The Duke Common Experience

Last week, the Editorial Board came forward with an appraisal of the summer reading program. The valid criticisms ranged from a lack of sufficient orientation week programming to the absence of FAC commitment. Ultimately, though, they centered on a widely seen low level of engagement with the reading material. The Editorial Board called for a complete overhaul—a brand new model for the summer reading program that would spark intellectual curiosity. Well you asked; we delivered. Over the past two years, I’ve had the pleasure of working on Duke Common, a new summer reading experience named for its role as the chief tradition Duke students share. Now I’m proud to announce Duke Common is officially being launched for the Class of 2019.

In Fall 2013, Eric Lam (Trinity ’16) brought forth the idea of choosing a documentary instead of a book for the summer reading program, highlighting the program’s current inability to fulfill its goals of sparking intellectual curiosity and meaningful engagement. While we ultimately decided to preserve the reading component, we worked through Duke Student Government with Jordan Hale, Director of New Student Programming, to revise and retool. Many of the programs we are planning for Duke Common are still in flux, but we are pleased to share our hopeful plans for this year.

First, while the reading element has remained, I would like to congratulate the summer reading committee on choosing a book that embodies an innovative multimedia approach to the program. Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home was chosen not just for its topical and thought-provoking content matter but also for its unique medium. It merges the graphic novel with the bildungsroman and, in so doing, provides the reader with a different vehicle through which to understand complex issues such as sexuality and gender.

We hope to expand programming in a variety of ways. For the first time, the Durham Performing Arts Center will be used as the venue for the authors visit to increase access to her talk. The event will be paired with music and other visual and performing arts based in part on the recent release of a Broadway musical adaptation of Fun Home. By further presenting the content in different forms, we hope it will allow for varied analysis of the material.

Another component of Duke Common will be a summer rollout of more content. Summer reading is the primary introduction to academic engagement at Duke. We hope to indulge the enthusiasm many incoming students feel by providing them with various outlets to connect with the material before arriving. The summer reading book will be accompanied by other thematically similar materials such as videos and music via the Duke website and social media such as Twitter. Students will be encouraged to tweet questions and thoughts about the book during the summer using the hashtag #DukeReads to responses by faculty, FACs and other students.

While we acknowledge the benefits of engaging more upperclassmen students in these discussions, this proves difficult given the low numbers of upperclassmen students available and interested during the first weeks. However, we plan to provide support for diverse student groups to hold forums about issues presented in Fun Home to facilitate student discussion. We are also committed to deepening conversations about the summer reading material by inviting professors and faculty to these chats, engaging Faculties-in-Residence to participate in the FAC discussions or hold house events and working with library staff towards an interactive library display.

There is a real chance to deliver a new, innovative program in a way that connects with current students and builds a foundation where the incoming class, faculty, staff and advisors can also engage. While this is not the end of the discussion, it is our first step on the journey. We look forward to seeing what the path brings.

Big acknowledgements to Eric Lam, Jordan Hale, the Office of New Student Programming, and the Summer Reading Committee.