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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
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015
WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM
ONE HUNDRED AND TENTH YEAR, ISSUE 59
New Year’s renovations
News Analysis
Uni. looks to hold early admits near 50 percent of class Emma Baccellieri News Editor A decade ago, a little more than a quarter of Duke students were admitted via early decision. Now, that figure has nearly doubled—with the University filling almost half of its incoming class through early decision. But although the number of students admitted early has increased steadily in recent years, it may have reached a plateau for the time being. “There’s something psychological about the 50 percent mark,” Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag said. “I don’t have as a goal hitting 50 percent.... I like, in general, the idea of having over half of the class available to students who are applying regular decision.” In December, the University admitted 815 students early—meaning that a record 48 percent of the Class of 2019 will come from early decision. This breaks the record set by the Class of 2018, with 47 percent admitted early. These numbers are a notable change from those posted a decade ago, when the University’s proportion of early admits fluctuated between 25 and 30 percent. Even as peer schools such as the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago began to admit increasing numbers of students early, Duke maintained that it would not change its policy. “In limiting the size of the entering groups, we are See Admissions on Page 4
Emma Loewe | The Chronicle As students returned to campus for the Spring semester, preparations were made for the imminent renovations of the main entrance of the Bryan Center.
Students solve ‘murder’ at Winter Forum Students learn about criminal justice system through hypothetical murder of administrator Emma Baccellieri News Editor
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Thu Nguyen | The Chronicle
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While most students spent their last days of winter break preparing for classes or moving back to campus, about 100 students chose a different path—investigating a murder. This year’s Winter Forum took a hands-on approach, giving students the opportunity to learn about science and ethics in the criminal justice system through working on a hypothetical case—the “murder” of Steve Nowicki, dean and vice provost for undergraduate education. The three-day forum, titled “To Catch a Killer: Investigating the Brain,” tied together philosophy, law, ethics and neuroscience. “It’s a day of profoundly mixed emotions for me,” President Richard Brodhead quipped during his address to the forum Tuesday. “Happy, because I’m so proud to be part of a university where students are so driven to learn…. And less happy, because we had to pay the high price of the death of my beloved colleague Steve Nowicki.” The interdisciplinary nature of the subject required bringing together faculty experts from across the University. Faculty hosts Nita Farahany, professor of law and philosophy; Scott Huetell, the Jerry and Patricia Hubbard professor of psychology and
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neuroscience; and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Chauncey Stillman professor of practical ethics, worked for more than a year to plan the program. “The combination of our perspectives brought together something unique for the students,” said Farahany, who also serves as the director of the Duke Science and Society initiative. Bringing such a variety of disciplines into the conversation was designed to give students a more thorough understanding of gray areas in criminal justice—the limitations of science in understanding a crime scene, the ethical questions raised by new technologies and the ways in which all of these intersect, Farahany noted. Students saw the “crime scene” at the start of the forum, and days of guest speakers and lectures gave them the practical foundation they needed to solve Nowicki’s “murder.” Among the guest speakers were Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson. Cotton was falsely imprisoned for 11 years for the rape of Thompson before being found innocent through DNA testing. The two have since written a book together and give talks on judicial reform, the fallibility of eyewitness testimony, and forgiveness. “Learning about he was able to forgive and they were able to turn this tragedy into something so powerful and meaningful was really interesting,” senior Ernst Casimir said, adding that he appreciated the chance to speak one-on-one with Cotton. “That isn’t something I get to experience regularly in the classroom.”
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