Column: The promise of Springfest

Durham North Carolina. Four years ago, if not for Kevin Costner (pre-career nosedive), I couldn't tell you a thing about the place. Duke was Christian Laettner in '92, and usually a solid two rounds in the NCAA Tourney. It was like Marquette and Gonzaga of today--the name gave you no clue as to where the place was. And I don't think I was alone. I promise you a majority of the United States thinks minor league baseball rather than biomedical engineering when asked about this town. Then the college search came, and who would have known but the school was also the "Harvard of the South." So I came down to visit, and I was sold. Great weather, a beautiful green campus and no reason to step foot outside our walls. I still remember one of the statistics at my information session. Something like 1.3 acre per student. The thought of my own acre was too much to pass up. Between that and the Hideaway, four years in North Carolina suddenly seemed like a good time.

Isn't that what we all came here for? An Ivy level education without the snow, a real campus and Coach K? If I wanted to do the city thing, New York, Boston and D.C. would have been the list. I expected the typical "COLLEGE" thing, and the thought was truly exciting. When I got here, however, Ninth Street was every weekend thing and suddenly George's is Studio 54. Section parties were on their last legs, but at least they were places we could all congregate without a $5 cover charge and watered down drinks. Rocking out across the way from Perkins, where I spent the week force-feeding myself Econ 51, was enough to make that 4 a.m. bus back to East acceptable.

Make that leap to the present. About the only thing consistent with my original perception of this school is Duke in the Sweet Sixteen. I work at Duke, but I eat and sleep in Durham. The only time I chill on campus is between classes. The grass isn't green, but I am sure that has much to do with the bonfires (side note to all you overanxious pyro Cameron "Crazies" out there--I'm almost positive Texas basketball fans weren't burning benches after a regular season victory over Oklahoma, and look who's still playing). Even the friggin' weather isn't cooperating with us. The Duke brochure shows people in sunglasses playing frisbee, not wearing earmuffs and making snowmen. (And by the way, what is freezing rain? I always thought that was snow. Or at least sleet). Our campus has become more of a day job than a community.

But last Friday showed promise. Springfest brought out the best in Duke that I don't think we have seen for while. Open beers, sun and The Adam Pilchman. You could sense the ghosts of Duke past in the air. For the first time in over a year, I was on campus for a reason other than meetings, classes and papers. Everyone was in a great mood, and the talk was of why didn't we do this more often. So why don't we?

Why not spend our Fridays on West? It shouldn't be once a semester, it should be once a week. Everyone who has ever visited this school has loved it. It's those who actually attend that have some issues. But the one thing we can't deny is how much better we have it than those friends of ours at Michigan, Cornell or Syracuse, where freezing temperatures are as much a part of their college experience as kegs. So what if fraternities are basically gone. It's not the inside of the dorms that people talk about when they discuss our campus. They took away tailgates, so we might as well make use of this option before they catch on.

Kids will be kids, as the say, so at least let us be kids in a safe environment. I promise you a few beers at 2 in the afternoon will lessen those nights of four shots of aristocrat during the five minutes waiting for a cab to an off-campus locality. If anything, it would add to the camaraderie on campus. None of the "my territory"/"your territory" squabbles, because with the amount of money we pay this school, we all own a piece of the campus.

I'm not saying I don't have a good time at this school, because I'll be the first to party on Buchanan. But why not make the best of what we have? If we all take a strictly business attitude towards Duke, then we are no longer a community, but more like a community college.

Tal Hirshberg is a Trinity junior. His column appears every third Wednesday.