October 5, 2016

Johnston returns from Rio

Let’s talk about porn

The two-time Olympic diver has started her third year of medical school | Sports Page 11

The Duke Men’s Project hosts event on the psychological effects of pornography | Page 3

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, OCTOBER 5, 2016

Uni. unveils six new DukeEngage programs

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ONE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH YEAR, ISSUE 20

BIRTH OF A TRADITION

How ‘Everytime We Touch’ became Duke’s unofficial anthem

Shagun Vashisth The Chronicle Six new DukeEngage programs, including five international immersion programs and one in the United States, have been introduced for Summer 2017.

DukeEngage participants will be working in communities in Kauai, Hawaii; Monteverde and Santa Elena, Costa Rica; Neltume, Chile; Ahmedabad, India; Kigali, Rwanda and Kampala, Uganda. The overarching focuses of the programs range from sustainability and conservation efforts to women’s empowerment, children’s services and biotechnology in health care.

Jose Miguel Sandoval, a guest lecturer in the Sanford School of Public Policy, is the program director for the new DukeEngage program in Neltume, Chile.

“The expectation is to expose Duke See ENGAGE on Page 16

Chronicle File Photo Duke University Marching Band and the Cameron Crazies have made playing “Everytime We Touch” an iconic college basketball tradition.

Shaker Samman The Chronicle

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons A new domestic DukeEngage program in Hawaii was created this year.

When Duke Marching Band Director Jeff Au raises his hands, he knows exactly what will happen next. In seconds, the floorboards will begin to shake, and a wall of sound will emanate from the lower bowl of Cameron Indoor Stadium.

But now, just moments before the low brass bellows out that unmistakable first note, time slows. Most students are unaware of what’s coming. And then, in an instant, it happens. The Crazies stand at attention, lofting their paint-slathered arms into the air, swaying with each odd beat. This is what they came for. It happened earlier, before the game, but now, in the heat of battle, it carries them.

The song seems almost life-giving.

The fans—battered by cold nights in K-Ville and perpetual motion during the game—have experienced rest only once up to now, while seated together in the over-crowded bleachers at the half. Still, they lurch side to side through the pain, growing louder with each passing note.

Like a raft careening toward a waterfall, the masses crescendo, heartbeats from the climax. And then, pandemonium.

Over the past decade, “Everytime We Touch” has woven itself into Duke lore.

Its catchy chorus and upbeat rhythm have captivated the Crazies like no other fight song could, growing into a rallying cry for spectators. When the Devils returned to Cameron in spring 2015 to celebrate their fifth national title, even Coach K made note of the ballad’s energizing powers.

And so it has to be asked: How did a semi-popular German pop song from

the mid-2000s become the unofficial anthem of an American basketball powerhouse? To answer that, we have to go back to the beginning.

The story behind “Everytime We Touch”’s rise to glory is fuzzy. Memories fade, and no one involved can remember exactly how it happened. There are, however, some things we know for sure.

In August 2005, the German pop group Cascada released “Everytime We Touch”—a high-action dance track with a slow build and a high payoff. Around the same time, Au was named Director of Athletic Bands, taking over for Neil Boumpani.

Before Au’s arrival, the band trended toward older songs at games. It wasn’t uncommon to hear Jimmy Buffett’s “Cheeseburger in Paradise”—a track that See CASCADA on Page 13

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Walla app hops into the spotlight, wins Duke Startup Challenge to me,” Zhu said.

Zhu noted that she hopes the app will The Chronicle help make campus more socially inclusive.

She said that she did not anticipate Looking for something fun to do? that Walla would win the top prize. Rather, The social networking app Walla can the team believed that Walla stood a help with that. good chance at winning the audience The Walla app won the $50,000 grand participation award of $2,500 because it was prize at the 17th annual Duke Startup a consumer product.

Challenge this year, beating out seven Walla launched to the Class of 2020 other teams. Conceived as a way to help on move-in day and to remaining Duke students get involved in spontaneous undergraduates Sept 21. It currently has 800 hangouts happening around campus, the active users. app allows users to create events or requests However, Walla’s creation was not for social interactions and see who in the without challenges. Zhu noted that a week community is willing to participate in the before its launch, the bulk of the original event. Founder and CEO Judy Zhu, a senior, team left the company due to burnout from created the app over the summer as part the summer, leaving her to build a second team from scratch.

“Judy has a lot of hustle. Whenever there’s a setback, she tackles the setback head-on,” said Howie Rhee, managing director at both Duke’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative and Fuqua’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Zhu’s mentor in the Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurship Program, part of the Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative. “It’s not surprising that she’s managed to overcome so many things that have been in her way.”

Zhu expressed that she feels blessed to have her new team.

“I get really excited when we talk about the app together,” Zhu said. “They’re just as invested in the company as I am.”

Zhu noted that she hopes to expand to all U.S. colleges in the coming years. Over the next year, the team will focus on refinement, user acquisition and data collection, after Special to The Chronicle which Zhu plans to work on Walla full-time.

Senior Judy Zhu invented the Walla app to help create a more inclusive social environment on She said that she anticipates that Walla’s

Joyce Er

of her involvement in the Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurship Program.

“Winning the startup challenge is huge for us in terms of getting more users because now we have credibility behind our name,” Zhu said. “This money helps us get more users at Duke, and we’ll eventually expand to all the N.C. colleges by next year.”

Initially known as Genie, the project began as a generosity app, which sought to bring together people who needed services with others who could provide those services.

However, the objective was transformed after Zhu became a resident assistant and realized what her residents truly needed.

“The app changed because I saw that there was a greater need for human connections, and it was a need that spoke

Duke’s campus.

Special to The Chronicle Zhu recieved a $50,000 prize for winning the Duke Startup Challenge.

biggest challenge moving forward will be retaining a culture of inclusion on the app while scaling it up, noting that social media can create the freedom for people to be less pleasant than they would be in person. Because of this, she is dedicated to “strategizing how to get good people on the app to set the culture of inclusion” when expanding to other schools, she said.

Although Zhu said translating Walla’s likable concept to actual users has been difficult, student users tend to keep coming back once they start using it.

“Whenever I’m setting up meetings with my friends, it would be hard to use GroupMe or iMessage, especially with all those notifications,” first-year Jose Rivera said. “Using Walla is just so much more convenient because you can just send one big blast, and if anyone wants to come, they just message. It’s much more convenient and very easy to use.”

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Duke Men’s Project addresses violence in pornography Frances Beroset The Chronicle The Duke Men’s project, a new initiative sponsored by the Women’s Center, held a discussion Tuesday night centering on violence in pornography.

Matt Ezzell, an associate professor of sociology at James Madison University, hosted a talk analyzing the effect of pornography on men and women. The audience filled the conference room of the Center for Multicultural Affairs, with approximately 40 people in total and a relatively even mix of male and female students in attendance. Junior Dipro Bhowmik, one of the leaders of the Duke Men’s Project, said he thought the discussion went well and that the event—the project’s second one—was well-attended.

“I hope more people come in to have more of these conversations, because when you’re living under oppression, it’s not simply about getting against these things, about coming into a room and learning something different, and being like, ‘okay now everything’s changed.’

It’s a process of learning,” Bhowmik said. “Just having people come in and be involved in more and more of these conversations is a good thing.”

Bhowmik noted that porn is often violent, but that not many people address this issue and how it affects viewers.

“I think porn is one of those things that is so prevalent and so normalized, but at the same time no one talks about it,” he said.

In the talk, Ezzell also pointed out the potentially negative effects of

Bre Bradham | The Chronicle The Duke Men’s Project received criticism recently after being covered by national media outlets including Fox News.

pornography.

“People will often say, ‘it’s just fantasy, it’s just entertainment,’ and while it can be, it is never just that,” Ezzell said. “It’s never just entertainment.”

Ezzell—whose research focuses on the effects of pornography on men and their attitudes towards sexuality— noted that degrading sexual acts have become common in mainstream pornography. He added that he has found that 89.1 percent of young men in the United States are active consumers of pornography and that for many, it is their primary source of information and education about sex.

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Ezzell also presented several sexually charged advertisements picturing violence against women, such as the widely-criticized Dolce & Gabbana advertisements which seemingly depict a woman being attacked by a group of men.

The Duke Men’s Project has recently faced criticism after being covered by national news outlets, including Fox News.

Senior Conor Smith, another one of the group’s leaders, and Bhowmik said they were not discouraged by the criticism, and Smith joked while introducing Ezzell that his grandparents had seen some of the Fox News coverage.

“The work of trying to dismantle an

inherently oppressive system will always encounter resistance, and what we saw in the last three days was perhaps much more accelerated and broad than we thought it was going to be, but you expect to encounter that on this campus and everywhere else,” Smith said.

Smith added that he is excited to receive feedback from students on the Duke Men’s Project’s past events and future programming.

“We want to hear feedback about what worked from this event, and then what people want to hear about in the future, what topics people want to hear discussed, what programming would be relevant, who wants to engage with these topics,” Smith said. “I encourage people to see those outlets for giving feedback, and let us know—this is still a project in its infancy. I’m really excited to know what we’re doing right and what we can do better.”

Some of the students attending the event were offered extra credit in their courses, including junior Sarah Walker.

“I thought it was really great,” Walker said. “I never really thought of the fact that because we live in a rape culture, it’s so un-miraculous to us that these things go on, and it’s just taken as the norm.

I think that’s kind of something that’s perpetuating the problem, because we just think these things happen.”

Although, as Ezzell said, some of the information presented on rape and violence against women show “the depressing side of sociology,” he ended on a lighter note.

“I am at heart hopeful,” Ezzell said, “even though there are a lot of reasons not to be.”

4 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016

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Mi Gente event discusses Latinx responses to police brutality Cara Leigh Downey The Chronicle Police brutality towards the Latinx community, a relatively unaddressed issue, was the focus of a Mi Gente event Tuesday evening.

Marisol Lebrón—the 2015-2017 postdoctoral associate in Latinx studies in the Global South at Duke and assistant professor in the department of American studies at Dickinson College—led a discussion among a group of about 10 students in a West Union meeting room. The organizer of the event was sophomore Jair Oballe, Mi Gente’s political chair.

“What is the relationship between Latinos and Black Lives Matter?” Lebrón asked.

The discussion was largely based on an article in The Neal Vaidya | The Chronicle New York Times concerning the lack of attention paid Mi Gente hosted an event Tuesday night addressing the to police shootings affecting the Latinx community. issue of police brutality among the Latinx community.

When one group is receiving more attention, another is

Great Art Meets Great Food

receiving less attention, said junior Elizabeth Barahona, president of Mi Gente.

“You don’t want to take away from someone else’s remorse and the needs in a specific community,” Barahona said. “You want to point to your own, but it’s like, you don’t want to be egoistic about it, you don’t want to be selfish.”

According to PBS Newshour in July, 16 percent of the victims of police-involved killings this year were of members of the Latinx community.

The idea of competing resources shows how it is necessary for different communities to work together, several students noted.

“If you are fighting for the most oppressed people in society, you are inevitably fighting for everyone in society,” Lebrón said. “You’re inevitably dealing with those kind of things that will also effect and change your community.”

The group also brought up the possibility of the Latinx community getting involved with the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as discussing related immigration concerns.

“There is a perception in terms of the sphere of politics in this country that the only relevant, pressing issue facing Latinos in this country is immigration,” Lebrón said. “It makes assumptions about Latino claims to citizenship in this

T

here is a perception...that the only relevant, pressing issue facing Latinos in this country is immigration.

— Marisol Lebron

Food and Flex Points Always Accepted at the Nasher Museum Café! nasher.duke.edu/cafe

Admission is always free for Duke students.

country by only seeing the only relevant issue to them as one of immigration.”

Focusing on immigration as the main issue facing Latinx members hides the fact that police brutality affects them as well, Obelle said.

“On one hand, it’s very important for Latinos and the black community to come together because we both have this issue of police brutality,” he said. “But on the other hand, perhaps why they’re not getting on the other side, is that black people don’t see themselves as having issues with immigration.”

The Latinx community experiences police brutality at a different level than the African American community does, Lebrón said. She noted that the “urgency is really different” for the black community, but that police brutality toward the Latinx community is significant as well.

Toward the end, Barahona posed a question for the group to think over.

“What would happen if Latinos and blacks joined Black Lives Matter?” she asked.

R

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016 | 5

recess

VOLUME 18, ISSUE 4

OCTOBER 5, 2016

Recess interviews The Mowgli’s Drummer Andy Warren talks love and positivity in music, page 7

Death with The Civilians “The Undertaking” takes a new look at humanity’s favorite subject, page 6

Solange’s new album Recess reviews “A Seat at the Table”, page 7

R 6 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016

recess editors Fall break plans?

Dillon Fernando ................D.C. Rnd 3

Christy Kuesel ............ Hippidty dippity Jessica Williams .....pigtails + pretzels Georgina Del Vecho................... snow Drew Haskins ..............take me home Tim Campbell ................stalking dillon Kirby Wilson ........................... chance Aditya Joshi .......................not recess Alex Griffith ....................being a hobo Claire Ballentine ............... Fratlinburg

Campus Arts

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recess

A s I p u l l e d i n t o o n e o f We s t U n i o n ’s n o t - h i g h - e n o u g h , n o t low-enough high tables Sunday night, there was a hitch in my prem e a l r o u t i n e . D o n ’t w o r r y, I s t i l l gazed at the plate half covered in grease from my gratuitously cheesy pizza. I still snorted at the week-old episode of “Comedy Bang B a n g ” p i p i n g i n t o m y e a rh o l e s .

A n d I d e f i n i t e l y d i d n ’t f o r g e t t o whisper my customary prayer to David Ortiz.

“Dear Papi, please don’t let anybody try to come talk to me. Amen.”

But between all of that foolishness, the divergence. I looked up from my plate and took in the Union. The imposing, sterile glass. The blissful chattering. The options. Oh, the options!

C o u n t e r a f t e r c o u n t e r, t o o m a n y to count!

Ample seating, indoors and out!

Bad romantic poetry-worthy s t u f f . Yo u k n o w y o u r s c h o o l h a s really kicked it up a notch when your food choices include not j u s t Va g u e l y I t a l i a n a n d Va g u e l y I n d i a n , b u t Va g u e l y J a p a n e s e , t o o .

This celebration might seem like overkill to those of you fortunate enough to have varied your diet in the past two years on-campus.

But for three straight semesters, I l i v e d , a t e a n d c l a s s e d o n We s t campus, trapped in the tedious cycle of Duke stress. In many ways, the campus food choices mirrored my feelings about this institution: the classes here are indispensable; without the sustenance provided by the Loop and ABP I would have literally perished. My friends are

loyal and kind; the sesame seed bagel toasted with cream cheese and sliced tomato has always been there for me. Midterms and parties and chipotle black bean burgers and tots and oh god, why does all of this food taste exactly the same? When did Duke make me lose my ability to feel?

Through all of this monotony was the Union. For the better part of twelve centuries (it seemed), the hypothetical building perched faithlessly over the deserted plaza, offering a bitterly unrealized promise. One d a y, D u k e w i l l h a v e f o o d , K i r b y.

B u t n o t t o d a y. A n d p r o b a b l y n o t

editor’s note t o m o r r o w, e i t h e r. E n j o y t h a t L o o p m u s h r o o m s w i s s b u r g e r.

B u t t h e n o n e d a y, D u k e h a d food. I arrived to campus this autumn to discover the open, beckoning doors of the great glass w o n d e r. M y f i r s t t r i p t h e U n i o n , I got so overwhelmed, I ordered a kale salad. Did you know kale is delicious? As I took in the myriad culinary possibilities, I spun around the open halls like Julie Andrews at the beginning of “The S o u n d o f M u s i c . ” I d i d n ’t e v e n care that I had to pay for this food

w i t h m y n o t - m y - p a r e n t ’s m o n e y.

Food takes a mirror to cultures; i n t h e p r e - U n i o n d a y s , D u k e ’s w a s a c u l t u r e o f d i s r e g a r d f o r o n e ’s health. This is still undeniably true, but at least now we have a place to sit and talk about how counterintuitive it is to prepare people for the real world with catastrophically stressful exams.

At least now we have a forum for our shared college experience.

J u s t d o n ’t t r y t o c o m e s i t b y m e .

I finished my pizza and walked past a few other lonely eaters. One of them, like me, had his headphones in, lost in the drudgery of another meal, a n o t h e r d a y, a n o t h e r s e m e s t e r.

I thought, he might be younger than me, already sick of the Union offerings. Already wishing he could be anywhere but Duke.

This new generation is going to be different. This new generation h a s f o o d . T h a t k i d d o e s n ’t k n o w how good he has it. And that makes him exactly like me.

–Kirby Wilson

More Online

Check out the Recess online page for more stories!

A near death experience with the Civilians Henry Chan The Chronicle

In their latest play “The Undertaking,” The Civilians, a New York-based theater company, is here to remind you that you are all going to die.

Written and directed by Steve Cosson, “The Undertaking” has a simple premise: Steve (Dan Domingues) is an interviewer, and he spends an evening with his friend Lydia (Irene Lucio) discussing interviews he did concerning death. Using a technique known as investigative theater, the play draws from real-life interviews and performs them almost word for word. A mix of dramatic duologue and interview snippets (the interviewees are also portrayed by Lucio and Domingues), the play revisits mankind’s oldest subject of fascination and makes it urgent and terrifying—more so than it already is.

“The initial impetus was to try to grapple with a subject that is universal, but is also in many ways marginalized in our culture,” Cosson said.

Early in the play, Lydia playfully notes how nothing in Whole Foods ever rots, and how in cities, dead bodies are efficiently moved out of sight and out of mind.

Death in “The Undertaking,” in contrast, is funny and heartbreaking and all sorts of weird. An interviewee tells us with a straight face that, when you die, they put a plastic screw in your ass to keep the gasses in. Also featured in the play: fluids, explosions, seppuku and Alzheimer’s.

If the in-your-face depictions of death make you uncomfortable, then Cosson and the actors have succeeded. To them, approaching death with equanimity is a lie.

As Hamlet taught us, the thing to do when confronting mortality is to run your mouth. Driven by two chatty New Yorkers, “The Undertaking” is a literate play that is quick on its feet, one moment analyzing the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and talking about Derrida and ayahuasca the next.

Whether this comes across as erudite or show-offish depends much on the audience. After making a trite observation, Lydia says: “it’s the most unoriginal idea I’ve ever had in my life… but it’s different when you feel it, you know?” The play never reaches the level of being consistently profound, but there are more hits than misses.

Yet the dramatic heart of “The Undertaking” is not the clever banter.

Midway through the play, Lydia convinces a reluctant (but sufficiently drunk) Steve to go with her into the underworld so as to “know death.” With the help of Jean Cocteau’s “Orpheus” (1950), which is projected onto the shimmering stage backdrop, the protagonists go on a peculiar and hypnotic journey.

Domingues described going into the underworld as a “flight of fancy” but also a “hyperreality,” and for the audience watching, it definitely resembles an altered state of consciousness. There is a ritualistic quality to the project, which, complemented by thoughtful choices in sound and light, recalls a more chaotic, primal time. In direct reference to ancient rituals of the living going into the world of the dead, Steve and Lydia “spontaneously make up their own ritual” in order to relive that tradition, Cosson said. In this sense, theater is not just helpful but also intrinsically tied to the exploration of death.

“[The ritual] is a type of armor, which is simultaneously a game that makes it fun and safe, but also theatricalizes a lot of what you have to do in order to go down into your own fears,” Lucio said. “They’re trying to make a piece of theater of facing these things.”

On the bright side, at least you won’t have to die alone. One of the play’s highlights is the discussion of the longstanding archetype of psychopomps, Greek for guide to the underworld— similar to how you get an RA when first arriving in college, the psychopomp is the “death RA” according to Lucio. This awareness of somebody on the other side, which may be near-death delirium but may also be real, is striking because it shows how reality blurs when one approaches the fine line dividing life and death. Life blurs into theater and vice versa.

Speaking from his personal experience, Domingues alluded to the mysterious push and pull when people arrive at this boundary.

“My grandmother was in a coma for six days before she died. She was in my aunt’s house, and of course the family

just descended, it was a huge family.

The nurse said that she was very close to death, and she was holding on because everyone was still there, and usually what she saw was people die when family members left the room.”

Just as Domingues’s story is included here verbatim, “The Undertaking” includes interview moments which are similarly raw. And so the play is exhausting; brilliant and deeply affecting, yes, but one does not come away from near-death experiences unscathed. Consolation may be found in the words of Lydia, who comforts Steve when he is stricken by memories of death: “It is not your death. And also, it’s not happening right now.”

“The Undertaking” was performed at Shaefer Theater from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1.

The Civilians will return Jan. 2017 to continue their two-part residency at Duke.

The residency, arranged by Duke Performances in cooperation with the Theater Studies department and the Center for Documentar y Studies, will include class visits and potentially involve student collaborations in the future.

Special to the Chronicle The Civliians takes on humanity’s fascination with death in “The Undertaking.”

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recess

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016 | 7

Playground

Recess interviews: Andy Warren of The Mowgli’s Aaron Paskin The Chronicle

The Mowgli’s hails from Los Angeles and is well known for their laidback, West Coast pop music style. The Chronicle’s Aaron Paskin talked to drummer Andy Warren about the band, their new album and their tour.

The Chronicle: First of all, I think your new album “Where’d Your Weekend Go?” is fantastic. How do you feel about the final product?

Andy War ren: We’re so proud of it. This being our third album, you know, we’ve kind of been up and down in the writing process since the first album, and this was kind of the group collective effort for the first time since we started writing music. You go through a lot of ups and downs in the music industry, a lot of people telling you to work with other people, a lot of input, and this one was kind of just us in our zone working together, and so we’re really proud of it.

TC: Thematically, how is the new album similar or different to your previous albums?

AW: It’s definitely still themes of love. This one’s a bit more of -- if the first album’s kind of like a universal theme of love, the second is more stories of love, this is kind of a more personal view of how love can help in moments of feeling down. There’s a lot of songs about loneliness, a lot of songs about people that surround us that make

us feel maybe uncomfortable, or provide challenges, but how in the end, love can conquer and help bring it all together and get over those feelings of lonesomeness or feelings of anxiety in social settings and all those things. So it’s kind of using love as a tool and examining that and how it can help.

TC: Right, and that’s definitely an interesting progression from the previous two albums.

AW: It definitely is, to kind of veer from the more universal grand statement of love into more kind of how it can be this thing that can help get you through times of sorrow, times of pain, times of feeling scared.

TC: I’m wondering, who are some of your favorite musicians or bands, and which ones, if any, are you inspired by when making your own music?

AW: Well I think when it comes to the band, that’s such a grand statement. Everyone has their influences. Personally, for me, I’m really into The Beatles, I’m into jazz music, I’m into punk and ska. But I mean if you were to ask anybody in the band the question would be different. Colin loves pop music, Katie loves indie, Josh loves 90s rock, so there’s so many influences coming through on each person, and that kind of seeps into the grand picture of our band.

TC: And you can tell from the music, it’s definitely a blending of a lot of different influences and genres.

Special to the Chronicle The Mowgli’s has just released their third ablum “Where’d Your Weekend Go?”

AW: Totally, yeah.

TC: In May, you played for Widefield Elementar y School in Colorado Springs, and the students even joined you in singing your hit single “I’m Good” from 2015’s “Kids In Love.” What was it like seeing your music connect so positively with the kids?

AW: That was great! I mean that song’s been a really cool thing for us, and we’ve had a lot of reach-out from -- it was originally written for

this bullying campaign, so it kind of was always tying into different people with different stories reaching out to us and sharing their stories of, you know, being hurt and having to kind of overcome it. And that was a cool moment to go in and have a large group of kids, and I don’t know if they all have -- they were so young so I can’t really speak to their struggles because they’re so See MOWGLI’s on Page 10

Playground

Recess reviews: Solange Knowles’s ‘A Seat at the Table’ Drew Haskins The Chronicle

Solange Knowles’s searingly powerful and meditative new album “A Seat at the Table” opens with “Rise,” a smooth jazz opus that packs a major punch in its twominute runtime. Delicate harmonies croon, “Fall in your ways so you can crumble/fall in your ways so you can sleep at night,” a mantra of rebuilding one’s identity to achieve a sense of catharsis that comes recognizing the self. “A Seat at the Table” addresses myriad heavy topics, specifically the racial and gender violence and inequality that have pervaded 2016, but it is a fundamentally optimistic body of work committed to trying to heal the soul rather than castigate it. The album marks a massive leap forward for Knowles as a songwriter and as a musician, and it is undeniably one of the best albums of the decade.

The second track, “Weary,” finds her singing “I’m gonna look for my body, yeah/I’ll be back real soon,” which acts as the mission statement for the entire album. Solange has written several pieces in recent years about the systematic devaluation of black people in America, coming to a head in an essay a few months ago dealing with the humiliating experience of having a lime thrown at her by a white woman while dancing at a Kraftwerk concert.

In that essay, she talked about how she felt that her body was barely her own; yet “A Seat at the Table” takes this pain and identity crisis and turns it into stunning music. It is almost akin to a concept album devoted to reclaiming the body and self, and

while no easy resolution is reached by the outro,“Closing: The Chosen Ones,” there is a sense of hope and stability that a far and welcome cry from “Weary.”

The journey between the two tracks is thematically rich and musically delightful. Solange has a distinctive voice, lighter but nimbler than her sister’s, that bends the album’s many collaborators to her will. Features from the likes of Tweet, Sampha, Lil Wayne and Kelela abound, all of which match Solange’s high level of artistry.

Sampha anchors the chorus on the best song on “A Seat at the Table,” “Don’t Touch My Hair,” which defies its defensive title by encouraging a dialogue on the comprehension of cultural symbolism and commodification. It also sounds beautiful, with production by Sampha that’s ethereal and deeply groovy in equal measure. The latenight groove of “Junie” recalls her work on 2012’s “True,” marrying a piano-driven bop to a veneration of black female identity.

“A Seat at the Table” is more than a great album; it’s an important one. It acts as a salve to an immeasurably taxing year, a beacon of reflection, hope, and sincere affection in a time where all of these virtues are needed. On the lovely “Don’t Wish Me Will,” she stands firm in her convictions. “’Cause when I say what I mean, you ought to know/you’ve got to know,” she exhorts, and “A Seat at the Table” is an indelible statement of intentionality from an artist who has come into her own.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Solange Knowles’s ‘A Seat at the Table’ comes across as reflective and sincere.

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The Chronicle

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MOWGLI’S from page 7

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young, and like, maybe they don’t have a personal tale of being bullied just yet because they’re like first, second, and third graders. But just seeing the power of our music touching these younger children and having them join in and sing with us was a really special moment.

TC: Despite being a band of six members, one of the great qualities of your music is that the songs don’t feel “crowded,” and all the components work really well together. Are there challenges in bringing this cohesiveness to the stage for live shows?

AW: The band used to actually at a point have even ten people in it, and at that time it was like four people playing guitar, and ever ybody singing, and you can even hear that on our first album, it felt like kind of a wall of sound. Lately, with our newer songs it’s been cool because we’re so buckled into the six of us and so close together that we really kind of each honed what our role is in the band. So I think that’s why it comes through so clearly now, especially on the newer songs. Kind of hearing each part and each person has their thing that they’re doing.

It was a challenge at first I think with so many people, but as we pared the band down to lesser people and defined each role, it becomes an easier thing, and I think that’s why it sounds clear now even though there’s still a lot of us, and that we each have our role and it’s working.

TC: The “Where’d Your Weekend Go?” Tour began a little over a week ago. What’s it been like playing some of the new songs?

AW: R e a l l y c o o l . Yo u k n o w, i t ’s a l w a y s interesting when you play new songs and the a l b u m ’s n o t o u t y e t b e c a u s e a l o t o f p e o p l e d o n ’t k n o w t h e m . B u t l i k e , f o r i n s t a n c e , o u r first show was at Dartmouth, and that was our first time ever trying the new songs out on a n y b o d y, a n d t h e r e a c t i o n w a s a m a z i n g . A n d o u r l i v e s h o w, i t ’s b e e n c o o l k i n d o f s e e i n g w h a t ’s h i t t i n g , w h a t ’s n o t h i t t i n g , a n d e v e r y n i g h t ’s d i f f e r e n t t o o . S o m e t i m e s o n e s o n g t h a t m a y b e d i d n ’t g e t a s g o o d o f a r e a c t i o n a s w e wanted might get the reaction the next night.

And I think once the album actually comes out i t ’s g o n n a b e e v e n b e t t e r b e c a u s e t h e s o n g s w i l l be familiar with people.

TC: You’ll get to hear the audience singing along at that point.

AW: Even still, we’ve leaked a couple songs and there’s a preview on Pandora of the album, so there are still people that are singing along. It’s cool that the fans can already, if they know how to find the songs they’ve been finding them, which is cool. But I’m excited for it to kind of get on a wider scale.

TC: Last spring The Mowgli’s played at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, NC. What do you remember from the show and are you excited to return to the venue with new material in a couple weeks?

AW: Yeah definitely! I remember, that was our first time there, and everyone that worked there was so cool. I remember the room was packed that night, it was a really high energy show. It’s a really cool town and we’re excited to get back there.

Listen to The Mowgli’s’ new album “Where’d Your Weekend Go?” and see them live at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, N.C., Oct. 11.

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THE BLUE ZONE

DUKE IN THE NFL: YOUNG STARS KEEP EXCELLING sports.chronicleblogs.com

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SWIMMING AND DIVING

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Johnston not ruling out 2020 Olympics Giles has

third knee surgery

Ben Golbin The Chronicle For most Olympic athletes, life after the Olympics means reliving the experience, then hopping right back into workouts and training for the next competition.

But for former Blue Devil diving star Abby Johnston, it meant continuing her medical school journey after hanging up her suit—at least for now.

Coming off a 12th-place finish in the 3-meter competition in Rio, Johnston is back as a full-time medical student at Duke. The former NCAA champion earned a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics in the synchronized 3-meter event before finishing her undergraduate degree at the University in 2013 and starting medical school in 2014.

Johnston balanced her preparation to become a doctor with her training for the Rio Olympics, and despite taking a break from diving now has more to balance after getting engaged to Sam McGrath. A graduate assistant with Duke’s football team who works with the team’s linebackers, McGrath asked Johnston to marry him earlier this summer before traveling to Brazil to watch his fiancé compete.

“Now it’s medical school, wedding planning,” Johnston said Saturday before Duke’s game against Virginia at Wallace Wade Stadium. “I’m entering my clinical rotations in the hospital and looking back to Rio, it feels like a lifetime ago.”

Before the Olympics, Johnston was

Staff Reports The Chronicle

Han Kang | Chronicle File Photo Abby Johnston competed in her second Olympics in August and is now back in Durham as a full-time medical student.

juggling medical school classes with two diving practices per day. Now that she can devote her time fully to medicine, however, she spends most of her time in the hospital rather than in the pool.

Her medical interests include neurology and psychiatry, and she said she plans to eventually work in emergency medicine.

“It fits well with my personality. It’s fast-paced, high-pressure, you don’t really know what’s going to come through that door,” Johnston said. “I like that it’s always

changing and something different.”

Although Johnston said before competing in August that the Rio Olympics would be her last diving competition, when asked if she had retired Saturday, the Upper Arlington, Ohio, native had a different response. “[I’m] not officially [retired], no....I haven’t completely shut the door,” Johnston added. “It was a bit of a rollercoaster [after London], I was See JOHNSTON on Page 12

The Blue Devils flashed their potential Saturday at an open practice without touted freshman Harry Giles, and now might have to get used to playing without the No. 1 recruit.

The forward underwent a left knee arthroscopy Monday, the team announced Monday afternoon. The typical recovery time for the procedure is expected to be six weeks.

A 6-foot-10 forward, Giles has a history of knee injuries and was previously recovering from a torn right ACL that caused him to miss the 2015-16 high school season. He also previously tore his left ACL. “We’re very pleased with the outcome of today’s procedure,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a release. “This is the right step for Harry at the moment as it will help him be 100 percent going forward. Harry has done a tremendous job in rehabilitation over the last year and I’m sure he’ll continue to do the same after this procedure.”

The Blue Devils will host Countdown to Craziness Oct. 22 before opening the regular season against Marist Nov. 11. If Giles is limited at the start of the season, Duke has numerous options in the frontcourt thanks to the return of graduate student Amile Jefferson and additions of five-star forwards Jayson Tatum and Marques Bolden.

FOOTBALL

Options aplenty for Army heading into Week 5 Sid Bhaskara The Chronicle

Ian Jaffe | Chronicle File Photo Ahmad Bradshaw and company lead the nation in rushing and hope to bounce back after fumbling seven times in a 44-3 loss to Duke last season.

The Blue Devils will need military discipline on both sides of the ball this weekend if they plan to stop Army and the high-powered triple-option offense of the Black Knights.

A week after a 34-20 loss to Virginia at home, Duke hosts Army at 3:30 pm Saturday at Wallace Wade Stadium. After coming up empty in their ACC contest against the struggling Cavaliers, the Blue Devils must now compete with a rising nonconference foe that comes into the matchup scoring 36.3 points per game and allowing just 16.0 points per game to its opponents.

Duke, however, holds the most recent advantage in this series after trouncing the Black Knights last season 44-3 in West Point, N.Y. “This is certainly going to be a real challenge and test for us against Duke

that, quite frankly, beat the pants off of us last year here at home,” Army head coach Jeff Monken said in a press conference Tuesday. “They have a really talented football team and as wellcoached a football team that you’ll find anywhere in the country. They have an outstanding coach who has proven his ability to win in multiple programs and he is very well respected. He is certainly respected by us.”

Despite suffering their first loss of the season last week against Buffalo—a 23-20 overtime defeat on the road—Army (31) comes to Durham boasting the most rushing yards per game of any team in the nation with 374.8. Against a Blue Devil defense that could not stop the Cavalier rushing attack down the stretch and is missing veteran safety DeVon Edwards, the Black Knights will look to push their advantage in the running game and control time of possession.

See ARMY on Page 12

12 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016

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MEN’S SOCCER

Davidson stuns sluggish Blue Devil squad 3-1 Cade McCurdy The Chronicle Tuesday’s loss epitomized the Blue Devils’ season in many ways.

A team that Duke head coach John Kerr has called his most talented ever once again controlled play, especially in the second half, but was done in by its inability to finish scoring chances.

The Blue Devils fell 3-1 to Davidson Tuesday night at Koskinen Stadium, the second week in a row Duke has suffered a disappointing nonconference upset. The Blue Devils lost to 3 Georgia State for the DAV DUKE 1 first time ever last Tuesday at home, but after its first ACC win of the season Friday, Duke hoped it could build momentum toward a potential NCAA tournament bid with a win against the Wildcats.

Instead, Davidson’s success against the Blue Devils—the Wildcats are now 2-0-1 against Duke the last three years—continued, as the Wildcats used goals in the 70th and 88th minutes to break a 1-1 tie and earn its first road win of the year. Tuesday marked the first time all season Blue Devil goalkeeper Robert Moewes allowed three goals.

“If you look at the overall play, we were the better team, but we just don’t execute our opportunities and it’s been haunting us the last few games,” Duke head coach John Kerr said. “We were a little careless

JOHNSTON from page 11 hurt and I was like, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore,’ and then I decided maybe I do want to do it. It was an up-and-down ride of whether or not I wanted to go to another Olympics and to put myself in that emotional rollercoaster and try to evaluate if I miss jumping in the pool or if I’m ready to start the next chapter.”

After ending America’s 12-year medal drought in 2012 with partner Kelci Bryant, Johnston found herself alone on the platform in Rio. She finished fifth in the individual event’s semifinals before struggling in the final round en route to a 12th-place finish.

However, Johnston’s rapid transition to the individual competition showed that the former synchronized star could hold her own by herself.

“It was a different mindset competing as an individual rather than a synchronized pair,” Johnston said. “I always sort of pigeon-holed myself as a synchronized diver and I doubted whether or not I could be internationally competitive as an individual. My performance throughout the Olympics showed that I belonged with the best of them.”

Although Johnston did not win a medal in Rio like she did in London, she said she thoroughly enjoyed what was potentially her final Olympic experience.

From taking in Brazilian culture to the outpouring of support from family, friends and Duke’s athletic department, Johnston could not have imagined a more complete Olympic experience.

with the ball and got punished on another counterattack.”

The Wildcats (2-8) showed their dangerous counterattack in the first half, outshooting Duke (4-4-2) 5-3 and taking advantage after Blue Devil junior Cameron Moseley’s header went awry toward the end of the half.

Davidson moved the ball into the attacking third in the 45th minute, then capitalized on a deflection as the Blue Devils tried to clear the ball. But the ball found the foot of Wildcat junior Danny Davis, who beat Moewes to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead and the momentum entering the locker room.

“They wanted to sit in, let us make an error, and hit us on the counterattack, and we gave them some of those opportunities,” Kerr said. “Gives them a lot of momentum going into halftime with a 1-0 lead.”

Duke was more aggressive after halftime, firing 11 shots and creating four chances on goal, and was rewarded with its first tally in the 56th minute. Freshman standout Suniel Veerakone sent a through ball to junior Brian White, who converted for the equalizer and his fourth goal of the season.

But that was all the success the Blue Devils found against Davidson goalkeeper Andrew Kenneson, who made five key saves Tuesday.

The senior made a save in the 69th minute on a Brandon Williamson shot before White sent another scoring chance over the cross bar.

After hitting the post in the 62nd minute Duke diving head coach Nunzio Esposto was with Johnston every step of the way.

“It was surreal to think that this is probably my last dive,” Johnston said.

“It was such a great moment because my family was there, my fiancé, my coach.… I just felt really loved and appreciated by everyone who helped me get to this point.”

Because of the U.S. swimming and diving team’s recent success in Rio, Johnston and her teammates were invited to the White House, where President Barack Obama congratulated them and several other Olympians on their accomplishments.

The White House trip capped off a whirlwind few months for the 26-year old.

“My favorite memory and my last memory from this Olympics was standing on the board in the finals and hearing ‘Abby Johnston representing the United States of America,’” Johnston said. “That feeling is just something you take so much pride in.”

At least for now, however, Johnston will push that pride aside and focus on her medical school endeavors.

But don’t count out one of Duke’s most decorated athletes just yet for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“Realistically, in a sport like diving, you need to make a really solid twoyear run. If I take a break and dabble in competition for the next few years, I can ramp it back up in time for Tokyo, which fits with my school schedule,” Johnston said. “This is going to be a really nice Olympics. Maybe I want to go.”

Sam Turken and Brian Mazur contributed reporting.

Yunfang Zhang | The Chronicle The Blue Devils gave up three goals for the first time this season Tuesday, dropping a home nonconference game for the second straight week.

on a Jordan Hill header, the Wildcats took advantage following Duke’s close calls by winning the ball at midfield. Christian Fechter lofted a long pass to Aidan Peterson, and the sophomore made the Blue Devil defense pay with a shot into the bottom left corner of the net for the go-ahead goal.

“Davidson is a really good 1-8, now 2-8 team. Luck hasn’t been going their way, unfortunately it changed against us tonight,” Kerr said.

But the Wildcats were not done yet.

After Duke was unable to convert another

shot, Davidson clinched its second win of the year when Peterson threw the ball in to Jaylen Thompson in the 88th minute, and the freshman beat a Moewes yet again. Tuesday also marked the first time the Wildcats have scored three goals this season.

Following another setback, the Blue Devils will hit the road to take on No. 18 Virginia Tech Friday evening.

“When you don’t score, you lose a little bit of belief in yourself, and we didn’t have enough belief in ourselves tonight,” Kerr said.

ARMY from page 11

has rotated into the quarterback spot at times this season and earned more than 200 total yards in limited action.

Provided the offense keeps its discipline and fundamentals strong, Army will likely not roll over the same way that it did a year ago, when Blue Devil All-American safety Jeremy Cash and company wreaked havoc near the line of scrimmage.

The Black Knights are focused on late-game execution this week after blowing a 20-6 lead against Buffalo, and hope to wear Duke’s defense out then convert in the red zone. Army has controlled the ball almost twice as much as opponents this year.

“Running the ball is one thing, but the bottom line is you have to score points.

We did that enough in the first three games and this is where we really lacked last week,” Monken said. “We got the ball down there close and we would settle for three when we needed to get seven...

When you do that, you certainly have a better chance of winning.”

On the other side of the ball, the Black Knights allow just 87.5 yards per game on the ground and 264.8 overall.

Army’s team defense is ranked 10th in the nation, with both its pass and run defenses cracking the top 20 in yards allowed. For a Duke offense that turned the ball over six times last week and leads the nation with 17 turnovers in five games, limiting miscues will be critical to give its defense a break.

Saturday’s game could also turn into a defensive struggle because of the weather—heavy wind and rain are expected to accompany Hurricane Matthew this weekend, which could make ball security an even bigger priority.

At the heart of that bruising rushing attack is workhorse running back Andy Davidson. The 220-pound sophomore has gashed opponents for 414 yards in four games, averaging an impressive 5.2 yards per carry.

Davidson is not alone, though, leading a stable of talented athletes in the backfield that includes fellow sophomores Jordan Asberry and Tyler Campbell. Both players average 7.0 yards per carry.

“We have a lot of guys on our offense that have been here with us, certainly a lot of them for two years, competing in their third year in a row. They have just gotten better.” Monken said. “We have improved as a team and gained some confidence...

Guys have gotten more mature and developed and that has helped us.”

The primary key to victory for the Blue Devils in last season’s contest was the seven forced fumbles by their defense. Barring another offensive meltdown from Army— which has already exceeded its 2015 win total this season—the challenge posed to Duke’s defense will likely be more stout this time around.

The architect of the Black Knights’ attack is quarterback Ahmad Bradshaw, who has only 21 passing attempts this season, but has also accumulated more than 400 total yards from scrimmage. Bradshaw has easily found his way into the second level of the defense against opponents this season, and will aim to test younger Blue Devil linebackers like Joe Giles-Harris and Ben Humphreys.

Duke may also get some looks against sophomore Chris Carter, however, who

The Chronicle

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Chronicle File Photo In 2009, the Cameron Crazies were not happy when the band tricked them and did not play “Everytime We Touch” at the right moment in a game against Maryland.

CASCADA from page 1 would feel out of place in Cameron’s current rotation of pop and hip-hop jams.

The band’s secretary at the time, sophomore Greg Caiola, said Au made a push to bring the ensemble into the modern age by incorporating new songs into the playlist.

In fall 2006, “Everytime We Touch” rose from a foreign hit to a full-blown phenomenon.

“At that time, it was played at all the parties on campus, and everywhere,” Caiola said. “It was that song you couldn’t escape, and people seemed to get excited whenever the song came on.”

Au remembers Caiola coming to him with the idea of bringing the danceclub hymnal into Cameron, but the former band member hesitated to take

credit for it. By his recollection, it was a group effort.

“It was kicked around, and then brought to Jeff,” Caiola said. “It came up the band leadership channel.

Somebody said we should do this one, and we all agreed.”

Regardless of exactly who on the band’s executive committee approached him, whether it was Caiola, or the band’s president, Theresa Poulos—it may have even been a joint effort—Au took the advice of his students and wrote the arrangement himself.

“At first, I was skeptical actually, because I’d never heard of it,” Au said.

“A student brought it to me, and said, ‘Jeff, we gotta play this. The Crazies will love it.’”

Any hesitation to play the song was washed away almost immediately.

Historically, the Crazies don’t warm quickly to changes in their routine. However, that

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against Virginia. When the band began wasn’t the case this time.

“The response was pretty quick,” Au to play, the Crazies turned their back and said. “It only took like two or three times stood silently. The message was clear— don’t mess with Cascada. playing it for them to get really into it.”

Neither Caiola nor Au said they ever Soon after the song hit it big on game days, it was gifted a companion. The imagined the song would become so Crazies, feeding off the intensity of their popular. They recognized the slow build and exciting hook, but never thought it new theme, choreographed a dance.

Within the first three or four would take off the way it did.

“Even when we started playing it, performances, the fist pumps and jumps began to emerge. No dance moves were nobody thought it would become a issued by the band—they occurred tradition,” Caiola said. “It goes with the excitement level, and Cameron organically.

“I just remembered the slow clapping Crazies are already known to jump in the build up became pretty natural, without reason.”

For Au, the rapid acceptance of the and then everybody just loses it,” Caiola said. “It was a hit pretty quick, and a little dance track was strange. He still isn’t sure later, it became locked into the late-game why it stuck while others fell out of favor.

“It’s just weird,” Au said. “You just [situation].”

There’s perhaps no greater indicator never know which one is going to catch of how deep the Crazies’ love for the on. We do “Power” [by Kanye West], song goes than what happened when and the students like that okay, and “All the band pulled a fast one on the ever- of The Lights,” but that’s the one that somehow, for some reason, they just dedicated fans.

By 2009, Caiola’s senior year, “Everytime really get into.”

Caiola said he’s still surprised by the We Touch” was already a big part of the Cameron experience. In a game against song’s longevity, but was excited to see heated rival Maryland in January, the that it’s still a Cameron mainstay.

“It fits the theme of the Crazies in sort band started playing the anthem, as it had done dozens of times before. Only this of the fun,” he said. “It was just the right song at the right time.” time, something was different.

Caiola, now 28, and a resident of After finishing the intro, the band stopped abruptly and began to play Rick Philadelphia, played the song for the first Astley’s 1987 hit, “Never Gonna Give time since he graduated in 2009 as a member You Up.” The Crazies, not in on the of the Alumni Band for Duke’s game against joke, continued jumping and singing Virginia Tech earlier this year. Even now, a “Everytime We Touch” for a few moments decade after it started, he’s still proud to see before realizing what had happened. the tradition going strong.

“I was watching on ESPN, and they They’d been Rick Roll’d.

The response? A sea of outstretched were playing the song and I was like, ‘I The New York Corporation can’t believe they’re still doing that,” arms, hexing the Times bandSyndication for itsSales Eighth Avenue,week, New York, 10018 Caiola said. “I still wonder how long it transgression.620 The following the N.Y. For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 will go.”

Blue Devils played their next home game For ForRelease ReleaseWednesday, Tuesday, October October4,5,2016 2016

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016 | 13

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Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 7,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).

Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/studentcrosswords.

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

The Chronicle

“

Opacity on the books

E

arlier this summer, Governor Pat McCrory signed a bill into law that removed police body camera records from the public record. Three days ago, that law went into effect across the state of North Carolina.

The law, House Bill 972, was not ostensibly designed to obscure police records from the public. Supporters and writers of the bill claimed that its purpose was to solve a number of problems with police body cameras. First, they said, it would synchronize and standardize police practices regarding body cameras from department to department, ironing out inconsistencies. Before the bill’s institution, some counties in North Carolina declared body camera videos to be public record while others secreted them away and made them difficult to access. The bill would supposedly fix that. Second, it would prevent the release of body camera videos from impeding active investigations and unfairly swaying public opinion. A New York Times police body cam simulation published in April showed how seemingly clear videos can still hide the truth of scenarios. When such videos are published, it is eminently possible that groups of people will misinterpret them and wrongly judge officers or suspects. Finally, the bill would protect

onlinecomment “This creates an unwelcoming and hateful environment for men who express natural masculinity.

Why would any man want to study at Duke knowing that this is endorsed by the university?”

— “ArkadyRenko,” responding to “Engendering gender harmony,” published September 29, 2016

”

LETTERS POLICY

Direct submissions to:

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Letters should not exceed 325 words; contact the editorial department for information regarding guest columns.

The Chronicle will not publish anonymous or form letters or letters that are promotional in nature. The Chronicle reserves the right to edit letters and guest columns for length, clarity and style and the right to withhold letters based on the discretion of the editorial page editor.

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14 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016

E-mail: chronicleletters@duke.edu Editorial Page Department The Chronicle Box 90858, Durham, NC 27708 Phone: (919) 684-2663 Fax: (919) 684-4696

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the privacy of citizens recorded in public by the police during routine interactions, preventing videos of them from being easily released.

To be sure, the bill has a few positive facets and motivations: privacy and statewide synchronization are important goals. That said, we believe that the crux of the bill—the removal of police body camera video from the public record and the erection of significant barriers to its publication—is flawed and regressive.

Editorial

Body cameras became a national trend across police departments because citizens had begun to demand accountability from cops. Removing video—the entire point of the cameras—from the public record essentially eliminates that accountability, returning trust issues between police and citizens to their original unfortunate state. Raising the requirements for video release to unreasonably high levels does much the same. House Bill 972 currently demands that a video release guarantee the protection of “active or inactive internal or criminal

investigation[s]” as well as the protection of people’s “reputations.” That standard gives police an extremely high level of discretion in what video they choose to release, in effect nullifying the public’s oversight capacity.

If Governor McCrory and North Carolina legislators truly want to pass a body camera law that guarantees “uniformity, clarity and transparency,” as McCrory claimed, they ought to focus on making records less opaque rather than more so: police body cam videos should public records by default. In seeking to protect active investigations, McCrory and legislators should work to craft legislation that sets timetables for the publication of police camera videos. Such a solution is far preferable to the blunt action of sealing the videos away from the public.

House Bill 972, despite whatever good intentions it may have had, is a step in the wrong direction.

While it protects privacy and the reputations of police officers, it removes oversight power from the public—a body which has consistently fought to keep officers accountable. Moreover, it fails to address the root problems of excessive force that led to the very institution of body cameras. The law is unwieldy and unfortunate.

The sad truths of DSG

A

ll politicians start out as people, but along the way so many of them lose touch with those who elected them. Most, I assume, are good people who at some point let their own interests begin to trump those of their constituency.

In this way, Duke Student Government is a microcosm of the failures of government.

Last March, three candidates ran for DSG president.

No one won a majority, so the election went into an instant run-off. Senior Tara Bansal won with 51 percent of the vote in the runoff, beating senior Annie Adair by 51 votes—not exactly a resounding mandate. So it looked like a good idea when Bansal chose to include Adair and senior John Guarco—who came in third—in DSG this year. It was a coalition government of sorts.

Or so it seemed. This past summer Adair and Guarco resigned from DSG. Both cited differences of opinion with DSG leadership, though Bansal claims that neither was ousted from their position. In this instance, however, “differences of opinion” is about as canned an excuse as “leaving to spend more time with family.”

representative of the student body.

For some reason, there is this pervasive belief among DSG leadership that they are in some way more capable of choosing who represents student body than the students themselves. The majority of the 60-person DSG senate is comprised of at-large senators. And the committee that selects at-large senators also happens to be made up of DSG leadership, including the DSG president. So, it should come as no surprise that the senators have no incentive to hold those who give them their positions accountable for improper actions.

Even more absurd is that through this selection method, DSG executive vice president Ilana Weisman claims that this senate is “going to represent the student body at Duke…for the first time in a long time.”

It’s hard to understand how a body that is primarily chosen by DSG leadership is more representative of the student body than a senate that was actually democratically elected by the students. But in the world of DSG, it seems that newspeak prevails and anyone who objects is an unperson.

Justin Koritzinsky PERFORMANCE REVIEW

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The Chronicle is published by the Duke Student Publishing Company, Inc., a non-profit corporation independent of Duke University. The opinions expressed in this newspaper are not necessarily those of Duke University, its students, faculty, staff, administration or trustees. Unsigned editorials represent the majority view of the editorial board. Columns, letters and cartoons represent the views of the authors.

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Nonetheless, Bansal has claimed she had no reason to not want them on DSG, even while her actions suggest otherwise. Before Adair resigned, Bansal appointed a co-attorney general. This was necessary, Bansal claimed, because Adair could be biased if she knew litigants. Only Bansal knows why this was necessary now even though it wasn’t in the past—surely, it wasn’t to undermine Adair.

With Adair and Guarco out of the picture, Bansal was able to institute the reforms necessary to relegitimize DSG. She eliminated special parking passes to the Card Lot for DSG leadership—which the students paid for—while retaining her own universal parking pass. I don’t see how anyone in DSG is deserving of special parking privileges, yet I am taken aback by the arrogance of Bansal’s move.

I see nothing that Bansal gains by restricting other DSG members’ parking privileges other than a perverse joy in disadvantaging them. And while I generally do take a perverse joy in DSG’s failings, it seems unbecoming of the DSG president to share this view. It’s possible that the perception is far worse than the reality and that this isn’t an abuse of power—it’s also possible that Chris Christie did need to close those bridge lanes in Fort Lee during rush hour.

In line with her progressive agenda, Bansal eliminated the open application process that was previously used to select members of the DSG presidential committees.

Now, she no longer has to operate under the guise of fairness and can simply handpick whomever she deems

Even when a proposal to reduce the size of DSG senate by only six members came before the senate earlier this month, the reform was voted down.

Similar proposals have failed to pass more than half a dozen times in the past few years.

Fortunately, Bansal accepts that DSG is the source of its own problems. In a recent blog post on the DSG website, she admitted that “the problems with DSG perception are DSG’s creation.” My only disagreement is that the problems with DSG are very real and not merely perceptual.

Too often the people’s best interests only matter until they conflict with the politician’s. So while the student body would benefit from having Adair and Guarco in DSG, Bansal wouldn’t, so they aren’t. And while the student body would be better served by a more efficient and representative DSG, it isn’t.

Most people involved with DSG are interested in government and politics. They can explain the government’s failures and analyze the causes. Yet they have failed to realize that politicians often don’t realize how severely they’ve compromised their constituencies’ interests; the same can unfortunately be said of DSG. Until the members of DSG realize this and enact the appropriate reforms to hold themselves accountable, students’ perceptions will continue to reflect this reality—that DSG is ineffective and unrepresentative.

Justin Koritzinsky is a Trinity senior. His column, “performance review,” will run on alternate Wednesdays.

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com commentary

Political absurdity and its danger

I

t is probably an uncontroversial statement to say that this election cycle has seen immense absurdity—an absurdity unmatched by any election in recent memory.

We’ve seen Ted Cruz make machine gun bacon. We’ve seen a major news network forget how to signal candidates on stage for a debate. We’ve even seen a meme be designated as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League.

Oh, and Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for President of the United States.

In the absurdity of the festivities, however, I fear that popular politics has solidified its position as entertainment,

blame the candidates for perpetuating the personality contest and utilizing juicy negative advertisements.

However, these factors are only part of the problem. Any description of the entertainment curse of modern politics is incomplete without a little bit of introspection.

There’s a reason profit-driven media and the votes-desperate candidates propagate the entertaining buzz of the political sphere: it’s because that’s what we, the people, seem to want.

If we collectively wanted or demanded an issues-based campaign, then it would surely be supplied because media outlets want the traffic

Making sense of a mission statement

A

round two weeks ago, it was announced that Josh Kun, Trinity ’93, had been chosen as a 2016 MacArthur Fellow. Kun is a cultural historian whose work, to quote his MacArthur profile, explores “the ways in which the arts and popular culture are conduits for cross-cultural exchange.” Last week, when I spoke with Kun—who is a professor of communication in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism—I asked him how his view of Duke had changed in the years since graduation.

“There’s no way I’d be doing any of this without what happened to me at Duke,” Kun said. “Being able to have intimate access to some of the most experimental,

David Wohlever Sanchez

Jake Parker

SIMPLE COMPLEXITY

THINKING TOO MUCH, FEELING TOO LITTLE

a personality contest devoid of policy, nuance or respect for the magnitude of what is actually happening.

The election of our leaders, at both the federal and state/local levels, is a monumentally important event. The right to vote is a serious responsibility that ought to be treated with immense respect. When climate change threatens the future of us and our children, 33,000 people are killed by guns each year, voting rights are under attack, cost of education is skyrocketing and student loans are rising, it is not the time for entertainment. It is the time for a serious, issues-based discussion of how to best face the rising challenges.

The next president will appoint as many as four Supreme Court justices.

Congress will be making policy about how to best address advances in science and technology. The nation will be grappling with controversy and uncertainty surrounding race relations. Our next administration faces uncertainty on the international stage with a looming Brexit, a deteriorated relationship with Russia, an unstable situation in Syria and a plethora of other known and unknown situations. And the next commanderin-chief will have to navigate through new, challenging threats to national security in the forms of lone wolf terrorism and cyberwarfare.

These are not minor challenges. They require serious, logical, empiricallydriven thought, as well as bipartisan cooperation on key issues.

However, our election cycle has offered practically everything except policy-driven discussion. The election has been a circus of political personalities, a rhetorical soup of halftruths, stretches and outright lies, an unending spiral that has descended into an abyss of absurdity.

And why is that? It would be easy to blame the media. In a system of profit-driven media, of course they will often resort to clickbait, coverage of gaffes or an unending fascination with trivial (though sometimes legitimate) scandals. It would also be easy to

and candidates want the votes. If we rewarded these groups for shunning personality in favor of policy, then I’m confident they would deliver.

The challenge, though, is that this sort of transition is not easy, even for the more politically-involved.

The simple fact of the matter is that entertainment is, well, entertaining.

I personally admit that I received plenty of positive utility from watching some of the debates, partially because some of the moments were juicy in their confrontation or absurd in their content.

So I believe it is plausible that most of us are part of the problem, that most of us contribute to the political entertainment industry. But perhaps the issue isn’t so black-and-white? I would also argue that there is plenty of social value in mocking the absurdity of the political realm or satirizing the ridiculousness of many of our politicians. Surely there is value in the wit of political cartoons and the satirization from Saturday Night Live.

So I am not by any means arguing that John Oliver is unjustified in his hilarious “reporting,” or that Jon Stewart was not a genius in his political satire. However, I would like to argue that there is some kind of happy inbetween; surely we can both enjoy and satirize the political realm while also recognizing the seriousness of policymaking. If in the laughter, we lose sight of the bigger, far more important picture, then we have certainly gone too far in our jest.

So no, political satirization or even political entertainment is not intrinsically bad or normatively wrong.

It can even be valuable in encouraging people to take a look at the issues or even get involved politically. But when the serious conversation is lost, when policy is lost to personality, or when the entertainment blocks the essential discussion—surely then we have fallen victim to political absurdity.

David Wohlever Sanchez is a Trinity sophomore. His column, “simple complexity,” runs on alternate Wednesdays.

Interested in contributing to campus dialogue?

Submit a guest column to jrp56@duke.edu.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016 | 15

radical and risk-taking intellectuals in the country…totally turned my mind inside out and made me think, ‘I want to spend the rest of my life being a scholar but being a scholar in a broader sense.’”

According to its mission statement, “Duke University seeks to engage the mind, elevate the spirit, and stimulate the best effort of all who are associated with the University.” These are ambitious goals for any institution, let alone one populated predominately by teenagers and twentysomethings, many of whom are still fond of “Super Smash Bros.” and beer pong. But at Duke, a fancy for cheap entertainment and warm beer doesn’t preclude students from engaging their minds, elevating their spirits or putting forth their best efforts. The point is that I don’t think the University’s mission statement is overly-ambitious.

Then again, I might just be optimistic after having interviewed a MacArthur genius. Duke’s mission statement calls on us to“advance the frontiers of knowledge and contribute boldly to…scholarship.” I think you would be hard-pressed to find many alumni who fit the bill better than Kun with his vibrant analysis and presentation of lost historical narratives.

“A big part of my own motivation is to keep having a good time and keep being curious and excited about the work that I do,” said Kun as he spoke about some concerts and exhibitions he had curated.

He added, “The thing you produce ought to, if we do it right, reflect your deep personal investment in these projects.”

And really that’s what it takes when it comes to fulfilling a mission statement: personal investment.

The university’s job isn’t to put its students on the path towards a 7-series Jaguar and six-figure salary; it’s to provide a framework in which those curious teens and twenty-somethings can develop their passions and find some work they feel is worth doing. Kun and all the other students who’ve come through Duke aren’t the products of some academic manufacturing line, they’re the sum of a back-and-forth between institution and individual, with a whole lot more emphasis on the latter than the former.

I think of a recent headline I saw in The Chronicle: “Student war journalist recounts experiences covering conflicts in Africa.”

The titular journalist is senior Rajiv Golla.

The article briefly summarizes his latest trip abroad, which found him weaving through Uganda, South Sudan, India and Mali. To the student concerned with fulfilling his

natural science requirement or coming across well in an interview for an on-campus internship, the concept of taking time off from school to embed with a rebel military group in the middle of a civil war is the stuff of fiction. It was to me.

I think of Golla because his career at Duke is indicative of the opportunities students have to chart the course of their journeys as they interact with the university. Golla wanted to write but didn’t gel with The Chronicle, so he started ReadCONTRA, enlisting the help of DUhatch. He wanted to go abroad but had reservations about DukeEngage, so he gathered enough funds through Kenan and gigs as a freelance journalist to travel

through east Africa. He’s like the Frank Sinatra of undergraduate academia.

Golla has become an obsessive expert in parsing through the resources Duke has to offer and pinpointing the parts of the university he wants to explore. Last week in Vondy, Golla admitted that for much of his sophomore year, he had let his academic obligations go to the wayside so he could “study South Sudan and make contacts within the rebel and government movements.”

And still, Duke had provided an invaluable treasure chest of resources—professors to bounce ideas off of, alumni to consult and funding networks to tap into.

At the heart of both Kun and Golla’s Duke experiences are the ideals of the mission statement, wrapped up in a willingness to embrace and study the past and present through unconventional exciting avenues.

Kun joined the theoretical revolutions of critical theory and queer theory and cultural studies centered in Duke’s literature, English and film departments, while Golla went far beyond Durham to study a different kind of revolution hidden away in downtown Nairobi. By their own admission, Duke has played an important role in informing and fostering their work, and really, that’s the most a university’s mission statement can ask for.

Golla is currently working on a book proposal, so when I spoke with Kun, I asked him what sort of advice he might give to a young academic interested in hands-on research.

He told me, “If you have the privilege and opportunity to pursue scholarship… then you should do it with all the heart and all the passion you can put into it with the commitment to making sure your ideas can be applied and understood across as many audiences as possible.”

And it’s that attention to accessibility, that yearning for potential discourse that makes the work of Kun and Golla important to discerning the responsibility of Duke to its students. The most basic requirement of the University is to warmly respond when a student speaks to it, even if only in a whisper.

I’d like to think that the university is here for the taking; that for those students who hurl themselves with enough force in the direction of passion, a professor or student group or campus organization will be at the other end with a hand to lend.

Jake Parker is a Trinity sophomore. His column, “thinking too much, feeling too little,” runs on alternate Wednesdays.

16 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com

Michelle Obama praises Clinton at N.C. state rally

Harsh Sanghi | The Chronicle First Lady Michelle Obama stressed the importance of voting in the 2016 election at North Carolina State University’s Reynolds Coliseum Tuesday.

ENGAGE from page 1 students to serve this community and then serve society at large by being engaged in a project in an area that requires a little bit of help when it comes to increasing the social consciousness of nature conservation,” he said.

He noted that the program’s reach is twofold. It exposes students to fieldwork in both the social sciences and the natural sciences by having them help investigate endangered species. But it also allows participants to interact with and evaluate Neltume as it transitions from a logging community to one more reliant on ecotourism.

Sandoval said that he specifically chose the DukeEngage project to encourage attention on issues of conservation and sustainability efforts in the region. He noted that he plans to select participants who are willing to take a hands-on approach to service. “[We want] the type of individual who is ready to put on some boots and go out on the field and take water samples and go out and capture photographs of little animals,” he said.

William M. Reichart, Theo Pilkington professor of biomedical engineering and the director for the new program in Uganda, explained in an email that he was inspired to create the DukeEngage program by his experiences as a Fulbright Scholar in the biomedical engineering program at Makerere University.

He wrote that he designed the program so that students could use their engineering skills to repair broken hospital equipment, identify the needs of the health sector and design efficient solutions.

Reichart wrote that he hopes that Duke students “see the people of Uganda for all their wonderfulness and challenges,” which can only be done by “being on the ground and directly interacting.”

First-year Divya Chowbey said she was

excited about the creation of a program that focuses on medical instrumentation.

She said that because both DukeEngage Uganda and DukeEngage Tanzania focus on biotechnology students interested in the subject are “allowed to choose between two different forms of cultural immersion.” The Uganda program takes place in Kampala, the country’s capital, while the Tanzania program is a more rural setting.

The new program in Ahmedabad, India—led by Purnima Shah, associate professor of the practice of dance—aims to improve children’s education and empower women from low income groups to become financially independent.

She said that although there are no hardcore prerequisites for the program, the focus when reviewing applications will be to select students who are seriously looking to do service internships and engage with the community.

In addition, a new domestic program in Kauai, Hawaii was announced this year and will be led by Rebecca Vidra, director of the Duke Environmental Leadership Program.

Vidra echoed Shah’s and Reichart’s sentiments regarding the ideal participant in their respective DukeEngage programs, mentioning that she was interested in students who “can be open-minded.” Although her program’s location is in the United States, participants will be considered outsiders in the state, she said.

Two other international programs have been introduced: one in Costa Rica and another in Rwanda. DukeEngage Costa Rica is led by Deedra McClearn, director of Global Academic Program Development, and aims to conduct conservation work focused on water resources and tropical habitat restoration.

DukeEngage Rwanda is directed by Bill Bamberger, visiting lecturer at the Center for Documentary Studies, with the intent of documenting the efforts of four non-profit organizations in the country.

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