Their days as Blue Devils will be long gone by the time New Campus is born, but current Duke students can still have a voice in the housing design their legacies will experience.
To gather student input on the residential design of New Campus, Campus Council opened an online survey of undergraduate residential preferences Sept. 2. The anonymous questionnaire evaluates the housing preferences of independent students, students in selective living groups and Greek-affiliated students and will remain available to undergraduates for at least another week, said Campus Council President Molly Bierman, a senior.
"I'm optimistic that [the responses] will have an input in the design of New Campus, although I don't know the extent to which," she said. "I don't think the survey would have been approved if some of the commentary wasn't going to be taken into consideration."
As of Monday, the survey had garnered 559 responses to questions about living preferences such as carpet versus hardwood floors, quiet or social common rooms and an increased, decreased or "status quo" presence of fraternities and SLGs in residence halls. The survey also asks students to reveal their "dream" amenities, attractions and living improvements.
Dean of Undergraduate Education Steve Nowicki said response to the survey will be a starting point for discussions with focus groups about planning. He said the campus's residential design, however, cannot cater completely to student desires.
"The design of New Campus is a very complicated thing and outlines will be determined by how much space there is [available]," Nowicki said. "When we get down to how to design a residence hall, there's going to be constraints by money and staff. I think it would be misleading to say that students will design this place."
The University will select architects to design New Campus's buildings this Fall and will use student ideas to discuss what Duke wants to accomplish on a higher plane, he said.
"Part of it is not just building buildings," Nowicki said. "Part of it is rethinking the whole housing model that we have at Duke."
The majority of the survey's respondents were unaffiliated students who said they would prefer decreased SLG presence in residence halls. Nowicki said the high proportion of independents on campus-70 percent-furthered his efforts to ensure that these students have a representative voice in housing design.
"I would never leave independents out of the question," he said. "The students who choose to be so-called independents are people we really need to pay close attention to because the very nature of being independent means you don't have an advocacy mechanism."
Bierman said student responses to the survey may not be financially or logistically plausible, and added that she hopes more members of selective living groups and fraternities fill out such surveys for more holistic results.
Although the survey is geared toward the housing design of New Campus, Nowicki said he wants to incorporate these ideas into residence life on West Campus in the near future.
"If I had a magic wand and could make Central Campus go away and make New Campus come by next Fall, we could have a discussion about what we want to do with no constraints," he said. "I want to make sure we improve the student experience now. What can we do starting Fall of 2010?"
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