​A reminder to first-years

As the last week of January approaches, first-years move closer to their final decisions about housing for sophomore year. Selective Living Groups have completed roughly one-third of their rush event calendars, and Panhellenic sororities and IFC fraternities are approaching bid days on Sunday and Monday respectively. As first-years comb their way through the eclectic thicket of organization personalities, many feel left behind and or anxious about their options.

We acknowledge that the community first-years are leaving behind on East is founded on a unique set of factors. Students live in a dorm that are largely a product of random assignment. The campus is further filled with newcomers to the University who find themselves acclimating together to a new environment and way of life. In turn, it proves to be less intimidating for first years to venture out to make friends than it does for upperclassmen who hardly venture outside of their halls and pre-formed networks. Moreover, Resident Assistants on East typically have a greater influence on their residents and complement the programming done by East Campus Council in offering dorm and campus-wide activities that strengthen the sense of community on East.

We then have to ask what first-years are offered by recruitment. The prospect of affiliation is theoretically as much about finding an organic community for your later years as it is about social validation and affirmation. Campus social and nightlife is perceivably dominated by living groups, and “You won’t have a social life” is hardly a compelling branding of independent housing. Further, some first years are inevitably dissatisfied with the East Campus experience, and recruitment is their chance to pick a better community or capitalize on the additional networking privileges Greek organizations offer. With the demand for these living groups, recruitment is a social experience of jockeying for position and making impressions on a scale unlike anything else at Duke.

But this high demand for limited spots always leaves a large chunk of the student population less than happy or, at least, highly anxious about the process. The weeks of recruitment that kick off spring semester destroy the communities carefully cultivated and formed in the fall. While many friends rush organizations together, those seeking independent housing outright are left behind and even rushing groups face awkward scenarios of varying acceptances. Many who are rejected along the way are disillusioned by the status denials especially when the atmosphere of rush freely paints the picture that a social life outside of the events thrown by living groups is nonexistent.

Bringing these concerns to the fore from our experiences as upperclassmen, a lack of communication underscores this sense of desperation and hides the mental fatigue of tired first-years. While many confide in their RAs or closest friends, many more do not and put on brave faces in the hallways. Living groups are beneficial to many, but to the many more who are turned down by their favorite group or are independent and waiting for the friends who will return to join them, we urge the open sharing of feelings.

We are certainly not in the business of prescribing what housing options are the best for every resident or to disparage the fun of recruitment—there are a variety of spaces where your most cherished Duke memories might come from. For some choosing to tent in their first year relieves the pressures of recruitment, and for others blocking with peers friends in the housing lottery may well be more organic than joining an SLG. These and other options are just a part of the pushback we offer that many first-years do not always provide for themselves or for each other while caught in the whirlwind of recruitment.