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
XXXDAY, MONTH TUESDAY, APRIL 16, XX,2013 2013
‘These are my people’
ONE ONE HUNDRED HUNDRED AND AND EIGHTH EIGHTH YEAR, YEAR, ISSUE ISSUE 137 X
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Admins OK sex change coverage
Spring has sprung
Duke reacts to Boston Marathon explosions
by Carleigh Stiehm THE CHRONICLE
State University. “One of the goals of Project GloBAL was to say that we need to be looking large-scale,” she said. “We need to be able to look across ocean regions as well as gear types.” While most bycatch information is regional and generally focuses on one gear type, this recent study is the first mapping effort globally across the three major commercial fishing gears, Lewison added. The study found that the highest rates of bycatch occurred in the east Pacific Ocean, some Mediterranean regions and the northwest and southwest parts of the Atlantic Oceans, which were also the areas with the most accessible data. Although the researchers found that longline fishing bycatch impact scores were lower than those of trawling and net fishing, they urged further research at the more regional level to fill in data gaps.
Sexual reassignment surgery for transgendered students will be covered in students’ health care plans, effective this Fall. Administrators signed a new contract with Duke’s health insurance provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, that will include up to $50,000 to cover sexual reassignment surgery, Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek confirmed. With this new coverage, she said, all vital aspects of transgender health care—counseling, hormone therapy, and surgery—are now included in students’ plans. “The addition of sexual reassignment surgery with a $50,000 cap makes Duke’s student health care plan one of the most, if not the most, transgender-inclusive plans in the country,” said junior Sunny Frothingham, the incoming outreach chair for Blue Devils United. “This is a huge step forward for Duke.” Each year, the Student Health Advisory Committee examines the Duke Student Medical Insurance Plan and reviews how students use the plan to determine if changes need to be made to the benefits provided to students, Wasiolek said. She added that this is the last step in providing complete coverage to Duke’s transgendered community. “For the past several years, we have considered benefits for transgendered students, looking first at counseling and hormone therapy benefits, then at ‘top’ surgery benefits and most recently at ‘bottom’ surgery benefits,” Wasiolek said. The additional coverage will have a “minimal” impact on cost to students, Wasiolek said. The coverage will cause a 0.3 percent increase to student costs. Overall, student health care premiums will increase by a total of 8 percent next year, Wasiolek said. “The plan premium is increasing 8 percent next year, with 4 percent of that increase resulting from taxes associated with the Affordable Care Act,” she said. “The remaining 4 percent is attributed to health care cost trend and benefit enhancements.” Wasiolek said the $50,000 cap was set after consulting with the standards of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. “Our cap is competitive with or higher than our peer institutions,” said junior Jacob Tobia, president of BDU.
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by Georgia Parke THE CHRONICLE
Two bombs detonated near the Boston Marathon finish line Monday afternoon, killing at least three people—including an eight-year-old boy—and injuring more than 140 others, according to media outlets at 12 a.m. Tuesday morning. The explosions—which occurred within seconds of each other—were between 50 and 100 yards apart from one another on Boylston Street, a popular thoroughfare in downtown Boston. The blast closest to the finish line exploded in a dense crowd of spectators, followed by a massive cloud of smoke, as seen in a video posted by Boston Globe. Several runners close to the finish line collapsed on the course from the shock of the explosion. “This is such a huge event for the running world and the U.S.,” said Michael Fucci, a first-year master of public policy candidate, who participated in the race. “When something like this happens, and you feel close to it, it’s the worst thing that could possibly happen.” Around 18,000 runners out of the original 23,000 who started the race had SEE BOSTON ON PAGE 3
SAMANTHA SCHAFRANK/THE CHRONICLE
The Bryan Center Plaza buzzes with students and visitors enjoying the warm, spring weather Monday afternoon.
Scientists assess accidental turtle catching by Lucy Hicks THE CHRONICLE
A team of Duke scientists is pushing the boundaries of knowledge about sea turtles caught by commercial fishing processes. The study compiled over 1,800 records of sea turtle bycatch, the unintentional snaring of sea animals by fishers, in all life stages from more than 230 sources globally and by three different fishing gears—longline, net and trawl. The study also tallied bycatch impact scores—bycatch rates, mortality, body size and regional fishing effort—rather than just sea turtle mortality and was published in the journal Ecosphere last month. The results may influence regional conservation and research efforts. “What [we] really wanted to do was advance bycatch assessments… beyond the level of how many sea turtles are killed every year, and really try to do something that would be relevant on a
Cunha and Hemmeler defy expectations and win, Page 4
population level, where we could actually compare impacts of bycatch in different gears,” said lead author Bryan Wallace, chief scientist at the Oceanic Society and adjunct assistant professor at the Duke University Marine Lab. This study builds off of the goals of Project GloBAL—the Global Bycatch Assessment of Long-lived Species—a threeyear project from 2005 to 2008. Hosted at Duke, this project helped establish Duke as a leader in the bycatch research field, Wallace said. The researchers, from both the Duke University Center for Marine Conservation and the Blue Ocean Institute, focused on researching bycatch of sea turtles as well as additional marine taxa, including marine mammals as well as seabirds. Project GloBAL sought to compile bycatch data from around the world to get a better sense of the issue of bycatch globally, noted Rebecca Lewison, co-author of the study and researcher at the conservation ecology lab at San Diego
ONTHERECORD
“Prior to coming to Duke, I did not know what I wanted in life....” —Tegan Joseph Mosugu in ‘Taking a walk....’ See column page 7
Duke to play NC A&T Today, Page 4