#
Musee des Beaux Arts
#
Freshman-life problems lie beyond mere 'apathy' label **
My first day here at Duke was the viewbook animated. All of the excitement of the students and the talks about the new East Campus programs seemed so promising. And so I entered Duke Chapel the next day for our Convocation address in high spirits.
I knew very little about the previous school year's politics: I had no understanding of why Duke students called the women before us Nan and not President Keohane.
But a few minutes into her address, the inherent respect I had for the University's president began to wane. Her speech was undoubtedly meant to be empowering--she spoke of the new All-Freshman East Campus and how our class would be instrumental in developing it, and she spoke of the breadth and depth of activities available at Duke. But her advice came off as more of a lecture for bad kids who aren't interested in learning than a genuinely encouraging speech. It was laden with subtle generalizations about the sort of people who attend this school. Summarizing her take on the rationale people have for choosing Duke, Keohane said, "Duke is a good school, but not too intellectual; if I'd wanted that, I'd have gone to an Ivy [League School]."
Surprised that she would choose to make such harsh comments given her primary audience, a class which had been on this campus for less than 24 hours, I felt more than a little uneasy. Though I was somewhat offended by her assumptions, a fear lingered in my mind--what if they were true?
During my first semester, the president's words stuck with me. I have weighed them against my personal experience and found her generalizations to be unjustified. And while I am certainly not in a position to claim that President Keohane's generalizations of the group at large were unfair, I do think it is within my bounds to make a separate observation.
Very few of us would have been accepted to this school had we not been highly successful and highly active in high school. But over and over again, I hear freshman making comments like, "I used to do so much at home." These statements are nearly always accompanied by comments like, "I just don't feel like I know what is going on here."
I suggest that the framework that first-year students are now provided with play a big part in the problems typically attributed to student apathy.
The fact of the matter is that many of the great prophesies made for the All-Freshman East Campus simply have not panned out. The community it was supposed to foster has not materialized while the isolation that is almost inherent in its location has not been overcome.
Take a look at the faculty-in-residence program. While this has not been the case with my dorm, I have spoken to a number of freshmen who have been frustrated by the lack of opportunities they have had to interact with their dorm's faculty member, some saying they feel unwelcomed by him or her.
Probably far more problematic is the faculty associates program. Aside from the one or two get-to-know-your-faculty-associates-over-cookies-and-soda nights, most freshmen have had little or no opportunity to meet their dorm's faculty. The problem here seems to be two-fold, existing at both the administrative and the individual level. First, only so much can be done at a simple meet-your-faculty-associates "party." Maybe more constructive avenues like organized discussions or presentations could be instituted to make that interaction more than the "Hi, so... Where are you from?" talks we never really got past. Second, the individual faculty associates could do more. Options are open to them--faculty can get six free tickets to arts performances to take students--but very few seem to be taking them.
Probably even more damaging than the less-than-successful faculty/student interaction programs is the isolation factor. It seems that very little of the publicity for actual academic opportunities makes it over to East. The Bryan Center and Perkins are plastered with flyers about activities, but very few, other than those for weekend frat parties, make their way onto the walls of the second campus. College students certainly should not have opportunities handed to them in nice, easy-to-open packages, but there is a difference between spoon-feeding new students and giving them a clue as to what the new world of college has to offer them.
Granted, this is the first year of the All-Freshman East Campus. As Keohane said in her speech, this is the year that will shape how it operates. Perhaps enough time has passed that we can now evaluate its successes and failures, rectifying its problems before next year's new students arrive.
Just as it was unfair for President Keohane to implant a seed of negativity in the minds of excited entering students on that second day, there is something not quite right about the way we were initiated onto this campus. Told we were to be offered great things, and then left with half-filled promises, it seems as though we are caught in something of a vicious cycle.
Perhaps indications of low participation in academic activities among freshmen will be looked at as justification for generalizations like President Keohane's, but hopefully administrators will recognize that other factors are at work in the problems typically brushed off as simple student apathy.
Jessica Moulton is a Trinity freshman.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.