August 31, 2015

Page 1

Men’s soccer off to hot start

Photos from the weekend

Friday’s Heatwave concert highlighted a busy weekend—check out our best photos. | Page 3

The Blue Devils notched two wins this weekend to start the season on a high note | Sports Page 6

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

MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2015

WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH YEAR, ISSUE 8

A LOOK AT LOBBYING

Stephanie Wu | The Chronicle

How Duke appeals to politicians to fund its endeavors Neelesh Moorthy The Chronicle

How Duke appeals to politicians to fund its endeavors

Lobbyists on Capitol Hill are typically associated with political groups and big businesses, but Duke has its own lobbyists who fight for the University’s interests. Last year, the University, including its Health System, spent $362,542 in lobbying expenses at the federal level—ranking 44th in dollars spent in the education industry— according to the Center for Responsive Politics. On the state level in 2014, Duke spent $9,906.63 in lobbying expenses, according to University disclosures to the North Carolina Secretary of State’s Office. Much of these lobbying expenditures are spent advocating for the University’s diverse interests, including student aid, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, research funding and the DREAM Act. “You would be hard pressed to find anything on campus that wasn’t in some way affected by federal policy or politics,” said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations. “If you pick anything that’s going on in Washington today, we can draw a line to Duke.” Duke’s lobbying expenditures—which Schoenfeld referred to as a “microscopic” part of the University’s overall budget—are similar to some of its peer institutions. The University of Chicago spent $369,223 last year, and the University of North Carolina spent $349,296,

according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Lobbying expenditures vary widely from university to university, however. The University of Pennsylvania reported spending $850,000 on lobbying in 2014, while Emory University reported spending only $195,000.

Institutions like Duke are typically more conservative in how much they spend due to their already privileged status, said Michael Munger, director of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics program. Duke and its peer institutions are prohib-

ited by law from making campaign contributions, forming political action committees, expressly advocating for any candidate or political party and engaging in partisan activity, See LOBBYING on Page 12

Project Arts finds its niche among students Samantha Neal The Chronicle

Special to The Chronicle The newest pre-orientation program used the theme of classism to help 19 freshmen immerse themselves in the arts upon arrival on campus.

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After two years of development, Project Arts—the newest pre-orientation program—allowed 19 incoming freshmen to bond through creativity. Project Arts was junior Shelby Wailes’ platform when she was elected to Duke Student Government as a freshman, an idea designed to introduce incoming freshmen to the arts scene at Duke and in Durham. Despite the five other preorientation programs—Project BUILD, Project Change, Project Search, Project Waves and Project WILD—Wailes felt that Project Arts would fill an interest

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INSIDE — News 2 Sportswrap 5 Classified 9 Puzzles 9 Opinion 10

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that had not yet been met. After working with Duke administrators including Jordan Hale, assistant dean and director of new student programs, the pre-orientation program was approved last year. “When I was applying to pre-orientation programs, I was shocked that there was a science pre-orientation program—Project Search—but there was nothing in the arts,” Wailes said. Project Arts separated participating students into four crews based on interest—music crew, dance crew, visual arts crew and theater crew—with rotating creative writing crew leaders. In order to experience the art scene

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in both Duke and Durham, students visited the Bull City Dignity Project— a documentary theater performance reflecting Durham’s history—the Nasher Museum of Arts as well as the Arts Annex. Each year’s program will have a different theme to explore within the arts, Wailes said, and this year’s theme was classism. Each crew created a final project related to the theme, and many of the program’s crew-led discussions centered on the topic. Wailes added that the program attempted to present heavy thematic material in a more “fun” way. Although some enjoyed the theme and See PROJECT ARTS on Page 4

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© 2015 The Chronicle


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