Duke Destinations offers free or discounted tickets to community events and even springs for transportation-an offer that nobody can refuse.
The catch? It's all an attempt to lure students out of the Duke bubble and into the greater expanse of Durham and beyond.
Duke Destinations, which is directed and funded by the Office of Student Activities and Facilities, was founded in Spring 2007 and got off the ground last year with two pilot events, a Carolina Hurricanes game and a Durham Bulls game.
The first Duke Destinations event of the year, a free trip to the Bull Durham Blues Festival at the Durham Athletic Park Sept. 7 and 8, was filled to capacity.
The program also sponsored a free movie night for students Sept. 19 at Northgate Mall in conjunction with Residence Life and Housing Services. Program director Kyle Fox estimated that 170 students rode the University-sponsored bus to the movie theater, but said the total number of students who attended was even greater since many students drove themselves.
Duke Destinations plans to sponsor a total of nine events by semester's end, according to the program's online calendar. Also scheduled for this semester are two Carolina Hurricanes games, kayaking and hiking adventure trips, a concert by jazz violinist Regina Carter and a trip to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C.
Fox acknowledged the temptation of students to stay on campus, but said the purpose of Duke Destinations is to help Blue Devils feel like residents of Durham and citizens of North Carolina rather than just cultural transplants to the University.
"[The goal is] to offer students a way to get off campus as cheaply and safely as possible," Fox said. "You might be too intimidated to just go out with a friend, but hopefully a group setting takes some of the intimidation away. We want to create a Durham experience."
Duke Destinations is relying on listservs, promotional T-shirts, the OSAF Web site and event-specific fliers to build name recognition with students and become "one of those standards for students life," he added.
Fox said OSAF has been very pleased with attendance, and noted that nearly all Duke Destinations events so far have sold out. The one exception was a pilot event last semester, a Durham Bulls game that took place during finals week.
"If you get tired of going to West Campus every night looking for a party, it's a good chance to get to know Durham and the community outside Duke," said freshman Max Kligerman.
Freshman Xinli Zhang said he would be interested in travelling to the mountains or beaches of North Carolina, but doesn't find anything in Durham to be enticing.
"Honestly, I can't really think of anything inside Durham I'd want to do," Zhang said.
Junior Leslie Pfeiffer said she thought the program would appeal to a wide range of students. She added, though, that because she has a car, the program does not offer much for her.
On the other hand, sophomore Anna Hammock said she jumped at the chance to attend the Duke Destinations-sponsored movie night at Northgate because she does not have a car.
"It was difficult to go because it was a Wednesday night and I had work to do, but it was fun," Hammock said.
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