The Chronicle T h e i n d e p e n d e n t d a i ly at D u k e U n i v e r s i t y
THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2011
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH YEAR, Issue 114
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Alum speaks 18 sign up for new housing option on Nigeria health reform by Jie Wang
by Maggie Spini
A recent Duke graduate has overseen improvements to Nigeria’s health care system by making immunizations more accessible. Muhammad Pate, Fuqua ’06, who currently serves as the executive director of Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency, spoke on campus yesterday to a small audience of faculty and students about overcoming the complex challenges facing the country’s health system. “Nigeria is a large country with a large pool of resources, but the huge distribution of resources causes some zones to be less endowed than others,” he said. “There is a huge mis-distribution in terms of access and utilization of basic health care.” He noted that only 14 percent of the health care budget is dedicated to primary public care and 74 percent is appropriated for curing diseases—money he said could be better spent on preventing people from contracting diseases by improving their access to vaccines and willingness to be immunized. As head of the NPHCDA, he concentrated immunization efforts on polio, which has already been eradicated in developed countries.
Tonight, some students will choose to take advantage of the new option to live with members of the opposite sex on campus. The gender-neutral housing option, which was approved by Residence Life and Housing Services in the Fall, allows students of different genders to share the same suite or apartment. A total of 18 students are opting into gender-neutral housing for the 2011-2012 academic year, M.J. Williams, director of housing accommodations, administration and finance for RLHS, wrote in an e-mail Tuesday. The policy is indicative of a changing social culture and the University’s ability to recognize and respond to the needs of students, said Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek. “I think if you had asked me 20 years ago if Duke would move in this direction, I wouldn’t have imagined that it would,” Wasiolek said. Many of Duke’s peer institutions— including the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College and Yale University— offer some form of gender-neutral housing. Students living in the gender-neutral option will be housed on Central Campus
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See housing on page 8
See pate on page 7 chronicle graphic by courtney douglas and Maddie Lieberberg
Abdul Rauf to speak in Duke Chapel from Staff Reports THE CHRONICLE
chelsea pieroni/The Chronicle
Muhammad Pate, executive director of the Nigeria National Primary Health Development Agency, speaks Wednesday on Nigeria’s health system.
The leader of the controversial effort to construct a Muslim cultural center in lower Manhattan near ground zero is set to speak on campus today. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the head of the Cordoba Initiative, will speak in Duke Chapel Feisal Abdul Rauf at 12 p.m. in a conversation with Dean of the Chapel Sam Wells. The event will be moderated by Duke Muslim Chaplain Abdullah Antepli and Associate Dean for Religious Life Christy Lohr Sapp, The imam was met by between 50 and 60 protestors associated with the Virginia-based Christian Action Network
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during his address yesterday at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a stop on his national speaking tour, The Daily Tar Heel reported. The University is not anticipating protestors today, however, said both Duke Police Chief John Dailey and Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek yesterday evening. In Chapel Hill, Abdul Rauf focused on anti-extremism and noted that Islam is not America’s enemy. “If you ask many Muslims, they will tell you America, and the way we live in America, is more Islamic than the way we live in our homelands,” Abdul Rauf said, according to The Daily Tar Heel. The New York-based imam became controversial in 2010 when plans for the $100 million Park51 center—which includes plans for a mosque—prompted a national political debate leading up to the November midterm elections. Those
who supported its construction, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, cited the need for religious tolerance. Detractors characterized the cultural center’s construction as disrespectful to those who were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In August, New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission decided to withhold landmark protection of the 150-year-old building currently located on the Park Place site, eliminating a significant impediment to the Park51 center plans. But the debate over the Islamic center and mosque continues. The New York Times reported that a New York City firefighter appeared in court Tuesday to ask a judge to overturn the city’s decision, which he alleges was unjustly influenced by Bloomberg’s vocal support.
ONTHERECORD
“Institutions are acting independently of each other— they have to cooperate instead of just compete.”
—Education Critic Mark Taylor on higher education reform. See story page 3