towerview april 15, 2015

32
APRIL 2015 | VOL. 16 | ISSUE 6

Upload: duke-chronicle

Post on 21-Jul-2016

216 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

DESCRIPTION

 

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Towerview April 15, 2015

APRIL 2015 | VOL. 16 | ISSUE 6

Page 2: Towerview April 15, 2015

2 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

Brightleaf Square • Downtown Durham • 919-683-1474 • HamiltonHillJewelry.com

Raw elegance for women and men

Y WZA

Did you know... Duke offers full orthodontic care for children, adolescents and adults?

Duke Plastic, Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery offers Orthodontics and Oral Care for everyone!World class care with the Duke name you trust.

Dr. David B. Powers, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon(919)684-2943 Dr. Pedro E. Santiago, Orthodontist(919)489-2394 Duke Pediatric Dentistry(919)220-1416

Page 3: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 3

TOWERVIEWAPRIL 2015 - VOL. 16 - ISSUE 6

CONTENTS05

06

08

12

16

21

26

28

31

TOWERVIEW STAFF

CARLEIGH STIEHM

MADHAV DUTT

DANIELLE MUOIO

DANIELLE MUOIO & SAMANTHA NEAL

SID GOPINATH

ELYSIA SU, EMMA LOEWE AND BRIANNA SIRACUSE

YIYUN ZHU

AMANI CARSON-ROSE

BEST DESSERTS IN DURHAMTowerview staff tries out the best after-dinner delicacies.

THAT TIME I...Paid to cuddle.

‘ADDERALL MAKES WORK FUN’How Duke students use the drug some liken to academic

steroids.

DUKE FORWARDHow Duke planned for its largest campaign following a

recession.

FROM KANYE TO...DILLON FRANCIS?The evolution of Duke’s Last Day of Classes concert, for

better or for worse.

STATE OF THE ARTSDuke’s efforts to expand the arts on campus.

PHOTO ESSAYA retrospective look at the arts at Duke.

JEREMY LIPKOWITZ, PH. TEA A graduate student’s plan to open Durham’s first teahouse.

FINAL EXAM Duke Chapel beware: meet the Duke senior who is a

professional in the art of parkour.

CONTENTS

ON THE COVER ILLUSTRATION BY ELYSIA SUStep 1: The LDOC issue. Think big.Step 2: How many Grammy winners can we squeeze onto one cover?Step 3: Grammy winners have played LDOC? All I can remember is Dillon Francis.Step 4: You can remember Dillon Francis?

Page 4: Towerview April 15, 2015

4 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

EDITOR’S NOTE

letter from the editors

Dear readers,Goodbyes are overrated.It imposes a finality. Maybe in a month we won’t climb the stairs to 301 Flowers

to start production. Or to bicker about whether our late-night meal in the office should be Cook-Out or buffalo wings.

But getting teary-eyed as we bid goodbye to the sports hall’s beer bottle collection and Towerview’s questionable couch seems like a lot of effort for very little gain.

We think it’s because there is more to us working here then us actually being here. It was never so much about the newspaper as it was about us. Our personal growth that happened outside of academics and our dorm rooms and mainly between the hours of midnight and 3 a.m.

It was starting as a health and science reporter writing about sea turtles or as a naive sports reporter hoping to rack up as many bylines as possible and making our way, slowly and maturely, to campus leaders. It was seeing someone eviscerate an early byline in a letter to the editor or forgetting about attorney-client privilege midway through an interview with a lawyer, and sticking with The Chronicle regardless of the embarrassment.

It was seeing how much we didn’t know and how much we could know and catering our college experience to learning everything in between. It was sacrificing trips abroad and friends’ birthday parties, placing ourselves at the center of national controversy and yes—even potential lawsuits—to really become a part of The Chronicle.

This isn’t to say that our time at Duke has been atypical. Just like everyone else, we’ve enjoyed sunny spring days on the Plaza, screamed our heads off at basketball games and attended more than a few wild parties. We’ve laughed and learned, loved and lost over the course of four years as we’ve been built up and struck down within the pressure cooker that is the Gothic Wonderland more times than we can count.

But on top of all that, we’re glad to say we think we’ve gotten a little extra out of our Duke experience. That’s the type of thing that can only come from intimate pow-wows with campus leaders and future professional sports stars, trips to China and front-row seats at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

At the end of it all, we’re eternally grateful for what this organization has given us the opportunity to accomplish over the course of the last four years. And while at the surface it’s easiest to look at the stacks and stacks of newspapers we’ve produced, the hundreds of bylines we’ve authored—what truly stands out are the stories. Not the stories we’ve written, but the stories behind our greatest successes and failures.

So as we prepare to say goodbye to Towerview, and Duke, emotional goodbyes are hardly worth our time. Our classmates may all be going our separate ways next year, but our experiences are coming with us.Towerview is a subsidiary of The Chronicle and is published by

the Duke Student Publishing Company, Inc., a non-profit corporation independent of Duke University. The opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Duke University, its students, faculty, staff, administration or trustees. Columns, letters and cartoons represent the views of the authors.

To reach The Chronicle’s editorial office at 301 Flowers Building, call (919) 684-2663 or fax (919) 684-4696. To reach The Chronicle’s business office at 103 West Union Building, call (919) 684-3811. To reach The Chronicle’s advertising office at 2022 Campus Drive, call (919) 684-3811 or fax (919) 684-8295. Contact the advertising office for information on sub-scriptions. Visit The Chronicle and Towerview online at dukechronicle.com

©2014 The Chronicle, Box 90858, Durham, N.C. 27708. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form with-out the prior, written permission of the business office. Each individual is entitled to one free copy.

EDITORS-IN-CHIEFdaniel carp and danielle muoio

PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTORCREATIVE DIRECTOR

ASSOCIATE EDITORASSOCIATE EDITOREXECUTIVE EDITOR

ELYSIA SUELIZA STRONGHAILEY CUNNINGHAMBECKY RICHARDSCARLEIGH STIEHM

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSAMANI CARSON-ROSE, HAILEY CUNNINGHAM, MADHAv DUTT, SID GOpINATH, DANIELLE MUOIO, SAMANTHA NEAL, CARLEIGH

STIEHM, YIYUN ZHU

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERSHAILEY CUNNINGHAM, LESLEY CHEN-YOUNG, SOpHIA DURAND,

DARBI GRIffITH, SAM jACTEL, EMMA LOEwE, KHLOE KIM, MIKE MA, BRIANNA SIRACUSE, ELYSIA SU, EMILY wApLES, YIYUN ZHU

CONTRIBUTING STAFF HAILEY CUNNINGHAM, CARLEIGH STIEHM, EMMA BACCELLIERI

GENERAL MANAGERADVERTISING DIRECTOR

CREATIVE DIRECTOROPERATIONS MANAGER

DIGITAL SALES MANAGER

Chrissy BeCk

Megan haven

BarBara starBuCk

Mary Weaver

Megan MCginity

@TowerviewMag

Towerview Magazine [email protected]

dukechronicle.com/towerview

towerviewTHE CHRONICLE’S

NEwS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE

DANIEL CARP DANIELLE MUOIO

Page 5: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 5

best desserts in Durham

Whether you’re looking for an after-class pick-me-up or a Durham dessert desti-nation, we’ve got you and your sugary cravings covered. So get out of your dorm room and explore everything Durham has to offer—from cupcakes to donuts.

Monuts

Rose’s Meat Market and Sweet Shop

Runners Up

Small in size and limited in parking and seating, Rose’s is not short on the charm. With a mix of simple and complex treats, the pastry display and stocked freezer are straight out of your childhood dreams. Our favor-ites? The morning bun, macaroons (so many flavors, so little time) and ice cream sandwiches. But don’t feel daunted by the array of options in front of you because you can’t make a poor choice. Thanks to this eatery, living in Durham is at least 10 percent better.

Known for their cupcakes, this bakery and cafe in downtown Durham also serves up brunch, lunch and a pastry case full of delectable treats in a cute and cozy atmosphere. If the pastry gods bless you, the unbelievable s’mores cake will be in stock. But you can’t go wrong with a red velvet cupcake (spongy cake, creamy yet light frost-ing) or a pop’t art (warmed flakey shortbread with pre-serves). DaisyCakes also offers great gluten-free options.

By this point, we all know that the new Monuts location on 9th Street is wonderful. We also know that their classic Apple Cider donut and more creative Maple Bacon Bour-bon donut are heavenly by definition. Not only is it a great spot for dessert, but stop by for a morning mimosa or savory egg sandwich for a satisfying Sunday brunch as well.

DaisyCakes

Scratch Bakery (pie, pie and more pie) and Parlour (so good that it makes our list, even when closed for renovations).

Page 6: Towerview April 15, 2015

6 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

THAT TIME I...

It was a Thursday afternoon in March when I set foot in Durham’s very first cuddling studio, Cuddle Time For You.

I had first heard of the new snuggling des-tination about a month prior, and was im-mediately turned off by the idea.

I have never been a particularly touchy person. Cuddling up with former boy-friends or love interests was tolerable and generally pleasant, but I was never one to engage in physical contact between friends. While all of my friends felt compelled to hug each other at every reunion, I hung back—no less happy but far less touchy.

My anti-touching nature has always been a source of confusion for my mother. She takes every opportunity to remind my sister and me—who is equally opposed to unnecessary cuddling—that we were given ample and loving hugs as children. But the familial hug just isn’t for me, and the pla-tonic cuddle couldn’t be further from my list of desirable afternoon activities.

Even I found myself perplexed as to how I had come to find myself willing walking into a professional cuddling stu-dio with the intention of jumping into bed with my cuddler—or provider, as Cuddle Time For You owner Jeff Everson prefers to call them.

It started as a crazy hypothetical idea and morphed into a challenge by the hug-

prone staff of The Chronicle. Naturally, I accepted and found myself researching which cuddler I felt I could spend an hour spooning.

It was easy to identify qualities I wasn’t looking for in my first professional cud-dling experience. I didn’t want to cuddle with a man; I know they would be profes-sional, but something about that idea just didn’t sit quite right with me.

That left five qualified cuddling female professionals to choose from. I had to hand it to Cuddle Time For You, the op-tions really spanned the spectrum of ages and interests. It was clear that they wanted to give clients choices to maximize their level of comfort.

But once I saw Jule’, I knew that my search was over. In her profile, Jule’ de-scribed herself as a “retired College Pro-fessor/Librarian/Web Designer with a Graduate degree from UCLA.” Cuddling with a librarian? Sold.

The Cuddle Time For You offices were located inconspicuously in an office park, and from the outside, one wouldn’t know it apart from more mundane businesses that surround it. But the inside is markedly different than any office space I had ever been in. With deep, light-blocking curtains, the back half of the office is consumed by two large bedrooms, complete with a night

STORY BY CARLEIGH STIEHM

table and queen sized, surprisingly com-fortable, bed.

Everson explained to me that he wanted clients to feel at home in the space to allow for ultimate relaxation. From the carpet to the soft leather love seat in the waiting area, the entire office is designed to mimic the comfort of a personal apartment.

Before entering the bedroom with your cuddler, or provider, clients are required to pay, sign the terms of agreement and have their driver’s license scanned. All cud-dlers undergo background checks and sign confidentiality agreements, but personal privacy is maintained by never exchanging last names between cuddler and client—or as I like to call it, cuddlee.

Everson then thoroughly reviews the list of what is not allowed during the cuddle—most importantly of which is anything sexual. He provided me with a convenient diagram of areas that cannot be touched on neither the client nor the provider that depicted thick black bars of both persons’ chests, groin, butt and lips.

After all the formalities are out of the way, it is time to get down to the cud-dling. Jule’ led me to the back bedroom and kindly explained to me that there were five pre-approved cuddling posi-tions, but that we could try any modifica-tions that that we were both comfortable

EMMA LOEWE

paid to cuddle

Page 7: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 7

with. After deciding on the conversa-tion-friendly “luxury lounge” position to kick us off, I sat on the bed and took off my shoes. Jule’ got into position.

And that is when I froze.Up until that point, all of the cuddling

was just hypothetical, a concept, a joke. But then right before my eyes, there was a woman there that wanted to provide me with a service that I had paid for, a service that was intended to comfort and relax me, and I felt frozen.

It reminded me of one time in middle school, or maybe it was high school, where I was playing spin the bottle. I landed on a boy I had really wanted to kiss, but the moment the bottle stopped spinning, my mind started racing, and I felt like I com-pletely forgot how to move. But Jule’ gen-tly reminded me of how to get into the po-sition, and I laid my head in her lap. Before too long, she was stroking my hair as we were chatting about the new dog she was rescuing. It wasn’t uncomfortable, and to my surprise, I quickly found it relaxing.

If it sounds strange to have compared my experience pulling the trigger to cud-dle with a professional to kissing a crush I had as a teenager, it’s simply because I

have nothing else to accurately compare the situation to. Inherently, cuddling, even with a paid professional, is an intimate act for me. It is bodies on bodies, and it is per-sonal. That is why Cuddle Time For You is in business—people need physical contact, they need to feel loved. Everson said the majority of clients are middle-aged men, some struggling with pressures from work, others from other countries with no family in America.

Human contact—physical, emotional and verbal—Everson explained is essen-tial to the human experience. In just the few weeks since they have opened, Cuddle Time For You has already had clients from Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State Uni-versity—overwhelmed by stress, some of these students just needed to be listened to. He expected even more collegiate clien-tele around finals week.

My experience was comforting and pleasant. We tried out all five of the ap-proved positions, and chatted happily through the first 50 minutes of my hour-long session. I am a listener by nature, so I enjoyed asking Jule’ questions about her daughters, dog and former life as a

librarian.For the last 10 minutes of my session,

however, Jule’ suggested we practice “con-scious mindfulness.” I wasn’t totally sure what we were supposed to be doing, and I think I accidentally fell asleep for a few minutes, but I still enjoyed the suggestion. I appreciated that Jule’ was interested in learning more about the science of re-laxation and touch stimulation. She men-tioned that she was going to a conference to learn about the benefits of cuddle and touch. Anyone that takes their work and care of others that seriously is alright in my book.

All in all, I found my first profes-sional cuddling experience kind of fun. For a non-toucher like me, it was almost an adventure into the unknown. It was relaxing and so interesting to talk about her life. I definitely didn’t leave feeling as though I had wasted an hour, quite on the contrary, I felt very much like I had made a connection, relaxed a little and even gotten in a quick catnap.

Would I do it again? I just don’t know, but it’s certainly an experience I would recommend to seasoned cuddlers and novices alike.

Page 8: Towerview April 15, 2015

8 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE STORY BY MADHAV DUTTPHOTO BY ALEX DECKEY & DARBI GRIFFITH

‘adderall makes work

fun’HOW DUKE STUDENTS USE A DRUG

SOME LIKEN TO ACADEMIC STEROIDS

Page 9: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 9

Students are getting desperate. It’s hell week, when every class seems to have midterms, papers, and projects that seem

to overlap. Circle the library at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m. and witness zombie-like stu-dents drag themselves through midterm and paper prep surrounded by empty Red Bull bottles. It’s the kind of academic intensity one may expect at Duke, but living through it is a whole different ballgame.

Case in point: hell week sucks to the point where blue pills the length of a fingernail may seem like the only option for survival. When it comes to handling Duke’s rigorous academics, some students will turn to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder medication like Adder-all to make it through the night.

It’s enough of a problem at Duke that the Office of Student Conduct changed the Duke Community Standard policy on the unauthor-ized usage of prescription medication—par-ticularly drugs used to treat ADHD— in 2011.

In the past, the use of such drugs with-out a prescription was considered a viola-tion of Duke’s drug policy, however since 2011, unauthorized drug use is also consid-ered cheating.

At the time the change was made, Stephen Bryan—associate dean of students and direc-tor of Student Conduct—told The Chronicle that students were the driving force behind the policy change.

“There is a perception—if not actual-ity—that Adderall abuse is rampant on cam-pus,” Bryan said in a 2011 Chronicle article. “Enforcement is difficult, and the students who proposed this addition recognize this. They wanted to at least symbolically make a statement.”

I decided to start my voyage to trace the prevalence of these drugs on campus with students. This turned out to be an illustrative example of just how easy it is to find Adder-all. At 1 p.m. I sent a Facebook message to a couple of friends to see if they knew any-one who used the psychostimulant. Twenty-five minutes later, I had a list of more than a dozen people who could discuss their Ad-derall habits.

‘ADDERALL MAKES WORK FUN’Freshman Lindsay* uses Adderall almost

every week to help her finish paper assign-ments. She asks a friend with a prescription to procure the drugs who Lindsay describes as usually “nice enough to give it to you for cheap or free.”

“I feel laser sharp when I use it, like I can literally do any assignment,” she said. “I do not

feel any smarter. It just gives me extreme moti-vation to get over that studying hump.”

According to a 2009 study led by David Rabiner, associate dean of the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and professor of psy-chology and neuroscience, 9 percent of the student body illicitly uses ADHD medication like Adderall, Ritalin or Concerta. It was this study that sparked conversations in the Office of Student Conduct Advisory Group, which eventually led to the 2011 drug-use policy change.

The study, which surveyed 3,047 students at Duke and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, found that 20 percent of users had taken ADHD medication more than 10 times in the past six months.

A July 2008 study led by Rabiner that ex-amined more than 3,400 students in one public and one private university in the South-eastern United States found that the primary motivator for using ADHD medication was “to concentrate better while studying,” with 41.4 percent of the respondents saying they use ADHD medication for this reason. Ap-proximately 74 percent of respondents said they never use ADHD medication to get high.

Although Lindsay uses Adderall on a regu-lar basis, some students opt to reserve ADHD medication for special circumstances.

Mark*, a sophomore, said he can count the number of times he has used “Addy” on both of his hands. He has used the drug to study four times, but has also used it “a number of times” to party.

“It’s pretty easy to get, you just have to ask around a little bit, text a few friends. So many people are prescribed it nowadays, and it is not that expensive either,” he said.

When asked how the drug made him feel, Mark responded that though the desire to pro-crastinate still remains, he is able to resist temp-tations more easily.

“The desire to get on Facebook or Reddit is still there, but it is much easier to say to my-

self, ‘No. You’re working right now. Continue working,’” he said. “I normally have a lot float-ing around in my head and Adderall helps me really bring all my ideas and thoughts into an organized and focused order.”

Adderall is not a “miracle drug” he said. One needs to have a desire to focus for the drug to make an impact. In addition to help-ing him focus, Mark added that he also enjoys painting and drawing while on Adderall.

“My ideas flow onto paper much more co-hesively,” he said.

Mark is not the only student who turns to Adderall for non-academic reasons.

Junior Ben* said he began using Adderall in high school and mostly takes it just to get high.

“I was a little more impulsive then and would do stuff like that on whims. I found that I enjoyed it not just because it keeps you up or let’s you party, but because there’s a cer-tain confidence attached with the use,” he said. “You could liken it to the extreme excitement and undefeatable feeling of a cocaine user. I just feel like my most calm and confident self.”

Freshman Shaun* has used Adderall twice for schoolwork and said he got it from a dealer on campus. He added that there are “plenty of dealers” for Adderall at Duke.

All of the students interviewed said it was easy to procure pills; most obtained them through friends, one through “a dealer.”

Fifty-five students reported getting ADHD medication from a student with a prescrip-tion, and 50 reported getting it from a student who did not have a prescription, according to Rabiner’s 2008 study. Seventeen had reported purchasing it from a student without a pre-scription and only one reported that they had stolen ADHD medication from another stu-dent.

“For me Adderall makes work fun, which is also the unique danger that I see in it,” Shaun said. “After doing it even once, you notice a difference when trying to work with-out Adderall. For me it’s just a long, intense

Page 10: Towerview April 15, 2015

10 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

We are looking for trendy, styles as well as those every day

Basics you can't live without - all up to 70% off mall retail prices!

Girls sizes 0/1 to 15/16 and Guys size 28 to 40 waist including shoes and accessories!

WE WILL BEGIN BUYING FRIDAY DECEMBER 5th

Northgate Mall

1058 W Club Blvd, Durham NC

Get cash for cleaning out your closet!We pay cash on the spot for all seasons of your trendy style clothing and

accessories. Find name brand must-have pieces including shoes and accessories for up to 70% off mall retail prices!

Northgate Mall 1058 W Club Blvd, Durham NC • 919-286-2696

NOW OPEN AT NORTHGATE MALL

The Ultimate Spectator Experience

Swarovski CL Pocket 8x25

We offer a variety of high-end and budget-conscious optics to help you experience more.

Stop by for your fitting TODAY!

The Shops at Eastgate, Chapel Hill • (919) 933-2030HOURS Monday-Friday 10-8 • Saturday 10-6 • Sunday 11-5

caffeine rush.”Rabiner’s 2008 study found that non-medi-

cal ADHD medication use was more common among caucasians, males and members of the Greek system. Self-reported GPAs were lower among non-medical users and concerns about academic performance were higher.

When I asked these students whether they felt their usage of ADHD medication was un-fair to students who actually need it, I received a wide range of answers.

Shaun disagreed with the concept that his usage would be characterized as unfair, im-plying that the prevalence of Adderall usage speaks to larger issues of academic structuring.

“No, I do not think it is unfair because if it is open to everyone, people can equally access a brain boost,” he said.

Mark also did not see an issue with using Adderall.

“I’ve always struggled with focusing and my attention span to some degree, and the drug helps me when I feel I need the help,” he said. “My use doesn’t affect others using the drug in any way, so why should it matter to them?”

Not all students agree with that sentiment, however. Lindsay said that she does find using Adderall to be unfair.

“Honestly, I do feel that it is unfair. My ex

actually had ADHD and he always complained about how nothing worked for him to help him study,” she added.

When asked whether they would use it after college, all of the students interviewed said they believed that they could function at an optimal and efficient level without it. Additionally, all the students interviewed said when it came to ADHD medication, they preferred Adderall.

THE DOWNSIDESLindsay made a special point of mention-

ing the side effects of Adderall, noting that she feels “extremely irritable when coming down.”

Director of Student Health John Vaughn said that stimulants like Adderall are gener-ally considered very safe, but that mild side effects include raised heart rate and blood pressure, decreased appetite, sleep distur-bance and jitteriness.

Bryan said any student found responsible for using Adderall without a prescription would face at least disciplinary probation.

“While we hear Adderall is abused, we have rarely handled a case of its improper use over the last few years,” Bryan wrote in an email March 24. “As you might imagine, this is a dif-ficult situation to identify.”

Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek noted that

a change in academic culture could explain why Adderall usage is popular among students.

“My observation is that students study more today than they used to,” she said. “They, in many ways, are more deliberate about their academic choices and their academic plans. I think for some there is a higher level of stress associated with these plans.”

Wasoliek added that a shift in mindset re-garding work ethic could explain the desire to turn to ADHD medication.

“I also think there is, in the mind of not just many students but people in general, the belief that effort should equate to outcome,” she said. “If that doesn’t happen then there’s a higher level of frustration. Sometimes the choices they make as a result of that are poor, and out of desperation.”

She added that this shift in mindset could cause students to turn to drugs out of distress.

“Many individuals at points in their lives are motivated to do things they probably wouldn’t do otherwise because of a goal they are at-tempting to achieve,” Wasiolek said of Adderall usage. “Students sometimes get desperate.”

Speaking for myself, as much as I want to say I wouldn’t use it, I can’t.*Editor’s note: sources names were changed because they broke the Duke Community Standard.

Page 11: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 11

STORY BY DANIELLE MUOIOPHOTO BY ELYSIA SU

Following the 2008 economic downturn, Duke was tasked with

the challenge of starting its most ambitious capital campaign, utilizing a stra-tegic plan from a different economic time.

In September 2012, Duke announced the start of Duke Forward, its sec-ond and largest capital campaign to date. As part of the campaign, the Uni-versity aims to raise $3.25 billion by June 30, 2017.

Duke Forward sets aside different goals for each of Duke’s 10 schools, athlet-ics, the libraries and “Uni-versity-wide priorities.” Duke Forward also has fundraising goals for three campaign themes: bound-aries not included, blazing new paths and fueling un-containable ideas.

The University’s first capital campaign—Cam-paign for Duke—con-cluded in 2003 after rais-ing $2.3 billion. When the campaign launched in Oc-tober 1998, the University set a goal of $1.5 billion, which was raised to $2 bil-lion in November 2000.

Duke Forward, howev-er, differs from Campaign for Duke in both number as well as scale. Whereas Campaign for Duke was more specific in nature—in that it largely sought to raise money for each of Duke’s schools—Duke Forward is more thematic.

Former Provost Peter Lange, profes-sor of political science, said the thematic nature of Duke Forward is in line with the University’s campaign goals.

“The first [reason] is that [President Richard Brodhead] and I and [Executive Vice President Dr. Tallman] Trask always agreed we didn’t build buildings to build

buildings—we built buildings to enable the scholarly goals of the University,” he said. “The second thing is it’s a pretty fast changing world—it’s very hard to identify hard targets.”

He also added that it is important to structure a campaign in a way that both accommodates the interests of donors and of the University. Having thematic goals helps accomplish this goal.

When it comes to numbers, Duke Forward is the University’s most am-bitious campaign yet, though many of Duke’s 10 schools set “conserva-

tive goals” due to the 2008 economic downturn, said Bob Shepard, executive director of development.

“We are not going to raise the over-all goal for the campaign,” Shepard said. “We want to support schools to work at underfunded priorities.”

In September, the University will raise campaign goals for schools that have met their goals ahead of schedule. Shepard said the Divinity School, Nicho-las School of the Environment and Duke libraries were the first to cross their set campaign goals.

How Duke planned for its largest campaign following a recession

Page 12: Towerview April 15, 2015

12 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

BY THE NUMBERSSo far, Duke has raised $2.5 billion

overall. In Fiscal Year 2014, which last-ed from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014, Duke raised $290.1 million in total cash and $250.4 million in new commitments, which qualifies as new pledges and out-right gifts. Duke has witnessed greater success so far in Fiscal Year 2015, with total cash gifts increasing 10 percent from this point last year to $317.8 mil-lion and new commitments increasing 30 percent to $329.9 million.

The average age of donors who give $1 million or more is 60, however, Duke Forward is hoping to reach out to young-er alumni, noting that getting recent graduates in the habit of donating will help Duke down the road, Shepard said.

“The campaign relies on people younger than 60,” he added.

Duke Forward aims to have 70 per-cent of gifts toward Duke Forward’s overall goal of $3.25 billion come from gifts of $1 million or higher, Shepard said. That means having 500 donors give gifts of $1 million or higher, but Shepard noted that the campaign is currently on track to meet this lofty goal.

When planning Campaign for Duke, 50 percent of donations came from indi-viduals and 50 percent came from corpo-

rations or other entities. For Duke For-ward, the University is hoping to grow the number of gifts from individuals to 60 or even 75 percent.

When it comes to Duke’s signature initiatives, Duke has raised $25.5 mil-lion for the arts, $71 million for Bass Connections, $14.4 million for energy, $35.6 million for Global Health and $37.7 million for innovation and entre-preneurship.

SETTING GOALS

Duke was planning on launching a capital campaign prior to the economic downturn, however after the 2008 fi-nancial crisis the University cancelled a campaign launch altogether. When dis-cussions regarding a campaign launch began again, Lange and President Rich-ard Brodhead thought a conservative campaign would be the best route.

“When the president ran that idea out to some of our key constituencies they said, ‘No, don’t do that. If you’re going to have a campaign, you have to go for it—be ambitious, things will turn around,’” Lange said.

Still, in some respects, Duke erred on the side of caution. Shepard noted that many of Duke’s 10 schools set conserva-

tive goals as a result of the downturn.Representatives from the Divinity

School, Graduate School and Pratt all said their initial goals—of $80 million, $20 million and $161.5 million, respec-tively—were conservative.

Shepard and Trask noted that there has been some concern about whether the Graduate School will reach its goal, however, the school has made progress after receiving a $7.5 million gift from the Charlotte-based Duke Endowment in spring 2014.

Sandy York, development director at the Graduate School, said the Grad-uate School has raised $14.36 million thus far.

“The reality is—and we expect to hit the $20 million mark—is it’s still going to only scratch the surface to fully fund our Ph.D students on 12-month fellow-ships,” said Paula McClain, Dean of the Graduate School.

Only in the past few years has the Graduate School tried to brand itself as its own school, McClain said. She noted that the recent addition of Graduate School mugs and shirts in the bookstore is indicative of this effort. As a result, this is the first time the Graduate School has attempted to raise funds as its own school instead of being lumped in with

CHRONICLE GRAPHIC BY ELYSIA SU

Page 13: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 13

“Switch to Sprint for the best value in wireless.

5 lines forUp to 73/mo.

80$

Sprint Family Share Pack with Unlimited talk and text and 12GB shared data all while on the Sprint network. Price after waived access charges and SDP discount of 18% is applied on $90 monthly data charge. Other monthly charges apply.**

Pay no access charges for a year!Waived access charges for a year when you switch to Sprint and bring your number. After a year, pay additional $15 access charge per mo./line. Requires new-line activation on non-discounted phone.

Don’t delay! Limited time off er. See store for full details.

% ofApplies to select regularly priced Sprint monthly data service.

Discount for employees18 Duke University

Duke employees use this Corp ID HGAC2_NCV_ZZZ the Sprint Discount Program.

866.639.8354 sprintstorelocator.com sprint.com/saveDuke Student? Ask your local Sprint store about special offers!

**Monthly charges exclude taxes and Sprint Surcharges [incl. USF charge of up to 16.8% (varies quarterly), up to $2.50 Admin. and 40¢ Reg./line/mo. and fees by area (approx. 5–20%)]. Surcharges are not taxes. See sprint.com/taxesandfees.

Activ. Fee: $36/line. Credit approval req. Sprint Family Share Pack: Off er ends 5/14/15. No discounts apply to access charges. Includes unlimited domestic Long Distance calling and texting. Data allowance as specified. Third-party content/downloads are add’l charge. Int’l svcs are not included. Max of 5 phone/tablet/MBB lines. Data: Includes 12GB of on-network shared data usage and 100MB off -network data usage. Add’l on-network data usage: 1.5¢/MB. Add’l off -network data can be added by opt in only for 25¢/MB for tablets/MBBs. Mobile Hotspot Usage pulls from your shared data and off -network allowances. Monthly Access Charge: For customers activating before 3/12/15: After 3/31/2016, customer will be charged applicable access charge in addition to data allowance charge. For customers activating 3/13/15 – 5/14/15: After 5/31/2016, customer will be charged applicable access charge in addition to data allowance charge. To avoid charges, customer must contact Sprint to make changes. Sprint Easy Pay or lease obligations will still apply if applicable. Switching to the 12GB tier from a higher data tier will terminate your waived access promotion. Usage Limitations: Other plans may receive prioritized bandwidth availability. To improve data experience for the majority of users, throughput may be limited, varied or reduced on the network. Sprint may terminate service if off -network roaming usage in a month exceeds: (1) 800 min. or a majority of min.; or (2) 100MB or a majority of KB. Prohibited network use rules apply — see sprint.com/termsandconditions. $350 American Express® Reward Card Off er: Off ers end 5/14/15. Consumer, SDP and CL lines purchasing a new non-subsidized device or Certified Pre-Owned device and porting a new line from an active wireless line at another carrier on a qualified plan. Amount based on ETF (early termination fee) charged or remaining balance on install-bill device (excludes prepaid devices). Line must remain active and in good standing to receive the Reward Card. You must register and submit your final bill showing your ETF or installment balance within 60 days of switching to Sprint. Allow 8 weeks for your Reward Card to arrive. Register at sprint.com/join2015. Excludes 100+ Corporate-liable, upgrades, replacements and ports made between Sprint entities or providers associated with Sprint (i.e., Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance). Reward Card: Terms and conditions apply to Reward Cards. See Cardholder Agreement or visit www.americanexpress.com/sprint for details. Subject to applicable law, a $3.00 monthly service fee applies beginning in the seventh month after Card issuance. Card is issued by American Express Prepaid Card Management Corporation. American Express is not the sponsor of this promotion. SDP Discount: Avail. for eligible company employees or org. members (ongoing verification). Discount subject to change according to the company’s agreement with Sprint and is avail. upon request for select monthly svc charges. Discount only applies to data service for Sprint Family Share Pack. Not avail. with no credit check off ers or Mobile Hotspot add-on. Other Terms: Off ers and coverage not available everywhere or for all phones/networks. May not be combined with other off ers. Restrictions apply. See store or sprint.com for details. ©2015 Sprint. All rights reserved. Sprint and the Sprint logo are trademarks of Sprint. Other marks are the property of their respective owners N155070

CALL 800-474-0258 OR VISIT FORESTDUKE.ORG TO ARRANGE A TOUR.

PREMIER RETIREMENT LIVING. IN THE HEART OF DURHAM.

Headquarters for all of life’s adventures. Garage included.

Pull out of your garage and head off to explore Durham’s foodie scene and glorious byways. All with easy access to renowned Duke University and Duke Medical Center. Hurry and take advantage of this limited opportunity to reserve your newly-constructed, standalone home at The Forest.

2701 PICKETT ROAD, DURHAM 27705

0 2ONLY COTTAGES REMAIN!

When the president ran that idea out to some of our key constituencies they said, ‘No, don’t do that, if you’re gonna have a cam-paign you have to go for it—be ambitious, things will turn around.’” —Peter Langeanother school such as the Trinity Col-lege of Arts and Sciences.

McClain added that the career paths graduate students enter may not always be the most lucrative, which can hinder their ability to provide large donations.

“In some instances, our alums might not have [as much] financial capacity because of the careers they might have gone into as [the alums from] the Fuqua School of Business,” she said. “But what we want to develop is just giving a little, the habit.”

Richard Hays, dean of the Divinity School, noted that the Divinity School faces a similar challenge.

“It’s a particular challenge for the Di-vinity School because many of our alum-ni don’t make a lot of money,” he said. “Some part of our significant donations come from people who are not alums of the school, may not have any previous connection to Duke at all, but learn what they do through our alumni.”

Hays added that “the money is roll-ing in” for the Divinity School and that they just recently raised more than $85 million, exceeding its original goal by $5 million.

When asked whether the January con-troversy surrounding the Chapel call-to-prayer had affected donations, he said he

had only heard of one donation actually being pulled—a $250,000 scholarship.

“We do sometimes hear about that. The whole world we work in, the kinds of people in faith communities, is a very complicated world politically,” Hays said.

Clarke said that because Pratt plans on increasing its initial conservative goal of $161.5 million to $200 million this April because of the success that it has seen. Pratt has raised $160.75 million thus far.

The Law School’s goal of $85 million was realistic, said David Levi, dean of the Law School, adding that they have raised 88 percent of their goal.

“When we started the campaign we were coming out of a very big recession in this country and the legal economy lagged and went into recession later,” he said. “In one sense that has made some people more tentative about their own financial condition, but also exposed needs as well for higher education.”

Levi added that the Law School has “outperformed” its original ambitions.

Kelly Brownell, dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy, said Sanford’s goal of $75 million is ambitious.

Page 14: Towerview April 15, 2015

14 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

“It’s ambitious, but we want to be ambitious,” he said. “We want to make Sanford the best school of public policy it can possibly be.”

Sanford has reached 68 percent of its total goal with $48 million.

Representatives from the Trinity School of Arts and Sciences and the Nicholas School of the Environment classified their campaign goals as ambi-tious but realistic.

Dean of Trinity Laurie Patton said Trinity has raised $343 million of its $435 million goal.

The Nicholas School was the first of Duke’s schools to surpass its origi-nal goal. Kevin McCarthy, associate dean of development and alumni rela-tions at the Nicholas School, said they have raised $57 million of its $55 mil-lion goal.

The Fuqua School of Business has raised $72 million toward its $100 mil-lion goal.

“Our total raised thus far surpass-es the original estimates of what we would be capable of raising during Duke Forward, and we are confident that our alumni and friends will help us reach $100 million by 2017,” Hank Woods, associate dean for develop-ment and alumni relations at Fuqua, wrote in an email March 23.

Duke Medicine has an overall goal

of $1.2 billion for the School of Medi-cine, School of Nursing and Duke Uni-versity Health System. The School of Medicine has raised $845 million to-ward its goal of $970 million for the School of Medicine.

“I think the campaign goal is defi-nitely achievable, and I would like to see us exceed it,” Nancy Andrews, dean of the medical school and vice chancellor for academic affairs, wrote in an email March 31.

F U N D R A I S I N G A F T E R A D O W N T U R N

Capital campaigns are not directly related to strategic plans, however, they can guide the fundraising priorities of a capital campaign, Lange said. In 2000, the University commenced planning for a strategic plan that was launched in 2006 known as “Making a Difference.”

Making a Difference, which was slat-ed to raise $1.3 billion, launched signa-ture programs such as Duke Engage and completed the Financial Aid Initiative, among other milestones. But not every initiative in Making a Difference was ex-ecuted. A main priority for the 100-page plan was the complete overhaul of Cen-tral Campus to create what would have been known as New Campus.

The Board of Trustees approved

Phase I of New Campus in the summer of 2008. Phase I included the construc-tion of dining, residential and study spaces as an extension of West Campus, according to a 2008 Chronicle article.

“The new Central Campus was a very expensive proposition. We never got full costs in, [but] it would probably be $700 to $800 million,” Trask said. “To do any-thing we needed enough done in the first phase for something to be there, which I’m guessing [would have been] $400 million.”

The 2008 financial crisis squashed any hope of starting the New Campus proj-ect though.

“It was too much to put into a $3 billion campaign when there are other pressing priorities,” Trask said.

Lange echoed a similar sentiment.“You have to spend a lot of money or

none—it wasn’t like you could do it in little pieces,” he said. “When the money shrank, then the amount you would have to devote to that project would squeeze out too much else, so you’d be left in a situation where you could do Central Campus but wouldn’t have money for the other things you want to do.”

The 2006 strategic plan was then re-newed from 2008-10 while the Univer-sity was planning for Duke Forward.

Provost Sally Kornbluth said new pri-orities emerged during this time period, though New Campus was left out of the equation.

“The 2006 plan permeates everything we know today about Duke,” she said. “Fundraising is there to fulfill promise of that plan.”

Kornbluth said she “doesn’t see New Campus being revisited anytime soon in terms of a strategic planning goal.” The University is currently in the pre-planning phase prior to launching a new strategic plan.

“When you make investments, there’s always a tradeoff,” she said. “New Cam-pus was envisioned at a time where re-sources were more abundant.”

Although the University plans to use money from the capital campaign for the creation of new buildings, this is differ-ent than channeling resources toward New Campus.

“It’s a little different from envisioning New Campus from scratch,” Kornbluth said.

CHRONICLE GRAPHIC BY ELYSIA SU

Page 15: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 15

Great Courses. Great Instructors. Great Price!

Registration Underway.

summersession.duke.edusummer @duke.edu

The University is investing in new capital programs such as an Arts Build-ing, said to cost approximately $35 mil-lion in a 2014 Towerview article, as well as a new engineering building.

Trask said the new engineering build-ing will provide more lab space for stu-dents in the Pratt School of Engineer-ing as well as the Trinity School of Arts and Science physics department. The Board of Trustees will vote to approve the building Fall 2015. He expects it will require $35 million from alumni.

“We have internal money earmarked for building or money that has come through the university for the strate-gic needs of school,” said Chris Clarke, Pratt’s associate dean for development and principal gifts. “We have some an-chor gifts that will drive that particular initiative once it is announced.”

The campaign still has two more years to fully realize its goals. There are several areas the University particularly hopes to strengthen.

“The biggest disappointment to date is that we thought we’d have more for the endowment and more for financial aid than we do today,” Trask said. CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

A Healthcare Chauffeur and Companion You Can Trust!

More than a taxi or errand service:u Drives patients to and from their appointmentsu Stays throughout the patient’s appointment or

procedureu Contacts loved ones to provide status reportsu Helps to understand discharge instructionsu Provides other services directly related to

procedure including stopping at the pharmacy for prescriptions on the way home

[email protected] • appointmentfriend.com

Jane Kolimaga (919) 451-7444

Page 16: Towerview April 15, 2015

16 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

STORY BY DANIELLE MUOIO & SAMANTHA NEALPHOTOS FROM CHRONICLE FILES

from kanye to... dillon francis?

I t’s the most anticipated day of the year from the moment students set foot on campus and thus has become the most scrutinized

event at Duke.Throughout the course of the year, at least

five hours a week are dedicated to organizing the day-long event. All together, approximately 150 hours are spent planning the four-letter cel-ebration that signifies the end of another year and the start of summer: LDOC.

LDOC, or the last day of classes, as an event has only existed since 1997. At its inception, LDOC existed under the purview of Cam-pus Council, the equivalent of house council, in which a member from each quad on Cam-pus Council was allowed to join the commit-tee to plan the event. In 2011, Duke University Union absorbed LDOC—now one of DUU’s 13 programming committees is responsible for the event.

The LDOC committee, unlike the rest of the DUU committees, requires an application for prospective members due in September fol-lowed by interviews with the committee chairs. This year, 12 LDOC committee members were selected through a competitive process that re-jected nearly 90 percent of applicants.

“Having a smaller, selected committee helps with efficiency and creates more passion

and accountability within the members,” cur-rent LDOC co-chair David Soled, a sopho-more, said.

Sophomore Anton Saleh, also current LDOC co-chair, added that the current com-mittee has been efficient and reflects the diver-sity of student music tastes.

One of the biggest selling points on the LDOC application is the allure of leaving be-hind a legacy by bringing the next big artist to campus. The list of past performers that later became award-winning artists speaks for itself—Steve Aoki, Kendrick Lamar, Mackl-emore and, most notably, Kanye West.

YEEZUS WALKS. . .PAST THE CHAPEL

Seeing these well-recognized names as former LDOC headliners may be a bit misleading. When LDOC booked Kanye West in late 2003, the then-up-and-coming rapper and producer had only released a few singles and would not drop his debut album, The College Dropout, until the lineup was announced in February 2004.

“We wanted to try to find an artist that would resonate with the student body,” Mark Pike, Trinity ‘04 and then-LDOC co-chair.

“[West] started getting a little bit of radio play in the fall and people were pretty excited for his album to drop. We knew we might be able to get him within our budget.”

When the chairs first proposed bringing the rapper to campus, West could be booked for approximately $15,000, Pike said. Advi-sors were hesitant to book the then-relatively unknown rapper and delayed approval. After learning that West’s booking price had gone up, Pike and his co-chair convinced their ad-visors to sign him.

The final price tag for West’s LDOC performance was $31,500. According to Va-riety, a Kanye West gig now costs upwards of $400,000. West would go on to win 21 Grammys and become an undeniable, self-proclaimed pop culture icon, making him the most globally successful artist to perform at Duke.

“[West was] a complete professional and played a great show,” Pike said. “Luckily, Kanye West was way undervalued.”

Pike recalls 2004 LDOC and his interac-tions with West as some of his fondest mem-ories at Duke.

“We ended up hanging out in the hal-lowed halls of Page Auditorium after the show,” Pike wrote in an email March 27.

CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

Page 17: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 17

STORY BY DANIELLE MUOIO & SAMANTHA NEALPHOTOS FROM CHRONICLE FILES

from kanye to... dillon francis?

“He asked me about my classes and if I was graduating, which was kind of ironic given his hit album titled ‘The College Dropout.’ I can’t quite remember, but I think I invited him and his crew to Armadillo Grill or Cos-mic Cantina after the show, but they politely declined.”

Dilated Peoples was scheduled as West’s opening act, but the rap trio had to withdraw a few days before the show. Offered in their place as an opening act was one of Kanye’s touring artists who had yet to release an al-bum but would later win nine Grammys—John Legend.

The committee scored Legend for $3,000, but a Legend show now costs more than $150,000, according to Variety.

Even the most legendary of LDOC per-formances faced some student backlash.

In a 2005 Chronicle article, then-LDOC chair Matt Greenfield, Trinity ’05, said of the next year’s selection process, “Snoop Dogg was not considered because of the flop that Kanye West was last year.”

Pike said West played a relatively short set due to his lack of released material at the time.

“I’m sure not everyone was happy with the show,” he said. “[But] my friends still

talk about seeing Kanye perform in front of Duke’s chapel.”

‘LDOC TELLS THE STORY OF DUKE’

From artist cancellations to budget is-sues, planning and executing LDOC is rarely smooth sailing. Still, tracing LDOCs of years past reveals the highs and lows of Duke’s line-up history.

“LDOC tells the story of Duke,” Soled as-serted.

LDOC acts in previous years were prone to cancellations. In 2008 The Roots replaced Lupe Fiasco, and LDOC 2011 lost the Cata-racs to an award show appearance and booked Ludacris instead. B.o.B. substituted Redfoo as the headliner in 2012 because Redfoo hurt his back and could only perform at a limited num-ber of shows.

“I don’t think that’s an LDOC thing—it’s an overall music culture thing,” Soled said.

Since 2004, the total budget (then just shy of $70,000) has steadily risen.

According to a Chronicle article in 2006, the total budget for 2007 LDOC reached $145,000 by increasing student activities fees and increas-ing DUU allotment. This move was done to match the budgets of end-of-year concerts of peer institutions.

LDOC 2007 brought rapper Common and Jason Mraz to campus as headliners. This se-lection stirred some controversy after the com-mittee discovered that Common criticized the Duke men’s lacrosse team at Emory Universi-ty’s end-of-the-year concert in 2006—the same year as the Duke lacrosse scandal.

Common incorporated into his act the line, “I’m the boss, f--- those boys from Duke la-crosse” at the Emory concert.

Beth Higgins, LDOC chair at the time and Trinity ‘07, said she had not been aware of the incident when the committee booked Com-mon.

“I am very shocked that that happened,” Higgins said in a 2007 Chronicle article. “I’m surprised he accepted the offer if he felt that way.”

Despite the significant budget hikes that year, the lineup “failed to elicit widespread en-thusiasm.”

During the late 2000s, two consecutive LDOCs went over budget, necessitating loans from DUU. LDOC in 2008 cost $25,000 more than the anticipated budget when the commit-tee brought the Roots after Lupe Fiasco can-celled. Interestingly, the Roots had performed at LDOC in 2002 when Pike was also a chair.

The committee in 2009 had a $115,000 budget—less than the previous year’s—to bring Ben Folds, Gym Class Heroes and Girl Talk. Due to some unforeseen costs such as Folds’ request for an additional grand piano and tuner, the committee exceeded their bud-get by $17,000, requiring the first ever use of DUU “emergency funds.”

Freshman Soren Chargois, a member of the LDOC committee, said the artist budget is $100,000. LDOC co-chairs Soled and Saleh outright denied that number and said it was false. When asked whether the artist budget was higher or lower than $100,000, they de-clined to comment. Soled and Saleh also de-clined to comment on the budget of previous years.

Besides budget changes, LDOC has trans-formed the most in regards to daytime pro-gramming.

Previously, LDOC only featured a concert with a two or three big name performing artists, according to a 2010 editorial in The Chronicle. In 2010, LDOC became more of an all-day festival and the concert was just one compo-nent of the day’s events. This was also the first year that LDOC was closed to the public and students had to wear wristbands.

“The assumption is that the LDOC com-mittee just picks the artist,” Saleh said. “There’s

CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

Page 18: Towerview April 15, 2015

18 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

Page 19: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 19

SAM JACTEL

always a lot more there than people think that happens with programming.”

More activities during the day mean a safer LDOC because they reduce the culture of binge drinking, Soled noted. Last year’s LDOC saw a three-year low in EMS calls with only six total calls and few alcohol-related incidents.

“It was hard to walk through West Campus without getting involved in something,” said ju-nior Evan Reilly, 2014 LDOC co-chair, about the daytime events.

Some students are not aware of the daytime events or unable to participate because of class.

“I did not know that was offered,” said ju-nior Jordan Ly, referring to LDOCs daytime offerings.

LDOC 2014 brought Dillon Francis as a headliner with opening acts Youngblood Hawke and Skizzy Mars. Spencer Brown, a student DJ, was unable to perform due to sets running long and additional time needed to set up the stage. Many students were not familiar with these artists and thus the concert did not generate widespread enthusiasm.

“Last year I had no clue who any of the art-ists were so it was hard to get as excited about the music,” said junior Cori Hayes. “I honestly don’t have any fond memories of the actual concert other than Dillon Francis not intro-ducing himself and then pulling the cord in the middle of a song.”

Reilly admitted that Francis was not the committee’s initial top pick. He also confirmed that Diplo was among the artists initially con-sidered for LDOC and revealed that several of-fers to artists were rescinded.

“Students think that the artist that comes to perform is always the top choice and that’s not always the case because not all artists perform on college campuses,” Reilly said. “Artists have busy schedules and often it comes down to prices and availability, and that doesn’t always work out.”

Reilly noted that both scheduling and bud-get constraints were issues when setting up last year’s lineup.

“When it came down to doing research and talking to agencies [Francis] was our top choice and was available for a reasonable price,” Reilly said.

Last year’s LDOC featured the tagline “Best for Last,” which led students to believe that Bruce Springsteen might be a surprise final per-former because his daughter attended Duke.

“We came up with the [tagline] before we even released the lineup. That was really just us brainstorming an LDOC committee saying,” said senior Kenny Johnson, also LDOC co-

chair for last year.“I’m glad we didn’t have Yik Yak last year,”

Reilly said.

LDOC TODAY“The artist will appear on your screen in 3,

2, 1.”Cue a dark screen and scrolling message and

one can get a sense of the hype behind a video released by the LDOC committee Feb. 3 that many believed would announce the LDOC lineup. The LDOC committee received a lot of backlash for teasing the student body with promise of the lineup.

The anonymous social media app Yik Yak exploded with hate messages and direct in-sults hurled at Saleh and Soled. In addition, the LDOC email account was flooded with hate mail, even from graduate students. Nonethe-less, Saleh and Soled stand by their decision to release the video.

“I personally think it was a success,” Soled said. “It was the biggest thing talked about on campus, and that’s what we wanted.”

He also said that he received some positive feedback about the video and believes that the majority of students were more excited about LDOC after its release.

A similar hype video was released in 2012 but without the same theatrics of Saleh and Soled’s video, which included dramatic music and used Cameron Indoor Stadium as a back-drop.

“Because of the video, we amplified that we were chairs and emphasized that we were the face of LDOC,” Soled said. “I think for my personality and Anton’s personality it works out

well.”Saleh and Soled said the committee was

successful in booking their first choice artists.“We were pretty realistic,” Saleh said. Soled

chimed in, “no concessions were made.”Of all the acts performing at LDOC, Mis-

terWives is the artist that Saleh and Soled noted will likely blow up in the recent future.

Artist selection is generally finalized dur-ing the Fall with brainstorming sessions during meetings. LDOC advisors Jerrica Washington and Jessie Stellini are responsible for reaching out to the artists’ managers about costs and handling contracts.

The LDOC committee uses the Spring to plan events for during the day. Popular daytime activities, such as the Chapel Climb, the Silent Disco, Massages on the Quad and the K-Ville Barbeque, are set to return April 22, but Saleh and Soled revealed that new events will also be on the docket.

“Every year’s [daytime programming] is changing based on the year before where kids are getting injured,” Saleh said. “We bring day-time programming to the quad, so we get kids out of their rooms, drinking.”

The difference in the lineups of peer insti-tutions is rooted in the fact that most require students to pay for admission and some events are open to the public. LDOC is a free event, covered by student fees, open only to Duke students.

“It’s funny, I looked at Rites of Spring at Vanderbilt and their headliner is T-Pain,” Soled said. “They’re charging students for T-Pain who we’re bringing for free.”

Rites of Spring actually lists T-Pain as its

Page 20: Towerview April 15, 2015

20 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

Award-Winning Gourmet Marketplace, Cooking School and Weathervane Restaurant201 South Estes Drive, Chapel Hill | University Mall | (919) 929-7133 | | southernseason.com/sign-up

third headliner. Vanderbilt University’s two-day end-of-year concert features Young the Giant, Chance the Rapper, T-Pain, Portugal the Man, RAC, The Lone Bellow, Matoma, Daniel Ells-worth and The Great Lakes and Louisa Wen-dorff.

Funding for Rites of Spring comes from student activities fees as well as ticket sales. Unlike at Duke, Vanderbilt students have to pay $30 for entry and faculty and staff must pay $35. Additionally, the concert is not just reserved for students and faculty. The general public can buy a pass for $50 or a single, day ticket for $30.

“From a pricing standpoint it definitely helps cover the costs which means we can up our budget a little bit,” said junior Kern Vohra, chair of Vanderbilt’s Music Group, which plans Rites of Spring. “It also makes it less exclusive but we get more people. It’s a whole vibe thing.”

Selling tickets adds to the general pot of money the Music Group can use for Rites of Spring or its fall concert, Commodore Quake.

Quake usually features fewer, bigger head-liners. Pasts artists since 2007 have included Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Lupe Fiasco, Snoop Dog, Passion Pit, Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar and Ludacris.

The general public can buy Quake tickets in

advance for $40 or the week of for $50.Vohra declined to comment on the bud-

get for Rites of Spring or Quake, but said that because Quake usually features fewer artists in exchange for one major headliner, the budget allocation process is completely different than Rites of Spring.

“Because we are building it up from top down all the prices are completely different,” he said. “So don’t have to blow $150,000 to 175,000 on one artist, but with Quake you’re willing to do that.”

Rites of Spring as a tradition has been around since 1971, but the first year on re-cord that Rites of Spring hosted artists is 1986. Vohra compared it to a “mini Bonnaroo.”

“When it was first getting built out in the day it was really a two-day artist show,” Vohra said. “Over the years it has built out to an eight-to-12-, 14-or-15-artist show and expanded to a two-day festival.”

The Music Group tries to cater both to Nashville and the general student body when selecting artists. It can be difficult to book art-ists at Vanderbilt because every major artist usually passes through Nashville once and may not feel incentivized to return again for Rites of Spring.

“Steve [Aoki] played October 2013 and then

came back to play Rites of Spring—thats a de-cent amount of space where it works,” Vohra said. “But if you have people coming in Febru-ary, would people really buy tickets to come see them again? Theres a lot of saturation.”

Vohra said there has been a “pretty solid re-action” to this year’s Rites of Spring artist lineup.

“Obviously the internet is a mean place—Yik Yak notwithstanding,” he said. “So you have the vocal minority on there thats always displeased with something but I think, in general, students are happy with it.”

At Cornell University, undergraduate students can attend the end-of-year concert Slope Day for free, however graduate stu-dents must pay a fee. Alumni and guests can also purchase tickets to attend Slope Day.

Like Vanderbilt, Cornell also uses student activities fees to fund the concert in addition to ticket sales.

Junior Garrison Lovely, executive chair of the Slope Day Programming Board, declined to comment on how much is spent on tal-ent, but noted that $18 dollars is taken out of each students activities fee. With roughly 14,000 students, it means at least $250,000 is spent on the entire event, which does not include ticket sales or money left over from previous end-of-year concerts.

Page 21: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 21

state of the arts

STORY BY SID GOPINATHPHOTOS BY CONTRIBUTING STAFF

CATHERINE FARMER

A longside its peer institutions, Duke is starting to encourage the development of the arts. But before one can even start to

examine where the arts are at Duke, it is pretty important to look around the nation.

“The momentum we are seeing here is part of a national movement where universities, for a variety of reasons, are prioritizing the arts and making them more visible,” said Eric Ober-stein, associate director of Duke Performances, referring to what has been called the “Creative Campus Movement.”

A one-year task force at Harvard Univer-sity created a Report of the Task Force of the Arts, which discussed the role of the arts at a research university, the number of practicing artists in faculty and how to think of the re-lationship of arts within and beyond the cur-riculum, among other topics.

Princeton University is also making an ef-fort to critically assess the arts. Princeton is building an entire “arts district” to facilitate the evolution and development of the arts on cam-pus. The district will include restaurants, public amenities and new university arts facilities.

Director of Duke Performances Aaron Greenwald also mentioned that Stanford Uni-versity has a “fully articulated” arts initiative available on their website.

“The rationale they’re using is that creativity and the skills that you learn in the making of art are skills that will serve you as an entrepre-neur or a scientist or a software engineer,” he explained.

In the quickly flourishing cultures of apps and startups, innovative and visual thinking is placed at a premium. An arts de-gree can now be extraordinarily valuable in the professional world.

“You look at most of the top universities in the country, and they’re emphasizing their strengths in the arts as one of their priorities.” explained Amy Unell, Trinity ‘03, assistant di-rector of Duke in Silicon Valley.

Clearly, universities nationwide are seeing the value of an arts education and trying to ex-pand curriculum and resources to support the arts. Duke has made strides in developing the arts. However, it is necessary to look at the bar-riers the University still has to overcome.

SOCIAL CULTUREStudents who are extremely passionate

seem to be frustrated by the lack of support for the arts within Duke’s social culture. This could have to do with the fact that Duke has not typi-cally been known as an artistic university.

“People who come to the campus then

hear and feel that culture, and they tend to want to gravitate to the predominant culture on campus,” said Rodney Wynkoop, direc-tor of Duke Chorale and director of Chapel Music. “So people who weren’t big basketball fans become avid. People who had an interest in the arts see it marginalized, and they think that’s the way to be.”

As a result, Duke’s art culture can seem pushed out of focus.

“The daily art culture here is pretty behind the scenes,” said junior Dylan Gleit, member of the student band Mobius, which is signed at Small Town Records. “I believe that’s because the arts are physically isolated from the rest of campus.”

That is indeed a massive point of discussion across campus at all levels. Almost everyone that was interviewed for this article mentioned a lack of facilities and rehearsal spaces as a ma-jor concern moving forward. In fact, there are preliminary plans for a new building dedicated entirely to arts spaces on Campus Drive.

Wesley Hogan, director of the Center for Documentary Studies, added that it is impor-tant for the administration to emphasize the arts within Duke’s core curriculum.

“Art as a way of knowing...is something that Duke has really begun to embrace,” she said.

Page 22: Towerview April 15, 2015

22 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

ELYSIA SU

“We’re really good at science and medicine and technology and engineering, as well as the so-cial sciences. We’re less good at looking at art as its own unique way of knowing and under-standing the world.”

Recent administrative initiatives have sought to address the issue of integrating an arts per-spective alongside more traditional ones. Vice Provost for the Arts Scott Lindroth referred to DEMAN Weekend and the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate as examples.

“It just seems to create a kind of institu-tional backing to something that had been more of a co-curricular or extracurricular event,” he said.

Lindroth also pointed to the week-long Arts Festival held each fall—recognized by many students due to the pianos placed around campus — as an example of what is a more en-gaged culture.

“I think out of that came a more activist culture among the students in terms of the arts,” he said

This activist culture is getting an extra ad-ministrative push this year from the #artstiga-tor movement, which seeks to engage students in fun and creative artistic learning opportuni-ties and slowly shift the campus culture towards one that focuses even more on integrating the arts into the Duke experience.

“You have to create a social culture around your event that people want to attend,” Sam Morton, a sophomore and current President

of Small Town Records, said. “People...expect to be there with friends, see people that are their friends, expect to have an experience.”

PRE-PROFESSIONAL CULTUREThe emphasis on pre-professional courses

of study have also detracted students from pur-suing the arts.

“There’s a nationwide perception of Duke and its strengths in medicine and scientific re-search,” Lindroth said. “Trying to get under that spotlight...is a challenge.”

As a result, students are often shocked to hear about Duke’s many alumni who have found success in artistic careers.

“You hear about these Duke people who

are directing this musical or helped create the Hunger Games...that shocks people,” junior Andrew Jacobs, duArts A Cappella Council Chair, said. “But when you hear that someone from Duke has won the No-bel Prize for Chemistry, everyone is like ‘Okay. Stereotypical Duke.’”

Events like DEMAN Weekend and this year’s ArtCon have sought to address the per-ception that there is a lack of jobs in artistic fields for Duke graduates.

Although students may come to Duke solely to study the arts in the near future, it is “on track” to attract students who are “arts-interested,” which is also extremely important, Greenwald said.

“[Duke is] not a conservatory for any of the arts,” said Thomas DeFrantz, professor of dance. “Can you learn something about the arts, come engage in it and figure out that after Duke you want to go on in the arts somehow? Yes, you can. If you want to leave Duke after four years and become a professional painter or spend a few years as a professional dancer, that’s maybe possible, but it’s not really what Duke is about.”

Because Duke doesn’t have to cater purely to students looking to pursue professional arts careers, nor is it a conservatory, the University has a lot more flexibility to experiment with in-terdisciplinary programs.

“I think interdisciplinary education is defi-nitely just, across the board, Duke’s strength. You don’t really see that at other universities in the way you see it at Duke,” said junior Pranava Raparla, vice president of advocacy for duARTS.

Student engagement is critical if Duke hopes to generate excitement for the arts in the future.

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

KHLOE KIM

Page 23: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 23

EMILY WAPLES

So then, the question stands: How can Duke artistically engage students who are pre-sented with so many varied and interesting op-portunities?

“It baffles me that some people are so pas-sionate about the arts, but they don’t want to incorporate it into their academic life,” said Jacobs.

There seems to be a general confusion among those involved in the arts about why other students don’t engage in a variety of ways.

“There are a lot of people out there on cam-pus who claim to really love music and claim to listen to music all the time and say that it helps them get through the day,” Gliet said. “Yet, I don’t feel like all of these people who claim all of these things actually show up at the events.”

At the same time, though, Gleit is quick to acknowledge some of the successes that the arts have seen. Specifically, he points to the amount of merchandise and clothing worn around campus related to the arts.

And he has a point. Once the sun is out, it is nearly impossible to walk around campus without seeing someone in a Small Town Re-cords tank.

But why is it that, with so many opportuni-ties available, students still don’t seem to go to performances or events or exhibits?

“Our workload is really hard. So much time has to be dedicated to doing homework and engaging with your classes that at the end of the day, you just aren’t interested,” said ju-nior Sharrin Manor, the general manager of WXDU, a radio station that is part of Duke University Union.

As someone who is very engaged with the arts scene on campus, Manor expressed particular frustration with the lack of student engagement.

“I think it has to do with a personal connec-tion. You have to take obligation out of it,” said Wendy Hower, director of engagement and marketing at the Nasher.

Maybe members of the Duke community do indeed want to enjoy these experiences, but not all of them have found that “spark” yet. So how can more people be put in contact with art?

“I think defining the arts more broadly and more inclusively, that allows people to feel like they have more of a stake in the arts,” Raparla said. “So I think that’s the first thing. The sec-ond thing is reducing those barriers to entry is just providing more low-commitment oppor-tunities.”

He went on to explain that not every Duke student can do a degree program or take a class

in the arts. But maybe it is just enough to go to a short, 30-minute jam session in the Small Town studio or enjoy a performance on the Bryan Center plaza.

Wynkoop agreed that the only way to im-prove the arts was to get more of the com-munity engaged.

“If you want the arts to thrive, you have to reach more critical mass, a higher percent of the population,” Wynkoop said.

The arts culture at Duke is by no means perfect, and student engagement is certainly not perfect, but there is a lot to be grateful for when looking at the arts from one step back. It may be a long road, but efforts are certainly being made to engage more students.

ADMIN EFFORTS“I think [administration] is doing a great job.

I definitely don’t think they’re neglecting the arts, and I definitely don’t think they’re being lazy,” Jacobs said.

He went on to praise the administration’s support of duARTS and their events, such as the Arts Festival. He also specifically referenced Unell and her efforts to connect students with alumni and post-graduation opportunities.

To Bill Fick, visiting assistant professor in visual arts, the administration is doing an excel-lent job refocusing the University’s vision on a bright and culturally rich future after growing Duke in more traditional ways.

“I think the University...felt like it was going to focus on medicine and the professional ca-reers,” Fick said, admitting that this was purely his own hypothesis.

The very existence of Lindroth’s position as Vice Provost of the Arts, which was created

in 2007, seems to exemplify this evolution and shifting of focus.

“We went through a long planning pro-cess of how we were going to do a new [arts] campus and Campus Drive and so forth,” said Executive Vice President Tallman Trask. “The recession of 2008 basically clobbered the plans for the Campus Drive big develop-ment. So we have been trying to figure out what instead what could we do to create those spaces in smaller increments rather than one grand slam.”

These smaller increments have included Smith Warehouse, as well as the Nasher and the Arts Annex. The planned Arts Building will also be a very significant step in that direction.

“There has been a lot of administrative push. I think they have a lot more people advo-cating for the arts in the administration, which has been really cool,” Morton said.

He said that he can’t think of an instance where an arts group has wanted funding and been unable to get it from the administration.

“I would like to frame it as a matter of prin-ciple, that a strong arts education is an impor-tant part of anyone’s education,” Lindroth said.

He acknowledged that students may not be looking to major in the arts, but administration still wants to provide them with the “arts expe-riences” for which they are looking.

“I would like to see a clear, comprehen-sive vision for what the arts should look like at Duke,” Raparla said. “And by comprehensive, I mean something that includes not just aca-demic and curricular interests but...just across the board anyone who could potentially have a stake in the arts.”

He identified the word “potentially” as be-

Page 24: Towerview April 15, 2015

24 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

DARBI GRIFFITH

ing particularly important, saying that there are many students who could have a stake in the arts if a clear vision was developed that includ-ed them.

Manor also mentioned that she hoped to see more engagement between the administra-tion and student leaders.

“I’m sure that [the administration] knows the people playing on the sports teams. Why don’t they know the leaders in the arts commu-nity as well?” she questioned.

She suggested something as simple as ar-ranging dinners between members of admin-istration and student arts leaders to understand the needs of arts organizations better.

With the suggestions of more collaboration across all levels in the future, administration’s efforts could be refined and focused even more to address the needs of students, faculty and the entire artistic community at Duke.

POST-GRAD GUIDANCE“I think that Duke’s primary involvement

with the arts has been academic and sort of just engagement with art for art’s sake,” said senior Kelsey Richards, co-chair of the Nasher student advisory board.

With the evolution of DEMAN weekend and other alumni networking opportunities, this does seem to be gradually changing. Cer-tainly post-graduation guidance has come a long way.

“When I graduated, I had no guidance whatsoever,” said Brett Aresco, Trinity ‘09, a New York-based-actor. “When I was there, there were always career fairs that had represen-tatives from big corporations or finance. There were even sort of these structures in place if

you were looking to apply to med school or were looking to apply to law school.”

By all accounts, it seems that the guidance available now is miles ahead of where it was when Aresco was searching for jobs, and that was less than a decade ago.

Ross Wade, assistant director of the Career Center, focuses on Duke students who want to pursue careers in the arts.

“I really think that we’ve done some great stuff here, and I think that there is more great stuff to do,” Wade said. “I think the biggest challenge for [the Career Center] is finding the right format for students to engage with em-ployers.”

With the arts, a classic career fair or series of on-campus interviews doesn’t work as well as it does with other career paths. Wade suggested more informal events, panels and networking opportunities to connect students with alumni. According to Wade, if students hear proof that success can be achieved in the arts, it feels much more possible and encourages them to at least give it a shot.

FACULTY DEPARTMENTSDeFrantz noted that the faculty has become

stronger in the arts.Lindroth added that this could be why more

arts-oriented students are coming to Duke.“We’ve been able to make a number of very

important faculty hires in arts departments,” Lindroth said. “And that allows them to pursue their missions with more energy.”

In addition to the sometimes undefined relationships between student organizations and the faculty departments that could support them, there are also a few smaller conflicts oc-

curring within faculty departments. A big one, particularly for visual arts, is the philosophy of how the arts are taught.

Some departments, like visual arts, opt to teach the theory behind the practice of art, rather than teach a specific artistic skill. This largely has to do with the way Duke’s classes are scheduled, Fick said. A two-and-a-half-hour block of time once a week is hardly enough time to teach the practice of a visual art form.

Other departments deal with this problem differently.

“My classes are all hybrid classes,” said De-Frantz. “Everyone doesn’t want to be an artist. Some people really do want to study the arts and find ways to interpret and analyze them.”

In regards to this issue, Hogan said that one of the the Center for Documentary Studies’ most popular classes is their analog photogra-phy class.

“What I think it shows is that people are really hungry to get their hands on something, and the tactile nature of analog photography and going into the darkroom is really exciting for people,” she said. “I wish we had the capac-ity to offer a lot more production courses of all kinds.”

This tension between teaching the theory of art and teaching the practice of art is one that requires a conscious decision by each de-partment to address.

Additionally, some faculty may feel that the title of professor of the practice places those faculty members below the normal, tenure-track Professors in terms of respect and rank.

“One of the problems is that artists that teach and have MFAs are Professors of the Practice,” said McAuliffe. “I agree with the Dean that it will help in 10 years time if MFAs are treated as serious professionals in their own right.”

She compared Duke to Northwestern University, where everyone who is a professor and has an MFA is eligible for tenure.

Page 25: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 25

REASONS11 you should choose....

summer camps!

www.learnmore.duke.edu/youth • [email protected]

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

OPTIONS:writing, leadershipSTEM, precollege

no application requ i red

EnrollmentOPEN

OPTIONS: Residential Commuter Extended Day

1983Year of first

summer camp

sponsored camp

GRADEScamps for

5-11 Attracts campers from around the world

Back

grou

nd checks of all staff

teacher student

small classes

fun activities for residential campers after camp hours

trained professional

staff

MIKE MA

“We shouldn’t have a two-tier system. One thing it does is that it pitches the arts at a differ-ent level as far as the institution is concerned,” she said.

Students, however, are attracted by the pros-pect of learning from someone working in the field they are interested in.

“It’s great to have people who are work-ing in the field because that’s the only way you learn,” Jacobs said. “People need to be out in the field or working with people who are out in the field and seeing how the things they are learning in the classroom are being applied to real life.”

MOVING FORWARDDuke is at a very important crossroads as

the University looks to the future. There is the potential for the arts at Duke to become a real centerpiece of the culture and a part that draws new talent to the community. But to get there will require some serious effort from all of the very passionate members of this artistic community.

Aresco made the very important point of how Duke should make sure to foster the arts “in a way that is inclusive and not so serious.” The arts have the potential to be a safe and wel-

coming space for all to collaborate and enjoy.“The place certainly feels a lot more artistic

than it did 20 years ago,” Trask said.That in and of itself is a good sign. Massive

progress has been made in the past years.“I would hope that the arts become a real

centerpiece for Duke alongside the excellence in Public Policy and pre-med and obviously athletics,” DeFrantz said.

Lindroth shows no signs of slowing down either. A big focus for him seemed to be get-ting more arts-inclined students to Duke. As he talked, he mused about the possibilities of an arts scholarship and other ways to identify arts-inclined students.

“There is an energy on campus now that is not fueled solely by the departments or by my office,” he said.

That energy is something that, if harnessed, could take Duke ‘s art offerings to some truly incredible places. The State of the Arts at Duke is certainly not in a bad place. In fact, it is argu-ably in a very good place.

But it is going to take a very concentrated effort from as many members of the Duke community as possible to ensure that Duke arts continues to improve and become some-thing which we can all continue to be very proud.

Equipping Life & Adventurewww.GreatOutdoorProvision.com

Eastgate Shopping Center 1800 East Franklin Street 919-933-6148

Old School....

...And Still Cool

PatagoniaBaggies

Page 26: Towerview April 15, 2015

26 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

Page 27: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 27ARCHIVE PHOTOS FROM CHRONICLE ARCHIVES, DUKE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES AND THE CHANTICLEER

Page 28: Towerview April 15, 2015

28 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

When I met Jeremy Lipkowitz, he was holding a glass of warm mat-cha tea at the Hummingbird Bak-

ery off of East Campus. Lipkowitz, a fourth-year Ph.D stu-

dent in genetics and quantitative micro-biology, has grand ambitions for the fu-ture of the Sangha Teahouse, a stand at the Durham Art and Food Truck Market that he owns. He hopes to turn it into a brick-and-mortar tea house this sum-mer. The stand, which you can find in downtown Durham on Saturdays, sells a wide array of loose-leaf teas.

His idea of building a tea house started “as just wanting to sample ev-erything and wanting to try all the teas.” He said his house is currently filled with “shelves and shelves of really high-quality tea.”

After listening to him share his pas-sion for tea, I decided to check out the Sangha stand at the market. Right across from the taco truck, a couple girls were lining up before the blackboard that listed the Sangha market menu and

waiting for a cup of Lipkowitz’s most popular tea, a delicious coconut matcha latte.

Lipkowitz and his two assistants were busy preparing the matcha pow-der, stirring the mix and calculating the milk-to-tea ratio. The drinks were deli-cately prepared and elegantly served. After finishing my first cup of the iced coconut matcha latte, I could not help coming back for another one because of its special taste.

Following his graduation from the University of California-Davis, Lip-kowitz said he was really depressed de-spite his various successes. Top of his class and captain of a sports team, he was very accomplished on the outside, but on the inside he felt something was off. He realized that all his accomplish-ments had ultimately failed to bring him happiness.

Lipkowitz said his inability to find happiness largely had to do with the fact that his interpretation of happiness was wrong.

“So often we strive to achieve things and think that if we don’t achieve them, we are failures or that we won’t be hap-py,” Lipkowitz said, explaining the Bud-dhist philosophy of not attaching one-self to specific outcomes. For him, the key is to strive to achieve things without getting addicted to the outcome.

His new philosophical outlook sparked his interest in starting a tea house. He hopes that the brick-and-mortar shop will allow him to live in the moment and spread kindness to others.

He envisions the tea house to be a peaceful place, where a customer walks in and instantly feels calmer. Patrons could expect a lot of natural wood, a couple exposed bricks, some plants and hints of earth-toned colors, accompa-nying the calming smell of tea leaves.

In addition to the tea shop—where customers could sit down for a cup of tea or an hour of genuine and spon-taneous conversations—there is also going to be a yoga studio that offers classes and meditation workshops. Be-

jeremy lipkowitz, Ph. Tea

STORY BY YIYUN ZHUPHOTOS BY ELYSIA SU

Page 29: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 29

sides being a tea connoisseur, Lipkow-itz is also an avid meditator who hopes to teach others to embrace the present moment. Having taught meditation at Duke for three years, he ties his passion for meditation closely with his desire to start Sangha Teahouse.

Hoping to learn more about the man pursuing his Ph.D in tea, I asked Jeremy what his favorite kind of tea was. Sur-prisingly, he said that he does not have a favorite, that his preference changes from day to day.

“Each tea is so unique, and they just fit different types of emotions,” he said. At the current moment he prefers mat-cha because of the energy it provides, but he also enjoys the savory taste of oolong. When he is feeling grounded, he likes drinking pu’erh because of its earthy taste.

Choosing the collection of tea to sell at the tea house, however, could be a little daunting for him because there are many varieties. There are the Dragon-well, Silver Needle, Japanese matcha, Taiwanese Oolong, Yunnan Pu’erh, and many other kinds of tea for him to choose from for a menu of just 10-15 tea drinks.

“It is very subjective,” he noted about the process of sampling teas with importers from Japan, China and India.

It does not take long to notice the shortage of good authentic tea places in Durham. This contrasts with the grow-ing population of tea-lovers in the area,

which was part of the reason why Jer-emy wanted to start the tea house.

“You can go to Whole Foods or Har-ris Teeter to get tea bags,” he said, “but if you ever open a bag of Lipton tea and look at it, literally it is just granu-lated dust, versus really high-quality tea you can see the leaves and you can see the freshness.”

He added that there are only two to three places in the entire Triangle that sell high-quality tea.

“What you get from high-quality tea versus teabags is a thousand times more flavor, a thousand times more nutrition and antioxidants, and overall a much more pleasant experience,” he said. “We are gonna be the spot in Durham that offers those kinds of tea.”

The future tea house will most likely

not have Wi-Fi, Lipkowitz added.“We want it to be more about the

community, about being in the present moment,” Lipkowitz said, explaining that his vision for the Sangha Teahouse contrasts with the typical environment one finds in a coffee shop where people are typing away with their headphones on. The isolation from social media and the bombardment of information is a true interpretation of the term Sangha, which translated from Sanskrit means a community of monks who meditate to-gether.

Lipkowitz prefers to enjoy his tea using different kinds of teaware. His favorites are the gaiwan, a lidded bowl used for the infusion of tea leaves, and the yixing pot that is traditionally used to brew tea in China. He plans on teach-ing people how to make tea when he opens his shop.

“Part of the fun of doing tea in the traditional method is the action of pouring water into the tea, seeing the leaves expand, and smelling the aroma, because it is a very sensory experience that makes you really come into the present moment and get out of your head,” he said.

Getting out of your head embodies what Lipkowitz’s teahouse is meant to represent. His hope is that the Sangha Teahouse will play a key role in spread-ing kindness to Durham tea enthusiasts.

“Happiness is something you culti-vate from within, but I used to believe that happiness was outside of me, like accomplishing things, getting friends and proving myself,” he said.

But Lipkowitz changed his mindset YIYUN ZHU

ELYSIA SU

Page 30: Towerview April 15, 2015

30 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

2200 w main st, durhamparizadedurham.com

t @cafeparizadei @parizade919 286 9712restaurant . bar . private dining . catering . weddings

t h e m e d i t e r r a n e a n i n d u r h a m

d i s c o v e r

after taking a trip to India after college, which completely changed his outlook on life. He started to meditate every day as a way of training himself to be happy. The cultivation of happiness, for him, is the essence of meditation.

“You sleep better, your immune sys-tem is stronger, you have better rela-tionships with your friends and better romances,” he said.

Unlike most fourth-year Ph.D stu-dents, Lipkowitz has no intention to pursue a career in the academic world. He realized that he is not that passion-ate about science and thinks that the academic world “has no emphasis on kindness and compassion.” One of his favorite quotes is from the philosopher Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: “When I was young I used to admire intel-ligence. Now that I am old, I admire kindness.”

“Intelligence does not mean any-thing,” Lipkowitz said. “You can be the smartest person in the world but if you are evil, you are just a very smart evil person.”

Building the tea house and hosting mediation workshops mean much more

to Lipkowitz than the Ph.D program, as he believes the ills of the world mostly arise from the people’s inability to deal with their emotions in a healthy manner.

He noted that the difficult and most important part about meditation is learning to be with oneself. Friends, Facebook, emails and Instagram dis-tract people from being in touch with

themselves. They also serve as outlets for people to resort to when feeling depressed instead of actively confront-ing their problems. The mental habit of turning to outlets like social media, food and sex, in his opinion, gives rise to problems like addiction and violence.

“If everyone just meditated a little bit, the world would be a much more peaceful place,” he said.

SOPHIA DURAND

Page 31: Towerview April 15, 2015

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 31

of handling and what it can’t. As long as you practice good training habits—not try-ing challenges far beyond your skill level and giving your body time to recover after workouts—it isn’t especially hard to stay safe while training.

TC: What keeps you going?DI: I enjoy how I feel while moving. Our

bodies were made to move and they reward us when we let them do what they evolved to do. Also, overcoming my fears when I’m try-ing new challenges is an amazing feeling, as is watching your friends do the same.

TC: Have you faced, witnessed, or been made aware of discrimination within the Parkour community?

DI: I can’t speak entirely to that. What I can say is that I and most of the other prac-titioners of color that I have talked to have experienced discrimination but, as far as I know, only from people outside of the com-munity. The most worrisome situation of this happens when dealing with the police. There are many stories about practitioners of color having guns drawn on them by ag-gressive police officers or being otherwise threatened. Until the police stop treating all people of color as criminals first and citizens second we’ll continue worrying about police brutality.

TC: How do you expect to be involved with Parkour after graduation?

DI: I’ll have a lot more time to focus on my training. Soon after graduation I’ll be go-ing back for two months to do Parkour with a friend. I don’t plan on seriously pursuing Parkour professionally. My impression is that there aren’t enough opportunities offered to live entirely off Parkour. Beyond teaching or owning a gym it seems like the vast major-ity of pros have to work some other job to make ends meet.

D AV I D I V E Y: t h e f i n a l e x a m

The Chronicle: How did you get started?David Ivey: Eight years ago I stumbled

upon a Parkour video on YouTube. I was amazed by the guy’s ability to run, jump and flip, but I convinced myself that I could nev-er do these things because I was overweight and unathletic. For six months I just let my-self daydream about how cool it would be if I could do Parkour. I realized that what was stopping me wasn’t my body but my mind and what I was telling myself. I called up my friend and began trying out the easy move-ments we had seen in the videos.

TC: How did you get a sponsorship?DI: I’m sponsored by American Parkour,

which is based in Washington, D.C. I got to know the people running the company well, and I am very involved with organizing Park-our meet-ups there.

TC: How does Parkour fit into your life and busy schedule?

DI: Parkour is typically a big part of my life just because I enjoy doing it so much. It’s the first thing I want to do whenever I have free time. At this moment I have to fit my training time around school, which can be difficult to manage.

TC: How does being at college affect your training?

DI: My experience has been that college has not been conducive to my training. The workload can be pretty heavy which can re-ally cut down on my time to train. The archi-tecture, as beautiful as it is, doesn’t provide me with a lot of interesting areas to train, but the worst part is that there are very few peo-

ple on campus who train. Not having a train-ing partner at a similar level makes it hard to progress because I don’t have another set of eyes to discover new challenges and no one to help push me to train harder.

The saving grace for me was when I got to study abroad in Madrid last year. Madrid provided me everything for Parkour that Duke didn’t—a thriving community, amaz-ing locations and enough time to have a life outside of work.

TC: How do you handle anxiety when doing Parkour?

DI: I think an important part of Parkour is accepting that I am human in that I can’t train until exhaustion every day. Some days I’m physically and mentally ready for the de-mands of the challenges I want to confront and others I’m not. Being able to identify and accept when I’m in the correct headspace and physically ready for trying new challeng-es and when I’m not is crucial.

If a challenge that I’m considering is mak-ing me extremely anxious I typically leave it alone, tackle similar challenges that help me prepare for the anxiety-inducing one and later I face it again once I’m ready. I also like figuring out and rehearsing how to react in case something goes wrong. After this prepa-ration the most important thing to do is fully commit to whatever action I decide to take. Hesitation and self-doubt are normal reac-tions in the face of fear but the moment you take on a challenge you have to leave those things aside. Failing to trust yourself and not sticking with your plan is one of the easiest ways to get hurt.

TC: What about physical health and staying safe?

DI: The most important part to stay-ing healthy is being smart while training and knowing what your body is capable

Meet senior David Ivey—a sponsored Par-kour athlete. Parkour athletes use only their own athleticism to get from point A to point B as efficiently as possible, which can include running, vaulting oneself off walls or swing-ing. Although it is usually done in urban loca-tions, Parkour can be practiced anywhere, and athletes seek to see their environment and the art of navigation as constantly evolv-ing. It began in the French military in the 1980s, and in the last 20 years it has become an increasingly popular recreational activ-ity and competitive sport. The Chronicle’s Amani Carson-Rose sat down with David to discuss balancing academics with Parkour.

BY AMANI CARSON-ROSE

LESLEY CHEN-YOUNG

Page 32: Towerview April 15, 2015

The American Association of Orthodontists recommends a checkup with an orthodontist no later than age 7.

Our missiOn is to provide you with the very best orthodontic care to achieve the smile you deserve in a warm and family-oriented environment. Dr. Lee gives each patient plenty of personal attention, as each patient's smile is a customized work of art, and each patient's orthodontic needs are different. Our office utilizes the most advanced cutting edge orthodontic equipment and techniques to ensure the optimal results and maximum comfort in the least amount of time.

4301 Ben Franklin Blvd., Suite 201Durham, NC 27704

www.durhambraces.com

Dr. Gina Lee

Braces for Children and adults

Flexible Payment Plan • Most Insurance Accepted • 0% Financing

LeT Us GIVe YOU a reasON TOsmILe

CALL TODAY!(919) 797-2300

Invisible Incognito (inside braces) ▪ Clear Ceramic Braces ▪ Damon SystemInvisalign ▪ Traditional Metal Braces ▪ Retainers

Grand Opening Special