As the Cameron Crazies gear up for the regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference schedule, many of them are taking issue with the tenting policy in general and with the way student leaders handled last week's registration process in particular.
Engineering senior Rajeev Chopra and Trinity senior Kevin Kiefert, this year's head line monitors for Duke Student Government, devised this season's policy, which mandates that students camp out continuously for 38 percent of the spring semester. The tenting policy is not governed by DSG bylaws, but is left instead to the discretion of each year's head line monitors.
Although Chopra and Kiefert maintained that they welcomed input from all members of the University community while drafting the policy, animosity and confusion have nevertheless marred the first days of its implementation. Many students remain riled by what they claim are burdensome requirements as well as by DSG's failure to relay key information to them in a timely and efficient manner.
Instead of allowing students to tent separately for each home men's basketball game, this year's policy requires students to camp out ceaselessly for the remaining six match-ups. Students also had to tent simultaneously for the Dec. 6 game against Virginia and the Dec. 10 game against Villanova.
"It's annoying," said Trinity senior Rebecca Roberson, leader of Tent 61, who has camped out for every tenting game during the last four years except for last fall's Virginia and Villanova games. "I just think it's ridiculous that we're in a tent for six weeks."
Sue Wasiolek, assistant vice president of student affairs, agreed with Roberson.
"I guess I have some concerns about that on a variety of levels," she said, adding that longer tenting periods subject students to greater safety risks. "I'm not sure what the need is for the current policy.... I think the policy encourages students to do something that is unnecessary and that many of them probably don't want to do.... It's not necessarily in the best interests of the students."
The unofficial registration
The current tumult culminated the weekend of Jan. 10, two days before West Campus dormitories opened. Chopra and Kiefert did not impose a limit this year on how early students could begin camping out, but they did not anticipate the fact that some students might return to campus before dorms opened for the sole purpose of pitching a tent in Krzyzewskiville. Accordingly, Chopra and Kiefert did not return to campus until Jan. 12, and Jan. 13, respectively.
The first DSG officer to visit Krzyzewskiville turned out to be DSG President and Trinity senior Lino Marrero. When he returned to campus Jan. 10 at about 3 p.m., he said, a group of students approached him and asked him to begin registering tents because about 40 had already been put up.
Marrero said he then asked DSG Chief of Staff and Trinity senior Jason Barclay to call Chopra and Kiefert at their respective homes to see if they wanted Marrero to fill in temporarily for them. After Chopra and Kiefert assented, Marrero returned to Krzyzewskiville but did not begin official registration at that time. Instead, he announced there would be an "unofficial numbering or organizational" process that would take place the next day at 5 p.m. in DSG's Bryan Center office. Marrero said he also posted two signs in Krzyzewskiville conveying the same information.
Most students said they were grateful to Marrero for taking action as soon as he returned to campus, but some were disgruntled about the seemingly inconsistent application of the tenting policy. Many students were under the impression that, after 10 tents had been pitched, official registration was supposed to begin-meaning that all tents, from that point onward, had to be manned.
But Marrero said he did not interpret the policy in that manner. Because he did not view what he was doing as "official," he granted Tents 21-41-which were pitched but not manned Jan. 10-an additional 72 hours to contact him and claim their spot in line. He, therefore, started numbering new arrivals at 42-a move that left many of them incensed.
"There has been a lot of confusion because people set up tents and left," said engineering senior Mike Shen, who returned to campus Jan. 5 and is the leader of Tent 3.
"I don't know if it's legitimate or not [because] we didn't see those people" manning their tents, said Trinity sophomore Will Camp, leader of Tent 43. He added that although he preferred last year's system, this year's procedure "would not be that bad" as long as it remains consistent. "That's all that really matters at this point."
The extended deadline Marrero granted to Tents 21-41 ended when Chopra and Kiefert conducted "official registration" Tuesday, Jan. 13, at 5 p.m. By that time, all but three of the aforementioned 21 tents had claimed their spots.
Inexperience at the top
"I think the policy's good," Marrero said. The students "are dedicated for being there. This policy rewards the die-hard camper."
Trinity senior Robert Daniel, leader of Tent 24, who has camped out at least once during each of the past three years, went a step further than Marrero, saying he thinks this year's policy is better than the two previous years'.
"I think it's run very smoothly," Daniel said. "I want to be there when we beat North Carolina, and I'm willing to give up time to do it."
Indeed, not all students' 1997-98 Krzyzewskiville experiences have been disastrous.
Engineering senior Ryan Yoho, leader of Tent 44, said this year's policy "doesn't bother me too much," adding that the time he spends in Krzyzewskiville will take away from his sleep and his studies, but not his other extracurricular activities. "It's pretty insane," he said. "It's going to be a pain for six weeks.... You won't be able to go out every Friday and Saturday night."
Chopra and Kiefert, neither of whom held DSG posts prior to their appointments as this year's head line monitors, said they felt compelled to mold the tenting policy into its current form because of the popularity of this season's men's basketball team. Because some experts picked the team as their preseason number one and because of the expectations the team accumulated with the arrival of the ballyhooed freshmen recruits, Chopra and Kiefert said they witnessed a marked increase in the demand for tenting.
It remains unclear, however, whether the early rush to pitch tents this season resulted from fans' eagerness or from the removal of the restriction on early tenting.
Although some students reacted positively to the two restricted tent-check periods and to the increased number of persons allowed in each tent (see related story, page 1), Roberson said the current policy puts out-of-towners at an inherent disadvantage. "It lets people who decide to come back early get the [lowest] numbers," said Roberson, a California native.
Trinity senior Lisa Levine, leader of Tent 1, said two members of her tent-Trinity sophomore Abby Dennis, who lives in Greensboro, N.C., and Trinity senior Karen Jordan, who lives in Durham-set up their tent Jan. 3.
Marrero said Roberson's concern easily could have been circumvented, however. Because the policy permits up to 15 people per tent, Marrero said, almost any group of students could have recruited a fellow tenter who lives in or near North Carolina and who, therefore, could have made his way back to campus early in order to pitch a tent.
Roberson cited this year's varied grace periods as further complications to her home away from home away from home. Because drop/add is still in effect, most of Roberson's tenters' schedules are in flux, making it difficult for her to create an occupancy schedule. Also, both Roberson and Trinity sophomore Michael Coffman, leader of Tent 37, complained about DSG's failure to notify tenters about the end of the restricted tent-check period that took place before the Maryland game and that ends at 9 a.m. today, throwing previously made tent plans into disarray.
"They gave no rhyme or reason for the sudden change, no explanation, and only approximately 40 hours of advance warning to the tent leaders to reorganize schedules that they have spent large amounts of time on for the past week or two," Coffman said in an e-mail message Wednesday.
Trinity senior Jeri Powell, DSG vice president for facilities and athletics, acknowledged that confusion has surrounded this year's policy since its implementation. She noted, however that "there's kinks every year."
To solve the problem, Powell said her committee plans to develop a permanent policy that she hopes to introduce to the legislature by the end of the academic year in the hopes of having it voted into the DSG bylaws.
"It's kind-of silly, almost, that we don't have a set policy," Powell said.
Trinity junior Bianca Motley, DSG vice president for student affairs, who did not help devise this year's policy, said she thinks DSG should establish a criteria that future head line monitors would have to meet before they can take over the position.
"It can only be a positive to have line monitored before," Motley said. "I think if [Chopra and Kiefert] had line monitored before, some of the problems they have encountered would have been handled differently."
Motley, echoing several students' and Wasiolek's sentiments, also said she is worried that problems with this year's policy may take away from the enjoyment which has helped to make Krzyzewskiville an enduring tradition.
"It takes something out of the tenting when you do it for six weeks," she said. "It takes the unique quality of it away."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.