April 8, 2015

Duke baseball gets flexible Graduating seniors suggested that baseball players practice yoga and ever since, it has been integrated into the team’s routine | Page 7

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Fans flock to stores for apparel

ONE HUNDRED AND TENTH YEAR, ISSUE 106

‘IT’S GREAT TO BE HOME’

After Duke’s victory, the University Store became “as hectic as a regular store on Black Friday” Claire Ballentine & Sydney Sarachek The Chronicle The Duke University Store served throngs of fans Tuesday anxious to buy championship gear the day after the title game.

Students, faculty and Durham residents poured into the Duke Store in the Bryan Center early Tuesday morning looking to buy championship shirts, hats and other apparel. The crowds remained large all day Tuesday—with an an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 shirts sold within 24 hours of the men’s basketball team’s win over

Duke weatshirt See Merchandise on Page 3

xford s: S - 2XL cotton, 20% polyester

Carolyn Chang | The Chronicle Students gathered in Cameron Indoor Stadium Tuesday afternoon to congratulate the men’s basketball team after its win over Wisconsin in the national championship game. Coach Mike Krzyzewski thanked the Cameron Crazies for their support. (See story on page 7.)

Responses to racism raise constitutional concerns Neelesh Moorthy The Chronicle

any other discount/sale.

rough Monday, March 2, 2015, ies last.

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he University Store Emma Loewe | The Chronicle

last night’s per Level,After Bryan Centerwin, students poured into the University Store Tuesday to buy championship apparel.

edical Center Bookstore

Recent incidents of racism at universities across the nation have brought the verdicts of student disciplinary action into the spotlight, with some questioning due process and the role of freedom of speech on campuses.

The morning of April 1, a noose was discovered hanging on a tree outside of the Bryan Center. This incident closely followed campus backlash after a black female student reported being the subject of a racist chant on campus. The same chant resulted in the expulsion of two University of Oklahoma students March 10. The students—members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity—were caught on video singing the derogatory song days pri-

or to President David Boren announcing their expulsion. Duke administration said that the student who hung the noose came forward and is no longer on campus, but declined to reveal the perpetrator’s name.

Both incidents quickly became national news—sparking outrage not only on the two campuses, but across the country. In addition to sparking discussions about race relations on campuses, the quick disciplinary action taken has caused some to question the roles due process and free speech have within universities.

The two faces of due process There is an important distinction between public and private universities regarding due process on campus. Public universities like OU are constitutionally bound to provide due

process for their students, said William Van Alstyne, a Duke law professor from 1965 to 2004.

He added that private schools like Duke are not bound by such constraints.

For public schools, Van Alstyne explained, minimum due process means providing notice of the charges and the opportunity to be heard in a disciplinary hearing. He noted, however, that just because private institutions are not constitutionally bound to due process does not mean it is not provided.

Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta said Duke takes pride in maintaining fairness in its campus judicial system.

“I don’t believe that we provide fewer rights to students engaging in the disciplinary system,” Moneta said. “Annually, a fairly large See Rights on Page 4

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After noose incident, faculty illuminate history of lynching “We need to reject the feeble, pathetic excuse that such acts could possibly be just a joke” Rachel Chason University Editor Faculty, students and community members gathered Tuesday to discuss the history of lynching and racism, and how that history can inform future dialogues about race on campus.

Speakers in the town hall meeting—which was sponsored by the history department and was standing-room only—emphasized that the noose found hanging outside the Bryan Center last week must be part of a larger conversation about race relations on campus.

Members of the faculty panel spoke about the historical significance of the symbol, and tangible steps the University can take to improve relations on campus.

“Denying race is not the goal—the utter elimination of white supremacy is the goal,” said Adriane Lentz-Smith, the history department’s director of undergraduate studies.

“One need not be colorblind to respect difference.”

The noose was discovered outside the Bryan Center early last Wednesday morning. Several campus-wide protests and discussions were organized within 24 hours, and by Thursday afternoon, the student responsible had been identified. He or she is no longer on campus and awaiting further disciplinary action from the University.

Though many students reacted with anger, shock and hurt, some—particularly on social media—suggested the noose was a joke or was not intended as a racist symbol.

Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe professor of history, focused on the necessity of placing the noose in its historical context in order to understand its significance as a “powerful symbol of dominance and oppression.”

She noted that between 1882 and 1968, there were 4,742 Americans who were lynched—3,450 of them black—and from 1890 to 1970, some two to three black southerners were hanged, burned at the stake or quietly murdered each week.

MacLean said elite whites allowed, and even relied upon, these systematic murders to order to enforce the system of white supremacy on which their privilege depended.

“We need to reject the feeble, pathetic See Town Hall on Page 5

THE ROMANCE OF KING ARTHUR

Fall 2015 Wed. / Fri. 3:05pm–4:20pm GER 260S MEDREN 224S Professor April Henry

Lily Coad | The Chronicle Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe professor of history, was one of several speakers at the Tuesday town hall, where she talked about the importance of placing the noose in historical context.

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MERCHANDISE continued from page 1

Wisconsin.

“The Bryan Center was as hectic as a regular store on Black Friday,” freshman Noor Tasnim said.

Chester Penn, an employee at the Duke Store, said the store experienced the heaviest traffic between noon and 2 p.m. He noted that one of the most sold items was the locker room jersey.

“People want what the players have,” he said. “They want to feel as close as they can to being part of the team.”

He noted that one student told him she had skipped class to purchase a shirt from the store.

Many students said they were purchasing championship gear for relatives living in other locations.

“As soon as the buzzer when off, my brother texted me to buy him a shirt,” Rebecca Benjamin, a first year nursing student, said. “He said to buy anything I could find.”

Melissa Moreno, Trinity ‘13, said after the win her family told her to buy them all shirts from the Duke Store as soon as possible.

Store managers were ready to accommodate the influx of T-shirt demand in the wake of the win. Jim Wilkerson, director of trademark licensing and store operations for Duke Stores, said the store received approximately 8,000 shirts before it opened, with about 20,000 arriving by late afternoon. He said they expected to sell anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 shirts the day after the game.

University Store employee Shawnette Richardson said that at times she could not even turn around because of the crowd. Richardson and several others have been hired temporarily for the next 30 days to accommodate the increase in expected customers due to the win.

Wilkerson said preparations for championship gear designs began six weeks before the Final Four, with more serious planning starting three weeks ago.

“Nothing is printed until the buzzer sounds at the final game,” Wilkerson said.

He explained this has proven to be ideal because if the game had not worked in Duke’s favor, there would not be a lot of wasted merchandise.

Wilkerson has been working at Duke Stores for 34 years and has experienced each of the men’s basketball team’s five national championships. He added that several of the store’s key senior managers have also been at Duke for all five championships, and all enjoy the excitement the championship games bring.

“Thanks to Coach K and his great teams, in Duke Stores we have some good retail experience in preparing for national basketball championships,” Wilkerson said. “Coach K came to Duke one year before I did, and I certainly hope he doesn’t leave until at least a year after I do. It has been and continues to be quite a ride.”

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Thu Nguyen | The Chronicle

WRITING 270 (ONLINE COURSE) Composing the Internship Experience: Digital Rhetoric and Social Media Discourse June 1 — July 27, 2015 Image licensed under Creative Commons, from Walter, Patrick.

Chemistry World Blog. prospect.rsc.org. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.

Section 01: Denise K. Comer Section 02: Kevin Casey

Are you planning to participate in an internship or work experience this summer? Do you want to develop or strengthen your facility with social media?

Join this (fully online) Duke University Summer Session/Thompson Writing Program course from wherever you are this summer for the opportunity to meaningfully reflect on and narrate your internship or other work--‐related experiences using digital rhetoric and social media.

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group of people, students, faculty and staff, come together to review and revise our policies based on legal testimony, student testimony and as the community sees appropriate.”

Less than 48 hours after the noose had been hung, the University announced that the student who hung the noose came forward and was no longer on campus. At that point, however, administrators declined to specify the circumstances in which the student left Duke or provide any details about the student’s identity. The student is going through the University’s disciplinary process, and Duke is cooperating with state and federal officials investigating the possibility of criminal charges, administrators said at last Thursday’s press conference.

The lack of transparency about what exactly happened to the student involved in the noose incident makes it hard to know whether the student was fairly treated by the university’s disciplinary process, said Robert Shibley, Trinity ‘00, Law ‘03 and executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

In a letter Shibley sent to President Richard Brodhead Monday, he said in particular that the phrase “the student is no longer on campus” is difficult to interpret and makes it difficult to gauge whether due process was achieved.

“Did the student voluntarily leave campus, or was he or she forced to leave by Duke?” the letter reads. “If the latter, what procedures did Duke follow? Did the student present an immediate danger to campus if he or she were to remain?”

Because the circumstances surrounding the expulsions at OU were more transparent, Shibley said he feels sure that constitutional due process rights were not provided for the OU students. The two students were expelled without a disciplinary hearing March 10 shortly after a video of the racist fraternity chant went viral.

“If there is an actual threat to safety, the university is legally allowed to remove the person immediately,” he said. “In the OU case, however, nobody indicated the students had threatened the physical safety of anyone on campus. Instead, President Boren expelled them and did it without any sort of hearing, so I think it’s pretty clear President Boren overstepped his bounds.”

Free speech restrictions?

In addition to drawing questions of free speech, the expulsions at OU have raised concerns regarding students’ free speech rights on campus. Stuart Benjamin, Douglas B. Maggs professor of law, said there are significant First Amendment concerns involved with the OU case, noting that the OU expulsions clearly violate the students’ free speech rights.

“Under current case law, you can’t punish them for their song, however heinous or unpopular,” Benjamin said. “If they wanted to bring a case, I have little doubt they would win the case.”

As with due process, private universities like Duke are held to a different standard and not constitutionally required to employ First Amendment standards in dealing with speech on campus, said Michael Newcity, adjunct associate professor of Slavic and Eurasian studies.

If Duke were a public university, however, he noted that hanging a noose on a tree might be similarly protected by the First Amendment, provided that the noose was not designed to target any specific individual.

“States and the federal government can make it a crime to threaten or intimidate someone, so if you hung a noose on someone’s office door, that is arguably an act which does threaten or intimidate,” Newcity said. “If this noose was not directed at any one individual I don’t see how it could be deemed unprotected.”

Shibley once again argued that Duke’s lack of transparency surrounding the incident makes it difficult to determine how speech was treated. He noted that the school will not release what the suspected motive behind the act was.

Moneta added that Duke has always made it its goal to protect free speech on campus despite the absence of constitutional mandates to do so.

“Duke’s approach essentially mirrors First Amendment requirements,” Moneta said. “We do not have speech codes, we do not prohibit and in fact we promote free expression. Our processes here are based on behavior, not verbal or symbolic expression.”

At Thursday’s press conference, Moneta said that it was “way too soon to determine” exactly which provisions of the student code of conduct were violated and what the sanctions might be.

The incidents at OU and Duke raise “an important philosophical question” for universities, Newcity said.

“If you accept the notion that a university should be a bastion where students and faculty can say virtually anything, at least within the broad boundaries established by the First Amendment, it raises a serious question about disciplining a student for saying something that is clearly protected speech,” he said.

The Chronicle continued from page 2

excuse that such acts could possibly be just a joke,” MacLean said. “Minimizing these kinds of acts in this kind of way is an insulting evasion. To imagine that a noose in particular might be a joke suggests and unwillingness to see through the eyes of others, to look past one’s own viewpoint of privileged insulation.”

Sociology professor Eduardo BonillaSilva spoke about the noose as just one part of a “climate of hostility” faced by students, faculty and staff of color. He noted that microaggressions faced by people of color on Duke’s campus everyday include being asked by Duke University Police Department officers for identification, being told

they are here because of preferential treatment and being told racist actions are just jokes.

“Duke is not a neutral racial space,” Bonilla-Silva said. “It’s a HWCU—a historically white college and university. Duke’s culture oozes whiteness.”

He told students that because racism at Duke is systematic, they must “think big” with the demands—to come up with systemic solutions to make the campus safer, more inclusive and more multicultural.

In the forum following the discussion, students and faculty touched on possible solutions—including increasing the representation of engaged black faculty, mandating anti-oppression training for incoming freshmen and better incorporating dialogues about race in the curriculum.

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015

Men’s Basketball

A CHAMPION’S WELCOME

Daniel Carp Beat Writer For the past three weeks, Duke has traveled far and wide to face college basketball’s most grueling tests. When the dust settled, it was the Blue Devils left standing atop the mountain.

Having reached the sports pinnacle, the only thing left to do was go home.

The 2015 national champions were greeted by thousands of fans for a celebration Tuesday afternoon at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The welcome-back party featured speeches from head coach Mike Krzyzewski and senior captain Quinn Cook as well as video tributes from the Blue Devils’ NCAA tournament run and 68-63 victory against Wisconsin in Monday night’s national championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

“It’s great to be home,” said a smiling Krzyzewski, flanked by Duke’s NCAA championship trophy on his left and the South Regional championship trophy and net from Monday’s title game on his right.

With the team’s first four national championship banners from 1991,

Lily Coad | The Chronicle Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils received a warm reception Tuesday at Cameron Indoor Stadium after returning with the program’s fifth national title.

1992, 2001 and 2010 hanging overhead, Krzyzewski had a chance to reflect on the 39-game journey that will send a fifth national championship banner flying into the rafters of Cameron Indoor Stadium next fall.

Despite finishing with a 35-4 record, the 2014-15 Blue Devils faced no shortage of adversity on their way to a

sports

national title. Duke finished the season with just eight scholarship players after sophomore Semi Ojeleye transferred in December and junior Rasheed Sulaimon became the first player ever dismissed from Krzyzewski’s program in February.

Krzyzewski called the national champions standing behind him “a team of believers.”

The Hall of Fame head coach went on to bestow the highest praise on the champion Blue Devils, calling them his favorite team in his 35 years at Duke.

“My guys have been an absolute joy to coach,” Krzyzewski said. “There’s certain things we’ve done throughout the year to motivate the team, but for the most part this team has motivated itself.”

Krzyzewski was quick to single out the performance of freshman guard Grayson Allen in his team’s title game victory. Allen came off the bench and scored 16 points, providing the team with the spark it needed when trailing by as many as nine in the second half.

The first mention of Allen’s name drew deafening applause from the crowd.

“All it takes is one person to sometimes ignite something that produces a huge win,” Krzyzewski said of Allen’s grittiness at both ends of the floor. “It was a chain reaction through our team.... All of a sudden, we were playing defense like we had been playing the entire NCAA tournament.”

Following his speech, Krzyzewski turned the microphone over to Cook— See Celebration on Page 9

Baseball

Namaste: Duke makes yoga post-practice ritual Brian Pollack Beat Writer For a typical baseball team, the end of practice means clearing off the field, listening to a brief talk from the coaching staff and tossing around a few jokes in the dugout.

For the Blue Devils, it signals the beginning of a new workout—yoga.

After an afternoon of practice, a marching line of players make their way out of the dugout at Jack Coombs Field, all carrying their own yoga mats under their arms. Before long, the entire roster— coaches and players alike—sprawls out in the outfield attempting to hold a tree pose, or whatever other challenges the day’s workout brings.

The new exercise regimen began as a trial run this past summer, following multiple tips from graduating seniors that the team might benefit from regular yoga sessions. About 15 players who were in Durham taking summer classes participated in weekly yoga to get a feel for how it would affect them.

When the results of the summer

Special to The Chronicle Duke players and coaches have incorporated yoga sessions into part of their after-practice routine after a successful test run of the program last summer.

experiment came back overwhelmingly positive, head coach Chris Pollard knew yoga would have to be integrated into the team’s routine. But he wasn’t going to let his players have all the fun.

“My wife had done yoga, and she talked about the benefits of it, but

having gone through it for an entire fall, I know firsthand what it did for me, and therefore I know what it can do in terms of how it can help our guys,” Pollard said. “I’m looking forward to next fall getting back into it with our guys again.

I really try to push myself at it, just to

see if I could maximize the benefits I was getting from it.”

The main goals of the program were twofold—to increase the players’ flexibility and to improve their ability to See Yoga on Page 8

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8 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015

YOGA

continued from page 7 focus the entirety of their energy on the next play. Much of Pollard’s coaching philosophy revolves around a processoriented approach, making the mental discipline and breathing techniques required in yoga a natural complement to the methods he preaches.

Putting the coaching staff on the yoga mats right alongside the players adds a unique element to the experience that instructor Kathy Sell Smith said made a huge difference in getting the players to buy into the change.

In addition to the camaraderie it helps to foster, Pollard said personally participating in yoga helps him to ensure his players are getting the most they can out of the exercise.

“They were wiling to try to slow down, do things that they weren’t used to doing,” Smith said. “Actually, quite a few of them had done yoga before so I don’t think it was brand new to everyone, but the ones who it was brand new for were very openminded—I think because their coaches were into it.”

Now in the midst of a busy regular season slate, Duke has not been able to keep the weekly team yoga session as a consistent staple of its regimen. The Blue Devils have shifted to individual yoga exercises to accommodate players’ different in-season needs, but will switch back to the full-team version again in the fall.

According to Pollard, Smith’s athletic pedigree was a crucial factor in getting the

Special to The Chronicle Under the direction of Kathy Sell Smith, the Blue Devils have embraced yoga as part of their practice routine.

team to embrace a workout program not often found in college programs. Smith— the wife of current men’s tennis head coach Ramsey Smith—was a Duke athlete herself during her college days, earning All-American honors on the women’s tennis team before graduating with the class of 2001. She then moved into the ranks of coaching, becoming an assistant coach at Oregon for two seasons before taking the head job at Princeton in 2004.

Smith also works with the men’s tennis

sports Fall 2015

and women’s lacrosse teams on campus, as well as several squads a few miles down the road at North Carolina. Across all the different sports she has worked with, Smith said she has encountered a growing acceptance of yoga as a legitimate means for players to improve their performance.

The baseball team presented a bit of a different challenge for Smith, though, because the players’ backgrounds in yoga were so different. She took a slow, introductory approach to make sure

everyone was having a good time, mixing up the routines and always making sure there was a laugh or two shared.

“One day we set up where they were facing each other. So there were three rows of guys on one side, the other three rows here looking at each other. So that brought a new element to the practice because you are trying these balancing poses and having to look at a teammate right across from you,” Smith said.

“There’s always something to laugh at.

Usually it comes from a comment from one of the guys or someone falling out of a pose, but for the most part we try to keep it lighthearted.”

The players have bought in and are now big fans of yoga, using it as another avenue through which they can channel their competitive spirits. Captain Andy Perez— who includes himself in “the handful of guys who aren’t too good at it”—picked out fellow senior Grant McCabe as the team’s weakest link and pegged freshman Chris Koppenhaver as the squad’s model yoga participant.

Although their successes in executing the poses have varied quite a bit, all the players can agree on the positives yoga has brought them, both as individuals and as a team.

“We call [McCabe] “Grandpa” because of how inflexible he is and how kind of immobile he is at times. He can barely sit down criss-cross applesauce. Me, I’m pretty bad too,” Perez said. “I think as it went on, we came to appreciate how it’s helping our bodies, how it’s helping our minds, and using it on the baseball field has been very beneficial.”

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CELEBRATION continued from page 7

the team’s lone scholarship senior—who the head coach called as good a leader as anyone who has come through the Duke program.

“Everything that we’ve been through, people counting us out, adversity—guys stepped up,” Cook said, looking up to the four championship banners above his head. “I said on my Senior Night that we weren’t done yet.... I think they have to make some room up there now.”

Fans began filing into the historic arena at 3:30 p.m., a full 90 minutes before the event was slated to begin.

While they waited, the Duke faithful got to rewatch the Blue Devils’ championship game victory against Wisconsin on the jumbotron, with scoreboard operators keeping the score updated as the contest wore on.

As the replay of the game progressed, fans found their gaze transfixed to the screen. By the time Duke made its decisive second-half run, the reactions from the crowd were not different from the ones of the nearly 7,000 students that stormed the court in celebration following Monday night’s championship victory.

Before the team said its final goodbyes, Krzyzewski told the crowd that he had received a congratulatory phone call from President Barack Obama Tuesday morning. Although Krzyzewski said the president did not apologize for picking Kentucky to win the national championship and Duke to

Lily Coad | The Chronicle Senior Quinn Cook will get to hang a national title banner in the rafters of Cameron Indoor Stadium after Monday’s win against Wisconsin. sudoku_472A Created by Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Will Shortz

fall to Villanova in the Final Four, Obama had his fair share of kind words for the newly-minted national champions.

“He said to congratulate the guys not just on the way they play basketball, but how they represent this great university,” Krzyzewski said.

Krzyzewski added that Obama had invited the Blue Devils to visit the White House in honor of their national championship and that Duke has accepted. No date has been set for that visit, but collegiate national champions typically visit the White House during the summer. Connecticut, the 2014 national champion, made its White House trip June 9.

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The Chronicle

For Release Wednesday, April 8, 2015

ACROSS

66 Tribute in rhyme

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67 Father of Impressionism

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ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

10 PT boat officer: Abbr.

H O O F

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H E L L N O N O R A

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O D R R T J I N Z O J B E L E T E R H E D R A N M B A A S V L A S T

R A G I S E O H N N T O O U R N T S Y I S S T H O E I N E E L E D L O A S E G A S L U X E S T E W

S K Y L A B

C U D D L E U M P E R T H Z E S H E

O P E D O S E P P I L L S R I B C U T

S I N O E N R A G E

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69 Popular Japanese pizza topping

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DOWN 1 Homeland of many Miamians

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4 Spectrum hue 5 “Silent Spring” pesticide 6 Competed in the first leg of a triathlon

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71 To date

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34 Walrus mustache feature 36 Lay to rest 39 River of Orléans 6 Piano exercise 11 Cold and blustery 41 Scrape (out) 14 Turn topsy-turvy 42 Tiny type size 43 Poplar variety 15 John Lennon’s 44 European finch tribute to Yoko Ono 46 Competed in the last leg of a 16 In vitro needs triathlon 17 Connery and 47 After the whistle Lazenby, 49 Foreign film between 1967 feature and 1971?

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1 Bow-toter on seasonal cards

O C E L O T

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Created by Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Will Shortz

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7 Sonata ending 8 Add a rider to, say 9 Ring in a rodeo ring

11 1976, for Stallone’s rise to stardom?

M 12 Be of use E 13 Board defects A 18 Turbine part N 22 Deeply offended

24 Still a little firm

X G 26 Wine traditionally sold in a fiasco A M 27 Bar mixer E 28 Counterpart of S 1-Across

PUZZLE BY JEFF STILLMAN

29 Eddie Murphy, 40 Swings a sickle, say after 1984, 1987 and 1994?

45 “The Wild Duck” dramatist 30 Says, in 48 All together teenspeak 31 Symbols of servitude 35 Land bordering Lake Titicaca 37 Citation abbr.

38 President Coty of France

50 Once-sacred birds 51 Author who wrote on Friday?

52 Chip away at 53 Title woman of a 1957 #1 Paul Anka hit

57 Russian refusal 58 Skedaddles 60 Boat with oars 61 Dresden’s river 62 Guinness Book adjective 64 Cameron and Blair, for short 65 Govt. property org.

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Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

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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

“

This is not the Duke we want “This is no Duke we want, this is no Duke we accept…and this is no Duke we want to create,” President Richard Brodhead declared on the Chapel steps last week before hundreds who came together in solidarity, in outrage, in hurt. Last Wednesday, a noose was found hanging from a tree on the Bryan Center Plaza. It was the most egregious act in a recent string of hateful behavior that had erupted both on campus and across the nation, including a group of students chanting to a black student the racist chant from a video of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members at Oklahoma University. Although details surrounding the motivations behind the noose and the ongoing investigation are unknown, its effects ravaged and shook our community to its core.

As with the recent scrutiny of OU’s administrative response to the abhorrent incident on its campus, we now turn the lens inwards to assess Duke’s own response. From the judicial perspective, we commend the administration’s restraint in following procedures rather than jumping to premature conclusions. Though there has been some backlash, the University’s decision to have the student off campus and

to maintain his or her privacy while undergoing the Student Conduct process respects the rights of both the student and the community.

Yet, more important was the administration’s response to the Duke community. Early last Wednesday, Vice President of Student Affairs Larry Moneta emailed students to express his “disgust and anger” toward “this hateful and stupid act.” A Chapel forum was held in the afternoon in which President Brodhead and Provost Sally Kornbluth, among other speakers, addressed the events. Given the uncertainty of the motivations, Brodhead’s focus on the dark history the hateful symbol evokes, especially with the current campus climate, was a well-chosen approach to express what Duke does not stand for. Given the administration’s pattern of silence in recent events—most notably, during the call to prayer controversy earlier this semester—the public response was a commendable step forward. Yet, though the content of the speech was productive, it failed to offer actionable steps moving forward.

Acknowledging such galvanizing events that affect the entire community—be it through emails or holding forums—is the bare mini-

onlinecomment No one is pretending that Jahlil Okafor is missing practice to study for is Bio exam, but these athletes are students and members of the Duke community.

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.

Direct submissions to: E-mail: chronicleletters@duke.edu Editorial Page Department The Chronicle Box 90858, Durham, NC 27708 Phone: (919) 684-2663 Fax: (919) 684-4696

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Inc. 1993

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mum that should be expected. While the response was immediate and proper, it was precisely just that: all too proper. It lacked the conviction in follow-up that would have placed true meaning behind the message it delivered.

On one level, the University’s response is one that seems shrouded in a veil of political correctness—a manifestation of an aversion to scandal wrought from the controversies in the University’s recent history. Yet, given how disruptive the event was for so many members of the community, the University should have given students the space and time to reflect and engage, as Connecticut College did by canceling its classes when racist graffiti was found in a bathroom. Ultimately, the response of the administration should be commensurate to the severity of the incident and its impact on the community.

Why does it take an event so egregious, so overt and deeply hurtful to catalyze a conversation on race relations?Tomorrow we will discuss this question, and how we can ensure these discussions persist not just today, tomorrow or next week but, also, catalyze a deep change in our University’s culture.

War wounds

W

” edit pages

—“AJcredible” commenting on the editorial “Campus erupts with joy in response to Duke championship”

Est. 1905

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com commentary

10 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015

hen I was a child, I never used to cry when I got hurt. I stood up, cleaned the wound and waited until the healing process gave me the rights to a good scar story to laugh about later.

But some times are different, some wounds are too big to hide and too deep to mend simply and some stories feel too shameful to be retold.

Last week, the heavy history of discrimination against black people in the United States was left hanging limply on a tree. Intricately tied, it is amazing how a few feet of rope could almost appear to scream back at you every time a picture is seen. As if, every last breath that had been stolen in history by ignorance and oppression was now screaming back at us, wondering how their stories had been brought back to life.

Last week we were reminded that we are not the post racial society as many blindly believed. In fact, our generation is still in the heart of turmoil. I want to

built up for years and will take time to heal but we cannot give up hope because we are the only hope that we have left. We have to confront racism in our campus in full and let this scandal not just be a number, a closed case. On April 1st, campus was quiet, eyes were holding back tears and hearts were raging with anger and hurt. But I think what scared me the most was that on April 2nd, campus hastily returned to “normalcy”. Yes, there was tension that still existed but it already seemed like everyone was trying so hard to forget that our precious Duke is not always as beautiful as we want to believe. The chapel cannot be a sign of peace if our students are still in turmoil.

I urge you not to forget, because as soon as we forget we will find ourselves at the foot of another controversy. Efforts must be made by students, faculty and administration to restore dignity to our campus.

Students have to stay awakened and active, and confront even the daily micro aggressions that we sit on

Kalifa Wright SPEAK UP. SPEAK OUT. be able to wear my Duke apparel with pride, and not feel like I am sharing it with people who do not believe that I do not have the right to be here—people that feel so bold and simultaneously so cowardly as to hang a noose on a tree in the middle of the night.

And yes, I say people not person because I do not believe that one student was behind this. I believe that a culture of hatred and fear was behind this heinous act—a culture that is still alive in multiple students, but only one felt the need to take the time to illustrate the racism that is still present on our campus.

To the minds behind this, how dare you insult the intelligence and drive of black students on this campus. To bring back memories so painful in history, just to heal the wound of your own insecurities.

Yet maybe I should also say congratulations, you may have been the stick that broke the camel’s back that built a stronger unity among students of color and allies on this campus. For as much fear as you may have hoped to instill, you have doubled the amount of courage that we are reminded we must grasp in order to move forward.

This is not a wound that can simply be masked by a press conference. This is a culture that has been

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every day. Duke administration needs to realize that they do not deserve to claim diversity if we are simultaneously housing discrimination. For once, I want to feel like there is some justice served. Because if roles were reversed, and a hate crime—it’s time we call it what it is—was committed by a person of color on campus there would be no law to hide behind in order to protect us. Dear administration, you are perpetuating the problem by not dealing with the wounds before they become infected.

This event will not cripple us—it will not silence us, because I know that we deserve to be here. I know that I got here by my hard work and the sacrifices of those that have come before me. Let us continue to speak up, and learn from each other. Let this be the beginning of greatness.

You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.

- Maya Angelou Kalifa Wright is a Trinity junior. Her column runs every other Wednesday.

The Chronicle @DukeChronicle

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com commentary

Breaking News

I

thought I’d gotten out of this dirty business. But they always find a way to reel you back in.

The whole damn affair began when I got a call from my editor asking if I would investigate a new story none of the rooky journalists would touch. Classic—the profession’s going to hell these days. These kids get done with Writing 101 and think they’re ready to be a big-shot Chronicle reporter: but it takes guts. You gotta be able to see things no goddamn person this side of sanity’d ever want to see. [Editor: Hi Bron!

Try not to use contractions when you write for The Chronicle—use ‘got to’ instead of ‘gotta’.

Thanks!]. But I guess most of us, the good ones at least, we’re not what any quack worth their salt would properly consider “sane”.

The editor’d heard tell that campus was on the brink of a crisis like it’d never seen. For the

days... [Bron please stop]. But never mind that. I had a job to do. I pushed Sue for what she knew.

Apparently, there had been regular movements of crates of paper towels over the past few weeks, all going from the HDRL warehouse to the Gardens. The next towel transport was slated for the next night. In the meantime, I decided to reach out to some other sources to get info on who the perp might be.

[Bron I’ve just gone ahead and deleted the entire scene where you have sex with a rent boy for information. Like, I applaud your journalistic integrity with describing your sources and all, but lines like “His stogie-like fingers tap danced their ways between my nipples” aren’t gonna win you any Pulitzers.]

So I had an ID on the perp and a belly full of shame. But that just pushed me all the harder to write the groundbreaking story I knew this

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 | 11

W

On being alone

hen was the last time you were alone? Really, truly alone, without a familiar face to turn to, no one who could attest to the kind of person you are?

Until last month, when I began a three week solo journey in Asia, I had never been alone before in my life. For this, I am grateful. I grew up in a lively household. At Duke, where I live with three wonderful roommates, I’ve found independence, but not solitude. I love being able to step onto campus and greet everyone by name, but for better or worse, we are never alone.

Being surrounded by people we know carries a certain cost.

At college, where we live with our friends, sociality becomes obligatory rather than voluntary. With so much going on everyday—extracurricular events, guest talks, parties— it seems degenerate to not venture out and spend time with others. College is the best time of our lives, we are told. Never again will we experience this density of smart, passionate people, and so we try to make every moment count. When we find ourselves—at last—alone, it is either out of exhaustion at the end of a long day or because of a lack of better options.

Although an introvert by nature, I quickly became terrified of aloneness at Duke. My iCal became a colorful mosaic of

Bron Maher

Emily Feng

DUKE, TWEAKED

GUEST COLUMN

first time in living memory, all the paper towel dispensers on campus were going to run out. A public health pandemonium like you couldn’t imagine: all those people having to wipe their hands dry on their pants? It’d be like a goddamn germ paradise. Sickness, stress, and riots on the streets. [Ed.: Just a reminder that we don’t use Oxford Commas at The Chron. Thanks again.].

Retirement be damned—I was the last thing standing between this ungrateful campus and Bedlam. I picked up my pen and notepad and went to work.

First port of call was my old info-broker. She had tabs on every Tom, Dick and Jerry in this godforsaken institution. I met her at the loading bay under the BC Plaza. It was cold out and rain peppered the harsh concrete. She stood, back to the wall, zipped up in a long trench coat. I could only make her out in the light of her cigarette’s glow.

“Bron. I figured you couldn’t stay away from the game for long.”

“Only temporary, Dean Zue. I’m getting this job done and then I’m never writing for The Chronicle again. They ain’t got no right to keep me any longer after all I’ve done for them.”

“Uh huh. Sure. But I don’t think it’s their requests that keep you coming back. I think you don’t know how to live without The Chronicle.”

Damn—I’d forgotten. This gal can read me like a third grader reading Clifford the Big Red Dog. Takes me back to our younger days when we were nigh on inseparable—back before we got so cynical. I guess she really is the one who got away. [Ed.: Erm, Bron? Can you refrain from implying you have romantic history with Duke administrators?]. Who knows? It’s a crazy world, maybe one day we can re-achieve those glory

would be. The next evening I found a spot in the gardens hidden under some bushes—and I waited. And I waited and I waited and I waited.

And then—headlights in the distance. There was a truck, just as expected, but then also three expensive looking black cars. They pulled to a stop. Sure enough, getting out of that truck was the exact man my source had informed me about: President Rich Brodtead.

Opposite the truck, getting out of the black cars was a gaggle of Mafiosi. It suddenly all made sense—Brodtead has been selling Duke’s precious paper towels to the Mafia in a lucrative system designed to fill his own pockets. [BRON WHAT THE F*** ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT] Truly, this was corruption at the highest levels.

But wait! I must have made a noise—they were looking in my direction. They began to head my way – I had no choice but to draw my gun [WHY DO YOU HAVE A GUN? WHAT THE HELL BRON?]. What I hadn’t planned for, though, was the Mafioso henchman who had been sneaking up on me this whole time. He grabbed me from behind and dragged me into the clearing.

Rubbing the dirt from my eyes, I looked up and saw Brodtead walking towards me, pistol drawn.

He kneeled down, took my face in his hand, put the gun against my temple, and whispered: “This is for your regular misquoting of me in The Chronicle.”

And then he fired.

[Okay, you know what, this article is already 9 hours late so I’m just gonna go ahead and publish it. Do better Bron, Jesus.]

edit pages

Bron Maher is a Trinity junior. His column runs every other Wednesday.

tightly fitted scheduling blocks. Every weekend was a carefully engineered combination of social engagements that would let me hang out with as many friends as possible. I tried not to eat meals alone. Like a shark, I had to keep moving or perish, and sociality was my oxygen. To be still meant spending time with myself, a stranger I needed others to help define.

By November, I decided something needed to change. Living haunted by a fear of missing out, jittery with anxiety over what I must be forgetting to do whenever I found myself alone, was becoming intolerable. A series of opportunities aligned, and I took a leap of faith: I bought plane tickets to Thailand and Burma. I would meet up with friends in Hong Kong and Beijing, but for three weeks, I would have nothing but a backpack and myself.

I saw some beautiful and inspiring things: sunset over the former royal city of Mandalay, the floating villages of Inlay Lake, the glint of a golden stupa on the banks of the Chao Phraya river.

I sampled street food and ate dinners at street side tea shops. I traveled by motorbike, boat and overnight bus, always alone. The purest solitude I found was during my sunset runs through the desert of Bagan. Always slightly lost, I would find the most forgotten-looking temple ruins and, under the watchful gaze of its Buddha, reflect on the previous day. I struggled over what I wanted to do after graduation, ambiguities which got at larger questions of what I found important in life. Although I didn’t come close to answering these questions in my three weeks traveling, I became better prepared to do so by coming to know myself.

There were certainly days when the isolation was hard to bear. I broke both my mobile devices during a particularly rough bike ride a week into my trip, making communication back home difficult. The majority of the time, I didn’t understand the languages being spoken around me. In a foreign land, no one knew who I was. It didn’t mean anything to anyone that I had been a top student back home, that there were loved ones awaiting my return. No longer could I take any aspect of my identity for granted—I had to choose how I would react to the world around me and how I wanted others to perceive me. Most importantly, I began to accept my own intrinsic value and a fulfilling existence independent of external sources of validation.

Aloneness is not a failure to be a person who loves and is loved by others. Being alone for long stretches of time shouldn’t be viewed as unproductive or a symptom of laziness. We undervalue the necessity of solitude and self reflection. After being alone and inside my own head for three weeks, I emerged more sure of myself and my relationships with others. Unfortunately, we don’t spend enough time deliberately by ourselves.

For most of us, the closest we have come to being alone was most likely orientation week, at the start of our time here at Duke, when everything and everyone was new and unknown.

But such aloneness was brief. We quickly formed friendships, and over the next four years, Duke became a second home.

Yet in just a few weeks, the class of 2015 will graduate from Duke. We will have to find our place in a world that is often lonely, impersonal and arbitrary. Most challenging of all, we will have to do so without the company of all our closest friends and professors at Duke. Inevitably, we will have to face the prospect of being more alone as we build our own careers and families. But being more alone does not have to mean having to feel more lonely, nor does it condemn us to a more mundane, postgrad reality. Our greatest source of strength will always be with ourselves, and from there, everything else will follow.

Emily Feng is a Trinity senior and member of the Editorial Board.

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com

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12 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015

Fall 2015 Dr. Kata Gellen MW 1:25 - 2:40

Humans, Monsters and Machines: 100 Years of German Film • What can cinema tell us about the nature of human life?

• Why does it depict the unreal, the

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The Ambassador Dave and Kay Phillips Family International Lecture

A Conversation with

Mitt Romney Former GOP candidate for President and Massachusetts Governor Host: Peter Feaver professor of political science and public policy

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

5:00 p.m. | Fuqua School of Business Geneen Auditorium | TICKETS SOLD OUT livestreaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg-7TB5lb7c&feature=youtu.be Duke’s American Grand Strategy Program, the Office of Global Strategy and Programs, the Sanford School of Public Policy and the Triangle Institute for Security Studies

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