Alisha Ruddy stands over one of the tables in the mailbox area on the middle level of the Bryan Center addressing envelopes and preparing to use the automatic teller machines.
Ruddy, a Trinity freshman, has just come from her dorm on East Campus, and is running her banking errands in the Bryan Center before she goes off to her next class. For Ruddy, the Bryan Center serves as a pit stop in her daily routine.
"It's a self-enclosed place to get all your business done," Ruddy said.
Officials are concerned that the Bryan University Center has evolved into an area which students typically breeze through -- perhaps stopping to grab lunch at the Rathskellar or Burger King, before rushing off to class -- instead of becoming the hub of intellectualism which its founders intended.
As the Bryan Center approaches its fourteenth birthday later this month, University administrators are reexamining the function of the building in the lives of Duke students.
"We're going to start from scratch, look at what it is doing and what it needs to be doing," said Peter Coyle, senior assistant dean of university life.
In response, a committee made up of students, faculty and administrators will evaluate how to optimally utilize the Bryan Center.
"We're concerned that it is simply a walk-through area," said Richard Cox, associate vice president and dean of university life. "We want to make the building more than just a place to study, eat and go to the post office."
Located just off main West Campus, the Bryan Center, which totals roughly 170,000 square feet, houses a wide array of retail and extracurricular facilities. However, although there are a large number of outlets for artistic and student activity, the stores are the dominant component of the Bryan Center.
As one enters the Bryan Center's main entrance at around lunchtime, students are hustling in and out. Many head towards the Lobby Shop and the textbook stores in search of a snack or a pen before class. Downstairs on the middle floor, an even greater crowd of people settles down briefly to grab a bite either outside Burger King or inside the Ratt. A more relaxed melange of students and faculty have situated themselves in the Cafe.
"The Bryan Center is like a shopping mall," said Joe Pietrantoni, associate vice president of auxiliary services. "People go there to assemble."
When the idea for a student union was developed, the primary intention was to create a center that would help foster an atmosphere which encourages social, cultural and recreational programming within the University community, including both faculty and students, according to a report issued under former President Terry Sanford in 1971.
When inaugurated on February 26, 1982, the Bryan Center, named after Joseph and Kathleen Bryan, was introduced as, "The University Center: An Environment for Liberal Learning."
In many ways, the Bryan Center has succeeded in fulfilling this goal, according to Jake Phelps, director of external affairs, who has been involved with the Bryan Center since its inception. For example, the University Union moved Freewater Films, which had been located in an auditorium in the Biological Sciences building, into an actual theater in the center. The center provided space for performing arts productions such as Duke on Broadway, Duke Drama and Hoof `n' Horn. It allotted space for both an arts and crafts center and the University's own student run television station, Cable 13. The Brown Gallery on the main level showcases art exhibitions.
"We've done a whole lot of what we wanted to do," Phelps said.
Today, such programming continues in the Bryan Center. In addition to the numerous student organizations which are located on the top level of the Bryan Center, the Duke Student Government office operates from the middle level. Despite these outlets, however, the retail services -- the textbook stores, Lobby Shop and both eateries -- and the business services -- the post office and the ATM machines -- appear to be the main attraction for most students.
"I check my mail, go to the bookstore and usually we go to lunch," said Trinity freshman Kristen Rowlingson while sitting in a row of deck chairs outside the post office waiting for friends.
Some administrators feel that the prominent locations that the retail facilities have in the center are major factors in their dominant role.
"People simply walk through and gravitate towards the bookstores," Cox said.
Trinity Junior Mike Haller, who sits in the Cafe where he can soak up a bit of sunlight as he studies immunology, would like to see more recreational activities. He compares the Bryan Center to the student union near his home at the University of Florida at Gainesville, which has a bowling alley.
Wes Newman, director of dining and special events, says a good balance between retail and extracurricular outlets has been struck in the Bryan Center. But he agrees that it needs more facilities for leisure activities, such as additional meeting rooms, pool tables or a bowling alley.
"[The Bryan Center is] missing a lot of informal student activities," Newman said.
Also, the Bryan Center initially was developed to improve relations between students and faculty, according to Phelps. In fact, when the building first opened, then-President Sanford offered a free deli lunch to faculty in the Von Canon halls located on the lower level of the Bryan Center, provided that they were accompanied by a student.
The plan did not succeed as hoped, and the situation has been endemic of the lack of interaction between students and faculty.
"I don't know what else we can do," Phelps said.
The recent additions to the Bryan Center of the Cafe and Burger King, along with the renovation of the Rathskellar into a sports bar have drawn rave reviews, according to Newman.
Despite Newman's apparent optimism, many students and faculty have complained that the blaring televisions in the Ratt stifle meaningful interaction.
In the next year, the University plans to move the box office presently located in Page Auditorium to the Bryan Center to further increase student activity in the building.
"We really want to see this building as a hub of extra and co-curricular learning," Coyle said.
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