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Anniversary Friedman pushes green revolution sees progress
in Interim Admins focus on New Campus, living model by
Ally Helmers THE CHRONICLE
just more than a year after the Interim Report on Undergraduate Education left the Office of the Provost, Duke’s administrative leaders are taking their ideas off of paper and onto campus. Research for the Interim Report began in March 2007, when Provost Peter Lange met with students, faculty, alumni to discuss the findings of the 2006 Campus Culture Initiative Steering Committee’s report. When the Interim Report was published in September 2007, Lange compiled respondents’ perceptions of cultural issues addressed in the CGI report, including the University’s social life, the initiative’s proposed recommendations, musings on possible improvements and the means by which to attain them. Lange has since transferred responsibility to Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education Steve Nowicki, who said he relies on a “bottoms-up” approach to successfully remedy common housing, social life and academic woes. SEE INTERIM ON PAGE 7
by
Will Robinson THE CHRONICLE
Top University administrators mixed with students and faculty at a sold-out Page Auditorium Monday night to hear a speech about politics, energy, the environment—and a dubious geographical concept. “People used to know that Columbus discovered the world was round, now everyone knows that Thomas Friedman discovered that it was flat,” said President Richard Brodhead in his introduction of the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The New York Times. Friedman, whose 2005 book “The World Is Flat” proposed that globalization has “flattened” the world’s economy, was on campus to promote the release of his new book, “Hot, Flat and Crowded; Why We Need a Green Revolution—And How It Can Renew America.” The United States has lost its collective focus since 9/11 to become a “United States of Fighting Terrorism,” Friedman explained. The book calls for an environmental transformation in the U.S. “It actuallyjust masquerades as a book about energy and the environment. It is really a book about America,” he said. “Green is obviously the new red, white and blue—it has to be.” Pulitzer-Prize winning columnistThomasFriedman argues Monday in a packed Page Auditorium for a new Several students said Friedman made an "green" economy to solve problems such as climate change, energy shortages and petro-dictatorships. argument about energy and the environment in away that could appeal to everyone. warming, flat through rising economic identified in the book. Environmental “I don’t necessarily know thatFriedman prosperity in developing countries and technology could be the next great global is saying anything new, but he is definitely crowded from rapid population growth. industry and create a social and economic saying it in away no one has ever said it “When flat meets crowded, watch out,” overhaul mirroring the information techbefore,” junior Vivek Upadhyay said. he said. ‘You will know the green revolunology revolution, he added. Climate change, biodiversity loss, suption is here when somebody gets hurt.” Although Friedman called himself a ply and demand for energy and the rise of Friedman advised that the develop“capitalist,” he said government would have oil-rich dictatorships are among the major ment of an abundant, cheap and clean to intervene someWhat to implement price global problems, Friedman said. He added source ofreliable energy is the single soluSEE FRIEDMAN ON PAGE 7 that the world has become hot from global tion that will address all of the problems
DSG finds new ways to communicate by
Nathan Freeman THE CHRONICLE
CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO
A year afterthe interim Report, administrators are using student input to address housing and social lifeissues.
When Duke Student Government Presidentjordan Giordano addressed the Sept. 17 DSG weekly meeting, he began his discussion of whether to cut funds from student groups with a warning: “The following,” he said, “is off the record.” When this portion of the meeting was removed from the official minutes that had been publicly available on the DSG Web site, Execuanalysis | DSG tive Vice President Sunny Kantha, a senior, explained that the information had been, at first, accidentally kept in the minutes “If we say off the record, it means off the record,” he said And when The Chronicle obtained the results of the Sept. 15 referendum the night of the election —10 hours before DSC informed the student body —it was unable to print them. The information was, again, off the record. DSG last week adopted a new policy of communicating with students through self-contained mediums such as blast
e-mails and biweekly newsletters —methods, Giordano said, that are more “direct” than those used by previous administrations. “In the past, Duke Student Government has relied on other means of communication that do not communicate directly to students, but we believe direct communication is best,” Giordano wrote in a statement posted on the DSG Web site. “Our bylaws require notification ofreferendums and amendments in student publications—thus our original notification through that medium; however, based on student feedback from my September 12th e-mail, direct blast e-mail will continue to be our means of communication.” Giordano, a senior, agreed to be interviewed for this story only by e-mail. Several past DSG leaders, however, sharply criticized the shift away from second-degree news sources. “If you’re any government, and you don’t like what the SEE DSG ON PAGE 5