by Melissa DalisTHE CHRONICLE

With performances everywhere from the Bryan Center to the C1, the Duke Arts Festival made its mark this year.

The two-week festival that concluded Sunday featured music, student dance performances, poetry readings, vi-sual art displays and theatrical performances. Previously a weekend-long event, this year’s celebration was extended to enable students to work more closely with the arts de-partments and plan spontaneous performances through-out campus, said Scott Lindroth, vice provost for the arts.

One such event was Defining Motion’s performance in the Marketplace. Lindroth said the idea behind holding these events in high traffic areas was to bring performanc-es to the students rather than expecting that all students would attend the events.

“It makes you think a little differently about what’s tak-ing place at Duke as we see students practicing music, danc-ing and art,” Lindroth said. “I think that’s a great thing to be able to show the community.”

As opposed to last year, the festival also coincided with stu-dent theater productions. Hoof ‘n’Horn’s “Into the Woods’” was sold out every night, and the Department of Theater

SEE arts ON PAgE 4

The ChronicleThe independenT daily aT duke universiTy

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2010 ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH YEAR, ISSUE 52www.dukechronicle.com

DUSDAC looks to improve campus

sustainability, Page 3

W. Soccer selected to 8th straight NCAA tournament, Page 7

onTherecord“Duke students should expect more of themselves and

more from each other.” —Senior Eliza French in “Breaking the cycle.” See column page 11

Suspended cancer trials terminated

by Julia LoveTHE CHRONICLE

The University voluntarily canceled three clinical trials that drew from the re-search of Dr. Anil Potti, a cancer researcher

whose research is current-ly under investigation.

The trials had pre-viously been suspend-ed. Duke researchers stopped admitting new patients to the two stud-ies on lung cancer and one study on breast can-cer July 18. The principal investigators made the

decision to permanently end the trials following the Oct. 22 retraction of a key paper published by Potti and his mentor Dr. Joseph Nevins, said Dr. Michael Cuffe, vice president for medical affairs. Clinical oncologists and principal investigators are in the process of contacting about 100 pa-tients who were enrolled in the three tri-als, Cuffe added.

“That request to retract represents a retraction of some of the foundational

SEE potti ON PAgE 5

potti investigation

Arts Festival ends two-week run

eliza bray/The ChroniCle

the Duke arts Festival ended sunday after two weeks of dance perfor-mances, poetry readings, visual art displays and theatrical performances.

anil potti

Tailgate canceled after incident with minor

Chase olivieri/ChroniCle file phoTo

after a minor was found unconscious near the end of the nov. 6 tailgate, administrators announced that the event in its current state has been canceled.

by Matthew ChaseTHE CHRONICLE

Tailgate as students currently know it has been canceled, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta confirmed Monday.

A minor, who was the guest of a stu-dent, was found unconscious in a Porta Potty at the end of the Nov. 6 Tailgate, said Chief John Dailey of the Duke Uni-

versity Police Department. A security of-ficer found the teenager after most stu-dents had left Tailgate, and Emergency Medical Services was called to transport the teenager to the Duke Emergency De-partment, Dailey added.

Moneta confirmed that to the best of his knowledge the teenager is OK, add-ing that the minor was the sibling of a Duke student.

This incident was the “predominant de-ciding factor” for the decision to end Tail-gate, Moneta said. The Tailgate that was originally scheduled for Nov. 13 has been suspended, and Tailgates in upcoming years will likely be very different, he added.

“Tailgate has become an embarrassment—it has no connection

SEE tailgate ON PAgE 4

Irons’ court date postponed to Jan.

from Staff ReportsTHE CHRONICLE

Former Trinity sophomore Eric Irons will face rape allegations in district court Jan. 27—more than two months after his original scheduled date. His court date was recently changed from Nov. 9 on the North Carolina Court System’s website.

Irons was arrested Sept. 8 on charges of second-de-gree rape and first-degree kidnapping of a female stu-dent by the Duke University Police Department. In an October interview, Irons’ attorney Bill Thomas said his client plans to face the allegations in court.

“Eric Irons is an innocent man,” Thomas said in Oc-tober. “We have located witnesses and have evidence that the allegations made against him are entirely false. I have every confidence that, once all of the facts are known, that Eric Irons will be completely exonerated of any wrongdoing whatsoever.”

Irons, a 19-year-old from Hong Kong, was charged

SEE irons ON PAgE 5

2 | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2010 ThE ChRONiClE

• Meet members of the program staff • Discuss program benefits and expectations

• Review important information about the application process

Please join us! Learn more at www.robertsonscholars.org ,

or contact Kristin Miller, miller@robertsonscholars.org .

Attention

first-year

students…

Did you know that you can

apply to become a Robertson Scholar?

The Robertson Scholars Program invites you to an open information

session to learn more about this opportunity!

Learn more at our info session: Wednesday, Nov. 10 at 5PM

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worldandnation ToDay:

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seoUl, s. Korea — Could a city get more excited about exchange rates?

With a verve usually reserved for ma-jor sporting events, cultural festivals or something resembling fun, the south Korean capital has amped up its attitude for this week’s gathering of the Group of 20, a group of world leaders who will debate things such as macroprudential bank regulations and currency policy - not raise the roof with a street party.

nevertheless, there are banners draped from major buildings and specially de-veloped cocktails, and a public plaza was set up with displays about global growth and economic policy. fresh flowers line the streets, covered from a fall chill so they can be unveiled for arriving heads of state, and large, G-20-themed lanterns provide the opening motif of this year’s lantern festival on the Cheonggye stream in central seoul.

WashinGTon — The United states tightened security on cargo shipments flown from abroad Monday, banning “high-risk” cargo from flying on passenger planes after last month’s discovery of a plot that originated in yemen to send bombs in shipped packages.

homeland security secretary Janet na-politano also extended last week’s ban on all air cargo from yemen to include soma-lia as well. and she limited to less than 16 ounces the size of toner or ink cartridges that can travel in checked or carry-on bag-gage, a response to the discovery of a bomb disguised as a toner cartridge and shipped as cargo at a london airport.

all of the packages carried aboard pas-senger planes have been screened very much like checked baggage. but in a world of express shipping, where speed means profit, cargo-only aircraft have been subject to less stringent inspection.

Washington sets stricter regulations on air cargo

Presidet Obama visits Indonesia

Failure is success if we learn from it.

— Malcolm Forbes

MiChael s. WilliaMson/The WashinGTon posT

Children of migrant walkers have a hard life. Beto Juarez, age nine, looks over his homework for the last time at his camp before he has to move. His family must travel from Winchester, virgina to Florida after the end of the apple harvest in order to get work in the orange groves. each season they must move, and each season Beto must enter a new school, challenging both him and the school system.

“Helfet — a former Johns Hopkins lacrosse player turned Duke tight end — turned in another tremendous performance Saturday, catching seven passes for a career-high 122 yards and one touchdown. He also was responsible for two first downs on the Blue Dev-ils’ game-winning 91-yard touchdown drive, with one 18-yard grab coming on 3rd-and-6 at the Duke 13-yard line and the other on a first down at the Virginia 47.”

— From The Chronicle Sports Blogsports.chronicleblogs.com

Dean’s Dialogues: Listening to the Heart of Durham

Duke Chapel, 12:15-1:15p.m. Duke Chapel Dean Sam Wells and Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez

will discuss the common good.

David Brooks: “Poltics and Cul-ture in the Age of Obama”

sanford fleishman, 5:30-7p.m. The columnist and political pundit will lecture on the politcs and cul-ture wars of the Obama presidency.

“Hiding” Movie Screening White 107, 7-8:20p.m.

VNK presents a free screening of a documentary about North Korean refugees who escaped to China,

and their struggle to survive.

Seoul prepares to host upcoming G-20 summit

onschedule...

onthe web

toDaY in HistoRY1921: Albert Einstein recieves

the Nobel Prize in Physics.offthe wire...

ThE ChRONiClE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2010 | 3

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Group considers environmentally friendly solutionsDuke univeRsitY stuDent Dining aDvisoRY Committee

by Ray KohTHE CHRONICLE

As the University looks to promote sustainability on cam-pus, members of the Duke University Student Dining Adviso-ry Committee suggested ways dining vendors can follow suit.

At its meeting Monday night, DUSDAC brainstormed various options to make campus eateries more environ-mentally friendly with sophomore george Carotenuto, buildings and grounds advisor for Duke Student govern-ment’s Student Environmental Sustainability Committee.

Although the University has pushed for greener prac-tices before, members said many students are unaware of these initiatives.

Members said the great Hall’s reusable clamshell con-tainer program, which started last Spring, is largely un-known. Through this program, students can eat their food in reusable to-go containers and then drop them off in a designated bin once they finish. Afterward, the containers are washed and sanitized.

“The clamshell program is grossly under-used right now but they are waiting to renew it,” said DUSDAC member Tina Siadak, a senior. “People use clamshells for Sitar, but for other places, they are all out of sight and [students] don’t know that [they] can use it.”

Carotenuto and DUSDAC members also talked about removing plastic bags from campus eateries and replacing them with reusable bags. Members noted vendors like The Loop hand out plastic bags regardless of the purchased item’s size.

Further, SESC has already met with Duke Stores regard-ing how to reduce plastic bag consumption. The store’s employees have recently been asking customers if they would like a bag of instead of giving one away immediately, Carotenuto said.

Additionally, members looked at the advantages and dis-advantages of implementing a small student surcharge on plastic bags—which would be less than 50 cents per bag.

“Having a surcharge on plastic bags and making stu-

dents carry reusable bags would be an extra task for stu-dents when they already have a lot of things on their plate,” said committee member Ben Berman, a junior.

Other ideas to promote sustainability included elimi-nating order forms and recycling receipts. Carotenuto added that many to-go containers could be saved if students brought their own.

DUSDAC members agreed that order forms at venues like The Tower and Armadillo grill are unnecessary and a waste of paper.

Carotenuto further explained that vendors are legally obligated to give receipts, but they often lack recycling bins

for people to put them in. Students thus end up throwing receipts away in regular trash cans.

“Unless you are at a big restaurant, it is really hard to find a recycling bin on campus,” said DUSDAC co-Chair Alex Klein, a senior.

in other business: Siadak also discussed possible changes that could be made

at Devil’s Bistro, since it is not bringing in enough business. Devil’s Bistro management is considering hosting events with live DJs, bringing in bands and even changing its menu be-cause the dining choices are too “all over the place,” she said.

rahiel aleMU/The ChroniCle

the Duke university student Dining advisory Committee met monday to discuss new ways to make food vendors on campus more environmentally friendly. the committee considered many options, including eliminating order forms at venues like the tower and armadillo grill and recycling receipts.

4 | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2010 ThE ChRONiClE

Studies’ production “The Beatification of Area Boy” was also successful, he added.

Other features of the festival included a poetry reading by U.S. Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin, a film showcase on the Main Quad-rangle and musical performances by the Duke University Percussions Ensemble on Duke’s buses. The impromptu concerts gen-erated mostly positive responses from pas-sengers, who were at first confused but then were smiling and clapping for the group, said DUPE President David Song, a senior.

“There’s an art to picking the correct bus,” Song said of the performances. “We don’t want to pick a bus that’s too crowded, but at the same time not one where we’re outnumbering the people.... It [also] de-pends on how everyone reacts as a group.”

A group of 30 arts-affiliated alumni from across the country also returned to Duke during the festival as a part of the Duke Entertainment, Media and the Arts Net-work, said junior Jonathan Lee, a member of DUU’s Visual Arts Committee. Lee, who was responsible for marketing the festival, said the alumni held panel discussions about careers in the arts, though student turnout was relatively low.

Lindroth added that he does not want the arts to go away just because the festival is over. He said he is already planning ways to improve both next year’s festival and the University’s arts culture in general. In future years, Lindroth said he hopes the festival can find ways to expand, such as by holding more formal screenings of stu-dent films in indoor facilities like griffith Theater.

“Trying to keep track of so many moving parts was tricky,” Lindroth said. “Because of the expanded scope of the festival, it was a lot more work for my office. Coordinating, marketing and putting up show in the Bry-ant Center is a gigantic task.”

Lindroth is also seeking to showcase more art on campus. A mural is currently being painted for one of The Perk’s walls that will consist of a series of frames con-taining poetry, paintings and pictures re-lated to some of the collections in Perkins Library. He hopes to expand the mural initiative to the Bryan Center sometime in the Spring.

aRts from page 1Top-spending candidates lose elections

tailgate from page 1

by T.W. FarnamTHE WASHINgTON POST

Is a vote worth $97? Sharron Angle seemed to think so. When all of the campaign spending by the Nevada po-litican and her supporters was tallied, that’s how much it came to for each vote she received in her failed bid to take down Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last week.

Angle’s campaign, which attracted support from across the country, was the most expensive congressional contest na-tionwide on a per-vote basis, according to a Washington Post analyis of campaign finance filings and election results.

By comparison, Reid and interest groups backing him spent $69 for each vote he received.

The figures offer one more win-dow into what was the most expensive midterm election in U.S. history—es-timated to come to $4 billion once all the money is counted, according to the nonpartisan Center for Respon-sive Politics, which tracks campaign finance statistics.

But some voters got much more at-tention than others, and the money did not always buy electoral success. Among the 17 congressional campaigns that cost more than $60 for each vote received, 10 of the candidates were Democrats, and only three of them won.

Even beyond that group, most Demo-cratic incumbents who lost had enjoyed a big head start in fundraising and had spent much more than their challengers. An influx of money from outside interest groups helped Republicans overcome some of the difference, but in most races won by the gOP, the candidates had less money behind them.

“Money doesn’t guarantee victory,” said Mark Mellman, who worked for Reid.

to our football team,” Moneta said in an interview Monday. “Now it has to end. I think the notion that a young teenager could be discovered under these conditions just crosses the line.”

Moneta sent an e-mail to the student body about the decision to end Tailgate around 10 p.m. Monday.

Following this “very scary incident,” Moneta said he met Monday afternoon with Duke Student government Presi-dent Mike Lefevre, a senior, and sopho-more Chris Brown, DSg vice president for athletics and campus services.

“Although Tailgate is something that we all know and love... we really need to ask ourselves some questions about the event, about the culture surrounding it and look past the one pro everyone knows about—that it’s an event open to everyone,” Brown said.

In the Monday meeting with Mon-eta, Lefevre said he and Brown planned to tweak Tailgate policies by potentially eliminating the guest policy in light of this weekend’s incident.

“Larry was not interested in tweaking policies,” Lefevre said.

Administrators and students will use the Spring to devise a new policy for pre-football celebrations, Moneta said.

“I have committed to use the Spring... to develop a plan for... pre-football gath-erings that preserve the kernel of value that Tailgate offered,” he said.

Lefevre said this year is his third year trying to save Tailgate “the way most stu-dents know it.”

“We knew there would be one in-cident that [would take] the fight out of us,” he said. “It wasn’t our idea [to suspend Tailgate], but I don’t have the heart to fight it.”

Although Brown said DSg considered creating an alternative event for Tailgate Saturday, DSg executive board members planned to contact students for feedback before planning any kind of immediate replacement.

Many students have expressed their desire to continue the Tailgate tradi-tion. Some students created a Facebook event entitled “Main Quad Throwdown”

that is set to take place Saturday morn-ing. Approximately three hours after its creation around 10 p.m. Monday, more than 1,000 students were listed as attend-ing the event, with about 4,400 guests awaiting reply.

Moneta gained the support of many administrators, including President Rich-ard Brodhead, Provost Peter Lange, Ex-ecutive Vice President Tallman Trask and Vice President and Director of Athletics Kevin White, in deciding to alter the na-ture of Tailgate. Moneta said these ad-ministrators were “totally, 100 percent” in favor of eliminating the event.

This does not mark the first time ad-ministrators have discussed changing Tailgate, however.

Duke’s version of Tailgate—which al-lowed student groups to bring in a car and cases of beer and was known for loud music and students spraying beer on each other—has elicited some controversy in the past.

In Spring 2009, administrators and student representatives from DSg and Duke University Union met to consider different possibilities in light of Tailgate safety concerns. Options included mov-ing Tailgate to Main West Quadrangle or dispersing students throughout the Blue Zone.

Tailgate has also had safety issues in the past. At the fist Tailgate in 2009, there were nine EMS calls and six people were transported to the Emergency De-partment.

Many students have reacted negatively to the news of Tailgate’s suspension. In a June 2009 DSg survey of 1,326 under-graduates, 57 percent of respondents in-dicated that they have no problem with Tailgate.

Seniors were looking forward to the last Tailgate this weekend, senior Cath-erine Cordeiro said.

“I think it’s kind of harsh of [the ad-ministration] to not give us a last hur-rah,” Cordeiro said. “I feel like the ad-ministration has been trying to get rid of Tailgate for some time. I would say that Tailgate is one of the primary reasons why I came to Duke, and I think it’s a major part of what makes the Duke so-cial scene so unique.”

ThE ChRONiClE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2010 | 5

science for these trials.... It became less appropriate to move forward,” Cuffe said. “The question of patient safety is always a top priority—that’s something that has been looked at repeatedly by a lot of parties and continues to be examined.”

Duke and the Institute of Medicine are each conducting investigations into Pot-ti’s research, which concerns the use of gene-based models in predicting patient response to chemotherapy drugs. Potti is currently on paid administrative leave.

Two biostatisticians from M.D. Ander-son Cancer Center, Keith Baggerly and Kevin Coombes, first approached Duke with concerns regarding the research about a year ago. In light of the questions raised about the research, the three trials were suspended in October 2009, but the University restarted them in January after an internal review did not find problems meriting their termination.

“Do we wish that we had known this earlier? Of course,” Cuffe said. “I think everyone involved would have liked to un-derstand whether that paper was correct or not, but that’s why we set up all trials with great caution.”

In late October, Nevins requested the retraction of a paper that influenced the two lung cancer trials which he published with Potti in the Journal of Clinical Oncol-ogy. Nevins is director for the Center for Applied genomics and Technology and the Barbara Levine Professor of Breast Cancer genomics. All three canceled tri-als, however, cited Potti’s paper, “genomic signatures to guide the use of chemother-apeutics,” which was published in Nature Medicine, possibly opening the door to another retraction.

“It leads me to believe that either retrac-

tion or some definite clarification of [that paper] is underway,” Baggerly said. “Either it means they don’t trust the paper or they trust only bits of it, in which case they need to be very explicit about which bits of it they trust.”

A clinical trial that lists Potti as a sub-investigator is currently recruiting patients, according to the National In-stitutes of Health database. Although that trial also cites the Nature Medicine paper, the questions surrounding the re-search have not posed problems for the study because the paper is not central to the inquiry, Cuffe said.

Dr. Paul Kelly Marcom, the principal investigator for the breast cancer trial that has been canceled, said he is still in talks with the Department of Defense to deter-mine what will be done with a $7 million grant that supported his work. In the study, Marcom and his team assigned patients in the experimental group to one of two stan-dard chemotherapy options depending on the genetic signatures identified by Potti, while the control group was randomly as-signed. Marcom said he believes the risk of harm to patients involved in the study is minimal.

“If the science is invalid, then the likeli-hood of harm to patients is extremely low,” Marcom said. “To say that the signatures would have assigned them to the wrong chemotherapy is to say they had some kind of validity.”

Marcom acknowledged that he is con-cerned that the controversy will undermine patients’ trust in clinical trials. But he does not believe that his study—which began in July 2008—was a worthless effort.

“It’s certainly not time or resources well spent to answer a question that’s not... valid,” he said. “I still wouldn’t say it’s a waste of time because science is a very start-andstop process. We’ve learned

a great deal about how to conduct a trial like this, so that is still a very valuable ex-perience.”

Marcom added that patients who have been notified about the cancellation of the trial have taken the news well so far.

“For the most part, they have under-stood that the goal of the trial was to see if these genomic signatures worked, but we were picking between standard thera-pies that they would have received any-way,” he said.

But he noted that he is concerned that the scandal will pose a setback for the field as a whole.

Baggerly said it may be challenging for scientists to reconsider their understand-ing of the role of genomics in chemo-therapy, which was influenced by Potti’s publications.

“These papers have had major effects, and if they are wrong, it’s going to require a reset of quite a few things,” he said.

Yet Marcom said he is confident that his colleagues’ naturally doubtful posture will help them move forward.

“The papers may have influenced other groups’ research, but I don’t think it had a major steering effect,” he said. “ I think the papers raised people’s hopes that genom-ics would be able to help us with something that we had strived for for a long time—a way to individually guide chemotherapy re-search.... It’s been tried over the last 30 to 40 years in oncology. There’s always a great deal of skepticism when someone says we have a test because we all know how many things haven’t worked.”

But the scandal may raise doubts about the University, Baggerly said.

“There is a piece of this story that does question Duke’s actions as an institution,” he said. “This is a big deal. This is one of the bigger scientific controversies in this rather abstract field that I’ve seen.”

potti from page 1

qDUKE.COMpresented by The

Chronicle

Make it your homepage.

iRons from page 1

and released Sept. 8 on a $75,000 bond, according to court records. He withdrew from Duke Sept. 9 following his arrest.

Irons allegedly assaulted a 20-year-old female student April 17 at a Central Campus apartment party, according to the probable cause affidavit, part of the application for a search warrant for DUPD. Many witnesses said the female student was “very intoxicated,” the affi-davit reads.

In October, Thomas declined to say whether Irons has returned to Hong Kong since withdrawing from the Uni-versity, adding that he is unsure wheth-er Irons will re-enroll at Duke if he is found innocent.

6 | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2010 ThE ChRONiClE

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103413_16_AD_HE_Chronicle.indd 1 11/3/10 3:48:52 PM

by Sabreena MerchantTHE CHRONICLE

Duke’s season lives on for at least one more weekend as the team earned a bid in the NCAA Tournament for the eighth con-secutive year Monday afternoon. The Blue

Devils will play California Fri-day in Gaines-ville, Fla.

After a disap-pointing defeat in the ACC Tour-nament quar-

terfinals to rival Maryland, the Blue Devils (10-7-1) get a second chance to finish their season on a high note. Duke has fared well in the NCAA Tournament in recent years, advancing to the Elite Eight in 2007 and 2008 after falling in the first round of the conference tournament both seasons.

“It was definitely a tough loss against Maryland in the first round but I think af-ter the last week [of practice], we’ve defi-nitely got it together,” senior captain Molly Lester said. “We’re looking forward to this NCAA run.”

Duke is one of eight ACC teams to make the 64-team field, and the conference was very favorably represented. North Caro-lina and Maryland were each given No. 1 seeds in their regions and three other

SportsThe Chronicle

www.dukechroniclesports.com

TUESDAYNovember 9, 2010

>> INSIDE

ONLINE

Tight end Cooper Helfet was named the ACC player of the week yesterday

We look into why Duke’s coolest sports apparel web-site was shut down

Blue Devils’ success rides with Plumlee brothers

margie truwit/the ChroniCle

Duke celebrates after being named to its eighth straight NCAA Tournament. The team will play California, which it has not faced in 11 years, in Gainesville, Fla. Friday.

Duke earns 8th straight bid to NCAA Tourney

There aren’t too many question marks on this Duke team.

We already know Kyle Singler will be a matchup prob-lem for opponents all season whether he plays inside or out. We know Nolan Smith will be a dynamic shooting guard capable of taking over the game when the shot clock winds down. And we know Kyrie Irving may be the closest thing to a sure-fire freshman star that the Blue

Devils have ever had.We know that Duke’s perim-

eter play will be dynamic—it is, in fact, as close to a certainty as can be found in college basket-ball this season.

Where the questions lie is in the post.

And that is why the Plumlee brothers, and not one of Duke’s bigger stars, will deter-mine whether the Blue Devils will win another national championship this year.

The situation is not unlike the one Duke faced with last season’s team. That team knew that most of its scoring would come from its Big 3—Smith, Sin-gler and the now departed Jon Scheyer—all of whom played on the perimeter.

But without the consistent play of Lance Thomas and Brian Zoubek in the paint, the Blue Devils wouldn’t have won the national championship. And in reality, all Duke needs from Miles and Mason Plumlee this year is

to match the performance of last season’s bigs—namely, to be solid defenders and dominant rebounders.

But no one knows if they can.True, both Miles and Mason have shown flashes

that they can be not only as good, but better than Zoubek and Thomas. Lost in Zoubek’s resurgence last season was Miles’s solid, if not spectacular, play as a starter in the first half of the year. He averaged almost six rebounds per game as a starter and had double-digit scoring performances seven times in that span.

But when the schedule transitioned from cupcake non-conference opponents to tougher ACC com-petition, Miles’s stats quickly diminished. And once Zoubek became a regular starter, he never had a shot to make a real impact again.

In short, he’s an unknown, albeit a promising one.And while his younger brother Mason might be

more talented, he’s even more of a variable. Mason was supposed to be a dynamic performer as a fresh-man last season, but a preseason wrist injury derailed those expectations.

Instead, Mason was relegated to inconsistent playing time off the bench. Like Miles, he had flashes of bril-liance, scoring in the double digits against both Georgia Tech and Wake Forest. But he still remains a relatively unknown quantity.

ScottRich

BEGINS FRIDAYGainesville, Fla.James G. Pressly Stadium

NCAATournament

SEE selection ON PAGE 8

SEE rich ON PAGE 8

addison Corriher/the ChroniCle

Mason and Miles Plumlee are question marks on a team full of seemingly sure things, Scott Rich writes.

woMeN’S SoCCeR

8 | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2010 ThE ChRONiClE

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The faculty director, Prof. Jon Shaw (Biology) will give an over-view of this exciting four week, one course Duke summer pro-gram. Questions? Contact the GEO-U at 684-2174. Also visit our website: http://global.duke.edu/geo

DUKe in ghana summer program info meeting

on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010 in Social Sciences 105 starting at 4:30pm.

Meet the faculty director, Katya Wesolowski, and learn about this amazing 6 week summer program. Questions: Contact the GEO-U at 684-2174 and visit http://global.duke.edu/geo.

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And that’s why the brothers Plumlee will determine Duke’s success this season.

There’s every indication that Miles will be a solid rebounder and defender, and Mason could be the dynamic scorer in the post that Blue Devil fans have craved since Sheldon Williams left campus. If that happens, this Duke team could be dominant.

But there is another way this could go—and it’s a bigger possibility than any Cameron Crazie would like to ad-mit. Despite all their talent, the Plum-lees might falter when faced with the task of playing 30 minutes a game as op-

posed to 15. They might not be able to guard the more physically dominating forwards that permeate the ACC. They might fall into foul trouble like they did many times last season, leaving Ryan Kelly, who played negligible minutes last year, to carry the burden of being Duke’s primary post player.

We just don’t know.Whether Singler averages 18 or 20

points a game this season will not de-termine whether the Blue Devils defend their national title. Whether Irving has a slow start before blooming into the star almost everyone expects him to be will not either.

But if the Plumlees can’t live up to their potential, that could.

ACC squads—Virginia, Boston College and Florida State—are hosting the open-ing rounds as No. 2 seeds. Only Wake For-est, who won the ACC Tournament last weekend, was sent across to country to play San Diego in Irvine, Calif.

The Blue Devils’ postseason run will kick off against an unfamiliar opponent. Duke has not played the Golden Bears since the Blue Devils won 1-0 in 1999, before head coach Robbie Church arrived in Durham.

California (9-5-5) has to make possibly the farthest trek of any tournament team to play in the opening-round game and could be without its star forward Alex Morgan. The senior leads the Golden Bears with 14 goals despite playing in only 11 games as a result of being a member the U.S. National Team. Team USA is currently in the midst of qualifying for the 2011 World Cup and consequently, Morgan has not played for California since Oct. 17.

Nevertheless, Church emphasized that the Golden Bears will be a formidable op-ponent by virtue of playing in one of the top conferences in the country. The Pac-10 sent seven teams to the NCAA Tourna-

ment, one less than the ACC. “It’s not going to be a big jump in the

level of play,” Church said. “Our last two games were Maryland and [North] Caroli-na—two No. 1 seeds—so it’s going to be a tough game, but I’m excited.”

If the Blue Devils get past California, they will likely face No. 2 seed Florida, which will be playing on its home turf. Duke played the Gators earlier this season in a nationally-televised contest at Koskin-en Stadium, earning a 1-1 draw after fresh-man Laura Weinberg scored with just over a minute left to play in regulation. Florida has been on a tear of late and has not lost since it fell to Auburn on Oct. 10.

The Blue Devils’ regional also includes the Tar Heels, who are searching for their third consecutive national title, and 2007 national champion Southern California. No. 3 seed Oklahoma State, No. 4 Notre Dame and Oregon State—all ranked in the top 15 in the country—also stand in Duke’s path to the College Cup.

“It’s a tough tournament this year,” Church said. “We’ve played a lot of the top teams and have fared well against a lot of the top teams. Our kids are excited. It’s nice to be hungry at this time of year.”

One week after winning the ACC’s offensive lineman of the week, tight end Cooper Helfet nabbed the confer-ence’s overall player of the week honors, the Duke sports information office an-nounced yesterday.

Helfet—a former Johns Hopkins la-crosse player turned Duke tight end—turned in a tremendous performance in the 55-48 win over Virginia, catching seven passes for a career-high 122 yards and one touchdown. He also was responsible for

two first downs on the Blue Devils’ game-winning 91-yard touchdown drive: one an 18-yard grab coming on 3rd-and-6 at the Duke 13-yard line, and the other a 12-yard reception that set up the Desmond Scott game-winning touchdown run.

His 30-yard touchdown came on Duke’s first offensive drive, and set the tone for what would be a signature win for the Blue Devils. Duke plays again Sat-urday against Boston College

—from staff reports

Helfet honored by ACC

graphiC by melissa yeo/the ChroniCle

FooTbAll

12 | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2010 ThE chRONiclE

arts events at duke unIversItY nov 10 - nov 16Artsd

uk

e

arts.duke.edu

All events are free and open to the general public. Unless otherwise noted, screenings are at 8pm in the Griffith Film Theater, Bryan Center.

W = Richard White Aud., N = Nasher Museum Aud.

11/11 WHAT IS A HEART? (USA, 2010) (N, 6pm) Documentary on the genesis and development of HeartBeat, a performance piece that used amplification of the heartbeats of dancers Sara Rudner, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Emily Coates as the primary rhythmic score. Q&A w/ artist Christopher Janney and director Theodore Bogosian!

11/15 THE TWO ESCOBARS (Colombia/USA, 2010) (7pm) Latin American Film Festival. Q&A w/ director Jeff Zimbalist!

11/16 RAIN IN A DRY LAND (USA, 2006) (P, 7pm) Rights! Camera! Action! Q&A w/ director Anne Makepeace!

11/17 BACK AND FORTH (Israel, 2010) (E, 7pm) Introduction and

post-film Q&A w/ filmmaker Uri Rosenwaks!

For ticketed events and more info, visit tickets.duke.edu

What is a heart?

ami.trinity.duke.edu/screen-society/schedule.php

This advertisement is a collaboration of the Center for Documentary Studies, Duke Chapel Music, Duke Dance Program, Duke Performances, Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke Music Department, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Department of Theater Studies, and William R. Perkins Library with support from Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts.

An Evening with Dave EggersWednesday, November 106pm. Page Auditorium. Free.

The award-winning author of Zeitoun,

What Is the What, and A Heartbreaking

Work of Staggering Genius delivers the

Libraries’ Weaver Lecture.

ART. Deena Stryker: Photographs of Cuba, 1963-1964. Stryker’s black-and-white photographs of revolutionary Cuba open a window into an unsettled time in that country’s history. Through Dec. 12. Perkins Library Special Collections Gallery. Free.

ART. Literacy Through Photography–Arusha, Tanzania. Work from a Center for Documentary Studies project with DukeEngage students in Africa. Thru January 8, 2011. CDS Gallery. Free.

ART. Cinema Play House: Photographs by Nandita Raman & Daylight/CDS Photo Awards: Photographs by Elizabeth Moreno, and work by eight other winners. Thru Dec. 23. 6-9pm. CDS Gallery. Free.

November 10TALK. Book + Art: Careers in Book Arts. Panel discussion with local area printmakers, conservators, and book art

professionals on working in the book arts. 9:30am. Perkins Library 217. Free.

THEATER. The Theme is Blackness Theater Festival. Contemporary plays by African-American playwrights. Harriet Jacobs by Lydia Diamond. Nov. 10-13. 8:15pm. Manibites Dog Theater (703 Foster St. Durham) $12-17 Gen., $10-15 Sr. Cit., $5 Duke Students.

November 12SCREENING. Artois the Goat. A lab technician embarks on a quest to create the world’s greatest goat cheese, and to reclaim the heart of his beloved. With producer Richard Reininger. 7pm.

CDS Aud. Free.

November 14MUSIC. Duke New Music Ensemble [dnme]. Dan Ruccia, dir. Macro-micro-minimal-ism: Music by Steve Reich, Dan Trueman, Jonathan Russell, and others. 8pm. Bone Hall, Biddle Music Building. Free.

November 15MUSIC. Graduate Composers Concert. 8pm. Nelson Music Room. Free.

November 16TALK. “Diagnosis: A Photographer’s Guide.” Duke professor Alex Harris presents as part of the Duke Innovation Program, using documentary to enhance medical education. 5pm. John Hope Franklin Center, Room 240. Free.

FILM. Rain in a Dry Land. Full Frame Festival award-winning documentary chronicles the first 18 months in the American lives of two families after spending more than a decade in a Kenyan refugee camp. 7pm. Rare Book Rm., Perkins Library. Free.

MUSIC. Duke Jazz Combos. Le Roy Barley, dir. 8pm. Nelson Music Room. Free.

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Last year the University of Chicago received roughly 13,500 applications for its un-dergraduate Class of 2013. This year its applicant total skyrocketed by 43 percent, to-taling 19,347 ap-plicants for an approximately 1,400-student freshman class, The New York Times report-ed.

Most universities aim to attract as many applicants as possible. But for years UChi-cago bucked this trend some-what, preferring instead to draw a pool of applicants that would fit its unique identity, which the Times describes as “a place for social misfits and scholarship.” A key turning point occurred in 2006 when UChicago’s new president opted for the school to begin

using the Common Applica-tion in its admissions process. This move proved a contro-versial step among students and alumni who feared the school would lose its soul.

If UChica-go has aimed to attract an

idiosyncratic student body that is tailored to its unique identity, Duke’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions has adopted a strategy on the opposite end of the spectrum that seeks to lure as many ap-plicants as possible.

This year UChicago appli-cants will encounter quirky questions such as—“Dog and Cat. Coffee and Tea. Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. Everyone knows there are two types of people in the world. What are they?”—

when they fill out the school-specific portion of the admis-sions application.

Duke applicants, on the other hand, will respond to more bland prompts on the supplemental application, such as “Is there something in particular at Duke that attracts you?” Indeed, the relatively low time costs as-sociated with Duke’s applica-tion have likely helped the University attract massive numbers of applicants year after year.

A record pool of more than 26,700 applicants were considered for acceptance into Duke’s Class of 2014, and for the past two years the University’s applicant to-tal has grown by more than 3,000 each year.

We believe the University

should continue to utilize the streamlined process pro-vided by the Common Appli-cation because it channels a broad group of students and it is appropriate for Duke to cast a wide net in some re-spects. There is reason to be-lieve, however, that Duke and many of its peers are on an unsustainable course in their effort to constantly attract more and more applicants.

Duke’s admissions process, which was designed at a time when the school received about 12,000 applicants a year, has been stretched thin by the recent growth. Admis-sions should make more of an effort to resist the competitive mindset that more applicants equals a stronger school.

No university can be all things to all people, and

Duke’s administration should place a greater emphasis on defining its unique identity. Duke is not the right school for everyone, and it is likely that a large portion of this year’s 26,700 applicants would have been better off not ap-plying at all.

Next year the Office of Un-dergraduate Admissions should consider adding another ques-tion or two to Duke’s Student Supplement, which accompa-nies the Common Application. Throughout the admissions process, potential applicants should receive a better sense of what distinguishes Duke from its peers, even if that leads to a drop-off in applicants.

Defining Duke in more specific terms is a worthwhile exercise for the admissions of-fice and the entire University.

In December 1993, Duke’s famous English pro-fessor Reynolds Price wrote a Chronicle op-ed in which he vociferously argued in favor of

a residential system at Duke based on residential colleges. Since Price wrote, we’ve moved to an all-fresh-man East Campus. We moved all fra-ternities off the Main West Quad. We moved away from the house model entirely to a quad model. Each of the changes brought about unintended negative consequences, which each further change intended to remedy.

The administration deemed the house model a failure in the early 2000s. Now we’re reinstating it. How do we know that this go around will be any more successful?

The challenges inherent in implementing these changes bring to mind the words of a certain former secretary of defense: “There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

What is our biggest “known unknown?” How will our current residential facilities hold

up in the new model? Will they be adequate? The house model idea is a good one. Each

house should have a common room, a kitchen and a set of rooms ranging from doubles and singles to apartment-style suites. Will all our new houses have that? Absolutely not.

I sat down with Donna Lisker, associate vice pro-vost of undergraduate education and co-chair of the committee charged with designing the transi-tion (the other co-chair is Associate Dean of Resi-dence Life and Housing Services Joe Gonzales) and asked about the challenges posed by our inad-equate residential facilities.

Right now, each house can’t have the full pan-oply of amenities envisioned in the idea of the house model. Certainly, inequalities in facilities will persist after the transition.

Those in charge of the transition are not igno-rant of the challenge posed by facilities. Stephen Temple, a senior and president of Campus Council admitted, “there is no question about it, there are architectural and geographical limitations [to the new model].” Lisker noted that renovation of ex-isting spaces is a high priority. She said that, “as we transition to the house model, it will bring more attention to both the deferred maintenance and existing deficiencies [of current facilities].” There is no way to make the new houses identical, so the goal will, instead, be to make them equivalent.

There is a long-term commitment to this equiv-

alency, backed, I believe, with the intention to in-vest resources. Don’t expect New Campus anytime soon. But initiatives like K4, which the University

knew it could afford, and the Mill Village construction (an incre-mental improvement) on Central Campus are representative of the types of construction envisioned in the short to medium term.

Another of the “known un-knowns” is how different this new iteration of the house model will be from that deemed a failure by ad-ministrators a decade ago. Temple insists that, “whenever we [the com-

mittee] have a major decision, I want us to take a step back and ask... whether or not it avoids pitfalls of what went wrong with the previous house model.”

Lisker, too, notes differences between what we’ll have in 2012 and what we had in 2002. Ten years ago, selective living groups occupied more (and more prominent) residential space than they do today. They were all concentrated in one area, not spread throughout the different quads. The differ-ential fees in place 10 years ago, which made Central Campus cheaper than West Campus and so made it home disproportionately to students of color, have been abolished, and now where a student lives on campus is immaterial to the financial aid package one receives. But are these changes enough?

One of the key “known knowns” is that the design of residential governance will change sig-nificantly with the new model. Over the years, students lost a lot of the power they used to have to shape their residential experience. The new model represents devolution of power, a return to an era when we had greater autonomy.

A decade ago each house had its own president and treasurer. Houses could charge dues, host so-cial events and distribute rooms among members (goodbye, Room Pix!). The empowerment archi-tecture of the new houses should top the priority list of those designing the new model.

I remain skeptical that our current facilities are adequate for a return to a house model. I am not sure that once we do return that the inadequacies of the system in place a decade ago will have been resolved. But I know this: The new model should empower students. And for the sake of having just that much more control over our experience at Duke, we ought to welcome the transition.

But students and administrators must both be-ware of the “unknown unknowns.” We don’t want to be doing this all again a decade from now.

Gregory Morrison is a Trinity senior and former Duke Student Government EVP. His column runs every Tuesday.

commentaries10 | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2010 ThE chRONiclE

The c

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editorial

Anticipating unknown unknowns

Define Duke

”“ onlinecomment

Also, I have discussed Tailgate with my priest. He sug-gested that, as a younger man, he would have enjoyed such an event.

—“2009 alum” commenting on the story “Administrators cancel Tailgate, calling it ‘an embarrassment.” See more at www.dukechronicle.com.

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gregory morrisonfinish the thought

commentariesThE chRONiclE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2010 | 11

Abbreviations are wonderful.For the colonial British, abbreviations were utilitarian—they

helped transform the South Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram into the much more manageable “Trivandrum.” For early English speakers, the type of abbreviation known as the contraction was con-venient: it quickened speech by turning cumbersome phrases like “let us go” or “can not” into “let’s go” and “can’t.” And the world is much more efficient because we are fond of using abbreviations like acronyms (such as NASA, pro-nounced as a word), initialisms (such as the EU, pronounced as letters) and miscellaneous short-cuts (such as Tylenol, drawn from the chemical name N-acetyl-para-aminophenol).

Modern communicative tools like text messaging and social net-working demand brevity, whether for speed or because of space con-straints. Twitter limits us to 140 characters, barely three sentences. On Facebook, we compete to have the pithiest status in our network. Abbreviations help us meet these ends.

We often demand brevity in conversational speech, too, because our time is limited. Cultures stereotypically associated with more lei-surely lifestyles—the American South, for example—are perceived to have slower accents. I grew up in a suburb of New York, so I have become accustomed to the quick, sharp speech common to New Jer-sey and Long Island residents. The breakneck speed of Mid-Atlantic life seems to require efficient interactions.

The shortcuts of our online world have begun to cross over into our face-to-face interactions. Once-utilitarian text abbreviations like “BRB,” “obvi,” “OMG” and “jeal” have become fashionable language accessories in the speech of many young people. These “abbrevs” have become in- and out-group markers, determinants of who is and isn’t cool. If you get it, you’re in. If you’re confused or don’t under-stand, you don’t belong—and you’re obvi jeal.

For others, the sarcastic use of abbreviations signifies membership in another group altogether: those who see speech shortcuts as fool-ish and un-hip.

But abbreviating our language, in text and in speech, often means that efficiency replaces subtlety. It’s hard to communicate complex thoughts in 140 characters or fewer. We are forced to distill our ideas into their bare parts. For some, this produces the best results, showcasing the smooth machinery of an efficient mind. For others, the elimination of nuance in speech eliminates nuance in thought, which can encourage dangerously simplistic thinking.

Two weekends ago at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, Jon Stewart condemned the 24-hour cable news cycle for its reliance on abbreviated ideas. He slammed present-day pundits for boiling com-plex and subtle issues down to their simplest common denominator. And he implicitly rebuked Americans whose attention spans can’t now handle anything more taxing than a 30-second talking point.

Many people have begun to require brevity in their lives. How many of us can sit down and read a book for more than an hour at a time? How long can we make it into a conversation before impa-tiently checking our phones for text messages or e-mails? Because we are constantly stimulated by abbreviated sources—from our Gen Y friends to our half-minute media—we are encouraged to pursue and produce abbreviated experiences, too.

I’m worried that I find it difficult to concentrate for long periods of time. I’m afraid that as I get more “connected” to the world, my experiences will become shorter and less meaningful—efficient, yes, but not critical or thoughtful. I worry that I will exchange detail for speed. And I’m sure I’m not alone in my fear.

Perhaps it’s not an either-or situation, though. Language can sometimes be efficient and subtle. The Japanese haiku, for example, manages to condense soul-searching philosophy into just a few lines. Christian psalms, Hindu-Buddhist mantras, Muslim ayat and Jewish tfilot express deep religious sentiments in abbreviated forms, too.

Of course, we can’t always communicate to each other through haikus and prayers. But maybe we can learn from their example. Brevity for its own sake is silly. Lengthening only to avoid abbreviation is a waste of time. Each can be appropriate in the right context.

I’ll admit—the use of “abbrevs” in modern-day speech is best un-derstood as an identity phenomenon rather than as a symptom of our tendency to abbreviate experiences. But our shortened attention span isn’t an issue of identity. Abbreviations are wonderful when they enhance understanding, not when they hinder it. Efficiency is worth-while when it creates good products, not mediocre ones. I just hope that, despite everything, we can continue to see the difference.

“Abbreviation” / has too many syllables / for a nice haiku.

Sandeep is a Trinity senior and a Program II major examining the dynamics of language. His column usually runs every other Thursday.

“Abbreving” our experience

letterontailgateFellow students,

We have been proud to support Tailgate over the years and provide a venue that is open to all but unique to Duke. Tailgate stands out among social events for its ability to bring students to-gether and build remarkable cohesion. Indeed, the battle cry “save Tailgate” has echoed in our heads these years as we have put in place mea-sures to make the event safer and more inclusive to our community. But an incident last Saturday sent a strong message to all of Duke that some-thing must give, and we are compelled to find a better way to celebrate.

As you have likely heard by now, Tailgate has been suspended. It will be up to us—the students—to determine how we bring tailgate back. We look forward to the coming of a new tailgate tradition at Duke, with pregame events that bring the cele-bration into the stands. This Saturday, fraternities, selective living groups and all students are encour-aged to reserve grills, dress up and enjoy a spirited day of Duke Football.

If you attended the UVA showdown, you know

the rush of the players jumping the wall into the student section when the clock has run down, but you also know the shame of cheering alone because the rest of the fans never came. Having fought hard to keep Tailgate afloat, we know that if tailgate is going to work in the future it needs to rebuild its connection to Duke Football. Nothing would go further toward securing that future than a huge turnout at the game against Boston Col-lege. If you are planning a pregame event, please plan it in a way that culminates at Wallace Wade.

Be assured—there will always be a tailgate at Duke. We hope that next year, students will define their own tailgate tradition just like our predeces-sors did in 2003, when they began the costumed revelry we have known ever since. We can only imagine what Duke students will think of next.

Most sincerely,Mike Lefevre, Trinity ’11President, Duke Student GovernmentErskine Love, Trinity ’11President, Interfraternity Council

Instead of perpetuating the cycle of sexual in-equity and providing fodder for the 24-hour news cycle to continuously re-affirm its existence, Duke students should be modeling a pro-gressive alternative for the future. We need to stop embarrassing each other and ourselves and work toward an en-vironment of respect on campus.

We attend a university that at least at one point was known for produc-ing leaders and respected for the intelligence of its student body. Un-fortunately, insensitivity and thought-lessness have at times temporarily undermined the leadership and intel-ligence that characterize Duke students.

We have ample opportunity to discuss gender issues from a distanced, theoretical standpoint, in the relatively removed environment of the lecture or classroom; indeed, there is no shortage of course offerings on the subject. History faculty have also organized a series of informal gatherings, the first of which was “Sex and the Student: Historical Per-spectives on Karen Owen’s Sex List?” Whether this was an effective forum for discussion or a misguided attempt that only gave more credence to something that was never worth discussing in the first place doesn’t matter. I’m told only two undergraduates and one graduate student showed.

Gender inequality hasn’t been lying dormant among our myriad institutional maladies, only to wreak its viral havoc in the past months. We have re-peatedly self-diagnosed and tried to remedy it with what have proved to be only palliative measures. From 2002 to September 2003, the Women’s Initia-tive Steering Committee, chaired by former Duke President Nan Keohane, compiled a report “to assess the situation of women at Duke and evaluate the role of gender in the everyday life of female students, fac-ulty, employees, alumni and trustees.”

The report’s “disturbing” findings included sev-eral social, academic and professional difficulties for women at Duke and a culture that could “hold women to unreasonable standards, be detrimental to their physical and mental well-beings and inhibit their professional development.”

The report became the impetus for many chang-es, chief among them the creation of the Baldwin Scholars Program in 2004. This and other adminis-trative moves were baby steps in the right direction. We overvalued this progress instead of capitalizing on it to generate forward momentum.

From April 2006 to February 2007, the University once again saw a time for critical self-evaluation. As part of Brodhead’s “culture of initiative,” the steering committee for the Campus Culture Initiative—with subcommittees on gender and sexuality, alcohol, race and athletics—attempted to compile a compre-

hensive report. The much-maligned CCI yielded at least a few useful recommendations, including some relevant to gender relations. Even so, the administra-

tion failed to implement a key recom-mendation that had the potential to dramatically change gender dynamics in campus social life—“discontinuing the practice of assigning housing to selective living groups and social/af-finity/interest groups.” We missed the opportunity to displace the housing mechanisms that leverage the power of male social groups and have yet to find a way to give a significant portion of the female population a similarly

empowering living situation. It’s easier to blame administrative missteps and

institutional organization than to admit that they are just one factor in an over-arching issue that is more broadly determined by each student’s individual be-havior. Faculty and administrators can support us in our efforts to change and show us the empirical evidence that should serve as the impetus to do so. They can just as easily block our progress.

But it is up to us to continue to acknowledge so-cial issues and persist in solving them.

Students, too, have documented and recognized these gender disparities. In the April 2010 issue of Towerview, the article “Ladies First” delved into bar-riers blocking women’s opportunities for leadership positions on campus. It highlighted the history of fe-male under-representation, not only in undergradu-ate groups like Duke Student Government, but also in key administrative roles.

And we have a student body president, Mike Lefe-vre, a senior, who doesn’t hesitate to place the bur-den of solving these problems where it belongs—with students. As he wrote in a letter to the student body published in The Chronicle, “But there is a problem, and fortunately the blame lies not in any immutable legacy of sexism at Duke, but on us. Campus culture is written every year, and we’re the authors.”

This is something we all acknowledge, on some level, and then collectively shrug our shoulders. And if we still refuse to acknowledge this as an issue on our campus and in our nation, then we are hurting each other with our stubborn denial.

Duke students should expect more of themselves and more from each other. We have shirked indi-vidual responsibility and relied on student groups to create our dissatisfactory culture.

We consider ourselves among the best and the brightest. We should move beyond glass ceilings, double standards and other detrimental clichés we have allowed to define us.

Eliza French is a Trinity senior. Her column runs very other Tuesday.

Breaking the cycle

eliza frenchje ne sais quoi

sandeep prasannahooked on phonetics

the chronicle tUeSDAY, noVeMBer 9, 2010 | 9

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will be dressing as moneta for the b.c. game: ................ twei, ninalesson learned—don’t bring non-bro brothers: .......... dough, ruppworst part is larry’s misuse of ellipses in email: .................... julianlike the death of a pet that you just yelled at: ......charlie, busstoptoughest staff box ever had to write: .....................andyk, big tomsales of itunes copy of “shout” to drop 30 percent: .. yeo, aaa, tedmaybe people will actually go to the game...: ......................xpena... nah: .................................................................. ben, sanette, juliaBarb Starbuck will meet you at the main quad: ...................... Barb

Student Advertising Manager: .........................................Amber SuAccount Executives: ........................ Phil deGrouchy, Claire Gilhuly,

Nick Hurst, Gini Li, Ina Li, Spencer Li,Christin Martahus, Ben Masselink,

Emily Shiau, Kate ZeligsonCreative Services Student Manager ...........................Christine HallCreative Services: ...............................Lauren Bledsoe, Danjie Fang

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