Student Clubs and Organizations
Duke University Motorsports
With COVID restrictions, many Duke chartered organizations have had to adapt to terse restrictions and regulations to maintain student health and safety.
For Duke University Motorsports, restrictions include a maximum of 5 students in the garage at any given time, all participants must be registered during scheduled workdays and an attendance log is sent to Duke administration post meeting, students must wear masks and maintain social distance and the garage bay door must stay open during meetings to allow for increased air flow.
Duke PAWS
A lot of service clubs that interact with the Durham community off-campus have been limited because of COVID-19 restrictions.
For Duke PAWS (Promoting Animal Welfare Through Service), trips to animal shelters off-campus have been completely shut down, due to restrictions on funding for traveling off-campus and other indoor health regulations. In lieu of these trips, Zoom gatherings were arranged so that members could make dog and cat toys to donate to animal shelters.
However, these online meetings have also opened up new doors for interactions that would be difficult to arrange prior to the pandemic. For example, events with speakers that live in other states could be organized on Zoom with high turnout, but in the past online events would most likely be less popular.
BROWNSTONE
Social Living Groups (SLGs) have been dramatically impacted by COVID, and they may never look the same even as Duke life returns to “normal”. SLGs are co-ed organizations, comprised of members spanning across all four grades, that try to foster a sense of community through communal living, section parties, dorm dinners, retreats, among other activities.
Due to the nature of COVID, members of SLGs such as Brownstone, were not able to live together or host large in-person events. These limitations have changed the dynamic of Brownstone, largely decreasing socialization and the sense of community between members. Alex Osterling, Brownstone president, comments on the changing nature of the SLG’s community saying, “instead of being one giant blog… [the Brownstone community has] become a ring where people don’t connect with everybody… [but people] have good neighbors that they’re connected to.”
In order to retain a sense of unity and togetherness for its members, Brownstone has created new COVID-safe events. For example, members living on campus or in the local Durham area are able to meet up with one another in small groups to eat and catch up outside. During the early days of the pandemic, Brownstone also commonly had online Zoom hangouts, during which members would chat and play online games with one another.
