Administration must set the tone

President Brodhead delivered a clear message to freshmen at the Convocation ceremony last Wednesday. His words, encouraging students to “build a life that you will be proud of,” were directly aimed at the sexual and alcoholic excesses that charged the campus last year. He reiterated the message in an email Sunday to the undergraduate student body, emphasizing the freedom that students have to guide their experiences at Duke.

That Brodhead decided to start the school year with these messages indicates a significant shift in the administration’s stance on the social culture at Duke. By addressing these issues in the public sphere, Brodhead has courageously let students know that he has expectations of them. The dismantling of Tailgate and the introduction of “Football Gameday” indicate an administrative policy shift­—trying to change Duke through a top-down approach.

Despite this progress, Brodhead’s words stop short of drawing blood. Last semester’s chain of emails and the President’s Forum on Campus Life did not do much more than gently scold the offenders.

Duke stands in stark contrast with some peer institutions who have taken firm action and concrete steps toward changing their campus cultures in the last month. Cornell University’s president, David Skorton, banned fraternity pledging at the beginning of this academic year. Princeton University prohibited freshmen from participating in rush for fraternities and sororities. These policies take firm aim at a specific target. Brodhead’s leadership style and approach to this issue are too subtle in contrast.

The administration must set the tone for what is appropriate and acceptable behavior on our campus. It should start by gathering data on students’ social interactions. Princeton based their new policy on the recently issued report of working group on campus, social and residential life, which was completed in one year. In contrast, Duke’s Socioeconomic Diversity Initiative has languished for more than two years without publishing a report. The administration needs information to know which areas it can impact and create actionable policies for. Our policies do not need to mirror those at other schools, but there needs to be some concrete action taken and that can only start with the proper data and knowledge about the social interactions that students have at Duke.

Most importantly, once the administration collects this data, it must bring the relevant groups on board to discuss potential policies. The group of students consulted for the transformation of Tailgate into Football Gameday was too small and homogeneous. Duke students and student centers—like the Women’s Center—deserve to be heard when the Duke social experience is at stake. Moreover, by not conferring with a representative pool of students, the administration would marginalize the groups on campus who have worked for years to remedy our social scene and who know the ills of our campus best.

The administration’s recent efforts to acknowledge the problems that plague social interaction here bode well. However, the administration needs to take a firm stance and do more than pay lip service. Words and subtle policies alone cannot change the status quo. This campus needs a transformation. Our leadership must set the tone for what is acceptable at Duke and what speaks to our values.