Independents are overwhelmingly disagreeing with the planned switch to a housing model with surprising unity.
Opposed or not, it is coming. The housing model will be implemented next year at Duke. After a series of student group meetings, administrative collaboration and open forums, the house model is nearly ready.
The housing model would create de facto selective living groups within houses. Intended to create a sense of community and dorm identity, the model will give all students the option of living within a certain house from their sophomore year to their senior year.
Via meetings and emails, the administration has reiterated that it hopes the new model will remove the uncertainty upperclassmen tend to have about future dorm location.
They value the close-knit comfort of East Campus and believe upperclassmen need a homely haven on West and Central campuses as well, said Joe Gonzalez, associate dean for residence life.
But independent upperclassmen have conveyed dissatisfaction with the approaching switch.
Sophomore Michael Farruggia expressed his unhappiness with the planned housing model.
He called the decision “another step back toward Ivies—factory-style student life without consulting the whole student body.”
Farruggia attributed his frustration with the new housing model to an unresponsive administration with little respect for the views of the student body in, what he called, its “unilateral” decision making.
Farrugia’s feelings echo many of the same sentiments that have been espoused by those objecting to the administration's handling of the housing model issue. Marginalization by a hypocritical administration that has shown an aversion toward selective living groups (yet wants a campus full of them) and disrespect from an administration that ignores public opinion.
Unaffiliated sophomore Jordan Cole also expressed uncertainty. Cole, who lives in a block with more students than would be allowed under the new guidelines, has reservations with the change to a housing model. He questioned the relative benefit of the housing model (as opposed to the current model) for independents due to the limit they impose on the amount of friends a student can choose to live with.
Continuing the negative reaction to the housing model, sophomore George Fan questioned whether a change was even necessary. Fan stated that while a form of the model works on East Campus, that “unique experience should stay on East Campus.”
Independent Joshua Stives objected to the plan on a different ground.
"[There] would be too much moving," Stives said. "Selective living groups would have to move for the first time in years, and it would be unfair.”
He said that there had to be other options rather than a poorly communicated model.
For a portion of the unaffiliated student body, the housing model remains an enigma, and the administration hopes that the upcoming information sessions will allow students to adequately understand the looming changes. But will information sessions settle the indignant Independent body of Duke students?
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