The Graduate and Professional Student Council discussed Central Campus renovations and voiced opposition to the proposed merger of the International House and the Multicultural Center at its Tuesday night meeting.
Marijean Williams, Residence Life and Housing Services director of accommodations, administration and finance, said renovations to some apartments on Central Campus will begin this summer. The renovations aim to make some apartments more suitable for graduate students, and come after Duke delayed plans for New Campus indefinitely.
Central Campus apartments were to be demolished under plans for New Campus, but the recession led Duke to pursue less expensive ways of improving Central.
Duke hopes to increase the appeal of the apartments to graduate students, particularly those from abroad, Williams said. Currently there are 200 beds for graduate students, with 28 vacancies.
“As we increase our housing room amount on campus it will free up more appropriate space on Central Campus that we can then renovate to fit grad students’ needs,” Williams said.
The Central Campus renovations will be conducted in three phases, Williams said. One-third of the apartments will be renovated each summer so that students can live on the rest of Central Campus.
Graduate students new to Duke and the U.S. will be given higher priority in obtaining on-campus housing, Williams said.
First-year international graduate students will be allowed to apply first among graduate students for on-campus housing, followed by other first-year graduate students.
Students in the audience also expressed concern that off-campus housing can be inconvenient and unsafe, particularly because many international students do not own cars.
Associate Dean for Residential Life Joe Gonzalez and Williams said they are talking with owners of off-campus apartment complexes who are interested in attracting graduate students. To draw more graduate students, a few complexes, such as University Apartments, have started to remodel some units.
GPSC members also discussed the effects proposed plans to relocate the International House to Smith Warehouse would have on the graduate community. There will be two graduate student members on the 15-person task force that will consider plans for the International House and the Multicultural Center, which were scheduled to merge until administrators delayed the plans last month.
“International students are quite substantial in our population,” said GPSC President Yvonne Ford, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in nursing. “As graduate and professional students, my request was that we have a voice because we are big consumers of these services.”
GPSC members decided unanimously to write a letter to University officials to voice opposition to the merger.
Melissa Wiesner, a Master of Management Studies student in the Fuqua School of Business and Trinity ’09, gave a presentation on why the International House should remain on Campus Drive.
“Location is key—it’s historic and it’s cozy,” she said.
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