Junior Year 1999-2000

Weather started the year off with high drama and anxious nerves as Hurricane Floyd devastated eastern North Carolina, and then surprised students when a n unusual blizzard dumped more than a foot of snow on the Triangle.

For the most part, Floyd missed Duke in its mid-September tear through the state, causing a pre-emptive class cancellation but only dropping a few inches of rain on the campus. The eastern part of the state fared much worse, with floods destroying thousands of homes and killing millions of animals.

The January snowstorm was not as dangerous, but much more significant for the campus, which was shut down for several days. Many students, freed from three days of classes, spent hours frolicking in the snow. Unfortunately, when warmer times came, the University rescheduled classes for a series of weekends.

The University also experienced its first alcohol-related death in decades when Pratt junior Raheem Bath died of aspiration pneumonia, a condition he apparently contracted by inhaling his own vomit. Although Bath died in November, administrators did not acknowledge the connection with alcohol and binge drinking until February. Officials then formed an alcohol task force and began a wide-ranging discussion about Duke's policies and student culture. Social life also came into focus in the spring as Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and Pi Beta Phi sorority were given lengthy suspensions for excessive drinking.

The University's capital campaign rolled on toward its $1.5 billion goal in 1999-2000, and with more than three years left to go, fund raisers had raked in nearly $1.18 billion. The total was augmented greatly in fall 1999 by Duke's second largest gift ever: $35 million from former Pfizer chair and CEO Edmund Pratt. The University renamed the School of Engineering in Pratt's honor, and engineers preparing to graduate suddenly found themselves renamed Pratt seniors.

After a mass exodus from both the men's and women's basketball teams, the unprecedented success of 1998-99 did not carry forward into 1999-2000. Still, both teams performed well beyond expectations, with the men finishing the regular season with another ACC championship and the top spot in the national rankings. But youth and short benches caught up with both teams in the Sweet 16, as the men fell to Florida, and the women lost to Louisiana State. The fall semester brought hopes for an improved football team, with new coach Carl Franks and his Airborne offense. But Airborne took a nosedive early, and the team finished 3-8.

Duke Hospital and the Health System suffered their share of difficulties in 1999-2000, beginning with a four-day shutdown of all human subject research in May. The federal government imposed the suspension because of administrative flaws in the approval and oversight of research. The Health System also continued to face financial troubles, with Durham Regional Hospital losing millions of dollars and changes in health-care financing prompting an administrative shakeup and the elimination of 170 positions at Duke Hospital. The financial stresses on the Hospital also started talks of a nurses' union.

Durham continued its transformation in 1999-2000 as officials pursued a merger of city and county governments. The city re-elected Mayor Nick Tennyson in the fall. In the spring, much of Durham was captivated by plans to renovate the abandoned American Tobacco Company complex.

The year ended with a flurry of administrative departures, as several hospital executives and business school dean Rex Adams announced their resignations. Most surprisingly, Vice President for Student Affairs Janet Dickerson announced her upcoming exit to Princeton University.

And as the Class of 2001 headed to Myrtle Beach--or to Confederate flag-free locales--the bright, sunny weather made the hurricanes and snowstorms of their junior year seem quite far away.