until Dec. 17. Capps said that the comments will be incorporated into the plan and presented to the Campus Sustainability Committee by the end of Spring 2019.
In other business
The Senate unanimously approved an amendment to the DSG executive bylaw that officially recognized the Communications Team as a branch of DSG. The amendment grants the communications director a permanent spot in the presidential cabinet.
The Senate also unanimously approved an amendment to the Student Organization Finance Committee bylaw. The amendment seeks to standardize the language of the DSG financial accounts under SOFC's control.
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