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By Kelly Rohrs

First-year student Louisa Chen had no idea Madonna had ever set foot on Duke’s campus, but Saturday she learned that the pop princess had taken dance lessons at the Ark on East Campus. 

It was one of the dozens of facts and stories Chen heard on a walking tour of East Campus Saturday as she strove to learn more about the city she will call home for the next four years.

“I feel like even though I’m attending Duke, I don’t know very much about Durham,” said Chen, a South Dakota native. “That struck me as strange.”

Student Nicole Schneider and President Richard H. Brodhead volunteer at Durham's Central Park during the Into the City program. | Megan Morr

Chen was one of 450 Duke students, most of them first-year students, who spent Saturday exploring the world of Durham beyond Duke through an orientation program called “Into the City.”     Nearly 300 students volunteered in areas surrounding the campus affiliated with the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership. About 150 more embarked upon faculty-led themed tours to discover Durham’s inexpensive food options, its Civil Rights-era legacy (listen to an audio report here), its cultural life and other topics.

Before sending the students off campus, Duke President Richard H. Brodhead and Durham Mayor Bill Bell met with the large group, emphasizing Duke’s position as a part of Durham.

“I appreciate what you’re doing today,” Bell told the first-year students. “I know you’re here for education first, but I hope that community service fits in there somewhere.”

In years past, Into the City focused solely on volunteer efforts, recruiting students for one-time community service projects in Durham.  But when administrators incorporated the event, which is sponsored by the Community Service Center, into orientation, they added tours to present a more substantial introduction to Durham.

“We didn’t want this just to be community service where people feel that the only opportunity for them to become involved in Durham is to do service because it’s not ‘poor old Durham,’” said Clay Adams, student affairs program coordinator for orientation. “There are lots of ways to be engaged whether it’s through local restaurants, riding bikes through the city or a canoe trip on the Eno River.”

New students were eager to find out more about their new town Saturday as they found their tour and work groups.  About a dozen students gathered around a sign reading “East Campus,” chatting with each other and waiting for their guides to start their history lesson.

 Robert Healy, professor of environmental policy and public policy studies, and John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham neighborhood association, led their group on a winding walk around the perimeter of East Campus and the closest neighborhoods.  (See video of tour here.) The two explained Durham’s history as a tobacco and textile town, pointing out the converted Erwin Square factories on Ninth Street and a few remaining mill houses. 

One of their stops was the Ark, which in addition to serving as the dance studio where Madonna once danced was also the site of Duke’s first men’s basketball game.  The Blue Devils lost. 

As Schelp described the way historically black neighborhoods were situated in valleys and historically white neighborhoods on hill crests, he wove together the history of Duke and the town.  “East Campus fits into the fabric of a changing set of neighborhoods,” he said. “There’re all these connections.  Everywhere you turn there are connections between Duke and Durham.”

Freshman John Kunemond made a point to learn a little bit about the area and was pleasantly surprised by his new home.

“I heard some bad things about Durham before I came here, but [finding out about Durham] been really nice,” Kunemond said.

Kelly Rohrs '06 works in Duke's Office of Public Affairs.