If I were an outside observer who knew nothing about Duke's housing situation, and I got my information on the subject by reading The Chronicle editorial pages, I would think that Duke fraternities were the most evil organizations on campus, existing solely to get wasted on weekends, commandeer all the best housing locations and make people feel bad about themselves. Jane Chong's Feb. 23 column "Housing? Justify it" was only the latest in a string of attacks by Chronicle columnists on selective living groups that began roughly at the same time as Room Picks '09.
This may come as a shock to the readers of The Chronicle and its columnists, but some students at Duke opt to join fraternities and selective living groups because they actually like and identify with the groups, and not solely out of selfish desire to be guaranteed housing on West. Duke students do not make all their decisions out of fear of banishment from the omnipotent social hierarchy.
There are a multitude of problems with Duke's housing system, and I would argue that they might be better fixed through proactive measures-by, for example, imploring administrators to recognize that renovating student housing on Central should perhaps be a higher priority than renovating the football stadium-rather than by treating fellow students as scapegoats.
Mandy Lowell
Trinity '12
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.