by Lindsey RuppTHE CHRONICLE

President Richard Brodhead announced Tuesday that the University is almost half-way toward eliminating its budget deficit.

Brodhead said officials now estimate Duke’s overall deficit to be “in the range of $100 million.”

In his Primetime address to about 75 audi-ence members in Page Auditorium and 100 online viewers, Brodhead said a number of circumstances have improved since officials announced the original estimate of $125 mil-lion. Primetime addresses are quarterly talks between senior administrators, staff and fac-ulty about the University budget.

He added that efforts to cut the budget have already reduced the deficit by $50 to $60 million through cuts already enacted or identified. He offered few details as to how Duke will eliminate the remaining amount.

“It’s not a time when we can stop being disciplined,” Brodhead said. “We think we’ve solved more than half the problem in the first

by Shaoli ChaudhuriTHE CHRONICLE

After 10 days in Haiti, the Duke medi-cal team sent in the wake of last month’s earthquake returned home Monday.

The 14-member team of special-ized doctors and nurses––led by Dr. Ian Greenwald, chief medical officer of Duke Health’s Preparedness and Response Cen-ter––set out Feb. 5 to support two Partners

in Health hospitals in the island nation. Partners in Health, a global health orga-nization co-founded by Duke Trustee Dr. Paul Farmer, Trinity ’82, runs one hospital in the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and one in the neighboring city of Cange.

“Our team worked 16 hours a day in 100-plus degree heat,” Greenwald wrote in an e-mail. “The work was hard. The condi-tions were suboptimal. But I am confident

we made a difference.”All but two team members returned

Saturday, said Dr. Mark Shapiro, a trauma surgeon who served on the team. Dr. Cam-eron Wolfe, an infectious diseases physi-cian, and Nancy Payne, a clinical nurse specialist, remained in Haiti until another medical team could take over, and are

The ChronicleThe independenT daily aT duke universiTy

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH YEAR, ISSUE 97www.dukechronicle.com

Renfree rehabs as spring practice begins, Page 8

onTherecord“This is the beginning of the program. It will help North

Carolina recover from this crisis more readily.” —Pat Simmons, director of the NCDOT’s rail division, on a federal grant. See story page 3

Durham Public SchoolsThe school system received a $1.25 million

grant from a national foundation, see story page 3

SEE Primetime ON PAGE 6

SEE Haiti ON PAGE 5

University dining system remains in fluxby Sanette Tanaka

THE CHRONICLE

Negotiations regarding the overhaul of Duke Dining to re-duce the current $2.2 million deficit are still under wraps.

Campus leaders involved in the discussions—including Vice President for Campus Services Kemel Dawkins, Director of Dining

Services Jim Wulforst and Duke Student Govern-ment President Awa Nur, a senior—met Tuesday to discuss changes but reached no resolution. Adjustments to dining should be finalized this week, Dawkins said. Wulforst declined to com-ment for this story.

“The deficit is real, and we want to fix it with the least harm to students,” said DSG Chief of Staff Mike Lefevre, a junior. “We don’t want only undergraduates to be hit.”

After the meeting, Nur, Lefevre and sopho-more Pete Schork, DSG vice president for athletics and campus services, created a list of student provisions for the administra-tion, including setting an expiration date of one year for any din-ing changes and eliminating faculty and staff discounts on food.

“We haven’t put any number on a fee or figured out what the entire package will look like, but pending these stipulations, we will consider a variety of proposals,” Lefevre said.

Previous plans to close the gap included “directed choice” and

a “freedom tax.” Under directed choice, students would have be required to spend 500 to 700 food points at non-contracted Bon Appétit Management Company vendors, including the Great Hall and the Marketplace. A freedom tax would have charged students a 6 percent tax on food points spent at contracted eateries.

Both plans are now off the table, but changes must still be made because the current dining model is unsustainable, Schork said.

Although alterations to dining have not been finalized, Lefe-vre said students can expect both internal changes—which will affect faculty and staff—and administrative changes, such as fee increases and food plan changes. Freshmen may experience the most dramatic modifications of all, including fewer food points in each of the plans. The points in the base allocation may de-crease to $300 from $370.

Decreasing allotted food points would ideally shift freshmen from eating at contracted eateries to eating more meals at the Marketplace, increasing the amount of funds going to Bon Ap-pétit and Dining.

But Lefevre said such a plan would not alleviate the deficit, and students would continue to eat at contracted locations.

“What would the freshman reaction be? They would hate it,” Lefevre said. “It would be frustrating, but they would cope and in the end, their parents would add more [points].”

SEE dining ON PAGE 6

$50M deficit remains, says Brodhead

ian greenWaLD/speciaL to the chronicLe

The Duke medical team in Haiti evacuates an earthquake victim via helicopter to the USNS Comfort, a navy hospital ship, for surgical treatment.

Medical team returns from Haiti

courtney DougLas/the chronicLe

President Richard Brodhead spoke to employees and other audience members in Page Auditorium Tuesday on efforts to decrease Duke’s budget deficit.

President: ‘Let’s step up to its challenges’

Revised estimate shows cuts ahead of schedule

Jim Wulforst

2 | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010 ThE ChRoNiClE

worldandnationBuenos aires, argentina — argentina

is driving up exploration costs for British oil companies seeking to drill near the disputed Falkland islands, escalating tensions over the remote south atlantic archipelago that led the two countries to war in 1982.

argentina is forbidding vessels that stop at the Falklands to load cargoes at its ports for the 8,000-mile return journey to europe. that’s likely to increase costs, Mark Jenkins, a director at ship-broker simpson spence & young said in an inter-view. Voyages “will be more expensive,” he said.

argentina summoned British embassy offi-cials to issue its “most energetic protest against the imminent start of drilling” near the Falklands, known in argentina as Las Malvinas, on Feb. 2. London-based Desire petroleum, which plans to start drilling offshore the islands this month, fell 4.68 percent in two days after argentina said Feb. 11 it had refused to let the thor Leader car-go ship leave a river port.

“ ”All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together.

— Jack Kerouac

TODAY IN HISTORY1967: Beatles release “Straw-

berry Fields.”

Washington, D. c. — conocophillips, Bp and caterpillar have dropped out of the u.s. climate action partnership (us-cap), the coalition of corporations and environmental groups that has been most prominent in pushing congress to pass cap-and-trade legislation.

the loss of three major companies has dealt a blow to the now 28-member group and further dims prospects for the cap-and-trade bill that passed the house last summer and is awaiting action in the senate.

conocophillips and Bp said uscap has served its purpose and that they prefer to pursue their interests independently. conoco and Bp pulled out Monday, cat-erpillar last week.

conoco and Bp cited concerns about the effect that proposed climate legislation might have on the oil refining business.

Child obesity finally easesWashington, D. c. — the rate of child-

hood obesity and chronic health prob-lems doubled in the united states from 1988 to 2006 with fewer cases toward the end of the study consistent with a recent leveling off, researchers found.

children ages 8 to 14 showed an obesity rate of 15.8 percent at the end of 2006, com-pared with 8.3 percent in a similar period that ended in 1994, according to a study pub-lished online tuesday in the Journal of the american Medical association. the overall rate of chronic childhood health conditions including obesity, asthma and behavioral or learning problems increased to 26.6 percent from 12.8 percent during the same years.

the report comes a week after first lady Michelle obama began a nationwide cam-paign against childhood obesity, urging american youths to get more exercise and develop healthier eating habits.

toDay:

4224 thursDay:

4424

Oil search revives old battles

United States climate lobby loses three important firms

Online Excerpt

MarVin Joseph/the Washington post

Johnny C. Green, left, and his cousin, Willie Russell, of Eufaula, Alabama, join other black farmers at a rally near the U.S. Department of Agriculture building in Washington, D.C. Tuesday. The farmers hope to persuade the government to fund a 1999 court settlement in a case known as Pigford. The case would compensate them for long-standing racial bias in federal farm programs.

after Duke’s 77-56 win this week-end over Maryland, a reporter asked Mike Krzyzewski about the rumor that the new Jersey nets are interested in him as their next head coach. “the guy (prospective nets owner Mikhail prokhorov) is russian, right? you think they’d hire a polish guy? really? really?”

“no one’s contacted me,” Krzyzewski went on to say. “if they did, to say ‘nyet’ would be easy for me.”

— From The Sports Blogsports.chronicleblogs.com

ThE ChRoNiClE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010 | 3

by Allison SchulhofTHE CHRONICLE

Starting this year, six Durham schools will receive extra help to close a racial achievement gap.

The National Education Association Foundation awarded Durham Public Schools a $1.25 million grant from its Closing the Achievement Gaps Initia-tive, the group announced last week. The money will combat dropout rates among black males in the school system.

Almost 45 percent of black males in the district do not graduate on time, com-pared to only about 13.5 percent of white males, according to DPS statistics provid-ed to the NEA.

“We know that at this time, African-American males are at the lowest of any demographic,” said DPS School Board Chair Minnie Forte-Brown, referring to graduation rates “They are not graduat-ing high school with their cohort.... And when they are graduating, many times they are ill-prepared for college. Now this means that there is something that we should be doing because we cannot allow a subgroup of individuals in our district to be at this point.”

The money, which will be spent over a period of five years, will go toward de-veloping strategic interventions that close the achievement gap between black males and their peers. The Durham Association of Educators is working with DPS to ex-plore strategies like teacher training, cul-tural competence, mentoring, academic coaching and home visits, DPS School Board Vice Chair Heidi Carter said.

The grant will go to six schools in Durham: Eno Valley Elementary, Chewn-

ing Middle, Northern High, Fayetteville Street Elementary, Lowe’s Grove Middle and Hillside High.

Individual schools will be allowed to determine which specific strategies they will implement, said DAE President Kristy Moore.

This is not the first time that NEA funds have gone toward initiatives meant to close the achievement gap for minority students. Almost six years ago, the NEA

foundation invested $6.2 million in its pi-lot initiative, which sought to narrow the achievement gap in schools districts lo-cated in Chattanooga, Tenn., Milwaukee and Seattle.

In the three pilot sites, achievement gains have been made since the program was implemented, and each site has seen certain improvements, according to the

Local schools get $1.25 million grant

Kat shirreLL/the chronicLe

The National Education Association Foundation granted Durham Public Schools $1.25 million to help curb the dropout rate for black males, which is the highest among any demographic.

SEE dPS ON PAGE 7

NC railroad creation to increase jobs

by Alejandro BolívarTHE CHRONICLE

Governor Bev Perdue announced Tuesday that the development of high speed rail net-works in North Carolina will create or main-tain 4,800 jobs in the next four years, 1,000 of which will be seen within the coming year.

President Barack Obama’s American Re-covery and Reinvestment Act awarded $545 million to the state Jan. 28 to implement high speed rail, an amount about equal to what North Carolina receives annually from the Federal Highway Trust Fund. North Car-olina is among several other states to receive grant funding for this purpose.

“These rail projects are going to have far-reaching benefits for North Carolin-ians,” Perdue said in a statement Tuesday. “They will put people to work while provid-ing transportation, environmental and en-ergy benefits through reduced congestion and improved air quality.”

Environmental Protection Agency Ad-ministrator Lisa Jackson traveled to Dur-ham Jan. 28 to announce the grant.

“I suspect [Durham was chosen for Jack-son’s announcement] because Durham has done quite a bit to focus on regional and local transportation, given the renovated Amtrak station and the new Durham Sta-tion Transportation Center,” said Mayor

SEE grant ON PAGE 7

4 | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010 ThE ChRoNiClE

Paula Long, Trinity ’09, and former Benjamin N. Duke Scholar, was awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, Cambridge University officials announced Friday.

The scholarship, which was awarded to 29 graduate students from 20 states and 24 universities across the Unit-ed States, covers the full cost of studying at Cambridge, including travel to England and an annual stipend. An October 2000 donation of $210 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funds the scholarship.

Long hails from Carrboro, N.C. While at Duke, she was an English major and studied in Jordan for a semes-ter. Her studies focused on gender and the work force in the Middle East, and at Duke she led an organization aimed to promote peace and understanding among Ar-abs, Jews, Muslims and Israelis through dialogue. After graduating from Duke, Long studied Arabic at the Uni-versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She was selected from a pool of approximately 800

applicants this year. The Cambridge selection commit-tees whittled the list down to 220, then to about 100 can-didates over two selection rounds based on “intellectual ability, leadership potential, a commitment to improving the lives of others and a good fit with Cambridge,” ac-cording to the scholarship’s Web site.

The finalists attended interviews in Annapolis, Md. earlier this month, from which the 29 scholarship win-ners were selected. Another 50 Gates Scholars will be selected next month following interviews for candidates outside the U.S.

From 2001 to 2009, 911 Gates Cambridge Scholarships have been awarded to students from around the world.

According to a University news release, Long will pur-sue a master’s degree in Modern Middle Eastern Studies while at Cambridge and plans to enter academia follow-ing her studies.

—from staff reports

Duke grad receives scholarship

by Ray KohTHE CHRONICLE

Duke University Union hopes to expand its programs under a newly elected president—current Major Speakers Director Yi Zhang, a junior.

Zhang will begin her term April 2. She will succeed current President Zach Perret, a senior. Members of the DUU Executive Board and the University Union Board elected Zhang from a pool of four candidates after ex-tensive interviews and discussions Saturday evening.

“I am really excited to utilize new venues next year and make DUU events more enjoyable,” Zhang said.

Vice President of Communications Karen Chen, a junior, said Zhang has the ability to motivate fellow members.

Perret said he was impressed with Zhang’s work as Major Speakers Director.

“Yi has brought a ton of great speak-ers and pushed the committee to

achieve better things,” he said. “She has a great poten-tial to bring the union to better and higher places.”

Zhang added that she wishes to collaborate with student affairs committees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.

She said she would like to develop the mentor relation-ship between advisers from the Office of Student Activities and Facilities and DUU.

“OSAF advisors are a great resource,” Zhang said.

in other business:DUU tentatively scheduled the Cameron Rocks concert

for 8 p.m., April 1.Two artists—whose names will be released when paperwork

is finalized tomorrow—will perform at the show, said Major At-tractions Director Liz Turner, a senior. She added that DUU will hire professional designers to create posters for the show.

The Battle of the Bands competition between Duke and UNC will take place for the second time March 20 at 6 p.m. at the Coffeehouse, said Campus Concert Series Director Shin Chang, a junior.

Applications can be submitted until March 3, and three bands will be selected from each university to per-form. Chang said she hopes to continue this tradition in the future.

“It is a celebration of student music, and we hope to foster a relationship between Duke and UNC in music,” she said.

stephen FarVer/the chronicLe

At the Duke University Union meeting Tuesday night, members discuss plans for the April 1 Cameron Rocks concert.

DUkE UNIvERSITY UNION

Zhang elected next Union president

Yi Zhang

Space, finances cited as constraints

ThE ChRoNiClE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010 | 5

JaMes Lee/the chronicLe

Performers related their personal experiences as part of the Off Broadway play “My First Time” Tuesday in Reynolds Theater.

First time for everythingscheduled to return today.

“I think we pretty much had one goal [going in], and that was to support the Haitians in getting back on their feet,” Shapiro said. “We weren’t there to necessarily do the work for them. We weren’t there to make these patients necessarily ours. We were there to support them in any way possible.”

During the 10-day stay, the team split into two groups so that both facilities and their patients could be aided si-multaneously.

The conditions of the two hospitals, however, were dra-matically different, said Shapiro and Katie Sligh, a clinical nurse on the team.

“[In Cange,] we had running water… it was still rela-tively clean and the people were very nice and it was a very safe working environment [though] the hospital was over-whelmed,” Shapiro said. “But once you entered the general hospital in Port-au-Prince, the conditions were Spartan.”

He added that the team had to work by the light of head lamps at night.

In one hospital at which several team members worked, only one building escaped unscathed in the destruction by the Jan. 12 earthquake.

“People were living in tent structures,” Sligh said. “The hospital in Port-au-Prince was working with really limited resources.... A lot of [non-governmental organizations] were supplying staff and personnel to work.”

In retrospect, Sligh said that given the devastation in Haiti, the team’s efforts were “only a drop in the bucket.”

But Shapiro said the medical team exceeded its goals and objectives.

“We went in there with such strength and such determi-nation... we were basically an entire operational staff,” he said. “We could pretty much go 24 hours if we needed to.”

Greenwald noted that careful planning allowed the team to fulfill its mission.

“We worked hard pre-departure to ensure we were bringing just the right amount of staff with the correct skill set to meet the needs on the ground,” he wrote in an e-mail. “If we didn’t feel we were making a significant impact and justifying our presence it would have been better to go home. In the end, the team did a whole lot of good.”

HAITI from page 1

6 | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010 ThE ChRoNiClE

Other fee adjustments may in-clude increases in students’ admin-istrative or dining services fees. Stu-dent dining plans may also increase in price by 6 percent instead of the annual 3 percent increase, although the amount of food points received would not change, Nur said.

Nur added that with more than 40 percent of students currently receiving financial aid, much of the costs would revert back to the University.

“Obviously, the fees that are charged to students are a concern for everyone,” Director of Financial Aid Alison Rabil said. “In the end, it’s [the administration’s] decision, and they understand that by making that decision, lots are impacted.”

The fees are a temporary mea-sure to help the administration cope with the deficit, Lefevre said. The proposed measures to fix the deficit will not be applicable a year from now.

“This is a financial band-aid, a bailout from the students for an organization that is failing to be lucrative,” he said. “We’re willing to give as much as we have to, but [the administration] must rethink their model because we’re not pay-ing their way out of their mess.”

To ensure that the fee increase is not permanent, Lefevre said DSG plans to draft a written con-tract and present it to the Board of Trustees to hold the adminis-tration accountable.

Over the next few years, Dining would have to substantially revamp

its current model to become prof-itable without relying on student fees, Schork said. Ideally, the ad-ditional money from the students would be reinvested in Dining.

Lefevre attributed the deficit to the surplus of contracted vendors on campus and added that there are plans to close some eateries. In their list of stipulations, DSG lead-ers asked to be included in talks regarding the closures, as well as regarding contract re-negotiations with privatized vendors.

Currently, they are looking to make the core dining locations more appealing, evaluate staff-customer relations and improve the overall quality of food on cam-pus, Nur said.

“We’re pushing for a complete and total restructuring of Dining in the sense that we have known for

several years now that dining can-not sustain 33 vendors,” she said.

Neither DSG nor the administra-tion has signed on to any concrete plan. Negotiations have persisted be-cause of the vast number of variables involved and the various proposals from either side, Lefevre said.

“We’re not done yet, but this may well be our last working meet-ing,” Dawkins said. “I’m hoping to finish everything up this week.”

Lefevre said the entire negoti-ation process has been everything but transparent.

“It’s going to look like we’re im-posing some unfortunate changes, but if we hadn’t been [present at the meetings], it would have been so much worse,” he said. “It won’t make us popular, but at the end of the day, we, as students, have to make our cut.”

DINING from page 1

Faith roBertson/chronicLe FiLe photo

Although their food points may remain constant, students may see their dining service fees rise up to 6 percent. Officials expect to finalize the new plans by the end of the week.

one-third of the time we’ve given ourselves to do it. So it’s a good start, but nevertheless we still have a significant way to go.”

Brodhead noted that the University has already elimi-nated the equivalent of 450 full-time jobs and said “with fair con-fidence” that there would be no large-scale layoffs.

“I cannot promise that we’ll have no layoffs,” he said. “Duke has a very decentralized budget-ary system, and as each part of it figures out how to best manage its business, there may be layoffs here and there.”

Brodhead also could not say whether faculty and staff would re-ceive raises or bonuses this year.

Last year, Duke announced a pay freeze for individuals mak-ing more than $50,000 annu-ally and a one-time payment of $1,000 for those making at or below $50,000.

Although Brodhead said no decision on raises will be reached for four to six weeks, he emphasized that any increases would be modest.

“If we give out big raises this year, we only compound the prob-lem we have to solve—so what do we do? Do we cut your benefits so we can afford your raises? Lay off people so we can afford the benefits and raises of those who remain? You may not like it, but all these things trade off in a very immediate way,” Brodhead said.

By foregoing bonuses and

raises last year, Brodhead said the University saved $18 million and protected about 200 jobs.

He added that he does not anticipate making cuts to em-ployee benefits.

As Duke tries to create a sus-tainable budget, Brodhead said the University will continue to look for ways to cut costs and boost revenues. He cited the Duke Administrative Reform Team’s efforts to boost University efficiency as part of the effort to cut the remaining millions from the deficit.

One DART change going into effect is a standardized, central computer purchasing process. The effort will save the University an estimated $2 mil-lion annually by negotiating bulk discounts through Dell, Le-novo and Apple and by extend-ing the useful life of computers at Duke, according to a Duke news release Tuesday.

The new program will serve those who use standard of-fice software, enterprise ap-plications and data analysis or graphic applications, according to the release.

Despite the approximately $50 million left to cut, Brodhead said he is confident that “at the end of the day, Duke will be fine.”

“I say to myself, let’s look this moment in the eye, let’s take the measure of its challenges, and let’s step up to its challenges,” Brodhead said. “We can make it our place to make this place stronger at this time, and with your help that’s what we’ll do.”

PRIMETIME from page 1

ThE ChRoNiClE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010 | 7

Bill Bell, adding that both projects are located next to each other in downtown Durham, encouraging users to walk.

Pat Simmons, director of the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s rail division, said the Durham Amtrak station was representative of downtown Durham’s redevel-opment, adding that the station—which was renovated last year—is located in James Buchanan Duke’s first tobacco warehouse, next to where Duke’s house once stood.

In a speech delivered at Jackson’s announcement, Rep. Da-vid Price, D-N.C., said that throughout the last 20 years, federal funding for high speed rail projects has been minimal.

In 1992, the U.S. Department of Transportation estab-lished five corridors for high speed rail in the country. One of them, the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor, was to run between Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Va. and also link Raleigh and Charlotte. One of the SEHSR’s goals was to be connected to the high speed corridor in the northeast, con-necting Boston, Mass. with Washington, D.C.

In 1996, then-governor Jim Hunt established the goal

of a two-hour travel time from Charlotte to Raleigh. The grant builds on this goal, with trains reaching average speeds of 86 miles per hour.

NCDOT developed the application for funding, which was submitted Oct. 2, 2009 and had a “focus on reliability, safety and something called capacity,” Simmons said. He added that two out of five funding requests were awarded, with more to come once additional funding becomes available.

Cooperation between local and private entities and the railroads was crucial to the project, Bell said.

Part of the money is to be spent on new locomotives, renovating existing stations and building double track projects, passing sidings and bridges.

“The problem with high speed rail is that you can’t have a high speed train traveling through curves,” Bell said.

Simmons said 150 communities across the state, as well as the full Congressional Board, sent in resolutions of support.

“This is the beginning of the program,” Simmons said. “It will help North Carolina recover from this crisis more readily. It will make infrastructure that will last for genera-tions and will give us a good foundation as we go forward to compete in the regional and international marketplace.”

NEA. In the pilot schools in Milwaukee, high school gradua-tion rates among low-income and minority students are now at 70 percent and growing four times faster than the district average, according to NEA statistics.

As a result of the positive changes in teaching and learn-ing in these pilot communities, NEA extended the project. This past week, Durham and two other school districts—Columbus, Ohio and Springfield, Mass.—were chosen among 14,000 other school districts who also submitted grant proposals.

“The NEA Foundation established a set of eligibility requirements, implemented a competitive process and se-lected sites based on their readiness and capacity to achieve the... initiative outcomes,” William Miles, NEA Foundation director of programs, wrote in an e-mail. “In particular, we looked for evidence of collaboration between the local educators’ association and district, meaningful analysis of data about the achievement gaps, focus on teaching and learning, parental engagement and the potential of sys-temic transformation as a result of these efforts.”

Carter also said Durham was chosen for a reason, add-ing that the relationships between the DAE, DPS, Univer-sity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina Cen-tral University and local business leaders were a key basis for earning the grant.

“One reason we received the grant was that Durham has a track record of successful collaboration among the edu-cators at the teacher level and at the administration level, as well as with the community,” Carter said. “It’s about community partnership.”

Even though the $1.25 million is a fraction of the dis-trict’s $451 million annual budget, Forte-Brown said it will make a big difference in the community.

“It is really exciting for Durham,” she said. “When we look at where this grant has been placed, it has made a vast difference. We are getting ready to change some things. When we change this, we change Durham. When we do this, the rippling effect is going to be enormous for our city.”

DPS from page 3

GRANT from page 3

tyLer seuc/the chronicLe

Gov. Bev Perdue announced Tuesday that construction of a new rail system in North Carolina will create up to 4,800 jobs over the next four years.

Men’s basketball

Blue Devils hope to stay on course vs. ’Canes

DUKE MIAMICoral Gables, Fla. • WEDNESDAY • 7 p.m. • ESPN

by Tim VisutipolTHE CHRONICLE

Duke has proven that it knows how to defend its home court, and its record at Cameron Indoor Stadium stands at 14-0. However, the Blue Devils have shown weak-ness during their travels—even against the ACC’s worst team, N.C. State.

Tonight, Duke (21-4, 9-2 in the ACC) hopes to avoid a similar defeat to one of the conference’s lesser lights.

After taking a one-game lead at the top of the ACC by defeating Maryland last Sat-urday, No. 6 Duke looks to cement its place at the top against Miami at the BankUnited Center at 7 p.m.

Having started the season with three straight losses on the road, Duke has won the last two away from Durham. Should the

SEE miami ON pAgE 12

maya robinson/The ChroniCle

Duke head coach Mike krzyzewski is 11-1 in his career against Miami, with the lone loss coming on the road.

After Duke beat UNC last week, I got an e-mail from one of my friends contain-ing his thoughts from the game. Included was this comment: “Scheyer, Smith and Singler playing 40, 39 and 40 minutes. Sure it was UNC on the road, but this is a trend and they will break down.”

Among Duke fans and people That Talk About College Basketball On Televi-sion (Hi pat Forde!), it’s become the

gospel truth that Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski plays his best guys too many minutes, leading his team to collapse from exhaustion

down the stretch every season.But like giordano Bruno, who was

burned at the stake, I don’t buy the gospel truth.

Let’s break this up into its parts and approach it scientifically. (That’s right, I’m about to blind you with science.) 1. Duke collapses down the stretch. 2. Duke’s stars play too many minutes.

First we’ll tackle the idea that Duke collapses down the stretch.

It’s easy to see why people would be-lieve that Duke struggles in the latter part of the season. The 2006 team—ranked No. 1 nearly all year—lost its final two confer-ence games and then fell to LSU in the Sweet 16. The 2007 Blue Devils climbed as high as fifth in the polls before losing eight of their last 12 games, including their last four. In 2008, Duke peaked at No. 2 in the rankings, and then promptly finished 6-5.

But three years of data make up what scientists call anecdotal evidence (and TV commentators call gospel truth). So I went back and looked at Duke’s game-by-game results in all ACC games since the team’s last trip to the Final Four in 2004. Using the database at kenpom.com, I determined efficiency margin (offensive points per possession minus defensive points per possession) for every ACC game, including the conference tourna-ment. I used only ACC games to keep quality of opponents relatively con-trolled, and used per-possession statistics

SEE fanaroff ON pAgE 10

SportsThe Chronicle

www.dukechroniclesports.com

WEDNESDAYFebruary 17, 2010

>> FOOTBALL Former Duke wide recievers coach Scottie Montgomery has accepted the same po-sition with the NFL’s Pitts-burgh Steelers after four seasons in Durham

Duke does decline, objectively speaking

AlexFanaroff

Football

Renfree’s injury leaves QB questions

lawson kurTz/ChroniCle file phoTo

Quarterback sean Refree, Duke’s presumed starter next year, will miss the blue Devils’ spring game next month while rehabbing a knee injury.

by Taylor DohertyTHE CHRONICLE

When redshirt freshman quarterback Sean Ren-free fell to the field against georgia Tech in Duke’s second-to-last game of the season, he thought he had simply twisted his knee. It felt like a punch to the back of his leg—or, maybe someone had fallen on it, he thought. After four or five seconds of pain, it didn’t even hurt anymore.

But an hour later, in the company of the team’s training staff and doctors, Renfree’s fears were realized by the results of an MRI: An ACL tear ended his red-shirt freshman campaign prematurely, and Renfree’s presumed future as the Blue Devils’ quarterback in the wake of Thaddeus Lewis’s graduation was put on hold. And while the physical obstacle was obvious at once, a mental one emerged when the freshman saw the film.

“I watched it with my coach and if I had made... a read right, I could have just thrown the ball and I wouldn’t have had to move or anything,” Renfree said. “I wouldn’t have gotten hurt.... It’s tough to know, just something that was mental for me. If I had just done the right thing mentally, I wouldn’t have gotten hurt physically. But that can happen to anyone, an ACL tear, just any awkward movement to your knee.”

Renfree ended the season with 330 yards passing and completed 34 of his 50 pass attempts. Against Army, he led Duke to a 39-19 victory, throwing for 106 yards, two touchdowns and completing all but one of his eight pass attempts after the Blue Devils were behind 10-7 at halftime.

Now, three months since Renfree’s Nov. 14 fall, the quarterback is focused on rehabbing the injury, which involves lots of swimming, improving balance

SEE renfree ON pAgE 9

The ChroniCle WeDneSDAY, FeBrUArY 17, 2010 | 9

two quarterbacks, he said.

During Cutcliffe’s time as Tennessee’s offensive coordi-nator, then-freshman peyton Manning was the team’s only quarterback as spring practice neared and Cutcliffe had to scramble to get two players under center just to be able to conduct a practice.

At a press conference Friday, Cutcliffe admitted that it would indeed be difficult for the team to go through the spring with this lack of depth at quarterback—especially given the pair’s youth—but noted that redshirt freshman Schroeder gained valuable experience in practice last August when Lewis not only had an ankle injury but also caught the flu.

“We didn’t advertise how little Thad practiced,” Cutc-liffe said. “But Sean Renfree and Sean Schroeder were our quarterbacks last fall. We didn’t have another answer, so that kid got thrown in the fire. I’ve never put—even pey-ton [Manning]—a freshman quarterback in as early as he was, repping every twos because of the necessity of it.”

For the Blue Devils, preparing for the fall knowing that Renfree will be back in a number of months should work, but the team will suddenly find it hard to conduct practice if one of the young quarterbacks gets injured.

“I’m not going to play second-string quarterback, so if one of them gets banged up, we’ve got a problem,” Cutc-liffe added with a smile.

and regaining strength that the quarterback noted had quickly disappeared. When Renfree went home over Christmas break, he received no rest: Renfree’s father, Dr. Kevin Renfree, is an orthopedic surgeon. Dr. Ren-free not only saw to it that his son attended physical therapy sessions Monday through Friday, but also gave him careful instructions on how to get the most out of

RenFRee from page 8his weekends. Three months out of surgery, Renfree has regained flexibility in his knee but is still two or three months from being ready for contact drills.

Beyond attending team workouts, Renfree’s ability to par-ticipate actively in practice is still very limited, but he is now able to step into throws and deliver his receivers the ball.

“He’s throwing now—you know, he’s still got it,” ris-ing sophomore Connor Vernon said. “He’s not dropping back yet or anything like that, or running or doing any kind of that stuff. We’re doing drills and we’re doing

drills with him. We’ll run our routes and he’s throwing them just standing there.”

With Renfree out of action, Duke has just two quar-terbacks who can take part in full-contact drills as the Blue Devils’ March 27 spring game approaches: redshirt freshman Sean Schroeder and true freshman Brandon Connette, who enrolled at Duke at the start of this se-mester. Neither of those two has ever seen game action, and in all of Cutcliffe’s seasons as a Division-1 head coach, he has never gone into spring practice with just

lawson kurTz/ChroniCle file phoTo

In sean Renfree’s absence, Duke is relying on two inexperienced signal-callers during the spring, sean schroeder and brandon Connette.

“If I had just done the right thing mentally, I wouldn’t have gotten

hurt physically.” — QB Sean Renfree

10 | WeDneSDAY, FeBrUArY 17, 2010 The ChroniCle

so that I could compare efficiency without regard to a team’s style.

I expected to shine the bright light of “statistics” and “math” on the anecdotal idiocy around me. I thought I’d debunk the idea that Duke had a tendency to fade down the stretch.

But I was wrong. As it turns out, Duke does have a

tendency to fade down the stretch. The Blue Devils’ efficiency margin dropped, on average, by 0.01 points per possession per game. That doesn’t seem like much, but it adds up. Assuming 67-possession games (the national average), the Blue Devils declined by 13 points relative to their opponents over the course of the 19-game conference season (0.01 x 67 posessions x 19 games = 13 points). January’s double-digit win became March’s nail-biter—or even worse.

You can make the argument that as the calendar turns from January to February to March, the Blue Devils’ conference oppo-nents gain an increasing sense of urgency—needing a big win to make the Tournament while Duke’s postseason fate is sealed. But other traditional powers like North Carolina and Michigan State have historically main-tained constant efficiency margins through-out their conference schedule.

While Duke does have a tendency to fade down the stretch, that still doesn’t prove that these late-season slides are due to playing its players too many minutes.

Yes, Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith are averaging 36.6, 35.5 and 35.2 minutes per game this season. Yes, they’re second, third and fourth in the ACC in minutes played per game. Yes, Duke has had at least two players average over 32 minutes per game in every season except one since 2005. Yes, this year’s five Blue

Devils earning the most minutes (these are nominally the “starters,” though they might not start every game) play 75.4 percent of the available minutes—among the highest percentages in the country. And yes, Duke annually ranks near the top in this statistic.

But it’s not like playing more than 35 minutes in a basketball game is some sort of great feat. Forty-nine NBA players are currently averaging more than 35 minutes per game, and no one ever talks about Tyreke Evans—who should be a sophomore at Memphis this year—collapsing down the stretch. And it’s not like Scheyer, Singler and Smith didn’t know that the coaching staff expected them to put up big minutes this year. They were three of four perim-eter players on the roster this year, and of course, Coach K has a history of pushing his best players to play big minutes.

plus, with eight television timeouts plus halftime during every game, it’s not like these guys are running for-plus minutes straight anyway.

Still, there’s no escaping the fact that Duke’s top players historically play an awful lot of minutes. And, anecdotally, ev-eryone remembers National player of the Year J.J. Redick averaging 37 minutes per game in 2006 before struggling against LSU in that Sweet 16 upset loss.

So I compared, year-by-year, the slope of the decline in Duke’s efficiency margin to the percentage of minutes played by Blue Devil starters. As it turns out, there’s really no relationship. Even in years where Coach K has played a deep bench and kept his stars rested, his team still declined. If any-thing, years that Duke’s stars played more minutes tended to be more successful.

So why would this be? Maybe, when Duke has better players,

those players are counted on to play big minutes. And maybe, when Duke has bet-ter players, those players are better able to

FanaRoFF from page 8

stave off a late-season decline. Or maybe that’s not it. Maybe Duke’s Hall

of Fame coach and high-character players give their best effort all season, leading them to overachieve at the start against more tal-ented teams that don’t turn it on until later.

But while recent Duke teams have asked their starters to play big minutes and have declined in performance at the

end of the season, these two phenomena don’t seem that closely related. If any-thing, those teams working their stars harder have had better late-season results.

And, just in case you’re interested, despite Scheyer, Singler and Smith’s big workload, this year’s efficiency margin is trending upwards.

Trust me, it’s science.

The ChroniCle WeDneSDAY, FeBrUArY 17, 2010 | 11

12 | WeDneSDAY, FeBrUArY 17, 2010 The ChroniCle

AnnOuncemenTs

GeO-u summer DeADLine ex-TenDeD Did you miss the Duke summer study abroad application deadline? Don’t get left behind! The deadline has been extended for select programs. Summer programs allow students to earn credit towards graduation re-quirements. Financial aid is avail-able. Programs are open to rising sophomores. See the Global Edu-cation Office for Undergraduates website at global.duke.edu/geo for more details.

GoinG abroad?Need immunizations?If you are planning to study abroad in the summer or fall semesters, you should visit the Student Health Travel Clinic ASAP. The Travel Clinic will assist you with immunizations and discuss recommended pre-cautions for your travel desti-nations. You may schedule ap-pointments before you know your final destination. Please try to schedule no later than 8 weeks before departure. To make an appt., call 919-681-9355. Don’t put off until to-morrow a shot you can have today.

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MIaMI from page 8

Blue Devils return with a victory, they will no longer have a losing road record.

Miami (17-8, 3-8) has been strong at home this season, having defeated Wake Forest, georgia Tech and Virginia Tech—all likely NCAA Tournament teams—in Coral gables. The Hurricanes’ only loss at home came at the hands of Boston College Jan. 19.

The Hurricanes are coming off a de-feat at Clemson, their seventh in the last nine games, and will be looking to get their season back on track.

Duke will be aiming to win its fifth consec-utive game, and will again be relying on the trio of Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith for the majority of its points. The “Big Three” are averaging a combined total of over 53 points per game, making them the highest-scoring trio in the nation.

The Blue Devils will also need pro-duction from their big men, and hope

senior Brian Zoubek can build off his 16-point, 17-rebound performance against Maryland.

“The Big Three, obviously you’re going to be concerned about them,” Miami head coach Frank Haith said. “But you’re going to have problems when those other guys, [Zoubek], or Mason [plumlee], or Lance Thomas have big games against you.”

Those post players will have to con-tend with Miami forward Dwayne Collins, who posted 23 points and 11 rebounds in his team’s win over the Demon Deacons earlier this season. Collins is averaging close to a double-double.

Haith especially emphasized the im-portance of keeping Duke off the offen-sive glass, which has been a large factor in the Blue Devils’ recent winning run.

With the outright lead in the confer-ence following two wins last week, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski sees the Blue Devils in reach of the ACC regular season crown, something Duke has not achieved since 2006.

“We’re just happy we had a really good week, and we’re hoping to have another good week,” Krzyzewski said. “[But] they don’t give awards based on a week. Those things go away real quick. But if you win something big, if you win a championship, it stays forever, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

“The Big Three, obvi-ously you’re going to be concerned about them.”

— Frank Haith

Answer to puzzle

miChael naClerio/ChroniCle file phoTo

Miami took Duke to overtime last year in Cameron Indoor stadium thanks in part to forward Dwayne Collins.

The ChroniCle WeDneSDAY, FeBrUArY 17, 2010 | 13

DiversionsShoe Chris Cassatt and Gary Brookins

Dilbert Scott Adams

Ink Pen Phil Dunlap

Doonesbury Garry Trudeau

Sudoku Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the

digits 1 through 9. (No number is repeat-ed in any column, row or box.)

www.sudoku.com

The Chronicle memories from our first time:

not much to remember: ..........................................clee, grant, honi only remember my last time: ................................. will, emmelineit was so beautiful i cried:..................................... thoughtful eugethats when i started smoking: ................................................austintv and pastrami were involved: ......................... gabe, laura, feliciawrong day to quit drinking: ........... courtney, sam, stephen, jamesher dad and a 2x4: ..........................................................klein, dougdoing what?:.............................................................................. reedBarb Starbuck will always love you: ........................................ Barb

Student Advertising Manager: ..............................Margaret PotterAccount Executives: ................... Chelsea Canepa, Phil DeGrouchy

Liza Doran, Lianna Gao, Ben MasselinkAmber Su, Mike Sullivan, Jack Taylor

Quinn Wang, Cap YoungCreative Services Student Manager ...........................Christine HallCreative Services: ...............................Lauren Bledsoe, Danjie Fang

Caitlin Johnson, Megan Meza , Hannah SmithBusiness Assistant: ........................................................Joslyn Dunn

In yesterday’s editorial, we outlined the most pressing issues identified by the Klein-Wells Committee’s “Engaging Excellence” report. Moving forward, the University must address these challenges through open, honest dialogue and careful con-sideration of national best practices.

With this goal in mind, Provost Peter Lange and Vice Provost and Dean of Under-graduate Education Steve Nowicki’s written response to the report is disconcerting. Nowicki and Lange assume a defensive position and fo-cus far too much attention explaining why DukeEngage has prospered while its par-ent organization, the Duke Center for Civic Engagement, has faltered.

If the University wants

to be a national leader in civic engagement, it must carefully consider what im-provements and changes can advance its civic en-gagement as a whole, not just one singular program.

First, the Duke Cen-ter for Civic

Engagement must assume a strong identity as a stand-alone organization that can provide support to existing and future civic engagement initiatives at Duke. Administrators were correct to formally draw a line between the DCCE and Duke-Engage and reinforce this dis-tinction by appointing Leela Prasad as faculty director of the DCCE.

Second, the Universi-ty’s tenure system must be changed to accommodate fac-ulty involved in civic engage-ment and incentivize this im-

portant work. Administrators must remove the barriers that prevent professors like Sherryl Broverman, who has launched the Women’s Institute for Sec-ondary Education and Re-search in Kenya, from being adequately rewarded for their groundbreaking work.

Civic engagement and community-based research—in which community needs, not personal academic inter-est, is the driving factor—should not be required for all faculty, but it should be encouraged, not hindered, by University policy.

Third, the University should refocus its civic engagement programs to emphasize this type of community-driven research. Unlike short-term, direct ser-vice promoted by programs like DukeEngage, research can deepen engagement with com-munities and create long-term

impact beyond a student’s time in the field.

Fourth, civic engagement must be embedded and inte-grated into the University’s curriculum. More classes geared toward students with civic engagement experienc-es would encourage students to critically reflect on their service, analyze the systemic problems they have encoun-tered and develop the skills to make a difference.

Fifth, the University should make a concerted effort to pub-licize the wide arrange of civic engagement opportunities to students. Greater information upfront will allow students to be more strategic and inten-tional about their approach to civic engagement. This would enhance the educational ben-efit to students and heighten their contribution to commu-nity partners.

In enacting these chang-es and enhancing its civic engagement programs, the University does not need to reinvent the wheel. Many fac-ulty members at Duke and many universities across the country have been involved in civic engagement work for years, and their successes can provide a set of best practices that the University should adapt and reconfigure to suit its own needs.

Only by engaging with its strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement can the University move from the rhetoric of “knowledge in the service of society” to a reality of high quality, intentional civic engagement.

Chelsea Goldstein recused her-self from this editorial because she contributed to a report submitted to the Klein-Wells committee.

commentaries14 | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010 thE chRoNiclE

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editorial

From rhetoric to reality

K-ville or Ghost-ville? Check out the video:kville.dukechronicle.com

”“ onlinecomment

This entire article could’ve been summed up with 140 characters on Twitter.

—“Pointing Out the Obvious” commenting on the letter “Replace inefficient employees.” See more at www.dukechronicle.com.

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Inc. 1993Est. 1905

I haven’t set foot on campus in months, but I can still picture the scene so clearly. It took place perhaps five times a day.

Whether trotting to class or strolling to the Bryan Center, if you are in the heart of the Gothic Wonder-land, it is bound to happen. Across the quad, you spot the person you sat next to in Writing 20 or your room-mate’s ex—some-one you know just well enough that it would be rude not to acknowledge them, but not well enough to actually carry on a conversation—heading straight in your direc-tion. Duke is small enough that you are acquaint-ed with almost everyone this way.

He is far enough away that it is possible, though not probable, that he has not seen you. So you pretend to be transfixed by your phone or intrigued by your shoelaces and continue your approach with carefully concealed unease. Moments before you pass each other you glance up as if by chance, albeit with a flip of your hair that probably gives you away. This allows for just enough time for a one-word greeting and noth-ing more.

It is more than coincidental that your phone is your savior and eye contact feels like an im-position if held for more than a moment. With much of our communication having nothing to do with the words that pass our lips, our eyes may say much more than we mean to.

Eye contact is a portal to emotion. More than a glimpse can give you away. If asked “what’s up,” we chirp “nothing.” But anyone who looks at us straight on can discern, on some level, it is rarely the case.

From what I’ve read, it seems each part of the world seems to have developed its own strategy for dealing with this involuntary confession. In the Middle East, men and women often avoid

looking each other in the eye for fear of letting sexual tension come to the surface. In some parts of Africa, an unbroken gaze can be seen as a chal-lenge to authority. I’m convinced that the optical illusion commonplace on the Main Quad consti-tutes its own bizarre cultural phenomenon.

Yet Spaniards, for their part, are not afraid of eye contact. In fact, they dare to do more than look—they stare.

The spectator Olympics is at its best on the metro. Rather than staring off into space when a pitch-black tunnel is all the scenery there is to be taken in, Spaniards fix their gazes on each other. At first, the attention made me feel like a tourist attraction myself. I shifted in my seat, but I could still feel the weight of the eyes. I tried staring straight ahead, but I could see the same pairs of eyes, fixed on me, reflected in the spotless win-dow of the metro car.

The stares are probably more persistent be-cause I am so clearly not Spanish. My interac-tions in this foreign space are at times so awk-ward that it must be hard to look away. Like spotting what remains after a train wreck, you have to crane your neck to see more. From the first glimpse, Spaniards can tell I am American. People stop to offer me directions even when I know perfectly well where I am going. Before I can open my mouth to let my accent give me away, they ask what state I am from. Even when I took to reading a book with a splashy English title to quell all suspicion, the inquisitive looks persisted.

But now, a month into my stay, the stares have started to feel less like an imposition than an op-portunity. In a Spanish speaking-country, where my vocabulary is elementary and my accent un-intelligible, I figure my eyes say things I probably can’t.

So I hold the gaze, though—ever the Amer-ican—I cannot help but grin back sheepishly. Sometimes all it takes is a smile to make me melt.

Julia Love is a Trinity junior. Her column runs ev-ery other Wednesday.

The eyes have it

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julia lovea love story

Over the last few weeks, many ju-niors have been in a frenzy up-dating their resumes and apply-

ing for summer internships. Investment banking and consulting seem to be the hot favorites.

According to the Career Center, the top two hiring industries for 2009 Duke graduates are financial services (26 percent) and consulting (19 percent), and the top seven for-profit employ-ers are Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Gold-man Sachs, Exxon Mo-bil, Boston Consulting Group, Barclays Capital and Microsoft.

Those statistics paint a pretty good picture of how popular banking and consulting are. In fact, out of the first 10 friends I thought of who have filled out internship applica-tions, nine of them applied to one or the other.

But why exactly are banking and con-sulting so popular?

I attended a talk last semester by George Grody, a visiting professor in the Markets and Management Studies pro-gram, where he asked the audience—all Duke undergrads—that same question.

“That’s where the money is!” shouted one student. That’s where the money is.

Well, money is a good reason to ap-ply for a job, but I don’t think it’s good enough. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with want-ing to be rich, and I don’t think money is the root of all evil. It opens doors for you both financially and socially, and it can be used for many noble causes. But at some level, we’re all keenly aware of the fact that there are billionaires out there who are extremely unhappy.

I have a theory as to why we think money will buy us happiness though. It’s because unless we actually have it all—money, cars, mansions, etc.—we’re not fully convinced that such luxuries will not bring us fulfillment. We recog-nize that we are not 100 percent con-tent right now, so maybe if we score one more A, go to one more awesome party or travel to one more exotic des-tination, we will become just a little bit happier.

On Sep. 18, 2009, the Wall Street Journal published an article about well-paid bankers who had lost their jobs during the economic downturn. A 27-year-old, Ajmal Sheikh, was working 90- to 100-hour weeks at UBS, making over $250,000 a year before he was laid off in Nov. 2008. But in the summer of 2009, UBS asked if he wanted his job back. At the time, Sheikh was working on a long-standing interest of his: a project that helped to provide doctors with electronic health records. After doing some soul-searching, Sheikh de-cided that he had to turn UBS down and pursue what he was truly passion-ate about.

What a tough decision that must have been! When you’re 27 years old, earning $250,000 a year, driving a fancy car and living in a nice penthouse in Manhattan, everyone you know prob-ably looks at you and thinks, “You’re the man. You’re living the dream.” Even if you’re not actually happy with your life, I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to give all of that up.

Sheikh summed it up well when he said, “If you give people a taste of the good life, they just want more. You think to yourself, ‘I’ll quit next year to follow my dream.’” Losing his “dream” job, ironically, allowed Sheikh to pursue his real dream.

To borrow an anal-ogy Stephen Covey uses in “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Sheikh had been so busy climbing the ladder—Should I skip rungs? What’s the best climbing technique?—that he had forgotten to check if the ladder was leaning against the right wall. Getting laid off gave him the oppor-

tunity to do just that. It’s a good thing he realized that the ladder was indeed leaning against the wrong wall so early on in his career.

So when I see such a large number of Duke students getting excited about banking and consulting jobs—and about all the money they will be mak-ing—I wonder if they’ve already asked themselves what they truly want out of a career. And just to make it clear, I don’t doubt that for some people, banking or consulting is exactly where the ladder should be.

In closing, I’m reminded that, “That’s where the money is” was what bank rob-ber Willie Sutton said when a reporter asked him why he stole from banks. I fully recognize that I’m speaking as an idealist whose work experience con-sists only of two summer internships. I believe, however, that if money is your primary reason for choosing a career, you’re robbing yourself of the fulfill-ment that is yours to claim if you were to pursue your calling rather than your ambition.

Distinguishing between calling and ambition isn’t easy, but therein lies the key to a satisfying work life. Let’s not settle for second-best when it comes to something as important as our career.

Daniel Wong is a Pratt junior. His col-umn runs every other Wednesday.

commentariesthE chRoNiclE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010 | 15

‘That’s wherethe money is!’

letterstotheeditorLetter provides laughs

I was pleased to see The Chronicle publish a letter to the editor Feb. 16 en-titled “Replace inefficient employees,” which complained about the “indolent” employees who work on campus. The writer complained that the opportuni-ties for acquiring omelets and sandwich-es on campus, so capacious at her old boarding school, were severely cramped at Duke due to inefficient employees who should be punished.

I’m glad to see that my alma mater is teaching the fine art of satire to its students. It’s important, especially in the recessionary times in which we live, to retain our ability to make fun of the puffed up privilege that the spoiled hyper-rich cultivated during the bygone years of excess. It helps take the sting off the fact that most Americans—and Duke students, for that matter—have more on their minds than speedy om-

elet service or how to expedite compli-mentary bus rides. It certainly brought a smile to my face!

Frank HollemanTrinity ’09

A resounding silenceOn Jan. 14, The Chronicle ran my

guest commentary, “From a DukeEn-gage dropout,” concerning my experi-ences with the DukeEngage Trinidad and Tobago program in the summer of 2009. A month has passed and I have yet to receive any response, private or public, from either DukeEngage Direc-tor Eric Mlyn or Fuqua Professor Lucy Reuben.

I am eager to hear their perspectives, but their silence speaks volumes as well.

Lisa MaTrinity ’10

You always suspected it but never want-ed to say it out loud. I’m here to con-firm it: Sarah Palin is in cahoots with

the Tarheels.Questions have always surrounded this

Alaska charmer. Does she in fact know the names of any of the Founding Fathers, or was Glen Beck just too swift and erudite for her? Is that amalgamated, ostensibly All-American accent authentic, or just a mish-mash of various vowel sounds lifted from “Blue Collar Comedy Tour”? Was she ever actu-ally governor of the Great State of Alaska, seeing as she left in a flurry after a brief period of confused flirting with oil companies? And, finally, is she allur-ing enough to single-handedly bring sexy back to that Monster Ballad doo she’s been rocking recently? I don’t know what White Snake’s politics are, but surely he smiles when he sees that masterpiece of sculpted highlights.

We can speculate all we please, but the facts are there: Sarah Palin is the grand dame of the Tea Party, and that means that she can’t really be ignored. Now, you can gnash your teeth and snarl about her per-ceived lack of substance all you like, but that won’t get rid of her. Like some fright-ful videogame uber-boss, Palin seems only to gain in strength after absorbing a well-aimed rhetorical strike.

Just remember: She’s a populist. That means that a snotty Duke English major like me can’t understand the mysteries of her ap-peal. I probably need to shoot more moose.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “populism” as “the policies or principles of any of various political parties which seek to represent the interests of ordinary peo-ple.” Time and again, we hear that the Tea Party—Palin at its head—speaks for an or-dinary person’s resentment of the power-ful, the entrenched, the elected, the gov-erning. The people have spoken, and they still want change, only this time they want to see to it that government is both held responsible for fixing everything and that it does so without taxing anyone and while staying out of anything important. Yes, you

heard that right.Oh, and I forgot the crucial part: If you

think otherwise, you’re not only a Com-munist (they’ve been saying that since Joe McCarthy), but you’re also an elitist. A Communist Elitist… that’s a tough one. It would have to look something like Nikita

Khrushchev, who was really a very classy dresser, especially as regarded his shoes.

The Tarheels have got-ten into this insidious smear campaign. Will Blythe, a UNC alumnus and journal-ist, discussed what he takes to be the oppositions at the heart of our dearly held Tobacco Road rivalry in his book, “To Hate Like This

is to Be Happy Forever:” “…it is locals against outsiders, elitists against populists, even good against evil.”

Let’s catalogue: like Barack Obama (whom everyone knows to have been born in Kenya or something), we Blue Devils are the supposed outsiders. We are the elitists, smirking as we torment the “populists.” And of course, we’re getting called evil.

I call bulls—.It is commonplace among the vari-

ous hacks who parade through American political history—whether Lyndon La-Rouche or George Wallace (Wallace, by the way, also liked to go around yelling “populist,” when he wasn’t acting as a rac-ist mouthpiece for Jim Crow)—to point a vague and furious finger at the “elite.” I’m not talking about constructive criticism of those holding office. I’m talking about a superstitious kind of voodoo-mongering in which everything done by the other side is not just evil: it’s mysterious. Those elites have their own club—whether it’s “Americans Who Know Who Thomas Jef-ferson Was” or, er, maybe K-ville?—and who knows what they do there?

As far as I know, not even Rahm Eman-uel has yet taken to slaughtering goats in the august chambers of the White House. Executives of either party are probably more interested in governance—the pro-cess that does cool things like generating public schools and roads and the national defense—than the slavering fist-shakers whose business is not to solve problems but forever to imagine them. How to save oneself from having to actually articulate a position or an issue? Simple: Shroud it all in mystique. Those elites are up to something not only bad but more or less nameless—“Big Government” is as face-less, distant and sounds about as scary as “Big Brother.”

To make the opposition into a figment is to take “the people” for a cheap rhetori-cal ride. It’s not populism because a good populist would have to sincerely “seek to represent the interests of ordinary peo-ple.” Sowing fear is just the opposite. It dis-tracts everyone from actual issues of gover-nance. Much like grumbling about those mean “rich kids” (I wish) in the stands at Cameron distracts from the good, old-fashioned basketball taking place on the court.

So, sorry but not sorry, Carolina: We aren’t cooking up anything elaborate over here. It was good to see you a week ago, and we’re already getting out our best sil-ver for that date on March 6. But it’s not an elitist thing: We just like to be classy when we’re fixing to serve up a good whoopin’.

Connor Southard is a Trinity sophomore. His column runs every Wednesday.

I don’t give a hoot about populism

connor southarddead poet

daniel wongloving life,loving lives

16 | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010 thE chRoNiclE