QuadEx enhances and integrates the social, residential, and intellectual lives of Duke undergraduates.
With QuadEx, it’s not only where you live, but how you live.
- QuadEx builds a residential and community link between East and West Campus, where two East Campus residence halls are paired and connected to a Quad on West Campus.
- First-year students begin living in an East Campus residence hall and also automatically belong to their connected Quad community on West Campus.
- These East-West connections support special programming, getting to know upperclass students, and feeling at home in both places.
- All Quad programming and resources are available to all Quad members, regardless of where they live.
- Quad Councils, residents, and Duke resources support student-driven, inclusive communities, traditions, and events.
- Signature programs like Faculty Fellows, Sophomore Spark, and Experiential Orientation promote intellectual exploration, career and academic readiness, belonging, and well-being.
Signature Programs
Experiential Orientation
All new-to-Duke students will be oriented to Duke and Durham through a thematic-based orientation group emphasizing small group interaction, upper-class mentorship, and fun throughout each day. Throughout Orientation Week, you will grow close to your group, participate in Duke traditions, take field trips, learn about Duke campus and resources, make meaningful relationships, and learn what it means to be a Duke student.
Students will move in, participate in one of 18 thematically-based orientation programs, and then come together as a full class to wrap up the Orientation week before classes begin
Bricks to Stone
This campus-wide celebration marks the transition of the first-year class moving from the bricks of East Campus to the gothic stones of West Campus. First-year students start the celebration with a block party at Karsh Alumni Center, followed by a procession behind their quad’s banner up to the Duke Chapel, where they’re greeted and officially welcomed to West Campus by President Price and the Trinity and Pratt Deans. Once a class pinning ceremony concludes, first-years will join their upperclass peers in their West quads for parties unique to each quad’s culture and traditions.
Sophomore Spark
Sophomore Spark provides a coordinated approach to supporting second-year students in their efforts to seek purpose, build resilience, and navigate academic and career journeys. Sophomore Spark offers a series of opportunities to come together with peers, faculty, staff, and alumni as they traverse their second year at Duke.
Faculty Fellows
QuadEx Faculty Fellows are dynamic scholars and teachers with a passion for integrating the Duke academic experience with students’ social and residential lives.
A QuadEx Faculty Fellow is affiliated with (but does not reside in) each of Duke’s seven Quad communities. Through shared meals, conversations, and other special programming, Faculty Fellows partner with students to enhance intellectual life within the quad and to support intellectual growth and exploration beyond the classroom.