"Texas isn't just a state; it's a state of mind."
So ended an e-mail from senior Catherine Frels to the Duke Texan community, and so began the revival of a club dedicated to encouraging Duke's Lone Star natives to "meet each other, socialize and have fun!"
The e-mail, sent to all Duke Texans last November, asked students interested in participating in the newly revived Texans at Duke club to attend a dinner at the Armadillo Grill and to join an e-mail listserv.
But why do Texans need a club of their own? "I think Texans receive a lot of grief from non-Texans... [since] we are so full of pride for our state," said Frels, current president of TAD. "I think what Texans wish for everyone is that every state had that sense of pride for themselves."
Frels first heard about a club for Duke Texans as a prospective freshman, but by the time she came to the University in the fall of 1998, the group had dissolved. "There were rumors that they used to parade around campus with a Texas flag, celebrate Texas Independence Day with barbecue and celebrate being Texans," she said.
But during the spring of her sophomore year, Frels, along with then-senior Sara Harris, decided to revive the club. "We wanted to ease students' transition to college first and foremost," said Frels, paraphrasing the group's constitution, "to foster unity among Texans of all grades, to provide members with a network of personal and professional connections, and, mostly, to have fun."
It was not until this academic year, though, that TAD. became a reality. Two years ago, Harris, who worked part-time in the admissions office, went through the entire student directory, handwriting a list of undergraduate Texans by grade. It took her an entire semester. By that time, Harris was preparing to graduate.
After returning from a semester abroad, Frels continued work on the club. On a plane ride back to Houston for fall break, she found herself sitting next to senior Denise Pozzerle. The two had gone to middle school together, and Frels asked Pozzerle if she wanted to join TAD. Pozzerle quickly agreed to set up a listserv for the group, and a few weeks later, Texans Duke-wide were greeted with the introductory e-mail.
Since the initial dinner, the e-mail list has taken off, with 250 current subscribers, Pozzerle said. Right before winter break, T.A.D. members used the list to plan events for the holidays.
Junior Hwan-Joon Choi, for example, organized an outing to a Houston sports bar to watch the Duke-Kentucky basketball game over winter break. Choi, who has a Texas flag hanging out of his dorm window, said about a dozen members attended. He said he does not know where his Texas pride originated.
Frels and Pozzerle, along with fellow "revivers" Erin Banks and Greg Skidmore, both seniors, have continued trying to plan events for Texans on campus.
But not all Duke Texans share Frels' overt sense of state pride. "I'm not a proud Texan," said senior Texan Jonathan Walsh, who has no affiliation with TAD. "Maybe it has something to do with them thinking [of themselves] as their own nation."
Some non-Texans were surprised by the existence of TAD. "That's not the way I'd express my state pride," said Tiffany Cossey, a freshman from Alabama. Cossey, who said she had never considered starting an Alabamians at Duke Club, has relatives in Texas and said that in her few encounters with Texans at Duke, "they've been more outward about their state than the average person."
Sophomore Rakan Aldukheil, who said he is the only native Saudi Arabian student he knows of at Duke, understands why students from certain parts of the world might want to congregate together. Aldukheil said he has considered starting a club for Arab students to meet each other and recruit other Arab students to Duke. "It gets lonely here sometimes." But, he added, "A Texans at Duke club? That's a little weird."
For her part, Frels said she understands why some non-Texans might "misconstrue our zealousness as taking ourselves too seriously." But really, she said, "we're just here to have fun."
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