The Interim Report on the Undergraduate Experience at Duke University, a response to months of discussion that followed the recommendations of the Report of the Campus Culture Initiative Steering Committee, will be made public by Provost Peter Lange Thursday.
The interim report-which will be used to prompt discussion with students, faculty, staff and alumni-focuses on how housing, dining and social spaces on campus contribute to the creation of a sense of community. From these conversations, a set of recommendations will be made to President Richard Brodhead this winter, Lange said.
Among the considerations of the report, the elimination of selective living-one of the more controversial recommendations from the original CCI report-is no longer an option, John Simon, vice provost for academic affairs, said.
"The elimination of selective living likely was not to be responsive to the largely expressed view of the students," Lange said.
The report notes that most students-both those affiliated with selective living organizations and those who are not-were strongly against abolishing selective living, a finding Simon said was unexpected.
"One should watch one's stereotypes," Simon said. "The student body is much more complex, with a large array of opinions."
Conversations this fall are to be framed with the possibility of creating more selective groups as well as "elective" organized living options similar to the present living-learning communities.
"If we go to this more pluralist system, there will be more co-ed selective living [and] we'll be able to make a more co-educational campus," Lange said.
The report, however, articulates a concern that increasing the number of selective living options might make students feel obligated to join a group. This was particularly important to the drafters of the report because approximately 60 percent of West Campus residents are unaffiliated.
"The whole idea is to make a campus that reflects the diversity of the preferences and needs and desires that our students have," Lange said. "We're going to create more ways students can define their living."
Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, emphasized the flexible quality of the CCI suggestions.
"I think the CCI recommendations were a first pass at a set of options for addressing the concerns raised," he said. "They were not necessarily the definitive options, but they were considerations that emerged at the time of conversation."
The report also focuses on optimizing spaces on campus to benefit dining and social activity.
"If dining was associated with venues that encourage conversation and community, then dining may bring added value to undergraduate experience," the report reads. "It may enhance local communities on campus to have dispersed facilities rather than have venues centralized in the vicinity of West Union and the Bryan Center."
The report supports facilities that incorporate dining and socializing, such as a bar on campus to advocate responsible drinking and enhance the on-campus social environment.
In addressing the need for social spaces on campus, the report recognizes the perceived exclusive adoption of common room spaces by selective living groups.
"Concerns were raised in our discussions that parties held in common rooms adversely impact both gender relations and engagement of diversity," the report read. "One option that merits consideration is eliminating the practice of allocating designated common rooms within the dorms to specific living groups."
The report also evaluates the concept of Central Campus and opening it to sophomores, juniors and seniors, a decision which could have important consequences in the near future, considering the recent appointment of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects to be master designer for the project, the report reads.
Lange and Steve Nowicki, dean of undergraduate education, will lead open forums with West Campus quadrangles, East Campus neighborhoods and students living on Central Central and off-campus to continue the discussion. The first forum will be hosted for residents of Craven Quadrangle Sept. 17 at 9 p.m., and the conversations will continue through Oct. 24.
"This report comes back not with concrete recommendations, but a framework for discussion this fall that will lead to concrete recommendations," Nowicki said. "The decision to focus on quads was to mix up grouping. We said, 'Let's talk to students again but not draw the boundaries.' We want to make sure there's buzz about the quads, but groups can also be part of the conversation."
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