August 28, 2009 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

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH YEAR, ISSUE 6

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Panel provides insight into Picasso’s work Rape policy

mandates reporting

by Lucie Zhang THe CHRONICLe

Dice, a yellow packet of cigarettes and a visiting card with the corner turned up— these were the ordinary items captured in a collage by Pablo Picasso in 1914 that inspired an entire exhibit on the Cubist master’s work and artistic influences.

“Picasso and the Allure of Language,” which opened at the Nasher Museum of Art last Thursday, showcases both Picasso’s artwork and his writing in order to portray his intellectual development. It will be on display until Jan. 3, 2010. A Picasso panel discussion was held Thursday night at the Nasher with the exhibition’s curator Susan Fisher, who is the Horace W. Goldsmith associate curator of modern and contemporary art at the Yale University Art Gallery.

“In a broader sense, [“Picasso and the Allure of Language”] is interested in how language helped reshape Picasso’s imagination,” Fisher said. The lecture, which featured Fisher and Patricia Leighten, a professor of art, art history and visual studies at Duke, brought a full audience to the Nasher auditorium.

“I thought [the panel] was a really interesting way to introduce myself both to the museum and Picasso,” Nari ely, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said. “It talked a lot more about his life and the inspirations behind his paintings that I’m not necessarily going to know about from going to a museum.”

The Yale University Art Gallery lent to the Nasher all of the works on display, See PicAsso ON PAGe 5

New clause aims to expose all sexual misconduct

by Lindsey Rupp THe CHRONICLe

CHriStina pena/tHe CHroniCle

susan Fisher, an associate curator at the yale University art Gallery, and patricia leighten, a professor in the department of art, art History and Visual studies at Duke, participated in a panel discussion at the Nasher Museum of art Thursday night.“picasso and the allure of language” is currently on display at the musem.

Five incidents of “forcible sexual offenses” were reported on campus in 2007, according to the most-recent Clery Campus Security Report. But Duke officials and the National Institute of Justice suggest the real number of offenses may be much higher.

“The higher IQ, the more manipulative they are, the more cunning they are... imagine the sex offenders we have here at Duke—cream of the crop,” said Women’s Center Director Ada Gregory.

In order to draw a truer picture of sex crimes at Duke, University officials changed the sexual misconduct policy over the summer in efforts to encourage more student victims to come forward.

The revised policy includes a clause requiring student-on-student sexual misconduct to be reported by University officials who learn of it. These people include faculty and staff, as well as students who represent an arm of the University, such as resident assistants and first-year advisory See RAPe PolicY ON PAGe 4

Freshmen lunch SOFC charters 30 new groups credit dropped, then restored

by Naureen Khan THe CHRONICLe

Dining staff have been denying freshmen lunch credit if they miss breakfast at the Marketplace, students and dining officials said.

Freshmen have been charged full price for Marketplace lunches, whether or not they have eaten breakfast, since arriving on campus earlier this month, dining officials said. The credit was restored Wednesday, but several freshmen said students only became aware of the change Thursday.

“I have never gotten credit toward lunch, despite not eating breakfast,” freshman Bethany Bosley said, adding that she has used food points to pay for three lunches that should have been covered. “I was pretty annoyed. This is definitely not what it says in our

When freshmen descend on the annual Fall Student Activities Fair today, they will find a dizzying array of options to strike their extracurricular fancy.

New to the Student Organization Finance Committee’s roster of funded groups this year: Amnesty International, Anime Club, Apiary Club, Archery Club, the American Society of Civil engineers and the Arabic Students Association.

And that’s just the A’s. The list goes on: the Biological Anthropology Union, the Culinary Society, the Korean Undergraduate Student Association, the Public Speaking Club and so on and so forth.

In all, more than 270 campus organizations will be represented at the fair this year—the highest total at the Activities Fair ever, according to an e-mail sent by the Office of Student Activities and Facilities to registered student groups. Ryan O’Connell, OSAF program coordinator and SOFC adviser, approximates that the real number of organizations lies closer to 400.

Furthermore, the number of chartered groups listed on SOFC’s annual budget grew from approximately 100 last year to about 130 this year, even as Duke Student Govern-

See Dining ON PAGe 8

See sofc ON PAGe 7

by Zachary Tracer THe CHRONICLe

Mallory Cecil turns pro, Page 9

the chr onicle’ s guide

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ONTHERECORD

“We just don’t have the bodies to do [Saturday cleanings] right now.”

—Gary Thompson, director of facilities, planning and operations for RLHS, on the University’s decision to eliminate Saturday cleaning of residence halls. See story page 3

2 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009

The chRonIcle

worldandnation

Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan

CIA uses Wiki-like medium

Dems want temp. replacement for Sen. Kennedy

WaSHington — intellipedia, the intelligence community’s version of Wikipedia, hummed in the aftermath of the iranian presidential election in June,with personnel at myriad government agencies updating a page dedicated to tracking the disputed results.

Similarly, a page established in november immediately after the terrorist attack in Mumbai provided intelligence analysts with a better understanding of the scope of the incident, as well as a forum to speculate on possible perpetrators. “there were a number of things posted that were ahead of what was being reported in the press,” said Sean Dennehy, the Cia officer who helped establish the site. intellipedia is a collaborative online intelligence repository, and it runs counter to traditional reluctance in the intelligence community to the sharing of classified information.

WaSHington — Senior Democrats in Washington and Massachusetts have thrown their support behind a proposal to appoint a temporary replacement to fill the seat of Sen. edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., whose death tuesday has left the leading cause of his political life—national health insurance—with one less vote of support.

Senate Majority leader Harry reid, Dnev., on thursday publicly endorsed the plan to change the state’s law to allow an interim appointment before a special election is held in January, when the winner will serve out the remaining three years of Kennedy’s term. reid joined Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the party’s 2004 presidential nominee and close Kennedy ally, Massachusetts Democratic gov. Deval patrick and other top legislative leaders, who all want to assure that sometime this fall Massachusetts has two senators.

“

Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.

— Fran Lebowitz

”

toDay:

8768

beiJing — the Dalai lama is expected Monday in taiwan for his first visit in eight years, injecting a volatile element into the political fallout from a killer typhoon. tibet’s exiled spiritual leader—reviled as a separatist by beijing—was invited to taiwan by officials in southern communities hard hit by typhoon Morakot. Despite having staked his presidency on closer ties with the mainland, taiwanese leader Ma ying-jeou had little choice but to agree to the visit because of the uproar against his government for its sluggish reaction to the storm. “the Dalai lama’s visit is to pray for the victims and bereaved,” Ma told taiwanese television reporters, explaining his decision to allow the visit. the Dalai lama’s office in Dharamsala, india, where the tibetan government in exile is headquartered, has said he will accept the invitation. the visit is expected to last from aug.

31 to Sept. 4.

SaturDay:

9168

Online Highlight the Chronicle’s Chase olivieri took video of the much reviled writer-turned-screenwriter tucker Max addressing his protesters Wedenesday in raleigh.

He also captured some footage of the protest scene at the raleigh premiere of Max’s movie I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.

— Check the Chronicle’s recess blog: The playground at playground.chronicleblogs.com to see the video footage.

ToDay iN HisTory 1565: Oldest city in the US—St. Augustine, Fla.—is established

linDa DaViDSon/tHe WaSHington poSt

above, a freshman plays Frisbee at st. John’s college in annapolis, Md., where parents are more carefully evaluating spending money on liberal arts. Many private liberal arts schools across the country saw a decline in applications for the class of 2013.

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The chRonIcle

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009 | 3

With smaller staff, RLHS eliminates Saturday cleaning

by Zachary Tracer THe CHRONICLe

That stuff on the bathroom floor will linger a bit longer this weekend.

Staff losses due to early retirement have caused Residence Life and Housing Services to eliminate Saturday cleanings in residence halls beginning tomorrow, said Gary Thompson, director of facilities, planning and operations for RLHS. Dorms will now be cleaned only Monday through Friday.

“We have less housekeepers now than we did in the past due to the University’s early retirement package and our need to reduce our force,” Thompson said. “We just don’t have the bodies to do [Saturday cleanings] right now.”

Nine housekeepers and eight housekeeping supervisors chose to retire early, Thompson said. Four housekeeping and six supervisory positions have since been filled, while the remaining seven positions have been eliminated.

Overall, 295 bi-weekly paid employees have accepted Duke’s early retirement package, which was offered to workers this summer.

Bernard Smith, assistant director of housekeeping operations for RLHS said residence halls will be cleaned twice on Friday—once in the morning and once in the afternoon— to help make up for the lack of weekend cleaning.

“Our existing workforce will be the ones providing the service,” he said. “It is just probably going to be an increased workload.”

Smith added that he does not know if the lack of a Saturday cleaning will create more work for the Monday morning cleaning crew.

Joe Gonzalez, associate dean for residential life, said he hopes students will take more responsibility for keeping their living areas clean, noting that they are already expected to “pick up after themselves.”

He also asked that students empty the trash cans in their rooms during the workweek so that excessive trash does not build up over the weekend.

“Treat this place like we hope you would treat your home,”

CHroniCle file pHoto

a housekeeper works to clean a residence hall. The cleaning process, which currently happens every Monday through saturday, will no longer happen on saturdays due to a decrease in the number of housekeepers. Duke has lost five housekeepers and two housekeeping supervisors overall.

Gonzalez said. “If you create a mess, take care of it.”

Some students living is West Campus residence halls expressed concern that when fraternities and selective living groups throw parties in their sections, trash and spills will linger throughout the weekend.

“I think come Sunday morning, things could get pretty filthy,” said Mike Fausone, a sophomore in Mirecourt.

But Gonzalez noted that groups are already required to

clean up after their events and can be billed if housekeepers discover excessive trash or other problems.

James Lambert, a senior, suggested that RLHS pick a different day to not clean residence halls.

“Today, they probably replaced an empty trash can,” he said, gesturing towards a nearby trash can in Craven Quadrangle. “[The weekend] is the exact time when everyone is making the most trash.”

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4 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009 the chronicle

rape policy from page 1 counselors.

Previously, University officials were only required to report faculty or staff sexual offenses against students. Now, when an allegation is filed, the Women’s Center and the Office of Student Conduct are notified.

The Women’s Center will reach out to the victim with medical and psychological support and the OSC will automatically begin an investigation into the allegation.

Under the policy, students may still confidentially report sexual misconduct to counselors in the Women’s Center, staff members in Student Health, licensed therapists and counselors and clergy members.

“I hope the way women and men see this is as a supportive process that seeks to find the truth,” said Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek, assistant vice president of student affairs.

The five forcible sexual offenses in the 2007 Clery report represent the fewest number of incidents in the past three years—seven were reported in 2006 and 10 in 2005, according to the report.

“We know there’s a presence [of sexual misconduct], we’ve had cases and situations in the past, so to think that it does not exist on this campus, I think, would be naive and foolish,” Wasiolek said. “That being said, I also don’t think that this is a campus or a campus culture where sexual assault is rampant or quickly and easily tolerated.”

Reporting and investigating offenses Although the University has many resources available for victims of sexual misconduct, there are many reasons that some victims choose not to report being attacked.

Fear of social stigma and self-blame are among those reasons, said Sheila Broderick, sexual assault support services coordinator for the Women’s Center.

In addition, when students are raped, more than half the victims do not define the incident as “rape,” especially if there was alcohol involved, according to the National Institute of Justice’s Web site.

“Duke is not unlike colleges across the United States,” Gregory said. “And in fact, for me, this is an impetus for implementing mandatory reporting because this is not an environment where students feel comfortable coming forward.”

Among administrators, there was initially some concern that the new policy might deter students from reporting sexual misconduct, or increase false reports, Gregory said. But she said she does not anticipate this will be the case.

“We’re creating an environment that says, ‘This is not tolerated in our community,’ and when you create that environment, victims are more likely to come forward and seek help,” she said, adding that vic-

NFL y a Sund et Tick

tims who are supported shortly after their trauma are more likely to cooperate with the investigation process.

Stephen Bryan, associate dean of students and director of student conduct, said the University is prepared for more reports and more investigations, even if more alleged victims are not willing to cooperate with the process.

If necessary, he said that the OSC could hire an outside person to assist in conducting investigations into sexual misconduct, although that would be an “ad hoc” decision.

Other officials have been preparing for the change as well. Although the policy did not officially go into effect until students arrived on campus in August, Student Affairs officials, FACs and Residence Life and Housing Services staff like RAs were trained in the changes during the summer.

FACs signed their contracts before the policy change occurred, and nothing written appeared in this year’s FAC PAC about the policy due to the short notice, said FAC co-Chair Meg Foran, a senior. She said if any FACs had been uncomfortable with their new roles under the policy, she would have worked to reassign their freshmen and allowed them to leave the program, but no one asked to quit.

Several RAs declined to comment on how the new policy might affect their roles. Associate Dean for Residential Life Joe Gonzalez said just as before the policy change, RAs are expected to report any incidents of sexual misconduct to their Resident Coordinator.

“Rape culture” Broderick said students passively approve a culture of behavior that leads to sexual misconduct, citing parties that have sexually suggestive or sexist advertisements—like a schoolgirl theme.

Administrators discuss party themes that could be considered “inappropriate” during the approval process and ask student groups to reconsider them, Wasiolek said. But the University does not force groups to change the names or themes of their events.

“I think people focus sometimes on the cleverness of the party theme, and they reflect on whether the event the prior year was successful... without people really considering what kind of impact those themes can have,” Wasiolek said. “I have sensed a change over the last year or two, I’ve sensed that people are, number one, thinking about it more and, number two, expressing their concern—I think there are people on campus who are willing to express their disapproval for those kinds of themes.”

Broderick also cited “rape culture” in America and at Duke as evidence that sexual assault does occur and as a reason victims may be hesitant to report misconduct.

Good Luck, Blue Devils

ESPN Game Plan

Source: National Institute of Justice

CHronicle graphic by Hon Lung chu

When the Women’s Center changed its presentation for freshmen from “The Real Deal” to “True Blue,” the center eliminated Party Boy Chad. For several years, Party Boy Chad was a character in a humorous skit that warned freshmen about the potential for sexual misconduct, particularly in conjunction with parties and alcohol.

Broderick said one reason the Women’s Center staff decided to eliminate Party Boy Chad was based on reports they were receiving that students tried to emulate him, humorously and otherwise.

“Party Boy Chad is a great example of rape culture on campus,” Broderick said.

“I’ve had victims come to me crying and say, ‘I went to The Real Deal, they told me about Party Boy Chad and I fell for it anyway. I should have known better.’”

A proactive change In the past, the movement that pushed for reporting policies on campus focused on empowering victims to come forward and report their attackers, Broderick said.

But “because of the psychological effects of trauma, it’s not appropriate to make the

victim drive the process,” she said.

Rather, the University’s new policy will empower victims to decide how much they want to be involved in the process, while forcing University officials to begin the investigation and offer support to the victim, Broderick said.

The policy is also a way for the University to get ahead of the legal curve. The Duke University General Counsel suggested the change to University officials. General Counsel Vice President Pamela Bernard wrote in an e-mail that there is evidence the legal landscape is shifting toward holding universities responsible for investigating reported sexual misconduct, just as gender discrimination prevention laws require an employer to investigate these incidents.

She said courts have recognized that Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination in education, applies in situations of student-to-student sexual misconduct.

Gregory, of the Women’s Center, said that although mandatory reporting policies such as this are not new, the University is making a proactive change that she thinks most colleges will not make until they are legally forced to do so.

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the chronicle

picasso from page 1 except for a few sculptures. The collage entitled “Dice, packet of cigarettes and visiting card,” which is physically the smallest piece on display, originally hung in a Yale office until Fisher and Leighten came across it.

To Fisher, the piece embodies the spirit of the show in that it represents the sense of communication and connection Picasso had with writers. Not only were intellectuals Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas the two friends that had left Picasso the visiting card in the first place, but Stein and her brother Leo were also among Picasso’s first patrons.

Along with describing the backgrounds of several of Picasso’s works,

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009 | 5

the panel discussed the artist’s support for “revolutionary modernism” and anything innovative.

“He wanted to shock people into seeing things freshly,” Leighten said.

Fisher also noted that despite Picasso and his intellectual peers wanting to break away from “primitive,” realist techniques, a part of the exhibit is called “revisions” in order to highlight the number of works Picasso did that incorporated the past by building upon previously existing pieces.

“Cubism is very visually confusing.

It’s purposefully confusing because he’s combining different viewpoints of objects,” Leighten said. “You might think you’re looking at something that’s irrational. And you’re right.”

Fisher added that regardless of how

long an individual has been exposed to Cubism, Cubist art can still be a challenge to understand.

Leighten said this highlights how Cubism is essentially a rejection of a “communal view” in favor of the artist’s individual viewpoint, as seen in Picasso’s memory paintings. By looking at the influences such theories had on his artwork and writing, Fisher said her overall goal for the exhibit is to have individuals approach Picasso from a different angle.

“I was in Paris this summer and visited the Picasso museum and grew to appreciate his artwork,” senior Mary Bohan said. “This discussion explored new perspectives on the deeper meanings of his works as well as his relationships with friends and patrons.”

christina pena/The Chronicle

Duke professor Patricia Leighten (left) and Susan Fisher (right), an associate curator at the Yale University Art Gallery, discussed Pablo Picasso’s work “Dice, packet of cigarettes and visiting card” at the Nasher Museum of Art Thursday night. The panel is part of the exhibit “Picasso and the Allure of Language,” which opened last Thursday at the Nasher and will be on display until Jan. 3, 2010.

Questions linger after Afghans vote

by Joshua Partlow and Pamela Constable The washington post

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan — One week after Afghanistan’s presidential election, with the winner still undeclared, increasing accusations of fraud and voter coercion threaten to undermine the validity of the results, deepen dangerous regional divisions and hamper Obama administration goals in this volatile country.

With U.S. popular support for the war in Afghanistan wavering, an election viewed as illegitimate by many Afghans would be a major setback for President Obama, who has increased U.S. military and economic efforts in a conflict central to his foreign policy. Officials worry that a Kabul government tainted by allegations of election-stealing or destablized by potential violent backlash could derail U.S. efforts to beat back a resurgent Taliban and build Afghan security forces.

In interviews here in the capital of Balkh province in northern Afghanistan, the governor, election officials and residents described incidents of ballot-box stuffing and voter intimidation, particularly by election monitoring employees. The many allegations of fraud add to the chorus of doubts from candidates and observers elsewhere in the country about the fairness of the election process.

In a jailhouse interview, election monitor Abdul Hakim Ghafurzai, bruised and bloodSee election on page 6

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6 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009 the chronicle

New U.S. tactic said to reduce Afghan civilian deaths

by Laura King

The los angeles times

KABUL, Afghanistan — Western troops have killed far fewer Afghan civilians since the top U.S. general imposed strict new rules of engagement aimed at addressing one of the most contentious issues of the conflict, according to newly declassified U.S. military figures.

However, the data cover a relatively short period of eight weeks, and make clear that civilians are still dying in large numbers—a pattern blamed in part on the Taliban’s campaign of violence leading up to and after last week’s national elections.

Civilian casualties have angered Afghanistan’s top officials and poisoned public opinion against the presence of American and allied troops. The Obama administration has made reducing such deaths a top priority for the U.S. military.

The period since the new rules took effect also have coincided with some of the heaviest losses of the war for Western forces. But military spokespersons deny any linkage, saying record fatalities were due to the summer’s troop buildup and an accompanying push into areas controlled by the Taliban, rather than any greater hazard to troops posed by the new rules.

According to the latest NATO figures, coalition forces were responsible for 19 civilian deaths from July until Thursday, as opposed to 249 blamed on insurgent attacks.

During roughly the same period a year earlier, Western forces caused 151 civilian deaths, by their own count—

election from page 5 ied and slumped in his cell, said he knows how it feels to challenge election fraud in Afghanistan. “I am in pain,” said Ghafurzai, who alleged he was beaten and arrested after complaining that police outside this northern city shut down polling places because people were voting for President Hamid Karzai.

“Fraud has taken place by the Independent Election Commission and there were also many threats,” said Atta Mohammad Noor, the governor of Balkh, who broke with Karzai before the election and backed his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who is very popular in the north. “If this government wins through fraud, I won’t be with this government.”

All five leading candidates have filed

not far short of the 210 deaths caused by militants.

Military officials credit the marked decrease in Western-inflicted civilian deaths to a tactical directive issued July 2 by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who assumed overall command of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan in mid-June.

McChrystal said commanders could take measures needed for self-defense, but ordered them to break off engagements with Taliban fighters rather than pursuing them if civilians would be endangered by calling in artillery or airstrikes.

“We must fight the insurgents,” McChrystal wrote in the directive. “But we will not win based on the number of Taliban we kill, but instead on our ability to separate insurgents from the center of gravity, the people. . . .

That means we must respect and protect the population.”

In the past, large-scale civilian deaths were most often caused by airstrikes. But now, after the new directive, airstrikes are used much less frequently, said Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay, a Canadian who serves as chief spokesperson for the International Security Assistance Force.

He said the use of “close air support”—fire from warplanes in support of ground troops—had fallen significantly. Previously, it was an element in about 30 percent to 40 percent of major clashes, but that figure has dropped to about 10 percent, he estimated.

The message of the tactical directive was that “force needs to be applied, but carefully,” Tremblay said.

complaints of ballot box stuffing or destruction, intimidation and pressure on voters at polling stations, and ballots cast by phantom voters. One candidate, former anti-drug official Mirwais Yasini, personally delivered boxes full of shredded ballots to the foreignled Election Complaints Commission. Yasini and five other candidates issued a joint statement this week saying the election was marred by “widespread fraud and intimidation” that threatened to “increase tension and violence in the country.”

Because the complaint process is slow and cumbersome, officials at the complaints commission office in Kabul said they do not expect to finish their investigations until mid-September, at least two weeks after the official election results are announced. That could create public tension and possible unrest, especially if Karzai is announced as the winner before the nu-

The tallying of civilian deaths in a conflict can be difficult and sometime controversial. Disagreements over a single major incident can skew the count.

In early May, for instance, the Afghan government said about 140 civilians were killed in American airstrikes in the village of Garani, in western Afghanistan.

U.S. forces put the dead at less than half that number and said most of those killed were insurgents.

In addition, the period covered by the new NATO figures is relatively short in the context of an eight-year war.

Even before arriving in the country, McChrystal had told U.S. lawmakers and NATO allies that civilian deaths were seriously jeopardizing the war effort by inflaming Afghan anger against foreign forces. He promised to make safeguarding civilians his top priority.

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan, which repeatedly has appealed to both sides to make efforts to stem civilian deaths and injuries, said it could not corroborate the latest military figures. But the world body had welcomed the new rules of engagement for Western troops.

“The challenge that the military faces is ensuring that these rules filter down to troops on the ground, and we know that Gen. McChrystal is driving it down to that level,” Aleem Siddique, a U.N. spokesperson, said.

A U.N. report on civilian casualties in the first half of See afghanistan on page 8

merous complaints have been resolved.

Karzai and Abdullah have both denied allegations that their followers committed systematic fraud.

In the past week, Abdullah has held two news conferences to allege “widespread rigging” by the Karzai administration, its campaign aides and election commission employees. He has shown reporters thick blocks of ballots with identical check marks next to Karzai’s name and photograph, and shown videos of people in closed polling stations, sitting on the floor and systematically marking ballot after ballot.

Legislators and other leaders in a number of provinces, especially those threatened by insurgent violence such as Kandahar, Khost and Wardak, have complained that in polling stations where very few people were able to cast ballots because of insecurity, sealed ballot boxes inexplicably full of hundreds of

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ballots have been delivered to Kabul.

Election observers have described northern Afghanistan as a place where the election proceeded relatively peacefully with as many as half of registered voters going to the polls—far higher than in some Taliban strongholds in the south. But interviews with those monitoring the election here and looking into allegations of voting irregularities painted a bleaker portrait that implicated the followers of both Karzai and Abdullah.

“I was a witness to fraud and I couldn’t do anything to stop it,” said a female election monitor at a voting site in the Barga village, in this province, who spoke on condition of anonymity. She said her fellow staff members voted at least 100 times for Abdullah and forced other residents to make the same choice. “I was really upset.

The voting system was not good. People didn’t have the right to choose.”

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Sunday Bible Study begins at 9:15 a.m. Worship at 10:30 a.m. Wed Night Prayer time: 6:45 p.m. Bible Study 7:00 p.m. Choir practice at 8 p.m. Christian Medical Dental Group meets once a month in the Fellowship Hall.

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the chronicle

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009 | 7

GDP declines 1 percent in second quarter

by Neil Irwin and Annys Shin The washington POst

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy shrank by one percent in the April-through-June quarter, as was originally estimated, and the job market remained weak last week, with continued large numbers of people seeking unemployment insurance benefits.

The Commerce Department released a revision of second-quarter gross domestic product Thursday morning, the broadest measure of economic activity.

It affirmed the original estimate that the economy contracted at a one percent annual rate in that quarter, though the components of that loss were different.

Exports, investment and housing, consumption spending, and government spending were slightly higher than first estimated, but that was offset by downward revisions to inventories and investment in commercial real estate.

The downward revision to inventories is particularly good news. The more companies cut the goods in their

SOFC from page 1 ment and SOFC leaders raised concerns regarding the strain the rapid growth of student organizations has placed on available funding.

It’s a problem that has proved difficult for student leaders to solve.

“Duke is a school that encourages students to start things, so what we have is a positive culture SOFC budget for the 2008of creativity and 2009 academic year start-ups for student groups,” said DSG Executive Vice President Gregory Morrison, a junior. “What this SOFC budget for the 2009does lead to is 2010 academic year kind of a multitude of student groups that aren’t necessarily worthy of student groups.... The oversight process is not quite as stringent as it should be.”

SOFCFUNDS

623 thousand 638 thousand

Smaller pieces of the pie SOFC Chair David Hu, a senior, estimates that one to two new groups are currently being recognized or chartered every week.

Only chartered groups—those that have open membership and “could not otherwise exist without a specialized source

warehouses and on store shelves to the bone in the first half of the year, the more they will have to ramp up production to keep up with demand in the second half.

Economists had expected the revision to indicate the economy was in fact shrinking at a 1.5 percent rate, so the affirmation of the original number supports the idea that the economy is improving. Economists generally believe that the economy is leveling off this summer, and many expect growth to be positive in the second half of the year.

Also Thursday, the Labor Department released a report showing the number of people filing for unemployment last week fell last week by 10,000 to 570,000.

The jobless claims report also had no surprises. Analysts had been expecting first-time jobless claims to fall slightly after increasing for two straight weeks. The report is likely to reassure Wall Street, policy makers and economists who were surprised by the recent increases.

The pace of layoffs has slowed in recent months. And although weekly claims are volatile, they have been trend-

of funding”—are allocated money from SOFC’s annual budget every Spring.

Any recognized or chartered group can apply for money through the Programming Fund, set aside specifically to finance campus events.

Both the money in the annual budget and the Programming Fund come from the student activities fee. Although the total pool of money fluctuates based on enrollment numbers year to year, a DSG proposal to increase the student activities fee and thereby provide additional financing for student groups failed to pass a student referendum last Fall.

“You see a proportionally smaller amount of money being allocated to each student group and that could mean fewer resources for each,” Morrison said. “It does restrict what student groups can program and what kind of services they can offer.”

The amount of allocations given annual to student groups has noticeably increased in recent years. For the 2007-2008 school year, SOFC budgeted $622,169.95 for all student organizations. In 2008-2009, SOFC allocated $623,325.39. For this academic year, the figure jumped to $638,079.25.

If the number of student groups keeps growing, funding may start to dry up.

Hu said, however, that SOFC has made their available funds stretch and that most student groups were allocated the same amount this year as they were in previous years. He added that SOFC has not yet had to dip into the $10,000 surplus fund the committee keeps for emergencies.

“I think if a bunch of students have a really innovative idea that adds something to campus, they should be able to have a stu-



dent group and have access to funds,” he said, adding that with University-wide budget cuts, SOFC, like all other organizations, was more cautious with its funds when allocating last March.

The Campus Council Finance Committee also plays a hand in financing student organizations, commanding approximately $40,000 a year drawn from the residential programming fee.

The CCFC has also become more cautious in allocating funding, said Campus Council President Stephen Temple, a junior.

“We have tightened a little bit and we’re making sure that we’re only funding events that really add something to the residential experience, ” he said.

The CCFC will allocate their funds for this year at an upcoming Campus Council meeting.

“We’re not getting to the point where we feel we’re having to turn away valuable events,” Temple added. “I don’t think it’s presented a huge problem at this point.

Not to say that it couldn’t.”

The call for reform Student leaders are still searching for ways to revamp the current system.

Each Spring, chartered groups submit line-itemized budgets lobbying for money.

After meeting with the committee, most groups generally get only a small proportion of their request.

“It’s a broken system,” said Duke Democrats President Ben Bergmann, a junior.

“The way SOFC allocates funds does not really take into account the scope of a group’s impact on campus, the number of members and the type of activities

they put on.... There should be some sort of standardized model of evaluating groups.”

Duke Democrats requested $23,950.30 and were allocated $1,550.00 for the year.

Bergmann, however, said the final allocation was no surprise.

“I went into it knowing that we weren’t going to get that much, but what I was more irritated by is that we got a similar amount of money as groups that aren’t doing the same amount of work, who aren’t having as much of an impact,” he said.

To streamline the funding process, SOFC and Campus Council independently approved resolutions in the Spring to hear joint proposals from student organizations. SOFC and OSAF will also partner this year to audit student organizations at random.

Furthermore, a new financial policy enacted over the summer allows student groups to roll over the money in their accounts from year to year to increase the appeal of being prudent. In the past, funds were taken back by SOFC each May. Morrison also said plans are in the works to undertake a wide review of all student groups and evaluate the annual budgeting process.

Center for Race Relations co-president Casey Williams, a senior, also said he was aware of SOFC’s budgeting problems, but lauded the discussion underway to reform the process.

“They just don’t have enough money to give out to all the organizations. I think the student organizations know that as well,” he said. “With their resources available, they’re doing the best that they can. They are trying to make the process better.”

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ing downward from their peak in January. They remain, however, above 500,000, which indicates a weak labor market. Claims in the 300,000 range are considered normal in a healthy economy.

Despite optimism about the recession leveling off, the labor market is expected to remain weak through next year. Businesses have little reason to hire because consumers have scaled back and started to save more in the face of rising unemployment and a record loss of wealth in the housing and stock markets. A weak labor market also slows wage growth, making it harder for those working to spend as well as save.

More than six million jobs have been lost since the recession began in December 2007 and there are roughly 14 million unemployed, including five million who have been out of work 27 weeks or more.

The unemployment rate dipped slightly in July, but largely because people dropped out of the workforce. The Labor Department will release its jobs report for August on Sept. 4.

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8 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009

DiNiNG from page 1 Blue Book.”

According to the Duke Dining Services Web site, freshmen who skip breakfast are given a $6 credit that day that can be used toward breakfast at the Great Hall or lunch at the Marketplace.

But cashiers at the Marketplace said managers told them the credit was not being offered this year. Ted Canto, a Marketplace manager, said cashiers were instructed to begin giving freshmen the lunch credit Wednesday.

He referred further questions to Assistant Director of Dining Services Barbara Stokes. Stokes declined to comment when contacted by a reporter. Director of Dining Services Jim Wulforst is currently on medical leave and was unavailable for comment.

“There’s been some confusion about what’s included in the first-year dining board plan when it comes to breakfast,” Stokes wrote in an e-mail sent to freshmen Thursday. The message also restated the credit policy for freshmen who skip breakfast, offering them $6 at either the Great Hall for breakfast or the Marketplace for lunch.

The chRonIcle

The e-mail, sent just before noon, did not explain why freshmen had previously been denied the credit, nor did it say whether freshmen who have paid extra for lunches will be reimbursed.

Josh Loyal may be among the freshmen asking about his missing food points. eating lunch at the Marketplace Thursday, Loyal said he was certain he had been receiving the $6 credit each day he did not eat breakfast because he always informed the cashier that he had missed it.

But when the freshman logged on to the DukeCard Web site on a reporter’s computer, he found he had been charged full price for three marketplace lunches on days when he said he had not eaten breakfast.

“I’m surprised that it is getting charged— it shouldn’t be,” he said. “I’m going to ask them why.”

Freshman Luke Shuffield said he was frustrated when he learned from a Marketplace cashier that the skipped-breakfast credit would not be offered.

“If I don’t [eat breakfast], it’s good to get the $6 off,” he said. “Since I have the lowest amount of food points, they are kind of sacred.”

Lindsey Rupp contributed reporting.

CHaSe oliVieri/CHroniCle file pHoto

Freshmen who missed breakfast at the Marketplace were denied their $6 lunch credits earlier this week. The credit was restored Wednesday, but some freshmen were concerned that they spent food points on lunch.

aFGHaNisTaN from page 6 2009 says more than 1,000 civilians have been killed— an increase of about 25 percent over the first half of 2008. About 60 percent of those deaths were blamed on insurgents and about 30 percent on coalition forces, with responsibility unclear in the remaining cases.

A U.N. compilation that will cover the late-summer months is due in September.

Over the last year, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has complained repeatedly about civilian deaths, and he made the subject a centerpiece of his just-concluded presidential campaign. The votes from the Aug. 20 balloting are still being tallied, with a partial count putting Karzai ahead of his main rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, but not more than the 50 percent threshold he would need to avoid a runoff.

A senior Afghan government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he had not yet seen the military figures, said he welcomed any decrease in civilian deaths, but noted that Western tallies do not always match those of Afghan authorities.

For civilians and Western troops, one of the main hazards is roadside bombs planted by insurgents.

Known as improvised explosive devices, or IeDs, they account for the vast majority of military fatalities and a major share of civilian deaths. Civilians also tend to take the brunt of suicide bombings, which are often aimed at official installations and the security forces.

Many Afghan civilians, inured by suffering, have stopped making a distinction between deaths caused by coalition troops and insurgents.

“It is the common people caught between the Taliban and foreigners who suffer,” said Mohammed Noor, a chicken vendor in Kandahar who lost four members of his family in massive vehicle bombings in the southern city earlier this week. That attack killed more than 40 people.

The tally of American soldiers who have died in Afghanistan this month reached 44 on Thursday, officials said, when a U.S. service member was killed in an attack in southern Afghanistan involving a roadside bomb and gunfire. A total of 45 soldiers died in July, which was the most lethal month for American forces in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, according to the independent Web site icasualties.org.

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The chronicle

FRIDAY

August 28, 2009

Find out everything you need to know about Duke Football’s bowl prospects under head coach David Cutcliffe with The Chronicle’s guide to the season

www.dukechroniclesports.com

SeaSOn PReVIeW: Men’S CROSS COunTRY

WOMen’S TennIS

Strength in depth for Blue Devils Cecil leaves Duke to play pro

by Alex Keller THE CHRONICLE

Unlike in previous seasons, Duke’s freshman class will have its work cut out to even make the starting squad.

The Blue Devils return their top ten runners from last year, including All-ACC and NCAA qualifier junior Bo Waggoner, All-Southeast Region senior James Osborne and junior Cory Nanni, who ran a 3:43 1500 meters on the track at the USA Track & Field National Championships in June, a time that roughly equates to a 4:01 mile.

Head coach Norm Ogilvie said the strength of Duke’s veteran runners will spur the team to improve this season.

“I think in a lot of years at Duke, we have to rely on freshmen to contribute,” Ogilvie said. “But I think on this year’s team it will be a bonus if they contribute. All the ingredients are here for a great season. We’ve had three tremendous recruiting classes back-to-back-to-back, and we’ve got a bunch of seniors who are going to provide some really great leadership for us.”

The top returning runners share a single goal: place at the top of the ACC, qualify for team NCAA Nationals, finish near the front of the pack individually and help Duke to score among the top teams in the country.

And after his individual trip to the NCAA meet last year, Waggoner brings back an understanding of the importance of every place’s value to the score in a large race.

“It’s very hard to stay focused, because you don’t really know where you are,” Waggoner said. “You don’t really know how you’re doing, there’s so many good runners. But if, as a team, each of us goes out there, stays hungry and picks up five seconds where they might normally drop back, that five seconds might be ten places or more, they’re packed so tight together.

“You spread that out over five to seven guys, and all of a sudden that...turns into a whole bunch of team points. So yeah, I’m remembering my experience being in a big pack…. If you fight to move up, every place counts. That will make a big difference for us.”

Osborne, meanwhile, is determined to

by Sabreena Merchant THE CHRONICLE

ChroniCle File Photo

Junior Cory nanni ran the 1500 meters in 3:43 at the uSa Track & Field national Championships in June. join Waggoner at the NCAA meet this year, and hopes it will be as a team rather than as individual qualifiers.

“Since I came to Duke almost four years ago now, this is the season I’ve been waiting for,” Osborne said. “For whatever reason, we haven’t gotten it done in the past three years for me.

This season is different.... I have similar goals to Bo’s: get All-ACC, be one of the major players in the ACC, and I know that my team’s counting on me to be up there for the NCAA meet.

“I also want to be one of those top 50 guys, shoot for All-American, and I’m ready to go. I’m really excited, and I think

the rest of the team is, too.”

And having proven himself on the track last year, Nanni hopes to catch up off the track and be equally competitive in cross country. His two IC4A titles are proof that Duke athletes can win championships, which Ogilvie hopes will inspire the rest of the team.

“What we’re trying to do in the training this fall is come out of the gates at a little higher level,” Ogilvie said. “And we’re going to aim high. I talk about not settling for less than winning the conference, sending a bunch of guys to Nationals, and seeing them perform at the level they’re capable of.”

FOOTBaLL Q&A WITH DEAN SUE

Wasiolek sees Cutcliffe’s influence About a week before the Blue Devils kick off their season against Richmond, Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek, Trinity ’76, sat down with The Chronicle’s Taylor Doherty to discuss her status as one of Duke Football’s longest-serving fans.

At what point did you start following Duke Football and really enjoying it?

My first semester at Duke. I just thought that going to college and particularly going to [an FBS] school in the ACC meant that you attended Sue Wasiolek football games in the fall, that’s what you did in college. I sort of had

this view of the leaves turning and putting on a sweater and going to a fall football game.

My freshmen year we were 2-8-1, if I recall. It was still what I thought was the thing to do and a lot of students attended.

I thought it had a fairly festive feel. The student section back then was located where it now is, and I always thought that it was a better location than moving it on the other side of the field. I always liked being able to see my classmates. I felt like I was supporting them and backing them up by being on that side of the field.

What do you remember most about Duke Football as a student?

Football was the first sport that I was re-

ally exposed to as a new Duke student because basketball didn’t start until later in the fall…. Even though I didn’t know many of the players, or any of the players, I did know that several of them were classmates, that some of them were freshmen. There was just something about going to the games and knowing that they were students just like me. They were students and then they were out there playing hard and representing the school. For whatever reason, I felt a part of that because I felt like they were a part of my experience, even though being a varsity athlete was and still is a very different experience.

SEE DEAN SUE ON PAGE 10

After winning an individual and team title in her one and only season at Duke, Mallory Cecil has decided to take the next step in her career and enter the professional ranks.

Cecil entertained the possibility of turning pro after winning the individual crown at the NCAA championships in May, but took the summer to think through the decision before ultimately choosing to forgo her final three years at Duke.

“It was definitely a tough decision, it did take a while for me to make,” Cecil said. “I was just waiting for the right time.

I didn’t want to make a hasty decision by any means.”

Cecil left high school early to enter Duke in the 2009 spring semester as the No. 1 recruit in the nation. She immediately assumed the top singles spot for the Blue Devils, and compiled a 32-4 record, placing her 32nd on Duke’s all-time wins list after just one season.

The Blue Devils went 29-3 in 2009 and won the first national title in the program’s history, defeating California in the championship match after losing to the Golden Bears in the Sweet 16 a year ago.

Cecil won the individual crown later that week, winning each of her matches in straight sets, to become the 14th player to capture both the team and individual titles in the same season.

She was the recipient of the Honda Award, honoring the nation’s best female collegiate athlete in each sport, in addition to being named both the ACC and ITA Southeast Region Rookie of the Year.

“I feel like in January of last year, my heart was really telling me to go to college,” Cecil said. “I thought at the time that was really a stepping stone I needed to take, one that would take me where I wanted to be…. After the success that we had as a team, and I had as an individual, those wins and those accomplishments have propelled me and given me confidence to take the next step to playing the pros.”

Cecil will begin her professional career at no less than the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. next week. She was given a wild card entry into the grand slam. Cecil played in the Family Circle Cup in April and lost in the first round of that event, but she is excited about her future.

“This is a great opportunity for me,” she said. “I’m really excited. It’s a great way to start out my career, but, again, it’s just the beginning. I don’t see this as my only showing at the U.S. Open. I’ve been privileged to have this opportunity, but this is just the beginning.

“Ultimately that’s my dream to be a professional tennis player. Now is the time.”

10 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009 the chronicle

Dean Sue from page 9 As a Duke fan for that long of a time, there certainly had to have been high points and low points. What was the program’s darkest moment as a fan that you can remember since you’ve been here?

The low, for me, is a very vivid memory.

It wasn’t when I was a student, it was during my administrative career just a few years ago: when were losing to Wake Forest at home, and I believe the score at halftime was 42-0.

I usually don’t get up during halftime. I usually stay and talk to the people around me or watch the band or whatever the halftime show is. But on that particular day, I got up and left my seat and started walking around the concourse. I walked all the way to the other side, and I walked all the way back because I was so frustrated.

Was it as much the lifelessness as it was their bad play that frustrated you?

They played miserably. It looked like they didn’t care and it looked like even when they did care they couldn’t execute at all. I began to question myself the role of Duke Football.

Not only on this campus, but also as this major part of my life, like, what am I doing here?

I think the sentiments ran the gamut of emotions. I think there were people that were angry, I think there was frustration, there was disappointment, people were embarrassed, there was this level of humiliation. The people that had been really die-hard Duke Football fans found themselves asking that question.

Why are we here, why are we doing this?

We’ve spoken before about your excitement for head coach David Cutcliffe. What is it that he does that gives you so much confidence in him, what draws people in him?

He is an incredibly charismatic individual, and I say that in the most positive way. He is a born motivator and he knows the game of

Chronicle File Photo

Duke Football used to cause anguish for players and fans, but the program has turned around under David Cutcliffe. football, but he also knows people and he knows young people. And I believe he knows what it takes to put an entire program together. He knows how to recruit a young person and their family, he knows how to teach them and mentor them once they get here, he knows how to manage and oversee a staff of assistant coaches. He knows how to market a program, and his heart and soul are in it.

So it’s to the point where you can just tell that he means what he says?

He exudes total genuineness and authenticity, that’s who he is. He lives it and he breathes it, but he does it in such a way that you want to live it and breathe it with him.

What are your first memories of meeting Cutcliffe? What was your first impression?

I got [the feeling of confidence in him] at his press conference. I remember being home, it was a rainy Saturday evening and I knew that they were going to have a press conference announcing the new football coach. I questioned whether I should go. Is that something I should attend, do I belong there, why am I doing this? And I thought, You really want to go, you want to see what this is all about. So I hopped in my car—I only live a short distance from campus— and the Yoh [Football Center] where they held it was packed with people, all kinds of people, the athletic department and the Duke administration, but there were also people from the community and from the faculty. I walked in and my immediate reac-

tion was, I’m really glad I’m here because I want to see this from the get-go. And he walked in and, I don’t know. He was with his family and the minute he started to describe his visit to the campus and what he hoped to do here, I had this incredible, overwhelming sense of optimism. And I thought, “This could be the real deal.”

What are you expectations about how far the team can go this year? Cutcliffe has thrown out the possibility of making a bowl game. Is this a realistic expectation from this team in your mind?

You know, I always start out as the eternal optimist, I always think that we can win every game, but I’m also a realist. I’d love to see us go to a bowl game, but I won’t be disappointed if we don’t go to a bowl game. I will be fine. We won four games last year, so being the step-wise, improvementtype person that I am, I would love to see us win five. I would consider that a good year.

If we win seven, that would be a very good year. That would be exceeding my own expectations. I’m not choosing five because I don’t believe in this team. I try to do a little bit of self-protection having been through many years of Duke Football now with very high expectations. I’m trying to readjust now to this new way of thinking.

Any more thoughts on the upcoming season?

I just hope there’s someone out there, whether it’s a student or an administrator or a professor or a community member, who is really studying David Cutcliffe right now, last year, this year, and the next year.

[Someone needs] to watch how change takes place. There are all these books written about it and all these people who talk about leadership and how difficult change is and how to make it happen. I think he is living it and showing us on a day-to-day basis how to make it happen, but we need to pay attention.

the chronicle

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009 | 11

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14 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009 the chronicle commentaries

A new year, a new Central?

The recession that began on the long-term renovation last year has torn up the fi- of Central, while in the meannancial services sector, burst time actually existing Central the housing bubble and made was allowed to remain in a good jobs hard to come by. But lowly condition. The current the recession has state of Central been one of the did not really editorial best things ever to matter; it was on happen to Central Campus. the way out anyway.

Throughout the 2007-2008 In the 2008-2009 academacademic year, all the talk about ic year, the economy plunged Central was centered on Dean and so did any major plans of Undergraduate Education for New Campus.

Steve Nowicki’s “Uniting Old The administration, most and New: A Vision for the Inte- notably Nowicki and Vice Presgrated Development of Duke’s ident for Student Affairs Larry West and Central Campus.”

Moneta, quickly recognized This ambitious report that Central was here to stay laid out the long-term plans and that, as a consequence, it by which Central would be had to be improved. demolished and replaced by What has followed has New Campus, which would, been a series of significant as the title of the report indi- improvements for students cates, unify West and Central. living on Central Campus.

With this “Vision” in mind, Uncle Harry’s, the Cenadministrators concentrated tral grocery store, has moved

“

onlinecomment

Knowing that Duke is putting even more of their resources toward making their program even better is very reassuring to those of who have been treated successfully at their current facility.

”

—“phil” commenting on the story “DUHS unveils $700M expansion plans.”

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to a temporary location to await renovations that will be completed sometime next semester.

Athletic facilities such as tennis and basketball courts have received much-needed improvements, and there has been discussion about installing a fitness center on Central.

The sophomores-on-West living requirement has been relaxed to allow selective living groups to move to Central if they so wish, and Ubuntu and SHARE have already made the switch. The presence of SLGs on Central does not promise to dramatically improve the experience for independents on Central, but it is a sensible and positive change for the groups themselves.

Finally, Nowicki is pursuing plans to put a diner on Central.

This would be a huge victory

for residents of the forgotten campus, giving them a cultural center, a place to study and a place to eat without going to East, West or Trent. Nowicki should ensure that alcohol is served at this diner and lobby to keep it open 24 hours a day.

These changes, both already implemented and in the works, will make Central far more livable at low cost to the University.

But changes to Central should not be considered done at this point. As one example, the addition of common spaces to the new Mill Village complex is a start, but communal areas and group study rooms should be created at various locations throughout the campus. This would go a long way to create some sense of community beyond the characteristic Central computer cluster.

Administrators should also remember to couple improvements in amenities with improvements in safety.

Central is probably not as dangerous as many students think it is. But neither is it as safe as West or East, and, regardless, in matters of campus safety perception is reality. To improve the situation, Central’s street lighting should be improved, Duke Police patrols should be increased if possible and there should be two buses running through Central at night as opposed to one.

Unfortunately, Central Campus is here to stay. And although current students will have to shoulder the inconveniences of improvement, the University should continue to bring new solutions to this old problem.

Improve summer reading

T

he book I was sent to read before orientation my freshman year was called “My Sister’s Keeper,” and it sucked.

“This all feels like some awkward combination of a sci-fi novel and a movie on the Lifetime Channel,” reads The New York Times review of the bestselling novel by Jodi Picoult. “In short order, the novel becomes a soap opera.” I happened to nate freeman agree; I have always preferred books good night, and with more depth good luck than daytime TV, books with more nuance than hot-button-issue beach reads.

It’s hard for me to sum up the amount of frustration its selection brought me, and from speaking to friends, I am not alone in thinking this. Let me put it this way: I have seen students burning a copy of this book, and I did not stop them.

The problem lies not in the fact that books like My Sister’s Keeper exist. People are evidently buying it, and the Cameron Diaz-starring tear-jerker of a movie based on it must have touched at least some hearts. But when it comes to choosing a book that will be the primary intellectual bonding point for a new class of Duke students, it has to be something of serious merit.

There is no reason why the Summer Reading selection committee needs to condescend to students bright enough to get into Duke University by snatching a buzzed-about title off the best-seller lists, while skipping over the thousands of classics that would adequately mirror the caliber of education that Duke has to offer.

One of the problems with My Sister’s Keeper and some of the other selections is that they tend to be books built on a charged issue, and less on character development or story craft. In Picoult’s 2004 novel, the controversial topic that overwhelms the text relates to stem-cell research, and whether parents should have power over how this technology affects their children.

To give more plot summary wouldn’t be relevant—judging by the limited content of the pauseheavy “discussion” that my FAC group attended three years ago, the characters served as little more than mouthpieces for provocative viewpoints.

Don’t get me wrong. The issue of stem-cell research is a serious and engaging moral dilemma, and one that could, under the correct circumstances, provide for excellent novel fodder.

But when planning an activity that could act as the blueprint for future epiphany-birthing, offthe-wall, 4 a.m. dorm room conversations about favorite novels, it is the duty of the University to give its students a multidimensional work that can spark fruitful arguments based on the text itself, not just the issue it invokes.

In her article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Erin O’Connor, an associate professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, argues for quality control in freshman summer reading programs by mentioning the uproar that arose after the Univerity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill chose Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed as its 2003 selection.

Those opposed to the book’s liberal bend as it exposed the hardships of poverty cried foul, but O’Connor defended the selection—not because she agreed with it, but because of the book’s overall merit. “More disturbing... is that the debates over such assignments expose a creeping illiteracy at the core of our educational system,” she wrote.

Admittedly, it is no easy task to find a high-lit reading assignment that will capture the interest of a thousand 18 year olds. And as universities try to find such a project, they come up with a diverse array of approaches. The College of the Holy Cross had its Class of 2013 read the newspaper everyday and post in an online forum about their findings. Incoming freshmen at UPenn studied the painting “The Gross Clinic” by Thomas Eakins and were asked to respond to it. Students at Brown University have taken time out of their summers to write letters to their academic advisors about their assigned book.

And Duke can be innovative as well. It is possible to find great literature that can hold the attention of students across the academic landscape.

There’s nothing wrong with making an in-house pick; perhaps Reynolds Price could be convinced to speak, serving the dual purpose of engaging minds and showing off the fact that Duke has some superstar professors. Or it can make a radical shift like UPenn did and have students analyze a painting over the summer, and then see the real thing when they get to Duke.

The most recent orientation, however, might have been the best opportunity for an art-related assignment: The Nasher Museum of Art has an exhibit with paintings by this guy Picasso, and I hear he’s pretty good.

Nathan Freeman is a Trinity senior. His column runs on Fridays.

the chronicle

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009 | 15

commentaries

All in preparation

A

“

‘Run this town’

Only thing that’s on my mind / Is who’s gonna run this town tonight”—Rihanna, on Jay-Z’s “Run This Town.”

Since October 2008, the world has undergone an economic crisis on a scale unknown in over half a century. With it, all the accepted wisdom of textbooks, of professors and school administrators, of public figures great and small and of official society more generally, has been thrown out the window.

Never in our lifetimes has there been a crisis michael stauch so total.

Everything is up in spread the embers the air, and everyone is searching for answers. How will society be governed?

According to what economic principles? Based on what social contracts, between whom and with whose consent? Most importantly and succinctly, who is gonna run this town tonight?

All around us, forces both left and right are emerging and, in the wake of the collapse of official society’s legitimacy, providing answers to these questions.

In the streets of Iran this summer, a democratic movement of students, workers, white-collar professionals and others brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the authoritarian Iranian regime to its knees.

Recently in the rainforests of Peru, a militant movement of indigenous people forced Peru’s Congress to repeal its efforts to privatize the Peruvian Amazon.

On the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique this spring, lengthy general strikes won significant concessions from the French government. More locally, laid-off Latino workers occupied the Republic Windows factory in Chicago, winning severance pay from Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, and highlighting the hypocritical logic of a government bailout that saved huge banks from bankruptcy while threatening ordinary folks with destitution.

Although these struggles seem random and unrelated, they are embers of a common fire, flung far and wide by years in which the flames of freedom have been trampled on. Together, they suggest one answer to the questions we face today—a society organized from the ground up, committed to justice and freedom and ready to fight back.

But victory is by no means certain. The forces of darkness are also on the march, and they have answers of their own. In recent elections to the European parliament, far right and anti-immigration parties made historic gains at the expense of liberals and social democratic parties. Two members of the conservative British National Party in the U.K. were elected to the European Parliament. A right-wing nationalist party in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ “Party for Freedom,” took second place in national elections. In Hungary, the far right Jobbik party is organizing a right wing militia with insignia reminiscent of the uniforms World War II era fascists wore while sending hundreds of thousands of Jews to death camps.

In the U.S., right wing violence is on the rise against immigrants, abortion rights advocates and Jewish people, or simply those that like to visit Holocaust museums. Just down Tobacco Road, the nationalist student group Youth for Western Civilization has also revived fascist-era symbolism—the Italian “fasces” on which the word “fascism” is based—in their logo, while also bringing anti-immigration speakers like Tom Tancredo to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s campus. Somewhat further afield, the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement is planning a national conference in Greensboro, N.C. this weekend, seeking to draw in fascist supporters from across the U.S. Although by no means a complete picture, these developments also suggest an answer to the problems facing our society today. That answer represents not a vision of a new society, a new social order, but the continuation of the status quo, a ratcheting up of the barbarism of the world we’ve known so long, a reversion, even, to the bloodiest and most violent era in human history—the 20th century, a century that knew genocide on a greater scale than any other, and a time when the greatest of human achievements were applied not to the advancement of human freedom but to the greatest destruction of human life.

And yet, we live in a time of great promise. People are questioning the old order on an unprecedented scale.

In an era when the old visions of social order have come crashing down, the question before us is, “Who’s gonna run this town tonight?” The answer is up to us, and depends on our actions today.

Michael Stauch is a second-year Ph.D. candidate in history. His column runs every other Friday.

CORRECTION The cartoon published in this space Thursday failed to give credit to its author. The author is Gwen Gettliffe, a Pratt senior. The Chronicle regrets the error.

t the end of every school year, I always marvel at how easy it is to leave Duke. For me, the hardest part is always trying to stuff my 52,890,455 belongings into a much smaller number of boxes—it’s pretty easy for me to shift my car into drive and leave with no heavy feelings in my heart.

All this is especially surprising because I’m someone that hates endings. I started bawling before I even read lisa du the first word of the seventh moshi moshi Harry Potter book. I can’t tell you the ending to some of my favorite TV shows because I simply refused to watch the last episode. Endings are really not my kind of thing.

But the Duke I leave at the end of the school year is easy to drive away from. The harshness of the finality is whittled away student by student until the campus is left empty and void of life. It’s actually easier leaving than staying. Contrast that with Duke at the beginning of the school year, which is probably the hardest place in the world to say goodbye to. The atmosphere is tense with excitement, students are fresh-faced from summer adventures and inebriated friends scream “don’t leave!” at you.

But that is exactly what I must do.

I am going to be spending this semester abroad in Japan—yes, the magical place that birthed Godzilla, Hello Kitty, Pikachu and the instant ramen sitting on your shelf.

As even more of a tease, thanks to the close distance of my house to Durham (I grew up in Carrboro), I have been able to visit Duke almost daily for the last week, and enjoyed all the perks of orientation week (free drinks) and not having a DukeCard that works (free dinner).

Yet, as sad as I am to leave Duke, I will confess that going to Japan is basically my 13-year-old self’s dream come true.

I am a bit of a Japanophile. I have been infatuated with the country and its culture for the last eight years of my life— and it continues to this day.

In high school, I did absurd things like driving across states just to see my favorite Japanese band perform, or spending hundreds on a plane ticket to California for a period of 48 hours in order to meet an adored Japanese personality (all the while lying to my family about it).

When I came to college, I continued studying the language, although my erratic behavior due to love of all-thingsJapanese decreased significantly, perhaps because of an excess of homework and fraternity parties.

But recently, as my departure date edges closer and closer, I have found myself—in bursts of giddiness and excitement at having my childhood dreams fulfilled—doing illogical things to get ready for my trip.

Earlier this month, I became couch-ridden with laptop in tow for a whole week, watching YouTube videos of Japanese variety shows. I figured it would be a better Japanese review than memorizing vocabulary, so I sat there and watched androgynous Japanese men play games with each other. In the most bizarre show the guys stuffed balloons down their shirts in an effort to mimic breasts, and tried to pop them using methods that ranged from humping to sitting on each other.

I don’t actually remember a word of Japanese they said.

And instead of worrying about the fact that I might not have a place to stay once I get to Japan because I cannot get in touch with my host family, I have busied myself with buying “impressive” gifts for the lovely mother-son pair that awaits me (and who may or may not exist).

So while my fellow classmates stocked up on laundry detergent and new notebooks at Target, I was buying Pokemon cards, miniature American flags (apparently the red, white and blue print is all the rage in Japan) and meandering in the little boys section looking for T-shirts for my 7-year-old host brother.

I tell myself that I am doing all this in preparation. I’ve studied Japanese in a classroom for the last six years, but I’ve never been to the country, and I learned long ago that whatever you read in a textbook is nothing like reality. If there’s one thing I do know about Japan, it’s that it is a rather unpredictable place where TV personalities named “Hard Gay” can change lives and watermelons are square-shaped. So maybe watching a bizarre pop culture TV episode and giving the right gift is the right start after all. I can only hope.

Lisa Du is a Trinity junior. Her column runs every other Friday.

16 | FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009 the chronicle

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S

EYE CARE

SUPEROPTICS

Duke Eye Center

Main Lobby • 684-4012 M-Th 8:30-4:30, F 8:30-4

14 Consultant Place 493-3668 M-Th 9-7, F 9-6, Sat 9-3

Northgate Mall 286-7732 M-Th 8-7, F 8-6, Sat 9-6