David Tat is living in a basement this semester-and he couldn't be happier about it.
Last semester Tat, a junior, was living in the middle of a section he was not blocking with in Edens Quadrangle 3B. He requested and received a transfer to Few Quadrangle for the Spring semester.
"It was terrible, people were smoking and it was awful," Tat said. "That's actually why I moved out, and now that I'm in the basement it's great."
Tat now lives in a single room in the basement of the newly renovated Few. He has his own bathroom and a quiet hall in a dorm filled with mostly juniors and many students who recently returned from studying abroad.
Few currently has no fraternity sections or selective living groups. Residents who have lived with sections before said Few is quieter than some other quads. The unique environment in the dorm could serve as a model for future changes involving housing independents, officials said.
"A problem we have... is that people who are true housing independents... have been tacitly assumed to be hermits, as though not wanting to be in an SLG, not wanting to block in a large group, means they don't want to talk to anyone and that's just wrong," said Steve Nowicki, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education. "We have to think about how to empower Duke students to have the greatest flexibility and choice that meets the variety of interests that Duke students have."
Few is an interesting unintended prototype for what housing catered to independents could look like, Nowicki said.
Some Few residents, like Residence Assistant Julia Chou, a junior who lived in Craven Quadrangle last semester, said they have observed increased fellowship in the absence of SLGs and sections.
"I would say it's a better approximation of living on East rather than West just because almost everyone in Few are juniors, so a lot of us know each other so there's a greater sense of community," Chou said.
The pilot "East Meets West" block-free zone in Kilgo Quadrangle, which will begin this Fall, is another attempt to serve housing independents, but currently the University does not have room to make major housing changes, Nowicki said.
"Few is a unique environment.... So, we definitely want to get some input of student experience, but couch that with the fact that it's not what West offers," said Joe Gonzalez, associate dean of residence life. "We would never again, unless a quad closed, have a quad with this many juniors."
Junior Michelle Jablons, a former Keohane Quadrangle resident, said she would not describe Few as a community. Instead, she said the friendly atmosphere comes more from the prevalence of juniors rather than the absence of sections and SLGs.
Although SLGs and sections will return to the quad in the Fall, the renovations were intended to build community and interaction within the dorm. Eddie Hull, dean of residence life and executive director of housing services, said the common rooms were intentionally dispersed throughout the quad rather than concentrated on the first floor to reinforce the idea that they are shared spaces.
"There will be no dedicated commons after renovations and it's for those reasons [of fostering interaction]," Hull said. "A group may say everyone's welcome, but seeing a group's name or knowing that a room is in someone's turf can make people feel unwelcome, which brings up issues of territory or turf. We're trying to make students' quads somewhere they're going to feel comfortable, regardless of where they are in the building."
Chou said she sees many different residents using commons rooms now that they are spread evenly throughout the dorm.
Campus Council and RLHS plan to examine the residence experience in Few later this Spring, though neither has yet decided how. Campus Council will look at Few for ways to improve the residential experience and possibly as a model for how to implement those improvements in the future, said Campus Council Vice President Kevin Thompson, a senior.
Student experience in Few will definitely influence New Campus plans, but not much more than any other input, Nowicki noted. Students' input will be valued in any major housing changes-such as the "East Meets West" block next year, he said.
Indeed, Nowicki said dialogue on housing changes should involve the whole campus. Still, he added that there are no plans to drastically change housing, particularly while New Campus development is stalled by budget constraints. Nowicki said he is thinking about changes 10 to 15 years away.
"What I want to do is to think carefully about changes so that we don't do changes that have unintended negative consequences," Nowicki said. "There are some students who are not happy right now, and I want them to be happy. I want everyone to be happy so that everyone is euphoric."
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