<p>okay heres the thing. I'm a desi (south indian for those of you not familiar with the term). the thing is, i'm not exactly a typical desi, and would probably hate to hang around a little group of pakistanis/indians/bengalis. Don't get me wrong, i'll probably have friends who are pakistani/indian/bengali, but i really dont expect to fit in well with them. That said, princeton review reported that duke has terrible race/class interactions. Now this is making me worried. Does that mean minorities/poorer students are discriminated against by the general student body? because that would be terrible. And by discriminated, i dont mean ganging up and beating up a poor asian kid, i mean like parties/clubs/newspaper staffs being predominantly white, and ignoring minoirty/poorer student input. I sort of felt uncomfortable writing this because i know how awkward a question like this probably is, but i could be spending hte next four years at this school, and i have to make sure i appease all my misgivings before i decide to enroll</p>
<p>I have been to Duke several times and I dont think that there is any sort of race problem at all. In fact, I think Duke is getting to be a very culturaly and ethnicly diverse campus. There is no sort of discrimination going on in my eyes. I wouldnt worry.</p>
<p>I talked about this a little in some other threads, but basically the student population here at Duke is not as homogeneous as people believe. There are people who self segregate according to personal preference, but this is going to happen at any university. I don't know why that reputation is pinned on us, as I believe this is the exception rather than the rule here. Bottom line is you won't have trouble finding friends here outside of your race/religion/creed/class/however people try to break up the population. It's not something that people here that I know seem to be preoccupied with. That was in Princeton Review when I was looking at Duke too, and after 2 1/2 years here I seriously doubt whatever methodology they used.</p>
<p>I believe in the class of 2010 only about 55% of students are Caucasian. There are lots of minority students here, and I haven't noticed any sort of discrimination against them.</p>
<p>This isn't to say that there aren't cultural groups -- e.g., Duke Diya, BSA, ASA -- but those don't have to define your friendships at all. In fact, some of the most popular events on campus, like Awaaz, are put on by these groups. :)</p>
<p>Hey, ammarsfound, I'm south-indian too, and I also don't feel like I "fit in" with a certain group (The Indian community where I live tends to be a bit closed, and it's just better for me to avoid the whole deal). But I'd like to be friends with all different kinds of people--when I visited Duke for Blue Devil Days, it seemed like that's possible. My host interacts with a very diverse group of people from her classes, a capella group, and dorm. It seems easy to be friends with lots of different kinds of people. Anyways, I'm undecided, but let me know if you decide to go to Duke!</p>
<p>Duke is very diverse. About 1/3 of the people who perform at the annual Duke South Asian cultural show isn't even South Asian!</p>
<p>that was reassuring, till i came across this little gem </p>
<p>doesnt exactly exude tolerance of faith in my opinon.</p>
<p>you just linked a comment page that anyone in the world can access and comment.</p>
<p>......so? Why does that make the site itself uncredible? I'm sure that the people who have posted (and from the depth and breadth of their posts) still have something valuable to say, or else they wouldnt spam a site titled as such.</p>
<p>I've noticed that The Chronicle's online message boards are full of a ton of uneducated, generalized, and illogical comments. That was a really stupid comment. Although I obviously can't say with certainty that that wasn't a Duke student, I've never come across a student with such silly rationale on campus. I think students prefer the print version of The Chronicle anyway and don't really visit the website all that much. Speculation though.</p>
<p>if it was just one comment i'd ignore it. the problem is that the majority of comments on the page seem to like that. I'm really having doubts about duke now. Could someone who's already a duke student comment on this please?</p>
<p>I have never once seen a race/religion issue on campus.</p>
<p>I am Roman Catholic, liberal and have friends who are athiest, conservative, indian-Muslim, Jewish.</p>
<p>It is not a big deal on campus and I also don't know a single student who visits the Chronicle message board. This is pretty much a non issue.</p>
<p>Honestly, I'm absolutely APPALLED at the posts on the Chronicle, and the lack of intelligence regarding Muslims and their religion. People like "Linda" and "Amused Observer" or whatever the hell they're called are pure idiots. I'm also surprised that no one on the blog responded to their ignorant comments. The one cursing is me-- and they respond by calling me Ahmed... WHAT THE HELL? I'm Chinese and Protestant, just b/c I'm defending their religion doesnt make me "Ahmed" and all the other ascerbic comments they made.</p>
<p>Honestly, I'm suprised at Duke for even allowing that page to go on, even if you say things like "no student visits the Chronical message board," well that's obviously not true, seeing as how people outside of the Duke campus would not check that page every few hours. </p>
<p>Forget Duke, I'm going to my other colleges.</p>
<p>Congrats on your other colleges, Im sure you will have fun. I have no idea who checks the Chronicle message board, but you can't make the judgment, "that's obviously not true." </p>
<p>I honestly don't know who on the Duke campus would check that page every few hours (I didn't even know it existed). And almost every Duke student I know is much smarter than those comments. </p>
<p>But I must say, if you are judging a University on those comments, Im suprised Duke was still even an option. Duke has certainly gone through a lot the last couple of years, and I would have thought you would have crossed it off your list.</p>
<p>I'll probably get flamed for this, but whatever...
I agree with Duke25 that Duke isn't as homogeneous as people believe, and that there are varying levels of self-segregation depending on personal preference, but that can and does exist ANYWHERE. However, what I've noticed in my three years at Duke is that the self-segregation is rarely a bunch of upper middle class/rich/whatever white kids choosing to stay with white kids of their socioeconomic bracket; instead, I find that it's mainly the minority groups choosing to stick to themselves, talk in native languages, whatever, but then again, these people do amaaaazing things for the center for race relations. These are the kids who work alongside the admissions office to recruit future students and run/plan/organize events like LSRW and BSAI. It's never "racist" or prejudiced in nature, it's just a matter of comfort... and I will also say that if there are groups that seem to, on the surface at least, be constructed to include members of just one ethnic group, these divisions are so transparent, and everyone is always welcoming and accepting of others.</p>
<p>"seeing as how people outside of the Duke campus would not check that page every few hours."</p>
<p>Not true, the Chronicle message boards (and polls) have been hijacked from the beginning by random bigots, freepers and other assorted Duke outsiders first drawn by the lacrosse case and Duke's perceived "PC liberal excesses". It's not surprising that an item about a Muslim center would attract some of these same posters (I recognize some of the names) and ignorant Christian extremists--they live in a very organized network of sites and blogs linking to items like this. </p>
<p>"Honestly, I'm suprised at Duke for even allowing that page to go on"</p>
<p>I hate the message boards--for the reason stated above--but I disagree about censoring speech. </p>
<p>"Forget Duke, I'm going to my other colleges."</p>
<p>I have no idea if Duke is the right fit for you, but basing your decision on this kind of thing is a rash judgment, I think. I hope you'll reconsider.</p>
<p>I didnt even read half of what you people wrote, you get upset over some random postings on the website. If you logically take into consideration that the only people that post have very strong feelings about the topic, then you'll only get the very good and very bad. While it may be unfortunate that Muslims dont have as nice facilities and such, I would speculate that it may have to do with either people not pushing hard enough for what they want, or they want something that is unreasonable for the population sizes. Duke is one of the most diverse college environments I've ever been exposed to, and people are generally very open. What groups you eventually settle into may or may not be based on your common interests based on religion, ethnicity, etc. I associate with a variety of people and don't see any problem with it. Heres and idea: if you go to the school and feel uncomfortable dont go. Reading a bunch of posts on 1 article that was probably written with as much bias as those who sling retorts and deciding that its an appauling place is illogical and I hope you don't come because if you come here thinking youre going to be alienated based on your ethnicity/religion then you will put up that wall yourself and save others the chance to do so. Dont jump to conclusions.</p>