April 26, 2017

Speed kills

A series of firsts

Jeremy McDuffie is shining on the track as he adjusts to a new position in football | Sports Page 11

Mike Morgan recounts how Duke prepared him to be a justice on the State Supreme Court | Page 2

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ONE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH YEAR, ISSUE 83

‘They did everything they could to make me feel guilty’ Student conduct case raises questions about fairness of the process Gautam Hathi This is the first story in a multi-part series on the student conduct process. The Chronicle has changed the name of the student referred to as Jane Doe due to the sensitive nature of the story. Doe’s account is based on interviews with her as well as documents she provided to The Chronicle from the student conduct process.

Jane Doe received an email last April that no student wants to open. The message, from a dean at the Office of Student Conduct, explained that she was under investigation for allegedly cheating on a series of public policy quizzes. After five months, Doe was found not responsible for cheating. But Doe doesn’t think what happened during those five months was fair.

“The burden of proving that I was innocent was clearly on me,” she said.

In the 2015-16 school year, the Office of Student Conduct handled 1,076 reports of possible student misconduct, and 47 students were suspended for community standard violations, a much larger number than that of Duke’s peer institutions.

Each of these reports wound its way through one of several student conduct processes, from faculty-student resolutions to conduct boards.

Students and legal experts interviewed by The Chronicle have raised further questions about the fairness and robustness of how conduct investigations are handled.

‘A lot of evidence’ Doe’s case was one of 170 brought against students in 2015-16 for allegedly cheating in class. Almost 77 percent of students accused of all types of academic dishonesty—including cheating, plagiarism and lying—in 2015-16 were found responsible in the student conduct

Chronicle File Photo The Office of Student Conduct hears more cases involving academic dishonesty than any other issue besides alcohol violations.

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Carolyn Sun | The Chronicle

The Chronicle

process. OSC sees more cases involving academic dishonesty than any other issue besides alcohol violations.

In order to be found responsible for academic dishonesty, there must be clear and convincing evidence that a student has cheated, lied or plagiarized, according to the Duke Community Standard. But Doe got the impression early on in the process that it would be hard to convince OSC that she hadn’t cheated.

Doe’s professor, Evan Charney, associate professor of the practice in the Sanford School of Public Policy, accused her of consulting unpermitted help while taking weekly in-class quizzes on her laptop using a special testing software called Electronic Blue Book. Charney based this accusation on logs from the testing software, which appeared to show that Doe had taken an unusually long time when completing the quizzes or had taken the quizzes outside of class time.

But EBB was supposed to lock down Doe’s laptop when she was taking the quizzes and not allow her to run any other programs or visit any websites. And yet, Doe was able to give OSC records of her web browser history showing that she had been doing other things—from working on other classwork to browsing Amazon—at the times when the EBB records supposedly showed that she was taking the quizzes. Doe also obtained statements from friends who were at group meetings or

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doing work with Doe when the EBB records indicated she was taking quizzes.

“I immediately went back and went through every single quiz date and looked for evidence to support my argument, because I knew that no one was going to believe me if I just said, ‘I didn’t do it,’” Doe said. “And thankfully I was able to find a lot of evidence.”

Doe provided more than 10 pages of documentation to OSC supporting her claims and arguing that she could not have been taking the quizzes at the times indicated in the EBB logs. She insisted that there must have been an issue with EBB. She provided evidence from a forensics expert, an Apple support technician and the developer of EBB suggesting that adware on her computer could have caused an issue with EBB. OSC forwarded Doe’s document to Charney. In response, he insisted that the evidence Doe had assembled was all a lie.

“You are curious to hear my response?

I believe that this entire document is an elaborate and well thought out deception,” Charney wrote in an email to Associate Dean of Students Leslie Grinage, who was handling Doe’s case. “No such ‘glitch’ regarding time stamps has ever occurred during [the Sanford information technology manager’s] 10 years of using EBB. We checked the timestamps of all of the other students who took quizzes at the same time as [Doe] and they all show expected start and stop times.”

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Charney did not respond for request to comment Tuesday evening.

Doe also claimed that she repeatedly offered to let OSC have her laptop for investigation, but they declined the offer. OSC did, however, take logs from EBB that were stored on Doe’s computer and send those logs to the developer of EBB for analysis.

James Coleman, John S. Bradway professor of the practice of law and co-director of the Wrongful Convictions Clinic at Duke, noted that in Doe’s case, OSC could have done a forensic investigation of Doe’s laptop at the outset, rather than leave it to Doe to find a forensics expert.

“A thorough system would have done the forensic investigation first,” he said. “If there’s a possibility that what’s going on here is that the software is not working, then that ought to be eliminated as an investigation before you bring charges against somebody.”

Doe added that she met with Grinage to discuss her case, and during the meeting, Grinage asked her questions about seemingly unrelated topics, such as whether she was actually sick during classes that she had used short term illness forms to get excused.

Robert Ekstrand, a Durham lawyer who has worked on hundreds of disciplinary cases involving students at Duke and other institutions, was involved in the lacrosse case and helped Doe with her case, said that he has seen many cases in which either OSC or an Undergraduate Conduct Board has dismissed evidence that appears to exonerate a student as irrelevant or fabricated.

“I can’t recall a case where compelling evidence of innocence is presented to OSC administrators and they said, ‘Oh gosh, never mind,’” Ekstrand said. “I hope it happens, but you would think that I would have seen one or two of those.”

The hearing Several weeks after classes ended, Doe’s evidence was indeed dismissed, and her case was sent to an Undergraduate Conduct Board, which decides serious cases of alleged Community Standard violations. Because Doe had assembled so much evidence that she wanted to explain in person, she decided to fly back to Duke for a July hearing and face the board rather than attend via a video call.

“I thought it was really important that I be there during the hearing,” Doe said. “Part of the story is that [the process] incurred a lot of costs for my family—flying up, rental car, hotel.”

However, Doe told The Chronicle that on the day of the hearing, OSC notified her of potential problems with the panel. First, OSC told Doe that some of the documentation she had provided supporting her claims

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Justice Mike Morgan describes Uni. responds to concerns journey from Duke to state court about Central Campus safety Sarah Kerman

Matthew Riley

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When Mike Morgan, Trinity ’76, was elected to the North Carolina Supreme Court in November, it was a historic moment.

Morgan is the first African American elected to the State Supreme Court without first being appointed by the governor. He is also the only African American male currently serving on the State Supreme Court.

Morgan’s life seems to be peppered with stories of firsts. From being one of the first students to integrate his local public school to helping charter Duke’s first African American Greek letter fraternity, he has forged new paths and left a legacy, time and time again.

“I am very proud, not only for myself, but for the people of North Carolina to have— as a southern state—to have continued to Special to The Chronicle evolve to the point where [my election] Morgan, Trinity ’76, noted the was able to occur in such a massive strong Mike impact of Duke’s black community on his way,” he said. “I feel very proud of that experience at the University. accomplishment that the people of North experience occurred outside the classroom, Carolina have afforded me.” nurtured by his campus involvements and relationships.

Going to Duke The Black Student Alliance—then called Morgan has deep ties to North Carolina, growing up in New Bern—a small, historic town the Afro-American Society—along with the in the eastern part of the state, where his father black mass choir and intramural sports took up much of his time as an undergraduate, he became the first African American mayor.

During his childhood, he was one of the first explained. Morgan was also one of 13 charter five students to integrate the New Bern public members of Omega Psi Phi fraternity, Duke’s school system, and he later became the first first historically African American fraternity.

With family members who were part of black drum major of his high school band.

Entering Duke at age 16, Morgan Omega Psi Phi fraternity, Morgan noted that encountered a very different University in 1972 he and other students wanted to continue than today’s Duke. African American students the legacy.

Morgan emphasized the importance of had only been admitted as undergraduates since 1963, and Duke had been riled by the black community he was able to find at various protests throughout the late 1960s and Duke through both his fraternity and other campus involvements. The African American early 1970s. population on campus at the time was small— It was a time of freedom, Morgan recalled.

Campus was engaged in candid political he said there were 86 black students admitted conversations during the Watergate scandal— into his 1972 first-year class initially. Students especially since President Richard Nixon had found fellowship by supporting one another.

Black students normally sat at three tables attended Duke Law School and there had been a spell of streaking.

See MORGAN on Page 4 But a large part of Morgan’s Duke

“It makes sense to me that there should be some security cameras on Central Campus. It’s arguably the most exposed part of campus, and it’s the least densely populated,” he said.

“It would make a lot of sense to me that they would have some level of security camera surveillance on Central Campus.”

Vice President for Administration Kyle Cavanaugh contends the University has in fact dedicated considerable resources to Central Campus. He wrote in an email that the University has added security cameras on Central Campus as part of a pilot program, but would not give out their location for security purposes.

An assessment of the program will be made during the summer, he wrote.

“More investment has been made in Central Campus, related to security, than any other section of Duke [in the last three years],” Cavanaugh wrote. “Including the increase in staffing, new door locks, fencing, lighting and other initiatives, the overall investment has exceeded a million dollars,” he wrote.

The University has spent more than a million dollars on campus security on Central Campus, but two recent crimes there continue to raise concerns.

Both a car theft and a burglary took place between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 13 at 1900 Yearby Avenue. The thieves broke into the apartment of junior Christopher Hill and his roommate, and the latter had his car stolen. Hill said that after speaking with the Duke University Police Department, he believes that the burglary and car theft are connected.

“We strongly suspect [the crimes are connected] because [my roommate’s] keys were found missing from the room at the exact same time that my belongings were taken,” Hill said. “We’re pretty sure they are the same.”

A Duke Today report released Monday evening confirmed that DUPD has issued See SAFETY on Page 4 warrants for the arrests of Durham residents Rollin Anthony Owens, Jr. and Veronica Robinson. They are charged with breaking and entering and numerous counts of felonious larceny in this case.

An investigation report obtained from DUPD from April 13 reported $19,950 in property stolen. The stolen items included a $4,500 watch, $300 Bose speakers, two iPads worth $400 in total and a silver 2013 Ford Escape worth $15,000.

However, Hill said DUPD was able to track all the items except for his roommate’s car to several pawn shops in Durham.

He commended their handling of the investigation and said he expects to see his items returned once DUPD receives warrants for seizure.

These incidents came after several other thefts on campus. For example, four black TaoTao mopeds have been stolen from West Campus and Central Campus since Chronicle File Photo March 7. Hill questioned why there were not Almost $20,000 in property—including a car more security cameras on Central Campus, and two iPads—were stolen from Central Campus April 13. especially given these recent robberies.

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CONDUCT from page 1 had not been given to panel members until the day of the hearing, and as a result, the panel may not have had time to review the documentation. In addition, the panel did not have the intended number of students because it was occurring in the summer, and one of the panelists had a conflict of interest with another, Doe said.

As a result of these issues, Doe said that OSC gave her the option to postpone the hearing.

But OSC required that if she went ahead with the hearing, she would have to waive her right to appeal based on any of those particular issues. Because Doe had flown to Duke for the hearing, she could not easily postpone it, and therefore waived her rights, she explained.

“For me, [postponing] wasn’t a real option because I had just spent so much money flying to Durham, and I was already there at that point, so I couldn’t just say, ‘Let’s cancel the hearing,’” Doe said. “So I just ended up having to waive my rights.”

Ekstrand said that he has seen similar situations in a number of other cases.

“You see it a lot. It raises issues and questions.

Often students are asked to waive certain rights in the 11th hour. They get to their hearing, they’re completely exhausted, it’s been an ordeal and they’re ready to present their entire case all by themselves,” he explained. “And then they’re told, ‘Oh, we have this new panelist and you might know him or her but you can waive your right to object or you could object and we will reschedule the hearing.’ And at that point all the student wants to do is just sign and say, ‘Let’s just get this over with.’”

The hearing panel found Doe responsible for cheating by a 3-2 vote. Doe said that the panel heard from the developer of EBB, Chris Bombardo, who told the panel that adware— software that downloads or displays advertising material—had previously caused glitches with

EBB, but the panel did not find that convincing.

The panel then voted to give Doe a twosemester suspension, among other sanctions.

It had to unanimously approve the suspension, and it did so even though it only found Doe responsible by a bare majority.

“It’s not logical for two people on that panel who didn’t believe that I had done anything wrong to then sanction me for two semesters of suspension. Logically that doesn’t make sense,” Doe said. “But once again, those aren’t things you can appeal upon because they are things that are technically justified in the Community Standard.”

When asked about why panels can vote with a bare majority to find a student responsible but then can suspend them, Stephen Bryan, associate dean of students and director of the Office of Student Conduct, explained that panelists are under no obligation to vote against a suspension even if they voted that a student was not responsible.

“There is no expectation that if a hearing panelist votes to find a student ‘not responsible,’ that that hearing panelist is then expected to vote on the sanctions if the student is found responsible,” Bryan wrote in an email. “In other words, we do not require hearing panelists to vote for a sanction if in fact they voted ‘not responsible’ for the violation.

In reality, this is typically not a germane issue, as most often hearing panels are in consensus about their decision.”

Bryan did not explain, however, why suspending a student after a bare majority finding of responsibility would not violate the spirit of the rule stated in the community standard that suspensions must be unanimously approved.

In 2015-16, OSC reported that 47 students were suspended for community standard violations, the large majority for one or two semesters. Peer institutions which release student conduct statistics have had far fewer suspensions. In 2015-16, the University

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2017 | 3

of Pennsylvania suspended 17 students, and Brown University suspended two students. In 2014-15, Harvard suspended 25 undergraduates, Northwestern University suspended 7 students and the University of Chicago suspended 12 undergraduates.

Ekstrand said after looking at reports from a number of other institutions, he arrived at the conclusion that Duke suspends far more students than its peers.

“I looked around and saw that peer institutions are suspending 1/20th of the number of kids,” he said.

He also questioned the value of suspending a student in cases of first-time academic dishonesty offenses, arguing that the University was missing a significant teachable moment by simply sending a student home.

“How is Duke discharging its obligation to educate by suspending that student, sending him home with his tail between his legs and stamping ‘academic dishonesty’ on his transcript? I have not received a satisfying answer,” Ekstrand said. “It seems to me that, by simply suspending a student in that circumstance, Duke is missing an opportunity to have a meaningful impact on the student and to teach at the highest level.”

The appeal After the suspension, Doe hired a lawyer and engaged another forensics expert to help prepare an appeal. She appealed on the grounds that the panel’s finding had “no plausible basis in fact” because of the technical evidence she had submitted, as well as on the strength of new evidence from the second forensics expert pinpointing how EBB had malfunctioned on her laptop.

Doe’s appeal was accepted, and her case was sent to a new hearing panel, even though the community standard says that successful appeals should be sent to the original hearing panel, a fact which was significant in the Ciaran McKenna case. McKenna, who was suspended

for six semesters from the University for sexual assault, is currently arguing in court that an appeals board does not have the option to send a case to a new panel and instead must either resolve the case or send it back to the original panel. McKenna won an injunction against the University allowing him to continue taking classes while his case proceeds.

Since Doe’s appeal, the Community Standard has been updated to remove the “no plausible basis in fact” argument as a grounds for appeal.

This grounds for appeal was also previously weakened—students used to be able to appeal if “the finding of responsibility was inconsistent with the weight of the information.”

Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, said that this was changed and then removed because it was creating confusion on the function of appeals in the student conduct process.

“It was not being interpreted correctly in most cases and often created confusion about what that aspect was intended to cover,” Moneta wrote in an email. “Appeals are intended to assure compliance with proper procedures and those are the current grounds for appeal.”

Ekstrand said that he has observed a pattern in which Duke has changed the Community Standard after a number of students successfully appealed the findings of a conduct board on the same basis.

“I can almost predict it—they’re going to change the rules,” Ekstrand said. “That suggests that whoever is changing the rules is responding to what’s working to protect the students—by taking it away.”

The recent changes to students’ ability to appeal due to a lack of evidence presented to the panel illustrate this point, he noted.

“Most recently, after we won a number of appeals by showing that the evidence did not support the panel’s finding of responsibility, the See CONDUCT on Page 4

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CONDUCT from page 3 rules were changed to restrict that basis for appeal,” Ekstrand said. “And when we kept winning appeals on that basis, the rules were changed again, this time to remove the sufficiency of the evidence as a basis for appeal altogether.”

Doe also ran into problems during her second hearing.

She said that OSC would not let her listen to an audio recording they had taken of the first hearing when she was preparing for the second hearing.

“The problem that I was having is that they were saying, ‘This was a new hearing, so you can’t mention any reference to the previous hearing. And you can’t mention any previous testimony,’” Doe said.

But a critical part of Doe’s case was the evidence she had assembled and presented in the first hearing.

She said she told OSC that she would include information from the previous hearing in her report for the second panel, whether OSC wanted her to or not. “[OSC] was like, ‘Look, if you don’t take all this information out, all the mentions of the previous testimony

and the previous hearing, we will redact it for you,’” Doe said. “And then actually what I ended up doing is I redacted it myself, and everywhere I took out information I put, ‘Corroborating evidence has been redacted at the request of the Office of Student Conduct.’ Because it was.

That’s the factual statement, and it also bears no mention of the previous hearing. And obviously they didn’t like that very much, so finally they just accepted the original statement[without redaction].”

Doe noted she is glad that she was eventually allowed to include evidence from the previous hearing in the second hearing. The developer of EBB once again talked to the panel, but this time seemed to indicate that EBB could not malfunction. Doe was able to use the information she had presented from the previous hearing to show that he had contradicted himself.

Doe added that the panel almost did not call a forensics expert who had evidence that was crucial to her case.

“You can present witnesses on the list, but the panel reserves the right as to whether or not they’re going to call them,” she said. “I hired a second forensic witness, and they almost didn’t call him. This is the guy who identified a specific code in the

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software that’s making it glitch—you have to call him.”

After the hearing, the panel found Doe not responsible for cheating by a 4-1 vote. Before Doe received her decision, the chair of the second panel had some advice for her.

“He started off by saying that, ‘There are a lot of people on this panel who very much think you are guilty. I hope you come out of this process with an appreciation for our student conduct process,’” Doe said.

Doe says that she did not appreciate the advice.

“They did everything they could to make me feel guilty despite the fact that they found me not responsible,” she said.

MORGAN from page 2 for meals at the Cambridge Inn, Duke’s West Campus cafeteria at the time, he recalled.

“Because there were not many black students out of the population of Duke then, we found ourselves gravitating toward one another in a very strong sense,” Morgan said. “Not in a separatist sense, but in a sense of unity to help give each other a sense of family.”

To law school and beyond As history and sociology major, Morgan explained that he was not always destined for a career in law—he had initially planned to major in the natural sciences.

A meeting with his academic advisor changed that.

“We looked at where my strengths and weaknesses were.

My academic advisor said, ‘Actually you look like you’re better suited and tailored to go into some social science field,’” he said.

“That’s when my tide turned for me about midway through my experience at Duke.”

After graduating in 1976, Morgan enrolled at the North Carolina Central University School of Law, where he was student body president during his final year and graduated with honors.

Upon completing law school, he took a job with the North Carolina Department of Justice, working there until 1989 when he became an administrative law judge. In 1994, he became a District Court judge in Wake County and then was elected to the Superior Court in 2005.

Last year, Morgan ran a statewide campaign for the State Supreme Court. Before his election, the court had a 4-3 Republican majority. When one of its Republican incumbents was up for re-election, Morgan ran against him.

His victory Nov. 8 was a bright spot for liberals—the court’s partisan balance shifted, giving Democrats more leverage in a state where Republicans dominate the legislature. He won 54.5 percent of the vote and a majority of counties.

As Morgan took his place on the court, his Duke experiences stuck with him.

He explained that his social connections with other students and faculty members help him better understand perspectives of communities with different backgrounds.

“Certainly being in a multicultural student body such as Duke prepared me to understand the similarities and differences that we have as a society in America generally and in North Carolina specifically,” Morgan said. “I learned to appreciate the different cultures, the different backgrounds that all of us have, whether it’s social, political, economic, ethnic—because Duke is such a microcosm of society.”

Geoffrey Simmons, Duke Law ’77 and longtime friend of Morgan’s, described him as a charismatic man with a can-do spirit.

“The very first thing that you would think about when you think about Mike Morgan would be humility,” Simmons said.

“Humility is what has made him successful. He never puts himself out as being better than anybody else. He doesn’t have a lot of ego—he just lets his work speak for him.”

Morgan noted that as an African American man on the State Supreme Court, he looks at the role as an opportunity to express a voice that was not heard in the state’s highest court for much of North Carolina’s history.

As he continues to forge his own pathways throughout his educational and professional career, he left some advice for current undergraduates.

“Utilize these valuable resources that Duke is fortunate to have to pass along its students,” Morgan said.

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DUPD Police Chief John Dailey confirmed last week in an email that more than 800 new security cameras have recently been installed “across campus.” Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, wrote via email that new security cameras have been installed for East Campus residence halls. The University is considering cameras for West Campus residence halls, he added.

Cavanaugh wrote that cameras have been added to all parking garages, as well as the entries and exits of several buildings, but would not specify exact locations for security purposes.

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recess

VOLUME 18, ISSUE 26

APRIL 26, 2017

Duke Independent Film Festival Festival allows student filmmakers to shine, page 9

SXSW Coverage

Review of new film “Gemini”, page 8

The New Pornographers

Carl Newman talks music and politics, page 7

R 6 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2017

recess editors Last words?

Dillon Fernando .................et tu brute Christy Kuesel ...................... demoted

Kirby Wilson ........ if you need anything Drew Haskins ..................problematic Tim Campbell ................... molto bene Aditya Joshi ..............................m.i.a.

Georgina Del Vecho.............. still here Jessica Williams ...................tschuss!

Will Atkinson ............... new twitter bio Nina Wilder ......................... stoppppp

More Online Check out the Recess online page for more stories!

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Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry to say that this is the end of times… with me as Recess editor. There’s a lot of self-inflicted pressure and expectations for this editor’s note because it very well could be my last piece of published writing—ever!

Plus, the final Recess editor’s notes in the past have been so heart-wrenching and actually meaningful that I could never compete. So instead, I’m going to write about something that’s the complete opposite of meaningful— un-meaningful, if you will—to the masses: my time here at Duke and at The Chronicle. *insert instrumental of “Seasons of Love”* How do I measure the years at The Chronicle/Duke? In staff boxes, in articles, in slightly off-color and mostly offensive emails, in empty Diet Coke cans, in the number of AP style violations #oxfordcommahate? How about none of the above because this is a God-awful bit that worked out better in my head, but not on paper.

What I’ll really take away from The Chronicle and Duke in general is how much it’s given me a sheltered, opportune environment that nurtured me and helped me figure out what I’m good at and what I’m supposed to do.

When I was in high school, I was at the top of my class, a varsity tennis player, volunteered for endless hours— and that was just the first page of my very cookie-cutter, try-hard resume. On paper, I was perfect, but in reality I was a Hindenburg—and not just because I always looked bloated in high school.

Even with my “perfect” resume, most of the top colleges I had applied to rejected me and as a result, my depression/ anxiety double combo entangled every reaching nerve fiber in my body.

When I got off the waitlist to Duke, I took the opportunity as a last minute positive omen that wasn’t supposed to happen, but did for some reason.

I snatched the opportunity to break free and sprinted the hell to Durham without hesitation. Nobody would care what I did or monitor who I was. And while some people came to struggle, grappling with this truth for years, I decided that life posed a rare opportunity to me: to redefine who I was on my own terms.

While it hasn’t been easy, an info session O-Week for The Chronicle changed my life forever. Writing and ultimately editing for Recess has given me the ability to challenge my mechanistic and methodical way

editor’s note of thinking with a more creative and curious approach. It’s allowed me to flirt with my love for popular culture with writing in a way that ultimately switched my career path from pre-med/biology to prospectively writing in television. But above all, The Chronicle empowered me to critique and condemn television and music in reviews, become more confident in my charmingly brash interviewing demeanor, sass the hell out of my current state of life in editorials and write with a (96.7%) fearless conviction—I’m still scared of crazy old white alumni who decide verbally attack my work and personal

character in comment section <3. In all seriousness, The Chronicle allowed me to grow a backbone and find my voice—and after being repressed for 18 years, it has a lot to say.

And while my new found friends at Duke were struggling to realize where they fit in our highly hierarchal and problematic social scene that’s highly based on comparing ourselves to each other, I gradually stopped caring because The Chronicle was a refuge for my creative mind.

But while it’s easy to label my Chronicle experience as transformative, it’s just as easy for me to measure my Duke experience by the countless time my anxiety paralyzed me in my bed, sometimes because of an explicit reason and other times, for a less obvious one; or maybe the times when I’ve made one too many reckless and self-destructive decisions. But what would life be without struggles? Perfect doesn’t exist and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’ve learned to be more confident in my own talents and abilities. And you have to derive whatever bit of happiness and purpose in life from the experiences and relationships that kindle your passions and healthy emotions.

When I received the news about becoming Recess editor during a crossroads in my life when I decided to quit pursuing medicine and commit myself to my dream. Now, as my tenure as Recess editor comes to an end, I’m finally coming to terms with how influential Recess made me a stronger, more confident person because of the people who challenged me and helped me grow.

Here’s to you all.

––Dillon Fernando

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Local Arts

Recess interviews: The New Pornographer’s Carl Newman Will Atkinson The Chronicle

The New Pornographers play at Raleigh’s Lincoln Theatre May 1, fresh off the release of their seventh album “Whiteout Conditions.” It’s the first album by the indie group to be written entirely by frontman Carl Newman, and it’s also the first without Dan Bejar, lead singer of Destroyer. The Chronicle talked to Newman about the new record and the political climate that influenced it. The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The Chronicle: “Whiteout Conditions” was the first album to be written entirely by you. Can you describe how the creative process was different than your previous records?

Carl Newman: Oddly enough, it wasn’t that different on my side, because Dan [Bejar] never worked on my songs. So in terms of me sitting in the studio working on songs, nothing changed. It didn’t have that element where Dan would come in and be working on his songs. That was the difference, but for me actively making this record, the process was almost identical to any other record.

TC: In a statement about the album, you mentioned that the record was the band’s “mutated idea of krautrock.” It definitely has a more driving, electronicdriven sound than any of the previous records. What influenced that sound?

CN: It was more the idea of krautrock than anything. One record we went to a few times was “Crazy Rhythms” by The Feelies. I love the

percussive attack of that—I love the jittery, laid-back speed of it. That’s something we definitely went for as a reference point.

TC: Most people probably don’t think of New Pornographers as a political band, but songs like “High Ticket Attractions” touch on fears of climate change and apocalypse.

You’ve also been a pretty vocal critic of President Trump on Twitter. How did the political climate influence the recording of “Whiteout Conditions”?

CN: That stuff snuck into the album whether I wanted it to or not, because that was 2016. You couldn’t be alive in America or even on Earth in 2016 and not be concerned about where we were going. It just snuck in. There was never any conscious idea of it—“Oh, we gotta say something here”—it just comes out of you accidentally.

TC: On the sur face, to me, it sounds like a bright, energetic album, but there’s this sense of wound-up anxiety underneath.

CN: Yeah, I think that’s definitely a theme that runs through the record.

It runs through a lot of our work.

It’s like music as a form of escape— music as a form of redemption from things like anxiety over the world or personal anxiety.

TC: Is that something that fed into your other albums as well? How was that different for “Whiteout Conditions”?

CN: I think that is a theme that’s run through a lot of our records. Our songs, musically, have always been very upbeat, but then you listen to the lyrics and read the lyrics, and realize

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Carl Newman, frontman of The New Pornographers, wrote all of “Whiteout Conditions.” that, oh, it’s a little darker. That comes from the way I’ve always used music as an escape—not as something you listen to but also as something you make. I think most artists probably feel that way: you create. You create something to get something out of you that needs to be removed.

TC: To what extent, if any, can pop music be a vehicle for progress as opposed to just an escape or outlet for that anxiety?

CN: It depends on what you call “pop music.” Hip hop is technically pop music, and that seems like music that can be very political in a great way. The kind of pop music we make, I don’t know if it lends itself to being

hard-hitting political commentary just because of the medium—just because I’m a big fan of melody and harmony, and songs with a lot of melody and harmony aren’t sufficient hard-hitting political songs. But I think there’s also something at the heart of it, though, of just going out there being an artist as a political statement. Or going out there and being a band that has women and men playing together. There’s little things that are subtle political statements, especially in today’s world.

Maybe to us they don’t seem like political statements at all, but...

A condensed version of this interview appears in print. For the full story, go to dukechronicle.com/section/recess.

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Thursday, April 27, 7 PM 5:30 PM Cash bar; 6 PM tour of Nina Chanel Abney exhibition Durham artist Keith Knight is a rapper, social activist and educator.

For nearly two decades, audiences have read his musings on race in three original comic strips.

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‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’ in the age of TV reboots Will Atkinson The Chronicle After years of whispers, rumors and a hefty Kickstarter fund, “Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return” dropped onto the screens of Netflix subscribers everywhere April 14.

The original series from which it was born, “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” became a cult classic in the 1990s with its simple premise: Put three people in a theater with an awful movie, and watch them make fun of it. (To give an idea of the show’s ironic universe, these three people—one human and two robots, specifically—just happen to be aboard a spaceship controlled by mad scientists who use dreadful B-movies as a form of torture.)

The revival of “Mystery Science Theater” is just the latest in a string of cult classics whose time on air was cut short, only to be reincarnated in recent years by a paid streaming service. As Netflix, Hulu and their ilk have experienced greater and greater returns, they’ve taken the opportunity to develop programming independent of networks—at this point, original series like “Westworld,” “Stranger Things” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” are no longer the exception but the rule.

Along with the boom in new original series has come an interest in resurrecting old ones. Beginning with the long-rumored fourth season of “Arrested Development” in 2013—a revival which, oddly, has birthed its own cult following of apologists after initial mixed reviews (have you watched it backwards?)—Netflix has repeatedly reached into its (very deep) coffers to give new life to shows like “Trailer Park Boys,” “Gilmore Girls” and “Full House.” Meanwhile, Fox has a new “The X-Files” out and another “Prison Break” coming, while the release of Showtime’s “Twin Peaks” is less than a month away.

These reboots are, on their surface, a golden opportunity in what has been called the golden age of TV. In past years, the limits of network budgets and contracts have forced otherwise quality series to go under before they were allowed to fully develop, frustrating legions of fans in the process. What better way to remedy the fates of “Mystery Science Theater” and “Twin Peaks” than to give them a second chance, when the industry has the means to do so?

But as a viewer of these series in 2017, the constant renewal can feel like nostalgic overload, even if—or perhaps because—the results are everything an original fan could ask for.

Every last detail in the new “Mystery Science Theater” remains faithful to the series’ original run. The DIY, lofi set has been preserved, as well as the lovably awkward dialogue between the dwellers of the Satellite of Love and their captors. The chintzy theme song is back, albeit with a new origin story for the new host Jonah Heston (played by comedian Jonah Ray of “The Nerdist Podcast”).

The original humor, too, a rapid-fire stream of quips and references that manages to be clever without being crass, is in full force. One of the few flaws of the original “Mystery Science Theater” was that it was difficult, over the course of an hour and a half, to keep the audience’s attention with fresh riffs on an otherwise unbearable B-movie. Jonah and his robot friends have no such problem in “The Return”—if anything, they only gain steam after a somewhat slow start in the first episode, “Reptilicus.”

“Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return” seems designed to hit all the pleasure points of diehard fans. It’s a distillation of everything that made the original run great: Creator Joel Hodgson, who also helms the new series, consciously modeled the new

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The reboot “Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return” premiered on Netflix on April 14. episodes after the old series’ greatest production crew, and one wonders hits. And certainly, what the revival if they were in the right. The cheap, of “Mystery Science Theater” delivers handcrafted approach, for a lowis 14 deeply enjoyable additions to a budget production, was a functional format that has lain fallow for nearly one—so were the commercial break twenty years. interludes, which the Netflix series What “Mystery Science Theater” likewise preserves. In the show’s fails to deliver is anything particularly new streaming form, uninhibited by new or ambitious. Like so many revivals finances and commercials, do these in both television and film (looking at aesthetic decisions serve any purpose you, “Beauty and the Beast”) the new beyond mere nostalgia? iteration opts to stay the course where By all appearances, “Mystery it could chart a new path, resting on Science Theater: The Return” hits the tropes beloved by old fans where it mark better than most recent reboots. could dare to draw in new ones.

Making fun of terrible movies, after The do-it-yourself aesthetic of the all, is a timeless pleasure. But as set, for example, so integral to the streaming services and film production original run, is somewhat undercut companies continue to cash in on old by the pristine camera quality of favorites, it is up to them whether Netflix’s studios. Hodgson reportedly they will simply rehash the quirks fought for this design choice against of the original or take a risk and try the wishes of some others in the new something new.

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SXSW reviews: Noir film ‘Gemini’ wades into a sea of clichés Drew Haskins The Chronicle Takes on modern noir are so prevalent this decade that the entire genre is borderline rote. Masterfully done projects such as the TV version of “Fargo,” “Gone Baby Gone” and “Gone Girl” combine a sense of formal classicism, pulpy material and an attention to character detail that elevate themselves from a morass of lesser entities. Aaron Katz’s new film,“Gemini,” is one of those lesser entities. Stars Lola Kirke and Zoe Kravitz gamely try to give their underwritten characters life, but the movie mires them in a sea of wan genre clichés.

Kirke (who, it must be said, is fantastic) plays Jill, the personal assistant and best friend to starlet Heather. Kravitz, essentially portraying herself, imbues Heather with a worldweary resign that suggests her growing dissatisfactions with the trappings of fame, and she and Kirke have a wonderful, lived-in chemistry that could support an entire movie by itself. Heather has no shortage of tribulations in her life: a disgruntled director (Nelson Franklin), a selfieobsessed super-fan (the wonderful

Jessica Parker Kennedy) and a lecherous paparazzo (James Ransone) all contribute to making every day a waking hell. One night, Heather asks Jill for a gun. The next morning, she winds up dead.

It’s a great first 20 minutes, but the rest of “Gemini” can’t sustain the tension and intrigue of its opening act. Jill, suspected of Heather’s demise, goes on the run pursued by a quirky detective (an underutilized John Cho) and tries to piece together what happened to her friend. Katz’s film suffers from a tonal issue. His previous works such as 2014’s “Land Ho!” are quintessential “dramedies,” but that blend of tones is tricky to pull off when working within the confines of film noir. Movies like “Fargo” and “Inherent Vice” filter the lurid gruesomeness of the genre through a lens of levity—Midwestern politeness and stoner shenanigans, respectively— that create worlds terrifyingly surreal in their mundaneness. “Gemini” doesn’t do that, choosing instead to focus on how seemingly terrible Jill is at being a fugitive. That kind of take could yield good dividends, but Katz’s screenplay thinks Jill is a lot more bumbling than she actually is. Would a true patsy really be able to steal a

Kawasaki motorcycle and evade the police in a high-speed chase?

Despite its character and structural issues, “Gemini” still has its charms.

Kirke and Kravitz are terrific, as is Greta Lee as Heather’s K-Pop superstar girlfriend. Katz clearly loves Hollywood, and the cinematography has the same camera glide and soft neon hues as other LA noirs like

“Drive.” In a way, the film feels like a regression for Katz. His Portland-set 2011 feature “Cold Weather” offered a similar take on modern noir that crackled with energy and pulpiness in a way that “Gemini” can’t quite match.

Kirke and Kravitz deserve another film together—something quieter, more character-focused and less enamored with its own cleverness.

Special to The Chronicle

“Gemini” has a promising opening scene, but then delves into issues with plot and tone.

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Campus Arts

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Duke Independent Film Festival showcases student talent Nina Wilder The Chronicle

Andrew Method, Pratt ’16, has been passionate about film for as long as he can remember. Reared in Park City, Utah—the city where Sundance Film Festival takes place annually— Method was raised in an environment that adored and celebrated film.

His surroundings indelibly rubbed off on him. Method began to attend Sundance regularly in high school, and because Park City has become something of a “film town,” his high school even hosted its own film festival that exhibited student talent.

“I always really enjoyed that, because it was cool to go and see films that my fellow classmates had made,” Method said. “That was always a really fun night.”

It makes sense, then, that Method decided to try his hand at film studies when he came to Duke. He was a Pratt student, but his love of film wasn’t quite ready to be pushed to the wayside.

Method took a film class the spring of his sophomore year and made a film as his final project—an endeavor that was rewarded the following fall semester when it earned a place in the Arts of the Moving Image departmental film festival. The festival showcases films made by students in AMI classes during the previous semester, and the films are nominated for a place in the festival by AMI faculty.

While he was happy to be included, something about the festival’s niche pull bothered Method.

“You could only get in that if you were in an AMI class the semester before,” Method explained. “But what if you made something for fun, for a different class or over the summer?

What could you do? I felt like there was a need for a campus-wide film festival that would accept submissions from any Duke student.”

Method, placing the onus on himself to create such a space for film on campus, affectionately recalled what he told a peer before he began the arduous task of organizing an entire film festival on his own: “Well, I don’t think it’ll be that much work.”

Much to his dismay, Method would prove himself wrong—as it turns out, putting together such a large event on one’s own is a difficult undertaking.

Thanks to long nights spent viewing and programming and curating, Duke Independent Film Festival’s first screening took place in 2015 and

Special to the Chronicle

DIFF, an annual film festival for all students, was hosted for the third time last weekend. featured 16 films (from a submission both undergraduates and graduates pool of 38 films) over the course of at Duke, regardless of their respective a single night. As Method entered major or school. It’s perhaps one of his senior year in 2016 and looked to the more far-reaching art events on cultivate an executive board that was campus—there’s no requisite class as equally devoted to the festival as he or threshold of talent to abide by; was, he knew exactly who to entrust instead, an interest in filmmaking with the future of DIFF: sophomore and the time commitment required Sofiya Volobuyeva. to make a film are the only skills Volobuyeva, who joined DIFF’s necessary for a student looking to earn exec board during the fall of her first a spot at DIFF. A submission doesn’t year, eagerly accepted her position as even have to contain Hollywood-level president for the 2016-17 school year. production quality, for that matter— However, she would first have to face good storytelling, at its core, will shine the same difficulties that Method did through whatever medium is available. in organizing a successful independent “We’re a film festival, so we do care film festival on campus—and, like her about production quality,” Volobuyeva predecessor who had just graduated, said. “But at the same time, we almost completely on her own. understand that production isn’t “I was basically left without an exec everything and not everyone has access board, because the members we did to good production. So we look for have were no longer interested in good stories, things that we think are being a part of it,” Volobuyeva recalls. important to show, and we look for things “So in the fall, while I was preparing that are relevant to our audience.” logistical work with Duke and Duke isn’t a school for filmmakers by contacting vendors, I was also looking any means—a quick glance at Trinity’s list for an exec board.” of sprawling majors will reveal that fact Still, like Method, Volobuyeva with its glaring lack of a comprehensive managed to make it work—even if that film studies major—but there’s a meant a grueling, tiresome day spent thriving, vibrant filmmaking community watching each submission carefully discernable on campus. It tends to be before deciding on DIFF’s 2017 lineup. tucked away in AMI, Visual and Media “We lock ourselves in a room from Studies, the Center for Documentary 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and we view each Studies and the MFA program for submission,” Volobuyeva said. “We have Experimental and Documentary Arts, a sheet, and while we’re watching, we but it’s there. When noticed by Method, take notes, we rate films and we select the film community’s often invisible films that we think should be eligible status within Duke became a problem for an award.” that he felt could be rectified through DIFF accepts submissions from an event like DIFF.

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“With those film classes I took, I began to discover the often overlooked and unknown film community at Duke,” Method acknowledged. “I had no idea there were so many people who do make films on campus and are so talented.”

Nevertheless, there’s something intrinsically beautiful about the universality of film that DIFF tries to incorporate into its appeal to students.

Film is perhaps the highest, most allencompassing form of art that exists— the way in which moving image is woven together with sound through editing and given permanence via celluloid (and, more recently, digital means) is unparalleled in music, dance and visual art. It’s entrancing, it’s enthralling and it’s powerful. Further, film is a form of art that anyone can partake in—really, all it takes is a smartphone—to tell any story that they feel needs to be told.

“I think it’s harmful to ‘otherize’ filmmaking and make it this separate realm,” Volobuyeva mentioned. “Because we pull from so many different types of people on campus, it shows that art and whatever you’re into are not separate.

People love film, it has mass appeal.

And if you know how to do it well, you can get people to consume any kind of content. It doesn’t have to be solely for artistic purposes.”

DIFF 2017, which occurred last Friday and Saturday, was a remarkable success for Method and Volobuyeva. Twenty-one short films were screened over the span of two nights to sizeable audiences, and the festival’s submission pool continues to grow steadily.

Volobuyeva presented five awards to participating filmmakers: Best Cinematography, Best Filmmaker, Best Editing, Best Picture and Audience Choice. And while DIFF hasn’t quite joined the ranks of its peer institutions’ student-run film festivals, it’s well on its way—in a few years’ time, with continued enthusiasm, exposure and participation, a spot on DIFF’s lineup may become a coveted opportunity.

Method surmised DIFF’s purpose in the enduring struggle to give filmmaking its due visibility on campus: “I think it’s important to foster a film community on campus—to have an environment where people can share their stories through that medium.

It’s important that DIFF is something Duke students can take ownership over and feel proud of the work their fellow students have made.”

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‘Big Little Lies’ explores complexities of the female experience Christy Kuesel The Chronicle

Courtesy of HBO

“Big Little Lies” manages to be genuine without becoming boring, combining genuine characters with a murder mystery.

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Breathtaking shots of Monterey Bay. Real, complex female characters discussing real, complex female issues. The most empathetic and musically precocious six-year-olds you will ever meet. HBO miniseries “Big Little Lies” offers all of this and more.

When my roommate first told me to watch “Big Little Lies,” I was skeptical. A show about moms and their kids didn’t sound all that appealing to me, and neither did a typical murder mystery. It was only when I found out that the viewer didn’t know who both the murderer and the murdered were that I became intrigued. I already had the sense that the show was going to transcend any usual genre.

The basic premise of “Big Little Lies” is this: the show focuses on an upper-class community in Monterey Bay. The children of Madeline McKenzie, the town busybody, Celeste Wright, a seemingly per fect wife and mother and Jane Chapman, who is new to the area, are all entering first grade.

The show follows the lives of this trio and their struggles with relationships, work and motherhood.

Each episode also contains flash forwards to the aftermath of Trivia Night, where an undisclosed killer has murdered one of the attendees. Much of the commentary on the protagonists and the culture of Monterey Bay comes from police interviews conducted with other characters on the show after the murder takes place.

Although I started to watch “Big Little Lies” to figure out what happened at bloody Trivia Night, I stayed for Jane Chapman, Madeline McKenzie and, most of all, Celeste Wright. This trio of protagonists carries the show out of any typical mold and provides the show with its sincerity as well as its drama. None of the three mothers are typecast as stereotypical suburban moms and each woman is allowed to grow and confront her own problems over each of the seven episodes. Yes, all of the mothers fiercely love their children and participate in the upper-class culture of Monterey Bay, but this doesn’t make them boring characters.

Rather, it makes the viewer care about them and their families and become even more emotionally invested in the show.

One of the key strengths of “Big Little Lies” is its focus on female characters and more typically female issues. Almost all of the main characters on the show are women. As a result, issues that many women experience but are rarely discussed on television appear. Domestic abuse and struggling to leave one’s abuser is a prominent issue on the show, as is discovering how to move on from past relationships and embrace new ones. All of the mothers struggle with the balance between work and family, as well as the question of whether being “just a mother” is enough. Rather than being shown as overly dramatic or backstabbing women, characters on “Big Little Lies” resemble real women with real problems far more important than relationship or friendship drama.

As with any show, “Big Little Lies” does have its fair share of drawbacks. The season (and possibly series finale) wrapped up some issues too nicely while leaving countless questions unanswered.

The character of Madeline McKenzie became a little repetitive and irritating over the course of the show. I am still perplexed as to why so many six-year-olds enjoy curating playlists with music by Alabama Shakes and Sufjan Stevens. These slight faults do not detract too much from the quality of the series, as every show is bound to have some less than per fect characters.

All in all, “Big Little Lies” is a near per fect show that any viewer can become invested in.

Whether you come to the show for its scenery, its memorable soundtrack or because you’re finally giving in to your roommate’s wishes, “Big Little Lies” will keep a hold on you far past its last episode. The sincerity behind the characters and their lives makes the show stand out in an era of fake news and reality TV. It will make you cheer for the protagonists, laugh over first grade antics and keep you on the edge of your seat until the final episode fades to black.

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TRACK AND FIELD

COLUMN

SPEED KILLS

Jeremy McDuffie excels in track, prepares for new role on the gridiron Amrith Ramkumar The Chronicle For many football players, participating in track and field in the spring is a fun way to compete and improve skills that translate to their primary sport in the fall.

But Jeremy McDuffie is not one of those athletes.

A standout cornerback in high school, McDuffie was just as successful on the track.

As a junior, McDuffie led Shiloh High School in Georgia to its first 6A championship, winning three individual events in addition to a sprint relay. The Snellville, Ga., native capped off his memorable spring by posting the sixth-fastest time of any high-school athlete in the 110-meter hurdles with a blazing 13.83-second effort.

As he weighed football scholarship offers from Duke, Florida and Tennessee, among others, and a track and field offer from Southern California, McDuffie’s plans changed dramatically when he tore his left ACL late in his senior football season. The 5-foot-11 speedster was not able to run his final track season after committing to Duke in February 2015 as he recovered from the injury, and the lengthy recovery process and his spring football commitments prevented McDuffie from participating in track and field during his first two years in Durham.

But with the Blue Devils wrapping up spring practice in early March this year—they still have weightlifting four days per week— and McDuffie finally feeling 100 percent healthy, he embraced the opportunity to get back on the track.

The results were almost immediate.

In his first outdoor event of the year at the Battle of the Blues April 1, McDuffie posted the second-best triple-jump mark in Duke history at 51 feet, 1 1/2 inches. Just a week later, he posted a time of 14.43 seconds

Jeremy Chen | The Chronicle Jeremy McDuffie is back shining on the track this spring as he transitions to the critical strike-safety position for the football team.

in the 110-meter hurdles at the Tennessee Relays—good enough for the fourth-best mark in Blue Devil history—and helped the sprint medley relay team take first.

Although he was not able to match those marks last weekend at the Duke Invite, McDuffie was still upbeat knowing how far he has come after a lengthy recovery process from his torn ACL. “Emotionally it was tough, just not being able to play my last two games, [dealing with the] recruiting stuff and not being able to run my last track season. It just put me in the mindset to grind harder and be able to come back faster,” McDuffie said. “I’m just grateful that I’m back. It feels good to be back doing something that you love. It’s fun getting back to it.”

McDuffie’s role on the track and field team this year continues a long tradition of standout Blue Devil football players also excelling in the more individual

Juan Bermudez | Chronicle File Photo McDuffie will have to be an effective playmaker defensively for the Blue Devil secondary to withstand several key departures in 2017.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2017 | 11

spring sport. However, McDuffie’s ability to balance both has been critical as he transitions to a new position on the back line of Duke’s defense—strike safety, arguably the most important role in the Blue Devils’ unique 4-2-5 scheme.

After playing in every game as a reserve cornerback despite not being 100 percent in 2015, the versatile, 175-pound defensive back saw action in 11 games as a true sophomore last fall, compiling 17 tackles in his second year as a backup cornerback.

Although he was primarily used in coverage during his first two seasons, McDuffie will play a completely different role next fall—one that requires him to attack the line of scrimmage, make openfield tackles and play multiple types of coverage depending on the situation. The thought of following in the footsteps of ACC Defensive Player of the Year Jeremy Cash and Corbin McCarthy, who led Duke in tackles for loss in 2016, at the strikesafety position might seem daunting, but McDuffie is confident he is ready to step into the role as a projected starter.

So is position coach Matt Guerrieri, who along with defensive backs coach Derek Jones is adjusting to life without program mainstays like McCarthy, Breon Borders, Deondre Singleton and DeVon Edwards.

“A lot of times guys get labeled as corners or safeties, but we like to think of it as the five best defensive backs on the field in our defense,” Guerrieri said. “His speed and physicality are going to be on display at that position…. Some of the fast guys do just that, they run great, but they might not be as physical as a bigger guy. Jeremy is a guy that has the physicality and has the speed and athleticism to succeed in that role.”

See MCDUFFIE on Page 12

Hooked from the start Every morning between 6 and 7 a.m., former Duke men’s basketball player and current ESPN analyst Jay Bilas tweets out Young Jeezy lyrics, followed by the phrase “I gotta go to work.”

During my three-year love affair with TweetDeck, I’ve seen Bilas’ daily tweet before going to bed more times than I care to count.

But I still like to start each day running The Chronicle’s sports department by reminding myself of a similar phrase: I get to go to work.

Choosing to lead coverage of Duke’s 26 varsity teams right after running the entire Chronicle for a year made many people look at me like I was certifiably insane.

Was essentially living in 301 Flowers for 365 more days really what I wanted to do just days removed from chasing everyone from Joe Biden to groups of protestors around campus?

For me, the choice was easy. Many seniors enter their final year of college with a number of bucket-list items, but I only had one main goal I wanted to accomplish before leaving Durham—serving as editor for the department that gave me an unexpected career path and brought out a passion I never even knew existed.

When I arrived at Duke in Fall 2013, I knew very little about journalism, and looking back, very little about Duke sports.

Born and raised in the football-crazed town of Norman, Okla., I thought my experience in student journalism would consist of writing a few stories here and there as I worked my way toward law school.

But the strangest thing happened to me as I got my start by building a relationship with the winningest women’s golf coach in Division I history and writing about ACC football—I became addicted to seeing my name on The Chronicle’s website.

Amrith Ramkumar

See RAMKUMAR on Page 12

Jack White | Chronicle File Photo Covering Duke football’s win at Notre Dame was one of the many highlights from sports editor Amrith Ramkumar’s time at The Chronicle.

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Neal Vaidya | The Chronicle McDuffie is also versatile on the track—he is able to contribute points in the 110-meter hurdles, triple jump and sprint relays.

MCDUFFIE from page 11 McDuffie’s ability to adapt to his new position and mesh with other former reserves who will step into the spotlight on Saturdays in the fall could determine how successful the Blue Devil defense is in bouncing back from a disappointing 2016 season. Riddled with injuries, Duke gave up at least 35 points four times and 15 passes of 40 or more yards.

Unlike his predecessors at strike safety, McDuffie is more familiar with covering speedy wide receivers all over the field.

This could help the Blue Devils limit the explosive plays that shredded them a season ago and are the top priority for any defense in the run-and-gun age of college football. “[Cash and McCarthy] were a lot bigger—they had a different playing style.

I’m coming into it trying to incorporate some of what they did but also trying to incorporate some corner stuff like man coverage and things like that they weren’t doing as much,” McDuffie said.

Although he might need to get a bit bigger to hold his own near the line of scrimmage, McDuffie stood out as a leader and was one

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of the team’s most improved players in spring practice, Guerrieri said.

In addition to preventing big plays, Duke’s secondary is concerned with making its own impact plays by forcing turnovers and generating tackles for loss as the fall approaches.

“He loves it. He played a position in high school where he was able to run the alley, make tackles and be really aggressive,” Guerrieri said. “He’s an aggressive by nature guy and he’s thrived.”

But before he completely turns his attention to slowing down ACC offenses on the gridiron, McDuffie still has some unfinished business left on the track.

As he continues getting more comfortable in the 110-meter hurdles and triple jump, McDuffie could make a push for an NCAA championship bid. He has already qualified for NCAA regionals May 25-27 in Lexington, Ky., and will be looked to as a point contributor two weeks before that in both of his individual events as well as a relay at the ACC championship, said Norm Ogilvie, Duke director of track and field.

“Jeremy has been especially good because he really loves track—he’s blended in great with our team,” Ogilvie said. “He feels like a full-fledged member of our team.”

Although McDuffie had to miss the indoor season because of his spring football commitments, Ogilvie noted that both programs benefit a great deal from the relationship since Duke football head coach David Cutcliffe’s staff can sell athletes who excel in both sports and Ogilvie’s squad can add explosiveness in the spring.

The Blue Devils have plenty of speed at multiple positions, but don’t be surprised next fall if the fastest “Cheetah” in Duke’s secondary is roaming from the strikesafety position.

“I always feel confident in my speed—I always felt like I was the fastest one on the [football] team,” McDuffie said. “A lot of the guys on the team feel that way. When they come on the track, that’s the only way they’re going to be able to test it.”

Hank Tucker contributed reporting.

RAMKUMAR from page 11 As I spent more time in our office and connected with the upperclassmen leading us at the time, I felt more motivated to write about sports I previously had little interest in and pick up the stories no one else wanted to write. Editors and other writers pitching stories soon became friends asking me to do something I loved, so it was pretty easy to say yes.

After my first interview with women’s basketball head coach Joanne P. McCallie, she started walking away before pausing, looking at me and saying, “Those were really good questions.” That was the first time I realized I might actually have potential as a journalist beyond The Chronicle.

And before starting my second semester, I had gotten a free trip home before finals as a reporter—I also had my first experience as a photographer and got hit with the basketball—slept in The Chronicle’s office to cover a winter-break women’s basketball game against Connecticut and sat courtside at Cameron to write about Duke men’s basketball for the first time.

Hooked probably doesn’t do my relationship with the organization justice.

Trying to join a selective living group or Greek organization never really entered my mind since I had already found an organization to dedicate myself to and the group of people I wanted to spend the rest of college with. That probably should have been the first clue that I was having anything but the typical Duke experience.

In the months that followed, I kept writing stories and blogs whenever I could and even found time to send one of my mentors, Ryan, the completely wrong directions when we were traveling to Winston-Salem, N.C., for Duke’s men’s basketball’s game at Wake Forest. Who knew Wake Forest was a separate town?

I got promoted to sports blog editor the last day of classes of my freshman year, beginning a three-year streak of having TweetDeck open almost 24/7 as I scoured the Internet for interesting stories like this one. I actually enjoyed helping other writers

The Chronicle in editing—in retrospect, that also probably should have been a warning sign that there was something off about me—and my new responsibilities made me want to learn even more about journalism.

Covering Duke women’s golf’s sixth national championship in person wasn’t too bad, either.

My sophomore year was when eyeopening experiences started becoming routine. I became familiar with the ins and outs of doing breaking news, publishing stories and seeing my work credited to some random person named Staff Reports. The first time I covered a Duke football game, Shaun Wilson broke the team’s single-game rushing record on just 12 carries.

Soon after, I became a beat writer for the men’s basketball team and traveled to Indianapolis for the Champions Classic. I learned that Waffle House tastes even better than normal when your flight gets delayed and you don’t have time to eat pregame.

My journey that winter was just beginning, though, because soon I found out I would be spending Christmas in El Paso, Texas, covering the Sun Bowl. Like pretty much every sacrifice I’ve made for The Chronicle, that one was still completely worth it.

In the following month and a half, I covered the game that turned the 2014-15 men’s basketball championship season around at Louisville, saw Tyus Jones quiet a packed house in Charlottesville, Va., witnessed the best college basketball I’ve ever seen when Duke went on a 43-7 run against Notre Dame and got stuck in Syracuse, N.Y., for two days during a winter storm. Thanks, United.

Luckily, I still made it back in time to cover the UNC game.

I started transitioning into the editor-inchief role pretty soon after that but was still fortunate enough to edit and publish the initial story when the Blue Devils won their fifth national title in April 2015. That process put a lot of previous moments when I thought I was under pressure in perspective.

Stepping away from sports and putting off my goal of becoming sports editor for a year was one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to See RAMKUMAR on Page 13

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com

RAMKUMAR from page 12 do. I’m so glad I did, though, because there’s no substitute for the journalistic or leadership training I gained in those 12 months. I also still managed to go to Blacksburg, Va., and cross an item off my football bucket list.

Before I knew it, I was moving my stuff from the front of 301 to the back as I became sports editor.

And as I ponder retirement and what to do with all my newfound free time, I’m thrilled to say my second year on The Chronicle’s upper masthead was just as incredible as my first.

From putting together inspirational profiles to covering several magical moments—Duke football’s win at Notre Dame and the men’s basketball’s team’s historic ACC championship, just to name a few—this year also taught me an enormous amount about what it means to be a

journalist. I worked on a five-part series about the University’s outgoing president, did more investigative work and grew even closer with the people I’ve been lucky enough to work with every day.

So having crafted hundreds of articles, blog posts, tweets and Facebook posts, here I am at the end of my Duke experience.

I’m actively taking suggestions on what to do with my free time, and I’ll put my four years here up against anyone else’s.

Amrith Ramkumar is a Trinity senior. He served as editor-in-chief of The Chronicle’s 111th volume and sports editor of its 112th. He would like to thank his friends and family for understanding/ pretending to understand when he always put The Chronicle first, all of the editorial and business staffers that made his time here so fulfilling, his professors for not failing him despite frequent inclass naps and the late-night staffs at McDonald’s and Pitchforks/Cafe Edens for the endless supply of fries and tots.

The Chronicle Our thoughts on the last day:

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Time to take up drinking: ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� clairity Don’t know what to do with myself: �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� theneeldeal Marigold: �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� bigxie Smells good: ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� beyerbeware One last time: ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� #amrithisnotimpressed Sad: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ christytwisty Real tears: ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� brownsugar And so it begins:������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ likhithabanana Student Advertising Manager: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� John Abram Student Marketing Manager: ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Beatriz Gorostiaga Account Representatives: ������������������������������������������������������������������������Megan Bowen, Griffin Carter, TJ Cole, Paul Dickinson, Jack Forlines, Francis L’Esperance, Leeshy Lichtman, Rachel Louie, Gabriela Martinez-Moure, Jack McGovern, Jake Melnick, David Meyer, Lauren Pederson, Levi Rhoades, Maimuna Yussuf, Matt Zychowski Creative Services: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Daniel Moore, Myla Swallow Marketing ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Hunter Bracale, Nicolette Sorensen Student Business Manager ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Will Deseran

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Moving Duke forward

T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y

The Chronicle

“

I

n his last days in office, President Brodhead has elected to bequeath all funds raised in the Duke Forward capital campaign to The Chronicle’s Editorial Board. After agonizing over a long list of potential improvements that this obscene amount of money should go toward, we decided on five proposals.

For the sake of transparency, here are the ways we will be spending those $3.25 billion dollars: While the Chapel is near and dear to all our hearts, we now possess the financial ability to expand upon this testament to Duke’s rich history. By 2024, we will construct a new, bigger chapel on East Campus. To keep with recent architectural themes, it will be built entirely of glass and the tears of Pratt students. The new monstrosity will be erected on top of Baldwin and will only be accessible through scheduled helicopter trips. The interior of the new chapel will be dedicated to an exclusive fine dining experience that will outdo The Commons. The menu will feature only the finest fifty dollar bills for consumption.

Next, now that Duke has the capacity to pay all dues, every student will get to experience Greek life during their college careers. The University will be founding new chapters and maintaining the long tradition of reinforcing gender binaries starting with the incoming

onlinecomment “Of all the students I work with, student-athletes are reliably the among

the most curious, engaged, and committed when it comes to their studies.

This article points at a deeper and more disturbing dynamic: non-studentathletes discriminate against student athletes in the context of academia while revering them on the court or in the field. They’re real people who have made it to Duke not just because they are good at their sport, but because they have the mental acuity, intelligence and flexibility of thinking to achieve as students at a top-tier university. I found this article offensive.”

— Kelly Louise, responding to “School vs. Sports: Which really comes first for Duke athletes?” published April 24, 2017

”

LETTERS POLICY

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

The Chronicle

Inc. 1993

CLAIRE BALLENTINE, Editor

Class of 2021. Segments of the undergraduate population who otherwise might not have been able to subject themselves to hazing and emotional abuse during the rush process will now be donning their own set of letters and binge-drinking the weekend away.

We will also be funneling a sizable portion of the new trust into buying a country off the coast of Latin America solely for the purposes of DukeEngage.

Our bright-eyed undergraduates, eager to volunteer in a place they know nothing about and

Editorial offer up their meager understanding of economic and agricultural development, will now have their very own private country to meddle in. The natives will be employed by Duke for the purposes of taking pictures with students for Instagram and Facebook profile pictures. When not fulfilling the White Savior Complexes of Duke undergraduates, the country will function as an offshore storage for all the extra money we have lying around.

Moreover, in maintaining the stature of our prominent Division I athletic program, we will also be

T

diverting extensive funds from Duke Forward into Duke Athletics. In light of recent reports that have highlighted the low numbers of student-athletes majoring in quantitative studies, “Rocks for Jocks” will now be converted into an official academic department at Duke complete with rubber-stamped degrees on hand for all those one-and-done Blue Devils. Also, each studentathlete will be provided their own moped, courtesy of the generous Duke Lacrosse Endowment.

Additionally, the Editorial Board will utilize funding to move into the final stages of implementing our Liberal Agenda on campus. This includes banning Reagan Bush ‘84 bro tanks, dissolving the administration and replacing it with a Soviet-style Council of People’s Commissars as well as flying pride flags from every window on campus. Toothbrushes and other personal property will be collectivized and distributed equally among the student body. Shooter’s will be converted from a drunken capitalist cesspool into a “safe space” for all Duke students to discuss the many ways we can dismantle the patriarchy.

Keep an eye out for these developing projects and remember to thank our benevolent donors!

In case you haven’t noticed, this was a joke edit!

Happy LDOC!

Shhh

oday is a glorious day. Today is LDOC. While most students enjoy the annual “Last Day of Classes” for the free food, fun daytime activities and concert, which is headlined by either a washed up, freshly paroled or just plain terrible rap artist mumbling lyrics into the mic. But I have always appreciated LDOC for a different reason. To me, LDOC is not a day to celebrate reprieve from a tiring and seemingly endless semester of schoolwork, but rather a day to observe members of Duke’s premier secret society parading around campus.

The way in which these “brothers”—not sure if frat terminology applies—stoically march down Chapel Drive and around Clock Tower quad through the frenzy of Pratt-stars (who are celebrating their first glimpse of sunlight since January and their first beer ever) has always fascinated me. I have always wondered, “Could that one day be me?” Could I one day be what 99% of Duke students refer to as ‘a douchebag?’”

Jacob Weiss

if I worked hard and made good decisions, I could be anything, even a member of a secret society, but I guess I was mistaken. Each bite of vanilla-caramel swirl ice cream tasted more bitter than the last. Unless I got a spoonful of fudge-covered waffle cone because that sh*t is dank.

The truth is that I was just never cut out for a secret society. As a 5’10” Jewish kid in what I generously describe to my friends from home as a “middle-tier fraternity,” I simply didn’t fit the mold. Furthermore, I am nowhere near wealthy enough for my lack of leadership abilities, terrible humor and overall bland personality to be discounted. If I wanted to join a secret society, I would have to start my own.

But as I previously said, I lack leadership abilities so that did not happen. Instead, I have spent the last 72 hours artificially trying to hype myself up for Torey Lanez, Daya, Cheat Codes and Bolivia Wedding, knowing that I will not be among the secret society brothers strutting the quad. I will spend my day silent disco

NOT JUMPING TO ANY CONCLUSIONS

AMRITH RAMKUMAR, Sports Editor ABBY XIE, News Editor NEELESH MOORTHY, Managing Editor ADAM BEYER, Digital Content Director HAN KANG, Photography Editor JACKSON PRINCE, Editorial Page Editor SURABHI BERIWAL, Editorial Board Chair ASA ROYAL, Editorial Board Chair

CHRISSY BECK, General Manager FRANCES BEROSET, University News Department Head

KENRICK CAI, Local & National News Head

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VIR PATEL, Health & Science News Head

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IAN JAFFE, Sports Photography Editor

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CHRISTY KUESEL, Recess Managing Editor

AUSTIN PEER, Recess Photography Editor SAM TURKEN Sports Managing Editor CAROLYN SUN, Graphic Design Editor RACHEL CHASON, Towerview Editor RACHEL CHASON, Recruitment Chair

SAMEER PANDHARE, Sports Managing Editor ADDISON MERRYMAN, Editorial Page Managing Editor GAUTAM HATHI, Towerview Editor CAROLYN CHANG, Towerview Photography Editor AMRITH RAMKUMAR, Recruitment Chair

SARAH KERMAN, Senior News Reporter

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SAMANTHA NEAL, Senior News Reporter

BRE BRADHAM, Senior News Reporter

JOYCE ER, Senior News Reporter

MEGAN HAVEN, Advertising Director

JULIE MOORE, Creative Director The Chronicle is published by the Duke Student Publishing Company, Inc., a non-profit corporation independent of Duke University. The opinions expressed in this newspaper are not necessarily those of Duke University, its students, faculty, staff, administration or trustees. Unsigned editorials represent the majority view of the editorial board. Columns, letters and cartoons represent the views of the authors.

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Knowing that the secret society only recruits juniors, I spent my entire freshman and sophomore year networking. With a stack of business cards highlighting my relevant experience—you’d be surprised at how much overlap there is between summer camp lifeguard and secret society brother—I set out in search of a contact. I went to all the usual stops—Investment club meetings, club squash mixers, Jam! darties—and yet still no luck.

I had completely run out of business cards, and hadn’t received any word from the secret society. Then, one day, I got a call.

Well, actually it was a snap chat. It was a hazy picture of a guy standing still outside of Perkins library. The temperature filter indicated that it was 69°F—a humorous but unnecessary detail.The caption read: “Secret societies on the quad .” I shut my laptop— Gilmore Girls would have to wait—and rushed out of my dorm room to find that the secret society initiation process was beginning, and that I had not been chosen.

I had done everything right, but instead of standing in the rain for hours on end Sunday night, I found myself watching Lorelai and Luke split up while crying over a pint of Ben and Jerry’s AmeriCone Dream. This was not the “AmeriCone Dream.” I was taught that

dancing, participating in the “sober” Chapel Climb and obnoxiously asking the black guy on Duke’s A-Team if he’s B.A. (Mr. T’s character from the 1980’s action-adventure series The A-Team) after I have had too much to drink, while suppressing feelings of rejection as robed brothers walk by.

The mysteries that lay beneath the robe are eternally tantalizing. Does Duke’s secret society perform ritual sacrifices? If so, I have a few suggestions from the computer science department. Is there a “sister” secret society at Duke Kunshan University? I wonder how much that costs. Do they exert an Illuminati-esque control over the university’s affairs? Unlikely, considering the university’s response to the lacrosse scandal back in 2006.

Although I was not chosen to be a part of the secret society, I will not let it ruin my penultimate LDOC. I intend to take full advantage of the day-long celebration at the end of the semester that is well deserved for all Duke students. But if one of those robed douchebags rolls his ankle while peacocking on the Chapel lawn, you can bet I’ll be there with my first-aid skills and a business card handy.

Jacob Weiss is a Trinity junior. This is his last column of the semester.

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com commentary

Staying in motion

A

nyone who knows me knows that I’m a runner.

Every morning, the first thing I do is run four miles. Pavement, treadmill, snow—it really doesn’t matter as long as I can feel the burning in my legs and the rush of endorphins.

I also like to run from my problems.

When I decided to run for editorin-chief of The Chronicle, my mom was battling stage-four melanoma.

I first found out she was sick the previous summer while on campus working for The Chronicle’s summer coverage. A doctor told me her illness was terminal on the same day I had scheduled an interview for a story on housing in Edens; it’s the only story I’ve ever dropped.

The following semester back at Duke, I threw myself into The Chronicle as university editor, trying to stay as busy as I could to numb the pain of knowing that my mom was dying. When this didn’t work—too much free time, too much time to think about the future—I

Claire Ballentine

this turned out to be the best year of my life. There’s something incredibly fulfilling about going home each night knowing that you and your team have created a paper from scratch, crafted stories that are informative or insightful or even controversial. It’s been far more meaningful to me than studying my Spanish vocab or reading my sociology textbook. The Chronicle gave me an unbelievable sense that my work mattered.

The best part by far though was the people. Adam Beyer, our digital content director, kept our spirits up with his Snapchat filters, Spotify playlists, Hamilton puns and endless spirit of optimism and curiosity. I’ll never forget when I walked up the winding staircase to the office one day and saw that he had made a sign that said “Keep going, you’re almost there!” on the second floor bulletin board.

Our news editor Abby Xie was my partner in ignorance about anything sports-related. She was endlessly reliable

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

decided to run for editor-in-chief.

By the time editor elections rolled around, my mom had passed away and I was left reeling in a month so painful that I’ve blocked most of it out from my memory. The only solution I could think of was to devote as much time as possible to The Chronicle.

As I prepared to take the helm by spending late nights trying and failing to successfully layout a print paper and getting to know the staff I would soon spend 80 hours a week with, I shut off my emotions and focused single-mindedly on the task of leading this paper I love so much.

I traded nights crying on my best friends’ floor for long sessions of copyediting in Flowers 301. I obsessed over writing stories, planning coverage of the 2016 election, training new writers and answering emails from angry readers. I avoided my personal life by turning to my Chronicle life, where there were straightforward answers to (most) problems. I could consult the AP stylebook, past Chronicle articles, former editors. My own demons were harder to nail down.

After months of putting off my feelings, viewing crying as failure and telling myself that my tragedy was not unique, my emotions eventually caught up with me. But when they did, I was whole again.

In Flowers 301, I had a support system—they made the long nights fun and the problems easier to handle.

Knowing that we were a team made my time as editor infinitely better. The office became a home base for me (as you could tell from my posters of alpacas and “Daily B*tch” calendar).

Running a newspaper is no easy task, and this year was filled with stress, late nights and criticism. But somehow, amid all the incensed emails and phone calls, the pressure of worrying about making a mistake and my own personal drama,

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2017 | 15

Final reflections on simplicity and complexity

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or the last week of classes, I thought I’d look back on what has happened the last year in this column on complexity.

Over the last year, we’ve examined the simple complexity of problems with epistemology—how do we know that what we believe is true? And how can we identify potential flaws in assumptions that might undermine conclusions we draw about the world?

We’ve examined the ethics of utilizing tragedy for political gain, and the tragic passage of time that allows us to forget the importance of taking action on important issues like gun violence. As a proud member of the Orlando community, these columns helped me process the tragedy of the Pulse shooting.

During the election season, we examined why a disenchanted former Bernie supporter or a non-Trumpian

could lead to the end of the human race.

Though this is a bizarre and somewhat abstract concept, we saw that these threats might be legitimate and that we might have reason to devote time, resources and effective policy to addressing these risks. Surely, if the whole of humanity is at stake, we ought to at least consider these arguments!

We then looked at somewhat niche area, the policy (or lack thereof) surrounding digital currencies (or cryptocurrencies) like Bitcoin and Ethereum. I argued that we as a society need to have an honest conversation about how we can simultaneously recognize these emerging platforms of sometimes anonymous exchange as both legitimate financial systems and enablers of illegal activity (like the drug trade).

And lastly, we looked at the need for smart and effective regulation of

David Wohlever Sanchez SIMPLE COMPLEXITY

and hardworking and saved me countless times when I couldn’t understand a health/science article. Neel Moorthy, the managing editor, was the perfect counterbalance to my sometimes blind optimism. I’m still amazed by his editing speed, knowledge of legal matters and ability to dramatically throw himself on the floor when a source says something particularly ridiculous.

Sports editor and former editor-inchief Amrith Ramkumar was the best mentor to me for the past two years.

Having a voice of reason and experience to talk me out of throwing myself out the window was incredibly valuable.

He also fixed the printer and InDesign more times than I can count and taught me basketball terms that I have since forgotten.

Sometimes I’m not really sure how I made it through the year, especially those days when I only got four hours of sleep and one day blurred into the next.

When I shadowed President Brodhead in November for an article, he told me that “a body in motion tends to stay in motion.” That’s the only way I can describe how I kept going the whole year—sometimes continuing is easier than slowing down.

Now that my time as editor has come to an end, I’ll need to throw myself into something else. Part of that will definitely be continuing my work with The Chronicle as Towerview editor with Neel, but I’ll suddenly have more free time to spend how I want. I’m not sure what I’ll do.

But I’m going to keep running.

Claire Ballentine is a Trinity junior and editor-in-chief of The Chronicle. In addition to the people she already named, she would like to thank Micki Werner, her best friend from Tennessee who has always wanted her name featured in a Chronicle article.

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Republican might have strong reason to “hold their nose” and vote for Secretary Clinton in order to avoid the inauguration of a historically incompetent president in Donald Trump. We all know how that turned out.

I also criticized the political absurdity that has normalized outrageous claims, alternative “facts” and the kinds of political theatre that lower our expectations for the leaders we elect.

I also beckoned us to consider the “paradox of voting”, encouraging readers to vote despite the hard-to-visualize benefit that voting might have.

Later, we looked at the role that political memes played in the election season, encouraging people to “seize the memes of production” and offer positivity in return to hate and offence.

Post-election, we examined the role of our institutionalized electoral system and single vote methodology, considering the potential upside of a ranked-voting system that has been embraced in multiple countries (and states).

Later, we looked at the argument that, should we desire to “make a difference” in the world with charitable contributions, we ought to (all else held equal) give to organizations that are more effective. The implications of this argument could be huge; if it were followed, hundreds of millions of dollars in donations would be redirected, and thousands upon thousands of lives could be saved or improved.

We then examined the problem and ethics of high-priced drugs. We learned about the different classes of drugs that see high prices, the problems this creates and the institutional factors that allow this to be the case. We considered the ethics of this situation, and then looked at both existent and non-existent solutions that could propel us to reasonable, competition-driven pricing schemes.

We also looked at so-called existential risks, which are potential threats that

emerging technologies, such as selfdriving cars and artificial intelligence systems generally. Since there is a race to develop these technologies by companies and researchers, legal policy is necessary to ensure that we do not fall into a “race to the bottom” where we disregard safety to cut corners and “win” the race. The potential negative externalities of these technologies likely justify some sort of policy to mitigate these risks.

Basically, we’ve covered a lot. These aren’t easy questions, and the “best” solution is very difficult to discover. But the ambiguity and nuance surrounding these issues does not make the pursuit of solutions any less important. If anything, it makes it even more imperative that we work together—with the best information and experts—to work towards the discovery of truth.

As students, we are in a particularly interesting position to put this ideal into practice. We are taking time dedicated to the pursuit of skills, knowledge and wisdom that allows us to pursue answers, or think of new questions we ought to consider. It’s an opportunity to be taken seriously, one that we should not squander.

It is my hope that my column has helped readers discover new layers of nuance and ambiguity that might not be apparent at first glance. Because if anything is clear, it’s that the world is complex, confusing, nuanced and oftentimes beautiful—far too intricate to be considered only at face value.

That complexity doesn’t mean we should ignore the quest for truth—it should only give us a greater respect for the task before us.

So here’s to that quest for more complete truth, and here’s to the discovery of more simple complexity.

David Wohlever Sánchez is a Trinity sophomore. This is his last column of the semester.

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