T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y
The Chronicle
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012
ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH YEAR, ISSUE 57
WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM
Palestine event Uni starts Africa research initiative disrupted by vandalism by Margot Tuchler THE CHRONICLE
by Leena El-Sadek THE CHRONICLE
A Duke Students for Justice in Palestine event recently faced backlash when some of its display was vandalized by a student. DSJP hosted an event Thursday on the Bryan Center Plaza entitled “Tearing Down the Wall: Clearing Up Misconceptions,” in which the student group meant to raise awareness about a wall separating the West Bank region of Palestine from Israel. DSJP constructed a replica of the wall—known as the “separation fence” or “anti-terrorist fence” to most Israelis and the “racial segregation wall” to most Palestinians—and handed out flyers detailing the damaging effects. The group planned to dismantle the wall “both symbolically and literally” at around 5 p.m. that day, said senior Sabrina Rubakovic, a member of DSJP, in a Facebook event. But about two hours into the day-long event, senior Zach Epstein, a member of the Jewish Student Union executive board and Duke Friends of Israel, destroyed part of the wall and flipped over a table of Palestinian food DSJP was giving out to passersby. “The incident was an act of intimidation SEE PALESTINE ON PAGE 7
CHRONICLE GRAPHIC BY CHELSEA PIERONI
Dozens of professors in disparate fields are joining together to coordinate Duke’s research in Africa. The Africa Initiative, which has been in the works since Fall 2011, serves to consolidate the efforts of Duke professors who have research interests on the African continent. Thus far, $100,000 has been allotted to the initiative, said Charles Piot, professor of cultural anthropology, African and African American studies and women’s studies, who is co-chairing the initiative’s steering committee with global health professor Dr. John Bartlett, associate director for research at Duke Global Health Institute. Piot said the idea was born out of casual conversations with his colleagues, who were discussing Duke’s global priorities and questioning why Africa was not visibly in the mix. Throughout the fall and winter, he sought out other faculty conducting Africa-related research and heralded Bartlett’s help to gather personnel from the School of Medicine. They sought out faculty from all schools and departments who were interested in Africa and came up with over 100 names, Piot said. “I’ve been here 20 years. I teach about Africa, and I imagined there might have been 25 [faculty],” Piot said. “We walked away from every meeting with new names.” After perusing the Duke schools
Duke’s new Africa Initiative is a network that brings together more than 100 University professors in multiple departments doing research across the continent. The initiative has been awarded $100,000 so far.
SEE AFRICA ON PAGE 8
West Union architects GoDuke changes photo to preview renovations policy after mishap by Imani Moise THE CHRONICLE
The architects behind the upcoming West Union Building renovation are hosting an open house discussion Tuesday to present the new plans for the future image of West Campus. David Cook and David Burke of Grimshaw Architects will be speaking to any interested students from 5 to 7 p.m. in Von Canon A. In addition to presenting the early stages of the plans, the architects will be looking for feedback from students on the renovations. “We believe that student leadership has been very informed, SEE UNION ON PAGE 5
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
This rendering shows what the finished West Union Building renovations will look like. The project’s architects, Grimshaw, will be presenting preliminary designs tomorrow.
No. 8 Duke faces No. 3 Kentucky in the Champions Classic, Page 9
Duke athletics has changed its procedures for handling photos following a recent controversy that drew national media attention. A sports information intern posted an entire set of photos from a Halloween party held by women’s lacrosse head coach Kerstin Kimel on the team’s official website, including one photo of junior team member Taylor Virden, dressed in blackface intending to portray Buckwheat, a character in the film “Little Rascals.” Photos will now be individually evaluated before being posted on GoDuke.com, vice president for public affairs and government relations Mike Schoenfeld said. The photo was removed from GoDuke.com, but screenshot of the photo made the rounds on
popular blogs such as Deadspin and BroBible. In a statement, Kimel apologized for the insensitive nature of the costume and said the team did not mean to offend anyone. “The Duke women’s lacrosse program celebrates Halloween with an annual gathering. This year, some of our costume choices were insensitive and entirely inappropriate,” Kimel said. “No offense was intended, but that does not matter because we should have realized how these choices would be viewed by those outside of our program.” Art Chase, head sports information director, declined to comment and noted that Virden did not have a comment at this time. —from Staff Reports
onTHERECORD
“The American political system needs to be improved, and mandatory voting is a large stepping stone....” —Chris Dee in “How to fix America.” See letter page 15
New class focuses on maternal health, Page 3