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18 | THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2010 the chronicle commentaries
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Communication, alerts crucial to safety Recent events on and close proximity to the hospital around campus serve as impor- or campus. A DukeAlert, notitant reminders that communi- fying the Duke community via cation between the University text message and e-mail, could and the Duke community is an have warned the campus of essential responsibility of the the threat. administration and the Duke The alleged sexual asUniversity Police sault on CenDepartment. staff editorial tral should Specifically, have also been the murder of Charlene King more clearly conveyed to the at a Duke Health Clinic on community. As late as 6 p.m. North Duke Street and the Monday, it was unclear if the alleged sexual assault on Cen- alleged assault was a onetral Campus Friday morning time incident or a continuing are recent instances in which threat to the University, accommunication between the cording to DUPD Chief John administration and the Duke Dailey in an interview. community should have been Even if DUPD had deemed clearer. the incident a non-threat to the Although Durham Police community, an e-mail from Vice deemed King’s murder to have President for Student Affairs likely been a targeted attack, Larry Moneta or another students and other members administrator could have of the Duke community—such reminded students that these as Duke University Health Sys- dangers do exist on Duke’s tem employees—should be campus and that anonymous aware of an act of violence in reporting is an option for
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The Buchanan St. house is like it or not now a part of Duke’s, Durham’s, and America’s history...
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—“Melendez-Rios” commenting on the story “University to sell 610 North Buchanan property.” See more at www.dukechronicle.com.
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students who are reluctant to come forward. The DukeAlert system allows students to subscribe to a text message alert system in addition to the e-mails sent to the entire community. According to the Duke University Emergency Status website, the University seeks to send alert messages within 30 minutes of officials being notified of an emergency. This system could be used more frequently, however. The last time the entire student body received a DukeAlert through e-mail was Jan. 30 to announce that the severe weather policy for the University and the Duke University Health System was in effect. But the campus was not alerted to events like a student reporting being sexually assaulted on West Campus last November, three former football players firing shots from a car on East Campus in January
or DUPD officers fatally shooting a man in front of the Duke University Hospital in March. Without checking the campus and local news sources, Duke community members would not know about these incidents, and they only learned about these, King’s murder and the alleged rape well after they were reported to officials. The DukeAlert system should notify the community of any instances of gunfire, aggravated assault, rape, armed robbery and murder, especially if there is any indication that the incident poses a larger threat to the University community. The federal Clery Act of 1990 requires universities that participate in federal financial aid programs to “provide timely warnings of crimes that represent a threat to the safety of students or employees.” Duke would be wise to apply this principle a little more broadly
when deciding when to inform the community of incidents on or near campus. Of course, it is unclear how much attention people pay to DukeAlerts or other emergency communications—if most even read them at all. The University should be sure not to expand the quantity of these messages so much that they desensitize the community to crime on campus and undermine the system’s efficacy during major crises. In addition, the administration and DUPD should take care not to incite an overblown sense of danger by reporting every instance of campus crime. Overall, however, the Duke community would benefit from the expanded use of the DukeAlert system and more frequent communication from the administration concerning important on-campus incidents.
A whiff of memory There are many things that distinguish China’s receptor neurons help send information about street etiquette from the U.S. equivalent: for exam- scents to the amygdala. This is the reason why the ple, China forbids honking except in the most ex- smell of cinnamon evokes more memories and treme cases. In the U.S., there are no car horns to emotions than just the smell of cinnamon. It also habituate to, nor are there so many people with so elicits memories of Christmas morning or the cinnamon rolls after a Thanksgiving many voices. However, what is most dinner. In comparison, few other distinctive about China is its smell. sensory faculties call to mind a simiSimply put, China smells differlar distinctive memory. Hearing, for ent than America. It is a weird and example, does not evoke as powerful completely overwhelming phememories as olfaction, or else, every nomenon that seems wholly inexsingle time we heard something we plicable in scientific terms. How would be reliving the past. can one country smell different To me, America smells like drivfrom another? China and the U.S. ing alone down a road really fast are both vast countries with obvirui dai with the wind in your hair; it is ously different, idiosyncratic odors summer column freedom. China smells like getting in separate regions of each. The breakfast with my grandmother at American Northeast smells of the sea, and the Midwest, dry cornfields. What is so dawn in the street market just as it is beginning to distinctive between the two that, without opening bustle; it is nostalgia. As a Chinese American, it is always difficult to my eyes, I can tell which country is which? Let me explain. The smell of China carries a distinguish between which part of my heritage is distinctive musk that is the combination of age which. I have always wondered what I would have and non-ammonia cleaning supplies. America, on been like if I stayed with my grandmother and had the other hand, smells clean—literally, and not gotten breakfast with her everyday at the street necessarily in a good way. Cleaning detergents market. Would I still be as argumentative as I am are used almost ubiquitously in America, while today? Or would I be more pliable? The distinction between my identity as both relatively rare in China. In the States, the complex chemical combinations in cleaning agents destroy Chinese and American is even harder now that I almost any endogenous smell of the environment, am on a service project in China. I alternate spoleaving only a hint of pine or lavender, or whatev- radically as needed between my personalities as er oil extract the manufacturer had dropped into a Duke student and another Chinese pedestrian on the street. I converse normally with the rest of the mixture. In every grocery store in America there is al- my service group as I would on Duke’s campus, ways an entire row of cleaning supplies, each with but the moment I turn to speak to a native or to bottles of 409 or Scrubbing Bubbles lined neatly translate something from English to Chinese, I beon steel shelves. In China, there are no compa- come one of the more than 1.3 billion people who rable brands; there is classic soap and there is liq- populate China. Right now, the unique scent of China is correuid soap: no ammonia in sight. Such a difference in cleaning protocol has a dramatic effect on the lated with a set of childhood memories. Once in a while, under the influence of a particular familiar resulting odor of each country. The reason why the difference in odor between waft of odor, memories of my childhood will rush the two countries is so distinctive and apparent is me back in time. But memory is malleable. And because olfaction evokes strong emotional mem- soon, new memories will become associated with ories. Biologically, the olfactory system is one of the scents of old: for better or for worse. Hopefully for the better. the few senses in the human body that has a direct connection to the part of the brain that is in charge of emotional memories, the amygdala. Rui Dai is a rising Trinity sophomore. Her column The olfactory system’s mitral cells and olfactory runs every other Thursday in the summer.
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