First-Year Students Get an Introduction to Durham

For years, Duke first-year undergraduates heard very little about Durham during their required orientation session. They usually ate one off-campus dinner, at a place like Cosmic Cantina or Jimmy John's, and got directions to Ninth Street or Brightleaf Square. They were warned to be cautious and walk in pairs, both on campus and outside the East Campus wall.

This year is intentionally different.

The Class of 2009, which arrived Wednesday morning in minivans and SUVs, will visit the downtown American Tobacco Campus and attend a Durham Bulls game on their second day in town. In late September, the Dean of Students Office will invite students to a neighborhood block party on Ninth Street, featuring live music and food vendors. And a community activist is working to find nearby families to host first-years for a home-cooked meal.

"I think it's great," said Janet Riera, helping her daughter Katie move into Gilbert-Addoms Residence Hall Wednesday morning. "It's nice to see what's available outside campus. It'll give them a comfort level about what's out there."

Katie concurred. She and her mom arrived in Durham late Tuesday night, after driving from Boston. They hadn't had time to see much besides I-85 and their hotel room, and she was looking forward to cheering for the Bulls.

"It'll be fun," she said. "You can't go wrong with baseball."

Ryan Lombardi, the assistant dean of students who is in charge of orientation, has wanted to incorporate more Durham information into orientation since he arrived at Duke in 2001. At the time, first-years' only formal introduction to Durham came before orientation “ in a pre-orientation volunteering program called Project BUILD, which stands for Building Undergraduate Involvement in the Life of Durham. Each year, that program serves only about 80 to 100 students.

The challenge was how to introduce the rest of the 1,700-student class to the community. The five-day orientation agenda was already packed with academic programs, cultural events, dorm meetings, receptions, discussions of the summer reading book and lessons about Duke history.

Plus, before this year, the orientation office was a two-person operation. Now, Lombardi has added a program coordinator, a graduate assistant and a graduate intern, giving him the flexibility to make changes.

"One of the biggest misconceptions at every college where I've worked is that the students think they're in a bubble," Lombardi said. "It's really important they realize they're a resident of Durham for at least four years. It's not reasonable to expect that the campus can provide everything a Duke student will need."

Thursday night's plans called for the Mellow Mushroom, Symposium Cafe and Tyler's Taproom and Restaurant to serve dinner to students at American Tobacco, and for the student band The Pulsar Triyo to perform. Afterward, the students were to cross the street to the Bulls game, where it was "college night." Lombardi had reserved 10 buses to ferry students downtown from East Campus. (Thursday night's events occurred after Dialogue went to press.)

Besides the formal programs, most of the information first-years receive about Durham will come from their FACs “ first-year advisory counselors. Lombardi said the FACs, undergraduates who volunteer to mentor new students during the overwhelming first days, aren't taught a "party line" about what to say about Duke or Durham. Rather, he said, they are encouraged to talk about their own experiences.

Beth Harper and Sarah Shapiro, seniors who co-chair the FACs, didn't know much about Durham when they moved here three years ago. And orientation, they said, didn't help them learn much. After exploring on their own, they rave about Durham's music scene and the many volunteering opportunities. And, of course, the restaurants “ Elmo's, Pop's, Dale's and Mad Hatter are among their favorites.

Harper said she is particularly excited that first-years will visit American Tobacco “ a destination she wishes was open earlier in her college career.

"I think Durham has a lot more to offer than you immediately see as a first-year student," Harper said. "This will really get students into the Durham community, building relationships."

It also might calm some unease.

Ravi Kankotia's first visit to Durham was in February “ and he and his father kept getting lost. His father, Jeram, said he was a bit concerned to see "run-down buildings and old factories" near campus and wondered about safety. So, he's pleased his son will begin his Duke career with a sense of the surrounding neighborhoods.

"He's going to spend four years here," said the elder Kankotia, whose family is from Tampa. "I don't want him to be in a cocoon."

Josh Parker, who lives in the nearby Lakewood neighborhood, works for a real estate development company. He has long wondered why Durham leaders were not doing a better job at trying to retain the creative, smart graduates of Duke and North Carolina Central University.

Last year, he visited orientation and heard first-hand that students didn't learn enough about Durham to understand its history, cultural attractions and neighborhoods. He began meeting with Lombardi and threw out two ideas for building relationships between students and residents: enlisting residents to provide home-cooked meals and assist students as they move in.

Parker is still signing up volunteers for the dinners from nearby neighborhoods, such as Trinity Park, Old West Durham and Trinity Heights. The other idea was well-received, he said, but didn't pan out because the move-in schedule conflicted with working hours.

Lombardi isn't sure how many students that Parker's project will reach this year, but he said his staff will advertise the opportunity to students and help them connect to willing residents.

"It gives them a little more context to the time they spend at Duke," Parker said. "In the first year, if we can connect them to someone in the community, it will make their experience richer."