Duke Families,
Welcome to the Duke community! We are incredibly excited for the incoming Class of 2025 and to have you as part of our community. Each year we are thrilled to welcome your students to Duke University; their energy and passion inspire our community. Much of our newsletter information will be shared on our social media platforms; however, we do encourage you to read each edition for additional insights, context, and official University response.
This has certainly been a challenging week on campus. With students in quarantine and isolation (Q/I) having recently reached an all-time high at Duke, we thought it would be valuable to share more information about campus testing and quarantine/isolation, answer common questions, and reinforce the supports your students will receive should they be required to quarantine or isolate.
We know that no one would choose to be in Q/I if it was not necessary, and we recognize how hard it is to have your loved one far away under these conditions. Even if your student has to be in their room without others during Q/I, they are never alone. There are so many people, offices, and structures in place here at Duke to make sure your student is supported and cared for.
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No matter where college students are living and learning, the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted daily life. As a result, the well-being and mental health of students is of keen interest to parents, families, and universities worldwide. Between November 1 and 16, 2020, the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) Research team invited all Duke undergraduates to share their experiences with academics, social relationships, stress, mental health, and well-being during the fall semester, and 1,015 students responded (15.4% response rate). To provide context and a point of comparison for student responses during COVID-19, we drew on data from previous research conducted at Duke during more typical times[1].
Listen to the full Parent and Family Programs podcast here.
Narrator: You are listening to the Duke University Parent and Family Programs Podcast
Grace Sullivan: Hello, this is Grace Sullivan from the Office of Parent and Family Programs at Duke University. We're here today with Duke student, Shrey Majmudar. Thank you for joining us today.
Shrey Majmudar: Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be on.
Grace Sullivan: Shrey could you just start by introducing yourself. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
What started as a whisper in February, quickly became our new reality by March.
Now, with only finals left in the fall semester, we can all reflect on the decisions and actions of students, faculty, staff, and the entire Duke community and know that we came together and made it work. It was not easy, and it certainly wasn’t without issue. Will everything go back to normal this spring? No. However, with impossible odds and improbable measures, we completed an in-person semester during a Global pandemic.
It would be irresponsible of me to not acknowledge the loss and heavy burden that has befallen so many because of COVID-19, and this reflection is by no means suggesting that this fight is over or that we have somehow succeeded.
As families know, Parent and Family Programs hosted our first-ever virtual Family Weekend October 16-18 complete with 25 synchronous and 3 asynchronous events for guests to join. Overall, Family Weekend was a great success with over 2,300 attendees across these programs which focused on institutional priorities, signature programs, and current happenings. Also as part of Family Weekend, the Division of Student Affairs hosted its annual Duke Parents Advisory Council (DPAC) fall meeting.
These are some unprecedented times. In the past month, our students have experienced a lot to be grieving about, from a worldwide pandemic changing their everyday experience to the postponing of so many traditions and expectations on campus in an attempt to keep everyone safe. We continue to make choices on a systems level, which impact the day-to-day experiences that make the Duke community special. Our students are left to navigate the final month of the semester away from community and often feeling very alone. Students are home and surrounded by the love of family, but this is not the college experience for which they prepared. As a result, we are all grieving and longing for our world to return to some bit of normalcy.
Listen to the Parent and Family Programs podcast or read the transcript below.
Narrator: You are listening to the Duke University Parent and Family Programs podcast.
Grace: Hello. This is Grace Sullivan from the Office of Parent and Family Programs at Duke University. We’re here today with Duke Student, Ivan Robles. Thank you for joining us today, Ivan. Could you tell us a little about yourself?
Tommy Lin is from Shanghai, China and is pursuing majors in Chemistry and Computer Science .
