April 28, 2010

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, APRIL 28, 2010

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH YEAR, Issue 142

www.dukechronicle.com

Fuqua, law school fall in rankings

Dawkins set to resign as VP in June

Duke’s very own Oscars

by Samantha Brooks

by Zachary Tracer

THE CHRONICLE

Although two of Duke’s graduate schools slightly lost their footing on the national playing field in the annual rankings, the schools, overall, remained among the country’s leaders.

In U.S. News and World Report’s annual “Best Graduate Schools,” the Fuqua School of Business slipped two places to No. 14, while the School of Law dropped one place in the standings to No. 11.

The School of Medicine remained at No. 6 in research, tied with the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Yale University and the University of Washington. In the primary care ranking, which does not factor in research and instead accounts for the number of graduates headed to primary care residencies, Duke’s School of Medicine came in at No. 42.

“We pay attention to it, but we look at it as one of the many measures that we look at,” said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations.

“It’s important to ask yourself, ‘Where is the group that you’re bunched around?’ In any given year you might go up, you might go down—depending on how U.S. News does the measurement.”

THE CHRONICLE

emily shiau/The Chronicle

English professor Marianna Torgovnick (left) and theater studies professor Michael Malone (right) announce the winners during the ADAMs Awards Gala at the Nasher Museum of Art Tuesday night. The gala honored students’ performances in their 10 to 15 minute films, which were the course’s final projects.

Kemel Dawkins, a top University administrator who supervised campus construction and helped negotiate Dining changes, has decided to step down.

Dawkins, vice president for campus services, formally announced his intention to resign in meetings with administrators Monday and Tuesday. He said in an interview that he plans to leave Duke by the end of June.

Kemel Dawkins Dawkins said he is leaving the University to spend more time with his father, who is ill. He has made the trip from his Philadelphia home to Duke nearly every week since he was hired in 2003.

“I’ve been commuting for a very, very long period of time which means I’ve been away from family, and it’s become even more important that I be a lot closer to home now,” Dawkins said. “Duke is a fabulous place, a wonderful institution and I’ve enjoyed every minute here.”

Dawkins supervised many aspects of the

See rankings on page 7

See dawkins on page 5

100 LDOC wristbands stolen, recovered Two Duke profs

by Taylor Doherty THE CHRONICLE

christina peña/Chronicle file photo

The LDOC committee hands out tickets for LDOC T-shirts Monday afternoon. An opened box of 100 wristbands was stolen from the committee Tuesday afternoon. Officials said wristbands have since been recovered.

named to Nat’l Academy of Sci.

Plans to close campus to the general public for the Last Day of Classes were jeopardized Tuesday afternoon when a young man in a hooded sweatshirt ran off with a box of LDOC wristbands.

LDOC committee co-Chair Christie Falco, a senior, confirmed the incident and noted that all the wristbands had been recovered. She declined to comment further.

Co-Chair Liz Turner could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Orange plastic wristbands were distributed this year to students to signify their enrollment at the University and assist campus police in keeping outsiders off campus.

Sophomore Betsy Klein, a member of the LDOC committee, estimated that half an opened box of wristbands— approximately 100 wristbands in total—was stolen. She described the wristband thief as “very agile—very, very speedy,” and wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and red athletic shorts.

She added that she was disappointed by the incident because of its potential to compromise students’ safety.

“We can speculate all we want [about who did it]... but it’s just really disappointing,” Klein said. “You want

Duke scientists are two of the 72 scholars newly elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the Academy announced Tuesday.

Joining 18 current Duke faculty as members of the society are Philip Benfey, Paul Kramer professor of biology and director of the Center for Systems Biology in the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, and Vann Bennett, James B. Duke professor of cell biology, biochemistry and neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. A private organization founded in 1863, the Academy is one of the most prestigious science-furthering bodies in the nation. This year’s

See wristbands on page 9

See NAS on page 6

ONTHERECORD

“I’m certainly interested in promoting our business investment links with a state like North Carolina.”

­—Sir Nigel Sheinwald, British ambassador to the United States. See story page 3

from Staff Reports THE CHRONICLE

Senior columns Two senior sports editors say their goodbyes, PAGE 11

Duke squeaks out a win against N.C. A&T, Page 11

2 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 the chronicle

worldandnation

TODAY:

6742

THURSDAY:

7442

Venezuela arms buildup raises risks, commander says

Rig explosion hurts bid to House approves pay bill expand offshore drilling WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House passed a bill Tuesday that would block lawmakers from getting their scheduled $1,600 raise for next year, a symbolic measure designed to show Congress understands the angst of voters suffering from the recession.

The measure, similar to one passed unanimously in the Senate last week, would keep members’ salaries at $174,000, rather than funding a raise that is based on a formula that reflects adjustments in salaries for workers outside of the government. Under the pay system, congressional pay automatically increases each year unless the body votes to block an increase.

Lawmakers frequently push such pay freezes in election years, and they are generally even more eager to do so in the midst of a recession.

“

Chaos is a friend of mine — Bob Dylan

”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Barack Obama’s bid to expand offshore drilling may be set back after a BP rig exploded and sank last week, reminding the public of the danger of oil extraction, environmental and industry groups said.

The April 21 accident, which left 11 workers missing and spilled thousands of barrels of crude oil in waters off the coast of Louisiana, will force the industry to “at least admit that drilling for oil is a very risky, very dirty business,” Michael Brune, executive director of San Francisco-based environmental advocacy group Sierra Club, said Tuesday.

Democratic Sens. Bill Nelson of Florida and Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez of New Jersey called for hearings, saying the incident raises “serious concerns,” over the industry’s safety claims.

CARACAS,Venezuela — The U.S. military commander responsible for operations in Latin America said he’s monitoring Venezuela’s buildup of small arms because of the risk they might fall into the hands of drug traffickers and militant groups.

Air Force General Douglas Fraser said he doesn’t see Venezuela as a military threat to the U.S. even as it modernizes its forces. Iran’s presence in the South American country also has been limited primarily to political and commercial influence, with no signs of arms imports, he said.

The main dangers are continuing tensions with neighboring Colombia and the proliferation of weapons Venezuela is buying, including as many as 2,400 Russianmade SA-24 Igla-S shoulder- fired missiles that have the capability to bring down aircraft, Fraser told reporters Wednesday in Washington.

“My concern is that they get into the hands of the FARC or that they get into the hands of illicit traffickers,” Fraser said, using the acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the group fighting the neighboring government.

The weapons would give illicit organizations the ability to shoot down aircraft such as unmanned planes gathering intelligence, said Fraser, head of the U.S. Southern Command.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dismissed concerns expressed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in September after he said Russia would provide a $2.2 billion line of credit to buy arms including 92 tanks and an anti-aircraft defense system of radar and missiles.

Venezuela also is buying 100,000 Kalashnikov AK-103 rifles and building a factory with Russia.

TODAY IN HISTORY 1952: WW II Pacific peace treaty takes effect.

CHRISTINA HERNANDEZ/The WASHINGTON POST

Jere Carpenier, of San Jose, Calif., considered taking out a loan to pay for cancer pills that cost $4,000 a month. A growing number of patients are being denied access to newer oral chemotherapy drugs or are required to shoulder hefty out of pocket costs.

B o o k yo u r Fa m i ly g r a d u at i o n c e l e B r at i o n n o w !

Duke They’re your dining points.

DUKE Shipping & Storage from The UPS Stores at Duke ®

Give them extra f lavor.

Let us help you move home for the summer.

Shipping

4-diamond dining, golf-view terrace, saturday & sunday brunch

bountiful breakfast buffet monday–saturday 7-10:30 am sunday 7-10:00 am

lively atmosphere delicious menu all your favorite beverages

light fare & beverages overlooking the course golfers & non-golfers welcome

• Low rates from UPS® • UPS package tracking • Includes $100 loss protection with UPS

Storage

• FREE* packing boxes • Basic rates - $40 / carton • Storage, pickup & delivery available all year**

Packing service & packaging materials • FREEt shipping boxes • Competitive pricing * For boxes stored at our facility. ** Save receipts for full refund, valid at these locations only. tAt these locations only. Restrictions apply. See stores for details.

Students always welcome • Dining Plan Points accepted • Reservations recommended for Fairview • Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

Two Stores to serve you East Campus

811 Ninth Street (next to One World Market)

919.286.3322

West Campus

2608 Erwin Road

(next to Chipotle & Dunkin’ Donuts)

919.383.1400

FREE BOXES The UPS Store

www.DukeShipping.com ®

Publication: Chronicle Size: 6.625 x 5.125 Ad Number: 00-864-03 Job Number: 864-0005B | Dana Communications 609.466.9187

the chronicle

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 | 3

British ambassador talks Middle East policy

October 22 – November 6, 2010

British Ambassador to the United States Sir Nigel Sheinwald spoke to students and faculty on the topic of British foreign policy in the Middle East at the Sanford School of Public Policy Tuesday evening.

A career diplomat, Sheinwald joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1976. He later served as the British liaison in Moscow and to the European Union in Brussels before becoming ambassador to the U.S. in late 2007.

Sheinwald was appointed foreign policy and defense adviser to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2003.

“He was the Henry Kissinger to President Nixon,” said Political Science Professor Peter Feaver about Sheinwald’s close ties to Blair.

The discussion was sponsored by the Duke University Program in American Grand Strategy and the Vice Provost for International Affairs and was moderated by Feaver. The event drew scholars from universities across North Carolina.

In his discussion, Sheinwald promoted collaboration between the United Kingdom and the U.S. He called the relationship between the countries “special.”

“I’m certainly interested in promoting our business investment links with a state like North

Carolina,” Sheinwald said. “That means creating jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, advancing business, science and innovation, but it also means expanding our education links.”

Sheinwald’s visit to the University coincides an important moment for British politics— national elections are just nine days away.

He also discussed the U.K.’s perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Feaver said the conflict has also become one of President Barack Obama’s biggest priorities on the international stage.

“The lack of progress [with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] affected the whole of American international politics, and the conflict isn’t just in the interest of the Israelis or Palestinians,” Sheinwald said. “It is vital to the American national interest.”

Sheinwald praised Obama’s decision to not support settlement expansion in the West Bank­—near the Israeli-Palestinian border—and said it was a strategic move with implications that would help preserve lasting negotiations.

“It is wrong to say that if we solve this Israeli-Arab conflict there won’t be a jihad or continued violence,” he said. “It just isn’t true, but it will alleviate some of the grievances in the Muslim and Israeli worlds.”

margie truwit/The Chronicle

Speaking in the Sanford School of Public Policy Tuesday evening, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, British ambassador to the United States, discussed Great Britain’s foreign policy in the Middle East with students and faculty.

Sheinwald also briefly touched upon Iran’s emerging role in international politics. He said the Iranian government is a real and substantial threat, primarily because of their developing nuclear program. He added that continued negotiations and sanctioning is the appropriate response to Iran’s violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

He stressed the danger of an Israeli military response and emerging proliferation in the re-

gion as a legitimate consequence of failed talks.

On the topic of the most recent Iranian presidential election, Sheinwald said the outcome of the heavily contested race was an example of the massive oppression of the Iranian people.

“They talk about slapping the United States, or slapping the West, but in reality, all they are doing is slapping their own people,” Sheinwald said.

He ended the discussion with a

question and answer session with the audience before heading off to the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. Audience members gave Sheinwald positive reviews after the event ended.

“I thought it was really fascinating to hear the British perspective on pertinent international issues that are of relevance to us all,” said senior Chelsea Goldstein, a member of The Chronicle’s Editorial Board.

A celebration of student arts

Images: The Faces Project (Maya Robison); Dandelion (Angie Yu); Andy Warhol (Stanislas Colodiet); Underwater (David Henry).

See arts.duke.edu or call (919) 684-0540 for more information.

Sponsored by Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts, Duke Alumni Association, Duke Career Center, Duke University Union Visual Arts Committee.

visual – music – dance – theater – film – creative writing

THE CHRONICLE

2010

by Carter Suryadevara

4 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 the chronicle

Embarrassed but proud

michael naclerio/The Chronicle

Professor of English Thomas Ferraro (right) laughs and hides his embarrassment as a speaker tells an anecdote during the Trinity College Teaching Awards ceremony Tuesday evening. Ferraro was awarded the Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award during the ceremony, held at the Doris Duke Center in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens.

Congratulations class of 2010

Come celebrate this exciting occasion at Ruth’s Chris Steak House!

A Special all-inclusive four-course Graduation menu for $50 Durham | Renaissance Center at Southpoint RuthsChris-Durham.com 919.361.0123

ALSO SIZZLING IN Cary | The Arboretum at Weston RuthsChris-Cary.com 919.677.0033

Raleigh | North Hills RuthsChris-Raleigh.com 919.791.1103

Complimentary Valet Parking

the chronicle

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 | 5

dawkins from page 1 University, from Parking and Transportation Services and Duke Police to Postal Operations and Duke Forest.

He oversaw the construction of the West Campus Plaza, the Michael W. Krzyzewski Center for Athletic Excellence and most recently, Central Campus’s Mill Village—projects that Executive Vice President Tallman Trask noted came in on budget.

Director of Project Management Paul Manning said Dawkins’s background in construction made him a knowledgeable boss.

“He understands the issues around design and construction in a higher education institution,” said Manning, who has worked with Dawkins for the past 20 years at Duke and other schools. “He understands that it’s certainly not a science—it’s more of an art.”

After leaving Yale University in 2003, Dawkins became Duke’s first vice president for campus services. Trask said he may use Dawkins’s departure as a chance to consider restructuring the Campus Services department to cut costs. Trask wrote in an e-mail that he is unsure if he will hire a replacement for Dawkins. According to Duke tax documents, Dawkins’s salary was $343,000 in the 2008 fiscal year, the most recent year available.

“I know that this is often an opportunity to reconsider and look at putting some of the pieces together differently, and I would encourage [Trask] to do that,” Dawkins said. “The underlying mission of service to students, faculty and staff remains, however the pieces are assembled.”

One of the challenges Dawkins has faced at the University has been manag-

ing the relationship between Duke and Durham, he said. He has dealt with local opposition to New Campus, as well as complaints about rowdy student behavior off campus.

“I think we’ve made some significant progress,” he said. “There have been a number of initiatives... that have gone very far toward trying to strengthen the ties and improve relationships.”

Dawkins also handled the 2008 death of Rayford Cofer, a master steam fitter who died in a steam explosion at the Levine Science Research Center. In the wake of Cofer’s death, the University was fined $35,000 for safety violations.

Dawkins said leading the community as it coped with Cofer’s death was particularly challenging.

Dawkins often worked with graduate and undergraduate students at the University and said he enjoyed the interaction.

He often addressed security concerns at Graduate and Professional Student Council and Duke Student Government meetings and helped develop the University’s emergency response plan.

Dawkins also helped create the DukeBikes rental program and bring ZipCars to campus.

And for the past year, Dawkins has been one of several administrators involved in contentious discussions with students about ways to close Duke Dining Services’ $2.2 million budget deficit.

Administrators and students ultimately agreed to increase the dining fee.

Dawkins said any future candidate for his position should strive to improve campus services.

“Duke deserves the best services that we can provide to the students and staff,” he said. “Try to continue to push the envelope.”

Lindsey Rupp contributed reporting.

Presented by the

Walkin’ and Swingin’ with Mary Lou Mary Lou Williams, Jazz Pianist, Composer, Arranger and one of the most important Women in Jazz. This concert, by the NCJRO, features her music that spans 6 decades and was written for such bands as Andy Kirk and His Clouds of Joy; Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie.

Pre-Concert Lecture:

Narrated Concert:

Thursday, April 29, 2010 6:15 p.m.–7:15 p.m. FREE!

Thursday, April 29, 2010 7:30 p.m.

Gerrard Hall, located right beside Memorial Hall on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill.

Memorial Hall. Tickets are available at the Memorial Hall Box Office, by calling 919-843-3333 or at the door.

3+1 Summer Special Pre-pay three months and receive the fourth month free!

•Drive-up and interior units •Wide drive aisles •FREE lock with rental •$25 referral program

Call

919-544-6220 for details The StoreRoom 3822 South Alston Ave. Durham, NC 27713 storeroom@nc.rr.com

Serving the Durham-RTP area for over 15 years

Reid amends his pledge on immigration reform

by Shailagh Murray and Anne Kornblut The Washington Post

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid backed off Tuesday from his pledge to fast-track an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, after fellow Democrats voiced skepticism and a key Republican supporter abandoned the effort.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department may sue Arizona over a new state law that authorizes police to question the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally.

“I’m very concerned about the wedge it could draw between communities that law enforcement is supposed to serve and those of us in law enforcement,” Holder said.

Reid, a Democrat who is facing a tough re-election battle in his home state of Nevada, surprised the White House and many of his Capitol Hill colleagues April 10 when he said that a broad immigration bill “cannot wait.” He told a cheering crowd in Las Vegas, “We’re going to have comprehensive immigration reform now.”

That angered Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the chief GOP negotiator on immigration, who accused Reid of engaging in a “cynical political ploy” to win Hispanic votes, given that the House has not even called up an immigration bill. Graham withdrew his support from a separate climate-change proposal that he

had been prepared to endorse, and on Tuesday, he announced that he would oppose any immigration measure until U.S. border security had been improved.

With the fate of two Democratic priorities suddenly thrown into question, Reid said Tuesday that he would not dictate the sequencing of the two measures.

He added that both remained on the horizon after the Senate concludes its current debate on financial regulations.

“If you have a bill that’s ready to go, that’s the one I’m going to go to” after the Senate concludes its current debate on financial regulations, Reid said. But he added, “Immigration and energy are equally vital to our economic and national security, and we’ve ignored both of them for far too long. I’m committed to doing both this session of Congress.”

But other Democrats, including senior Obama administration officials, concede privately that an immigration bill is unlikely to move forward in 2010.

They fret about the political cost in November should a Democratic-controlled Senate try and fail to pass a bill.

Graham met last month with President Barack Obama to discuss immigration legislation, and he and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., drafted what they called “a framework for action on immigration.”

But he suggested Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the prudent course is to go slowly.

See reid on page 6

6 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 the chronicle

reid from page 5 Congress could pass a comprehensive bill, he said, “by 2012 if we’re smart, and we address the big elephant in the room, and that is that our borders are broken and there’s a war going on,” a reference to the rampant drug-related violence that has gripped Mexico.

He added that, while he opposes the Arizona law, it reflects legitimate public anger. “Good people are so afraid of an out-of-control border that they had to resort to a law that I think is unconstitutional—it doesn’t represent the best way forward,” Graham said.

Some Democrats have wondered privately whether

Graham’s new, go-slow position on immigration is a favor to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a friend. The onetime GOP presidential nominee is locked in a taut primary fight, and a Washington debate over immigration legislation is the last thing he wants right now. But GOP consultant John Weaver, who is close to both men, insists that Graham is not doing McCain’s bidding.

Reid accused Republicans such as Graham and McCain of abandoning their moderate stances on immigration in response to conservative pressure. “Republicans can’t have it both ways,” Reid said. “They can’t be passing laws like they did in Arizona and making all the statements they’re making in Arizona and around the country blaming it on Washington, and then we have

senators from Arizona and Lindsey Graham who don’t want us to move to the legislation.”

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Graham and other lawmakers at Tuesday’s hearing that the Southern border “is as secure as it has ever been.”

She noted that the federal government has met security demands voiced by lawmakers in 2006 and 2007, when Congress last considered an immigration overhaul.

For example, Napolitano said, the number of Border Patrol agents has doubled to 20,000 since 2002, including 4,000 in Arizona. The number of illegal border crossers in Arizona caught by the Border Patrol has dropped by half since 2000, although the agency now makes more arrests there than in any other state.

www.qduke.com NAS from page 1 inductees bring its active membership total to 2,097 scientists and engineers. Benfey and Bennett will be officially inducted into the Academy during its annual meeting in Washington, D.C. next April.

Benfey arrived at Duke in 2002 after securing the biology chair position. He holds a Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology from Harvard University. Benfey’s work focuses on determining how plant cells process information and understanding the mechanisms that dictate a cell’s function. “[The election to the Academy] recognizes Phil’s role as a pioneer scientist in plant development,” Dan Kiehart, current biology department chair, said in a news release. “He has been a real catalyst in bringing systems biology to Duke.”

Bennett studies ankyrins—the structural proteins interspersed throughout cell membranes that play gatekeeper roles for human cells. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

“This research has taken him from analysis of protein structure and function, through cell biology, to critical physiological processes. He is a tremendous role model for how unwavering fealty to rigorous molecular analysis can yield deep insights into the genetic underpinning of human disease,” Brigid Hogan, chair of the Duke department of cell biology, said in a press release.

Durham's new neighborhood boutique

specializing in contemporary women's fashion, emerging designers and denim.

Burberry • Chloé • Citizens of Humanity • DVF Elizabeth & James • Ella Moss • J Brand Seven For All Mankind • Splendid • Theory

uniquities.com

1000 W. Main St. • 428.4965 across from Brightleaf Square

the chronicle

rankings from page 1 Schoenfeld added that a more appropriate assessment of graduate schools is to consider the rankings of many publications, not just this one in particular. He said they provide a “snapshot” of certain measures important to universities and potential students.

Melinda Vaughn, executive director of communications for the law school, said the school continues to make great strides.

“Duke Law School has never been stronger,” she wrote in an e-mail. “We are hiring outstanding professors at both the junior and senior levels. We continue to attract some of the best students in the country, and our applications were up 25 percent this year over last year.”

Vaughn noted that it is important to continue to make progress, even in difficult economic times. She said the downturn provided motivation to continue to improve the school’s quality.

“We are deepening our curriculum to further integrate professional skills development and substantive academic inquiry,” she said. “Rather than slow us down, the economic uncertainty of the last two

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 | 7

years has helped us focus our resources on strengthening our faculty and students­ —which really are the best measurements of a law school.”

Duke graduate schools managed to excel in numerous field specialties. Fuqua placed third in marketing, fourth in executive MBAs, sixth in international specialties, seventh in non-profit specialties and eighth in management.

The School of Medicine was also proficient in field specialties, coming fourth in geriatrics, fifth in AIDS studies as well as internal medicine, sixth in women’s health, eighth in family medicine and ninth in pediatrics.

The graduate schools are evaluated on a quality assessment, placement success measure and overall student selectivity, according to the magazine’s website. The quality assessment is partially dictated by peer evaluations, which the website describes as a procedure in which program directors, department chairs and faculty members place programs on a scale ranging from “marginal” to “outstanding.”

Harvard University again placed first among the business and medical schools ranked. Yale School of Law maintained its position as best among all law schools.

gradschoolrankings The Chronicle breaks down the top-ranked institutions in this year’s U.S News and World Report’s annual “Best Graduate Schools” rankings.

Medical Schools Business Schools Law Schools 1. Harvard U. 1. Harvard U. 1. Yale U. 2. U. of Pennsylvania 1. Stanford U. 1. Harvard U. 3. MIT 3. Stanford U. 3. Johns Hopkins U. 4. Columbia U. 4. U. of Calif.–San Francisco 4. Northwestern U. 4. Washington U. 5. U. of Chicago 5. U. of Chicago 6. Duke U. 5. U. of Pennsylvania 6. New York U. 6. U. of Mich.–Ann Arbor 7. Dartmouth College 7. U. of Calif.–Berkeley 7. U. of Calif.–Berkeley 7. U. of Pennsylvania 6. U. of Washington 14. Duke U. 11. Duke U. 6. Yale U.

This is the last issue produced by the staff of V105. The Chronicle will not publish Thursday. Look for the exam break issue, produced by the V106 staff,this Friday.

6 O

Oliver W. Koonz Human Rights Prize!

For BEST PAPER on a human rights theme: Caroline Lampen: “The Emergence of a Norm Cascade on Violence Against Women: CEDAW or Transnational Advocacy 0lNetwork?”

For BEST PROJECT on a human rights theme: Christine Barnes, Kamilah Barnette, Catalina Hidalgo and 0lKate Van Buskirk (Baldwin Scholar, Trinity 2010): “Mappingl 0lDurham’s Civil Rights History”

Submit for the 2011 Prize!

Honoring the memory of Oliver W. Koonz, father of Prof. Claudia Koonz. Open to currently enrolled Duke undergrads. Details at:

humanrights.fhi.duke.edu/study-human-rights/koonz_prize DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: April 15, 2011 AWARDS ANNOUNCED: May 4, 2011 For more info: rights@duke.edu

N CEA

FRONT RESORTS.

ENDLESS CHOICE

School’s almost out. Time to celebrate!

What better way then by enjoying a trip to the beach with all your friends!

S.

The perfect place for FUN. Enjoy the Myrtle Beach area nightlife, great shopping and of course the beach!

✹ Indoor & Outdoor Pools ✹ Beach Access, Lazy Rivers & Hot Tubs ✹ Pool Bars ✹ Fitness Centers ✹ FREE Wi-Fi in all rooms

CALL 866.469.7853 TODAY!

OCEANARESORTS.COM

PROMO CODE:SR

* Some restrictions apply. 4 night minimum stay. All registered guests must be 18. No other discounts apply with Student Rate. See website for full details.

8 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 the chronicle

Goldman executives face Senate grilling

by Zachary Goldfarb The Washington Post

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It was a day of public flogging for Goldman Sachs.

Summoned to a Senate panel examining the firm’s role in the financial crisis, Goldman executives endured a 10hour excoriation that crystallized the wide gulf between Washington’s view of the storied investment bank and Goldman’s view of itself.

The seven men, including chief executive Lloyd Blankfein and Executive Director Fabrice Tourre, subject of a fraud lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission, at times struck a humble tone with the committee but gave no ground on the concerns raised by senators, offering technical responses and eating up time looking for documents in a 900-plus-page binder.

But for the lawmakers, who seldom engaged the finer points the executives made about the markets, the question of Goldman’s conduct on the eve of the financial crisis was not primarily one of law or finance.

“The SEC and the courts will resolve the legal question of whether Goldman’s actions broke the law. The question for us is one of ethics and policy,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. “Were Goldman’s actions in 2007 appropriate? And if not, should we act to bar similar actions in the future?”

But for Goldman’s executives, it was a narrower question of what the firm was legally required to do to serve its clients and protect itself as the financial markets declined.

Blankfein, the public face of Goldman, began his testimony more than seven hours into the hearing, receiving a more gentle line of questioning than several of his lieutenants. First to testify were four current and former mortgage executives—Tourre, Daniel Sparks, Michael Swenson and Joshua Birnbaum—who all wore dark jackets and white shirts and had worked extensively to prepare for questions the committee might ask.

Goldman hired lawyers who formerly worked on the committee to prepare the executives, and one of those law-

yers once told a trade journal that the best strategy is “long, thoughtful pauses followed by rambling non-responsive answers.” The executives practiced the technique.

At one point, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, asked Tourre about an e-mail he wrote that suggested he was looking to sell mortgage-backed investments only to unsophisticated investors. But, taking his time, he asked her three times to identify which e-mail she meant and to repeat her question.

“I cannot help but get the feeling that a strategy of the witnesses is to try to burn through the time of each questioner,” Collins responded in an exasperated tone.

The Senate panel released a report this week, based on millions of pages of internal Goldman documents, that accuses the firm of assembling risky mortgage-backed investments, making huge and profitable bets against the housing market and acting against the interest of its clients.

It was this last charge that provoked the strongest protests from Blankfein as Levin pressed it. Referring to evidence collected by his committee, Levin asked the chief executive how Goldman could sell securities to clients without telling them that it was betting against those very investments on the side.

Blankfein was speechless.

“You just don’t think it’s relevant and needs to be disclosed. Is that the bottom line?” Levin said. “Is that the bottom line?”

“Yes,” Blankfein responded.

Blankfein attempted to explain to the senator that it is his bank’s job to act as a middleman, buying from clients when they want to sell a security and selling them a security when they want to buy.

“You’re out there looking around for buyers of stuff, whether it’s junk or not junk, where you are betting against what you’re selling,” Levin said. “You’re not troubled by that?”

“I’m not troubled by the fact that we market-make as principal ... and that when somebody sells, they sell to us, or when they buy, they buy from us,” Blankfein responded.

Goldman also faces a fraud suit by the Securities and Exchange Commission that claims the firm and Tourre broke the law and committed fraud when they sold clients a complex investment linked to the value of home loans

that was secretly designed to fail. Another firm, Paulson & Co., a hedge fund, helped Goldman create the investment and planned to bet against it. But the SEC claims that relationship was not disclosed to Goldman’s clients, ACA Financial Guaranty and the German bank IKB. At the hearing, Goldman executives, including Tourre, continued to deny wrongdoing. But while Tourre said he told ACA that Paulson would bet against the investment, he acknowledged that IKB was not informed.

Goldman executives said disclosure was not necessary, because ACA and IKB were sophisticated investors who knew what they were betting on.

Throughout the hearing, Levin cited e-mails from Goldman employees disparaging investments they were selling to clients.

One e-mail Levin repeatedly referred to described investments Goldman was selling as “shitty.”

“Do you think Goldman ought to be selling it?” the senator asked David Viniar, Goldman’s chief financial officer.

Viniar responded: “I think that’s a very unfortunate thing to have on an e-mail,” drawing a burst of laughter from the hearing room.

But, he said, it was fine to sell an investment that was not backed by good loans if a client wanted to bear the risk of buying it for cents on the dollar. “We know it’s not a great piece of paper, but it means they think it’s worth more than 20 cents,” Viniar said.

Although they all had harsh words for the Goldman executives, the senators themselves did not agree on everything. One topic of debate: whether the executives were the equivalent of, or worse than, Las Vegas bookies.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., told the executives: “You are the bookie. You are the house. You had less oversight than a pit boss in Las Vegas.”

The senator from Nevada disagreed.

“Most people in Las Vegas would take offense at having Wall Street compared to Las Vegas,” said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. “Because in Las Vegas, actually, people know that the odds are against them. It’s almost like somebody was playing a slot machine [as] the guys on Wall Street were in there kind of tweaking the odds.”

stressed Out? Depressed?

Worried About Grades or Social Life?

Developing Minds can help!

Depression, anxiety or ADHD may be holding you back!

Now accepting Duke Student Heath Insurance

1

Get an appt today, see a doctor tomorrow!

Visit www.developingmindsnc.com or call (919) 794-3919 for more information and appointments.

Duke_Chronicle_Ad_2.04.10.indd 1

2/4/2010 9:12:01 PM

Your Affordable Storage Solution!

10x10 units ly for on

o

$65/m

Located at 804 Junction Road

Just 7 miles from Duke

Reserve Yours Today!

Call us at (919) 598-6999

06/12/10.

the chronicle

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 | 9

Stocks slump as Greece debt downgraded to junk

by Peter Whoriskey and Dina ElBoghdady The Washington Post

A leading credit agency lowered Greece’s rating to junk status, dealing a blow to an international rescue plan for the country and hammering U.S. and European stock markets.

The junk rating, unusual for a developed nation, deepened fears that big fiscal deficits and debt burdens elsewhere could threaten the economic recovery in Europe.

Stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic tumbled 2 percent or more after the downgrade by Standard & Poor’s.

The downgrade fanned investors’ doubts about whether the proposed economic reforms in Greece will go far enough to prevent the country from spiraling into even deeper financial trouble. It also presented a new obstacle to the planned $60 billion bailout from European governments and the International Monetary Fund.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.9 percent to 10,991.99, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 2.3 percent to 1183.71. They were the biggest one-day losses in more than two months.

The junk rating and the market’s skepticism make it harder for the country to finance its debt because they raise the interest rates it is charged. They also put pressure on the Greek government to carry out promised fiscal reforms in the face of determined political opposition.

“I am determined to do whatever it takes, when it is needed, to revive our country,” Prime Minister George Papandreou told parliamentary deputies Tuesday. “It’s now or never—but we will succeed.”

The credit agency on Tuesday also downgraded the rating of Portugal, another country in which the government faces a mountain of debt. Portugal’s rating is still investment grade.

The two downgrades raised concerns that turmoil could arise elsewhere. A number of countries must work themselves out from under staggering debt burdens, and the possibility any one of them could default has made investors skittish.

Under the burden of government debt now estimated to be 124 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, Greek leaders are working on economic reforms that raise taxes, cut government wages, rein in pension costs and privatize government-held firms such banks, utilities and telecoms.

A central question is whether the government will be able to enact the reforms.

Mounting anger over tax increases and public sector pay cuts erupted Tuesday when Greek transport workers dropped their jobs and rallied in the streets of Athens, warning, “Hands off our salaries,” according to Reuters.

Bus and metro train service came to a halt for six hours.

That protest was followed by another where 2,000 people, including students, marched to the Parliament and with red flags and “Out with the IMF” banners in hand expressed outrage about the Socialist administration’s request for financial aid from the IMF and European Union, Reuters reported.

The public outcry is expected to spill over into next week, when two large unions, representing 2.5 million workers, are expected to march to protest deficit-cutting measures.

In the first poll taken since Greek officials formally asked for the aid package Friday, a majority of Greeks— nearly 61 percent of 1,400 people surveyed—said they disapproved of the government’s decision, news agencies reported. More than 67 percent said they feared that anger about cutbacks tied to the debt crisis would lead to social unrest, according to Greek Public Opinion, which conducted the survey.

Despite the protests, Greek officials Tuesday rushed to

wristbands from page 1 everyone to be honest and keep everyone safe... and yet here we are, and this happened.”

Klein said freshman Ed Scott and junior Elliot Johnson spoke with Duke University Police officers. She added the officers chased the thief to his car and took down his license plate number.

Scott confirmed that he saw the student and spoke to police but declined to elaborate, deferring to the committee’s co-chairs for further comment. Johnson could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Sophomore Ben Goldenberg, an LDOC committee member, noted that although he did not witness the man take the box of wristbands, he and the other committee members had been notified of the incident.

“The only thing that they said to us—I think everything is fine—is how important the wristbands are,” Goldenberg said. “There are people who wish to undermine that, but I think that everything will be fine.”

calm investors after the S&P downgrade and reassert their commitment to an austerity program. “Everyone now understands that there is no more time for delay,” Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said on television.

He said the idea of Greece restructuring its debt—not paying it off in full—is “outside every negotiation” and that Greece will “absolutely and without any doubt” service that debt.

Several analysts said that although Greece is making progress that bodes well for the near future, the long term is less assured.

“My longer-term concerns on Greece remain, namely my doubt whether the domestic political and social fabric can withstand the reforms that are needed to simultaneously cut the deficit while restoring growth,” Erik Nielsen, chief European economist at Goldman Sachs, wrote in a note to clients.

The rising interest rates the Greek government faces

create the risk of a financial death spiral. The country must now refinance more than $10 billion in bonds that mature May 19. But the higher rates make it that much harder for the nation to meet its obligations, which in turn cause investors to demand even higher rates.

Investors view Greek debt as so risky that Tuesday they demanded a 15.4 percent interest rate for two-year bonds—up from 13.2 percent Monday and 5.1 percent in early April. Rates also spiked Tuesday on the government debts of other countries with sizable obligations: Portugal (up 0.8 percentage points for two-year bonds), Ireland (up 0.5 percentage points) and Italy (0.3 percentage points).

The situation in Greece has also raised a debate among the European governments offering the aid package over how harsh and immediate the fiscal reforms should be.

German officials have demanded reforms that others have suggested are too severe.

ATTENTION SPORTS FANS!

Grab a bite before or after the game - OR Watch the game on one of our widescreen TVs while enjoying something from our menu!

GO BLUE DEVILS! chill with your friends

Patterson Place 15-501 & Mt. Moriah

In Home Depot & Kohl’s Shopping Center

Bagels, Breads and Pastries!

Freshly Tossed Salads!

Breakfast Sandwiches!

Delicious Soups!

Espresso Drinks!

Hearty Sandwiches!

Mon-Sat: 6:30am-9:00pm Sun: 7:30am-9:00pm Phone: 419-6300 | Fax: 419-6334

CASH

10 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 the chronicle

FOR YOUR BOOKS SPRING 2010 BUYBACK MAY 3 - MAY 8, 2010

WEST CAMPUS Upper Level Lobby, Bryan Center Monday: 9am - 5pm Tuesday - Friday: 9am - 7pm Saturday: 9am - 5pm

EAST CAMPUS Marketplace Lobby, East Union Building Monday - Friday: 10am - 6pm Saturday: 9:30am - 3pm

USED BOOK CLASSIFIEDS WEBSITE The Duke University Textbook Store provides a free online service for privately listing your textbooks to sell to fellow Duke students.

You can also search for titles you need for next semester and arrange to buy directly from other Duke students who no longer need their book.

Why are we providing this service? We recognize that textbook prices have risen well above the rate of inflation for several years, and we want to do everything we can to keep the overall cost of your textbooks as low as possible.

Please remember to arrange your transactions in a public meeting place.

Go to www.dukestores.duke.edu/textbook.php and click on BlueDevil Books icon in the left hand column.

TURN YOUR TEXTBOOKS INTO CASH! Department of Duke University Stores速

Sports

MEN’S BASKETBALL

The Chronicle

Asking the tough questions

Keep going, I thought. Keep going and your heart will stop pounding. Ignore the urge to bear right and find a seat in the Chapel. Don’t keep walking past the building. And don’t you dare stop at the second floor and find an open therapist’s office. My legs ignored my neuroses and kept churning, all the way up to the third floor.

Then, a dead end—a locked door. Before Ben I had a chance to think about turning around, someone had spotted me on the other side of the window, with an old flag spelling THE CHRONICLE on the glass. She came to the door to let me in. I looked down at my phone— one of those cheap plastic flip relics— to avoid eye contact until I was inside.

She escorted me through the news hall, adorned with framed copies of memorable, albeit faded, newspapers.

Before depositing me in the back—the sports hall, she explained—she stopped in the morgue, where the lights had been flicked off. In my memory, it will always be slightly dim and faintly pungent, even if, now, it’s typically lined with bright Mac screens, meant for hacking away the future of the newspaper. She flipped through a dusty bound volume as my attention flirted with the different years on the anthologies’ spines. We moved on.

She introduced me to the sports editor, wearing a Mets hat off the side of his head, and he looked up and asked: “So, you interested in writing sports, man?”

Cohen

See cohen on page 13

lawson kurtz/chronicle file photo

Coach K is just one of the many figures on campus that Ben Cohen has interacted with in the last four years.

WEDNESDAY April 28, 2010

Former Duke star Grant Hill was honored with the Joe Dumars Award for sportsmanship by the NBA Tuesday. It is the third time he has recieved the award

www.dukechroniclesports.com

23 days since Indianapolis Every day, it gets a little harder to believe. Duke won a national championship, and I was there. I was on the court two minutes after Gordon Hayward missed that shot that no Duke fan will ever forget. As the players celebrated, I told Brian Zoubek that I was a Duke senior and asked him what this title was like for him, and as he answered, he put his arm around my shoulders and hunched down— really, he could have sat down, since he’s 17 inches taller than me—and we chummed it up as if we were just a pair of Duke students.

And the day the Blue Devils Gabe beat West Virginia, two hours before the MichiganState-Butler game, I sat on Coach K’s stool. Yes, it’s as cool as you think.

And all along—as Duke breezed through Jacksonville, Houston, and eventually, Indianapolis, too—I had to keep asking myself: Is it worth it?

Because for every other Duke fan aside from the players, the coaching staff and their massive entourage, this Blue Devil run to the Final Four was a dream come true. But for me, the sports editor of The Chronicle, it meant a hell of a lot more work than I had signed up for, just as my college days were coming to a close.

In the end, it probably was worth it. The newspaper on the day of April 6—the one with the wonder-

Starosta

ian soileau/Chronicle file photo

The chance to write about a national championship team was an unforgettable experience for Gabe Starosta. ful photo of Jon Scheyer hugging Lance Thomas, with the bolded headline, UNFOUR-GETTABLE—was a beauty, and it featured my story prominently. My name is on t-shirts, for God’s sake. Writing that story was an honor, and I value that more than having attended the game itself.

That’s the problem with sportswriting,

if you do it for long enough: The spectacle you’re going to see—and the Final Four really is a spectacle, and you couldn’t have asked for better seats than the ones I was watching from—loses some of its luster, because you have to think about what comes See starosta on page 12

baseball

Blue Devils eke out Aggie win An early lead didn’t turn into the rout Duke might have hoped for against N.C. A&T Tuesday evening at Jack Coombs Field.

Instead, the Blue Devils (2418) needed a rally in the bottom of the ninth to put away the Aggies (19-23)—who appeared the better team for much of the night—in a midweek nonconference 1 game.

A&T After DUKE 2 j u m p i n g out to a 1-0 lead when catcher Ryan McCurdy scored on a single off of an error in the bottom of the first inning, Duke failed to put another run on the board until the bottom of the ninth, when Will Piwnica-Worms scored off a single from Dennis O’Grady in the last half-inning.

The statistics don’t show it, but this was a pitchers’ duel—Duke recorded six hits and N.C. A&T

managed 10, but neither side was able to turn those hits into runs.

For the Blue Devils, started Eric Pfisterer scattered nine hits in a 7.1-inning no-decision, and the bullpen did well after Pfisterer exited. Jonathan Foreman and Christopher Manno did not allow any runs in 2.1 innings of work.

For the Aggies, starting pitcher Nick Oelker produced a dominant performance. Oelker, a sophomore, pitched a complete game, gave up just two runs and still picked up the loss, a rarity after such a high-quality start.

Duke has one more midweek meeting with a local opponent, High Point, Wednesday night.

After that, the Blue Devils’ opposition takes a giant step up: Duke is set to host Virginia, a key ACC rival and the No. 2 team in the country. The Blue Devils will meet the Cavaliers in a threegame set beginning Friday.

—from staff reports

ian soileau/Chronicle file photo

Will Piwnica-Worms came around to score in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Blue Devils a 2-1 win over N.C. A&T Tuesday night.

12 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 the chronicle

starosta from page 11 after, whether it’s a story, a blog post or an entire newspaper.

You can’t focus on the amazing skill you’re seeing just feet in front of you. Instead, you have to focus on the words players and coaches mumble in the press room, where neither party really wants to be, or in the locker room, a place where short, white, Jewish journalists like myself don’t belong.

And it’s a shame, because as Alex Fanaroff wrote in his pseudo-farewell column last week, athletics let you see life in a special way. Sports have always allowed me to feel

like part of the team—to pretend I could sink that jump shot, make that throw or chip that soccer ball into the top-right corner of the goal—and being at a school with such a great athletic program has accentuated that feeling. I gleefully chanted “BCS! BCS!” after Duke, in Coach Cutcliffe’s first game, beat James Madison at Wally Wade. I jumped up and down on the Koskinen Stadium bleachers during a men’s soccer game against Carolina my freshman year, before basketball season even started, as Duke held onto a one-goal lead with 10 men. I waited out two injury timeouts, a rain delay and a change of venue to watch Reid Carleton’s incredible comeback against UNC

chase olivieri/Chronicle file photo

When the Blue Devils defeated James Madison in David Cutcliffe’s first game as head coach, Duke students chanted “BCS! BCS!” at the players.

on the tennis court. I’ve yelled unconscionable things at visiting basketball players. And as anyone who knows me well would tell you, I’ve proudly worn green and orange twice into Wallace Wade Stadium and rooted for my team—Miami, not Duke—and I can’t wait to do it again.

That’s what sports are about: a feeling of real connection with something bigger than you. There’s nothing contrived about it, at least not at the college level.

Journalism—not sports journalism, but the process of reporting a meaningful story with a measurable impact—has allowed me to feel something similar.

Becoming a journalist has been the defining aspect of my college experience, and it has given me the chance to meet some of the most fascinating and insightful people on this campus, particularly the dearly departed Susan Tifft. For me, journalism was the door that had been cracked open since the moment I moved into Bell Tower four years ago, and now, four years later, that door is all the way open. I know this University more deeply than I never thought I would, and I’m not just talking about the Department of Athletics.

I’ve also been challenged intellectually as a member of The Chronicle as much as or more than I ever was in a Duke classroom, and that’s why I was so willing to trudge up the three flights of stairs to 301 Flowers hundreds, maybe thousands of times since August. I did more than my fair share of grunt work, yet much of the time, being a part of the journalistic process was a thrill, and the freedom I had to mold the sports section as I saw fit meant a lot to me.

But at this point, with literally days remaining in what I consider my childhood, I’m done. I can’t do it anymore.

I’ve given The Chronicle countless precious hours of my senior year—too many, if you ask my friends, girlfriend or parents—and with this column, I signal the end of my brief, shooting-star-like career as a sports journalist. I only wish I had been able to retire at my absolute apex, which truly was un-four-gettable.

The chance I had to write that national championship story—an opportunity only three other people in the 105-year history of The Chronicle have had—is one I will always be grateful for. And while I’ve fallen out of love with sportswriting, I won’t ever fall out of love with sports.

The World Cup, football season and Duke Basketball’s national championship defense are right around the corner, and I’ll be watching every step of the way.

explaining the facebook pics of you and a goat, hard. getting your vitamins, easy.

MENU SAMPLING Old School Veggie Burrito Regular Chicken Burrito Cheese Quesadilla Chicken Quesadilla Veggie Nachos

$2.86 $5.65 $1.41 $3.59 $4.12

10% off with Duke ID

great food. low price. open late.

introducing...

connect

(caffeine + 8 key nutrients)

1920 1⁄2 Perry St. at Ninth St.

just a block from East Campus

spark

(vitamin e + choline)

©2010 glacéau, glacéau®, vitaminwater®, bottle design and label are registered trademarks of glacéau.

the chronicle

cohen from page 11 “Yeah, I guess,” I said. “When can I start?”

Our first years at Duke are benchmarked by a series of open-ended questions. It starts before we arrive, having been forced to wade through a stack of college packets and, if we’re lucky enough, a smaller pile of acceptance letters. We choose our first-semester classes and we select the right professors. We decide whether to go to Marketplace at 6 p.m. or 7:30 p.m., and later that night, we debate which section will have the most cans of warm beer. There are boyfriends and girlfriends, fraternities and sororities, basketball season and concerts, and hopefully, somewhere and sometime, we find an answer to the question of what we want to do here.

Then there are the people who have asked me the toughest questions, demanding more-than-adequate answers. I call them my friends, family and fellow Chronicle reporters and editors.

Four years later, apparently, here I am, tasked with the charge every senior dreads. At the end of things—this one, even Didion would argue, is pretty easy to see—it is natural to revert to the beginning. For me, that meant answer-

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 | 13

ing one more question for one last time.

How do I fill this space?

After all, journalism hinges on the delicate balance between questions and answers. Reporters concoct questions and ask others to answer them, and later, journalists ask themselves questions and try to answer them in writing. Deep down, most journalists are probably grown-up iterations of elementary schoolers who can’t stop asking, “Why?” Usually, those kids are annoying. Their classmates find a way to put up with them.

Which is why—in this column, almost certainly my last in this space—I want to do something I haven’t done enough, if ever, in four years in these pages: express my gratitude, for your questions and answers of all kinds.

Finding people to answer questions isn’t as simple as it sounds. David Cutcliffe and Mike Krzyzewski and Joanne P. McCallie aren’t elementary school teachers—bound, by contract, to answer, “Just because!”—and no college athlete can be fully equipped to speak into a throng of digital recorders, capturing every one of their utterances. Over four years, all types of people spoke with me when they had better things to do. Most of this columnist’s insights came from them. There were also sources whose time wasn’t so structured: the professors, the analysts, the experts. They don’t host post-game press conferences and chances are, they’re not on television much, either. They picked up a cold call, and, if I was lucky, they talked until we forgot we had never talked before. I made sure to thank them then, and I’ll do so again now.

Then there are the people who have asked me the toughest questions, demanding more-than-adequate answers. I call them my friends, family and fellow

dukechroniclesports.com Chronicle reporters and editors. They endured my nonsensical rants—the early, oral drafts of columns, the ones that, hopefully, no one in public will ever hear—and they served as sounding boards, always. They challenged my good ideas, when I had them, and they scoffed at my bad ones, which was more frequent. And, most important, they, too, answered all of my questions.

A few hours before deadline, my most common, frantic question was usually something like: “So, what should I write about this week?” My byline is theirs, too, especially because they would never take credit for it.

The last group that deserves thanks, of course, is also the largest and most important. It consists of the people who

responded to my most intrusive requests—I hope, at least—and the people who helped shape the answers to my own questions. And, on a good day, it’s much, much bigger than that. It’s you: the reader. Without your time, interest and patience, we journalists have no incentive to ask questions at all.

This really is the end, then. Soon—too soon—my four years here will be up. I’ll head off into the world, asking more of my own questions to new strangers. And yet on this campus, there are still too many questions to be asked, too many questions that beg for answers.

Somewhere out there, I’m thrilled to imagine, there is a fresh crop of green, eager, soon-to-be-freshmen, itching to ask away.

Graduating Seniors!

www.thebicyclechain.com Sales, Service, Rentals Lifetime Free Service Trade In Program Price Match Guarantee

Just because it’s LDOC doesn’t mean Duke athletes will stop making news. Keep up during finals and over the summer at:

DURHAM : 639 Broad St.

919-286-2453 Open 7 days a week

683-DUKE

As Duke alums, you qualify for exceptional tuition rates for 2010 Summer courses: •$1284 (instead of $2568) for a ‘regular’ course •$2140 (instead of $3424) for BIOLOGY 25L, CHEM 31L or 151L or 152L, and PHYSICS 53L and 54L

Questions? Contact us If you are on financial aid, check with your financial aid counselor about your aid package for two summer terms.

TERM 1: May 19 - July 1 TERM 2: July 6 - August 15 ESPN Full Court • NHL Center Ice • NBA League Pass Brightleaf Square

Main St.

Durham

www.zspotlight.com/satisfaction • email: satisfaction@nc.rr.com

summersession.duke.edu summer@duke.edu/684-2621

14 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010

the chronicle

Republicans block financial reform again

by Brady Dennis and Paul Kane The Washington Post

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senate Republicans Tuesday blocked for the second straight day efforts to begin debate on a sweeping overhaul of financial regulations, saying the bill represents an overreach of government power that could harm small businesses.

A procedural vote to consider the measure on the Senate floor fell short of the 60 votes required to overcome the threat of a filibuster. Fifty-seven senators voted in favor of advancing the bill, while 41 voted against it. Two senators—Robert Bennett, R-Utah, and Evan Bayh, D-Ind.,— did not vote.

Democrats again accused Republicans of trying to block essential and popular financial reforms. They planned another vote for Wednesday—the third in three days—to pressure GOP lawmakers to let the bill proceed.

Despite the continued blockade, several Republicans acknowledged that they will probably allow formal debate to begin soon. But they plan to keep blocking the bill for now to give the lead negotiators, Sens. Richard Shelby, RAla., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., more time to nail down agreements, locking in portions of the legislation before undertaking a protracted amendment process on the Senate floor.

“We’ll go to the floor, sooner or later, either way,” Shelby told reporters after Tuesday’s vote.

As the closed-door negotiations continued, Democrats continued to court a handful of Republicans who they think might be persuaded to vote for the legislation, which among other things would create a bureau to protect consumers against abuses involving mortgages and other loans, establish oversight of the vast derivatives market, and give the government power to wind down large, trou-

e h t t n a W o t e c n a ch an

bled financial firms.

One of the possible swing votes, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, recently voted to approve a piece of the legislative package that emerged from the agriculture committee. He said he is willing to support the final bill only if more Republicans sign on. “Chuck Grassley and 59 Democrats do not make a bipartisan bill,” he said.

Republicans, meanwhile, want assurances that if they allow debate on the bill, Democratic leaders will permit them to offer amendments. GOP leaders, who a week ago insisted that Dodd’s bill would perpetuate Wall Street bailouts, opened a new line of attack Tuesday, arguing that the legislation would harm small businesses.

“This bill would touch such entities as auto dealers. It would touch a candy company that tries to hedge sugar prices. In short, the bill reaches into every nook and cranny of American business,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “I think most Americans thought this was all about Wall Street. But as you look at the bill closer and closer, you see that it is mostly about Main Street.”

Shelby, too, said the “biggest obstacle” remaining between him and Dodd is a proposed consumer regulator to oversee mortgages, credit cards and other consumer loans.

He argued that the new agency “would be one of the most intrusive and sweeping pieces of legislation this country has ever seen.”

The Chronicle will not publish this Thursday. Look for V106’s exam break issue Friday.

n i w

? d a iP

Just take a quick, 10-minute survey from The Duke Chronicle

The Chronicle wants to learn more about Duke’s readership habits, local buying practices, and how we can serve the Duke community better.

tinyurl.com/winyouripad Survey closes Sunday, May 2 @ 11:59 pm. All participants (who have a valid Duke ID) will be entered into a raffle for the iPad (16G). Chronicle employees are not eligible to win.

One winner wil be drawn at random by May 15, 2010.

Undergraduate Research Presentations (the following were inadvertently left off an earlier ad) Public Policy Studies Spring Thesis Presentations April 30 at noon Sanford 150 Sociology April 30, 8:30am-5:00pm Room 329 Sociology/Psychology Building For changes, updates search for “Undergraduate Research Presentations” on calendar.duke.edu and buzz.duke.edu

the chronicle

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 | 15

Obama visits rural National Zoo officials wait, Midwest to launch hope for a panda pregnancy midterm campaign

by Michael Ruane The Washington Post

by Scott Wilson

The Washington Post

OTTUMWA, Iowa — As the White House turns its attention to midterm elections, President Barack Obama began a campaign-style swing through the rural Midwest Tuesday to promote his economic agenda, plans for clean energy and the need for increased regulation of the financial system.

“If it weren’t for Iowa, I wouldn’t be president,” Obama told several thousand people gathered at the Indian Hills Community College gymnasium for a town-hall-style forum. “It’s nice to be back among the American people.”

Obama’s two-day trip through Iowa, Missouri and Illinois is an opportunity for him to showcase his efforts on behalf of rural America, but it is also a chance for him to try out a populist message intended to rally his base in time for the fall campaign. Obama shucked his tie, drank old coffee and told audiences Tuesday that his principal motivation is to “restore the sense of security to the middle class.”

At his first stop in Fort Madison, Iowa, Obama told an audience of several hundred at a Siemens Energy plant that his trip is “to talk with folks like you about the economic pain that towns like this are feeling—but also about their economic potential.”

“Times are still tough in towns like Fort Madison,” Obama said. “And times are still tough for middle-class Americans, who had been swimming against the current for years before the economic tidal wave hit.”

Most polls predict sharp Democratic losses in Congress this year amid a free-floating voter anger aimed at Washington in general and incumbency in particular. Obama has lashed himself to his party’s campaign effort, intensifying his fundraising schedule—traveling this month to Florida and California to drum up money for his party and some of its imperiled candidates. And this week he attempted to mobilize the grass-roots network that helped him win in 2008.

Rather than roll out new policy proposals, Obama is trying to connect what he has done in office—from stimulus legislation to health care reform—with the tentative economic recovery some communities are experiencing. Of the states on his itinerary, only Illinois—at 11.5 percent—still has an unemployment rate well above the national average.

Gary Chidester, a retired teacher from Blacksburg, Iowa, said he appreciated Obama’s visit, noting that “a lot of people think we are just out in the woods between New York and Los Angeles.”

“I think it’s personal for him,” said Chidester, who met candidate Obama in 2007. “It’s like he’s come back now to give us a sort of status update.”

White House officials said rural America is positioned to benefit from some of Obama’s most favored initiatives, including a shift to cleaner energy.

The Siemens plant he visited Tuesday makes wind-turbine blades, for example, and received a $3.5 million tax credit through the stimulus legislation’s provision to promote renewable energy.

After his stop at the plant, Obama visited an organic farm with Tom Vilsack, his secretary of agriculture and a former Iowa governor. The president also ate rhubarb pie and drank old coffee at Jerry’s Family Restaurant (a worker wanted to brew a fresh pot, but Obama said not to bother).

He ended the day in Ottumwa, shedding his jacket and rolling up his sleeves to answer questions on immigration reform, the state of manufacturing in America, his commitment to organized labor and, from a fifth-grader, what kind of pie he ate earlier in the day.

Obama joked with the college basketball team, telling one player that “if your question is whether I can beat you at HORSE, the answer is yes.”

But he also used the Senate’s second-straight vote blocking debate on the financial reform bill to urge its passage.

He received a sustained ovation when he pledged not to let the legislation “fall victim” to industry-financed lobbying.

Obama will tour a biofuel refinery Wednesday and a farm in Missouri, where he is expected to be joined by Democratic Senate candidate Robin Carnahan. Obama is scheduled to conclude the trip with a speech in Quincy, Ill., on what he is calling “Wall Street reform.”

“I think he knew that he was well supported in Iowa,” said Donald Bailey, 51, who lost his job with a survey company 18 months ago and has not found employment. “Now he’s trying to get the financial regulation bill, and maybe he needs a little support from his supporters.”

The frozen liquid is in two vials inside a battered Styrofoam box on which is written in black marker: “Return to Panda House.”

The specimen, which has been sucked off the floor of the National Zoo’s Giant Panda compound with a plastic syringe, has just arrived by car at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va. There, lab technician Sarah Putman pulls on her rubber gloves and prepares to analyze it.

The precious elixir is panda urine. And at the moment it contains vital clues to the future of Washington’s giant panda population, currently holding at two.

Anxious zoo officials are trying this week to determine whether their female giant panda, Mei Xiang, is pregnant.

She was artificially inseminated in January, and zoo scientists think that she is now at the end of her pregnancy cycle.

Experts said that means there will be, probably within days, either a new panda cub, or a zoo announcement that Mei Xiang has experienced what is called a false- or pseu-

do-pregnancy, which she has had the past three years.

The cycle is tracked, in part, by monitoring the level of the panda’s progesterone, which rises at the start and then falls steeply at the end. The cycle is considered over when the hormone level drops back to “baseline” and stays there without fluctuating for several days.

The hormone is found in the panda’s urine, so the urine must be collected, packaged and couriered 70 miles to the lab to see how far the cycle has progressed.

On Monday, the level had been at baseline since Friday.

“This is when we wait,” zoo spokeswoman Pamela BakerMasson said. It would still be at baseline on Tuesday.

For the zoo, this is a time of hope, and dread, officials said: hope that there could be another cub to replace the departed Tai Shan, who was sent to China in February; dread that there will be yet another failed attempt at pregnancy.

“It’s heartbreaking when you get to the end and there’s nothing there,” said Dr. Janine Brown, head of the institute’s endocrinology lab. “I kind of dread the end of today because it could be another....” Her voice trailed off.

16 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010

the chronicle

The Chronicle classified advertising

www.dukechronicle.com/classifieds rates All advertising - $6.00 for first 15 words 10¢ (per day) additional per word 3 or 4 consecutive insertions - 10 % off 5 or more consecutive insertions - 20 % off special features online and print all bold wording - $1.00 extra per day bold heading - $1.50 extra per day bold and sub headline - $2.50 extra per day online only attention getting icon - $1.00 extra per ad spotlight/feature ad - $2.00 per day website link - $1.00 per ad map - $1.00 per ad hit counter - $1.00 per ad picture or graphic - $2.50 per ad deadline 12:00 noon 1 business day prior to publication payment Prepayment is required Master Card, VISA, Discover, American Express, cash or check ad submission

online: www.dukechronicle.com/classifieds email: advertising@chronicle.duke.edu fax to: 919-684-8295 phone orders: (919)-684-3811

No refunds or cancellations after first insertion deadline ADVERTISERS: Please check your advertisement for errors on the first day of publication. If you find an error, please call 919-684-3811. The Chronicle only accepts responsibility for the first incorrect day for ads entered by our office staff. We cannot offer make-good runs for errors in ads placed online by the customer.

Announcements Adoption-

Loving, creative home awaits your baby through adoption. All NYC has to offer.

Expenses paid. Call or email Ellen toll free: 888-868-8778, ellen@eeadoption.com. eeadoption.com.

DUKE SUMMER SESSION FOR

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS! Qualified, high school seniors can attend term 2 of Summer Session.

Earn college credit and get a taste of college life. Questions? Contact us at summer@duke.edu or visit www.summersession.duke.edu.

Paralegal Intensive

Summer

Duke certificate in paralegal studies begins 5/24. Free info session 5/6. learnmore.duke. edu/ paralegal 919-684-3379

SUMMER SESSION DISCOUNT!

Duke alumni, including current Duke seniors graduating this May, can attend Summer Session and receive a significant discount.

View summer course offerings on ACES. Questions? Contact us at summer@duke.edu or visit www. summersession.duke.edu. Register now!

SUMMER SESSION DISCOUNT!

Duke Employees, and their qualified children, can receive a significant tuition discount: $1284 (instead of $2568) for a regular course, $2140 (instead of $3424) for BIO, CHEM & PHYSICS. Questions? Contact summer@duke. edu or visit www.summersession. duke.edu.

Help Wanted

Child Care

BARTENDERS ARE IN DEMAND!!!

Childcare Provider

Earn $20 - $35 per hour. 1 or 2 week classes & weekend classes.

100% Job Placement Assistance.

RALEIGH’S BARTENDING SCHOOL. Have Fun! Make Money! Meet People! CALL NOW (919)676-0774 www.cocktailmixer.com

Earn Extra Money Students

needed ASAP. Earn up to $150 per day being a Mystery Shopper. No Experience Required. Call 1-800-722-4791

Expertise

software

firm

To be with my daughter (11) and son (8) weekdays from11:30a.m.4p.m. from 6/21-7/23. You will pick them up in Durham and be with them at home (near Eno River and CFS). Must have reliable transportation, be very active, like hiking, playing, swimming and have lots of creative ideas. Please contact: mgranda@unc.edu or 919-619-6227 Summer Job Looking for an energetic college student to care for 3 great kids June-Aug. $300/ wk North Durham. www.tryanholder@yahoo.com

Townhouse for Sale Charming 2 BR Townhome

Beautiful end-unit townhome with garage, hardwoods, 2 separate master suites. 10 minutes from Duke. Low maintenance- $157,900. See more at www.2701durham.com! 919-6012940

Services Offered Accounting & Bookkeeping Specializing in assisting small

businesses or individuals organize their finances. Experience with nonprofit & for profit entities.

Hourly rate $20 or negotiable monthly fees. Call 616-8557.

seeks office manager starting May. Rapid advancement opportunity for the right person. Positive, passionate, geeks welcome.

More info: alex@thinkrelevance. com

EARN $1000-$3200 A month to drive our brand new cars with ads placed on them. www. YouDriveAds.com

Servers, hosts,

general staff for [One] Restaurant opening in June in Meadowmont Village, Chapel Hill.

Please email parkerwood@ momentum-research.com for more details or interview scheduling

Duke Student Summer Storage CLIMATE • Long Distance & Local CONTROLLED Relocation STORAGE • Boxes & Packing Supplies • Special Duke Student Rates • Pick Up Available Call (919) • CALL FOR A 419-1059 FREE ESTIMATE

or

489-3941

“Where customer service is still a priority” NCUC C-726 ICC MC315111

www.trosamoving.com

Libri scontati Livres en soldes Libros rebajados Verbilligte Buecher

FOREIGN TITLE CLEARANCE SALE

75 Selected Titles %

off

Thursday, April 29 & Friday, April 30 • 11am - 3pm West Campus Plaza

Mid-Level, Bryan Center • Phone: 684.6793 Monday - Wednesday: 8:30am - 7pm • Thursday & Friday: 8:30am - 8pm • Saturday: 9am - 6pm Department of Duke University Stores®

OPERATION: Textbook Store

PUBLICATION: Chronicle

the chronicle

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 | 17

Diversions Shoe Chris Cassatt and Gary Brookins

Dilbert Scott Adams

Doonesbury Garry Trudeau

The Chronicle Here’s to V106!: continuing the asian ME legacy: ��������������������������������������� hon, toni and the catholic, north carolinian legacy: �������������������� will, lindsey and the tradition of (white) NEs: �������������������������������emme, taylor they have nothing in common: ������������������������������������� shuchi, ben here’s to finishing (too?) early!: ������������������������������������ gabe, andy ...and continually distracting writers: ���������������� naclerio, courtney ...and faster copying and pasting: ��������������������������������� klein, pena ...and sappy music and last words: ���naureen, eugene, tracer, lisa Barb Starbuck thinks v105 makes a damn good champs: ������� Barb

Ink Pen Phil Dunlap

Student Advertising Manager:...............................Margaret Potter Account Executives:.................... Chelsea Canepa, Phil DeGrouchy Liza Doran, Lianna Gao, Rhea Kaw, Ben Masselink Amber Su, Mike Sullivan, Jack Taylor Quinn Wang, Cap Young Creative Services Student Manager............................Christine Hall Creative Services:................................Lauren Bledsoe, Danjie Fang Caitlin Johnson, Megan Meza , Hannah Smith Business Assistant:.........................................................Joslyn Dunn

Sudoku

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. (No number is repeated in any column, row or box.)

Answer to puzzle www.sudoku.com

The Independent Daily at Duke University

The Chronicle

18 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010

The fiscal outlook after year one With one year down in the the University has protected University’s three-year effort employee benefit packages, to trim its operating budget and in lieu of raises, reasonand adapt to the fallout from ably implemented a one-time the global financial crisis, the $1,000 payout for all employoutlook for the economic fu- ees making less than $80,000 ture is unclear. a year.

By leaving N o t a b l y, editorial vacant positions all of this has unfilled, offering early retire- come without any signifiment incentives to bi-weekly cant impact to the Univerand salaried employees and sity’s core educational misusing the Duke Administra- sion or the experience of tive Reform Team to trim fat undergraduate students. Fiand identify inefficiencies, nancial aid is fully funded, the University has cut $60 programs like DukeEngage million from its budget dur- are still running and class ing the past 12 months. sizes continue to remain For the most part, these low. cuts have been fair and efBut as far as the University fective. Enacting an early has come over the past year retirement scheme has al- in adapting to a restrained lowed administrators to pro- fiscal reality, there is still a tect jobs and keep layoffs bumpy road ahead. at a minimum. In addition, According to estimates

“

onlinecomment

The Loop gives good tasting food, but it still serves meager and overpriced portions. The best way to eat well for your money at Duke is to get into your car and drive to a local restaurant in Durham.

”

—“Flatlander” commenting on the story “Students give Dining mixed comments.”

See more at www.dukechronicle.com.

Letters Policy The Chronicle welcomes submissions in the form of letters to the editor or guest columns. Submissions must include the author’s name, signature, department or class, and for purposes of identification, phone number and local address.

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

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

Est. 1905

the chronicle

commentaries

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

The Chronicle

Inc. 1993

will robinson, Editor Hon Lung Chu, Managing Editor emmeline Zhao, News Editor Gabe Starosta, Sports Editor Michael Naclerio, Photography Editor shuchi Parikh, Editorial Page Editor Michael Blake, Editorial Board Chair alex klein, Online Editor jonathan angier, General Manager Lindsey rupp, University Editor sabreena merchant, Sports Managing Editor julius jones, Local & National Editor jinny cho, Health & Science Editor Courtney Douglas, News Photography Editor andrew hibbard, Recess Editor Austin Boehm, Editorial Page Managing Editor Drew sternesky, Editorial Page Managing Editor ashley holmstrom, Wire Editor chelsea allison, Towerview Editor eugene wang, Recess Managing Editor DEAN CHEN, Lead Developer zachary kazzaz, Recruitment Chair Taylor Doherty, Sports Recruitment Chair Mary weaver, Operations Manager Barbara starbuck, Production Manager

zachary tracer, University Editor naureen khan, Senior Editor toni wei, Local & National Editor rachna reddy, Health & Science Editor Ian soileau, Sports Photography Editor Maya Robinson, Multimedia Editor Emily bray, Editorial Page Managing Editor Rebecca wu, Editorial Page Managing Editor Charlie Lee, Design Editor Ben cohen, Towerview Editor Maddie Lieberberg, Recess Photography Editor Lawson kurtz, Towerview Photography Editor caroline mcgeough, Recruitment Chair Andy Moore, Sports Recruitment Chair CHRISSY BECK, Advertising/Marketing Director REBECCA DICKENSON, Chapel Hill Ad Sales Manager

The Chronicle is published by the Duke Student Publishing Company, Inc., a non-profit corporation independent of Duke University. The opinions expressed in this newspaper are not necessarily those of Duke University, its students, faculty, staff, administration or trustees. Unsigned editorials represent the majority view of the editorial board. Columns, letters and cartoons represent the views of the authors.

To reach the Editorial Office at 301 Flowers Building, call 684-2663 or fax 684-4696. To reach the Business Office at 103 West Union Building, call 684-3811. To reach the Advertising Office at 101 West Union Building call 684-3811 or fax 684-8295. Visit The Chronicle Online at http://www.dukechronicle.com. © 2010 The Chronicle, Box 90858, Durham, N.C. 27708. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior, written permission of the Business Office. Each individual is entitled to one free copy.

announced in February by President Richard Brodhead, the University’s total financial shortfall is around $100 million, down from the $125 million initially announced last year. This means that with $60 million in cuts already in the books, administrators must trim back another $40 million over the course of the next two years.

There are two approaches to addressing this looming deficit.

On the one hand, administrators could ignore the pending shortfall and hope that an improved stock market will lift the endowment and prevent the need for further cuts. Even worse, they could increase the 5.5 percent annual endowment payout and spend more of the University’s financial re-

serves. This is fiscally irresponsible and should be completely off the table.

Moving forward, administrators should instead actively and responsibly confront the fiscal reality. DART should continue to identify existing inefficiencies. But even so, it is hard to see how the University will make it to the $100 million mark without substantial cut backs and restrained layoffs.

Over the next two years, continued communication will be crucial to ensure that the Duke that emerges from the next round of cuts is both efficient and equitable.

If stakeholders feel as if they have been involved in the scaling back process, they will be more likely to accept its results.

To this end, the straightforwardness and transparency of President Richard Brodhead’s February speeches to faculty and employees and of Provost Peter Lange’s meeting last week with student leaders should serve as examples of what is necessary for the future. In addition to speeches and face-to-face meetings, the administration must update its sorely outdated “Enduring a Troubled Economy” website in order to educate students, parents, employees and alumni.

If the economy continues to improve, it will be difficult for administrators to retain the political capital necessary to make tough fiscal decisions.

But these decisions will be necessary to protect and preserve the good of this place.

Living in the moment Last February I received a phone call at 4 a.m. tomorrow’s paper, one of the few respites in my daily routine as editor was picking up a copy of the I knew exactly who was calling.

My voice was shaking slightly when I picked up, physical paper.

When I forced myself to look past that mis“Hi Chelsea,” I said. placed comma or sentence that It was the current editor of The could have been worded differChronicle calling to inform me of ently, I had the rare treat of delvthe results of an election to detering into a concrete representation mine her successor. of what I had accomplished. Those “Will—Welcome to the brothermoments—skimming over stories, hood,” she said. photos and captions that I had The phrase was a reference to grown tired of seeing the night besomething she had told me earfore—were my daily reflection. It lier. The Chronicle editorship is a will robinson was the only chance I had to look brotherhood—only those who infrom the editor around and see where this journey herit it fully understand its weight. was taking me.

I leapt off the floor of my Edens This is what the physical paper represents for dorm room in excitement, and was immediately mobbed by two of my friends who had stayed up journalism today. Unlike the ever-changing online with me while I awaited the call. After more than product, it captures a moment—a freeze-frame of 12 hours of deliberation the entire Chronicle staff whatever stories were finished in time to make the had voted to elect me as its next editor. I sprinted print deadline.

Sometimes you’re shaken back to the reality of up to meet them in our 301 Flowers office before the moment by a dramatic event like the 4 a.m. they could change their minds.

At several moments, during the course of the phone call I received last February or the national next 14 months I wondered why I had been so ex- championship issue we published this April.

In journalism, moments in the past may seem cited to take on this job. One hundred and forty-one issues later, I’m still not entirely sure I’m as meaningless as yesterday’s print paper. But as editor I learned to focus on those moments. They ready to look around and see where I am.

I never planned for 5 or fewer hours of sleep represent the journey, every single piece of it And you have to force yourself to live in the moper night, for blocking off my schedule from 4 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. every day of the week, for trying ment if you’re ever going to make it anywhere. to memorize every entry in The Associated Press stylebook.

I’m not sure why I did it, but I know I would do it again in a second.

Every crisis I faced as editor forced me to grow as journalist, a student and a person. It wasn’t any single moment that made it worth it, but the collection they comprised.

Looking back on the 105th year of The Chronicle’s publication, I can’t think of a single issue that captures the way I would define our journalism.

Yet between scrolling through hundreds of e-mails on my BlackBerry, responding to angry Will Robinson is a Trinity junior and editor-in-chief complaints and worrying about how many sto- of The Chronicle. Like his predecessors, he aches with the ries we would have to fill however many pages in knowledge that he will never be either again.

Look for the exam break issue: this Friday

the chronicle

A

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 | 19

commentaries

Embracing the imperfect

s I was gearing up for the final stretch of senior year At The Chronicle, the four years have been good to me. a few weeks ago, an article in The New York Times I’ve been incredibly fortunate to preside over the newsroom caught my eye and inadvertently brought me back during a historic presidential campaign and the worst fito the last time I was a senior four years ago. nancial crisis since the 1930s. I was lucky to The article was about how Duke’s waiting have followed in the journalistic footsteps list has exploded to include about 3,300 stuof the editors who skillfully managed the dents—more than twice the size of the actual controversy of the lacrosse scandal. Yet we incoming freshman class, and of which only journalists weren’t perfect. We were late on about 60 will be allowed to enroll. some stories, and could have planned for inThis news struck a chord with me because vestigative projects better. And we definitely I was one of the fortunate few invited to join should have held more DPQs. the Class of 2010 off the wait list back in May It’s hard to have a perfect four years in eugene wang 2006. Admittedly, that was a smaller list with college. It’s pretty much impossible. But as senior column more students accepted off it, as my fellow long as you can look back and know that classmates and I matriculated despite the you made a few good choices along the way, wave of bad press that followed the lacrosse scandal. then it’s okay to be imperfect. And if you’re wondering But reading that article made me wonder how life would about some of my ingredients for having a good four years be different if the lacrosse team hadn’t held that party on at Duke—none of which were in my original plan—you’re March 13, 2006. I’d be graduating from Washington Uni- lucky this is a senior column, because no senior column versity in St. Louis, having cheered on their 10-time Divi- would be complete without assorted, fairly unconnected sion III national champion women’s volleyball team and tidbits of advice for underclassmen. written for the three-times-a-week Student Life.

Take as many PE classes as you can. Knowing how to When I did an about-face that May—we had already relax with yoga the morning after a night of salsa dancpaid the enrollment deposit at Wash U—and told my par- ing following an afternoon of golf is more important than ents that I wanted to go to Duke instead, my mom gave me knowing what moves supply and demand curves. the old big-fish-small-pond (Washington) versus the smallExplore and learn about Durham. Seriously. Durham is fish-big-pond routine (Duke). She gently suggested to me a pretty rich city—rich in the history-and-tradition sense— that it was smarter to be the shark than the minnow. But in with a wealth of fascinating stories. As someone who loves the end, my assurances won them over and they gracefully urban issues and wants to visit Baltimore now that he’s agreed to support my choice. watched The Wire, I can honestly say I wish I had learned Needless to say, I came to Duke with a chip on my shoul- more about Durham before senior year. der and plans for a perfect four years in college, if only And finally, join The Chronicle. Shameless plug, I know, to satisfy my parents and prove that I belonged here. I but I can’t help it. For no other student group could I have imagined my time here as an intellectual paradise–playing photographed Barack Obama, covered a men’s basketball Frisbee on the quad every Friday, studying on the Chapel game courtside in the United Center or attended the Los lawn and engrossing myself in esoteric conversations with Angeles Film Festival for free. professors and classmates. But in the past four years, these And nowhere else but in 301 Flowers could I have had have been rare occurrences at best, and I’ve never played such awesome conversations, napped on such old couches, Frisbee on the quad. drank such stale coffee, watched such beautiful sunrises, ate Then again, I never imagined I would help lead a news such delicious bin candy, read such insightful analyses, deorganization, nor that I would enjoy learning how to dance signed such detailed layouts, developed such a refined appremerengue. Those were never in my Four Year Plan For A ciation of words, cultivated such a nuanced understanding of Perfect College Career, but they turned out alright. numbers, or otherwise spent 12303512374 hours of my life.

So I haven’t had the perfect college career that I planned for when I decided to relocate to sunny North Eugene Wang is a Trinity senior. He is recess managing editor Carolina from frigid Chicago, but when May 16 rolls and former managing editor, wire editor, University associate ediaround, it won’t really matter. I’ve made mistakes, and I tor and staff writer of The Chronicle. He is also a senior editor, but have my regrets. But things worked out more than half the would like to formally concede that Naureen Khan is the superior time, and I can rest assured that college was a success. senior editor.

Bereavement

T

here are certain events that make the act of leaving deliberate: the submission of theses, Senior Week, LDOC, Beer Trucks. These are the rituals that gently remind us that it is nearly time to go.

But the partings that should slip by unnoticed— the ones that lack a place in my path chelsea allison toward coping—are the ones that have senior column made me most sad.

There is no sense, for example, in longing for my tiny, un-airconditioned dorm room in Alspaugh. But in recalling my first days here, I have been forced to confront the fact that I may never see it again. It is silly to cherish the last toffee cookie from Saladelia that I will consume, but I am already rather fond of the idea of it. (I should note that I possess no similar feelings over Shooters; I have laid any desire to go there to rest.)

I have already mapped out my Friday plans to ensure that I will be within earshot of the carillon singing “Dear Old Duke,” but I am pierced passing the tower of the Chapel. Its beauty is deflating, a reminder that the icon casts a shadow over my path only temporarily. I admit that I climbed the Chapel steps for the symbolism of the act. Even now, perhaps the last time my name will appear in these pages, I find myself eulogizing my Duke experience rather than celebrating it.

But by making these things overly commemorative, I strip them of joy. In this way, my nostalgia takes the form of grief. It is messy, tearful, uncomfortable.

In a few days, I will pick up my cap and gown, which seems to me much like a habit of mourning.

I have observed in myself a tendency to push away those things I suspect I will miss most, fearing their abandonment. This way, I cope. Time with friends and old acquaintances must be measured against nights spent pressed up against the masses, weighted further still against the eerie silence of a night spent in Perkins for a suddenly-important paper.

While I approach the denouement of my formal education with every measure of sadness, my brother, a freshman at N.C. State, provides a study in contrasts. He recounts for me the anxiety of attending one’s first themed college party (which for him was “Jersey Shore”) and the excitement over choosing a major (I switched three times, until I settled somewhat anticlimactically on English).

He reminds me that there is a better way to celebrate memory, one that isn’t dependent on symbolism or photographs or preserving flimsy retellings in newsprint. He cherishes them, but not because they are novel or ephemeral. Neither does he require a ritual for separation or a language of missing to explain why they were important. He does not need these things to help him let go.

The bereaved need stages, and words, an issue the poet and writer Meghan O’Rourke has explored in her essays on grief. But I realize, perhaps too late—it’s always too late—that I need not mourn. I am slowly converting to a way to say goodbye that is mindful of the reasons leaving has saddened me.

Among them, I am grateful for a business card given to me on the second day of freshman orientation, which lured me to 301 Flowers, and for my peers, who kept me there; for the staff of Volume 104, especially Shuchi, Eugene and Ben; for those friends I consider lifelong: ACE, EAF, NRF, JMG, BDH, ARK, JML, LCM, CCM, DWR, JW. I owe everything to my parents, whose devotion is the type that they always have been parents first, and spouses second.

I am thankful for Deborah Pope, who became something like a parent here. I am lucky to have been educated by some who have made me question the world around me, like Susan Tifft, and I have enjoyed the opportunity to meet countless times John Burness and Richard Brodhead, of whom I learned to ask tougher questions.

Chelsea Allison is a Trinity senior and co-editor of Towerview magazine. She is the former editor-in-chief and university editor of The Chronicle.

20 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010

the chronicle