One lesson of Flaubert's L'Education Sentimentale is that edifices built on illusions - be they romantic or political - are doomed to failure. For me, this is a lesson I have learned by attending this University. I have come to understand Duke as an institution that projects a false, illusory image of what it is about, an illusion that ultimately is destructive for the student experience here.
The basic problem is one that has been stated innumerable times before and will be stated again and again into the foreseeable future, because no one of much consequence at this University is doing anything to solve it: Duke lacks the intellectual wherewithal it professes it has. Many departments are devoid of any intellectual content; many classes in other departments are neither challenging nor interesting; and many professors are mediocre at research, teaching, or both. Of course, similar and, in many cases, worse problems exist at all of this country's top universities.
But the intellectual problems with Duke have less to do with the structure of the academic program here than with the illusions this school perpetuates about itself, the illusion of Duke University as a place where fun lives, where good weather abounds, and where students are well-rounded and normal. The illusion paints Duke as viable alternative, a place where a certain type of person chooses to go to school instead of going to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, or Stanford.
The truth, though, is that almost no one chooses to come to Duke over those schools, that almost everyone here applied to and was rejected from some or all of those other schools, that Duke is not an alternative but a fall-back. The result is that in an attempt to sooth their hurting egos, many Duke students try to instantiate the illusion of this University as a place where normal people choose to go to have fun rather than engage in intellectualism. Most Duke students wanted to go to an intellectual school, but once they realized they would attend Duke they shaped themselves after the illusory image of the prototypical Duke student. (Of course, some students here chose Duke because of its image, but these individuals are by far the minority.) Duke's pathetic social scene and intellectual hollowness are two unfortunate and inevitable consequences of the attempt by students to live up to the image of how Duke is supposed to be when they are in fact very different from this illusion.
The solution to this dearth of intellectualism is a difficult one. The University's current ill-advised attempts to eliminate Greek life, to force community and encourage diversity by requiring on-campus living, to provide more contrived social programming, and so on will most definitely not solve the problem. The solution is to stop promoting Duke as some sort of less intellectual alternative to the Ivy League, admit that as an academic institution it is not at the level of Harvard or the like, concede that most students would be foolish to matriculate here if they had the option of going to one of those better institutions, and try to improve this University academically in an attempt to put it on similar footing with the great universities of this country.
How to begin? Start by de-emphasizing departments and programs that are lacking in intellectual value either because they are vocationally oriented or because they are not real disciplines - examples of both abound at this University and, unfortunately, comprise many of the institution's priorities. Instead, refocus on the basics, force students to read and wrestle with the intellectual giants of the tradition, and start teaching students how to think rather than how to regurgitate information. Improve the quality of the Graduate School and the faculty of Arts and Sciences, which lag far behind many of the institutions we seek to emulate. And, above all, be honest, however hurtful that may be to your egos. Do not obfuscate the truth that this University is, in many areas, lacking: admit Duke's inadequacies and strive to improve.
Let me be clear: A student at Duke University currently can get an excellent education. The problem is that most do not. Neither the curriculum nor the University's strategic priorities is doing anything to change this, and by perpetrating the illusion of Duke as discussed above, the administration is only worsening the problem. Those students who buy into the illusion cannot get an excellent education; those who recognize the hypocrisy inherent in that image of Duke and fight against it may.
I feel that I have managed to obtain an excellent education, as a result of my researching and developing relationships with professors such as Ed Tower, participating in intense, thought-provoking seminars with professors such as Allen Kelley, and absorbing a small part of the broad knowledge and deep wisdom of professors such as Michael Morton. I owe these three men and several other professors across various disciplines a debt of gratitude for their contributions to both my intellectual and personal development over my three years at this University.
I have also been blessed to meet a handful of extraordinary, transcendent individuals among my peers. In diverse ways, these people have shown me what I should expect from others and myself and have transformed who I am and who I wish to be. I hope I may continue to experience the joy and wonder of knowing you in the future even as we move our separate ways.
In the face of the illusions that define this University, I have created something real, tangible, and immensely valuable. Leaving, I continue to be bitterly disappointed that Duke refuses to stop perpetuating its various self-created delusions and start working to improve itself intellectually, but I am satisfied with the "sentimental education" I have acquired as a result. As I move on to my law school, I wonder whether these sorts of institutional illusions will exist there. I hope not, because these types of illusions are ultimately unsustaining and self-destructive.
Kenneth Reinker is a Trinity senior and editorial page editor of The Chronicle. Matt, Kevin, JB, Steve, WIB, Ruth, MP, Whitney, G. and many others made The Chronicle and my life outside it a magnificent experience; John has made two years of rooming together a pleasure; Emily was always there for me during high school and freshman year and I have missed her radiance the past two years; Jessica remains my source of strength even after all these years; Jen constantly amazes and impresses me and challenges me to question and improve myself; my father, mother, and sister have always been supportive, and I hope they are proud of me for who I am, not what I have accomplished; and, finally, Erin, I hope you have some idea what you mean to me.
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