Beware of the residential changes

The largest changes that will ever happen to residential life on this campus are taking place right now, and only a disturbingly small number of people are paying any attention. I'm not talking about sophomores to West or fraternity relocation, though both are important. These changes only scratch the surface of what, over the next year, will become the greatest transformation any of us have ever seen at Duke. Things could certainly stand to get better here, but God help us if they get worse. That so few undergraduates know the extent of the changes only suggests that the process has been truly alien to their interests. If we do not assert a role in shaping these developments in the next few months, the negative costs to undergraduate life will likely last decades.

What exactly am I talking about? Most people by this point have probably heard that houses will no longer exist, that quadrangles will assume most power over residential decisions and that the Office of Student Development will be molded into an entirely new entity. Big changes are always difficult, but I expect we will find ours particularly challenging if there is not a well thought out vision for where student life should be. If this plan ends up being implemented as the boardroom product of Trustees and dean functionaries out to impose their vision of a "good society" on main West Campus, it will fail students. In many ways, I think residential life has failed students for many years at this institution, and recognition of this has been a guiding motive for the radical restructuring. However, as much as I personally despise democracy, we really do need a student-centered vision, and this can only happen if students wake up.

Lets briefly consider what's on the line. Among the most un-scrutinized changes is the new concept of a residence coordinator, which will install a young University official as a live-in administrator in each quad. If done well, this could be a fine resource for quad communities. If, however, these positions become staffed with 20-something dean wannabes intent on making themselves a nuisance to students, holding masters degrees in "residential programming" from obscure midwestern community colleges, we could be in trouble. What this campus certainly does not need is a petty bureaucracy of administrators entwined in the most personal aspects of students' lives. If I wake up next year and find a Counseling and Psychological Services center between the shower and me, I think I will puke.

A lot of work has gone into this restructuring, and I don't think that our deans are particularly malicious; but I am open to the possibility that they may simply not understand undergraduate life, our needs and our strengths. Then again, that is something that Duke students may not entirely understand either. Ask any alumni and more than a few of the older leaders at Duke, and they will tell you that the Duke of today is a lot different than the Duke of 10 years ago. And, as far as I can tell, the Duke of 10 years ago was better.

We see one of the last vestiges of that Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium and in the spirit that leads students to camp out for weeks in the cold, dress like a Crazy and burn things afterwards. I don't mean that wild parties, good friends and great activities don't exist on the rest of campus, but they are certainly not integrated into any shared vision and experience amongst undergraduates like basketball is.

At one point, like most elite universities, Duke had a rich tapestry of traditions, history and institutions that worked together to create a fabulous college experience, but we see less of that each year. It is my own belief that a good deal has been ruined by unintelligent design imposed on residential life. If the next years are to be different, we do need radical changes, but they are not the kinds currently being discussed and implemented by our administration. Unless students speak up and take an interest in this process, we have little to hope for and everything to fear about the future of residential life on our campus.