Services and Sustainability focuses on supporting the student experience by working on areas such as dining, transportation, wellness, libraries, and technology. We also collaborate with environmentally focused organizations at Duke and utilize the Climate Commitment to advocate for sustainable practices in all of Duke’s activities. In past years, Services and Sustainability members have worked on reinstating reusable mug discounts, designing the FROSH101 House Course, collaborating with Duke Athletics to create sustainable game-day experiences, and creating an LGBTQ+ support group. SAS is proud to spearhead the Blue Devil Market every year, in collaboration with DUU, as our recurring programmatic event.
Projects
- Healthy K-Ville: Duke Basketball fans will love this project. SAS provides Duke vs. UNC tenters with health supplies and promotes healthy habits during the tenting season. SAS also hopes to strengthen a new program in which we donate used and leftover items from the tenting season to community organizations in need of donations. Healthy K-Ville is a big and fun program!
- Alternative Transportation: Services and Sustainability ran a survey and received 100+ responses about students’ experiences with bikes and scooters on campus. We also collaborated with Parking and Transportation to hand out bike lights and repair kits to students and installed dismount zone signage in BC Plaza. This semester, Services and Sustainability senators will serve on the Climate Commitment Advisory Council to discuss alternative transportation.
- Sustainable K-Ville: The committee is working to provide reusable/compostable cups during major Krzyzewskiville events. SAS piloted their K-Ville sustainability initiative during Session 31, reducing waste of tenting materials by donating supplies back to the Durham community and community shelters.
- Airport Transit: Duke Student Government and Duke Parking and Transportation provide free transportation to the airport for each of Duke’s breaks. DSG handles logistics for these efforts, including surveying popular airport transit times, scheduling buses, and advertising. SAS, Campus Life, and DSG Exec will need extra support to plan this effort.
- First-Year Dining: Services & Sustainability committee is collaborating with the Equity and Outreach Committee, New Student and Family Programs, and Duke Dining to improve how incoming students learn about dining. This includes updating the Duke Dining Blue Book page with accurate meal equivalency information and details on dietary restrictions. Additionally, the team is creating an informative video explaining meal plans and dining options, set to be released at the start of Session 32.
- Food Recovery Network: SAS has recently revived Duke’s chapter of Food Recovery Network (FRN), which focuses on collecting unused food from Marketplace and donating it to community organizations that distribute it to those in need. SAS is currently working on finding more volunteers and expanding FRN efforts at Duke. You can help with management, outreach, and volunteering for FRN.
Starter Projects
The listed projects are for first-year senators to become acclimated with the ins and outs of DSG project and program planning!
- Outdoor Study Spaces: Last year, members of SAS began drawing proposals for expanding outdoor seating on East Campus. As you know, there are few places to sit outside on East where you can have space to work and shade from the sun. Preliminary survey results indicated that freshmen would use outdoor study spaces if more of them were available. You can continue this effort by having conversations with administrators and collaborating with fellow DSG members.
- Housing and Dorm Guide: Duke’s dorm resources are limited, making it challenging for students to understand what their dorm will look like when they move in. This makes it difficult for students to know what to bring before visiting their dorm. This project would involve reviewing the housing website, having conversations with Duke housing administrators, and writing a proposal to include more information, photos, or blueprints for dorms on the housing website or in a separate location.
- Little Libraries: A project to create take-one-leave-one bookshelves in Duke library spaces was put together last year. Carrying this project forward would involve discussions with library staff about sourcing books, figuring out which bookshelves to purchase, and requesting DSG funding.
Committee
Nikhil Sethi – VP
As VP for SAS, Nikhil is responsible for leading his committee and assisting with projects, managing the DSG policy agenda, and serving as the chief advocate and administrative contact for his committee.
Raahim Hashmi – AVP
Raahim is a sophomore from Piscataway, NJ majoring in Public Policy and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies and completing the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics certificate. Last year, Raahim served as a senator of SAS, leading two major projects targeting food waste, food insecurity, and accessibility. This year, Raahim aims to expand and institutionalize the Food Recovery Network beyond Marketplace and continue to address food insecurity and other pressing issues impacting Duke students.
Ameer Haidary – Senator
Ameer is a junior majoring in Economics & Public Policy. He is a two-time DSG Senator who has worked on projects such as Blue Devil Bags, Equitable Duke Dinning, and the Campus Scooter/Bicycle Project. He hopes to continue work on sustainability including making K-ville safer, cleaner, and more eco-friendly. He also hopes to work on water projects around campus including water testing, safety, and accessibility.
Chloe Joy Chang – Senator
Chloe Joy is a junior from Hong Kong and Boston majoring in Biomedical Engineering and Marine Science & Conservation. She has previously served as a senator of SAS expanding on student health and wellness on campus, while making sustainable practices (ie. water conservation or food waste) easier for students to get involved with!
Major Richmond – Senator
Major is a sophomore from Doylestown, PA majoring in Environmental Sciences and serving as a Laidlaw Scholar. Major is continuing his career as a SAS senator from last year, when he helped lead the Sustainable K-Ville project. Major’s main goal for this year is to influence more students to take on easier, greener lifestyle changes.
Mahmoud Zaki – Senator
Ryan Jankelowitz – Senator
Karina Lu – Senator
Karina is a Senior from Seattle, Washington majoring in History with a minor in French Studies and a certificate in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE). She has previously served as a Senator for SAS, working on napping pods and little libraries. Karina has also served on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Board of Elections, and is a student representative on the Presidential Advisory Committee on Institutional History. She hopes to continue engaging with student demands this year, bringing projects that serve the broader community. Specifically, she am interested in new projects, such as making mental health care more accessible, and helping continue existing projects, such as the Blue Devil Market.
Siddarth Rama – Senator
Siddarth is a Sophomore from Ft. Lauderdale, FL, majoring in Economics and Public Policy. He has previously served as a Senator in Services and Sustainability. He hopes to create more outdoor study space environments for students on East and West Campus! Areas like BC Plaza are incredibly popular for students to frequent, and he wants to make places like BC Plaza more accessible. On East Campus, massive construction prevents students from being able to study outdoors, so he wants to create designated spaces for freshman to be able to productively immerse themselves in nature. Another impact is to reduce water waste in residential halls. Old, leaky equipment leads to significant amount of drip, hurting our water resources. He wants to push for infrastructure renovation and educational resources for students to be more proactive.
Pranav Hooda – Senator
Luke Gumbert – Senator
Luke is junior from Memphis, TN majoring in Economics and Public Policy. Luke has previously served as a Senator for the SAS committee, co-leading the Sustainable KVille Project, which included facilitating the distribution of 500+ individual wellness bags to tenters and the collection and donation of 200+ tenting supplies to two Durham-based community partners. Luke’s main goal for this year is to continue working on making Duke as sustainable a campus and community as possible.
Dana Tan – Senator
Dana is a freshman from Singapore planning on majoring in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Finance. Dana hopes to work on making dorm life and dining more sustainable through reducing food waste and increasing sorting/composting efforts. She also hopes to improve student wellness through creating more intentional outdoor spaces and activities for students to hangout and relax. Overall, she hopes to encourage students to live greener, and create a campus environment that facilitates that transition.
Jack Stapleton – Senator
Jack is a freshman from Greenville, SC planning on double-majoring in Public Policy and electrical and computer engineering. This year in Duke Student Government, Jack hopes to achieve two main goals. First, he hopes to collaborate with his new DSG colleagues to advance water and energy conservation in dorms by implementing easy yet effective student-friendly initiatives. Second, he hopes to make sustainable living more accessible for every student, and to help them easily incorporate sustainable habits into their daily routines. Through these efforts, he hopes to raise awareness of Duke’s environmental footprint and empower the community to take actions that collectively create a greener campus in Bull City.
Katie Eilers – Senator
Katie is a freshman from Charlotte, NC planning on majoring in Chemistry with a minor in Spanish. This year she hopes to decrease food waste and amplify student voices.
Cayden Hart – Senator
Cayden is a sophomore from Aiken, South Carolina majoring in Environmental Sciences and Policy with a declared certificate in Energy and Environment. Cayden has previously served as a Public Relations Senator and the Co-Chair of the Sustainability Committee while attending Wake Forest University. He hopes to put forth a framework for incentivizing clubs across campus to make their operations more sustainable. He is also keen on pushing for more student-facing DSG events. In terms of impact, he wants to work alongside his committee to assist other student organizations in making their operations more sustainable in tangible, quantifiable ways.
Zoya Hasan – Senator
Zoya is a freshman from Minneapolis, MN, planning on majoring in Global Cultural Studies on a Pre-Med Track with a possible Minor in Global Health. Through her position in DSG, she hopes to promote environmental practices on campus, specifically by expanding the composting and waste management system for food. She also wants to organize swap events for students to encourage the reuse of materials and keep waste out of landfills. Overall, she hopes to spread climate awareness and work towards a greener Duke. She wants to contribute to sustainable policies that leave a lasting impact, benefitting both current and future Blue Devils.