Plays Well With Others
New student group looks to reclaim campus culture
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Durham, NC -- Patrick Phelan felt like he had stepped back into the ’70s.
With his dog Zoe at his side, Phelan spent last Friday afternoon playing his guitar on the West Campus Quad. Nearby, classmates tossed footballs and Frisbees, jumped rope and played four square.
“I looked at the yearbooks in the ’70s and everyone was on the lawn chilling. People just did things outside. I enjoy feeling the energy that’s here,” said Phelan, a philosophy major who has studied in Chile and at the Duke Marine Lab, and whose band, Calloused Hands, will be performing at the Cave on Nov. 29.
Phelan and his colleagues were enjoying the first “Play-In,” an afternoon free-for-all designed to bring students together under the rubric, “Work Hard, Play Well.” DukePLAYS, a student-led campaign to redefine and reclaim campus culture, sponsored the event, with financial support from the Office of Student Life.
Students were encouraged to “play” any way they liked, with options ranging from hula hoops and soap bubbles to games of Double Dutch jump rope. Free T-shirts bearing the slogan “Plays Well With Others” disappeared quickly, as did 1,000 sack lunches that contained peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and notes from “Mom.” The lunch bags also contained a flyer listing “100 ways to play,” including suggestions like: “Make your own movie,” “Throw a skating party” and “Dress up the statues.”
DukePLAYS is not a formal organization; rather, it is an independent, student-led response to the administration’s recent Campus Cultural Initiative. Seniors Haley Hoffman and Rachel Weeks came up with the idea. “We want to be very clear that this is not an administration idea,” Weeks said.
“We want students to be the ones to reclaim play on campus,” Weeks explained. “I’m sure you’re familiar with ‘work hard, play hard.’ It actually gets sort of used against us. People think we just work hard and then get trashed on the weekends and forget all about our academic lives. We think that ‘play well’ speaks more honestly to the way Duke students already play. We don’t want to be defined by one incident or one part of our student population.”
Weeks, a Trinity Scholar, and Hoffman, a B.N. Duke Scholar, came up with the idea during a scholarship retreat.
“We were on a beach retreat and having one of these conversations about campus culture, how it’s so awful and how nobody could change anything,” Weeks recalled. “And all of a sudden someone was like, ‘What about that great party you had at your apartment last weekend?’ And we just stopped and we said, ‘That’s play, too.’ Duke is already playing, in really interesting, awesome ways, and why can’t we talk about that?”
Hoffman agreed. “People are so creative and smart and engaged here, and people play in a lot of ways.”
Hoffman said one way she likes to relax is watching movie marathons; Weeks is into vintage hairstyles. “I wear a beehive every day,” she said, though at Friday’s Play-In her blond locks were tucked under a trucker hat, a result of having been up all night making sandwiches.
All types of people came out for Friday’s event. The Blue Devil mascot was spotted smoking a hookah pipe installed by Peace or Pieces, an alliance of student organizations that promotes peace in the Middle East. And shortly after the mascot’s arrival, President Brodhead dropped by.
“I think it’s a great concept to unleash the imagination of students,” he said of the DukePLAYS campaign.
Katrina Weschler, a sophomore on the rowing team, agreed. “I think the concept is just wonderful, especially in light of everything that’s been going on. To have people out here smiling and laughing and playing with each other, in an environment that’s so welcoming and inviting and non-exclusive, is wonderful. I think it’s not just Duke but any college campus should have this feel.”
Added junior women’s studies major Chong-Min Fu, “When I heard about what they’re trying to do, redefining what play is at Duke, I really understood that. I’ve always had an issue with what is defined as play here. I’m not a big drinker; I think that’s why I identified with the idea so much.”
Nonetheless, “drinking can be playing well,” insisted Weeks, whose pastimes also include throwing vintage 1950s-style cocktail parties. “We’re not trying to alienate the drinking culture here. We’re just saying there’s a way to do it well that doesn’t involve funneling beers and acting irresponsibly. We really hope that students think that’s not even cool.”
Weeks said they hope other student organizations will identify with “Play Well.” “We would love for them to make this their message as well. This is only going to work if students make it their own.”
“We hope alums pick up on this [too], because we think they would at least support the idea of reclaiming the Duke tradition.”
Ultimately, “Play Well” is about representing a different image of Duke students as much as it is about reform or raising expectations, Weeks said. “We should be telling a story about ourselves that causes us to aspire to it, and that accurately represents the diversity of Duke students.”