towerview summer 2015

TOWERVIEWJULY 2015| VOL. 17 | ISSUE 1

D U K E I N PROGRESS

WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN 2015 - 2016

A DECADE OF BRODHEAD Portrait of a Presidency

FATHERING SUCCESSJohn and Matt Danowski’s

relationship goes beyond lacrosse

2 TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

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TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE 3

TOWERVIEW JULY 2015 - VOL. 17 - ISSUE 1

CONTENTS

5

11

18

25

28

29

31

JAKE HERB

TOWERVIEW STAFF

EMMA BACCELLIERI

NICK MARTIN

CLAIRE BALLENTINE

SAM TURKEN

EMMA BACCELLIERI

FATHERING SUCCESSJohn and Matt Danowski have been through it all together,

from the lacrosse scandal to a national title and a wedding.

WHAT TO WATCH FORTake a look at the people and stories worth keeping an

eye on this year.

A DECADE OF BRODHEADA look back on President Dick Brodhead’s eventful first 10

years in office.

SO FRESH, SO CLEANA look at how Sean Obi became Duke basketball’s side-

line star.

NIGHTLIFE’S SHOOTING STARKim Cates built Shooters from the ground up—twice—and

now has the most popular club in town.

A DEVINE FATEHow former Duke tight end Gene Devine went from the gridiron

to managing one of Durham’s most successful restaurants.

ASK ME LMOWe sat down with Larry Moneta to pick the brain of one of

the univeristy’s most visible administators.

CONTENTS

ON THE COVER PHOTO BY Georgia Parke


EDITOR’S NOTE

letter from the editors

Dear readers, Welcome to Towerview’s 17th volume. We’ll be running the show for this year’s edition, and since we’ll spend the next 10 months or so giving you all the in-depth reporting your hearts can handle, now is a good as time as any to acquaint ourselves. Now, we’re not exactly the new kids on the block. As The Chronicle’s former sports editor (Nick) and news editor (Emma), we’ve worked together for the past three years to get you caught up on the latest campus news or basketball championship. The only real difference is that now we moved to a back office and they gave us 20 more pages to work with.

In many ways, the magazine remains committed to the same principles it has been for nearly two decades—finding creative ways to tell com-pelling stories about Duke, Durham and beyond. Providing hard-hitting analysis alongside illuminating features. Speaking truth to power. These things have remained constant over the past 16 years, and as your edi-tors, we fully plan to continue them. But like any 17-year-old, Tower-view is ready for a little change. This year, you can expect more from the magazine online. We’ll be using different forms of media to tell different types of stories, push boundaries and have some fun in the process.

But Towerview isn’t the only thing that’s undergoing change. As you’ll read within these pages, Duke is in the middle of its own period of growth—physically, academically, culturally. Let our annual “10 Things to Watch” feature be your guide to the myriad of changes happening on campus and off. All this change, of course, could not happen without strong leadership. We take a look at the man overseeing it all with “A De-cade of Brodhead,” analyzing the good, the bad and the ugly of Richard Brodhead’s first 10 years as president of the University.

And as any project goes, this year will be one of growth for the two of us. We might mess up and miss an Oxford comma or two, but you can rest assured that everything we put on the pages will be a combination of what you need and what you want. It’s going to be a fun ride, so whether you’re a rookie reader of our magazine or a grizzled vet, we hope you’re ready for one hell of a year.

Enjoy reading,

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-CHIEFnick martin and emma baccellieri

PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTORCREATIVE DIRECTOR

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

MATTHEW ROCKTHU VP NGUYENAMRITH RAMKUMAR

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSClAIRE bAllENTINE, AdAM bEYER, sAM TURKEN, jAKE HERb

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERSCHRIs dIECKHAUs, dARbI GRIffITH, KHlOE KIM,

GEORGIA PARKE, jENNIE xU

CONTRIBUTING STAFF AMRITH RAMKUMAR, CARlEIGH sTIEHM

GENERAL MANAGERADVERTISING DIRECTOR

CREATIVE DIRECTOROPERATIONS MANAGER

Chrissy BeCk

Megan haven

BarBara starBuCk

Mary Weaver

@TowerviewMag

Towerview Magazine [email protected]

dukechronicle.com/towerview

towerviewTHE CHRONIClE’s

NEWs ANd CUlTURE MAGAzINE

NICK MARTIN EMMA BACCELLIERI


Matt Danowski turned away from his half-finished glass of champagne to look at his father—he had a question to ask.

It was after midnight and the 2014 Duke men’s lacrosse team was nearly home.

Danowksi sat with the rest of the Blue Devils’ coaching staff aboard a rumbling charter bus. The dark cabin was alive with the sound of husky voices and clinking glasses.

The past 24 hours had been an unbelievable journey for everyone on board. Nine months of hard work and perseverance had culminated with the ultimate prize in college lacrosse—the national championship.

Jordan Wolf’s empty netter in the closing seconds of regulation had guided Duke to an 11-9 victory against Notre Dame and the first back-to-back national titles in school history. With the win, John Danowski became just the ninth Division I head coach to win at least three national titles.

Now, the team’s coaches and trainers

celebrated a successful end to the year’s campaign. Eyes gleamed and bellies laughed. Someone popped the cork on another bottle of champagne, and glasses were topped off.

In less than an hour, the bus would arrive among the Gothic architecture and loblolly pines of Duke University, the men would file out and the 2014 Duke men’s lacrosse season would be over.

But that was an eternity away in the minds of the passengers on board. This was their moment, and they were savoring every last second of it.

Except for assistant coach Matt Danowski—son of head coach John Danowski.

While everyone around him was caught up with the magic of the moment, he was thinking about the future.

For Matt Danowski, the end of lacrosse season heralded the approach of a new chapter in his life—he was going to get married. Danowski’s wedding to fellow Duke grad Virginia Crotty, slated for October at the Duke Chapel, was only six months away. Now, with the team’s season

finally over, it was time for him to start thinking about preparations.

And with that in mind, Danowski eyed his glass on the victory bus after winning the national championship and prepared to ask his father to be his best man.

“Virginia and I talked about it for a long time,” Matt Danowski said. “Apparently it’s a Southern tradition to have your father be your best man, but I didn’t know about that. I thought, ‘I spend more time with my Dad than anybody and he probably knows me better than anybody,’ so it would make sense for him to be the best man.”

John Danowski’s response was an overwhelming yes. Within a few seconds Matt was buried in his father’s embrace.

“It was one of the greatest compliments Matt has ever paid me,” John Danowski said. “Matt’s got a ton of friends from high school and college, so maybe he couldn’t choose and I won by default…but to me it just spoke volumes about our relationship.”

A Changing RelationshipThe relationship between John and

STORY BY JAKE HERB

FATHERINGSuccess


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Matt Danowski had only grown stronger through two years of coaching together. In two seasons, the father-son coaching duo had gone on to amass a 33-8 record and win two national championships.

They worked together on nearly every aspect of managing the program, from travel budgets to planning practices. And while their relationship is a professional one, John Danowski is quick to point out that it’s a fun one too.

“It’s been really fun watching Matt grow,” he said. “As a teacher, he has a tremendous insight into the minds of our students. He knows when to be tough on them and when it’s appropriate to loosen up. If he wants to stay in coaching, I think he has a great future.”

But though the pair share a powerful bond today, the two were not always so close. In the early years of John Danowski’s coaching career, the young father worked multiple jobs, leaving him little time to spend with his children.

When Matt grew older and began to show an interest in sports, John refused to coach him. The decision was made with Matt’s best interests at heart, as his father did not want to pressure his son into choosing any one path in life.

“Just because John’s father had been a

quarterback—John had been a quarterback and Matt was a quarterback—didn’t mean that’s all they wanted to do,” Patricia Danowski, John’s wife and Matt’s mother, said. “John encouraged Matt to try many things. It was something he had learned from his own father.”

Rather than as a coach, John Danowski made his greatest impact in Matt Danowski’s life as a teacher.

Growing Up a DanowskiJohn Danowski graduated from Rutgers

University with a degree in environmental science and education in 1976. He went on to earn a master’s degree in counseling and college student development from Long Island University-C.W. Post two years later.

Before delving into the realm of coaching, John Danowski worked as a science teacher and guidance counselor in a Long Island school district. As such, education was always highly valued in the Danowski household.

“In our house it was always school first, athletics second,” Matt Danowski said. “In high school my dad would tell me, ‘Be open to learning today, have big shoulders and make somebody else’s day.’ Going to public school in Long Island, education

wasn’t always valued that much, but it was for me because of the example that was set at home.”

John Danowski was the son of Polish immigrants. Patricia Danowski was the second of seven children and daughter of a New York City police officer. To make ends meet, both worked a significant number of hours each week.

Patricia worked as a high-risk obstetrician ultrasound technician at a local hospital. Her hours were unpredictable, and she frequently worked nights to provide emergency care.

John bartended on the weekends for extra income as he was beginning his coaching career.

“He would coach, talk to the boys after the practice or game, eat something, change his clothes and go bartend until four o’clock in the morning,” Patricia Danowski said. “That’s the lifestyle we grew up in. People worked two or three jobs. We didn’t know any different.”

Matt Danowski grew up around that lifestyle. He was accustomed to hard work and saw firsthand that earning an education can transform one’s life. It was always expected that Matt would attend college.

When it came time for him to look at


colleges, colleges just happened to be looking at Matt. Matt Danowski’s talents on the lacrosse field had garnered a slew of scholarship offers that promised a free education. But when push came to shove there was one offer that trumped all others in Matt’s mind—Duke’s.

Then-Blue Devil head coach Mike Pressler had personally recruited Matt Danowski. For Danowski, it was an easy choice. The resources and opportunities available to him at Duke would be world-class.

When Matt made his campus visit, the breathtaking Gothic buildings and sprawling gardens of Duke’s campus were unlike anything he had ever seen before. Although the visible wealth came as a shock to his blue-collar background, he understood that there would be no better place for him to receive an education.

“When Coach Pressler brought me here, I couldn’t really grasp what Duke was,” Matt Danowski said. “I didn’t know what a stock or a bond was…but my dad told me this was the best education I could get. He was always a big proponent of, ‘Lacrosse is for four years, but your education is for the rest of your life.’ Now I can say my dad was right about that. He’s been right about a lot of things.”

Over the next two years, Matt Danowski developed into one of the best players in the history of Duke lacrosse, while John Danowski kept busy with his head coaching position at Hofstra.

But everything was to change in March 2006, when sexual assault accusations against members of the Duke lacrosse team led to a head coaching vacancy that brought John Danowski to leave Hofstra and come to the aid of his son’s team, changing the course of both their lives.

A Call for HelpIn the wake of the firestorm of

accusations—later proven false—that led to Pressler’s forced resignation and the wrongful prosecution of three Duke players, John Danowski received a phone call from the Duke Athletic Department. They wanted him to interview for the vacant head-coaching job.

He immediately called his wife.“Just be prepared,” Patricia Danowski

remembers saying. “When Hofstra finds out that you are interviewing for this job, you are going to get fired. One way or another you are going to get fired.”

But if push came to shove, the Danowskis knew they’d be able to cope. With the support of his wife, John accepted

the interview offer.Patricia’s unwavering support had been

a constant throughout his career. From as early as when John Danowski worked as volunteer coach and then an assistant coach, Patricia put in extra hours in the hospital to help support the family.

“If it wasn’t for her, I would have had to leave coaching,” John Danowski said. “I wasn’t paid well in the early years at Hofstra. If it wasn’t for the inordinate amount of hours she put in at the hospital and raising the children I wouldn’t have been able to do it. She has allowed me to coach and chase my dreams for the past 24 years.”

However, this was a completely new situation. By accepting the position, John Danowski risked making himself untouchable to any other program if the Duke job fell through. Even if he got the job, there was no knowing if the University

would shut the program down.But Danowski’s position was unusual

in more ways than one, as he was also the parent of a player on the team. He had experienced the players off the field and could speak for their character. As a counselor, he understood that they needed someone to guide them and worried that the young men on the team would be saddled with a form of survivor’s guilt from the scandal.

They needed help, and John could provide the guidance they needed.

Patricia Danowski was at work when her phone rang. It was her husband.

“They’ve offered me the job,” John Danowski said.

“Are you going to take it?” Patricia asked.

“I would love to take it,” John replied.“Then take it,” Patricia told him.


Ten days later, John Danowski was in Durham.

The AnswerJohn Danowski took two suitcases with

him. Nothing more. He arrived in Durham without an apartment or a car.

He found an apartment near campus in the newly built Lofts at Lakeview and went shopping for a used car, something to get him from point A to point B.

“John walked into some little car place and bought a car for $1,500,” Patricia Danowski said. “So there he was, a Division I lacrosse coach driving around in this pimpmobile. The doors didn’t even close all the way.”

John Danowski then went to work on resurrecting the Duke men’s lacrosse program, which was limping along on life support due to the administration’s—and the nation’s—jump to condemn the program’s coach and players. John urged

his players and assistant coaches to focus on the fundamentals both on and off the field. He worked to make the lacrosse field a place that players could feel safe and trust those around them. Once he had earned the trust of those around him, he got to work preparing for the 2007 season.

“As a head coach, you have to bring your own coaching style, and he did a really good job of that,” Matt Danowski said. “Those transitional years, 2007 and 2008, that’s what happened, [John] created his own culture here while respecting what the older guys had been through and their way of doing things.”

The big move also led John Danowski to bond with his son in a way he never could have imagined. John was coaching his son for the first time in his life, but their relationship extended to much more just that.

“Matt and I had more than a coach and player relationship,” John Danowski said. “This was his team and I was just trying to supervise and help. I didn’t come in saying ‘I know what we need to do.’ We all worked together.”

Matt and John needed each other. Matt needed his father for guidance through this difficult time in his life, and John needed his son to help the team buy into his message.

Matt was an invaluable asset. In him, John had an assistant to bring up to speed on all the technical details about Duke and how the lacrosse program had operated in the past.

“I brought [him] up to pace in terms of class schedules and what Fall practice was like,” Matt Danowski said. “He knew a little about the guys off the field, but he didn’t really know how things were done here on the field or in the classroom. It was about open communication.”

Behind John Danowski’s leadership, the Duke lacrosse program weathered the storm and emerged stronger than ever before. Matt would go down as one of the greatest collegiate lacrosse players in the sport’s history, finishing second all-time in the NCAA in points—he was surpassed by Cornell’s Rob Pannell in 2013 by a single point and is currently third.

And John and Matt’s relationship emerged stronger as well.

Following in His Father’s Footsteps

Matt Danowski graduated from Duke in 2007 with a bachelor of arts and again in 2009 with a masters in education, following


in his father’s footsteps as an educator.Matt resisted the idea of entering the

field at first, electing to pursue a career in professional lacrosse. But when the indoor season dwindled down, he began working camps and discovered that coaching appealed to him.

“I found myself enjoying the process of watching kids get better,” Matt Danowski said. “I found myself drawn to the team, the locker room, the development of young men both on and off the field.”

In 2013, an assistant coaching position opened for the Blue Devils and John Danowski extended the offer to Matt. Matt and John had already been through so much together—there couldn’t have been a better fit.

Both embody the same values and principles—they are cut from the same cloth. But Matt makes it clear he still has much to learn from his father. And his father still makes sure to hand out his wisdom.

“You’re not going to get rich being a coach, but there is tremendous fulfillment at the end of the day,” John Danowski said. “And championships are great. Don’t get me wrong, but that’s not what my dad taught me and I hope that’s not what I’m teaching Matt. It’s not the reason for what we do. We do it to make a difference in a young man’s life.”

New BeginningsNearly half a year after their victory

bus embrace, Matt and John found themselves sitting near each other once again—but this time in a very different setting.

The rumbling charter bus had

long ago disappeared into the night, the husky, brawling voices of game-weathered coaches fading with it. Now, daylight filtered in through stained-glass windows. Flowers adorned walls and tabletops, and the Duke Chapel was filled with a symphony of whispers.

Matt and John sat at the altar. Each wore a tuxedo and beaming smile. Hundreds had gathered to witness the marriage of Matt and Virginia.

Looking into the crowd, Matt could see figures from nearly every period of his life. His childhood friends from New

York sat next to teammates from his time at Duke. Every current Duke lacrosse player—men and women alike—had turned out to show their support. He met the eyes of countless members of the Crotty family. Soon he would be part of their clan.

Looking at his son, John could see the great joy in Matt’s face and the love he felt for Virginia. It was a moving moment for a father who had devoted so much of himself towards helping his son become the man that he is today. Now, as Matt’s best man, he had the opportunity


to be beside his son as he began the next chapter in his life with the woman he loved.

“There’s a peace that comes over you as a parent when you see your children happy,” John Danowski said. “You see that they’ve found someone they can share their lives with, they have a career that gives them strength and joy and

there’s just this peace that comes over you.”

Matt and John Danowski had endured storms together. They had won championships together. And, sitting at that altar, John Danowski could not help but think about how lucky he was to have those experiences.

“Sitting at the altar, I looked

around at all the people coming up for communion,” John Danowski said. “As these people walked up the aisle you could see how much they loved Matt and Virginia and you realize what’s important in life…Coaching is great, x’s and o’s are great, teams are great…but seeing the love present in that chapel, it just put everything in perspective for me.”


WHAT TO WATCH FORPEOPLE, TOPICS & STORYLINES TO PAY ATTENTION TO THIS YEAR


West Campus has long been known for its stunning Gothic architecture. Right now, however, yellow tape and scaffolding are taking center stage. Nearly every one of the major buildings at the center of West Campus—West Union, the Duke Chapel, Page Auditorium, the Bryan Center, Perkins Library—is in the midst of extensive renovations. As the various projects wrap up this school year and next, Duke will debut a set of new spaces that balance the integrity of the classic Gothic designs with more modern features. But while the payoff for future students will be significant, many current students feel that they’ve gotten the short end of the stick—with a number of convenient campus footpaths closed, limited access to key facilities, and hours of noisy work each day (and, of course, unavoidable scaffolding in any Instagram shot of the Chapel). “The construction is a sore spot,” said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for government relations and

public affairs. “But the fact is that we are really renewing all the campus facilities and adding and accruing spaces that will be just remarkable.”

One of the most significant projects is that of West Union—a complete overhaul of the student center set to cost more than $90 million. Formerly home to the Great Hall and various student and administrative offices, the new West Union will offer significantly expanded dining options and communal spaces for study and relaxation alike. “West Union was a disaster,” said Steve Nowicki, dean and vice provost of undergraduate education. “Really beautiful on the outside, dysfunctional on the inside. And it’s right there in the center of campus…. When people walk on main West Campus, they’ve always walked around and said, ‘My god, what a beautiful place.’ And then they’d walk into West Union...and they’d say nothing.”

Prior to head coach David Cutcliffie’s hiring, Duke football was among the worst in the nation. Of course, all that has changed in the past seven years, as the football program was raised from the ashes, competing in its first bowl in more than a decade in 2012 and winning the ACC Coastal Division in 2013.

But going into the fourth year of what can be deemed a successful streak, Cutcliffe and Duke will now have to get to a bowl without some of the players who had been the backbone of past teams. Jamison Crowder, Laken Tomlinson and Anthony Boone have all departed for the NFL, leaving a roster full of fresh, talented faces to take their spots. Although the offense’s personnel will look drastically different, offensive coordinator Scottie Montgomery’s scheme will

be mostly the same with Thomas Sirk under center. The defense will return key starters like Kelby Brown, Jeremy Cash and DeVon Edwards and should—like last year’s squad was—be one of the nation’s stingier units.

As much as the conversation before the season will focus on how the new players will perform, the squad will still be gunning for its first bowl victory since 1960, as the Blue Devils have ended three straight seasons with heartbreaking bowl losses. The sting of the losses has stuck with the program and—assuming nothing goes too off-track—Duke should find itself in a position to finally nab that elusive bowl victory this season. With an updated Wallace Wade Stadium to boot, the Blue Devils will provide solid entertainment on the gridiron come August.

D U K E F O O T B A L L

C O N S T R U C T I O N


Wallace Wade Stadium is currently undergoing construction—like most of Duke’s campus—and there are a few notable changes you should be on the lookout for when you head out to watch this new-era Duke squad in the fall. The first, and most obvious, will be that the Finch-Yeager Building, which also served as the Duke Sports Medicine headquarters and press box, is gone. Beck, the construction company Duke hired for the job, tore

it down after the season ended and will have a brand new, state-of-the-art building up in its place by the time the 2016 season kicks off.

Next up on the list of things that are no more—the track. Bulldozers were on the field directly after Duke’s 41-21 win against Wake Forest to get rid of it. The point of this was to lower the field and add in more seats—which has been done. As of this season, if you’re hoping for a closer experience,

you can have it. And for those of you who used the Wallace Wade track for a early morning run, worry not—Duke opened up a new track next to Koskinen Stadium.

Finally, it would not be a stadium facelift without a brand new video board. The new screen will be 42 feet high by 75.6 feet wide—more than double the size of the old screen—and will broadcast all those instant highlights and hype videos in 1080p.

WALLACE WADE STADIUM


When the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences developed its current undergraduate curriculum in the late 1990s, named Curriculum 2000, it tried to look at what education would be in the 21st Century. But 15 years later, higher education has seen significant change, and the school is entering the second year of what it calls “the big tweak”—updating the curriculum to accommodate more modern forms of learning. Duke has

dedicated significant resources in recent years to service learning, initiatives such as DukeEngage and interdisciplinary programs including Bass Connections and the annual Winter Forum—so what might it look like if those were to have a formal place in Duke’s curriculum? Trinity is looking to answer that question. Also on the table is online education—faculty rejected a proposal to accept online courses for credit two years ago,

but Trinity has been trying out online classes during Summer sessions in the time since. Last year was an exploratory phase of the curriculum redesign, with a committee gathering student and faculty opinions along with researching other universities. The upcoming year will focus on drafting proposals for the new curriculum, and the faculty will vote on a final version at some point in the 2016-17 academic year.

CURRICULUM 2015?

Sexual assault on college campuses was in the spotlight seemingly more than ever this year, with dozens of schools under federal investigation for Title IX violations and high-profile episodes such as the “Carry that Weight” campaign at Columbia and the erroneous Rolling Stone article on rape at the University of Virginia. The topic continued to draw discussion on Duke’s campus as well. Several notable cases involving the University’s sexual assault policy garnered attention this year—notably a Durham Police Department investigation of an alleged sexual assault at an Alpha Delta

Phi fraternity party. Duke suspended the fraternity this Spring as the case continues. Also catching eyes was the case of Lewis McLeod, a student who entered Duke with the Class of 2014 but was determined guilty of sexual misconduct and expelled a few weeks before his graduation date. McLeod is now suing the University for his diploma, claiming that the student conduct process for sexual assault is unfair. His case is set to go to court early in 2016.

The University’s policies have evolved over the past several years—notably with the elimination of

the statute of limitations in 2012, allowing students to report a sexual assault at any time in their Duke career rather than limiting them to a year after the event, and with the establishment of expulsion as the recommended sanction for sexual misconduct in 2013. In 2014, the University debuted a website explaining its policies and offering sample stories to illustrate consent. Students continue to advocate for changes to ensure the fairness of the process both for those reporting a sexual assault and those accused.

SEXUAL ASSAULT POLICY


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The Ninth Street district has traditionally been Durham’s closest analogue to a college town, a stretch of independent stores and restaurants a stone’s throw from Duke’s East Campus. But the street has experienced many changes throughout the past several years.

There have been several additions to the area in the past year, with the recent relocation to the northern end of the street of Monuts Donuts from downtown, the opening of new restaurants like Juju Asian Tapas + Bar and Heavenly Buffaloes, as well as the completion of the Berkshire Ninth Street apartments adjacent to Harris Teeter. Two especially recent additions to the area’s offerings are Burger Bach—a “New Zealand inspired gastro pub” serving burgers made from grass-fed beef and lamb—and Ninth Street Coffeehouse and Juice Bar. The Erwin Square shopping center will soon play host to a Venezuelan restaurant called Guasaca, marking a second location for the Raleigh-based restaurant. Another new opening slated for completion in a few months is the Solis Ninth Street property next to Elmo’s diner. It will feature 229 apartments, a parking garage and retail space for new vendors.

All this development has not been without controversy. Rent increases associated with new buildings have caused similar rises in older buildings, posing challenges for the community and forcing the closure of Charlie’s Pub in March.

Particularly irksome to business owners has been the addition of parking fees at the lot in front of the Erwin Mill apartments. The $1 per hour fee was instituted by the city to pay the rent on the property. Though many aspects of Ninth Street are changing, core tenants such as Elmo’s Diner, Vaguely Reminiscent and The Regulator Bookshop continue to remain the same, helping to maintain the eclectically beautiful place that Ninth Street is for years to come.

N I N T HS T R E E T


When Duke awoke on the morning of April 1 to the news that a noose had been hung on the Bryan Center Plaza the night before, the reaction was instant—students from all corners of campus expressing sadness, anger, fear, frustration. By noon, the Black Student Alliance was leading a demonstration, by 5 p.m., President Richard Brodhead and Provost Sally Kornbluth were addressing more than 1,000 people gathered at the steps of the Chapel. The noose came on the heels of a campus incident in which several male students allegedly

chanted the racist rhyme popularized by the University of Oklahoma’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at a black female student. The result was significant campus discussion on race relations and diversity at Duke. The conversation particularly gained traction on social media, with a coalition of students posting statements on Tumblr as the People of Color Caucus. The anonymous app YikYak showed an uglier side of the discussion, with explicitly racially charged statements at times. Though the dialogue slowed as the semester came to a close, it will not

disappear in the Fall—with administrators looking at several proposals from students of color on ways to make the University more inclusive.

“There’s another round of campus discussion and campus action to be had following the racial incidents of the Spring,” said Steve Nowicki, dean and vice provost of undergraduate education. “Students all got caught up with finishing the semester and the national championship came along, and the last thing you want is to have people sort of forget. Because not everyone will forget.”

RACE AT DUKE

For many students, Duke Hospital seems a distant component of Duke. But Duke University Health System is far more than Duke Hospital, and it’s a crucial part of the University—responsible for more than half of Duke’s revenue, tens and thousands of employees, three hospitals and what is widely considered the best healthcare in the state of North Carolina. For a decade, DUHS was led by Dr. Victor Dzau, who served as CEO and president of DUHS and chancellor for health affairs until departing last year. But now, DUHS has a new face—Dr. Eugene Washington, who came to Duke from the University of California at Los Angeles to assume the position this April. Washington steps into the leadership at a crucial time for DUHS, as the impact of the Affordable Healthcare Act continues to be felt and federal research funding becomes harder to procure. “He’s going to be a key determinant in how Duke navigates that changing healthcare landscape,” Provost Sally Kornbluth told The Chronicle when Washington was hired.

Washington—the first black individual to hold the position—was selected after a nine-month search that examined hundreds of candidates, looking for someone able to meet DUHS’ needs in terms of not only medicine, but academics and research, as well. All eyes will be on him as he guides the system through a changing environment.

EUGENE WASHINGTON


As Duke welcomed students to the first day of class in Durham last August, a milestone was occurring half a world away—students were attending the first-ever classes at Duke Kunshan University, the first and only overseas Duke branch campus. After years of planning, construction delays and faculty debates, DKU opened at last in Fall 2014 in China’s Jiangsu province. Offering three master’s degrees and an undergraduate semester-long

program, the university received some criticism from students for its campus—with construction ongoing for much of the first semester, forcing students and faculty to live and attend classes in a nearby hotel. On the whole, however, DKU’s first year passed without major incident. As the school enters its second year, it will continue to try to attract both Chinese and international students, with a campus and curriculum that appropriately

meets the needs of both. But with just one year of operations under the school’s belt, it finds itself under new leadership—after the departure of Executive Vice Chancellor Mary Brown Bullock and Nora Bynum, vice provost for DKU and China initiatives.

And administrators have begun to look to the next step for the school: developing a four-year undergraduate degree program.

F O O D T R U C K SA few years ago, dinner on campus typically meant

grabbing a meal from the Great Hall or the Bryan Center. Now, however, students are just as likely to choose a more modern option—a food truck. Duke Dining has increased the number of trucks on campus in recent years, with options ranging from Mexican food to specialty dumplings. With a truck or two parked alongside the main west quad near the bus stop every weekday night, it’s easy to tell which ones are Duke favorites—the Wednesday night crowd for Parlez-Vous Crepe is infamous, with scores of students lining up for the Nutella confections. Sampling different trucks for possible invitations to the campus schedule was a staple of the Duke University Dining Advisory Committee’s workload last year, and it’s possible that more trucks will be added to the lineup this year.

And Duke is not alone in its love of the food truck—the mobile food scene in Durham is ever-growing. Though the trucks can be found all o ver town (though it can take a bit of searching or Twitter sleuthing), the best chance to catch them comes in the form of the Central Park Food Truck Rodeo, held five times each year with dozens of local trucks, everything from the delicious grilled cheese sandwiches of American Meltdown to the specialty pizzas at Pie Pushers.

DUKE KUNSHAN UNIVERSITY


DECADEBRODHEAD

a

of


The view from President Richard Brodhead’s office in the Allen Building is not what it was when he came to Duke in the Summer of 2004. A glimpse out the window now shows the West Campus main quadrangle fenced off and full of construction materials, as crews work on a complete overhaul of the historic heart of the school—a snapshot of a campus undergoing dramatic, inspired, expensive change. But with 10 years as president now behind him, Brodhead has overseen change at Duke that goes far beyond the physical. The University has pushed boundaries academically, expanded its global reach and raised billions of dollars. Duke has also weathered no small number of crises and missteps—including a crippling economic downturn and the lacrosse scandal that thrust the University into the national spotlight in 2006.

And Brodhead has been at the helm of it all.

An “Endless Education”When asked to describe Brodhead,

fellow administrators across the board list one quality first—his intelligence.

“I’m trying to think of a word that does justice to the word ‘smart,’” said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president of public affairs and government relations. “Dick is brilliant.”

His warmth, wit and vision for Duke are also mentioned repeatedly. But Brodhead himself isn’t given to discussing his own virtues. When asked his strengths and weaknesses, he initially demurs.

“I’m not the kind of person who sits around thinking about things like that,” he said. “I actually don’t find myself a very interesting subject to reflect on.”

The list of subjects he does find interesting, however, is long. The “endless education” of meeting students and faculty and discussing their work is his favorite part of his job, he says. A professor for several decades at Yale before assuming the Duke presidency, Brodhead still considers himself a teacher at heart, and sees his current position as an extension of that role.

His time in the presidency has provided him ample opportunity to teach and be taught. As he begins his 11th year as president, Brodhead builds on an era that has seen Duke at the best it’s ever been. To be sure, there’s been

plenty of the bad and the ugly—but there is much to discuss regarding the good.

Interdisciplinarity and knowledge in the service of society have been key buzzwords to the Brodhead era, with the creation of several new academic institutes and the establishment of signature programs such as DukeEngage to this end. The rise in global initiatives has also been pronounced.

“[Brodhead] saw Duke as a place that was very innovative and very flexible and could be inspired to do some new things,” said Peter Lange, who served as provost from 1999 to 2014. “He also had a very good conception of how universities needed to change somewhat for the 21st century, and Duke was a place he could really do that.”

Fundraising is another major point. The first major project Brodhead launched as president, the Financial Aid Initiative raised $300 million in new endowment to make Duke more affordable. Currently, the University is in the middle of its largest-ever capital campaign, Duke Forward, which aims to raise $3.25 billion by 2017. The campaign is tracking slightly ahead of schedule, with more than $2.5 billion raised so far. Several administrators noted Brodhead’s ability to connect with alumni and donors as a particular strength of his.

“Raising money is not just like going to the ATM and putting your card in and saying thank you,” Schoenfeld

said. “You’ve got to be able to compel people to voluntarily give what may be their most precious resource. You’ve got to get them excited and make them believe that what they can do is really changing the world. At the level that we’re at, that’s what fundraising is.”

Under Brodhead, Duke has made major steps toward globalization. In 2005, the University partnered with the National University of Singapore to establish Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, the first medical school in Singapore to follow an American model of medical education. The Duke Global Health Institute, founded in 2006, has also been met with success and been credited with trailblazing new cross-disciplinary work in its field.

But not all global work has been met as positively. Duke Kunshan University, the institution’s first full branch campus abroad, opened its doors in China’s Jiangsu province in Fall 2014—after years of planning and re-planning, construction delays and heated debate. A number of faculty members took issue with the administration’s approach to DKU, saying too much had been done behind closed doors and not enough had been done to ensure that Duke’s values, such as academic freedom, would be maintained in China. Others questioned why the University was diverting resources.

“It’s both a risk and a challenge we’ve taken on, the results of which are not going to necessarily be seen as paying

STORY BY EMMA BACCELLIERI


off in a big way for some time to come,” Schoenfeld said of DKU.

The Brodhead legacy is physical as well, with significant construction underway in Durham. By 2017, renovations to West Union, Page Auditorium, Perkins and Bostock Libraries, the Duke Chapel, the Bryan Center, Wallace Wade Stadium and Cameron Indoor Stadium will have been completed—essentially, the entire heart of the campus.

“The whole common space of this University will basically have been recreated,” Brodhead said. He sees the construction as more than physical, however: “It’s never about the buildings. This is all about connectivity, relationships, interaction… You’re building the kinds of places where people can connect and be connected.”

By any number of measures, Duke has advanced under Brodhead—it is more selective, research has increased, the endowment has grown, the medical center has expanded.

“While he has been here, Duke’s reputation has improved,” said Sue Wasiolek, assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students. “There have been some speed bumps along the way, there have been some blips, but if you look at the beginning of his tenure and you look at where Duke is right now, the trajectory has been upward.”

All the President’s Men Of course, a president doesn’t

run a university alone. Brodhead was surrounded by the same core team for the first nine years of his tenure—with Lange as provost, Tullman Trask as executive vice president and Victor Dzau as chancellor and CEO of Duke University Health System. But while Brodhead is far from being solely

responsible for Duke’s progress, he is an instrumental part.

“These things don’t happen without the president,” Lange said. “There’s no natural evolution.”

Brodhead’s vision for the University is detailed and deliberate, but his leadership style doesn’t involve intensive work at the ground level, fellow administrators say. He is known for giving his colleagues space—space to operate on their own, space to disagree with him, space to pursue their own ideas.

“He very much is somebody who is visionary and conveys that vision, and people then are asked to just do it,” said Steve Nowicki, dean and vice provost for undergraduate education. “Dick

certainly stays at that 30,000 foot level, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”

Asked to describe his own leadership style, Brodhead settles on the term “collegial.” His management training comes from teaching seminars, he noted—finding an interesting question and encouraging others to think about it in creative ways.

“Universities rarely work well when somebody declares martial law,” Schoenfeld said. “You really have to be able to bring together a lot of people who may have very different, sometimes conflicting, agendas and perspectives and get them to work together towards a common goal. And that’s what he does.”

Crisis AvertedBut the good of Brodhead’s tenure

has been accompanied by the bad and the ugly. From his first day in office—literally—he has been no stranger to crisis.

As Brodhead unpacked his belongings in 207 Allen Building on June 28, 2004, he received the news that men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski had received an offer from the Los Angeles Lakers—and the coaching legend was seriously considering taking it.

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“Coach Krzyzewski and I are exactly the same age. We were born within six weeks of each other,” Brodhead noted. “He’d been here [almost] as long as I’d been at Yale, so I felt I had some sense of what it’s like to be tempted by the prospect of a new opportunity.”

Brodhead joined students in an impromptu Krzyzewskiville rally, chanting through a megaphone for Coach K to stay. A week later, he announced that he would. The crisis was short-lived, but it was high-profile—and it was first in a long list.

Hardly more than a month later, discussion began mounting around the Palestinian Solidarity Movement’s annual national conference, scheduled to be held at Duke that Fall. A pro-Palestinian organization with the goal of ending Israeli occupation of the land it considers Palestine, PSM’s previous conferences had attracted controversy and protest, and the one at Duke was no different. The University’s decision to allow students to host the conference was widely criticized—particularly by Jewish and pro-Israel groups—but Duke held firmly to its position, with Brodhead averring that to cancel the conference would be to violate

principles of academic freedom and open discourse.

“Early on, we had this Palestinian thing, and I learned that he had very much the same approach that I did—which was to keep things low-key, to be very true to basic principles like free speech,” Lange said.

The controversy took center stage as Brodhead began his first school year as president, with the conference attracting national media attention. It

paled in comparison, however, to what came a year and a half later—the Duke lacrosse case.

‘A big mess’“It was a set of events that unraveled

in a way you never could have figured out and never could have predicted,” Trask said.

An imperfect storm of sex, race, class, a media firestorm and a corrupt district


attorney, the case thrust Duke into the national spotlight for months. An exotic dancer hired for a party thrown by members of the men’s lacrosse team alleged that she had been raped, leading Brodhead to cancel the lacrosse season and force the resignation the team’s head coach, Mike Pressler. Three team members were then arrested and charged shortly thereafter.

The case quickly made national h e a d l i n e s — w o v e n into narratives of race, privilege, sex, athletic culture and more. But as the investigation proceeded, the allegations proved false and the district attorney responsible for the case, Mike Nifong, was exposed as corrupt and disbarred.

“You had a charge that was itself highly sensational. You then had, within

a small number of days—the district attorney began making a series of extremely inflammatory statements to the effect that the accusation was true,” Brodhead said. “You had the press from the whole world descending on Durham and of course, on the backyards of

the students who eventually were accused. The lurid prurience that our press is so addicted to—can you find a single press article from that time that suggests the importance of the presumption of

innocence? You can’t, that’s not the sort of thing the press writes about.”

Brodhead and other members of the administration were widely criticized for Duke’s handling of the case, with many saying that the University had failed to prioritize and support its

students. The blogosphere filled with calls for Brodhead to resign. Members of the team—both the accused and non-accused—filed several lawsuits against the University and the city of Durham, among other parties.

Now, the case is held up as a prototypical example of presuming guilty until proven innocent. Brodhead noted that at the time, it was not so clear cut.

“The district attorney speaking on the authority of the criminal justice system as if the accuser was right—that’s what made our situation so difficult,” Brodhead said. “There was really no proper way that the president of the University could take on the DA. And it took a long time for that situation to unwind, a long time.”

The evolution of the case makes it difficult to pinpoint any specific instances where he might have acted differently with the information he had at the time, he says. But when asked the biggest regret of his time in office, he did not hesitate to cite lacrosse.

“Anyone here would understand the whole lacrosse episode is deeply associated with regret,” Brodhead said. “Whether in real time, things could have been handled dramatically differently, I’ll never know.”

The impact of the lacrosse case on the University was profound, perhaps as high-profile a scandal as any school has ever faced. The final lawsuit closed only last year, and the case continues to make its way into many a conversation about sex, race or sports at Duke. Some note that the impact on Brodhead was personal as well.

“That would have been searing for

Whether in real time, things could have

been handled dramatically differently, I’ll never know

— Richard Brodhead


any leader,” said Schoenfeld, who came to Duke in 2008, as the case was drifting into the background. “I think that the sort of relentless barrage and attacks on President Brodhead’s personal integrity and personal decisions, it would have been difficult for anybody to withstand. I’ve seen him over the last seven years—as that has receded further and further in history—I’ve seen him become increasingly both eager and comfortable in engaging with different publics.”

The case had ramifications for leadership at Duke as a whole, Wasiolek said.

“I don’t think I’m in a great position to say whether he was gun-shy or not [after lacrosse], but I believe the institution is,” Wasiolek said. “I know that I am. I know that I have a higher level of fear associated with just making decisions, and I have a much greater tendency to collaborate, to check in, to consult.… That’s how I would describe just the institution as a whole as a result of the lacrosse case.”

The next crisis Duke faced was of a completely different nature—the financial meltdown of 2008. In just two months, the University lost a quarter of its endowment.

“It was a big mess,” said Trask, who manages the University’s finances. “I’d never lost $1.5 billion in 60 days.”

Essentially every aspect of the University’s operations was at risk in one way or another. The University decided not to cut back on what it deemed “core commitments,” such as financial aid or pursuing interdisciplinary work, Brodhead said. Instead, the administration opted to postpone construction and cut costs in numerous smaller ways, including freezing pay

raises.“It was a perilous time for higher

education, for the economy, for healthcare,” Schoenfeld said.

The University’s endowment returned to pre-recession levels last year.

“At the same time, we were still moving forward even during the recession,” Brodhead noted. “That’s the Duke story. Duke was built during the middle of the Great Depression. A university that can only do well during conditions of rare prosperity is not a very well-run university.”

Lacrosse and the financial meltdown together represent the two “institutional threats” of the Brodhead era, Lange noted. Although other moments of crisis—including the Palestinian Solidarity Movement conference and the recent call-to-prayer controversy—seemed crucial in the moment, they were not of great consequence in the

long term.“It’s pretty remarkable how early

in Dick’s career, he had a number of serious crises and kept moving through,” Nowicki said. “You can look at details about whether he should have done this or done that, but at the end of the day, despite all these crises—including the recent ones, the call-to-prayer, the noose incident—you know, it actually hasn’t had a huge negative impact on Duke.”

Building on the foundation

It remains to be seen exactly what Brodhead’s legacy will be. In many ways, Brodhead has built on the work of his predecessor, Nan Keohane, who was credited with elevating Duke as a research institution and improving the status of the graduate and professional


Towerview file photo

schools.“When I first got to Duke, there was

this insidious statement—’Duke, the Harvard of the South,’” said Nowicki, who arrived at Duke as an associate professor in 1989. “We started getting over that under Nan, and I think that under Dick, we went from getting over to that to ‘Let Duke be Duke’ to ‘We are Duke.’”

Still, only time will tell the strength of some of Brodhead’s projects—the impact of the young-but-beleaguered Duke Kunshan University, the long-term benefits of DukeForward. And time will likely shorten the shadows cast by lacrosse and other controversies.

“Duke takes a lot of risks, and I think we’re institutionally fairly tolerant of things that may not work out the way that you wanted…. We don’t have a stock price. We don’t have a ticker every day,” Schoenfeld said. “That’s a

tremendous opportunity for us as an institution, because we can afford to take the long view. And that’s how we’ll be measured, and we’ll be evaluated on our contribution to making Duke and society a better place.”

‘Betwixt two things’Brodhead’s decision to come to

Duke was not a simple one. For nearly four decades, he had called a different institution home—Yale. Brodhead arrived as a 17-year-old freshman in 1964 and never left, going on to receive his Ph.D in English at the university and serve as a professor before becoming Dean of Yale College. Yale was where he had met his wife, Cindy, where he had grown from student to teacher to administrator. He had been offered positions at other universities in the past, but he had declined them all—

until Duke came calling.“It was a complicated choice,”

Brodhead said. “I was very happy at Yale…. I knew everybody, everybody knew me. I had a job I was perfectly suited for.”

Duke was similar to Yale in its commitment to excellence, but it was different enough to present an intriguing challenge, Brodhead said. Accepting the position was “a leap of faith”—he had visited the campus only once—but he decided to take it.

“And then came the day when, as Huck Finn said, I had to choose, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it—my wonderful life in a known world or the adventure of Duke,” Brodhead said in his acceptance speech. “Well, you know my choice.”

Work from HomeWhen Brodhead finishes a day

of work in the Allen Building, his trip home is not long—Brodhead and his wife, Cindy, live less than a mile away. The first president in four decades to live on campus, Brodhead resides in the Hart House on the corner of Academy Drive and the corner of Duke University Road. “If you’re the president, you’re somebody who thinks having your whole life dissolved into the University—that’s the fun of it,” Brodhead said. “I don’t want to check out of my work life and go to some separate place. The fact that the football stadium’s being constructed outside my bedroom window, that’s all part of the fun.”


Of all the micro-storylines and interesting tidbits to come out of Duke basketball’s fifth championship run, one of the most interesting came by way of a player who didn’t see a single minute of playing time—but still managed to capture an entire fan base’s attention.

Junior Sean Obi is a forward for the Blue Devils. Transferring from Rice last Spring after the resignation of former Owls head coach Ben Braun, Obi had to ride the pine for a year due to NCAA transfer rules. But just because he was relegated to the bench didn’t mean he took a backseat during Duke’s title run. With a few well-constructed outfits and the magic of Twitter, Obi went from being a nameless transfer to a Blue Devils cult fashion god in just a few weeks’ time.

Before one digs into Sean Obi the trendsetter, one should get to know Sean Obi the player—the reason he currently resides in Durham. When Obi finally takes the floor for Duke, he will be a player unique to the current state of basketball.

In today’s game, everyone is concerned with high-flying wing players or dominant-yet-agile big men. Obi fits into neither category. He is a throwback post player, to be grouped with low-block workhorses like current NBA standouts Zach Randolph and Al Jefferson. His work on the court isn’t made for Top 10 lists or highlight reels but is absolutely necessary for a team to succeed.

Looking back at game film of Obi when he was at Rice, it is clear why the Blue Devil staff was after him. In the paint, he is a bull, using all 270 pounds of his 6-foot-9 frame to butt heads with opposing would-be rebounders and snatch any loose ball away.

“I’m really physical when it comes to playing,” Obi said. “I’m really physical and I play very good post defense. Rebounding is something I enjoy doing.”

At the beginning of the year, Obi’s time off seemed to be a minor issue—then the season got underway for Duke.

Following Semi Ojeleye’s decision to transfer, Rasheed Sulaimon’s dismissal

and the slew of injuries that come with a basketball season, the Blue Devils suddenly lacked the depth they once boasted. Although neither Ojeleye or Sulaimon were having particularly impressive campaigns, they still provided bodies in practice and off the bench for head coach Mike Krzyzewski to call to action.

Despite being forced to sit out and book his own travel to away games, Obi was still allowed to practice with the team, and it was on the practice courts where he would make his presence known.

In addition to the individual work the players would go through—five-on-five was mostly eliminated due to the lack of bodies—Obi would stay after practice with former Blue Devil Jahlil Okafor for roughly 30 minutes to prepare the National Freshman of the Year for what was coming in the NCAA tournament.

“We’d stay back an extra 30 minutes, just me guarding him, getting him ready because that’s what he’s going to face when the tournament came up for

SO FRESH, SO CLEAN


him,” Obi said. “He told me, at a point, he said, ‘Sean, I want you to hurt me.’ That’s how you know when someone actually wants to get better, and that’s the good thing about Jahlil.”

Although rebounding has always been Obi’s calling card, it is this—his one-on-one post defense—that caused the Duke coaching staff to take a second look at him in their recruiting process and is ultimately what won them over in 2014.

“[Obi] was in high school with Andre Drummond of the Detroit Pistons,” associate head coach Jeff Capel said. “Andre was on our U.S. team. Andre says, to this day, he was the toughest guy he ever had to play, as far as having the hardest time scoring on. Sean is really strong—really strong and really physical. He was good for us in practice this past year playing against Jah.”

Obi was good for more than just practice, though—the staff just didn’t know it yet.

Although relegated to the end of the bench, his presence was still felt on gameday, just not through his actions on the court. Rather, it was his sense of fashion that quickly catapulted him to Twitter fame.

When Duke has transfers, the coaching staff advises them to dress well—i.e., no sweats—when cheering on the Blue Devils from the bench.

Obi went above and beyond, somehow managing to use each game’s outfit to outdo the one before. A dark jacket and freshly pressed dress pants or jeans were staples—but it was the different pair of fresh kicks for each occasion that really turned heads.

“He’s always dressed to impress for all the games,” senior forward Amile Jefferson said. “He always looked good, and that’s a good thing. He’s a stylish guy. It’ll be good to see him in a Duke jersey next year helping us win games, but for an entire year, he always came dressed as his best.”

Whether it was the Yeezy Red Octobers or a finer Allen Edmond-esque selection, Obi dressed to impress and—Duke fans being Duke fans—people took notice.

Just a few games into the season, the Twitter mentions began to trickle in.

By the end of December, it was full-fledged—Obi was a Blue Devil cult fashion god.

In addition to Duke cruising through its ACC competition—post-N.C. State and Miami losses, of course—people were paying attention to what Obi was rocking to the latest Blue Devil contest and letting the new kid on the block know about it.

“I didn’t think it would [get any attention]. I just did it because that’s the kind of guy I am,” he said. “I was surprised at a point because it got a little bit too much and I was like okay, I’m going to have to put on a normal t-shirt. Duke fans are great…. I retweeted some of the stuff to show the fans I appreciate

Duke fans, and that’s about it. I didn’t take it too crazy.”

It was no accident that Obi was receiving the attention—even if it was not what he was going for. Under the microscope that is Duke men’s basketball, something

like a freshly-dressed transfer will pick up steam.

Perhaps even more impressive than Obi’s ability to draw this attention from a simple outfit was the fact that—like basketball—fashion is a natural gift.

“I’m not obsessed with fashion, but it just comes natural. I just put things together—I never know what I’m wearing, I just go to my wardrobe before a game and say I’m going to wear this,” Obi said. “A lot of it comes from my mom—she’s a designer and she’s good with that—but I just naturally just go to my wardrobe and say, ‘That looks good, I’ll wear that today.’ I just throw it on.”

Although select fans may be sad to

I didn’t think it would [get any attention]. I

just did it because that’s the kind of guy I am

— Sean Obi


nasher.duke.edu/10

Odili Donald Odita, Desert Sun (detail), 2014. Acrylic on canvas. 72 x 90 inches. ©Odili Donald Odita. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

NASHER MUSEUM OF ART AT DUKE UNIVERSITY2001 Campus Dr., Durham, NC 27705 I nasher.duke.edu I 919-684-5135

Admission is always free for Duke students.

hear it, Obi is not at Duke just to look good. Next year the big man will play a key role as a defender and rebounder as the Blue Devils seek back-to-back titles.

Still, even Obi sounded nostalgic when thinking back on his days as the best dressed Blue Devil. But after giving it some thought—at least a minute’s worth—Obi decided that of all the shoes he now owns, his pair of Duke team gameday shoes rank as his favorite pair.

And if you think the end of Obi’s bench days mean the end of his fashion career, think again—after all, he’s got a reputation to uphold.

“I look good every day,” Obi said. “Obviously I’m not going to wear a jacket in the summer. I wear my sports stuff to class to look comfortable, and we’re always in the gym. But if we’re going out to dinner or something, I always have to look good.”

Editor’s Note: If you haven’t heard about Obi’s story of how he went from living in Nigeria and never having played basketball to a national champion in just five years, make sure to check it out online at dukechronicle.com. We sat down with him in the fall to hear his story.


As most adults are heading to bed after a long day at work, Kim Cates’ job is just beginning.

For Cates—owner and manager of local nightclub Shooters II—a late night is a typical one, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

A Durham native, Cates opened the popular nightlife spot in 1994 with her boyfriend, after working in the insurance world and as a daycare teacher. The business had a rocky start, burning down only a month after it was opened. Cates believes the club was burned down by a spurned prospective business partner, though it was not proven by a police investigation

A few months later, Cates re-opened the club at its current location on West Morgan Street, now calling it Shooters II.

Though she initially had no experience running a bar, Cates learned as she went along and soon acquired the skills that turned Shooters into the Durham hot spot it is today.

“My job is to make sure everyone is having a good time and that everything goes as smoothly as possible,” she said.

For many students, Shooters is a nightlife staple. A particularly successful night, depending on your definition of the “successful,” will end with the trifecta—otherwise known as dancing on the bar, dancing in the cage elevated above the dance floor and riding the bar’s mechanical bull.

Although the success of Cates’ business centers around partying, her work isn’t all fun and games. A typical night’s responsibilities for her include overseeing the bars and entrances, as well as watching out for customers stealing or being too rowdy. During the daytime when most customers are sleeping off their hangovers, Cates supervises the club’s upkeep

and monitors orders coming in.She said that her favorite part of her job is

getting to know Duke students. It’s hard for her to see classes graduate and move away from the area, but she keeps in touch with many students through Facebook, phone calls and texting, she said.

“Every group is special in their own way, and every individual is special,” she said.

Cates sees Shooters as specifically geared towards serving Duke students—noting that it’s the only true nightclub in Durham, which sets it apart from other locations that mainly operate just as bars.

This past year, Cates—the self-described number one Duke fan—was able to get to know the varsity men’s basketball players, frequent visitors of the club, better than she has in the past. She said that the players this year were particularly friendly and enjoyable.

Despite her close relationship with students, they still present their fair share of problems for her.

“Sometimes I have to get on to them when they take something of mine or I’ll catch them drinking [underage],” she said.

Cates said she typically deals with the underage drinking issues by sending the offenders home.

Many items have been stolen from Shooters—including, most surprisingly, a large metal sign by the bathrooms in the back. Cates said she has no idea how it was removed and taken out of the club. Additionally, students have busted urinals, torn down paper towel dispensers in the bathroom and broken mirrors on the dance floor.

Cates added that she tries to do the best she can for the students but doesn’t allow them to walk all over her.

“I’m going to remember you a lot faster when you do something wrong, and I’ll

remember you for the next four years,” she said.

Considering that much of Duke nightlife centers around Shooters, this is a daunting threat.

Cates said, however, that most students are respectful, noting that she encounters more problems from locals who come in. These people aren’t as happy-go-lucky as students and are often unaccustomed to having drinks spilled on them or being bumped by other people, she explained. For this reason, Shooters is only open to students on Wednesday nights—the club’s most popular day of the week, along with Saturdays.

The origins of Wednesday night Shooters’ popularity among students—referred to as WNS—is unknown to Cates, but she said that it started years ago with only about 10 regular students, eventually growing into the crowd it is today.

Despite the problems, Cates said that aspects of the job are humorous, including the items left by students after a night of partying. These range from objects one would expect—wallets, keys and cell phones—to items that seem hard to forget, like shoes and pants. She finds many DukeCards in between the mats of the mechanical bull as well, she said.

“You name it, we’ve found it left here,” she said.

For someone whose job entails dealing with drunken customers, Cates has a surprisingly pleasant outlook on her work. It seems there is nothing she hasn’t encountered before in her 20 years experience and no problem that she can’t handle.

Although her work is overwhelming at times, she said, she couldn’t imagine any other job being more enjoyable.

“Having a job you enjoy has to be the best thing in the world,” she said.

STORY BY CLAIRE BALLENTINE

NIGHTLIFE’S SHOOTING STAR


Forty years ago, had you given Gene Devine the option of playing in the NFL or owning a restaurant, it would have been no contest. The tight end would have taken the pros in a heartbeat. Nowadays, it’s the same deal—no contest—but the answer has changed.

If Devine is not busy running his restaurant, then you can rest assured he is about to do something for it. During the day, it may be a broken air conditioning unit he’s tending to; at other times, he may be calling up offices to put ads in the local papers. Each night, Devine is at the restaurant making sure that everything runs smoothly. His only downtime is usually the 40 minutes between the time he comes home from the restaurant and goes to bed.

This dedication is not just to earn a living—it’s for the people and town he serves.

Gene Devine, Trinity ‘75, is a household name for many around the Durham community and Duke University. Few people have a stronger passion for Durham and Duke than the former Duke football tight end and owner of Devine’s Restaurant and Sports Bar located off of Duke’s East Campus on Main Street. Since 1978, Devine has provided local residents and Duke students with a hot spot to watch a Duke football game or have a fun night on the town.

Devine’s love for Duke and Durham dates back to 1971, when he joined Duke’s football team, then coached by Mike McGee. Back then, Devine

was known for his athleticism. As a former All-American in basketball from Massachusetts, Devine also wanted to play for the Blue Devil basketball team, but he soon realized the difficulty of juggling both sports and stuck with football.

“I asked Coach McGee if [playing football and basketball] was a possibility,” Devine said. “He said, ‘You can play basketball, but you got to start in football first.’ So he made it pretty difficult for me.”

Although the football team forced him to give up competitive basketball and took up most of his time in college, Devine values the lessons that he learned as a football player. McGee instilled discipline in his players and showed them how to represent the University, Devine said.

After his graduation in 1975, Devine did not initially intend to stay in Durham. Like many of his fellow teammates, Devine hoped to play professional football in the NFL. After being passed over in the NFL draft, he was invited by Lou Holtz—who at the time was the head coach at N.C. State—to try out for the New York Jets in Long Island. But a hit to the head during his tryout left him with a neck injury, delaying his chances of playing NFL football for a year—or so he thought.

That was when Durham quickly reined Devine back in.

Instead of returning to his home in West Bridgewater, Mass., he returned to Duke to treat his neck.

“I did revisit [going home] quite a few times,” Devine said. “I made a decision to go on my own way.”

While recovering from his injury, Devine realized the business opportunities that Durham had to offer. A local general contractor took him under his wing and exposed Devine to contracting. Devine soon acquired his general contractor’s license and purchased a building—now the home of Devine’s.

Devine quickly found a way to put his new building to use, filling a hole he saw in the social scene for the community and Duke students. At the time, students usually drove to Chapel Hill whenever they wanted to step off campus. He decided to open a restaurant and bar to keep students closer to Duke and bring more business to Durham. Before he knew it, he had abandoned the pro football route.

“I was kind of entrenched and although I wanted to go in the direction [of playing football], I made the decision not to,” he said. “Hindsight being 20/20, I would have liked to have thought that I had the ability to make it [to the NFL].... The one thing that kept on occurring to me is its only half of one percent that can make it. The odds there are pretty low.”

Running a restaurant was not without its own set of challenges, however.

When he first opened shop, he had little experience in restaurant management. But he relied on McGee’s lessons about discipline and commitment to overcome tough times. Devine’s dedication and sacrifice of time ultimately helped him learn the different facets of running a restaurant.

“It’s a difficult business. There were a lot of tough times. There were a lot of

STORY BY SAM TURKEN

A DEVINE FATE


times when you ordinarily thought you would want to give up,” Devine said. “But you pushed on. You’re in it for the long haul. You have to get people and train them correctly and coach them, so to speak. You have to put on all of the different hats [as an owner]. Before you know it, you’re in the right position and good things are going to happen.”

Throughout the 37 years of running the restaurant, Devine has valued his relationships with local customers. He has established connections with past and current Duke coaches, such as men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski, men’s lacrosse head coach John Danowski and former football coach Steve Spurrier—now the head coach at South Carolina—who, along with his assistant coaches, would visit Devine’s after games.

Today, Devine’s is known for its flexibility. Local residents can eat, listen to live music and watch a sporting event while students relax and socialize on the outdoor patio.

“When we started out, we had hands-on commitment and when you get [students] down here and get to know peoples’ names, they want to host

functions here,” Devine said. “Now of course we’re not the size of other places in the area. I think a lot of it is just we care about the connection with Duke because I’m from Duke and we

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care about the people at Duke. While people may or may not know that I was in sports there, that shouldn’t be an overriding factor. A lot of it is they feel comfortable coming in here.”

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One of the first names students learn on campus is Larry Moneta, or “L-Mo,” as he’s been nicknamed by students. The vice president for student affairs since 2001, Moneta has just about every aspect of student life under his umbrella—though for some, he’s most recognizable as the man who announces classes are canceled for a snow day. Towerview gets up close and personal with the administrator below.

ASK ME

L-MO

TOWERVIEW: What is your idea of perfect happiness?

LMo: Any time spent with my grandchildren and in their absence, hearing the sounds of children laughing uncontrollably.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

The time my family spent in concentration camps without hope and believing that no one cared about them.

What historical character do you most identify with?

Albert Einstein.

What living person do you most admire?

The Dalai Lama.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Selfishness.

What is your greatest extravagance?

Dining out.

On what occasion do you lie?

I don’t (am I lying?)

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Partnering with my wife to add incredible and caring children and grandchildren to our world.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Impatience.

What is your greatest fear?

That my 42 years of work in higher ed haven’t made a difference in the lives of students.

What is your most treasured possession?

Possessions are meaningless to me.

What is your favorite occupation?

Vice President for Student Affairs at Duke University. There’s nothing better.... (but for professional golfer or starting guard for the Boston Celtics).

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towerview summer 2015

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