The Chronicle

Coley leaves Robertson Program

Robertson Scholars Executive Director Woody Coley is resigning from his post, following a clash with the program’s founder.

Coley is stepping down in June after a single year in the position, according to a May 31 email obtained by The Chronicle. Coley, former managing partner at the real estate consulting firm Value² Partners, LLC., is the merit scholarship program’s fourth director in its 12-year history.

According to the email, which Coley sent to current Robertson Scholars, he decided to step down due to disagreements with the program’s founder and benefactor, Julian Robertson.

“Julian and I concluded that we had different views on the governance, administration and innovation to be applied to the program,” Coley said. “We have reached a mutual agreement to separate in June. I have been honored to represent two Universities and the generous Robertson family.”

In addition to the executive director position, the program has seen a significant shift in leadership in recent months. Several employees have stepped down from their roles, including Jeanne Kirschner, the program’s director of operations, and Abbey Greenberg-Onn, assistant director for recruiting and selection, according to a March 6 email to scholars.

Additionally, Coley’s predecessor, Alex Perwich, resigned in June 2010 after serving about four months in the position. Kirschner searched for Perwich’s replacement for nearly a year until Coley took the role April 2011.

DukeEngage Director Eric Mlyn was the Robertson’s first executive director, serving from October 2000 to July 2007. The program was then helmed by Tony Brown, professor of the practice at the Sanford School of Public Policy and now the director of the Hart Leadership Program, through Spring 2010.

In his email, Coley encouraged scholars not to be concerned about the shifting leadership. “The organizational changes here may be unsettling. Fear not,” he said. “Your life trajectory will be influenced far more by your own qualities and relationships than by those of us who have had the privilege to administer the program.”

Robertson and Dr. Aaron Stern, a member of the program’s board of directors, have invited scholar input to help solve the ambiguity surrounding the leadership transitions within the program, The Chronicle previously reported.

Engineers advance quantum electronics

Duke engineers have paved a path toward the next generation of quantum electronic devices.

Stefano Curtarolo, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and director of the Center for Materials Genomics, and his team of researchers have created a database of more than 2,000 compounds that can be combined to create quantum electronic devices—devices smaller than conventional wires that can create electricity efficiently. Relying on a specified formula, the database is able to scan materials, find their particular properties, thereby determining the different tasks they can perform.

A major asset of the database is its ability to find topological insulators—man-made crystals that conduct an electrical current on the surface of the compounds. TIs have the potential to change nanoelectronics because they are ideal candidates for making quantum electronic devices, Curtarolo said.

“When you’re at the forefront of research, you don’t know what problems you are going to find tomorrow,” he said. “It’s like climbing a mountain that’s never been climbed before—we need to try different directions and hope one direction will not bring us down.”

Using the database, Curtarolo and his team were able to find a new class of TIs. He noted that many scientists thought such compounds could not be used for creating TIs given their reliance on a limited group of previously tested compounds. The database, however, allows for an unbiased analysis of potential compounds.

Currently, when making materials that can conduct electricity, certain supplies are needed, Curtarolo noted. For example, the process to make an inductor—an electrical component that stores energy—requires a wire. With TIs, the direction the crystal grows in determines how it will conduct electricity, so supplies typically used to make electrical components are not needed.

“You can make a slow substrate, like silicon, and then grow [the crystals] in different directions, and naturally [they] will be different devices,” he said. “These materials are very powerful, but the biggest problem is that too few are known—searching for them is the biggest issue.”

Kesong Yang, a postdoctoral fellow in Curtarolo’s laboratory and first author of the paper, noted that the database could be used for more than just finding TIs.

“This database is very useful not only for TIs but also for finding other materials, like other compounds that can be used for properties,” he said.

Curtarolo added that one use is finding thermoelectric materials, which can be used to convert heat into energy.

Despite the discovery of many TIs, Curtarolo and his team have not yet made a quantum electronic device.

“If you want to make a big crystal, it can take a year,” he said. “We cannot wait for the test because if someone else comes out with the material and a patent, we lose a lot of money.”

It will take some time to determine whether the TIs listed in the database are better than what is currently listed, in terms of manufacturing and cost, he noted.

Even with these advancements, using the database has not always been easy, said Shidong Wang, postdoctoral associate on Curtarolo’s team.

“You have to run the correct programs and think about how effective the execution of the database will be so you can do things in a fast way,” he said. “It takes one month to finish each project and it’s a lot of energy.”

Matsui rides with the Bulls

Baseball All-Star Hideki Matsui joins the Tampa Bay Rays after a 13-game run with the Durham Bulls.

Matsui, the first Japanese-born player to be awarded the World Series MVP in 2009, joined the Durham Bulls as part of a minor league contract with the Rays April 30. After four weeks with the Bulls, where he hit a batting average of .170, he joined the Rays, the team’s parent club, Tuesday night against the Chicago White Sox. Matsui marked his return to the Major Leagues with a two-run home run.

“I was welcomed in a way that I have never experienced in my life before, let’s put it that way,” Matsui told the Tampa Bay Times through an interpreter.

Matsui, who missed spring training, played for the Bulls as he waited to be called up to the Rays. Scott Carter, director of marketing for the Durham Bulls Baseball Club, said Matsui’s time with the Bulls was a tremendous experience for the team and fans, both locally and nationally.

“Selfishly, we’d love to keep him because it’s been really fun, for the fans and the staff, to see such an accomplished player be a part of Bull’s history,” Carter said.

He added that there was no doubt Matsui would be assigned to the Bulls—the Ray’s highest affiliate in Triple-A—during the interim period, given his talent and legacy in baseball.

The 37-year-old baseball player is a veteran to the sport, having played for Japan’s Yomiuri Giants before coming to the United States where he played for the New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Oakland Athletics.

Despite his vast experience in the Major Leagues, Matsui worked well with the team, Carter said.

“It’s clear he just loves playing baseball,” he said. “You wouldn’t be able to tell he’s any different than the other guys on the team.”

Carter noted that the only factor distinguishing Matsui from the other players was the entourage of around 30 Japanese media members who followed him around.

During his time with the Bulls, the team experienced back-to-back sellouts and an increase in fan attendance at home games, Carter said. The rehabilitation assignments of Daisuke Matsuzaka and Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox, as well as a busy promotional calendar, also contributed to the strong attendance.

Sophomore Nick Strelke said although he has been unable to attend any of the Bulls’ games so far, he looks forward to watching the team progress in the upcoming years. He added that Matsui’s run with the Bulls was valuable both for the team’s fans and Matsui himself as it may have helped him mentally refocus.

Although Matsui’s time with the Bulls was short, he refueled the fans’ enthusiasm and provided the team with valuable insight on playing in the Major League, said Eric Russman, Trinity ’12, who served as vice president of the club baseball team this past year.

“His presence in the line-up definitely filled some empty spots in the stadium,” Russman said. “Fans are used to seeing players that are developing into stars, not players that are already famous.”

Duke grad's app caps the market

Perched at number six on the top free mobile applications chart in Apple’s iTunes Store as of Wednesday, “I’d Cap That” has stirred a sensation among iPhone users.

Within the past month, the app has grabbed the spotlight by making a presence on national charts. It had the top trending Twitter hashtag—a label used to categorize posts—and it recently ranked as the photo and video app with the most downloads. “I’d Cap That” lets a user personalize their iPhone photo library by assigning captions on individual photos. Random comments are generated by the application, and the final product is then ready to be posted on various social media sites or sent to friends and family, said app creator Cody Kolodziejzyk, Trinity ’12.

“I’d Cap That” was fueled by Kolodziejzyk’s personal goal of improving his iPhone programming knowledge during his time at Duke. A computer science major and captain of the men’s swimming and diving team, Kolodziejzyk said he created the app in approximately two weeks over spring break. He worked on the coding and debugging in the evenings while competing at the NCAA Zone Diving Championships.

“I was compelled by the idea of coming up with hundreds of hilariously crude captions and giving the app out to my friends so we could all have a good laugh,” Kolodziejzyk wrote in an email Wednesday.

Several factors have led to the sudden popularity of the app, said James Martin, who writes the blog “Martin on Mobile Apps” for CIO.com—a media outlet serving chief information officers and other information technology leaders.

Martin noted, however, that a bulk of the app’s success was due to the function it serves in social settings.

“Once you select a photo, the fun begins because you have no idea what funny, crude, lewd, politically incorrect or downright knuckleheaded caption the app will add to your pictures,” Martin said. “I could imagine people at a party having a lot of fun with this app.”

Kolodziejzyk also said he believes that it is the “raw and dry” nature of the app that has captured the attention of so many young people, noting that the younger demographic is much more willing to share their user-generated content and experiment with new social networks.

“I started [the application] with my friend group in mind, but I later realized that the offensive and shocking nature of the app really appealed to people [who] are a few years younger than me,” he said.

The app has also had a large impact within the University, with several students noting its simplicity.

“With technology becoming increasingly complicated, it’s easy to get lost,” sophomore Clair Hong said. “It’s nice that it’s basically accessible to anyone who has a smartphone.”

In a society that highly values speed and efficiency, Kolodziejzyk said, it was important to eliminate user friction and intermediate processes when it came to sharing the photos created using the app.

He noted that the integration of Twitter greatly facilitated the sharing component of the “I’d Cap That” phenomenon.

“[Implementing Twitter connection] allowed the user to share content with minimal intrusion on their user experience,” he said. “As a result, the ‘capped’ photos went totally viral, and the app shot up to the top of the charts in a few days.”

Kolodziejzyk declined to comment on the financial aspects of the mobile app or the revenue generated by it.

He said he hopes to fulfill his passion and continue working in the mobile industry, noting that he will be working in the Silicon Valley in the coming year.

After using concepts learned in his classes, Kolodziejzyk hopes his success with the app will prompt other students to follow up on their own personal projects.

“I could have easily chosen not to bother with this, but ultimately I realized that I wouldn’t lose anything from trying,” he said. “Not only did the app hit number one, but I’ve learned so many valuable things about the app industry along the way.”

Au Bon Pain comes to Bryan Center

Fresh pastries will be on the rise in the Bryan Center this Fall.

National bakery and cafe chain Au Bon Pain will take over the Bryan Center spot formerly occupied by Alpine Atrium. The space, currently under renovation, will open early August. The new vendor will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, offering a healthy menu of soups, salads and sandwiches made to order, along with pastries baked on-site.

The change will be immediately noticeable to students, said Director of Duke Dining Robert Coffey.

“It will be a very bright, warm, inviting space, and we’re looking to enhance the patio seating,” he said. “A lot of [Au Bon Pain’s] food is so visual that it’ll be telling a story with the food choices that are visible to the customer.”

The addition of Au Bon Pain will address requests made by students in recent surveys on their Duke dining experiences, Coffey said. The restaurant offers vegetarian and vegan options and has a variety of low-calorie choices. It also has the capacity to adapt its menu to include seasonal specialties and other items in demand.

The adjustment was spurred by the West Union renovations scheduled for the summer of 2013, said Rick Johnson, assistant vice president of housing and dining. Students will likely turn to the Bryan Center for dining options during the two-year transition phase before the renovations are complete.

“Alpine was very limited,” he said. “It didn’t make sandwiches to order, didn’t make salads to order, didn’t offer six soups every day, didn’t offer a whole array of low-calorie offerings—and those are all the strong points of Au Bon Pain.”

A committee consisting of dining administrators and students from Duke Student Government and the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee examined proposals last Fall from five restaurants before selecting Au Bon Pain.

“Students always want food that is prepared well, that’s healthy and quality and can be eaten very quickly to fit into the demands of student life,” said senior Beth Gordon, DUSDAC co-chair. “Au Bon Pain really caters to that niche.”

Alpine Atrium could have submitted a proposal but declined to do so, Johnson said. Alpine Atrium workers were employees of Alpine and not the University, so Johnson could not confirm if the same employees would be hired for the new Au Bon Pain.

Johnson declined to provide exact figures for the renovation project, but noted that Au Bon Pain is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the development of its Duke location, in addition to more than $200,000 contributed by the University.

The current Bryan Center redesign project includes construction of a basement kitchen for Au Bon Pain, using half of the large catering kitchen space next to the Von Canon rooms as well as the smaller space occupied by Alpine Atrium’s support kitchen. The new kitchen will measure approximately 500 square feet, Johnson noted.

Au Bon Pain and Duke were mutually interested in establishing the new location on campus, Johnson noted. Au Bon Pain operates at multiple universities, including Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Both Duke and Au Bon Pain are looking for the restaurant to be a long-term addition to campus, Coffey said.

“They want to be at Duke,” he said. “They’re making a sizeable investment both in money and effort to build a new store on this campus.”

N.C. Senate considers teacher tenure cut

North Carolina public school teachers may lose significant job security in coming school years.

Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Guilford, proposed the Excellent Public Schools Act in April with the promise to improve literacy, graduation rates and teacher effectiveness. An updated version of the bill cleared the Senate Education Committee May 29.

If passed, the measure will extend the school year by five days, heavily increase emphasis on reading before fourth grade and create a North Carolina Teaching Corps similar to Teach for America. The most contentious provision, however, would alter teacher tenure—a move that has garnered opposition from educators.

“The current system rewards mediocrity and punishes excellence by granting job security to all who teach a few years,” Berger said.

The Excellent Public Schools Act would cost about $440 million over the next five years, according to the Public School Forum of North Carolina, a non-profit policy think tank which is a partnership of North Carolina business, education and government leaders.

The latest version of the bill would place all teachers on one-year contracts—renewable based on performance and evaluations—for the 2012-2013 school year, said Amy Auth, deputy chief of staff for communications and operations for Berger. Teachers would work on one-year contracts until they have worked for three or more years, when they will become eligible for one to four-year contracts with the local school board.

The bill also charges each local education board with developing a system of merit pay for teachers, which would reward high-performing teachers with annual bonuses and salary raises. The original bill would have eliminated tenure for all NC public school teachers—even those with tenured contracts—and moved them to annual contracts with yearly renewal based on teacher performance.

The sponsors changed the bill’s approach to tenure based on feedback from the education community, Auth noted.

Some educators think the stakes of eliminating tenure are too high. For instance, legal precedent would complicate the firing of teachers, even if tenure is eliminated, said Paul Bonner, principal of Myers Park Traditional Elementary School, a magnet school in Charlotte. Tenure’s elimination would harm the safety and appeal of teaching careers, he added.

“Taking away tenure to allow only one-year contracts would end one of the few benefits teachers have—job security,” Bonner said.

Bonner also said the elimination of tenure would make it more difficult for him to ensure that his teachers are performing at a high level.

“Universal one-year contracts would more than triple the number of observations and evaluations principals conduct each year,” he noted. “This would reduce meaningful time rooting out weak teachers, and it would take away the time needed for the myriad of responsibilities required of a principal.”

In an April news release, The North Carolina School Boards Association articulated support for declining tenure to new teachers while maintaining it for those who had achieved tenure or were on track to do so. If tenure is revoked retroactively from teachers, expensive lawsuits may follow. The release cited past lawsuits concerning similar laws and noted that there was little consistency in the legal verdict of these trials.

“While a strong legal argument could be made that ending tenure for those who have already earned it is permissible, how the state courts might rule is far from clear-cut and will likely take years of litigation to play itself out,” the release said.

The Senate will vote on the bill today, Auth said. If passed, the bill will proceed to the state House of Representatives for approval.

Angier leaves ‘big shoes to fill’

The Chronicle is saying goodbye to its long-time business manager, praised by his colleagues for the stability he brought to the organization.

General manager Jonathan Angier is expected to leave his post at The Chronicle by the end of June. Angier managed the organization for 18 years, during notable events such as coverage of the lacrosse scandal, the creation of The Chronicle’s website and the 2008 economic crisis. He will continue to provide assistance throughout the transition to a new general manager.

“It’s time for a change of leadership to someone who is probably better equipped [than I am] to take the company to the next step,” Angier said.

Angier has worked in the journalism industry since high school, operating on both the editorial and business sides of the field. He worked with the Times Publishing Company for 22 years, specifically the St. Petersburg Times, now known as the Tampa Bay Times, and Congressional Quarterly, which was owned by the Times Publishing Company until 2009. He then worked as vice president for operations at real-estate developer the Adler Group, Inc., focusing on the publication of real estate guides in various cities, before joining The Chronicle in 1994.

Angier said his most enduring memory from his time at Duke is The Chronicle’s coverage of the lacrosse scandal, particularly the pride he felt seeing Seyward Darby, Trinity ’07 and editor of The Chronicle’s 101st volume, being interviewed repeatedly on national television.

The Chronicle underwent a number of changes during his time as general manager, Angier said, including the digitization of the paper and the diversification of the staff.

“The most obvious [change] is the swing towards electronic and digital journalism,” he said. “It has changed a lot of things. I also think that the staff of The Chronicle have become more diverse culturally and [in terms of] background.”

Throughout the changes, Angier brought a sense of continuity to The Chronicle, said Elizabeth Morgan, Trinity ‘90 and chair of the Duke Student Publishing Company board.

“He’s provided a lot of stability to the company over the 18 years that he’s been general manager,” she said. “He’s been a very good steward of The Chronicle and very much believes in the work that students do.”

The board is looking to fill the general manager position with someone who will bring a fresh approach to the media business model despite the ambiguity that defines journalism’s future, Morgan noted.

“It’s a challenge to figure out how to bring in the revenue to support the business,” she said. “We’re looking for someone who can look at it as an opportunity rather than a challenge.”

David Graham, vice chair of the DSPC board and Trinity ‘09, noted the breadth of Angier’s expertise, which helped Graham during his time as editor of The Chronicle’s 103rd volume.

“Jonathan was a lot of fun to work with because he understood the organization so well, had been there so long and understands the University so well,” Graham said. “He understands journalism well, too, which I think is something you don’t always get in people who work on the business side of newspapers.”

Graham also noted the poise with which Angier has directed The Chronicle through the economic crisis.

“Like many newspapers we don’t have the sort of revenue we once did, but we’re in better shape than a lot of college papers,” he said. “That’s a testament to his planning and his ability as a general manager.”

Editor Yeshwanth Kandimalla, a junior, said Angier’s guidance has laid the groundwork for the direction the organization will take in coming years.

“He’s really adjusted to the changing nature of journalism as a business,” Kandimalla noted. “He’s gotten the ball rolling for us to plan long-term strategies. Whoever takes his position has big shoes to fill.”

Angier said the most rewarding part of his experience is not the paper itself, but the people.

“The real reward of this job is working with students and helping where we can for them to be successful,” he said. “The kids we get both on [the editorial] side and [the business] side are kids that want to do the right thing, that know how to work, who are not afraid to challenge things.”

A multifaceted search

The search for a new dean to head the Sanford School of Public Policy has been extended after the selected candidate declined his offer. As the search committee gears up to continue looking for candidates, we hope they do so with eye towards a leader capable of continuing the school’s strong suits while charting new paths.

In Sanford’s 41 years, undergraduates have been the prime beneficiaries of the public policy program. Interdisciplinary course offerings give students the opportunity to experience a wide range of fields through a single major, certificates allow students to delve deeper into the material. Students receive strong career guidance and are in fact required to complete an internship in a public policy-related field. The early exposure of students to widely-applicable skills of public policy analysis is a plus for the University, and the school has done well to develop a strong global focus—one which the new dean should deepen and expand. The school has an international career adviser, a global policy pathway, and a study abroad program in Glasgow, Scotland. The new dean should be supportive of such programs and bring in ideas for new ones, in addition to how to having a conception of how Sanford’s goals fit into Duke’s global expansion projects like Duke Kunshan University.

The continuation and growth of Sanford’s global presence will require deep pockets. The school recently announced plans for a $90 million fundraising campaign, one for which the new dean will likely bear responsibility. The search committee should consider candidates’ fundraising experience in light of this looming task.

A possible explanation for Sanford’s weaknesses has to do with inherent geographical limitations. Programs in law and medicine depend on resources within the school’s control, but public policy programs benefits from close proximity to sites where international and domestic policy is formed. For its other strengths and relative closeness to Washington, D.C., Durham will not be that hub of policy-making. The nascent Duke in D.C. program is a step in the right direction in terms of recognizing the importance of geographic ties to policy makers. An attractive candidate for the dean position would have connections in the capital and be able to leverage them to boost Sanford’s curricular and pre-professional resources.

The school’s new dean must understand the challenges posed by geography and offer innovative ways of overcoming them. The school’s improvement is contingent on its ability to attract the brightest students and faculty. The future dean must have a vision for the school that is attractive enough to overcome its unavoidable disadvantages. This pull must be strong enough to lure a prospective student who would otherwise be interested in pursuing big-name internships during his or her course of study.

We trust that the 13-person search committee has the internal perspective necessary to make those decisions. We support the priorities previously expressed by members of the committee, including the importance of considering candidates of diverse backgrounds and ones with experience in both academia and public affairs. The bridging of the ivory tower and the real world is central to the Sanford School’s mission, and it is imperative that the selection of the next dean reflects that balance.

An introduction

Carbon dioxide levels are currently 396.18 parts per million, over 110 ppm higher than levels just prior to the Industrial Revolution.

I’ve been aware of climate change since the third grade. I’ve read about environmental issues for as long as I can remember. Still, writing that sentence brought a cold sweat to my brow.

The famous, so-called “hockey stick graph” clearly depicts the pace of climate change. It shows two lines beating periodically over the course of 400,000 years. A blue line signifies temperature and a red line signifies levels of carbon dioxide (CO2). The two lines on the graph follow each other in a delicate dance, until the present, when the red CO2 shoots up, almost vertically.

CO2 affects temperature, which affects oceanic CO2 levels, which affect biomass, which affects volcanic activity, which affects glacial levels, which affects CO2 … And still that is grossly and almost stupidly oversimplified. Seeing this dense web of relationships is what makes me nervous. It definitely seems that we have increased CO2 far beyond its natural bounds, and to be frank, scientists don’t know exactly what will happen as we continue to pump CO2 into the atmosphere. Global temperature is already changing, and some of our best minds have predicted that the effects will not be good for most.

There are a whole host of reasons why we should be worried—economic, social and political. My motivation is environmental. I used to spend my summers volunteering at Sweetbriar Nature Camp, a nature center in my hometown. I’ve hiked, backpacked and camped. No sight is as pretty to me as looking up at a tree from below, with afternoon, amber sunlight dappling the ground. Every kid should be able to grow up with the opportunity to experience what I did and grow to love nature with the same passion. But more than that, the beauty of nature is such that it should exist for its own implicit sake, without the need to appeal to human comfort.

I believe a major answer to the crisis of climate change is alternative energy. The United States uses approximately 100 quadrillion BTUs (quads) of energy a year. According to some estimates, even if we account for distribution networks and unfavorably remote locations, America would likely be able to derive a majority of its electricity from wind. The argument is even more obvious when we turn to solar. There exist, theoretically, over 586,000 quads of solar potential across the nation. This is 15.4 times more energy than all coal buried in America, estimated at around 38,000 quads. Aggressively developing alternative energy could significantly reduce the amount of energy we derive from fossil fuels, thereby helping to prevent further harm to the delicate atmospheric balance that governs our earth’s temperature.

As denizens of this planet who share its resources and benefit from its natural services, it is our responsibility to actively care about these solutions and these issues. No person is isolated from the boons of nature. Thus, no person can separate themselves from the problems that they are helping to promulgate. At the risk of sounding extremist, I claim that even midrange effects of climate change pose a bigger threat to America and will have bigger reverberations in human consciousness then either the Nazi Holocaust or 30-odd years under fear of nuclear holocaust. Not a single aspect of the natural environment or our own society will be left without drastic, obvious, negative changes.

But how can we, as individuals, most efficiently help? In a case like this, education truly is empowerment. As class registration and drop/add roll around, consider picking up a class in environmental issues. There are also numerous things that you can modify in your daily lifestyle. For instance, try reducing your meat consumption. Ride your bike more. Move your investments from closed securities that might have investments with fossil fuel companies to alternative energy companies or funds that pledge to intelligently invest in sustainable enterprises.

My name is Lucas Spangher, and as this column draws to a close, I’d like to introduce myself. I’m a candidate for a Computer Science and Math major, with the Energy and Environment Certificate, and I hope to make my career applying these technical skills to the field of alternative energy to help the environment. I plan to write broadly on environmental issues relating to climate change, and I sincerely hope that, during the course of this semester, you’ll grow to find them as interesting and as pressing as I do. Thanks for reading, and see you in the fall!

Lucas Spangher is a Trinity junior.

A silence of hypocrites

There is an old Syrian proverb: “A little spark can kindle a great fire.”

On January 26, 2011, that is exactly what happened in Damascus when Hasan Ali Akleh set himself on fire in an act of self-immolation similar to what Mohamed Bouazizi did in Tunis on December 17, 2010. In both cases, the result was the same: revolution.

Kindled by the hopes and dreams of an entire region, a spark caught fire in Syria—and it spread like wildfire. It was fueled by the past transgressions of that country’s brutal leadership and now, despite more than a year of murder, Bashar al-Assad has yet to contain that fire. For he has failed to understand that every Syrian father, mother and child he kills is fuel for the revolution’s persistence. After nearly five decades of Ba’ath Party rule, the idea that the country is not his—that the government exists to serve the people, rather than the other way around—means nothing to him. And so the revolution rages on.

Yet even the most stubborn protestors must succumb to force eventually. Even the loudest rally is no match for bullets. As I watch the videos of peaceful crowds being mowed down by Syrian soldiers and government thugs, my heart sinks. Without help, these people will fail; the flawed doctrine of “might makes right” will prevail. And though much of the world claims to champion freedom, and therefore to empathize with these activists whose sole demand is democracy, the international community has so far met the protestors’ demands with little more than empty actions and silence.

It is a silence of hypocrites.

Because of this shameful dithering, Assad believes—rightly so—that he can commit atrocities without facing consequences. Lacking a moral compass, he has no reason to stay his hand. This is deeply disconcerting. For three decades, Lebanese civilians like my parents suffered torture, intimidation and terrorism from the Assad regime. Now Syrians are being murdered in their own homes by the same government.

Enough is enough.

Take a moment to consider the situation’s gravity. People are dying for the simple reason that they yearn for democracy, yet the West—despite intervening in Libya on behalf of armed rebels at a time when fewer had died—has done little but watch as Assad murders unarmed protestors. How can we call ourselves champions of democracy if we do nothing?

The Syrian uprising is now a fire, a flame, but unless the protestors receive a boost from the world now it will inevitably dwindle to just a flicker. We need only remember the tragedy that occurred during the Hama protests in 1982, when Bashar’s father Hafez used tanks and aircraft to slaughter 20,000 of his own people. If the West remains silent, who knows how high the death toll—which surpassed 8,000 in February—could climb? If Assad believes he faces no consequences for his actions, nothing will stop him.

Yes, we have interests in Syria; yes, those interests could be helped or hurt by intervening. But simple humanity calls on us to do something. We don’t even need to send in missiles; no, sending words would do. But the words we send must be more potent than what has already been said; we—as humans—must demand rights for the Syrian people, must demand that Iran cease its intervention and that Assad step down. Only then can we bolster a people who have been treaded on for so long. Only then can we bring our actions in line with our rhetoric.

The Syrian protesters are a ragtag group of rebels demanding freedom from oppression. Their situation is not unlike that of the American rebels of the eighteenth century—poorly equipped citizens fighting for freedom from a vastly more powerful force that refuses to represent them. Yet even our ancestors had help in attaining liberty—and unlike the majority of Syrian civilians, they were armed. They could fight back.

All the protestors are asking of us now is to know we care—to know that the world cares. Even if democracy wins out in Syria, I fear that later our inaction will bear heavily on the minds of those who have shed blood to attain liberty. As Dr. King said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” True, not all Syrians consider us friends, but Assad has never been our friend. And now we have this one chance to show the people who could replace him that our defining ideology—freedom—is not only an ideal but a reality, too—and a reality that extends to all people, regardless of race or religion.

Eventually, Assad or his sons must renounce power—history teaches that no repressive regime lasts forever. But how long until this family falls? How long until “might makes right” is replaced by morality, until the pen and law and human decency really do triumph over the sword? How much longer can the world stand by and do nothing while young, decent people are tortured, their bodies mangled beyond recognition?

Silence is murder. As of today, the entire world is silent. By sheer complacency alone, the world has allied with a murderer. It is the Syrian rebels versus the world.

They don’t stand a chance.

Michael Shammas is a Trinity senior.

Voting against is still voting

Earlier this month, Amendment One—an amendment to the North Carolina Constitution that precludes the state from recognizing gay marriage, among other kinds of domestic partnerships—was passed by voters. Much has already been made of the bill’s content and the need to “vote against,” but it seems to me that the issue should never have been put to the vote in the first place.

One of the problems with a statewide referendum on the issue of gay marriage, or any domestic matter, is that it implicitly assumes that the state—as opposed to the county, city, neighborhood, place of business or any other pool of people—is the appropriate unit for collective decision-making. It suggests that state residency is a common denominator fundamental enough to bind 9.7 million people to one another’s opinions, interests and backgrounds—complex, diverse, and contradictory though they may be. It contends that it is morally acceptable for 93 counties to decide an issue not only for themselves, but for the remaining seven as well. And it denies a man—or two, or several—the opportunity to lead his life as he, and not as his distant neighbors, sees fit.

In fact, this is true of any state election—from the local to the federal—regardless of the issue or its outcome. To be sure, the Amendment One decision results in a greater and more visible loss of freedom than many others, but each and every vote that has ever been cast has been predicated on establishing a uniform set of rules for a heterogeneous group of people. A simple examination of the purpose behind voting shows this to be true a priori. If, on the one hand, the population was entirely homogeneous, there would be no need to vote, since our identical beliefs, incentives and experiences would compel us all toward the exact same actions and conclusions. The vote, by virtue of its own existence, therefore implies our heterogeneity. On the other hand, it also implies our search for—or perhaps toleration of—one-size-fits-all solutions to our varied and diverse problems. (If we were content with different solutions for different people, again, there would not be a need for the vote).

As local backlash to the Amendment One decision has shown, however, one-size-fits-all solutions tend to fit the mobs that instate them better than the minorities that reject them. Put otherwise, the outcome of the recent vote is not actually a uniform solution for the heterogeneous population of North Carolina. It is a uniform solution for the largest homogeneous community within that population, by which all of the smaller, subordinate populations will henceforth be made to abide. The tension arising from this arrangement, as Friedrich Hayek noted in “The Constitution of Liberty,” is fundamental to the democratic process. “The current theory of democracy,” Hayek wrote, “suffers from the fact that it is usually developed with some ideal homogeneous community in view and then applied to the very imperfect and often arbitrary units which the existing states constitute.” Both the imperfection and arbitrariness of state-level decision-making have revealed themselves to progressive voters here, many of whom now seem to be eager to distance themselves as much as possible from the state and their fellow citizens.

Take, for example, their observation that support for Amendment One is inversely related to level of education, and that those counties that voted against the amendment are all home to major universities. It is, of course, difficult to say exactly why it is that voters have invoked these relationships, but some seem to do so as an assertion of the validity of their position. What has been overlooked, however, is the way that this reality affirms the ideas of Hayek and Hans-Hermann Hoppe on democracy as a process. It is likely in many cases that those living close to universities may choose differently—not always better and not always worse, both of which are subjective moral valuations in the first place—than those living in more rural areas. After all, the influence of the schools on the surrounding populace will undoubtedly restructure the behaviors and philosophies of citizens in ways so varied that we cannot hope to anticipate them. To put such a matter to a statewide vote then—in which every possible character trait and personal history becomes a variable—is something of an absurd version of “apples-to-oranges.” Each voter holds the population of North Carolina to his or her own personal standards and influences the decision toward his or her own personal goals, with the result that millions end up unhappy.

Hoppe discusses this same basic problem in relation to the immigration question, but his point about the supremacy of small states in collective decision-making would be fitting here as well. “Secession solves this problem,” Hoppe explains, “by letting smaller territories each have their own admission standards and determine independently with whom they will associate on their own territory and with whom they prefer to cooperate from a distance.” He goes on to point out that as units of decision-making get smaller and smaller, the variability between states increases to the extent that the varied interests of a diverse global population are increasingly better served. And, so long as citizens are able to “vote with their feet,” pressure will largely be put on communities to make themselves as appealing as possible.

Hoppe’s point is an extreme one, but it does not take a secession to return to what many of us have known since we were children, and what many of us have wished for in the past few weeks: that each of us should be allowed to decide what is best for ourselves, so long as we only allow others to do the same. Placing each personal decision—from our lifestyle choices to the fates of our wealth and estates—on state and nationwide ballots violates this basic principle, and we are ever the more frustrated for it.

Chris Bassil, Trinity ‘12, is currently a research technician in the department of pediatric oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Mass.

Remembering our fallen

Monday was Memorial Day, a day that marks the annual commemoration of the brave men and women who have died defending our country. On this day, family of the fallen mourn their losses, memorial services honor countless servicemen and women and many pray for a time when war will no longer be necessary. Although remembering the fallen is an emotionally draining experience for anyone, it’s important to ensure that the men and women who have sacrificed their lives for us haven’t died in vain. Too often, we overlook the “Memorial” in Memorial Day. We do not observe the day properly—as a time to honor our ancestors and loved ones who have died protecting our flag. Indeed, some of us even forget to celebrate the holiday at all. Observing Memorial Day is important, but it is also important to remember our troops at other times throughout the year.

Our troops embody the soul of our country. They fight, not for themselves, but to defend the rights of the millions of Americans who support them from the home front. Journalist Francis A. Walker once said, “We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them.” Thus, let us not be saddened by the deaths of our soldiers, but instead let us be inspired by the fact that our fallen exemplify exactly what “home of the brave” stands for—honor, duty and sacrifice.

In order to do this, I would like to share a story that was passed on to me by my uncle, Sergeant “Sarge” Fuller, who served in the Vietnam War. Uncle Sarge had a friend he met during basic combat training in Fort Bragg, N.C. Every now and then, he and his friend would visit the medical center to volunteer or participate in a training program. One day, Sarge’s friend was walking through the halls of the medical center when he heard an old patient calling out for his son. The serviceman approached the old man’s bedside and sat in a chair alongside the patient’s bed.

Heavily sedated in order to dull the pain resulting from a heart attack, the old man could not tell whether or not the soldier was his son, but he slowly reached out his trembling hand, hoping that it was his son standing next to the oxygen tank. The soldier wrapped his tough fingers around the old man’s fragile hand, conveying a much-needed message of love and reassurance. Throughout the night, the solider kept hold of the old man’s hand. When the nurse finally came in to check on the patient, she asked of his relation to the old man. The solider replied by telling her that he was the patient’s son.

At times throughout the night, the nurse would suggest that the soldier let go of the patient’s hand and rest for a while, but the soldier refused. Every now and then, he would utter a few words of prayer. In turn, the dying old man said nothing and only retained his grip on the soldier’s hand. Just as the sun was beginning to rise, the old man stopped breathing. The soldier finally released the old man’s lifeless hand to notify the nurse, and moments later, she came in for a final declaration of death and offered a few words of sympathy to the soldier. As the nurse was beginning to walk out, the soldier startled her with an unexpected question: “Who was this man?”

“Wasn’t he your father?” replied the nurse suspiciously. “I have never seen him before in my entire life,” said the soldier. After hearing his response, the nurse started shedding tears.

The soldier knew that the old man needed his son despite his son’s absence. After realizing that the old man was sedated, the soldier decided to stay, knowing that the old man needed him. Sure, there’s no way of me telling whether or not my uncle’s story is true, but I know well enough that there are thousands of inspirational stories out there, just like this one, that bring tears to our eyes. Yes, we are all divided based upon whether or not we are in favor of current wars, but regardless of our disunity, there’s no reason why anyone shouldn’t honor our fallen heroes—for indeed they, like my uncle’s friend, embody what is best in the American spirit.

Memorial Day is a day when we should all be grateful for the work of our troops, but it is not an excuse for us to care about them for only one day out of every year. We have thousands of troops who, as you are reading this column, are fighting to defend our country. Is it not selfish of us to honor them on one day and then to proceed with our lives on the next? Remembering the fallen is an American duty. Rather than just thanking them for their service on one day, we can do a hell of a better job at making sure that they didn’t die in vain.

Mousa Alshanteer is a Trinity freshman.

Offensive woes doom Blue Devils

It is one of the oldest adages in sports—you cannot win if you cannot score.

Then it should come as no surprise that No. 3 Duke (15-5) fell to unseeded Maryland (12-5) 16-10 in the NCAA tournament semifinal at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. Saturday evening. The Blue Devils, who scored 17 goals in the first three quarters of its quarterfinal victory over Colgate, were unable to put together a scoring run when they needed it the most.

“You could see it looked bad, but we didn’t play up to the level we’ve been these past couple weeks, which makes it kind of disappointing,” senior Justin Turri said. “We just didn’t do a good job of being patient enough.”

Duke’s offensive attack was stymied by Maryland’s defenders, scoring just eight goals in the game’s first 58:33 before adding two late goals to soften the blow with the game out of reach. In program history, the Blue Devils are 19-7 in NCAA tournament play when scoring 10 goals or more, but just 1-8 when tallying single digits. Terrapin defenseman Goran Murray held Jordan Wolf, the Blue Devils’ leader in points, without a goal. Wolf, who only registered one shot on the evening, was scoreless in Duke’s three matchups with Maryland this season.

“The Maryland kids come in, and they’re tough and rugged young men and very confident,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “I thought our guys backed down at times and were not as confident as they’ve been. But, again, perhaps it was due to how well Maryland was playing.”

Duke, which dismantled Colgate thanks to a 13-0 run, has taken advantage of its quick strike ability all season. The Blue Devils frequently utilize their ability to win faceoffs as a means of getting out in transition, and even though they was able to come away with 15 of the contest’s 28 draws, there was little transition offense to be found.

Duke was never able to string together more than two consecutive goals, but the Terrapins tallied three or more unanswered scores on three separate occasions in the contest. After holding Colgate scoreless for 26:14 last weekend, the Blue Devils were held scoreless for stretches of 13:30, 13:05 and 12:17 by Maryland’s defensive unit.

“We had a really good gameplan. Our coaches put us in good positions to succeed,” Maryland goaltender Niko Amato said. “Our scout guys on offense gave us a great look all week and mimicked Duke’s offensive personnel and gameplan.”

The Terrapin defenders were able to cut off Duke’s passing lanes, allowing them to key on individual matchups without having to worry about the Blue Devils’ ball movement. Duke’s three assists were its second-lowest total on the season. The Blue Devils averaged just under seven assists per game in its victories this season while managing just three per game in its losses.

Despite all of these offensive woes, a goal by Justin Turri with 2:20 remaining in the third quarter kept Duke in reach, trailing by a 10-7 margin. The Blue Devils had a bevy of chances before the quarter drew to a close, failing to convert on two extra-man opportunities. The man-up unit, which has been Duke’s Achilles’ heel all season, scored just once in six opportunities against the Terrapins.

Robert Rotanz made a run from midfield to pull within two goals early in the fourth quarter, but the Blue Devils had let too many opportunities slip through their grasp. Maryland took a page out of Duke’s playbook, scoring three unanswered goals in 3:07 to build a 13-8 cushion. Danowski took out Dan Wigrizer in favor of Kyle Turri and pulled his goaltenders out of the cage to double the ball as the Terrapins found the emptied net three more times.

Duke left the field for the second year in a row following a loss to Maryland in the semifinal, once again outplayed by the unseeded Terrapins.

Duke falls in semifinals

As an unseeded team who lost to Duke in the ACC semifinals, Maryland was determined to prove itself.

The Terrapins did just that, pummeling the third-seeded Blue Devils 16-10 in the NCAA semifinals Saturday at Gillette Stadium on Foxborough, Mass. This marks the second consecutive year Duke has lost to Maryland in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament.

“They were better than us today,” Duke senior CJ Costabile said. “They played all parts of the game offensively. Defensively we couldn’t stop them. There was no backside help.”

After trailing the entire game, the Blue Devils (15-5) narrowed the margin to 10-8 with 13:44 left in regulation, but could not keep it close, allowing six goals in the final period of play. The Terrapins (12-6) scored on 16-of-29 shot attempts, making it difficult for the Blue Devils to stay in the game.

Duke, by contrast, only capitalized on 10-of-32 of shot attempts. Maryland senior Drew Snider led all players with four goals.

“The Maryland kids were sharp,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “They shot very well and put the ball on each other’s sticks. I thought they were much more confident than we were.”

After surrendering three unanswered goals to the Terrapins in the first 12:48 of play, Duke sophomore Josh Dionne finally put the Blue Devils on the scoreboard with a goal assisted by sophomore Jordan Wolf. Senior Robert Rotanz then added an unassisted tally to bring them within one.

In the second quarter, however, Duke struggled to stay close as Maryland efficiently netted four of its five shot attempts. It began when Terrapin sophomore Mike Chanenchuk fired a low shot past junior goaltender Dan Wigrizer on a man-up opportunity 32 seconds into the period. Costabile answered with a goal off the ensuing faceoff, but goals from junior Kevin Cooper and Owen Blye extended Maryland’s lead to three with 10:28 left in the half.

A Duke timeout at the 3:36 mark helped the Blue Devils regroup, with sophomore Christian Walsh scoring 23 seconds later. The first of Snider’s goals, however, coming with 13.4 seconds remaining in the half, sent Maryland to the locker room with a commanding 7-4 advantage.

“We were finding each other on good spots on the field,” Snider said. “We all felt really comfortable with our offensive game plan. I thought we were very organized.”

Snider kicked off second-half scoring 5:54 into the third quarter, then notched his third tally less than two minutes later to give the Terrapins a 9-4 lead. Duke senior Justin Turri and junior Josh Offit responded with two goals to cut Maryland’s advantage to three, and the two teams traded goals to finish the frame to keep that margin steady.

After Rotanz scored 1:14 into the fourth quarter to bring Duke within two, the smallest margin since the second period, Maryland rattled off six consecutive goals to take a 16-8 lead and put the game firmly out of reach. The Blue Devils scored two late goals in the final minute and a half of regulation, but it was too little too late, as the Terrapins had already punched their ticket to the championship game.

“I just wanted to remind these guys, we know we’re talented, but we’re an unseeded team, and we definitely want to play with a chip on our shoulder,” Maryland goaltender Niko Amato said.

After toppling second-seeded Johns Hopkins in the quarterfinals and then Duke, Maryland could not overcome first-seeded Loyola (MD) in the championship game, losing 9-3.

ZOU-BAKING

Growing up, Brian Zoubek was always enamored with a bakery in his hometown of Haddonfield, N.J. that he believed made its products in a unique way.

Now quite the grownup, standing at 7-foot-1, the former Duke center has called basketball quits and is using that childhood inspiration to start a bakery of his own—“Dream Puffz.”

“My plan is to bring my brand of cream puff to the world,” Zoubek said. “We do them a little bit smaller, the shell is a little bit softer than usual, and we have unique, fresh and natural ingredients.”

Following his senior year and the team’s national championship in 2010, Zoubek initially tried to make the NBA. After going undrafted and dabbling in professional basketball over that summer, he then worked on a technology project with a few other people.

But the aroma of cream puffs beckoned, eventually luring him to begin his own venture, with his first Dream Puffz set to open in Haddonfield less than a month from now. It required investing his own money into the project, in addition to a contribution from his parents, but he now has plans to bring the project to New York City, as well.

Zoubek is working with a young chef from Philadelphia, but said he can also make the cream puffs himself.

“I couldn’t just sit at a desk and work at a computer. I wanted to do something more hands-on,” Zoubek said. “I’ve got the entrepreneurial kick. I’ll be doing that the rest of my life no matter what happens with this [individual project].”

His former teammates are also getting a kick out of his venture, as many assembled at the Krzyzewski Center for Athletic Excellence for the 10th annual K Academy, Duke basketball’s five-day fantasy camp that began Wednesday.

Nolan Smith, who now plays for the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA and played at Duke with Zoubek for three seasons, said he plans to tease his former teammate, though he is confident Zoubek will be successful.

“I haven’t [given him grief] yet. I’m going to though,” Smith said. “I’m excited for him. He’s a great guy with a great mind.”

Jon Scheyer played all four years with Zoubek and, after playing basketball in Israel this past year, is back working out and trying to compete stateside. Although separated by distance, the pair have stayed in touch throughout the process.

“He’s going to be a very successful businessman one day, whether it’s with cream puffs or whatnot,” Scheyer said.

Scheyer expressed disappointment that he has yet to try one of the cream puffs. Zoubek, however, joked this is a good thing because his former teammate needs to stay in shape.

“Jon is in training, and he’s already fat,” Zoubek said. “He can’t have any.”

Former teammate Casey Peters, who graduated with Smith, has also yet to try a cream puff but soon may have the opportunity to gain easy access to the tasty treats. Currently working at Crestline Investors in Fort Worth, Texas, Peters said he may move to New York City where he and Zoubek have discussed moving in together.

“Dream Puffz are going to be big,” Peters said. “He said they go pretty quickly as soon as they get put in the fridge.”

While Zoubek remains close to his connections from Duke basketball who are supportive of his endeavor, he has now evolved because he is no longer an athlete. He can stray from his once-strict diet and eat foods, such as cream puffs, that he used to avoid.

“Now that I’m done with basketball, I can indulge a little bit,” Zoubek said. “I eat it all the time.”

McNally resigns as baseball coach

Director of athletics Kevin White announced the resignation of baseball head coach Sean McNally today, according to a press release from Duke Athletics.

The head coach since 2006, McNally had an overall record of 192-198-1, with the Blue Devils struggling mightily in ACC play, recording a 63-145-1 mark for a winning percentage of just .301. Duke finished 9-21 in the conference this year, good for last place. The team failed to make the ACC tournament in six of his seven years at the helm.

“I would like to thank Duke University and Duke Athletics for the amazing opportunity to have served as the head baseball coach at my alma mater for the last seven years,” McNally said according to the release. “The effort to become a consistent winning baseball program in Atlantic Coast Conference play has been exhausting, and the results have been disappointing. I am looking forward to spending more time with my family and seeking out a new professional challenge going forward.”

Under McNally, 13 players were selected in the MLB Draft with a 14th very likely in next week’s upcoming draft. Junior right-hander Marcus Stroman is expected to be a first-round selection, the first in program history.

Stroman was among the NCAA leaders with a 2.39 ERA and 136 strikeouts in 98.0 innings pitched this season.

Law School to offer dual degree in entrepreneurship

Starting next summer, Law School students will have the opportunity to participate in a unique dual degree program in law and entrepreneurship.

The new joint Master of Law and Juris Doctor degree program is based on the current LLM in Law and Entrepreneurship—a program for law school graduates who want to expand their knowledge with an additional degree focused on entrepreneurship. Duke is the second law school in the country to offer an LLM in entrepreneurship, the first being the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The program falls in line with the University’s recent efforts to support entrepreneurs through its Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative. The initiative, which fosters programs across Duke, recently received a $15 million gift from David Rubenstein, Trinity ’70 and vice chair of the Board of Trustees.

“[The degree is] geared toward people who want to be significant players in the entrepreneurial community,” said Kip Frey, visiting professor of the practice of law and director of the existing Law and Entrepreneurship program. “They may be people who want to start their own company, become members of management teams of startups or become in-house counsel at early stage companies.”

Graduates from law school today want more options beyond the traditional law degree, Frey added.

“The LLM has been in place for two years now, and has created such terrific resources in the school that we thought it made sense to give students enrolled in our JD program the opportunity to pursue that same degree,” said William Hoye, associate dean for admissions and student affairs.

As part of the current LLM in Entrepreneurship program, the Law School has added faculty members and clinics focused on entrepreneurship. This has made setting up the new joint program easier than starting from scratch, Frey said.

Students in the new program will be required to spend an extra summer on campus. In addition to the 84 credits required for the JD degree, joint degree students will earn an extra 20 to 23 credits for the LLM. Each student in the program will spend the summer after their first year working for a startup or similar enterprise in the Research Triangle area.

“The student experience [in the current and new LLM programs] won’t be exactly the same, but they’ll share some of the experiences,” Frey said. “It’s an entrepreneurship boot camp that teaches them about the entire entrepreneurial process in a concentrated period of time.”

The existing LLM in Law and Entrepreneurship gives graduates knowledge they can use every day as attorneys, said Padowithz Alce, LLM ’11.

“My year in entrepreneurship work was worth more than a lot of my other years in school,” Alce said. “It gives you an understanding of business from the entrepreneur’s perspective and from the financing and venture capital perspectives.”

The application process for prospective law students will not change, Frey said, noting that administrators want to gauge interest in the program before setting limits on how many students can enroll in the program.

The hands-on, practical experience of the LLM program in its current form was an important aspect of the program as a whole, Alce noted.

“The benefits I’ve received from going through this program are enormous,” he said.

Search for new Sanford dean still open

The search continues for the new dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy after an initial shortlist of three candidates did not yield a taker.

The faculty search committee, which began the dean search last Fall, presented three names to President Richard Brodhead and Provost Peter Lange in February. The president and provost extended an initial offer to one of these candidates, who eventually withdrew to accept a position elsewhere, Lange said. A new search committee is renewing the process this summer. Current Sanford Dean Bruce Kuniholm will stay on in his position through the coming year until a successor is found.

“We pursued a candidate, and he took a while to decide, and he chose not to accept the position,” Lange said. “Obviously, we’d like to get the person we go after. Often that happens but not always.”

Lange and members of the search committee declined to confirm the identities of the candidates, but Lange did confirm that the man who received an offer had not gone through the same process of lecturing and meeting with Sanford faculty as the other candidates. Instead, he met privately with the committee and an executive committee of Sanford faculty.

“That candidate was in a position in which revealing his name at the stage... would have affected his ability to do the job he was in,” Lange said. “We would not have made that candidate a final offer without [him] meeting with the faculty as a whole, but that’s the candidate who withdrew to take another position.”

Although a new dean was not secured, the search process functioned well and provided University leaders with a significant amount of input from many sources, said search committee chair Helen Ladd, Edgar T. Thompson distinguished professor of public policy. The lack of a new dean does not reflect how the process was conducted but on the high ambitions of the search and the specific difficulties of dean selection, she noted.

“You’re looking for someone who has done spectacular things wherever they happen to be, and if they’ve done spectacular things, chances are they’re reasonably satisfied where they are or someone else is out there searching, and they think they’re a spectacular person, too,” said search committee member Jacob Vigdor, a professor of public policy and economics.

In August 2011, Kuniholm announced his intention to step down as dean at the end of the academic year, and a faculty search committee subsequently convened. That committee, led by Ladd, collected information on candidates throughout Fall 2011. They invited a large group of candidates for private interviews with the committee, Ladd said, before narrowing the field to five candidates, who they invited to visit Sanford faculty and deliver a lecture in January.

The committee presented its three final choices to Brodhead and Lange in February. The president and provost received extensive written information about the candidates and asked the committee members for individual feedback, Ladd said. The committee returned in March for further discussion of the candidates.

After Lange and Brodhead each met individually with the final candidates, they extended an initial offer to one of them, who went on to accept a position at another university .

Ladd said a search of this kind requires sensitivity because if a leader at another university is considering a position at Duke and his or her name becomes public, that could jeopardize the candidate’s ability to lead in their current role.

Although they declined to identify any candidates, those involved in the search process affirmed that the final choices included candidates of diverse backgrounds. Ladd confirmed that one or more of the final five candidates was black.

“We urge and press upon every search committee to seek a diverse pool of candidates, and I seek to assure that they do so,” Lange said.

The dean search is further complicated by the caliber of potential candidates. They must balance commitments at their current universities and the implications for their families of moving to a new part of the country, Ladd said. The final process is more of a negotiation than a job offer.

“The recruiting goes both ways,” Vigdor said. “The committee has to do more than have candidates convince them that they are right for Duke. The committee has to convince the candidates that Duke is right for them.”

The search committee met with Lange last week to continue the process, said Elizabeth Frankenberg, professor of public policy and sociology. Lange and Brodhead asked Frankenberg to take over the committee as chair for the next leg of the search.

“They understand that the chair has a big job, and they didn’t want to impose that on me for another year,” Ladd said. “I’m very comfortable with that. I don’t feel like this is a repudiation of me in any way, shape or form.”

Four committee members, including Ladd and Vigdor, chose not to continue as members of the search committee. Two new members have joined, bringing the total to 13, Frankenberg said.

The new search has the benefit of building on the work done by the committee last year, Frankenberg added.

“By starting earlier and taking advantage of the fact that a lot of the legwork has been done, that should improve the chances of strong recruitment,” she said. “We have much more fortuitous timing this time around.”

The committee will also pay special attention to Washington, D.C. for prospective candidates finishing up policy roles in President Barack Obama’s administration. Government policymakers may consider Duke as a good opportunity to pursue after three or four years working in the capital, Lange said.

Applied policy experience, combined with solid academic credentials would enhance what a candidate could bring to Sanford, Vigdor said.

“We try to be a little less ivory-tower focused and more real-world focused, and hiring a dean that has gone back and forth between ivory tower and real world would be attractive,” he said.

Rise in obesity to cost billions

Without interventions, 42 percent of the American population will be obese by 2030, a rate that could cost billions in medical expenditures, a recent study predicted.

Led by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Duke Global Health Institute, the study determined that previous statistical forecasts that predicted an obesity prevalence of 51 percent by 2030 were too high. The study suggests, rather, that obesity prevalence will increase by 33 percent by 2030, to 42 percent of the population, if interventions are not put in place.

The researchers also predicted severe obesity to expand at a greater rate than previously projected, forecasting that 11 percent of the population will be severely obese by 2030.

“[Although] the [obesity prevalence] numbers are ominous, they were not unexpected,” lead author Eric Finkelstein, associate research professor in the DGHI, wrote in an email Monday. “What did surprise me was the doubling in severe obesity prevalence.... That is a big cause for concern.”

The study used body mass index as an indicator of obesity—with a BMI of 30 or more indicating obesity and a BMI of 40 or more indicating severe obesity.

In order to clarify the additional cost of expanding obesity, the researchers compared projected rates to a 2010 benchmark. The researchers concluded that if obesity rates are kept at 2010 levels, almost $550 billion could be saved in medical expenditures over the next two decades.

“The more obese people, the more it costs to treat their medical conditions,” Finkelstein said. “Another 20 years of 32 million more obese people adds up very quickly.”

Dr. Sarah Armstrong, director of the Duke Children’s Healthy Lifestyles Program, said childhood obesity follows the trend of obesity in general. Whereas the rate of childhood obesity has plateaued, more kids aged six to 11 are becoming severely obese. She noted the effects of obesogenic environments, which promote weight gain.

“People may not have a local grocery store or transportation to a place that allows them to be physically active, [so] environmental factors are more important than the personal decisions made on a daily basis,” Armstrong said.

Because medical issues that arise as a result of obesity—including cardiovascular disease—are all problems that begin in childhood, more efforts should be geared toward childhood obesity prevention, Armstrong said.

“Autopsies performed on children as young as 14 show those with a higher BMI tend to have more fat in their blood vessels,” she said. “Since heart disease is the most expensive ticket item for us in terms of overall health, anything we can do as a culture to prevent kids from getting obese would be the best cost-saving strategy for the future.”

Finkelstein similarly noted that a focus on kids and schools is the best hope for fighting the obesity epidemic.

The authors presented this study at the CDC’s Weight of the Nation conference May 7-9. At the conference, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies published a list of recommendations to help fight the obesity epidemic: to integrate physical activity into daily routines, market healthy living, make healthy foods and beverages more widely available, activate employers and health care professionals and strengthen the role of schools in promoting health.

Kelli Friedman, a psychiatrist with the Duke Center for Metabolic and Weight Loss Surgery, stressed the importance of giving support to patients trying to lose weight. People battling with clinical depression as a result of their obesity need to be treated for their psychological issues first and foremost.

“We have to think about the psychology of obesity—not only as depression being a cause of weight gain, but also as the effect of a society that so stigmatizes weight,” she said. “We need to give more support for patients who are trying to lose weight.”

Kappa Sigma to return to campus

Nearly a decade after removing itself from the Interfraternity Council, Duke’s Eta Prime chapter of Kappa Sigma fraternity is once again recognized by the University.

Negotiations between the fraternity and IFC began in March, with discussions among the IFC executive board and the presidents of each IFC fraternity. By the end of the semester, IFC agreed on a set of stipulations in order for Kappa Sigma to rejoin the council. The fraternity received provisional recognition from the national Kappa Sigma organization January 2011.

“The lack of off-campus fraternities is a strength... for IFC,” said IFC President Andrew Bentley, a senior. “I’m personally very excited for [Kappa Sigma] to come on because... it’s a really big step to working towards a more unified and stronger greek community.”

Kappa Sigma dissolved itself in 2002, facing impending sanctions from the University as well as its national headquarters due to issues of misconduct. The group continued unofficially operating off-campus under its chapter name, Eta Prime.

Kappa Sigma attempted to rejoin IFC during the 2010-2011 academic year but was unable to agree with IFC on terms for their re-entry, Bentley said. But when Alex Gendell, Trinity ‘12—then Kappa Sigma president—approached Bentley this year, Kappa Sigma had nearly finalized its charter from the national organization.

“Now that [IFC] knows we have a year under our belts following Kappa Sigma guidelines—which are akin to all the other fraternity guidelines—they had a little more faith that we could be a part of their system,” Gendell said.

He noted that the desire to rejoin IFC was fueled largely by the new housing model.

“We felt that Duke was changing a lot and it was clearly not in the benefit of off-campus fraternities,” Gendell said. “In past years, we could still block together as a pledge class.... Now that you’re randomly assigned and can only block with six, it just separates the class too much and doesn’t promote the unity that a fraternity should have.”

Todd Adams, senior associate dean of students and former director of fraternity and sorority life, said he recalls an overall sense of disappointment when the Eta Prime chapter of Kappa Sigma dissolved in 2002.

“It’s not uncommon for groups to go through some challenges, to have some sanctions due to discipline, and the fact that this group chose to [disaffiliate] rather than work through those challenges was disappointing at the time,” Adams said. “The University community was disappointed, the greek community was disappointed, and honestly I don’t think the young men involved were particularly happy either.”

Adams said the chapter chose to dissolve instead of facing punishment from the University and the national organization as a result of wayward conduct. The chapter would have experienced social suspension and higher insurance rates.

“They had alcohol policy violations, financial errors, and they were also levied with conduct unbecoming of the chapter,” Adams said.

Gendell added that the fraternity looks forward to having events with other student groups, noting that as an off-campus fraternity they weren’t allowed to affiliate with other student groups in any capacity. He also said alumni relations will improve as the chapter enjoys its national charter and IFC membership.

“Our alumni relations [executive board chair] now has a more prominent position because our alumni base is much more interested in being involved now that we’re back on campus and chartered,” Gendell said.

Clarybel Peguero, assistant dean of fraternity and sorority life, said she is excited for Kappa Sigma to come back to Duke but noted the difficulties associated with returning to a campus environment after such a long furlough.

“Because they haven’t been a recognized group for so long as far as University standing, it will be challenging for them to adhere to all the policies and procedures and having to do all the events and initiatives our office puts on,” Peguero said. “But I know they’ll be able to do it.”

Bentley declined to comment on the specific conditions for Kappa Sigma’s IFC reintegration but noted that they are not meant to demean the chapter in any way.

“The main theme is making sure they’re organizationally sound and that they’re ready to function and exist within the more formal framework that you have as an IFC fraternity.”

Incoming Kappa Sigma President Drew Evancho, a senior, said he looks forward to integrating his chapter into the IFC community.

“We’re excited to officially return to Duke’s campus and officially have events on campus,” Evancho said.

He noted that the chapter will continue with its philanthropic work, particularly its Military Heroes Campaign, which aids wounded military veterans.

Program fights diabetes in the underserved South

A collaborative effort to reduce diabetes in the South will receive a major boost from the federal government.

The Duke University Medical Center and the University of Michigan’s National Center for Geospatial Medicine are partners in “From Clinic to Community: Achieving Health Equity in the Southern United States,” an effort to bring more community-based care to counties where Type 2 diabetes is particularly prevalent. The plan, which focuses on patient-centered care, is among the preliminary Health Care Innovation Award recipients. Given by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation Center, the approximately $9.7 million award will be implemented to spearhead programs in four underserved Southeast counties: Durham County, N.C.; Cabarrus County, N.C.; Quitman County, Miss. and Mingo County, W.Va.

Within these regions, the money will be used toward the delivery of medical care to the homes of people with Type 2 diabetes, said Dr. Robert Califf, vice chancellor for clinical research at Duke and leader of the project.

“Type 2 diabetes is a massive epidemic now that is having a huge toll on death and disability globally, but especially in the Southeast of the United States,” Califf said. “For people within those life circumstances—and there are a lot of them—we have layers of people who can help that are actually in the neighborhood and can stop by your house and check on you.”

Medical care needed to help people with complications from diabetes—such as cardiac procedures and dialysis—is extremely costly, Califf said, adding that a reduction in diabetes in the four counties is estimated to save $20 million alone.

The plan will rely on technology created by Califf and Marie Lynn Miranda, director of Michigan’s National Center for Geospatial Medicine, which has an office in Durham.

The technology makes use of an electronic health record driven by geospatial referencing to determine which members of a particular community need more intensive care, Califf said. Geospatially enabled health information technology is an approach that applies statistical analysis and other informational techniques to geographically based data.

“We start with this sophisticated technology system that combines medical record data and data on the communities where people live to target intervention programs for people living with Type 2 diabetes,” Miranda said. “The data infrastructure helps us understand the different resources available to people in different counties, so we can design different interventions.”

Califf noted that diabetes is a major issue in the Southeast because of the region’s recent urbanization. In a rural county with a large farming community, people are accustomed to a higher calorie intake because of their daily physical exertion. But urbanization promotes a more sedentary lifestyle, which, combined with the same high-caloric eating habits, results in an increased rate of diabetes.

The four counties represent different demographics, Califf added. Durham County and Cabarrus County are both urbanized, whereas Quitman County and Mingo County are rural. Furthermore, the counties represent different racial demographics—with Quitman County largely populated by black people and Mingo County by white people.

“We really will have all the cultural influences in all those four counties culminate. Regardless of which culture you come from, there is this high rate of obesity and diabetes,” Califf said. “That’s the backdrop of why we thought these four areas would be important for a project that is supposed to show how the change in the delivery of health care has a big impact.”

Gayle Harris, director of the Durham County Board Health department, said the award will be used in part to create homecare teams of dietitians, social workers and community health workers. Funding will also be used to set up a diabetes intelligence office that will take the information provided by the geospatially enabled health information technology to raise awareness in certain communities on what people can do to prevent the onset of Type 2 diabetes.

“Winning the award is both a triumph and tremendous challenge,” Miranda said. “The CMS [Innovation Center] has placed public trust in us in the belief that we can make real and meaningful change in our country, and we have to step up to this challenge and make this program work.”

Q & A with James Hildebrand

Last month, James Hildebrand, medical technologist and supervisor of the Duke Allergy Lab, became one of the year’s four recipients of the Presidential Award, one of the highest awards given to Duke faculty and staff. In his 27 years at Duke, Hildebrand has formulated almost 120,000 customized allergy vaccines. He also assisted in the development of electronic record-keeping software for the lab, years before Duke Medicine went digital. He recently spoke with The Chronicle about making customized allergy vaccines, the jump from paper cards to digital notation and receiving the Presidential Award.

The Chronicle: How do you go about making the customized allergy vaccines?

James Hildebrand: All these vials are custom made for each patient because everyone is different. We buy liquid extracts, mostly from Greer Laboratories here in North Carolina, based on the results of allergy skin tests for the different grasses, tree pollens, cat and dog extracts—all sorts of things. Based on exactly what the patient reacts to, the allergy physician makes a formula requesting so much of certain items. For example, if they’re allergic to red oak, [the physician will] put a certain volume of red oak extract into that vial. From that you have a custom made vial that a patient receives their shots from. When a patient receives their shots, we make four or five dilutions from that maintenance vial—the full strength vial. When a patient starts out they receive a very weak solution, and the proteins in it gradually stimulate the immune system to later on recognize the allergen as non-foreign. All the symptoms are hopefully reduced because the body has been exposed to these proteins gradually with the vials. The patients work through these vials, each one getting stronger, until they get their shots from that last vial.

TC: How often do patients receive the treatment?

JH: Patients usually get the shots every week, or every few weeks. It varies by patient. Patients will stay on those shots for maybe several years, and then depending on how they respond—if their symptoms go away for the most part—they stop the shots. If the symptoms are not improved or they go away for a while and come back, then we have to do the skin testing again, and maybe change that formula—maybe make something stronger or see if the patient became allergic to something new.

TC: How many vaccines do you make on average?

JH: Some allergists are very conservative with giving people shots and then you can run into allergists who will put many people on shots. I think that goes to how these doctors were trained and their own personal philosophy. We’re probably only making up to 200 vials a month, but 15 plus years ago, there were times where we made over 10,000 maintenance vials in a year.

TC: What were you doing before you came to Duke?

JH: I come from a hospital lab background... doing all the blood testing, blood chemistry and all the other things that are really critical to physicians making decisions on how to treat patients. So when I came to Duke in 1985, I brought that mindset with me. The setting here wasn’t as stressful and you didn’t have all the standard blood work and other things that you have to do in a typical hospital lab. I’ve worked for five different allergists as our lab directors. We’ve had a good crew of people over the years, but right now it’s really down to myself and another woman and we’re managing the volume of work that’s there.

TC: What about the software you helped develop for keeping track of the vaccines?

Dr. C. Edward Buckley III, the allergist that hired me in 1985, started working on an allergy vaccine database that maintained the vaccine records so we didn’t have to keep them on paper cards. I wasn’t writing the code, but I’m the person that basically has to tell the programmer what to write or at least how we want the database to appear. We have two Microsoft access applications—one that manages the vaccines and one that manages our skin test results. That database has basically replaced one full time employee easily. This has been in place since the mid ’90’s, so there’s no telling how much money it’s saved. We’re trying to do the best we can and we’ll keep on it.

TC: Can you tell me a little bit about winning the Presidential Award?

JH: I didn’t know that I had been nominated, so when I got the letter from President [Richard] Brodhead, it was a surprise. It’s nice to be recognized like this.

TC: What are your goals for your future research?

JH: It’s an ongoing thing over here. We do whatever we need to do to make sure we are providing the best patient care that we can. We prepare each allergy vaccine for the allergy shots like we’re preparing them for our parents, brothers, sisters or own kids.

Forum examines leadership across disciplines

A strong focus on building and maintaining relationships will advance leaders, whether in the military, medicine, athletics or business.

This was the conclusion of the third annual Feagin Leadership Forum, which brought an interdisciplinary set of speakers and participants to the Michael Krzyzewski Center for Athletic Excellence May 18 and 19. The event also served as the capstone of the yearlong Feagin Medical Scholars program, which provides ethical leadership training for select medical students.

The goal of the program is to emphasize leadership qualities effective in all fields, said Dr. Dean Taylor, Medicine ’85 and chairman of the program.

“In medicine, we have physicians placed in positions of leadership without proper preparation, so we like to take the principles of leadership that apply from the military, from business, from athletics, from public policy, from divinity, and use those to help prepare the future leaders in medicine for careers of service,” said Taylor, who is also a professor of orthopedic surgery and head team physician for the men’s basketball team.

The Forum and the Scholars programs were named in honor of Dr. John Feagin, Medicine ’61 and professor emeritus of orthopedic surgery. Feagin served as a military surgeon for 18 years and led the development of hip replacement surgery before he returned to Duke. The 2011-2012 Feagin Medical Scholars include three orthopedic fellows, two orthopedic residents, one neurosurgery resident and six third-year medical students.

The value of establishing and maintaining relationships is a key quality for an effective and successful leader, said Dr. Victor Dzau, chancellor for health affairs and president and CEO of Duke University Health System, in the keynote address.

“Anyone can have a great idea and put something together,” Dzau said. “To ultimately begin to impact hundreds of thousands of human lives, it takes continual relationships and networking to get that initial idea to human benefit.”

Dzau added that leaders must take the time to connect and reach out to their employees and colleagues in order to build a sense of trust. He noted the loyalty staff, workers and employees showed administrators during the construction of the medical center in 2007, amidst an economic crisis. Although the University did not lay off any workers during this time, it had to freeze the salaries of some staff workers.

“When I posed this issue to [the staff workers], I was really surprised when they told me that they believed that the initiative was just as important to them as well. One member related the [construction] to investing in future children,” he said. “There was no dissension going forward even though they were presented with a loss in the short term.”

After the keynote address was presented, the Feagin Scholars gave three presentations on their projects, which focused on leadership education and development within the current medical school training curriculum, improving leadership development access across the University campus and leadership development within physician training.

Other panels explored relationships in medical, athletic and business contexts. Men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski spoke with his former player and current Harvard men’s basketball head coach Tommy Amaker about how to manage changing relationships. A panel of social media experts discussed the benefits and dangers posed by social media for professional and personal relationships, as live tweets of the event projected onto screens behind them.

The panelists noted the importance of personal interaction, but affirmed that social media is here to stay and it is imperative to use it to strengthen relationships.

“[Social media] followership allows you to feel presence without imposing on other people’s time,” said panelist Tony O’Driscoll, professor of the practice of business administration. “We live in an information economy where the actual scarce resource is attention.”

Cara Rousseau, social media manager for the Office of News and Communications, advised prudence in online communication, warning the audience of the principle of “Once you tweet it, you can’t delete it.” She related a story of a Duke applicant who tweeted an inappropriate photo with a note that he was glad Duke admissions was not looking at it. Unfortunately for him, the Office of Admissions did see it.

The forum closed with final words by each of the 12 Feagin Scholars, who reflected on their experiences of the year and thanked the program leaders for their mentorship.

“[Leadership] is not a series of acts, it’s your character—what you’re doing when people are watching and when people aren’t watching,” said Grant Sutter, a Feagin Scholar and third-year medical student.

Cunha still alive in singles and doubles

The men’s tennis team also has players competing in the NCAA tournament with junior Henrique Cunha and sophomore Chris Mengel both making the singles and doubles draws of the tournament.

The singles competition began yesterday and Cunha wasted no time making it to the round of 32, defeating UCLA’s Adrien Puget 7-5, 6-0. Cunha is the No. 5 overall seed in the tournament.

Mengel, on the other hand, fell in his first-round match, losing to Fresno State’s Remi Boutiller 6-4, 6-4. Cunha has competed in the NCAA individual championships all three years he has been at Duke, while this was Mengel’s first appearance.

Mengel is still alive in doubles competition, however, competing with Cunha today in their first-round matchup against Chip Cox and Nick Jones of South Carolina. Cunha and Mengel are the No. 16 ranked pair in the nation.

Like the women’s competition, the men’s draw is behind held at the Dam Magill Tennis Complex.

Women’s tennis still competing in NCAAs

Although the Blue Devils have been eliminated from team play, they are still in singles and doubles play in this year’s NCAA tournament.

Freshman Beatrice Capra and sophomore Hanna Mar were selected to take part in the 64-person singles draw, which began yesterday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga. Capra, the No. 2 overall seed in the tournament, defeated Vanderbilt’s Jackie Wu in the the first round 6-2, 6-2, sending her to the round of 32. Named ITA National Co-Rookie of the Year last week, Capra defeated the tournament’s No. 1 seed Allie Will in the team’s season-ending loss to Florida.

Mar was not as fortunate in her first-round matchup, falling 7-5, 6-4 to Gator Joanna Mather despite being up a break in both sets. Ranked No. 59 in the country, Mar lost in three sets to the No. 21 ranked Mather in the match against Florida after winning the first set.

Duke also had two doubles squads make the NCAA draw, with competition beginning today.

Ranked No. 17, Capra and sophomore Rachel Kahan will face Georgia’s squad of Chelsey Gullickson and Nadja Gilchrist, who will be playing on their home courts. Junior Mary Clayton and freshman Ester Goldfeld, ranked No. 21, will compete against fifth-ranked Annie Goransson and Anett Schutting in their first-round match.

Women’s lacrosse falls in quarterfinals

Despite twice building two-goal leads, Duke lost to Northwestern 12-7 in the NCAA quarterfinals Monday in Evanston, Ill., ending their season.

The seventh-seeded Blue Devils (12-7) quickly got on the scoreboard as Amanda Jones and Makenzie Hommel netted shots to begin the game. Although the second-seeded Wildcats (19-2) tied the game with back-to-back goals, Duke went back ahead with two goals in a span of 35 seconds. That 4-2 score marked the high point for the Blue Devils, however, with Northwestern notching five consecutive goals to build a 7-4 lead.

Erin Fitzgerald recorded a game-high six goals and Shannon Smith added three with seven different players getting on the scoreboard for the Wildcats by the end of the game. Freshman Taylor Trimble and sophomore Maddy Morrissey paced Duke with two goals each. Trimble finished the season with 28 goals, leading the team.

The Blue Devils averaged 11.4 goals per game on the season, but were kept in check both times they faced Northwestern, which ranks second in Division I only allowing 7.6 goals per game. When the two teams played during the regular season, the Wildcats won 12-5.

Re: “Libraries suffer vandalism around finals”

I want to follow up my previous letter to the editor, published on May 17, in which I commented on two acts of vandalism that occurred in Perkins Library during finals week.

It turns out that one of those incidents was no act of vandalism after all—to my considerable relief. Allow me to set the record straight.

After reading my description of the books that were left in a state of disarray on the lower level of Perkins, a graduating senior wrote me earlier this week to explain. What our library staff discovered was not the aftermath of a thoughtless prank, but rather a final project in Theater Studies. Further, I have since learned that the number of books involved and the state they were left in were not as bad as initially reported. No books were damaged, and all were eventually returned by library staff to their proper places.

Reading the student’s email reminded us here in the libraries not to jump too soon to conclusions—a lesson we all keep learning throughout our lives, even long after we graduate. “The L2 stacks happen to be one of my favorite places to browse for fun,” she wrote. “I’ve found books in those stacks on quirky topics like the history of kissing and medieval clothing trends. The Duke libraries have been very special to me over the past four years. Thinking about the concern that my final project has created based on the tone of your letter, and the way I might be able to clear that up, has made me feel very remorseful since reading it last night.”

I am greatly appreciative of the student who came forward to explain. But more than that, I am relieved to know that our Duke students are still as honest, considerate and respectful of the written word as I’ve always known them to be.

Deborah Jakubs

Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University librarian and vice provost for library affairs

Are we willing to pay the price?

Every day it seems that our generation is becoming more aware of the ethical issues surrounding our purchases. We rightly feel that we should play our part in eliminating the injustices that arise as a result of the products and services we use. Unfortunately, not all of us are willing to pay the associated price.

Duke students have shown their commitment to these issues in the past year. Groups like the Coalition for a Conflict Free Duke have taken a stand against unethical practices surrounding the “conflict minerals” from the Congo that are found in many popular electronics. During the last few weeks of school, students rose against the possible closing of the Divinity School RefectoryRefectory in the Divinity School, an on-campus eatery that commits itself to many sustainable and ethical practices—using local, organic produce and paying workers a living wage—that other dining locations do not. I, too, have become fascinated by these kinds of ethical issues, specifically the ethics of textile production.

I realize, however, that despite my best intentions, I still end up supporting the very practices I’m trying to find a way to abolish—and I’m sure that most of us who want to keep the Refectory feel the same way.

I spend hours talking about the problems and merits of various types of fabric, especially cotton that severely harms both human communities and ecosystems through intense water use. But then I turn around and purchase 100 percent cotton clothing from places like Forever 21, a company that tries to present a wholesome ethical image but actually has had several issues regarding the ethics of its production. Many clothing companies can only offer such great prices because of their neglect for the environment and their workers, and yet I continue to buy from them. The realization that I may be inadvertently participating in a system that supports practices that I am trying to eliminate is extremely disheartening.

The truth is, when it comes down to shelling out the cash for ethically produced products, my bank account balks. Unfortunately, I have to balance my intense desire for ethically produced items with the sad fact that I don’t have infinite financial resources. And we face exactly the same problem with the Refectory.

We all love the Refectory. It’s cozy, friendly and the fact that it’s ethical just makes us feel good. Plus, it’s one of the only places on campus where you can get vegan, baked items, which benefits not only vegans, but also people with egg and dairy allergies. But why should the school subsidize one eatery by allowing its commission to remain lower than all the others? Don’t get me wrong—I love the Refectory just as much as everyone else. I eat lunch there almost every weekday. But, as with my cotton clothing, Duke has to examine its wallet. And that could mean making us examine our own. Ideally, all eateries on campus would source locally, focus on organic ingredients and pay a living wage. We should be fighting for that. But first, we need to ask ourselves if we are willing to pay more for food to support ethical practices?

Students at other universities have faced similar tradeoffs when clamoring for more organic and local foods. In 2009, at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, students were upset to find bugs in their salads. This occurred after pressuring Bon Appétit—the same food management company that runs Duke’s Marketplace and Great Hall—to source local, organic produce a few times a week. No one wants bugs in their food, but the reality of organic food includes them. If produce is grown without pesticides, there will be more bugs in the fields, which results in more bugs on the plate. Washing produce multiple times helps get rid of bugs, but since that takes more time, it ups the cost of the prepared dish. Wesleyan students were also annoyed by the increased food prices after their dining halls went more organic.

The students were not prepared for the consequences of their demands. They wanted more local and more organic, and they got it. But then the students were unhappy when these changes were reflected in the prices. Why is it that our generation wants these ethical and sustainable practices, and yet is unwilling to pay the price?

Perhaps it is because we secretly don’t actually care. More likely, we simply don’t think. We’ve spent our entire lives benefiting from these practices, searching for good deals and cheap prices. Even though we’ve now realized that those good deals are actually bad deals that contribute to unethical and ecologically detrimental situations, we continue to seek them out. After years of choosing items to buy based on their prices, we find it difficult to switch to evaluating our purchases based on how ethically they are produced. Nonetheless, it is a switch we have to make, especially if we want the Duke administration to recognize the importance of honoring our ethical convictions. We have to be prepared to foot the bill for the changes we desire.

Hannah Anderson-Baranger is a Trinity junior.

Burqa beach volleyball?

The International Volleyball Federation has robbed millions of viewers of the chance to watch athletic, bikini-clad women spike volleyballs this summer.

Ever since the sport became an Olympic medal event in 1996, female beach volleyball players have had the option of wearing either a one-piece bathing suit or bikini with a maximum side-width of 2.76 inches. They also had the option of adding a full-bodysuit underneath the bikini in cold weather. In an attempt to broaden participation in the sport beyond the United States, Europe and Brazil, the international governing body for beach volleyball has now added the option of “shorts of a maximum length of (1.18 inches) above the knee, and sleeved or sleeveless tops.”

Why do we need a maximum short length? Not because longer clothing gives the players some sort of competitive advantage—based on Olympic bronze medalist Holly McPeak’s experience, a one-piece only traps excess sand. It’s far more likely that the minimum skin requirement is a result of the need to preserve the sport’s Baywatch aesthetic. One can only imagine the horrors that would ensue if the magnificently ripped bodies of two-time Olympic gold medalists Kerri Walsh and Misty-May Treanor were shrouded in loose-fitting shirts and basketball shorts.

I somewhat understand that part of the fun of watching sports is watching the athletes’ muscles ripple and their skin shine with sweat as they score the game-winning point. Olympians spend decades molding their bodies into ideal forms as they fine-tune every move to near perfection. If Misty-May Treanor, Kerri Walsh, Holly McPeak or any other Olympian wants to show off the fruit of her labors and wear a skimpy bikini in competition, she can go right ahead. Restrictions on the maximum size of competition clothing, in cases where the added skin coverage does not confer a competitive advantage, seem ridiculous. And I won’t even begin to broach the topic of discrepancies between men’s and women’s athletic clothing—I don’t know of any sport where men are compelled to wear Speedos.

And then there are the accusations of conservative commentators, such as Debbie Schlussel, who wrote, “The Olympics are encouraging Muslim countries, like Saudi Arabia, to send female sports teams to this summer’s London Games, to meet certain feminist-imposed standards. And here is the result—burqa beach volleyball.” I may be a brainwashed feminist liberal, but I don’t cringe at the thought of making Olympic beach volleyball accessible to Muslim women. I will concede that it is a form of pandering to the greater standards of modesty in Muslim communities, but isn’t the current bikini standard a form of pandering to the American and European sexualization of the female beach volleyball player? Beach volleyball is unique in that it is popular for both the impressive athleticism necessary to spike a volleyball on a sand court and the incredibly revealing outfits. This powerful combination of talent and aesthetic made beach volleyball one of the first events to sell out at the Games. The disincentivizing of certain groups’ participation in beach volleyball certainly doesn’t line up with the International Olympic Committee’s stated purpose of encouraging participation in sports and encouraging and supporting the development of sports. Contrary to what broadcasting companies might hope, a central goal of Olympism “is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.” Selling tickets to watch half-naked bodies jump around on a sand court, while excluding those who don’t wish to bare quite so much skin, doesn’t seem to demonstrate the Olympic spirit.

So how are we supposed to deal with the reality that there is pressure to change dress codes for certain sports in order to give athletes from more conservative cultures a chance to participate?

I would argue that, as long as there is no competitive advantage to wearing more clothing (as in the case of swimming, for example) and there are no safety concerns, it is not necessary to impose such a regulation. If someone wants to swim an Olympic event in board shorts and a t-shirt, that’s his or her choice. If a woman wants to play beach volleyball in a burqa, she should be allowed to do so. If a woman wants to box in a skirt, then that’s her prerogative. If a man prefers to run the marathon in high heels, then there’s nothing stopping him. If anything, there should be minimum clothing requirements … just to avoid any embarrassing wardrobe malfunctions.

Joline Doedens is a first-year law student.

Coming home

They say you can’t go home again. “Home” holds countless meanings for different people. It’s the family that raised you. It’s the house that you grew up in. It’s the town or city that helped shape and define you. But above all else, home is the place where you feel you belong, where you’re supposed to be. Home is a seemingly easy concept to understand. Everyone has a home, or at least the idea of what one feels like. The word itself serves as a unique connection to nostalgia and memory. For me, home is Tokyo, the place where I was born and where I lived for 11 years before arriving at Duke. Over the past three years, I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to go back, to spend time with my parents and friends in the city that I’ve come to love. When I was little, I sometimes resented having to grow up outside of the United States, in a place that was so different, so foreign. Nowadays I can’t believe I ever thought that way, or that I ever wished for a life different from the one I had as a child.

I’m home now. At least, that’s what I thought when I got off the plane a week ago. There are many things about Tokyo that haven’t changed in the time I’ve been away. Trains still run like clockwork. Schoolchildren still wear matching hats and backpacks. The food is still amazing, and the city lights are still bright. It feels the same. When I went out with some friends the other night, it felt just like a night out during my high school days. (Except for the lack of anxiety over being carded—legitimate legality is awesome.) Moments and experiences like that make me feel like nothing has changed.

But Tokyo is not the same place I left three years ago. A quarter of the buildings currently in my neighborhood didn’t exist when I left for college. Many families that I knew growing up have moved away, because of either work-related obligations or the combination of shaking earth, raging water and a government too inept to prevent a nuclear disaster and too unwilling to tell its people how bad things actually were. The society as a whole seems a little more tentative, a little less sure about what the future holds.

Some places that I used to know well have changed, too. Walking back into my high school made those three years feel more like three decades. Sure, my teachers remembered me and asked how I was doing, and the building itself was more or less the same. But the students were all strangers, kids fleshing out their awkwardness and insecurities so that their true selves could really shine through in college. Or something like that. Going back to that school made me feel old and out of place, like a guy who’s overstayed his welcome. I probably won’t visit any time soon, at least not until no one remembers me as “that guy who keeps coming back.”

I’m back in Tokyo. But this home isn’t the home I left when I was 18. It’s as if I left a wonderful house that didn’t seem to have any issues, only to come back and find renovations underway, with more to follow. Places change, as do the people and societies that occupy them. Some things that were will never be again—I know this implicitly. But that doesn’t stop me from trying to reclaim the place I remember; the fact that I never will is a testament to the enormous impact that other people have on one’s own experiences. Duke wouldn’t be Duke for me or anyone else without the people who fill it up with everything they think, do and hope for. So it is with this marvelous city that is unlike any other. I suspect that, as time passes and my family eventually moves away, Tokyo will become a collection of memories I reflect on, instead of a place I come back to. Memories I hope can sustain me for the years to come, when crossing the Pacific won’t be an option. I suppose that I can’t really go home again, at least not in the physical sense. But the place I’m in now is pretty damn close, which is good enough for me.

Jordan Siedell is a Trinity senior.

After the vote

Two weeks ago, Amendment One passed with 61 percent of the vote, despite the efforts of activists in the state and among the student body. Although the passage of the amendment represents a codification of discrimination and a step backward for the state, the University has done everything in its power to reaffirm its commitment to LGBT rights within the new legal framework. We commend administrators for their efforts and hope they continue to support equality.

The vote’s outcome is a reminder that North Carolina is still a socially conservative state in step with our Southern neighbors, despite the leftward leanings of Research Triangle Park and several other urban areas. The results may have shocked many who hardly saw so much as a pro-amendment banner in Durham during the months leading up to the vote, when most of the state rallied to support it. Fortunately, the University has done its part to offer the little consolation it can in light of the amendment’s passage: The day after the amendment was approved, Duke officials announced they would continue to extend same-sex partner benefits to faculty and staff members, as they have since 1994.

Although the note essentially reaffirmed the status quo, it sent a symbolically and substantively important message to LGBT employees—both current and potential—that Duke will exercise its freedom and power as a private institution to protect equal rights for same-sex couples. Partner privileges, including medical and dental care, retirement plans and survivor benefits, may be a deciding factor for families considering employment in North Carolina. That Duke offers benefit plans on par with those in states that allow same-sex marriage renders a potential dealbreaker a non-issue. And that the Duke community, with 95 percent of voters on campus voting against, has proven to be so resoundingly against the amendment should assure LGBT employees and students that discriminatory practices have no place here.

Still, the passage of Amendment One may negatively affect Duke regardless of the administration’s commitments to maintaining the current benefits. As it stands, the amendment would also prohibit civil unions, ensuring that same-sex couples would have no rights when it comes to power of attorney and adoption. It remains to be seen whether LGBT families and individuals will view the state amendment as a hostile enough gesture to seek residence elsewhere, or whether the Triangle’s LGBT-friendly reputation will supersede state legislation. At best, things remain as they are, and at worst, Duke suffers the loss of talented faculty and students to schools in states where their rights have not been challenged in this way.

We encourage other employers in North Carolina to follow suit in leveraging their power against Amendment One, however they can. An affirmation from equal-opportunity private employers that they will continue to offer the same same-sex partner benefits is a step in the right direction. We also hope that Duke will put its weight behind activists’ continuing efforts to repeal the amendment, farfetched as they may be. We cannot stand back and hope that Amendment One, once a distant threat but now an unfortunate reality, will leave Duke unscathed. Nor can we underestimate the importance of support for the LGBT community when the administration’s hands are tied by the law as they now are.

Duke falls short in comeback

After storming back from a 3-0 deficit to bring the match down to the final point, Duke fell short in one of its closest matches of the season.

The third-seeded Blue Devils fell to second-seeded Florida 4-3 Monday in the semifinal round of the NCAA tournament in Athens, Ga. Despite the season-ending loss, head coach Jamie Ashworth had a positive outlook, noting the team’s improvement throughout the season.

“We played [the Gators] six weeks ago and lost [5-0] down at their place,” he said. “Just to see how well we played this week and how much our team grew over the last six weeks and how much better we got was great.”

With the doubles point coming down to the wire to start the match, this competition proved to be a lot closer than the previous meeting. Florida, which features the nation’s top-ranked doubles team consisting of Allie Will and Sofie Oyen, took a quick 8-3 victory over Duke’s No. 21 ranked duo of junior Mary Clayton and freshman Ester Goldfeld.

Duke fought back, however, as sophomore Hanna Mar and senior Monica Gorny won 8-4 to tie up the doubles contest.

With the doubles point on the line, the No. 17 doubles team of freshman Beatrice Capra and sophomore Rachel Kahan found themselves tied 7-7 with the the nation’s No. 22 squad, Gators Lauren Embree and Joanna Mather. The Blue Devils took an 8-7 lead, but were unable to hold on to their advantage, as Florida fought back to take the final two games in a 9-8 (7-1) victory.

“I wouldn’t change anything,” Ashworth said. “Rachel and [Beatrice] have been great for us. I would put them out there in that situation again.”

The rest of the match was a roller coaster ride for the Blue Devils, who after having an edge on all six singles courts, found themselves back on its heels as Goldfeld fell to No. 9 Embree 6-4, 6-0. This was followed by another loss for Duke as Mar fell to No. 21 Mather 2-6, 6-2, 6-0, putting the Blue Devils down 3-0.

With another shutout seeming probable, freshman Monica Turewicz won a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 victory against Olivia Janowicz to give the Blue Devils their first point.

“We had to get on the board,” Ashworth said. “To get that first match was big and I think people fed off that a little bit.”

The victory’s momentum carried into the next match, featuring the nation’s two best singles players. No. 2 Capra, who was later named ITA National Co-Rookie of the Year, took a convincing 6-4, 6-4 decision over No. 1 Allie Will. The win was an important one not only for the team but also for Capra, who was leading 6-4, 5-4 serving match point in their earlier engagement. Rain, however, led to the match going unfinished.

“[Beatrice] played a smart match,” Ashworth said. “I think that not finishing last time left a sour taste in her mouth. It was a high quality match.”

Rachel Kahan then tied the match up to 3-3 after going into the third set with opponent Sofie Oyen, leaving the match in the hands of Clayton.

After losing her first set to Alexandra Cercone 7-5, Clayton came back with a 6-4 win. Clayton was unable to win the final set, however, falling 6-3 to end the match in the favor of the Gators, who went on to capture the NCAA title over top-seeded UCLA.

“Until the last point of Mary’s match we believed that we were going to win,” Ashworth said. “From a coaching standpoint that is all that I could ask for.”

While his goal of achieving its second NCAA championship was thwarted, Ashworth saw the match as one that has demonstrated significant growth and improvement.

After losing five players from last year’s team, the Blue Devils entered the season with the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class, bringing four new freshmen and four returning players together. With strong individual talent, uncertainty remained as to how the players would perform as a group.

“I knew that tennis-wise we would be good, but I wasn’t sure how great we could be as a team,” Ashworth said. “Everyone got better and everyone did a great job.”

The Blue Devils captured the program’s 17th ACC title this season and won the second-most matches in team history with 29.

Graduating only one senior, Gorny, Duke will return most of its squad that nearly reached the championship.

“We have a strong foundation heading into next year,” Ashworth said. “There is definitely not any chance of us being satisfied with making it to semis.”

Blue Devils surge past Raiders

Leading 4-2 in the first period, the Colgate Raiders appeared poised for another upset. Thirteen unanswered goals later, Duke is headed to championship weekend for the sixth consecutive season.

Sparked by a stretch in which they held Colgate scoreless for 26:14, the No. 3 seeded Blue Devils (15-4) knocked off Colgate (14-4) 17-6 in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA tournament at PPL Park in Chester, Pa. Robert Rotanz led the way for Duke, tallying a career-high five goals and adding an assist as one of eight different Blue Devils who notched goals.

“I think our guys were really unselfish and played the right way,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “We’re just having fun and enjoying being with this group. We get to be together for another week, and sometimes that trumps winning.”

The Raiders, who entered the game having beaten previously undefeated Massachusets to reach the quarterfinals, put pressure on the Blue Devils in the game’s opening minutes. After they fell behind 4-2, Danowski took a timeout to settle his team’s nerves.

The Blue Devils emerged a different squad, mounting an emphatic 13-0 run, quickly putting the game out of reach.

“Some guys early on had to get some jitters out. After that everyone just calmed down,” senior midfielder Justin Turri said. “We knew they were going to keep coming at us for a full 60 minutes. No matter how many goals we went up by, it was never going to be enough.”

A slow-starting team all season, Duke has made a living in the middle periods. Despite barely outscoring opponents 47-43 during the first period in its 19 games this year, Duke has outscored its opponents in the second and third quarters a combined 133-80.

“I’m not sure what it is exactly,” Danowski said. “At the beginning of games there are mistakes made, but our guys seem to relax a bit and gain some insight into what we’re doing and what our opponent is trying to accomplish. Certainly the second and third quarters have been good to us.”

Defensively, Duke held Colgate scoreless for a 26:14 stretch that spanned from the end of the first quarter to the middle of the third. Sophomore Henry Lobb held Colgate’s Peter Baum, the nation’s leading scorer, to just one goal.

“Henry Lobb has made tremendous strides over the course of the season,” Danowski said. “He did not start for us at the beginning of the year. Henry has terrific feet and he’s gotten better each week.” Junior goalkeeper Dan Wigrizer recorded nine saves in the game, keeping the Raiders at bay when they attempted to claw back into the contest.

This contest featured two of the five Tewaaraton Trophy finalists, Colgate’s Baum and Blue Devil CJ Costabile. Both vying for college lacrosse’s most coveted prize, Baum was limited offensively while Costabile, a longstick midfielder, won 14-of-20 draws and added 15 ground balls, which allowed Duke to control possession for the majority of the second and third periods as it broke the game open. After winning just 4-of-9 faceoffs in the opening period, Duke took control of 11 of the 16 draws in the second and third quarters.

“It was a senior’s time, a senior’s moment,” Danowski said. “[C.J. is] such an understated young man. He is quiet but days like today you start thinking about the future saying ‘Boy, we’re going to miss him.’”

Although Duke is headed to the semifinals for the sixth consecutive season, it is the first year since 1975 that none of annual powerhouses Johns Hopkins, Syracuse or Virginia were unable to reach the NCAA tournament’s final weekend.

The Blue Devils will face Maryland Saturday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. This will be the third meeting between Duke and Maryland this season. The Terrapins bested the Blue Devils 10-7 in College Park during the regular season before Duke responded with a 6-5 victory in the ACC tournament.

How the amendment won

Turn to pages eight and nine for Amendment One coverage.

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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 repeal the amendment on legal and social grounds are underway. Opponents of the amendment say that the legislature and statewide vote do not represent the actual sentiments of the state.

Many Internet petitions are already circulating, and people are mobilizing to elect more “fair-minded” officials to the state legislature in the November elections, said Ryan Butler, president of North Carolina LGBT Democrats.

On the state level, courts can repeal the amendment if it is determined to violate the equal protection and due process provisions already stipulated, said Kathryn Bradley, professor of the practice at the School of Law. It can also be overturned under federal constitutional law if the United States Supreme Court decides that same-sex marriage is mandated by the federal constitution.

One pressing concern facing state officials is whether state employees already in same-sex marriages will continue to receive health care benefits, Bradley said. Some municipalities, such as Durham, have determined that benefits remain valid under the amendment—others, such as Charlotte, have decided that those employees can no longer receive benefits. Such elimination of health care benefits could raise property rights issues that will have to be settled in court.

The passage of the amendment reflects not only the state’s conservative leanings on social issues, but also the state’s strong southern attachments, said Tess Chakkalakal, assistant professor of African and African-American studies.

“Amendment One was not just about preserving a specific definition of marriage,” Chakkalakal said. “It was also about North Carolina standing with its fellow southern states on a particularly divisive political issue.”

The amendment does not actually provide more protection for heterosexual marriage, Bradley said. Same-sex marriage was already banned prior to Amendment One, but only the North Carolina courts and legislature had the power to overturn the statute.

Given the conservative tendencies of the court toward statutes and family law and the Republican-controlled legislature, the statute was not likely to be overturned, Bradley added.

Munger said he does not think the amendment’s passage will alienate the amendment’s opponents. Those who had voted against the amendment would most likely not have voted for the Republican Party anyway.

He added that the majority of North Carolina voters—including both Republicans and Democrats—supported the amendment.

“It is a victory for the Republican Party,” Munger said. “It is a core, red meat constituency issue, [and] regardless of how you count the numbers, the substantial majority of voters were in favor of the amendment.”

Munger added that the passage was not likely to affect state party approval ratings, given that neither President Barack Obama nor Gov. Bev Perdue are popular in North Carolina.

“For the vast majority of people this issue is just not central to the reason they’re going to vote,” he said. “It’s going to be about the economy.”

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 votes on Amendment One voted against it. Shortly after the referendum passed 60-40, the University announced that employees and faculty in same-sex partnerships will continue to receive comprehensive benefits. The data makes official the divide between campus climate and statewide sentiment.

“People are sad that we lost and that we live in a state where that happened but happy that we live in a local community that is so supportive,” said junior Jacob Tobia, chair of Duke Together.

The amendment will have no effect on Duke’s benefits for employee same-sex partnerships, including medical benefits, retirement plans and survivor benefits, said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations.

“As a private institution, Duke has the latitude to provide benefits to whoever it wants, whenever it wants, under certain broad guidelines,” Schoenfeld said. “There will be no change in what Duke can provide to its employees.”

Even so, the Duke LGBT community has had to come to terms with the overwhelming margin of the amendment vote.

“There have been tears, there has been anger, there has been absolute astonishment,” said Janie Long, director of the Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Life.

The people most affected by the loss have been LGBT-identified community members for whom Amendment One was their “first battle,” Long added.

Although polls before election day had predicted that the amendment would likely pass, the size of the margin came as a surprise, Tobia said. The sizeable last-minute turnout in support of the amendment demonstrates that opponents of gay rights are on the defensive.

“In some sense, this is a last desperate cry of ignorance and inequality in our state. It’s the noise people make on the way out,” he said. “It’s a litmus test of how we are winning on a larger scale.”

The Triangle region bucked the statewide trend with strong electoral opposition to the referendum—70 percent of Durham County voters cast ballots against the amendment. After persistent efforts by Duke Together to promote awareness of the amendment and advocate voting against it, on-campus voting had a turnout of 4,075 voters. Of the 4,061 people at Duke who voted on Amendment One, 3,847 voted against the amendment.

“I’m unequivocally confident in saying we were effective in our work,” Tobia said.

Sophomore David Winegar serves as co-president of Duke Democrats, which is a participating group of Duke Together. He noted the broad range of participants in campus efforts, which included not only undergraduates but also faculty, staff and members of the Duke University Health System.

“The huge mobilization campaign against Amendment One revealed Duke as a more politically active and progressive campus than many people realize,” Winegar wrote in an email Wednesday. “It also revealed the generational shift on gay marriage—young people are overwhelmingly in favor of it and voted against Amendment One in large numbers, which holds promise for the future.”

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 national convention in Charlotte this September, but the results of the 2010 midterm elections and the recent landslide passage of North Carolina’s constitutional marriage amendment suggest that the candidates may be dealing with a more conservative North Carolina.

Those following the 2012 elections should not be so quick to pin North Carolina as a red or blue state based on past election results, however, said Pope McCorkle, visiting lecturer of public policy studies.

“People assume that elections are a perfect reflection of a state’s ideological mood, when it can be more related to the state’s approval of the performance of current candidates—in 2008, Bush, and in 2010, Obama,” he said. “It’s unclear where North Carolina will move now.”

Party fortunes are particularly tangled in North Carolina. The state has only voted Democratic in two of the past 10 presidential elections. Nearly 60 percent of the state legislature is controlled by Republicans. Despite this, the Tar Heel state has a solid history of Democratic governors, electing only two Republicans to the seat in more than a century.

The state’s majority conservative base is unhappy with Obama’s performance and is looking for a change in leadership, said Rob Lockwood, communications director of the North Carolina Republican Party. In 2008, the Republican party was simply unprepared for the extent of North Carolina campaigning by the Obama camp, he added.

“Our unemployment rate—at 9.7 percent—is nearly 2 percent higher than the national average, which is simply unacceptable,” he noted. “Obama has spent an unprecedented amount of time in the state giving speeches, deflecting the fact that the policies he put forward have not achieved the results he promised, or even come close to it.”

Recent North Carolina polls show mixed predictions for November. A May 1 poll by SurveyUSA put the incumbent ahead by four percentage points and a May 16 poll by Public Policy Polling reported his lead at one point. Rasmussen’s May 16 poll, however, found Romney in the lead by eight points.

Presidential evolution

In the wake of the state’s 60-40 approval of Amendment One and Obama’s subsequent endorsement of same-sex marriage, it is unclear if the incumbent was boosted or damaged by his pro-gay position.

“Those who opposed the amendment were looking for a leader in the White House,” Lockwood said. “President Obama coming out for gay marriage the day after North Carolina voters passed the marriage amendment speaks more to his failure to help out for the cause he believed in.”

But Michael Munger, professor of political science and economics, said Obama’s new stance was not a matter of politicking or vote-mongering.

“Obama didn’t want to go public on the issue, he was forced to,” Munger noted. “To be fair, it is hard to say that it gave him any political benefit. It just made the issue go away.”

The endorsement of gay marriage is unlikely to benefit or hurt Obama politically, Munger said, because people who supported Obama’s new position were likely to vote for him already, and those opposed to the decision were likely opposed to the candidate.

The race is on

The state’s has already become a presidential battleground on issues including job creation and public education reform.

Obama addressed students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill April 24 on education issues. He promoted cut extensions to student loan interest rates and emphasized the necessity of affordable higher education, hounding Romney and Republicans on their support of the Ryan budget that threatens to slash funding for public education.

“Romney’s ‘severely conservative’ views are right in line with the views of North Carolina Republicans, who have pursued an extreme, slash-and-burn agenda since gaining control of the state legislature in the Tea Party wave of 2010,” Jamie Crain, press secretary for the North Carolina Democratic Party, wrote in an email May 16.

Romney, too, has made a point to directly address North Carolinians in his campaign. He spoke in Charlotte May 11 and promised to eradicate failing liberal policies that have inhibited economic success in the country and North Carolina.

“One of every two college graduates will wake up the day after graduation without a job,” Lockwood said about Obama’s lack of returns to degree earners. “If they were an Obama supporter before and don’t have a job and thought Obama would be able to provide them with one, they are going to be looking elsewhere.”

The main point of conflict in this battleground lies in whether NC voters associate the state’s stifling unemployment rate with the Democrats or Republicans, McCorkle noted.

“We’ve had a Democratic governor,” he said. “But are people going to get the idea that—with a Republican legislature for the past four years—our unemployment rate has been lagging behind the country’s? And do they think that, by cutting education, they are going to be creating more jobs?”

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 believes the amendment would have passed even if there had been 100 percent voter participation.

“The people who voted in this election were those who cared,” Munger said. “And the people who cared enough to vote were on the support side.”

Generational and religious factors most likely contributed to the passage, said Kathryn Bradley, professor of the practice at the School of Law.

Placing the amendment on the primary ballot rather than in the general elections also helped it pass by such a large margin, Munger said. The few contested races on the ballot—both presidential primaries and the GOP gubernatorial race were already settled—coupled with low voter turnout, suggest that those voters who participated were focused on the amendment.

Munger added that placing the amendment on the general election ballot would have been more beneficial to the Republican Party, as it would have drawn conservative voters to participate.

“It was more honest and fair to schedule it in the primaries,” he said. “In terms of political tactics... to benefit Republican candidates, you would’ve had it in the general elections.”

State primaries typically attract low voter turnouts, but the May 8 primary had the second highest voter participation in North Carolina history with 34.66 percent participation, said Susan Myrick, election policy analyst for the Civitas Institute, a conservative political advocacy group. The highest voter turnout for an NC primary election occurred in the highly contested presidential race of 2008, where there was 36.86 percent voter participation. These numbers compare to the 14.4 percent voter turnout in 2010 and the 16 percent in 2004.

Despite communities such as Durham, Charlotte, Raleigh and Chapel Hill where the population is predominately young people and there are many higher education institutions, North Carolina remains part of the South and the Bible Belt with a large religiously conservative constituent who believes that same-sex marriage contradicts The Bible, Bradley said.

She added that support for the amendment and same-sex marriage was largely divided along generational lines—the older generation was generally less receptive to same-sex marriage and therefore in favor of the amendment.

“With young people, it’s not an issue at all,” Bradley said. “But for people who have grown up in a different time and under a different set of beliefs about how the world operates, it takes some doing to change views.”

Of those who voted early, those between 60 and 70 years of age comprised 28.3 percent of participants, according to data from Civitas. Twenty to thirty-year-olds cast 8.8 percent of early votes.

Data for the complete primary results have not yet been released, Myrick said.

Geographically, the more densely populated, urban districts opposed the amendment and rural ones tended to support it, said Janie Long, director of the Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Life. Research shows that personal familiarity with LGBT people has a powerful effect on promoting acceptance of LGBT issues, but more rural areas have less visible LGBT communities, she added.

“It’s not that they’re not there, but they’re not out. There’s not a critical mass—it’s too scary,” Long said. “That’s why you can see in these large cities you have more opportunity to be exposed to diversity in general.”

Thirty-one other states, including most recently California, Florida and Arizona, have already amended their state constitutions to ban same-sex marriage. Although many of these states still retain the right to domestic unions—a first step toward same-sex marriage—Amendment One prohibits any form of non-traditional, heterosexual marriage in North Carolina.

“People who are very opposed to same-sex marriage were afraid that if that step was possible, we would be heading down a slippery slope and the next thing you know, we’d be having same-sex marriage in North Carolina,” Bradley said. “They wanted to do everything possible to prevent that.”

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 professor Bai Gao in Spring 2012, and provided an opportunity for Duke to expand its presence in China.

“We learned that China is a very different animal in terms of the rules—it will be a real challenge to get a foothold in China,” senior Paul Horak, student leader of the trip and editor-in-chief of Duke East Asia Nexus Journal, said. “Duke needs to work hard to forge partnerships with the elite universities in China.”

The Duke students met with Chinese journalists, professors and visiting scholars from China’s elite universities. The trip was sponsored by the Office of the President and the Office of the Provost, with local costs covered by the GSE in Peking University.

Provost Peter Lange noted that the trip offered a way of establishing Duke’s presence in China and showcasing the knowledge Duke students have about China.

During the conference, the American and the Chinese teams examined their own countries’ challenges in higher education separately and then discussed global higher education together. The Duke team researched topics including college ranking, interdisciplinary studies, entrepreneurship and student debt. The Chinese students focused on future economic growth and the role of technology and social stratification in higher education.

Participant Michael Habashi, a senior, noted the Chinese government’s overall push to develop internationally prestigious universities.

“We learned the impact of a culture and a government that is so focused on improving their education to become a world class university,” Habashi said. “How can Beijing become Harvard?”

Each year, the Chinese government sponsors Chinese students to study overseas and more than a third choose to come to the United States, Gao said. This trip helped the Chinese students better understand the American higher education system.

“In contrast to the narrow, specific and dogmatic teachings of China, America is particularly good at thinking outside of the box,” Horak said. “There is a strong push in China to have Chinese people educated outside of China. They want the international experience.”

Habashi noted the tremendous stress placed upon Chinese students because of the Gaokao, the Chinese college entrance exam.

“In America, we have the freedom to pursue any university and major,” Habashi said. “However, [China’s] education system is dependent upon [the students’ performance] during their senior year. [The Gaokao] affects everything.”

Whereas the Gaokao offers a uniform college entrance experience to all takers, Gao noted that China’s attempts to adapt American college admission processes have brought to light Chinese regional inequalities.

“The [American-style] emphasis placed on [extra-curricular activities] and in-person college interviews rather than test scores puts students from the rural areas at a great disadvantage,” Gao said.

This year’s event may represent the start of an annual conference, Gao added. The Academy for World Watch, a non-profit research institute for social sciences based in Shanghai, has offered to co-sponsor future conferences with Duke. Duke may offer a Fall class on the topic followed by a more intense seminar for qualified candidates in the following semester.

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 of Undergraduate Scholars and Fellows. The B.N. enrolled 14 incoming students—four more than the target yield, the Reginaldo Howard Scholarship enrolled seven students—two more than its target and University Scholars program enrolled 10 students, including one international student—two more than its target.

The remaining four programs achieved their target yield. The Angier B. Duke Memoiral scholarship will enroll 15, the Alumni Endowed Scholars will enroll one, the Trinity Scholarships will enroll four and the Robertson Scholars Program—which has students at both Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—will enroll 13 Duke freshmen this Fall.

The Robertson Scholars Program experienced its highest yield for the Class of 2016 with 16 American students accepting to enroll at either Duke or UNC out of 20 offers and nine acceptances from international students out of 14 offers, said Woody Coley, executive director of the Robertson Scholars Program.

This year, the program made offers to less than 2 percent of its applicants, making it more selective than competing institutions like Harvard, Yale and Princeton Universities, which had Class of 2016 acceptance rates of 5.9 percent, 6.8 percent and 7.86 percent, respectively.

Coley attributed the increased yield to the caliber of current scholar classes and an improved ability of the selection committee and admissions officers to identify potential leaders.

“In an increasingly competitive world for students admissible to highly selective universities, we were thrilled with the caliber of scholars that applied and the yield on offers made,” he said.

The B.N. scholarship, which awards scholarships to high school seniors from North and South Carolina, experienced a surge in enrollment from eight to 14 students, said Jennifer Crowley, associate director of the B.N. Duke and A.B. Duke scholarships.

The scholarship finalist weekend plays a large part in encouraging A.B. and B.N. recipients to matriculate at Duke, Crowley said.

Malouf noted that the role of faculty and current students enrolled in the scholarship programs is essential to the University’s recruitment efforts.

“Students actively planned and participated in the OUSF Finalist Weekend activities... [while] Duke faculty hosted dinners, participated in interviews and joined the intellectual festivities during the weekend,” Malouf said.

Current A.B. Duke Scholar Lucy Goodson, a senior who served on the A.B. recruitment committee for the Class of 2016, said the March recruitment weekend—when both A.B. and B.N. finalists interview with the committee—not only demonstrates the opportunity the program gives to scholars but also gives recipients a sense of how the Duke community operates as a whole.

“[A.B.] Scholars understand the value for being the select few on campus but are also acutely aware of the value of being a Duke student and that’s what we want to show to the finalists,” Goodson said.

Goodson said the program’s ability to attract and enroll scholars is ultimately dependent on the students. She noted that in light of the generous financial aid packages offered at competing institutions, the financial component of the program does not always turn out to be the deciding factor, adding that most recipients are more keen on knowing about the social and academic aspects of the campus than the financial ones during the recruitment weekend.

“It’s difficult to exactly pinpoint why one finalist will decide to come to Duke over another school, but I think students who do end up coming to the University know that once they enroll at Duke, [it] will praise them for their accomplishments up until now but take an extra step further in making them apply themselves in a tangible way,” she said.

She emphasized that the size of the class does not matter as much as the quality of the scholars that choose to come to Duke.

“Our yield is highly indicative of the program’s prestige, but it’s always hard to rate the success of the recruitment effort solely based on numbers,” Goodson said. “But the quality of this year’s class certainly proves that we are making the right decisions.”

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly read that only six of the seven merit scholarships met their expected yield. The article has been updated to reflect that all seven met their expected yield. The Chronicle regrets the error.

Optimism takes the stage at commencement

The Class of 2012 was presented with sentiments of peace, optimism and reflection.

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 references.

“We are living in an astonishingly peaceful time, and this peace has allowed for the formation of a single global economy,” he said. “You are living in a world where people have the opportunity to make something of themselves.”

Although violence seems constant across media and popular culture, Zakaria highlighted the current state of global peace. Noting the lack of military competition among major world powers, Zakaria juxtaposed today’s broad political stability with World War II and the decades of nuclear threats during the Cold War to emphasize the opportunity peace presents.

In a period of such immense and rapid progress, Zakaria implored graduates to forge solutions to real global challenges. Advancements in medicine and technology, such as the advancement of cell phones in the last 10 years, are proof of the real opportunity for innovation.

“You may be thinking: ‘Will I have the opportunity to make an impact?’” he said in his remarks. “I would say to you, yes.”

Zakaria said he chose to highlight peace in his commencement address because of its role in creating the global economy, facilitating trade, opening communication and as a result, opportunity.

“Peace is like oxygen,” Zakaria wrote in an email Wednesday. “When you have it, you take it for granted. But when you don’t have it, nothing else is possible.”

Student commencement speaker Roshan Sadanani, Pratt ’12, preceded Zakaria in the commencement ceremony. Sadanani’s remarks focused on the significance of each graduate’s unique Duke experience, and called on the audience members to reflect on how they forged their own paths at Duke.

“We may not all have done the same things or had the same experiences, but I’d be willing to bet that for each and every one of you graduating today, Duke became just a bit smaller as you met new people and did new things,” he said, noting that the Duke experience is what roots all of his fellow graduates within the world.

Sadanani, a biomedical engineering major and president of Duke Debate, said in an interview following the ceremony that he aimed for his address to provoke introspection.

“It felt great,” he said. “I was nervous, but, once I got up there, I realized everyone in front of me was a classmate, so it was easy to connect.”

Lena Bullock, Trinity ’12, was one of the students able to connect with Sadanani’s remarks.

“It was really all about focusing on your Duke experience, which hit home for me,” Bullock said. “It was very heartfelt.”

Sadanani, who is a fan of Zakaria and had a chance to meet with him, said the journalist’s remarks were extremely relevant and noted that the leading analogy of peace helped put the world climate into a better context for the graduates.

Zakaria, who spoke on campus in November 2009 to deliver the Ambassador S. Davis Phillips Lecture, said he was delighted to return to Duke.

“It’s a fascinating place,” he said. “The faculty is world-class, the students are just so bright and energetic, and everyone has a sunny disposition. It must be the weather.”

His remarks were received well by many members of the Class of 2012. Lauren Moxley, Trinity ’12, said the address had the right balance of optimism and realism.

“I really liked how emotional he was and also how he connected the values of family with graduating, which is really important because without our family, we wouldn’t be here graduating today,” added Emmanouil Vasdekis, Pratt ’12. “I’ve never heard of him before, but I liked him a lot.”

The University awarded 4,900 degrees to undergraduate, graduate and professional students during the ceremony. In addition to Zakaria, honorary degrees were presented to James Barksdale, a business and philanthropic leader; Ambassador Nancy Brinker, founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure; musician Emmylou Harris; Darryl Hunt, a spokesperson for wrongful convictions; and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Robert Richardson.

To conclude the ceremony, President Richard Brodhead congratulated the graduates and noted that the University has equipped the Class of 2012 for challenges ahead.

“I hope Duke has given you a glimpse of the person who you want to be,” he said.

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 President Richard Brodhead. She will be the first black dean of a Duke school.

“[McClain] has a lot of experience,” Lange said. “She knows Duke very well, and she has a lot of respect from all of her colleagues. She has [already] been deeply involved in graduate education.” The committee, chaired by physics professor Calvin Howell, received 60 applications for the position after conducting a national search. 54 applicants were unaffiliated with the University. The search to fill the position began in December, after former Graduate School Dean Jo Rae Wright stepped down in October during her battle with breast cancer.

Wright passed away from cancer in January.

McClain will preside over more than 60 University departments and programs, composed of approximately 2,200 Ph.D. students, 600 master’s students and 1,000 faculty members. Although she will provide leadership, McClain wants to maintain [the] Graduate School departments’ autonomy.

“The graduate school has a very strong professional staff,” she said. “I anticipate that they’re going to continue doing the wonderful job that they have done in the past.”

As dean, McClain said she will focus on equalizing fellowships for graduate students from different disciplines, so all graduate students receive similar funding for the same period of time. McClain will also prioritize diversifying the Graduate School’s student body. She aims to help departments within the school identify qualified students from underrepresented groups for admission.

A leader and a mentor

McClain came to Duke in 2000 from the University of Virginia, where she served as chair of the Woodrow Wilson department of government and foreign affairs. Former colleague Richard McCarty, who currently serves as the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Vanderbilt University, said that McClain’s public presence and leadership at UVA were notable.

In a time of severe budget cuts, McClain was a leader who mobilized other faculty members to emphasize the importance of higher education in the state, he said. As a dean at Duke, she can continue to make the case for graduate education, not only to students, but also to Congress in response to federal cuts to higher education.

McClain has also served as a strong mentor for graduate students and undergraduates considering graduate school in her role as the director of the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute, a mentorship program for minority students interested in doctoral degrees and careers in political science, Howell said.

“In many instances, faculty of color end up having a much wider impact because even if students aren’t working with them directly, they will often come for advice and counsel,” McCarty said. “She mentors the next generation of African American scholars.”

McClain’s research focuses on racial minority group politics, with an emphasis on minority political and social competition. She also studies urban politics, focusing on public policy and urban crime. Her research on relations between blacks and Latinos was recently cited by the New York Times following outcry surrounding the Trayvon Martin case.

“I don’t see my research as evocative in any way,” she said. “If it’s picked up in a public sphere, fine, but that’s not the goal of why I do the research that I do. I want to contribute to a broader body of knowledge.”

She has also been involved with several national political science organizations. McClain was president of the Southern Political Science Association from 2005-2006 and vice president of the American Political Science Association from 1993 to 1994, among other positions.

“I know a lot of people, and a lot of people know my work,” she said. “I’ve worked with national organizations... my reputation as a scholar is going to play very positively into my role as the dean.”

Search for a new dean

The committee charged with recommending candidates for the dean position included faculty representatives from several departments, in addition to individuals from the Nicholas School of the Environment and the School of Medicine, Howell said. Members agreed that the dean should be an academic leader and a scholar with national and international recognition. They also wanted the dean to have a deep understanding of graduate education, both on a national and Duke-specific level, and to have an appropriate background in managing an organization similar in size to the Graduate School.

The committee narrowed its pool of 60 applicants to eight individuals, all of whom were interviewed. Four of the eight were already University faculty members. After the interview process, the committee recommended three applicants—though it did not rank them—to Brodhead and Lange. Although all three would have been excellent deans in their own right, each offered a different style of leadership, Howell said.

The top three candidates also faced tests of “background due diligence,” Howell said. The committee conducted a poll in an effort to understand how each candidate was viewed publicly. In the past, McClain has been criticized for her involvement with the “Group of 88”—University professors who signed a controversial advertisement printed in The Chronicle following the 2006 lacrosse scandal. McClain’s involvement in the controversy did not cross a “threshold of concern,” Howell said.

“She’s a political scientist and that’s what they do, they take a stance,” Howell said. “You’re not always on the right side of history, but as a scholar you have to have a voice.”

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 Duke Kunshan University—proved to the Board that he would positively impact the direction of the University in the coming years.

“Looking at next year, it would become ever clearer how valuable it is to cement the top leadership position,” Wagoner said, noting that many of the projects started under Brodhead’s term require leadership continuity.

The Trustees also approved the University operating budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year, totaling $2.1 billion. The budget, 2.5 percent larger than the previous year’s total, allocates funds for 3 percent merit-based raises for University employees.

A presidency renewed

The reappointment review process, conducted by a committee chaired by Vice Chair Jack Bovender, former chairman and CEO of Hospital Corporation of America and Trinity ’67, occurred over a four-month period and drew input from students, faculty, staff, alumni and national higher education professionals. It was the second committee review since Brodhead took the position in 2004. Brodhead said his collegial approach to leadership will help further the University’s long-term strategic initiatives.

“We have a collaborative culture here—it’s easy to devise a course of the University,” Brodhead said. “Universities are big, cumbersome things. They don’t change at the turn of a dime, but this place is quite comfortable with the idea of innovation and change.”

In the next five years, Brodhead said he aims to strengthen student life at the Durham campus with the West Union Building renovations and to expand Duke’s global reach with the opening of DKU. Efforts for these and other goals will be bolstered by the continuing rebound of University finances from the global economic downturn of 2008.

Major approvals

The new budget reflects savings by the University in major areas such as energy conservation and centralizing purchases.

Under the new budget, undergraduate financial aid will expand to $137 million, with a 5 percent increase in institutional aid—the funds Duke provides for financial aid.

Four major construction projects received Board approval, including a 20,000 sq-ft. events pavilion to house dining facilities displaced by the West Union renovations, which is slated to begin construction this summer.

The Board also approved a Master of Science in Global Health program at DKU, the second degree program for Duke’s new China campus. A Master of Management Studies through the Fuqua School of Business was approved December 2011.

A Marine Science and Conservation Genetics Center, to be located at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, will also begin construction this summer with completion slated for Fall 2013. The Board also approved the final phase of renovations for the Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library and an expansion of the Duke Eye Center along Erwin Road.

Entrepreneurship expanding

The Board also heard presentations from Kimberly Jenkins, senior adviser to the president and provost for innovation and entrepreneurship, and student entrepreneurs about the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative. Jenkins served as a Board member for nine years before stepping down to lead this initiative.

Jenkins discussed the development of the Duke in Silicon Valley program and a $15 million gift to the initiative from Vice Chair David Rubenstein, founder and CEO of the Carlyle Group and Trinity ’70. “This gift really puts Duke on the map,” Jenkins said. “Our goal is to be a top-five institution in the nation in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship, and this is the start.”

Jenkins noted that Rubenstein’s gift will help fund three major priorities outlined in the strategic plan for entrepreneurship: curriculum, co-curricular activities and translational research, which refers to moving products from the laboratory to the market.

The University aims to build a center for innovation and entrepreneurship, Jenkins said. A physical space for student entrepreneurs will provide both a facility to explore ideas and product development.

“With input from students, we’re talking about everything from whiteboards to nap chairs like they have at Google,” Jenkins said. “The students wanted nap chairs in case they were there at 3 a.m. and fell asleep.”

Strengthening the curriculum will include drawing in more faculty members with entrepreneurial backgrounds and creating internships, currently being piloted in Durham and Silicon Valley, Jenkins noted. A proposed innovation scholars program would allow students to receive academic credit for entrepreneurship coursework.

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 events they can use to form connections,like Maya Angelou’s annual speech. The first-year meal plan encourages freshmen to eat most meals at the Marketplace. Though freshmen may (no, WILL) get tired of the food eventually, they benefit from the community atmosphere that Marketplace provides. And, yes, the experience of getting tired of Marketplace food does indeed count as an experience that brings first-years together.

The most potent unifying events are often those that are entirely unforeseeable. By being unforeseeable, these events are also effectively unavoidable. Either you’re there when it happens or you’re not. Orientation Week doesn’t qualify, since it’s possible to skip most of the Orientation Week events if one is so inclined, though I will question the sanity of those who choose to do so.

The earthquake that shook campus in August provides a contrast to planned unifying moments. Not everyone felt it; I had no idea that it had happened until someone mentioned it afterward. Because the earthquake was so shocking, however, it had all of East Campus abuzz. It would have scarcely surprised me if the energy people spent talking about it eventually exceeded the amount of energy the earthquake itself had emitted. It became a part of the narrative of the Class of 2015, or the Class That Made The Earth Shake. Even though it was just a minor quake to the Californians who make up a significant portion of the class, it cemented itself immediately as a momentous event for everyone.

Other unifying events spring up out of nowhere and grow to consume the entire campus. Instead of the shock-and-awe reaction that the earthquake elicited, some events are like embers that slowly grow into flames that then explode into an inferno. After a few days, there couldn’t have been a single soul on campus with an Internet connection and a Facebook account that didn’t know about Duke Memes.

The Duke Memes Facebook page served to reinforce and magnify existing commonalities and to give a voice to some elements that people may have noticed on an individual level without putting them to the test on the school-wide inside-joke level of content on Duke Memes. That being said, Duke Memes wasn’t even the greatest unifying event of the week, let alone the entire year.

Perhaps the greatest type of unifying moment is the kind that just happens in an instant, with the shortest possible amount of anticipation. Let’s suppose that there’s something the whole campus would celebrate that could happen with just 13.9 seconds of lead-time. Just for fun, let’s also suppose that it happened at the end of some event that night that—oh, what the heck, yes, I’m talking about then-freshman Austin Rivers’ three-pointer at the buzzer to beat Carolina in Chapel Hill to cap a rally from 10 points down with two and a half minutes to play. When that ball went through the hoop at the buzzer, Duke’s campus was instantly swept up in a near-patriotic fervor. When the team bus returned from the land of the light blue legion, the heroes clad in dark blue were mobbed as if they’d saved the human race. I’m only slightly exaggerating here.

The three-pointer by Rivers signaled a revival of the Cameron Crazies, who had been criticized nationally for not showing up early in the season. But when they were needed most, for the comeback against N.C. State, they were back in business. This was just one symptom of the unity infection that had suddenly become much more virulent. The shot made ordinary Duke students into Duke basketball fans. It added to our school spirit and to our school identity. Most importantly, it gave everyone, from the Class of 2012 to the Class of 2015, a common memory that will last well beyond our days here at Duke.

Jordan DeLoatch is a Trinity sophomore.

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 president must be prepared to handle unforeseen circumstances and cultivate confidence through a coherent vision for the future.

In his time as president, Brodhead has demonstrated an aptitude for representing and promoting the Duke brand. The creation and execution of the Financial Aid Initiative, a $300 million campaign, remains a highlight of his presidency, the effects of which can still be seen in the growing monetary contributions to the University. His humanities-oriented background has fostered the creation of new interdisciplinary initiatives, adding depth to the research-oriented nature of Duke. Brodhead’s global focus—as evidenced by the launching of the DukeEngage civic engagement program, the establishment of the Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School and the opening of DKU—reflect a conscious effort to promote the University by attracting international talent and support his vision of a more global Duke.

However, while effective in his work as a representative for the academic and civic initiatives of the University, Brodhead has been lacking in his ability to connect with students. Student response to administrative changes is often overlooked or misunderstood, and it has remained difficult for students to connect with the president in a substantive manner. Changes in policy that influence student life are often left to the hands of other administrators, with Brodhead’s voice noticeably absent from conversation or simply insufficient to create dialogue. This stands in contrast to the work of previous presidents: When former President Nan Keohane proposed the relocation of freshmen to East Campus, she personally advocated for the change. Brodhead has been less involved in matters of student life. When frustrations regarding the house model reached their peak, his input was limited to support of other administrators. Before Brodhead can act in the interest of students, he must understand their perspective.

Brodhead has also faced difficulty in articulating his vision for the University in a manner satisfactory to faculty and alumni. Confusion about the motivations for investing in DKU remained veiled for far too long, leading to frustration and feelings of exclusion among faculty. This initial lack of transparency has plagued the initiative, with many still not understanding the reasoning behind the venture. This is a crucial gap in Brodhead’s previous terms—he has been less effective in conveying how the numerous initiatives undertaken in the past few years add up to a coherent plan that will benefit the University. To increase confidence in University initiatives, Brodhead must be willing to involve the community.

As he prepares for his third term, Brodhead should increase his focus on student life and administrative availability. For the University to remain successful, attention must be paid to both internal cohesion and external outreach.

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 say for certain at this point is that it took library staff hours to clean up the mess during one of our busiest weeks of the year.

If only this were an isolated incident. But it came less than a week after someone smashed the glass front of a vending machine in the Link and made off with all the snacks inside.

Every semester, during finals time, the libraries marshal our resources to ensure that Duke students have everything they need to do their best academically. We adjust our schedules so that Perkins, Bostock and Lilly libraries can remain open and staffed 24 hours a day. We rent extra tables and chairs to accommodate the increased demand for quiet study space. Our Friends of the Libraries organize two study breaks (one in Lilly, one in Perkins), where we lavish free homemade cookies, coffee, and treats on our students to let them know that we’re all pulling for them during this stressful time.

This is all as it should be. The library is the intellectual heart of the University, where the business and pleasure of learning never cease. And we are proud that so many students treat us like a second home throughout the year. You are the reason we’re here.

So it’s extremely disheartening to find ourselves on the receiving end of such thoughtless and uncivilized behavior. The perpetrators insulted not only all of us who work here, but also everyone who comes to the library as a place of refuge, where one can escape the senseless havoc of the world and reflect on higher things. They also made it difficult, if not impossible, for anyone needing a book in the defiled ranges to find it.

By the time this is published, finals will be over, the books will be restored to their proper places and the unknown individuals to whom this letter is addressed will likely be bidding Duke farewell, at least for the summer. But I hope they will also take this time of departures to reflect on their actions, which were not at all worthy of educated minds.

Deborah Jakubs,

Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University librarian and vice provost for library affairs

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 vote with intense enthusiasm—not just because it would impact our LGBT peers, but because our alma mater was taking a leadership position in the campaign against bigotry and hate. Today, we write to thank you for your work.

On February 17, after dedicated advocacy by students on campus, Duke released an official statement in support of the LGBT community. While the University did not officially oppose Amendment One, the statement sent a strong message that Duke is an inclusive, supportive place for LGBT people. Coming from one of the most prominent institutions in the state, the statement garnered media attention. Duke Together Against Constitutional Discrimination built a formidable and sophisticated campaign and created a space for LGBT people and allies of all political stripes to get involved.

Kicking it off with a wildly popular rally in late February, the Coalition and the Duke community have been committed to raising awareness about the importance of voting. Duke alums Russell and Sally Robinson, who have been married for nearly 59 years, spoke out strongly against the amendment. In April, Duke LGBT Center director Janie Long and alum Steven Petrow spoke with David Jarmul about Amendment One on “Office Hours.”

And on April 16, Duke College Republicans, Duke Democrats and Blue Devils United released a joint statement against Amendment One. That same week, Blue Devils United released a powerful video, “Make it Better,” featuring members from across the Duke community speaking in support of the LGBT community. Just over a week later, the Human Rights Campaign highlighted Duke’s contribution to the fight against Amendment One.

And in the immediate lead-up to voting day, alums spoke out, and two students—one gay, and one an ally—marched across North Carolina in the spirit of civil rights. Duke has announced proudly that the amendment will not affect same-sex partner benefits. And no one will ever forget the image of the blue devil mascot holding the rainbow flag—fiercely.

So while we share the frustration with this step backward felt by LGBT people at Duke and across North Carolina, we want to reiterate how the Duke community’s effort in North Carolina—LGBT people and allies both—was an incredible source of pride for Duke alumni across the United States and around the world.

With gratitude,

The Duke LGBT Network Board of Directors

Kyle Knight, president

Tom Clark, chair

Ari Levin

Butch Trusty

Maneesh Goyal

Jules Torti

Darren Spedale

Chris Ventry

Todd Sears

Todd Montgomery

Harry Harkins

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 One would be defeated on May 8. Durham was looking glamorous through my rosy glasses. Look at all the students voting early! Check out the Protect All NC Families signs on Main Street! How could this silly amendment pass?

Then, in the days before May 8, I visited rural Montgomery County. Passing through small towns, I began to see that our liberal dreams weren’t shared by the whole state. My optimism faded and realism set in. Sure enough, Election Day arrived and our beautiful state passed an ugly amendment. To clarify for anyone still confused about what they voted (or failed to vote) on, here’s a retrospective crash course on the implications of Amendment One. Gay marriage was already illegal in North Carolina. This amendment eliminates domestic partnership rights and benefits for anyone in a union other than heterosexual marriage. This harms adults in homosexual and heterosexual civil unions and domestic partnerships, as well as unmarried couples and the children of all these relationships. And now, it’s real.

Sickened by the outcome, I retreated to Facebook to take comfort in the outrage of my peers. But instead of a flood of FMLs, I found hope—hope and solidarity in the instantaneous, dizzying format that only modern social media can express. Where I once found “Vote Against” banners, I now saw profile pictures that read “Repeal Amendment One.” The message was clear—the immediate goal has changed, but the fight continues.

The media fallout has also been encouraging. Attitudes are shifting at all levels of political organization. In a characteristic political gaffe, Vice President Joe Biden jumped the gun in stating that he is “absolutely comfortable” with equal rights for couples of different sexual orientations. We can speculate about the extent to which this was sincere or calculated, but it certainly got the ball rolling. Almost immediately, President Obama came out in support of gay marriage. A few days ago, we heard a similar affirmation from the Prime Minister of New Zealand, which put pressure on Australian leadership to do the same.

Where were the executive stamps of approval after that milestone victory in Iowa in 2009? What about this spring, when Washington and Maryland became the seventh and eighth states to legalize gay marriage? Why did media attention quickly fade from these stories, but May 8 is sending international shockwaves? The fact is that heartbreaking losses often galvanize people more effectively than victories.

So, let’s break down the results from last week. Of those voting, 61 percent were for, and 39 percent were against Amendment One. According to the NC Board of Elections, more than 2.1 million people cast votes on the referendum. But what about all those people who didn’t vote—don’t they have opinions on civil rights? How do you make someone form an opinion and then actually vote on it? I gnash my teeth, realizing that my frustration comes from the same clusterf* that the Duke Democrats have tried to combat through early on-campus voting and rides to the polls—collective action failure.

The logic of collective action says that rational people can’t get anything done in politics because individually, we stand to gain more from inaction than action. Sitting on my butt in my cozy apartment wins me more happy points than getting my lazy butt out to vote. Researching political issues takes time when I would rather study for finals or drink Fat Tire on the quad. Of course, many North Carolinian citizens overcame this logic. For some reason, some people voted. If you voted, what factors led you to do so? Was it your private institution that provided you a ballot box in proximity to your morning bagel? Was it your friend who bugged you to vote, and wouldn’t leave you alone until you did?

One way we might overcome collective action failures relies on extra-rational motivations. These can be positive or negative non-rational factors that get people to contribute politically. One extra-rational motivation is ignorance. For example, you vote because you think that Amendment One will protect families from the dangers of non-heteronormative love/companionship. It can also be an ideological standpoint or moral tenet—I vote because I believe in equal rights for all people.

Positive extra-rational motivation is also known as optimism. This is how we encourage one another to continue to imagine a better world. I have learned from my ever-positive, ever-enduring activist peers (obvious shout-out to Jacob Tobia) that in the fight for true social justice, you must keep your optimism and keep trying. You acknowledge the momentum that comes from loss. You rewrite the words on your sandwich board and keep walking toward equality.

Hannah Colton is a Trinity senior.

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 turkey BLTs in the shower or have peanut butter on my Oreos. And I like to think I just maybe get them, too. Their obsession with all things indie or their giant metal suns with no place to hang, or even their funny aversion to mayo.

So, you may say, what ever happened to the more the merrier? Popularity is still totally in. You can never have too many friends! But you can. And I think that many of us do.

And so here I start my first column. A column that I hope will share my outlook on life and life at Duke and on the funny niche I’ve managed to carve within both.

As the academic year came to a close, with it came the usual nagging question: Where am I going with my life? Alongside it was its brat of a stepsister: How can I be healthier and happier when the fall semester returns? And really only one word came to mind. Noise.

Noise is not limited to a boom, a clang, a screech or a holler. Noise means anything that is tolerable yet annoying and often noticed only subliminally. It maims by attrition and weighs down your spirit like a sopping wet towel. Noise is pervasive. It’s in the blather of chatty Kathy, it’s in the construction beeping outside your Edens window, it’s in the bi-minute notifications of our cellphones. It’s in the constant contact which we so steadfastly maintain. It’s in our deadlines. It’s in the activities we do just to give our resume an edge. It’s in busy work. It’s in words better left unsaid. It’s in settling for “it’ll do for now.” It’s in having 1,083 Facebook friends and cluttered newsfeeds. This year, I have found that noise especially lurks in one-sidedness. At Duke, academics and forward thinking are too often greedy. “What next?” is stealing the moment in the sun from “what now?”

This has been a banner year for me in the noise department. I moved out of my room a month into second semester because of a noisy living situation. I took organic chemistry with a professor whose course is so rigorous he has his own memes. “Easy test … Average: 50/150.” I was stressed and out of my element. I felt strangled on campus.

I needed air. I needed a wider perspective. And I needed quiet. Time to think. Not about benzene or moving out. Just to watch my chest rise and fall. I longed for simplicity and pined for a little good-old-fashioned peace and quiet. I scanned the trash-littered halls of Wannamaker, Perkins, the gardens, even downtown Durham but peace was nowhere to be found.

So I began to think, really think, about what mattered. Drowning out the noise had been right in front of me all along. Escaping it wasn’t exactly possible. The key was finding the sound within it all—the beautiful backdrop amidst all the loudness. Finding the things in life that make us tick and eliminating those that just plain don’t. I found mine in reading a good book now and then just because, even though “I didn’t have time.” In cooking dinner, in dancing at dusk to something soft and slow. And in friends.

I reconnected with the people who were interesting, inspiring and kind to me. I took a breather from those who were not. I began to value saying no over being polite, focusing more on deep friendships than the breadth of my acquaintances, prioritizing honesty with oneself and giving more to the people and things that mattered the most. Therein I found deep, rich, robust sound.

Gracie Willert is a Trinity junior.

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 recruiting analyst Clint Jackson of Rivals.com.

Jefferson—the No. 25 player in the class of 2012 according to ESPN.com—adds Duke a second body to Duke’s recruiting class that also features guard Rasheed Sulaimon. Coming from an academically rigorous private school in the Philadelphia area, Jefferson fits the mold of many Duke players, valuing school work equally as much as basketball.

“A lot of kids talk about academics, and lot of these kids say it to be politically correct or to sound good in interviews,” Jackson said. “And with Amile Jefferson, he actually meant it.”

On the court, the 6-foot-8 Jefferson’s game is not flashy, but he makes up for his lanky 190-lb. frame with a strong work ethic and elite rebounding skills.

“I’m a big fan of Amile Jefferson,” Jackson said. “He doesn’t fit any sort of prototype. He’s just a crafty, smart player.”

Although Jefferson always had an affinity for Duke, the Blue Devil coaching staff had been less consistent in their pursuit of the Friends Central high school product. Duke expressed considerable interest in Jefferson earlier in his high school career and invited him to Countdown to Craziness in 2011. Over the ensuing months, though, Blue Devil coaches’ interest began to fade as they opted to pursue other forwards in the class of 2012.

After being spurned by Mitch McGary last fall and as Tony Parker began to drag out his recruitment after officially visiting Durham in October, the Duke staff reentered Jefferson’s recruitment. The Blue Devils hosted Jefferson for an unofficial visit during the North Carolina game March 3. After that, many college basketball fans and recruiting analysts expected Jefferson to commit to Duke.

N.C. State, however, still coveted the forward, and head coach Mark Gottfried had been on Jefferson for much longer than the Blue Devil coaches. The Wolfpack’s postseason success in March in addition to their top-five 2012 recruiting class made N.C. State a very attractive option for Jefferson.

Reigning national champion Kentucky also recruited Jefferson with more intensity recently after losing six players to the draft and seeing top targets Muhammad and Anthony Bennett go elsewhere. In the end, the Wildcats may have withdrawn themselves from the Jefferson sweepstakes to pursue Virginia Tech signee Montrezl Harrell, who is seeking to be released from his letter of intent after the dismissal of Hokie head coach Seth Greenberg.

Duke, more than any other school, presented the most logical match for Jefferson, especially given the departures of Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly after the 2012-13 season.

“[Jefferson] has got the potential to possibly start next year and if not then be a good role player,” Jackson said.

And Jefferson’s commitment gives the program some positive buzz going into a big summer of recruiting for Krzyzewski and his staff.

“The whiffs that they had on Shabazz Muhammad, Mitch McGary and Tony Parker probably hurt a lot, so grabbing a kid this late like Amile Jefferson is huge for Duke,” Jackson said. “And [it] definitely brings their momentum back on the recruiting trail for 2013.”

Brady Buck also contributes to rivals.com