More undergraduates will study abroad this fall than ever before, but to housing officials' dismay, the number going abroad in the spring will remain relatively low. The unbalanced demand means Duke will see at least one more year of the housing crunch that became apparent last year, when the University first enforced its three-year on-campus housing requirement for all undergraduates.
More than three times as many students will study abroad in Fall 2004 as in Spring 2005. There are a record 464 confirmed students leaving in the fall, but only 120 students are expected to leave in the spring.
Last year, 410 students went abroad in the fall, compared to 119 in the spring. When the lack of residential space became apparent--179 empty beds in the fall and just 40 in the spring--the University decided to implement a lottery that would allow rising seniors to be released from their housing contracts early and move off campus. Seventy-nine female and 58 male juniors entered the lottery, which resulted in 46 women and 30 men being released from their three-year obligation.
Eddie Hull, director of Residence Life and Housing Services, said he is anticipating another release lottery for Spring 2005, but noted that there are no guarantees.
"We won't have a clear number of people who will need housing in the spring until late October [or] early November," he said.
Hull added that those numbers will not be available until RLHS receives word from students studying abroad in the fall on whether they are planning to return to Duke in the spring.
Junior Anson Reilly, who plans to study abroad in Spain this fall, has already factored the housing crunch into his plans, planning to move off campus when he returns in the spring. "It's not fair that the students who want to live off campus can't because they are tied to the housing contract, while the people who come back from abroad and want to be back on campus can't because there's not enough space for them," he said.
But Reilly's plan is far from fool-proof--even if there is a lottery, he and others in the same boat could still end up bound to their housing contracts.
"If there are people banking on being released, it could fall either way," said Donald Love, interim director of housing assignments and RLHS. "You have to remember it's a lottery, so there is no guarantee."
Both Hull and Love noted that the best possible solution would be to have an equal number of beds occupied in the fall and the spring, which would require equal numbers of students going abroad each semester.
"We calculate conservatively so as not to disappoint people," Love said. "We do the best we can within our resources and the rules set by the Board of Trustees."
The Office of Study Abroad is working to address the lopsidedness of the number of departures in the fall and the spring by focusing its energies on developing programs which will be offered exclusively in the second semester.
Duke in Tunisia was introduced for Spring 2000, but it did not generate enough applicants and had to be terminated. Spring 2004 saw the introduction of a program in South Africa's Cougar National Park. And Beaufort to Bermuda, only offered in the spring, is now considered a full Duke study abroad program.
"In the advising process, we also encourage students who want the more competitive programs to go in spring," said Margaret Riley, director and assistant dean for study abroad, noting Duke in Madrid is one of the most popular and competitive programs currently available to students. "We may advise someone who is not the best Spanish student and who might not compete for a spot as successfully in the fall to go in the spring [since] it's easier to get in then."
Riley said the mass study abroad exodus in the fall is the product of more than just program offerings.
"Students say that basketball isn't a factor in their decision, and they go abroad in the fall because all their friends are abroad then too," she said. "But then you ask, 'Why is that?' I believe it's because of basketball."
When students return to campus from abroad, RLHS must plan for gender imbalances in both housing and study abroad in its allocations.
Adjustments are based on the fact that more women study abroad than men, Love said. Furthermore, housing for fraternities already sets aside a large portion of available rooms for men.
Too many spaces were held for women last year, Love said, and the lottery system was introduced.
"When considering the housing situation, there is always the gender issue,'' he said. "There may be open spaces in a certain hall, but there needs to be a specific sex. Sometimes we will adjust for the genders, such as reserving more spaces for women as opposed to men."
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