The Chronicle

How the amendment won

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Activists continue to fight amendment

Although North Carolinians recently voted to ban same-sex marriage in the state, the measure may be challenged in court. The amendment, which prohibits civil unions and same-sex marriage in the state constitution, will be placed in section six of Article 14. Passing with overwhelming support in a 61 percent to 39 percent vote, the amendment marks a victory for the Republican party, said Michael Munger, professor of political science and economics. Despite the landslide victory, movements to...

Opponents of amendment praise local results, turnout

The approval of Amendment One marked a setback for some members of the Duke community even as they found much to celebrate in the success of mobilization efforts on campus. Leaders in the campus LGBT community and Duke Together Against Constitutional Discrimination, the coalition created to organize on-campus voter turnout and opposition to the amendment, have commended the efforts accomplished on campus in spite of the overall result. At the Duke voting site, 95 percent of those who cast...

Candidates take battle to North Carolina

In the coming six months, North Carolina will likely prove to be one of the country’s most exciting battlegrounds in the presidential election. After winning the state by a margin of less than half a percentage point in 2008, President Barack Obama will have to continue campaigning fiercely in order to achieve a repeat victory. Recent polls have found Obama neck in neck with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in North Carolina. The Democratic party will rally support by holding its...

Support for Amendment One tied to demographics

Support for a ban on same-sex marriage in North Carolina may stem from a more conservative, older voter base. North Carolina voters passed Amendment One, a constitutional amendment that will ban same-sex marriage and all domestic unions in the state, 61 to 39 percent in the May 8 primary election. The voting split largely between young and old demographics and urban and rural populations. Despite the low voter turnout of state primaries, political science professor Michael Munger, said he...

Students foster friendships with Chinese universities

Just before the Board of Trustees signed off on a new degree program for Duke Kunshan University in China, a group of students returned from a week-long conference on global higher education in Beijing. A team of eight Duke undergraduates joined a group of Chinese students from the Graduate School of Education in Peking University to participate in the conference on comparative higher education May 3-10. The event marked the culmination of a class on higher education taught by sociology...

Merit scholarship yield on the rise

Yields for the University’s merit scholarship programs continued to see an upward trend for the Class of 2016, with an 18.5 percent overall increase in the number of first-year students who will enter Duke as recipients of one of the seven merit scholarships. All seven merit scholarships met their expected yield, with three merit scholarships—the Benjamin N. Duke and Reginaldo Howard Scholarships and University Scholars—exceeding the expected yield, said Melissa Malouf, director of the Office...

Optimism takes the stage at commencement

The Class of 2012 was presented with sentiments of peace, optimism and reflection during its commencement ceremony Sunday. Commencement speaker Fareed Zakaria, a noted author, journalist and host of CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” encouraged the graduates to seize the varied opportunities provided by an increasingly global and profoundly peaceful world climate. In his remarks, Zakaria, who also received an honorary degree, contextualized the current world state with historical and contemporary...

McClain to increase grad student resources, diversity

Paula McClain, former chair of Duke’s Academic Council and political science professor, views the Graduate School as central to the University’s mission and reputation, and, as dean, she wants to raise its profile within the University. The University announced last week that McClain’s position as dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education will be effective July 1. McClain was selected for the position based on committee recommendations to Provost Peter Lange and...

BOT reappoints Brodhead, approves new construction

The Board of Trustees appointed President Richard Brodhead to a new five-year term and approved several major building projects and programs at its weekend meeting, the last of the academic year. The Trustees voted unanimously to reappoint Brodhead for his third term following a four-month review process, said Board Chair Richard Wagoner, former CEO of General Motors and Trinity ’75. Brodhead’s strong leadership in key areas—including the $300 million Financial Aid Initiative, DukeEngage and...

By quake or by rivers

As J.K. Rowling wrote in the first Harry Potter book, “There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other.” Unlike Rowling’s protagonists, this year we’ve managed to avoid troll attacks (Class of 2016, let's keep that streak alive). Like them, however, we’ve experienced things that have forced us to like each other. Some of these experiences were planned. Orientation Week is meant to acquaint incoming first-years with college life, but it also provides a series of...

New term, better approach

The Board of Trustees voted unanimously to reappoint President Richard Brodhead for a third term. The announcement follows a board initiated four-month review of Brodhead’s leadership to this point. The decision to reappoint comes ahead of major transitions for the direction of the University. With the implementation of the house model, renovation of the West Union and opening of Duke Kunshan University on the horizon, the presidential position should remain stable. In addition to this, the...

Libraries suffer vandalism around finals

At some point on Wednesday, May 2, in the middle of finals week, hundreds of books on the lowest level of Perkins Library were pulled from their stacks, tossed on the floor and otherwise deliberately scattered and strewn about. We don’t yet know whether this was simply a reckless prank or a more purposeful act of vandalism. Security camera footage of the area is currently being reviewed and may offer some clues about who and how many were involved. (Yes, you were being watched.) All we can...

Duke LGBT Network thanks the Duke community

As LGBT Duke Alumni, we watched intently as North Carolina voters went to the polls to vote on marriage rights earlier this month. We were disappointed, as undoubtedly many on campus were, with the outcome. There remains much work to be done in North Carolina, and in our communities around the U.S. and the rest of the world, to push for full equality for LGBT-identified people and allies. However while we are saddened by the results of May 8’s ballot initiative, we watched the run-up to the...

Irrational outcome, extra-rational persistence

I am a knee-jerk optimist. Call me naïve, but I can’t help hoping for the best. I tend to believe that the students in Perkins won’t steal my laptop while I grab coffee at VDH, which friends attribute to my “safe” Midwestern upbringing. I come from Iowa, a state that I’m proud to say legalized gay marriage the month before I graduated from high school. Knowing that the Supreme Court in this rural state could unanimously rule in favor of legalizing gay marriage, I was confident that NC Amendment...

Our noisy lives

I don’t want to have a thousand friends. And good thing because I probably never will. I’m grumpy and competitive. I can be stubborn, and I expect a lot. I hold grudges more often than I should. Some say I’m fiery—I like to think of it more as spunky or spirited. Truth be told though, I can count on my two hands—okay, and maybe a few toes—the number of people in my life so far that I consider to be my closest, dearest friends. Friends who get my lame puns and quirks, who know that I like to eat...

Jefferson commits to Duke

The 2012 off-season has been one to forget so far for the Blue Devils with the transfer of Michael Gbinije, Andre Dawkins’ uncertain status and missing out on prized 2012 recruits Shabazz Muhammad and Tony Parker. On Tuesday night, however, Duke found some much-needed solace when forward Amile Jefferson committed to the Blue Devils instead of N.C. State, Kentucky or Villanova, among others. “In the end, the Duke academics won him over along with [head coach Mike Krzyzewski],” said ACC...

Duke prepares for high-octane foe

The Blue Devils may be the seeded team in their NCAA tournament quarterfinal matchup against Colgate, but facing one of the nation’s hottest teams can make it feel otherwise. Taking on a foe that has won 12 of its last 14 games, No. 3 seed Duke (14-4) will face the Raiders (14-3) Sunday at PPL Park in Philadelphia with a trip to championship weekend on the line. Colgate knocked off sixth-seeded Massachusetts 13-11 on the road in the first round, handing the Minutemen their first defeat of...

Uni receives $25 million in new gifts

The University received two gifts totaling $25 million in the past week. Duke announced May 8 that Jeffrey Vinik, Pratt ’81 and his wife Penny, will give $10 million establish the Vinik Faculty Challenge Fund, a dollar-for-dollar matching fund to help sponsor up to 10 associate or full professorships that will focus on tackling large issues related to energy, global health, brain sciences and the environment. Many of these professors will have primary appointments in the Pratt School of...

Q & A with Nancy Brinker

Ambassador Nancy Brinker, founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, will receive an honorary degree from Duke at its commencement exercises on Sunday, May 13. Brinker founded Susan G. Komen for the Cure after promising her dying sister that she would do everything she could to end breast cancer, and since then the foundation has raised almost $2 billion for research, advocacy and global programs for women in more than 50 countries. Susan G. Komen for the Cure came under attack in February...

Senior Year '11-'12

The Class of 2012 graduates from Duke after concluding a senior year characterized by flux in policy on and off campus. Under the house model set to begin Aug. 2012, administrators granted residential space on Central Campus for all nine Panhellenic sororities, marking the first time Duke has granted houses for individual chapters. In April, following months of discussion, University administrators also officially committed to a West Campus gender-neutral housing option for the Fall 2013....

Junior Year '10-'11

The Class of 2012’s junior year was characterized by periods of positive global attention on the University mired by episodes of tragedy and negative scrutiny. In October, Duke’s social and sexual culture came back into question nearly five years after the infamous lacrosse case. Karen Owen, Trinity ’10, created a PowerPoint detailing her sexual experiences with 13 current and former Duke varsity athletes. Owen said the PowerPoint was meant to be shared only with friends, but the presentation...

Sophomore Year '09-'10

Sophomore year offered a mix of highs and lows. While the University grappled with the economic downturn by implementing budget cuts, it also racked up two NCAA championships. In Spring 2009, President Richard Brodhead announced a plan to cut the University’s budget by $125 million over three years. In an October report, the University exposed a 29.1 percent decrease in net assets, from $8.6 billion to $6.1 billion, attributed largely to decreasing investments. Due to market turmoil,...

Freshman Year '08-'09

History was made as the Class of 2012 began their Duke careers. After a long campaign that saw Democrats winning traditionally Republican-voting North Carolina, Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first black president. Many students celebrated the victory—a Chronicle poll conducted in Oct. 2008 showed that nearly 75 percent of Duke undergraduates eligible to vote preferred Obama over his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain. Obama faced a broad set of concerns, including a near...

Board to consider entrepreneurship projects, 2013 budget

The Board of Trustees will convene this weekend to survey the state of the University and evaluate strategies for future programs, including entrepreneurship and Duke Kunshan University. The Trustees will hear updates on the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and the University budget for fiscal year 2013. The Board is expected to approve the Master of Science in Global Health degree program for Duke Kunshan University, which was approved by...

Council approves new global health program for DKU

The Academic Council has approved the Master of Science in Global Health degree to be offered at Duke Kunshan University. In its last meeting of the 2011-2012 academic year, the Academic Council voted 52 to 7—with three abstentions—to approve the new Duke Global Health Institute degree program that was proposed in its April meeting. The degree will now go to the Board of Trustees for approval. The council also approved the 2011-2012 candidates for earned degrees, and received the annual...

Commencement 2012 Event Calendar

Friday, May 11 4:30 p.m., Duke Chapel: Baccalaureate Service (last names A through G) — Participate in the procession of degree candidates and hear a sermon by Dean of the Chapel Sam Wells and a charge from President Richard Brodhead. Students should wear academic apparel. Tickets are required for guests. The presentation will be simulcasted in Page Auditorium and online. Saturday, May 12 11:30 a.m., Duke Chapel: Baccalaureate Service (last names H through O) 3:00 p.m., Duke Chapel:...

Roshan Sadanani: student commencement speaker

When delivering a speech to his entire academic class before everyone accepts a degree and goes off into the world, Senior Roshan Sadanani will remember to stay calm. Sadanani will face this challenge soon enough. He was chosen last month to be this year’s student commencement speaker, and he will address his peers, family and faculty at Sunday’s commencement ceremony at Wallace Wade Stadium. Sadanani’s experience as president of the Duke Debate team has given him practice with public...

Amendment One passes

Marriage between one man and one woman is now the only domestic union recognized under the North Carolina constitution. In primary elections held Tuesday, North Carolinians voted in favor of Amendment One 60 percent to 40 percent. Durham County bucked state trends, with 70 percent of voters casting ballots against the amendment. Although same-sex marriage is already banned under a 1996 law, the amendment will define marriage as between one man and one woman in the state...

McClain to lead Graduate School

Paula McClain, chosen to lead the Graduate School, will be the first black dean of a Duke school, the University announced Tuesday. McClain, a professor of political science, has served on the Duke faculty since 2000. A nine-member committee chaired by physics professor Calvin Howell conducted the search that advised Provost Peter Lange and President Richard Brodhead. She will begin her appointment July 1, according to a Duke news release. McClain follows Former Graduate School Dean Jo Rae...

Duke alum, Chesapeake CEO McClendon under IRS and SEC investigation

A major Duke benefactor is facing scrutiny for controversial business practices. Aubrey McClendon, CEO and chairman of Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Trinity ’81, is currently under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service. The informal investigation follows an April Reuters report that McClendon had allegedly taken out approximately $1.1 billion in loans against his personal stakes in Chesapeake’s oil and gas wells, facilitated by a controversial...

Vote against

We call on all Duke students registered to vote in North Carolina to vote this week against Amendment One, an amendment to the state constitution that would make all civil unions and domestic partnerships, in addition to same-sex marriage, unconstitutional. It is not hard. Early voting will take place until May 5 in the Old Trinity Room of the West Union Building. The primary ballot will read when it asks for a decision for or against Amendment One: “Marriage between one man and one woman is...

Durham in Neverland

I’m a grown up in almost every way but one: When I leave Durham in a month, it may be the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. But I won’t know until June. I’ve never left home before. That isn’t to say I’ve never lived away from mom’s place, my “sick apartment” isn’t secretly my old room at home. I’ve lived on campus, in 301 Flowers, at the Belmont and even in New York City for a summer. I’ve upgraded to a big-girl bed and a five-foot-tall teddy bear (you think I’m joking). But this summer,...

Five years of DukeEngage

As DukeEngage celebrates its fifth year this summer, the University’s community deserves to rejoice. In my five years of courting DukeEngage, I have witnessed the program’s systematic expansion and successful growth from about 80 students in 2007 to more than 400 this year, from four categories of civic engagement opportunities available to applicants to a lengthy list of a variety of categories, from less than a handful of domestic programs to 11 programs and from five international programs...

Town and gown

Durham is not a college town. I grew up in a college town, one where the campus blends into the city and every Saturday, 112,000 residents pack into a football stadium built just large enough to accommodate a few out-of-town guests. Together, 114,000 students and locals share the same set of bleachers and cheer for the same team. Duke separates itself from Durham with a wall, but across those low stones is a pretty great city. Freshman year, Durham is far away. Like most freshmen, I only saw...

A head-scratching job

I still remember the conversation like it was yesterday. “Mom, I don’t think I can do this. It just isn’t working.” There was silence on the other end of the phone. My feet crunched the fallen leaves between Bell Tower and Southgate. I kept talking, outlining the details of a problem generally familiar to my entire family. We had been bouncing between neurologists for almost two years by that day in the fall of 2008, and not one had been willing to diagnose my frequent headaches,...

Social stress affects gene regulation in primates

Social stress may affect people not just emotionally but also at the genetic level, a recent Duke study suggests. Jenny Tung, visiting assistant professor of evolutionary anthropology, studied 49 female rhesus macaques to investigate the effect of social ranking on health. She found a link between social rank and immune system gene expression such that she could predict social status based on gene expression data with 80 percent accuracy. These findings, published this month in the journal...

Early voters in Durham turn out in record numbers

Duke’s one-stop on-campus early voting site has attracted more than 2,000 voters, helping Durham County cast more votes so far than any other county in North Carolina in this year’s primary election. Since the April 19 opening of the site, 2,398 students, faculty, staff and N.C. residents have utilized the University’s early voting site as of Sunday, which is located in the Old Trinity Room in the West Union Building. Due to the waning attention to the Republican presidential primary, voter...

Men’s lacrosse falls to Denver on the road

No. 3 Duke (13-4) fell to No. 16 Denver (8-5) 15-9 Friday, ending a 10-game winning streak, the team’s second longest under coach John Danowski. The Pioneers controlled the game from the start, leaving the first period with a 3-0 lead. Although the Blue Devils narrowed the deficit to 6-5 at halftime, Denver exploded in the third with four consecutive goals. Three Duke goals in the fourth quarter, including David Lawson’s team-high third of the game, made it 11-9, but the Pioneers finished the...

Duke earns four silvers at Penn

Last year, the Blue Devils turned in a historic performance at the Penn Relays, collecting two championships and six school records at one of the season’s biggest meets. This year the athletes earned four second-place finishes before leaving Franklin Field in Philadelphia. As the competition began Thursday, Shannon Sullivan stepped up to earn the first of Duke’s second-place finishes with her throw of 47.11m in the Championship of America Javelin. Just an hour after Sullivan competed,...

Daniels to play for St. Louis Rams

For the 12th consecutive year, no Blue Devil was selected in the seven rounds of the NFL Draft. But that was just fine by Duke safety Matt Daniels, a senior, who signed with the St. Louis Rams immediately after the draft concluded Saturday. Having been in touch with teams throughout the draft, he said around 10 teams called him following its conclusion looking to sign him as a priority undrafted free agent. “My cellphone was blowing up, my house phone was blowing up and my mom’s cellphone...

More than worth it

It is hard to believe that this four-year journey is coming to an end. I’ve been in denial for the last couple of weeks, not quite sure what to say or do when people ask me how I feel about graduation. I usually just smile and say that I am excited, but I actually feel a lot like I did four years ago—anxious. I almost did not come to Duke. My parents were very adamant about their desire to keep me close to home. With 1,224 miles between Durham and Houston, Duke is hardly around the corner ......

Hot child in the mini

It turns out, I’ve been driving on two flat tires since last semester. I’m not entirely sure how long it’s been, but I realized there might be a problem when my tire pressure indicator lit up sometime last October. It’s been something of a nuisance rummaging for quarters to toss in the air machine, pumping air in the left rear tire every two weeks and having to drive my Mini Cooper convertible with the windows up so as not to hear the wheeze in each rotation. More troubling is that it...

LDOC sees fewer EMS calls but more transports

A changed approach to the Last Day of Classes resulted in an overall safer event, administrators said. The LDOC committee planned this year’s event with the goal of making the whole day—not just the concert—filled with activities, with the hope of improving student safety, said LDOC committee co-Chair Jacob Robinson, a sophomore. The number of medical emergency calls decreased compared to last year, and there were no major conduct issues. “Our goal this year was to transform the quad and...

Duke Med to enhance patient care with new eye center

Administrators have begun planning for the construction of a new Duke Eye Center. The new 127,000-square-foot facility, which will be built in the parking lot next to the current Wadsworth Eye Center on Erwin Road, will increase the number of examination rooms available and improve patient care and workflow. The building will also feature state-of-the-art optical imaging technologies to assist in patient diagnosis. Construction is planned to begin this summer and is projected to be completed...

Majoring in The Chronicle

When I think of Duke, more than anything I will think of The Chronicle and 301 Flowers. Once you get beyond the general mess of the office—it has, after all, been passed down from generation to generation of college students—you realize that it is one of the most extraordinary places on campus. In less than two weeks, I will graduate. If that does not make me feel old enough, I only need to think about how different the person who walked into this office in the fall of 2008 was from who I am...

Bottoms up

This is the last column I write for this fine paper, so screw it. I’m going to write about something I really like, and, if you know me at all, something you probably really like, too. I’m going to write about drinking. Personally, I believe the maturation of my alcohol choices provides as (whiskey) neat a metaphor for my senior column as anything else. As I’ve grown up and matured, as my personality has been molded by life experiences and classroom seminars and stories I’ve reported and...

Valuing the totally obvious

This is a tough one. I’m writing my last column in The Chronicle, so these words will almost certainly be more significant to me than to you. There’s a very strong tendency here to devolve into autobiography, or into banal platitudes: Make every moment count, you only live once, &c &c &c, the sort that sound stylish and impactful when delivered by effete Canadian rappers, less so when printed in newspaper columns. I spent my sophomore year at a boarding school in central Connecticut, one of...

Intangible contribution

Having spent several hours a day, five days a week sitting in this office for the past year, I often struggle to locate and label my contribution to The Chronicle. I have never written and reported a story. I have never written a column. I have never even written a letter to the editor or commented on the website. With no tangible product to point to, no physical evidence that I was here, it sometimes feels like I have done nothing. This year, The Chronicle has enjoyed a phenomenal opinion...

That’s a rap

For the past four years, I have lived a double life. When I arrived on campus as a wide-eyed freshman, I was simply known as Jeff—a quiet, reserved inhabitant of the notoriously rambunctious Aycock residence hall. But as the year progressed, I came into my comfort zone and started showing more and more people my hidden talent: rapping. My rap coming-out party came during the Mr. East Campus pageant/talent show at the end of freshman year. If you attended that event and remember a white kid in...