Staff Prepared for Record Student Move-In

In the 13 years Lisa Beth “LB” Bergene has worked at Duke, she’s compiled an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the nooks, crannies and dimensions of dorm rooms across East Campus. 

That ability has become especially handy in recent months. 

While incoming Duke students may have spent their summer organizingl the clothes, accessories and furniture for their new dorm room homes, staff at Duke were busy with much of the same. Even though Housing, Dining and Residence Life employees are used to the annual task of preparing living spaces for first-year students, this summer has proven to be a unique task as the Class of 2019 comes to campus Aug. 18 with a student body bigger than usual.

This year’s class is expected to include about 30 to 40 more students than last year’s 1,721, which may not sound like much until Bergene starts to explain the small impacts it can have. 

“Some spaces we just have to make modifications on to make sure we can accommodate all the extra people,” said Bergene, Residence Life’s associate dean for East Campus. “That could mean making a closet door swing in instead of out to maximize space or taking a room that was once a bedroom, but converted to a study room when it wasn’t needed, back into a bedroom again.” 

That’s before Bergene works with colleagues to determine what sized furniture can go where and how many new beds or desks need to be brought on campus for the new students.

The process is aided by maps that track each room on East Campus, featuring notes and color codes that show how each space can be used.

“We can’t change the square footage of our rooms but we will change how our furniture fits,” Bergene said.

To determine where students go, 21 housing preferences were used through an online survey for incoming students. Questions ranged from medical needs to tobacco use or identifying students in special programs or on athletic teams. 

“During the summer, we may get 150 to 200 calls or emails from parents during a busy week,” said Marijean "MJ" Williams, director of housing assignments and planning. “We listen to every question and try to do the best we can to meet any concerns.” 

Her office added seven student summer staff this year to help with the volume of questions.

Most often, families want to know sizes of rooms and what they’ll need to bring for move-in day, but some will also ask about changing housing assignments.

“We’re giving this class the same amount of time and attention to detail we’d give any other group, so it just means we take more time on nights and weekends, if we have to,” Williams said. 

In the time leading up to move-in day next week, Willliams and Bergene are walking the hallways of residence halls and checking on last-minute details to make sure Duke is ready for the influx of new students. 

“There are 1,100 bedrooms on East Campus and I’ve walked all of them,” Bergene said. “It’s exciting to be a part of helping all these new people come to campus, where they’ll share their interesting stories and add something to their class.”