The Chronicle DUKE vs. VIRGINIA M ■SSTi Wallace Wade. SATURDAY* 12 p.m..
RLHS opens
ESPNU
Duke shoots for Ist league win reassigment applications by
Stephen Allan THE CHRONICLE
One sign Duke has been one of the
worst programs in the nation: in three
by
games, it has already exceeded its win total from the previous two seasons. A more important one: the Blue Devils are the only BCS-conference team in those two years to not win a league game. In fact, they haven’t won one since 2004. “I don’t think anybody would imagine that when they sign on the dotted line,” linebacker Michael Tauiliili said. For Duke (2-1), that nightmare can end against Virginia (1-2) Saturday at 12 p.m. at Wallace Wade Stadium. A win would snap a 25-game conference losing streak and give theBlue Devils just theirsecond ACC win in 33 tries. And lest any of the players try to ignore that string of futility, head coach David Cutcliffe is ready to drill the embarrassment of the last three seasons into their heads. “We made the statement that we’ve got to join the ACC first—we’ve got to get in the game,” Cutcliffe said. “I try to talk truth to the players. I don’t sugarcoat anything.... The fact of the matter is our seniors are 0-24 in their threeyear careers playing in the ACC. We’ve got a few redshirts and theyre 1-31.” In doing so, Cutcliffe has probably reminded his team ofall the chances it had to snap that 25-game slide. There were the games two years ago against Wake Forest and Miami, when the Blue
Shuchi Parikh THE CHRONICLE
to
MAX MASNICK/CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO
Thaddeus Lewis and theBlue Devils aim for theirfirst conference Win since 2002 Saturday against Virginia. Devils could not score inside the red zone to win the game, and there was the Wake Forest game last year, when, down by 25 points, Duke could not complete a rally and ended up losing 41-36. And most glaring have been the last two games against North Carolina, as the Blue Devils lost both on kicking errors. The one common thread among those games—and numerous others in which
Duke stayed competitive —was a failure to adjust and execute in the second half'. That has changed drastically this year, with the Blue Devils outscoring opponents 48-14 after the intermission. “It’s amazing to see how quickly [the staff] can make adjustments,” Tauiliili said. “It’s all about the fourth-quarter victories and beating SEE FOOTBALL ON PAGE 12
Chronicle avoids Kristen Davis THE CHRONICLE
The
newspaper you hold in your hand has not
changed dramatically since the 19705. But the
business side that makes The Chronicle’s con-
tent
possible has evolved to sustain Duke’s student
newspaper over the years. Despite the chill of economic 771 J wU downturn experienced by some commercial and college newspa- Dv* ■{ 9 ■*“ T* pers, The Chronicle remains relarelit 3 013 lively “insulated” from both the shift away from physical papers to online content and drastic revenue decrease, said junior Chelsea Allison, editor of The Chronicle and president of Duke Student Publishing Company. Unlike most of its “real world” journalistic counterparts, the paper has a defined niche—the Duke community. Moreover, the University places a large *
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BY MARQUISE ELOI/THE CHRONICLE
Although some newspapers have cut staff and distribution due to low profit
margins,The Chronicle has been largely insulated from the economic tumult.
Oct. 31, after which Residence Life and Housing Services officials will determine assignments for Few Quadrangle and other on-campus bed spaces. Students may apply for reassignment, a new roommate or housing cancellations for a semester abroad or on leave, RLHS officials wrote in an e-mail to students Thursday. The requests—which are solicited every year for Spring housing—will determine rearrangements while giving preference to those returning from study abroad, said Jen Frank, assistant director ofaccommodations for RLHS. She added that assignments will be made with a goal of “maximizing happiness,” noting that RLHS is making the assumption that some students currently living on campus will request housing in Few, though students returning from abroad who wish to live there will get greater priority. “We’re going for a balanced approach rather than blanketly denying one group [their requests],” she said. More than 400 bed spaces in Few and about 150 to 200 in other West Campus quads and on Central Campus will be vacant in Spring, according to the RLHS Web site. The organization hopes to notify students of assignments around Thanksgiving Break, Frank said.
sdownward trend industry by
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION
Undergraduates may request changes their Spring housing assignments by
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percentage of the ads in the paper, said Jonathan Angier, general manager of The Chronicle. He added, however, that the paper is responding to similar hardships that affect the media industry today, albeit to a lesser extent. “Because the housing market has gone down in the last year and a half, the number of ads has decreased,” he added. “As a result we have to print fewer pages, which decreases the news hole. All newspapers have to work out a formula for the ratio between ads and news, and we’re no exception to that.”
Maintaining ad revenue Because The Chronicle attracts the attention of so many students, the paper is prime ad real estate for people who want to reach students. About 40 percent of the paper’s ad revenue comes from departments SEE CHRONICLE ON PAGE 10