Editorial: Reviewing housing

One of the biggest challenges facing Duke in the future, and one that is directly related to undergraduates, is residential life, which has undergone massive changes in the past year. Upon review, many recent changes have received mixed results, and need to be re-evaluated for the future.

First, moving all sophomores to West Campus has not achieved the increase in diversity intended by the administration. On paper, West is indeed much more diverse, and many sophomores have applauded the familiarity that comes with having their entire class on West, but most state that the new system has not encouraged them to interact with a more diverse group of people. Most students continue to interact mainly with their immediate group of friends or with their friends from freshman year. For all practical purposes, the divide between students of different races and affiliations has remained as strong as ever, and although no one can force greater interaction, creative programming has the potential to unite large, diverse groups of students.

Linked housing has similarly received an unenthusiastic review. The option to link with your freshman dorm to a specific West Campus quadrangle was designed to create a strong community atmosphere for students on West. However, most students can block in groups no larger than eight, and blocks are so spread out throughout large quads that many people feel that they have too little contact with friends.

Another cornerstone of the new residential life system has been the addition of a residence coordinator in each quad and East Campus dorm. These individuals have not done enough to make their presence known by interacting directly with their residents, and facilitating programming events for their quads. The RCs need to be more active in working with Campus Council and the Quad Councils to plan and fund meaningful quad events.

Further, the social scene is still dominated by fraternities and selective housing, and quads have not done enough to pick up the slack for independents. Although campus events are better than they were last year, the University discourages alcohol at quad events and most are still poorly publicized and poorly attended. Next year, Campus Council and the quad councils need to provide better events and do so more consistently. Also, the institution needs to limit the influence of fraternity and selective house members on the quad councils because they monopolize much of each quad's money and their presence can intimidate independents.

One idea currently being considered by the administration is the addition of "senior houses" to each quad. Under this system, one house in each West Campus quad would be set aside for seniors who could choose to block there with large groups of their friends. This would allow seniors who want to remain on campus during their final year to have guaranteed housing in prime spots on West. If the number of rooms reserved for seniors remained relatively small, it would not displace too many underclassmen. This would also be likely to increase the number on non-fraternity parties, by placing large groups of over-21 year-olds together in a residential setting.

As it stands, the residential system is a source of major concern. With the exception of East Campus, many aspects of residential life need more work. The changes over the past years have improved the system somewhat, but there remains much work to be done.