"Duke isn't a good place to be. It's just a good place to be from."
When I ask students what they think about this phrase, I almost always hear agreement. To be fair, there is quite a bit to complain about. The social scene is rigid. Greek life is hierarchical. Selective living groups are just as, if not more competitive, than Greek organizations. Friend groups formed during Freshmen Fall shatter come rush, barring deliberate and persistent effort by all parties. Shooters II has a virtual monopoly on undergraduate clubs, and if you don't like awkwardly waving at people you kind-of know while soaked in sweat, then it is safe to say this isn't your scene. Something about social life here is off.
Watching the inaugural show of Me Too Monologues, I was struck by one performance in particular that seemed to resonate with many in the audience. A performance involving an introvert who analyzed Duke's social culture was wedged between performances about gender-based violence, depression and racial identity. But it didn't seem out of place; if anything, it represented what it's like to be a student at Duke. He hated that people wanted him to "go out" and he confessed that he would rather stay in bed and rewatch the original Star Wars trilogy. He hated that the main campus-wide events the University supports involve alcohol and wondered where are the other students who aren't going to clubs.
He said, "If there's 6,000 undergraduates here, and 1,000 go to Shooters on a Saturday night, where are the other 5,000? How do we connect?" Judging from the reaction of the audience, most of the people in the room had wondered the same thing.
Heatwave, Old Duke, LDOC and other open university events glorify things the speaker viewed as "extrovert activity" while ones that embrace "introvert activity" are hard to come by. Where is the place on campus where people can go Friday night knowing that there will be slam poetry or karaoke or student songwriters? Where is the place that's running board game tournaments or the venue bringing in regular comedy shows? Many of the things I'd once associated with living the college experience, before I knew about mixers and crush parties and formals, are nowhere to be found.
The administration is trying its hand at "social engineering" through bringing places like the Devil's Krafthouse and the Events Pavilion to campus as a potential space for future "introvert" activities. The powers that be recognize the latent demand for engaging, recurring events on campus. Truthfully, students would probably enjoy these activities more than Shooters if only there were a place to do them. Even so, more can be done to build a better experience.
Aside from the need for a physical space, of course, there needs to be an institutional way to bring people there. Once the Pavilion switches from serving food to becoming geared towards events, it's hard to imagine that the students who keep their old, dusty acoustic guitar under their bed will spontaneously group together and figure out how to get a line-up going to fill it. The work to build these groups needs to start now.
Maybe it isn't the university's role to create a forum for these people to find each other, and I sympathize with that position, but hear me out. Given the way groups operate and what I know Duke to be, I don't trust these groups to naturally sort themselves out. If anything, they will naturally make themselves exclusionary.
Pretend for a moment you enjoy singing. You can try to explore your passion with Small Town Records if you'd like (some of my friends have been rejected from Small Town Records several times) or you can try out for A Cappella groups, which tend to have a selection process more competitive than most SLGs. After all there can't be just any singer representing the group on campus.
Some student-led Duke initiatives have tried to buck this exclusionary trend to figure out new ways for people to meet and spend time. Hardly a semester goes by without someone thinking of a new way to meet people, like Tea With Strangers, Duke Conversations or whoever next figures out a way to put these on an app. Judging from how few people I know that have used these, it seems like it's not enough or it's not quite what people are looking.
I was struck when I saw how many people identified with the Me Too Monologue that wondered aloud how the 5,000 undergraduates who aren't at Shooters on a given night can meet. Maybe they can meet at some regular event that won't turn people away if they aren't competitive enough but just want to do something they enjoy. Maybe when our social lives aren't divided, our passions aren't competitive, our hobbies aren't exclusionary and our event spaces not under construction, then Duke can provide the full college experience we see in the brochures.
Tyler Fredricks is a Trinity senior. His column runs on alternate Wednesdays.
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