Duke announced Feb. 28 that it purchased 15 properties (12 houses and three vacant lots) adjacent to East Campus from local landlord Guy Solie. Such a small real-estate acquisition is not generally a major event for Duke, the biggest landowner, property owner and employer in Durham.
The one sticking point: The houses purchased-at least, most of them-aren't just any houses.
They are our houses.
Students have rented them for years and they are major hubs of the increasingly abysmal Duke social scene. The decision to buy these properties and not renew students' leases means an end to many of the house parties thousands of students (including I myself) have thoroughly enjoyed.
The house parties often caused friction with surrounding community and strained Duke-Durham relations. Yet the fact remains that these were our houses.
The University's main motivation in doing this was "neighborhood stabilization."
John Burness, senior vice president for government relations and public affairs, used so apt a phrase to describe Duke's long effort to increase rates of homeownership in various neighborhoods throughout the area. "Homeownership is seen as indicator of stability and poverty," he said, and Duke wants to see more houses in Durham owned by their occupants.
That is the ultimate goal for the Solie properties, according to the press release on the acquisition; Duke will make minimal repairs and sell them to individuals and families who agree to live in them.
To students, however, increasing homeownership might seem just a little too altruistic of a motive to buy such politically charged properties.
But, there's nothing to expose here-Duke officials are up-front, readily admitting the turmoil surrounding parties is what ultimately pushed them to buy the houses.
"Some of the stuff that's gone on around East Campus presented considerable problems for the administration," said Vice President for Finance Hof Milam, one of the directors of the Duke subsidiary that bought the properties.
Burness added that escalating neighborhood tensions ultimately pushed the University to sign the deal. He was quoted in a press release as saying "[t]he university [sic] has also received complaints over the years about the noise caused by parties in the houses rented by multiple students. This should help decrease that problem."
Logical, predictable, deliberate, strategic-and from the student perspective, extraordinarily frustrating.
While Trinity Park residents have legitimate grievances, those of us who didn't vomit, urinate, trespass or otherwise behave obnoxiously moving to and from those houses have every reason to consider this action extreme, unnecessary and overbearing. Duke reached into its deep pockets to snatch our houses right from under us, but interestingly enough actually threw its corporate weight around in a way that didn't piss off the city of Durham.
As students, there's not really much more for us to do than complain about the latest loss of one of our few remaining social outlets. But if anything, it shows just who wields the real power both at Duke and in Durham.
For years, Trinity Park residents have been trying very hard to "stabilize" the neighborhood. They've lobbied to increase enforcement of noise and public alcohol consumption ordinances by the Duke University Police Department, the Durham Police Department and North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement officers. Burness also added that "a community group in Trinity Heights was looking at the prospect of pooling money to buy some of [Solie's properties]," which were put on sale years ago.
Similarly, the Office of Student Affairs has tried to do its share of "stabilizing," imploring students to behave themselves. Recently, they've stepped it up-the Office of Judicial Affairs officially sanctioned 188 students for conduct that occurred off-campus last semester. The parties have continued, however, despite Judicial Affairs' (somewhat naive) notion, as stated in a Feb. 22 letter, that "through proactive programming, as well as continued promotion of community expectations off campus," the situation could be improved.
But move over, Student Affairs, Enter Durham Realty, Inc; an independently incorporated, Duke-controlled entity run by five senior Duke officials-the vicepresident for finance, the Vice President for Capital Assets, the director of real estate administration, the deputy treasurer and the assistant university council-people unknown to most students.
In one fell swoop, on the advice of other senior administrators and with the nod of the Board of Trustees, Durham Realty did what an army of student affairs professionals, ALE agents, police officers and angry neighbors could not: They bought up the properties, allowing Duke to effectively evict the students and stop the parties. It acknowledged that there was no hope of "proactive[ly] programming" college students into not throwing house parties.
If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em out-for $3.7 million.
Elliott Wolf is a Trinity sophomore. His column runs every Tuesday.
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