March 2021

Focus groups with the wider Duke community began March 1. If you are interested in participating in a focus group, please let us know!

January 2021

East-West Connection (Chair, Dean Deb LoBiondo)

• Designing several configurations for “quad models” that connect East Residence Halls to West campus quads and that deepen connections across class year, with faculty, and with alumni;
• Offering expansion of Living Learning Communities to include FOCUS programs who wish to continue their learning community on West.

Intellectual Engagement (Chair, Dr. Ian MacMullen)

• Developing a non-resident “Faculty Affiliates” program for future West Campus quads;
• Considering a quad leadership structure for West Campus quads that works to develop distinctive quad identity and integrates intellectual supports (Academic Guides and Faculty Affiliates) into the structure;
• “Duke and Durham 101” courses, taught by upperclassmen, to introduce first-year students to their two new homes and prepare them for active citizenship in both.

Inclusion and Belonging (Chair, Dr. Rebecca Vidra)

• Defining guiding principles for what I&B mean for Duke; 
• Engaging in generative process to design physical space, objects, and roles in the residential experience in ways that promote inclusion and belonging; 
• Initiating a comprehensive review of selective policies and culture governing student clubs and organizations; harmful exclusion doesn’t begin and end with the residential system.
  

December 2020

We held our first student town hall on December 9, which you can view here:

November 2020

In the 2019-2020 academic year, especially prior to the onset of the pandemic, our teams in the Office of Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs identified first steps towards implementation of the NGLLE Task Force recommendations. As leaders, we have worked to promote a spirit of holistic partnership across our teams and with student leaders and campus partners alike to lay the groundwork for durable and meaningful change in the foundations of living and learning at Duke.

As the Next Gen Living & Learning 2.0 Committee considers options for a joyful, intentional, and distinctly Duke residential structure, they will work within the following established parameters: 

⇢ We will retain and enhance the first-year experience on East Campus after the pandemic. 

Our all-first-year East Campus is a point of distinction for Duke, and we will return to this model as soon as possible. We will explore and outline additional collaborative engagement with the newly created Academic Guides, Faculty-In-Residence, and residential education programs that are more intentionally integrated with other campus resources. From their very first experiences, new students will have consistent opportunities to meaningfully connect with one another and fully engage with the broader learning community. 

⇢ We will organize our houses on West Campus into vibrant and diverse residential communities (“quads”), each of which will link to East Campus residence halls in ways that deepen connections across class year, with faculty, and with alumni.

Each quad will have a roughly equal number of residents and serve as a student’s home and foundational community throughout the student’s four years at Duke. Thanks to inclusive quad-based events and rich traditions, first-year students will feel welcomed into the West Campus quad with which their East Campus residence hall is linked. While first-years come to view their quad as their home on West, upperclass students–and ultimately alumni–will take pride in their quad community and affiliation. The quad system will also foster meaningful relationships with faculty and residential staff and include opportunities for student leadership in the residential space.

⇢ Starting with the Class of 2024, students will rush selective living communities in their second year.

COVID-related risks make it highly unlikely that the Class of 2024 can rush safely in January 2021. For this and future classes, any informal or pre-rush activities will be considered a serious or flagrant violation of the Duke regulations. 

⇢ Members of the Class of 2022 and 2023 may elect to live in Greek or non-Greek selective living communities in 2021-22, safety regulations permitting, but those organizations’ footprints and locations will align with anticipated demand and shift away from Abele Quad. A subcommittee of the 2.0 Committee—including student representatives from Greek and non-Greek SLGs—will recommend how the SLGs might integrate into the planned quad system. Existing rules for class-year representation will change to reflect that members-in-residence will be from the junior and senior classes, from the 2021-22 academic year onwards. Friend of House policies will also be reassessed, with new regulations available to members by January 15, 2021.

January 15 Update: Next Gen Living & Learning 2.0 Subcommittees, Student Affairs, and the university’s COVID-19 response team have been discussing plans for the 2021-2022 academic year. At this time, we are waiting to make decisions about next academic year, including our housing timelines and policies, until we see how the pandemic and vaccination programs progress in the coming weeks and months. We plan to update the university community on Friend of House policies and processes as soon as we are able.

⇢ We will provide opportunities for community and connection at a scale that fosters dynamic opportunities for faculty engagement and co-curricular learning.

Each student will have the opportunity to experience multiple levels of community. As first-year students build a sense of belonging on East, they can explore connections to their West Campus quad beginning as early as First-Year Orientation. We will build in genuinely meaningful programming and faculty and alumni engagement throughout each of these dimensions of community.

The Next Gen Living & Learning 2.0 Committee and its subcommittees will provide periodic updates to share with the wider Duke community, and you will be able to find them here, so be sure to come back to check them out!