Reaction to the house model lottery

Our fraternity lucked out—we’ll be in Kilgo. Even more so, we are both seniors; this housing model does not directly affect us. With this being said, we are still deeply disappointed at how this process unfolded. We hoped the administrators would lead this transition with the gravity and professionalism it deserved. However, 18 hours before the original “draft night,” we received an email that the event was to be postponed. Have you ever tried to change an event registered with Housing, Dining and Residential Life, even nine days in advance? It doesn’t fly.

At the beginning of the meeting, Joe Gonzalez, associate dean for residence life, explained the rationale behind the decisions made along this process. While we appreciate the time administrators put into this endeavor, it does not excuse the fact that Mr. Gonzalez was dismissive of questions and not thorough in any responses.

From the beginning, the house model’s main goal was equality. Why then will only 35 percent of beds on West belong to selective living groups, compared to 73 percent of those on Central? This is a far cry from equality.

Engendering community across all students was also an objective. Why then, are the West SLGs clustered together? Almost all of the houses are in Craven and Edens. Of the beds in Craven, 72 out of 438 are for individual houses. In Few, 372 of 428 beds are for independent houses. Sounds like isolation, no?

Two years ago, we were promised that after spending 30 hours preparing for the Residential Group Assessment Committee evaluations, our housing would finally be determined based on merits and logic. Recently, parents received a letter from Steve Nowicki, dean and vice provost for undergraduate education, explaining that most Duke students “depend on the luck of the draw each year [for housing]. We owe our students a more equitable system of deciding who lives where.” As we sat in the circus of a meeting, campus leaders picked envelopes out of golden bingo-cages. It finally made sense—in the new model, we all depend on the luck of the draw. Now that’s equality.

Respectfully submitted,

Jeremy Moskowitz, Trinity ’12

Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity