TIMELINE OF EVENTS
August – September 2014
8/30/14 Executive VP Tallman Trask hits Ms. Underwood with his vehicle and allegedly verbally abuses her with an anti-Black racial slur.
9/1/14 Ms. Underwood goes to the Durham VA Hospital and is diagnosed with a muscle contusion and possible fractured elbow.
9/3/14 Ms. Underwood meets with DUPD investigator to file official police report.
9/20/14 VP Cavanaugh delivers a two sentence apology note from Trask.
February – March 2016
2/29/16 Chronicle publishes the first of two investigative pieces detailing Trask hitting Ms. Underwood with his car.
3/1/16 Chronicle publishes the second of two investigative pieces detailing a hostile and discriminatory environment in Parking & Transportation Services (PTS).
President Brodhead announces that the main quadrangle on West Campus will be named Abele Quad, a suggestion not recommended by the advisory committee, chaired by Tallman Trask.
3/8/16 The first of many protests demanding the resignation of EVP Trask.
3/14/16 Ms. Underwood files a lawsuit against EVP Trask.
3/21/16 DSWS publishes op-ed in the Chronicle demanding accountability.
Legal experts question DUPD’s handling of the hit and run accident
3/24/16 A professor formally motioned for the Academic Council’s representative on the
Board of Trustees to ask the Board to initiate an independent review of the incidents detailed in The Chronicle articles. The council continued to discuss this motion in an executive session closed to the public.
3/28/16 DSWS organizes a week-long pop-up museum to bring more attention to worker justice.
April 2016
4/1/16 DSWS organizes a rally in support of Duke workers. At the end of the rally, it is announced that nine students have begun the sit-in of Allen building with 7 demands concerning Trask and the hostile PTS work environment.
4/3/16 Students erect tents on the Abele quad in front of the Allen building as a show of solidarity with protesters, which is then called A-Ville (short for Amnesty Ville or Abeleville).
4/4/16 Student protesters in Allen receive unconditional amnesty from the administration.
EVP Trask offers three sentence apology.
4/6/16 President Brodhead sends email to all Duke faculty, staff, and students, stating that the university will engage in four steps to “address issues of respect, civility, wages, and inclusiveness for staff.” DSWS found the response unsatisfactory, stating that the students conducting the sit-in “believe that this does not provide sufficient evidence of a concrete commitment by the university.”
4/8/16 Students vacate the Allen Building to further build the movement via community mobilization. Sit-in participants join A-Ville and tenting continues.
Reverend William Barber II of the NAACP speaks to hundreds in front of the Allen Building.
4/13/16 Duke is removed as a defendant from Ms. Underwood’s lawsuit. Tenting continues in A-ville.
4/26/16 DSWS takes down A-Ville tents for the year
June 2016
6/9/16 Durham City Council votes to raise the minimum wage for City Employees to $15/hr.
August 2016
8/10/16 Duke University raises minimum wage to $13/hr for employees working at least 20 hrs/wk and 36 wks/yr. The raise affects around 1,200 employees.
8/27/16 Duke Students & Workers in Solidarity hold a “(Dis)orientation” rally at the Duke Chapel alongside Duke Graduate Students’ Union, SEIU Faculty Forward, and Fight for $15
Duke Students & Workers in Solidarity 