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
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2010
City Council recognizes Mexican IDs
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH YEAR, Issue 57
www.dukechronicle.com
Pres urges student-led culture shift
Pick of the litter
by Alejandro Bolívar
by Joanna Lichter
In a 5-2 vote, the Durham City Council resolved to allow the Durham Police Department to accept Mexican-issued identification Monday night. The vote was primarily a symbolic gesture, as DPD already accepts the use of the matrícula consular as a form of identification, DPD Chief Jose Lopez said. The original resolution, which was promoted by the Durham Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the Durham Immigrants Solidarity Committee, underwent a number of changes after Mayor Bill Bell deemed its goals too broad. Bell eliminated from the resolution clauses he felt the Council could not enforce, like those that force entities like libraries and banks to accept matrículas. “The resolution needed to be more narrowly focused,” Bell said. The matrícula consular is issued by Mexican consulates in the United States as a way of proving the cardholder is a Mexican national. According to the resolution, allowing the use of the matrícula would “assist in minimizing unnecessary and potentially life-changing arrests of hard-working
After a series of incidents that have saddled Duke with negative publicity, President Richard Brodhead sent an e-mail Monday urging undergraduates to “visualize a change.” The letter represents Brodhead’s first public attempt to address these issues with the student body following the recent series of campus controversies. Richard Brodhead “To the extent that there are features of student culture that strike you as less than ideal, I urge you to face up to them, speak openly about them, and have the courage to visualize a change,” the letter reads. “I myself and the members of my administration will cooperate with you fully. But we won’t succeed in making Duke the best that it could be unless you make that your personal project, as you shape your own conduct and your collective life.” Brodhead e-mails the student body infrequently, though he has provided multiple financial updates since the eco-
THE CHRONICLE
THE CHRONICLE
Caroline RodRiGuez/The Chronicle
The men’s soccer team watches intently during the NCAA Tournament selection show Monday. The Blue Devils received their seventh consecutive NCAA berth and will host Coastal Carolina Thursday at 7 p.m.
See ids on page 5
See brodhead on page 6
Students, faculty react to new FDA smoking warnings by Chinmayi Sharma THE CHRONICLE
Sometimes widespread knowledge of danger is not enough to prevent risky behavior. In response to the major health issues perpetuated by smoking, the Food and Drug Administration proposed 36 options for new graphic warning labels for placement on cigarette cartons earlier this month. These new warnings are photographs of the effects of smoking and are intended to encourage tobacco users to quit. Some photographs include a depiction of the foot of a corpse and a mother blowing smoke on her baby with phrases such as, “Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease,” and, “Tobacco smoke can harm your children.” These visuals will supplement the surgeon general’s warning and are a result of legislation passed in June 2009 that gave the FDA power to regulate tobacco products. Surveys of American smokers will help the FDA narrow the 36 images to nine. “We have been enforcing warning labels since 1969, and we’re the first country to require tobacco products to bear the surgeon general’s warning,” said Don Taylor, associate professor of public policy studies. “As the number one cause of preventative death in America, 46 million adults in the [United States] currently smoke and thousands of
DUSDAC hosts open dining forum, Page 3
new young people try it every day, yet other countries have taken more intense measures to combat the addiction while we lag behind.” The images will be selected by June and implemented nationally no later than 15 months later. The warnings will cover the top 50 percent of the front and back of a cigarette pack and will comprise at least 20 percent of any smoking advertisement. For some international students at Duke, such graphic warnings of the dangers of smoking are familiar. Freshman John Scott-Jones, who grew up in New Zealand, said he remembers the start there of a similar campaign. New Zealand is one of 39 nations that have imposed this sort of visually explicit warnings. “Before we had the image warnings, we had tag lines like ‘Smoking Kills’ across the middle of every packet, but that wasn’t very effective because people could just laugh it off,” he said. “It is a lot harder to laugh off the image of cholesterol clogging up arteries or a snapshot from the middle of surgery.” Although the U.S. boasts the second lowest rate of smoking in the world, Taylor said the problem is not the rate of smoking but rather the lack of progress in decreasing it. See smoking on page 5
AHA honors DUHS President Dzau, Page 3
eliza bray/The Chronicle
Some students and faculty said the new tobacco labels proposed by the Food and Drug Administration will be more effective than current labels.
ONTHERECORD
“We’ve never known before the exact birthday of a black hole, and now we can watch as it grows into a child and teenager,”
—Astrophysicist Kimberly Weaver on blackholes. See story page 4