Column: Banished to Trent

Trent is Vietnam. Sure, it is so far from West that it is almost in Southeast Asia, but that is not what I mean. It is a problem the University has been dealing with for many years and one that caused the spending of millions of dollars. Just as the West-Edens Link is scheduled to come online in the fall of 2002, we learn that the death of Trent is still years away. But is it only the death of Trent or the death of the current way of Duke residential life?

As each 1940s-era quad is renovated to reflect post-war domiciles, students will relocate to accommodate the improvements. To any semi-conscious, intelligent, non-coked out Duke student (I know there aren't many, but use your imagination), the solution to this relocation problem is simple and self-evident: relocate selective house students to the WEL and keep sophomores in Trent. For some reason, however, this solution has not surfaced. Why? Because the administration does not want selective houses, which they see as exclusionary, obsolete and not a part of the New Duke they are trying to build.

Currently, there are three plans to accommodate the renovations. One has entire quads rotating in and out of Trent every year. Another has all selective houses in Trent for a year, all fraternities there for a year and all independents there for a year. The third option is to move a portion of each of those group's members to the Hanoi Hilton, thereby retaining a group's presence on West.

All three are poor at best. Any movement of a living group to Trent would cause massive changes in the group's membership. Seniors in the group will most likely choose to exercise their right to leave the group and seek alternate housing plans. Freshmen will not want to rush a house they know will be living in Trent the next year. Aside from those issues, Trent is not set up for living groups to share. A living group should be a self-contained unit, not simply large blocks of a hallway in a large dorm. The sense of community, identity and autonomy formed by selective groups would be destroyed.

Moving only a portion of students from selective groups is even worse. The exiled portion of the group would become alienated from the West-bound portion. Again, the sense of community is eliminated.

It is no accident that all these options will hurt selective groups. The administration has made clear through its actions that their future plans for Duke do not include selective groups. In the past 12 months, two selective groups have lost their spaces on campus. Those spaces have been filled by independents, not new selective living groups. There are plenty of existing groups that would desire a place on West campus, yet the space remains independent.

The administration has, in the past, voiced concern that selective groups are "exclusive" and that they can "intimidate" some people. This idea is ridiculous. The whole point of a selective group is that it is exclusive. The point is for people who live similar lifestyles to live together. It does not make sense to have random people living together who have different perspectives on life that would make it nearly impossible to agree on one common living mode. In the present way, students have free choice by which to make their living decisions. I always found it funny that someone can think a sign outside a dorm is "intimidating." These are dorms, not small militias.

Sure, the Big Three schools which we perpetually try to emulate in vain (you know, the schools that rejected all of you) are not dominated by greek life like we are. But we are Duke. We are young, we are different. We have to create our own residential life paradigm, not simply emulate schools we could never and will never be. I hate our greek-dominated culture, but I know it exists because there is a demand for it to exist. I cannot argue with that.