INC NEWS - Timeline to expand the DukeCard off campus?

[John Schelp]

Dear Susan,

When you get a chance, would you please let us know
when university officials will provide details of its
plans to expand the DukeCard off campus?

As you know, we've been asking for the DukeCard to be
used in all local businesses -- not just in one small
area. 

Thanks, looking forward to hearing from you. FYI,
below are three background items. 

thank you so much,
John Schelp

****

Dear City Council Members, Mayor Bell, and Patrick
Baker:

For the past several months, Old West Durham
Neighborhood Association, Ninth Street merchants, and
others have been calling on Duke to revise DukeCard,
lowering fees and set-up costs so more merchants can
participate and allowing students to use their cards
at off-campus restaurants and businesses (for more
information see http://www.owdna.org/NewDukeCard.htm
).

While many other universities, including NC State and
UNC, have programs that allow student IDs to be used
as debit cards for off-campus purchases, Duke has
chosen to place strict limits off-campus use of the
DukeCard, a choice that effectively discourages
students from patronizing local restaurants and
businesses. While Duke administrators, including
Tallman Trask, Larry Moneta, and food services
director James Wulforst have publicly indicated the
DukeCard program would be expanded (See excerpt from
April 7 Duke Chronicle article below), and while John
Burness told OWNDA representatives the same thing at a
Neighborhood Partnership dinner in his office, the
Duke Chronicle reported today that Duke will not be
expanding its DukeCard program (see article excerpt
below).

I find it extremely disappointing, to say the least,
that at a time when Duke should be taking every
opportunity to improve town-gown relations, to support
local businesses, and to encourage students to venture
in to Durham and to make positive contributions to the
Durham community, they reject something that would
accomplish all these things--expanding the DukeCard
program to encourage and enable off-campus use.

If you too are disappointed that Duke has turned its
back on another opportunity to promote positive
town-gown relations, I hope you'll let Duke officials
know. Expanded DukeCard policies would, it seems to
me, be a way for Duke to enter into a more equitable
partnership with Durham merchants and residents.

Kelly Jarrett
Old West Durham

****

>From June 8 Duke Chronicle:

"Although top administrators--including President
Richard Brodhead and Executive Vice President Tallman
Trask--previously told The Chronicle that changes in
the freshman meal plan ought to include increased
choice, the incoming Class of 2010 has the same
12-meal-per-week requirement as in past years.

"There is also no new off-campus dining component of
the plan--an idea that some have suggested could
improve Duke's relationship with the Durham community
while providing students with more locations to use
their food points."


>From an April 7 Chronicle article about Duke dining
options:

"There are creative alternatives we haven't even begun
to explore," he added.

And that is where Ninth Street fits in to the overall
dining equation.

Moneta suggested possibly dedicating particular nights
at off-campus restaurants to residents in specific
freshman dormitories, which would encourage students
to continue to eat in groups.

"The question is: How close can we get to that without
breaking the bank?" Trask added.

At this stage in the planning process, it remains
unclear whether upperclassmen will also be allowed to
use food points on Ninth Street, Wulforst said.

Even if students are able to use their food points on
Ninth Street, dining services still must decide
exactly how many mandatory Marketplace meals to
prescribe for the freshmen, he explained.

He noted that although the incoming Class of 2010 is
signing up for meal plans under the current model,
they likely will be notified of a change over the
summer.

"They could be in for a very nice surprise," Wulforst
said with a laugh.

****

> Duke misses another opportunity to improve town-gown
> relations and enter into more genuine partnership
> with the neighborhoods and businesses beyond its
> walls.
>
> From today's Duke Chronicle article on the new
> Duke dining contracts:
> "There is also no new off-campus dining component
> of the plan--an idea that some have suggested could
> improve Duke's relationship with the Durham
> community while providing students with more
> locations to use their food points."
>
> What a disappointment. By not making changes in
> their Duke-Card policies that would allow students
> to use the cards for off-campus purchases, Duke
> administrators have apparently rejected another
> opportunity to improve town-gown relations.
>
> Disappointing, yes. Surprising, no. When students
> were on campus and the place was crawling with
> national media Duke administrators hinted to
> students and community members that they'll be
> making changes in their Duke Card policies. In
> fact, when representatives of our neighborhood
> association had dinner w/Duke administrators earlier
> this year, I remember John Burness telling us that
> DukeCard policies would be changing to allow
> off-campus use.
>
> But now that most of the Duke community is gone
> for the summer, now that there's no students or
> faculty to react or mobilize and no press around to
> cover another example of poor town-gown relations
> and poor partnership on Duke's part, now they
> announce they're not expanding the Duke Card to
> include local businesses.
>
> So--its business as usual. Duke refusing to
> implement policies that would encourage students to
> venture off campus, support local businesses,
> promote positive town-gown relations, and improve
> its image, not to mention its credibility.
>
> For the record, it is actions like this that give
> Duke among the worst town-gown ratings in the
> country.
>
> Betty Greene

****

Duke's reversal on the DukeCard is yet another glaring
example of how you just can't trust some officials at
the university.

Both Tallman Trask and John Burness said they were
going to make changes to the DukeCard. We now see that
they were misleading us.

Don't listen to what Duke says. Look at what they do.

When conducting damage control in the middle of a
national scandal, Duke lauds the Neighborhood
Partnership Initiative with reporters. 

When the reporters are gone, and summer sets in, Duke
contradicts its earlier statements and reverses course
on allowing the DukeCard to be used off-campus.

You'd think after the wheels have fallen off town-gown
relations, Duke would be more interested in improving
its rapport with neighborhoods near campus. Apparently
not.

Why would Duke invite our neighborhood board to dinner
and talk to us about making changes to the DukeCard if
they have no intention of sticking to their word?

If this is the kind of advice Duke's getting out of
its new relationship with global public relations firm
Burson-Marsteller, they should ask for a refund.

No wonder the Princeton Review ranked Duke's town-gown
relations as 5th worst in the nation. One can only
wonder who the are the other four?

~John Schelp

****