From East to West

A student parade marks first-years' transition to West Campus for their sophomore year

First-year students took a ceremonial walk into the next chapter of their Duke lives Friday in a procession from the Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center to Abele Quad on West Campus.

Students walk up Chapel drive laughing and smiling. Students carry a long dark blue banner with the shield for Few Quad.
First-year students who will enter Few Quad during their sophomore year walk up Chapel Drive during the Bricks to Stone parade. The East Campus houses of Gilbert-Addoms and Southgate are linked to Few Quad.


As Duke’s new QuadEx living-learning model continues to take root, teams of students, supported by staff, have been working to distinguish the seven quad communities aimed at better integrating the academic and social lives of Duke students. The result is the Quad Arches, a series of visual icons designed to incorporate very particular characteristics of each West Campus quad.

  • First-year students who will enter Keohane Quad during their sophomore year walk up Chapel Drive during the Bricks to Stone parade on Friday afternoon. The East Campus Houses of Randolph and Blackwell are linked to Keohane Quad.
  • First-year students who will enter Kilgo Quad during their sophomore year walk up Chapel Drive during the Bricks to Stone parade on Friday afternoon. The East Campus Houses of Alspaugh and Brown are linked to Kilgo Quad.

The symbolic transition – with the literal move from the bricks of East Campus to the stone of West Campus – illuminates Duke’s new QuadEx program and President Vincent Price’s strategic goal of a vibrant and inclusive renewed campus community.

Students gather around and enter under the Kilgo Quad stone arch. In the center a student with bright red hair smiles, riding piggyback on a peer.
First-year students enter Kilgo Quad for a cookout at a Bricks to Stone quad party. 
  • First-year Courtney Yribarren hugs classmate Gaby Dunn before the Bricks to Stone parade.
  • First-year students share a laugh before the Bricks to Stone parade.

The event featured a block party at the Karsh Alumni Center, a parade up Chapel Drive, a class pinning ceremony, and quad after-parties with plenty of food, games and free t-shirts with the new Quad Arches designs.

  • John Blackshear, dean of students, gives a shout out to Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, where he previously served as dean of academic affairs, alongside Mary Pat McMahon, vice president of student affairs, and Tyné Kidd, East Campus council president, during the Bricks to Stone ceremony in Page Auditorium.