Comments (13)

Some suggestions - key card access only to all common rooms and/or closed circuit cameras. Who do you think ends up paying for the stolen furniture, vandalized carpet, etc.?

A four letter slur about female body parts on the floor of a common room in a male/female dormitory is sexual harrassment and constitutes unacceptable behavior. Perhaps it is time for some all female floors in the dorms.

My own student has told me about this type of destructive behavior. It appears to be a Duke phenomenon. It does not happen at any of the universities or colleges attended by their friends.

It is time for Duke housing administrators - that's you, Larry Moneta, to take some action - if not for the destructive behavior - at least about the sexual harrassment of female students entering a common room to find slurs about their body parts on the floor.

After many years of being a Duke parent I have personally come to believe you are absolutely correct - admissions does admit students who are excessively destructive and/or have other personality disorders. Students who throw furniture out the windows should not be allowed to pay their way out of their problems. They should be expelled for violent activity.

I also believe that allocating prime housing space on west to selective living groups is not appropriate as they comprise such a small percentage of students and elite is a better term for them than selective. It's time that selective living groups be moved to central campus and their space be available to all students. Or they should become a club/organization that meets on a regular basis without housing just like the sororities have done for decades.

Any sexual slurs no matter the sex should not be tolerated. What do you think would have happened there was a racial or religious slur etched into the concrete walkway on the Main West Campus Quad?

Maria, I think you're right to raise the question you start with, but, I might reply: Perhaps the fact that they don't know is part of the problem. It does seem like it would be a hard quality to judge, but I think the fact of the matter is we're not filtering out many students who make Duke an undesirable living experience for many other students.

Further, I agree with your campus culture hypothesis in so far as it relates to peer-influenced action such as frats and friend groups often see, but if the entire problem is campus culture, why isn't the whole campus participating in such destructive action? Maybe a relevant question here would be to ask: *which* campus culture is the problem? To me this goes back to the point that it is certain individuals that are ultimately to blame rather than some more general notion of culture or learned behavior. Thus, the question remains, how are we to either 1) not let these individuals here in the first place or 2) manipulate their behavior into being more respectful of others (which is especially challenging when the root of the problem doesn't seem to lie in a campus-wide culture as shown above)?

Dukes reputation is that it attracts "cool" smart kids.These kids became "cool" in high school by being smart and somewhat wild. Put a few hundred together all competing for attention you get the result that you currently have. The student body is so accomplished that it is difficult to gain acclaim through achievement, but much easier via this type of behavior.

...institutions and I love it here, but I feel in the wake of the lacrosse scandal there has been a push to end inappropriate behavior. I just wish the administrators would adopt the mentality of "this is college, this is where students find out who they truly are and become adults. They will and must push their limits in this process, how can we minimize issues and maximize relationships?"

If students had a sense of ownership and pride about these spaces, there wouldn't be these issues.

I think students should be complaining less about the "quality of cleaning staff" and more about other students who make these messes in the first place. Blaming the cleaning staff is just out of line. They have to clean up students' vomit, feces, and other messes - why don't you hold the students who make those messes accountable first?

And to suggest that the RAs are encouraged to write up students to help performance evaluation is also incorrect. RAs are evaluated by their residents at the end of each semester, not by the number of incident reports they fill out. Go ahead and ask your RA or GR or RC - they will tell you that resident evaluations are the main source of feedback that they receive on their performance, not the number of times they write people up.

The mindset shift you describe is that of a spoiled child. If a student cannot understand that repeated bad behavior (e.g., messes in the common area, furniture being stolen, property defacement) warrants action (including punishment/removal of privileges) by staff, then they do not deserve this stuff in the first place. It is called accountability. Stop blaming the actions of fellow students on cleaning staff, RAs, and RCs, who work to protect students and create healthy and safe living environments. How about getting upset with the students who repeatedly abuse the "home" that you claim to love, and not with those who work to protect it.