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, NOVEMBER 3, 2010
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH YEAR, Issue 48
www.dukechronicle.com
Election 2010
Incumbents Burr, Price re-elected by Alejandro Bolívar and Chinmayi Sharma THE CHRONICLE
incumbents, many of whom fell victim to their unshakable association with a sagging economy and an unpopular president. As The Chronicle went to press, the GOP had picked up 59 seats, more than enough to guarantee it will control the chamber for the next two years. Sixteen seats remained undecided,
Despite significant national change, North Carolina’s and Durham’s voters re-elected their incumbent political leaders in the 2010 midterm elections. With 55percent of the vote, incumbent Republican Sen. Richard Burr defeated N.C. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, who won about 43 percent. Rep. David Price, the 11-term Democratic incumbent, defeated Republican challenger B.J. Lawson in the race for the 4th District seat in the House of Representatives by a margin of about 15 percent. Burr was predicted to retain his Senate seat, according to Public Policy Polling’s final survey for the North Carolina Senate election. Burr and Marshall had conflicting views regarding Obama’s policies and different ideas about alleviating the economic crisis. Burr, whose election was part of a national Republican tide, has consistently advocated for the repeal of the new health care bill and has vocalized his discontent with the government’s stimulus bill. A veteran of Congress, Price was also projected to win the House seat by a solid margin—his district, which includes Durham, is largely democratic.
See midterm on page 12
See election on page 12
A changing of the guard GOP takes House while Democrats retain slim Senate majority by Ciaran O’Connor THE CHRONICLE
In a sharp rebuke of President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, citizens across the country voted Tuesday to shift the balance of power in Washington, handing Republicans control of the House of Representatives and whittling down the Democrats’ Senate majority. While the Grand Old Party made
significant inroads in the Senate, knocking out well-established incumbents like Arkansas’ Blanche Lincoln and Wisconsin’s Russ Feingold, Democrats won crucial races in California and Nevada that ensured they would retain control of the body. In the House, Republicans took advantage of widespread voter discontent to beat a range of Democratic
michael naclerio/The Chronicle chronicle graphic by melissa yeo
Crude fraternity e-mails reignite debate on gender issues by Ryan Brown THE CHRONICLE
At 6:10 p.m. Saturday, an e-mail message landed in the inboxes of more than 300 Duke women inviting them to a fraternity’s Halloween party at an off-campus apartment. “Hey Ladies,” the message to the Sigma Nu fraternity social listserv began, “Whether your [sic] dressing up as a slutty nurse, a slutty doctor, a slutty schoolgirl, or just a total slut, we invite you to find shelter in the confines of Partners D.” According to several students interviewed for this story, on most nights that would have been the last anyone saw of the e-mail. The fraternity threw its party, students had a good time and everyone went home and fell asleep. But when the sun rose the next morning, West Campus was plastered in bright yellow flyers printed with the full text of Sigma Nu’s invitation, as well as a similar e-mail sent by the unrecognized, off-campus fraternity Alpha Delta
Residents vote to bar felons from becoming sheriff, Page 4
Phi. Someone had scrawled a handwritten message across the bottom of each sheet of paper before making copies: “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention” and,“Is this why you came to Duke?” The physical flyers soon disappeared, but scanned copies quickly circulated. Many students noted that the e-mails are intended to be humorous. But just a month after a sexually explicit PowerPoint made by Karen Owen, Trinity ’10, became a viral internet sensation, Duke received another reminder of what can happen when a message sent via the Internet slips out of the control of its sender. And just three weeks after a Yale fraternity faced national scrutiny for a video of its pledges chanting, “No means yes, yes means anal,” the messages raised questions about gender and social culture on Duke’s campus. “This e-mail was an isolated event,” said Sigma Nu President Sam Zakria, a junior. “It was a single individual who wrote it and it was a serious lapse in judgment on his part,
but it is not representative of the views of our organization as a whole.” He added that he has since sent apology e-mails to recipients and the wider greek community, and that disciplinary action is being taken against the author of the e-mail, both within the fraternity and through the Interfraternity Council. Representatives from the Sigma Nu national chapter and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life said no actions will be taken against the fraternity as a whole at this time. Alpha Delta Phi President Tim Shaughnessy, a senior, Social Chair Will Geary, a junior, and the national chapter of the fraternity declined to comment on their organization’s e-mail, which joked, “Fear is riding the C1 with Helen Keller at the helm (not because shes [sic] deaf and blind, but because she is a woman).”
ONTHERECORD
“Pot is commonplace in California in a way that isn’t true for other states.”
—Political Science Professor David Rohde on Proposition 19. See story page 4
See e-mails on page 6
Midterm elections draw less enthusiastic crowd, Page 3