The path to Gold Upchurch, Trinity ‘72, has been a fixture on Duke’s campus ever since he started bringing his golden retriever Nugget to University grounds in 2012. In the past decade and especially during the pandemic, Nugget provided much-needed relief for stu dents, their stress melting into joy upon seeing the dog-
The change, unexpectedly announced by New Student Programs last fall, was not without its critics. For decades, Duke hosted six pre-orientation programs that occurred before orientation and lasted more than a week. Students could apply to these option al programs, and there was a fee to attend. After the announcement, orientation leaders feared the loss of traditions, grew concerned that they would be understaffed with all first-years in attendance and ques tioned why they weren’t consulted earlier. Administrators say the new model is
Duke promises $500 in October to offset Durham’s rising living costs. The Graduate Student Union says that’s too late.
Duke’s fall housing shortage INSIDE — News 3 | Recess 9 | Sports 15 | Opinion 22 | Serving the University since 1905 | @dukechronicle @dukebasketball | @thedukechronicle | ©2022 The Chronicle The Chronicle The independent news organization at Duke University See Inside soccerWomen’srollsinhomeopener Page 16 FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 ONLINE DAILY AT DUKECHRONICLE.COM ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEENTH YEAR, ISSUE 2
By Ishani Raha, Milla Surjadi, Katie Tan and Kathryn Thomas
Peaches fatally struck by car Duke might not have enough beds for students this fall, offering students the option to be released from housing assignments.
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KEITH AND GOLD on Page
By Audrey Wang University News Editor
KATHRYN THOMAS ownerWhenduo.Nugget died May 12 from lymphoma, she was 11
Part of Duke’s new QuadEx living/ learning initiative, Experiential Orienta tion splits 1,740 first-years into 18 weeklong thematically-based programs, ranging from exploring the city of Durham to con ducting independent research. In line with QuadEx’s goal of building a more inclusive Duke community, administrators say that orientation programs will strengthen firstyears’ sense of belonging.
Former students allege that 17 major universities colluded to limit financial aid by engaging in price fixing.
“Octobermonthly.isnot what we were demand ing, but at least now our colleagues and us can plan, knowing that we’re going to get this money on a certain timeline,” said Ani ta Simha, DGSU co-chair and a fourth year Ph.D. candidate in the biology department. As the median rent for housing in Dur ham increases, graduate students are be coming rent-burdened, according to the union’s research committee, which com piles open source data about student issues.
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First-year Sammy Marks stood at the foot of the Chapel Monday morning alongside his new friends, waiting to climb up the 239 winding steps to the top. It was Marks’ third day on campus. As part of an orientation program called Project Dis cover, he prepared himself for his first chapel climb, the time-honored Duke tradition. But with each step up the tower, Marks would also be blazing a new trail. The Class of 2026 is the first to experience an orientation re-design, an initiative administrators have hailed as the most significant change in Duke’s new student programming since 1995.
The Class of 2026 is the inaugural group to partake in Experiential Orientation, the biggest change to the first-year experience in decades. rest of West Campus. “This is part of the tour,” Upchurch chuckles. He tight ens his grip on Gold’s leash to stop her from following the students as they trickle away.
FOR THE FIRST TIME
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“There might not be another cat in the world that has loved so deeply and been loved by so many people,” a caretaker said.
From right: Andrew Spong and Daniel Rodriguez-Florido, first-years in Project Arts, work on an arrangement of Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” on the keyboard, alongisde first-year Justin Garcia on the bass guitar.
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Duke’s new ‘Gold’en mascot arrives on campus
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Members of Duke’s Graduate Students Union have petitioned administrators to release a promised $500 payment by the first day of classes and provide paid park ing passes, citing Durham’s soaring cost of living.Following demands, students will re ceive that money in late October and won’t have to pay a $20/night weekends and nights parking pass fee. They will still have to pay the $501 annual campus park ing pass, though they can spread out pay ment
Grad grantdemandstudentsearlierrelease
“Graduate students are moving to Dur ham for their first year and taking on huge relocation costs, moving from other cities, and they have to pay their first month’s rent, and they get that first paycheck in August, but that may not be enough to cover everything,” said Matthew Thomas, DGSU co-chair and a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the English department. Dean of the Graduate School Paula McClain acknowledged these concerns in a June 27 email and laid out plans for a “one-time $500 payment to all active Ph.D. students in fall 2022” by using re sources from the Provost’s Office. DGSU members were concerned, how ever, that details on when and how the pay ment would be distributed would be com municated “as soon as the plan is ready.”
Students pet Gold, the 11-week-old golden retriever, as she sits in Keith Upchurch’s lap outside of the Brodhead Center on Aug. 23. REBECCA SCHNEID years old and had interacted with over 10,000 students.
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On a pleasant morning in late August, 15 first-years crowd around a stone bench outside the Brodhead Center, cooing and “ahh”ing.
The cause of all the com motion? A little ball of snowwhite fur, darting between students, her tongue lolling and tail wagging with de light. This is Gold, Keith Up church’s 11-week-old golden retrieverEntranced,puppy.the students pet Gold’s downy fur until their orientation leader tells them it’s time to explore the
By Katie Tan Managing Editor Nugget, campus’ beloved golden retriever, died in May. But Keith Upchurch will still make his daily visits—this time, with a new furry friend.
GRAD
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2 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 dukechronicle.com The Chronicle
Duke ‘4 + 1’ program students complete two degrees in five years BY ANNA ZOLOTOR | 07/13/2022
By Milla Surjadi and Adway Wadekar Editor-in-Chief and University News Editor Peaches, Duke’s calico cat, died Aug. 17 af ter a car hit her near the Animal Protection Society of Durham. She was 10 years old. Anna Li, Trinity ’18, received a call from APS, who saw the incident occur and said Peaches was killed immediately. The campus icon, who had her own Face book group of caretakers that Li created, lived in a heated home near Keohane Quad on West Campus. Members of the Duke com munity took care of her since 2016, when they found her as an unnamed stray. “She was truly an amazing cat and totally irreplaceable. She brought joy to so many people,” Li said. “There might not be another cat in the world that has loved so deeply and been loved by so many people.”
ON DUKECHRONICLE.COM
In the days following her death, several mem bers memorialized Peaches through art, photos, videos and personal stories on the group. Peaches had taken to wandering off cam pus over the summer, and someone brought her to the APS, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. She got out of APS and was hit by a car, which killed her immediately. Even though it was on one of her ad ventures that she died, Peaches’ caretakers find comfort in knowing that she was able to explore.“Sheloved her life,” Li said. “She loved walking the students to the library…she loved going on adventures. She was always her wild, adventurous, loving self until the veryTheend.”group plans on cremating Peaches and holding a memorial service for her.
Welcome Class of 2026
Some West Campus RAs were also of fered the option to pull in a roommate, according to a July 22 email from Dani Harmston, associate dean for residence life, obtained by The Chronicle. The email was sent only to RAs “assigned to rooms that we have already determined are large enough to accommodate a roommate.”
Peaches fatally struck by car
Luma Barreto Alyssa
The RA’s roommate must be a Duke un dergraduate student.
What’s driving Duke’s fall campus housing shortage?
“As an incentive,” the RA would receive an extra $500 for each semester they have a roommate, according to both emails. The roommate would receive a 50% reduction of their on-campus housing costs for each semester they are rooming with the RA.
The Chronicle dukechronicle.com FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 | 3
Students could be released from their housing assignment and resident assistants were offered $500 to live with a roommate. By Katie Tan Managing Editor Duke is seeing record-high interest in on-campus housing for the fall—but there might not be enough beds. Undergraduates were offered the op portunity to be released from their oncampus housing commitment for the upcoming year in a July 21 email from Dean for Residence Life Deb LoBiondo to students. 150 beds have been added across campus, but it is possible that de mand will exceed available capacity, the email“Thisread.isnot a request or a demand: our goal is to make space on campus for those who want to be on by releasing those who want to be off-campus,” the email read. A few factors could be behind this shortage. First, the Class of 2025 was “100+ students larger than expected,” Lo Biondo wrote in an email to The Chron icle. These students will live on West Campus and will be the first class in the QuadEx housing system. The pandemic, which sent the Class of 2023 home in the middle of their first year, also increased the class’ desire to remain on campus this year, according to LoBiondo.It’spossible that soaring rent in Dur ham played a role in the increased de mand for on-campus housing, LoBiondo wrote, though she isn’t certain. She added that she doesn’t think QuadEx contrib uted to the shortage. To meet the demand, 140 non first-year students will be housed in West House and Epworth dorms on East Campus. LoBion do wrote that HRL has not confirmed who will live in those buildings. HRL may also convert some study rooms into dorms and explore other op tions for the remaining 10 of 150 bed spac es, and in the event the on-campus hous ing shortage persists.
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HRL also offered all resident assistants on East Campus the opportunity to live with a roommate this coming year due to the housing shortage. Brandin Howard, associate dean for residence life, wrote in a July 19 email obtained by The Chronicle to East Campus RAs that the opportunity is “strictly voluntary.”
Students on campus cared for the famous calico cat since 2016.
CAROLYN CHANG
Seniors in the program take a combination of undergraduate and graduate programs and switch to full-time graduate studies for the fifth year. We spoke with four students about their experiences.
Bryan Center renovations to start in fall, cultural groups to move BY AUDREY WANG | 06/29/2022
Students have called for increased visibility for identity and cultural spaces within the center.
Sarah Allen
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• Having multiple sex partners or anony mous sex • Being diagnosed with a sexually trans mitted infection
The Chronicle dukechronicle.com FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 | 5 The BEST place to purchase your laptop at Duke! Low educational pricing giving you the best prices and most current features from Apple, Dell, and Lenovo! • 3 Years of Warranty Coverage • 3 Years of Accidental Damage Coverage (some limitations apply) • Unique ON-CAMPUS support and premium manufacturer support when you are at home • Loaner Program: Students get a loaner for no charge when your computer needs service on-campus • On-Campus Authorized Apple, Dell, and Lenovo Service and Repair Lower Level, University Store, Bryan Center • 919.684.8956 Academic Year Store Hours: Monday - Wednesday: 8:30am - 7pm | Thursday & Friday: 8:30am - 8pm Saturday: 9am - 6pm | Sunday: 11am - 4pm www.dukestores.duke.edu/cpustore/ Department of Duke University Stores®
Former allege 17 major universities
• People who have been in close contact with someone diagnosed with monkey pox in the past 14 days.
that
in Duke,
Plaintiffs filed a memorandum respond ing to the joint motion to dismiss the case on June 10. They claimed that if each university allocated an additional 2% of its unrestricted endowment funds annually to financial aid, nine of the 17 universities, including Duke, could provide free tuition to current students on financial aid. The net price at the eight other universities would fall by an average of almost $12,000 annually. The suit also accused Brown University, the California Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, Columbia Universi ty, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Emory University, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, the Massachu setts Institute of Technology, Northwest ern University, Notre Dame University, the University of Pennsylvania, Rice University, Vanderbilt University and Yale University.
By Kathryn Thomas News Editor
There is no cost for the vaccine and Duke affiliation and insurance is not required. Dates and times for future clinics have not been de terminedJynneos,yet.the preferred vaccine to protect against monkeypox, requires two doses and it takes 14 days after getting the second dose to achieve maximum protection, according to the CDC. Durham was one of the first lo cal health departments to receive doses. Duke Health schedules patients for their second dose 28 days after the first. As of Aug. 23, the state confirmed 261 cases. As of Aug. 18, Durham County had more than 25 cases. Testing is available at all Duke Urgent Care locations, emergency de partments and some primary care providers. People who suspect they have monkeypox should call their primary care doctor in ad vance to ask if testing is available.
Editor-in-Chief
The DOJ’s statement, which claims that the universities’ arguments contain legal er rors, came amid a motion from the schools to dismiss the case. A judge denied the mo tion in TheAugust.universities are members of the “568 Presidents Group,” who have agreed on the “Consensus Approach,” which is “a set of common standards for determining the fam ily’s ability to pay for college.” Duke has been a member of the group since 1998, per the January complaint.
“We are very pleased that the Department of Justice has filed this statement supporting Plaintiffs on the key issues in this case,” wrote Robert D. Gilbert, Esq., managing partner of Gilbert Litigators and Counselors, LLC, one of the three law firms representing the plain tiffs, in an email to The Chronicle.
In April, Duke filed a joint motion along side other universities to dismiss the antitrust case. According to the defendants’ motion, the plaintiffs’ antitrust claim fails because the collaboration they challenge is “exempt from challenge under the antitrust laws.”
• Receiving medications to prevent HIV infection, including a prescrip tion for PrEP
Chris Simmons, Duke’s interim vice presi dent for public affairs and governmental rela tions, declined to comment.
Duke Health offers monkeypox vaccine to students, public
Duke Health is also working with Durham Pride, scheduled for Sept. 24, on a “shared vac cine effort,” according to Vaughn. Who can receive a monkeypox vaccine? According to the state health department:
By Milla Surjadi
Dept of Justice involved elite universities’ financial aid
students
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest on July 7 in a lawsuit ac cusing 17 elite universities, including Duke, of illegally colluding to limit financial aid.
The restraint of interstate trade and com merce is a violation of Section 1 of the Sher man Act, which outlaws “every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade,” and any “monopolization, attempted monopolization, or conspiracy or combina tion to monopolize.”
First, the 568 Exemption does not apply to agreements between schools that fulfill the ex emption’s prerequisites and those that do not, such as Duke, according to the statement. Next, the schools’ “‘actual knowledge’ of their co-conspirators’ admissions policies is not relevant to whether the 568 Exemption applies or whether their conduct violates the Sherman Act,” the statement read. The DOJ noted that plaintiffs “ade quately alleged that the agreement violates the Sherman Act.”
Duke Health vaccinated nearly 300 people at a monkeypox vaccine clinic on Aug. 11, with plans to hold more clinics depending on vaccine supply from federal and state govern ment agencies. In addition to the clinics, anyone who meets the state criteria for the monkeypox vaccine can contact Student Health or their local primary care provider, who can place an order for the vaccine. Students would then go to Clinic 1J in the Duke Clinic Building to be vaccinated, ac cording to John Vaughn, assistant vice president for student affairs and director of student health. The pop-up clinic, held at the Duke Covid Testing and Vaccine Center, was open to people 18 years or older who met NC Department of Health and Human Services and Duke Health’s eligibility criteria.
lawsuit
• Gay or bisexual men or transgender indi viduals who report any of the following in the last 90 days:
colluded to limit financial aid by engaging in price fixing.
Former students alleged that universities engaged in price fixing by relying on a shared method to calculate applicants’ financial needs in the January lawsuit.
In their statement, the DOJ alleged that the defendants’ arguments contain two legal errors, supporting plaintiffs’ claims that the universities violated antitrust laws.
The universities would be immune from violating antitrust laws if they had complied with the 568 Exemption, which “allowed the 568 Cartel members to eliminate incentives to compete if all of the members admitted all students on a need-blind basis,” the January complaintHowever,reads.atleast nine of the schools in volved, including Duke, have not qualified for the exemption because they “made ad missions decisions taking into account the fi nancial circumstances of applicants and their families, through policies and practices that favored the wealthy.”
REBECCA SCHNEID
Rubenstein Arts Center, 11 a.m. You could feel the creative energy buzzing through the Ruby. On the top floor, 20 students crouched on the ground, dipping brushes in paint. A few doors down, 10 students spun on their toes, working on a dance number. Many were already feeling burnt out. “They run us ragged. Like 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., you’re doing stuff,” first-year Clare O’Sullivan said. “You get back to your dorm at 10 p.m., you just want to crash, but there’s still more events to go to. You feel like you’re missing out if you don’t go to them.”
On the first floor, piano chords, trombone glissandos and snare drum beats filled the air. The Project Arts music group was hard at work prepar ing for their Friday showcase, where they’ll perform an arrangement of one of Elvis Presley’s most famous songs, “HoundpArts,Dog.”one of the prior pre-orien tation programs, aims to expose firstyears to a variety of art opportunities on campus. Last year’s music group had seven first-years, according to Alan Wang, a sophomore and group leader. This year, participant counts have more thanIndoubled.thefront of the room, first-years Daniel Rodriguez-Florido and Andrew Spong squeezed onto a piano bench, four hands churning blues scales out from one Rodriguez-Floridokeyboard. was brutally honest about their progress. “Yesterday we had nothing, but today we have a starting point,” he said. “I taught this man the blues scale yesterday!” Spong laughed. Both Rodriguez-Florido and Spango are Pratt students. But they’re also experienced piano players and joined pArts because they wanted a brief break before they dive into their STEM-heavy course loads. The pair continued to run through blues scales, chuckling at a joke . Social Sciences, 11 a.m. It was a week before the first day of classes, but school seemed like it was already in session in Project Me dia’s photography workshop. Dozens of first-year students and orientation leaders filed into a lecture hall to learn from University Communications multimedia producers Jared Lazarus and Megan Mendenhall. The room fell silent as the two pulled up a presentation. Find diagonal lines. Pay attention to the rule of thirds. Always aim for good light, aesthetics and a captivating moment. By the end of the program, de signed for first-years to gain hands-on experience with media forms, students will create their own documentation of their O-week experience. After a half-hour, 60 first-years burst into the humid Durham air, iPhone cameras in hand. One group gathered under Crowell’s clocktower. Junior Amber Smith, the group’s ori entation leader, pointed to the diagonal lines on the quad’s slanted roofs. Her group plans on creating TikToks as their O-week commemoration project. First-year Valentina Garbelotto, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, said she would send her project to her parents back“It’llhome.bekind of like they’re here with me,” she pMediasaid. was Garbelotto’s first choice—she plans on majoring in English and pursuing journalism, and the program has allowed her to learn about media-related activities she’d like to join.The group surveyed the quad once more, declared it devoid of any more photo opportunities, then began walking to the Sarah Duke Gardens for lunch. Garbelotto hadn’t seen campus before arriving on Saturday, choosing Duke in what she calls a leap of faith. She commended Smith and other pro gram leaders on helping first-years get familiar with the sprawling grounds and cultivate tight-knit relationships, all before the first day of classes. Suddenly, Smith stopped in her“Oh,tracks.there’s a puddle!” she said, whipping out her phone as she crouched next to it. The first-years fol lowed suit, taking turns as they flipped their phones upside down to capture a reflection of Duke’s iconic archways in the still water.
The Devil’s Krafthouse, 8 p.m. For the first time since March Madness, The Devil’s Krafthouse was packed with rowdy Duke students focused around one all-important screen. But this time, the screens weren’t projecting Paolo Banchero winking into the camera while up by five in the Sweet Sixteen game. It was time for Project Play’s sports trivia.
Duke Chapel, 8:30 p.m. Twelve hours later, another group of first-years and their program leaders stood on the grassy patch at the base of the Chapel. Sunset was giving way to the ink-colored night. One student began clapping, slowly at first. The rest followed suit, each clap faster than the last, until they devolved into whoops and cheers. “Duke! Duke! Duke!” they chanted, their voices echoing across Abele Quad. Then they dispersed, still laugh ing and clapping, to the bus stop, on the C1 and back to their dorms on East Campus. KATHRYN THOMAS
“It feels like we have a leg up over all the other people coming to Duke,” he said. Duke Chapel, 9:30 a.m. Faces flushed from the exertion of their early morning workout, a group of students descended from the highest point on Duke’s campus. “How was it? How was it?” one stu dent on the grass yelled. Despite the Chapel’s steep and narrow winding stairs, the group was all smiles. Standing next to Marks, first-year Nate Krall waited for his group’s turn. He’s directionally challenged, he ad mitted, but pDiscover lets him get to know campus and Durham before classes start next week. A staffer called for the next group and the two disappeared, rising up the staircase that would take them to the top of the Chapel, overlooking their new home.
6 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 dukechronicle.com The Chronicle CollegeAdvisor AcademicDeanDirectors PeerEngagementAcademicofProfessionalPre- LeadersSuccessAdvisors Faculty & OtherPartnersAdvisingMajorAdvisors We are here to answer questions as you adjust to life on campus. Welcome first-year students! We also offer walk in advising all semester long: Tuesdays 12-2, Wednesdays, 10-12, and Thursdays 2-4 www.advising.duke.edu Call us advising@duke.edu919-684-6217,atoremail Talk with AAC staff for last minute questions about your schedule. ORIENTATION CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 meant to emulate those beloved preorientation programs. And all six prior programs—Project BUILD, pWaves, pWild, pArts, pEdge and pSearch—have been redesigned as shorter Experiential Orientation pro grams with the same names. Program directors for pBUILD and pWild noted that their programs have historically succeeded at creating com munity among first-years and were ex cited to share that with a greater num ber of Sostudents.far,forMarks, pDiscover, which gets Duke students acclimated to their new home by exploring the University and Durham’s best-kept secrets, has succeeded at doing so.
First-year Ben Childress, decked out in a Duke Athletics t-shirt, leaned into his group’s table and joked that trivia would “get [them] ready for tenting.” pPlay, designed to expose first-years to wellness and athletics at Duke, had raised the trivia stakes—the winning group will secure the first spot in the freshman walk-up line for the freshman basketball game later this semester. When the first set of questions asked for the weight of a golf ball, Chil dress’ group turned to the golf player at the table. He guessed 12 ounces. The correct answer? 1.62 ounces. No matter. The group had big ger matches to win later in the week: schoolyard basketball games against the men’s basketball team.
Additionally, the June 27 email announced the creation of a task force to work on stipends and the cost of living for graduate students, consisting of associate professors, deans and directors from each of the University’s six schools.
A golden future at Duke When the pair came to Duke’s campus for the first time on Aug. 6, Upchurch wasn’t sure how people would react. Would they walk right past him and Gold, their eyes glazed over, thinking she was just another boringThatdog?day, Upchurch parked be hind the Chapel and began his trek with Gold to his usual spot outside the Brodhead Center. As he and Gold me andered across the Bryan Center Plaza, people stopped them left and right.
A twist of fate brought Gold and Upchurch together. Gold was origi nally destined for Hawaii and Up church was offered a male puppy from the breeder. But one night, the breeder called Upchurch and said that Gold’s original buyer had backed down.“The rest is history,” Upchurch said. That “history” has only been a few weeks, but Upchurch’s daily rou tine has transformed into hours of housebreaking, cleaning chew toys and coaxing Gold into her crate so he can catch a break. Crate training has been tough, but Upchurch has found a solution: bison-flavored treats from Whole Foods.
Zhu pointed to the involvement of Graduate and Professional Stu dent Government members, who have been “presenting data from their cost-of-living survey and PAGE 1 making recommendations.”
Union pressures DGSU is not an employerrecognized union. Following an inconclusive election in 2017 af ter the union and the University challenged 502 ballots over eligi bility, the union decided to or ganize itself as a “direct-action, direct-join” union, withdrawing its petition for National Labor Relations Board certification. As a result, the DGSU has been previously denied chances for direct negotiation with Duke administrators. But the union’s lack of direct recognition doesn’t mean that the University does not indirectly acknowledge it.
“Sorry I woke up late!” he says, catching his breath. “But I made it!” Gold, who’s growing baby teeth, promptly begins to gnaw on Scarpa’s finger. “Ow ow ow!” he says, as he gen tly pries Gold’s jaws off. Upchurch smiles and places a hand on Gold’s snout. “I’ll be glad when she loses her teeth,” he chuckles.
KEITH AND GOLD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
The Chronicle dukechronicle.com FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 | 7 STUDENTS!BACKWELCOME StudiesCaribbean&AmericanLatinforCenterUniversityDuketheFromMOTORCYCLES & SCOOTERS • SERVICE • REPAIR E TRINITY AVE, DURHAM WAY TO PARK ON MOTORCYCLESCAMPUS! & SCOOTERS SALES • SERVICE • REPAIR 911 E TRINITY AVE, DURHAM (919) 688-5009 • COMBUSTIONCYCLES.COM BEST WAY TO PARK ON CAMPUS! MOTORCYCLES SCOOTERS SALES • SERVICE • REPAIR 911 E TRINITY AVE, DURHAM (919) 688-5009 • COMBUSTIONCYCLES.COM BEST WAY TO PARK ON CAMPUS! NO PARKING FEES • NO PAPERWORK• NO HASSLESMOTORCYCLES & SCOOTERS SALES • SERVICE • REPAIR 911 E TRINITY AVE, DURHAM (919) 688-5009 • COMBUSTIONCYCLES.COM BEST WAY TO PARK ON CAMPUS! Since then, DGSU members have advocated for this payment to be distributed by Aug. 29, the first day of fall classes. But Graduate School guidelines dictate that the distribu tion of funds cannot be available until after the drop/add deadline on Sept. 9, according to Graduate School spokesperson John Zhu. The Chronicle reached out to Mc Clain for comment, who directed The Chronicle to Zhu, senior director of com munications at the Graduate School. “We definitely would have pre ferred sooner, but the timeline is dictated by payroll logistics, financial compliance requirements, and the need to have a finalized list of active students for the fall,” Zhu wrote in an email to The Chronicle. The Graduate School’s Financial Aid office announced on Aug. 10 that the $500 payment will be distributed on Oct. 25 for students on the compen satory payroll and Oct. 31 for students on the non-compensatory payroll. Simha saw this as a step in the right direction, even if it wasn’t DGSU’s origi nal goal. They plan to continue to de mand payments be distributed by Sept. 10, a day after the add-drop period.
Members of the DGSU believe that the creation of the task force de lays addressing the union’s concerns about low stipends at a crucial time. For Simha, a task force “is what a uni versity does when it wants to do nothing.” “Grad students know what we make, and we know that it’s not enough,” Simha said. “There’s no research on the issue that’s needed. There’s just one solution, which is [to] pay us more.”
The August email also stated that the Graduate School continues to work on “plans for permanent stipend increases,” noting that school “also in creased the funding pool for its child care subsidy and medical expense/ financial hardship assistance program.”
Furthermore, the Office an nounced students may now “spread out the parking permit fee via monthly payroll deduction instead of having to pay it in one lumpForsum.”Simha, this represents an un derstanding of the problem, but not the “[This]solution.is obviously not a sufficient solution, but it shows that Duke and the Duke graduate school understand that that is way too burdensome, so they’re trying to spread out the bur den instead of removing the burden,” Simha said. Further steps
Before settling on Gold’s name, Upchurch toyed with calling her “Carat,” as in gold carat. “And then I realized I would have to explain what that meant hundreds of times, and just the thought of that exhausted me,” Upchurch laughs. The name “Gold” popped into Up church’s head as he swam laps one day. “It’s simple, it’s one syllable. Everybody knows what it means.,” he said.
For DGSU, the differences be tween the GPSG and DGSU are markedly“GPSGdifferent.workswith the admin istration–within the channels that have power that exist–to commu nicate, which is great and really needed,” Simha said. “DGSU has a different role, which is to actively build power. The channels that ex ist for us to communicate with one another aren’t adequate.”
“The task force was created because most of the Ph.D. fund ing sources are not controlled by The Graduate School, but by the schools that house Ph.D. pro grams, so they must be part of the discussion,” Zhu wrote.
“At first she hated the crate. She thinks she’s being left out of some fun,” Upchurch said. “She has FOMO (fear of missing out).”
“Previous emails [about] the $500 and the stipend increase didn’t have anything to do with parking,” Thom as said. “Our email and our demands combined parking and the stipend is sue, and this email [on Aug. 10] was concerning both the statement and parking. And so it’s clear that they’re responding to us indirectly.”
For Simha, the message the an nouncement sends is clear: “Pres sure works, and more pressure would be even better.”
“Even though the campus wasn’t that crowded it seemed like everyone on campus moved in [Gold’s] direc tion,” he Upchurchsaid. plans to visit cam pus with Gold every day. In August and September, he says, 9 a.m. is a sacred time because the sun isn’t beating down yet. During the cool er months, they’ll come around the earlyNearafternoon.theend of our conversation, Joey Scarpa, a junior, bounds across the quad towards Upchurch.
GRAD STUDENTS CONTINUED FROM
Upchurch spent that May griev ing, but he remembered the impact Nugget had on the Duke commu nity. It was his “calling” to get another golden retriever, he said. “I had so many students, sometimes with tears in their eyes saying that just spending a minute or two with Nugget helped them so much,” Upchurch said. “I wanted to get another golden that will provide the same therapy to stu dents. Judging from what’s happened in the last few days, especially [with the first-years], I think it’s working.”
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The Chronicle dukechronicle.com FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 | 9 living a double life “Severance” and its chilling first season, page 13 to cook is to love “The Bear” mixes food and emotions, page 12 welcome to Durham! local arts events to get to know the city, page 11 august 26, 2022 recess the chronicle
Pertile, Recess Editor staff note Jonathan Pertile.....................oversharing Tessa Delgo....................................tumblr Megan Liu.......................................the C3 Katherine Zhong................writing letters Anna Rebello..................................taxis Sasha Provost........................sourdough Ben Smith......................fireworks in NC Rhys Banerjee.............cartoons on HBO Jules Kourelakos..........drive-in theaters recess What do you want to come back into fashion? On the cover: a scene from “Severance” — Courtesy of Apple TV+
Last week, I had a rather unsettling dream. My subconscious built a world where I and everyone else live in exactly 800-year increments, and every cycle, all the world’s inhabitants are put in a large warehouse. The walls slowly close in, shrinking the warehouse until there’s no space at all, gradually killing the inhabitants. When there’s no one left, everyone resurrects and lives for another 800 years, renewing the cycle. Yes, this was a weird dream. And yet, it still touched me in a way no dream has for a long time. Finality, renewal: these are themes particularly relevant to me at the moment. Why? Well, I am now a senior, and the walls are closing in on my time at Duke.In the warehouse, I felt scared — scared of the end of a period and the start of another. As my last fall semester starts, I’m afraid to say that I’m still scared. For one, I have deeply loved my time at Duke. My best friends all live here. My classwork may be stressful, but it always finds a way to feel fulfilling. Somehow, I manage time for my hobbies. In a year, will this all be gone? Then there’s my future, post-Duke life — I haven’t pinned down where I will be a year from today, and that makes me anxious. It’s not an un derstatement to say that the world is a tad unpre dictable right now, and all that makes it hard to see where I will be a year from now. Will I have found a job and a place to live? Anyways, if I can change the topic for a second — I promise this detour will make sense in a bit. A long time ago, I ran cross country. And I loved it! I loved the outdoors, I loved the runner’s high and I loved the companionship that came with being on a team. But most of all, I loved finishing. And not because that meant the running was done — I loved it because it made me feel accomplished.
10 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 dukechronicle.com The Chronicle danceprogram.duke.edu/graduatedanceprogram.duke.eduMeettheDanceProgramfacultyandstudents.UndergraduateOpen House August 29, 4:00PM in Rubenstein Arts Center 224 Interested in majoring or minoring in Dance? Dance Majors and AugustAfricanSeptemberOrientation/InformationMinorsMeeting3,10:00AMinRubensteinArtsCenter224DanceTechnique295:15PMinRubensteinArtsCenter
I made my favorite memory of running in my second to last race in 12th grade. Some context: I was always a really slow runner. I set my best time in eighth grade, and I hadn’t surpassed it up to that point in high school. And in that penultimate race, the finish line was on the backside of a hill, so, to finish, you crest the hill before ending with a 100 meters downhill. And when I ran down that hill, I could see my time — easily my best yet! The feeling of knowing the end was near and that, for once, I was going to finally do my best was indescribably relieving and exhausting. If my warehouse dream is some representation of my fears about the past and the future, then this running story is my desire to make the best mem ories right at the fin ish line. inketballarticles,ofscoffnothingtoyearhavemeclosedwallswarehouseThehaven’tinonyet—IstillanentireatDukelive!That’stoat:ayearChroniclebasgamesCameron,
shifts at the Puppy Kindergarten and weekends with all my best friends. And anyways, I think my anxious feelings are a bit natural. I’m not worried that I feel worried, if that makes sense — finishing college is, after all, a stressful time. Clumsy metaphors aside, I just want to make the most of my last year of college. I will not be para lyzed by my fears, and I will go out of my way to seek out new experiences, new places and new friends. With these affirmations in mind, I might just have a good year. So, where to -Jonathanstart?
The Chronicle dukechronicle.com FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 | 11
The Durham Farmers’ Market sells many flowers.
Courtesy of Blue Note Grill
August 27: Durham Farmers’ Market in Durham Central EveryPark Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon, over 60 vendors fill Durham Central Park to sell everything from pottery to handmade cheese to fresh pasta. If you’re aiming for most businesses visited per hour, the Durham Farmers’ Market might just be your best bet.
September 1: Open Farm Day at Elodie Farms Can goats be considered art? If your answer is yes, you might enjoy Open Farm Day at Elodie Farms, where you can spend a Saturday afternoon in the company of goats. Even if you said no, yoga and farm-store ice cream in the countryside might be your style. Either way, entrance to the farm is free, making this thirty-minute trip north of Duke a relaxing and budget-friendly introduction to the Durham county countryside. to meet you, Durham!’: A week of events to get to know the Bull City
Courtesy of Durham Farmers’ Market
August 29: Heritage Rhythms Dance Class at the Hayti Heritage Center The Hayti Heritage Center, on the register of national historic landmarks, serves as a hub for cultural programs related to the African American experience in Durham. One of these programs is the Heritage Rhythms Dance Class, a weekly course on African dance styles. This invigorating class accepts all levels of experience and is taught by Augustprofessionals.30:Tuesday Blues Jam at the Blue Note Grill
Welcome (back) to Duke! Durham has a vibrant arts scene to offer, but getting to know a new city can be a challenge. So, consider this week’s worth of activities your introduction to the Bull City!
The Blue Note Grill hosts an open blues jam session every Tuesday.
local arts
Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies Major & PhD Certificate www.gsfs.duke.edu
August 31: Queer Country Night at the Pinhook Line dancing and whisky help make up a staple of the LGBTQ+ scene in Durham. Every Wednesday from 8 p.m. to midnight, the Pinhook becomes honky-tonk central, so head downtown for some country music fun.
‘Nice
By Jonathan Pertile Recess Editor
Watching Durham’s music scene from the sidelines is one thing, but being a part of it yourself is a whole other experience. Bring your own instrument, and you can participate in the weekly Tuesdays Blues Jam at the Blue Note Grill. For those less inclined to perform, live music, barbeque and friendly company make the trip worthwhile, guitar in-hand or not.
August 28: Vegan Mac & Cheese Cookoff at the Durham Armory Durham is a widely-known culinary destination, having garnered attention for its blend of southern food with flavors from elsewhere. Look no further than the Vegan Mac & Cheese Cookoff for an example, where professional chefs vye to serve up the best modern twist on a southern classic. Proceeds go to charity — the Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge — so your ticket here is going towards more than just some good food. Make sure to register beforehand to save $10!
August 26: Live Music Friday with Acisse Jay at the Oak House Durham The Triangle area has a thriving music scene, with innumerable music events happening every week. Dip a toe in the water by attending the performance of Acisse Jay, a singer-songwriter from Raleigh, who will be performing at the Oak House Durham at 7:30 p.m. The Oak House Durham is a downtown craft beverage lounge, so bring a friend and enjoy some coffee and live music.
“The Bear” is a show about food, but it’s also a show about twelve quietly grieving people trapped in a kitchen, desperate for understanding and comfort, un able to communicate their hurt to one another. They never learned how — never thought it’d be necessary. But they have no choice but to clock in to work every day in a world that’s slightly off its axis, and to support each other the only way they know: braising beef and julienning potatoes.
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The old guard resents Carmy’s efforts to update their workplace: revamping classic recipes, implementing a French brigade, making his employees call each other “chef.” Carmy is grieving his brother, traumatized by the abusive Michelin-star kitchen he used to work in — and stubbornly refusing to come to terms with any of it by throwing himself into the endless, unforgiving challenge of keeping The Original Beef afloat. This day-to-day struggle forms the core of each halfhour episode of “The Bear,” and is portrayed so realis tically that many real-life chefs have described the show as “triggering.” The show is set almost entirely within the fluorescent halls of The Original Beef’s kitchen. Most episodes lack a structured plot; at the start of each installment, it’s clear something has gone wrong, but the audience finds out about it only in dribs and drabs through the cast’s colorful smack talk as they go about preparing the day’s food. (As an aside, said food preparation is absolutely gorgeous to watch. Don’t watch “The Bear” hungry, or at least without accepting that you’ll be craving beef braciole for the next week.)
playground FX’s ‘The Bear’: Food
By Jules Kourelakos Staff Writer
Christopher Storer, director of FX’s dramedy “The Bear,” has taken a different tack. “The Bear” treats the everyday minutiae of restaurant work as a vehicle for — not an obstacle to — audience engagement, creat ing one of the best, most anxiety-inducing series of the summer.When famous chef Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) inherits his late brother Mikey’s grimy Chicago sandwich joint, he’s unwittingly stepping into a lion’s — or, rather, a bear’s — den of seething tension. Mikey’s mismanagement has left The Original Beef mired in countless health-code violations and crushing debt.
“The Bear” is available to stream on Hulu. as a love language
Courtesy of FX Jeremy Allen White stars as Carmy Berzatto in “The Bear.”
Most television shows happily sacrifice accuracy in the name of emotional investment. Lawyers spend more time wringing out dramatic courtroom confes sions than filing paperwork; detectives jump to impos sible conclusions within the neat span of a half-hour episode; hackers instantly gain access to scandalous government secrets after banging on a keyboard for five seconds. The tedious drudgery of real life is treat ed as meaningless filler keeping viewers from the good stuff: drama, romance, character development.
What’s so gripping about a show where ninety per cent of the action involves braising beef and julienning potatoes? The same thing that gets people hooked on “Kitchen Nightmares” and “The Great British Baking Show”: the unwritten narrative inherent to making food in the company of others. The Original Beef is one step from bankruptcy, so every meal prepared de cides whether the restaurant might live to open anoth er day. The cast is perpetually at each other’s throats, with every offhand remark risking an all-out fight. Of special note is the single-take hellstorm that is episode seven, possibly the best episode of the season, wherein the introduction of a new mobile-order system leads to — minor spoilers — one incensed employee stabbing another in the buttock. All of this would be for naught, of course, if we didn’t care about these char acters enough to read between the lines. That’s another thing “The Bear” gets right: its cast is magnetic, bouncing off each other with a practiced chaos that leaves the audience spellbound. Even within the tight span of eight half-hour episodes, even the most minor characters don’t remain static, every single employee at The Original Beef has secrets to reveal, character development to undergo and relationships to build. Some particularly ar resting performances include Original Beef newcomer and audience surrogate Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Mikey’s quick-toanger best friend Richie (Ebon Moss-Barach) and Carmy’s long-suffering sister Sugar (Abby Elliott). At the center of it all, despite appearing in person for all of three minutes, is Mikey (Jon Bernthal). He was the star that the entire cast’s lives revolved around: Carmy’s inspiration to become a chef, Sugar’s business partner, Richie’s closest confidante, the restaurant crew’s stalwart leader. After he committed suicide, no one is quite sure how to operate in a world that doesn’t include him.
The Chronicle dukechronicle.com FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 | 13 OPERATION: The Lobby Shop PUBLICATION: Chronicle CONVENIENCE. IT’S WHAT WE’RE ALL ABOUT. The Lobby Shop, located in the University Store, offers a variety of conveniences from crackers to candy bars, frozen foods and beverages to canned goods, natural snacks, and health and beauty aids. The Lobby Shop is open evenings and weekends to satisfy after-hours shoppers. Upper Level, Bryan Center | Phone: 919-684-2179 Academic Year Store Hours Monday - Friday: 8:30am - 11pm Saturday: 9am - 11pm | Sunday: 11am - 11pm Department of Duke University Stores® “Severance” is not the first television series that explores the dark ambitions of giant corporations, but its one-of-a-kind conception of the neurosurgical pro cedure, “Severance,” that splits an employee’s memory into two makes it the most refreshing one in the past few years. It currently boasts a 8.7 out of 10 rating on IMDB and was renewed for a second season before the first season even ended. Although it has been on the Apple TV+ streaming platform for over five months now, personally, it has not enjoyed the recognition it deserves. With the second season projected to release early to mid-next year, now is the best time to catch up on its first season and let its spine-chilling storyline cool you down for the summer. The story takes place in a fictional town where about half of the population works for a biotechnol ogy company named Lumon. If this reminds you of the acclaimed series “Tales from the Loop,” be warned that the overall tones of these two series could not be more dissimilar. While “Tales from the Loop” features a somewhat mysterious town setting and ultimately of fers the viewers a sense of comfort and consolation, “Severance” is disquieting and even enraging. The familiarity in its backdrop only adds to the deeply unsettling feeling that seeps into unknowing view ers. From the impersonal corporate atmosphere, to desolate suburban streets and rustic wooden cabins in the woods, almost all of the show’s audience can see a reflection of their own life in a scene or two out of “Severance.”Mark Scout, the protagonist, is a Macrodata Refinement employee at Lumon. A former history professor, he undertook his job on a severed floor of Lumon after he lost his wife to a car accident. This meant that his work self would have no recollection of his personal experiences outside of work. While the severance procedure in itself is fascinat ing and twists the idea of “work-life balance” into out right “work-life division,” viewers can soon find out that this is just the facade of the series. Lumon Indus tries is not as simple as it appears on the outside. The interior of the severed floor is like a maze of brightly-lit, fully white hallways, intentionally designed to separate different departments. Additionally, despite being a hightech company, the four employees in Lumon’s department of Macrodata Refinement Department spend their entire work day picking out groups of numbers shown on a computer screen that elicit certain emotions such as fear. They have no concrete knowl edge of what their work is used for. All of these suspicious details would probably continue to be ignored by Mark if not for the coming of Helly R., the newest member of his department. Helly R. is defiant to the bizarre treat ments of employees from the moment her work-self awakens from her severance procedure. Her brazen actions act as a catalyst for the change in her col leagues‘ attitude toward Lumon and their work. Cinematography is another indispensable factor contributing to the insidious eeriness throughout the series. The filming angle frequently hovers around 30 to 45 degrees above the protagonist, and often the view is framed by an out-of-focus peripheral, both of which create a feeling of being surveilled. This viola tion of privacy and even autonomy for the characters in the series is enough to deliver waves of thrills to the audience, in the absence of any obviously frightening elements.Symbolism abounds in this series. The brain, for one, is a recurring motif in the show. Lumon’s head quarter is in the shape of an ellipse in the top view. Moreover, one closer look and the viewer will realize that its composition in the top view ensembles the brain in top view. Likewise, the meandering hallways in the building interior reminds viewers of the folds and creases in the brain. On another note, the series is sprinkled with hints of religiosity surrounding Lu mon. The founder of Lumon, Kier Eagan enjoys a cult of personality inside the company. Mark was told by his supervisor Ms. Cobel that his work was to “serve Kier.” There were volumes of handbooks in the com pany, the only books allowed in the company, that re corded the teachings and wise words of Kier. Essential ly, these books are like the Bible to the employees and it is not uncommon for devoted employees to memo rize and quote sentences out of these handbooks. For example, “Be content in my words, and dally not in the scholarly pursuit of lesser men.” “Severance” handles with a multitude of profound ideas—relationship between work and life, how the continuity of memory constructs self identity, exploi tation by one‘s company and by oneself. Though it progresses along more than one plotline, so far the se ries seems very controlled and finely executed. As for the viewers, who are simultaneously shocked and mes merized, they will have to hold their bursting how’s and why’s until the second season.
“Severance” is at once chilling and mesmerizing
By Katherine Zhong Local Arts Editor
Courtesy of Apple TV+ “Severance” is a critically-acclaimed dark thriller.
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The Chronicle dukechronicle.com FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 | 15 august 26, 2022 sportswrap the chronicle UP RUNNINGAND ATHLETICSDUKEOFCOURTESY
16 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 dukechronicle.com The Chronicle 1920 1/2 Perry St. @ Ninth Street Just a block from East Campus best food on any planet FALL 2022 Duke courses in Latin American History SEBASTIÁNCARASSAI CLACS MELLON VISITING PROFESSOR The 1960s and 1970s in Argentina from Literature, Film, Journalism, Music, and the Academy LATAMER/HISTORY/ROMST 390 MW 12:00-1:15 PM CLASSROOM 125 MICROHISTORY IN LATIN AMERICA LATAMER/HISTORY/ROMST 590S M 3:30-6:00 PM JHFC 230/232 https://latinamericancaribbean.duke.edu ALSO TAUGHT BY PROF. CARASSAI: WOMEN’S SOCCER
Blue Devils roll to win in home opener
Courtesy of Duke Athletics
Everyone is
“I scored two goals on Syracuse my freshman year and another goal my sophomore year on Syracuse. I’ve only ever scored on Syracuse,” Graham said. “It was really exciting [to score against another team]... The jump [into the starting lineup] was a little hard, but just working in the spring, working here in the preseason just to get on the field and play every second to my best ability, I think it’s just been great and I’m really Grahamexcited.”secured the brace in the 69th minute off of a corner kick, simply reading the ball’s path perfectly and outjumping her marker to head in her fifth-career goal. The score came on the ninth of Duke’s 12 corners on the day—tied for
By Em was originally published Monday, prior to Duke’s game Thursday evening against Tennessee.
“It’s difficult [to rebuild team chemistry], but at the same time, we start every practice with [a] passing pattern [drill]; and even though those are just with cones and on a corner of the field, it’s so obvious that that stuff comes into play in games,” said Graham. “And I think we all have certain things engraved into our heads that we know someone’s going to do with the ball when they get in a certain spot, so it makes it a lot Grahameasier.” in particular helped to jump-start the drowsy offense against the Spartans (1-1). As Duke’s midfield and back line kept the ball on UNC Greensboro’s half for most of the game—the Spartans had only one possession in Duke’s third the entire first half—Graham was able to take advantage in the fifth minute. After Blue Devil center back Emily Royson sent a UNC Greensboro clearance back upfield, Graham tackled the Spartan center back trying to corral the ball, juked another one and dashed into the box. A defender cut Graham off and shouldered her to the ground, setting up the opening score.
Adler Associate Editor Editor’s note: This article
DUKE 3 UNCG 1 See WOMEN’S SOCCER on Page 20
Duke, voted the preseason favorite in the ACC, opened its home season with a Sunday win against UNC Greensboro. a little bit sluggish when they get up in the up as the day goes on. For the Blue Devils, a sluggish start to the season appears to be giving way to theirDukewaking-up.rolledto a win in its home opener Sunday, besting UNC Greensboro 3-1. Junior attacking midfielder Maggie Graham recorded her second-career brace, while senior midfielder Julia Burnell scored her first-career goal off of an assist from sophomore striker Michelle Cooper. The Blue Devils struggled to connect early, with misplaced give-and-gos and turnovers from passes sent to the wrong foot. New players were still seemingly building chemistry with the roster and were sometimes caught off-guard when holding midfielder Sophie Jones, wingback Delaney Graham and Cooper sent touches their way.
morning, but wakes
“I’m really happy, because I thought once we went to our bench, I thought they played really, really well,” said head coach Robbie Church. “I thought that the movement that they brought to the field was really, really good. Our shape was really good in the second half. I thought the speed of play was better in the second half.”
The Blue Devils (2-0) went ahead for good on a firsthalf buzzer-beater that was simply Cooper at her best. With the stadium announcer counting down from 10, holding midfielder Sophie Jones grabbed an errant pass from a UNC Greensboro defender and threaded a through pass to Cooper, who ran behind it and fired a left-footed rocket to the near post. Spartan goalie Abby Buchholz knocked it away, but right back to Cooper, who chipped it over two defenders while falling down. Burnell barely had to move to get the pass and redirected it with a header to the back of the net for her first-career goal. Duke led 2-1 with one second left in the period. For most of the first half, however, it felt like the Blue Devils were playing too cleanly; their passing and game flow were up to par, but they had only taken three live-ball shots on goal through the first 44.5 minutes. Duke’s lone goal came from attacking midfielder Maggie Graham on a penalty kick after she was shouldered to the turf on a drive through the box. The rest of the Duke offense was marked by smart play and long possessions, but the finishing touches were off. Be it shots wide or passes into easy interceptions, the attacking synergy of last year’s Blue Devils was nowhere to be found.
Duke head coach Mike Elko addressed first-year students Saturday, shortly after their arrival on campus, in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“We can’t be a successful football program without the community around us—without the student base around us,” Elko said at the Aug. 20 media day. The student base will quite literally be around the team as it runs out of the tunnel before each game. During that same halftime speech, Elko described changes to the student section that would shift the students’ area a few sections closer to the visiting bench so that it would surround the players’ entry tunnel. The Blue Devils may never claim the same kind of atmosphere as historic powerhouses before games. But here—moving the student area for the purpose of being closer to the visiting bench—could be a step in that direction.
It is worth noting that Elko arrived from Texas A&M, whose Kyle Field regularly hosts over 100,000 spectators and is one of college football’s loudest arenas. “Deafening” would likely not be a Blue Devil fan’s first choice of words when describing Wallace Wade Stadium.
Average home attendance has decreased in five straight non-COVID-19 seasons (excluding 2020). Attendance at games held at Wallace Wade fell over 40% between the 2019 and 2021 seasons despite the possibility of a resurgence in attendance at sporting events after Duke announced capacity limits would be removed in June 2021. The nearly 30,000 fans that filled the stands each game in 2016 fell to just more than 15,000 in 2021. Clearly, Duke football has had an engagement issue—one that both Elko and athletic director Nina King see. Now, they are making clear to the students that they acknowledge it. One can’t ignore the fact that as the number of wins has fallen, so has the number of Blue Devil jerseys in the stands. Students now hardly know of the football crowds as the Wally Wade Wackos, the name meant to parallel the famous Cameron Crazies moniker. Elko has made small steps that may very well bring that energy back. He preached to the Class of 2026 within the first-years’ first hours on campus Saturday that Duke will return to the top of the ACC and that he wants the stands full. Never mind the fact that firstyears now each possess blue home jerseys with “26” across the front and their own last names emblazoned on the backs, courtesy of Elko and the football program. A new and improved tailgate looks to rejuvenate on-campus engagement with the team every Saturday morning. Since the 2010 cancellation of the student pregame festivities, tailgating has seemingly been a sensitive topic for the University, but putting students back in the stands has surged to the forefront. That February night at Cameron Indoor, Micah Hurewitz
See ELKO ERA on Page 20
The former Texas A&M defensive coordinator immediately lit a fire with his declaration that Duke would “win championships on the field in the fall” in his introductory press conference.
The Chronicle dukechronicle.com FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 | 17
Column: Blue Devils, Elko focused on student buy-in
FOOTBALL
Courtesy of Duke Athletics
Hired after a dismal winless ACC season and a three-year downslide from consistent bowl victories to the cellar of the conference, Elko has aimed to do more than just improve the on-field product. His engagement with students thus far has keyed a new era—not just within the program, but the University as a whole. “The time is now for Duke football,” Elko proclaimed at Cameron Indoor Stadium during halftime of a February Duke–Wake Forest men’s basketball game. There was a different air in the building when Elko took center court in February. Of course, it was a basketball game with a packed student section, but he could command the crowd with his vision for the future in ways unseen from a place that has embraced basketball while in many ways not being a “football school” of late.
In his first time speaking in front of Duke fans, head coach Mike Elko had a mission— to convey that it was the year the Blue Devils would begin their ascent into the highest tier of collegiate football.
On top of boldly prognosticating imminent improvements to the on-field product, Elko has made clear from his arrival that he would be taking input from student groups on campus to improve the game day experience, one which he believes benefits the culture of the University but also his players.
18 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 dukechronicle.com The Chronicle Duke Computer Repair Duke’s Authorized Computer Repair Center for Serving Duke University students, faculty, staff and departments. Also offering hard drives, power supplies, external hard drive enclosures, AC adapters, notebook batteries, printer parts, toner, etc. On-site service calls to University and Duke Health departments in the Durham area. 3523 Hillsborough Road Durham, NC 27708 Academic Year Store Hours Telephone: 919.684.6760 • email: cpufix@duke.edu Monday - Friday: 7:30am - 5pm Department of Duke University Stores® HOW TO READ THE CHRONICLE THE INDEPENDENT NEWS ORGANIZATION AT DUKE UNIVERSITY /dukechronicle@dukechronicle @dukebasketball @chroniclesports thedukechronicle DAILYMONDAY-FRIDAYRUNDOWN daily headlines from dukechronicle.com in your inbox every weekday THETHURSDAYSDIRT weekly email newsletter—a lighter take on Duke news EVERY DUKECHRONICLE.COMDAY constantly updated news, sports and features
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By Jonathan Levitan Sports Editor
“I will continue to do what’s in the best interest of the ACC, but will also strongly advocate for college athletics to be a healthy neighborhood, not two or three gated communities,” Phillips said. “Resources may be different, but access, education, and competitive opportunity will remain the foundation going forward.”
commissioner talks conference’s future Conference realignment takes center stage at ACC Football Kickoff
Just about one year ago, the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 officially announced a monumental conference alliance, seemingly setting up the majority of the Power Five for years of cooperation and collaboration. That was brought to a screeching halt in June, as the Big Ten finalized plans to add USC and UCLA beginning in 2024. Similarly, the SEC is set to add Big 12 leaders Texas and Oklahoma in the coming years. As the SEC and Big Ten continue to grow financially and in terms of membership, the balance of power in the Power Five is shifting further than ever. The ACC has been unaffected by realignment to this point, but the rapidly changing landscape has made it necessary to question where the conference stands moving forward. Phillips spoke directly to those questions Wednesday, putting the ACC’s financial disadvantages in perspective and seemingly condemning the approaches of the SEC and Big Ten.
It remains to be seen how conference realignment affects Duke and the rest of the ACC.
“It remains my belief there is no better conference in the country,” Phillips said of the ACC. “When you combine our incredible student-athletes, world-class institutions, broadbased sports offerings and our commitment to maximizing the educational and athletic opportunities for students.”
The Chronicle dukechronicle.com FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 | 19
FOOTBALLACC
Typically, the annual ACC Football Kickoff is primarily about the upcoming football season. But as commissioner Jim Phillips took the stage July 20 in Charlotte to begin the two-day event in earnest, his comments veered more toward the conference’s long-term plans than its immediate future. Phillips displayed confidence and stressed an equal-footing approach to conference realignment during his hour at the podium, fielding questions about the ACC’s future amid the rise of the SEC and the Big Ten. While those two conferences have opened an extensive revenue gap over the ACC and the rest of the Power Five, the second-year commissioner seemed confident in the ACC’s place in collegiate athletics.
Phillips made clear in Charlotte the importance of media and entertainment to the ACC moving forward, both in generating revenue and preserving conference membership. Notably, Phillips and the ACC have the grant of rights agreement—a conference-wide television deal running through 2036—in their favor. For Texas, Oklahoma, USC and UCLA, the grant of rights has played a large role in dictating the timetable of conference moves, and with the ACC in control of its membership’s media revenue for more than a decade, Phillips is confident that departures are unlikely for the time being.
“People talked about Oklahoma and Texas leaving [their conferences] immediately. I think that’s pretty well-stated now that that’s not the case,” Phillips said. “They’re going to wait until their grants of rights is over…. You can follow the logic there. I would think that the significance of what that would mean, the television rights that the conference owns as well as a nine-figure financial penalty, I think it holds, but your guess is as good as mine.”Itis worth noting, however, that Phillips’ comparison here is not exactly one-to-one. The departing schools from the Pac-12 and Big 12 have only a handful of years remaining on their respective grant of rights deals, as one reporter pointed out, meaning that ACC schools inclined to head elsewhere might have to think differently with so much time left on the clock. In response, Phillips reiterated that “everything is on the table.”
If the ACC’s membership is as solid as Phillips claims, however, the conference could be in a reasonable position to pursue new additions. Phillips—who mistakenly identified the ACC’s membership as 17 schools in a brief moment of comic relief—recognized the possibility of expansion but also made clear that it’s not the conference’s only path forward. Predictably, the expansion conversation in Charlotte included Notre Dame, a proudly independent program with existing ties to the ACC. Any conference decision from the Fighting Irish, a historic football program, would have a ripple effect across the Power Five and college football as a whole, and the ACC would benefit greatly should
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20 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 dukechronicle.com The Chronicle OPERATION: Medical Center Store PUBLICATION: Chronicle Stop by our beautiful location on the lower level of the Duke Clinic in Room 0001 near the food court. Parking is available in the parking garage on Trent Drive adjacent to the Duke Clinic. The store provides medical reference books, textbooks, and instruments for students, faculty and staff of the Medical Center. The store also carries a wide selection of Duke and Duke Health clothing and gift items, office and school supplies, scrubs & lab coats, alumni chairs and childrens gift items. Room 0001, Lower Level, Duke Clinic | 919.684.2717 | Monday - Friday: 8:30am - 5:30pm Department of Duke University Stores® www.dukestores.duke.edu/medical.php • MEDICAL REFERENCE BOOKS • DUKE & DUKE HEALTH CLOTHING • MEDICAL INSTRUMENTS • SCRUBS & LAB COATS • GIFT ITEMS WOMEN’S SOCCER FROM PAGE 16 the team’s most in a game since March 2021. With the Blue Devils being among the leaders in corners per game year after year, that’s a positive sign. It’s a sign that the attack was able to play smart and set up scoring opportunities even when its initial runs weren’t there. “We lost three great players [since last year], and they’re playing in the pros now. And we’ve replaced them with freshmen or younger players,” said Church. “We’re not at our full potential. I thought we saw more of it in the second half than I have the other three halves that we played up to this point in our regular season… And now what we have to do is really be able to score goals… We’re not going to have that many chances against good teams.”
It remains to be seen how Duke fits into the bigger picture of conference realignment, but three Blue Devils—DeWayne Carter, Shaka Heyward and Jacob Monk—and head coach Mike Elko were also present in Charlotte to speak about this upcoming season. Regardless of how the ACC navigates the future of college football, the conference and Duke have an exciting fall season to look forward to.
Courtesy of Duke Athletics Junior midfielder Maggie Graham netted two goals Sunday in Duke’s home-opener win. Courtesy of Duke Athletics
REALIGNMENT FROM 19
Duke fans gave Elko thunderous approval for his vision for the future. This season, students will be closer to the action, closer to the team and, if all goes well, closer to theJustpostseason.beforethat announcement, however, Elko stood at the free throw stripe and swished a shot for charity—nothing he said that night got the crowd as riled up as his basketball competence because at Duke, basketball is king. Time and time again, students hear promises of a brighter tomorrow for Duke’s football program, its students and its fans. But Elko’s first moves at Duke could help his program enjoy a renaissance of passion and love of the game among the Blue Devils’ long-lost supporters.
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ELKO ERA FROM PAGE 17
Each first-year Blue Devil student received a personalized Duke football jersey this past week. that decision fall in its favor. “If there comes a time that Notre Dame would consider moving to a conference and away from independence, I feel really good about it being the ACC,” Phillips said. In other areas, Phillips covered a pair of important topics that were somewhat overshadowed by all the questions about the ACC’s future. That future will take place in one of three cities, as the commissioner reiterated that a decision on the conference’s next headquarters is coming, although the timetable is not yet clear. Charlotte, Orlando, Fla., and the current location of Greensboro, N.C., are the three options on the table. Early on in his remarks, Phillips touched on the future of name, image and likeness policies across the NCAA. Like many, he recognized the importance of NIL as well as a need for regulation and structure, and ultimately called for enforceable changes to the current“[NIL]model.has provided some outstanding opportunities that we all celebrate,” Phillips said. “However, the lack of a single enforceable standard for NIL across the schools and all states has created an environment where inducements inaccurately labeled as NIL are disrupting recruiting. Fair regulation of recruiting is essential for fair competition.”
The Chronicle dukechronicle.com FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 | 21 SHOOTERS II WELCOMETODUKE! TUESDAY SENIOR WINE NIGHT WEDNESDAY BEER PONG FRIDAY AND SATURDAYS TEXT FOR A SHOOTERS BUS 9193698380 VOTED BEST BAR FOR UNDERGRADS & GRADS AND FRIENDLIEST BAR STAFF 5 YEARS IN A ROW IN BEST OF DUKE SAFETY ISSUES WE WORK TO COMBAT: DRINKING AND DRIVING SEXUAL ASSAULT SEXUAL GENDERBULLYINGCONCERNS SHOOTERS IS A PLACE FOR ANYONE AND ALL GROUPS TO FEEL COMFORTABLE AND HAVE FUN UNDER ONE ROOF.
It is very symbolic that the Career Center is taking the Center for Multicultural Affairs former space. It is emblematic of how Duke does not listen to the overwhelming needs of its students. In surveys DSG sent out last year, only 14% of students wanted the Career Center to be in the Bryan Center while over 50% of students wanted some form of iden tity, cultural, or religious space. Overwhelm ingly, Duke students also wanted the Wom en’s Center to hold space in the Bryan Center. Yet, Duke has actively shrunk existing equity space. Instead of the Center for Multicultur al Affairs (CMA) having the entirety of one floor, Duke has put the Women’s Center, Cen ter for Sexual and Gender Diversity (CSGD), Student Involvement and Leadership and the CMA on one floor. While the second floor technically provides space for equity-based student groups, the amount of functional programming space has been greatly reduced and there are student groups such as DUU and DSG within the space. It seems like the only minority Duke cared about was the mi nority of students who wanted the Career Center in the Bryan Center. Duke has moved its equity centers with no vision or plan of what they will look like. This creates a vola tile environment for those who rely on these centers. Giving the Career Center the entirety of the bottom floor in the CMA’s old space provides much more lone functional pro gramming space than all of the equity-based centers and the entirety of space meant for Latinx and AAPI students on campus. I chal lenge administration at Duke to provide the results of a survey with over 500 respondents where a majority of students wanted the Ca reer Center to move into the Bryan Center, student groups to be put into offices, and eq uity centers to experience a size reduction. Before CMA: La Casa was placed into 0006, Latinx students on campus held the closet be tween the bathrooms on the 000 Bryan Cen ter floor. When this placement happened on April 3, 2015, Latinx students stated, “It’s defi nitely just a temporary space—we’re looking to have a bigger office space because not even our council can fit in there. We have a council of 14 people and 14 people do not fit in there.” I challenge administration to find an office in the 101 space where 14 students can fit com fortably, the current space is not adequate. In demands released by nearly every Latinx organization last year, including a plethora of intersectional identities, demand number one was “We demand Duke establish a Latinx cultural center on campus.” The petition for these demands has over 300 signatures. Duke heard these pleas, actively ignored them, and instead shrunk spaces for Latinx students across campus. It is quite unfathomable how Duke translated this into shrinking spaces for Latinx students and reducing the size of La Casa. Additionally, Latinx students aren’t the only ones who suffer from “temporary options” provided by the University. Many
Duke has once again failed diversity on campus. The Bryan Center must remain a student-facing area, promoting equity and inclusivity.
22 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 dukechronicle.com The Chronicle 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 Durham,90858,NC 27708 Phone: (919) 684-2663 Fax: (919) 684-4696 ” “ hot take of the week “Panera sucks.” —Parker Harris, editor-at-large, on Aug. 21 opinion Inc. 1993Est. 1905 The Chronicle 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. One copy per person; additional copies may be purchased for .25 at The Chronicle Business office at 1517 Hull Avenue. @ 2022 Duke Student Publishing Company MILLA SURJADI, Editor JONATHAN LEVITAN, Sports Editor KATIE TAN, Managing Editor KATHRYN THOMAS, News Editor ALISON KORN, Enterprise Editor (Spring) ANISHA REDDY, AYRA CHARANIA, Senior Editors PARKER HARRIS, Editor-at-Large MADDY BERGER, Editor-at-Large (Spring) NADIA BEY, Digital Strategy Director WINNIE LU, Photography Editor BECCA SCHNEID, Photography Editor MARINA CHEN, Opinion Editor JONATHAN PERTILE, Recess Editor CHRISSY BECK, General Manager MICAH HUREWITZ, Sports Managing Editor SASHA RICHIE, Sports Managing Editor ISHANI RAHA, University News Editor ADWAY WADEKAR, University News Editor AUDREY WANG, University News Editor JAZPER LU, Local and National News Editor AMY GUAN, Health and Science News Editor VISHAL JAMMULAPATI, Associate News Editor (Fall) HALLE FRIEDMAN, Associate News Editor (Spring) SEVANA WENN, Features Managing Editor ETHAN NIANG Senior Reporter DAN REZNICHENKO, Opinion Managing Editor JOCELYN CHIN, Opinion Managing Editor SPENCER CHANG, Opinion Managing Editor OOHA REDDY, Opinion Managing Editor OLIVIA BOKESCH, Opinion Managing Editor VIKTORIA WULFF-ANDERSEN, Opinion Managing Editor EMMIE MACEDA, Opinion Managing Editor PREETHA RAMACHANDRAN, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Coordinator ANNA ZOLOTOR, Recruitment Chair MEGAN HAVEN, Advertising Director JULIE MOORE, Creative Director
An equitable Bryan Center The personal damages of Proclamation 10043 Guest column Aug. 10 Guest column
See BRYAN CENTER on Page 23
July 27
One night two years ago, stuck at home due to COVID-19, I was tired of overcoming the anxiety of waiting for my Ph.D. application re sults and revising a paper over and over again. The sudden email from Duke Univer sity broke the restless night and told me I had been admitted to the Duke ECE Ph.D. program with a full scholarship. At that very instant, the long-lost happiness, excitement and relief flooded into my heart. My parents were proud of me and shared the good news with others. For an ordinary Chinese family, it is not easy to train a student who can be admitted by a top university in the world. Two months later, however, my American dream was brutally ripped up by the then U.S. President Donald Trump. On May 29, 2020, he signed the presidential proclamation 10043 (P.P.10043) and claimed to prohibit students who graduated from universities supporting China’s ‘‘military-civil fusion strategy’’ from obtaining F visas or J visas. According to the New York Times, these schools include Beihang University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Bei jing University of Posts and Telecommunica tions, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing Uni versity of Science and Technology and North western Polytechnical University, which are top universities in China. I obtained my bachelor’s and master’s degree from two of these universi ties, one a member of China’s elite C9 League, but my education was cut short: due to the proclamation, it is almost impossible for me to obtain a U.S. visa. In China, people often compare a student trying to get into a good university to a carp at tempting to swim upstream and then leap the falls of the Yellow River at Dragon Gate to be transformed into a dragon. At that moment, I was like a carp that had just jumped into the gate but was thrown out immediately. And the higher I jumped, the harder I fell. My English was once poor, and I failed stan dard tests many times. But I never gave up. Ev ery day, I insisted on getting up early to listen to English news and talking to native speakers via video chat apps. I also memorized a GRE vo cabulary book more than 50 times. After trying 8 TOEFL tests and 5 GRE tests, I reaped satis fying results. My research skills, too, were not strong, so I spent days and nights in the labo ratory reading literature, deriving formulas, conducting experiments, and writing papers. Finally, Duke University recognized my efforts, which convinced me that my dreams would eventually come true through my hard work, courage, creativity, and determination. Now, however, reality has taught me that a ban can contemptuously wipe out individual efforts. I had to defer my enrollment to the next year without other options. During the gap year, I met many students who suffered from the same issue and joined a group of nearly 2,000 students to stop P.P.10043. We wrote joint letters to seek help from universities in the U.S. We luckily received a lot of positive responses. For example, the director of the In ternational House at Duke University joined us and listened to our specific appeals. Chris Sim mons, Associate Vice President, Duke Govern ment Relations, also arranged a particular con versation with us to respond to our requests. However, all of these efforts could not shake off theAnotherban. year passed, and I still could not obtain a visa. Fortunately, Duke University offered me another chance to defer admis sion to the college. I tried to apply for a U.S. visa in Singapore this winter. Surprisingly, after a month of administrative process ing, I got it! I immediately shared this good news with my supervisor and everyone at the Duke visa services office, who were al ways helping me. After two months, howev er, when I had just started to make my travel plan to the U.S., the embassy called me to say that they had to cancel my visa because of P.P.10043. Once again, I felt like I was being thrown down from a height. A deep sense of despair overwhelmed me. We have no choice but to make a lawsuit plan against this unfair ban. However, it is not easy for us Chinese students to file a lawsuit against the U.S. government. It took us about half a year to raise $150,000 for our lawsuit and another half a year to find suitable lawyers and professors as the plaintiff. Finally, we filed the first case in Illinois on June 27, 2022. The short goals of our lawsuit include having temporary restraining orders (TRO) to obtain an injunc tion of P.P.10043 at the primary stage in the future 2-4 weeks and having a Preliminary In junction (P.I.) of P.P.10043 in the future in 6-12 months. The ultimate goal of our lawsuit plan is to repeal P.P.10043 permanently. I think this is my last attempt. If I still can’t get a visa this fall, I will give up the opportunity to study at Duke University. My heart hurts, but my life must move on. Maybe this is life. If you can see this article, please share it with the Blue Devils around, students and teachers from other universities, and let more people know about us, a group of students shielding their dreams against an unfair ban. Let’s #STOP 10043! Xu Weng is a Pratt ECE Ph.D. admit af fected by P.P. 10043.
Daniel Bradford is a Duke van service driver.
See the full list of signees online
Elegy for Peaches, the placemaker
The point of this letter is not to start a huge problem, but to get some help from students, fellow staff and alumni who aren’t aware of these changes. Since van service has moved to a new program us ing TransLoc—the same app that is used to track the buses—more students and staff than ever will see that a van service is available. With only four to six van drivers, though, I anticipate wait times will be through the roof; some students and staff might end up taking the dan gerous walk to their car or dorm/apart ment late at night. It’s unfair to keep van service employees pressurized by a constant queue, and unfair to the people who depend on van service to travel at night. I feel a lot can be changed for the better, and hope the Duke community can come together as one voice.
Part of a drawn map of campus, a rendering of Peaches’ home outside of Keohane hangs in the author’s home.
BRYAN CENTER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 22 LetterthealumniConcernedforartstotheeditorJuly 19
Dear President Price and Provost Kornbluth, We, Duke Alumni, are writing to share our concerns about the alarming state of the arts and the entire arts ecosystem at our alma mater, Duke University. The big picture: in the last two years, there has been an unexplained exodus of vital staff of Duke Arts and Duke Perfor mances, with 11 of 15 staff exiting essen tial roles from programming, marketing, administration and engagement. These departures leave an immeasurable loss to the arts ecosystem across the University. Why it matters: as alumni, we have benefited immensely from Duke Arts’ life-changing programs, including DE MAN (Duke Entertainment, Media & Arts Network), Duke Performances, and DukeCreate. We believe that these pro grams, executed by these former staff members, are indispensable to us and the next generation of Blue Devils. For many of us, these programs provide unique opportunities for us to engage with the University in meaningful ways. We are concerned that you have made no communication about this multitude of staff departures, no announcement of their successors, and no indication of whether the programs will continue. We have lost our enduring touch-points with the University. Next steps: we are asking you, Presi dent Price and Provost Kornbluth, to conduct an urgent, independent review of Duke Arts and Duke Performances, including talking with past staff so their institutional knowledge can be carried forward. As alumni, we appreciate your conducting of this review and look for ward to receiving the report findings this fall. Your next steps will help ensure our investment in our alma mater. Signed, Concerned Alumni for the Arts
Aug. 12
My two small girls loved wander ing up from our apartment in Keohane 4D to pet—or, more often—observe Peaches. I was the Residence Coordina tor of Keohane Quad for six years, from 2014-2020, and Peaches joined our com munity during my tenure in the quad, shortly after the birth of my first daughter. I have many fond and funny memories of Peaches. The way she always escaped my tod dlers’ outstretched, grasping hands by slink ing into the thorny holly; the times I found Peaches sitting placidly inside of Keohane, al most as if she was waiting to meet a friend who was coming to visit; the raised eyebrows and laughs of colleagues as I showed them Peaches’ heated shelter (“That’s nicer than my home!” was the customary rejoinder). The first sum mer of the pandemic, my girls and I sat outside Peaches’ house nearly every day, often find ing the same individuals there, pilgrims look ing for solace during unprecedented times. The last year I spent in Student Affairs, I served on QuadEx’s steering committee and participated in the launch committee focused on matters of quad identity. The identity of a place and a community, if it is to last, is not something that can be manufactured and implemented top-down. It must bubble up from the community itself. This is the legacy of Peaches and the profound lesson that she taught me; put another way, Peaches’ signifi cance for me is about how she turned a space into a place. She was—to borrow language from urban planners, architects and commu nity organizers—a placemaker, whose pres ence and character helped define the identity of Keohane Quad for several years. Peaches was a campus pillar, a symbol, our community cat, who helped us understand where we were and who we were. Whenever I gave people di rections to Keohane 4B or McClendon Tower, I would tell them, “From the bus stop, follow the sidewalk past Few as it curves around to the right. You’ll see a building with a cat out side of it. That’s 4B.” The Keohane Residence Life team came to dub the common room closest to Peaches’ house “Peaches’ Common Room,” which proved a more useful way to distinguish it from the common room at the other end of the 4th-floor hallway. Peaches, in fact, was the reason I hung the 12”x20” cat painting at the end of that same hallway. During 2019’s Resident Assistant Train ing week, the theme of which was “Camp,” Keohane’s RA team adopted the identity of “Troop Peaches.” We dressed up as cats for our opening act, a satirical rendition of “Memory” from the musical Cats, complete with harp and wood flute accompaniment. My old GR, whose doctoral defense is this week, painted Peaches’ face on a 6’x9’ can vas tent that we built. The paint, however, bled through the fabric, resulting in a semipermanent simulacrum of our feline friend on the concrete slab outside of Keohane 4E, which took three months to wash away fully. Much more could be said about the particularly tragic nature of Peaches’ death—being taken by outsiders who did not know her identity as our community cat and thought they knew what was best
The identity of a place and a community, if it is to last, is not something that can be manufactured and implemented top-down. It must bubble up from the community itself. for her; her death at a moment when she was being transferred to a community agency meant to serve and protect her— but this is a meditation for another day. Peaches the community cat, the place maker—this is how I will remember her. When my wife and children moved out of campus housing, we commissioned a large map of campus from a children’s book illustrator. This artwork, which hangs in our home, is not an ordinary map, but the campus as it was known to our family, to my children. This map de picts the geography of our experience and memory in and of our eight years living at Duke. Today, I’m looking at the small like ness of a cat perched on a house, with a hand-drawn label: “Peaches’ House.” She will always be a part of my memory of living and working in Keohane—mem ories from our earliest years with our daughters—and for that, I am grateful.
Letter to the editor Aug. 24
Jeff Nelson was the Residence Coordinator of Keohane Quad from 2014-2020.
It is a great step to provide more visibil ity and make these centers more accessible by placing them in the Bryan Center. It is a great step to give historically underrepresented stu dents such as MENA, LIFE and Caribbean students space. However, it is hard to give up per level administration even credit for that. It was students who brought these organiza tions into conversations and administration continues to ignore the needs of some groups such as Hindu Students Association which was in the original demands letter. Moreover, this is only part of the issue. Functionality, programming and privacy of the given space matters, especially if the Career Center is re ceiving more of all these things. Perhaps rath er than criticize existing cultural spaces such as the CMA, upper level Duke administration should direct its criticism towards the Career Center. All cultural groups deserve so much more. By expanding equity centers, Duke can be a beacon of hope in this country where equity projects addressing race, gender and sexuality across the nation are being stripped away from students. Instead, Duke chooses to prioritize the Career Center that can be easily offered online and take a massive step backwards in diversity. This move is a shame ful mark on Duke’s history that students will not forget. Sexual assault is commonplace at college institutions and cultural organizations experience frequent harassment. The stability of these centers is not just a “demand,” it is a necessity for the safety and survival of many students on campus. I argue, this move was never about students, their demands or equity otherwise Duke would have addressed all our demands (1,2,3,4,5) and prioritized our well being over the summer. Duke has once again failed diversity on campus. The Bryan Center must remain a student facing area, promoting equity and inclusivity. The diversity on campus cannot be treated as an afterthought. Duke must publicly reveal its survey data from Sasaki or others regarding the Bryan Center including racial and ethnic breakdown, provide more functional space and programming space to equity-based centers while renovations occur, provide more funding for every cultural group to combat programming concerns, reduce the size of the Career Center, better reflect student needs off survey data specifically regarding expansion of the Women’s Center and CMA, provide updates on the Gender Violence Pre vention and Intervention Center and publicly announce a commitment to funding and ren ovation plans over the next two years that stu dents can hold Duke administration account able to. Upper level administration at Duke has an obligation to keep its student body in formed, and its methods transparent not just to students but to alumni donors and those who run these centers. Additionally, without a plan or mass message about the move and its logistics going into fall, many students outside student organizations still remain confused about the move. This severely limits and stalls the ability to work on diversity programming and disrupts the safety of students who rely on these centers. To be clear, these are not demands but rather suggested action Duke has not taken but can easily resolve. I also suggest the up per level administration behind this move take a tour of the Latinx Perkins exhibit or perhaps even read the original demands themselves to the Bryan Center move. The diversity on your campus are not “poster children for brochures”—we matter. Stu dents will continue to fight for the right to be safe and welcomed on this campus no matter the circumstance.
The Chronicle dukechronicle.com FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 | 23 other equity-based organizations do. Duke Disability Alliance also advocated for a space and was given a “temporary” option, but up dates from administration have fallen silent. This trend of offering a “temporary space” has been consistent and unfulfilling for equity organizations. These two identities are perfect examples of Duke consistently misleading students. Organizations did in fact want flex and office space, but as an addition to exist ing space for marginalized students not as a replacement for the CMA in its entirety. The Duke Endowment increased by 4.2 billion dollars last year, and for the last few decades all cultural groups have been told that there is no funding for a freestanding cultural center. This is wrong, Duke chooses not to invest in the future of equity. By the recent Juneteenth response, it is evident the diversity on campus is tired of posturing emails rather than action. Equity to me does not mean placing all eq uity based centers onto the top floor, in order to move the Career Center into the Bryan Center. It is baffling that Duke hired Sasaki, an architec tural firm, to solve Bryan Center spacing issues but wants students to put their time and effort into a renovations committee with no com pensation. Equity-based centers and organiza tions taking a size and functionality reduction for years in favor of the Career Center moving in is jarring. CMA: La Casa and CMA: AAPI Base don’t even have a fridge but now the Ca reer Center has three, how does this make sense? The Career Center has moved to a mostly online format. Many employers now have work from home options and professional schools now of ten have online interview options because they understand travel and in person interviews are an imminent equity issue—the future is on line. Meanwhile, equity based centers need large open spaces and resources where their staff can play active roles because students often come to staff with sensitive issues regarding race, sexu ality, and gender. With a functional center, stu dents receive the privacy and attention needed by staff. Plenty of other universities such as NC State and UNC also follow this model for their equity based centers. This move is not practical.
DukedriverConcerneddukechronicle.com.atforvansLettertotheeditor
Anthony Salgado is a Trinity junior.
Furthermore, if Duke intended to bring diver sity to its Career Center, the Career Center used to have drop in hours at both CMA: La Casa and CMA: AAPI Base, meeting students where they are most comfortable. This move also runs in contrast to Duke’s recent centennial project which prides itself on being more inclusive in a renewed campus community.
24 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2022 dukechronicle.com The Chronicle
