<p>Anyone ever live there? Do the rooms have carpet? Is there an AC unit? If so, do you have to pay extra for the cool air :-)</p>
<p>Is it a newer dormitory?</p>
<p>Any other infor on Blackwell is welcome. Thank you.</p>
<p>relatively new so there's carpet and AC. you have to pay more</p>
<p>generally smaller rooms</p>
<p>good location</p>
<p>overall it's a good dorm. It's not Bell Tower but its about 2nd best</p>
<p>It's no Randolph.</p>
<p>New as of... 1996?</p>
<p>Air conditioning is centralized, not via unit.</p>
<p>Blackwell was built in 1994. Here is a link to info about Blackwell:</p>
<p>Here is the map with its location - click on East Campus:</p>
<p>My D was in Randolph and they are supposed to be a mirror image of each other. Yes, the rooms have carpet; yes, Blackwell is air conditioned with central air.</p>
<p>My D noticed that most of the male residents of the air-conditioned dorms tended to be members of sports teams as did many of the female residents. If you look at the map the two wings are pretty separate - males in one wing and females in the other wing. Common male only/female only bathrooms are located in each area. There were three tiled showers in the bathroom on my D's floor. There are two bathrooms in each wing.</p>
<p>My D expected the room to be small and they are in comparison with the older dorms. When the room is entered there is an open closet area on each side of the door with a shelf above. There is a wall on each side separating the closet area from the rest of the room. Two beds, a desk with a shelving unit (I think two shelves), and a tall chest of drawers. The chest of drawers was tall enough that you could put a TV on top of it and watch it from your bed. </p>
<p>There was room for a narrow shelving unit inbetween the bed and the desk. The desk also had a deep drawer in which you could put a Pendaflex hanging system.</p>
<p>The room had extremely high ceilings (if you stood on a chair you could not touch them) and a large window with mini blinds. Under the window and between the beds was enough room for a fold-up chair and another narrow shelving unit. </p>
<p>The space inbetween the beds was large enough for a third person with a sleeping bag.</p>
<p>Plug ins are behind the furniture so be certain to bring extension cords that have the flat heads.</p>
<p>The East Union is where the Marketplace and the post office are. You'll visit it to eat and pick up your mail. See the green line above Bell Tower that leads to Broad Street. It's a path you can take to Broad Street where Whole Foods is located in the shopping center directly across from campus. The empty boxes north of Bell Tower are tennis courts and I seem to remember a sports field, also. </p>
<p>The gym is close and so is Lily Library. The bus stop is the last one so the bus will be crowded going to campus, but you'll get off at the first stop coming back. See the purple outlined box that says West Duke and a gray line to the right that seems to intersect with Main Street? This is the road that goes under Main Street where the buses travel between East and West campuses. </p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>The buses sometimes do not stop at the alternate bus stop at all when crowded, especially in the morning. So if you go during high traffic hours, the main stop is the best option. Also, buses do not stop on the way back at the alternate stop as that would require people getting off to cross the street and hold up traffic.</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification on the buses, SBR.</p>
<p>You are welcome WCM :)</p>
<p>Wow. WestCoastMom--GREAT description! </p>
<p>Thank you everyone--Keep the info coming :-)</p>
<p>S was in Randolph, also. The Ethernet connection was located far enough from where the desk seemed "destined" to go, that the cord he brought from home was not long enough. I suggest that, along with extension cords and surge protectors, dorm residents pack a long Ethernet cord.</p>
<p>if your ethernet cable isn't long enough you can get a really long one at the East Campus store for about $8</p>
<p>I was in Randolph and I think Westcoastmom covered all of the basics extremely well on the rooms, but for the dorm at large...</p>
<p>Blackwell can be split in two symmetrical halves, so on the first floor, there are two common rooms that are split by a tunnel through the buildling so it is impossible to go from one side of the building to the other (or one commons to the other) without going up a level or outside. Coming from the main quad (heading west), the common room on the left has a big screen TV, an E-print station, and a pool table along with numerous sofas. The pool table has no cues, balls, or chalk, so if you like billiards... get on House Council and get them. I'm not sure what the common room on the right has, but in Randolph it was a piano, books, and sofas so it should be similar. There are kitchens on each side attached to the commons with frig, oven, microwave, etc. If you want to make a nice home-cooked meal other than cookies, you'll have to bring your own pots and pans, silverware, and ingredients. Four study rooms total in the building. Laundry rooms (with vending machines) are next to the study rooms on each side and have five washers and four dryers each (washer = $1.25, dryer = $1.00; accepts quarters and Flex). </p>
<p>Overall I'd say that its a really awesome dorm overall, and you'll have an excellent freshman year dorm-wise.</p>
<p>Housing has finally posted photos on line with helpful hints. Not all listings have photos yet, but Blackwell does. It gives you an idea of what the chest of drawers and desk look like plus the big window. There's a photo of the closet, too. You can see the small mirror (only one per room) and the towel bar. The blue bin at the right hand side is for recycles - every room has one so you have to make space for it in your room. Note the chair runners are curved at both front and back. My D's roommate had a small step stool and I read on another thread that Bed Bath Beyond sells a folding step stool that many students find useful.</p>
<p>Here's the link:</p>
<p>On the topic of pots and pans - instead of bringing your own, make the case early and often to your RAs, GAs, and RC that Res Life should provide them... I've always thought there should be some RLHS support of folks who want to cook...</p>
<p>DukeEgr93 - as a parent I have found RLHS (Res Life) administration to be very unorganized. It took them over 2 months to reply to an e-mail that I sent in May!! And the office of Student Life took 5 weeks to respond to an e-mail sent in June. </p>
<p>However, In all fairness I do have to say my experience with New Student and Family Programs has been outstanding. Orientation is very well organized and this year information for Parent Weekend is already on line. </p>
<p>However, in 2006 Parent Weekend information was on line only three weeks before the event which from my viewpoint was unacceptable. I have also let them know they made a major mistake by suspending the dukeParents newsletter. The last one was issued in Spring 2006. The suspension was due to switching to an online format??!!! A year later and still no newsletter - how long does it take an organization to switch from print to online - it should not take 18 months!! Prior newsletters used to be available on line in PDF format. Now, they are no longer available. As a parent the only communication I've been getting from Duke regularly are appeals for money.</p>
<p>Since Res Life seems overwhelmed by the fact that, horror of horrors, they are opening the East Campus one day early this year I doubt that they can manage to deal with buying pots and pans!</p>
<p>Yea, Dr. G makes a good point (as usual). I think the budget the RAs+RC have is seperate from the budget that the house council has so there's definitely two avenues to approach this if you don't want to buy your own. </p>
<p>Oh, Randolph last year was very close to getting a blender/smoothie maker from house council... see if any of you this year can get it done cause making your own smoothies late at night during a study break is a good stress reliever and will be much healthier than the pops (that's right I'm from the Midwest) that they sell. Plus the smoothies that stores sell on campus are somewhat overpriced IMO.</p>