Just more than a year after the Interim Report on Undergraduate Education left the Office of the Provost, Duke's administrative leaders are taking their ideas off of paper and onto campus.
Research for the Interim Report- began in March 2007, when Provost Peter Lange met with students, faculty, staff and alumni to discuss the findings of the 2006 Campus Culture Initiative Steering Committee's report. When the Interim Report was published in September 2007, Lange compiled respondents' perceptions of cultural issues addressed in the CCI report, including the University's social life, the initiative's proposed recommendations, musings on possible improvements and the means by which to attain them.
Lange has since transferred responsibility to Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education Steve Nowicki, who said he relies on a "bottoms-up" approach to successfully remedy common housing, social life and academic woes.
"This is not going to be a top-down imposition," Nowicki said. "That was the mistake of the Campus Culture Initiative group. They had some student input, but not 6,000 [students]. The key thing is to have a conversation."
He added that student input is perhaps the best way to respond to and deal with specific issues on housing, social life and diversity.
"It was a mistake to create a task force that was essentially charged with discovering all that's wrong with Duke and presenting how to fix it," Nowicki said. "My own approach with Duke is to look at specific issues and to find leverage and to solve them one by one."
The Independent Housing Model
The most relevant tangible outcome still in the process of being evaluated is the "deep rethinking of our housing model," including how it will impact the planning for construction on New Campus and on the current campus, Nowicki noted.
He said he thinks the University will get half of the housing on New Campus built in four years. Executive Vice President Tallman Trask could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The Interim Report found that there was widespread student support for the status quo, which contradicted the CCI's recommendation to possibly eliminate selective living groups.
Nowicki noted that the University has "three streams of housing": independent, social selective and fraternity. He said, however, that he will first and foremost focus on the "plight" of independents.
"Right now, the current system of housing that we have essentially treats independents as though they were a combination of hermits and nomads," he said. "This is [in living] the primary thing we need to normalize and make right."
As part of these efforts, Nowicki and Campus Council are working with Ubuntu House, a pilot "themed housing" group based on civic engagement that is now seeking official approval from the University. If the proposal is accepted, it could set the standard for future themed housing, yet another component to the housing model.
Ubuntu House has received positive student feedback, said Campus Council President Molly Bierman, a senior.
"[Themed groups] are inherently different from social selective living groups," she said. "I would anticipate this wouldn't be as segregated as Wayne Manor or such would be. It's just unifying independents under a common theme or mission, who otherwise would have been scattered about the campus like nomads."
Other new housing options opening to current independents are independent sections and residence halls, like those Duke had in the 1980s, Nowicki said. He noted that "House P," a group of independents that created a block of real estate in the '80s, would serve as an example for this new model.
He said he hopes to reserve certain houses exclusively for independents.
But ideas for new living options may be delayed-Nowicki added that the University is constrained in housing options now because of the abundance of living options on Central Campus.
"Central Campus sucks in many ways," he said. "When we get New Campus built, we'll have these degrees of freedoms."
New Committees
In response to the Interim Report, Nowicki has taken steps to establish new committees to facilitate faculty-student interaction. The Academic Council Committee on Undergraduate Education, chaired by Susan Lozier, chair of the Earth and Ocean Sciences Division at the Nicholas School of the Environment, was formed to provide a University-wide faculty forum to address issues of concern about undergraduate education broadly.
In addition, the Arts and Sciences Council formed a committee to promote faculty-student interaction and monitor pre-major and upper-class advising, House Courses, the faculty-in-residence program and the Faculty Associates Program.
"Some departments have really strong majors unions.... They really provide great connections for students to find mentors by disciplines," Nowicki said. "It's very hit and miss here at Duke. We're trying to understand what makes [these unions] work and how to get this out to other majors."
The Academic Standards committee, also created following the report, is addressing the pass-fail and underloading policies.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.