Fall ball comes to Durham
Coding culture
Duke scrimmaged a Canadian team and had its Fall World Series to stay sharp | Sports Page 11
Students and faculty noted a gender gap in the computer science major | Page 2
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 2, 2016
WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM
ONE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH YEAR, ISSUE 29
Campus faces ‘gray fuzzy dripping mold’ Students can no longer ‘do it for the vine’
Adam Beyer The Chronicle For junior Romita Mandal, the pain was incapacitating. She has a documented allergy to mold and usually gets one respiratory infection each semester, but she had already gotten five this semester. And the cause may have been uncomfortably close—inside her room in Few residence hall. “Every time I walked into my room I could feel my throat physically close up,” Mandal, who is currently on leave, said. “There was gray fuzzy dripping mold all over my window, and the air smelled pungent with mold. There was also gray mold completely stuck to my desk, and my ceiling was also dripping.” Mandel sent an email to Housing, Dining and Residence Life, who said they would provide a filter after visiting her room and finding nothing out of ordinary. No filter came, she said, and after Fall Break, she returned to her room to find a “gray residue” on her desk that she could not remove. She contacted HDRL again, and they bleached the carpet for “mildew,” Mandel said. Eventually, she left for home due to her health concerns. “It was adversely affecting my health because I couldn’t sleep in my room to get better, trying to rest in my room just made me more sick,” she said. Rick Johnson, associate vice president of student affairs for Housing, Dining and Residence Life, said his department works to address every student concern. He encouraged students who do not receive a response within two business days to follow up. Air around campus Student complaints about dormitory air quality span all three of Duke’s campuses and have been met with a variety of responses from the University. Last week, HDRL announced in an email to Central Campus residents that they had contracted with an outside firm to conduct mold testing in every apartment. On East Campus, several students have said air quality is less than healthy. In a recent Chronicle column, first-year Leah Abrams
Diane Hu The Chronicle
to HDRL, she said she was concerned about her health. “At college, when people are getting sick anyways, that’s such a detrimental thing to be occurring,” she said. “I feel like Duke just really doesn’t know how to deal with it,” Jordan-Zoob added, noting that she has heard of people in sorority sections on Central Campus with mold issues as well. She also posted on Facebook about mold she saw in a friend’s apartment ceiling on Central Campus. In Delta Delta Delta section, sophomores and roommates Jane Hendrickson and Jamie Swotes noticed problems with their apartment at the beginning of the school year—it smelled bad. They called HDRL to test for mold, and the test came back negative. HDRL did a second test, they said, which came back positive with a high humidity level. “Everyone who came in was like, ‘there is something really wrong,’” Hendrickson said. Swotes said HDRL attempted several fixes for their apartment, including changes to air vents and painting some
Twitter announced Oct. 27 that it would be shutting down its video-sharing app Vine “in the coming months”—sad news for people with funny relatives, moms with cute kids or pets and one Vine star at Duke. The news comes amid the company laying off about 350 employees, or nine percent of its total staff, according to CNN. “The restructuring allows us to continue the fully fund our highest priorities while eliminating investment in non-core areas and driving greater efficiency,” the company explained to shareholders last Thursday. Vine, which was acquired by Twitter in 2012 and officially debuted in 2013, allowed users to share six-second video loops. The platform brought fame to many previously unknown artists, such as filmmaker and YouTube star Zach King, comedic personality Thomas Sanders and singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes. At Duke, sophomore Christian Leonard gained a fan base of more than one million followers through the app for his videos featuring visual effects. “Based on the success that I achieved on Vine, I would never actually consider myself famous,” Leonard said. “Although there is a certain level of fame that I did reach, I am hesitant in saying it because I would never dare to compare it to the fame of most household celebrities.” Many seemed upset about the shutdown. Author Goldie Taylor joked on Twitter, “who you gone do it for, it you cain’t do it for the Vine?” However, others said they knew the shutdown was coming.
See MOLD on Page 16
See VINE on Page 16
Special to The Chronicle Sophomore Ines Jordan-Zoob posted a photo on Facebook of mold in an apartment.
described her experience feeling sick all year and opening her air conditioning unit to find it full of grime. After working with HDRL to get it cleaned, she noted that she felt much better. “The shift was nearly immediate and incredibly shocking—one night I was desperately taking Benadryl, NyQuil, anything that could help me sleep through my cough,” she wrote. “The next night, I slept like a rock. The air felt clean and my lungs felt clear.” Abrams also described a friend living in Wilson residence hall who tested positive for “mold-induced bronchitis” and had lungs at 40 percent of their normal capacity. In Bassett residence hall, first-year Lily Koning described a similar experience with a dirty air conditioner. After she and her roommate had felt sick with “cold-like symptoms” for several weeks, they opened up their unit to find that it was black and dirty. HDRL responded promptly and cleaned the unit. Koning said she has felt better since. Mandel was not the only student living in Few to report problems. Sophomore Ines Jordan-Zoob, who lives in Baldwin section, reported that she has to clean her air vents every few days or else “black stuff” builds up. Although she has not reported her problem