INSIDE Students struggle with burnout

The Chronicle

The independent news organization at Duke University

MONDAY, APRIL 19, 2021 ONLINE DAILY AT DUKECHRONICLE.COM

W. golf wins ACC championship Page 10

ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEENTH YEAR, ISSUE 29

Story by Stefanie Pousoulides

Investigations Editor

Image by Evelyn Shi

Staff Graphic Designer

Students fight against antiLGBTQ+ legislation in NC

North Carolina has joined states across Blue Devils United, the largest LGBTQ+ the country in considering bills that oppose undergraduate group at Duke, explained that LGBTQ+ rights, and Duke students are members of BDU engage with members of the fighting against them—including pushing Duke and Durham community in their work against one law that cites research by a Duke to support the transgender community and Law professor. advocacy for inclusion of transgender athletes.

Three bills recently introduced in the N.C. She explained that BDU shares what they have General Assembly deny LGBTQ+ people learned from reading legislation affecting the protection of their rights LGBTQ+ community and access to public services. One, H.B. 358 [H.B. 358] really harms in their meetings and in social media posts. or the “Save Women’s all women, transgender Co-signed by Sports Act,” would block transgender girls from women and cisgender more than 10 Duke organizations, the Duke participating in girls’ women, by excluding LGBTQ+ Network school sports teams. Of the six academic transgender women. released a statement against the discriminatory and journalistic articles cited in H.B. 358, three are co-authored or grace o’connor JUNIOR, BLUE DEVILS UNITED PRESIDENT legislation on April 13. The LGBTQ+ Network statement notes that the authored by a Duke legislation cites Duke Law Law professor, Doriane Coleman. Coleman research and asks Duke to release a statement has publicly condemned the N.C. bill and opposing the legislation. other bills across the country for excluding transgender athletes from school sports and Student activism misusing her research. When the N.C. legislature held a Wednesday

The two other bills deny LGBTQ+ hearing on H.B. 358, Justin Sykes, a transgender individuals’ access to health care. S.B. 514, the man, spoke to his lived experience as a former “Youth Health Protection Act,” would prevent cross-country athlete and student at Appalachian people younger than 21 years old from having State University, according to NBC WITN. gender-affirming health care, and health-care Sykes described the significance of support and providers would be able to refuse services to affirmation of gender identity to transgender LGBTQ+ patients under S.B. 515, the “Health athletes who are “trying to live their life, and Care Heroes Conscience Protection Act.”

Junior Grace O’Connor, president of See LEGISLATION on Page 4

Workers demand hazard pay, better communication

By Mona Tong

News Editor

Duke workers and students delivered a petition to Duke this month demanding hazard pay, back pay and more transparent communication from management about COVID-19 details and protocol.

The petition, which has been signed by more than 100 workers, asserted that Duke workers deserve “better compensation and better safety” in their workplaces for putting their health on the line to keep Duke running during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Duke Students and Workers Alliance created the petition Feb. 5 after running a survey to which 70 workers responded, according to senior Anna Kasradze, a member of DSWA.

The group submitted the petition to the Local 77 union, a chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees at Duke University in late February and delivered it to Vice President of Administration Kyle Cavanaugh April 8, requesting to schedule a meeting within two weeks of that date. As of April 15, Cavanaugh had not responded to the petition.

Cavanaugh directed The Chronicle to Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, for this story. Schoenfeld wrote in an email that Duke can only work with Local 77 on pay, benefits and working conditions for positions represented by the union. Duke does not work with “individual employees or selfdesignated groups,” he wrote.

He wrote that the University is therefore not able to respond to or comment on individuals’ demands for pay and benefits.

Charles Gooch, a longtime Marketplace worker and chief steward for the Local 77 union—which represents housekeeping and Marketplace employees—affirmed that unless the union leadership backs the petition and brings it to the table, Duke will not respond to the petition. The union’s initial unresponsiveness, he said, is the reason the petition came from a student group.

INSIDE Students struggle with burnout

Some students are having a hard time staying motivated as another socially distanced semester wraps up. PAGE 2

Columnist Nicholas Chrapliwy explores the worth and wealth of meaning in the trees on campus. PAGE 14

Healing through poetry

This year’s Jambalaya Soul Slam took place April 17, and many poems evoked the anger, sadness and pain caused by violence toward black people. PAGE 6 The forests of Duke

Students soak in spring weather

See more photos on Page 3

Simran Prakash | Photography Editor Beyond studying for upcoming midterms and finals, students are enjoying playing stress-relieving games, such as spikeball, on the quad with their friends.

The Chronicle Marketplace workers reflect on shutdown Mixed views on By Katie Tan Staff Reporter “It was kind of scary when I first heard about it, but when you do a lot of research it becomes a lot clearer,” first-year group chatshe said.

When a COVID-19 outbreak shut Marketplace’s dining Workers received paid leave during their mandated services down, the East Campus Union hall it’s housed in quarantine, according to Charles Gooch, a 46-year By Brooks Robinson became a shell of its normal self. Marketplace veteran who serves as chief Contributing Reporter The lights were dim. Catering companies were brought in to meet It was kind of scary when steward for the Local 77 union, which represents most of the dining hall’s staff. When Duke declared a campus-wide stay-in-place emergency needs, and a handful of I first heard about it, but When the dining hall first shut policy to counter rising coronavirus cases, the Class of 2024 employees offered a limited meal selection. The warm food, the upbeat when you do a lot of research down, Gooch said its workers were in “panic mode” with little sense of what GroupMe chat erupted in chaos. In the past, class-specific GroupMe chats have been relatively pop music and the Marketplace workers it becomes a lot clearer. had happened. quiet and uneventful. Not this year. The Class of 2024 GroupMe all disappeared. “We don’t know what’s going on,” has buzzed with everything from Duke Student Government

Marketplace and Trinity Café closed julia anderson he said on March 31. Marketplace promotions to insulting comments about fraternities. down March 27, after several Marketplace MARKETPLACE WORKER employees were asked to sequester “There was name-calling, insulting and offensive dining staff tested positive for COVID-19. in their homes during the two weeks comments, especially directed toward fraternities and their The two eateries reopened on April 12. before March 31, according to Gooch. members,” first-year Drew Greene said.

At least 13 Marketplace staff members tested positive, He credits Barbara Stokes, director of residential For the past four years, the mobile group messaging app according to a March 30 coronavirus update shared by Duke. dining services, for doing her best to take care of has been the popular choice of social media connection

Julia Anderson, who has worked at Marketplace for 36 Marketplace employees. for incoming classes at Duke. GroupMe provides a forum years, said she spent the time relaxing and wrapping her head where newly admitted students can share their excitement around the COVID-19 outbreak. See MARKETPLACE on Page 16 and concerns as college approaches. The function of the first-year GroupMe chat has followed something of a pattern. Typically, there are high rates of activity in the months preceding orientation week as many students attempt to network. Once students actually arrive on campus though, the chat soon becomes inactive. But the Class of 2024 chat has been different from those in previous years: Many first-year students are still quite active in the group of more than 1,300 members despite the end of the academic year approaching. As to whether the prolonged activity in the GroupMe is a positive or negative development, opinions in the Class of 2024 tend to differ quite drastically. First-years Sophie Smith and Brandon Qin are both moderately active in the GroupMe chat. As members of Duke Student Government, Smith and Qin see the chat’s persistence as a helpful medium for engagement. “I spend most of my time on the group message answering questions, mainly about dining, housing or other topics related to campus life,” Smith said. “I think the GroupMe is a really good informational resource. If you have a question about something, you can always post it in the chat, and someone will likely answer it and address whatever concern you have.” Smith said the GroupMe has functioned as an effective way to promote DSG projects. Though some have the chat set to “Do Not Disturb,” a significant number of people still

Chronicle File Photo

East Campus Union was closed from March 27 to April 12 due to a COVID-19 outbreak among Marketplace workers. See GROUP CHAT on Page 4

Students fight burnout as semester draws to close

By Lily Coll

Contributing Reporter

It’s sunny and 75 degrees and the Bryan Center Plaza is flooded with masked students soaking in the sun during their Zoom lectures, socially distanced with friends.

Despite the peaceful scene, many students dread heading back to their desks to finish academic responsibilities for the semester. After months on end with no real academic breaks, burnout has settled in for many.

“I don’t feel the point of it sometimes,” first-year Emily Miller said. “Doing 13 straight weeks of school, you never have a moment to take a breath.”

Miller finds herself affected by burnout when she seems to be falling behind in her classes. It settles in for her after the first wave of midterms begins and “it doesn’t calm down,” she said. She added that sitting at her computer for hours on end doesn’t help.

Sophomore CJ Tyson finds himself losing motivation after academic disappointment.

“I work hard for something, turn it in, get it back and don’t get the grade that I wish I would have gotten after all the time I spent doing it,” Tyson explained.

For senior Eric Little, burnout comes in the form of a cost-benefit analysis. With the weather being nice and outdoor activities appealing more than homework, “the opportunity cost of doing other stuff is so high,” he said.

Tyson described his need to change scenery often while sitting in front of the neuroscience textbook he needed to read for an assignment. With Duke’s COVID-19 protocol in place, he has had to adapt to studying at the desk in his dorm room.

“I’m a huge library dude,” Tyson said, lamenting the lack of study spaces available this semester.

Little agreed that pandemic protocol has played a large part in his burnout this year.

“We’re not in college right now, we’re in school,” he said while waiting in a computer science office hours Zoom queue, which he had been waiting on for a few hours already.

Miller, Tyson and Little all said that their peers also feel burnout and that it comes in different forms for everyone. Students also cope with the burnout differently.

Miller finds herself sleeping off the stress of the week when necessary. Last semester, she took up knitting, making scarves and headbands.

“It gave me something to do with my hands so I wasn’t sitting around doing nothing,” she said. Miller also finds relief through playing her guitar.

Tyson, a member of the Duke Symphony Orchestra, also takes time to play music when he no longer is capable of opening up a textbook.

“I grabbed my cello and went to the practice room and practiced for two hours,” he said. “I came back to my room and felt rejuvenated to start my work.”

Despite the stress and fatigue that comes about throughout the semester, “it gets so much better,” Tyson said.

Little takes advantage of the free Headspace meditation and sleep app accounts provided by Duke Student Government this semester.

“Sleep the problems away,” Little said, describing how taking his mind off his work allows him to refuel for the next project.

Matthew Griffin | Editor-in-Chief First-year students play with dogs at a Sunday event planned by two faculty-in-residence: legendary former Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek and Zbigniew Kabala, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. Wasiolek, the faculty-in-residence in Gilbert-Addoms dorm, said she’s held the event for years as a way to help students relax as the semester draws to a close. “Dogs seem to do that for us,” she said, adding that this year’s event featured masks, social distancing and dog treats.

Aaron Zhao | Features Photography Editor What some students missed most was the colors that make campus so vibrant in the spring. “Stuck at home for almost all of last year, I couldn’t experience the colors of the last three seasons. Being able to see this spring’s colors just makes me feel so happy,” junior Henry Mukherji said.

SPRING COMES TO CAMPUS

This time last year, students were studying remotely from home or living on a lockeddown campus. With spring arriving again, Blue Devils are heading outside on campus to soak in the beautiful weather. All the while new life arrives, flowers bursting into bloom and bright-green leaves gracing the trees.

Mary Helen Wood | Staff Photographer People mingled and studied in front of the chapel on Sunday, a cool spring day.

Simran Prakash | Photography Editor Some students decided to use their beautiful spring days to make care packages together for Duke students to use during finals. “While we made these packages to help others feel cared for, I found the act of making the packages in the sun on the quad therapeutic in and of itself. I haven’t been able to feel this way for a while, especially with the spring I lost last year,” said Hindu Students Association co-president Sarabesh Natarajan, a junior.

Aaron Zhao | Features Photography Editor Along with the warm weather, insects roaming campus mark the arrival of spring.

House course covers politics, history, impact of vaccinations

By Carsten Pran

Contributing Reporter

As coronavirus vaccines become widely accessible for the Duke community, juniors Anne Crabill and Ishaan Kumar are teaching a topical house course that explores the politics, history and societal implications of immunizations.

Advised by Misha Angrist, associate professor of the practice at the Social Science Research Institute, the course, Vaccines Explained, covers topics ranging from the role social media plays in vaccine misinformation to the deep-rooted history of the anti-vaccination movement. Meeting weekly as a wide scale vaccine rollout occurs worldwide, students in the course are in a unique position to study the role that information, communication and history play in bringing potentially life-saving immunity to communities.

Crabill and Kumar share a passion for the topic of vaccine resistance. Crabill’s interest was piqued as a first-year in the Science and the Public FOCUS cluster, where she, Kumar and Angrist first met. Since then, she has been conducting her own research on society’s relationship with vaccines, spending the last two summers studying vaccine hesitancy— with the British National Archives and one with the London-based Vaccine Confidence Project.

Kumar spent his high school years debating with members of large anti-vaccination Facebook groups.

“I now know that this is not a very effective science communication strategy,” Kumar said. “We have to lead with understanding and openness when you try and communicate and I think there’s this ivory-tower assumption that people will just listen to us because we’re the scientists. But I think this sort of paternalistic attitude needs to change because otherwise we’re running a race with one leg.”

Earlier in the semester, the group heard from historian Nadja Durbach, the author of a book about resistance to vaccination efforts in 19th-century England. “Not only was she a great raconteur, but she was uniquely equipped to show us how the same anti-vaxx tropes from 150 years ago are alive and well in the age of COVID,” Angrist said.

I attended a class session recently. The focus of the class was on how social media can fuel the spread of misinformation regarding COVID-19 and consequent immunization programs. Crabill and Kumar assigned us each a different social media platform, and we spent a few minutes investigating each company’s COVID-19 policies and discussing how effective each company was at filtering out harmful misinformation.

Some of the company policies surprised first-year Andrew Dale.

“Discovering the crazy restrictions that I had not previously known from popular platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram really surprised both myself and the other class members, as we had not understood how strict these rules around COVID-19 had been,” Dale told me.

But despite the restrictions and policies, social media platforms can still accelerate the organization and dissemination of vaccine disinformation.

“There’s the old adage: ‘A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still pulling its boots on.’ Social media means misinformation can spread faster than it ever has. So what do we do?” Angrist said.

The discussions facilitated by this house course attempt to investigate that question and more.

One tool that Crabill and Kumar have identified as crucial to the battle against vaccine resistance is effective science communication.

“If you’re someone who goes home at Thanksgiving and has to argue with their cousin or their aunt about the efficacy of vaccines or the need for vaccines, know that you’re not going to change anyone’s mind by bashing them over the

sports is how they find their joy.”

“Team sports within high schools, within communities, is how people are able to find themselves through movement, and these bills are going to take that away from them,” Sykes said.

“A 2017 Human Rights Campaign Foundation report found that while 68 percent of young people participate in organized sports, only 12 percent of transgender girls do,” Elizabeth Sharrow, associate professor in the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s School of Public Policy and Department of History, wrote in an April 2021 Washington Post analysis.

“That means transgender students are less likely to reap the rewards of athletic participation, which include improved academic performance, better physical and mental health, meaningful and even life-changing social ties, and other benefits that help build healthy and fulfilling lives,” Sharrow wrote.

O’Connor, who identifies as a queer cisgender woman and an ally to transgender individuals, said that H.B. 358 is “extremely harmful.” Gender-affirming sports teams are an outlet for LGBTQ+ youth to belong to a group supportive of their identity, mental health and development, O’Connor said.

As a high school swimmer, O’Connor said that sports was a “huge part of [her] development as a person,” and school sports should be a space for transgender and gender non-conforming youth to have an equitable experience.

“[H.B. 358] really harms all women, transgender women and cisgender women, by excluding transgender women,” O’Connor said. “They require people to check medical records on what their gender is, or what their sex is assigned at birth, or their legal sex. I think that is extremely discriminatory.”

O’Connor also spoke to how the “Duke label” gives power to the research used in the legislation. Bills opposing transgender athletes participation in school sports across the country reference the Duke research, according to the LGBTQ+ Network statement.

“We really think Duke, as a powerhouse of athletics and healthcare of its own, should make a statement against these legislative bills,” O’Connor said.

Brett Reis is director of advocacy for Duke OutLaw, the LGBTQ+ law student group, and said that OutLaw believes H.B. 358 is “based on transphobic stereotypes that aren’t founded in current practice.” Reis cited transgender athletes currently competing with athletes of their gender identity and not “dominating sports, like the mainstream movement wants people to believe.”

From South Dakota, Reis said that he is “used to legislators bringing hateful legislation to the LGBTQ community.” For every instance of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, he said that it feels like “an attack on your community.”

“It just impacts your sense of belonging and your feeling of welcomeness as well,” Reis said. “When students, faculty [and] administration don’t speak up about it, it fosters that idea that maybe I’m not feeling as welcome as I ought to be.”

That’s where Duke OutLaw comes in, Reis explained. Reis also noted that Duke OutLaw recently won Duke Law’s annual organization award for Greatest Role in Building Relationships. The student group is “pretty quick to respond and provide insight as LGBTQ individuals,” he said.

Reis also spoke to his lived experience as a member of the LGBTQ+ community within the law school.

“I feel like I can openly talk about my experience as a bisexual man while we’re in class, while we’re in office hours,” Reis said. “And so I don’t think there is an issue of animosity toward LGBTQ individuals with our faculty or within the Law School. I just think that the image that the Law School itself sometimes presents doesn’t fully commit to that ideal or what they’re practicing, within the classroom or within the law school.”

Duke Law

This has not been the first time this academic year that students have criticized the Law School for its actions regarding LGBTQ+ rights. In October 2020, nearly 200 Duke Law students sent a letter to Law School Dean Kerry Abrams demanding that a professor with “unapologetic anti-LGBTQ+ views,” Helen Alvare, professor of law at George Mason University, be disinvited from a Duke Law event or the event be canceled altogether. Duke Law still hosted the event with Alvare.

Reis said that, in addition to the Law School’s not making a statement about the anti-transgender legislation, the event with Alvare was “another disheartening experience, where we felt the University or the Law School’s silence said more than what I think the administration thought that it said.”

O’Connor similarly noted that she was disappointed with the Law School for the controversies involving the school and the LGBTQ+ community.

Andrew Park, executive director of communication and events at Duke Law, provided a statement from Abrams to The Chronicle.

“The Law School is committed to ensuring that every member of our community is welcomed and has the opportunity to thrive, and we oppose discrimination in all its forms. We are also committed to ensuring faculty and students have the freedom to explore issues of their choosing and engage in discussions with individuals who hold a wide range of viewpoints,” Abrams wrote.

Coleman wrote in an email to The Chronicle that transgender students have the right “like everyone else” to participate in school sports. “Our work is aimed at helping to define the parameters that meet both Title IX and the needs of the student-athletes,” she wrote.

Coleman wrote that she has conducted her research alongside transgender researchers in science and policy. She is also a member of the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group, and Duke Law also sponsored a WSPWG event.

Asked about responses to that group not having any transgender members, she replied that the group acknowledges that “many individuals chose to work behind the scenes and don’t want to endanger their personal safety by taking a visible public role,” and that the group has been “in regular contact with many transgender colleagues.”

Asked to provide evidence for her research examining participation in women’s sports based on athletes’ levels of testosterone, Coleman cited studies on athletic performance and hormones. She wrote that “testosterone is not determinative of outcomes within groups” but is a “primary driver of the performance gap,” and acknowledged that further studies involving transgender athletes should be conducted.

Sharrow, who is also a former collegiate athlete, wrote in the Washington Post article that “athletic performance results from a complex interaction of many factors, not just hormones or chromosomes.”

O’Connor advocated that Duke Law, in addition to the University, should issue a statement declaring their commitment to LGBTQ+ students, particularly transgender and gender non-conforming students.

‘Feels like it happened yesterday’: Revisiting Aaron Lorenzo Dorsey’s death at the hands of a DUPD officer, 11 years later

BY MONA TONG AND CHRIS KUO | 04/16/2021 On March 13, 2010, Duke University Police Department officer Jeffrey Liberto shot and killed 25-year-old Aaron Lorenzo Dorsey of Durham.

Housing to largely return to normal in fall, far fewer students choose to live in selective sections

BY MATTHEW GRIFFIN | 04/15/2021 Duke’s housing practices will largely return to normal in the fall, but a fraction as many students as normal chose to live in selective housing sections.

LGBTQ+-affirming state legislation

On March 30, N.C. legislators introduced a set of LGBTQ+ -inclusive legislation in the North Carolina General Assembly. The package of affirming legislation comes five years after the passage of H.B. 2, the N.C. bill that prohibited individuals who were not cisgender from using public bathrooms according to their gender identity and restricted cities’ authority in enacting nondiscrimination measures. One of the four newly introduced bills, H.B. 451, would repeal H.B. 2 in full.

Another bill would ban the use of the LGBTQ+ panic defense, so that a defendant would be barred from citing the victim’s sexuality, gender or sex as a justification for the defendant’s assault.

Reis, as an aspiring attorney, said that this legislation is “exactly the type of solution” that he wants to advocate for. He explained that 38 states still allow the gay panic defense and trans panic defense. Banning the defense would be “one of the best ways to increase LGBTQ equality, specifically in the criminal justice context,” he said.

“As long as the gay panic defense is still legal, I’m here to fight,” Reis said.

The third bill, Equality for All, would prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals in housing, employment, public accommodations, education and other services. The Mental Health Protection Act would ban the use of conversion therapy on individuals under 18 years old and adults with disabilities.

“I look forward to having legislation that is LGBTQI+ friendly and gender affirming, so we can really support our trans youth specifically, but the entire LGBTQIA+ community and ban conversion therapy once and for all in North Carolina and allow really radical inclusion,” O’Connor said.

GROUP CHAT

FROM PAGE 2

see the messages.

“Sometimes we even get two or three hundred views, which is really helpful in terms of promotion,” Smith said. “For example, I’ve been pushing for extended dining hours across campus, and the GroupMe was very helpful in communicating that project to other students. DSG managed to extend West Union’s dining hours to 9 p.m. for next semester, and that was facilitated in large part by the mass promotions in the group message.”

As a DSG senator for campus life, Qin also uses the 2024 GroupMe to clarify messaging between administration and students while further increasing transparency. Qin remains active in the forum to quell any confusion or panic among students.

“In particular, things like housing and dining have been up in the air due to the pandemic. There is a lot of fluctuation,” Qin said. “Take for instance the current suspension of dining on East Campus, after the COVID outbreak was discovered among the staff workers. There was a lot of confusion surrounding that, so the GroupMe served as a tool for first-years living on East Campus to put their questions out there and get some answers.”

Although a segment of the first-year population remains active in sending and checking messages in the GroupMe, a large portion of students are much less involved, opting to simply mute the continuous stream of texts. Greene is one such student.

“The GroupMe can definitely be a helpful resource, but at the same time it can also house a lot of useless information too—a lot of socialization and fluff,” Greene said. He added

“In no way do I believe students should be gathering in violation of the Duke compact, but I also do not believe that ‘exposing’ or attempting to shame other students in the Duke community by way of social media is beneficial either,” Greene said.

Still, Greene maintained that although there are some negative aspects to the group message, he has found the GroupMe to be helpful in light of the pandemic.

“The chat has definitely been beneficial, especially with mental health resources. I know that over the past year a lot of people have been going through things. Thankfully, many firstyears in the chat have been constant in their efforts to improve mental health across campus, sending out frequent resources to combat stress, anxiety and loneliness,” he said.

There are also several hundred students in the Class of 2024 who are not members of the GroupMe. First-year Aida Anderson decided against joining the GroupMe, and she does not regret that choice.

“I was never added in the first place since I didn’t have the GroupMe app downloaded on my phone at the beginning of the school year,” Anderson said. “I mostly use word-of-mouth for important news and updates.”

The 2024 GroupMe chat is hardly essential for a successful social life at Duke, Anderson said. She does not feel that she has missed out on any part of the culture at Duke.

“It seems like most of the time the GroupMe conversation is not about important stuff, and occasionally it even looks pretty divisive with an unhealthy ‘cancel culture,’” she said.