Duke University - Chanticleer Yearbook (Durham, NC)

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the federation: W y? lust before freshman orientation I received an official-sounding letter from the president of my prospective dorm welcoming me to the house and extolling the illustrious history of the dorm, which included being named the outstanding Independent I-louse . When I arrived at Duke I was again welcomed by the president, resident fellow and the men of the house. During freshman orientation 1 was informed of the regu- lations on when and under what conditions female guests were al- lowed in the dorm. For the benefit of those who are unaware of the fact, men's dorms used to have open-opens. women were only allowed in the dorms for certain hours and the doors of the rooms where the female guests were had to be kept open. At the first house meeting an extensive and expensive social schedule was presented for the house's approval. The upperclassmen expressed their approval and the fresh- men followed their example. However, few of the freshmen met or got to know any girls, few got dates and went to the parties. The freshmen were not alone, though most of the upperclassmen were having the same experience. The isolation of the two campuses and formal setting around which one met girls was generally disapproved of. The dissatisfaction with the system as a whole led the house to vote to abolish its selec- tivity system. Later twenty-four hour open-opens were introduced, as they were in many other houses. These changes were minor, though, and did not attack the major problems, the physical and organizational isolation between the men and women that hindered the possibilities of them meeting and getting to know one another. The second semester of my sophomore year a new living-group organization was introduced at Duke, the federation. It was an experiment that was designed to attack the isolation between the two campuses. The federation was to be a living group composed of both men and women. However, no real group identity ever devel- oped and little significant change took place. Last year the Residential Life Committee felt that to create a true federation men must be moved to East campus and women to West. Geographical contiguity was a necessity for a federation-having to ride a bus to see the other members of your living-group was hardly condu- cive to identifying with a federation, to put it mildly. Although every- one was happy that women were coming to West, not so many were willing to move to East. Most of the house members were not very enthralled about vacating newly renovated dorms to move to the ones on East, including myself. Nevertheless, this fall found me staring out at Georgian in lieu of Gothic architecture. I found life on East campus to be considerably more pleasurable than on West. The campus was serene and had thick green grass. it was simply a prettier campus, and it provided an oppor- tunity to meet more girls. Not only that, but the first meeting of the Baldwin Federation was a great success. There were volunteers to work on all the committees, and activities such as a freshmen dance, a beach weekend, intramural sports and dorm courses were organized. Every- one was enthusiastic and it appeared that the federation was to be the panacea for all the social problems at Duke. As the semester progressed it became apparent that this was not the case. Although it' carried out its planned' activities, most people lost their original enthusiasm and participation lagged. The federation was not a real living-group. It had no real identity. Most of the decisions of what the federation was going to do were made without the knowledge of most of the members. There was little participation by the individual. But I would not say that the federation is a failure, it simply has not realized its potential. The federation has allowed people to meet and get to know each other, It has broken down the physical barriers be- tween East and West campuses, but as of this moment the individuals within the federation do not identify with it. The federation is not a panacea for the social problems at Duke. It requires work and partici- pation by the individuals within it to become a viable living-group. The federation concept is the most constructive idea in bettering the resi- dential life at Duke since I have been here, it has not been a total suc- cess'but that does not mean we should give up on it. l l l I 26 nr1i:.n-4-an 'i upr.w.-1,-.Juni v 1 ar ni. 1--up - n.i r. rii

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C-Eiarlticlccr : How do you fit in to the residential life of kids here? Mrs. Bushman. Well, I handle their room assignments. I've been on housing . . . about nine years, since the dean of men's office took over a function to do with housing. Before it was all done by a housing management and it was a business function. There was no relationship between the living groups and signing up for a room. There weren't any living groups except fraternities. But as we started to develop the cross sectional houses, and found that in order to build these houses, so that they'd be a good group, the room assignments needed to be done in conjunction with the student leaders of these groups, and therefore it was changed. The set-up was that the dean of men's office would handle the sign-up for the rooms and the housing management would merely handle the business end of the buildings, making the charges for the bursar to do the billing. Well, any student who has a housing problem comes to see me. We try to work out individual problems. To me, the more important part of our function is taking care of the individual and his problem and, with it, cooperating with the houses too. But I have to worry about the two hundred guys on the waiting list and they're important to me, I get really attached to my independent independents. Before I finally get them assigned, I get very well acquainted with them. Qbqticlcef : What will happen with the rooms of the Pegram people that stayed over spring break? Mrs. Bushman: They lost their place on the roster. fpausel Um actually of the twenty-four guys, there were only eleven of them that planned to be in the house. So, a good many of them had decided that they were going to live off campus before they did that. Qfatlticlecf z You're just following the policy that Dean Cox made, right? Mrs. Bushman: Yeah, right . . . umhm . . . C-Eatjticlccf : Is that what you used as your guide line? Mrs. Bushman: I would agree that when someone breaks their contract, you can't renew the contract, no matter what the reason is. If I were renting property, I sure wouldn't renew a contract with someone who busted it. Claughsj . . . Mrs. Whitford does the freshmen room assignments mostly. She sorts them out according to the state they come from and has little stacks all around the conference table, North Carolina and New York, New Iersey and so forth. And then as she builds a house, she tries to match the people according to what their interests are as roommates. But she also tries as she goes along to get people from different parts of the country into a house, especially in the freshman houses. You don't have to worry about it in your cross-sectionals because you just de- velop a cross-section in there pretty much on its own. But in the all-freshmen houses, if you just took it in order, you could conceivably get a house full of New York boys or North Carolina boys, and this is not nearly as interesting to the kids. It's good experience for them to meet all kinds and I think that's why a lot of people come to Duke, to get in a school that has a cross-section of people. I know that's the rea- son I came here. I wanted to get to a different part of the country and meet different people than I knew up in Yankee Vermont. We look at this office, at least I do, as the home away from home for the kids, and I hope they feel that way about it. That's the impression we try to make, and I hope we succeed. I think we do. I started work- ing for Dean Robert Cox, and for me there's nobody that's ever been finer than him. And his whole attitude was help the individual student that comes to Duke to be a better man when he leaves. 25

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:M fl 'Z E - ':Hr'0'Y : em Qlarlticlccrz When did you first hear about Baldwin Federation and what impressions did you form at that time? Anonymous Student: Last summer I was offered a choice - freshman house, independent dormitory, or cross-sectional federation. The last one would look good on my transcript so I marked the appropriate box. Qhqticlccft You live in a fraternity section. Has this been worthwhile? Anonymous Student: Yes. lt took me a while to figure out why they weren't throwing bottles at each other, but then I realized that by inhal- ing from one end of the hall to the other I could detect which group smoked the better dope. Qliqticlccfz Did this influence your fraternity preference? Anonymous Student: Somewhat. Qbzlticlecfz How do you evaluate fraternities within a federation context? Anonymous Student: There are two possibilities. The first is that fraterni- ties and their functions may detract from the related atmosphere which the federation is trying to develop. Fraternity parties are considered more prestigious and draw people away from the less elaborate federa- tion gigs. On the other hand, the federation has thrown several widely divergent groups into close proximity of each other, and this could be a - ' g -1-ill I y f X ' 4 ,.., . .,. .vs , , 1 3 ' l 1 , ---' - Wo- ' 1 X X 1 5 . R N l . J b YW good thing. Qfitlticlccfz How so? Anonymous Student: There have been some epiphanies - nurds drink, iocks think . Things like that. Qlarlticlccfz So the federation has provided a positive living-learning experience? Anonymous Student: That's what The Bulletin calls it, I suppose. Well, it's not like the girls sit in their windows and wink at you, but it's definitely better than West. Qhqticlccf: I'm convinced. Do you miss the late hours of the Cambridge Inn? Anonymous Student: Not really. We iust get hungry an hour earlier. While the Dope Shop is open. Qfaqticlcefr What about having your classes on West? Anonymous Student: They're easier to cut, but when I do go over I have to invent reasons to stay, so l've met a lot of people iust by wandering around between classes. Qbqticlccf: Do you miss the urinals? Anonymous Student: No, toilets are easier to puke in. Qlaqticlcefz It sounds idyllic. 27