Oct 20, 2011 issue

T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y

The Chronicle

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011

CEO explains hip-hop’s effect on Americans

ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH YEAR, ISSUE 39

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Grad School dean to step down Friday

Tar Heels smashed

by Andrew Karim

by Ashley Mooney

THE CHRONICLE

THE CHRONICLE

Tanning doesn’t just mean sunbathing anymore.

Author Steve Stoute, founder and CEO of Translation Consultation and Brand Imaging, spoke to a large crowd of students, faculty and Durham residents Wednesday night in the John Hope Franklin Center of International and Interdisciplinary Studies. The event was part of Left of Black, a weekly webcast produced by the Franklin Center and the Department of African and African American studies.

In his book “Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture that Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy,” Stoute discusses how hip-hop culture is permeating American society by establishing a presence that transcends racial boundaries.

Stoute said “tanning” is a social force that pushes music beyond cultural borders and into a diverse framework. The musical consumer is a mindset—not a race, said Stoute. “[Tanning] is a mental complexion,” he said.

Rap and hip-hop are no longer socially assigned to a specific race, Stoute said, but are instead accessed and followed by those of many different cultures.

This Friday, Jo Rae Wright will step down as dean and vice provost of the University’s Graduate School—a position she has held since 2006.

Wright has been battling breast cancer for more than four years, and until now, she was able balance her treatment and work with the Graduate School, Wright said. But recently, her treatments have become less predictable and more tiring, she added.

“I don’t feel that I can continue to make commitments to travel Jo Rae Wright as a dean must,” Wright wrote in an email Wednesday. “Thus, I have elected to step down so that Duke can recruit a Graduate School dean who can fulfill all the responsibilities of the job.”

Wright noted that her major goals as dean included actively engaging alumni by establishing a board of visitors, improving financial support for students and providing guidance for students in career and professional development—especially in light of the rapidly changing job market for those with doctoral degrees. Wright said she hopes the new dean will share some of these priorities.

Wright will be returning full time to her faculty position as a professor in the department of cell biology and will also manage a research laboratory.

“Running a research lab is more flexible in terms of time and travel.... Much of the work of writing grants and papers can be done from home, if needed,” she said.

The University will begin searching for Wright’s replacement shortly, Provost Peter Lange said, adding that the search should conclude no later than June 2012. Until a successor is secured, David Bell, senior associate dean of the Graduate School, will serve as interim dean.

“The Graduate School will be in great hands with David Bell as interim dean,” Wright said. “[We] have worked together closely for over five years, and he has a strong commitment to graduate education.

The entire staff of the Graduate School is outstanding, and I am confident that the Graduate School will flourish under Dean Bell’s leadership.”

Due to Wright’s leadership, members of the faculty and staff have a good idea of the range of complexities encountered in administering graduate programs, Bell wrote in an email Wednesday. Their knowledge and

TYLER SEUC/THE CHRONICLE

The Blue Devils swept rival North Carolina in three sets Wednesday night. SEE STORY PAGE 7.

SEE STOUTE ON PAGE 6

Sanford begins search for new dean

by Lauren Carroll THE CHRONICLE

Sanford is preparing to usher in a change in leadership, as it conducts its search for a new dean this year.

After years of consistent leadership from the program’s key founders, the Sanford School of Public Policy is ready for fresh insight as the school progresses toward a more international identity among other expansion, said Sanford Dean Bruce Bruce Kuniholm Kuniholm, who will step down at the end of this academic year.

Helen Ladd, Edgar T. Thompson distinguished professor of public policy and professor of economics, is the head of the search committee for a new dean. Because the search is still in its early stages, Ladd was unable to comment on any potential nomi-

nations.

Ladd said initial feedback Sanford alumni, faculty and students indicates that the community wants a dean with a clear vision for the future of the school and a strong sense of the needs of the students and faculty.

“We would want to make sure that any dean would work appropriately with the faculty to implement any vision going forward,” Ladd said. “We would not want a dean to come in with a specific plan with all the ‘I’s’ already dotted.”

Since its shift from an institute to a school in 2009, Sanford has doubled the size of its faculty—building a strong community of young, energetic professors and researchers, said Kuniholm, who has served on the Sanford faculty since 1975 and led Sanford’s transition to a school.

“One of the things that’s really good about Sanford is that we have a lot of good SEE SANFORD ON PAGE 5

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

Sanford Dean Bruce Kuniholm will be stepping down at the end of the academic year.

ONTHERECORD

Duke faces another test on the road, Page 7

“One of the problems that I think stops people from voting is that there are too many campaigns [going on at one time].”

—Fedja Pavlovic on DSG elections. See story page 3

SEE WRIGHT ON PAGE 6

Putting animals in the public eye may cause harm, Page 3

2 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011

THE CHRONICLE

worldandnation

Newspaper staff writers accused of plagiarism CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — When editors of the Cavalier Daily discovered evidence of rampant plagiarism by a staff writer at the University of Virginia’s 121-year-old student newspaper last month, they dutifully reported it to their readers and removed the offending articles from the paper’s Web site.

A copy editor at the Cavalier Daily discovered the alleged plagiarism in early September while fact-checking an article not yet published. The fact-checker searched for a passage on Google, and among the results was an article from a professional media outlet that included an identical passage. That triggered a broader review of the author’s work.

Passages had been copied verbatim from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Wikipedia, among other sources, without attribution, the review found. The Cavalier Daily reported its findings in an article titled “Taking action” and credited to the publication’s five-person managing board.

“

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onschedule at Duke...

Bryan Center Meeting Room B, 12:30-1:30p.m.

The International Center will converse about current events, culture and more.

SSRI~ Workshop: Endnote Old Chemistry 01, 3-5p.m.

This workshop will focus on the basics of working with EndNote and Microsoft Word.

Exotic, wild animals escape US appoints new special from eastern Ohio farm envoy to North Korea ZANESVILLE, Ohio — Jack Hanna says the scene of wild and dangerous animals running from an eastern Ohio farm after their owner freed them and killed himself was “like Noah’s Ark wrecking.” Schools canceled classes as bears, big cats and other animals were hunted, the Associated Press reported.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States will appoint a new special envoy to North Korea and will meet with the isolated regime in Geneva next week, according to a former top negotiator, the latest in a series of actions to renew engagement after several years of silence.

Duke Campus Farm Workday Duke Campus Farm, 4-7p.m.

Volunteers will be planting, harvesting, weeding and working on small construction projects. Everyone is welcome.

CLG Series: Networking and What Not to Do International House, 5-6:30p.m.

This workshop will cover networking, etiquette and what not to do in professional settings.

TODAY IN HISTORY 1947: Congress investigates Reds in Hollywood.

”

“Despite Duke’s recent obsession with global expansion, its global reputation may not be as strong as its national reputation, according to U.S. News and World Report’s World’s Best University rankings published Tuesday. Duke was ranked 19 on the list with an overall score of 89.2... ” — From The Chronicle News Blog bigblog.dukechronicle.com

6348

International Conversation Café

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.

— John Burroughs

on the

FRIDAY:

TODAY:

on the

calendar

Belgrade Day Serbia

Kenyatta Day Kenya

Revolution Day Guatemala DAVID BROOKS/THE WASHINGTON POST

Frank Fumich, of Arlington, Va., nears the end of the 336-mile bike leg of the Virginia Triple Iron Triathlon Oct. 8 at Lake Anna near Spotsylvania.

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011 | 3

DUKE STUDENT GOVERNMENT

DSG reevaluates campaign procedures for future elections

Chimpanzees’ public profile belies endangered status

by Gloria Lloyd

by Lia Cromwell THE CHRONICLE

Duke Student Government is considering amendments to its campaign and election processes.

The Senate considered a statute requiring an increased number of student signatures for candidate declarations at its meeting Wednesday night. The statute sought to reform Senate elections by increasing the required signatures for candidate declarations from 50 to 100 students, as well as requiring candidates to hold public events to reach out to student voters.

Sophomore Fedja Pavlovic, senator for residential life and dining and the member who proposed the statute, said the measure was an effort to increase voter turnout and candidate quality.

“I believe that voter turnout is low compared to other universities,” Pavlovic said. “One of the problems that I think stops people from voting is that there are too many campaigns [going on at one time].”

Ultimately, the statute was voted down, 18-21-1.

Executive Vice President Gurdane Bhutani, a junior, reintroduced a proposal for a new timeline for DSG elections.

The amended timeline would move Senate elections to the same schedule as executive board elections in the Spring.

“This sort of gets all of the DSG stuff out of the way in one swoop,”

Bhutani said.

The proposal was tabled to next week.

DSG also unanimously passed the “Conflict-Free Campus Initiative.”

The initiative recommends that Duke be added to the list of universities teaming up with the Enough Project, a nonprofit dedicated to ending genocide and crimes against humanity as well as curbing the use of conflict minerals. Sophomore Stefani Jones, senator for athletics, services and the environment, proposed the resolution to advise Duke to move away from partnering with corporations that use conflict minerals in production.

Conflict minerals are minerals mined in conditions of armed conflict and human rights abuse, most notably in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the Enough Project’s website.

Jones said investing in corporations that use non-conflict minerals in production would help those suffering in Africa, explaining the economics behind the conflict in particular.

“The violence there is primarily funded by the minerals,” she said. “If you’re eliminating the economic incentive for war, you’re eliminating the [driving force].... We are creating consumer demand for non-conflict minerals.”

Jones said she hopes the resolution would act as a step toward aiding those being killed in the Congo today.

SEE DSG ON PAGE 5

THE CHRONICLE

Television appearances aren’t helping chimpanzees’ endangered status.

Common depictions of chimpanzees wearing suits and ties on television, in movies and in other forms of advertising decrease the species’ chances of success in the wild, research has shown. After viewing the chimpanzees’ appearances, viewers were found to be less likely to contribute to their conservation, according to a Duke study published in the journal PlosOne Oct. 12.

“As far as we know, this study is the first of its kind,” said lead author Kara Schroepfer, a second-year graduate student in evolutionary anthropology. “A lot of people had this idea that just showing chimps in any situation is going to be good for them.”

Chimpanzees are considered an endangered species with a decreasing population trend, according to the International Union Conservation of Nature.

During the course of the study, three groups of Duke students were shown either a conservation message from Jane Goodall, footage of chimpanzees in the wild or actual television commercials featuring chimpanzees, including former Super Bowl ads. The students that viewed the CareerBuilder, ETrade or Spirit Bank commercials featuring chimpanzees were less likely to donate afterwards to chimpanzee conservation.

Brian Hare, study co-author and a professor of evolutionary anthropology, said people in general do not know much about chimpanzees, noting that theoreti-

cally, Duke students should know more than the general population.

“The baseline was 50 percent,” Hare noted.

“I can’t believe only 50 percent of educated people know that chimps are endangered.”

In the study, Schroepfer and Hare discuss two hypotheses that people have held in the past in regard to chimpanzees in entertainment.

“The familiarity hypothesis arises from the idea that because chimps are so human-like, it’s natural for humans to think they’re so cute,” Schroepfer said. “Maybe they’ll want to donate more, maybe they’ll want to go home and look up chimpanzees on Wikipedia.”

This study provides evidence against the familiarity hypothesis and in favor of the distortion hypothesis, which states that the impression given to television viewers by commercials such as the ones used in the study hinders the overall cause of chimpanzee conservation.

“People are more likely to think that chimps must not be endangered because obviously people are able to put them in these commercials, so maybe there are a lot of them left,” Schroepfer said.

The ads also lead viewers to believe that chimpanzees, who appear cute and cuddly in advertisements, are suited for life alongside humans, Schroepfer added.

“Chimpanzees make horrible pets. They should never be held as pets,” she said.

“This study has shown that people who see them on TV are more likely to think they make good pets.”

SEE CHIMPANZEES ON PAGE 4

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4 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011

THE CHRONICLE

Debt supercommittee’s lack of progress raises alarm

by Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With a Thanksgiving-eve deadline approaching, a powerful congressional panel devoted to debt reduction is running in rhetorical circles, unable to break the impasse over taxes that has long blocked aggressive action to tame the national debt.

Though the committee’s 12 members have been meeting for nearly two months in closed-door sessions, lawmakers, aides and others involved in the process say they have yet to reach consensus on the most basic elements of a plan to restrain government borrowing.

There is no agreement on the scope of their ambitions: Should they aim to meet a savings target of $1.2 trillion over the next decade or “go big” with savings of $4 trillion or more? Nor is there agreement on a benchmark against which to measure those savings.

And while individual ideas for savings abound, the committee has yet to assemble a comprehensive framework that would demonstrate its ability to produce a plan of any size before the Nov. 23 deadline.

Committee members say there is still time to cut a deal and have it assessed by congressional budget analysts. But the lack of progress is raising alarms on

Capitol Hill and beyond as lawmakers and other observers grow increasingly worried that the panel is running out of time.

“The clock is ticking,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., a committee member, said Wednesday. “The next three weeks will be make or break for the success of this committee.”

The panel, officially called the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction and unofficially dubbed the supercommittee, was created this summer following an epic battle to raise the legal limit on government borrowing. House Republicans refused to lift the debt ceiling without a plan to restrain the debt. But they also refused to raise taxes, rejecting a deal with President Barack Obama that would have made significant cuts to federal health and retirement programs in exchange for around $1 trillion in new revenue over the next decade.

In the end, Democrats agreed to accept caps on agency budgets to reduce spending by more than $900 billion by 2021 and to create the supercommittee, which was tasked with identifying additional savings. If the committee, comprising six lawmakers from each party, fails to reach an agreement that wins congressional approval by Christmas, $1.2 trillion in additional across-the-board cuts will be

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triggered in January 2013.

Democrats have argued the trigger would force Republicans to the bargaining table over taxes because the automatic reductions would fall heavily on the Pentagon. But so far, that tactic has not worked. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other GOP leaders have yet to show any appetite for significant tax hikes in advance of the 2012 election, when they hope to campaign against Democrats on the issue.

Supercommittee members have discussed a two-stage process that would first cut entitlement spending and close several tax loopholes, such as a write-off for corporate jets. Then, the tax-writing committees in the House and Senate would be instructed to overhaul the tax code to lower rates and raise sufficient additional revenue to meet the committee's overall target.

But that approach has been stymied by the refusal of Republicans to contemplate higher tax revenue except through stronger economic growth, according to people in both parties who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks.

Without a commitment to additional revenue, Democrats have refused to commit to specific entitlement cuts, these people said, leaving even the most eager deal-makers frustrated and pointing fingers at the other side.

“If it was easy, it would have been done by now. No decisions have been made,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, a former George W. Bush White House budget director and one of the committee's strongest proponents of a far-reaching deal.

On Wednesday, the supercommittee took testimony from a bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of Six who forged agreement this year on a plan that included as much as $1.2 trillion in new revenue. But some Republicans in the group have since argued that tax collections would rise solely through economic growth.

After their testimony, there was no sign of a breakthrough.

“The thing that turns the ignition on the car is an upfront agreement that the deal will include significant new revenues and significant new entitlement savings,” said a longtime lobbyist tracking the talks. “The car doesn't get out of the garage until everyone has joined hands on that fundamental framework.

And so far, there's no movement on that fundamental framework.”

While anxiety about the defense trigger has yet to force movement on taxes, it is increasing pressure for a deal. So far, defense hawks have focused on finding a way around the trigger, with some senior Republicans privately urging the supercommittee to count savings from the drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan, worth as much as $1.1 trillion over the next decade.

Boehner last week dismissed that approach, saying the reductions are “already going to happen.” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has criticized war savings as “gimmicks and accounting tricks.” But some GOP lawmakers privately view them as the best hope for avoiding automatic cuts to defense.

Others, such as Sen. John McCain, RAriz., have vowed to defuse the trigger through legislation if the supercommittee fails to act.

Such talk worries some lawmakers and outside budget analysts. If the supercommittee cuts a bad deal that replaces the trigger with budget gimmicks, they said, it would present a far greater threat to public confidence and the economy than if the panel simply failed to act.

Steven Hess, who analyzes sovereign debt for Moody's, said the credit ratings agency decided to uphold the nation's AAA rating in August in part because “more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction was at least planned.”

Tinkering with that agreement “would bring added pressure from the financial markets,” said Ken Bentsen, an official with the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Markets, Bentsen said, would begin to fear “that Washington was just abandoning everything.”

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CHIMPANZEES from page 3 American television commercials are also shown in Africa, Hare noted, and could further stimulate the illegal trade in great apes if Africans believe the commercials show Americans want chimpanzees as pets.

“If one YouTube video goes viral in Africa, it could be the end of the wild apes,” Hare said.

Chimpanzees used in the entertainment industry are retired by the age of 8-years-old. Chimpanzees reach adulthood at age 15 and can live to be 60-years-old, Hare said, noting that adult chimpanzees are rarely shown on television.

Schroepfer said retired entertainment chimpanzees often go to roadside zoos or biomedical facilities. ChimpCare.org, a website that lists the location of the 300 individual captive chimpanzees in the United States lists 13 chimpanzees in North Carolina, 11 in the North Carolina Zoo and two in an unaccredited facility.

Joseph Feldblum, an associate in research of evolutionary anthropology, said the findings reflect the impact of images in affecting attitudes towards chimpanzees. Feldblum manages the lab of Anne Pusey, chair and James B. Duke professor of evolutionary anthropology, which focuses on chimpanzee research.

“Basically if there’s some image or event that readily comes to mind, that kind of bears on any event or thing,” he said.

“People think about these powerful emotive visions they have in their heads more readily than they do statistics.”

The study also found that television can be used to encourage public interest in chimpanzee conservation. Viewers of the Jane Goodall message left the experiment knowing more about chimpanzees and more likely to donate to the cause. Nearly all the conservation message viewers came away knowing that chimpanzees are endangered.

THE CHRONICLE

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011 | 5

DSG from page 3 “The conflict in the Congo is the deadliest war since World War II,” she noted. “This is something that’s really important.”

Freshman Emily Feng, senator for athletics, services and the environment, said she supported the resolution but brought up Duke Athletics’ corporate sponsorships, noting it could pose a conflict of interest.

Jones said current sponsorships would not play a role.

“It’s a nation-wide movement: Stanford’s done it, Cornell’s done it, Penn’s done it,” she said.

TRACY HUANG/THE CHRONICLE

DSG President Pete Schork speaks Wednesday at the weekly DSG meeting.

In other business: Senator for Student Life Leilani Doktor, a sophomore and a columnist for The Chronicle, raised the issue of funding ice machines on East and Central campuses. The $4,000 will provide for one machine in the East Union Building and another in Mill Village on Central Campus.

She noted that although there are six machines on West

Campus, students living elsewhere do not have the same amenities.

The resolution to suggest funding the two ice machines passed, however, DSG is looking into other funding options aside from its surplus budget.

The last order of business was a resolution to pay for repainted bike lanes around campus. External Chief of Staff Chris Brown, a junior, said the lanes are a matter of necessity for student safety and also connected the lanes to Duke’s effort at sustainability.

“In the context of pushing for a number of sustainable programs... we need to make sure the proper infrastructure is in place to make this possible,” Brown said.

The resolution passed unanimously and states that DSG will contribute $10,000 to fix the bike lanes throughout Duke.

@dukechronicle

SANFORD from page 1 faculty and staff who have played important roles in our development,” he said. “It’s time for some new blood to come in and build on what we have built.”

The new dean will inherit a school with a solid financial foundation and well-established and respected programs, Kuniholm said, noting that Sanford’s successes to date will ease the dean search because the school is now internationally recognized.

Conversely, the new dean will have to address several more challenging issues—including the upcoming $90 million fundraising campaign, potential international ventures and the extent of Sanford’s professional program offerings—said Philip Cook, senior associate dean for faculty and research and professor of public policy studies and economics. Cook said he considers himself part of the “old guard” that has been with Sanford since its early stages as an institute, and the new dean should make an effort to understand Sanford’s history in order to sustain the school’s success.

Sanford’s $90 million fundraising campaign will begin Fall 2012. The campaign will allow the new dean to execute his vision regarding faculty involvement, Ladd said.

“This will be a substantial amount of new money, so the new dean will be in a terrific position to work with the faculty to figure out a vision and ways to spend any new money coming in an appropriate way that meets Sanford’s needs,” she said.

Cook added that uncertainty about how the new dean will allocate specific resources makes it difficult to predict what Sanford will look like several years in the future.

Kuniholm noted that many of Sanford’s areas of interest— primarily health, education and environmental policies—are global issues. This, combined with the University’s international expansion, is causing Sanford to evaluate its global goals.

Sanford wants to build on its current international presence, which includes the Global Semester Abroad program, midcareer education through the Duke Center for International Development, employing international faculty members and educating a diverse group of international students.

“We’ve taken some international initiatives that are very modest, but they are extensions of programs we already have,” he said, adding that Sanford is considering partnering with the Fuqua School of Business on a program at Duke Kunshan University.

Cook also noted that the new Sanford administration should discuss expanding its professional programs. Currently, Sanford’s undergraduate and Ph.D. programs are conducted within Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, and the Master of Public Policy and the Master of International Development Policy are professional degrees—run solely by Sanford. Sanford has the ability to further develop its professional programs, particularly in executive and mid-career education, but Cook said he does not anticipate substantial change in the school’s offerings.

Although there has yet to be extensive talk among faculty on this issue, Ladd said the relationship between professional and liberal arts programs should be a major topic of discussion in the future.

“The new dean will have to find the appropriate balance, depending on what the faculty interests are, but [these kind of changes] also depend on the changing external environment in which we’re operating,” Ladd said. “Depending on who comes in [as dean], we might tilt one way or another.”

Ladd added that she is confident that Sanford will select a dean that will continue the school’s visions and goals, but it is still to be seen what the changes will look like.

“Things will change no matter who the new dean is,” she said. “Many of the senior faculty have been here for a very long time—since Sanford began—that has been wonderful. There will be some real continuity going forward.”

A Terry Sanford Distinguished Lecture

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Thursday, October 20 5:30 pm Fleishman Commons Sanford Building Discussants

DAVID SCHANZER Director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security

NOAH PICKUS Nannerl O. Keohane Director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics

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Co-sponsored by the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security and the American Grand Strategy Program.

6 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011

THE CHRONICLE

WRIGHT from page 1

medical center,” Wright said. “My worry is that critical research funding on breast cancer will be reduced.... Without continued basic science research and clinical trials, this disease will not be conquered.”

The programs Wright set up will continue under future leadership, Jacqueline Looney, senior associate dean for graduate programs and associate vice provost for academic diversity, wrote in an email Wednesday.

“With her dynamic and visionary leadership, Dean Wright has shaped a school where the lives of students truly matter,” Looney said. “There’s no question, Jo Rae will be personally missed, but she leaves a dedicated and disciplined staff to carry on the work she cares so deeply about.”

Kendrick added that Wright’s long Duke career and knowledge of the University served her well as dean.

“With excellent leadership under Dean Wright, we are not left in chaos in the Graduate School,” Kendrick said.

“We are a cohesive unit that has been working together. We have a successor, and we will continue to work with our students and faculty as we always have.”

experience will help lead them through the transition period, he added.

Several faculty members and staff of the Graduate School praised Wright’s leadership and said she will be missed.

“I am deeply saddened by Dean Wright’s departure,” said Alan Kendrick, assistant dean for graduate student development. “Dean Wright is one of those superb deans who keeps everyone in the loop.... I think that this is a great loss for the Duke community, not just for Duke Graduate School.”

Douglas James, assistant dean for academic affairs at the Graduate School, wrote in an email Wednesday that Wright is an inspiration to those who face personal obstacles.

Wright said she hopes that breast cancer will be recognized more widely, leading to better research and treatments. She added that women ought to get screened regularly, especially given that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“I feel very lucky to be treated at such an outstanding

the DUKE

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STOUTE from page 1 “I was excited to hear about major cultural shifts, especially with respect to hip-hop from someone on the forefront of the movement,” senior Ibrahim Maali said.

As a former head at Interscope Records, Stoute discussed the beginning of the tanning movement and its roots in varied genres of music, as well as Interscope’s role in pioneering the integration of different musical styles within one record company. With artists ranging from Dr. Dre to No Doubt, Interscope was one of the first successful record labels to promote different musical styles, Stoute said.

“Music was the Trojan horse, and culture came out of this horse,” he said. “The Interscope label is built on artists who move culture forward.”

Stoute also noted the importance of cultural translation—the process of understanding movement, such as hip-hop, by a collective culture.

“When culture takes off, people pay attention to the popularity—not the nuts and bolts,” he said. “When this happens, people lose sight of cultural translation.”

Stoute is known as an expert in advertising and is currently teaching a course based on his book at New York University. He noted that the same marketing used in the music industry could be applied, for example, to President Barack Obama’s campaign for re-election just as easily as it can be applied to media products.

“News and propaganda have the same responsibility to get ratings as television shows,” he said.

Stoute ended his talk on a lighter note and encouraged attendees to pursue their passions in whichever areas they deem fit. He noted the importance of embracing uncertainty, adding that it has the potential to evolve into rewarding work.

“The timing for this book is right, but I didn’t know that [when I was writing it],” he said. “I just followed my passion.”

Senior Ubong Akpaninyie noted the strong points of Stoute’s talk as well as some of its shortcomings.

“Stoute’s concept of tanning in regards to hip-hop’s ascension into popular culture and consumption by various groups reflected his own personal form of cultural curiosity,” Akpaninyie said. “While I enjoyed his presentation, I would have liked for Stoute to discuss the implications of cultural sharing on communities that use art as a way to signify pride and a sense of community.”

T’01, Synetic Theater

Topic: Individual Appointments Friday, October 21 2-3:30pm, Flowers 201

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Individual Advising Sessions 30 minutes each Friday, October 28 9-11 am, Career Center, Smith Warehouse Bay 5 (2nd floor) Sign up in eRecruiting, search Dave Powell

The Expert in Residence Program features accomplished professionals to share specialized knowledge and provide career advice to students.

Open to all undergraduate, graduate and professional students

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Steve Stoute, founder and CEO of Translation Consultation and Brand Imaging, speaks Wednesday evening in the John Hope Franklin Center.

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Recess

volume 13 issue 8 october 20, 2011

[RE]PERTORY

Anthony Gonzalez Synthpop auteur of M83 returns with double-album epic

PAGE 3

CHELSEA PIERONI /THE CHRONICLE

dan ellison

Recess talks arts and law with the Duke alum

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real estate

chillwavers’ second disc ups the ante

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the thing

remake of the 1982 horror film irredeemable

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recess

theSANDBOX. In case you didn’t know what the lyrics to “Headlines” were, SNL conveniently displayed them for viewers when Drake was the musical guest last weekend. Overall, I have to give props to Drake on a solid performance—I haven’t seen him live for a couple of years, but he still has the pure joy for his music that many artists lose after tiring out and doing too many tours (see: Britney). I don’t think I’ve seen a musical guest on the show so happy to be performing in a while.

Of course, there was a little selfpromotion going on—Drake rapped his new single “Make Me Proud” that debuted on iTunes earlier that day (and surprisingly wasn’t leaked along with most of the other tracks of his highly anticipated Take Care due late October) along with Nicki Minaj.

Wait, Drake and Nicki know each other? No way. I actually think that this duo is truly dynamic (and the SNL stu-

dio audience apparently agreed)—the Young Money Cash Money Billionaires are always energetic and play off each other with a mix of semi-serious and mostly ridiculous lyrics.

Drake does not forget his roots, clear from his shout out to Toronto (Oh, Canada!) to his acting abilities.

Anyone remember him as Jimmy on Degrassi: Next Gen? Or his cameo in the movie Charlie Bartlett? Well anyway, if you want a refresher on Drake’s acting, check out his appearance in the Weekend Update: Seth Meyers couldn’t keep a straight face during Drake’s little rap on “ bag jacking” candy from little kids on Halloween.

The only thing Drake-related that is incredibly sad is that Drake cancelled his Greensboro show in November.

And somehow I doubt he’ll be on the bill for LDOC. Wanna make me proud, DUU?

[recesseditors] our marxist bffs Ross Green.....................................................................................Martin Heidegger Maggie Love...........................................................................................Frantz Fanon Chris Bassil.............................................................................................................Che Brian Contratto..............................................................................Frederic Jameson Michaela Dwyer..................................................................................Roland Barthes Josh Stillman.....................................................................................Michel Foucault Chelsea Pieroni......................................................................................Judith Butler Phoebe Long.....................................................................................Jacques Derrida Sanette Tanaka......................................................................................................Mao

October 20, 2011

[DUKE HORIZONTAL]

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I didn’t go to Countdown to Craziness, C so I wasn’t privy to this in information until a moment ago.

But B apparently the event showc cased something called “Duke Worldwide,” W which is a thing li a music video. I say it is like like a music video because I want to emphasize e that it is not actually a m music video. It is a compilation of s snippets of interviews with Duke b basketball players, time-stretched and a rearranged over one of those truly tr terrible electro beats to loosely resemble a genre called lo “rap” “ or “hip-hop.” For example: “Everything we do is first class”— “ th attribution is uncertain, but the again, a these are direct quotes from fr basketball players— is made to rhyme with “We really make a statement on the glass.” Tell me I’m wrong: that s**t is fire.

OK, I’m wrong. You may have heard that Duke doesn’t have the best reputation among the average human: it has something to do with our disproportionately large representation in the one percent, maybe, or fraternity social e-mails.

Or something like that (there was a thing about lacrosse players, but it’s slipped my mind). As someone who’s never done anything in his life to deserve that kind of reputation, I’ve spent a lot of time fighting the popular perception of Duke. After all, it’s not like we’re any more self-absorbed than the similarly entitled yuppies at any number of Ivy League schools. But like so many proverbial camels, my will to fight back against the ever-expanding legions of Duke haters was broken by a single straw, and that straw is “Duke Worldwide.”

I know that the kids on the team had no idea, when they were saying whatever they were saying to innocuous reporter-types, that their words would be chopped and screwed into the only basketball-related rap project more offensive than Allen Iverson’s “40 Bars.” I’m no lawyer, but I think that they probably have some sort of libel case against DJ Steve Porter, the individual contracted

by Duke to put together “Duke Worldwide” and someone I didn’t need Google Image search to tell me was white.

But that hardly matters. The crux of the whole “Duke Worldwide” thing is that a) Duke asked for someone to make it, and then played it at a high-profile event of its highest-profile sports team, and b) it is literally the douchiest thing ever committed to video. I’ve reviewed a lot of awful media in these pages, including a Lil Wayne album full of mall-rock. But there is literally nothing in my experience to prepare me to critically assess “Duke Worldwide.” The word “abortion” comes to mind, but, truly, the task is beyond my understanding of the English language.

So, Duke, I’m giving up on defending your reputation (other than that of your judicial process for student conduct violations, which is nothing if not a bastion of individual liberties and the rule of law). I didn’t want it to end this way. I dreamed of convincing everyone who doubted it—from my high school buddies now at UNC to my crunchy, women’s-studies-major ex-girlfriend—that Duke was in fact a bastion of humility and self-awareness.

It is not. I’d tell you to check out “Duke Worldwide” for evidence, but I’d recommend—like always—that you take my word for it.

—Ross Green

Student Artists Needed Now! Fall Arts Festival

Deadline for Submissions: Full details: arts.duke.edu 919.684.0540 facebook.com/DukeArts VISUAL

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Friday, Oct. 21 We seek work by student artists to present in exhibition and performance settings. All media forms accepted, including painting, photography, sculpture, film, poetry, readings, dance individual and ensemble work, musical performances - soloists, ensemble, orchestra, vocalists, choirs, bands, performance installations, theater, happenings... YOU CREATE IT!

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Sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts, Duke Alumni Association, Duke Career Center and Duke University Union Visual Arts Committee

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October 20, 2011

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Recess Interviews: lawyer, “La Danse” arts advocate Daniel Ellison brings ballet

by Michaela Dwyer THE CHRONICLE

For more than 20 years, Duke alum Daniel Ellison has worked in the Triangle area as an attorney and advocate focusing on the arts. At Duke, Ellison teaches “Legal Issues for the Performing Arts” and “Non-Profit Cultural Institutions,” both cross-listed among several departments.

Recess’ Michaela Dwyer interviewed Ellison to get a perspective on his unique pairing of law and the arts.

Recess: It seems like you’re involved in so many things; if you could give yourself an all-encompassing title, what would it be?

Dan Ellison: This begs the question of how we define ourselves in general. But I’m a lawyer who’s involved in the arts from a legal and non-legal perspective.

R: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your academic and professional work.

DE: Ever since I’ve been a little kid I’ve been interested the arts— specifically photography. When I graduated that’s what I thought I was going to be. Somewhere along the line after taking courses for my folklore degree [at UNC], I decided to go to law school. This is getting back to how you define yourself. The arts are as important to me as civil and human rights issues, and having law a degree [enabled me] to help people in a very pragmatic way.

Later, through directing the Morde-

cai Historic House in Raleigh, I started to go to museum law conferences, and joined the NC Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. I also opened up a co-op gallery with two other Duke alums in downtown Durham in 1978 called the Art Loft. ßAnother parallel path is the theater. I’ve worked with local theater groups, advising them on issues of obscenity and non-profit formation.

R: Being at Duke as a student and now as a professor, what differences do you observe with regard to campus arts culture?

DE: The Nasher has changed Duke and the arts dramatically. This year is the first there’s been an MFA; Theater was not a department when I was in school. There are probably 10 times as many student organizations that are somehow arts-linked. It’s really easy to say that there’s a lot more arts activity at a really high level.

R: How can you train yourself to be cool and collected when dealing with arts-related issues, which are often highly subjective?

DE: In all areas of the law, there’s so much specificity of issue and of precedent. When I’m wearing the lawyer hat, I’m not wearing the advocacy hat. But occasionally I’m in an advocacy role where you must bring in arguments that support your side of an issue. All of the fights that were going on in the ’90s over mostly gay and lesbian-related censorship in

the arts— [NC Republican Senator] Jesse Helms was at the forefront of all of that, and I was advocating for anticensorship and funding issues.

R: You’ve consistently committed yourself to the Triangle arts community rather than that of a larger city, such as New York. What has kept you here?

DE: It’s a very comfortable place to live and be involved in. The scope of the arts that exists here is as broad as any big city. You can be in New York and there’s a thousand things to do, but you’re only gonna do one thing, or nothing. Here, there may not be a thousand, but there’s probably ten [within the Triangle], the quality will be excellent and you’ll probably get a better seat.

R: What advice would you give students who are invested in the arts and also interested in non-profit work?

DE: If you love it, do it. You’ll find

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Duke students will have the opportunity to witness a behind-the-scenes view of the world-renowned Paris Opera Ballet through a documentary screening next week.

Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman’s “La danse: le Ballet de l’Opera de Paris” will screen Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. in the Griffith Film Theater as part of the 2011 French Film Series. The documentary chronicles the Paris Opera Ballet—the oldest national ballet company in the world—as dancers rehearse, perform and everything in between.

Anne-Gaëlle Saliot, assistant professor of French studies, said she wanted to screen the film as part of the series because it confronts a host of typical cliches about French culture.

The film presents dance in a different light than what popular culture depicts it as, Saliot said, citing the popularity of last year’s psychothriller Black Swan. She said the film debunks a lot of the misconceptions of dance presented in Black Swan.

“The cliché of Black Swan is that dance is about self-destruction and romantic images,” Saliot said. “[The documentary] is not a traditional film about ballet...you see a lot of men...and it shows that in order to have a dancer shine, there have to be a lot of people helping out. It’s an homage to the collective aspect of dance.”

She added that it is important to showcase dance as an aspect of French culture, since the creation of ballet in the 14th century took place there.

The documentary highlights the nuances of the Paris Opera Ballet, which as a national, government-affiliated SEE LA DANSE ON PAGE 8

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

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to the screen

recess

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October 20, 2011

heate T in the trtri

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

Haymaker company’s Durham debut brings nature into the theater

by Katie Zaborsky THE CHRONICLE

The Haymaker theater company is taking a bite out of Durham’s thriving arts community. Starting October 20, Manbites Dog Theater will present Living with the Tiger, Haymaker’s first performance in the Durham area.

Living with the Tiger focuses on the intersecting lives of a man and woman who both want to domestically own a tiger. The play’s storyline hinges on an unknown bit of trivia: almost twice as many tigers live in captivity as in the wild.

In the U.S. alone, about 5,000 tigers are privately owned, while only around 3,000 roam free worldwide. This niche of the population has been explored in animal documentaries, but Haymaker is bringing the peculiar sensation into the creative sphere.

Akiva Fox, one-third of the Haymaker theater troupe, is quick to point out that Tiger is not intended for an audience that has experience with tigers, but rather serves as a platform on which to build characters and focus a plotline.

“Living with tigers is just the hook,” said Fox, who, along with his company co-founders, placed more emphasis on creating compelling characters. “If we wanted these characters to be interesting, we had to ask ourselves, what

would we do in these circumstances?”

For Haymaker, this required gathering research about the animal, which included a visit to Carolina’s Tiger Rescue, a nonprofit organization whose aim is to rescue and protect wildcats. Speaking about the experience, Fox said that the proximity to an actual tiger allowed him to empathize with tiger owners.

“It’s not like a zoo, because the tigers are two feet away from you on the other side of the fence,” he said. “It’s an incredibly special feeling, and you say to yourself, ‘I totally get it.’”

The initial inspiration for the project came when Fox stumbled across an Animal Planet special that featured a man who kept the exotic animal as a pet in his Harlem apartment. As Fox gathered information for the play, which included interviewing tiger owners, he saw the transformative effects that the animals had on their caretakers.

“For them, it’s like a mystical experience. Being this close to the tiger makes them feel powerful and unique,” he said. “For them, the process of getting this tiger literally became an American act of pursuing your own kind of happiness.”

Chasing the American dream is an idea Fox knows well.

Along with company members Emily Hill and Dan Van-

Hoozer, he quit his Washington, D.C. job and, after hearing of Durham’s diversity and recent population growth, relocated to the area to start the Haymaker theater company. The trio was attracted to the Triangle because of its burgeoning theater community, which aligned with Haymaker’s vision of performing in more modest venues.

“We like putting on plays for smaller audiences because it’s a more immediate reaction,” Fox said. “We wanted to make stuff that was small and potent and was going to reach fewer people, but was going to be surprising and entertaining for them.”

While Living with the Tiger prides itself on an unusual premise, the play’s connection to its audience lies in how it approaches shared American values and reflects current attitudes through the lens of an exclusionary lifestyle.

“You don’t have to own a tiger to enjoy this play,” Fox said. “I think anyone who’s ever thought about what’s next in their life or wanted to be a part of something bigger or felt unsatisfied with where they are or taken a crazy risk will enjoy this play.”

Haymaker will present Living with the Tiger at Manbites Dog Theater as part of the theater’s Other Voices series Oct. 20-22, 26-29 and Nov. 2-5 at 8:15pm and Oct. 23 and 30 at 3:15pm.

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October 20, 2011

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er riangle

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

Parchman Hour helps construct the legacy of imprisoned Freedom Riders

by Jamie Moon THE CHRONICLE

They tossed their books aside, packed only essentials and finished writing their wills. With only one goal in mind— to fight racial desegregation in interstate bus travel—the young, interracial Freedom Riders accepted the prospect of death as they rode the bus into the racially divided Deep South in 1961.

From Oct. 26 to Nov. 13, PlayMakers Repertory Company at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will present The Parchman Hour, a play inspired by these courageous youth. Writer and director Mike Wiley began researching the history of the Freedom Riders during his stay in 2010 as a Lehman Brady Visiting Joint Chair Professor in Documentary Studies and American Studies at Duke and UNC. “The Freedom Riders were mostly students,” Wiley said.

“These are 17, 18, 19-year-old students from an array of colleges around the country without regard to their own lives aiming to desegregate interstate bus travels in a nonviolent and active way.”

Originally a student production supported by both the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke and Department of Dramatic Art at UNC, the play garnered enough attention to become a professional production this year. The Parchman Hour tells the tales of different individuals who were attacked and eventually brutally imprisoned in Mississippi’s Parchman Farm penitentiary. While in prison, the

students invented a pastime called “The Parchman Hour” where they would sing songs, tell jokes and stories and read the Bible in order to encourage each other in their ongoing battle.

Producing Artistic Director Joseph Haj saw dramatic potential in “The Parchman Hour” stories and selected the play for PlayMakers.

“It’s important for a professional theatre to look at this aspect of movement. The theme is so underexplored in that moment and that struggle. It seemed like an important thing to produce here at UNC,” Haj said.

PlayMakers has and will continue to host various community events, such as a screening of the PBS film Freedom Riders and pre- and post-show discussions, at various locations in Durham and Chapel Hill.

“It’s about creating a platform for community around the issues of the civil rights movement,” Associate Artistic Director Jeff Meanza said.

Meanza also hopes the conversation will help the audience resist the temptation of considering the Civil Rights movement done and finished. Wiley also agrees that the movement should not be dismissed as the long gone past.

“If history were a neighborhood, slavery would be around the corner and the Freedom Rides would be on your doorstep,” Wiley said.

The closeness of the movement was reinforced this May when the cast of The Parchman Hour was invited to perform at a Freedom Riders anniversary reunion in Jackson, MI.

The group had already been touring around Mississippi earlier this year after a brief production at the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC. “I’ve come to meet a number of Freedom Riders and so many individuals that were touched by the show,” Wiley said.

The legacy of the Freedom Riders can also be seen in current events like Occupy Wall Street, Wiley said. These people, including many youths, risk losing their comfort and security for equality and justice.

“You’re never too young,“ Wiley said. “It’s never too late. It only takes one person to stand up and say enough is enough.”

In one scene of the play, a discussion about none other than the basketball rivalry between Duke and UNC takes place, reminding the audience that as revolutionary and courageous as the Riders were, they were still college kids. In fact, they were Duke students. They were UNC students.

“It’s not a textbook recital of a historic event, but it’s filled with vibrancy that gets close to people who understood themselves to be at a threshold moment,” Haj said.

“They understood themselves to be the beginning of something very important.”

PlayMakers Repertory Company will present The Parchman Hour from Oct. 26 through Nov. 13, with matinee performances at 2:00 p.m. and evening performances at 7:30 p.m.

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recess

October 20, 2011

real estate

my brightest diamond

DAYS DOMINO

ALL THINGS WILL UNWIND ASTHMATIC KITTY

With their second LP, Days, Real Estate prove they have more to offer than the beach-bum aesthetic they established on their self-titled debut. On Days, the New Jersey indie rock band further explores the range of moods they initiated in their self-titled debut: summery youthfulness, nostalgia and down-and-out emotional detachment, using poetic lyrics and an impressionistic sonic landscape. However, Real Estate now expands their boundaries with a display of playful chemistry and synchronized instrumentals.

With its accessible beat, crisp guitar riffs and muted vocals, “Easy” sounds like a mellow reincarnation of a Beach Boys song. “Kinder Blumen” uses a wood clapper, scraper and tambourine to capture an easy, cheerful tune to hum while dancing on the beach with friends. “Green Aisles” is marked with moody nostalgia— “All those wasted miles/ All those aimless

drives through green aisles/ Our careless lifestyle, it was not so unwise, no.”

Its meditative, shimmering guitar tones, showcased in a minute-long instrumental break, evoke dormitories, mountains of maple leaves, street lights and haunted houses. “Municipality” is similarly poetic, conjuring images of roses and gardens of suburbia, interspersed with catchy guitar jams. Real Estate show a new range in “It’s Real” which, through its fast-paced beat and repeated chorus of rising voices, captures more energy and urgency than any other track.

Although Days evokes sentiments and sounds typical of indie rock, Real Estate come through with a cohesive interplay of colorful lyrics and refreshing spontaneity, showing that they’re not just cashing in on the genre.

—Caitlin Moyles

If Disney ever makes an indie princess film, Shara Worden should sing lead. With All Things Will Unwind, the opera-trained vocalist of My Brightest Diamond creates an album that is both alternative and cinematic. Each song invents a new set of dramatis personae, places them in enchanted woods and watches as they dance and sing. Like Disney’s best, she exudes confidence—never toning down her abnormally high-pitched voice, always comfortable in her eccentricity.

Worden plays with elements traditionally used in children’s music. Lead song “We Added It Up” evolves into a sprightly round reminiscent of a nursery rhyme.

Animals are plentiful – peacocks, mice and whales – and harp-driven fables evoke comparisons to Joanna Newsom. Nevertheless, the album tackles adult themes. “High Low Middle” expresses frustration at upper class privilege (take notice, Occupy Wall Street).

“Reaching Through to the Other Side,” with its talk of wombs, death and chasms between body and mind, delves into exis-

tentialist questions.

Generally restrained, Worden is at her best when she unleashes the full strength of her voice. During the dynamic surge of “Be Brave,” she channels the gusto and the timbre of Annie Clark (St. Vincent). “I Have Never Loved Someone,” an expression of a mother’s love of her child, shows Worden at her most magnetic. Elsewhere, Worden’s voice can be too sculpted. She hits every high note of “Escape Routes,” but sacrifices power for pitch. Whereas perfectionism works in the opera, here it sounds phantasmal.

The album feels intellectual—and that’s generally a good thing. Its arrangements sparkle, warble and whir, and at least one quirky instrument always tags along. The collaboration with yMusic, the acclaimed avant-garde New York City sextet, works to both group’s strengths. Denying its title, the album never unwinds, keeping steady control even at the extremes of Worden’s vocal range.

—Dan Fishman

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October 20, 2011

m83

the thing

Anthony Gonzalez, a.k.a. M83, has a preternatural ear for the sound of cinema. His music has been used in C.S.I. Miami, a Britney Spears documentary and Gossip Girl, and he’s also created soundtracks for less commercial projects. M83 has approached previous albums with a visible directorial framework: Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts plays with the rose-tinted euphoria of a 1960s acid flick, and Before the Dawn Heals Us cops the vibe of a comically bad Japanese horror. Songs like “Teen Angst” and “We Own the Sky,” vocal overdubs of tremulous young girls reading from diaries, even the cover art of previous album Saturdays=Youth have all positioned M83 as a flag bearer of the John Hughes teen-drama aesthetic.

But M83 managed to announce even more epic intention with the release of the trailer for new double album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. The one-minute montage of skyscrapers, mountaintops and space looked like an homage to Terrence Malick’s new opus, The Tree of Life, and Gonzalez would later cite the renowned director as an influence. It’s a bold self-comparison, and the heart-on-sleeve ambition is part of M83’s charm. If Hurry Up isn’t nearly as transcendant as its source material, it’s also certain to be less polarizing.

“Intro” commences the album fashionably, with supporting vocals from up-and-comer Zola Jesus as well as a much more prominent vocal presence by Gonzalez himself. An increase in singing is characteristic of the frequent pop numbers that serve to ground the stratospheric instrumental tracks, though both varieties are consistently melodramatic. It turns out Gonzalez is equally able to produce a convincingly earnest pathos with vocals as he is with characteristically huge synths swells and cymbal washes. The decipherable snippets that emerge from a mostly inscrutable mass are mantras—on “Midnight City,” he repeats, “The city is my church!”

At the heights of his power, M83 creates a feeling of divine immanence, like he’s captured teenage lightning— ineffable images and memories of romantic longing, or the unbridled enthusiasm of a constantly expanding young mind. But at times, tracks like “Splendor” border on bathos. The repetition of this maximal strategy without enough elucidation can cheapen the message somewhat, giving the sense that Gonzalez was contracted to create a compilation of tracks for use on television season finales.

An even bigger blow, given the high stakes of a double LP, is that its whole doesn’t exceed the sum of its parts.

The band deserves more than cursory commendation for trying to outdo themselves, aiming for a career defining statement meant to blast young hearts into oblivion. But Saturdays=Youth already achieved this feat with smaller, more juvenile thrills that only surface occasionally here, on tracks like “OK Pal” and “Raconte-Moi Une Histoire.”

Still, this is high-order scrutiny for an ambitious and prolific young talent. M83 has outlasted the early comparisons to My Blood Valentine and Spiritualized and bested peers like Sigur Ros throughout the past decade. The conclusion is promising: excellent in its own right, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming leaves the book open on what M83 may yet achieve.

—Brian Contratto

I can’t help but wonder how the executives at Universal agreed to greenlight The Thing: “Remember that John Carpenter flick from ’82 about the alien in Antarctica?”

“You mean The Thing? The one that was a complete failure, critically and commercially?”

“Exactly—let’s remake it, virtually shot-for-shot!”

“Genius!”

“And we’ll give it the same title, but call it a prequel!”

“Brilliant! How much do we need?” “$35 million ought to do it!”

At least, that’s what I assume they were saying, in between huffing aerosols and chewing on cardboard.

PAGE 7

DIR. JOHN CARPENTER MCA/ UNIVERSAL PICTURES

HURRY UP, WE’RE DREAMING MUTE

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The story this time around is basically the same as it was the first time.

A team of researchers in Antarctica discover an alien being buried in the ice and take it to their base for examination. The creature breaks free and begins wreaking havoc on the terrified scientists. But wait— the alien can shape-shift and imitate its prey, which means that anyone could potentially be the monster lying in wait. The researchers become hostile and suspicious of one another, devise ludicrous tests to confirm one another’s identities and, of course, torch everything in sight with flamethrowers.

So it’s not exactly the same as Carpenter’s version—which was itself a remake of the 1951 film by Howard Hawks, based on a story

by John W. Campbell Jr.—but the differences are negligible. In fact, when it comes to The Thing, plot details are wholly irrelevant. This is a run-of-the-mill creature film, and the plot is simply a vehicle for disposing of forgettable characters.

The deaths are grisly but are hardly shocking, and the CGI effects are paltry at best; it’s a monster movie, but the monster doesn’t even look good.

The Thing does not have a single redeeming quality. However, for all of their persistently idiotic decisions, none of the characters ever have sexual intercouse with the creature—more than we can say for last year’s Splice. And for that, it deserves at least one star.

—Josh Stillman

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

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LA DANSE from page 3 dance company, is different from what would typically be seen in a private company.

“The politics in the French system are very different from a private system,” Saliot said.

Saliot cites one moment in the film— a famous ballet dancer discusses her retirement with the company’s administration-—as a particularly interesting example of something that would not typically happen in a private company.

After the screening, Julie Janus Walters, assistant professor of the practice of dance, and Tom Rankin, director of the Center for Documentary Studies, will lead a question-andanswer session.

Walters, who danced professionally with the Joffrey Ballet in New

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York City, said the documentary’s frank depiction of the rehearsal process brought her back to her dancing days.

“The rehearsal process... is accurate and interesting because you see not only the choreographers expressing ideas behind the movement, but also then the challenges facing the dancers,” Walters said. “For me it did bring back memories of that most captivating and always hidden ‘behind the scenes’ process.”

The camerawork does not intrude into the rehearsal process, Walters said, adding that it gives the viewer a faithful portrait of ballet.

“The feeling in the studio setting is very real and honest,” she said.

She also said the documentary exSPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE poses other aspects of the Paris Opera Wiseman’s documentary gives an unsparing Ballet that are traditionally removed look at the Paris Opera Ballet. from the public eye, such as the com-

Great Specials

@hootli, hootli.com

October 20, 2011

tucker & dale vs. evil

DIR. ELI CRAIG MAPLE PICTURES

What if Jason just wanted to clean up his camp, or if Deliverance was just based on a comic misunderstanding?

This is more or less the central and hilarious inspiration behind Director Eli Craig’s Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.

Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Suburgatory) and Tyler Labine (Reaper) play a pair of good-hearted country folk—Tucker and Dale, respectively—who set out to renovate Tucker’s new cabin in the woods. While there, they meet a group of vacationing college kids who more or less spend their time being “college kids in a horror movie.” From their first meeting, in which Dale tries awkwardly to talk to popular and attractive Allison (30 Rock’s Katrina Bowden) with a rusty scythe in his hand, it’s obvious that socioeconomic status is not the only difference between these two parties: Tucker and Dale, for one thing, watch too few horror movies, and the clan of forgettable college kids watches way, way too many.

The film is shot and scored in such a way so as to highlight this divide, evoking at times the feel of either classic slasher or romantic comedy. Craig adjusts his approach from scene to scene, employing characteristic lighting and musical cues to jump from one genre to the other and back. The result is the construction of two separate takes on the same narrative: Dale views his adventure as an innocent one, while the college kids believe they are fighting for their lives. Both of these spins are completely believable from the viewpoints of the parties involved, but the whole truth (as well as the brilliant comedy) lies in the integration of the two. After all, Tucker and Dale are quite obviously not a part of the innocuous tale they perceive, and the terrified college kids really have nothing to fear— at least, right up until they start accidentally offing themselves in episodes of gory slapstick.

Horror films, though, are always about something more than murders in the woods, and Tucker and Dale is no different. Classism and elitism—from the college kids’ innate fear of the hillbillies to redneck Dale’s sense of his own inferiority in relation to beautiful, well-educated Allison —are on display in the film, and work toward a sense of opposition to higher education. Dale stands out as the smartest character in the movie, even if he is the only one unable to mediate therapy sessions and diagnose Stockholm Syndrome on the basis of something “heard in Sociology class.”

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil may be the first movie since Fargo to put a character through a wood chipper. It won’t surprise anyone familiar with the Coen brothers, then, that this turns out to be a pretty ideal example of how to do

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

Sports The Chronicle

ONLINE

THURSDAY October 20, 2011

Valentine Esposito takes a look at Wake Forest wide receiver Chris Givens, who is marching his way up the Demon Deacon record books.

www.dukechroniclesports.com

VOLLEYBALL

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Duke sweeps favored UNC

Blue Devils prepare for Wake Forest

by Hunter Nisonoff THE CHRONICLE

TYLER SEUC/THE CHRONICLE

Amanda Robertson and Christiana Gray led a stellar Duke defensive effort in an upset sweep of North Carolina Wednesday.

by Andrew Beaton THE CHRONICLE

After a slow start to the season, Duke has been working to prove that it has finally found its footing. Against North Carolina last night, the team had a chance to affirm that against the second-place ACC team—and they did so with a statement win.

In front of a season-high home crowd of 3,671 fans, the Blue Dev0 UNC ils triumphed over the Tar Heels DUKE 3 in straight sets, 25-18, 27-25, 25-22.

The game was Duke’s first nationally televised game of the year, and will be the only time the two rivals face off in the regular season.

“We struggled early on, we know, but I think we’re starting to find our rhythm,” senior setter Kellie Catanach said.

“We’re starting to establish who we are.... We’re really starting to figure it out. It’s exciting.”

The Blue Devils (13-6, 7-3 in the ACC) gave fans something to cheer about from the start with a display of offensive efficiency led by middle blocker Amanda Robertson.

The senior finished the first period with five kills on six total attacks, often being set up by Catanach, who had 14 of the team’s 16 assists in the set. The team finished with a staggering .500 attack percentage in the period.

That offensive momentum carried over to the second set, when Duke took an early 3-0 lead, only to give up five unan-

CORRECTION An article in Tuesday’s paper, “Capra passes on pros for Duke,” incorrectly stated that Beatrice Capra reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open in 2009 and turned down $225,000 in prize money. In fact, she lost to Maria Sharapova in the third round and declined a prize of approximately $50,000. The Chronicle regrets the error.

swered points to an increasingly determined North Carolina (16-5, 8-2) squad. The most exciting play of the match occurred in this set, when the Blue Devils tied it up at six apiece after a rally in which the ball crossed the net 13 times.

The period continued its back-and-forth nature, with North Carolina fighting back from a set point to tie the game at 25-25. After this, though, they committed a service error and a block error on consecutive plays, giving Duke a 2-0 lead going into the intermission.

The Blue Devils’ strong fundamentals and execution in their gameplan forced the Tar Heels into making costly miscues.

“We received really well, so we were able to run our offense,” Catanach said. “Their blockers had trouble keeping up with our hitters because I could run whatever [play] I wanted to.”

Like the second game, the third one was closely contested, with a number of long rallies. But the Blue Devils were able to close it out, keeping North Carolina’s attack percentage to a miniscule .180 for the period and .226 for the game, well below their season rate of .262.

Duke, on the other hand, finished the game with an attack percentage of .356, overcoming North Carolina’s elite defense that had held opponents to a .177 clip entering play. The Blue Devils were led on offense by Sophia Dunworth with 15 kills and Robertson with 11.

For head coach Jolene Nagel, the win has several ramifications. Primarily, it was a critical win against a top conference opponent.

In addition, it was proof to her team that they have come a long way since their struggles at the beginning of the season, when at one point they lost three matches in a row.

Furthermore, she added, it will be an important resume builder to the NCAA when the postseason rolls around.

“I’m just really happy the team could play as well as it did and as hard as [it] did on national television,” Nagel said. “That not only helps Duke volleyball, but Duke University…. The girls went out and represented like we needed to tonight.”

Eating right is always critical before a big game, and if its opponents’ diet is any indication, Duke will need to be prepared for a tough matchup Thursday.

“We’ve been feeding [our players] a steady diet of raw meat, nails, tacks and other sharp objects,” Wake Forest head coach Tony da Luz said of his No. 6 team’s preparation for its matchup Duke with Duke in Winston-Salem.

No. 3 Wake Forest (11-1-3, 4-0vs.

3 in the ACC) will be the third No. 3 straight top-10 opponent the No. Wake 6 Blue Devils (13-2-1, 5-1-1) have faced on the road. The contest THURSDAY, 7 p.m.

Spry Stadium will also be the first time since the ESPN3.com second week of the season that the Blue Devils face a team ranked above them.

The Demon Deacons are the last ACC team unbeaten in conference play, and Duke has not defeated Wake Forest in the past two years. Most importantly, though, the game will be a battle for the conference lead. Duke is currently tied atop the ACC standings with North Carolina and Virginia, but the Demon Deacons trail by just one point.

“It’s a big game,” da Luz said. “There is a lot riding on this result for sure.”

Both teams have recently taken on Tobacco Road rival North Carolina, and though the Demon Deacons came away with a draw, the Tar Heels handed the Blue Devils their first conference loss of the season.

“Often you learn more from a loss than you do from SEE W. SOCCER ON PAGE 8’

JULIA MAY/CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

Kelly Cobb hopes to return to the lineup against Wake Forest. Duke has been in an offensive drought lately as Cobb has battled injuries.

8 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011

THE CHRONICLE

fromstaffreports Duke earns honors in preseason poll

Blue Devil wins silver at Pan-Am Games

Eron Riley picked up by Jets

The votes are in from coaches around the ACC, and Duke’s name appeared several times in the final ACC preseason men’s basketball poll, which was released Wednesday. As a team, the Blue Devils received two first-place votes and were tabbed to finish second in the conference behind North Carolina. The Tar Heels received the other 57 first-place votes, Florida State, Virginia and Miami were picked to round out the top five.

Individually, junior guard Seth Curry was named to the preseason All-ACC team alongside Tar Heels Harrison Barnes, John Henson and Tyler Zeller, Miami’s Malcolm Grant and Virginia’s Mike Scott. Barnes earned 57 of the 59 possible votes for preseason player of the year, and his teammate Henson cleaned up the final two.

Duke freshman Austin Rivers almost unanimously earned the preseason rookie of the year award, garnering 57 of a possible 59 votes. The final two votes went to North Carolina power forward James McAdoo and Maryland guard Nick Faust.

Former Duke swimmer Ashley Twichell has moved on from collegiate swimming to an even bigger stage, and Wednesday she brought home a medal in international competition.

Twichell took the silver medal in the 800-meter freestyle at the Pan-American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. Her time of 8:38.38 was under four seconds off the goldmedal pace, set by Kristel Kobrich of Chile.

Twichell finished her first 50 meters in second place and held that position for the entirety of the race. She was barely behind Kobrich as they neared the halfway point, but Kobrich extended the lead over the final 450 meters.

The medal is just another accolade for Twichell in the recent past. She was named the Female Open Water Swimmer of the Year by USA Swimming after winning the national championship in the 5-kilometer open water event earlier in the summer. In Aug., she was a member of the gold-medal 5-kilometer relay team at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, and took bronze in the individual 5-kilometer swim.

In search of depth after trading veteran wide receiver Derrick Mason on Oct. 11, the New York Jets signed former Duke wideout Eron Riley off the Denver Broncos practice squad. Riley must be added to the Jets’ 53-man roster, and this will represent his first extended shot at NFL playing time since graduating from Duke in 2009.

The NFL’s trade deadline passed Thursday afternoon, and among the moves made in advance of that deadline were the Jets’ trade of Mason and the Broncos’ own trade of top target Brandon Lloyd.

But rather than add Riley to fill the roster spot vacated by Lloyd, the Broncos opted to add a defensive back, leaving Riley on the practice squad.

This meant that Riley remained available to any other team that was willing to add him to its active roster, and the Jets, in need of extra depth at receiver, opted to sign the ex-Blue Devil.

Riley, who sits third all-time among Duke receivers with 22 career touchdown catches and second all-time with 2,413 yards, had an impressive preseason performance for the Broncos this year. He racked up 187 receiving yards—fifth-most in the league— and two touchdown catches in four weeks.

Riley may have to make a quick first impression with the Jets, however. One of New York’s other receivers, Logan Payne, has missed the beginning of the season while rehabbing from preseason wrist surgery but said he hopes to return to practice within the next few weeks.

Riley is the fifth Duke graduate to be added to an NFL roster this season.

W. SOCCER from page 7 DAN SCHEIRER II/CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

Ashley Twichell put on her cap for Team USA Wednesday and earned a silver medal at the Pan-Am Games.

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a win,” Duke head coach Robbie Church said. “I think the team has bounced back and is ready to win.”

Duke has had to work hard to recover from several midseason injuries, as junior defender Erin Koballa and leading goal scorer Kelly Cobb have both missed games.

“Kelly Cobb practiced yesterday for most of training,” Church said. “We hope to have our players back on the field, but if we don’t I am not worried. We have plenty of great support on the bench.”

The Blue Devils have managed just two goals in their last four games, but Church emphasized that the injuries were not to blame for the team’s offensive struggles.

“It is very common for this to happen at this point in the season,” Church said.

“We are not worried.”

It may be difficult for Duke to reboot its

FAITH ROBERTSON/CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

Former Duke wideout Eron Riley is getting his shot in the NFL after being signed by the New York Jets. offense against the Demon Deacons, who rely on a strong defense, just as the Blue Devils do. Wake Forest goalkeeper Aubrey Bledsoe and Duke goalkeeper Tara Campbell have each posted 10 shutouts this season.

“Both teams have given up very few goals,” Church said. “I believe capturing the first goal will be key to winning this game.”

This will also be a personal matchup for Campbell and her teammates. Campbell grew up with Demon Deacon midfielder Ally Berry, playing for the same club teams in Ohio. Blue Devil sophomore Mollie Pathman and Wake Forest defender Kelsey Zalimeni also went to high school together at Durham Academy for two years, and played club soccer at Triangle FC for nine years.

With both team and personal rivalries on the line, Church and his team will have to put their best efforts forward against a well-fed opponent.

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CHRIS DALL/CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

Goalkeeper Tara Campbell and the Duke defense will need more saves like this Thursday at No. 3 Wake Forest.

THE CHRONICLE

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10 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011

IFC is its own best weapon The Intrafraternity Coun- if it wants to address the real cil’s new recruitment regu- problems that plague rush lations have limited aims: and pledging. to shorten the recruitment We trust that the IFC recalendar from three to two cruitment team will effecweeks and to require an IFC tively limit some of rush’s recruitment most extreme team to attend behaviors. editorial fraternity parRepresentaties during rush to ensure tives from a multitude of that each chapter abides fraternities have a genuine

by IFC rules. Recruitment interest in catching their felreforms like these are part lows red-handed—the inherof the historical landscape: ently competitive nature of past changes have included a rush ensures that members 2005 refusal to recognize off- of fraternities will take every campus fraternities and, in measure to ensure another the ultimate show of histori- group is not breaking rules cal repetition, a shortening to gain an advantage. of the rush calender in 1993.

This ought to put a stop to Nevertheless, these rules extreme practices, like pledgrightly put IFC in charge of ing. But the new regulations curbing its own excesses. But fail to address the primary the group will have to extend problem associated with this spirit of self-regulation fraternity recruitment—the

“

What a refreshing story! Ms. Capra has her head on straight and her priorities properly aligned.

—“jcolatch” commenting on the story “Capra passes on pros for Duke.”

See more at www.dukechronicle.com.

LETTERS POLICY The Chronicle welcomes submissions in the form of letters to the editor or guest columns. Submissions must include the author’s name, signature, department or class, and for purposes of identification, phone number and local address.

Letters should not exceed 325 words; contact the editorial department for information regarding guest columns.

The Chronicle will not publish anonymous or form letters or letters that are promotional in nature. The Chronicle reserves the right to edit letters and guest columns for length, clarity and style and the right to withhold letters based on the discretion of the editorial page editor.

pledge process and hazing.

Zoila Airall, assistant vice president of student affairs for campus life, claims that the two new structured IFC rush parties—one at the beginning and one at the end— will signify pointed start and end dates and thus eliminate post-recruitment hazing. But this viewpoint is unfoundedly optimistic—this policy won’t curb hazing.

Ending hazing is not the sole responsibility of University officials—it will certainly require cooperation between administrators and students.

But the desire to terminate the behavior must be studentled in order to be successful.

Why not extend the duty of IFC officers to monitor post-recruitment activities in order to reduce the inci-

dence of hazing? Males within the greek community have the most information about when pledging and hazing might take place and are less likely to be fooled by efforts to conceal wrongdoings. Strong voices of dissent from within the greek male community are essential to move forward and eradicate hazing.

On the other hand, IFC leaders purport that the administration initiated these newest regulations. Make no mistake, we commend the University for recognizing the need to shorten and provide greater structure for rush.

Similarly, we commend IFC leaders for collaborating with administrators and developing a plan that better serves all involved. But these policies could become mere sleight

of hand—IFC needs to take more substantive aim at its most problematic traditions.

Finally, the decision to begin recruitment before the start of spring semester classes is questionable. International students—some who return to campus from the far corners of the world— may have a harder time arriving early on campus than their stateside peers. Historically maligned as exclusive, IFC needs to do all that it can to promote inclusivity, even if that means a rush concurrent with academic classes.

The new IFC recruitment measures tap into a valuable resource of enforcing moderation: fellow students. There is potential here—IFC is its own best weapon in the fight against its own excesses.

Keep personal out of it

onlinecomment

Est. 1905

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I

’m a Republican. I’m a conservative. I would and turn that into a reflection on your character. vote for a balanced budget amendment. I And let me be clear, 90 percent of students would oppose legislatively expanding govern- at Duke do not fit this description. I know many ment influence. I would firmly hold who disagree or agree with my polthat I know how to spend my monicy stances, students who base their ey better than any bureaucrat in opinions on substantive philosophiWashington D.C. I will debate you cal or empirical knowledge. There at length on any policy topic you are Democrats and Republicans all might choose, but the key is that across this campus that care about I’ll debate it in terms of policy. Let’s substantive political dialogue. keep the personal out of it.

These are not the people I’m diFor example, Democrats, please recting my request too. At least 90 daniel strunk don’t call the Republican Party racpercent of liberals and conservaa fly on the wall ist because it stands against affirmatives don’t equate a political affilitive action programs. Don’t call it ation with worth of character. But homophobic because it supports marriage as de- it doesn’t take more than a few rotten apples to fined between a man and a woman. Don’t claim spoil the bunch, and these apples need to clean that it hates illegal immigrants because it didn’t up their act. advocate for the DREAM Act. And don’t allege it I’m speaking to those the students who choose lacks a heart because it would rather not dole out to post deliberately partisan and inflammatory more money in the form of welfare programs. rhetoric on Facebook, rhetoric lacking of any leOn the opposite spectrum, to my fellow Re- gitimate substantive discussion whatsoever—as publicans, please don’t call the Democratic Party though the idea of a “political attack ad” can be socialist because some of its members participate incorporated into a “political attack status.” I’m in Occupy Wall Street. Don’t accuse it of baby-kill- talking to the students that will inevitably in the ing because it supports Roe v. Wade. Don’t claim near future say if you don’t support Occupy Duke that it hates Christians because it disavows school you are callous, or alternatively, if you do support prayer. And don’t allege that it’s unpatriotic be- Occupy Duke you are ignorant. cause it espouses different foreign policy.

What’s the alternative? On the contrary, those By proxy, members of the Republican Party Duke students to whom I’m speaking should start are portrayed as racist, homophobic, xenopho- directing their passion towards policy. We need bic and lacking in compassion—a gross mis- more people passionate about substantive politics, characterization. Democrats are portrayed as who can take the stage back from the uninformed socialist, baby-killing, Christian-hating and un- caricatures of each party that often simply speak patriotic—an equally gross mischaracterization. the loudest. We need passionate people who deBut to add insult to injury, members of each as- bate the principles, not the person. No one was sume they know the nuances of people’s poli- ever convinced to change his or her mind after a cy stances before they even ask to hear them. character attack. Attack the person, and you’ll fo“You’re a Republican/Democrat?” they say. “Oh ment opposition. Attack his or her logical reasonokay then, let me typecast you with the Republi- ing, and you just might change his or her mind. can/Democrat caricature I have in my head, and In short, debate the philosophy not the label. And the litmus test of issues associated with it.” This if you’re a moderate, by all means be passionately goes against reality—just look up such groups as moderate, too.

GOProud and Democrats for Life.

Personal attacks work on a national level beWho am I talking to in this column, you might cause many people are too ignorant or too disenask? Though I could, I’m choosing not to direct gaged to think substantively about the content of this lamentation to politicians in Washington, D.C. the attacks—mud-slinging ads do the thinking for An argument to keep the personal out of political them. Sound bites do the thinking for them. Talk discourse on a national level, where so much of shows do the thinking for them. But Duke students politics has been reduced to the most blatant of think for themselves. Duke students are intellipolitical theater and personal attack ads, would gent. We’re capable of more. Let’s not succumb require a genie in a bottle. to political typecasting and character attacks. Let’s I’m directing this to keep the personal out of keep it substantive. Let’s keep it legitimate. Bepolitical discourse to those Duke students who cause, quite frankly, we’re better than that. need to embrace it. To those students in the Duke community that hear you pull the lever for the “R” Daniel Strunk is a Trinity sophomore. His column instead of the “D,” or the “D” instead of the “R,” runs every other Thursday.

THE CHRONICLE

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011 | 11

commentaries

Vend for vendetta

Pink resume, mauve glass ceiling

I

f you are gay, when you apply for jobs, should you let litical donations or a number of other phenomena that it show on your resume or should you hide it? What if could indicate the work conditions for LGBT people. As your main leadership activities at Duke have been with a such it offers only a narrow window into the work environlesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender group? ment at that company.

Thus when companies point to rankWhat if you are earning a certificate in sexutodd sears ings such as the CEI as proof of their ality studies? openness, it is important for us to quesA recent study—in broad strokes—says if kyle knight tion them, to dig deeper, to think hard you want the job, then no, you shouldn’t. guest column about the reality of the work life for LGBT In what has been dubbed the first mapeople. For example, one could certainly jor audit study to test the receptiveness of employers to gay male job applicants, Harvard research- ask: how many of these 100 percent-ranked companies er András Tilcsik suggests that men who identify as gay have openly gay senior executives? (Hint: zero.)

If studies tell us that openness at work is a good thing, on their resumes have less success in getting selected for but outing oneself on a resume could jeopardize even job interviews.

The study, in which Tilcsik sent two resumes—one “gay” getting the job, this puts college students in a particularly and one not necessarily gay—to nearly two thousand em- tough position. Furthermore, if the metrics we have in ployers, found that while ostensibly heterosexual applicants place to judge companies are limited, where does that leave had a 11.5 percent chance of being invited for an interview, the LGBT job-seeking college student? And if we’re told equally qualified gay applicants only had a 7.2 percent to be out, but don’t see many out people at the top tier of chance of receiving a positive response. This is a difference companies, we get a mixed message. of 4.3 percentage points, or about 40 percent.

You as a student have to calculate these risks and deAdmittedly, the study only focused on gay men, but cide how your identity is going to play in your profesextrapolates the discrimination to other LGBT-identified sional life. This will not be the last time you do this, and people. Further research is needed. you don’t have to do it alone.

This research suggests you won’t get an interview if There is virtue both in being out in the workplace you’re openly gay. That might be true. But instead of al- from day one and in changing the system from the inlowing this claim to pressure LGBT people to hide legiti- side. No one can tell you how or when to come out, but mate gay markers on their resumes, it should encourage it is crucial to not discount the importance of a LGBTus to dig deeper and conduct more thorough research friendly work environment to making you comfortable into these companies and organizations we think we and ultimately successful. want to work for.

There is no formula for coming out—in any part of Coming out is just one way of politicizing yourself as anyone’s life. There are, however, several important conan applicant. Some companies will be turned off by other siderations for LGBT people when making the decision groups or activities you list on your college resume—there whether or not to queer a resume: is simply no way to present a perfectly tailored resume to -You are going to have coming out opportunities for each company—nor would anyone necessarily want to as it the rest of your life. You will need to correct assumptions could lead to working in relatively miserable conditions. about your gender, your sexual orientation, your partAnother recent study, “The Power of Out,” has shown ner’s gender, your preferred pronouns, your relationthat “for gay and lesbian employees... a climate that fos- ships and your life. ters inclusiveness and openness is critical both to the lon-A number of companies in the Fortune 500 have LGgevity of their tenures and their ability to perform well BT-identified outreach recruiting programs. What’s usually on the job.” lacking? Out students applying.

Consider the following findings: As we write today, we can think of several instances - The loneliness of the closet at work: Those who are not in our lives when coming out not only felt like the right out at work are 75 percent more likely to feel isolated than personal decision but had a profound effect on LGBT those who are out; people around us. And as out alumni of this magnificent - How you feel about your career: Only 34 percent of University, we encourage you to explore these questions closeted gay men feel satisfied with their rate of promo- of professionalism, identity and expression by engaging tion versus 61 percent of those who are out. And clos- with the resources on campus and off. eted LGBTs are 73 percent more likely to say they intend Networks of supportive people are important for to leave their companies within three years than those everyone. But for LGBT-identified students looking for who are out. employment, it can be especially important to reach out The pressure is mounting on companies to understand and learn about the landscape. these dynamics. More and more, successful firms are reDo thorough research on the company or organizaalizing the value of having open, LGBT-friendly environ- tion you’re applying to. And for support or advice, there is ments. We’re at a point now where for major corporations always the LGBT Network—a group of alumni who have in the United States, being LGBT-friendly is the politically navigated, and continue to navigate, these questions in a and strategically correct thing to do. variety of industries.

So how do you know?

There is still a long way to go. In a majority of states The HRC’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) is a good in our country, it is perfectly legal to get fired just because place to start your research, but it is an imperfect buyer’s you are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Businesses guide. For example, in 2011, it listed 337 businesses as in all sectors are making progress, and our being out at achieving 100 percent corporate equality, up from 305 in work can help further that progress. Starting the process, 2010. However, though the CEI is a good tool, if you are however, is not as simple as it might seem. taking into account a company’s broad treatment of LGBT people, it ought not be your only resource.

Todd Sears, Trinity ’98, is a member of the board of the Duke Consider the fact that while Target had a 100 percent LGBT Network. He has years of experience in corporate diversity, CEI ranking last year, the corporation made substantial and is currently a principal at Coda, LLC, a strategic diversity political donations to anti-LGBT candidates in state elec- consultancy. tions. The HRC threatened to reduce Target from 100 percent “not for the donation itself, but for failing to reKyle Knight, Trinity ’08, is the president of the Duke LGBT spond to significant community concerns.” In short, the Network. He is a Fulbright Scholar in Nepal where he researches the CEI has no mechanism for dealing with corporate po- sexual and gender minority rights movement.

T

here’s nothing more frustrating than having a vending machine deny you a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. On a Saturday night. On a Saturday night where, rather than slaving over a paper, you could be frolicking around celebrating your freedom. Instead, you find yourself crawling around on the floor, searching for your dignity.

It all starts when the clock strikes 3 a.m. And there are sony rao only a couple more parathat’s what she said graphs to squeeze out. Any normal human being would be sensible and call it a night. I, however, wonder if there are any Reese’s Cups in the vending machine downstairs.

At first, I’m a bit hesitant to venture down there and take my chances with another godless machine. I’ve had runins with faulty vending machines before, and after each encounter I tell myself that I will not waste my money on another one of these money-laundering schemes again.

But then I say to myself, “Sony, life is all about second chances.”

With that noble idea in mind, I sprint in desperation to the Great Provider. After hesitating for a bit, I give that machine a good stare before finally swiping my precious card.

As the bar starts rolling out of the machine, I smile and chide myself for being so suspicious of this poor appliance which is clearly not responsible for—Wait, what’s happening? The noise has stopped. The ring isn’t turning. It can’t be stuck. Is it STUCK? What the—and I begin a tirade as the vending machine sits calmly and bears the brunt of my insults, and maybe some slight physical abuse.

At this point, I am pretty exhausted and decide that my colorful speech is probably not resolving the situation. But when I finally decide to hang up my pride, I see it. My poor little Reese’s Cup, hanging helplessly from the claws of the ruthless machine of death. And that’s when I remember that I have a vendetta, a vendetta against this vending vortex of vice that I would valiantly vilify to vindicate my vanished victuals.

The fight does not go so well. And I return to my room a little more bruised than the machine, which I suspect is still laughing, laughing without a dent.

Now that I think about it, I should be thankful for just being alive. A friend recently told me that around two people die every year from “vending machine tip-overs.”

But my near-death encounters with vending machines have actually taught me about life. First, I have learned that I need to start eating healthy.

Second, I have learned that in life, you do not always get what you have worked for or deserve. At Duke, it could mean not getting the grade you want on an economics test after putting in hours and hours at Perkins.

Maybe it means not getting that job offer from the consulting firm that you had your eyes set on for as long as you can remember. At some point, nearly everyone is denied an opportunity for some inexplicable reason and has to come to terms with that pesky, unforeseeable force, sometimes referred to as destiny.

Beyond Duke, I naturally look into the future and wonder what I will do if it’s my dream that is being denied to me. What can I do when my luck takes a detour and my hopes are hanging on a thread as forlorn and helpless as that Reese’s Cup? I can stand my ground and fight back as much as I want to, but in the end will I be just as powerless, watching my dream waste away behind that clear glass pane?

I’d like to think not, or not all the time at least. There will be times when life will hand you lemons, sour lemons, and no matter how hard you try the lemonade just isn’t good enough. Times when you are being denied an opportunity that you thought you were destined to have. But there will be other times, better times. If you are lucky, there will be a family that supports you and friends that will not give up on you. Friends that will go down with you at 3:30 in the morning and help you fight that vending machine.

The dream may be hard to reach, but if you can see it, somewhere beyond that clear glass pane, then it’s not too far way. In the end, fighting for it makes the Reese’s Cup taste just a little bit sweeter.

Sony Rao is a Trinity junior. Her column runs every other Thursday.

12 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011

THE CHRONICLE