Apr. 19, 2011 issue

Page 1

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, APRIL 19, 2012

ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH YEAR, ISSUE 139

WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM

Campus site to simplify voting process

Gender-neutral housing to come to West Campus

Mary Lou melodies

by Lauren Carroll by Jack Mercola

THE CHRONICLE

THE CHRONICLE

Opt-in gender-neutral housing will expand to West Campus starting Fall 2013. Following months of discussion, the University officially committed to a West Campus gender-neutral housing option Monday. Details of what gender-neutral sections on West will entail are not set in stone, though students and administrators expect that in select coed houses there will be genderneutral bathrooms on each hall and possibly gender-neutral rooms. Gender-neutral bathrooms are facilities available to students of any gender, and gender-neutral rooms allow for roommate pairs of opposite genders. “What the University’s policy should do is enable the wise choices of young adults but not dictate those choices,” said Steve Nowicki, dean and vice provost of undergraduate education. “Ultimately, it’s going to be the decision of the students.” A letter to be sent to the student body later this week outlines the University’s plan for implementing gender-neutral housing. The letter was drafted by Nowicki; Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta; Duke Student Government President Pete Schork, a senior; and sophomores Sunny Frothingham and Jacob Tobia, co-presidents of Duke Students for Gender Neutrality. “Duke is committed to offering opt-in

Although North Carolina’s May 8 primary election is three days after the official end of the semester, members of the Duke community can head to the polls starting today. The University will host an on-campus early voting site located in the Old Trinity Room in the West Union Building, adjacent to the Alumni Lounge, today through May 5. There, students, faculty and administrators can vote in the open presidential primary and various state and local races, as well as for or against the controversial Amendment One—a state constitutional amendment that would define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. Anyone who has been a Durham County resident for at least 30 days can both register and vote on the same visit to the on-campus early voting site, said junior Alex Swain, Duke Student Government vice president of Durham and regional affairs and DSG president-elect. Additionally, students currently registered in another state will be able to reregister and vote on-site. Anyone registered in Durham County can vote at the Duke site regardless of the location of their home precinct. “It’s in our mission to encourage social responsibility, and the University has been very

SAMANTHA SCHAFRANK/THE CHRONICLE

Members of the Duke community gather for Jazz music at the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture. SEE VOTING ON PAGE 5

SEE GENDER-NEUTRAL ON PAGE 6

von der Leyen Wenger balances classes with MLS duty calls for unity to solve Euro crisis by Ashley Mooney THE CHRONICLE

by Margot Tuchler THE CHRONICLE

Europe needs to strive for increased unity if the European financial crisis is to be solved, said Dr. Ursula von der Leyen, German federal minister for labor and social affairs, in a talk Wednesday. Von der Leyen addressed more than 70 audience members about the origins of the Euro crisis, current issues with labor and demographics in Europe and the need for a unified fiscal policy among member states of the European Union. As a top labor official in Germany—a nation faring well in the crisis with the power to bailout struggling nations—von der Leyen spoke with direct insight into the crisis. The event was hosted by the Fuqua School SEE VON DER LEYEN ON PAGE 6

Wietoska enters postseason at full strength, Page 7

CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

Junior Andrew Wenger juggles more than just soccer balls—he balances a professional soccer career with the Montreal Impact with his classes at Duke. Wenger played for Duke for three seasons, winning the Hermann Trophy—an award given to the top player in NCAA Division I soccer—as well as the title of 2010 ACC defensive player of the year and 2011 ACC offensive player of the year. In January, Impact drafted Wenger first overall in the 2012 Major League Soccer SuperDraft. “[Playing in MLS] is much different because obviously there’s the sense of you getting paid and it’s a little more cutthroat,” Wenger said. “You need to be on your game every day.” Wenger has played forward—the same position he played his junior year at Duke—in six of the Impact’s last seven games. Although he may play the same position, he noted that the game moves at a much quicker pace in the world of professional soccer. Wenger’s first goal with the Impact, an expansion

Andrew Wenger, a junior, won the Hermann Trophy for his play during the 2011 season.

ONTHERECORD

“I had a friend who regularly became regularly sick to her stomach with anxiety on Sundays.” —Priya Bhat in “Considering the KoolAid.” See column page 11

SEE WENGER ON PAGE 8

Blue Devils look for consistency in doubles play, Page 7


2 | THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012

THE CHRONICLE

worldandnation

Buffett’s stage one prostate cancer not life threatening

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett has been diagnosed with stage one prostate cancer that is “not remotely life threatening,” the billionaire investor said in a letter to investors. Buffett, 81, will begin a two-month treatment of daily radiation in July, he said. The regimen will restrict his travel during the period but not otherwise change his daily routine, said Buffett, chief executive officer of the Omaha, Neb.-based company. “I feel great—as if I were in my normal excellent health—and my energy level is 100 percent,” Buffett said in the letter Tuesday. “I will let shareholders know immediately should my health situation change. Eventually, of course, it will, but I believe that day is a long way off.” The diagnosis is the least severe of four stages of the cancer, which affects 1 in 8 men over age 70. The five-year survival rate for local prostate cancer, such as Buffett’s, is close to 100 percent.

schedule

Duke South Food Court, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. DukeWELL invites all Duke Employees with Duke insurance to come and learn about free wellness benefits.

Carolina Ballet: The Calder Project Nasher Museum of Art, 8 p.m. This series of pieces is commissioned by the Nasher Museum to complement Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art.

Forensic science may not be Olympic protesters draw as reliable as people think attention to London Games Expert comparisons of hair, handwriting, marks made by firearms on bullets and patterns such as bite marks and shoe and tire prints are in some ways unscientific and subject to human bias, a National Academy of Sciences panel chartered by Congress found.

LONDON — A hundred days before the London Olympics, organizers of sport’s biggest event are stepping up preparations and publicity. The 16 days of competition will draw protesters ranging from local residents to international activists campaigning against sponsors such as Coca-Cola.

Breakfast Night @ The Oasis Bell Tower 109, The Oasis, 8 p.m.-12 a.m. Free food, movie, and massage chairs help students take a break from the end of semester chaos.

KARAOKE @ the Tavern The Tavern (1900 W. Markham Avenue, Durham), 10 p.m.-2 a.m. This Karaoke night is hosted by Graduate and Professional Student Council (GPSC). —from calendar.duke.edu

TODAY IN HISTORY 1897: First Boston Marathon held.

“Americans have always felt strongly about politics and elections, so when states began implementing more stringent voter identification requirements in the past few years, some groups, including the NAACP, vehemently opposed this change.” — From The Chronicle’s News Blog bigblog.dukechronicle.com

7853

DukeWELL Outreach Session

web

7053

at Duke...

To find someone who will love you for no reason, and to shower that person with reasons, that is the ultimate happiness. — Robert Brault

on the

FRIDAY:

TODAY:

on the

calendar

Birthday of the Sultan of Perak Malaysia

Republic Day Sierra Leone

Victory at Gir-n Cuba SOPHIA DURAND/THE CHRONICLE

Members of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity hold a barbecue on the Main Quadrangle Wednesday afternoon.

Dia do Indio Brazil


THE CHRONICLE

THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012 | 3

Q&A

with ith

Noah Kalman

In a recently published article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Noah Kalman, a joint medical doctorate and MBA candidate at the School of Medicine and the Fuqua School of Business, and his co-authors argue that Medicare would save $17 billion annually if hospitals were required to offer patients a warranty on medical services. The warranty-based program seeks to alter Medicare’s readmissions-reduction program by giving hospitals a financial incentive to reduce the rate of patient readmittance. The Chronicle’s Danielle Muoio spoke with Kalman about his proNoah Kalman posal and its effect on Medicare, hospitals and patient care. The Chronicle: What encouraged you to look at an alternative program to Medicare’s current readmissionsreduction program? Noah Kalman: This past summer I had an internship at the Urban Institute, which is a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., and I worked for a guy named Bob Berenson. One of his main areas of focus is payment incentives for physicians, hospitals and other providers. We were both interested in looking into [payment incentives] given its relevance to the [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act] going through. TC: Would you say Medicare currently fails in providing a financial incentive for hospitals to reduce readmissions? NK: It remains to be seen [whether the system is failing] because this is the first year that the program is in effect. Hospitals are very cognizant of this program for readmissions that has been implemented. To make it sustainable in the long term… the program should be changed to a warranty system with financial incentives. The Medicare program says, “If you don’t reduce readmissions, we will penalize you.” However, from the hospital’s business standpoint, it’s costly to create programs that will address readmissions. Previous evidence has shown that a hospital can do quite a bit to reduce

DUKE STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Senate approves SOFC budget

readmissions, but it can negatively impact its finances. If there is a model where implementing these [readmissions] programs generates more financial benefit, it’s a more sustainable way forward. TC: How does your model change the penalty policy? NK: The penalties would apply depending on the hospital’s performance. To give a very brief example, let’s say that a hospitals readmission rate is 20 percent. Medicare would say, “We think you can do 19 percent.” If the hospital can improve from 19 percent, [the hospital] stands to make more money. If it is unable to do so or if the readmission rates go up, then the hospital would not be paid as much for those readmissions.... Instead of using measurement to judge hospitals on their performance, [the program uses] payment incentives to change behavior. This means that every additional readmission that can be avoided benefits the hospital financially. TC: How does reducing hospital readmissions affect Medicare and the hospitals? NK: From the Medicare perspective, reduced hospital readmissions generally mean lower costs because under the current model, Medicare pays hospitals for the readmission. Presumably the program would save money that way. For hospitals, the impact of the program depends on their current performance in regard to readmissions. If this is a hospital that, compared to the average, has a low readmission rate, the current Medicare program has no impact on them. Only hospitals with an above average readmission rate will see financial penalty. Under our proposal, the penalties are embedded in the payment change if hospitals can’t reduce readmissions. But for hospitals that can improve their readmissions rate, they stand to benefit. TC: How does the warranty affect patient care? NK: Some of the ways people have demonstrated reductions in readmissions have been more intensive follow-up once the patient is discharged. One of the

Duke Student Government approved the Student Organization Finance Committee’s annual budget at its meeting Wednesday, notably cutting $8,180 from The Chanticleer’s budget. President Pete Schork, a senior, proposed allocating The Chanticleer’s remaining budget request only after completing a comprehensive investigation. Under DSG leadership, the investigation will involve gauging student demand for the yearbook, gathering opinions about distribution and analyzing costs of production. If The Chanticleer allows DSG to audit it, the group will receive the additional $8,180 funding for the 2012-2013 year. “This has gotten lost in transition at the end of each year that I’ve been here,” Schork said. “[The statute] clearly dictates the path of action that must be taken in order to have a well-reasoned and deliberate assessment of what students want and what is the best thing for The Chanticleer going forward.” The Senate approved the statute and then amended the annual budget to grant the Chanticleer $100,000 instead of $108,180. The Chanticleer is distributed during the Fall of each year to students on campus and mailed to the most recent graduating class. The staff was able to distribute all books last Fall, but distribution is not proxy for demand, Schork said. “The magnitude of their budget is alarming, and after thorough investigation next year, we want to figure out if that’s justified or not,” he added. Although SOFC has already allocated the annual budget, The Chanticleer may receive additional funding in

SEE Q&A ON PAGE 5

SEE DSG ON PAGE 4

by Patton Callaway THE CHRONICLE

Announcement of Award Recipients Congratulations to the following students, student organizations, faculty, and administrators who have been awarded Duke University’s most prestigous campus-wide honors for leadership and service. Recipients accepted these honors at the Duke University Student Leadership and Service Awards program on April 18, 2012. Julie Anne Levey Memorial Leadership Award Christine Schindler and Lucas Metropulos

Baldwin Scholars Unsung Heroine Award Lillian Carroll

Dora Anne Little Service Award Precious Graham Sunhay You

Duke University Union Service Awards Best Committee Speakers and Stage Most Improved Committee Smalltown Records MVP Angie Yu

Duke Student Government Awards Steve Nowicki David Pittman

Betsy Alden Outstanding Service-Learning Award Youmna Sherif

Lars Lyon Volunteer Service Award Amanda Ukleja

Alumni Association Forever Duke Award Nathaniel Hill

Leading at Duke Awards

Class of 2015 Awards

First Year Lucas Metropulos Sophomore Caroline Hall Junior Sanjay Kishore New Student Organization Duke Students for Gender Neutrality Established Student Organization Blue Devils United

Reem Alfahad Mollie Breen Adrienne Harreveld Lauren Kerivan Michael Marion Lucas Metropulos Gavin Ovsak Derek Rhodes David Robertson Nicole Savage Christine Schindler Chris Szeremeta Jake Tof ler Cameron Tripp

Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award Harrison Hines

Faculty and Staff Student Interaction Award Adam Hollowell Abdullah Antepli

William J. Griffith University Service Award Monica Bhutiani Nathan French Derek Mong Lindsay Tomson Oliver Wilson Roger Look Patrick Alexander Dania Toth Braveen Ragunanthan

Student Affairs Distinguished Leadership and Service Awards Demonstration of Integrity Lindsay Tomson Building Alliances through Collective Engagement Risa Isard Promotion of the Ideals of Community Justin Harris Expanding Boundaries of Learning Ebonie Simpson Commitment to Diversity Felicia Arriaga


4 | THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012

DSG from page 3 the Fall after DSG’s audit, regardless of the findings, Schork said. The Chanticleer would not use the bulk of funds for production until May 2013, giving them the 2012-2013 academic year for DSG’s review. The group’s funding will be based entirely on completion of the investigation. “This is providing incentive for us to work together next year,” he added. In other business: DSG also approved $5,000 from its surplus account for funding this year’s Senior Sendoff, which replaced Beer Trucks. Executive Vice President-elect Patrick Oathout, a sophomore, said he opposed this allocation. “We were promised by [former President, Mike Lefevre, Trinity ’11] last year that we wouldn’t fund this again,” Oathout said. “I’m not going to vote for anything that isn’t sustainable and doesn’t have a solution for next year.”

THE CHRONICLE

The Senate approved the funding by a majority vote. DSG also passed the Approval and Removal Committee bylaw as it will apply to the house model. With this new bylaw, selective living groups on probation for one year can clear this probation if they end up in the top 10 percent of houses on the Residential Group Assessment Process evaluation rubric. This will encourage positive behavior among SLGs because probation for two consecutive years can lead to the group’s dissolution, said senior Esosa Osa, vice president for residential life and dining. The Senate also added to the DSG Senate House Rules, creating education and mentorship programs for new senators. At the beginning of each year, the executive vice president will run a mock Senate meeting to educate senators on Robert’s Rules of Order and DSG budgetary rules. New members will also participate in a mentoring program with a returning senator to help transition into DSG.

Complex relationships

SYLVIE SPEWAK/THE CHRONICLE

MELISSA YEO/THE CHRONICLE

Maria Cancian, professor of public affairs and social work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, speaks about recent changes in the typical American family Wednesday afternoon.

Term 2: July 2 - August 12

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summersession.duke.edu summer@duke.edu / 684-2621

SIMPLY THE BEST!

DSG President Pete Schork and Marcus Benning embrace at the Senate meeting Wednesday evening.

cosmic cantina Come enjoy our patio & the warm weather! Menu Sampling Old School Veggie Burrito Regular Chicken Burrito Cheese Quesadilla Chicken Quesadilla VeggieNachos Chips & Salsa

$2.86 $5.65 $1.41 $3.59 $4.12 $2.06

Open until 4 am 1920 1/2 Perry St. at Ninth Street Just a block from East Campus Also serving from Chick-Fil-A on Campus


THE CHRONICLE

THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012 | 5

Q&A from page 3

VOTING from page 1

reasons for readmissions is lack of timely follow-up, and this is preventable. If you have a more intensive follow-up of the patient, you can make sure they are still doing well, check if medications need to be adjusted and make sure that the patient understands everything they need to do once they leave the hospital. If you have frequent followups, you will catch issues early. Rather than them needing to come back in a bad state, you can catch [issues] early and change medication so that they can be better off. TC: How is a warranty assigned to a hospital? NK: We would start by looking at an individual hospital’s readmission rate and the starting point is different from Medicare’s, which uses a national average. We believe that by using a hospital-specific average, you can get a better assessment of what the hospital baseline should be. Just starting at time zero, under Medicare, a hospital that has a higher overall readmission rate is going to get penalized right way, and they shouldn’t be. So you look at that hospitals average readmission rate. TC: What happens if there is an unavoidable readmittance? NK: There is a lot of nuance you can build into it. One way that Medicare [does so] is through risk adjustment. The idea is that a healthy 30-year-old should have a lower risk [of readmittance] than a 70-year-old with lots of medical problems. By using hospital-specific rates, you get at that problem in a relatively simple way because a hospital’s patient population, if it changes over time, changes very slowly. There is a lot of nuance you can build into [the program], but, for this paper, we wanted to come out with the broad idea first. TC: Do you think that hospital-specific risk adjustment is something you would consider? NK: I think so. Using a hospital-specific benchmark allows people to work off of whatever their baseline is. I would worry that with a national benchmark you might have some hospitals that, by nature, happen to serve a younger patient and therefore have a lower readmission rate or vice versa, so, through no fault of their own, they are starting from a good or bad position. And this type of [hospital-specific benchmark] is done in some other systems. They do this in England and Maryland.

supportive of this mission,” said Swain, who was integral in bringing the early voting site to campus. The first time Duke hosted an on-campus voting site was for the 2008 general election, Swain noted. The site was brought to campus when Gunther Peck, associate professor of public policy and history, noticed that Duke was not planning for an on-campus site unlike several nearby schools. This year, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina Central University will also host on-campus early voting sites. DSG’s Durham and regional affairs committee will promote the voting site by posting flyers around campus, advertising on social media and speaking directly to students, said freshman Derek Rhodes, senator for Durham and regional affairs. “We will do everything we can to ensure that all students are aware not only that there is an on-campus voting site but that voting is actually a quick and easy process,” Rhodes said. Several Duke organizations are encouraging others to vote against Amendment One at the on-campus early vot-

ing site. The University and Duke Medicine released a joint statement Feb. 17 declaring their support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in the wake of the amendment. Duke College Republicans, Duke Democrats and Blue Devils United jointly outlined why all political parties should oppose the amendment in a letter to the editor published in The Chronicle April 16. “As Republicans, we should believe that the government doesn’t have a role to play at all in marriage,” said DCR Chair Taylor Imperiale, a sophomore. “Amendment One is further entangling government in marriage—that is the opposite of what we’d like to see happen. I certainly hope that people will go out and vote against the amendment.” Rhodes added that there is no excuse for members of the Duke community not to vote, given the convenience and ease of the one-stop early voting site. Although the committee does not have a goal number for voter turnout, he noted the importance of exercising the right to vote. With substantial student turnout, the more likely it is that the Durham County Board of Election’s will grant the University an on-campus voting site again in the future. “Our T-shirts, Facebook statuses and posters are all great,” he noted. “But, at the end of the day, it comes down to the vote.”

@dukechronicle

VOTE May 8th

Early Voting April 18 - May 5

Wendy

JACOBS COUNTY COMMISSIONER

Duke Alumni Trinity ‘83 www.WendyJacobsForDurham.com Donations: Wendy Jacobs for Durham P.O. Box 52023, Durham 27717

New Leadership for Durham Paid for by Wendy Jacobs for County Commissioner


6 | THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012

THE CHRONICLE

VON DER LEYEN from page 1 of Business, the Office of the Chancellor and the department of Germanic languages and literature. “Only one united Europe with a population of 500 million... guarantees that we will still have a say in the globalized world,� von der Leyen said. “We cannot stop halfway. I have the vision of a political union that I would call at the very end ‘The United States of Europe.’� Fuqua Dean William Boulding introduced von der Leyen. He noted her capacity to speak from a perspective that encompasses all of Europe, not just Germany. “In a world where we have incredible interdependence, we need leaders of consequence to deal with issues where what happens one place changes what happens in another,� Boulding said. “[Von der Leyen] is in a position to think about what is Germany’s role in managing the European Union and picking through the Euro crisis, but there is interdependence within the entire world around how we manage the Euro crisis.� The euro has been quite successful over the last decade, von der Leyen noted. The economic crisis has developed not because of the currency but rather the disconnect in the fiscal policies of different EU members. “We do not really have a Euro crisis, but what we do have is... a deep crisis of confidence and of trust,� von der Leyen said. “If you want a single money, a single currency for different countries, you need to integrate these countries into a true fiscal and economic coordination.�

CHELSEA PIERONI/THE CHRONICLE

Dr. Ursula von der Leyen talks about the European financial crisis Wednesday.

When describing lessons Europe can learn from the United States, von der Leyen frequently referred to her positive experience at Stanford University, where her husband formerly taught alongside Dr. Victor Dzau, chancellor for health affairs and president and CEO of the Duke University Health System. “We must find our own way that takes the linguistic, the cultural, the mental diversity of our continent into account,� von der Leyen said. “I am convinced that the United States can be a very good role model for us when it comes to speaking to the world with one voice.� In comparison to many countries in Europe, von der Leyen noted that Germany’s unemployment level is very low—5.5 percent overall and 7.8 percent for people under the age of 25. The country responds to unemployment not with money for the unemployed but with resources, such as training or schooling, to help them gain employment. “We keep you busy,� she said. “[When] you come into the unemployment agency the first [question] is not, ‘How much money do you need to survive the next month?’ [it] is, ‘What are you able to do? Let’s have a look at your strengths.’� Addressing the issue of unemployed young people, von der Leyen noted the emphasis on education in Germany, adding that the same focus should be pursued throughout Europe. “You never let a young person leave without a degree. That has to be the attitude,� she said. “And second, they need a professional qualification—we call it vocational training—so at the very end of their education they are able to have a qualified profession.� Germany is in need of skilled laborers, von der Leyen noted, adding that European unemployment issues could be solved by having young citizens from other countries such as Spain, which has one of the highest unemployment rates, migrate to Germany to supplement the work force. Von der Leyen also highlighted problems with employment of women and the elderly. She noted that Germany faces a shrinking work force because women there have been told—though not explicitly—that a choice must be made between having a career and having children. Higher retirement ages, though disliked by many in Europe, are important because they will change the general attitude toward the elderly and help more people become integrated into depleted work forces. Stephen Grygar, a first-year MBA candidate at Fuqua, said he was impressed by von der Leyen’s ideas for Europe’s economic future. “She had a really good message about a united Europe, and she had very progressive thoughts, especially for a German minister,� Grygar said. Junior Olga Mir said she appreciated von der Leyen’s attention to the students who attended. “I really like how at the end she specifically asked the timekeeper to allow her to answer a few questions from the students,� Mir said. “She was actually interested in hearing the students—that was really nice.�

GENDER-NEUTRAL from page 1 gender-neutral housing and restroom options in all coed houses, and we believe that expanding genderneutral housing and restrooms to West Campus in the 2013-2014 school year marks a significant step towards achieving that goal,� the letter states. Administrators are still unsure of how large the West Campus gender-neutral housing sections will be Fall 2013, said Joe Gonzalez, associate dean of residence life. Moving forward, administrators and student working groups will have to assess which buildings are best designed for gender neutrality. In the first years of West Campus gender-neutral housing options, for example, the administration will look for areas where students can easily access three bathrooms in their halls—one each for men and women, as well as one gender-neutral bathroom, Gonzalez said. He noted areas in Kilgo and Few quadrangles as possibly suitable locations. DSGN first presented a proposal for expanding gender-neutral sections to administrators mid-February. Central Campus adopted a gender-neutral housing option this past Fall. Students of different genders can share an apartment, provided that it includes private bathrooms and bedrooms. Although some students previously held concerns that gender-neutral options would not be available on West in the near future, Moneta said Fall 2013 was always a real possibility. He added that he has continuously supported gender-neutral housing options throughout the discussions. Duke is not cutting edge in gender-neutral housing, Nowicki said, noting that the policy is a “wellestablished trend� among peer institutions. The University of Pennsylvania offered gender-neutral housing in 2005. Dartmouth College, Stanford University, Brown University and Columbia University soon followed. Duke may not be at the forefront of the issue, but it still has the ability to be a leader in gender neutrality, Schork noted. “A welcoming community is willing to take certain institutional risks in order to be a welcoming community,� he said. “We are taking more steps to be more of a national leader than we were before.� Duke wants to implement gender-neutral housing incrementally so that all students—including those who want to live in gender-segregated dorms—will have appealing options, Nowicki said. It will also be easy to provide various living options under the house model. “What this doesn’t mean is that students who want to live in single-gender sections will be isolated on this campus,� Tobia said. “We’re committing to being an institution where students can choose the living environment that’s best for them.�

Who Will Protect YOUR Drinking Water? 751 South is a MASSIVE high-density residential and commercial project proposed for 165 acres of environmentally sensitive land adjacent to Jordan Lake.

VOTE for candidates who are committed to protecting our watersheds, drinking water, and environment. Fred Foster, Wendy Jacobs, Ellen Reckhow and Will Wilson will do this.

The incoming County Commissioners will decide the fate of the project, which would impact our drinking water and add thousands of car trips a day, polluting water and air. Certain of the incumbents and candidates support 751, and are willing to jeopardize our natural resources for the sake of development. People’s Alliance has endorsed candidates for County Commissioner who believe growth cannot come at the expense of our precious and irreplaceable natural resources.

Fred Foster

Wendy Jacobs

Ellen Reckhow

Will Wilson

PROTECT THE FUTURE OF JORDAN LAKE and your drinking water. Vote on May 8th! To learn more about the impact of 751 South visit

durhampa.org/751S Durham People’s Alliance is a grassroots organization of citizen volunteers working to improve life in our community.

YOUR VOTE MATTERS! Vote May 8th, or Early Vote through May 5th! Read about PA and our endorsements at www.DurhamPA.org. Paid for by People’s Alliance Political Action Committee

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Recess

volume 13 issue 26 april 19, 2012

(RE)VOLVING

a little bit of love Spiritualized delivers pop-psych-rock on new album

PAGE 3

SOPHIA DURAND/THE CHRONICLE

record store day local shops churn out indie fare

CENTER

CDS exhibition

capstone students present original documentary works

PAGE 6

what every girl should know

Margaret Sanger, dramatized

PAGE 7


[EDITOR’S NOTE]

PAGE 2

recess

April 19, 2012

L

ast week Ross named me editor-elect of Recess, so now it’s a “thing.” It was a bit startling to see “Michaela” bare and unbylined and left for all the readers I don’t know to sound out (no, it’s neither “Mickel-a” nor “Michella”). I’ve become accustomed to seeing my name attached to a diversity of Chron articles, but I’ve never been quoted within one. When I was asked to comment on something about the Marketplace during my first year here, I vehemently declined, fearing my words would be tangled up in those of my insufferable dining companion who liked to disparage women leaders and talk incessantly about his private high school. Those days, I just wanted to talk to someone else who’d seen the movie Once and knew “ADF” stood for the American Dance Festival. But back to my name. Forgive me if the metaphor is overbearing, but seeing the proper noun reminded me that I am both part of and director of my own narrative. Over the past few weeks, I’ve realized how thrilled I am to helm Recess; it’s some crystallization of attending too many (but still not enough) artistic and musical events and talking to graduating seniors about their regrets and passions (and resolving to do things—like make art—rather than regret not doing them), all in the midst of spontaneous happenings that continue to confirm my com-

mitment to this publication and the arts at Duke. Like earlier this week, when, while awaiting an interview call, I plopped down outside the Gothic Reading Room. An orchestral piece began wafting into the lobby—which, I might remind you, has recently been outfitted with two large murals. In simply diverting my attention away from my laptop, phone and planner, five “Blue Devil Days Arts Information Session” signs came into my field of vision. I watched various figures— the unpretentiously self-assured, This American Life swagger of Documentary Studies faculty, the hurried lunge of a tripodtoting AMI prof—fall into step with p-frosh/parent duos who seemed wired to the extreme, either from too much coffee at the early-morning academic department rodeo or the ephemeral thrill of donning The Most Stylish and Presentable Outfit Ever. Regardless, seeing these pairs conversing with arts faculty and students gave me excited chills. I saw myself in that same place, three years ago, wearing wide-leg linen pants and Birkenstocks, clinging to some newfound confidence in the Duke student I already thought I was. “Becoming” wasn’t part of my image. I was an English and Dance major who’d soon hang out in Central Campus’ new arts buildings and soak up endless arts funding and befriend students equally interested in deepening Duke’s artistic potential. Now about to embark on my senior year at Duke (while the current Recess editors—a group of lovable culture, film and music bros who’ve made this publication outstanding and probably won’t hate me for being sarcastically reductive in

[recesseditors] what makes us beautiful Ross Green.........................................a little tenderness Michaela Dwyer................................... a lotta Irishness Matt Barnett....................................................objectivity Holly Hilliard..........................................taste in music Brian Contratto.............................................subjectivity Dan Fishman............................................what doesn’t? Chris Bassil...........................................his former beard Katie Zaborsky.......................................................LOYO Josh Stillman.............................................showering off Ted Phillips..........................................tux/shorts/vans Phoebe Long.............................................center spread Andrew Karim........................................eyes, sparkle in Chelsea Pieroni...........................................sophistaf**k Sophia Durand.........................................la vie en rose

their characterization [because they’d do the same for me]— move upward and outward), I’m able to stand confidently on my own because I’m so fueled by you, because all of you are part of a cultural flowering that struggles daily against apathy and stereotype or a monocultural “Duke” that doesn’t (at least from my findings) actually exist. It’s you who this publication works to support, respect and investigate in your efforts to redefine creativity when countless forces try to pin it down or preclude artistic exploration outside a familiar discipline. And, reciprocally, it’s you who I call upon to contribute, journalistically, in any form you can. The Chronicle is, for better or for worse (and let’s stick with the better, shall we?), the face and voice of this university, reflecting your passions, concerns and movements to claim space. In the context of the arts, putting faces to this activity is crucial—it empowers both your peers and this university. And if Duke must be eternally branded, why not make it something genuinely reflective of the talented, curious, preposterously passionate and nuanced students here? Anyway, enough with the inflated adjectives—though I mean every one of them. Next year, as I assume the role of Recess editor, think of me as “with you”—and yes, I mean both in terms of the Kelly Clarkson song and Ginsberg’s repeated invocation (if Monday, Monday appropriated it last semester, I can, too): I’m with you in the Bridges House, where the white siding and breezy vibes seem transplanted, save for the Southern documentary collections, from one of those New England schools I almost went to, I’m with you in the once-inaccessible Smith Warehouse where you dip into watercolors and fashion new media into existence, I’m with you in the Ark, that behemoth beauty of a structure where I’ve rolled over and taped my toe too many times, and where I’ve seen, during the summer, MFA dance performances that have shifted my conception of what’s possible, I’m with you at the Carrack and Manbites and Hopscotch and the Regulator; I’m with you in Biddle and Schaefer and the Coffeehouse and scattered art galleries. I’m with you as you petition Duke for more and more space because, like me, you are struggling but hungry to make art, make art, make art. And before I devolve too heavily into allusion, YouTube Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova winning the Oscar for best song. I think they’ve captured my gist. —Michaela Dwyer

NASHER MUSEUM OF ART AT DUKE UNIVERSITY

ALEXANDER CALDER AND CONTEMPORARY ART

FORM, BALANCE, JOY ON VIEW THROUGH JUNE 17, 2012 Tickets are free to Duke students on same day of admission (1 per I.D.) Tickets are half price for Duke faculty and staff ($5, 2 per I.D.) Nasher Museum Members receive two free tickets per day. www.nasher.duke.edu

Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. The exhibition is sponsored by The Northern Trust Company. Lead foundation support is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Chicago Community Trust. Major support for the exhibition is generously provided by The Kenneth and Anne Griffin Foundation. Additional generous support is provided by Margot and George Greig, Anne and Burt Kaplan, Ruth Horwich, The Broad Art Foundation, Gagosian Gallery, Lindy Bergman, Helyn Goldenberg, Sara Szold, and The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation. At the Nasher Museum, major individual support for the exhibition is provided by Frances P. Rollins, Marilyn M. Arthur, Trent and Susan Carmichael, Drs. Victor and Lenore Behar, Kathi and Stephen Eason, and Mindy and Guy Solie. Additional generous support is provided by Deborah DeMott, Nancy Palmer Wardropper, The E. T. Rollins Jr. and Frances P. Rollins Fund, Jo and Peter Baer, Paula and Eugene Flood, Pepper and Donald Fluke, Kelly Braddy Van Winkle and Lance Van Winkle, Carolyn Aaronson, Diane Evia-Lanevi and Ingemar Lanevi, Caroline and Arthur Rogers, Angela O. Terry, and Richard Tigner. Major corporate and grant support for the exhibition is provided by the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, NetApp, and the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources. Additional support is provided by Carolina Biological Supply Company, Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, The Research Triangle Park, Parker and Otis, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, Clinical Ambassador, American Scientist magazine, and Tech Shop. ABOVE: Alexander Calder, Blue Among Yellow and Red, 1963. Painted sheet metal and steel wire, 43 x 63 inches diameter. Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Leonard and Ruth Horwich Family Loan (EL1995.12). © 2012 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago.


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horse feathers CYNIC’S NEW YEAR KILL ROCK STARS

B+ For an album titled Cynic’s New Year, Horse Feathers’ latest release shouldn’t be this uplifting—I blame the banjo. Horse Feathers are more than your average cutesy folk group. It’s difficult to rise to recognition in Portland’s folk scene, where such acts are a dime a dozen. Nonetheless, the group has managed to make a name for themselves as Portland’s shining knight of slow-coustic folk. Horse Feathers has been busy since their 2006 debut, Words Are Dead. Cynic’s New Year marks their fourth release in 6 years, and the group has fine-tuned their sound into a trademark. With lyrics that address the themes of loneliness, lost friendship and death, this album is certainly depressing. But thanks to the multilayered, uplifting instrumentals, it avoids the sappiness you might expect. The band’s instrumental riffs dominate the record, especially those of the banjo and violin. Each song presents a different setting for these two to stand out, or better yet, synthesize. “Last Waltz” elegantly progresses from a violin solo to

an orchestral collective including banjo, cymbals, piano and an additional violin. Lead singer Justin Ringle’s vocals make a smooth landing onto the instrumental runway; they’re gentle enough to maintain presence without overpowering the background ensemble. Ringle makes a stronger appearance in “Pacific Bray,” a song that tells a story about death. With repeated references to washed up bodies on the beach, the lyrics are by no means happy, but the song is held afloat with the same reassuring melodies heard throughout the album. Classical piano and a harp-like banjo cradle Ringle’s unfiltered voice in “Fire to Fields.” The song builds with the addition of a strong violin and plateaus nicely before the instruments secede. The song ends just as it started: its warm piano and its ephemeral banjo complement Ringle’s refrain. Likewise, each track on the album reflects the cyclical progression of a human life. With their polished fourth record, Horse Feathers have proven themselves as worthy contenders in their genre. Cynic’s New Year exhibits the band’s darkest persona yet, but lighthearted instrumentals and Ringle’s temperate voice stave off depression. —Andrew Karim SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

spiritualized SWEET HEART SWEET LIGHT FAT POSSUM

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“Hey Jane,” the first proper track on Sweet Heart Sweet Light, starts in the fast lane and cruises for a solid nine minutes. Jason Pierce has been in and out of hospitals battling a degenerative liver disease with experimental chemotherapy. He’s come out alive and (mostly) well, sounding like a guy with too much bottled up angst to tell his story with a graceful build-up. The one-gear tune of Sweet Heart Sweet Light—sweeping, hearts-opened emotion—is frankly outdated, but understandably. It’s a vein of storytelling that has circulated in Pierce’s blood for, oh, 30 years. The man who is Spiritualized is now 46 years old, has already seen 20th anniversary reissues of the great albums he released with Spacemen 3. Fortunately, Pierce keeps happening upon life crises amenable to such navel-gazing, and capable of producing existential songwriting. Also, this somewhat dated brand of pop-craft happens to be in vogue again, and it is executed pretty damn well in recent albums by Girls. On “Hellhole Ratrace,” Girls harkened back to the Beatles, repeating love-song platitudes with enough confidence to make them resonate again as belt-worthy anthems. Spiritualized did the same thing in 1997, on Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space and operates in the same territory today. Even a more “mature” Pierce would stand

by his original flag-bearing mantra: “All I want in life’s a little bit of love to take the pain away.” And apparently, the same tired themes hold water with the old guy: the addictions, possibly with new cures; a girl or three to obsess over; anxiety surrounding death and a Jesus who died for somebody’s sins, but not his. Although Sweet Heart Sweet Light was supposed to be Spiritualized’s “pop” album, its best tracks are the sevenplus minute tunes like “Hey Jane,” “Get What You Deserve” and “Headin’ for the Top Now.” The long-runners feed well into the band’s back catalogue of fuzzed-out psychrock and hypnotize with their wall of sound and propulsive bass, bolstering some damn optimistic statements of faith. Add to this the predictable female choruses and swelling strings, and Sweet Heart Sweet Light amounts to a pretty unstylish thing—perhaps even more for its turn to optimism. Though Pierce is still singing for redemption, still referencing the same grisly failures with drugs and romance, he actually seems to believe in his supplications when he sings lines like: “Freedom is yours if you want it.” The album is a relief, like the final chapter in a multivolume suicide note (to paraphrase Amiri Baraka). Or greater still, Sweet Heart Sweet Light reads with the closure of a well-concluded prayer. “So Long You Pretty Thing” closes the album as such: “So long you pretty thing/ God save your little soul/ The music that you played so hard ain’t on your radio/ And all your dreams of diamond rings/ And all that rock n’ roll can bring you/ Sail on, so long.” Amen, brother. —Brian Contratto


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April 19, 2012

Coming up ‘Professor Diablo’ brings collaborative performance to Casbah by Michaela Dwyer THE CHRONICLE

Starting next Tuesday, Duke’s mascot will take a break from its traditional athletic duties in Wallace Wade and Cameron Indoor and shimmy into a more artistic space. If on that night, however, you’re passing by or heading to the Main Street music venue Casbah, don’t expect to see anyone in a blue-and-white character bodysuit. In this venue, it seems safe to say that a certain “Professor Diablo,” while mysteriously titled, may look much more like a typical culture-savvy Durhamite. “Of course ‘Professor Diablo’ is a nod [to the Duke mascot],” said Duncan Murrell, professor of documentary writing at the Center for Documentary Studies. “But ‘Diablo’ is an entity whose identity will shift. It’s a shape-shifter.” If you’re sufficiently befuddled and intrigued, perhaps that’s ideal (as Murrell further commented, “I think people are interested because it does seem unusual”). But fear not: “Professor Diablo” represents neither a seance nor sacrificial performance art—at least not yet. The result of a partnership between the Center for Documentary Studies and the Triangle’s Hinge Literary Center, “Professor Diablo’s True Revue” is a new collaborative performance series that will engage writers, musicians and visual artists in an evening-length event showcasing multimedia artwork grounded in extensive documentary research and fieldwork. The series’ inaugural installment April 24 will bring together a visual and media installation artist, a local songwriter, a nonfiction writer and Murrell himself, who will serve as this performance’s curator and elusive “Professor Diablo.” Titled “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,” the collaborative performance will explore, via each artist, the theme of plastics and plasticity. “We were always looking for a type of evening where we could mix media and documentary work about particular kinds of stories,” said Tom Rankin, director of the Center for Documentary Studies. “[At CDS we were interested in] what it would be like to curate or produce a show where you’d get more reading and writing and also music to show the commonalities across the medium we call documentary storytelling.” This type of performance structure is not new; in some ways, it parallels the first ‘Events’ and protohappenings that began with John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg at Black Mountain College in the early 1950s, in which various artists would perform their art—be it dance or movement, painting, music and/or poetry—simultaneously in a specific space. But the “Professor Diablo” series differs in its aesthetic incorporation of nonfiction work—an obvious complement to the ubiquitous term “documentary” but, perhaps more importantly, a challenge to probe and expand it. “I think that one of the things that gives documentary work its power is blending the skills of a fiction storyteller or artist with the contract with the audience that [the work is] based on something real,” Rankin said. “And sometimes that’s partially an illusion but in what goes on at the center it’s very much that idea of human actuality that’s taken and reshaped and reconstructed into compelling and engaging stories.”

Hinge member and local writer Eric Martin, whose novella Donald was recently adapted into the Manbites Dog play of the same title, emphasized the increasing popularity—as well as accessibility—of this type of creative work. “It’s impossible not to see that non-fiction has been stealing fiction’s toys for a while now,” Martin wrote in an email. “Some of the most exciting writing, art, dance, film, you name it, is happening in the world of creative non-fiction. I love films like Waltz with Bashir, books like What is the What and artists like Ai Weiwei that are working in that space.” Regarding the “Professor Diablo” series in par-

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ticular, Rankin explained that the theme of plastics— which is the first among a set of ideas for the series that includes, according to the CDS website, “love, war and food”—meshes well with the philosophy and appeal of nonfiction documentary work. “The whole idea of using a word like ‘plastic,’ which can be literally related or can spin out a little farther, is that documentarians are always trying to play with being true to the literal core and making it metaphoric,” Rankin said. “[With this series], we’re looking at what’s real that’s not being talked about [already] through art.” This evening in particular will feature the work of Donovan Hohn, a creative nonfiction writer whose recent book reflects his personal odyssey exploring precisely what the title enumerates: Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers,

Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them. Also featuring 2011 Guggenheim Fellow Marina Zurkow’s research-driven and often manga-inspired media works as well Old Ceremony frontman Django Haskins’ history-inspired songwriting, “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” engages plasticity as both a physical and intellectual or emotional notion. The theme’s multivalence seems to ensure an unpredictable evening that relies as much on the performers’ segmented presentation as the audience’s response. “That’s what distinguishes this from a happening,” Murrell explained. “We’ll have time [for the audience] to meet the artists afterward, but…when I talk about the audience reflection, I think about…what happens to the audience in the interstitial spaces between performances.” The combination of Casbah’s reputation as an established musical venue and an audience from what Murrell describes as an “art, literature and music-hungry town and university” will, the organizers hope, embrace the event as a viable artistic practice that will weather the quick cultural and economic shifts that define contemporary experience. “I feel like it’s definitely sustainable and obviously there’s an endless amount of topics we can deal with,” Casbah owner Steve Gardner said. Like many grassroots cultural efforts that have sprung from Durham and the Triangle more generally in recent years, “Professor Diablo’s True Revue” equates sustainability with a committed, do-ityourself ethic nurtured by the area’s creative professionals and students. “I’m a real believer in things starting organically and this is one of those projects,” Rankin said. “[There’s a] certain freedom and flexibility. We hope it will take on a life of its own. Fifteen years ago [the CDS] started Full Frame on a shoestring from our basement. Now it has its own identity, and with this [we hope to do the same].” This type of project also serves as an alternative to the traditional, podium-reading-driven (and commercially modeled) author or artist tour, which, at this point, Murrell calls “kind of depressing.” “I grew up in the punk rock and do-it-yourself world of the 80s,” Murrell said. “[With events like “Professor Diablo], we’re bringing the rock back. I think this is more exciting, to see how [a writer’s] words bounce off of music and fit with a visual.” Adhering strictly to a “keep-it-local” philosophy, “Professor Diablo’s True Revue” is, for now, an open experiment; its direction is malleable as curators change for each iteration, introducing new themes and new artistic work, which may, as Rankin suggested, include that of Duke students. “We want to promote the idea that this [series is based in] an ethic of turning attention outward that we should encourage across the arts, whether it’s dance, puppeteering [or some other art form],” Murrell said. “If you’re turning your attention to the world around you, then your work qualifies for ‘Professor Diablo.’” The inaugural evening of “Professor Diablo’s True Revue” will take place at the Casbah on Tuesday, Apr. 24 at 7 p.m. Patrons of Casbah must be members; a lifetime membership is $3.


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in Durham Record Store Day celebrates indie music model by Ross Green THE CHRONICLE

On a Wednesday afternoon, three days before the fifth annual Record Store Day, employees at Schoolkids Records in Raleigh are clearing shelf space to make room for new arrivals. Owner Stephen Judge talks to the frontman of a Fayetteville, NC metal band who evidently wants Judge to stock his CD. Judge patiently explains why he can’t afford to purchase a number of copies sight unseen. “It’s just the economics, man,” Judge says, summing up the plight of a thousand independent record stores in five words. The scene captures the everyday challenges facing music retailers as well as the promise of Record Store Day, an annual celebration of independent record stores. Since the first edition in 2008, stores across the globe have collaborated with artists, labels and distributors to offer a range of new music releases available exclusively on the third Saturday in April. For Record Store Day 2012, more than 200 special releases will be available exclusively at participating stores. For the most part, the releases are more collectors’ items than essentials—a live recording of Animal Collective’s performance piece Transverse Temporal Gyrus, for example, or a 7” of “Lazuli,” the first single from Beach House’s upcoming album Bloom. But between the sheer breadth of offerings and the big-name artists participating—Bruce Springsteen and Coldplay, among others—demand for these limited edition odds and sods has made Record Store Day the most important one of the year for independent sellers. “Last year on Record Store Day, we had the biggest day in the 38-year history of the store, by a lot,” Judge said, estimating that Schoolkids did ten to fifteen times as much business as in a typical day. “It’s astonishing how well we did.” To capitalize, Schoolkids has turned the day into a full-fledged event, featuring five live shows by local bands including Delta Rae. Business was similarly good for Bull City Records, the psych- and folk-leaning independent retailer located just off East Campus. “Every Record Store Day thus far has been the biggest day in the history of the store,” said owner Chaz Martenstein. “Last year, I did just shy of a month’s worth of business in one day.” For storeowners like Martenstein and Judge, who purchased the Raleigh institution from longtime owner Mike Phillips in 2010, the bottom line boost from Record Store Day is sorely needed. The technological advances of the last decade have had

a seismic impact on every level of the music industry, from major labels to music magazines, but they’ve been particularly hard on record stores. The advent of taste-making blogs, online retailers like iTunes and file-sharing websites amounted to a perfect storm for retailers, who were suddenly faced with the task of selling a product now available for

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the price of a Google search or two. The demise of legendary Sacramento-based retailer Tower Records, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2006, was emblematic of an industry whose margins and market share were in free fall. Schoolkids, which once boasted five locations, scaled back to one flagship store on Hillsborough Street. “The difference between the record store when I started working in the 1990s and the record store now is enormous,” Judge said. “We had the luxury in the 1990s of being there for the peak of sales of

the CD format.” As those sales evaporated, independent retailers had to adapt to avoid closing their doors. “We’re in an industry where 100 percent of our stock is available for free, in some form or another,” Martenstein said. “You can’t gripe about .mp3s, because they’re not going away, but we’ve learned how to work with [this environment].” An important part of independent stores’ success lies in catering to the right clientele. Rather than courting the average listener, Schoolkids and Bull City sought out the music enthusiast—the one willing to pay $20 for a highfidelity vinyl record rather than download a 128 kilobyte-per-second .mp3, or leave home to get personalized recommendation instead of clicking through Pandora. “Convenience is great, and we can’t compete with iTunes on that front,” Martenstein said. “But we can offer something else: interaction, community, a place to stop in and chat and run into your friends flipping through records.” The vibrant Triangle music scene is another important asset for independent stores. The Independent Weekly’s Hopscotch Festival raises the profile of record stores and of the local artists whose music they stock. Merge Records will distribute special releases this Saturday by Destroyer, M. Ward, Richard Buckner and Arcade Fire. Jay Lowe, the label’s retail coordinator, estimates that more than half of all of Merge’s sales come from brick-and-mortar retailers. And, while technology continues pushing file formats forward, record stores’ revenues are increasingly derived from an archaic source: vinyl. Long the province of collectors and mega-fans, the format has become in vogue among a larger segment of record buyers for the greater fidelity it offers. “People don’t really buy CDs to use them, they just rip them and put them into iTunes. Vinyl is different, and new vinyl buyers don’t think about the format as downloadable music,” Martenstein said. “Sales of physical formats are up for the first time in a while, and its not CDs.” Regardless of the format, record stores are getting back to convincing customers that the service they provide is worthwhile. With the largest Record Store Day yet on the horizon, independent retailers are set to fight another day.


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April 19, 2012

Free Energy brings dance CDS presents vibes to Duke Coffeehouse student work by Dan Fishman THE CHRONICLE

On Saturday, put down the end-of-the semester taurine drinks: Free Energy will give you wings. The final Coffeehouse concert of the year will showcase the high-spirited rock musicians, who return to Duke from Philadelphia with their brand of warm, danceable music. “I tell my mom that we’re a rock and roll band,” said lead singer Paul Sprangers. “But I don’t really know where we land on the music landscape anymore. Critics compare us to ’80s glam and pop rock—think Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. and Def Leppard’s Hysteria. But everything seems to occupy its own niche these days.” Free Energy played at the Coffeehouse in September 2010 as the opener for indie punk stalwarts Titus Andronicus. Sprangers hopes to replicate the vigor of that evening. “The Coffeehouse was crazy,” he said. “People were dancing all over the place. I’m excited to do it again.” Experimental pop artists Deleted Scenes will also perform Saturday. The Washington, D.C. quartet is influenced by upbeat innovative funk from bands like the Talking Heads and the Go-Go’s as well as the indie gospel of the Danielson Famile. “I’d say we have a quirky sensibility” said Dan Scheuerman, vocalist and guitarist for Deleted Scenes. “But people use that phrase to describe Zooey Deschanel these days.” Both bands come to Duke with new material. Free Energy will play songs from their upcoming sophomore album, Love Sign. According to Sprangers, Love Sign takes to heart a few lessons the band learned from working with LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy. “Murphy taught us how to commit to performing— how to have greater confidence,” Sprangers said. “A lot of that has made its way into our new record, which should sound much bigger than our debut.” Deleted Scenes will perform tracks from an upcoming album which is expected to come out this summer. “A lot of the songs we are going to play this weekend—

in D.C. on Friday and Saturday at Duke—have never been played in front of anyone” Scheuerman said. Fellow D.C. musicians and Saturday’s openers, Cigarette, are more introspective than Saturday’s headliners. “Cigarette plays quietly and delicately,” Scheuerman said. “They make the sort of music you have to lean in to appreciate. But pay attention and you’ll love it.” After Cigarette, though, the atmosphere should be buoyant, the last hurrah that Adelyn Wyngaarden, booking manager for the Coffeehouse, and Brian Contratto, Coffeehouse manager and Recess music editor, were looking for. “Brian and I are both graduating in May and we wanted to go out with a fun band that we can dance to,” Wyngaarden said. “We wanted to go out with a band that can bring the whole Duke community together.” Before B.o.B and Basshunter arrive for LDOC, the last Coffeehouse show offers another chance to let off steam. “You can only study so much until you need a break,” Sprangers said. “And when the time for that break comes, you want to dance. Maybe you want to high five your friends. If that’s you, you should come to Saturday’s show.” Free Energy will play with Deleted Scenes and Cigarette Saturday at the Coffeehouse at 9 p.m. Tickets are free for Duke students.

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MEET THE FILMMAKER 2 P.M. APRIL 21 Independent Filmmaker and Storyteller

JOHN SAYLES

TUES., APRIL 10 MATEWAN

TO RECEIVE 2012 DUKE LEAF™ AWARD AT REYNOLDS THEATER (DUKE CAMPUS). A reception and book signing will be held immediately following the event in the Duke Blue Express Café.

Photo by Mary Cybulski

MATEWAN

SUNSHINE STATE

AMIGO

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC BUT TICKETS REQUIRED

NICHOLAS.DUKE.EDU/LEAF

by Katie Zaborsky THE CHRONICLE

At Beyond the Front Porch 2012, 19 undergraduate students pursuing the documentary studies certificate will showcase their capstone presentations, which constitute a semester-long project required for the interdisciplinary program. The free exhibition, which will be on display at the Center of Documentary Studies (CDS) until the end of SOPHIA DURAND/ THE CHRONICLE the summer, will present a variety of documentary works in film, photography, audio and writing. Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Charlie Thompson says that while the projects are thematically diverse, they are united in their interaction with an outside community. “It’s art based on fieldwork,” said Thompson. “People have done interviews, gone out into the communities and [used] a variety of different methods to tell a story.” For Kimi Goffe, a senior majoring in cultural anthropology, the story she chose to spotlight was one that she grew up with. Her project, titled Unforgettable, centers on her father and his relationship with music. “It’s a project about my dad and his love of music and how music has increasingly become a great way to communicate,” Goffe said. “Basically it shows how it is a unifying factor for my whole family.” Comprised of song clips, narration, and interviews with family members, Unforgettable exemplifies the creative engagement with community that the CDS program encourages and promotes. Beyond the Front Porch 2012 will hold an opening reception for the exhibition on Sunday, April 29 from 3-6 pm, followed by a free barbecue.


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Little Green Pig dramatizes women’s rights movement by Josh Stillman THE CHRONICLE

In a Catholic reformatory in New York City in 1914, four young women adopt birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger as their patron saint and construct an elaborate, violent fantasy world in which they reign supreme. Oh, and it’s all set to Jane’s Addiction. That’s the premise of What Every Girl Should Know, a new play from Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern and written by Monica Byrne. It’s a bizarre but compelling story about strength in the face of oppression and the burgeoning women’s rights movement in the early 20th century. “[They were] a part of a movement of women who were experiencing things that had never been experienced before,” Byrne said of those first activists, as well

about conceptualizing an ideal life, a notion that is often very different than we might think. Byrne herself went to graduate school for biochemistry and intended to pursue science journalism before realizing that she was miserable. She describes seeing Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman at Little Green Pig as a moment of catharsis. “That is exactly what I want to do, can I do that?” she recalled thinking. “Can I commit myself to do what gives me pleasure and makes me happy?” She answered that question herself and began work as a playwright; her first production, Nightwork, about none other than biochemists in graduate school, debuted at Manbites Dog Theater in 2009. That journey of person-

al discovery has now found a vehicle in What Every Girl Should Know. “The play is about how women in general break through feelings over and over only to find that there are more feelings, so they have to take radical steps in order to align what they feel inside with what they do,” she said. “I could definitely say that’s a facet of my own life.” So what about Jane’s Addiction? “It’s perfect to express the rawness [the characters] were feeling, things they personally were never feeling before,” she said. “They’re very raw and they capture frenetic adolescent energy.” Robinson expressed a similar reaction to the music. “It’s brash, it’s powerful and violent,” he said. “It lifted up some of the scenes into a place that was more potent and exciting.” Little Green Pig’s What Every Girl Should Know will run Thursday-Saturday, April 19 to May 5, at 8 p.m. at Cordoba Center of the Arts. Student discount tickets are available for $5 with I.D. for all shows.

Haitian Requiem, Op.1 In Memory of the Victims of the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti Duke University Chapel Thursday, April 19th 8:30 pm Original Score by Martin Edward Connor for the Carillon, Brass Ensemble, Percussion and Choir Watch online at: youtube.com/user/dukechapel

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as the four characters in the play. “They were totally revolutionary.” Of course you can’t turn on the TV or open a newspaper today without seeing something about women’s issues—abortion, ovarian cancer screenings, the Hilary Rosen/Ann Romney feud—so clearly, almost a century after the events of the play, these subjects are still problematic. “That some humans should be punished for being born in a female body is pervasive everywhere,” Byrne said. “The idea that birth control is still controversial, I can’t even take it seriously because it’s so funny.” Lucius Robinson, the play’s director, also feels that the story is extremely relevant. “I think the show directly addresses women’s control or right to have control over their own bodies regarding sex and pregnancy,” he said. “The lack of information is inherently destructive.” Byrne’s play attempts to explore and celebrate a time in which women were beginning to take control of their lives, their bodies and their sexuality. When the characters learn of Margaret Sanger, who went on to found Planned Parenthood in 1921, they undergo a kind of ecstatic conversion, illustrated by kinetic modern dance choreographed by Byrne’s sister Clare. They then develop a fantasy world in which they exercise total agency, a dramatic escape from the oppressive conditions in the reformatory. This experience resonates personally with Byrne: “I have such a low tolerance for unhappiness that if I got into an unhappy situation I would find a way out of it violently.” Byrne and her childhood friends shared a similar fantasy, each of them writing letters to the others as though they were traveling the world. They would speak of their imaginary families (Byrne’s pretend boyfriend was Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Wil Wheaton) and exact revenge on those who had wronged them. “The other feature of these letters is that we’d kill someone,” she said. “We had enemies, boys who tortured us, teachers who were manifestly unfair, so we’d kill people in gruesome ways.” But it was all in good fun, she insists. It was mostly

Donate at: camillus.org/haitianrequiem Chapel photo by C. Frank Starmer


recess

PAGE 8

April 19, 2012

Choreolab to show student and faculty dance pieces by Jamie Moon THE CHRONICLE

This weekend, Choreolab, Duke’s dance program’s mainstage spring production, will feature a diverse selection of choreography ranging from pieces inspired by modern-day typography to a nine-piece salsa influenced by Cuban Casino dance. Performances include contemporary ballet, modern and jazz dance choreographed by dance faculty Julie Walters, Andrea Woods Valdes and Nina Wheeler, respectively. This year’s guest choreographer, Jeffrey Page, who has previously worked on Beyonce tours and So You Think You Can Dance, set a piece on Ava Vinesett’s African Dance Repertory class. “Choreolab has always been performance repertory and a creative output for the Dance Program,” Walters said. “It’s

the cabin in the woods DIR. DREW GODDARD LIONSGATE

A-

There was apparently some major cultural event in Durham this past weekend, but I was like, nah, bag that, I’m going to see The Cabin in the Woods. I know many Recess readers are suffering from compassion fatigue after 10+ hours of hope-inflating documentaries, but if there are any rowdy gore lovers like me who want to pilot the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon® to the theater, shotgun a taurine beverage and bust ass for an hour and a half, Cabin is destination delimbification, Bronan Farrow. The Cabin in the Woods is a conspiratorial spoof on all the pulpy tropes of the horror genre. The film was created by veteran writer/producers Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. The two also worked together Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and more recently, on the dead serious monster movie Cloverfield. Conversely, Cabin proceeds as if Whedon and Goddard turned a weekend of huffing nitrous oxide and making fun of their old material into a winning script. The teenage pack features all the classic stereotypes: the

also a vehicle for all the Dance Program students to perform and was always designed to further the choreographic voice.” This year’s student choreography features seniors Monica Hogan and Alison Kibbe. Hogan will perform Reprise, a contemporary work in which she interacts with a water-filled tank illuminated by submersible lights. Kibbe’s piece, Procurando Nosso Espaco is inspired by fieldwork in Brazil and also part of her senior thesis in cultural anthropology. The site-specific work, which will be performed in the lobby of Reynolds Theater approximately ten minutes before each Choreolab performance, features styles of samba, capoeira, blues and funk to portray how women of the African diaspora use art as a means of carving out and claiming space. “We have a lot of fun Duke Performances that we can letterman-jacketed alpha male, his blonde bimbo girlfriend (who is also, yep, pre-med), the pothead philosopher, the innocent and sneaky sexy non-blonde and the bespectacled, reasonable good guy. (It’s not worth recounting their names—the archetypes illustrate it better.) The gang sets off in a camper to a remote cabin, packing a keg and a bong and hoping for random outdoor sex. They get all that, but they still gon’ die. But it’s the framing metaplot that makes Cabin so immensely entertaining. The death journey is carefully orchestrated by two middle-aged men (Bradley Whitford and

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see, but I think what distinguishes Choreolab from all the rest is that you see how people are incorporating arts into their academics,” Kibbe said. “You see both faculty and students working together.” The Duke Dance Program will present Choreolab Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. in Reynolds Theater. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased online and at the box office. On Saturday night, there will be a post-performance salsa dance party in Reynolds with live music by West End Mambo.

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Richard Jenkins) from a “top secret government bunker” that recalls Men in Black and Office Space. They organize an office pool on the proceedings, award a cash prize when the kids ‘choose’ death by hillbilly zombies and crack celebratory beers with the accounting department. It’s semiserious business, though: without giving too much away, the bloody fates of the five kids have something to do with saving humanity from destruction. Like if Lost (which Goddard helped write) had swerved into a massive, self-aware farce (note: it did). There is much that is entertaining about Cabin: when things go haywire and the system breaks down, you get to see every horror creature imaginable get their slaughter on—cobras, dollfaced freaks, Leatherface, etc. There is a high tide of blood and a sacrificial SWAT team. Of course, there are limits to meta-horror. A sequel to Cabin would inevitably seem as trite as the tropes it ridicules. It is, however, a welcome reprieve from torture-porn like the Saw enterprise and silly found footage films like Paranormal Activity. Cabin won’t derail slasher films, nor should it. But it’s nice to take a moment to laugh along with Whedon and Goddard at the genre’s persistent absurdity. —Jake Stanley


Sports

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The Chronicle

THURSDAY April 19, 2012

The outdoor track and field team kicks off the ACC tournament today in Charlottesville, Va. Read our preview of the action on our website www.dukechronicle.com

www.dukechroniclesports.com

WOMEN’S TENNIS

MEN’S TENNIS

Blue Devils focus on doubles

Wietoska healthy in senior year

by Hunter Nisonoff

by Vaishnavi krishnan

THE CHRONICLE

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In a match where singles play determines six out of seven points, the doubles point can often be overlooked. Duke, however, has placed special emphasis on developing teamwork. No. 2 Duke (22-2, 11-0 ACC) has five individual players ranked in the top 100, more than any other school in the ACC. The Blue Devil’s dominance in singles play has carried them to their first ever perfect conference record as well as a number one seed in the upcoming ACC tournament. If Duke wants to take home the conference crown this weekend, however, it will need to solidify another aspect of its game— doubles play—and truly play as a team. “The doubles point is so important,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “For a team like us, if we can get off to a 1-0 lead and play good singles it is going to be hard to beat us.” Singles play has been the most consistent part of Duke’s game. The team has amassed a 0.915 winning percentage in singles conference play. In comparison, the Blue Devils have a 0.727 winning percentage in doubles play. When it comes to playing in tandems, however, consistency is not what the team’s primary goal. “In the last week we have played some really good doubles,” Ashworth said. “Part of that is the spontaneity of changing the teams around. People get excited to play with each other and in different positions.” Changing up the doubles teams has been Ashworth’s coaching philosophy throughout his 16 years at Duke. As the coach with the most wins in the ACC, it would be hard to argue that his ideology has not been successful. This past weekend, the Blue Devils proved it, winning all but one of their nine doubles matches against three conference opponents. The highlight of their play was against conference rival North Carolina in a competition for the top spot in the ACC standings, in which junior Mary Clayton and freshman Ester Goldfeld took down the No. 2 pair of Shinann Featherston and Lauren McHale to clinch the doubles point. “I think Ester and I have really progressed,” Clayton said. “We have definitely seen that in the last couple matches. I think it is getting better every match.” Although the tandem’s teamwork has shown to be a great formula for success, Ashworth believes that there is another side to it. “I think you can definitely get the chemistry,” he said. “But sometimes, it can also get a little stale.” Consequently, he chooses a model in which players may find themselves with a different partner and on a different court

Duke senior Torsten Wietoska is finally healthy—only suffering a blister this season— and is in the prime of his college career. This is a first in his tennis career riddled by injuries, and he will be a critical element as the thirdseeded Blue Devils travel to Cary, N.C. to play in the ACC Tournament. Duke will play the winner of the NC State-Boston College matchup at 3 p.m. Friday. Four years ago, the Blue Devils signed Wietoska, the No. 2 college recruit in the country out of Van der Meer Tennis Academy, adding him to a young roster according to the College Recruiting List. At the beginning of his Duke career, Wietoska started off strong going 11-1 in the first part of the spring season. The morning before the team’s first ACC match, however, he partially tore his MCL—a ligament critical to the stability of his knee—sidelining him for approximately three months. After endur-

SEE W. TENNIS ON PAGE 8

SOPHIA DURAND/THE CHRONICLE

Senior Torsten Wietoska has battled injuries while at Duke but his healthy for this year’s ACC tournament.

SEE M. TENNIS ON PAGE 8

The five events I’ll remember I’m going to keep things light in this final column. This is mainly because I’m still in denial that I’m graduating, but also because I have very little to say. I’ve written almost 150 print articles and over 200 blog posts while at The Chronicle, and, well, there’s not much left to write about. So here’s a top-five list of some of my faAndy vorite events I’ve worked during my four years here: 5. Krispy Kreme Challenge, Feb. 7, 2009 As should be expected, freshmen tend not to get the most glamorous assignments when they begin writing. I was no exception. In a moment of, let’s call it hazing, sports editor Ben Cohen had me run N.C. State’s Krispy Kreme Challenge, a four-mile race around Raleigh in which the second and third miles are interrupted by eating a dozen doughnuts. I went into this with something less than full enthusiasm, completely skipping a training regimen I had crafted with track-and-field coach Jan Ogilvie (who called my run “the most ludicrous thing” she’d ever seen). Long story short: My run was unspectacular; my vomiting in front of 100 people was sublime. 4. Duke-North Carolina, Feb. 9, 2011 Being sports editor carries with it one undeniable perk—front-row seats to the best rivalry in sports. I got to see a beaut

Moore

of a game from that great vantage point last year. Nolan Smith was unstoppable, dropping a career-high 34 points and prompting us to run “YESSIR!” as the headline, in honor of his favorite Twitter saying. My favorite front page ever. 3. Duke Lacrosse National Championship, May 30, 2010 I grew up in Eastern North Carolina, which is not exactly a lacrosse hotbed, to say the least. In fact, when I came to this school, my experience with lacrosse was limited mostly to the Ultimate Lax Bro’s Brantford Winstonworth. But I began to be drawn to the sport, going to games sophomore year and covering the national championship in Baltimore in May. It was terrific. Duke’s semifinal win over Virginia will go down as one of the best games I’ve ever seen in person, in any sport. The two teams went back-and-forth, and the contest ended with a whip-fast Ned Crotty-to-Max Quinzani connection for the win with 12 seconds left. Then, there was the national championship, with the Blue Devils going up against a goalie in Scott Rodgers who seemed to be the size of Ivan Drago. After a tough defensive battle, Duke and Notre Dame went to overtime, where the Blue Devils won on a crazy shot off the faceoff by CJ Costabile. How often do you get to see an overtime goal so good the midfielder said afterward, “To actually have [that shot] come through, it’s fairy-tale stuff”? At the time, there was a lot of history associated with the Duke lacrosse program not worth discussing again. Those games, though, transcended the off-the-field matters. 2. Duke Basketball National Champion-

ship, April 5, 2010 It was great, it was a whirlwind. I’ll never forget the boom of the confetti guns, the mad stampede right in front of me of the Duke bench onto center court and the later realization, while writing my story, that my right leg had been shaking for over an hour. In all honesty, though, I didn’t really fully appreciate this until about a few months afterward, just because the adrenaline rush and the all-nighter I pulled were so draining. That appreciation came when I was shopping for books at the University Store in August of my junior year, and I looked up at the checkout, saw tape of the game, and muttered, “Oh s**t, there I am.” 1. 2009 ACC Baseball Championship and Duke win over UNC-Greensboro, Dec. 29, 2010 I picked these two games because I got to experience them with my dad, without whom I would not be the sports fan I am today. In 2009, I was assigned to cover the ACC Baseball Tournament for Towerview Magazine. I was told to write from the perspective of a fan, so I brought my dad, because I figured that’s what a son should do at a baseball game. Duke lost, but it still felt special, being able to do what I loved with my dad by my side. A year later, I covered Duke’s blowout win over UNC-Greensboro, the team head coach Mike Krzyzewski beat to pass Dean Smith on the all-time wins chart. It was over winter break, and since I had no one to go with (because everyone at this school is from the tri-state area), I convinced Dad to SEE MOORE ON PAGE 8


8 | THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012

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MOORE from page 7

WENGER from page 1

get a ticket to the game. Through, uh, magic, Dad found an unoccupied seat on the periphery of press row before the game. I cannot confirm this, but I heard reports that he excitedly talked about it to friends and family and strangers for days afterward—I can only say that I saw him with a broad smile on his face for most of the game. Now, I’m growing up. I won’t be able to go to many games with him anymore. We’ll have to do our over-the-phone postgame breakdowns with many more miles separating us. It sucks. But I guess that’s life. Still, I know I’ve have my ticket stubs/ press passes from our games together. And I know he does too.

Junior Andrew Wenger juggles more than just soccer balls—he balances a professional soccer career with the Montreal Impact with his classes at Duke. Wenger played for Duke for three seasons, winning the Hermann Trophy—an award given to the top player in NCAA Division I soccer—as well as the title of 2010 ACC defensive player of the year and 2011 ACC offensive player of the year. In January, Impact drafted Wenger first overall in the 2012 Major League Soccer SuperDraft. “[Playing in MLS] is much different because obviously there’s the sense of you getting paid and it’s a little more cutthroat,” Wenger said. “You need to be

on your game every day.” Wenger has played forward—the same position he played his junior year at Duke— in six of the Impact’s last seven games. Although he may play the same position, he noted that the game moves at a much quicker pace in the world of professional soccer. Wenger’s first goal with the Impact, an expansion team in the league for its first season, led them to their first victory in MLS against Toronto FC. Although he has switched between attack and defense in his collegiate career, adjusting to the professional forward position has been easier than when he had to play defense at times in college. “I played attacking positions when I was younger, so it was probably harder to play a

of dragged through my entire summer at home.” The effects of the injury lasted longer than the summer and Wietoska was forced to stay at home in Germany through the fall semester of his junior year and did not play tennis for almost seven months. “Doctors at home told me I should get surgery or at least take it slow, and I was frustrated. That was probably the lowest point of my college career,” said Wietoska. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to play at all again.” Wietoska came back in the spring of his junior year, and after sitting out the first three months following his arrival to campus, he achieved a 6-5 singles record. “Coming back, seeing all my friends again and being around the team was a really rewarding moment,” Wietoska said. “Just to know I can start all over again, I

can have the chance to play again.” He said his injuries did not affect the style of his game, but they thwarted his development as a player during those stretches of time. For him, the hardest part was getting back up to the same level of play because he says he does not “feel the ball so much” and needs to spend extra time out on the courts practicing to keep up his game. But now, in his final year as a Blue Devil, Wietoska is healthy entering the ACC tournament. He is currently playing third singles and has racked up a (25-7) record this season, peaking during the National Indoors in November. “It feels good to go out to practice and not have to worry about things. Like right now I have a blister and I guess after the injuries I have had in the past, I can’t complain about that at all,” Wietoska said. “Especially as a senior, this is the last time for me, I have to make it count.”

M. TENNIS from page 7 ing what was probably the worst injury he has suffered during his college career, Wietoska was finally able to come back for the NCAA tournament but still could not fully support his team as he was mid-recovery. Following many hours spent in the training room, Wietoska came back healthy and ready to compete in the fall of his sophomore season. He recorded a 19-15 singles record and a 5-5 ACC record playing matches at both the third and fourth singles position and achieved a career-high ranking of No. 77 in singles nationwide. Even though Wietoska played the entirety of his second season as a Blue Devil, he once again struggled with his health, this time with a nagging groin injury. “I am not the most flexible kid and obviously when you feel healthy you don’t take care of your body,” Wietoska said. “So, at one point I think I pulled my groin, kept on playing, had a sports hernia by the end of the year, which kind

W. TENNIS from page 7 in both practice and during matches. In doing so, Ashworth said he believes that everyone becomes more motivated to perform at a higher level. “I want people to have the love for their teammate, to go out there and to be excited and pump each other up,” Ashworth said. “This group has handled it really well.” Playing doubles at a high level is something that the team continues to work on, and it also puts a unique perspective on the sport. “It is a lot different,” sophomore Rachel Kahan said. “You are playing for a team and not just for yourself. It is one of the most fun parts of college tennis.” Unlike singles play, which is decided primarily on talent and mental toughness, doubles play requires a different set of skills. “The first thing that we are looking for is good communication between the team,” Ashworth said. “It is definitely a different mindset than playing singles, but it makes it fun too and I think the girls have fun with it.” In the ACC tournament this weekend, Ashworth’s formula will be put to the test yet again. The starting doubles lineup for Friday’s match will be Clayton and Goldfeld on court one, freshman Beatrice Capra and Kahan on court two and freshman Annie Mulholland and sophomore Hanna Mar on court three. These pairings, however, can change significantly match-to-match, as it has throughout the season. “We are going to do what is best for us on that day,” Ashworth said. “We have been fortunate in that we have teams that can win in different positions.”

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The Independent Daily at Duke University

The Chronicle

10 | THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012

Vote Rhodes, Scott Students will be choosing Mayor Bill Bell. Indeed, he among three candidates for the has demonstrated an ability to position of Duke Student Gov- effectively build relationships ernment vice president of Dur- with city officials and navigate ham and regional affairs Mon- the world of local politics— day. Although each candidate crucial skills shared by current brings a unique vice president perspective to Alex Swain. editorial that position, we Perhaps believe freshman Derek Rho- more importantly, Rhodes des stands a cut above the rest. demonstrates a mature grasp We unequivocally endorse his of the nature and limitations of vice presidential candidacy. the role. He correctly identifies A lifelong Durham native, revitalization of the relationRhodes boasts an impressive ship between Duke students history of public service. At and Durham residents as one the age of six, he spearheaded of the key goals for the Durham Durham’s Adopt-a-Park pro- and regional affairs committee gram that continues to operate next year, pointing particularly today . While in high school, to personal mediation between Rhodes was selected from a off-campus fraternities and citywide application process their Durham neighbors. to serve on the Durham Youth Sophomore Kelly Scurry, an Commission, through which associate editor for The Chronhe was able to interact with icle, spoke intelligently about a

What about students in independent houses placed on Central who don’t have access to funds from some organization? Seems like the only option would be the housing fees that are intended to be used for programming.

—“cs14” commenting on the story “Sororities to enhance living space.” 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.

wide array of programs he hopes to implement next year but failed to articulate a broader vision for the vice president position. His proposals focused too narrowly on opportunities Duke students can extract from Durham resources. We were disappointed that Scurry did not think further about how to strengthen DukeDurham ties to form a mutually beneficial relationship. Miranda Goodwin-Raab, a freshman, did well to identify key communication barriers that inhibit students from engaging in Durham service opportunities. We believe that her proposal to better centralize and promote ongoing city events via an interactive website or a physical office was pragmatic, feasible and actionable. However, Goodwin-Raab’s inexperience working alongside

established leaders was evident, and we believe she will be better suited to serve in this role one year from now. All three candidates stressed the important role that the Durham and regional affairs committee would play in the 2012 presidential election. But Rhodes best exhibited the natural leadership ability to turn ambitious plans into action. Rhodes’ superior understanding of the vice presidential role coupled with his track record of tangible achievements in Durham make him the clear choice on Monday. Freshman Tre’ Scott, the sole candidate for vice president of services, is aware of how best to traverse DSG and administrative contexts to cater to student needs. First and foremost, Scott realizes that his

effectiveness as a leader hinges on his ability to determine the most pressing student concerns and subsequently deliver concrete solutions. Scott focuses on deliverables as evidenced by his plans to improve the online Duke events calendar and integrate social media into student services. Further, Scott has established a commitment to increasing administrative transparency to better inform students about how their tuition fees are allocated. This past year, he personally investigated operations at the Duke mail warehouse to determine why students were being charged with excess mail fees. Scott’s results-oriented attitude and practical understanding of what students want make him a solid choice for vice president of services.

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SANETTE TANAKA, Editor NICHOLAS SCHWARTZ, Managing Editor NICOLE KYLE, News Editor CHRIS CUSACK, Sports Editor MELISSA YEO, Photography Editor MEREDITH JEWITT, Editorial Page Editor CORY ADKINS, Editorial Board Chair MELISSA DALIS, Co-Managing Editor for Online JAMES LEE, Co-Managing Editor for Online DEAN CHEN, Director of Online Operations JONATHAN ANGIER, General Manager TOM GIERYN, Sports Managing Editor KATIE NI, Design Editor LAUREN CARROLL, University Editor ANNA KOELSCH, University Editor CAROLINE FAIRCHILD, Local & National Editor YESHWANTH KANDIMALLA, Local & National Editor ASHLEY MOONEY, Health & Science Editor JULIAN SPECTOR, Health & Science Editor TYLER SEUC, News Photography Editor CHRIS DALL, Sports Photography Editor ROSS GREEN, Recess Editor MATT BARNETT, Recess Managing Editor CHELSEA PIERONI, Recess Photography Editor SOPHIA PALENBERG, Online Photo Editor DREW STERNESKY, Editorial Page Managing Editor CHRISTINE CHEN, Wire Editor SAMANTHA BROOKS, Multimedia Editor MOLLY HIMMELSTEIN, Special Projects Editor for Video CHRISTINA PEÑA, Towerview Editor RACHNA REDDY, Towerview Editor NATHAN GLENCER, Towerview Photography Editor MADDIE LIEBERBERG, Towerview Creative Director TAYLOR DOHERTY, Special Projects Editor CHRISTINA PEÑA, Special Projects Editor for Online LINDSEY RUPP, Senior Editor TONI WEI, Senior Editor COURTNEY DOUGLAS, Recruitment Chair CHINMAYI SHARMA, Blog Editor MARY WEAVER, Operations Manager CHRISSY BECK, Advertising/Marketing Director BARBARA STARBUCK, Creative Director REBECCA DICKENSON, Chapel Hill Ad Sales Manager The Chronicle is published by the Duke Student Publishing Company, Inc., a non-profit corporation independent of Duke University. The opinions expressed in this newspaper are not necessarily those of Duke University, its students, faculty, staff, administration or trustees. Unsigned editorials represent the majority view of the editorial board. Columns, letters and cartoons represent the views of the authors. To reach the Editorial Office at 301 Flowers Building, call 684-2663 or fax 684-4696. To reach the Business Office at 103 West Union Building, call 684-3811. To reach the Advertising Office at 101 West Union Building call 684-3811 or fax 684-8295. Visit The Chronicle Online at http://www.dukechronicle.com. © 2010 The Chronicle, Box 90858, Durham, N.C. 27708. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior, written permission of the Business Office. Each individual is entitled to one free copy.

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an you recall your last day home before Since he claimed to have been reborn on the day coming to Duke? I remember packing my of his liberation in May 1945, by his account, he bags; sharing a “last supper” with family; was only 67 years old. hanging out with friends; and closAfter Papa’s funeral, I returned ing my eyes one last time in my to Duke feeling compelled to do david estrin comfy bed. something to honor his memory guest column Now imagine, the next morning, and that of the millions who did instead of packing up the car for the not have the ability to celebrate life 11-hour drive to your dream school, like he did. But what could I do? I you are packed into a cattle car. There are no rest reached out to some friends in enemy territory, stops. No food. No water. The only public bathroom and learned how at the University of North Carois where you stand or a pail, if you can navigate the lina at Chapel Hill, for years now, students, faculty sea of bodies (alive and dead) to reach it. and administrators have come together to read After three gruesome days, the train finally stops. the names of Holocaust victims for 24 hours on The doors swing open, giving you a first look at cam- Holocaust Remembrance Day. pus. The filth on your body would make a PWILDer With this inspiration, I formed a small coalition of fresh off the Art Lobe look immaculate. Dr. Joseph Duke students with the task to transform Holocaust Mengele delivers your convocation address. He has Remembrance Day into an annual event for cama knack for experimentation—on humans. pus awareness, education and engagement. With Instead of selecting which orientation sessions the support of Muslim and Jewish Life at Duke, the you might attend, you are the subject of selection. Muslim Student Association and the Jewish Student In the ensuing hysteria, you ask an upperclassmen Union, we hope to not only call attention to humanwhere each direction leads. You gesture to the ity’s greatest failures, but also to foster a critical sense right; he says, “work.” You gesture to the left; he of community and mutual respect among students, points to the smoke oozing from the chimneys in organizations and institutions on campus. the distance. Join us on the Chapel steps from 8 a.m. to 12 “Welcome to Auschwitz,” he says. p.m. and on the Bryan Center Plaza from 2 p.m. You are sent to the right, but much of your fam- to 8 p.m. as 120 students, faculty and adminisily does not have this good fortune. They won’t trators read the names of Holocaust victims and have the chance to have work set them free. Several victims of other genocides in recent history. As weeks from now, you’ll think they were better off. you pass by, please take and wear one of six difThe First-Year Advisory Counselors ferry you ferent colored ribbons representing one of the by gunpoint to the showers. You are hosed down, major genocide events in the past century. Fishaved bare and tattooed with a number: 67245. nally, we invite the campus community to attend While you might call this “hazing,” the adminis- a dessert reception and discussion at 8:15 p.m. tration considers it “initiation” and it’s only the with Dr. Larry Moneta (a first generation Hobeginning…. locaust survivor), Rabbi Jeremy and Imam AbYou might consider this recontextualization of dullah Antepli at the Center for Multicultural my grandfather’s story a perversion of our cam- Affairs. We will share stories and thoughts about pus and an alternate, incomprehensible reality; how genocide relates to our lives today. but it is a reality. Strip this story of the figurative, Together, we will bear witness and preserve the extended metaphor, and it was the reality for mil- memory of those tragically lost in an effort to reclions during World War II—Jews, Russians, Poles, ognize the common humanity in one another and homosexuals, gypsies, the mentally handicapped declare as one university community that each life and my grandfather, James Lichtman. lost in one tragedy is as valuable as a life lost in anUnfortunately, just a couple weeks back, my other. Join us in building the foundation of a new grandfather (better known as “Papa”) passed away tradition that will sustainably impact the civic fabric at the blessed age of 87. The last time I saw him, of our campus community for years to come. the day after I walked him down the aisle at my sister’s wedding, he joked that he was a young man. David Estrin, Trinity ’13

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Considering the KoolAid

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efore even applying to Teach for America, I was skeptical of the organization. I am sure current Duke students and recent alumni remember the aggressive deluge of emails, phone calls and informational happy hours, some of which began as early as sophomore year, rallying students to join the movement. However, even a basic Google search of “Teach for America” brings up more than a handful of articles, editorials and blog posts that detail one corps member’s negative experiences or deeper examinations priya bhat of the organization’s effectiveness. life as ms. b. Keeping this reality in mind, I convinced myself to keep my thoughts about my potential employer laced with sarcasm and doubt, even after I applied. My conversations with my recruitment director questioned the effectiveness of the two-year model; just after I was offered a place in TFA, I probed into the organization’s commitment to the safety of its corps members in a phone conversation with my region’s executive director. Beware potential employer—I thought—for I was A Self-Assured Undergraduate, Who Would Not Be Casually Drinking the TFA KoolAid. Now that I have almost reached the halfway point of my two-year commitment to Teach for America, I have come uncomfortably close to many of its criticisms, in particular to TFA’s “high” attrition rate. In my first week of teaching, one of my closest friends in the organization quit, only to be followed by a number of other corps members in my region soon afterward. Opponents of Teach for America are quick to point out that after two years, 50 percent of TFA teachers leave; after three years, 80 percent leave. The statistics still sting, even if we keep in mind that TFA places its corps members in some of the most difficult environments, and that, as a 2004 study from the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future found, one-third of all new teachers in urban public schools leave after three years. However, my experience in TFA has made me infinitely more aware that these issues are complicated, and that Teach for America’s challenge in finding and retaining good teachers is entrenched in nation-wide challenges in education. Selecting educators who can withstand the psychological and emotional toll of being a new teacher in a high-poverty school while maintaining their drive to teach is not an exact science. Teach for America is touted for its selectivity—in 2011 alone, out of the 5,200 selected corps members, 66 came from Harvard, 53 from Duke and 80 from that also decent school down the road. Still, even some of the most socially well-adjusted and successful undergraduates can have difficulty dealing with the severe mental toll of being a teacher in this environment. For the months of October and November, I had a friend who regularly became regularly sick to her stomach with anxiety on Sundays. An Ivy League graduate and close colleague of mine began experiencing daily migraines in her classroom. Last week, a friend of mine advised a visiting future corps member that crying in one’s classroom closet was a rite-of-passage for first-year teachers. The problem of maintaining one’s mental health is not unique to TFA—in my own school, five of the eight sixth-grade teachers were rotating substitutes, who replaced teachers who were unable to handle the mental toll of working in such a difficult environment, despite their devotion to their students. Witnessing the gradual decline in mental well-being of some of my closest colleagues has brought me to understand that quitting can mean more than being a privileged post-graduate just trying to move on to an easier and higher-paying job. Moreover, it is also necessary to send good educators to other areas of education in need of great leadership. From serving in administrative positions in failing schools, to opening new schools of their own, to becoming involved in public policy, to joining Teach for America itself to better the organization’s model from within, Teach for America alumni have sought a cross-sector approach to reforming education. This is a reality that is not accurately represented by teacher attrition statistics. Having good teachers alone does not solve the educational inequality that Teach for America intends to fight. Dysfunctional schools need good staff, educators need public advocates and the cause needs donors with well-salaried (i.e., nonteaching) jobs. In order to make lasting, large-scale change, we need to do more than find the best potential teachers with the endurance, the ability to think on their feet and the dedication to teach in highpoverty schools. We need to acknowledge that the United States has an education problem, and that bringing in thousands of the country’s top graduates to help is a decent place to start trying to fix it. Teach for America has a ways to go to meet its goals; its model is and will continue to be a work in progress, as it continues to search for the best balance in finding and training the best possible teachers to reach the greatest possible areas of need. I may not be drinking the KoolAid yet, but I think it’s worth taking under consideration. Priya Bhat, Trinity ’11, is currently teaching sixth grade math with Teach for America in St. Louis, Mo. This is her final column of the semester.

commentaries

THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012 | 11

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Do we need “Who needs feminism?”

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ichele Bachmann couldn’t have said it college education… is that it enables [our] tendenbetter. cy to over-intellectualize stuff, to get lost in abstract On “Meet the Press” recently she said, arguments inside [our] head[s] instead of simply “Women don’t need anyone to tell paying attention to what’s going on them what to do on health care. right in front of [us].” We want women to have their own If I allow random commenters choices, their own money, that they making gratuitous and ignorant can make their own choices for the comments to alienate me from the future of their own bodies.” campaign, then exactly what DFW A-men! describes above happens. I start to Inspiring quotes by Representaquestion why feminism is IMPORtive Bachmann aside; I’ve wanted TANT to me, as an individual, rather samantha to join in on the critical discourse than what is happening in America around the “Who Needs Feminism” right now. lachman campaign. At the time of writing, many women, how their bodwhat’s our age again? ies To the Duke students’ Facebook page are treated in practice is outside has garnered more than 8,300 likes of these discussions of ideology. In (including my own). Texas, Governor Rick Perry implemented a new I initially was overjoyed to see the attention the law that will result in more than 130,000 women campaign was getting. I loved that a diversity of per- in Texas losing access to cancer screenings, contraspectives were represented on the posters. People ception and other forms of basic health care. Last around the world are participating. month, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker repealed Yet because I’m a curmudgeon and like to take the 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which preon sacred cows, I needed to find out why the word vented employer wage discrimination. A bill in Arisandwiched between “I” and “Feminism” was both- zona would mandate that any woman seeking her ering me. That word is “need,” by which we’re to employer-based health insurance to cover contraunderstand that the phrase is actually [I] [this ide- ception must provide a medical rationale (not inology that I conceive of in this manner is impor- cluding family planning) to her boss. Mitt Romney tant to me] [this ideology and/or movement that pledges to “get rid of” Planned Parenthood. everyone has a different conception of] [because] Women still make only 77 cents to every dollar [example]. men make. As a paper released this March by the “Who needs feminism?” as a dismissive aside is National Bureau of Economic Research demonbeing answered in the manner described above. In strates, the emergence of the pill accounted for my English seminar we talked about the campaign, 10 percent of the narrowing of the wage gap in and some of our discussion revolved around what the 1980s and 31 percent of the narrowing in the “feminism” even means. As one student pointed 1990s. We’ve now stalled, because the costs of birth out, “feminism,” like “democracy,” is a good thing control are still prohibitive to low-income women that no one agrees about, which isn’t necessarily a across America. At the point at which 60 percent problem. of women are the primary breadwinners for their The problem I have is that people are inter- families, getting women affordable contraception preting the campaign as a referendum on the im- should be an economic concern to all. portance of the ideology rather than the practical If the Supreme Court deems the Affordable manifestations of sexism. My own conception of Care Act unconstitutional this June, then President feminism is that it is an ideology that recognizes Obama’s mandate that employers be required to the existence of sexism and gender discrimination, include no-cost preventive services in their health and tries to combat this by providing equal access plans, including contraception, could vanish. to opportunity. Contraception is an economic issue. Of course, I’ve been shocked to see some of the comments my belief in this objective is influenced by my subon the Facebook group. One commenter defend- scription to feminism. But what if the most produced the hilarity of rape jokes; another commented, tive thing to do would be simply lobbying against “Feminism: ‘Because its easy to assume men never (the) political party that practically imposes barrihave issues.’” Trolls are no fun, and they’re all over ers to economic opportunity? this s**t. Of course no single campaign can do everyI loved the online pushback from Duke junior thing. But if the definition of the ideology/moveDiana Ruiz, who replied to comment above with: ment distracts us, then the real political things hap“Feminism is about much more that ‘assuming pening right now might not receive the attention men never have issues.’ Perhaps you would be sur- they deserve. As Gayle Rubin concludes in “The prised to learn that challenging popular notions of Traffic in Women,” we need to change the system masculinity can absolutely be a part of the way you through political action. engage with and interpret feminism.… I need femDo we “need” “feminism,” or is it more effecINISM because it’s a way to challenge and imagine tive to just politically mobilize for the materializabeyond the conditions that make life incredibly tion of its ideals? November should provide a good painful for anyone ‘in’ an ‘ism.’” Diana made the litmus test for how students at Duke address this conversation more productive by providing an ex- question. planation for her original statement. To quote David Foster Wallace’s commenceSamantha Lachman is a Trinity junior. This is her ment address: “The most dangerous thing about final column of the semester.


12 | THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012

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