by Danny NolanTHE CHRONICLE

Duke began the day in sole possession of first place in the ACC. But after another disappointing defeat to a ranked opponent, the team has now lost three of its last six—and is tied for first in the conference.

Maryland went on a 30-9 run to close out the game, and the Blue Devils lost to the Terrapins 69-47 Thursday night in College Park, Md.

“We played a real dominating 40 minutes,” Maryland head coach Brenda Frese said. “It’s always a special win when we can beat Duke.”

The ChronicleThe independenT daily aT duke universiTy

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2011 ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH YEAR, ISSUE 100www.dukechronicle.com

Kingsolver recipient of 2011 LEAF award,

Page 5

onTherecord“We need results based on performance rather than just dumping money into a system and hoping that it works.”

—State Sen. Bob Rucho on Gov. Perdue’s budget proposal. See story page 3

Brodhead to lead nat’l humanities board

Wuhan steps in to sponsor China campus

by Matthew ChaseTHE CHRONICLE

In his annual faculty address Thursday, President Richard Brodhead spoke of the importance of the hu-manities—an issue recently taken on by Congress.

Brodhead will co-chair the newly-formed Commis-sion on the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Ameri-can Academy of Arts and Sciences announced Thurs-day. The commission, created by the academy, is set to emphasize the humanities and social sciences over the next 18-24 months.

The formation of the commission is part of a biparti-san effort from two U.S. senators and two U.S. represen-tatives, including Rep. David Price, D-N.C. and former political science and public policy professor at Duke.

“In recent years, people have structured a compel-ling case that America needs to take seriously its defin-ing role in the arts and sciences,” Brodhead said in an interview. “It’s also true that education in the humani-ties and the humanistic social sciences needs boosting, as well. The strengths it supplies to everyday life are very important.”

In upcoming months, Brodhead will work closely with John Rowe, the commission’s co-chair and the chairman and chief executive officer of Exelon Cor-poration, one of the nation’s largest electric compa-nies. Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, said the academy

by Lauren CarrollTHE CHRONICLE

Duke has found a new educational sponsor for its Kunshan, China campus after its part-nership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University fell through last summer.

The University will partner with Wuhan Uni-versity as it develops its China campus, President Richard Brodhead announced Thursday. Ac-cording to the country’s law, a Chinese univer-sity must sponsor Duke’s appeal to the Chinese Ministry of Education to open a campus there.

“We appear to have found a suitable part-ner in Wuhan University... which has been highly respectful in our negotiations of Duke’s leadership role,” Brodhead said in his annual faculty address.

In December, Greg Jones, vice president and vice provost of global strategy and programs, said Duke was looking for a “silent sponsor” in China that would allow Duke to have a promi-nent role in the partnership.

Speaking to about 100 faculty members and administrators, Brodhead offered few details of the new partnership but said he still expects the Kunshan Campus to open in late 2012.

Brodhead also answered what he called a “fair and important” question—why is the

Men’s basketball goes internationalfrom Staff Reports

THE CHRONICLE

Look out, Asia. Duke is making its world tour this summer.Vice President and Director of Athletics Kevin White

announced in a news release today that the Duke men’s basketball team will play games in China and Dubai in Au-gust 2011. The teams are yet to be announced.

“The global tour presents Duke University with an ex-traordinary opportunity to expand our brand across the world, using one of its primary assets—Duke Basketball—as the catalyst,” White said. “While the entire schedule is not yet finalized, we are in the process of securing games against formidable competition at each respective location.”

The brainchild of Fuqua School of Business Dean Blair Sheppard and Greg Jones, Duke vice president and vice provost for global strategy and programs, the trip will in-clude games in Kunshan, Shanghai and Beijing, China, as well as a contest in the city of Dubai.

“We are excited about the opportunity for our team to compete internationally and be exposed to so many signifi-cant historical and cultural landmarks,” said head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who will be making his first trip back to

SEE faculty ON PAGE 16SEE brodhead ON PAGE 16

SEE china ON PAGE 10

47 duke 69umdDuke falls against rival Maryland

SEE w. basketball ON PAGE 11

nate glencer/chronicle file photo

Seth Curry and the rest of the Blue Devils will make the trip to China and Dubai this summer, the University announced today.

Ochoa promotes Obama education agenda, Page 3

women’S BaSketBall

courtney douglas/the chronicle

2 | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2011 ThE ChRonIClE

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ManaMa, Bahrain — a swelling anti-government protest that had drawn thou-sands to the heart of this country’s financial district was broken up thursday morning by police officers who used tear gas, clubs and rubber bullets to clear the crowd.

at least two people were killed, while those involved in the protests said oth-ers were critically injured. there was no official word on deaths or injuries from Bahrain’s authorities.

the crackdown followed one earlier this week that left two demonstrators dead and prompted an apology from King hamad bin isa al-Khalifa.

this raid took place hours after pro-testers gathered here in Bahrain’s capital to demand greater political freedoms and more jobs. some had escalated their demands to include the ouster of Bah-rain’s prime minister, and even an end to the al-Khalifa monarchy.

Washington — the chief counsel of the presidential oil spill commission has issued a final report laying considerable blame on Bp for last year’s disaster in the gulf of Mexico. But he also points to flaws in halliburton’s work and errors by rig owner transocean.

fred Bartlit, a prominent trial lawyer, said that for three years Bp had been aware of problems with lab tests of hal-liburton cement; that a reorganization of Bp’s engineering department resulted in delays; and that Bp decided not to set a lockdown sleeve, an installation deep in the well, during its preparations for tem-porary abandonment to save 5.5 days and $2 million in costs.

he also said that Bp’s well site leader was not present, as he should have been, during a critical test known as a negative pressure test that indicated something was wrong.

Oil spill commission issues report blaming BP for spill

House budget proposes cutting funds for aid

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

— William James

susan Biddle/the Washington post

Chef Robert Barolin shows students how to make bruschetta. the students are a part of Brainfood, a nonprofit youth development organization that exposes high school students to culinary techniques. Students who successfully apply for the program have been able to work in the white House kitchen, preparing food for President obama, and have planted food in the first lady’s garden.

“My friends and i rarely had a conversation that didn’t eventually become, ‘so do you think [insert name of selective university] will accept me? i mean, i think my sat scores are high enough, and i really like my essay, but so-and-so is applying there, and she has a perfect score and more volunteer hours than me.’as if these conversations weren’t obnoxious enough, now there’s an app for that!”

— From The Playgroundbigblog.dukechronicle.com

Local Musicians Live devil’s Bistro, 8-10a.m.

Durham singers and songwriters Brett Harris and Britt Price will perform. Dessert and drinks will

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The Evolving Energy Marketplace

gross chem a103, 12-1:30p.m. Representatives from the Peters Conculting Associates LLC and

EDF Trading Limited will speak.

An Evening of HemingwayBrody theater, 8-10p.m.

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ThE ChRonIClE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2011 | 3

by ciaran o’connorTHE CHRONICLE

Governor Bev Perdue unveiled a budget proposal Thursday that would cleave $3.2 billion from state spending over the next two years, slashing 10,000 state jobs but protecting education funding.

The plan, which aims to close an estimated $2.7 bil-lion budget deficit by reorganizing state government and cutting funding to state agencies, would also low-er the corporate tax rate from 6.9 percent to 4.9 per-cent—making it the third lowest in the country and the lowest in the Southeast. Although the cuts would affect most government services, the governor drew a line in the sand with regards to education. The $19.9 billion proposal would preserve all state-funded teacher and teacher assistant positions.

“This budget stands up to our economic challenges and equips us for the future by resetting how we grow jobs, educate our children and operate state govern-ment,” Perdue said in a statement. “The cuts are deep, and some are painful. But through careful manage-ment of our resources we can also make investments in our core priorities.”

State lawmakers had mixed reactions to the propos-al, which the governor presented to the GOP-controlled legislature Thursday afternoon.

“There were some parts of it I liked; most of it I did not,” said Republican state Sen. Brent Jackson, who rep-resents Duplin, Lenoir and Sampson counties. “I didn’t think she went far enough. It doesn’t appear we’re going to be cutting that many employees off the state’s payroll since 70 percent of those positions are [vacant] already.”

Perdue protects education in new budget proposal

SEE budget ON PAGE 7

Ochoa urges reinvention of educationby Stephanie Tsimis

THE CHRONICLE

The Duke community got a reminder Thursday of the importance of higher education—and the many difficul-ties surrounding its success.

Eduardo Ochoa, assistant secretary for postsecondary education in the Obama administration, spoke about the future of American higher education to an audience in the York Reading Room Thursday night as part of the lecture series “Re-imagining the Academy.”

Ochoa began the presentation by outlining the ben-efits of President Barack Obama’s education plan, which centers on increasing the number of educated adults. By focusing on higher education as a national issue, Ochoa

said America can stay at the forefront of global competi-tion, enhance the upward mobility of minority groups and strengthen the “civic fabric of our democracy.”

“President Obama’s education agenda is a key element in his strategy for restoring America’s global competitive-ness... in order to start that agenda we must make the United States the most educated country in the world by the year 2020,” he said. “Specifically, this means having the world’s highest proportion of college graduates and increasing the proportion of adults with certificates or de-grees from 40 to 60 percent.”

The biggest immediate challenge facing higher education is capacity, Ochoa said. Americans must figure out how to dramatically increase the number of graduates per year while maintaining high quality institutions in the United States, he noted, adding that given the high cost of attending both pri-vate and public institutions this will be especially difficult.

“Private institutions have raised tuition to levels that have prompted serious concerns about affordability,” Ochoa said. “Most public institutions have also raised their tuition by large percentages... in response to reduced support from the state. Despite these increases, tuition covers on average only about 30 percent of the full cost of college education.”

In light of this, Ochoa explained that Obama’s “land-mark” investment in Pell grants, the largest federal schol-arship program, will be a centerpiece in his proposal to ensure that more Americans enroll in college.

Ochoa also described the need to take advantage of ad-vances in cognitive science and brain research and apply it to the “reinvention of the learning process.” He pointed out the inefficiency of the current lecture model and said professors should devote classroom time only to highly interactive processes, leaving straightforward learning of facts to individual study time or videotaped lectures.

Increased public scrutiny of higher education and com-petition from the Bologna Process—an initiative in Europe that regulates academic degree and quality assurance stan-dards—was another challenge Ochoa said the Obama ad-ministration’s education program will have to overcome. tracy huang/the chronicle

eduardo ochoa, assistant secretary for postsecondary education, said thursday higher education’s greatest challenge will be capacity. SEE ochoa ON PAGE 7

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Pell Grant changes will not affect students, admins sayby Yeshwanth Kandimalla

THE CHRONICLE

Although President Barack Obama’s proposed reduc-tions to the Federal Pell Grant Program will eliminate summer grants for low-income college students, Duke un-dergraduates will likely see minimal effects from the gov-ernment cuts.

In its budget proposal for 2012 released Monday, the Obama administration recommended eliminating the summer grants to avoid lowering the maximum allowance of $5,500 for recipients during the academic year. Alter-natively, Republicans from the House of Representatives have proposed a spending bill that would cut the maxi-mum grant by 15 percent, or $845.

Changes to Pell grants should not have an impact on the financial aid packages of Duke recipients, Alison Rabil, assistant vice provost and director of financial aid for the University, wrote in an e-mail Feb. 17. Rabil said that 12 percent of all Duke students and 29 percent of all grant aid recipients at Duke—a total of 810 students—

received Pell grants for the 2009-2010 academic year. But even though the policy would affect the University’s fi-nancial aid budget, Duke would not ask students to pay more to attend school.

“Students receiving Pell grants will not see a change to their total grant dollars in their financial aid pack-ages,” Rabil said. “As Pell grant dollars go down, Duke grant dollars go up. Net-net, it’s even from the student perspective.”

Due to the weak economy, the number of recipients of the program has grown by an estimated 52 percent between 2008 and 2011, Sara Gast, a public relations specialist at the U.S. Department of Education, wrote in an e-mail Feb. 16. She added that the discretionary costs have more than doubled during the same time period.

“These proposed changes are difficult but necessary to ensure the fiscal integrity of the program,” Gast said.

The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 cre-ated the “year-round” Pell Grant in order to allow students

on an accelerated path who are taking classes during the summer to receive a second grant in addition to the tradi-tional grant during the academic year. Since its inception, however, the grants have been criticized for being costly and ineffective.

“There is no evidence that this policy has succeeded in causing more students to accelerate their degree comple-tion, and it costs the taxpayers 10 times more than origi-nally estimated,” Meg Reilly, deputy associate director for communications and strategic planning at the White House’ Office of Management and Budget, wrote in an e-mail Feb. 17.

Gast noted that the creation of the additional grant for summer study has added $4.2 billion in costs, a much higher figure than either the Obama administration or the Congressional Budget Office estimated. If left in place, the summer grant would add approximately $8 billion in costs for the 2011 and 2012 fiscal years.

Gast said if summer grants were to continue, the pro-gram would see $20.7 billion of accumulated shortfalls by 2012.

Jacob Vigdor, professor of public policy and economics and an expert in education finance, said he predicted that the reduction will have less of an impact on private institu-tions such as Duke than on public universities or commu-nity colleges.

“The impacts of these proposals won’t really reverber-ate at institutions like Duke, which have the institutional resources available to blunt the impact of these cuts,” he said. “At community colleges, where the federal aid rep-resents a huge portion of their total revenue... there is a much clearer concern.”

DSG outlines plans for house model governanceby Nicole Kyle

THE CHRONICLE

Duke Student Government and Campus Council are in the process of defining a revised system for residential gov-ernment under the house model.

Members of the two groups met together Thursday night following their recently-approved merger, which was passed as a referendum Tuesday during Young Trustee election. Despite a complaint that voters for the Young Trustee process should have been allowed to abstain from voting on the referendum, the DSG Judiciary ultimately ruled the vote legitimate.

According to the draft of the bylaw discussed at the meeting, each house will have its own council and its own programming budget. House councils will meet weekly and will be able to bring legislation to the Senate floor. The councils will also form neighborhood councils—likely designated by proximity.

“We’re anticipating what houses will look like in the fu-ture,” DSG President Mike Lefevre, a senior, said of the bylaw. “Houses will have autonomy, but they will likely want to build neighborhood coalitions as well.”

Lefevre acknowledged that many details of the new residential government structure is tentative because the administration is still in the process of determining what

the house model will look like in practice.“We want houses to be independent, autonomous

and highly productive bodies,” said Campus Council President Stephen Temple, a senior, adding that the next few weeks are going to be crucial in determining exactly how government will function under the house model.

The representatives also discussed the fact that the University’s administration is considering revoking funding from the Facilities and Services committee, which falls under Campus Council and is responsible for maintaining and improving residential facilities on students’ behalf. Facilities and Services, which will likely be a subcommittee of the Residential Life and Dining Committee, currently has a budget of about $70,000.

At the meeting, DSG and Campus Council said they hope the administration will not revoke the funding. In an interview Thursday evening by phone, however, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta said the current funding arrangement is not feasible mov-ing forward.

“Funding is tight, and we need to be very thought-

CamPUS CoUnCIl

eliza Bray/the chronicle

Duke Student Government President mike lefevre, a senior, met with Campus Council thursday to discuss revisions to residential government. SEE council ON PAGE 7

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Joint venture MDRI to open in mid-April

by Anna KoelschTHE CHRONICLE

Duke’s expansion abroad will not be stopping with Singapore and Kunshan, China—the University is set-ting up shop in India as well.

Duke’s School of Medicine is moving forward on a partnership with India’s Medanta Medicity after agree-ing to collaborate more than a year ago. The venture, which will be called the Medanta Duke Research Insti-tute, is slated to open in mid-April and will boast a facil-ity of 60 beds and 27,000 square feet of space.

Dr. Krishna Udayakumar, the director of Duke Medicine Global, said the partnership will be the first of its kind.

“None of the universities or institutions that we’re aware of—Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic—have established a joint venture like this,” Udayakumar said. “We’re always looking for opportunities to further our mission. This was a great fit because we [have] a shared vision.”

Construction of the MDRI has already begun, said Udayakumar, who toured Medanta last week in New Delhi, India.

“We’ve started to hire personnel. Everything will be functional in April,” Udayakumar said. “We’re very ex-cited about this as one of our anchor partnerships.”

As a joint venture initiative, Duke personnel will staff half of the MDRI and the other half will be from Medanta, but Udayakumar noted that Medanta will be paying for the MDRI unit and Duke will only provide operational and research expertise.

SEE india ON PAGE 6

Kingsolver to receive LEAF Awardfrom Staff Reports

THE CHRONICLE

American author Barbara Kingsolver was announced as the 2011 recipient of the Duke LEAF Award for Lifetime Environmental Achievement in the Fine Arts in a Nicholas School of the Environment news release yesterday.

Kingsolver has authored seven books, including best-sellers such as “The Lacuna,” “Animal Dreams” and “The Poisonwood Bible.” She is also known for her poetry, essays and creative non-fiction works.

“Barbara Kingsolver’s work occupies a unique and important place in the world of literature,” said Nich-olas School Dean Bill Chameides in the release. “Her ability to interweave themes of human struggle and the search for meaning with the larger, timeless drama of life and death in the natural world, remind us that we are but one facet of a complex, and extraordinary plan-etary system, a system whose trajectory will ultimately determine our own fate and thus one which we must value and steward.”

Chameides noted that the executive committee of the school’s Board of Visitors ultimately chose King-solver as the LEAF Award recipient because of the environmental themes in many of her non-fiction contributions and her long-standing advocacy for en-vironmental issues.

Kingsolver grew up in rural Kentucky, later studying bi-ology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona. She has been working as a freelance writer and author for more than 25 years.

In 1998, Kingsolver established the Bellwether Prize for fiction and in 2000, was the awarded the National Humani-ties Medal, the nation’s highest honor for service through the arts. Kingsolver’s books have also been widely circulat-ed—her works have been translated into more than two dozen languages and have been frequently used in core high school literature curriculums.

Her accomplishments include being named one of the most important writers of the 20th century by Writer’s Di-gest, winning multiple awards such as the Orange Prize for

Fiction and the James Beard Award and being an Oprah Book Club selection.

Kingsolver also delivered the 2008 commencement ad-dress and was a keynote for the North Carolina Festival of the Book held at Duke in 2006.

An award ceremony for Kingsolver will be held April 9 in Griffith Film Theater at 2 p.m. and will include a read-ing from the LEAF Award winner as well.

The award—established in 2009—honors artists whose works have been inspiring forces towards more sustainable environmental practices.

annie griffiths/special to the chronicle

author Barbara kingsolver, who spoke at Duke’s commencement in 2008, will receive the nicholas School’s 2011 leaF award in april.

6 | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2011 ThE ChRonIClE

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Duke personnel will facilitate scientific oversight to maintain high standards for the research done at the facil-ity and every study conducted at the MDRI will go through local institutional review boards in India, Udayakumar said.

The partnership has already attracted praise from Gov. Bev Perdue, who called the initiative a “giant step forward for the health of our people” in a Duke Medicine press release.

The MDRI will emphasize early-stage proof of concept clinical trials centering on researching potential drugs and better preparing for clinical trials.

Specifically, the MDRI will be unique because of its fo-cus on studying a diverse set of populations, said Dr. John Sundy, director of the Duke Clinical Research Unit.

“Usually a fairly homogenous population is studied dur-ing [drug testing and clinical trials],” Sundy said. “We don’t have a lot of evidence about diverse populations. Medanta represents an entirely different population group from the group we study in Durham.”

The MDRI joins what Sundy called Duke’s “network.” Researchers will be able to better understand human biol-ogy in the genetically diverse populations of India, Dur-ham, and the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Sin-gapore.

Dr. Naresh Trehan, Medanta Medicity’s founder, said he is delighted over the synergy demonstrated in the part-nership between Medanta and Duke.

“Duke is considered to be the most respectable and energetic research group in the world,” Trehan said. “Its reputation is above everyone else’s. With this partnership, hopefully Medanta could be the Duke, Harvard or the Cleveland Clinic of [southeast India].”

Trehan—described as one of the most renowned car-diothoracic surgeons in the world by Udayakumar—said work done by the MDRI will have far-reaching effects be-cause of its emphasis on biological diversity.

“The implications of this are just astounding for the future of medicine, especially in this part of the world,” Trehan said. “This will kick back to the United States and reduce medicinal and healthcare costs. Duke is taking a great step toward helping the future of healthcare.”

InDIa from page 5DSG, CC vote found constitutionalby Lauren Carroll

THE CHRONICLE

Despite a claim that Tuesday’s vote for a referendum merging Campus Council with Duke Student Government was undemocratic, the DSG Judiciary unanimously decided that the election was carried out constitutionally.

“The Judiciary finds by 5-0 vote that the voting process associated with the referendum in the February 15 student body election was constitutionally sound,” the majority opinion states.

After selecting a candidate for Young Trustee, senior Christine Hall, former member of Campus Council and student manager of creative business and advertising for The Chronicle, realized she could not submit her vote without also voting either “yes” or “no” on the referendum. After the DSG Board of Elections reviewed and dismissed her accusations, Hall filed an official complaint with the Judiciary.

Hall was surprised she could not choose to abstain from voting for or against the merger, she told the Judiciary at the Wednesday hearing. Not allowing students to abstain pre-vents a fair democratic process, which the DSG constitution claims to uphold, she noted.

For a referendum to pass, 25 percent of the student body needs to vote on the issue, and “a student can stra-tegically and deliberately choose to abstain in a way that furthers their agenda. For example, if they wanted this measure to not pass but believe most people will vote for

it... it’s that much less closer to that [25 percent] thresh-old,” Hall said in an interview.

DSG Executive Vice President Pete Schork, a junior, was invited to be a neutral witness at the hearing. He told the Judiciary that the DSG election bylaws do not explicitly permit abstention, so no rules were violated. He added that because of widespread support for the ref-erendum—approximately 90 percent of voters approved the merger—re-administering the ballot would not affect the outcome.

Additionally, the DSG Judiciary has disregarded argu-ments that an election was conducted undemocratically in the past, Schork noted.

“The Judiciary acknowledges that, as the plaintiff asserts, some people consider abstention a form of political voice. The omission of the option to abstain from the vote in the referendum denied these students the ability to express this voice. However, as the Judiciary, we maintain that the only eq-uitable way to uphold to these ‘higher democratic ideals’ is to faithfully enforce the pre-determined rules that were legally set by a representative body,” the opinion states.

Although the Judiciary did not vote in her favor, Hall hopes that the outcome sends a message to students about their democratic right to abstain from voting.

“This brings to light the vague bylaws,” she said. “I would like to see that there is an explicit rule added to the bylaws to express student voice politically whether they vote yes, no or choose to abstain.”

Visit dukechronicle.com for our news, sports, editorial and recess coverage.

ThE ChRonIClE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2011 | 7

A B ENENSON A WARDS IN THE

Approximately 20 Benenson Awards will be made to undergraduates and May graduates of Trinity College and the School of Engineering. Funds will be awarded for fees, travel, production, and other educational expenses for arts-centered projects proposed by undergraduates, including graduating seniors, in Trinity College and the Pratt School of Engineering. Application forms are available online at http://undergraduateresearch.duke.edu (see Benenson Awards).

Completed applications must be submitted by Monday, March 14 to the URS Office, 011 Allen Building. A current transcript and two letters of recommendation are also required, at least one of them from a Duke faculty member in the student’s major department. Letters should be sent to:

ursoffice@duke.edu, or Undergraduate Research Support Office

Attn: Benenson Awards Committee 011 Allen Building, Box 90051,

or faxed to: 660-0488

Application deadline: Monday, March 14

For more information, email ursoffice@duke.edu.

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Democrats expressed strong support for Perdue’s plan and said they hoped the Re-publican leadership will be willing to com-promise.

“Overall the proposal looks good,” said state Sen. Floyd McKissick, Jr., D-Durham. “I think her idea of consolidating a number of departments into one agency is intriguing.”

Democratic Whip Josh Stein, who repre-sents Wake County, said he was very pleased that the proposal protects education fund-ing, calling it “the most important part of our state budget.”

Republican leaders, though, indicated that there will be at least some education funding cuts in the legislature’s budget bill, which will be hammered out in the coming weeks.

“Everything will be touched most likely,” said state Sen. Richard Stevens, R-Wake and co-chair of the Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for crafting the bill. “Education is 60 percent of the budget—it will be touched.”

North Carolina per-pupil funding for K–12 education ranks 42nd among the 50 states, ac-cording to the Public School Forum of North Carolina, but Republicans argue that insuffi-cient funding is not the problem.

“Do you think education is achieving its goals? I don’t think so,” said state Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, and a mem-ber of the Appropriations on Education Committee. “We need results based on performance rather than just dumping money into a system and hoping that it works. If you don’t know where you want to go, you can’t get there—we need a fo-cused approach.”

a new agendaIn control of both houses of the Gen-

eral Assembly for the first time since 1896, Republicans are moving forward on a host of conservative priorities.

One of the first bills introduced in the House attacks President Barack Obama’s health care reform, which requires in-dividuals to purchase health insurance beginning in 2014. The proposed legisla-tion directs State Attorney General Roy Cooper to “bring or defend” a suit argu-ing that the health care law is unconstitu-tional. Several states have already brought similar suits.

Another bill seeks to require that all voters possess a valid photo ID. Although some advocacy groups like the NAACP have argued that a voter ID law could dis-courage minorities from voting, Republi-can lawmakers argue that it is necessary to prevent voter fraud.

“When you cash a check, when you go to buy beer, when you go to do most any-thing in life, you’ve got to show who you are,” Stevens said. “And why not for one of the most important things we do, which is to vote, that you be able to identify who you are?”

As the party in power, the GOP is also charged with redrawing district bound-aries for the legislature and the state’s congressional seats based on the 2010 census results. Although some Demo-crats have expressed concern that the GOP will use its control of the process, which only takes place every 10 years, to draw favorable district lines, Republican lawmakers said they are committed to being fair.

“There are Republicans and Demo-crats on the [Redistricting] Committee,” said Rucho, who chairs the committee. But, he noted, the group is stacked two-to-one in favor of Republicans, a reflec-tion of the overall composition of the legislature.

BUDGet from page 3

“National discourse about higher edu-cation will have to undergo major change,” he said. “Higher education will have to speak to the nation with one voice... [It] will need to commit itself to creating a cul-ture and dynamic of continuous productiv-ity and improvement.”

Doug James, assistant dean of academic affairs for the Graduate School, praised Ochoa’s suggestion that higher educa-tion institutions come together to create a shared diagnosis of the problems facing post-secondary education in order to pro-vide an outline of issues that individual in-stitutions can then address on their own.

“I appreciated [Ochoa’s] encourage-ment for the higher [education] commu-nity to take leadership on these issues,” James said. “It’s not a goal for the federal government to dictate the solution.”

Akshatha Kommalapati, a freshman, said she liked the inside perspective Ochoa offered, adding that his speech made her realize that there are flaws in higher edu-cation, despite the elevated reputation of institutions such as Duke. She said, howev-er, that she was somewhat skeptical of the Obama administration’s plan to focus on increasing graduation rates.

“I see something flawed in saying that graduation rate is equal to success,” Kom-malapati said. “I think there are other mea-sures of success that we could be looking at more closely.”

“Re-imagining the Academy” is part of a five-part lecture series, sponsored by Duke’s Bass Society of Fellows, a group of faculty who “seek to connect students and faculty in innovative ways” according to the web-site. Ochoa is one of five national experts that will speak at Duke this Spring about the American collegiate experience.

oCHoa from page 3

ful about deployment of limited resources,” Moneta said. “The idea of engaging in facility upgrades and particular small projects makes per-fect sense, and we will absolutely support continued exploration. But, lump sum allocation doesn’t make sense.”

Moneta added that the lump sum allocation has not historically pro-duced the variety in projects that the University would have liked to have seen.

DSG and Campus Council either have to make FSC a purely idea-gen-erating body or petition for funds from other departments, like Student Affairs or Campus Recreation, Lefe-vre said. He also added that the possi-bility of expanding the FSC’s purview to incorporate non-residential proj-ects will be considered in upcoming weeks.

“We know that we want this mon-ey to come from the administration or other departments—not student fees,” said FSC Chair Doug Hanna, a sophomore.

in other business:DSG will be accepting applica-

tions within the next week for in-terim positions on the Residence Life and Dinning Committee. DSG will appoint an interim vice president and 10 interim senators. Those selected will serve out their terms through the last day of class-es, Lefevre said.

Campus Council will continue to serve in its current capacity until April 1, Temple noted.

CoUnCIl from page 4

by Stuart PriceTHE CHRONICLE

After a disappointing 2010 campaign in which Duke failed to make the ACC Tournament, the Blue Devils look to

take advantage of their returning talent to reemerge as a con-ference contender this season.

Head coach Sean McNally thinks that

pitching and defense will be what makes this team an improvement on last sea-son’s.

“Pitching and defense for our pro-gram are going to be critical every year,” head coach Sean McNally said. “With our young guys, getting them to defend at an ACC level has been our biggest concen-tration [in practice]. We got a nice mix of veterans on the pitching staff and some really talented young guys. Thankfully pitching and defense are the areas we have seen the most progress in and give us the best chance to be competitive.”

Marcus Stroman, the reigning ACC freshman player of the year, will lead the pitching rotation. Last year, the right-hander posted a 6-4 record and 5.31 ERA in 57.2 innings pitched. His real breakout performances, however, came in the pres-tigious Cape Cod league this past sum-

mer. Playing for the Orleans Firebirds, Stroman posted a 0.00 ERA in 25 innings pitched, holding opponent batters to a .169 batting average.

“Going into the Cape I was in a differ-ent role as a closer,” Stroman said. “I was able to come in give my best stuff, but it’s just confidence really when you’re out there on the mound and you get the hit-ters out. I want to bring what I did last summer back here and be as successful.”

To complement Stroman, junior left-hander Eric Pfisterer and sophomore right-hander Chase Bebout will look to develop into secondary starting options for the Blue Devils staff. The duo com-bined for 22 starts last season, posting a combined 7-8 record. Additionally, Duke will once again rely on junior Ben Grisz out of the bullpen, and he will look to build upon his team-high 25 appearances last season. While Duke will lean heavily on its pitching staff, it also has several dangerous offensive threats. Outfielder Will Piwnica-Worms will be responsible for anchoring the Blue Devil lineup. Pi-wnica-Worns is coming off a career season in which he started all 56 games, posting a .313 batting average and a team leading six home runs and 44 runs batted in. De-spite his offensive prowess last season, the

by Jacob LevittTHE CHRONICLE

In No. 5 Duke’s dominating 20-6 win over Siena last Saturday, the new-look Blue Devils showed some of the same of-

fensive firepower that made them a championship team last season.

But that game was really little more than a warm-up for the team’s title-game rematch with No. 6 Notre

Dame(0-0)—which trails Duke (1-0) by just a single point in the Inside Lacrosse preseason rankings—that will take place this Sunday in Jacksonville, Fla.

“It’s exciting especially playing a team like that really early,” said C.J. Co-stabile, who scored the game-winning goal against the Fighting Irish last May.

by Ryan ClaxtonTHE CHRONICLE

With another successful road swing in the books, it’s time for Duke to come home.

The No. 5 Blue Devils (24-2, 11-1 in the ACC) will play in Cameron Indoor Stadium for the first time in 11 days Sunday, as a strug-gling Georgia Tech squad comes to Durham seeking its first road victory of the season.

“We haven’t been at home for a while,” No-lan Smith said. “We’ll be happy to be home in front of the crowd again. I want to win.”

Despite a Wednesday night victory over Chattanooga, the Yellow Jackets (11-14, 3-8) are currently riding a five-game conference losing streak. Their most recent loss was the worst of the season, a 102-77 annihilation at the hands of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va.

Georgia Tech boasts a young squad featuring 10 freshmen and sophomores and is shooting a mere 40.7 percent from the field this year, good for 299th in Divi-sion I. The Yellow Jackets rely heavily on guard Iman Shumpert, who leads the team in minutes, points, rebounds, assists and steals this season. Despite the junior’s best efforts, though, Georgia Tech as a team has mustered only 69 points per game on the season, placing ninth in the ACC.

Still, head coach Mike Krzyzewski warned Wednesday that the Yellow Jackets were not to be overlooked.

“We have a lot of respect for who they are,” he said.

The losses of Gani Lawal and Derrick Fa-vors have left a gaping hole in the front line for Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets have only three players 6-foot-8 or taller, and all three are freshmen. Center Daniel Miller is seeing the most playing time of the group at 24.9 minutes a game but is only managing 4.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per contest.

With its many options up front, Duke ap-pears to have the personnel to exploit the Yel-low Jackets’ weakness in the paint. The Blue Devils will primarily look for Mason Plumlee to continue his recent production to take some pressure off their perimeter stars. Over the past five games, Plumlee has averaged 10.2 points and 9 rebounds as Duke has es-tablished itself at the top of the ACC.

“We’ve tried to make a point to get our big guys involved,” Smith said. “We know if we do that we’ll be a deeper team and a more explosive team.”

But the player who could be positioned

melissa yeo/The ChroniCle

Georgia Tech’s weak frontcourt may mean a big night from sophomore Mason Plumlee on Sunday.

DUKE GTCAMERON • SUNDAY • 7:45 p.m. • FSN

After brutal road swing, Duke heads back home

baSeball

Youthful squad looks to improve this season

ChrisTina pena/ChroniCle file phoTo

C.J. Costabile, who scored the game-winning goal last May, will again face the Fighting Irish Sunday.

McNally says pitching, defense are critical

Men’S laCroSSe

Blue Devils, Fighting Irish to face off again

Season Preview

SEE m. lacrosse ON PAGE 9

SUNDAY, 3 p.m.Jacksonville, Fla.

No. 6ND

No. 5 Duke

vs.

SEE baseball ON PAGE 11

SEE m. basketball ON PAGE 11

SportsThe Chronicle

www.dukechroniclesports.com

FRIDAYFebruary 18, 2011

>> INSIDE Last year Duke upset a South-ern California team that would go on to win the na-tional championship. The two teams face each other again today at 3 p.m. (PST) PAGE 9

The ChroniCle FriDAY, FeBrUArY 18, 2011 | 9

by Giancarlo RiottoTHE CHRONICLE

Last March, Duke upset then-No. 3 Southern California in Durham, an unlikely win that was surely the team’s most significant victory of the season, especially after the Trojans went on to win the 2010 national championship.

This weekend, Duke will travel to Seattle to play in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships and try to pull off the upset against Southern California again.

The No. 17 Blue Devils (7-2) will compete in a first-round matchup with the No. 2 Trojans (7-0) Friday at 3 p.m. (PST).

Despite last year’s victory, head coach Ramsey Smith is certain that his team will remain focused on today’s match and avoid overcon-fidence.

“The guys are excited,” Smith said. “We beat them last year, and [Southern California] is a little different team this year than last year. I think the guys have confidence against this team, and they’re all really excited to play against the best. Winning the national title the last two years, they’re still what every-one is shooting at.”

Smith also noted that his squad will not have the benefit of surprise this year against what is sure to be a more pre-pared Southern California team.

“Last year they probably thought we were a little bit down and struggling,” he added. “This year they aren’t ex-pecting an easy match. They’re 100 percent going to be ready, and we aren’t going to catch them off guard.”

If Duke is to repeat last year’s upset, it will need big performances from its stars—most notably sophomore Henrique Cunha and senior Reid Carleton. Cunha will be pitted against No. 4 Steve Johnson in a rematch from last season. Cunha defeated the then-No. 1 ranked John-son in a thrilling two set match, 6-4 and 7-6, and this year’s matchup should be just as exciting. Carleton will play Tro-jan Daniel Nguyen, also a holdover from last year’s squad. Carleton is 19-4 in singles play this year and has posted an 11-4 mark against nationally ranked opponents.

Smith also cited effective doubles play as critical to his team’s chances of an upset. While he is confident in what the first tandem of Cunha and Carleton will bring to the table, he is hoping to receive similar efforts from his second and third duos.

“If we can find out a way to squeak out either the sec-ond or third doubles tandem, we’ll be in good shape. At two and three we’ve been up and down, but we’re looking for a good team effort from all three doubles

EXTERNAL AFFAIRS ASSOCIATE

The Duke Student Publishing Co., publisher of

The Chronicle, seeks a student to help build The

Chronicle’s new external relations program. Duties

will include mastering our database (entering data,

tracking gifts, publishing reports and preparing

correspondence to donors) and conducting research

on Chronicle alumni and the careers they have pursued.

Additional duties may include writing articles for an

alumni e-newsletter, maintaining the alumni page on

The Chronicle’s Web site and planning events. Our

plan is to hire a student who will train and begin work

this spring and continue in the fall. We have recently

launched our alumni affairs and development programs,

and this position will be a great opportunity for

someone with energy and ingenuity who is interested

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For more information or to apply, contact David Rice,

director of external relations, at david.rice@duke.edu.

Men’S TennIS

Upset-minded Duke to face USC

Tyler sueC/The ChroniCle

last season, Henrique Cunha topped the then-no. 1 Steve John-son in a thrilling match. The two will face each other again today.

FRIDAY, 3 p.m.Seattle, Wash.

No. 2 USC

No. 17 Duke

vs.

teams this weekend. I think we’ll get that good ef-fort today,” Smith said.

Regardless of what happens today, however, the Indoor Championships present an excellent op-portunity for the Blue Devils to be tested against elite competition. Duke will play at least two more matches this weekend, and both will be against more highly ranked teams.

“This is the first time the senior class has made it to the final 16,” Smith said. “It’s a good situation to get some really good wins early in the season.”

M. laCroSSe from page 8

“They’re a really good team. They didn’t graduate a lot of people, and they have a really good defensive unit.”

Really good might be an understatement. The Fight-ing Irish boast a defensive unit composed almost entirely of juniors and seniors. And the defense is used to suc-cess: Over the last five years, it has maintained a top-five ranking each season. Last year, the Blue Devils had two of their worst offensive performances against Notre Dame, scoring only seven goals in an 11-7 loss in Durham and just six goals in the national title game, which was the low-est scoring final in the history of the NCAA Tournament.

With that history in mind, it would be remarkable for Duke to repeat its performance against Siena. Saturday’s 14-

goal margin of victory was larger than last year’s team man-aged all season, but it will take more than one solid scoring performance to mach the accomplishments of last year’s graduating class. Three players from that team were taken in the top four picks of the Major League Lacrosse draft, and a total of 16 players graduated from last year’s squad.

Still, the current team has experience coming up big in the clutch.

Most of the Blue Devils’ production in the championship game actually came from current players, including Costa-bile’s game-winning goal just five seconds into overtime. Se-nior Zach Howell, who led the team with seven goals and two assists against the Saints last Saturday, contributed two goals and an assist in the championship game.

Notre Dame, however, is conspicously missing one play-er—the physically imposing 6-foot-4 goalie Scott Rodgers, who won the 2010 NCAA Championship Most Outstand-ing Player award for carrying his team to the finals against Duke and posting 15 saves in that game, graduated in the spring. His replacement, John Kemp, is a good deal smaller at 5-foot-9, 170 pounds, but saw some game action during last year’s campaign when Rodgers was injured.

Costabile acknowledged that scoring will be a strug-gle but also said that it’s one challenge the team can handle.

“John Kemp is very good,” Costabile said. “[But] I love the challenge and I think all the guys on the team will embrace that challenge. It doesn’t matter who’s on the other side—it’s a different color, we’re excited and pumped up to play.”

“It doesn’t matter who’s on the other side—it’s a different color, we’re excited and pumped up to

play.” — C.J. Costabile

10 | FriDAY, FeBrUArY 18, 2011 The ChroniCle

by Steven SlywkaTHE CHRONICLE

After missing all of last season with an injury, Emma Hamm wants to play in as many lacrosse games as she can.

Luckily, she’ll have two chances this weekend as No. 4 Duke (1-0) takes on

Richmond Friday at 7 p.m. and Wil-liam & Mary Sun-day afternoon at 1 p.m., both at Ko-skinen Stadium.

In her first game back since suffering a torn ACL before the 2010 season, Hamm

waited all of two min-utes for her first goal in a season-opening 21-9 victory over Ohio State. Now the redshirt junior hopes that her momentum will carry over into this week-end’s slate of games.

“I’m excited to have two games in one weekend,” Hamm said. “My first game back was better than expected. I had been looking forward to it for over a year, and I had a great time. My teammates were very supportive of me.”

Hamm isn’t the only Duke player eager to make up for lost time, as several Blue Devils, including goalie Mollie Mackler, also missed significant time last year. Head coach Ker-stin Kimel is again eager to show off Duke’s full arsenal of weapons this weekend.

“It is really nice to have Emma back on

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james lee/The ChroniCle

redshirt junior emma Hamm scored her first goal of the year just two minutes into the ohio State contest.

Hamm savors return to Koskinen Stadium

FRIDAY, 7 p.m.Koskinen Stadium

Richmond

No. 4 Duke

vs.

SUNDAY, 1 p.m.Koskinen Stadium

William & Mary

No. 4 Duke

vs.

the field, and Mollie in the cage,” Kimel said. “Having them back gives us some depth, and that really helps us run and keep fresh legs on the field.”

The Spiders (0-1) have a few scoring weapons of their own, however, includ-ing the reigning A-10 player of the year, Mary Flowers. In Richmond’s first game against Maryland, Flowers was able to record a hat trick against the defending national champions.

“[Flowers] is a really nice player, she gets a lot done on the field,” Kimel said. “I think a big key for us will be trying to limit her touches on the ball and keep her busy elsewhere. We want to keep her on defense as much as possible.”

William & Mary (0-0) will open its season against Duke, giving the Blue Devils their first glimpse of the Tribe’s two All-Ameri-cans, defender Sarah Jonson and midfielder Grace Golden. Kimel knows her team can’t afford to overlook either squad in anticipa-tion of its upcoming ACC games.

“Both opponents this weekend are great teams,” Kimel said. “They’re both athletic, very fast and can score goals in bunches. I think they’re great tests for us as we build towards playing our ACC schedule.”

If the Blue Devils can bring forth the same intensity to this weekend as they did to open the season, Kimel feels confident in her team’s abilities.

“We’re looking to try and sustain that physical and emotional level throughout the season,” the coach said. “We feel like that kind of consistent approach and per-formance to every game will only yield good results down the road.”

China since winning a gold medal there in the 2008 Olympics. “I know that this is a nation that absolutely loves basketball.... It should be a trip [our players] remem-ber for the rest of their lives.”

The team will leave North Carolina Aug. 14, make the roughly 20-hour trip and play its first game in Kunshan, China Aug. 17. Kunshan will be the location of a 200-acre Duke-affiliated campus scheduled to open in 2012 at an estimated cost of $7 to $10 million to the University over the next five years. But while Duke’s campus may not be built yet, its fans are expected to be there in full force—Duke’s Cross Continent MBA class of 2012 will attend the game and act

as the student section.The Blue Devils will then play in Shang-

hai at the Mercedes-Benz Arena Aug. 19. Three days later, the team will compete in Beijing at the same arena where Krzyzewski coached Team USA to a gold medal. While in Beijing, the Blue Devils are scheduled to tour Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. They are also scheduled to conduct youth basketball clinics in the country.

Duke is scheduled to finish its tour Aug. 26 in Dubai.

“As a global university, Duke is de-lighted to have this chance to reach out to our passionate fans around the world,” President Richard Brodhead said. “The success of our men’s basketball team is a highly visible symbol of Duke’s commit-ment to excellence every day.”

CHIna from page 1

The ChroniCle FriDAY, FeBrUArY 18, 2011 | 11

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junior will have to adapt to his new role in the middle of the lineup.

“I’ll have the same approach,” Piwni-ca-Worms said. “I’ll probably be pitched around a little bit and I’m going to have to be patient. I just want to go out there and see the ball, hit the ball.”

Although Piwnica-Worms looks to improve his place discipline this sea-son, McNally stressed that his team needs the outfielder to continue to provide an offensive spark.

“[He still needs to] be aggressive,” Mc-Nally said. “We need him to get big hits and he’s got to be ready when that opportunity comes. He can’t be passive. He’s a really good player and I know he’ll find the right balance and come through for us.”

Duke cannot remain competitive based on the contributions of just one of-fensive star, however. Stroman and senior Dennis O’Grady will also be called upon to contribute offensively on top of their pitching duties. Additionally, Blue Devils add nine freshman position players to their roster, several of whom are expect to

contribute immediately.Despite sporting only one senior, Duke re-

mains confident about its ability to compete at a high level this season. Coming into the senior opener, the Blue Devils feel confident that the infusion of youthful talent coupled with the return of several core players will re-sult in a strong 2011 campaign.

“I think it’s very simple,” McNally said. “If you focus too much externally the league can be very daunting. We go one series at a time.”

Their first series starts this weekend, when the Blue Devils face a dangerous Spiders team.

Riddled with injuries last season, Rich-mond posted a disappointing 24-27 re-cord. But the Spiders return seven starting position players, including Second Team All-Atlantic senior designated hitter Billy Barber and junior catcher Chris Cowell. Barber led the team with an impressive .372 batting average last year while Cowell mashed a team-high 17 home runs.

“[This weekend’s] going to be compet-itive,” Stroman said. “We’re going to go out there and play them like they’re an-other ACC team and play hard and hope-fully come away with a few wins.”

baSeball from page 8

to benefit the most from the size discrepancy is senior Kyle Singler. Coming off a 21-game double-digit scoring streak, Singler got into foul trouble Wednesday against Virginia and finished with only two points on 1-for-5 shooting. Although his shooting percentage has been a very respectable 43.2 percent on the year, Singler is shooting only 31.9 percent over the past four games.

“He’s entitled to not playing well once in a while,” Krzyzewski said. “He’s a cham-pion. I’m okay with Kyle.”

Returning to the friendly confines

of Cameron to face smaller opponents should open things up for Duke’s No. 5 all-time scorer. Singler should have no trouble getting his shot off against the Yellow Jackets, who will be forced to send a guard out to the perimeter to defend the 6-foot-8 forward. The size advantage should also help Singler on the boards where he can use his size advantage to provide rebounding assistance to Ryan Kelly and the Plumlees.

If the Blue Devils can get Singler back on track, Duke should prove to be too much for a young, undersized Georgia Tech squad to handle Sunday night.

M. baSkeTball from page 8

No. 7 Duke (23-3, 9-2 in the ACC) got off to a hot start, rushing out to an early 7-0 lead and holding its opponent scoreless for the first four minutes of the contest. With 8:48 left in the first half, the Blue Devils led 16-11, but No. 17 Maryland (21-5, 7-4) began to shut down Duke’s half-court of-fense, holding the team to zero field goals for the remainder of the half. The Terra-pins outscored the Blue Devils 16-3 from that point, due in large part to their of-fensive rebounding, an area that Maryland dominated for most of the night.

As the two teams headed into the locker room for halftime, they had amassed 22 com-bined turnovers and only 19 field goals.

Coming out of the break, both teams showed improvement on the offensive end after the sloppy first period. Duke roared back with a 13-2 run thanks to key baskets from Karima Christmas and Chloe Wells to cut the lead to 39-38 with 12 minutes left in the second half. Tianna Hawkins, Diandra Tchatchouang and Dara Taylor combined to score nine unanswered points, though, extending the Terrapins’ lead to 10.

Then, Allison Vernerey scored back-to-back field goals, helping cut the lead to 50-42 with around seven minutes remain-ing in regulation.

Alyssa Thomas and Lynetta Kizer

quelled any Duke comeback, however, scoring a combined 14 points to shut down Duke’s late surge. The Blue Devils didn’t score another field goal for seven minutes, their second drought of seven minutes or longer in the game.

Jasmine Thomas scored 12, and Vernerey tacked on 12 points, with the duo shooting a combined 40 percent from the field. Over-all, the Blue Devils shot 35 percent from the floor. It was Duke’s second lowest point total of the year and lowest amount scored on the road this season.

The Blue Devils were outrebounded 42-31, highlighted by a 18-9 offensive rebounding edge for Maryland. Duke also committed 20 turnovers, eight of which came from Thom-as. The national player of the year hopeful was displeased with the performance and put the blame for the team’s loss on herself.

“From a senior, from a point guard, that’s just unacceptable,” she said. “Your team feeds off what you’re doing, and if I’m careless with the ball, I think that trickles down.”

Duke has now lost three of its last four on the road, allowing nearly 73 points per game during those losses. Head coach Joanne P. McCallie left the latest loss for the Blue Devils calling for immediate improvement.

“[We’ve been] rushing, going too quick-ly, not setting things, not getting any sec-ond shots and turning the ball over,” Mc-Callie said. “There’s no excuse for the way we played tonight. Absolutely none.”

w. baSkeTball from page 1

gail burTon/ap

allison Vernerey was a bright spot in a sluggish Duke offense, scoring 12 points and grabbing four rebounds.

12 | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2011 thE chRonIclEClassifieds

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thE chRonIclE XXXDAY, Month XX, 2011 | 13

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The University’s Interna-tional Travel Oversight Com-mittee’s Feb. 2 decision to restrict travel to Egypt will be reviewed Feb. 28 in light of the resignation of embattled former presi-dent Hosni Mubarak. Com-mittee members will assess whether violent conditions in the country have improved following the ousting of the president.

DukeEngage is thus delay-ing the final decision on the status of the fourth summer of its civic engagement pro-gram in Cairo. Director of DukeEngage Eric Mlyn has said that a formal decision will be made April 4.

Students who have been accepted to the program in Egypt will have to wait a few

months longer to confirm their summer plans as the Uni-versity and the world monitor the situation from afar.

In the meantime, we sup-port DukeEngage’s decision

to leave open the possibility of sending stu-

dents to Egypt as the country seeks stability.

The opportunity to exam-ine the development of Egypt and its government from the inside would be a one-of-a-kind learning experience for students, but a significant in-crease in confidence about the safety of the region must be registered before such a de-cision is made. April 4 seems to be a fair deadline for mak-ing this assessment as long as administrators are cautious about assessing the risks the

country presents on that date.DukeEngage officials

should continue to commu-nicate new information to the accepted students so that they are able to gain a thor-ough understanding of what is happening in the country and the region.

Similar updates could be useful and educational for the wider Duke community as well. We call on the University community to launch more discussions, panels and aca-demic events aimed at inform-ing students about Middle Eastern politics as well as the uprisings in Egypt, which have become relevant for nearly ev-ery nation in the region.

Assessing the impact of the events in Egypt and other countries across the region has the potential to be an in-

sightful exercise for the Uni-versity at large.

If Duke sends undergradu-ate students to Egypt after this revolution, it could be an in-valuable educational oppor-tunity for students and facul-ty. Duke would also be able to build on its growing reputa-tion as a global university.

But even if DukeEngage cannot send students to Cai-ro this summer, Duke should be looking to build relation-ships with Egyptian univer-sities and forge new oppor-tunities for exchange there as it has in other countries around the world.

No matter what happens with DukeEngage in Cairo this summer, students should not have to go to Egypt to be well informed about what goes on there. Duke should

work to ensure its global edu-cation starts on campus, es-pecially when contemporary events like the situation in Egypt present themselves.

We commend the mem-bers of Duke’s Muslim Stu-dent Organization and oth-ers who coordinated last week’s Egypt vigil in front of the Chapel. We hope that momentum from this event carries forward into the aca-demic sphere.

Making the political tur-moil in the country and in the region a more central part of the University’s collective dis-course should be a goal of ev-eryone in the Duke communi-ty. As an academic institution, we have a unique opportunity to help make sense of a com-plex and rapidly evolving his-torical occurrence.

My time of doing embarrassing things is pretty much over. I’m not worried that someone will find me in a compromising

situation, secretly snap my picture and post it on Facebook. I’m so out of it, I don’t even SEE compromising situations, and if I do, I have no idea what is going on. The other day I had one of those friendly stairway chats with a neighbor in Wilson. I was go-ing down, he was going up. Warm day today! Classes are going well. Bye! He proceeds up the stairs and I notice he’s carrying a brick in each of his side pockets. Fitness routine? Class project? Weaponry? Kid doesn’t seem dangerous. But what if he is; what if the next time I see him is on the evening news?

There’s been enough Duke on the evening news as it is. I don’t need to tell you about the latest scan-dals. And though I am mildly curious, I don’t need you to tell me about your individual escapades. My phone does not have a camera. I do have a Facebook page that my kid set up for me, but I won’t Facebook-stalk you—I’m too busy stalking Tolstoy. PowerPoint for me, oddly, is still primarily a classroom tool, and a source of great personal stress. I often forget what century it is. Still, news occasionally trickles in, and when it does, some of that fairy dust sprinkles on me too. Now instead of polishing my latest “The Broth-ers Karamazov” paper for Dostoevsky Camp, I’m bracing myself for the question-and-answer period afterward, which colleagues from calmer universities will clog with inquiries about my students’ subcogni-tive behavior. From where I stand, that’s a whole lot of effort gone to waste.

I work in the university I’ve chosen to see as the place I’d like to be working: a nurturing commu-nity of scholars and learners conducting a dialogue about things that matter. That’s the way it feels in my classes and in my interactions with students. A dif-ferent Duke keeps intruding into my field of vision, though, and it is getting harder and harder to main-tain the illusion. The classroom, with its dialogues about the big questions, is becoming a feeble add-on, a mere distraction from everything else.

There’s a striking unanimity among the many students who have talked with me about the de-teriorating intellectual climate on campus: Come January, everything starts to crumble. The process originates in the mysterious and archaic rituals of rush and pledging and culminates in the post-apocalyptic horrors of the last day of class. Trust me, I don’t want to know the details, though I do overhear this and that, and read with interest the accounts that appear on these pages. Never oc-curred to me to include EMS on my party guest

list, for example, even when I was a frisky young hippie. And it is always poignant to chat with my newest Duke colleagues, shell-shocked from their

first experience hosting a roomful of smelly, dazed zombies on that oh-so-special last day of class. The LDOC rules and regulations for al-cohol possession are always a rivet-ing read. The most memorable one came in 2009, with its specified lim-it for the amount of alcohol to “a reasonable amount that one could consume in one day—a 12 pack of beer (unless you are already intoxi-cated or it is late in the day).”

There’s been a lot of soul-search-ing around campus these days, or at

least what passes for such in a big institution. Stu-dents are being asked to take themselves in hand. There’s nothing new about this, though; the con-versation has been going on for a long time. The most eloquent voice on the subject remains that of Duke’s beloved Reynolds Price. In a memorable Founder’s Day speech in 1992, Professor Price shared his passionate commitment to the univer-sity’s higher values, lamenting what he called “the prevailing cloud of indifference, of frequent hostil-ity, to a thoughtful life” in the campus community. Sound familiar? Take a moment of silence, strap on your seat belt, and click on this link: http://news.duke.edu/mmedia/misc/foundersday_92.pdf. Nothing much has changed almost 20 years later, except the media are more sophisticated and the terminology is cruder. Does our loss of this trea-sured man’s voice mark the end of the dialogue, or might his words continue to serve as a source of inspiration?

A couple of simple steps may be in order. 1) Consider the problem to be an institutionally sanc-tioned code of rituals and traditions rather than a set of individual moral choices. Then Duke can take some bold action. Just a guess, but moving all greek living groups onto Central Campus might be a good start. 2) Come to East for a chat with me and my faculty neighbors. Here in Wilson 217, the conversation goes on every Monday night, over cookies, starting at 9:00 p.m. Everyone is welcome. I’ll even get my kid to put an invitation on Face-book. Come over, take a load off, and share some thoughts. And make my day: take my picture and post it somewhere. I’ll be flattered that you care.

Carol Apollonio is an associate professor of the prac-tice in Slavic and Eurasian studies and a faculty mem-ber in residence in Wilson Dormitory. This is the fifth in a weekly column from faculty members in residence on East Campus.

commentaries14 | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2011 thE chRonIclE

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What would gossip bro say about this?

—“CFMallz” commenting on the editorial “Ban smoking in residential quads.” See more at www.dukechronicle.com.

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carol apolloniothe professor

next door

commentariesthE chRonIclE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2011 | 15

Although my generation has never been able to classify the Middle East as a stable region, the past couple of months have brought more volatility than

even any of us are used to. The collapse of the Tunisian regime on Jan. 14 quickly gave way to the abdication of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak last Friday, and the unrest has now spread to Ye-men, Libya, Iran, Bahrain and Iraq, where different kinds of disgruntled peoples are clashing with the police and causing problems for those in charge. These uprisings are not alike in every way, since each nation has its own set of dissidents with spe-cific, historically based motivations, but there are still some striking similarities.

Almost all of the nations in question have, at best, dubi-ous election processes, if the leaders are even elected at all. The recently ousted Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt had been in power for 23 and almost 30 years, respectively, while Libya’s de facto ruler Muammar el-Qaddafi has maintained his position for 41 years. The average age of these three today is 74. (For ref-erence, the average age of U.S. presidents entering office is 54.) Bahrain has been trapped under the thumb of the

al-Khalifa family since the late 18th century and, as many will remember from 2009, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been accused of rigging elections. Without a legitimate scaffold in place for a peaceful and regular transition of power, leaders often appear to be permanently installed, which is in and of itself a source of frustration for members of their populations.

There is another and more important side effect of stat-ic political leadership, and that is the growing gap between a leader’s ideology and the present-day needs of his na-tion’s people. This discrepancy is demonstrated by regimes that rely on anti-Israeli hate mongering for their power: These leaders are, like anyone, products of their time, a time that came before their own stagnant social and eco-nomic policies crippled their nations and rendered their antiquated rhetoric hollow and ineffective. In short, they are hopelessly out of touch.

That almost goes without saying, as the failure of the Arab dictators to grasp the force behind today’s uprisings manifests itself in their responses to them. There have been reports of regimes attempting to arrest and intimi-date journalists, as though they were somehow the primary reporters of these conflicts. In reality, it is the young pro-testers themselves who have been the most vocal, using the Internet to communicate both with one another and the rest of the world. When the governments realized this and responded by slowing and shutting down connections in Egypt and Bahrain, they truly demonstrated the extent to

which they fail to understand their younger and coming-of-age citizens. In return, the youth have given the only reasonable response for such an old and obstinate road-block: Get out of the way.

It remains to be seen whether the emerging protests, some of which are only hundreds deep at this point, will shake foundations on the level of an Egypt or a Tunisia. Likely, some will succeed, some will manage to draw a few much-needed concessions, and the rest might perish or otherwise be put down. The hope, though, is that people and governments from around the world will learn their lessons from the recent goings-on and revolutions in the Middle East. We are seeing before our eyes that outdated philosophies, characterized by leaders who are vestiges of a fading past, are no substitute for political discourse, and that interminable administrations, given over to corrup-tion and national stagnation, will no longer be tolerated by a globally aware people.

Most importantly, we can distill from the revolutions in the Middle East advice that even legitimately democratized nations can heed, especially as their average life expectan-cies increase and drive down the relative voting power of youth: Don’t stay too long in one place. If you do, it may not be long before someone is telling you that you’ve had your turn, and it’s time to move over because now they want theirs.

Chris Bassil is a Trinity junior. His column runs every Friday.

lettertotheeditorThe right to abstain

After attempting to abstain from voting on the referendum on the Feb. 15 ballot for Young Trust-ee, a simple e-mail I sent to the Board of Elections about what I thought was a simple online glitch turned into a 24-hour whirlwind of appeals, injunc-tions and testimonies to the Judiciary. With a rul-ing early yesterday in favor of DSG, I understand Judiciary’s rational: that the literal letter of the law that rules both DSG and the Board of Elections does not explicitly protect a vote to abstain. And while—in recent past—all elections have allowed students to abstain from portions of the ballot if they wish, this is not a right guaranteed by their bylaws.

But moving forward, I believe that the ability for a voter to make the deliberate political decision to abstain is fundamentally basic. After all, everyone that provided testimony last night, even the mem-bers of DSG and the Board of Elections, admitted that it was morally questionable to require a vote on the referendum, and that in hindsight absten-tion should have been a possible choice for stu-dents. I believe that it is the nuance and ambiguity of their bylaws—and lack of consideration of the implicit rights that have been solidified by past vot-ing procedure—that is the only thing protecting the Board of Elections and upholding the refer-endum.

To have a truly free and democratic election in the future, abstention must be a political option available to students. I urge the leadership of Duke Student Government to include explicit guidelines in the constitution that will allow for students to be protected in the future. Furthermore, I hope that students will contact DSG members if they believe that they should have the right to abstain in the future, as they have been allowed to in the past. No student should ever be forced to vote, and I hope this kind of voting procedure will never again hap-pen on Duke’s campus.

Christine HallTrinity ’11

Student manager of creative business and advertising for The Chronicle

In Egypt, workers are having a revolutionary Feb-ruary. In the United States, by contrast, Febru-ary is shaping up as the cruelest month workers

have known in decades.The coup de grace that toppled

Hosni Mubarak came after tens of thousands of Egyptian workers went on strike beginning last week. By Fri-day, when Egypt’s military leaders ap-parently decided that unrest had reached the point where Mubarak had to go, the Egyptians who oper-ate the Suez Canal and their fellow workers in steel, textile and bottling factories; in hospitals, museums and schools; and those who drive buses and trains had left their jobs to protest their conditions of em-ployment and governance. As Jim Hoagland noted in The Post, Egypt was barreling down the path that Poland, East Germany and the Philippines had tak-en, the path where workers join student protesters in the streets and jointly sweep away an authoritar-ian regime.

But even as workers were helping topple the re-gime in Cairo, one state government in particular was moving to topple workers’ organizations here in the United States. Last Friday, Scott Walker, Wis-consin’s new Republican governor, proposed tak-ing away most collective bargaining rights of public employees. Under his legislation, which has moved so swiftly through the newly Republican state leg-islature that it might come to a vote Thursday, the unions representing teachers, sanitation workers, doctors and nurses at public hospitals, and a host of other public employees, would lose the right to bargain over health coverage, pensions and other benefits. (To make his proposal more politically palatable, the governor exempted from his hit list the unions representing firefighters and police.) The only thing all other public-sector workers could bargain over would be their base wages, and given the fiscal restraints plaguing the states, that’s hardly anything to bargain over at all.

You might think that Walker came to this ex-treme measure after negotiations with public-sector unions had reached an impasse. In fact, he hasn’t held such discussions. “I don’t have anything to ne-gotiate,” Walker told the Milwaukee Journal Senti-nel last week. To underscore just how accompli he considered his fait, he vowed to call in the National Guard if protesting workers walked off the job or disrupted state services.

It’s a throwback to 19th-century America, when strikes were suppressed by force of arms. Or, come to think of it, to Mubarak’s Egypt or communist Po-land and East Germany.

Now, it’s not as if our states don’t have fiscal cri-ses to address, and Walker insists that it’s Wisconsin’s empty till that has driven him to curtail workers’

rights. But there are other options. Democratic governors such as Cali-fornia’s Jerry Brown and New York’s Andrew Cuomo have proposed scal-ing back public services, pay and ben-efits without going after workers’ fun-

damental rights to bargain. The right to bargain is clearly a separate question. Newly elected Republi-can governors, however, may reach the same conclu-sion Walker did and use the recession-induced fiscal crisis to achieve a partisan political objective: remov-ing unions, the most potent force in the Democrats’ electoral operation, from the landscape. “If we just stop and cure the pension problem, we have not gone far enough,” Steve Malanga of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal said at the Conservative Politi-cal Action Conference last weekend.

The real goal of the American right is to reduce public employee unions to the level of private-sector unions, which now represent fewer than 7 percent of American workers. Walker’s proposal not only con-fines public-sector unions to annual bargaining over wage increases but restricts the increases for state employees to raises in the consumer price index and compels every such union to hold an annual mem-bership vote to determine whether the union can continue to represent workers. It clearly intends to smash these unions altogether.

Which would yield what? Our unions have already been decimated in the private sector; the results are plain. Corporate profits are soaring, while domestic investment, wages and benefits (particularly at non-union companies) are flat-lining at best. With no-body to bargain for workers, America increasingly is an economically stagnant, plutocratic utopia. Is everybody happy?

American conservatives often profess admiration for foreign workers’ bravery in protesting and un-dermining authoritarian regimes. Letting workers exercise their rights at home, however, threatens to undermine some of our own regimes (the Republi-can ones particularly), and shouldn’t be permitted. Now that Wisconsin’s governor has given the Guard its marching orders, we can discern a new pattern of global repressive solidarity emerging—from the chas-tened pharaoh of the Middle East to the cheesehead pharaoh of the Middle West.

Harold Meyerson is editor-at-large of American Prospect and the L.A. Weekly. This column originally appeared in The Washington Post on February 16, 2011.

Arab dictators stuck in yesteryear

Wisconsin’s Mubarak

chris bassiljust a minute

harold meyersonthe washington post

www.qduke.com

16 | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2011 thE chRonIclE

The Chronicle’s publisher, Duke Student Publishing Company Inc. (DSPC), is looking for an under graduate student to join its Board of Directors. Candidates should be available for a two-year term starting this fall.

Members gain real-world business experience as they help guide the campus news media into the future.

DSPC, a North Carolina nonprofit corporation, is neither governed nor funded by Duke University.

Application Deadline: March 16, 2011

Join the Board of Directors of a million-dollar-a-year organization.

Please send a resume and a cover letter to Richard Rubin, chair of the nominating committee, at rrubin2@gmail.com

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contacted Brodhead about poten-tially serving in this capacity about six months ago.

The commission will consist of a diverse group of members, such as filmmaker George Lucas, former Su-preme Court Justice David Souter and a variety of scholars, policymak-ers and leaders.

“I must say that I think it is very im-portant that this thing be headed by somebody from the academic sector and somebody from a broad civic sec-tor,” Brodhead said, referring to Rowe and himself. “[The group] is a lot of very smart people who will be able to come at [the issues] from a lot of dif-ferent ways.”

Throughout the nearly two-year period, the group will work to de-termine actions that Congress, local governments and other institutions

brodhead from page 1

University expanding globally while Durham continues to experience financial hardship?

He acknowledged the monetary costs of the campus in Kunshan—between $1.5 and $2 million per year for five years—but stressed the greater costs Duke will face if it does not widen its global horizons.

“The greatest threat that downturns pose to universities is to stunt forward movement and lock in the status quo. The university that fares best will be the one that... is alert to emerging opportuni-ties and willing to take the steps to seize them,” he said, calling globalization the key to the modern world.

Brodhead acknowledged that China and the United States do not share the same views of academic freedom.

“As we embark on this venture, we must frankly acknowledge that China does not share this country’s attitudes toward open inquiry, freedom of expression and free ac-cess to information,” Brodhead said. “The Chinese themselves must learn to accept and embrace [these values] if they are to get the worth of their bargain.”

But Brodhead said Duke must also be willing to learn from China and be open to new ways of thinking about education.

“To be a good global citizen, we need to learn how to expose others to our thinking and open ourselves to theirs and to accom-modate differences without violating fun-damental beliefs,” he said.

Brodhead believes that this is only pos-sible with a focus on the liberal arts and in-terdisciplinary study.

“Concepts like interdisciplinarity and in-ternationalization are not mutually exclu-sive alternatives. They are interdependent to the deepest degree,” he said. “Tellingly,

what China most admires in us is an educa-tion built on the broad-based, combinatory learning we call the liberal arts.”

Brodhead also discussed the Univer-sity’s financial achievements over the past year. Duke achieved about two-thirds of its planned spending cuts, he said, praising professors and administrators for their ef-ficiency. He added that, for the 2010 cal-endar year, the University’s investments re-turned more than 15.6 percent. For fiscal year 2010, which ended in June, investment returns were 13.2 percent, The Chronicle previously reported.

“I’ll give you a moment to absorb that because this is good news,” he said. “But for a host of reasons, it’s not yet time to loosen our restraint.”

Quoting a poem by Wallace Stevens, Brodhead illustrated how Duke should grow even though the economy still poses challenges.

“He had to choose. But it was not a choice between excluding things. It was not a choice between, but of,” he recited.

He explained that although Duke has to make decisions with financial constraints in mind, it does not have to choose between established programs and new projects. In-stead, it should support as many promising projects as possible with its available funds and engage in interdisciplinary studies.

“Money is scarcer than it was, but our project has never been to have a lot of money,” he said. “It is to build the liveliest, most comprehensive and most searching place of inquiry we can possibly envision, with whatever resources we have at hand.”

Lee Baker, Trinity College dean of academ-ic affairs and associate vice provost for under-graduate education, said he found Brodhead’s speech compelling and persuasive.

“I think he felt, perhaps correctly, that he needed to incorporate the arts and sci-ences, the core of the University,” Baker

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said. “He made the case of why the tra-ditional disciplines can have an impor-tant contribution.”

Additionally, Academic Council Chair Craig Henriquez shared some of the council’s goals for the upcom-ing year. In the age of blogging and other new means of communication, he hopes that interdepartmental cor-respondence will improve. Although administrative connections have im-proved over the years, many professors remain relatively uninformed of the in-ner workings of the council, he said.

“It is clear that the better the faculty understands how the University works, the better the input will be,” Henriquez said.

should take to improve excellence in the humanities and sciences. The work will build on the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ “Humanities Indicators,” a compilation of statistical data released in February 2010 concerning the state of the humanities.

“As our world becomes more inter-connected, building a solid foundation in the humanities is of vital national importance,” Price said in a statement. “Maintaining a robust capacity for teach-ing and research in these fields will help provide a context and a framework for the most current and urgent policy de-bates.”

Indeed, many of the backers of the com-mission have a background in education. Price and Rep. Thomas Petri, R-Wis., chair the Congressional Humanities Caucus, and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., previously served as president of the University of Tennessee.

“He has a healthy respect and a healthy background in the humanities himself,” Price’s Press Secretary Andrew High said of the representative’s educational experi-ence. “His personal story is about the pow-er of making sure that accessible oppor-tunities are there in these areas, because he came from a small school to UNC as a Morehead Scholar.”

The establishment of the commission may also benefit Duke, Schoenfeld said. One of the group’s meetings—which will be held across the country—may take place on campus, he added.

“It’s again another affirmation of Duke’s leadership in scholarship and education, and also at the intersection of education and economic development,” Schoenfeld said. “For Duke, it gives us a platform to... learn from a lot of different people. We hope to perhaps have a meet-ing of the commission on campus.”