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(04/06/15 8:37am)
Duke is rife with conversation. Every minute of every hour of every day, our students are engaged in discussion on every conceivable topic. From the dregs of Yik Yak to late common room conversations about politics, we banter about ideas as if our lives depended on being right. And as we progress academically, we move from the smallest freshman writing assignments to the most life-draining senior theses in the pursuit of academic greatness. And, there, setting the stage and watching us wander through undergraduate life and construction reroutes is Duke. But who gets to watch Duke grow and transform around us? It is today that we invite you to do so by joining The Chronicle’s Editorial Board.
(04/02/15 8:26am)
Last Thursday, a bill was proposed in the North Carolina General Assembly that conditions the salary of University of North Carolina school system professors on teaching a four course minimum per semester—up from the current average of 3.7 courses. For some UNC system schools, the average professor is already in compliance or close to it. In others that are much more heavily involved in research, the average is as low as 3.0, at N.C. State, or 2.5, for tenured UNC Chapel Hill professors. The bill is intended to make professors choose students over research when their attentions are divided. Besides its likely negative impacts on research, the bill asks a basic question about whether professors or their graduate students should be teaching our classes. Ultimately, however, such blanket legislation as this is entirely precluded by the uniqueness of every department and class syllabus.
(04/01/15 10:47am)
Last week, the Arts and Sciences Council reviewed a proposal for a new certificate program in “Civic Engagement and Social Change.” The program’s goal is to develop active citizenship and social participation by integrating service and academic work. Although the goal is laudable in some respects, the addition of yet another certificate adds to Duke’s bloated and incoherent curriculum. Just last year, Duke increased the number of certificates to 21 with “Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” which claims to “be complementary to any major and [to] enable students to be innovative and entrepreneurial in their of pursuit of knowledge in service of society.” The Editorial Board expressed its doubts then about the program’s promise.
(03/31/15 8:03am)
As the countdowns to LDOC and Old Duke begin and the semester wraps up, bookbagging and the question of Fall semester’s classes come knocking for all but our seniors. Whether your choices have the freedom of a budgeted free semester or the constraints of an engineering major, all of us have to eventually pick electives that take us into humanities or social science departments like English or political science. Today, we look to help students be cognizant about their course choices through the tension between traditional disciplinary canons and the innovative perspectives of the “multicultural” academic camp.
(03/30/15 8:37am)
Students and faculty gathered on Sunday at Baldwin Auditorium for this year’s TEDxDuke conference, an independently organized event modeled after the TED conference and its wildly popular TED Talks. This year, students gave presentations alongside professors and professionals about electrical, economic and social energy. In the spirit of “ideas worth spreading,” we support these opportunities for students to present original scholarship, research and ideas. As Duke often seems to lack academic traditions, we should expand these forums in publication and presentation spaces to provide validation and incentives for undergraduate research.
(03/27/15 8:37am)
Both men’s and women’s basketball teams will be playing in the Sweet 16 this weekend, and the Duke community is naturally proud and excited. However, the enthusiasm seems to be somewhat one-sided towards the men’s team. Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek’s email this Sunday advertised the ticket lottery for the men’s game but failed to advertise one for the women’s Sweet Sixteen game. While this may be due to funding constraints or ticket availability, the email still failed altogether to mention the women’s victory earlier that day. We believe the difference in following is symptomatic of a disproportionate emphasis by students on mainstream sports like men’s basketball and football to the detriment of less popular sports, some of which have an equally long tradition of success.
(03/26/15 9:03am)
This week, the Black Student Alliance launched a social media and poster campaign called #WhatWeNeedFromDuke. Displayed at the BSA’s office, around campus and online, the campaign publicizes offensive Yaks that have been posted and emphasizes how students have to deal with racism and discrimination. The resulting social media turmoil of this past week is a combination of this campaign’s impact and Yik Yak’s frenzy of activity ranging from criticism of the campaign, questions about race dialogues on campus and more Yaks of the type that make their way into the campaign itself.
(03/25/15 8:35am)
Students elected their fourth consecutive female Duke Student Government president in Keizra Mecklai earlier this month. Mecklai's election continues the reversal from the previous trend that saw one female DSG president in the seven years before 2011. Yet, Colleen Scott, director of the Baldwin Scholars program, has remarked that, even as she applauds the victory, there is still room for improvement. For example, only three of this year’s eleven DSG executive board members are female. Scott has alluded to the need to still constructively identify paucities on campus in female leadership and further pose the question of whether winning elections and earning appointments reflects real change in gender inequality.
(03/24/15 8:17am)
In its 12-year history, Common Ground has become increasingly one of the most popular and transformative events on campus. Yet, the four-day retreat has recently found itself at the center of some controversy, as some have voiced their anxiety about how participants bring their stories and experiences back into the Duke fold. This controversy touches off on a larger national debate about college campuses and their role in exposing, or sheltering, students from potentially offensive or disturbing ideas and opinions. A recent editorial piece in the New York Times criticized some colleges for creating spaces where psychological security takes too much precedent over expressing certain opinions, be they offensive or controversial.
(03/23/15 8:20am)
It is that time of year again. As March Madness descends, college basketball is once again in the spotlight. Indeed, the NCAA basketball tournament has become a staple of popular culture and a financial juggernaut, bringing in billions of dollars in revenue each year. But it is not alone. NCAA Division I football is just as lucrative, if not more so. It is no secret that, at many universities, including Duke, the basketball and football programs provide the funding for all of the other athletic programs combined. But, at what price? Nationwide, basketball and football are the only sports whose athletes have graduation rates lower than 75 percent. Concerned by the apparent lack of academic maturity among men's basketball and football players, the Big Ten has proposed a policy whereby men's basketball and football players would be prevented from participating in game competition during their freshman year.
(03/19/15 12:39pm)
A racist chant, a de-chartered fraternity, two expulsions and a national uproar: Last week, the University of Oklahoma and issues of race were thrust into the national spotlight after members of its Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity were captured on video singing a hateful and racist chant. The nine-second video showed members of the fraternity chanting a song steeped in racial slurs, which included a reference to lynching and boasts that the fraternity would never admit a black member. The administrative response was quick and decisive. Within hours of the video’s release, the university’s president, David L. Boren, a former U.S. senator, shut down the campus chapter, denouncing the students as “disgraceful,” and, a day later, expelled the two students who had led the chant.
(03/18/15 9:09am)
Uncertainties about the selection and role of the Young Trustee will get more befuddling: The traditional three-year term—divided into one non-voting and two voting years—will be changed to alternate with a two-year term. Changed to ensure the equality of undergraduate and graduate representation on the Board of Trustees, the new structure will allot graduate and undergraduate Young Trustee alternating years of two and three-year terms. For example, while the undergraduate Young Trustee holds a three-year term, one non-voting and two voting, the graduate will hold a two-year term, one non-voting and one voting.
(03/17/15 8:05am)
At the beginning of this month, Sweet Briar College in central Virginia announced it would be closing next year, over a century after its founding in 1901. A small, private liberal arts women’s college, Sweet Briar is the most recent victim of the trend amongst women’s colleges that saw their numbers shrink from roughly 230, in the 1960s, to just 43 this year. The closure is the result of mounting costs, declining interest in small liberal arts schools and questions raised about the value of women’s colleges today.
(03/16/15 8:04am)
Families are asked to fork over even more in tuition as cost of attendance was hiked yet again in the wake of a recent Board of Trustees meeting. The increase of 4 percent in undergraduate tuition—a difference of nearly $2,000—brings the total price tag for a Duke diploma to $63,273, the highest in the University’s history. Though we appreciate that the University requires resources to function, we find a number of problems with the incessant upward trend in tuition.
(03/05/15 12:15pm)
Yesterday’s editorial cautioned against being too quick to judge, especially in the shadow of the 2006 lacrosse case that continues to permeate Duke’s reputation today. The court of public opinion, however, has done so anyhow. Today, we assess the current culture, its failings and the measures needed to provide both the respondent and claimant with the respect and privacy deserved.
(03/04/15 10:17am)
Campus debate and intrigue erupted Monday in the wake of a Chronicle article reporting allegations of sexual assault against former Duke basketball player Rasheed Sulaimon. The reported allegations come shrouded in the memory of the 2006 lacrosse case whose legacy continues to shape Duke’s external reputation today. Nine years ago, three members of Duke’s men’s lacrosse team were accused of sexually assaulting an exotic dancer and were quickly condemned by the University’s administration and members of its faculty known as the Group of 88. The players were later found to be innocent. Although the circumstances are markedly different and the two cases are by no means directly paralleled, the lessons learned from the lacrosse case are imperative at present: We should not be too quick to judge.
(03/03/15 10:09am)
The University of North Carolina Board of Governors unanimously voted to close three different academic centers, embroiling the board and its critics across the state in a debate about the proper role of politics in education. Although the vote was part of a standard review of the state’s 240 boards and institutes, the closure of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity sparked the ire of several professors and commentators. Many are claiming that the move was political retribution against the center’s director, Gene Nichol, an increasingly vocal opponent of the state’s Republican leaders. The vote, which was praised as necessary and cost-efficient by state conservatives, comes on the heels of the board's controversial decision to renew UNC President Tom Ross for one year only, which was also interpreted by many liberal professors and commentators as politically motivated.
(03/02/15 10:30am)
On March 3, students will cast their votes to select the new leaders for Duke Student Government and the Student Organization Funding Committee. Amid the sea of campaign posters peppering campus walls, we would like to take this opportunity to endorse Keizra Mecklai for DSG President, Shaker Samman for DSG Executive Vice President and Nikhil Gavai for SOFC Chair.
(02/28/15 1:08pm)
"If you're so smart, why are you so sick?” reads a poster in many campus restrooms. Ignoring the problematic insinuation that lower intelligence directly correlates to pathogen susceptibility, the question, "why are you so sick?" is important to consider. With so many students living in residence halls that effectively incubate contagious colds, student health evokes questions regarding the efficacy of the flu vaccine this year, the inability to take advantage of free vaccines offered by Student Health and inadequate self-care.
(02/26/15 11:21am)
Students are becoming accustomed to receiving Duke Alerts at the first sign of rough weather conditions, and many began to wonder how long it would be before phones started to buzz as snow fell on Tuesday morning. Wednesday morning marked the second time in February that the University has moved to cancel classes due to dangerous weather conditions, especially considering that freezing temperatures threatened to leave black ice on the state’s vulnerable roadways.
