January 27, 2010 issue

The Chronicle T h e i n d e p e n d e n t d a i ly at D u k e U n i v e r s i t y

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010

Prof aims to advance education

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH YEAR, Issue 82

www.dukechronicle.com

DUPD ends inquiry into assault case

He’s the boss

by Samantha Brooks

Program targets math, sciences, technology

The chronicle

by Sabrina Rubakovic The chronicle

Two months ago, President Barack Obama launched his “Educate to Innovate” campaign to advance science, technology, engineering and math education, but a Duke professor has been working toward that goal since 2006.

In 2002, English professor Cathy Davidson, along with David Goldberg of the University of California, Irvine, co-founded the Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory. For four years, HASTAC has been administering the Digital Media and Learning Competition, a program that seeks to improve the quality of STEM education by implementing technological tools. “[The competition is aimed at] providing imaginative, inspiring new ways that [students] can learn using technology, through technology and about technology in their own social lives,” Davidson said.

“Our argument basically is that all of us have changed enormously in the last decade and a half because of the Internet, the

addison corriher/The Chronicle

Bob McDonald, chief executive officer of Procter & Gamble, spoke in Geneen Auditorium at the Fuqua School of Business Tuesday afternoon as a part of Fuqua’s Distinguished Speaker Series.

See hastac on page 4

An investigation following the report of a strong-armed robbery and sexual assault that took place on West Campus last November is no longer being actively pursued by the Duke University Police Department.

The incident occurred between Wannamaker Dr. and Chapel Dr. at about 10 p.m.

Nov. 16, but was not reported to DUPD until Nov. 23. DUPD Assistant Chief Gloria Graham said that the department has dropped the case because it had exhausted all available leads indicating the identity of the attacker.

“This was a situation that caught us off guard,” Graham said. “The location wasn’t dangerous... there wasn’t a whole lot to go on.”

Graham reported that investigators had suggested a forensic sketch, but the victim did not feel comfortable participating.

Although the attack was on West, administrators did not send out a DukeALERT following the incident. The Clery Act of 1990 mandates that the University issue timely warnings about crimes that pose an immediate threat to Duke students or employees.

Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek said in a December e-mail that the administration had chosen to delay an alert until after See assault on page 4

Graduate and Professional Student council

GPSC looks to pass new strategic plan in April

by Carmen Augustine The chronicle

stephen farver/The Chronicle

Members of GPSC vote during their weekly meeting Tuesday night. GPSC Vice President Adam Pechtel announced that GPSC would vote on a new strategic plan April 6.

Joe Drews: Road woes over?

Last Saturday’s road win over Clemson has serious postseason implications, PAGE 7

The Graduate and Professional Student Council’s Tuesday night meeting was fraught with tension as students negotiated the development of a new strategic plan.

GPSC Vice President Adam Pechtel, a third-year law student, announced the formation of a Strategic Planning Committee that will develop a new strategic plan to be voted on by the GPSC general assembly April 6.

“We decided there were some issues regarding the tone and organization of [the strategic plan],” Pechtel said in response to requests the he explain the decision to rework the document.

He declined to provide details on the content of the strategic plan.

Many students did not see why there was any need to do more work on a document that was already complete. Pechtel said the document was never validated because of minor scheduling problems. The vote to accept the current strategic plan occurred after the last school year had ended, and has technically been “in limbo” since that time.

Only a few other students said they had read the strategic plan in its entirety, but a few of them expressed discontent with some aspects of it and a desire for it to be revised. Those who were familiar with the situation were discontent that it had taken almost eight months to correct the problem.

“It’s been difficult to watch this languish for so long,” Laura Johnson, a third-year evolutionary anthropology graduate student, said.

There was a movement to move the deadline for the revision up to April 6. Pechtel said there would not be significant changes made to the current version.

“That would be up to the committee,” he added.

In other business: Guest speaker Kim Hanauer, director of young alumni and student programs, later presented the Alumni Association’s plans to engage more with graduate and professional students.

“Up until about five years ago we didn’t care that much about graduate and professional school See gpsc on page 5

ONTHERECORD

“If every member of a tenting group shows up, they will receive two grace nights.”

­—Special Projects Director Christie Falco on Saturday’s DUU party. See story page 3

Blue Devils take on the Seminoles tonight, Page 7

2 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010 the chronicle

worldandnation

Suicide Truck-Bomb Kills 38

Records lawsuits against Survey: More gays in service Obama admin on the rise An estimated 66,000 gay, lesbian and bisexual people are serving in the U.S. military, roughly 2 percent of all military personnel, according to a report released Tuesday by a gay rights policy center.

The figures suggest a slight increase in the number of gays, lesbians and bisexuals in the military, and they provide opponents of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy with fresh data as they lobby the Obama administration for its repeal.

Gays, lesbians and bisexuals account for about 13,000 active duty service members, equal to less than 1 percent of those currently deployed, the report estimated. About 53,000 others serve in the National Guard and reserves, equaling about 3.4 percent.

The actual number of gays, lesbians and bisexuals serving in uniform is unknown; the military does not track such figures.

“

I look to the future because that’s where I’m going to spend the rest of my life.

— George Burns

”

WASHINGTON — More than 300 people and groups have sued the Obama administration fighting to get federal government records in the year since President Obama pledged his administration would be the most open in history.

In case after case, the plaintiffs contend that little has changed since the Bush administration, when most began their quests for records. Agencies still often fight requests for disclosure, contending that national security and internal decision making needs to be protected.

The lawsuits cover a wide range of issues. A retired Marine wants to review soldier autopsies to learn whether the Pentagon has issued defective body armor. A Texas law professor questions whether the route for the Mexico-U.S. border fence unfairly harmed minority landowners.

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber driving a truck packed with explosives attacked the Iraqi Interior Ministry’s forensics division Tuesday morning in downtown Baghdad, killing at least 38 people.

The attack, coming a day after coordinated bombings on three landmark hotels in the capital, demonstrated that insurgents remain capable of carrying out back-to-back attacks in this heavily guarded city. Tuesday’s blast drove up the death toll in the capital over the past 24 hours to nearly 75 people. Nearly 200 people were wounded in the explosions.

Outside the building targeted Tuesday, residents and police officers spoke angrily about the country’s leaders, blaming the bloodshed on political rivalry.

“This unjust explosion is the result of disagreements between political parties over seats,” said Salamn Arazoqi, 55, a butcher whose shop was destroyed in the blast. “The civilians are the only victims of it.”

TODAY:

5028

THURSDAY:

5830

Online Excerpt “Seven ACC teams qualified for bowls, and the league generated $28.85 million in revenue from those games, according to the Triangle Business Journal. After reimbursing schools that played in bowls for travel expenses—nearly 8 million bucks—the remaining $20 million will divided evenly among the 12 member schools this June, meaning that Duke will make a cool $1.75 million despite not getting to the postseason.’”

— From The Sports Blog sports.chronicleblogs.com

TODAY IN HISTORY 1531: Earthquake in Lisbon kills 30,000 people. washiington post graphic

the chronicle

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010 | 3

Obama will Tenting kick-off party finalized reset agenda in speech Duke University Union

by Ray Koh

The chronicle

Duke University Union is preparing to make blue tenting kick-off an experience to remember.

At their Tuesday night meeting, DUU members discussed various marketing strategies and the final details for the tenting kick-off celebration this weekend. The event aims to begin blue tenting on a fun note, DUU members said.

There will be several events Saturday starting at 1 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium with a watch party for the men’s basketball game against Georgetown University, said Special Projects Director Christie Falco, a senior.

Falco said the highlight of the day will be the rXn Dance Party, which will take place from 11 pm. to 4 a.m. in Wilson Recreation Center. The dance party is cosponsored by DUU, the men’s basketball team and the Line Monitors.

“DJ Double J will come and spin some sweet dance club music,” Falco said. “Also, Jimmy John’s is donating free subs for everyone at the party.”

The rXn party will be decorated with lasers, black lights and fog machines, Falco added. Free shirts and highlighters will be distributed to the first 300 people who show up. There will also be a raffle during the party, and winners will receive basketballs and posters signed by the men’s basketball team. To promote the event, DUU members will distribute free highlighter bracelets on the West Campus Plaza and at the Marketplace on East Campus.

“If every member of a tenting group

by Shailagh Murray and Michael Shear The Washington Post

james lee/The Chronicle

DUU members participate in the group’s weekly meeting Tuesday night. DUU will sponsor the rXn Dance Party Saturday night to mark the start of blue tenting season in Krzyzewskiville. shows up, they will receive two grace nights,” Falco said. “We expect a ton of people to come out this Saturday.”

Falco declined to discuss the financial details of the event.

Rock band OK Go performed at the first concert in Krzyzewskiville in March 2008. The show, which capped off a week of festivities prior to the men’s basketball game against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, cost at least $30,000.

In other business: Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a renowned

STRANGE, WONDERFUL,… and HERE How Families of Abraham Worship at Duke Over two weekends believers from Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, and Protestant traditions are inviting visitors to observe and/or participate in their respective acts of worship and have opportunities to ask questions and join in discussions afterwards.

These are moments not for proselytism but for deepening understanding and discovering the meaning of others' strange and wonderful practices and convictions.

sex therapist, will come to Duke Feb. 12 to speak in Reynolds Theater, said Vice President of Communications Karen Chen, a junior. Westheimer is best known for her open discussions on sex issues and has written books such as “Dr. Ruth’s Top Ten Secrets for Great Sex” and “Sex for Dummies.”

Spoken word artist Andrea Gibson will perform her poetry 9 p.m. Thursday at the Duke Coffeehouse, said senior Andrew Kindman, DUU Coffeehouse director and general manager. Gibson’s poetry often deals with issues of gender and politics.

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama will appear before Congress and the nation Wednesday night to reset his agenda and assure his demoralized party that he has not given up on key priorities, and to try to convince a skeptical public that he can still change Washington.

The White House provided new details late Tuesday about a proposed three-year spending freeze aimed at controlling the deficit while protecting key programs that Democrats in Congress view as sacrosanct, including education. Obama will announce what administration officials described as the largest single-year request for federal funding for elementary and secondary schools, making education one of the few areas to grow in an otherwise austere budget.

The president will call for a 6.2 percent increase in education spending over last year, including up to $4 billion as part of an effort to revamp the George W. Bush-era programs that expanded testing to measure student progress, aides to the president said. Senior aides said Obama will link the increase in education funding to his calls for school reform. They said his proposals also fit See obama on page 5

NEW TIME AND LOCATION FOR COURSE ON GANDHI!

Schedule of Services 1/29—Jewish Life at Duke Shabbat service Where: Freeman Center for Jewish Life When: 6:15 p.m.

1/31—Duke Catholic Center service Where: Duke Chapel When: 9 p.m.

2/5—Muslim Life at Duke Jummah Prayer Where: York Room, Religion Dept.

When: 12:45 p.m.

REL 196S Gandhi: Image & Reflection will now be offered on Mondays, 11:40 am - 2:10 pm.

New Location: 042 Langford

2/5—’One Roof’ Christian worship service Where: Goodson Chapel, Div. School When: 7 p.m.

Sponsored by the Duke Faith Council to coincide with the Families of Abraham exhibit currently in Duke Chapel For more information email emw17@duke.edu.

For permission number, contact Professor Leela Prasad at leela@duke.edu

4 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010 the chronicle

hastac from page 1 World Wide Web and the way we interact online, but our institutions of education have changed very, very little. The whole point is to rethink learning, research and formal education for a digital age.”

HASTAC has three main tenets: the development of new kinds of technology that take advantage of the digital—such as games and learning labs—for different forms of learning, critical thinking about the role of technology in our lives and society and new forms of collaborative learning that are facilitated by the Internet, Davidson said.

The competition, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, grants two types of awards: one for learning environments and digital media-based experiences that encourage young people to use a STEM-based approach to address social challenges, and one for STEM-based video games or additions to video games.

The application system opened Jan. 15.

“The president has set this goal that by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world,” said Karen Cator, director of the Office of Educational Technology in the U.S. Department of Education. “In order to meet that goal, we have to harness the best possible technologies available to improve our education system.”

Goldberg said digital media has enormous potential as an educational tool because of its widespread popularity and the opportunity it provides for collaborative learning. Without

even realizing it, people can apply STEMbased principles while playing computer games, surfing the Web or interacting with others in social networks, he said.

“Instead of forcing learning upon people, the intent here is to try to seduce, to attract them while pointing to the seriousness of it all,” Goldberg said.

Indeed, advancing STEM principles through technology will be vital to the United States, Cator said.

“The idea around STEM is that for our nation’s economy, we need to nurture the next generation of innovators, and innovators obviously come with a lot of skills,” she said. “One of the skills happens to be that they tend to focus around STEM, but they also need a creativity, design and innovation skill set. So it’s important for the nation’s future, the future workforce and the future economy.”

Davidson said she believes the fusion of education and media will significantly improve the quality of STEM education in the United States.

“I think that the way we’re now testing STEM abilities in our schools is almost the opposite of the scientific method,” she said. “The ways we are testing focus on rote examination, multiple choice exams, on super specialization at a young age.”

Davidson added that individuals need to become less specialized within their fields and work together across the sciences and the humanities.

“In the past 150 years, we’ve been making education increasingly specialized, and we need to figure out how to put Humpty Dumpty back together again,” she said.

www.dukechronicle.com

It’s science, not mythology

caroline rodriguez/The Chronicle

English professor Priscilla Ward analyzes various perspectives on modern genomics in her lecture “Clones, Chimeras, and Other Creatures of the Biotechnological Revolution” in the Divinity School Tuesday.

assault from page 1 DUPD’s investigation.

“Basically, we send out e-mails to the community when we can do so in a timely manner,” Wasiolek said. “ In this case, we learned about the assault a day—or more—after it happened. In addition, the information we had at the time was incomplete. I had very few details and decided to await an investigation by Duke Police and a release by them.”

Women’s Center Director Ada Gregory said alerts were sometimes more harmful than helpful in encouraging victims to cooperate with police investigations.

“Public notification in cases of sexual assault can often be a difficult decision,” Gregory wrote in an e-mail Tuesday. “As a result of highly publicized cases, where information was not kept confidential, many victims

[would] either decline to participate in the investigative process or participate only in a guarded way. The Women’s Center hopes survivors will decide to report their attack to police as reporting is key to understanding and preventing sexual assault.”

Despite the delay in the report and the limited information, students generally felt that an alert would have been appropriate.

“It makes me feel unsafe,” said Poornima Gadamsetty, a graduate student in biomedical engineering. “I wasn’t even aware of [the attack]. It happened at a time when I would have felt safe to walk to the gym.”

Freshman Kaitlin Gaiss shared the same concern, noting that she thinks the administration should have sent a DukeALERT. “If they’re sending alerts about muggings that happen off of East Campus, I want to know about a sexual assault that happens on West,” Gaiss said. “I walk by myself all the time.”

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gpsc 1 column 2 column Home Prices in 20 130 pt 272 pt U.S.inches Cities Rise in Nov. 12 pt

by Bob Willis

Bloomberg news

WASHINGTON — Home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose in November for the sixth consecutive month, signaling the industry that precipitated the worst recession since the 1930s is stabilizing.

The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index increased 0.2 percent from the prior month on a seasonally adjusted basis, after a 0.3 percent rise in October, the group said Tuesday in New York. The gauge was down 5.3 percent from November 2008, exceeding expectations and the smallest year-over-year decline in two years.

A government tax credit for first-time home buyers due to expire in November helped boost home sales, contributing to higher prices in some markets. A projected increase in foreclosures this year as unemployment is slow to drop is a reminder that property values may not firm much more.

“We’re seeing what looks to be a bottoming out in prices,” said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Barclays Capital in New York.

“There is a risk we see further downside, given the large amount of foreclosures set to enter the market and the uncertainty of the effects of the homebuyer tax credit on prices.”

Another report showed consumer confidence this month increased more than anticipated as the job market improved.

The Conference Board’s index increased to 55.9, the highest level since September 2008, the New York-based private research group said.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News anticipated prices would drop 5 percent in the 12 months to November, based on the median estimate of 27 projections.

Estimates ranged from declines of 4.5 percent to 6 percent.

From the July 2006 peak, the 20-city index was down 29 percent.

Compared with the prior month, 14 of the 20 areas covered showed an increase on a seasonally adjusted basis while six had a decline. The biggest month-to-month gain was in Phoenix, which increased 1.6 percent. New York showed the biggest drop at 0.9 percent.

San Francisco posted the second-biggest increase, at 1.5 percent, followed by 1 percent gains each in Los Angeles and San Diego, and a 0.9 percent gain in Portland, Oregon.

“Some of the boom-to-bust markets in California are starting to see home prices

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Home Prices Dig Out

An index of home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose 0.2 percent in November, in the sixth straight monthly increase. Fourteen areas had gains.

20-city home price index, monthly 220 200 180 160 140 120

2005

2009

Percent change in index values Oct. 2009 vs. Nov. 2009 Phoenix San Francisco San Diego Los Angeles Portland Dallas Boston Cleveland Seattle Minneapolis Denver Charlotte Atlanta Las Vegas Detroit Washington D.C. Miami Tampa Chicago New York

1.56 1.47 1.02 0.97 0.92 0.63 0.37 0.37 0.28 0.28 0.27 0.27 0.18 0.13 -0.22 -0.23 -0.24 -0.51 -0.81 -0.89

Note: Figures are seasonally adjusted.

Source: S&P/Case-Shiller

appreciate as demand returns,” said Meyer.

All of the 20 cities in the S&P/CaseShiller index showed a smaller year-overyear decline in November.

Four cities posted year-over-year gains in prices, led by Dallas, which saw a 1.4 percent gain from November 2008. San Francisco, Denver and San Diego rounded out the gainers.

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12 pt

students,” Hanauer said jokingly.

The DAA has been making more of an effort in recent years to engage graduate and professional school students in alumni events and activities that help them connect with the Duke community on more than just an academic level. Graduate and professional student attendance at the Forever Duke Party on the first day

obama from page 3 in a broader effort by the White House to focus scarce resources on the nation’s long-term economic health.

After the speech, Obama plans to take his newly energized populist message on the road, pledging to voters in 2010 battleground states that he will fight for them.

On Thursday, he will travel to Florida, where Democrats are defending numerous House districts and trying to win Senate and gubernatorial races. On Tuesday, he will visit New Hampshire, where both of the state’s House seats and a Senate seat are in play.

Democrats and Obama have yet to agree on how to tackle the year ahead, and a big part of the president’s challenge on Wednesday will be to begin to clear away the doubt and despair that have settled over his party after its Senate loss in Massachusetts last week.

Some Democrats are determined to salvage the major bills that consumed 2009, including health-care reform, an overhaul of financial regulations and clean-energy incentives aimed at reducing climate change. But others are ready to shelve anything big and controversial in exchange for smaller, more popular initiatives.

Although Senate Democratic leaders released a blueprint for a new jobs bill on Tuesday, lawmakers bickered over what to include in the package. The Senate’s rejection Tuesday of a bipartisan deficit commission also highlighted deep divisions within the party over how aggressively to tackle a federal budget crisis that will inevitably require tax increases and spending cuts.

Even Obama’s idea to impose a threeyear freeze on federal spending for most domestic programs—a relatively modest proposal to save $250 billion over 10 years—received a lukewarm response from some top Democrats.

“We’ll have to look and see what the president’s talking about cutting,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada told reporters. “We have to make

3 column 414 pt

of classes and the Homecoming Dance has already increased­—from 152 and 16012 in 2008 to 423 and 477 in 2009, respec-pt tively, she said.

Hanauer also talked about opportunities for students to connect with other alumni on professional endeavors through systems like DukeConnect.

Graduate students have a primarily academic connection with Duke and do not necessarily want to come back to campus for purely social reasons, she said.

sure that we have money for education.

We have to make sure we have money to take care of the...police, fire. We have all kinds of programs I’ll look at very, very closely.”

With Obama and his top advisers still working on the State of the Union address a day before its delivery, scheduled for 9 p.m. Eastern time, some details have trickled out. The overriding theme of the speech, they said, is the economy. White House officials said the president will describe detailed initiatives for middle-class families, along with a new plan to manufacture medicines in the event of a bioterrorism attack.

With voters expressing disgust with gridlock and division, Obama will revive his campaign pledge to change the way Washington works. How he will make that topic fresh after a year in office that was marked at times by acrid partisanship remained unclear. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama will argue that Washington “has to be pushed,” whether on health-care reform or cutting the federal budget.

Despite the uncertain fate of healthcare legislation—Obama’s top domestic priority—the president is not expected to call for a precise way forward, although he will reiterate his commitment to the cause.

One question mark for Democrats is whether GOP lawmakers will take a more proactive role in advancing their priorities. That could create more opportunity for consensus legislation.

House Republicans are in preliminary talks to craft a broad agenda, similar to their 1994 Contract With America.

And Senate Republicans are seeking to unify around smaller legislative proposals on key issues, to serve as contrasts to the massive proposals Democrats advanced last year on health-care reform and energy.

“We’ve now conclusively concluded the Senate doesn’t do ‘comprehensive’ very well,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), the No. 3 GOP leader. “Smaller steps in the right direction often add up to a big result.”

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6 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010 the chronicle

U.S. playing a key role in Yemen attacks

by Dana Priest

The washington post

U.S. military teams and intelligence agencies are deeply involved in secret joint operations with Yemeni troops who in the past six weeks have killed scores of people, among them six of 15 top leaders of a regional al-Qaeda affiliate, according to senior administration officials.

The operations, approved by President Barack Obama and begun six weeks ago, involve several dozen troops from the U.S. military’s clandestine Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), whose main mission is tracking and killing suspected terrorists. The American advisers do not take part in raids in Yemen, but help plan missions, develop tactics and provide U.S. weapons and munitions.

Highly sensitive intelligence is being shared with the Yemeni forces, including electronic and video surveillance, as well as three-dimensional terrain maps and detailed analysis of the al-Qaeda network.

As part of the operations, Obama approved a Dec. 24 strike against a compound where a U.S. citizen, Anwar alAulaqi, was thought to be meeting with other regional alQaeda leaders. Although he was not the focus of the strike and was not killed, he has since been added to a short list of U.S. citizens specifically targeted for killing or capture by the JSOC, military officials said. The officials, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operations.

The broad outlines of the U.S. involvement in Yemen have come to light in the last month, but the extent and nature of the operations have not been previously reported. The far-reaching U.S. role could prove politically challenging for Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who must balance his desire for American support against the possibility of a backlash by tribal, political and religious groups whose members resent what they see as U.S. interference in Yemen.

The collaboration with Yemen provides the starkest illustration to date of the Obama administration’s efforts to ramp up counterterrorism operations, including in areas outside the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones.

“We are very pleased with the direction this is going,”

a senior administration official said of the cooperation with Yemen.

Obama has ordered a dramatic increase in the pace of CIA drone-launched missile strikes inPakistan in order to kill al-Qaeda and Taliban members in the ungoverned tribal areas along the Afghan border. There have been more such strikes in the first year of Obama’s administration than in the last three years under President George W. Bush, according to a military officer who tracks the attacks.

Obama also has sent U.S. military forces briefly into Somalia as part of an operation to kill Saleh Ali Nabhan, a Kenyan sought in the 2002 bombing of an Israeli-owned resort in Kenya.

Republican lawmakers and former Vice President Dick Cheney have sought to characterize the new president as soft on terrorism after he banned the harsh interrogation methods permitted under Bush and announced his intention to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Obama has rejected those two elements of Bush’s counterterrorism program, but he has embraced the notion that the most effective way to kill or capture members of al-Qaeda and its affiliates is to work closely with foreign partners, including those that have weak democracies, shoddy human rights records and weak accountability over the vast sums of money Washington is giving them to win their continued participation in these efforts.

In the case of Yemen, a steady stream of high-ranking officials has visited Saleh, including the rarely seen JSOC commander, Vice Adm. William McRaven; White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan; and Gen. David Petreaus, head of U.S. Central Command.

A Yemeni official briefed on security matters said Tuesday that the two countries maintained a “steadfast cooperation in combating AQAP, but there are clear limits to the U.S. involvement on the ground. Information sharing has been a key in carrying out recent successful counterterrorism operations.” AQAP is the abbreviation for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the affiliate operating in Yemen.

In a newly built joint operations center, the Ameri-

2010

Wednesday, january 27 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Bryan Center , main level

can advisers are acting as intermediaries between the Yemeni forces and hundreds of U.S. military and intelligence officers working in Washington, Virginia and Tampaand at Fort Meade, Md., to collect, analyze and route intelligence.

So far the combined efforts have resulted in more than two dozen ground raids and airstrikes. Military and intelligence officials think there are several hundred members of AQAP, a group that has historical links to the main alQaeda organization but that is thought to operate independently.

Saleh has faced pressure not only from the United States but also its main financial backers, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to gain better control over its lawless northern border. In August, Saleh asked U.S. officials to begin a more in-depth conversation over how the two countries might work together, according to administration officials. The current operation evolved from those talks.

“President Saleh was serious about going after al-Qaeda and wasn’t going to resist our encouragement,” the senior official said.

The Obama administration’s deepening of bilateral intelligence relations builds on ties forged during George Tenet’s tenure as CIA director.

Shortly after the attacks of 2001, Tenet coaxed Saleh into a partnership that would give the CIA and U.S. military units the means to attack terrorist training camps and al-Qaeda targets. Saleh agreed, in part, because he believed that his country, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, was next on the U.S. invasion list, according to an adviser to the Yemeni president.

Tenet provided Saleh’s forces with helicopters, eavesdropping equipment, and 100 Army Special Forces members to train an antiterrorism unit. He also won Saleh’s approval to fly Predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles over the country. In November 2002, a CIA missile strike killed six al-Qaeda operatives driving through the desert.

The target was Abu Ali al-Harithi, organizer of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole. Killed with him was a U.S. citizen, Kamal Derwish, whom the CIA knew was in the car.

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Duke Football will bank $1.75 million because of the ACC’s bowl success Follow writer and tenter Chris Cusack’s diary from Krzyzewskiville

www.dukechroniclesports.com

Conference slate gets DUKE FSU no easier with FSU visit CAMERON INDOOR STADIUM • WEDNESDAY • 9 p.m. • ESPN

by Harrison Comfort The chronicle

The Blue Devils’ conference schedule never poses many surprises.

No. 8 Duke usually plays against the nation’s most skilled and athletic teams in hostile road environments and has to battle in every game. The Blue Devils (16-3, 4-2 in the ACC) will inevitably face hardfought games in the ACC due to the competitive and physical nature of the conference and will probably drop a few games along the way.

And as far as talented conference teams are concerned, rival Florida State represents one of those challenges for the Blue Devils.

Duke returns home to take on Florida State tonight at 9 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium in the teams’ only matchup of the season. The Seminoles (15-4, 3-2) have had success in recent visits to Cameron, including a big win over the then-No. 10 Blue Devils 68-67 three seasons ago.

“We have a tough, tough team,” head coach Mike Kzyzewski said after his squad defeated Wake Forest Jan. 17. “[With] the schedule we play...we get people’s best shots.”

Krzyzewski’s team has faced many tests this season and possesses

the nation’s 10th-hardest schedule, already having taken on No. 19 Connecticut and No. 13 Gonzaga.

Every game in the ACC represents a potential upset, and Duke is no stranger to suffering losses from conference rivals. The Blue Devils have already dropped two league games on the road this season, including a 71-67 loss against Georgia Tech Jan. 9 and a less-than-inspiring 88-74 defeat against N.C. State.

The ACC as a whole has already experienced its fair share of upsets this season. While Duke has maintained its top-10 ranking by earning quality wins to offset road losses, unranked Florida State has spent its season trying to knock off those at the top of the ladder.

And the Seminoles have been quite successful climbing up the rungs.

Florida State first upset No. 22 Georgia Tech 66-59 in late December in an impressive road victory. The Seminoles’ most recent win also came against the Yellow Jackets, this time 68-66 Sunday in Tallahassee.

Though it has endured some tough conference losses, Florida State features a talented frontcourt.

Chronicle file photo

See acc on page 8

Florida State’s program has improved over the last few seasons, and the Seminoles beat Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium three years ago.

Road tests lead to March Madness success Duke’s 60-47 win over Clemson Saturday was huge.

It was big for all the obvious reasons: for avenging last year’s 27-point blowout in Littlejohn Coliseum, for preventing a two-game losing streak, for demonstrating the Blue Devils’ ability to calmly beat the full-court press and for moving Duke to within percentage points of first place in the ACC. Equally important, however, may be its implications Joe for the NCAA Tournament.

But, you’re probably thinking, aren’t NCAA Tournament games played at neutral sites? And haven’t the Blue Devils been dominant at neutral sites this season?

Well, yes and no. Duke is 4-0 in neutral site contests this season, including a convincing win over Connecticut in the NIT Season Tip-Off and a 35-point thrashing of then-No. 15 Gonzaga Dec. 19. And obviously, the Blue Devils’ Tournament games will take place on neutral courts.

Unfortunately for Duke, though, they won’t happen in Madison Square Garden.

See, when it comes to the Blue Devils,

Drews

maya robinson/The Chronicle

Duke’s ability to win on the road bodes well for its chances of advancing deep into the NCAA Tournament.

there is a difference between the World’s Most Famous Arena and just about every other gym in the country. It’s not just that Duke tends to win in New York. (It is 3-0 there this season and 21-6 all-time under head coach Mike Krzyzewski.) The Garden crowd is so pro-Duke that the team refers to it as Cameron North.

The same can’t be said of wherever the Blue Devils end up playing their Tournament games in seven weeks. I have covered NCAA Tournament games in two different stadiums. I’m willing to discount the hostility in the Greensboro Coliseum last year, as it was filled with North Carolina fans, but the anti-Blue Devil sentiment in the Verizon Center in 2008 was surprising. Duke shared that Washington, D.C. pod with Xavier, Purdue, West Virginia, Arizona, Baylor, Georgia and Belmont—none of which is close to a rival. And despite what should have been a fairly favorable location for the Blue Devils, with Duke’s strong alumni base in the nation’s capital, Blue Devil fans were greatly outnumbered.

Some of that hostility was due to fans’ tendency to root for the underdog, but it went beyond that. The fact is, people hate Duke and will find any possible reason to See drews on page 8

8 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010 the chronicle

drews from page 7 cheer against the Blue Devils. (I know, I know, I’m on pace to set a record for the most obvious statements in a single column.)

What does any of this have to do with Clemson? Before Saturday, three of Duke’s four wins away from Cameron Indoor Stadium had taken place in the Garden, with the other one coming 25 miles from Jon Scheyer’s hometown in front of an estimated 500 of his friends and family members. Losing three straight road games wasn’t overly problematic for the Blue Devils’ ACC title chances, but going 0-3 on the road didn’t bode well for the Tournament if you agree that the typical Duke March Madness contest is more like playing at Georgia Tech than playing in MSG. I tried to find a way to quantify the importance of road games for NCAA Tournament success, but I quickly realized there are way too many other variables—who’s on the team and who you play in the Tournament, for instance—to make any kind of conclusion.

Interestingly, though, the 2000-2001 national championship squad played the most road and pseudo-road games (neutral sites close to the opponent’s campus) of any Duke team in the last decade, with 12. For example, that squad played No. 3 Stanford in Oakland, Ca-

lif. (and lost by one).

The 2006-2007 team, which was upset in the first round of the Tournament, was tied for the fewest road and pseudo-road games, with nine. That means Duke played eight ACC road games, plus only one other game on the road—and even that came in MSG, against St. John’s.

Again, there are a lot of variables at play— having Jason Williams, Shane Battier and Carlos Boozer on the roster definitely doesn’t hurt—but it may hint at the importance of getting road experience before the Tournament. (The 2000-2001 team won 11 of those 12 games. You can interpret that however you want. Either playing—and winning—road games predicts Tournament success, or that team was great and it didn’t matter if they were playing on the road. I’m guessing it’s the latter, but I think playing on the road helped set them up for that Tournament run.)

If nothing else, we have anecdotal evidence. Wherever Duke plays in the NCAA Tournament, it will not be as inhospitable as Littlejohn, but it also will not be as friendly as the Garden. The Clemson win was just one game, and the Blue Devils still have plenty of issues to work out, but getting a victory in one of the toughest road games of the year will pay dividends in March.

The next step? Exorcise those Verizon Center demons against Georgetown.

rob stewart/Chronicle file photo

Duke struggled on the road against N.C. State, yet the Blue Devils broke out of their funk against Clemson.

ian soileau/Chronicle file photo

Seminole head coach Leonard Hamilton, in his 17th season in the ACC, is no longer surprised by conference losses.

acc from page 7 Sophomore center Solomon Alabi leads the Seminoles in scoring with 12.6 points per game and forward Chris Singleton has grabbed a team-high 7.5 rebounds per contest. Fellow big man Ryan Reid has complemented Alabi and Singleton on both sides of the floor with his physical play.

“There are some really talented teams [in the ACC],” Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt said after his team’s most recent loss to Florida State. “You have Alabi, Reid and Singleton, I think that’s the best frontline in our league. All three of those guys are big-time problems. Reid obviously is an experienced player who can shoot the ball. [He is] a very, very smart player from what I can see and Singleton and Alabi are just supremely talented.”

The trio’s skill and physicality will test the Blue Devils under the basket. While Duke has dominated the boards this season, posting 40.3 rebounds per game, Florida State will provide a challenge for

Duke’s inside game due to the Seminoles’ strong interior presence.

In the ACC, teams are not going to win every game, and have shown that over the years. The league is simply too competitive.

Even eventual national champions from the conference have not dominated during the season. The 2000-2001 Duke team dropped three conference games on its way to capturing a national championship, and so did last season’s North Carolina squad.

Ultimately, Duke’s conference schedule provides the opportunity to reach a high enough level to make a deep run during the NCAA Tournament. While it is important to win as many games as possible, gaining consistency and team chemistry far outweighs suffering a few losses—especially in a league where a loss just means being outplayed by one of the nation’s toughest teams.

“I don’t think any loss or win in the ACC is an upset,” Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton said after his team’s most recent win against the Yellow Jackets. “It’s going to be interesting to see how things pan out.”

CLASSIFIEDS Holton Prize in Education

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The Independent Daily at Duke University

The Chronicle

10 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010

“

New YT process has serious flaws At the end of the Fall semes- self. Morrison thus became the ter, the Young Trustee selection only person on the YTNC who bylaws were rewritten to make knew the identity of the applithe process more transparent cants and the full content of and democratic. the applications, So far, however, allowing him— editorial this year’s prointentionally cess is failing at both. or not—to unfairly influence First, DSG Executive Vice committee discussion.

President Gregory Morrison It’s not entirely fair to blame has exercised undue influence Morrison for this gaffe because over the selection process. the elimination of the vice From the outset, conflict of in- president for the Intercommuterest should have precluded nity Council left the YT process Morrison from serving on the without a leader this year. Still, Young Trustee Nominating Morrison should have recogCommittee because he closely nized this conflict of interest assisted Amanda Turner in writ- and stepped down from the ing the YT bylaws.

YTNC, instead of serving as a But more importantly, when full voting member.

Morrison received the YT appliThe second flaw evident in cations electronically, instead of this year’s process is that the delivering them untouched to YTNC violated the YT bylaws the YTNC committee chair, he in selecting only seven semi-firedacted identifying informa- nalists. These bylaws mandates tion from the applications him- the YTNC to “narrow the field

onlinecomment

I bet the applicant pool was much more diverse than they allude to in the article.

—“Dukie2010” commenting on the story “ YT candidates have ties to DSG, ICC .”

See more at www.dukechronicle.com.

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Letters should not exceed 325 words; contact the editorial department for information regarding guest columns.

The Chronicle will not publish anonymous or form letters or letters that are promotional in nature. The Chronicle reserves the right to edit letters and guest columns for length, clarity and style and the right to withhold letters based on the discretion of the editorial page editor.

Est. 1905

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commentaries

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Direct submissions to:

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

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Inc. 1993

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to eight candidates to be interviewed by two-thirds vote.”

The voting mechanism may be poorly worded, but the requirement of eight candidates is quite clear.

To their defense, several members of the YTNC insist that only seven of the 15 applicants were “worthy” of advancing to the semi-finalist round.

This may be true, but without a public release of the names of all the initial applicants along with their redacted applications, we have no way of evaluating this claim.

To restore faith in the process and increase transparency, all application information for this highly public position should be posted on DSG’s Web site.

Third, the committee is unfairly and unclearly narrowing the seven semi-finalists down

to three finalists to participate in a general election for YT. Semi-finalists were interviewed by the YTNC last night, but the committee members will not vote on the semi-finalists until Thursday. This allows for plenty of time for political wrangling to influence the YTNC’s votes.

Furthermore, YTNC members were not compelled to recuse themselves from interviewing candidates with whom they have a conflict of interest.

Three finalists cannot be fairly selected under the current methods, and in the coming days, the YTNC should strive to increase the equity and transparency of its Thursday vote. YTNC Chair Lauren Moxley should publicize sample interview questions to ensure that all candidates were evaluated fairly.

More importantly, Moxley

should clarify the voting rules used to select finalists. The bylaws stipulate the unclear requirement that a vote of two-thirds of the committee members is necessary to advance candidates to the final round. It is entirely possible that all of the semi-finalists— or none of them—could attain a two-thirds approval if each individuals’ candidacy is put to a group vote.

The current system makes little sense, and it should be thoroughly explained or simply jettisoned in favor of a more reasonable voting mechanism.

This year’s Young Trustee selection process has been rushed due to legislative delays and a veto in the DSG Senate. But if the process wants to live up to the reformist spirit of the new bylaws, changes must be made.

Editor’s Note: Chelsea Goldstein and John Harpham, members of The Chronicle’s independent editorial board, recused themselves from the board Jan. 12 to apply for the position of Young Trustee. Due to the anonymous nature of the application process, their recusals could not be made public until now. Both Goldstein and Harpham will continue to recuse themselves from the board as long as they are candidates. If elected Young Trustee, both candidates have agreed to resign from the editorial board. Austin Boehm resigned from the board Jan. 4 to serve as a member of the YTNC. Please contact Michael Blake (mtb12@duke.edu) if you have questions.

A

Eruditio et Religio?

t a recent party, I overheard a heated discussion about gay marriage between two self-professed “believers.” One of them declared that a person could be a believing Christian and support gay marriage; the other disagreed.

Being a strong proponent of the right of homosexuals to marry, I took it upon myself to interject that I thought the two were missing the point—it doesn’t matter what daniel bessner religious doctrine mutatis mutandis says, as people can interpret dogma in any way they choose. For this reason, supporters of gay marriage should avoid religious discussions when attempting to spread their message.

Having delivered these words of brilliance from the mountaintop, I offhandedly remarked that it was in situations like this that I wished more people were atheists, as this might entail fewer appeals to religious “authorities” to justify the exclusion of homosexuals from the civil institution of marriage.

As soon as I uttered this remark, I knew I had hit a nerve. The conversation ceased. I was tentatively asked if I was an atheist. I responded in the affirmative. Faces paled and the conversation ended.

Reflecting upon this encounter later, I came to the realization that talking about atheistic ideas with people who believe in God remains one of the last discursive taboos in America. Religion, generally, is “off limits.” The most common reason given for why this is so, is that religions necessarily deal with metaphysical concerns—that is to say, rational analysis is not “designed” to inform belief—and therefore to debate religion is pointless.

As you can probably tell from my tone, I think such a taboo is not only deleterious but also destructive, and that we as intellectuals must be more proactive about breaking its hold on society. America is, of course, a “Christian” country in the sense that about 76 percent of Americans identify themselves as such (compare this with the roughly 9 percent who don’t believe in God). But this fact should in no way result in atheism being purged as it has been from public and even private conversation.

At “top tier” universities, which one may consider representative of the intellectual vanguard and status quo, there is only one course devoted specifically to atheism (Cornell University’s classics department’s “Atheism Then and Now”), according to a recent press release by New York City Atheists, Inc. Compare this with the more than 25 courses offered by Duke’s department of religion that are devoted to religious tradition and thought. The tendency to skirt or avoid religious discussions, in my view, discourages the critical assessment of the extent to which religious beliefs inform other aspects of our identity, be they political, social or cultural, to which they are not directly connected.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the history of atheism is whether thc concept has a “history” at all. As the historian Lucien Febvre pointed out in his book “The Problem of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Century,” before enlightenment ideas and ideals permeated Europe, it may not have been possible for an individual to be an atheist in the sense we mean it today. There was no concept of “unbelief;” in essence, atheism had not yet been “invented” (although it was a term of degradation used by the church to identify and persecute heretics). We can see how our own beliefs are shaped by the context within which we live. Interrogating the history of atheism and its ontological assumptions thus impels even those who believe to reexamine the philosophical and historical reasons as to why they believe. If they find these inner reasons lacking, then perhaps spaces for further investigation—into religious dogma, philosophy and history—may be illuminated. The lack of education about atheism limits the private consideration of one’s own religious beliefs.

Restricting public discussion of religious beliefs has also hindered public conversations about, for instance, the ways the gaps between church and state have been bridged with moral appeals steeped in religious dogma (see: gay marriage). This disregard must be overcome, with atheists and believers uniting in the desire to surmount ignorance by promoting honest and open intellectual engagement, particularly at the university level. Only by breaking taboos can the intellectual vanguard transform (however briefly) into the intellectual avant garde.

Daniel Bessner is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in European history. His column runs every other Wednesday.

the chronicle

I

A Portrait of the Blue Devil as an Artist

n his 2007 address to the graduating class of Duke’s law school, newsman and Duke alumnus Charlie Rose, Trinity ’64 and Law ’68, gave the following advice to a new batch of J.D.’s: “Define yourself—don’t let anybody tell you who you are… write your own story— it is the greatest story you will ever tell.”

Cute, I know. It rings familiar to those of us who have been urged, since the days of Kindergarten, to “be connor southard ourselves” and to bask in dead poet “self-esteem.” Because of that shared past of soft, dreamy, weak encouragement, such advice as Rose’s also sounds more than a little trite. What’s new or poignant, dear Charlie, about telling us to “write [our] own story”?

Then again, Charlie Rose was raised by North Carolina tobacco farmers in fairly humble circumstances, which didn’t prevent him from becoming a double graduate of our alma mater dear and later a nationally syndicated television correspondent. It’s possible that he knows what he’s talking about—don’t let anybody tell you who you are.

If I say that we are creatures of narrative, and that we are always and forever telling stories about ourselves—not just in novels and films, but in the ways we conceive of religion, the relationships we choose to pursue, the clothes we wear, the

I

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010 | 11

commentaries

identities we model—and that this story-telling, narrativecreating process is our defining trait as human beings, I’m likely to stir some objections. Oh, well…

Telling stories is the most basically human of activities because it is something that only self-conscious, observant animals with the ability to conduct nuanced, emotionally resonant discourse can perform. It’s also something we can’t avoid doing. Your GPA is supposed to tell a story, your shirt is supposed to tell a story, your hair tells a story whether you like it or not and not only do you have a narrative in mind for all of these things, but everyone else does, too.

We all more or less believe that we’ve come to college to become who we will be as full-fledged, self-sufficient grownups. This lovely “formative period” involves a lot of narrativewriting. We join various groups, form relationships, absorb eye-opening ideas and make use of it all to generally launch ourselves into the closest approximation that we can manage of our desired “grand narrative”—i.e., life. But how earnest and self-determined are we about all of this?

James Joyce’s (it’s always pretentious to reference Joyce, no matter-frickin’-what) non serviam and its accompanying declarations of fierce individualism are now widely used and have become somewhat anesthetized—even Johnny Depp has “silence, exile, cunning” tattooed on his body.

Still, when the Stephen Dedalus of “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” declares “I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I have—silence, exile, cunning,” it feels as fresh in the moment as it must

Honesty on your resume

t’s a Saturday afternoon in January, and I’m reviewing the eighth undergraduate resume this weekend; the 30th so far this month. Students interested in jobs and internships with finance firms send me resumes by e-mail, bring resumes to my office hours and occasionally slide resumes under my office door. By Spring break (at which point the recruiting season for banking internships will be largely over), I will have provided emma rasiel feedback on more than 100 junior and guest column sophomore resumes. I suspect that I am one of a relatively small number of Duke faculty members who see both undergraduate resumes and those same students’ transcripts on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, this means that I am also one of a very few individuals to be in a position to spot discrepancies between students’ actual GPAs and those they report when they apply for jobs. This type of behavior is— thankfully—extremely rare, but it is not unheard of.

Which brings me back to that eighth resume of the day. I’ve seen this student’s resume in earlier semesters, and I’m blessed (or, perhaps, cursed) with an elephantine memory for numbers. Something about this student’s GPA number doesn’t feel right—even allowing for the fact that GPAs change on a semester-by-semester basis. I look him up in the system. Unfortunately the reported and actual GPAs differ by more than 0.5; a significant revision. This student may be hoping to improve his chances of obtaining interviews by “revising” that single, allegedly all-important measure of overall academic prowess.

Academic honesty is frequently alluded to during undergraduate life.

Many faculty remind students of its importance by requiring them to sign honor code statements on their coursework or exams. Resume accuracy also falls under the Duke Community Standard, but students are reminded of this fact less frequently. Resume creation is often a solitary exercise; not one that is evaluated and graded by a member of the faculty. So the rare student who misrepresents her GPA (or other information) may not realize that falsification of data from an official Duke document (such as a transcript) is also a violation of the DCS. Furthermore, a student who lies on her resume and gets away with it might then assume that she can continue to be “economic with the truth” in her professional life.

There lies the start of a perilous path. We all see stories of those apparently brilliant investors who, it later transpires, fiddled the numbers in some colossal scam. Madoff is not the only recent example; think of Brian Hunter, the commodities trader who brought down Amaranth in 2006, and Jerome Kerviel, the “rogue trader” at Societe Generale two year later. And these are just a few of the famous ones. There are also dozens of such cases every year that do not make the front page, but do result in jail time for the hapless cheat. I myself have seen someone marched off a trading floor, escorted by burly individuals in security uniforms.

So I hope that this article will remind all students of the importance of a code of honor throughout their lives, and in all aspects of their experience: personal, academic, professional. This should be a part of what you take away from your time at Duke—a lesson that will stay with you even when the last remnants of organic chemistry and principles of economics have been forgotten.

Emma Rasiel is the associate director of undergraduate studies and an assistant professor of economics.

have way back in 1916. This speech takes place shortly after Dedalus has told a friend that he is considering dropping out of college.

If this famous section inspires you, you probably feel like something of a misfit, which is fine and can be a righteous stance. If you laugh at Dedalus’ snarling extremism, you probably think yourself an even-keeled, happily-placed individual.

For my money, Dedalus is half-inspiring, half-going overboard.

Overboard, because on the one hand he feels that leaving school (and exiling himself from family) is the only way to write his own story. Inspiring, because he at least recognizes the dangers of failing to seize the pen and construct one’s own narrative: if he doesn’t put himself into the authorial chair, someone other than Stephen Dedalus will take control.

I’m sure I don’t need to go into detail here, because you all know what I mean when I say that it often feels as though this university is pervaded by a sense that there are anywhere from three to six things that it might be at all possible for you to do with your life. In short, this is not true. To follow the path of least resistance—unless what lies on that path is exactly what you’re after—is not only foolish but is also an act of bad, unimaginative authorship of the narrative(s) that is you.

So, there’s no need to be silent or in exile. But take a page from both James Joyce and Charlie Rose and seek the cunning (it’s not trite, it turns out) of a good artist (or newsman): write your own story.

Connor Southard is a Trinity sophomore. His column runs every Wednesday.

Dropped

O

h, drop/add. The perfect solution to the first class assignment, which you were planning to do, until you realized you didn’t actually have any time to do it. Today, unfortunately, is the last day you’ll have to escape that nasty first Blackboard quiz and to replace it with Freetime 450C. How many times have I rearranged my schedule in ACsue li ES’s graphic viewer philosopher’s stone so that my class blocks make suggestive shapes? Apparently, not nearly enough. So, with a tear, I would like to say so long to sleepless nights on ACES. I’ll never forget the way you validated me.

And CourseRank, I know we only met a few weeks ago, but it feels like I’ve known you my entire life.

After dropping their 100-page theses, some have finally attained the perfect second semester senior schedule which I’m convinced must contain “Fairy Tales: Grimms to Disney,” “Massage Therapy” and/ or “Bowling,” “Introduction to Acting” and at least one independent study. For others who are still wondering why they are taking chemistry in the French Family Science Center, I commiserate.

After developing an intimate relationship with Course Synopsis Handbook, I have found a few interesting course descriptions that I would like to share. Because tonight at midnight will be the last chance to make any changes to your schedule, I’d like to introduce some mostly real classes that you might want to reconsider last minute.

GREEK 107S: “Greek Drama”—This class will be reading excerpts from www.JuicyCampus.com.

All students will be required to attend at least one date function. Major assignments include analysis of RGAC scoring guidelines, a term paper on the lacrosse scandal, a research paper on who’s got the best legs in the “core four” and an oral presentation.

This class fulfills an ethical inquiry and will be held at the emergency ward of Duke Hospital North on Friday nights.

ROMST 150S: “Topics Romance Studies”—A survey course, this class will teach students how to woo the man or woman of your dreams at Duke even if you’re one of the four people on campus who doesn’t have a consulting internship locked down for the summer. This course will demonstrate everything from proper WaDuke attire and etiquette to how to dance with any freshman at Shooters II. This class will be TAed by students who have com-

pleted several unofficial graduation requirements.

In all seriousness, though, I wish I had known that ROMST 150S, a real class on Latino hip hop, had existed much sooner.

FVD 105: “Intro Arts of the Moving Image”— Although past students who have taken this course have learned about film, video and “digital,” this restructured gateway class will teach you how simple concepts can sound more theoretical and important. In this class, we will refer to music as “auditory compositions” and graphics as “computer-generated visual elements.”

CULANTH 20S: “Family Matters”—Guest speaker Urkel.

CULANTH 307S: “Facts of Life”—You take the good, like basketball players in your sociology classes. You take the bad, like watching the OnlyBurger truck drive away. After the midterm, you will take them both and then you will have the “Facts of Life.”

Not open to students who have taken CULANTH 20S or any other classes named after a TV show.

Guest performance by The Blanks.

PHARM 197: “Drugs, Brain and Behavior”— For anyone who saw Reefer Madness performed by Hoof ‘n’ Horn this weekend, you will gain a more in-depth understanding of how marijuana has destroyed the moral fabric of America, is more addictive than crystal meth and actually causes the growth of fetuses. Since the 1960s, marijuana has contributed to a generation of sexually loose women and thousands of unwanted teenage pregnancies. This class will meet in the Edens Gazebo and the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. Even as a senior, I’ve always had difficulty deciding which electives to take. In the past week, I’ve completed a three-and-a-half hour BIO 25 lab with freshmen and sat in on “Computational Political Economics” with graduate students. I am not enrolled in either of these classes. Some of you may be wondering why on earth I would do this to myself. I have no response to this.

Like relationships at Duke, the drop/add period allows students to explore their options before making a commitment, although sometimes I wished that all relationships can be fixed as easily as my classes. Is this one too demanding? Drop. You mean I only have to see this one once a week? Add. Unfortunately, although we can unfriend and break up on Facebook, not all relationship problems can be solved in two weeks or with a click of a button.

If only everything had a drop/add feature. Luckily, there’s still some time to decide. I still have a few more hours, right?

Sue Li is a Trinity senior. Her column runs every other Wednesday.

12 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010

the chronicle

green in 3

Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment presents

green in 3

1

Pick 3 words that best describe how you would make the environment better

find out more at

2

Be creative: Write them in sand, spell them out with cereal .‌ Film them with your digital camera, cell phone or Webcam

3 Win $500!*

greenin3.org

*There will be 15 first-place winners chosen in 3 contest periods between Jan. 19 and April 9, 2010. Winners receive $500 each.