March 25, 2014

Sports

University

blue devils fall to depaul

AN in-depth look into the common ground program

Page 8

Page 2

The Chronicle 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

xxxxxday,MARCH TUESDAY, mmmm25, xx, 2014 2013

www.dukechronicle.com

ONE ONEHUNDRED HUNDREDAND ANDEIGHTH ninth YEAR, YEAR, Issue Issue xxx 101

Coalition aims Greek Ally Week lauds LGBTQ members and allies to make Uni more accessible

by Rachel Chason The chronicle

Duke students have sparked on-campus dialogue by forming a coalition dedicated to making the University more accessible to undocumented applicants.

AccessDuke, which formed at the beginning of this semester, has put forth a 40-page proposal calling for both domestic and undocumented applicants to be treated equally in terms of financial aid. The students involved have asked the University to publicly welcome undocumented students and suggested that more resources be made available to these students. Conversations about the necessity of equal access to higher education began because of the 50th anniversary of Duke’s integration this past year, student leaders say.

“Duke was one of the last major universities to admit black students,” said freshman McCall Wells, who helped spearhead the AccessDuke initiative. “We could make up for that by being one of the first to admit undocumented students. It would not only boost our reputation, but it would also just be a step in the right direction.”

She said the coalition’s goals are twofold—AccessDuke would like policy reforms on campus and for Duke to take a lead in the national conversation about undocumented immigrants.

Duke currently admits undocumented students, but it assesses their applications as “need-aware,” rather than “need-blind.”

All U.S. citizen and permanent resident See AccessDUke, page 3

elysia su/The Chronicle

An LGBTQ Panel composed of students marked the beginning of the first annual Greek Ally Week.

by Carleigh Stiehm The Chronicle

The first annual Greek Ally Week kicked off Monday with an LGBTQ Panel of members of the Interfraternity Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council and Panhellenic Association.

The week aims to celebrate LGBTQ students and allies within the greek community and to further encourage acceptance, said senior Daniella Cordero, one of the week’s coordinators.The panel discussed topics that included navigating social events and greek recruitment as someone who identifies with the LGBTQ community.

Turnout for the week’s inaugural event exceeded the expectations of the planners, with

many audience members having to sit on the floor in order to hear the panel. During the panel, many of the speakers expressed that while they still face challenges, they generally feel at home in the greek community.

“I don’t think that my sexual orientation came into play when I was thinking about the recruitment process,” said sophomore Jaclyn Rales, a member of Kappa Alpha Theta women’s fraternity who identifies as gay. “I was more interested in meeting a group of really tight-knit girls in the process.”

She noted, however, that she paid close attention to how the girls in the sororities seemed to react to issues of social equality and equity on campus.

Other panelists, such as sophomore Tyler

Nelson, paid more attention to the way individual chapters seemed to approach issues of LGBTQ equality.

Nelson, who identifies as gay, said that he saw some blatant examples of homophobia during the rush process but not from all fraternities. It ultimately led him to be sure he was making the right choice by joining Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, where he felt accepted.

Many of the panelists, including senior MC Bousquette, were not fully “out” when they became a member of the greek community.

“Coming out to my chapter was one of the best moments of my life. It sounds dramatic, but it’s really not,” said Bousquette, a two-term executive board member for her Panhellenic chapter who identifies as queer.

For some, however, coming out was a prolonged, and sometimes difficult, process.

Junior Tre’ Scott met some pushback from a select few older brothers in his chapter of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity when they found out he was gay. But, he found that through open discussion, they were able to move forward together as brothers.

“How are you going to call someone a brother but not accept such a big part of someone’s life?” said junior Genesis Bonds in reference to fraternity members that choose not to believe their brothers identify as LGBTQ. Bonds who identifies as queer is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Ultimately, the panelists agreed that they felt more comfortable after they stopped keeping their sexuality hidden See ALLY WEEK, page 4

DUSDAC reviews preliminary food truck survey results

by Sasha Zients The chronicle

The Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee is seeking student input on present and future dining preferences.

The committee met on Monday to discuss a survey that they will be sending out to gauge student body preferences of campus dining options. They also discussed student desire to have Chipotle Mexican Grill as part of the Merchants-on-Points program.

“Ideally, we will have the survey out to the student body as soon as possible,” said DUSDAC co-chair Chris Taylor, a senior.

“We really want the student body’s opinion on vendors and Merchants-on-Points.”

Due to the ongoing renovations to West Union, students have been increasingly

turning to food trucks and the University has responded by offering more truck options. DUSDAC will work to decide which, if any, new trucks will be added in the Fall.

Taylor sent the survey out to DUSDAC members first to gauge their preferences.

The results showed that the most popular trucks—of both current trucks and prospective ones the committee has sampled this semester—were The Humble Pig and Mac-Ur-Roni, which the committee sampled on March 17. The most popular Merchants-on-Points were Enzo’s Pizza Company and Vine Sushi and Thai, which is set to be on food points next year.

Taylor said that the committee’s least favorite trucks, according to the survey, were Pie Pushers—sampled on Feb. 24—and Baguettaboutit. The least popular Merchantson-Points are currently Dragon Gate and

Palace International.

Taylor added that the most controversial vendors—meaning the ones with the most variability—were Chirba Chirba and Foster’s on the Fly in terms of food trucks and Chai’s [Noodle Bar and Bistro] for Merchants-on-Points.

In terms of the survey they will be sending out to students, members emphasized that it be short and simple. Taylor noted that they did not want participants to get “survey fatigue” from overly complicated questions. The committee also resolved that in the survey, they needed to separate existing food trucks on campus from the ones that only DUSDAC has sampled.

“People need to be able to say that they do not know what something is,” junior Matthew Foster said.

The final survey will have a question

where participants can rank the seven existing food trucks on-campus and then a separate prompt where they can express interest and order the seven new food trucks under consideration, Taylor said.

The committee also discussed the recent news that Chipotle can be delivered to students through a service called Radoozle.

“Radoozle is independent and nonDuke affiliated,” Taylor said. “It processes orders for a number of on-campus vendors.

Basically it facilitates the ordering process.”

When Radoozle announced that they would begin offering Chipotle delivery March 18, many students expressed excitement via Facebook and Twitter. A national chain, Chipotle has a location on Erwin Road close to West Campus.

See DUSDAC, page 3

2 | TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com

Common Ground, a mixed legacy 11 years in the making

By Jenna Zhang The Chronicle

More than a decade after its inception in 2003, Common Ground has come to be regarded as one of the University’s most popular, transformative—and controversial—programs.

Common Ground is a four-day retreat during which students explore issues involving race, socioeconomic status, gender and sexuality through interaction with other participants, discussion groups and personal narrative. Each year, Common Ground selects 56 students from an applicant pool which often exceeds 200 and elicits both high praise from participants who have dubbed the program “life-changing” and sharp criticism from others.

‘Stories of everyone’s pain’ Over the years, Common Ground has developed a reputation for its focus on personal stories. Storytelling is largely what drives the program, said senior Patrick Oathout.

“There are different activities to solicit people to talk about their experiences, but no one’s ever forced to tell their stories,” Oathout said. “A lot of the good discussions are also not facilitated, where people are debriefing spontaneously.”

Several students said that the Common Ground experience could be uncomfortable or even painful—particularly for participants who come from privileged backgrounds—but noted that this discomfort did not necessarily detract from the program.

“When I came back, everyone asked me, ‘Did you have fun?’” freshman Jeremy Fox said. “The answer is no. It’s not fun to learn about the ways in which people are oppressed in our school and our community. But it should be painful.”

Junior Fedner Lauture noted that it could be easy for those in privileged categories to feel as if they were being blamed for social wrongs.

“I always tell people, if you’re a straight, white male from a privileged background, you’re not going to feel comfortable at Common Ground,” Lauture said. “If somebody says ‘you’re wrong, you’re wrong, you’re wrong’ every day, you’re going to snap.”

Junior Cara Peterson, emphasized that an uncomfortable experience is not necessarily a negative one. The retreat pushes participants to confront issues which they may have previously been unaware, she noted.

Common Ground allows students to discuss on a personal level what they learn on an intellectual level, said co-director Mariel Charles, a junior.

“They took issues you heard and made them very real,” Fox said. “It was humanizing to hear stories of everyone’s pain.”

Critiques upon coming home As widely lauded as Common Ground has been, the program has seen its fair share of detractors over the years.

Criticisms directed at Common Ground have primarily revolved around the program’s propensity to value certain narratives and opinions above others. Although Common Ground’s directors maintain that there is no “point” to the program, several former participants have expressed the feeling that an unofficial agenda—however unintentional— exists. Other criticisms target the program’s tendency to encourage “whining” and accusatory treatment of privileged participants.

In defense, former participants and directors have noted that the program’s intention is not to diminish anyone and that those who choose to share their narratives do so voluntarily.

There was “a lack of respect” on the part of the program’s facilitators for certain opinions and narratives that were voiced, Lauture said.

Senior Hong Zhu said that it was easy for those in the minority on an issue to feel as if their perspectives were not valued, even if the program did not intentionally devalue certain opinions.

‘There are definitely certain ideas that become more popular,” Zhu said. “I don’t think Common Ground tries to proselytize, but if you’re in the minority view on a topic, it’s possible to feel like your opinion isn’t validated.”

Sophomore Keizra Mecklai, a Common Ground participant and Duke Student Government senator for equity and outreach, said that the activities were about giving the underprivileged a voice rather than making the privileged uncomfortable.

“In every situation, whenever I was in the privileged group, it felt selfish to think that it was about me—it’s a lack of understanding,” Mecklai said. “The purpose isn’t about pushing the privileged. It’s about giving a microphone to the underprivileged.”

Zhu expressed that although Common Ground merited praise for giving students an outlet to voice their personal opinions, the program’s atmosphere encouraged dwelling on issues more than finding solutions to them.

“When you’re at Common Ground, it’s tempting to feel like we’re all damned by society, which can discourage you from feeling like you can do something about it,” Zhu said.

In response to the criticism, program codirectors Charles and junior David Robertson noted that Common Ground is “not perfect” and stressed that the program’s goal is not to educate students or turn them into “activists.”

“There’s no one that can change an entire system—that’s not our point,” Robertson said. “Our point is just to get 56 people from

all different walks of life to talk to people they may not have the chance to talk to otherwise.

Whatever happens, happens.”

Oathout said that accusing participants who share their personal experiences of being attention seekers was “cynical.”

“If people are willing to tell a deep experience, why would you choose to jump to the conclusion that they’re just saying this to get into the spotlight?” he said. “Why would we choose to presume that?”

Although Common Ground is only four days, its role is to encourage students to keep thinking about issues on campus and in the community on a deeper level long after the retreat, said Amy Lazarus, Trinity ‘05.

Past, present and future Common Ground began as a classroom project in 2003 between four sophomores— Lazarus, Amanda Earp, Maital Guttman and Christopher Scoville—who designed the program for a public policy course.

Although the University’s student population was diverse, it was clear that students selfsegregated to a significant extent, said Guttman, Trinity ’05.

“We found that the numbers were there, but they weren’t really together as a community,” Guttman said. “Diversity is also about how well you’re integrating and making friends with people who are different from you.”

Common Ground was intended to be a space where students could be authentic and vulnerable, said Scoville, Trinity ‘05. He noted that the predominant campus climate wasn’t always one in which students could be fully authentic.

“Originally, the vision was to create a climate on campus where everyone could be See cg, page 3

þ Computers & Technology þ Gothic Bookshop News & Events þ Online Shoppers Only þ Secret Sales þ Textbook and Medical Book Stores þ What’s In Store

Be the first to know about new arrivals, special collections, the latest in technology, sales events, textbook buyback and more.

To sign up, visit our website at www.dukestores.duke.edu and click on the BTFTK icon on the left.

Our Privacy Policy: We respect your right to personal privacy. We promise to use this subscription service for the express purpose of keeping you informed of only those services that you have requested. Your personal information will not be disclosed to any third parties. We hope you will find our e-mails of benefit. We promise to keep them informative and to-the-point. You will have the option of unsubscribing from this service with each e-mail campaign.

OPERATION: Stores Administration PUBLICATION: Chronicle

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com

Cg from page 2 their authentic selves, whatever that might be,” Scoville said. “Diversity on paper is one thing, but is there a climate on campus that accepts that diversity, that allows everyone to bring in their full selves?”

The program’s first year had about 50 participants including the facilitators, and although there was an application process, no one was turned away, Guttman said.

Now, however, the program receives as many as 300 applications for each retreat.

Although Common Ground directors would like to expand the program, the resources to do so are not currently available.

Common Ground receives most of its funding from the University/Cultural Fund, said senior Daniella Cordero, former co-director of the program. In recent years, the program has been forced to cut certain costs—including free t-shirts and snacks—to accommodate the limited budget. Cordero noted that costs for the program have been increasing while the amount of grant money has remained constant.

“The ideal situation would be to make Common Ground cheaper,” Cordero said.

“You don’t want to ask for money if you don’t need money.”

Each Common Ground retreat costs around $14,000, Robertson said—most of which is funded by Duke.

Although there are not funds to increase the size of Common Ground, in the meantime, the directors are working on a plan to hold an event open to the overall Duke community after the retreat, Charles said.

Lasting impact Over the years, both former participants and outsiders have questioned the long-term impact of Common Ground. Both the program’s founders and current directors have agreed that the program is not intended to

fix issues on campus or in the community.

“There is no one person that can change an entire system,” Robertson said. “I can’t go and fix systemic inequality.”

Although Common Ground alone cannot change the overall community, it is nonetheless important as one of Duke’s spaces for discussion of important issues, said junior Andrew Kragie, a Chronicle columnist. He added that the program itself was not as important as the issues it addresses.

“What’s important about Common Ground isn’t the program or the people,” Kragie said. “The details of Common Ground are not important—the issues are. If I came back to Duke, and Common Ground didn’t exist, I would only be disappointed if there weren’t a space where these issues could be addressed.”

Mecklai added that even though Common Ground can only take so many students each year, its greater impact comes from what those students choose to do after the retreat.

Not everyone can participate in Common Ground, but everyone can become more aware of the issues on campus and in the community, Kragie said.

“Common Ground is like the Harvard of awareness building initiatives,” he said. “Not everyone can go to Harvard, but they can go get an education elsewhere.”

Eleven years after the program’s start, Guttman described being able to watch Common Ground continue to expand and impact students as “amazing.”

Lazarus expressed gratitude toward the University for supporting the program from its beginning to its current stage.

“To four idealistic sophomores who wanted to start something, the University said yes,” Lazarus said. “They kept saying yes. They kept supporting it. And the student leaders who came after the founders took it to this place we never could have imagined it.”

DUSDAC

TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 | 3

from page 1

Taylor explained that after students fill out an online order form for their meal, Radoozle employees will go to Chipotle to pick up the food and bring it to the students. He noted that organizations like Chipotle often would rather avoid such an arrangement because they risk their food quality declining in the delivery process.

“Chipotle is not delivering [itself] and it’s not accepting foods points,” Taylor said. “DUSDAC is always in conversation with them but there is no real mechanism through which we can do anything because Chipotle does not deliver its food.”

Junior Gregory Lahood inquired if the school could have a contract with Radoozle.

Foster explained that the contract would actually have to be with Campus Enterprises, which is a partner of Radoozle and is responsible for the actual delivery portion of the service.

“Campus Enterprises is only tenuously involved with this Chipotle deal. Radoozle is doing it by itself,” Foster said.

accessduke

from page 1

applicants are considered independent of their financial situation. AccessDuke suggests that the University reform its policy so that it meets all demonstrated need for both domestic and undocumented applicants.

“This issue is particularly crucial today in light of the national context,” wrote junior Yueran Zhang, who also helped organize the coalition, in an email Monday.

“Congress is stagnant regarding immigration reform, and any substantial progress is almost impossible in the near future.

When the state fails to fix the system, it’s time for the society to take action.”

President Richard Brodhead wrote a letter

to U.S. Senator Kay Hagan in 2010 encouraging her to support the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. He stated that undocumented students face unique barriers that are not of their own doing.

“We don’t think that students should have to suffer because Congress has reached a standstill on immigration reform,” Wells said.

“President Brodhead has already made statements saying that he supports immigration reform, so we think that reform can be happening on campus. ” AccessDuke parallels the “One State, One Rate” campaign, which was launched by students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this past Fall and calls on UNC to grant undocumented students in-state tuition.

“AccessDuke is a great initiative,” said UNC junior Emilio Vicente, a leader of the “One State, One Rate” campaign and an undocumented immigrant who attracted national attention when he ran for student body president. “As a private university with a large endowment, Duke has more leeway in what it can do, and I hope that it lives up to its mission of promoting diversity.”

Vicente said that although the greatest barriers to higher education that undocumented students face are financial, they also face a unique set of challenges once at school, because certain opportunities—like study-abroad—are not available to them.

Zhang said AccessDuke is aware of these challenges and calls on the University to provide undocumented students the resources to overcome their particular adversities.

The coalition has received a number of endorsements from campus organizations, including the Black Student Alliance, Blue Devils United, Mi Gente, Duke Diya and the Honor Council. Members of AccessDuke will present their proposal to Duke Student Government Wednesday, and once they have enough student endorsements, they will present to the administration.

Traveling?

Understand your health risks.

Please visit the Travel Clinic at the Student Health Center as early as possible for a FREE consultation before your trip.

Vaccines are available for a charge.

Call 681-9355 for an appointment.

ally week

pose of going to mixers, but the more she has grown confident with her own sexuality, she realized it is important not to isolate herself.

She noted that there are many heterosexual girls in her sorority that are in relationships or not looking to meet new men that also go to the mixers.

Denton, a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity who identifies as queer, said he would feel more comfortable bringing his boyfriend as a date to a fraternity event than going to a mixer.

The panel agreed, with Nelson distinguishing that although a same-sex partner would always be tolerated at his fraternity events, sometimes it feels as though they are not fully accepted by the brothers and integrated into the event.

This situation can be challenging, however, because the date has to be accepting of fraternity and greek life as well, Scott noted.

When trying to straddle the worlds of the greek community and the LGBTQ community on campus, sometimes panelists felt as though they were not fully a part of either.

“Built into the greek system is obviously the gender binary,” Nelson said. “ You split up by guys and girls. It is a heteronormative kind of system.”

Because many students believe that Duke’s greek communities are not a friendly place for LGBTQ students, some feel greek students cannot be truly supportive of LGBTQ equality.

Scott noted that going greek was a choice that he made because he appreciated the values and brotherhood of his specific fraternity. Yet sometimes he feels judged by the rest of the LGBTQ community for his choice.

“We lose so much strength by splitting because some have letters and some don’t, but we want the same things,” Bousquette said.

“So in the end, who cares?”

The Duke community often reduces LGBTQ women to a phase or fetish, Bonds said.

She added that after telling a select few peers

from page 1

from their friends.

“I finally feel like I am not lying to anyone,” Rales said of coming out.

She noted, however, that while the majority of people have been supportive, not everyone is as accepting.

“There have been people who are like, ‘I don’t get it, I can’t be friends with you,’” Rales said, but she noted that they have often been raised in conservative areas that lack an understanding of acceptance for the LGBTQ community.

The coming out process is not the same for any two people, but every panelist echoed the sentiment that they ultimately felt accepted.

Sophomore Athelia Paulli, who said she best identifies as bisexual, described a “quiet supportiveness” among her sisters in the Pi Beta Phi women’s fraternity. Nobody has ever “demanded a sexuality from her,” but rather have allowed her to define her choices and experiences for herself.

“It is definitely a part of me that I feel proud of, but at the same time, I don’t think it should be any part of what defines me,” Paulli said of her sexuality.

Scott echoed the sentiment, noting that being gay is very low on the scale of what defines him.

A traditional component of social events in several of the greek organizations are mixers between sororities and fraternities. Because these operate under the assumption of mixing men with women, some panelists, like sophomore Joseph Denton, said they can feel uncomfortable at these events.

Sophomore Alex Semien, who identifies as gay, said he has “dissociated the hook up culture from the mixers,” noting that he uses the time to dance with female friends or spend time with his brothers in Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. sudoku_414A At first, Rales said she did not see the pur-

Created by Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Will Shortz

8 Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

(No number is repeated in any column, row or box.)

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com

4 | TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014

about her sexual preferences, some told her she would grow out of it while others encouraged her to engage in a threesome.

Being a good LGBTQ ally means being accepting and openly supporting equality so LGBTQ peers feel comfortable coming to you with their personal life, said senior Hilary Novatt, a sister of Alpha Phi women’s fraternity who identifies as queer.

“Don’t be afraid to ask any question, because that is ultimately what we want if there is any confusion about what is going on,” Denton said.

Bonds emphasized the importance of choosing your words carefully, noting that some people are offended by racial or gender slurs, but still use derogatory language about LGBTQ people.

“A lot of people don’t realize how they are marginalizing people of a different group,” she said.

A question from the audience asked whether there is a distinction between a greek organization supporting its own LGBTQ members versus supporting non-greek individuals, highlighting an incident in which a non-greek male was asked to leave a fraternity party for dancing with another male.

Bousquette responded that, although the greek community is not perfect, it is working to be more accepting.

“The best thing that my friends could have done is exactly what they did—at least my close friends—and that is that they didn’t treat me like an alien because I like girls,” Rales said.

CLASSIFIEDS ANNOUNCEMENTS 2015 Englewood Ave.

2 bedroom 1 bath duplex, ride bike to Duke or walk to Ninth Street. Very quiet neighborhood. Prefer graduate students. $700.00 per month with 1 month deposit. References plus credit check. Call 919-451-1873 for appointment. Available March 2014.

APARTMENTS FOR RENT

sudoku_414A

HOLTON PRIZE IN EDUCACreated by Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Will Shortz TION Three cash prizes of $500 8 be awarded7for outstanding will research in education-related 6 2 4 fields. Application deadline is 7 April 18, 2014. For applications 1 8 and 3information: http//educationprogram.duke.edu/under5 3 graduate/awards. Open to Duke 8 1 7 2 Undergraduates. Faculty con9 (Zoila.aitacts: Dr. Zoila Airall rall@duke.edu) 9 6 or Dr. Jan 8 5Riggsbee (jrigg@duke.edu) Director, 3 Program inDistributed Education.

by The New York Times syndicate (c) PZZL.com

Partner’s Place Condo For Rent.

414A

Solution sudoku_414A

Email swa4500@gmail.com

8 2 9 3 7 4 6 1 5 3 1 5 8 9 6 2 4 7 6 7 4 2 1 5 3 9 8 Obtain the 40% Tax 5 3 6 9 2 7 1 8 4 Credit Christian Laettner gets 2 4 7 1 6 8 5 3 9 in historic building development. Our design & construc9 8 1 4 5 3 7 6 2 tion + your 919-636Thecapital.

New York Times Syndication 1 5 3 7 Sales 8 9 Corporation 4 2 6 2370 Email: hoffman.geoffrey@ 620 Eighth Avenue, 7 New 9 2 York, 6 4 N.Y. 1 810018 5 3 gmail.com For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 4 6 8 5 3 2 9 7 1 For Release Tuesday, March 25, 2014

3bed/3bath condo minutes from Duke. Vaulted ceilings, skylights, sunroom, office. Over 1450 square feet of living space with large bedrooms and great common areas. Ideal for 3 roommates or professionals. $1750/ mo. For rent by owner. Call Earle 919-618-5994 or E-mail kcjm4@ msn.com

The Chronicle classified advertising www.dukechronicle.com/ classifieds

414A

7 6 2 4 7 3

Crossword

1 8 5 3 7 2

8 1 9 9

6

8 5 3

(c) PZZL.com

414A

Distributed by The New York Times syndicate

Solution sudoku_414A

Find the answers to the Sudoku puzzle on the classifieds page

8 2 9 3 7 4 6 1 5 3 1 5 8 9 6 2 4 7 The Chronicle we? 5 3 9 8 6 7How4done2are 1 I can’t even: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ duranddurand Let me count the ways: 5 ... 3������������������������������������������������������������������Mr.Teeth 6 9 2 7 1 8 4 Can I start over? �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Chow He’s not done (in unison): �������������������������������������������������������������������������� Pun 2 4 7 1 6 8 5 3 9 Haven’t I already graduated? ������������������������������������������������������������������ Jmay Never started: ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Esu 9 8 1 4 5 3 7 6Moose 2 300%: ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� I just got started: ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Rita Barb Starbuck is perpetually 1 5 happy: ��������������������������������������������������������Barb 3 7 8 9 4 2 6 Student Advertising Manager:...................................................James Sinclair 7 9 2 6Jennifer4Bahadur, 1 Shannon 8 5Beckham 3 Account Representatives:....................... .

Peter Chapin, Caitlin Chase, Courtney Clower, Alyssa Coughenour 4 Chris 6 Geary, 8 Liz5Lash, Hannah 3 2Long, Parker 9 Masselink 7 1 Tyler Deane-Krantz,

414A

Nic Meiring, Brian Paskas, Nick Philip, Cliff Simmons, Lexy Steinhilber, Olivia Wax Creative Services Student Manager:.................................. Marcela Heywood Creative Services:...........................................................Allison Eisen, Mao Hu Rita Lo, Izzy Xu Business Office..........................................................................Susanna Booth

Note: The answers to the 13 italicized 60 2002 Denzel Washington clues follow an unusual two-way prodrama gression from 1- to 73-Across. Can you 64 Wood cutter? figure out what it is?

67 Hawaiian do 68 Online line 69 2014 TV retiree 70 Marriott alternative 71 Supped 72 James Patterson sleuth Cross 73 Standard deviation deviates from it DOWN 1 Trip provider?

2 Hullabaloo 3 Role in “Thor” 4 Fertilized egg 5 “Sherlock” and “EastEnders” network 6 Hate 7 Horse of a certain color 8 Small storage unit 9 Becomes less strict 10 Iceman Bobby TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE 11 Casino pass?

U C L A E L I A S 12 Huge, in poetry S P A N T O N T O 13 “Chicago” song E B U C K C O D A S 19 One of the Palins D T A K E S I T 21 Like some hours N O M O R E T E A R S A K A A G E N O T 25 “Walk Like ___” (1963 hit) A S H R A S T A 27 Composer A Y S A Y S A Y Novello L T E E E D E N 28 Over the estimate L O S A L I A T E 29 Healthful berry S E C U R L S Y I P T D O N L A T C H 30 “Star Trek” captain A W H A T A J O K E 31 What can get R L I S A A N E W you down?

S S P U D R A T S 32 Marked, as a box

ACROSS 1 Everything 5 “Yo mama” joke, e.g.

9 Hopeless case 14 Buffalo Bill’s surname 15 Rap devotee, slangily 16 University of Maine locale 17 “Gotcha, dude!”

18 One who goes on and on 20 ”What should I ___?”

22 Lollapaloozas 23 “___ tu” (Verdi aria) 24 Run like the wind 26 “Am I nuts?”

28 Former Rocket Olajuwon

ANSWER S L U S H E S

L I N K A G E

N A B T C H L V E O T L E

I N C I S O R

P E L E

B S S A W E E A S R S T E O N

31 Sarah Palin or Arnold Schwarzenegger, informally 33 “Vous êtes ___” (label on a French map) 34 In a crowd of 36 Dish served with long-handled forks 40 Part of Manhattan’s Midtown West 44 Football snaps 45 Robt. E. Lee, e.g.

46 Like a ___ to me 47 Less welcoming 49 Bearlike 52 Yamaha products 55 In-law of Esau 56 1970s-’80s TV planet 57 Get extra value from, say

Edited by Will Shortz 1

2

3

4

5

14

15

17

18

20

21 24

28

29

9

10

26

38

39

62

63

27

36

37

43 45

46

48

49

54

50

51

55

56 64

13

32

35

42

47

12

23

31

44

53

11

16

22

34 41

8

19

30

40

7

25

33

52

6

No. 0218

57

58

65

59

60 66

61 67

68

69

70

71

72

73

PUZZLE BY DAVID STEINBERG

35 Loan insured by the F.H.A.: Abbr.

37 Not final, legally 38 Popular pesticide 39 Reader founder 41 Chow ___ 42 Accompanied 43 Pivot on an axis 48 Therapist’s words

50 Rule ending in 1947 51 Yiddish author Aleichem 52 Moseyed (along) 53 Ayatollah Khomeini, for one 54 Goodyear headquarters 55 Sierra ___ 58 Pac-12 team

59 Children’s author Silverstein 61 Brit of Fox News 62 “Peter Pan” dog 63 Christie’s “The Mysterious Mr. ___” 65 Supped 66 Curse

Annual subscriptions are available for the best of Sunday crosswords from the last 50 years: 1-888-7-ACROSS. AT&T users: Text NYTX to 386 to download puzzles, or visit nytimes.com/mobilexword for more information.

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 2,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).

Share tips: nytimes.com/wordplay.

Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/learning/xwords.

The Chronicle

Sports

www.dukechronicle.com

The Chronicle

TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 | 5

THE BLUE ZONE

DUKE LANDS CLASS OF 2015 COMMITMENT

sports.chronicleblogs.com www.dukechroniclesports.com

TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Bitter end to Duke’s tournament run DePaul keeps Blue Devils out of Sweet 16

by Brian Pollack THE CHRONICLE

Seventh-seeded DePaul pulled off the biggest upset of the NCAA tournament thus far, ending Duke’s run of four straight Elite Eight appearances.

The Blue Demons overpowered the Blue Devils, taking down second-seeded Duke 74-65 Monday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

With an impressive 9-of-16 shooting performance from beyond the arc in the second half, DePaul pulled away and secured the upset. Together the trio of sophomore forward Megan Podkowa, junior guard Brittany Hrynko and junior guard Megan Rogowski scored 54 of the Blue Demons’ 74 points and seemed to knock down clutch jumpers whenever the Blue Devils threatened to close the gap.

“You have to give them credit,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “I’m not sure that [Hrynko] is going to hit those shots again. There were three of them from about 30 feet. I think that was hard for our kids. It was hard to extend and attack her when she was so far out.”

The Blue Demons (29-6) sprinted out of the gate full of energy and ready to play, applying full-court pressure to Duke (28-7) and building a quick 8-3 lead in the opening minutes. The Blue Devils were unable to get into

IZZI CLARK/THE CHRONICLE

Duke led for just 10 seconds Monday night as the Blue Devils could not keep up with seventh-seeded DePaul to extend their season. an offensive rhythm against DePaul’s swarming defense, committing 13 turnovers in the first half and knocking down just two field goals in the first ten minutes of play. Duke was able to escape the full-court press without too much difficulty, but made several careless passes in its half-court offense that were deflected and found their way into the active hands of Blue Demon defenders.

The Blue Devils seemed to be on their heels for most of the game, unable to slow the action down to a pace that suited them.

Instead, Duke was forced to play an up-tempo style that favored DePaul and made the lack of a true point guard even more glaring. The

Blue Devils’ lack of a steady floor general to stabilize the offense led them to commit 21 turnovers overall, which the opportunistic Blue Demons converted into 19 points.

“I think they were very aggressive defensively,” senior forward Haley Peters said. “They were really on top of our ball handlers and we didn’t handle it very well. I don’t know that it was the 3-point line per se—we just got a little bit rattled with how aggressive [they were] and how much pressure they put on us.”

The Blue Demons built the lead up to 2512 late in the first half, but the Blue Devils responded with a 12-2 run—keyed by six points from junior forward Elizabeth Williams—to

sports

cut the deficit to just three heading into the locker room. Williams was active on both ends of the floor and on the glass throughout the game, recording seven emphatic blocks to go along with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Duke continued its strong play in the opening minutes of the second half, scoring two quick buckets to earn a slim 28-27 advantage— its first and only lead of the game. DePaul responded quickly with an 8-0 run to keep the Blue Devils at bay and bring their lead back up to eight. The Blue Demons controlled the game the rest of the way, never letting the lead get down to less than three.

In the second half, DePaul shook off its early shooting woes—it had shot just 30 percent in the opening period—and began to knock down perimeter shots. Podkowa, Hrynko and Rogowski combined to knock down 14-of-23 3-pointers—including several from well behind the arc—that proved to be back-breakers for Duke.

“Just a great basketball game,” an emotional McCallie said. “DePaul is a [great] shooting team. They shot really well from 3-point [range], especially in the second half.”

For the four Duke seniors—Peters, Tricia Liston, Richa Jackson and injured guard Chelsea Gray—it was a untimely ending to a decorated run of success. The quartet led the program to one of the winningest periods in school history, including three consecutive Elite Eight appearances prior to this season.

“All of us have been through so much together,” a choked-up Peters said. “We are such a close group. We’ve won two ACC tournaments, three ACC regular-season titles I think.

I can’t think of any three other people I’d rather have spent my four years with.”

BASEBALL

Skidding Duke looks to rebound against Davidson

by Ryan Neu THE CHRONICLE

It was a rough weekend for the Blue Devils, whose hitting woes resurfaced at an inopportune time against offensive powerhouse Pittsburgh as they dropped all three games and were outscored 16-8 Duke in total.

The Blue Devils vs.

Davidson will look to get back on track as they make the two-hour Tuesday, 6 p.m. drive west to face Wilson Field in-state foe Davidson 6 p.m. Tuesday at Wilson Field.

Duke (14-11) won last season’s matchup against the Wildcats 9-3, but Davidson has been hot of late, winners of nine of its last ten games after a slow start to the season.

The Wildcats (13-7)—like the Panthers—are a strong offensive team with

seven of their starters batting better than .300 on the season. Sophomore shortstop Sam Foy and senior center fielder Forrest Brandt lead the Wildcats with averages of .384 and .375, respectively. Foy also leads the team in hits with 33 while Brandt paces Davidson with 21 runs scored and shares team leads in RBIs with 20 and home runs with three.

With a versatile bullpen, Duke head coach Chris Pollard may have the tools to slow the Wildcats down.

“We’ll try to match them up,” Pollard said. “That’s one of the advantages we have out of our pen... the ability to match guys up. So we’ll try to do that: put our guys in the ball game in a position that gives them the best opportunity to be successful.”

On the offensive side, the Blue Devils may have to play without senior third baseman Jordan Betts for the third straight game. Betts aggravated a lower back inju-

ry in the first game against Pittsburgh and sat out the doubleheader on Saturday due to continued tightness.

Prior to the injury, Betts had been a force for Duke at the plate batting .474 with four runs scored and three RBIs over a five-game stretch.

Duke has found some offense in Betts’s absence namely from senior infielder Matt Berezo—who has only started 11 of 24 games but found more playing time as of late. Although the rest of the Blue Devil offense struggled over the weekend, Berezo went 9-for-14 with two runs scored and is currently riding a five-game hitting streak, all of which were multi-hit games. “[Berezo has] a really good two-strike approach and a willingness to hit the ball to the backside—to drive the ball to the opposite field,” Pollard said of his player’s recent success at the plate. “The majority of his hits have come with two strikes

and… come to the opposite field. He’s just got a really good approach right now with two strikes and that’s allowing him even when he gets in bad counts to still have success.”

When asked where he thought he might put Berezo in Tuesday’s lineup, coach Pollard said he was not sure yet.

But, based on how well Berezo and fellow senior Mark Lumpa performed at the top of the lineup in the second game Saturday—they combined for nine hits, a walk, and three runs scored—it is likely that at least that part of the order will remain the same.

The Blue Devils would like to grab one win on this four-game road trip before they host a three-game series against rival North Carolina over the weekend.

The current three-game losing streak is the longest of the season for Duke and a fourth loss would make it the longest since a five-game skid early last May.

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

“

in support of undocumented students For many undocumented high school students, college education has been a dream deferred, a promise broken by legal barriers that prevent them from accessing the personal, educational and professional benefits that college offers. President Richard Brodhead has stressed the importance of making Duke a place of “access, opportunity and mutual respect for all.” But Duke continues to treat undocumented applicants as international students, considering them on a “need-aware”—as opposed to “needblind”—basis. Consequently, Duke’s admissions policies severely limit undocumented applicants’ chances of admission, since only about 3 percent of “international” applicants seeking financial aid are admitted each year.

AccessDuke, a group working to revise Duke’s admissions policies to provide more opportunities for undocumented students, is calling on the University to publicly support undocumented students and to treat undocumented applicants as domestic students. Given that undocumented students often lack the means to pay for a school like Duke and rarely have the ability to attend college in their country of origin, the current practice of considering undocumented students

She’s the associate vice provost? Can we be any more bureaucratic as a university? If we kick all these administrators to the curb, we just might free up enough money to hire some truly acclaimed faculty members.

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.

Editorial Evaluating undocumented applicants in the need-blind admissions pool would send a powerful message in support of undocumented students and offer students disadvantaged by national immigration policy a chance to attend college. It would bring Duke’s admissions practices in line with its stated commitment to equity and access, would be lawful under the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act and, given the low volume of undocumented applicants, would cost the University virtually nothing.

Concerned about its image, however, Duke may not want to dive into deeply contested political debates over immigration or expand the domestic applicant pool for fear of inviting other, non-citizen applicants to protest the need-

F

or hours, I would stand in my driveway alone on the cobblestone except for an old, rickety hockey net in front of me, pounding tennis balls into the goal from every angle until my wrists went numb. The net was ripped and torn in three places, and the posts were worn down by repeated blows.

It held within its frame an anthology of my

” edit pages

—“James F” commenting on the article “Donna Lisker to leave Duke for Smith College.”

Letters PoLicy

in the international applicant pool not only fails to account for these students’ unique situation, but also effectively denies them entry to Duke.

We endorse AccessDuke’s proposal and encourage University officials to consider undocumented applicants on a need-blind basis.

aware admissions policy.

We support AccessDuke’s proposal, but recognize that determining the feasibility of the proposed changes requires understanding Duke’s reasoning for its current financial aid policy and stance on AccessDuke’s proposal. AccessDuke might benefit from working directly with Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag or Alison Rabil, assistant vice provost and director of financial aid, to assess the plausibility of their proposal. We encourage Guttentag and Rabil to be proactive in working with AccessDuke to develop an admissions policy that treats undocumented applicants with fairness and respect.

Not only do undocumented students deserve a chance to attend college, but institutions like Duke have a responsibility to do what they can to compensate for federal and state policies that deny undocumented students opportunities to improve their lot. Some private universities, like the University of Chicago, already have admissions policies that remove barriers for undocumented applicants. Duke should follow their lead.

We should stop paying lip service to equity, fairness and access, and, instead, adopt policies that ensure them.

every sports fan has felt this way

onlinecomment

Est. 1905

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com

commentary

6 | TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014

Direct submissions to:

Mark Schreiber

E-mail: chronicleletters@duke.edu

a few remarks

Editorial Page Department The Chronicle Box 90858, Durham, NC 27708 Phone: (919) 684-2663 Fax: (919) 684-4696

The Chronicle

Inc. 1993

Danielle Muoio, Editor Sophia DuranD, Managing Editor raiSa chowDhury, News Editor Daniel carp, Sports Editor elySia Su, Photography Editor Scott briggS, Editorial Page Editor caSey williaMS, Editorial Board Chair jiM poSen, Director of Online Development kelly Scurry, Managing Editor for Online chriSSy beck, General Manager eMMa baccellieri, University Editor carleigh StiehM, University Editor elizabeth DjiniS, Local & National Editor georgia parke, Local & National Editor anthony hagouel, Health & Science Editor tony Shan, Health & Science Editor julia May, News Photography Editor eric lin, Sports Photography Editor kelSey hopkinS, Design Editor rita lo, Design Editor lauren feilich, Recess Editor jaMie keSSler, Recess Managing Editor eliza bray, Recess Photography Editor thanh-ha nguyen, Online Photo Editor MouSa alShanteer, Editorial Page Managing Editor Matt pun, Sports Managing Editor aShley Mooney, Towerview Editor caitlin MoyleS, Towerview Editor jennie Xu, Towerview Photography Editor Dillon patel, Towerview Creative Director kriStie kiM, Social Media Editor julian Spector, Special Projects Editor lauren carroll, Senior Editor Derek Saffe, Multimedia Editor anDrew luo, News Blog Editor anna koelSch, Special Projects Editor for Online glenn rivkeeS, Director of Online Operations yeShwanth kanDiMalla, Recruitment Chair julia May, Recruitment Chair Mary weaver, Operations Manager rebecca DickenSon, Advertising Director Megan Mcginity, Digital Sales Manager barbara Starbuck, Creative Director 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 2022 campus Drive call 684-3811. to reach the advertising office at 2022 campus Drive call 684-3811 @ 2014 Duke Student publishing company

early years—my childhood and that net were forever intertwined. The garage door behind it was dented with body-size impressions from when I would jump into it, pretending to be celebrating a game-winning goal.

In essence, my driveway was the arena for me to play out my wild imagination.

Upon that driveway, I would procure outrageous stories of my future career as a perennial NHL All-Star, from the fine details of the roar of the crowd to the endorsement contracts I would sign as a player. In my mind, I created a world all my own, where reality meant nothing and I could stretch my imagination as far as I desired.

I’d set up situations for myself to reenact, fantasizing about the magnitude of the moment and the ecstasy upon achieving success. “The clock winding down. Stanley Cup final. Game 7. Mark Schreiber with the puck. Five seconds now…Schreiber moves left…he shoots….he scores!” And off I’d go, in my own fantasyland, my veins pumping with exhilaration as I ran around my driveway, waving my stick in the air, jumping in jubilation. The moment felt so real that, when I crashed into my neighbor’s trash can, I felt as if I were being dog-piled by teammates in celebration.

I saw the likes of Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky, and I too wanted to match their greatness. The heroism with which they played was intoxicating—I wanted so badly to experience the last second, buzzer-beating shot, the grace of the action, the thrill of having thousands of people chanting your name, the announcer’s ecstatic reaction forever engraving the moment in the pantheon of sports.

I was not unlike the millions of kids that

idolize their sports heroes, but I went a step further than that. I desired the moment more than the play, craving the atmosphere more than the actual physical involvement.

I intended on writing history. I wanted to be the symbolic, iconic, breathtaking, heroic athlete that hit the shots that counted. I never thought of the process of how Jordan or Gretzky

got to their pinnacle—I just wanted to hop-step it all and just make it to the top.

I remember writing a report for my third grade class in which I had to tell my class about my dream job and how I would go about achieving it. I came to school dressed in a retro Vancouver Canucks jersey, proud and ready to enlighten my peers on my aspiration to not just be a pro hockey player— but to be the best. I told them that I didn’t just want to make it to the NHL—I wanted to go to multiple All-Star Games, win many MVPs, score 700 goals, win a few Stanley Cups and make a few commercials along the way. My dad made sure that I included the diligent practice routine I would need to go through to reach such a level of stardom, but I read it off robotically.

Everything, I assumed, would just fall into place. Nothing was impossible in my mind, even if I was a small kid from suburban California and not a Canadian who came out of his mother’s womb with skates on and a stick in hand. I was so obsessed with the outcome that I didn’t even bother to consider the frailty of the foundations of my dream.

In reality, I was never going to achieve any of these outrageous goals—for one, I quit playing hockey when I was 11. But it’s this dream that has driven me to want more from myself in all aspects of my life.

I’m never going to be an athlete making headlines worldwide, but it doesn’t mean I can’t be making headlines in other ways. Essentially, sports have given me the fire—now it’s my turn to find the direction.

Mark Schreiber is a Trinity freshman. His column runs every other Tuesday. Send Mark a message on Twitter @MarkSchreib.

Check out the Backpages Blog at: http://www.dukechronicle.com/blogs/backpageblogs/posts

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com

commentary

TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 | 7

The price of love

I

didn’t know Becky DeNardis. But many of you, so many of you, did. And many of you loved her. Some of you performed a song at her memorial service, a tribute from her friends and neighbors in Round Table. You played a soaring cello, a mournful tuba and an evanescent flute whose melody poured forth over the gathered crowd. Six of you sang, gathered in pairs at microphones. Your voices washed over

key to escaping the wheel of rebirth. The world only brings pain, many people say.

More recently, the folk duo Simon and Garfunkel sang about the safety of isolation in their 1966 song “I Am a Rock.” “I’ve built walls/A fortress deep and mighty/that none may penetrate./I have no need of friendship. Friendship causes pain.” It would be safer to remain aloof from the sea of humanity that surrounds us, since “a rock feels no pain/and

Andrew Kragie mountaIn sound everyone at the service like waves landing one after another on some far-away shore.

I had never heard of the song you shared, “Night Still Comes” by Neko Case, but now I will never forget it—because you said that Becky loved it. One line of the song still echoes in my head: “The tide smashes all my best-laid plans to sand.” An inspiring friend, a brilliant student, an adventurous soul—gone. All of her best-laid plans, smashed to sand one morning in Florida.

The tide snatched her away.

If you stood with the huddled crowd at the memorial service, you heard Becky’s roommate speak from the podium on the Duke Chapel steps. She spoke with eloquence and humor; she spoke with sweetness and sorrow. She said something that lodged itself in my mind. “The price of love,” she said, “is grief.”

Grief is all-consuming, like a Colorado wildfire that reduces homes to ashes. It swells in our souls and threatens to surge over the storm barriers that we build around our hearts. It shakes our world like an earthquake that sends crowded apartment buildings crashing to the earth. Grief is unadulterated pain, bereft of a silver lining.

In public policy classes they teach how to do cost-benefit analyses using some farcical unit of subjective value called the “util.” Knowing how much utility a person derives from something, you can build probability-based decision trees. Does the possibility of massively negative outcomes outweigh the probability of moderately positive outcomes? If you come to love a friend, you’re likely to develop a rewarding connection. But maybe something catastrophic will happen, leaving you with nothing but grief. Friendship is nice. But damn, grief sucks.

Cost-benefit analysis might tell us that coming to love someone isn’t worth the risk.

Detachment is not a new idea. The Epicureans of ancient Greece built a philosophy around the idea that life’s purpose is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. The Stoics also thought that happiness meant avoiding pain and, thus, avoiding worldly attachments. The “Baghavad Gita,” an ancient Hindu epic poem, holds up desirelessness as the

an island never cries.” Everyone who loved Becky knows what Simon and Garfunkel meant when they sang, “If I never loved, I never would have cried.”

Someone came into my life recently. We found one another just days after the accident. The painful news was a reminder of the catastrophic part of the risk-benefit equation. I can’t know that she won’t be snatched away by a cruel twist of fate—a drunk driver or a falling tree limb or a stray bullet. She can’t know that she won’t lose me to some sudden illness or a slow disease. There’s a real risk that this will lead to overwhelming grief.

We lack even the most basic guarantee about the days and months and years to come. Except that someday, we will lose each other. Of dust we are made, and to dust we shall return. Today, tomorrow—any day—we could be returned to the dust without a moment to say goodbye.

Loving someone is the greatest risk we can take, she tells me. It carries the risk of a catastrophic loss that smashes all our best-laid plans to sand. It comes at a terrible price: the knowledge of certain grief, grief that we could have avoided if only we stayed within our deep and mighty fortresses. But I believe we were fundamentally made to love others. It follows that we were fundamentally made to pay the price of love, without regret if not without sadness. At Becky’s memorial service, you could feel the price that love was exacting from her loved ones. But I don’t think anyone there would wish they had never loved her.

Loving someone is the greatest risk we can take.

Yet, she tells me, it’s the most important risk there is. Accept the inevitability of grief. Don’t buy into the all-too-common philosophy of detachment that appears at Duke in relationships where lovers fight to see who can care less. Pour your heart and soul into the relationships that matter. Choose the guaranteed grief over running from the possibility of pain. We are not rocks, we cannot be rocks, and we should never want to be rocks. It’s time to bid farewell to our fortresses and to leap off our islands.

Andrew Kragie is a Trinity junior. His column runs every other Tuesday.

Online Only Today: “Good ole Duke”

by Nathan Jones “This year’s men’s basketball team lost its final two games to teams built on Coach K’s principles: fundamentals, toughness and team defense. The players with “Duke” across their chests played like a broken NBA team. The University of Virginia and Mercer University played like Duke, or at least the Duke we have come to know and love. Yes, prepare yourselves: I’m about to pine nostalgically for the good ‘ole days of Duke basketball.”

...

everything is awesome

T

he adorable second-grader in my life, my nephew, had asked me the dreaded question: “Can we go see the Lego movie, please please, please?”

I was immediately overcome with a feeling of despair. Flashes of animated movies with trite storylines and ridiculous characters (like the minions—I did not see Despicable Me, but they never seemed to say more than a syllable throughout the entire trailer) danced through my head. But when I looked back down, I was staring at a

Nandita Singh I woke up lIke thIs lovable, wide-eyed kid who just wanted to see the animated version of his favorite toy. So obviously, I said yes.

When I walked into the movie theater, I was surrounded by what seemed to be babysitters and moms. I took my place comfortably among them and immediately began texting my friends: “How do you even make a movie about Lego characters? Why is this happening to me?”

My hyperbolic texts were simply a way for me to pass the initial scenes of the movie before I drooped my eyes into a 90-minute nap.

But before I could fall asleep, a song began blaring.

“Everything is awesome! Everything is awesome! Everything is awesome! Everything is awesome…”

The poppy, redundant song had my attention, and, suddenly, I was following a small, yellow, Lego man through his day in an admittedly impressive Lego World. He went about his life with a smile on his face. And, when things went awry, and he found himself fighting Lord Business with the other “master builders,” he told himself that anything was possible as long as they combined their pieces, worked together and believed.

Wow. Well if only life were that simple, right? If I just believed that working together and combining our efforts would solve the world’s problems, then things would start to change tomorrow, right?

Although I initially masked these thoughts as realistic instead of giving them the cynical label they deserved, at least they weren’t the reactions streaming through my second-grader’s head.

“See? If Lord Business was just nice and knew the Golden Rule, he never would have had his office blowed up!” Or, my personal favorite: “All of the Legos had to put their pieces together to defeat the bad guy!”

Even though it’s easy for me to laugh at his words and write them off as cute quippings from a second-grader, his simplicity came as a healthy counter to my current perspective.

I’ve spent a lot of my time at Duke talking with my peers and learning more about the “big picture” aspect of social issues. I’m talking about gender inequalities, rape culture, the continuous existence of racism and prejudice or widespread poverty, to name a few. But after participating in things like the WHO Speaks campaign or Common Ground, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. Who wouldn’t? It’s not a single sexist advertisement you’re fighting, it’s the patriarchy. It’s not a single prejudiced individual you’re fighting, it’s a historically racist society. It’s not just a single economic policy you’re fighting, it’s an entire system. Unlike in Lego World, it just can’t be that simple. We can’t fight the bad guy and expect to solve the problem.

As I’ve grown older, it’s become easier and easier to get overwhelmed by the idea that, no matter what small actions or choices I make, there’s still a larger, more impossible problem at hand. Even though I choose not to use the word “slut” or “gay” or “retarded” as synonyms for stupid, refusing to do so will not change the opinions of those around me. Participating in cultural shows like Awaaz, to spread awareness about the Hindu festival Diwali, will not educate the kids that don’t come. Volunteering at food banks or at the nursing home in my community will not make a difference to those suffering in other parts of the country.

But after spending a little time with a friend who does see things a little more simply than I do, I was reminded that our own actions and choices do count. The first steps to solving the bigger issues at hand are to remember the things we were taught when we were younger.

Work together. Don’t give up. Keep believing.

Change never comes that easily, but it’s easy to forget that our actions can add up. So, even if my choices are only small building blocks toward change, in Lego World it really just comes down to a matter of putting all of our blocks together.

Nandita Singh is a Trinity sophomore. Her column runs every other Tuesday.

8 | TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014

www.dukechronicle.com

The Chronicle

March 25 - 31 EXHIBITIONS MFA|EDA 2014. Thesis exhibition of the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts Class of 2014. Thru April 18. Various Durham locations; see mfaeda2014.org for a full schedule of events and venues. Free Media Arts + Sciences Lab Posters. Panels describing the 9 new MA+S labs with words and images. Thru April 30, 2014. Corridor Gallery, East Duke. Free.

Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist. Remarkable paintings by American artist Archibald Motley, master colorist and radical interpreter of urban culture. Thru May 11, 2014. Nasher Museum of Art. Free.

My White Friends. “Racial-identity portraits” by photographer Myra Greene. Thru May 17, 2014. Center for Documentary Studies. Free.

Night in the City of Light: Paris’ Cabaret 1881-1914. Academic Focus Gallery, Thru June 29. Nasher Museum of Art + Cheap Thrills: The Highs and Lows of Cabaret Culture in Paris, 1881-1939. Thru May 31, Perkins Gallery, Duke University Library. Free.

EVENTS March 25 Ciompi Quartet Lunchtime Classics. Brahms: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 51, No. 2. 12pm, Duke Chapel. Free. yMusic. New music by Duke graduate composers Ben Daniels, D. Edward Davis, Sid Richardson, Vladimir Smirnov, Kenneth David. Stewart, Scott Lee & Justin Tierney. 8pm, Motorco Music Hall. $15 gen. adm.; Duke students $10.

March 26 Reading and Book Signing. Writer Krista Bremer will read from and sign copies of her forthcoming memoir, My Accidental Jihad. There will be a Q&A moderated by CDS writer-in-residence Duncan Murrell. 6pm reception, 7pm reading. Center for Documentary Studies. Free March 27 Voice Master Class with Dana Zenobi. 4:30pm. Bone Hall, Biddle Music Bldg. Free.

This is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan (Duke Players Lab) explores timeless issues of adolescence and maturity in a country of 1960s-style liberalism. 8pm, Brody Theater, East Campus. Free.

Envisioning the Future of the Sallie Bingham Center. Author, playwright, teacher, and feminist Sallie Bingham discusses the importance of documenting women’s lives. 6pm, Perkins Library, Room 217. Free.

March 28 Fresh Docs Film Series. Free screening of Concerto for Two Brothers, a feature doc-in-progress, presented by the Center for Documentary Studies and the Southern Documentary Fund. 7pm. Full Frame Theater, American Tobacco Campus. Free.

Duke Players Lab. (See March 27) 8pm.

ChoreoLab 2014. (See ad on this page.)

March 29 Duke Opera Workshop. The Party’s Over: a program of finales and party scenes featuring current students collaborating with returning Opera Workshop alumni engaged in careers in music. 8pm, Baldwin Auditorium. $10 gen. adm.; students free.

Duke Players Lab. (See March 27) 8pm.

ChoreoLab 2014. (See ad on this page.)

March 30 Duke Players Lab. (See March 27) 2pm.

Duke Opera Workshop. (See. March 29) 3pm.

Vespers Ensemble Spring Concert. Featuring Orlando di Lasso’s deeply personal Lagrime di San Pietro (the Tears of St. Peter), a collection of 21 madrigals, which focus on Peter’s anguish over his denial of Christ. 4pm, Duke Chapel. Free.

SCREEN/SOCIETY All events are free and open to the general public. Unless otherwise noted, screenings are at 7pm in the Griffith Film Theater, Bryan Center.

(N) = Nasher Museum of Art. (W) = Richard White Auditorium. All events subject to change.

3/31

Vertigo. (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958, 128 min, USA, in English, Color, 35mm). Introduced by Prof. Markos Hadjioannou, Literature Program. This film about a retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia, whose investigation into the strange activities of an old friend’s wife leads into a dangerous obsession, was dismissed when first released but later heralded as one of director Alfred Hitchcock’s finest achievements. AMI Showcase--Hitchcock series. ami.duke.edu/screensociety/schedule

This message is brought to you by the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies, Center for Documentary Studies, Chapel Music, Duke Dance Program, Duke Music Department, Duke Performances, Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University Libraries, Screen/Society, Department of Theater Studies with support from the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts.