October 21, 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

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH YEAR, Issue 42

www.dukechronicle.com

‘Unfair’ end for local bookstore DSG to hear

proposal to delay tenting B-ball staff may hold Greek Night Nov. 13

by Zachary Tracer The chronicle

don’t agree with.”

Mozella McLaughlin and her son Wiliam McLaughlin, the building’s acting manager, plan to continue in The Know’s footsteps after building renovations. The McLaughlins plan to replace The Know with the Mok’e Jazz Cultural Center, a center that, like The Know, will feature jazz performances, a restaurant and a bookstore. William McLaughlin declined to comment for this story.

The first round of Krzyzewskiville tenting may start a month later this basketball season.

Duke Student Government will consider a line monitor proposal that may begin Blue tenting Jan. 30. The proposal is part of an effort by officials in the Men’s Basketball Office to increase student attendance at basketball games, said Head Line Monitor Zach White, a senior. He noted that fewer students have been flowing into Cameron Indoor Stadium for the last several years.

“We as a whole... view tenting as something that should be an enjoyable time,” he said. “We’re looking to get Cameron as packed as possible.”

Students tent to get into the home men’s basketball game against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and typically for one other game against an Atlantic Coast Conference rival. This year, the UNC-Duke home game is March 6, mean-

See bookstore on page 4

See k-ville on page 5

michael naclerio/The Chronicle

The Know, a locally owned bookstore, will close Dec. 31 after 18 years due to disputes between its owner, Bruce Bridges, and the owners of its building, Mozella and William McLaughlin. The Know will be replaced by the Mok’e Jazz Cultural Center, which will also include a restaurant and bookstore.

by Samantha Brooks The chronicle

Dec. 31 marks the end of an era for 2520 Fayetteville St. Due to property management disputes, The Know bookstore will end its 18-year residency in the building it has called home since the store was founded in 1981.

The Know is currently owned by founder Bruce Bridges, a local entrepreneur and cultural icon in the Durham community. Disagreements in property ownership stemmed from Bridges’ attempts to secure

at least partial possession of the building from owner Mozella McLaughlin. Now, after several failed attempts to compromise, both Bridges and his bookstore are being forced to leave.

“I own the business but I want ownership in the building itself,” Bridges said.

“They don’t want to give me any ownership at all. Any person with any kind of intelligence after running a business for so long knows this is not too much to ask for.... They’re trying to kick me out of the building or keep me here under terms I

AT&T to improve cellular reception on campus

by Jessica Chang The chronicle

Students may soon be getting more bars in more places— places like Edens.

AT&T has announced its collaboration with the Office of Information Technology to increase cell phone coverage on campus. The plan calls for installing additional equipment, increasing the total number of outdoor amplifiers by 50 percent, boosting in-building wireless systems and changing the way AT&T’s signal travels to Duke in order to cut down on interference and decrease the number of dropped calls.

Campus Council and OIT have worked together for the last several years to address student complaints about cell phone coverage.

“The council thought that this would be a wonderful way to address one of the needs and concerns that really gets at the heart of students’ residential experiences,” said Campus Council President Stephen Temple, a junior.

Installing the service-improvement infrastructure will cost more than $1 million, but a significant portion of the expenses will be funded by the cell phone carriers, said Bob Johnson, senior director of communications infrastructure for OIT. AT&T representative Della Bowling could not be

Blue Devils win big, Page 7

reached for comment Tuesday.

The project stems from a Campus Council and OIT survey—e-mailed to students Sept. 21—that aimed to find areas with the most coverage problems and engineer solutions based on the responses. The objective of the survey is to increase service to the point where landlines can be eliminated, Johnson said.

The survey asked students which cell phone provider they had, where and when on campus students experienced poor reception and on what floor of residence halls this occurred. Based on survey results, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are students’ primary service providers.

Temple said approximately 1,400 students responded to the survey within a span of a few hours. Soon after receiving the survey data, OIT signal testers were sent to East, West and Central Campuses to find options for improving cell phone reception across the three campuses.

Survey results indicated that the worst dead zones are on East Campus, particularly in Bell Tower, in some Central Campus residences and Edens and Craven Quadrangles on West Campus.

Temple said he and OIT officials were surprised that reception on East was a problem because there was a perSee cellular on page 4

Duke Basketball goes live DUU to live broadcast this weekend’s Duke-Pfeiffer game on Cable 13, PAGE 3

photo illustration by kim solow/The Chronicle

OIT has collaborated with AT&T to upgrade cell phone coverage on campus by raising the number of signal amplifiers by 50 percent.

ONTHERECORD

“We’d just have a huge dance party/study/dance party.

And then we brought it to the locker room.”

­—Senior volleyball player Rachael Moss on team bonding. See story page 7

2 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009 the chronicle

worldandnation

TODAY:

7943

THURSDAY:

7947

Afghan prez reluctantly agrees to runoff election

Deploying more troops to Tuition hikes across U.S. Afghan war divides U.S. WASHINGTON — The recession helped push up the cost of college this year, with students facing bigger bills because of reduced state spending on higher education and diminished campus endowments, according to a College Board report released Tuesday.

Tackling severe budget problems, four-year public colleges in the U.S. raised annual tuition and fees by an average 6.5 percent, to $7,020 this fall, the board found in its annual survey. That figure does not include room, board and other expenses.

Private colleges saw the value of their investments drop in the same period but were worried about pricing recession-battered families out, officials said. So tuition climbed a more modest 4.4 percent at four-year private schools this year, bringing the average to $26,273.

The increases came at a time when the consumer price index actually declined about 2 percent, prompting some criticism about higher education’s inability to control spending.

WASHINGTON — As President Barack Obama and his war cabinet deliberate a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan, Americans are evenly and deeply divided over whether he should send 40,000 more troops there, and public approval of the president’s handling of the situation has tumbled, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has recommended the substantial increase in troop strength, and 47 percent of those polled favor the increase, while 49 percent oppose it. Most on both sides hold their views “strongly.” The survey also found that a large majority of Americans say the administration lacks a clear plan for dealing with the problems in Afghanistan.

The troop decision represents one of the most complex and fateful strategic security choices of Obama’s presidency. It also carries great political risk, whichever way he goes.

Ordering more U.S. forces to Afghanistan could open a rift with fellow Democrats, most of whom call the battle “not worth fighting” and adamantly oppose the idea.

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.

TODAY IN HISTORY

“

— J. W. Eagan

”

1987: Nobel prize for economy awarded to Robert Solow

KABUL — After almost 20 hours of tense, exhausting talks over four days, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was convinced by midday Tuesday that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had accepted the need for a runoff election. But as dignitaries and reporters gathered at the presidential palace in Kabul for the 1 p.m. announcement, Karzai was still not ready.

While the world waited, Karzai and Kerry took a long walk through the secluded palace grounds. As they passed among the rose bushes and toured the presidential mosque, Karzai reiterated his conviction that he had been cheated out of a legitimate victory. Kerry restated his case that Karzai had to put his country first and that it would be hard, maybe impossible, for Afghanistan—or the United States—to move ahead without a second round.

“We talked about a lot of things— the way forward, personal things,” Kerry said later. At 4:30, an unsmiling Karzai finally appeared before the waiting cameras to endorse a Nov. 7 runoff between him and former for-

eign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Resolution of the high political drama in Kabul, the culmination of days of intense pressure on Karzai by President Barack Obama’s administration and its NATO allies, allows the White House to return to its deliberations over how to proceed in the faltering Afghanistan war.

Obama, who had not spoken to Karzai during the election talks, telephoned his congratulations and “the American people’s appreciation for this step. President Karzai, as well as the other candidates,” Obama told reporters, “have shown that they have the interests of the Afghan people at heart.”

Senior administration officials were quick to acknowledge that the end of the runoff dispute was only one step on a long road. The new election, to be held as the harsh Afghan winter begins, faces perils ranging from Taliban attacks to a repeat of the first-round fraud that resulted in Karzai’s accumulating nearly a million illegal votes, according to a U.N.-backed panel that this week stripped him of a preliminary majority.

GERALD MARTINEAU/WASHINGTON POST

President Barack Obama honored a group of Vietnam veterans Tuesday for the courage and heroism they displayed nearly 40 years ago. Members of the Alpha Troop, First Squadron, 11th Armored Calvalry Regiment earned the highest decoration possible for a military unit.

the chronicle

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009 | 3

gpsc

Duke university union

Cable 13 to televise Pfeiffer game Graduates to amplify game day presence

by Ray Koh

The chronicle

Students and parents who did not reserve tickets for the Duke men’s basketball exhibition game against Pfeiffer University this Saturday may not miss out on much after all.

At their meeting Tuesday night, Duke University Union members discussed a range of topics, including making basketball games more accessible and future speakers.

Cable 13, Duke’s student-run television station, will broadcast the match live, said Cable 13 co-President Merideth Bajana, a senior.

“The tip-off is at 6:30 [p.m.] and everybody should definitely watch the game wherever they are,” Bajana said.

In addition, player introductions from last Friday’s Countdown to Craziness, as well as footage of the men’s basketball team and Duke University Improv, have been recorded and uploaded on YouTube, Bajana added.

In other business: DUU members also discussed future speakers on campus.

Christian Lander, author of the blog “Stuff White People Like,” will speak at Page Auditorium next Tuesday night.

Lander is expected to attract a large crowd, said Major Speakers Director Yi Zhang, a junior. Black comedian Elon James White will also join Lander at the event.

“We are trying to get the marketing going for Christian Lander,” Zhang said. “We will hand out surveys called ‘How white

by Tullia Rushton The chronicle

genevieve werner/The Chronicle

At their meeting Tuesday night, Duke University Union members presented plans to broadcast the DukePfeiffer basketball scrimmage live on Cable 13. Other basketball event footage is also available online. are you?’ and do a T-shirt campaign.”

DUU’s speaker committee also finalized the deal with Bo Burnham, a comedian and Internet personality, who will come to campus Dec. 13.

DUU is looking at the logistics of a large Thanksgiving dinner with students,

family, administration and faculty, said Special Projects Director Christie Falco, a senior.

“We are not sure about the date or the exact details but we are working it out with the dining hall,” Falco said. “It will be an all-you-can-eat type of thing.”

Thanks to new athletic department policies, graduate students will have a greater presence at Cameron Indoor Stadium for the upcoming basketball season.

Co-chairs of the Graduate and Professional Student Council Basketball Committee explained the new ushering policies and game day regulations at the GPSC meeting Tuesday. Both end zones, instead of just one, will be reserved for graduate students. Each end zone will have a designated wristband color in order to prevent end zone switching during halftime.

The graduate school is also guaranteed 725 tickets, as opposed to last year’s 700 tickets.

“We are going to have more fun and get more rowdy in Cameron this year,” said Basketball Committee co-Chair Mark Kohler, a third-year Ph.D. candidate in chemistry. He added that students are encouraged to bring guests and family to keep graduate attendance high for every game.

Kohler also stressed the increased levels of security for basketball games this season.

This year, bags are no longer allowed at the student center in Cameron. Basketball Committee co-Chair Felicia Hawthorne, a See gpsc on page 6

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               

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   

             

   

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   

4 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009 the chronicle

bookstore from page 1

michael naclerio/The Chronicle

The Know, one of the oldest black-owned bookstores in North Carolina and the first in Durham, will be forced to close Dec. 31.

Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy

Douglas Feith “Setting the Record Straight: Legal and Strategic Thoughts on the War on Terrorism.”

Despite the similar services the new business will provide, The Know’s large customer community is far from receptive of the new changes.

“This is a terrible thing that is happening to [Bridges],” said Amatullah Abdul-Karim, a regular customer at The Know. “He’s been here for many years. People should boycott the new people that are coming in. This is so very unfair.”

James Jackson, a chef in the bookstore’s restaurant, said he thinks the incoming business is an attempt to mimic Bridges’ success with The Know.

“They want him to be nothing but a tenant,” Jackson said. “They don’t want to give anything, they want to take, take, take. They just think that because he is successful, they can do the same thing. It’s basically a hostile takeover. We already have a jazz-culture center here.”

The bookstore has accumulated a strong following in Durham. It is considered one of the oldest black-owned bookstore in North Carolina and the first in Durham, said

The THOMPSON WRITING PROGRAM cordially invites all members of the Duke and Durham Community to attend the

 Eighth Annual

Deliberations Symposium  Celebrating the publication of the 2009 issue of Deliberations: A Journal of First-Year Writing at Duke University

October 27, 2009 Time 5:30 | Room 3041 Co-sponsored by the Federalist Society, Duke’s Program in American Grand Strategy, and the American Constitution Society. Light refreshments will be served.

For more information, contact ems14@duke.edu.

Wednesday Jazz At the the Mary Lou with special guest

Vincent Gardner

9:30 at the Mary Lou Williams Center

Thursday Talkin’ Jazz with

Vincent Gardner and John Brown 12-1 Rare Book Room. Bring lunch, dessert and beverages provided

Friday Duke Jazz Ensemble and Djembe Ensemble with special guest

Vincent Gardner.

8 pm in Baldwin Auditorium

Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 4:00 pm Von Canon B&C Lower level of the Bryan Center West Campus

Featuring a panel discussion with the student-authors Parents and Families welcome! steph.jeffries@duke.edu or 660-4390 for details

Alton Gray, another chef in the restaurant. Although The Know is best recognized for its provision of jazz, food and books, employees said it makes numerous other contributions to the community that many do not recognize from a customer perspective.

“My take is that this place is really needed. It’s been here for years, and it’s positive for the community,” Gray said. “When a business fails, it affects the entire community, not just the owner. The Know provides for the vendors and employees, too. This is my job and the jobs of other people as well.”

“When a business fails, it affects the entire community, not just the owner.”

—Bruce Bridges, founder and owner of The Know Bridges said he was concerned not only for his sake, but also for the sake of his employees.

“It will affect the whole fabric of the city of Durham,” he said. “It affects the vendors who I get my Tshirts, CDs, food and cakes from. It will affect the several writers who I display in the store. African-American Durham has never had an attraction like The Know bringing people from all over the world here, I know of nothing that could compare to it. I don’t know if the McLaughlins understand what they’re doing when they operate like this.”

The McLaughlins have not offered compensation to Bridges for the business he will lose during his search for a new location. Bridges, who has yet to find a new building that the business can afford, said he hopes to receive help from the city in his pursuit.

“I do hope the city will step up to the plate with me and try to see if we can relocate to another place,” he said. “I plan to try to find a place as soon as possible so we can all keep going and provide the same kind of service for Durham. My business will go wherever I go.”

cellular from page 1 ception that any service issues on the freshman campus had been resolved.

“I think that was good for them to get that feedback and find out that there are troubled areas in residence halls that had not been considered troubled areas in the past,” Temple said.

Most respondents to the survey responded that their phones did not work particularly well “all the time.”

Basements and elevators in science buildings are also dead spots, senior Shannon Beall said.

Johnson said AT&T and Verizon have the best coverage on campus because they were willing to work with Duke to improve reception. Sprint and T-Mobile have not responded to Duke’s attempts to collaborate with them, he added.

Problems with cell phone reception sometimes pose safety concerns, prompting OIT to ask Residence Life and Housing Services to install emergency telephones in certain locations, Johnson said.

Although landlines are available for student use in all dorm rooms if students need to make emergency phone calls, Johnson noted that fewer than 90 landlines out of the thousands available are actually used.

Johnson said he expects testing to be fully complete within the next six months, but improvements may be seen earlier than that.

“It’s a continual process that you have to go through with the carriers,” Johnson said. “We’re finally there, and hopefully we’ll see significant improvement in November.”

Crave multimedia?

Check out our new web site at dukechronicle.com

the chronicle

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009 | 5

k-ville from page 1 ing that if DSG senators approve the proposal, tenting will last for about a month, as it did last year when the game was earlier in the season.

White is in favor of changing the start date for Blue Tenting, as are most line monitors, though some oppose it, he said.

Line Monitor Tommy Ferguson, a senior, said he supports the change suggested by the men’s basketball office because he believes it will increase attendance.

“We’re really in support of whatever the Duke basketball program wants,” he said. “We’re all for getting more people into the games, and we’ll do whatever it takes.”

Officials in the men’s basketball office did not return phone messages and e-mails seeking comment Tuesday.

Sophomore Pete Schork, DSG vice president for athletics and campus services, said he and the line monitors are working to gather feedback from students on the proposal before next week’s senate vote.

“If there’s going to be any change in how the beginning of tenting works, we want to ensure that it’s equitable,” he said. “We’re talking to students on how to do that, on what it’s going to look like.”

It is unclear how line monitors will handle students who want to set up tents before Jan. 30, and White declined to discuss the pre-Blue tenting process.

Last year, line monitors registered students who pitched tents in K-ville starting Dec. 26 at 8 a.m. Blue Tenting officially began Jan. 4, the first day dormitories opened, said former head line monitor Joel Burrill, Trinity ’09.

Line monitors have also discussed others ways to make the tenting experience easier, such as reducing the number of students who must sleep in each tent at night from eight to six. Other possible changes include allowing students to return to their tents as late as midnight on Thursdays and raising the minimum temperature at which students will be allowed to leave K-ville.

Sue Wasiolek, dean of students and assistant vice president for student affairs, said cutting the length of time tenters spend in K-ville to a month will be good for those students.

“Students compromise their health and even their academics when they spend that much time in K-ville,

so it sounds like it serves all purposes in a positive way,” she said.

Aaron Dinin, Trinity ’05 and author of The Krzyzewskiville Tales, a book about K-ville, said he does not think imposing a later start date for Blue Tenting will keep students from staking out spots.

“It’s not the first year that they tried to put rules on that and stop people from starting early,” he said. “What happened is that people always said, ‘I don’t really care,’ and they showed up when they wanted to anyway, which is kind of how K-ville got started.”

To increase attendance, line monitors and men’s basketball officials are also considering holding theme nights similar to Senior Night, White said.

They are discussing making the Nov. 13 game against the University of North Carolina at Greensboro a Greek Night. White said no definite plans have been set for the

Chronicle file photo

Duke Student Government will hear a line monitor proposal next week that would reduce the length of tenting season and the hours tenters would be required to stay in K-ville. This is part of a series of initiatives ultimately aimed to increase student attendance at basketball games.

SMALL TOWN RECORDS presents

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OCTOBER 22 MUSIC: 10pm-1am Come Early For Dinner and Drinks!

FEATURING:

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night, but Greek students would likely be admitted to Cameron after the first several hundred students waiting in line get in.

Associate Head Coach Steve Wojciechowski has met with several fraternities to encourage members to attend men’s basketball games, White said. He added that people associated with the men’s basketball program will talk with other large groups, such as sororities and club sports teams, in the future.

Wojciechowski spent an hour on a recent Sunday night talking basketball with about 30 members of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, said member Dave Faurie, a junior.

“He just talked about getting a rowdier crowed, like it used to be in Cameron,” Faurie said. “They’re reaching out to frats first because they know they have a large social influence.”

6 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009 the chronicle

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Wednesday, October 28 Full salary and benefits. Relocation funding available. All majors.

www.teachforamerica.org

maddie lieberberg/The Chronicle

Adam Pechtel, a third-year law student and vice president of GPSC, speaks Tuesday in Love Auditorium. The council emphasized the impact that a rearranged graduate student section will have at basketball games.

gpsc from page 3 third-year Ph.D. candidate in genetics and genomics, noted that Duke Athletics is going to be very strict about the new policy.

In other business: At the meeting, members discussed GPSC’s Green Team, which was created last year and is dedicated to sustainability and recycling projects.

The Green Team is also currently looking to distribute bins throughout campus offices and labs to encourage recycling.

“The idea is to facilitate recycling in the

work spaces on campus,” said Green Team Chair Liz Bloomhardt, a third-year graduate student in mechanical engineering.

It was also announced that a re-election will take place Nov. 3 for positions on the Judicial Committee, which deals with internal GPSC issues, said Yvonne Ford, president of GPSC and a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in nursing.

“There was a mistake in the voting procedures last meeting where a person was deleted from the ballot who should not have been,” Ford said. “We did not catch this mistake at the time and are re-opening the ballot for nominations until the re-vote.”

Sports

>>WOMEN’S SOCCER

The Chronicle

The defining stretch

Last year, David Cutcliffe never let his team forget November would define its season, despite a 3-1 start.

As it turns out, that Duke team won only one more contest—a 10-7 struggle over Vanderbilt—en route to finishing 4-8. By Cutcliffe’s measure, the 2008 squad started well and beat inferior opponents, but could not finish and faltered against stronger foes. The way they collapsed was reminiscent of the pre-Cutcliffe era.

But this season, the second-year head Stephen coach has a chance to put his stamp on the team with a strong November finish that would legitimize the Blue Devils as a full-season team, not just a team that peaked in late September.

So far, what we know about Duke is what we expected—Thaddeus Lewis is really, really good; the offensive line needs to mask its deficiencies; and the defense, while noticeably missing former All-American Michael Tauiliili, is still capable of performing at a high level when needed, as evidenced by its second-half shutout of N.C. State.

But what we don’t know is whether or not another November swoon is coming.

In many ways, the start to this year mirrors last year’s fast start—solid out-of-conference wins against a beatable military school (Navy and Army), a surprisingly smooth victory over an ACC opponent (Virginia and N.C. State) and a defeat at the hands of a ranked opponent (Georgia Tech and Kansas). So I can’t blame you if you expect Duke to finish below .500 again.

However, as I predicted in the preseason, this is still a bowl-worthy team, and here are a few reasons why: 1. The schedule. Last year, Duke closed with three strong teams in the ACC (Wake Forest, North Carolina and Virginia Tech) and also ran into two teams beginning to heat up (N.C. State and Clemson). Conversely, this year, Duke faces winnable games against four conference opponents currently on a downswing.

Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Wake Forest are performing below expectations or never had any expectations to begin with. There’s no reason to think Duke can suddenly beat two top-15 teams in Georgia Tech and Miami, but if the Blue Devils can stuff the four weak conference foes while they’re down, they could be playing in December.

2. Conditioning. This wasn’t as bad a factor last year as it was under Ted Roof. But losing seven of your last eight games—three late in the fourth quarter—signifies some sort of fatigue late in the season, even if it was just mental exhaustion. Just as rookies in the NFL hit a wall at a certain point, so too did this team under its first-year head coach.

Allan

WEDNESDAY October 21, 2009

www.dukechroniclesports.com

VOLLEYBALL

Seniors find their own rhythm

by Andy Margius The chronicle

Duke’s four seniors are ferocious on the court. That much is apparent from the two ACC titles and three NCAA tournament appearances they have racked up in their collegiate careers.

But what might not be apparent is that in addition to their success on the court, they’ve been dancing their way to victory these last four years.

“We have a dance party every time after the coaches come in and talk with us,” setter Christina Falcone said. “Even before that, we just blare music and just all have a dance party.”

Over the years, seniors Falcone, Rachael Moss, Brittany Staffeil and Juliana Traut have helped the program gain prominence, in addition to regaining dominance in the ACC. Since the seniors joined the team back in 2006 as freshmen, the team has gone 96-24.

But this particular group has come to distinguish itself from previous classes not just by winning, but because it is rhythmically gifted.

The four seniors, who refer to themselves as “D-10,” began their musical tradition as a study break freshman year. Then, it just seemed to evolve.

“We started the dance party in Bell Tower rooms,” Moss said. “The first thing we’d look for in a room was a sound system, and we’d find a way to hook it up and we’d study for 40 minutes. Then we’d just have a huge dance party-study-dance party. And then we brought it to the locker room.”

Chronicle file photo

Rachael Moss, who has 182 kills this season, is one of four Duke seniors: the self-dubbed D-10.

Since 2006, the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Cascada and even Disney’s Mulan have been blasted in the locker room with the team singing along, and of course D-10 leading the vocals. This year’s song of choice is Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA”.

In addition to the pregame tunes, D-10 leads other regular chants to keep team morale high. Wednesday entails a team dance chant that is referred to as “The Hump Day Chant.”

Throughout these four years, the group’s off-the-court antics have been driven by their desire to perform.

Juliana has been a ballet dancer, Brittany is a break dancer, Rachael directs, and Christina acts. In fact, when Moss made a short film last year, she had her teammates ready to star in the film.

On top of that, the group has a variety of different music interests. For example, Falcone prefers country while Moss loves techno. Traut leans towards rock and Staffeil has hip-hop for her music of choice.

While the seniors hope to keep the pregame music party a team tradition, they See SENIORS on page 8

MEn’s soccer

No. 19 Blue Devils cruise past Navy

Kerr picks up 100th career victory

by Chris Cusack The chronicle

Larsa al-omaishi/The Chronicle

See ALLAN on page 8

Senior captain Elisabeth Redmond was named coACC Player of the Week after leading the Blue Devils to their first two conference victories of the season.

Junior defender Christian Ibeagha anchored Duke’s second straight shutout in the Blue Devils’ 3-0 win over Navy Tuesday.

Though the air was cold in Koskinen Stadium, the temperature had no NAVY 0 effect on a red-hot DUKE 3 Blue Devil offense.

No. 19 Duke (9-4-0) caught fire in a strong second half, blasting past Navy, 3-0. The Blue Devils were hardly challenged by the Midshipmen (8-7-0) in their first head-to-head meeting since 1979, helping head coach John Kerr celebrate his 100th career victory in style.

Kerr was all smiles after the win, yet early on his team’s play gave him reason to frown.

Navy ran circles around Duke for the first 20 minutes of play, controlling time of possession. They outhustled the Blue Devils in every facet of the game and earned several early scoring chances.

“They were buzzing all over the field and they were moving the ball quickly,” Kerr said.

“They were causing us all kinds of problems defensively, and we weren’t sharp enough in the first 25 minutes.”

However, the Midshipmen simply could not maintain such a high level of energy. Eventually, Duke broke through and scored its first goal in the 25th minute.

See M. Soccer on page 8

8 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009 the chronicle

ALLAN from page 7

M. Soccer from page 7

Having had a full calendar year and knowing what to expect from Cutcliffe means this team isn’t going to falter because of weariness when it plays the Demon Deacons with a bowl bid on the line. Lewis said over the summer the team actually demanded conditioning drills beyond what Cutcliffe gave them, and if there was ever a time that those would pay off, it’s over the last six weeks of the season.

3. Mistake-free offense. Through six games, Duke has just six turnovers. The opponents have 10, and any coach at any level will tell you if you win the turnover battle, you’re almost certain to win the ball game.

Mistakes cost the Blue Devils dearly last year against Virginia Tech and North Carolina, but now Lewis is playing at an unreal level, having thrown for 1,601 yards and 12 touchdowns to just two interceptions, both in the Kansas loss. Don’t turn the ball over and the wins come—pretty simple stuff.

4. Leadership. I doubt anyone can rise up to the singular inspiration that Tauiliili provided last season, but this squad more than makes up for it with quantity. Lewis, Vince Oghobaase, Vincent Rey and all the other seniors have experienced Duke at its worst and know how bad it was.

They have also tasted success, but not yet had a full portion of it. They are hungry for postseason play and aren’t going to stop at anything to go out with the Blue Devils’ first bowl game in 15 years.

You can list several other reasons why Duke could be a bowl team, but these are by far the most salient. All Duke needs, then, is to continue doing what it has done well and not let any one winnable game slip away.

November is approaching. It’s time for the Blue Devils to define who they are this season.

Temi Molinar weaved through several Navy defenders and fed a through ball to Ryan Finley, who promptly blasted it by the goalkeeper for his eighth score of the year.

“He [Molinar] beat two or three kids and just played a nice through ball,” Finley said. “It was an easy finish, he did all the hard work.”

The Blue Devil defense, led by junior captain Christian Ibeagha, shut down the Midshipmen all night long. Navy only squeezed off three shots all game, and none tested goalkeeper James Belshaw, who was not forced to make a save all night.

In fact, the second half was played entirely on Navy’s half of the field, and the Blue Devils wasted no time in padding their lead. After beating two defenders, Cole Grossman netted a bouncing shot from 25 yards in the 53rd minute. Five minutes later, Christopher Tweed-Kent hammered the nail into the coffin, volleying a cross into the left corner for his first career goal.

“Once we got a grip on the game, we understood what they were trying to do,” Kerr said. “We stepped up our pressure and dominated the second half.”

Kerr issued a mass substitution just after the 60th minute, relieving all but one starter of his duties. In all, a whopping 23 players saw significant game action.

Duke’s substitutes kept up the pressure for the remainder of the game, though they were unable to further pad the lead.

Afterwards, Kerr seemed satisfied with his team’s performance.

“It was good for us to get the starters a good 60 minutes, and they played hard against good competition,” Kerr said.

Ian soileau/The Chronicle

Rachael Moss and her classmates have posted an impressive 96-24 record in their four years at Duke.

SENIORS from page 7 also desire to leave behind an enriched sense of team unity and community.

“Every team I’ve been on since freshman year of high school, while there have been exceptions, we’ve all been really close and we brought that with us,” Moss said. “And it’s more so than on-the-court stuff.”

Head coach Jolene Nagel commented that the seniors this particular year are big on team building and that their leadership, both on and off the court, has helped create great team chemistry.

“One defining thing is they under-

stand the importance of having fun while they work hard and that comes off to the others as well,” Nagel said.

While the team has the postseason ahead of it, the motivated student-athlete in the girls has allowed them to look to their futures after volleyball. Traut plans to work for Goldman Sachs starting in July. Moss hopes to be heading off to law school with a potential directing career down the road. Falcone and Staffeil are looking at medical school following a gap year.

No matter where its members go after graduation, D-10 hopes to leave behind a fun legacy that will continue to unite the locker room for years to come.

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009 | 9

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The Independent Daily at Duke University

The Chronicle

10 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009 the chronicle commentaries

“

Early admission still the right decision In September 2006, Har- ate wake of the lacrosse scandal vard University rocked the that had gripped the University world of undergraduate admis- and threatened its reputation. sions by announcing the end of Three years later, issues of its early admissions program, privilege still surround Duke’s citing a desire to “level the play- early admissions program, but ing field” for a different set of low-income apcircumstances editorial plicants. About necessitate its a week later, Princeton Univer- continued existence. sity followed suit in dropping its Balancing a commitment to own early admission practice. values with financial constraints At the time, Duke adminis- is a tough act for any university. trators reaffirmed their com- And while Duke should commitment to the University’s mit itself to inclusiveness and Early Decision program, which broadening access to higher allows students to apply early education, these concerns must on the condition that they ma- be weighed against practical— triculate if accepted. and often financial—realities.

Although we acknowledged In the case of early admisthe socioeconomic issues at play sions, the benefits outweigh in keeping the Early Decision its shortcomings. program, this column supportEarly Decision serves as a ed Duke’s decision not to make useful tool to stabilize the premajor changes to undergradu- dictability of admissions yield, ate admissions in the immedi- especially in today’s troubled

The perception that hook-up culture dominates is perpetuated by non-participants. The prevailing stereotype is generally the noisiest one—and only one side is talking.

”

­ “lenhawk” commenting on the column “Cupid’s — Sledgehammer.” See more at www.dukechronicle.com

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not be the main argument for keeping early admission, it is an important factor at a school that prides itself on top-notch athletics programs.

While Early Decision offers numerous practical benefits, its drawbacks are relevant and deserve consideration. The central reason why the University would entertain the idea of ending Early Decision is the issue of equal access. To a certain extent, the Early Decision process may favor applicants from higher socioeconomic classes who have no need to compare financial aid packages from different schools and can commit to Duke early on.

This is an area of concern, but its impact is ameliorated by the University’s “need-blind” admissions practices and its pledge to meet 100 percent of demonstrated financial need. In theory,

financial concerns should not prevent a prospective student from applying early.

Moreover, if socioeconomic inequalities are at play, there are other ways the University could diversify the applicant pool while maintaining its Early Decision program. Proactively recruiting students from low-income schools and highly publicizing Duke’s impressive financial aid offerings would minimize the financial uncertainty involved in the early application process and alleviate some concern that early admissions is only advantaging the advantaged.

It is critical that the University works tirelessly to further its commitment to equal access to higher education. But in doing so, it should continue the practical admissions tool that is Early Decision.

A lonely memorial

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economy. By admitting a large number of students in December, the University can better control the number of matriculants in May. This is of great financial importance because over-enrollment can lead to significant additional expenses, including the hiring of faculty and employees to accommodate more students.

The Early Decision program also carries with it several other positives. Allowing prospective students to commit to attending Duke helps the admissions office differentiate the set of applicants who are uniquely spirited about the University and want to attend.

Early Decision also greases the wheel for a smooth athletics recruiting process by enabling coaches to lock in talented recruits earlier in the admissions cycle. Although this should

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T

his Friday, Duke will rededicate and update the war memorial located between the Chapel and the Divinity School. Fifty-four names will be added to the list of Duke alumni who have been killed in service to their country.

The oldest graduated in 1937, the most recent in 2002. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gen. Eric Shinseki, elad gross Grad ’76, will be kitty babies the special guest speaker. Shinseki is perhaps best known for his candid testimony in the Senate in 2006, when he advised the U.S. government to send many more troops into Iraq than the Bush administration was planning to. But what will likely be on Shinseki’s mind as he helps dedicate the memorial will be how close he was to making the list of Duke’s honored dead—Shinseki stepped on a land mine as a soldier in Vietnam and survived, losing part of his foot.

The dedication has been several years coming.

The Oct. 4 story in the Herald-Sun, “Duke to expand on veterans’ memorial,” asked why it took so long to collect all the names. Sterly Wilder, Duke’s associate vice president for alumni affairs, answered in the article that information on alumni’s military service just was not readily available. But that information should be well known! Military service shouldn’t be some hidden secret, unpublicized and only finally revealed upon death or memorial.

Maybe in between flashing action shots of Mario v. Donkey Kong, the screens in the Link could honor Dukies, both students and staff, currently serving in the military. Or maybe a more curricular action—because the U.S. has been at war for eight years, and we could very well be at war for eight more, maybe all Duke students should be required to take a class centering on current military engagements or on national service—is it really more important to take Writing 20 classes that often don’t teach students much about writing than it is to grapple with our military presence abroad or threats to prosperity at home?

Common theories in political science literature depict democracies as less willing to go to war because those who would be bearing the costs of war (the people) also have the power to influence policy (war-making). If that is true, then either the U.S. government is not a functioning democracy or the American people just don’t care enough.

Assuming the latter is the real issue, could this indifference come from the moral uncertainties

associated with Iraq? Does it stem from the recent failures and daunting mission ahead in Afghanistan? Are Americans just not vested enough?

At least one study from 2006 indirectly answers this last question. The 2006 National GeographicRoper Survey of Geographic Literacy surveyed 18- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. Only 37 percent of respondents could locate Iraq on a map. Only 12 percent could find Afghanistan. More than 5,000 U.S. soldiers have died in those two countries since the wars began.

What good is a memorial without active respect? Duke has supported some initiatives related to the wars, such as the American Grand Strategy speaker series. But there is still an utter lack of concrete institutional change. The world has been changing rapidly, and the U.S. has just not kept up. Can Duke?

Part of Duke’s mission statement reads, “To these ends, the mission of Duke University is to provide a superior liberal education to undergraduate students, attending not only to their intellectual growth but also to their development as adults committed to high ethical standards and full participation as leaders in their communities.”

The statement goes on to list specific applications of ideal alumni’s leadership skills. Should we really produce future leaders who may have only engaged peripherally with our country’s current wars? There are a lot of other issues to care about too. But Iraq and Afghanistan should be singled out. The decision to go to war reflects on our national identity. The choice to deprive veterans of proper care when they return illuminates our collective failure. In a country that supposedly values life among liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we neglect our nation’s founding principles when we can so distance ourselves from those sacrificing their lives on our behalf.

National service doesn’t mean military service. Teaching geography in an underprivileged middle school in Detroit is just as commendable as serving in Iraq. But our country no longer values either service—just take a look at the expected salaries for the military and teaching professions.

We must reevaluate our incentive structures, and maybe even our national mission, because we are increasingly becoming a nation of free-riders with no popular investment in those issues that should matter the most.

Until we come to terms with our national character, the new memorial at Duke will only be a collection of stone and metal, a dark reflection of what America is becoming.

Elad Gross is a Trinity senior. His column runs every Wednesday.

the chronicle

L

A modest proposal

ast Friday, hundreds of students gathered inside Cameron Indoor Stadium for the basketball team’s Countdown to Craziness. The event culminated with our first real preview of this year’s team: two 12-minute scrimmages, followed by a slam-dunk contest. Although most of the crowd was roused by such a show, I could not help but feel jealousy and sorrow. I found myself thinking that so many in the crowd deserved to be on chris bassil the court as well, and were being denied an opportunitrue story ty to perform at that level.

As an underclassman in high school, I, like many of my classmates here, played on my school’s junior varsity basketball team. I was an exceptionally hard worker, and was able to log myself at least a few minutes on the court every game. I ran hard on every play, and stayed after games to practice on occasion. One could even say that I was a fan favorite. Despite all of these attributes, however, I was denied the opportunity to play at the varsity level. This was mostly due to the fact that some other players were more athletically gifted than I was, which was something I couldn’t control. If it weren’t for that, I most likely would have followed a progression from varsity ball to college ball and then to the pros.

Classmates all around me fell victim to the same cruel fate as I, and it’s time we start doing something about it. We need to level the playing field. Certain individuals shouldn’t be allowed to advance farther than others in their respective fields just because of things out of their control.

It’s time we follow the example we’ve set in our classrooms so that we can get this all evened out. These are my proposals: For those athletes who, like myself, have all the necessary credentials to compete in the big leagues, but find themselves to be physically inferior to naturally gifted players, the solution is simple. Recent strides in medicine and science have provided us with substances that can supplement our god-given ability. By elevating the athleticism of the lesser-endowed majority, they eradicate the bias of natural talent. While these substances, known as steroids, are technically only available by doctor’s prescription, I have heard that prescriptions are generally granted to anyone who seeks them. Steroids are also probably available around campus for a quick fix, if you know where to look.

While doping helps to alleviate some of the unfairness, not all underachieving ball players suffer from athletic deficiency. Some of those around us are indeed quite gifted and, as such, perform exceptionally in practice settings. However, the pressure of the game situation can oftentimes negatively impact a player’s performance and unjustly diminish them in the eyes of fans, coaches and, most importantly, talent scouts. When it comes to the big day, unfortunately, some of us just aren’t great “game players.”

This handicap is easily remedied through the implementation of an “extended-time” program. The adjustment would run as follows: All players would have the standard game duration to score as many points as possible. At the end of this allotted time, all players would leave the court except for those eligible for extended-time. These players would continue to play and score points and grab rebounds, sufficiently padding their statistics so as to more accurately reflect their actual ability. As a result, they too would be able to consider careers of the same caliber as those of the more naturally gifted players, leveling the playing field yet again. If necessary, this remedy could be used in conjunction with the steroids; the two are not mutually exclusive.

With measures such as the administration of steroids and the extended-time program in place, success on the court would no longer be fortuitously governed by things beyond our control. Any athlete could choose to pursue his or her sport to even the highest level of play and be successful there, assuming the institution of these programs in professional leagues as well.

These measures would undoubtedly be unpopular among the current elite for obvious reasons, but we must not allow them to continue to perpetuate the same tired cycle of excellence.

It’s time that every athlete, no matter how well prepared he or she may or may not be, knows what it is to be a superstar.

Furthermore, if approaches such as these are already making equality a reality in the classroom, then why not throw them on the court too?

Chris Bassil is a Trinity sophomore. His column runs every other Wednesday.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009 | 11

commentaries

lettertotheeditor Saturday’s Tailgate policy After a huge 49-28 win over N.C. State, Duke football takes on Maryland this Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Wallace Wade Stadium. Coach Cutcliffe and the boys look to feed off our energy on Saturday, so let’s show up in full force!

Tailgate this Saturday will run from 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the first lot of the Blue Zone. Grill distribution will begin at 9:30 a.m. Cars must enter between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. If you’re on foot you won’t be allowed in until 10 a.m.

The same guidelines are in effect for this Tailgate as the last Tailgate. If you want Tailgate to continue it is very important that you follow these guidelines. Most importantly, don’t stand on cars and don’t throw beer cans. After talking with administrators, it is clear that Tailgate’s future is at stake. Please heed this simple request to avoid ruining Tailgate for those who enjoy it responsibly.

C

As with last Tailgate, registration is on the DSG Web site from now until Thursday at 2 p.m.. Each group will be assigned a 5-minute registration window in the tailgate lottery occurring Thursday night from 7:15 p.m. to 10 p.m. based on previous compliance with Tailgate guidelines.

Don’t forget, tickets are still on sale for both the football and basketball games on Saturday, so bring your parents along. To buy tickets, call the Duke Ticket Office at 877-375-DUKE (3853).

Lastly, enjoy Tailgate in moderation because our Football team is hot coming off their big win at N.C. State, and Saturday will make for a great game.

Go Duke!

Pete Schork Vice president for athletics and campus services Duke Student Government

Are you smarter than an investment banker?

oming this spring to Fox, a new hit reality show pits informed average people against elite financial minds trained at the best universities touting expensive Ivy League degrees.

Who will win? Carefully gathered and analyzed statistics run through incomprehensibly complex mathematical models indicate that you should put your money on the I-banker; however, considering that it was those same sorts of models that brought the financial system to its knees in the last two years, I wouldn’t bet the bank on it—literally. steffi decker In a New York Times column last Tuesday, refuse to lose “Wall Street Smarts,” Calvin Trillin wrote that the “smart” kids are responsible for the downfall of the American financial system. He said that in our grandparents’ generation, it was the dumb kids—the ones shooting spitballs and napping through Rocks for Jocks—who ended up on Wall Street.

In that generation, the smart kids went into government and academia, creating an inverse relationship between income and class rank. Even the most financially successful of that generation though, never fathomed the wealth conferred on people by Wall Street these days. Those humble, minimalist Wall Street folk of yesteryear were content with just a house in Greenwich and a condo in Aspen—the additional jet and matching yacht were a bridge too far.

The more recent generations of bankers, however, came into the game with a different ethos. The “smart” kids, meaning higher ranked, but also more mathematically and scientifically trained minds, became enamored by the pseudo-science of the efficient market hypothesis and convinced that risk could be precisely measured and managed. They believed that any risk could be hedged with exact mathematical precision implying that it was acceptable (if not mandatory) to take every risk.

Admittedly, my brief stint in Econ 51 does not render me qualified to explain why this approach was nearly fatal to the markets; however, last year’s near implosion of the American economy suggests that something went wrong.

Recent literature explains that in this hyper-pseudoscientific environment on Wall Street, mathematical models contrived by wiz kids out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology took on a standing akin to the Holy Writ.

Traditional methodology—judgments based on gut instincts and experience, became as Fergie says, “so 2000 and late.”

Systematically modeling markets based on historical interactions seems like an interesting academic exercise; however, in practice, markets, like most things in life, reflect an aggregation of human emotions—fear, greed, etc.—and sometimes reflect an overwhelming emotional bias which leads to unpredictable and unprecedented movements.

The failures of left-brain intelligence, however, have not been limited to Wall Street. For example, the same Ivy League minds brought their convictions about organization research to Washington in the Kennedy administration. They pushed a scientific pursuit that U.S. military power could be deployed in precisely calibrated increments to defeat a rag-tag liberation movement.

Unfortunately, the North Vietnamese must have slept through those classes at Harvard.

So what can we glean from the failures of “smart” people from Wall Street to Washington? Is developing an intellectual framework in which to understand choices a waste of time?

I, and I imagine most everyone else in the Duke community, believe in the value of a world-class education; I assume we all hold intellectualism in the highest regard. Acquiring sophisticated knowledge and delving into the great complexities of any field are by no means a waste of time. The flirtation with left-brain failure, however, occurs when “smart” people, perhaps not unlike yourself, get trapped by their own inability to see the intellectual straightjacket they inevitably wear.

After enduring three straight semesters of organic chemistry, four years worth of political science journals or endless conversations fixating on the same problems from the same lenses, we become unable to think outside the box. We have been trained in narrow fields that at times make it nearly impossible to think beyond that framework.

There is nothing inherently wrong with trying to answer questions, economic, policy or otherwise, by delving in the depths of a single field; however, it is dangerous to stop there. To become so reliant on any single system that we become incapable of addressing questions in any other way is a risky scheme.

How do we hedge that risk? The answer is not on your calculator. I don’t want to disappoint you, but I don’t have the answer; you too will be better off recognizing that you don’t know it either.

Perhaps the best way to approach such a question is to bring together all the “smart” and diverse people we can find and apply each individual’s training and intelligence to collectively seek the wisdom of crowds.

If for no other reason, teamwork is good—it gives you someone else to blame.

Steffi Decker is a Trinity senior. Her column runs every other Wednesday.

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12 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009 the chronicle