The transformation of upperclass residential life kicked into a higher gear Friday with the announcement that several major housing changes will take place years earlier than anticipated.
The University will require all sophomores to live on West Campus beginning next fall and will almost certainly restrict renovations of Main West Campus dormitories to the summer, announced Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta at Friday's meeting of the Board of Trustees. Moneta also presented a plan of better integrating academic support services into all campus dormitories through the creation of new residence coordinators. The changes are part of a larger undergraduate residential plan, including the opening of the West-Edens Link, the movement of selective houses off Main West Quadrangle and the establishment of upperclass houses linked to freshman dormitories. Administrators hope the plan will diversify upperclass housing and replicate the East Campus living experience.
"We've got a wonderfully diverse, communal experience on East where people develop strong relationships with other students. In the current model, we have a very fragmented sophomore class, and the first two years are a very critical period in terms of development academically and socially," Moneta said Sunday.
The University had planned to renovate Main West dorms year-round for about four years, which would have required entire quads to move off Main West into swing space and prevented the University from moving all sophomores before 2006. But administrators now say they are almost certain that the work can be done during two summers beginning in 2003.
In the future, West Campus will house about 500 more sophomores than it has in recent years. The WEL will provide about 350 beds, forcing about 150 independent juniors and seniors who would have chosen West Campus to live on Central Campus, in Trent Drive Hall or off-campus.
Moneta said he will try to make Trent more attractive by offering all the rooms as singles at reduced housing rates. Wherever upperclassmen choose to live, however, Moneta, the Trustees and other senior-level administrators agreed that uniting sophomores on West should be the first priority.
Several student leaders have endorsed that sentiment.
"I think that the idea of having two years of solid class unity outweighs displacing less than a tenth of a class," said senior C.J. Walsh, Duke Student Government president. "The geographic division that exists now between West, Trent and Central.... With those disappearing, there will be a lot more community among sophomores."
Senior and three-year Central resident Bunia Parker said he enjoyed the opportunity to live off West sophomore year, but agrees with the need for more class unity and West diversity.
"It's one of those things where, if you're an upperclassmen, you would have hated not having the opportunity to live on Central your sophomore year. But in the long run, it's the best option for creating student unity," said Parker, who has worked on Central issues through DSG and Central Campus Council.
Over the next two weeks, Moneta will work out several significant details of the housing plan.
Selective houses will have to relocate to elsewhere on West because of the independent corridor and may rotate locations each year. All selective houses currently on West Campus will remain there, Moneta said, and will continue to make up about one-third of each quad.
The elimination of Trent as swing space will calm selective houses' concerns, said senior Michael Wick, Interfraternity Council president, adding that the shuffling of selective house locations will cause some initial headache and confusion.
Also yet to be finalized is next year's lottery process. Moneta said selective houses will retain about the same number of beds, and that spaces will be reserved for all sophomore independents. Moneta has not decided the order of choice for upperclass independents; independent sophomores could pick first, Moneta said, or the required number of beds could be reserved for them while seniors and juniors pick.
To bridge the gap between residential and academic life, the plan includes new residence coordinators, some of whom will be post-doctoral fellows and others aspiring student affairs deans. They will coordinate the work of residential advisors and other housing staff, while also administering academic support services--such as writing studios or seminar rooms--that will be integrated into dorm commons rooms.
"[The residence coordinators] really are a hybrid between the on-site staff members that have student responsibilities and the academic support services staff," Moneta said. "Nine-to-five is a convenient time period for some people, but sometimes students need tech support at two in the morning or want help organizing a house course."
Although the University is still working on the WEL and is still planning for Main West renovations--projects which together will cost about $75 million--administrators acknowledge that even more West dorms are in the works. Space demands are expected to increase because of the combination of wanting to eliminate Trent as housing, increasing enrollment at the Pratt School of Engineering and enforcing the three-year on-campus housing requirement, which Moneta said may begin with the Class of 2006.
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