Student leaders share 'senior thesis' with community

WARNING: You are about to experience something that never has been seen before in the pages of The Chronicle. This is not a joke. The president of Duke Student Government and the editor of The Chronicle have actually entered into a joint venture to write this column-proving that it is possible to operate outside widely known stereotypes. This is not for the faint of heart...

As you can tell from the dearth of material the two of us have written on this page throughout the year, neither of us has ever considered himself a columnist. Due to our tremendous insecurity on this issue, we need to write this piece together (call it group therapy, if you will).

When discussing what words of wisdom we could leave behind for all eternity, we realized that both of us missed out on the opportunity to write a senior thesis. Though lamenting the fact that we never spent grueling hours in Perkins researching the most obscure topics known to man in the name of "original" academic work, we decided that we would force everyone to be our thesis advisers anyway. So without the benefit of any of the more than 4 million volumes in the University's library system, here is our thesis-and look, we got published!

An Ontologically Generalized Inquiry into Social Normalization: Our Four Years at Duke

Table of Contents:

Iteration One-Making Connections

Iteration Two-Into the Ring

Iteration Three-Reshaping Reality

Now, as seniors, our memories of that night we met in Aycock have faded. Actually, who are we kidding? They were faded by the next morning. But that year in rooms 117 and 311 changed the course of our lives-and yours-forever. (We understand you may see some hubris here-but hey, it's our column and for the next 30 inches of text we're going to feel important, dammit.)

We're doing what we promised ourselves we would never do-write that sappy senior column that has every intention of serving as a catharsis, but fails miserably because all we do is talk about ourselves and our experiences, which, while entertaining to us, means little to you. Unless your life is boring, too.

If it helps, let's be interactive. Take a moment, close your eyes and picture in your mind how you met your best friends. And no peeking. Be sure not to smile too much or laugh out loud, because you never know who else might be on the bus. Feel warm and fuzzy? Let's move on.

Most of us will miss Dear Old Duke. But let's not focus on the typical sentiment. We're here to learn, after all. So what have we gleaned from our years at the University?

Iteration Two

Get involved. If you're tired of just talking about what's wrong with the world from the security of a dorm commons room every night, step into the ring.

Remember what all those "old" people told you before you got to college? Something about how more than half of what you learn in college happens outside of the classroom? Well, we have to give them some credit for that one. At Duke, the typical student spends anywhere from 12 to 20 hours a week in the classroom.

That leaves at least 148 hours per week, 1,776 hours per semester and 3,552 hours per academic year of free time. (Yes, we know how to use a calculator.) Assuming that we can all agree sleep has never been a priority in college, that leaves a heck of a lot of time left for other endeavors.

Imagine being in the world's most exciting amusement park and spending the entire day watching your friends have fun-believe us, it's a lot more fun when you're actually sitting in the roller coaster, even if you do have to risk getting queasy.

You would be surprised at the impact that you and the organization you belong to can have on major issues affecting the Duke community.

We are sure that most of you remember this year's Achievement Index debate. For The Chronicle, this was one of our largest coverage efforts of the year. The sheer number of news stories, letters to the editor and editorials printed in the newspaper ensured that no member of the community had an excuse not to be informed on this most crucial issue. Hopefully, more people were actively involved in the debate simply because they were presented-or perhaps bombarded, with information.

For DSG's part, the combined efforts of its officers and legislators led to active student involvement for the duration of the debate, including student representation at every meeting of the Arts and Sciences Council dealing with the subject. If those students were not there to voice their opinion loud and clear, the final decision on the AI might have been drastically different. Getting involved in student organizations can make a difference.

For those of you who have not figured it out yet, Duke is far from perfect-except, of course, for Annette's chicken sandwich in the CI. And while much has changed throughout the past four years to address some of Duke's most glaring weaknesses, it still needs work. Hey, if life were perfect to begin with, we wouldn't need to pay $100,000 for a Duke education.

Here's a tip: For any of you who have written letters to the editor in The Chronicle, and have been frustrated because it seems that no one will listen-think about what you are doing to solve the problem. Yes, communication and defining the problem are the first steps... but activism does not end there.

Iteration Three

In spite of illness, in spite of even the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things and happy in small ways. - Edith Wharton (1934)

For those of you who were around during our sophomore year, the great residential/alcohol policy debate probably still resounds in your ears. In terms of raising your interest, what better issues than the two things that permeate almost every students' campus experience? It was hard not to have an opinion on housing rotation or the banning of kegs.

My God, the idea of having an all-freshman East Campus? Was this the idea of a new administration gone mad? No, but there were many who thought this was the worst plan since the break-in at Watergate. To be honest, neither of us thought it was such a fantastic idea when first proposed. We came from a positive East Campus experience as freshmen that included interaction with upperclassmen, so why the change? Well, the new East has been very successful; I guess even we can be wrong once, er, sometimes...

Our sophomore year was the year for campus activism. It was one of the few times you may have actually had an opinion on something that DSG was working toward. Heck, you may have even read a couple issues of The Chronicle.

Many students on campus were involved and Duke became a drastically different-and better-place after 1994. And, surprise, we all survived the change. It seems there may even be a good number of freshmen over there on East Campus who rave about their first-year experience. Change can be good-hey, just ask the student managers of the Devil's Den-and we need a lot more of it.

Iteration Four

LSAT, MCAT, GMAT, LSDAS, CDC... sometimes it seems like surviving junior and senior years involves stringing together the right set of letters and numbers to form the magical formula that guarantees future success. Many spend their Sundays at KAPLAN in a quest for the collegiate Holy Grail, a competitive score that will get you into the graduate or professional school of your choice. But, as we have already demonstrated, Duke is not just about filling in the right bubbles.

Do well and you're destined for greatness; fail and you are still destined for greatness. After all, we have to believe a Duke degree is worth something. Isn't it? Somebody out there, please let us know.

During this last semester, looming career plans and deadlines have dominated most conversations. Who is going where, to do what, for how long, to make what kind of money? Those of us who are going on to graduate or professional school, and thus facing more debt than we had ever envisioned, kindly ask our friends in the investment banking field to remember us... a donation to a friend in need might be far more meaningful than any other senior gift.

Okay, come to think of it, you can't boil down four years into a four-section thesis.

We've come to the end of our wild ride through four years at the University. But we cannot see this as the end. As Duke graduates, we will all be given the key to the world and what we can accomplish is only limited by the depth of our ambition. Hey, you ain't seen nothing yet...

Brian Harris is a Trinity senior and editor of The Chronicle. He would like to remind Devin Gordon that The Chronicle will take all you can give her and ask for more-but it's worth it. I promise.

Takcus Nesbit is a Trinity senior and immediate-past president of DSG. He would like to say thanks to those who made his experience here a memorable one and invite everyone to Welcome, N.C. , for a glass of his mom's sweet tea.