It will come as no surprise to Chronicle readers that I don't have much faith in the Brodhead administration. But the March 5 news that administrators are unilaterally dumping plans for a new Central Campus-plans that had been nearly 10 years in the making-in favor of a cheaper, less viable addition off West is a new low.
That's because developer Pelli Clarke Pelli's plan to scatter new dorms behind the admissions office, on top of present-day Edens Quadrangle and alongside the president's office would be an unmitigated disaster for Duke. Although the old plans to rebuild Central Campus had flaws aplenty, at least they would have created a unified, well-defined third campus.
By contrast, Pelli Charles Pelli's vision for our new campus would exile large numbers of students to a residential never-neverland that is neither on West nor off it and that is cut off from other quads by two of the University's busiest streets, Campus and Chapel drives.
In other words, administrators' newly released proposal would recreate all the worst elements of Central-isolation, piecemeal construction and difficulty accessing the academic and social centers of the University-atop a latter-day "backyard quad," which would be as far removed from the heart of West as Ninth Street presently is from East.
And as bad as these plans are conceptually, they represent an even more disturbing example of the kind of top-down management style Duke administrators say they spurn.
As officials well know, the Duke community has been preparing for a new Central Campus for nearly 10 years; even a cursory search of The Chronicle's archives turns up scores of articles detailing the project's objectives, documenting the zoning wars and retail disputes that followed its 2000 announcement and offering student perspectives.
For a handful of senior administrators to unilaterally discard more than nine years of community-driven planning is among the most ill conceived decisions I've encountered at Duke. Indeed, this latest move seems almost custom-designed to foster student apathy, which remains high after years and years of delays.
All that is particularly unfortunate since administrators have never needed students' input more. As Dean of Undergraduate Education Steve Nowicki (who represents students' interests in this process) explained to me last Wednesday, the newly released Pelli Clarke Pelli proposal represents the "30,000-foot level" of planning.
Despite their demonstrated reluctance to involve the community in the debate over this dramatic new priority shift, then, Nowicki did make it clear that administrators want students' help creating a workable housing model for the next generation of Dukies.
And with Nowicki-who is easily the most capable and engaging Duke administrator I've ever met-leading that process, there may still be time to correct the original New West plan's many shortcomings.
Among the possibilities Nowicki said are being considered are rerouting Campus Drive to the south so that it doesn't bisect the new residential communities, building giant escalators to ferry pedestrians up the hill towards main West Campus and even a radical re-imagining of selective, interclass and independent living options.
Students concerned about environmental sustainability, preserving a pedestrian-friendly campus and the dearth of retail and dining options available to undergrads will find a sympathetic ear in Nowicki, and his vision for the new campus gives me real hope that it will not become a bedroom community for main West like the one on display in the architectural mock-ups.
Given the sense of optimism and possibility I took away from my conversation with Nowicki, I'm inclined to say shame on Duke administrators once more for compromising what could have been a highly engaging process. Although the proposal they released from Pelli Clarke Pelli earlier this month is disastrously flawed, future revisions need not be if students get involved.
Because I won't be here to participate in those discussions, all I can do now is encourage underclassmen to give administrators one more chance to do things right. Review the plans on display at the Central Campus Planning Web site (www.duke.edu/web/centralcampus) and guide what will be the most ambitious expansion since the construction of West Campus in the 1930s.
Duke administrators clearly need your help.
Kristin Butler is a Trinity senior. Her column runs every Tuesday.
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