Column: If only lemurs were millionaires

Two tender fillets sizzled slowly on the grill with eager Biological Anthropology and Anatomy students waiting for their dinner inside the compound. Hours earlier we had skinned the eland using only the stone tools we made for that purpose. The skeleton remained on the plain where it fell earlier. This unique experience that I treasure not only as a scientist-in-training but also as any human would, will not be available to future Duke students if the administration carries through with plans to diminish the BAA department to a mere shadow of its current self.

Why cancel BAA? This mystery intrigues many. To get answers, I went straight to the source of confusion. Dean Bill Chafe and Dean Berndt Mueller met my questioning with cordial answers. They explained that the cuts would not be immediate. The Medical Center is dumping professors into the unwelcoming hands of Arts and Sciences, as Arts and Sciences cannot support more faculty. They also said that no other departments would experience this sort of size reduction. Duke needs to stay on the cutting edge, which means a University-wide genomics initiative. I didn't quite agree with them, but despite my Jedi mind tricks and interrogation, they stuck by their original position that Arts and Sciences will not replace retiring BAA faculty, which will in effect kill the department.

It is one of the finest departments the school has, even if it deals with primate behavior, fossils and human anatomy. Maybe BAA classes should include an origami component, like my CPS 001 class and not have to worry about losing faculty. BAA attacks issues still relevant to society, such as the origins of Homo sapiens, cultural diffusion and other questions critical to our existence. The behaviorists, anatomists and paleoanthropologists all complement each other.

By trimming this department, the University has effectively said, "Screw questions about our origins and explanations for human behavior; we can make money!" Duke should stop saying that it supports the advancement of knowledge. We're no longer a University; we're a for-profit institute without taxes. Expansion occurs where grant money and wealthy alumni dictate. That is why Fuqua and Pratt keep growing. Let's churn out only business, law, medical and engineering students so they can become wealthy alums and donate to construct more parking garages and other buildings that will keep Duke looking like it's growing. This would be true for the genomic center if only we were not five years behind Yale and Harvard. Ironically, Arts and Sciences is reducing a standard-setting department from 10 faculty to six as they retire over the next few years, even after the completion of a successful capital campaign.

The Campaign for Duke accrued much of its success through stock options, some of which have gone south with the market. If Duke accepts crappy stock, banking on its return to profit, I will personally pledge my 25 shares of Motorola stock to Duke University in order to fund the BAA department, which when compared against all rival institutions, receives the second largest amount of grant money available to physical anthropologists. This would not be the first pledge to fund BAA

The Duke Endowment just donated $13.5 million with a portion earmarked for that department. In response to the gift, President Nan Keohane said, "We are extremely grateful to The Duke Endowment for its sustained and generous support of university priorities." So now we are cutting university priorities.

Budget is a funny word and another source of personal confusion. Arts and Sciences is over budget while every other aspect of Duke accrued enough money in the Campaign to support a developing country. The college responsible for educating the majority of Duke students does not have adequate funds to maintain its faculty, even as Fuqua hires more professors and expands to South Korea, the abysmal football program gets $30 million to build a facility and we build a parking garage. I guess Duke likes to scrap the fillets, leaving the gaudy pieces that lack unique flavor and make us like any other school. Too often do we look to other institutions to see what's en vogue, rather than asserting ourselves. Why don't we sharpen the edge instead of letting others? We must reassess our goals, realize that departments like BAA garner international fame for the University, provide fascinating education opportunities and are truly the heart and soul of any academic institution.

Kevin Ogorzalek is a Trinity junior.