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
thursday, november 19, 2009
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH YEAR, Issue 63
www.dukechronicle.com
Duke student gov’t
YT reform back at ‘square one’
Groups respond to RGAC scores
Group in deadlock after 2-hour debate Senate to hold special session after break by Matthew Chase The chronicle
After debating for almost two hours on the Young Trustee selection process at Duke Student Government’s meeting Wednesday night, DSG members will meet later in the semester to continue the discussion. Members will hold a special session after Thanksgiving break in which discussions will start at “square one,” Executive Vice President Gregory Morrison, a junior, said after the meeting. “This bill has failed,” Morrison said. “There is no more action to be taken on this bill during this session. We pretty much have to recess because there is nothing else for us to do.” During the nearly three-hour meeting, senators motioned to make a variety of amendments and replace other See DSG on page 5
michael naclerio/The Chronicle
Interfraternity Council President Eric Kaufman (left) and other fraternity members voice their concerns about the RGAC process Wednesday night in front of administrators and representatives from RGAC and Campus Council. The heated exchange lasted 2.5 hours, but did not reach a conclusion to reform RGAC. by Lindsey Rupp The chronicle
Stakeholders in the residential group assessment process gathered Wednesday to discuss the process and its results and determined more discussion was needed before changes to the process or delays to the section selection process scheduled for Sunday could be made. The two-and-a-half hour, occasionally heated meeting revealed concerns that the process was opaque, inconsistent and discriminated against some living groups, while its results would have unintended consequences on the University’s estab-
lished social scene. Attendees included Interfraternity Council and Selective Living Group representatives, Campus Council leaders, Residential Group Assessment Committee co-chairs and Residence Life and Housing Services and Student Affairs administrators. Approximately 60 people attended the event. “You want someone to say, ‘All right, you won.’ That can’t happen at this point,” Zoila Airall, assistant vice president for student affairs, said at the end of the meeting. “What I am saying is we’re all going to talk, and that’s the best I can do.” Members of IFC fraternities, includ-
ing IFC President Eric Kaufman, a senior, expressed concerns that their organizations were given little or poor information about the “murky at best” process, that their groups were poorly represented and that the scoring categories were unfairly tailored to the missions of a few groups. RGAC is composed of four internally selected IFC representatives, four internally chosen selective house council members and four elected Campus Council representatives. The scoring committee consists of two IFC, two selective house See RGAC on page 6
New facilities to shelter lemurs through winter
Priced at $8.2M, project was last before construction moratorium by Julia Love The chronicle
nate glencer/The Chronicle
Lemur Center Director Anne Yoder gives a tour in one of the two new facilities that will house lemurs for the upcoming winter. The facilities cost the University $8.2 million and will house 140 lemurs.
Offensive line builds continuity, Page 7
Winter is a dark time for Duke’s lemurs. In spring and summer, many of them are free to explore the Duke Forest as they please. But after Oct. 15, when the skies turn gray and the frost sets in, the lemurs are corralled into cages pumped with warm air to wait out the cold for six months. After the holiday season, 60 of the University’s 200 lemurs will move into a $3.2 million, 7,000 sq.-ft. Duke Lemur Center facility surrounded by 10,000 square feet of grounds where they will be able to roam free year-round. The building will receive a silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. More lemurs live on Duke’s grounds than anywhere else in the world outside of their native Madagascar, but the opening of the new facility is the first major expansion the Duke Lemur Center has undergone in 40 years, Director Anne Yoder said. “This is a very exciting day for us,” Yoder, who is also a professor of biology and biological anthropology and anatomy,
said before a tour of the new building Wednesday. “It’s a big step forward for us and we are delighted with the product.” Since Colony Manager Andrea Katz started as a workstudy student at the center in 1975, the facilities had remained essentially unchanged until now, she said. A second building housing 80 lemurs will open Jan. 15, affording some of its residents a semi free-range lifestyle. The $8.2 million bill for both facilities has been covered entirely by the University. The Lemur Center expansions are the last projects administrators approved before announcing an indefinite moratorium on debt-financing construction last Fall, Yoder said. “I think everybody’s pinching themselves,” she said. “We got in under the wire.... I am extremely grateful to Duke University.” Lemur Center administrators were forced to scale back the second building by eliminating a wing due to increased construction costs, Katz said. The wing would have housed 20 more
ONTHERECORD
“We set the bar pretty high.” —Dean Lee Baker on graduation with distinction requirements. See story page 3
See lemur center on page 4
Christmas can never come too early, RECESS 4-5