Introducing Durham

This year's "Freshmen Orientation" will begin with a visit from neighbors, and that in itself is making news.

Residents of Trinity Park will deliver more than 20 large welcome baskets, filled with items from home-baked cookies to juice, to East Campus residence halls today (Tuesday) as first-year students move in. Each basket contains goodies for 50 students.

Organized by Trinity Park resident Alice Bumgarner along with Duke Student Affairs and other residents, the delivery of welcome baskets is just one way that new Duke students will be introduced to the community during orientation. There will also be a night at American Tobacco followed by a Durham Bulls game, a day of city tours and community service projects, and a second Bulls game that will bring together faculty, staff and students of both North Carolina Central University and Duke.

In the aftermath of the lacrosse case, this year's school year begins with greater media scrutiny of town-gown relations, and both sides are working to get this year off to a good start.

"Sometimes people just need an extra push to do something that needs to be done," Bumgarner said. "Everyone is busy, and it's difficult to take time in the middle of a work week to come out and do something for the students. [Without the lacrosse case] I'm not sure people would have had much motivation to get involved. Just this morning I had a Trinity Park resident drop by 16 dozen cookies for the students."

The purpose, Bumgarner said, is to ensure the students know that when they enrolled in Duke, they became part of a larger community.

"I just don't want to live in a town where people aren't connected," Bumgarner said. "I don't want the students to think that they have to be isolated on campus. I don't want them to think that there isn't anything interesting outside the university walls."

Many of orientation's community events are not new, Duke officials said. Community service projects have been part of the week before classes for two decades, and the night at a Durham Bulls game is a repeat of last year's popular event.

Not all previous efforts have been successful. Last year, a few local residents volunteered to help students move into residence halls, but the numbers weren't high enough to repeat the program. "It was very difficult for people to get time off from work to help the students move in," Bumgarner said.

Student Affairs officials acknowledge that, for many years, new students informally learned about Durham by talking with older students, and the message often was a negative one focused on crime. Ryan Lombardi, assistant dean of students, said it is important for new students to get a broader picture of the community.

"For us it's recognition of the value we place on the fact that students are coming to live here for four years, and that they're not just coming to the campus," Lombardi said. "Learning about the local community is as much a critical component as where to find classrooms and where to live and eat. It's an inherent value, and one I think universities in general have done a poor job of recognizing until recently."

New students will have several chances to see Durham:

• On Thursday, students will head to American Tobacco to enjoy dinner at one of several restaurants there. They will then cross the street to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park for a baseball game.
• On Saturday morning, new students will gather at Baldwin Auditorium to hear from President Richard H. Brodhead and Durham Mayor William Bell. Buses will then take them to community service projects throughout the city or on "Into the City" tours. These tours are organized by faculty members to showcase different aspects of the city, from its civil rights heritage to its history as the City of Medicine.
• Throughout the semester, some students will eat dinner at the homes of local residents. The project was the brainchild of Durham resident Josh Parker.
• "Duke Dining/Durham Dollars" will give each first-year student $50 to spend at certain restaurants on or near Ninth Street.
• About 80 first-year students participated earlier this month in Project BUILD (Building Undergraduate Involvement in the Life of Durham), a pre-orientation community service project that sent them to the local food bank, the Durham County library and other locations.
• Faculty, staff and students from Duke and N.C. Central University will come together for NCCU-Duke NITE at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park on Wednesday, Aug. 30.