Members of Seidman's Fall 2009 Women as Leaders class, a course that is regularly offered in the Hart Leadership Program, were challenged to create a structural change to shape women's position on campus. The students came up with the Women's Housing Option, a large cluster of rooms in Few Quadrangle above the Women's Center where forty-five female students now live.

"I'm really thankful to WHO house for introducing me to women that I would not otherwise have met," said senior Laurel Sisler. "We all have a theme in that we're interested in women's activism, but aside from that there's people interested in dance groups, cooking, anything you can think of."

The debut of WHO is perfectly timed-the semester's headlines have provided plenty of fodder for conversations about gender relations. In early October, Karen Owen, Trinity '10, sent a Powerpoint detailing her sexual exploits to three friends. The document quickly went viral and was covered by The New York Times and the Today Show, among other national news outlets. In early November, sexist e-mails sent by members of Sigma Nu and Alpha Delta Phi fraternities stoked gender tensions on campus and triggered a flurry of posts on Gawker and other sites.

"We do talk about more broad issues, but it normally boils down to how it affects us here at Duke and how we feel being women at Duke when these things are going on," said sophomore Gabrielle Eagle, who is a WHO resident. "I am so happy that a group of strong-minded women like us can have a bond."

Seidman's students sought to address campus-specific issues, but they were inspired by the history of women who had served as leaders before them while conceptualizing the idea for WHO. The students even discussed the past of Duke, which was once divided along gender lines with East Campus for women and West Campus for men.

"I had this as a theoretical belief before and now I've seen it manifest itself, this idea that teaching young women about women's history really can reshape their sense of their own agency and their own ability to make a difference in the world," Seidman said. "They didn't want to recreate these old things from the past, but they thought that there were some lessons to be learned from them and were interested in thinking how they might fit into the current culture."

After solidifying their plans for WHO, the students pitched their idea to administrators and members of the Board of Trustees. Both camps embraced the idea but cautioned the students that they might not be able to pull it off in time-the deadline for room selection was just around the corner. The students buckled down and pulled it off, Seidman said.

From the first day of class last fall to the present, Seidman has seen her students grow tremendously as leaders.

"I was blown away by their commitment," Seidman said. "They really came up with this idea on their own. They figured out what it would take to make it happen and they stuck with it and saw it through all the way to the end."

But even now that WHO House is a reality, it continues to test the leadership skills of its founders and residents. Sisler helped plan WHO House in Seidman's class and now lives in the section, serving as the community's facilitator.

The process of building a community from scratch has posed more challenges than Sisler anticipated. All but one of the beds in the section have been filled, but not all residents are fully involved, Sisler said.

"I would say we have about 20 active members who have created a really cohesive community. I'm happy with the number who are very invested, but it's still a work in progress," she said. "One thing I'm learning is that creating community and changing culture is an extremely slow process."

Seidman said disseminating authority throughout a group is another step in the process of learning to lead.
"They always had in mind a very non-hierarchical structure, which brings with it its own challenges," she said. "It was the students' idea, but now the house doesn't belong just to them-it belongs to all the women who live with them."

Sisler noted that WHO House is structured to provide leadership opportunities for all residents. Residents who are interested can serve as co-facilitators, a rotating position of leadership alongside Sisler. Sisler explained that her primary aim as facilitator is to ensure that the house is moving in pursuit of a vision that is not just hers but that of the group as a whole.

"Ultimately it's not about me, it's about the collective," she said.

After spending the fall semester growing closer as a group, WHO House is preparing to host its first public event Nov. 22, a discussion of race and beauty titled "Who defines beauty?" The event will take place at 9 p.m. in the Women's Center and is co-sponsored by Sigma Gamma Rho.

The group is also planning to host a party at the beginning of next semester to project a different vision of the social scene on campus.

"The event is designed to say, ‘Hello, we're here, we're on campus, and we're trying to change social culture,'" Sisler said. "There's nothing wrong with frat parties, but it is one side of the party scene. We need to see more of the diversity of groups on campus."

Members of WHO also hope that the event will encourage freshmen to apply for residency because one of the group's chief goals is to foster mentoring relationships. Sisler said the students in the class envisioned pairing sophomores and upperclassmen, but Eagle said she has found more than one mentor.

"I feel like all the upperclassmen are willing and excited to give the sophomores advice and guidance about anything," she said. "I mainly ask them about academic things, but I'm sure that if I came with a personal problem they would offer advice as a Duke student and a woman on Duke's campus."