This week in Chronicle history: housing models and seating charts

Evidently, Duke does not easily tire of housing issues.

On Halloween day 25 years ago, the Chronicle ran a front page article on a proposed new residential college system. In true Halloween spirit, the article bears an eerie resemblance to contemporary ones about the housing model.

First, some background from the depths of the 1986 archives: a residential model was proposed in the mid-1980s to foster a greater intellectual atmosphere. Dubbed Bassett-Brown College, the project was received with skepticism, paltry financial support and low student interest. As reported in an article from Oct. 24 of that same year, only 3.5 percent of student respondents in a school-wide survey said they were very interested in living in a residential college.

To add even more meta-ness, the article from Halloween 1986 talks about how a similar experimental residential model had been implemented in 1970. This program (named Students’ House for Academic and Residential Experimentation, or SHARE) provided Duke with its first co-ed residential hall. In other words, you are reading an article (about a little-known residential model from 25 years ago) based off of an article from 1986 (about a little-known residential model from the ‘70s).

Generic Script

On a different note, another article from Oct. 27, 1966, displayed a delightful seating chart for football games. As the caption explains, “the cheerleaders have drawn up this revised seating chart for the football game with Georgia Tech Saturday afternoon. The student section of the stadium will be divided up by living groups, with a sign marking each area.” And thank goodness for the signs; God forbid anyone sit outside of their fraternity section, or disrupt the cheerleaders’ carefully crafted social hierarchy!