September 8, 2010 issue

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

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH YEAR, Issue 10

www.dukechronicle.com

Danzig urges students to ‘take new risks’

by Rohan Taneja THE CHRONICLE

At a candlelight vigil on the Chapel steps, about 100 students and faculty heard firs-hand accounts of the devastation in the region.

“It seems that CNN is about the only 24-hour news outlet that has put an important reporter to cover the disaster,” said Ebrahim Moosa, associate professor of Islamic studies. “It struck me that there is something lacking in

In today’s uncertain times, Richard Danzig believes one can never be too certain about the future.

The former secretary of the U.S. Navy—who served between 1998 and 2001—spoke to a room packed with students and faculty at the Sanford School of Public Policy Tuesday about individual and national strategy in an era of unpredictability. Danzig now serves as chairman of the board for the Center for a New American Security, a think tank located in Washington D.C. The speech, sponsored by the American Grand Strategy, was titled “Since We Can’t See the Future, What Do We Do?” Danzig said that with regards to modern conflicts, it is nearly impossible to predict the events that will take place and the way in which they will unfold, using September 11th as a specific example.

“One of the things we never foresaw in 1990 was the character of the events of 9/11,” he said. “We didn’t see the trigger events there or foresee their results.”

Danzig applied the same principle to individuals’ tendencies and warned against being too confident in one’s own predictive abilities.

“I think the propensity for error in your circumstance is to follow the straight path and think more confidently of your predictive ability than you should,” he stated. “I think that you should take new risks and go against your natural propensities.”

See floods on page 6

See danzig on page 12

libby busdicker/The Chronicle

Students and faculty held a vigil Monday night outside the Duke Chapel to hear firsthand accounts of the wreckage in Pakistan after the floods.

Student groups gather to provide support for Pakistan flood victims

by Matthew Chase THE CHRONICLE

Twenty million people are suffering. Thousands are dead. One-fifth of the country is underwater.

The flooding in Pakistan is the worst disaster that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has ever seen, but some Pakistani students on campus feel that the situation has barely registered on their peers’ radar.

Last night, they tried to change that.

City of Durham begins resurfacing Anderson Street

by Lisa David THE CHRONICLE

Students driving through Central Campus will see workers on Anderson Street this week as the city of Durham makes its scheduled repairs.

The resurfacing began yesterday morning and is expected to last a week. In addition to the resurfacing, city planners decided to permanently remove 37 on-street parking spaces and replace them with bicycle lanes, said Dale McKeel, bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for Durham’s Department of Transportation.

“The street will remain open, but there will be lane closures [for sections] of the road,” McKeel said.

Bus routes and schedules will not change during or after the resurfacing, a Durham news release noted.

The project is funded by city bonds from 2005 and 2007, McKeel said. After the street was identified in 2007 as in need of resurfacing, McKeel said University officials began discussing with the city the possibility of creating bicycle lanes during the repairs to

Sustainability initiative signs crop up on campus, Page 4

help promote sustainable means of travel.

Jesse Bendetson, a junior, is excited to use the new bicycle lanes for longboarding.

But in addition to temporary motorist delays, the loss of parking spots may present an inconvenience to students with cars.

Sobia Shariff, a senior who lives near the construction site, said that she supports the initiative but will not be able to take advantage of the bike route because she drives to West Campus.

Lessening the University’s dependence on cars for transportation on campus, however, supports Duke’s goal of becoming a carbon-neutral campus by 2024, Sam Veraldi, director of parking and transportation, said in the release.

“We have more than doubled the number of registered bikers in the last year as a result of an incentive program for faculty and staff and a bike loan program for students,” Veraldi said in the release. “Creating designated bike lanes on streets like Anderson makes it easier and safer for people to travel by bike and will encourage others to give it a try.”

chris dall/The Chronicle

Anderson Street undergoes resurfacing, a project that is expected to be completed next Monday. The city announced the road was due for repair and will add a new bicycle lane.

ONTHERECORD

“If you’re studying a drug in Africa... are the drugs then going to be made available to the people that you’re studying... ?”

­—Dr. Sara Pasquali on overseas drug trials on children. See story page 5

A Pricey Life Congressman David Price speaks at Duke before midterm elections, PAGE 3

2 | Wednesday, September 8, 2010 the chronicle

worldandnation

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Supreme Court Debate Law School 3041, 12:15-1:15p.m.

Law professors debate recent Supreme Court decision regarding federal authority. Lunch will be provided.

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Career Fair Prep DukeEngage Info Session Flowers 201, 5- 6p.m.

Smith Warehouse, Classroom An orientation to the Career Fair B252 Bay 7, 4-5p.m.

DukeEngage program provides will answer all of your questions general overview of the program and ensure that you take full advantage of all career fairs. and application process.

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“Monday’s thrilling Boise State-Virginia Tech game, in which the Broncos came back in the fourth to win 33-30 thanks to inspired play from Kellen Moore, has all of America buzzing. Just don’t count David Cutcliffe as impressed with the denizens of the bright blue field. Cutcliffe said Tuesday the Broncos’ win was the result of the Hokies’ mistakes, and he said that he still felt Frank Beamer’s squad was better.’”

— From The Chronicle’s Sports Blog sports.chronicleblogs.com

Karin Brulliard/The Washington Post

Massive flooding in Pakistan caused Hussain Bux Solangi to lose his house when five feet of water surged into it. Solangi plans to sell his cattle in order to rebuild, reflecting individual efforts to reassemble their lifestyles despite low levels of government aid.

“

If you think education is expensive—try ignorance.

— Bok Derek

”

TODAY IN HISTORY 1276: John XXI elected Pope.

Greenhouse gas legislation Rare meeting signals power stalls in Senate, Reid says transition in North Korea WASHINGTON — The U.S. won’t pass legislation this year that charges power plants a price for releasing carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists have linked to climate change, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday.

“It’s a cinch we’re not going to get it done this year,” Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said of the carbon-pricing plan at an energy conference in Las Vegas.

Last year, the House narrowly passed cap-and-trade legislation in which power plants, oil refineries and factories would have bought and sold a declining number of carbon dioxide pollution rights. The bill, which aimed to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent from their 2005 level by 2020, stalled in the Senate.

Reid and other Senate Democrats proposed scaling back the cap-andtrade proposal to regulate power plants to cut U.S. greenhouse gases.

off the

wire...

Va. police use GPS system

SEOUL — Party officials are arriving in Pyongyang, North Korea’s state-run media said Monday, signaling an imminent meeting that outsiders describe as a critical step in leader Kim Jong Il’s hereditary power transfer.

North Korea’s newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, said the rare meeting of Workers’ Party delegates would “mark a meaningful chapter in the history of our party.” Photos from Pyongyang showed citizens staging a practice celebration.

North Korea,the world’s most reclusive nation, said in June that it would hold a party conference—its first such extraordinary meeting since 1966—sometime in early September. Specific dates are unknown, but North Korea analysts believe the conference will be held this week, staged to announce an overhaul of leadership and a high-level position for heir Kim Jong Eun.

Pakistani flood victims show resilience

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Wednesday, september 8, 2010 | 3

Price reflects on experience in Congress GPSC hopes to

by Kevin Thurman THE CHRONICLE

Rep. David Price, D-N.C. and a former political science and public policy professor, spoke to a small crowd Tuesday evening in the West Union Building, hoping to inspire students to become more involved in politics. The event, which was sponsored by Duke Democrats and Duke Political Union, also included an open discussion forum, in which audience members posed questions about Price’s opinions on current issues in politics. Price is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and represents North Carolina’s

indu ramesh/The Chronicle

Congressman David Price spoke in the Old Trinity Room Monday night, calling on students to take a more active role in politics.

fourth congressional district, which includes all of Durham and Chapel Hill, as well as portions of Raleigh and Cary.

“My assignment here tonight is to say something about the Congressional section of what’s going on in [Washington, D.C.] as well as to say something about the campaign and the issues that are before us this Fall [in the 2010 midterm elections],” Price said.

In his speech, Price focused on the U.S. economy, which he characterized as slowly coming out of “the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.” Price praised the University and other institutions for swiftly taking advantage of research funds to create jobs, but reminded the audience that economic recovery is still unfinished business. He added that regulatory reforms are needed to protect consumers and identify threats to the economy before they become serious.

Price also discussed how the Republican Party’s use of stall tactics and accusations has hindered America’s ability to move forward. The Republican Party’s accusation of fiscal irresponsibility “is like being called ugly by a frog,” he said. Price added that the lesson of the past eight years is that the recession hit us during a “profound moment of weakness” created by the Bush administration’s fiscal mistakes, and that enacting financial policies similar to those of the 1990s will create fiscal balance in the future.

“These guys put us in a ditch,” Price said. “The notion that you want to turn the keys of the car back to the Republicans is unbelievable.”

Price concluded his speech by advising Congress to focus on fixing the economy, giving people confidence and creating more job opportunities.

In the open discussion forum, he addressed questions about transparency in financial regulatory reform.

Price noted that effective regulatory reforms should stop predatory practices by financial institutions that harm consumers.

expand Mahato memorial plans

by Stephen Farver THE CHRONICLE

Members of the Graduate and Professional Student Council met for the first this year Tuesday and covered a diverse agenda.

GPSC members were introduced to their 2010-2011 Executive Board, which is led by President Daniel Griffin, a fourth year Ph.D. candidate in classical studies. Griffin called health insurance, funding and career placement the three biggest issues GPSC will discuss.

“Graduate life here at Duke is pretty good—we’re trying to keep that course,” Griffin said.

Due to the withdrawal of an Executive Board member during the summer, GPSC representatives confirmed the appointment of a new community outreach coordinator, Abhilash Sabarathinam, a graduate student in the Master of Engineering Management Program at the Pratt School of Engineering. Griffin said Sabarathinam was selected after a rigorous application process.

In addition to introductions, members of GPSC shared a new plan to expand the Mahato Memorial event, a memorial in honor of Abhijit Mahato, a Duke graduate student who was shot and killed in 2008. The members discussed the photography contest titled “Envisioning the Invisible,” hosted by Pratt in honor of Mahato. Individuals who submit photographs are eligible for a $1,000 award, and winners will be announced at the event Sept. 15.

The meeting began with a talk by Patricia Callaway and Virginia Steinmetz, two assistant directors of the Career Center, who spoke about the center’s services for graduate students. Steinmetz said one of her biggest goals this

See price on page 12

See gpsc on page 6

Diversity Forum Tuesday, September 14 1:00-3:00 pm Scharf Hall

Join the Career Center and connect with company representatives seeking to increase their diversity recruiting the day before the Career Center's Annual Fall Career Fair.

Registration is encouraged! Please visit our web site: www.studentaffairs.duke.edu/career/programs-services/diversity-forum Learn about a variety of career opportunities from industry professionals, showcase your organization and personal interests, and network with employers who can help you get one step closer to the internship or full-time position you're looking for.

Participating Companies: Accenture, Barclays, Cambridge Associates, Capital One, Capital One Bank, Central Intelligence Agency, Cornerstone Research, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank, Edwards Lifesciences, IBM, Inner-City Teaching Corps, Medtronic, Pepco Holdings, RBS, Sponsors for Educational Opportunities (SEO), Teach For America, UBS and Visa

the

DUKE

CAREER CENTER

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4 | Wednesday, September 8, 2010 the chronicle

Group begins sign campaign to encourage sustainability

by Brandon Levy THE CHRONICLE

Since the beginning of the academic year, students have encountered notices in dorms across campus telling them to “join the dark side.”

Placed next to certain light switches as part of a campaign to reduce their environmental footprints, the notices are just a small part of the University’s push to become sustainable. Duke’s Climate Action Plan includes a pledge for the University to achieve climate neutrality by 2024.

The policy “commits the University to leadership in three areas: environmental research and education; environmentally responsible operations; and environmental stewardship in the community,” according to the Sustainable Duke website.

Students for Sustainable Living placed the signs around dormitories to remind students to observe particular environmentally-friendly practices ranging from reducing their shower time to taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Even the signs themselves are sustainable, printed on recyclable plastic with eco-solvent ink.

Casey Roe, outreach coordinator for the Sustainability Office, said the notices were put up in housing buildings on East Campus and West Campus toward the end of July, a couple weeks before students began arriving on campus. SSL hopes to expand the project, which was funded partly by Residence Life and Housing Services and partly

by Duke’s sustainability budget. There are plans to put up See sustainability on page 12

genevieve werner/The Chronicle

Duke University Union members brainstormed ways to engage more freshmen at their meeting Tuesday night.

Union looks to add freshmen to senior board

by Joanna Lichter THE CHRONICLE

With an executive board staffed primarily by seniors, Duke University Union will turn to freshmen to fill its ranks.

At their meeting Tuesday night, DUU members discussed ways to recruit more students to the board in order to sustain its operations beyond the next few years.

“To me, [recruitment] is a huge problem,” said DUU President Yi Zhang, a senior. “Yes, it’s great that we’re all talented, that we’re all knowledgeable about Duke. But next year, what’s going to happen?”

Zhang proposed reinstating DUU’s Freshmen Intern Program in order to attract new students. The Intern Program, which ran in the 2008-2009 academic year, recruited approximately 20 freshmen to take an active role in DUU programming.

During the first half of the program in the Fall, freshmen would sit in on committee meetings and engage in discussions, said Special Projects Dustin Gamza, a senior.

In the Spring, the interns would be responsible for planning two freshmen-only events.

“The idea behind this is to get freshmen involved early on,” Gamza said. “From day one, they see the union as we see it and not just as one committee. Another advantage [of the program] is to have DUU representatives for the freshmen class... so there are specific people thinking about freshmen on the union.”

Two years ago, freshmen-led events included a “Duke Iron Chef” competition in the Marketplace and a water park day on the East Campus Quadrangle. Gamza said the “Duke Iron Chef” event was particularly successful.

Many members, however, objected to having a formal application process for students interested in joining DUU. “It makes DUU seem like it’s something it’s not,” said sophomore Alex Shapanka, chair of the Speakers and Stage committee. “[DUU] is creative, it’s free. The Freshmen Intern Program is very regimented.”

Senior Karen Chen, Major Attractions committee chair, suggested holding a general body meeting for all DUU committee members. This way, Chen said, students would have a better understanding of how the committees function together under one umbrella.

See duu on page 6

the chronicle

Wednesday, september 8, 2010 | 5

Q&A with Dr. Sara Pasquali A recent analysis by Duke researchers, including Dr. Sara Pasquali, Medicine ’02 and assistant professor at the Duke University Medical Center, examined the globalization of pediatric trials and its ethical and scientific implications. The report, titled “Globalization of Pediatric Research: Analysis of Clinical Trials Completed for Pediatric Exclusivity,” reviewed data from 174 trials conducted since the passing of the Pediatric Exclusivity Provision, which extends patents by six months for companies that conduct safety and efficacy studies with children. More than one-third of pediatric trials it considered enrolled patients from developing nations overseas. But with international testing comes the necessity of centralized review boards and training in research methods and ethics, according to the report. The Chronicle’s Lauren Carroll spoke with Pasquali about her research and the ethical implications of trials.

TC: Some articles written about your research have compared the youth from underdeveloped countries participating in the tests to ‘lab rats,’ though your report never uses the phrase. How accurate is this portrayal, and what role does the Pediatric Exclusivity Provision play in all of this?

SP: Well that’s not something we necessarily said in this paper. I think to fully understand this provision, you have to understand that there are some advantages and disadvantages, positive and negative things about the legislation. The positive

would be that because of this law, [more than] 150 drugs have been studied on children that otherwise would not have been studied at all and we would have no information about their efficacy in children.

The other positive thing is that this legislation has allowed us to have a better understanding of how drugs work in children worldwide and has allowed us to improve the health of children not just in the U.S., but throughout the world—which is very important. But then the other thing to think about in terms of the potential negatives would be that there are certain scientific and ethical implications that you have to consider when thinking about this.... This is a complicated issue to think about. This law was designed to encourage research that would enable the [Federal Drug Administration] to label drugs appropriately for children in the U.S. [with] regards to the dose and how safe they are. It’s not really known whether it’s valid to extrapolate the results from studies that are conducted in children overseas or another country, and there are a number of reasons for that. Some of it depends on their genetic background, some of it may depend on their access to health care resources and all of these things might differ in other countries.

TC: Is it important for researchers to disclose where their studies take place for the sake of clarity?

SP: So I think that one thing we discussed in our project that’s very important is yes, just to have a better idea of where these studies are conducted and what is going on because right now over half the studies are not even published in medical literature. Number two, when they are published, a significant number of them don’t have any information about where the studies took place. We’re requiring that the studies are published and that they contain information about where the testing took place so we’re able to study that in more depth, which would be very helpful.

TC: It seems that the reason pharmaceutical companies are conducting these tests overseas is because there is an economic incentive to do so. Why do the companies conduct the studies overseas, and what role does the provision play in this?

SP: Well, it doesn’t exactly provide incentive for companies to test in developing nations. It only provides an incentive for conducting studies on children, and how it does this is by providing a six-month patent extension to the pharmaceutical companies for conducting the studies. Now, the drug company may decide to conduct the study overseas in order to increase their ability to enroll a number of children in a timely manner. It’s also much cheaper to conduct studies overseas and

outside the U.S. in many cases because there are fewer regulatory requirements, so those are the potential reasons.

TC: What additional measures would you support going forward with this sort of testing?

SP: [One] thing that might help would be requiring that the phar-

maceutical companies describe how the places it’s studying are related to the intended market and the drugs being tested. For example, if you’re studying a drug in Africa or some sort of underserved country, are the drugs then going to be made available to the people that you’re studying once the trial is over?

special to The Chronicle

Duke researcher Dr. Sara Pasquali studied pharmaceutical company trials on children overseas and the ethical implications of the trials’ globalization.

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floods from page 1 the global empathy for Pakistan right now. Clearly, the Pakistani government doesn’t always get the best press... and that has trickled down to a lack of empathy for the Pakistani people.”

Flooding in the region, which began with the start of seasonal monsoons July 22, has killed about 1,752 people, according to United Nations estimates. The floods have significantly damaged the country’s infrastructure, as the destruction of roads, schools, health facilities and other buildings has left millions displaced. The estimate of victims reportedly exceeds the totals for the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean and the Haitian earthquake combined.

“They have lost everything, their businesses, their houses, basically their lives,” said senior Asad Sheikh, Pakistani Students Association president who spent part of the summer in Pakistan. “People don’t realize the scope of the disaster. It’s not millions [of dollars needed], it’s billions. It’s not years, it’s decades.”

Although many Duke students from Pakistan did not see the destruction first-hand, witnessing the relief efforts was a call to action. Sophomore Raasti Said does not live near the destruction, but said she visited a relief camp about 40 minutes from her home in Karachi this summer.

“What I saw was actually pretty scary. They had no food, they had nothing,” Said said. “When we were giving them rations I was told that I could not give them out myself because I would be ‘lynched’ because they were so desperate.”

In vying for private donations, students must deal with the negative publicity the country’s political policies have garnered. But Sheikh said Pakistan’s public perception

duu from page 4

should not dampen aid, adding that the entire country has rallied around the devastation.

The United States has led the relief effort—officials announced Aug. 19 that Washington would increase its funding to $150 million.

“Some of the [people affected by the flood] have probably never even heard of America. It’s human suffering that people need to care about, not necessarily Pakistan’s policy,” Sheikh said. “I was able to experience the collective spirit in Pakistan. People in Pakistan... are starting to realize that the U.S. is an ally.”

Tuesday’s vigil was the first campus flood-related event, but student organizations have many fundraising plans in place, including a fast taking place Wednesday. The University has been supportive of student initiatives, Said said.

Moneta said the University is approaching the Pakistan flooding in a similar fashion to the way it handled Hurricane Katrina and previous global natural disasters.

Most money raised as part of the relief efforts is going to nongovernmental organizations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund as opposed to going directly to the Pakistani government, largely due to fear of corruption, Sheikh said.

And although the majority of Pakistanis directly affected by the flooding live in the poorest corners of the country, the disaster has touched all segments of society.

“Food prices have been hiked up,” said senior Farah Dadabhoy. “Everything that the whole country needs is locally-grown, and this year there is none of that.”

Although she is now far from Pakistan, sophomore Ruqayya Diwan, who is also from Karachi, said she still considers her native people throughout her daily life at Duke.

“The summer is over, but the suffering goes on,” she said during the ceremony.

gpsc from page 3 year is to increase opportunities for students to meet with student employers on campus. The Career Center will cohost TechConnect—an annual event that brings together employers and students—with the Department of Computer Science and Pratt Sept. 14. It will include a panel of employers to provide advice to Duke students searching for internships and jobs.

Steinmetz added that at the Sept. 15 Career Fair, Duke will host more than 100 employers to meet with students.

She strongly encouraged students to attend the fair and visit their offices in the Smith Warehouse. “[Students] don’t have to wait until their last year to contact the Career Center,” Steinmetz said before explaining the benefits of reaching out early to the center’s advisers.

sion for recruitment.

But senior Will Benesh, executive vice president for external affairs, objected to the proposal, referencing last year’s meeting when only members of the executive board attended.

At the end of the meeting Zhang postponed the deci-

In other business: Duke Student Broadcasting may partner with GoDuke.com to provide online sports coverage. Although discussions are still in the works, DSB President Maddie Burke, a senior, said DSB will most likely finalize the decision this week.

courtney douglas/The Chronicle

The Graduate and Professional Student Council finalized its executive board and looked ahead to the coming year at its meeting Tuesday.

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Learning from our last Wake encounter

With the conference opener at Wake Forest looming this weekend, Duke’s quest to make its first appearance in a bowl game since 1994 truly begins now.

And as I turn my thoughts to the Demon Deacons, the image that immediately comes to my mind is my view from the press box at last season’s finale: Duke’s seniors walking off the field for the last time, defeated after an overpowering Wake Forest offense dropped 45 points on them.

In that game, which resembled a track meet Jason more than a football contest, the two On Football teams’ offenses combined for just under 1,000 yards, and quarterback Thaddeus Lewis capped off his Duke career with a brilliant 387yard day. Donovan Varner caught 11 passes for 174 yards, becoming just the third wide receiver in school history to have more than 1,000 receiving yards in a season.

The offense played beautifully. The Blue Devils still lost, however—a victim of the defense’s failure to get stops.

The game actually didn’t matter last year, as Duke had already been eliminated from bowl contention. But this year’s team can still learn from it. They can learn that the roadmap to qualifying for the postseason should not include a reliance on offensive firepower to outscore opponents week

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WEDNESDAY September 8, 2010

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volleyball

Football midweek notebook

Duke tops Charlotte

by Jay Vitha THE CHRONICLE

Palmatary

See palmatary on page 8

courtney douglas/Chronicle file photo

While Riley Skinner won’t be present Saturday, the high-powered Wake Forest offense hasn’t left.

Duke will add 3,904 seats for the Alabama game, the athletic department announced Also on the blog, Scott Rich says more about his column on paying college athletes

dianna liu/The Chronicle

Redshirt senior Abraham Kromah identified a change in attitude for Duke over the past three years.

Change in attitude marks Blue Devils

by Laura Keeley THE CHRONICLE

When Duke started its 2008 season off with a win against an FCS opponent in head coach David Cutcliffe’s debut, he had to discourage students from taking down the goalposts.

There were no such shenanigans last Saturday.

Even though Duke finished with similar statistics on offense in the contests against James Madison in 2008 and Elon last week and collected a win in both games, the tone last Saturday was drastically different. Instead of talking about how the team enjoyed competing and joking how his seniors didn’t know what to do after what he termed “a great win,” Cutcliffe harped Tuesday on the presence of too many mistakes in assignments and techniques. For him now, the expectations are higher and simply winning is not enough.

“You have to expect to win, and in the same sense you have to expect to play well,” Cutcliffe said at a press conference yesterday. “The confidence to play well is earned, not given. That was my theme Sunday to our team. We’ve created some expectations. There’s a

purpose behind that. I really believe if our players don’t have expectations, if our fans and our university don’t have expectations, then nothing is ever really going to happen.”

The players also want that higher standard to shine through on Saturdays, said redshirt senior tight end Brett Huffman, who served as last week’s game captain. Huffman caught two of Sean Renfree’s passes for 17 total yards.

“The biggest difference from prior years to this year and the past couple years under coach Cutcliffe is not only the coaches’ expectation to win, but us as players genuinely have an expectation to win now,” Huffman said. “Even with the win last week against Elon, we weren’t completely satisfied in the locker room afterwards. We won, we got the W, but we wanted to win even bigger than that. That’s the change in attitude that this team needed.”

The cultural revolution extends offthe-field as well. Duke Football is an around-the-clock commitment now, redshirt senior captain Abraham Kromah See attitude on page 8

Coming off a busy and productive weekend at the Blue Raider Bash, the Blue Devils didn’t let up last night, shutting out UNC-Charlotte 3-0 in an easy win at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“I am really pleased with the way the team executed tonight,” head coach Jolene Nagel said. “Our serve and serve-receive was very consistent which allowed us to do more on offense.”

Duke (5-1), DUKE 3 which entered the UNC-C 0 match on a fivegame winning streak, came out in the first set aggressive on the serve as well as on defense. As a result, junior Sophia Dunworth established control of the game from the net, finishing the first set with five kills and leading the Blue Devils to a 25-13 win.

In the second set, Dunworth, senior Becci Burling and junior Amanda Robertson demonstrated their strength at the net again with 11 kills combined. The veterans on the team allowed Duke to control the tempo of the entire set.

Charlotte (4-3) came out ready to play in the third set, keeping pace with the Blue Devils for the first half of play. The Blue Devils, however, proved too strong for Charlotte and pulled away to win 25-15. Robertson, who was a sizable part of the offense with 10 kills on the match, contributed four more See volleyball on page 8

caroline rodriguez/The Chronicle

Junior Amanda Robertson had 10 kills in the match, including four in the final set, to help Duke win 3-0.

8 | Wednesday, September 8, 2010 the chronicle

dianna liu/The Chronicle

At his weekly press conference, Cutcliffe said that he and his team had created high expectations this year.

attitude from page 7 said, as the high standards Cutcliffe has set for class participation and behavior translate into on-the-field results.

Players must sit in the first three rows in their classes. They’re also discouraged from using crude language in front of anyone, all in order to project a positive influence of the program.

“I can honestly say that everybody has bought into what Coach Cut is saying,” said Kromah, who registered four tackles and helped secure the Blue Devils victory with a fourth quarter interception. “Coach may say things that sometimes go over our heads, but we listen to all of that stuff and make sure we are in the front three rows in class and ask questions. Those little little things like

that, they really transfer on the field. We pride ourselves in trying to become better at everything we do.”

The attitude shift has Cutcliffe this week calling Saturday’s game Wake Forest a must-win, despite the fact that the Demon Deacons have won the two teams’ last 10 contests.

“There are a lot of those milestones that we have gone past,” he said. “There are many still out in front of us. Winning an ACC game was one. That doesn’t sound like it needed to be one, but it was. Then winning one on the road and then winning consecutive games. Now certainly winning our rivalry games and being able to beat Wake Forest and being able to put some streaks together in a positive manner. All of those things you better face them head on and not deny them; it’s what we have to do to grow the program.”

palmatary from page 7

volleyball from page 7

after week.

And after the season-opening win against Elon, in which the Phoenix racked up 406 total offensive yards, one thing is clear: New formation or not, the defense needs to perform better.

“From a technique standpoint, we weren’t as good as we needed to be,” head coach David Cutcliffe said yesterday. “We need to tackle a lot better.”

Whether it was secondary players getting turned around and losing their footing or linebackers not wrapping up their tackles, the Blue Devils proved vulnerable to giving up the big play, as Elon picked up over 20 yards on seven different occasisons. Defensive backs like Ross Cockrell and his replacement Johnny Williams struggled to make plays on the ball once it was in the air. Too often playing behind the receiver Saturday, the secondary will need help from the defensive front in the future in order not to be victimized by downfield passes.

But help seems to be on the way. The coaching staff has decided to be less conservative with its blitzing, as well as vowing to incorporate new, unseen packages.

“I want to be the aggressor; I don’t want our team on its heels,” Cutcliffe said. “By design, we’re going to be more aggressive, and we’re going to hit quarterbacks.”

Interestingly, in the past, Duke has always subscribed to a bend-but-don’t-break mentality defensively. In fact, junior nose tackle Charlie Hatcher told me in an interview yesterday that the defense’s objective is to keep their opponent out of the end zone, even if that means letting them rack up yardage. This mentality is one that Cutcliffe and his defensive staff would like to change as the unit relies more on its physicality.

“I don’t like that bend-but-not-break mindset,” Cutcliffe said. “You can barely bend that many times without breaking.”

At least at this point, players and coaches alike understand that the key to Duke’s success will be its defense getting stops and takeaways so its offense isn’t always playing catchup. We’ll see if the view from the press box changes as a result.

kills in the final set.

“Tonight was a great night, we had a lot of fun and the chemistry was there,” Robertson said. “We were all playing for each other—the team plays best when we do that.”

The Blue Devils dictated the pace of the entire match in part because of their freshman libero, Ali McCurdy, who played solid defense, finishing with seventeen digs. McCurdy’s youth, once again, did not affect her game on the court.

McCurdy, along with the rest of the team, exhibited good chemistry during the match, Nagel said, even when reserve players constantly substituted in against the overmatched 49ers.

“We played a lot of people tonight,” Nagel said. “But the tempo did not slow down with people coming in off the bench.”

Last night marked the beginning of a five-match homestand for Duke, a welcome respite for the team after spending much of the early season on the road. This weekend, the Blue Devils host the Duke Invitational Tournament and will play Delaware Friday, N.C. Central Saturday morning and No. 12 Minnesota Saturday night.

The Blue Devils expect Minnesota, especially, to be among the toughest competition they face this season.

“The tournament this weekend is going to be great,” McCurdy said.

“We are really looking forward to the Minnesota game.”

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Money can’t buy me knowledge As the cost of a secondary consideration. The proposal education rises in an uncertain reportedly has the support of economic atmosphere, col- Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and is leges are beginning to adopt a part of an effort to promote more corporate mentality. The greater accountability among Texas A&M University system faculty at public institutions. may push this mentality to new This controversial new proheights by proposal is a miseditorial viding students, guided means taxpayers and of addressing a the public with a way to place a reasonable goal. While evaludollar value on professors. ation is an important compoTexas A&M professors will nent of any institution, this soon be evaluated based on particular plan is too narrow. dollar-figure criteria including First, it ignores the inhertheir salaries, the amount of ent differences between proresearch funding they gener- fessors of humanities and ate and the funds they bring sciences, disproportionately in through teaching, accord- emphasizing research funding to a The (Bryan-College ing for an array of different Station, Tx.) Eagle. When disciplines. Although securing completed, “The Texas A&M grant funds for research facUniversity System Academic tors into both subject areas, it and Financial Analysis” project forms a much greater portion will be submitted to the A&M of the work of science faculty System Board of Regents for members, which could poten-

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tially bias the value formula in their favor.

Second, a quantitative analysis of professors’ worth ignores the intangible benefits educators bring to a college. A calculation of generated research and teaching funds does not represent such qualities as professors’ ability to engage a classroom or improve the reputation of their university. Placing such a high premium on a limited set of criteria would likely move educators’ focus toward their own research goals and away from their responsibility to educate students. Such a shift is counter to student interests and the broad goals of secondary education.

Finally, Texas A&M’s proposed formula speaks to a discouraging trend in how secondary education operates.

Universities are slowly beginning to take on a greater corporate outlook, seeking to market themselves purely as products to be consumed by students.

This attitude neglects the noneconomic benefits of a liberal arts education. Although surely students ought to reap certain financial rewards by means of their degree, these advantages should not be the sole purpose of an education.

Universities should not be viewed purely as corporations, but as communities of shared learning.

Although this method of evaluating faculty is flawed in many ways, the idea of reviewing professors’ contributions to a university is an important one. Whether through peer or student evaluations, universities do have an obligation to students to ensure that they

are hiring productive, effective educators. There is no formula for carrying out this task, but assessment of professors is without doubt a necessity.

A quantitative rubric for assessing professors’ performance offers a quick fix to the difficult questions many universities face. Students increasingly look for tangible evidence of what their diplomas are worth, and in a tough economic climate taxpayers want to see their dollars going toward an efficient public education system.

Nevertheless, the value of an education extends beyond students’ job prospects and pandering to taxpayers. Institutions of higher learning should be the first to recognize this, and must put in the effort to more thoughtfully review their own worth.

Heal thyself

ecently, while discussing the case of a dy- slowly into her current state of not-knowing, ing patient who was, despite the reality of was it scary for her to think about where she her situation, far too young to die, I was was headed? Did she worry about being a burstruck by the overwhelming sadness of the hos- den, about scaring her daughter by passing out pital. Aloud, I said to the intern standing next when she ate breakfast? to me, “Every day, we see multiple To some extent, this makes patients whose stories are actually sense. As doctors (and trainee too sad to be true.” doctors), we’re supposed to think And yet, the stories were true. first about diagnosing and treatThe 40-something-year-old faing patients who come to the ther who survived several heart hospital, preventing the acute illattacks in his 30s, only now to be ness with which they arrived from dying of cancer. The previously killing them. We learn the six lifehealthy father of two young chilthreatening causes of chest pain, alex fanaroff dren who, all of a sudden, had a and how to treat a patient with farewell tour stroke and now can’t move the dangerously high blood pressure, left side of his body. The new and how to rapidly assess a traumother, diagnosed with postpartum cardio- ma patient, because these skills will ultimately myopathy, whose heart will never recover from allow us to save lives. the strain of her pregnancy and might even The ultimate question though, is whether get worse. this mind numbing matters. Does it matter In the last three weeks, I’ve seen these pa- if doctors are slow to consider their patients’ tients, live and in the flesh. It’s utterly, mind- emotional needs? The question of whether a numbingly, sad. physician’s ability to respond emotionally to Mind-numbing. patients correlates with the patient’s satisfacI use this word consciously, and I mean it liter- tion with his care is an active area of research. ally. The depth of suffering that one sees at Duke I don’t claim to be an expert, but the data is University Hospital actually has the power to equivocal. anesthetize the part of the brain, or perhaps the But even in the absence of patient-satisfacpart of the soul, that is capable of comprehend- tion-driven data, it’s clear that numbness to ing pain. It’s like the part of my brain that nor- human emotion is not a good thing. Personmally is very capable of thinking about suffering ally, I remember reading my medical school has gone to the dentist to get a tooth pulled, and admissions essay, full of idealism and energy, the dentist gave my brain a shot of lidocaine and at the end of my first clinical year and realsome laughing gas, and now everything is vaguely izing that the 21-year-old who wrote that esdistant and dull. say might not have recognized the 23-year-old For instance, I might walk into the room of who was reading it. a patient, an older woman with dementia, who Whether my patients were happy with me or neither knows where she is or why she’s there. not didn’t matter. I wasn’t happy. So I backed I might have been told that this patient is here away from the textbooks, and for the first time in the hospital because she passed out dur- in a year, I read some real books. Robert Penn ing breakfast and didn’t respond immediately Warren. Michael Chabon. David Foster Wallace. when her daughter shook her and yelled at Eventually, my med school admissions essay made her. And I think, immediately, that this woman sense to me again. is not likely to live much longer, regardless of Now, I try to temper my reading of the mediwhat is done or not done for her while she’s cal literature with my reading of real literature. in the hospital. And I think, immediately, that It works for me. Others of my classmates go to she may have passed out from a myocardial the gym or do community service. Hopefully that infarction or a pulmonary embolus or aortic works for them. stenosis or an aortic dissection or a stroke or The point is that we (and you, if you choose a seizure or ventricular tachycardia or maybe this path) need to have something to re-engage something else. the non-trainee-doctor portion of our minds.

And not until much later, if ever, do I think Whether or not it matters to our patients, it about the woman or her family. Was the daugh- should matter to us. ter scared when her mother was unresponsive? Is she finding it difficult coping with her Alex Fanaroff is a fourth-year medical student. His mother’s illness? When the patient was slipping column runs every Wednesday.

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commentaries

wednesday, september 8, 2010 | 11

Siesta time

C

hiuso, chiuso, chiuso. Closed. It’s 2:00 p.m. and I’m wandering the city center to find a post office to file paperwork for Italian medical insurance. Chiuso is an important word here in Italy—so important that it is one of about twenty Italian words I know at the moment. From around 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. every day, shopkeepers, workers and executives turn over their “aperto” signs to “chiuso” to enjoy the timehonored tradition of the siesta.

This semester, I am taking part in the Duke in Florence study abroad program, which has a somewhat misleading program name. It doesn’t actually take place in Florence, but rather Sesto Fiorentino, literally translauren moxley lated as “sixth Florence.”

Sesto is a small town about la vita e bella six miles outside of the Florence city center, accessible from the city by a 20 minute bus trip or a 10 minute train ride. And it doesn’t feel like a Duke program—there are just six Duke students in the program but about 30 other students from the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin.

Unlike in some metropolitan parts of Italy that have done away with the luxurious tradition of a siesta due to the pressures of globalization and the dependence on tourists to pump money into the economy at all times (gelato, anyone?), residents of Sesto wouldn’t think of giving up their midday break from work. The streets and central plaza turn into a ghost town during the afternoon, the Italians returning to their homes for lunch, a nap and relaxation.

Could you imagine what would happen at Duke if we did this? If we stopped classes and closed all of the campus eateries for three hours every afternoon? Things would get scary if we closed Wilson and Brodie or Perkins and Bostock. We wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves.

I asked a new Italian friend, Bruno, about his thoughts on the subject of the siesta. I explained to him the likely reaction of my peers in the event of a three-hour daily hiatus from the world. Bruno was astounded at the concept of a 24/7 library, gym or eatery. A lifelong resident of Sesto, he couldn’t wrap his head around the demand for access to these services, let alone the fact that anyone would be willing to work such uncomfortable hours.

Last Friday, the New York Times published the results of a study conducted by Androniki Naska of the School of Medicine of Athens and Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulous of the Harvard School of Public Health on the effects of siestas on cardiovascular health in Greek men and women. Of the 23,000 individuals that partook in the study, the individuals who took a midday siesta of about 30 minutes at least three days a week was significantly less likely to experience death from heart disease. The researchers posited that the decline in heart failure could be attributed to a variety of factors, including alleviated work-induced stress and increased productivity in the workplace.

I was surprised to learn that the Italians do not necessarily work less then we do, just differently. Huffington Post columnist Peter Baldwin points out that Italians typically work the same or even a few more hours than the average American. Italians squeeze in more time in the evenings and even on the weekends, where they put in a few hours on Friday evening and Saturday morning.

Looking around at my new Italian neighbors, I can’t help but think that they got it right. And while I can’t deny that the American in me was frustrated with the lack of available post offices during broad daylight, I can always come back later in the evening to file for medical insurance. If the Italians endure these small inconveniences in exchange for more sleep, higher productivity and less stress, I would be a fool to even want to change the system.

Like many Duke students, I could probably count the number of “siestas” I have taken in my life on two hands.

But I am going to make a goal of embracing this Italian tradition in order to better appreciate la dolce vita. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Lauren Moxley is a Trinity junior. She is abroad in Italy for the semester. Her column runs every other Wednesday.

Engineered happiness

W

e’ve all heard Pratt students complain about are students at Duke. how late they have to stay up each night and As a result, when faced with comparably fewer choichow impossible their problem es than students in Trinity, Pratt students sets are. No Trinity student in his or her learn to accept what conservatives alright mind would want to switch into ready believe: you can only control so Pratt. Pratt is a dictatorship, compared to much of the world. Pratt students begin Trinity’s democratic freedom. to rationalize in the same way conservaYet, what if I told you that Pratt stutives do. They assume they failed the last dents are in fact happier academically midterm because other people simply than their peers in Trinity? performed better.

It is no secret that engineering at Duke Take my rationalization as an exrui dai is regimented. Even with no college/AP/ ample: everyone in Pratt is forced to IB credit from high school, a typical matake EGR 53, so it’s all right if I don’t a picture’s worth jor in Trinity College requires only 10 do really well in it. There are geniuses courses. A major in Pratt, on the other in the class who are able to get 100 perhand, demands not only proficiency in math, chemistry cent. I’m no genius, so how can I compare? Luckily, and physics, but has a stone-set, four-year plan for any- I don’t need to worry. As long as I pass and graduone who dares to venture on such a draconian path. ate from Pratt, I will be able to find a job and live a Entering into Pratt with no preexisting science credit happy life. is like jumping into a pool of piranhas. Say goodbye to Trinity students, though, have so many choices your former life and prepare to be eaten alive. You will that they are at loss in finding a major and sticking only be able to select seven electives throughout your to it. There is always a sense of regret. What if I had entire career at Duke. And of those seven, five have to been a psychology major? Would my GPA be in a betbe designated as social science or humanities. In other ter shape? words, there is very little freedom in Pratt.

Also, Trinity College does not specifically train stuYet, Pratt students are happier than students in Trinity. dents in a profession, as Pratt does. In order to earn Why is that? comparable salaries to students who graduate from It has to do with why conservatives are happier Pratt, most Trinity students still need to go onto graduthan liberals. ate school. Therefore, it is little wonder why Pratt stuIn 2006, a Pew Research Center survey indicated that dents are relatively happier than Trinity students: they 47 percent of conservative Republicans in the US were have to worry less about life in general. “very happy,” while only 28 percent of liberal DemoYet, knowing this, why am I in Trinity? crats specified the same self-description. Similar results Different people derive individual happiness from were replicated in three other nationally represented different places. Some find happiness in high GPAs or studies in the US. knowing there is a set future ahead of them. Others A 2008 study at New York University explained why believe that happiness is a process. It’s not the goal, but conservatives are happier than liberals. Conservatives the path towards that goal. view economic inequality as something they cannot I find my happiness in freedom. I relish my abilchange. They are able to rationalize class differences ity to choose whatever course I want. I usually will better than liberals. Conservatives simply accept the still be changing my classes around on the last day disparities in the world. of drop/add.

Liberals, on the other hand, are unhappy because I don’t work well with limits set by other people. Rethey see the socioeconomic inequalities as opportuni- gardless of what happiness Pratt might bring in helping ties for change. And when nothing actually changes, me escape self-blame, I find greater joy in making my liberals become frustrated and disheartened. own mistakes and creating my own future.

So how does this relate back to Pratt and Trinity?

I enjoy the mystery of the unknown.

Pratt students have less control over their acaPratt will plan out my four years at Duke, so I won’t demic career plans than Trinity students. There are have to worry and be unhappy. But it comes at the only four degrees that Pratt students can choose from: cost of my autonomy. My autonomy is my definition biomedical, civil, electrical and computer or mechani- of self. If I were to ever give that up, who would I be cal. Trinity, however, offers 45 majors, 47 minors and as a person?

21certificates. The choices available in Trinity College are literally infinite. There are more possible combiRui Dai is a Trinity sophomore. Her column runs every nations of majors, minors and certificates than there other Wednesday.

12 | Wednesday, September 8, 2010

sustainability from page 4 signs in academic buildings in the near future.

“It was an idea that our Sustainability Office had, but the project was undertaken by SSL,” Roe said. “They helped to design the content and the graphics and worked with us on finding funding.”

Before putting up the signs, SSL surveyed 130 students, asking questions specifically related to the notices. Now that the signs have been put up in dorm buildings, Roe said, the organization will work on conducting another survey to determine how the messages have affected student behavior.

But the effectiveness of the signs will ultimately depend on students’ individual reactions to them.

Freshman Jenai Jackson said she believes the signs will make a difference in student behavior because they help increase awareness, adding that a lot of people in her dorm read the notices.

Other students noted that the slogans are “useful reminders,” but junior Gaurev Sen said he thinks that the presence of the messages alone will not change students’ habits.

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“It’s more of a question of whether people already care about [the environment] or not,” he said. “It might remind people who are forgetful, but it won’t change people’s minds.”

Junior Mikael Owunna, co-president of the Duke Environmental Alliance said he believes that “the majority of people mean well” when it comes to protecting the environment.

“Having these strategically placed reminders on how to make subtle changes in their daily behavior will help these people to be more environmentally conscious in their decision making,” he said. “Regardless of whether this occurs or not, though, it will have sparked discussions that make people think more about how their actions affect the environment.”

Roe said there are many ways for students, staff and faculty to get involved with sustainability at Duke. Faculty and staff can start “green teams” and relate sustainability to course material. And students can help the cause by utilizing public transportation and supporting eateries on campus that focus on sustainability.

“Everyday choices that students are making can make a difference,” Roe said.

l a i c e Student Group p S l l Advertising Fa

danzig from page 1 He pointed out, though, that certain policies were good investments despite a lack of understanding about the future. Education, for example, should be expected to be a worthwhile investment. But he added that he is less enthusiastic about people who claim to understand “the key to the future” because “we’re lousy predictors.”

Danzig, once an adviser to Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign, spent a portion of the speech giving more general advice about problem analysis in situations in which there is a lack of understanding and information.

“None of us gets everything right when looking at ambiguous situations,” he said. “What you can learn is not necessarily how to improve your insight, but also gain an insight about yourself. Where does your propensity for error lie?”

During the question and answer portion of the talk, junior Nikola Lahcanski asked Danzig how he felt his law degree from Yale Law School had impacted his public career. Danzig said that his experience at Yale affected the way he thinks.

“I think it was a terrific form of education for me not because you learn about the law but because of what you learn about thinking like a lawyer,” Danzig said.

Sophomore Amit Parekh was particularly impressed by the general life advice that Danzig gave in his remarks.

“I thought it was a great speech that gave us a unique perspective on life,” Parekh said. “I especially enjoyed his views on how people should diversify themselves because of the serendipity that our paths can take.”

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Former Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig spoke in Sanford Tuesday night, urging listeners to be prepared for life’s surprises.

price from page 3 Regarding President Barack Obama’s decision to end the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, Price said he was pleased that the Iraq War was ending, noting that he never wanted to go to war in the first place. He added that America’s involvement in Iraq is not over, since there will be residual U.S. forces which will train Iraqi forces to handle violence in the country.

Senior Ben Bergmann, president of Duke Democrats and co-president of Duke Political Union, said he was pleased about the turnout of the event. Because Price represents all of Durham County, Bergmann noted that all Duke students should be interested in events that allow them to meet their congressman face-to-face.

Sophomore Ming Jiu Li said he was also pleased with the opportunity to see and hear Price in person, although he said he had hoped to hear more about the healthcare bill. Nevertheless, as a Women’s Center intern involved with the voter registration drive, Li said he was hopeful about future collaboration with Duke Democrats and DPU.