During my first couple of weeks back at Duke, I noticed almost daily front-page articles in The Chronicle bemoaning the fact that Duke had dropped another few places in this or that national ranking. During these same weeks, I got my first taste of life on West-specifically, parking in the Blue Zone.
I was forced to move my car out of the spot for which I'd paid, first for a football game, then so graduate students could camp out for basketball tickets. These two things seem unrelated, but they are symptoms of Duke's identity crisis; the University cannot decide whether to be a top-level academic, or top-level athletic university. Weekend after weekend, students, the people who came to Duke for its academics are forced to evacuate the spots they paid for to make room for athletic events.
Now, I'm not saying moving a car ever dropped anyone's GPA, and I wouldn't trade the experience of being a Cameron Crazie for anything, but this is just one small example of how Duke is trying for the best of both worlds... and then acting surprised when it drops from the top five colleges, or fails again to make it to the Final Four. So what's to be done? Well, there's no easy answer, as both academic excellence and athletic superiority are key parts of what makes up Duke. Something needs to change, however, or Duke will always fail to live up to its potential in these fields. It's a question that deserves some serious thought. And while we're thinking, it would help if we didn't have to get up to move our cars.
Sam Regenbogen
Trinity '09
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