March 29, 2017

2 more departures

Meerkat mania

Harry Giles will join Jayson Tatum in the NBA Draft and Sean Obi will transfer | Sports Page 11

Duke researchers receive three-year grant to study social mobility in meerkats | Page 2

The Chronicle 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

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ONE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH YEAR, ISSUE 71

BRANDING WITH BANNERS

Duke’s sports teams have bolstered the University’s image since the 1930s Amrith Ramkumar The Chronicle As Duke President Richard Brodhead navigates his final semester, The Chronicle will be examining his impact on athletics with a series of articles, continuing with one about how athletics impacts the University’s image. Check back in the coming weeks for a final story about sports at Duke Kunshan University, and read about Brodhead’s bond with men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski, his role in hiring football head coach David Cutcliffe and his decision to hire Kevin White, vice president and director of athletics, online.

Although there are player safety concerns in modern college football, the enormous revenues make it unlikely that schools will currently consider getting rid of the sport.

But more than 100 years ago, that is exactly what happened at Duke.

After the University—then known as Trinity College—played the first football game in North Carolina in 1888 against its Tobacco Road rival, it stopped playing football from 1895 to 1920 after players around the country were severely injured and even killed.

Eventually, President William Preston Few oversaw the transition from Trinity College to Duke University, and one of his many transformative decisions was to reinstate football and begin a long tradition of using athletics as an advertising tool.

“President Few understood the work of your philosophy professors may have a very enduring mark on the world, but

Sanjeev Dasgupta | Chronicle File Photo The Blue Devils’ five men’s basketball national championships and overall athletic success are one of the University’s primary image-makers.

the quickest way to get noticed is through athletics,” Brodhead said.

As the University’s student and faculty numbers skyrocketed, Few prioritized two areas—football and medicine—to quickly put Duke on the map.

Brodhead discussed those decisions in a 2015 faculty address. The University famously hired former Alabama head coach Wallace Wade, the namesake of

Duke’s football stadium, to coach its football team starting in 1931. Seven seasons later, the Blue Devils made a Rose Bowl appearance after the “Iron Dukes” held opponents scoreless throughout the regular season.

During the same time period, the Duke School of Medicine became one of the better medical schools in the nation less than a decade after its inception in 1930.

“I just find it incredibly interesting.

Stand on the front door of the Allen Building, and you’ve got Duke Medicine 100 paces to the right and Duke Athletics 100 paces to the left,” Brodhead said. “I love the fact that from the new football stadium, you can see back through the whole campus. You can appreciate how See IMAGE on Page 12

Incoming BDU presidents explain vision for next year Claire Ballentine The Chronicle Junior Melodie Bonanno and sophomore Max Bernell were recently selected as the next presidents for Blue Devils United, the largest student LGBTQ+ group on campus. The Chronicle sat down with them to discuss their visions for BDU’s role on campus next year. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Special to The Chronicle Bonanno and Bernell hope to work with other groups on campus to expand BDU’s reach.

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INSIDE — News 2 Sports 11 Classified 13 Crossword 13 Opinion 14

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The Chronicle: What do you think are the primary challenges that BDU faces right now?

Melodie Bonanno: We are a large organization with a lot of purview. There are a lot of queer students on this campus.

They exist in so many different spaces. Not all of them have the same interests. They have different levels of social comfort, they have different things that they do on campus,

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different things they care about in the queer community, and it’s our job as presidents and representatives of this community to be a face for all of those people at once.

Max Bernell: The issue is that there are so many different types of queer students on our campus, and it’s just so intersectional.

One way we want to go forward alleviating this problem is giving educational sessions that are open to the public and targeting different groups on campus so that everyone can be well-informed and foster an educational setting.

The Chronicle: What are your biggest goals for the upcoming year?

Melodie Bonanno: Educational sessions are definitely one of them. Ensuring that firstSee BDU PRESIDENTS on Page 4

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The Chronicle

Could meerkats provide a Rabbi proposes consulting religious texts to solve conflict window into human genomics?

Frances Beroset The Chronicle Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks explained the rise of religious conflict and what can be done to stop it as part of the Terry Sanford Distinguished Lecture Series.

The audience filled the commons of the Sanford School of Public Policy, with overflow seating spilling onto the second and third floors of the building. President Richard Brodhead introduced Sacks by recalling Sacks’ last visit to campus ten years ago—on the heels of the Duke lacrosse scandal. The last time Sacks visited Duke, his speech focused on the role of interfaith dialogue and empathy in preventing unnecessary terrorist conflict.

“The early months of the year 2007 were a time when this campus was engulfed in an athletics-related controversy that had gasoline poured on it by a reckless district attorney,” he said. “This was a time at which many people who had membership in this community had extraordinarily strong feelings about other people in this community—I need to include, extraordinarily strong negative feelings. And in the middle of that conflict-ridden situation, came Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.”

Brodhead called Sacks—who currently

Jim Liu | The Chronicle Sacks explained that Judaism emphasizes hope, which the world needs right now.

serves in the United Kingdom’s House of Lords—“a voice for thoughtful moral reflection.”

Sacks explained that he believes the West’s prior assumptions about world progress— including secularization and globalization— have not turned out to be true. In a world without these assumptions, he said there was “insecurity about the future on the part of young people.” He cited the unexpected Brexit vote and President Donald Trump’s election as examples, as well as the rise of the far-right in Europe.

“It was assumed that people would gradually lose their narrow prejudices, their nationalisms,” he said. “We would stop being parochial and would become cosmopolitan.

We would stop being pilgrims and become tourists. [But] what we have seen in the past year is a reaction against globalization, in Brexit, in part of the rhetoric of the United States elections and in Europe. And we are seeing a new populism.”

Despite the problems he described, however, Sacks said his study of Judaism empowered him to spread encouragement to others. The Jewish story is “one of hope,” he said, adding that right now the world needs hope.

“We do not see the world through rosetinted glasses. We recognize that there is evil and injustice,” he said. “We begin with the bad news, but that is the beginning of the story and not the end of the story. We end with the good news.”

The timeline of history is not linear, he noted. There are always ups-and-downs, and the problem is how to recover. To answer that question, Sacks took the audience back to the 17th century. Philosophers John Milton, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Baruch Spinoza attempted to solve the problem of religious violence that had ravaged Europe by studying religious texts.

This was despite Hobbes and Spinoza being atheists, he noted.

All four used religious texts and came up with five principles to create modern See RABBI on Page 4

Isabelle Doan The Chronicle A team of Duke researchers and collaborators are examining what the social interactions of meerkats can tell us about human genomics.

Jenny Tung, assistant professor of biology and evolutionary anthropology, and Sayan Mukherjee, professor of statistical science, are part of an international team studying meerkats. The team has recently been awarded a three-year, $1.2 million grant from the Human Frontier Science Program to study social mobility in wild meerkats.

Tung explained in an email that the unique social structure of meerkats is valuable for understanding how other mammals cooperate. She added that learning about meerkat social dynamics could help explain the social cooperation of other species, including humans.

“It’s an evolutionarily unusual social system for mammals, but very interesting because it can help us understand the factors that select—in a Darwinian sense— for cooperation,” she wrote. “And of course, we ourselves are also members of a very cooperative species.”

Meerkats live in social groups with only one breeding pair, formed by one dominant male and one dominant female. Other meerkats in the group act as “helpers,” Tung wrote, and contribute by babysitting the young or scanning for predators.

When meerkats transition from being subordinate helpers to dominant breeders, they go through a number of physiological changes, Tung noted. She added that transitioning meerkats will often gain weight, exhibit hormonal changes and may even undergo new skeletal growth.

She explained that her team’s new award will support research for identifying which genes in the meerkat are active during the transition phase from subordinate to dominant.

“Our grant is aimed at integrating this information with an understanding of what’s going on within cells at the level of

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons The research team will be looking at meerkat genetics and how they change during the course of the animals’ social development.

gene regulation,” Tung wrote. “Because the sequence of the genome doesn’t change over an individual’s lifetime, these major transitions strongly suggest differences in which genes are active or how active they are.”

Tung’s team will take advantage of an ongoing 20-year-old field project on meerkats in the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa.

This project was first initiated by Tim CluttonBrock, director of research at the University of Cambridge.

Luis Barreiro, the Canadian research chair in the functional and evolutionary genomics of the immune system at McGill University, will also be joining the team.

“This combination gives us the ability to pursue questions and develop new approaches that would be impossible for any subset of us alone,” Tung wrote. “I feel very lucky to be working with Sayan, Luis and Tim. Each of them is a real pioneer in their respective fields.”

Their analysis of genetics will also extend into immunology, particularly studying how See MEERKATS on Page 4

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Journalists weigh in on media’s negative portrayal of Muslims Claire Ballentine The Chronicle Media portrayal of the Islamic religion often focuses on terrorist groups or violence. A group of journalists gathered Tuesday to discuss why this is the case.

Hosted by the Duke Islamic Center, the panel discussion featured four journalists with experience covering Muslim life— Abigail Hauslohner from the Washington Post, David Graham from The Atlantic, Nermeen Shaikh from Democracy Now!, an independent non-profit news organization, and Mehdi Hasan from Al Jazeera, a news organization based in Qatar.

“There is an association between Muslims and violence that seems almost natural now,” Shaikh said.

She argued that the media presents terrorist attacks by Muslims in an “ahistoric” manner—forgetting historical context and structural forces that influence individuals’ decisions to engage in terrorism.

There is also a tendency to focus exclusively on suicidal bombings, which have drastically increased in recent years, Shaikh explained. From 1982 to 2001, there were a total of two suicide attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, but from 2002 to 2014, there were 3,215 attacks in these countries, resulting in almost 30,000 deaths, she noted.

However, she said media coverage portrays suicidal terrorism as much more horrifying than other forms of violence, such as drone attacks carried out by the U.S. government.

“For many, the suicide bomber has come to signify a culture and propensity toward such violence,” she said.

Lilliana Reyes | The Chronicle During the event, panelists said that more in-depth journalism about the everyday lives of Muslims is necessary to combat negative perceptions of Islam in the media.

Shaikh also noted that the principal victims of suicide bombings have been Muslim, but when these victims are mentioned, their deaths do not “achieve the same level of spectacle or the same degree of horror or moral condemnations.” The media therefore fosters a “hierarchy of death”—in which some victims are portrayed as more important than others.

To combat this, deep journalism on the true, everyday lives of Muslims is crucial, Shaikh said.

Hauslohner is one reporter aiming to increase such representation of the Islamic

community. She covers Islamic and Arab affairs in the U.S. for the Washington Post—which did not have a beat devoted to the topic until she took it on.

“My goal is to bring people into the homes of Muslims, and thereby further educate the American population about a minority that is often misunderstood,” she said.

Although the media is commonly criticized for a lack of positive stories about Muslims, Hauslohner said she does not intentionally look to portray Muslims in a positive light but rather

to report accurately and fairly on their communities.

Hauslohner also noted that journalists need to question law enforcement officials who report that a criminal “was radicalized”—which is used almost exclusively to refer to Muslim suspects.

“When I hear that phrase, I think about someone being bitten by a zombie,” she said. “We need to ask law enforcement what specifically they are talking about when they use those terms.”

Hauslohner also said that more newsrooms should create beats devoted to Muslim life and hire more diverse staffs, a call echoed by Graham.

“There are way too many people who look like me in newsrooms,” Graham said.

Graham explained that media coverage often focuses on violence and chaos because that is what draws readers’ attention.

However, this creates a narrative that leaves out the everyday lives of Muslims.

A lack of expertise on Islamic affairs among journalists also empowers “faux experts” who claim to be reputable sources, he noted. Reporters who are knowledgeable about Muslim life are especially needed because of President Donald Trump’s rhetoric that “demonizes” Muslims.

Moving forward, Graham encouraged people from diverse backgrounds to become involved in media, which will help foster different perspectives.

Hasan also noted that audience members should expose themselves to a variety of viewpoints and become better informed about current events.

“We are increasingly putting ourselves in silos and cutting ourselves off from things we don’t agree with,” he said. “That’s a very dangerous road to go down.”

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BDU PRESIDENTS from page 1

Gender Diversity], [Peer Advocacy for Sexual Health Center], or student affairs. Working with other groups on campus is the way that we get stuff done. If we exclude ourselves to working year students and students who might have just come out or with just BDU, it will be to our members’ detriment. So, pulling are from areas where the most up-to-date terminology is not from the fact that we have so many allies and wonderful other exactly the name of the game, making sure everyone starts with queer students in those groups is really important to us. the same basic knowledge level. That’s a big one. Accessibility is also really important to us. I mentioned earlier, just being able The Chronicle: What are your plans for advocating against to have a conversation with anyone, that’s really important to House Bill 2? me personally.

Melodie Bonanno: Traditionally, BDU presidents have Max Bernell: Also empowering LGBTQ+ students to worked really closely with Equality NC, which is a lobbying group succeed, because I think a lot of the institutional information at that works against that sort of thing in the state. Continuing Duke isn’t readily available to everyone who wants it, especially that sort of work and making sure there are students present LGBTQ+ students who are shy their first year. So giving them at the table—that they know there are students affected by those tools to succeed in their various communities really this. I mean we’ve seen it with Duke basketball even—how makes them like ambassadors for the queer communities, so our team can be affected by the existence of HB2—so this we can also work with other groups to make those spaces more is something that is pertinent to transgender students on friendly as well. campus. The fact that Duke is pushing to make gender-neutral Melodie Bonanno: The thing that I’m most excited to work bathrooms an option on campus in light of that is wonderful on is working with other groups on campus—whether that’s and so incredible, but knowing that it’s a reactionary response other groups like [Muslim Students Association], Mi Gente to something so hateful is something that needs to be kept in or other centers on campus like the [Center for Sexual and mind at the end of the day.

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Max Bernell: Duke should continue working with its students as closely as possible. I would encourage the administration to be in dialogue with us so that we can essentially tell them that the student body and student experience can be shaped by their behaviors and by their decisions. With HB2 and upcoming policy decisions and the way that Duke positions their stance to the students and the press, they should definitely come and talk to the students before they make any big decisions.

The Chronicle: How do you think Duke is doing in creating a positive environment for LGBTQ+ students and how do you think it could improve?

Melodie Bonanno: There’s certainly room to grow, there’s always going to be room to grow. As a person well-versed in Duke’s queer history, we’ve come a long way, but there’s still much progress that is yet to be made. I think that was pretty evident last year with the death threat that we saw on East Campus. As much as we know that Coming Out Day is a thing that’s very well-attended by Duke students, the fact is that a Duke student was still threatened and their life was still in danger. I am personally very excited to see the new presidential administration’s leadership, to see what they want to work on there.

Max Bernell: I felt like more resources on campus targeted toward LGBTQ+ students is also something that we would like Duke to maybe challenge themselves in, for instance maybe in CAPS and mental health and different kinds of sexual care and student education courses. That’s something that we would always like to see grow.

Melodie Bonanno: At the end of the day, student groups are great, but we are at Duke to learn. This is an academic institution and the fact is that the studies of sexualities is still a minor. You cannot major in sexualities studies. I’m a gender, sexuality and feminist studies major, and there are very few classes on sexuality under that major. I’m taking my first one right now, and I’m a third-year so working with the administration to even encourage queer conversations in the academic spaces is really important to us.

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group involvement in reproduction and growth might affect the immune system. Their hypothesis is that if energy goes into reproduction and growth, meerkats’ ability to defend against pathogens becomes weaker.

Barreiro will take an immunological approach in studying the meerkats, while Mukherjee will spearhead the development of new methods for applying x-ray data to develop a 3D model for skeletal growth.

The Human Frontier Science Program—which awarded the grant—has a goal of encouraging scientific collaboration across multiple disciplines and fields, Tung explained. She wrote that the grant will take effect this December, and that the team is excited to get started.

“We all have a lot of experience applying for grants that don’t get funded, and the funding rates for the HFSP grants are low,” Tung wrote. “Again, I think a lot of this success depends on having a very strong team. We’re glad that the reviewers were able to understand our vision for the project. Now the real work starts.”

RABBI from page 2 freedom, Sacks said. Those included the social contract, the limits of government power, a doctrine of toleration, the liberty of conscience and human rights.

The world needs to recreate a similar intellectual rebirth today, Sacks said. He cited some of the lessons from his own Jewish faith. Number one, he said, is to go back to the Bible and read Genesis. In his interpretation, it says that “the covenant of universality” takes precedence instead of any one religion.

Sacks also advocated for the Sabbath—a day of religious observance and rest—that he said has been essentially destroyed. Reinstating it, he said, is a cure for an increasingly tense and consumerist world by celebrating those things with value but not price.

“People have worth, regardless of what they earn, what they own and what they can buy,” he said. “And we’re losing this, and no culture that has abolished the Sabbath has survived.”

Third, referring to Exodus, he advocated for education as the last defense of democracy.

“It’s easy to win freedom, but its very hard to keep it,” he said.

“To defend a country, you need an army. To defend freedom, you need education. You need the handing down of memory across the generations.”

And ultimately, he recognized that those from other religions will have other contributions. Listening to those, he noted, is a positive step forward.

“A Christian and a Muslim will have new and different things to say, equally valuable from their traditions,” Sacks said.

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VOLUME 18, ISSUE 22

MARCH 29, 2017

‘The Aeneid’ comes to Duke

First-ever musical staging of show opens Mar. 30, page 6

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Duke social culture

Inclusion and exclusion, page 7

Concert reviews

Hippo Campus and SOHN take the stage, pages 8-9

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recess editors Old Duke pick?

Dillon Fernando ............. the old Gaga Christy Kuesel .................... OWL CITY

Drew Haskins .............................. me Kirby Wilson ............................Mozart Tim Campbell ................Drew Haskins Aditya Joshi ................. only the finest Jessica Williams .......... Red Hot Chilis Georgina Del Vecho........ Idina Menzel Will Atkinson ............................Staind Nina Wilder ..............Hannah Montana Likhitha Butchireddygari.........JoBros

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Everyone says I’m way too analytical about pop culture. People say I obsess over basic or trivial stuff, and that mindless fluff does not need to be overthought. I can’t really deny it. I love pop culture, and even more than that, I love talking about pop culture. I’m just as likely to start a conversation about Orson Welles’ films as a chat wondering what Mischa Barton is up to these days, and I’ll devote the same amount of fervor to each.

During my time at Duke, many of my classes and activities have imparted me with several cultural theories through which I assess movies, TV, music and more.

Now, I can talk about culture in ways I was previously unable to do. Serving as an editor, writer and reviewer for the Chronicle for the past four years has also helped me parse out the style through which I critique pop culture. In short, college has made me more learned and articulate about things that interest me than I was before, and I’m forever thankful for it.

Yet people accuse me of pretension, which, to an extent, I cannot justifiably deny. Whose right is it to tell the masses what is good or bad for cultural consumption? We, as critics, take it upon ourselves to “educate the masses” about the cream of the current culture and attempt to assert ourselves as tastemakers.

This has been a practice as long as print media has existed, but what relevance does it have in today’s society?

Pop culture itself deserves to be talked about. It is one of the few things that link every person on the planet, as even though every society retains unique customs and traditions, they are blended in to the mélange that is global pop culture. It can serve as a unifying force for people of various backgrounds—just look how many “Black Beatles” tribute videos there are on YouTube! People across the world want

to do the Mannequin Challenge! Think about how many international musicians or actors are popular in the United States.

We wouldn’t know famous artists such as Lorde or Javier Bardem as household names if we just limited ourselves to American culture without exposing ourselves to the cultures of other nations.

Pop culture transcends boundaries because everyone enjoys it, whether it is music or theater, film or television. To say it is not worth talking about is to overlook its importance on a global scale. At the least, we are all passively participating in consuming or contributing to the culture.

Then there are those of us who truly have a passion for pop culture. The role of a critic is, at its essence, an occupation

editor’s note for someone who loves culture and, more importantly, loves talking about culture. One could argue that people do not need cultural critics—what good is telling someone what to listen to or what to watch? Let people form their own opinions! They would be wrong, though.

A critic is important as a guide for the way we think about pop culture. Any good critic never just says, “This movie is good,” or “This song hurts my ears and is terrible.” A good critic rationalizes his or her opinion by providing a solid set of reasons for why an item of culture is lacking and tries to influence his or her audience into understanding the reasoning behind his or her opinion.

Some of our greatest philosophical theories have emerged from cultural criticism as responses to other theorists

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and dramatists. This is a storied tradition that any person can be a part of.

What many critics need to remember to remain relevant and maintain their respectability is never to forget to speak like a real person. The late, great film critic Roger Ebert once wrote, “I was instructed long ago by a wise editor, ‘If you understand something, you can explain it so that almost anyone can understand it. If you don’t, you won’t be able to understand your own explanation.’ That is why 90% of academic film theory is b******t. Jargon is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”

The critic easily ensnares himself or herself in the trap of pretension when he or she forgets who the audience is.

An audience reads a review as a piece of entertainment in and of itself, and to alienate it with jargon would undermine the critic’s point. Critics must also remember never to be overtly malicious to the cultural subject in question, as excessively nasty reviews put down creators rather than incentivize them to improve themselves and, by extension, pop culture at large.

A good critic explains his or her rationale in a way that makes the audience think along the same lines. A good critic provides a lens through which to view a film. A good critic aims to build up pop culture rather than break it down. With all of these things in mind, a critic can help improve culture as a whole and remain integral to the creative process.

I firmly believe that cultural criticism is as important today as it ever was, and that it, as a concept, is a worthwhile endeavor. Culture is an integral part of the global fabric of society, and to ignore it or stop talking about it would limit our worldview and make us lose perspective of our fellow man.

––Drew Haskins

Hoof 'n’ Horn opens first-ever staging of ‘The Aeneid’ Will Atkinson The Chronicle The title of Hoof ‘n’ Horn’s spring show contains a conscious choice of words, billing “The Aeneid” as “a play with songs.”

In most circles, this type of production is referred to as a “musical.” But that word, with its host of connotations, tends to provoke genuine discomfort among certain segments of modern audiences. Those inexplicable breaks into singing and dancing routines–each key change further battering the audience into emotional submission, capped off by an inevitable ensemble number–all are tropes of a genre that, for its lack of cynicism and irony, doesn’t find a welcoming home in cynical, ironic times. By avoiding the baggage of the term altogether, “The Aeneid” attempts to set itself apart from a crowded field.

“It’s not like the typical song-anddance that most people think of,” senior and producer Austin Ruiz said.

As a modern adaptation of Virgil’s epic poem, “The Aeneid” takes cues from the original material while couching its plot in a modern context.

The play, whose geographical setting is deliberately left unknown, follows a group of people, led by Aeneas, in their search for a new home after the old one is destroyed. Spirits of the dead— particularly Aeneas’s wife Creusa, played by junior Julia Medine—guide the group on their journey. The songs emanate from the realm of those who have passed, moving the plot forward. “[The music] is a mechanism for

the plot and not a mechanism for entertainment, like a lot of musicals.

A lot of the songs are essential for the scene or for understanding the plot,” senior Max Duncan, who plays the lead role of Aeneas, said. “It doesn’t carry along the baggage of being a musical and having the flashy entertainment value that comes along with the term.”

The play opens its eight-show, two-weekend run Thursday at 8 p.m. in Reynolds Industries Theater. As the final production in the theater company’s 80th anniversary season following “Sweeney Todd” and “Violet,” the production for “The Aeneid” took a different route as a collaboration with Duke’s Theater Studies department and a professional directing team.

Its story at Duke began when theater studies professor Bradley Rogers sought out an opportunity for a workshop show.

His search eventually connected him to professional director Kay Matschullat, who agreed to a residency at Duke. The Theater Studies department couldn’t take on the production, but Hoof ‘n’ Horn stepped up.

For an organization that, in all its eighty years, has taken pride in its top-down, student-run nature, agreeing to work with a professional creative team was no easy choice. The executive committee discussed the decision and brought it before the company’s general body for a vote.

Ultimately, the members of Hoof ‘n’ Horn decided a rare experience like this was worth sacrificing some measure of independence.

“The Aeneid” is a workshop production, which means it’s never

been staged before: This production serves as a trial for how the play might appear in an eventual world premiere.

Matschullat and the cast spent time discussing and refining each scene, constantly figuring out what worked and what didn’t. An actor’s choice in how they approached a scene might

dictate the direction of the play itself—an opportunity that producing an established play would never offer.

“It’s an interesting moment in a bigger process,” Medine said. “It’s an interesting peek into the development See AENEID on Page 10

Special to The Chronicle “The Aeneid,” opening at Duke this Thursday, runs for two weeks in Reynolds Industries Theater.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017 | 7

Playground

What's the deal with Duke and its social culture?

Nina Wilder The Chronicle

I made the realization as sweat beaded across the back of my neck and flimsy baby hairs stuck to my temples, an unfortunate byproduct of North Carolina’s beloved humidity and the swelling summer heat. It was orientation week, of course—no one could forget the way the sun beat down so angrily on us last August—and I was at a frat party with my roommate, who I had luckily known prior to my arrival at Duke. I made the realization again as I stood in the common room of an SLG, chatting with a stranger self-consciously about my hometown, my prospective major and my sparse extracurriculars, my end-goal to stand out and impress. And again as I hovered on the fringes of a house party, the tight-knit group of people both mesmerizing and alienating.

As Nick Carraway puts it in “The Great Gatsby,” "I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life." This largely informed my realization about Duke’s social culture that I revisit with increasing curiosity: Duke’s social scene is perplexing in its intricacies, a positive feedback loop of discontentment and partying commingled with a resilient culture of exclusion, but a body that cannot be defined without contradictions. While such a realization was undoubtedly spawned by my anxious tendencies and social jitters, I quickly learned that I

The Chronicle Shooters, despite its many faults, tends to unite students who belong to different social groups.

was not alone in my deduction—there’s dissatisfaction present with Duke’s social culture amongst my peers, even if it isn’t always talked about.

Of the problems with Duke’s social culture, its propensity to favor exclusionary practices stands out clearly. There are the regular culprits of such practices—Greek organizations and SLGs don’t couch their selectivity in any particular way, the process of rush acting as the largest indicator that they actively include and exclude students.

And it shouldn’t be news to anyone

that selective living groups on campus are, well, selective, but that also doesn’t make their existence any less formative on Duke’s culture of exclusivity.

Compound that with the presence of organizations that are selective based on merit, scholarship, experience or talent—virtues that can be mired by nepotism and privilege–and exclusion is further perpetrated in spaces that are supposed to be inclusionary.

“The predominant way of making friends and having a community is trying to earn it, whether through

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selective organizations like SLGs or certain selective student groups like DSG,” sophomore Adam Bullock said.

Bullock’s sentiments were mirrored by sophomore Chandler Richards.

“You have to essentially try out to make friends…it feels like most organizations on campus have barriers to getting in, whether that’s an application or interview or audition,” she acknowledged.

Duke’s problem of procuring hyperselective communities didn’t arise out of nowhere, though—at a university with an 11 percent acceptance rate, their existence makes sense, as well as the notion that students would yearn for the social status and community that selective living groups and organizations provide.

“I feel like at any school as selective as Duke, social life will be selective as well,” Richards said.

“People here seem to really desire the validation that you get from being a part of a members-only situation,” Bullock noted. “There’s some pride in that. I mean, we’re all Duke students— we all chose to apply to a highly selective university and we’re all proud to say that we go here. But I think a lot of the exclusive social culture here is a microcosm of that.”

But for all of their selectivity, Greek organizations and SLGs tend to host most of the open parties that undergraduates hear about or attend, an ostensible contradiction to their impression of exclusion. To freshman Sandra Luksic, See CULTURE on Page 10

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8 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

Playground

Recess reviews: Hippo Campus in concert at Cat's Cradle Sid Gopinath The Chronicle The way the crowd was singing along, you would never guess that Hippo Campus had just released its first full-length album less than a month ago. Hippo Campus, the young band from St. Paul, Minn., played to a sold-out Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro on Saturday, and the members did not hesitate to instantly hook themselves into the positive feedback loop of energy between the crowd and the stage.

Starting early in the set with “Way It Goes,” the band cruised through crowd-pleaser after crowdpleaser. With two rich and varied EPs, as well as their recent album “Landmark,” to draw from, the band was not lacking for hits to play. Even the more subdued songs from “Landmark” sparkled with lead singer Jake Luppen’s bright vocals and effortless falsetto flips.

“Monsoon” had the crowd tenderly singing along, and three-part harmonies—especially prevalent throughout the new music—were well-rehearsed and tight. For a band that one wouldn’t first associate with vocal harmonies, Hippo Campus did a spectacular job in their live per formance of bringing the vocals to the foreground in their music.

Luppen carried the energy throughout the concert, frequently stepping back to let his bandmates take the spotlight for solos and

instrumental breaks. Little moments of intimate musical connection between guitarist Nathan Stocker and bassist Zach Sutton were thrilling to watch, even as Luppen stood at the front of the stage to sing.

Often, Luppen would step back to face drummer Whistler Allen, often joined by Stocker and Sutton in what came across as moments of nearly private human connection through music. It wasn’t hard to imagine that this setup, huddled around a drum set, the band members playing for themselves, was how this young band got their start.

Frequently, to begin or end a song, the members would build on each other for what could have been a jam session just as easily a wellplanned instrumental break. Even the newest songs sounded as polished as they would be at the end of a tour, showcasing the careful thought and planning that went into writing songs that could be executed as well live as in the studio.

Notably, the poppy “Western Kids” turned Cat’s Cradle into a massive, dancing, sing-along, leaving Luppen grinning at his bandmates. “South,” on the other hand, showcased a sort of intense live energy that might be missed among the jangly guitars and tender vocals in some of the band’s recorded music. With these songs, it became very evident that this is a band that thrives on a live crowd, a live energy, and a live dynamic. It isn’t that their live version is better than their recorded versions. It’s just that

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ASK US YOUR QUESTIONS. GIVE US YOUR OPINIONS.

Sid Gopinath | The Chronicle Hippo Campus only just released their first full-length album, but they're already attracting fans.

they sounded like a different band on stage in Carrboro than they do on their albums. They were more powerful, confident, and unapologetic.

Towards the end of the night, Stocker took the microphone and seemed at a loss for words as he addressed the crowd.

“You’re all beautiful people,” he said before pausing and looking out over the crowd. “I don’t know what else to say. Thank you very much.”

In the hands of a more practiced group, that may have come off as blunt or even dismissive. But with Hippo Campus, it was too genuine

to be dismissive. The four members of the band, younger than some undergraduates at Duke, seem to be baffled by their startling success.

Sure, in a few more years, the band may play a more polished live set.

They may wear creaky leather jackets and casually shrug off fans outside of Lollapalooza or Coachella. They may add layers of synthesizers or experimental harmony vocals. They may get jaded.

But, for now, they’re just four young guys that are thrilled to play for soldout crowds that are beyond excited to sing and dance along.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017 | 9

Playground

Recess reviews: Singer-songwriter SOHN in concert Sid Gopinath The Chronicle

The first thing anyone mentioned was the hat. To be fair, it was a bold statement hat. There was nothing cute about it. Even fedora masters like Jason Mraz and Bruno Mars would likely shy away from the extremely wide brim and unyieldingly black color.

But, inevitably, the conversation seemed to settle on the voice.

“Soaring,” I heard one person say as they left. “Effortless,” said another.

In the car on the way home, someone asked, “How does he even do that?”

At his Cat’s Cradle performance on Thursday, Christopher Michael Taylor, known by his stage name of SOHN, allowed his voice to be the centerpiece of the often paradoxically dense and delicate arrangements.

At one point, in his song “Paralysed,” SOHN sings the line, “Nobody can slit my throat, nobody can leave me lying by the side of the road like you can.” In the hands of a less practiced vocalist, these words would come off harsh, guttural and painful to the point of cliché. With SOHN, they come off as tender, forlorn and relatable.

Hearing these vocals meshed with SOHN’s layered arrangements, it would be understandable to expect the artist to sing over one or two band members with a computer between them. But he chose to eschew any vibes that he might have picked up from The Chainsmokers and brought a talented set of three musicians

along with him instead. The beats, electronic and viscerally thick on record, sparked with the live energy that only a drum kit could bring to the songs. Harmonies, pitch-shifted and dispersed throughout the recorded songs, were done on the spot with an unexpected crispness.

With writing credits for Banks and Aquilo, among others, SOHN has dipped into several corners of the dark indie-electronic music world.

Early in the concert, it became clear quite quickly that SOHN is indeed, for better or for worse, a singersongwriter. Per forming mostly seated

behind his synthesizer, it was not hard to imagine an alternate world where SOHN was just Taylor behind a piano on a lonely bar stage in London. Though he occasionally would stand or step a few feet away from his instrument, he was most comfortable looping and pitchshifting and cranking up the volume on his synthesizer as he let his vocals float in and around the music.

Even with his singer-songwriter sensibilities, though, SOHN knew how to ratchet up the intensity when translating his music to stage.

The songs from his debut album,

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Sid Gopinath | The Chronicle Although SOHN is a singer-songwriter, he knows how to translate his music to a live setting.

Excellence in Mentoring: Faculty Winners

“Tremors,” were performed live like a well-oiled machine. Carefully rehearsed buildups and hints of future songs wove together the various threads of songs. “Bloodflows” and “Tremors” both had the crowd cheering and swaying with the rhythmic pulse. Though “Lessons,” with its trademark rhythmic call and response harmonies, lost some of its impact in a live setting with fewer harmonies to build upon, the band still managed to supply an extra dose of energy and an extended intro to give the song a push.

Touring on the January release of his latest album “Rennen,” SOHN didn’t yet seem to have a handle on what the new hits were going to be. The band breezed through the new “Hard Liquor” rather than capitalizing on the rare chance in this set of music to play up the near-dance club beat. “Signal” and “Conrad” were performed exquisitely, if lacking a little polish from the well-worn “Tremors” set.

At one point, SOHN told the crowd, “We’re going to turn this room into a night club in Berlin!” Appropriately, he had brought along a full custom light show, with brightly colored bars of light scattered around the stage.

The crowd cheered along as the light show picked up, but the crowd’s energy quickly faded away after about a minute of music.

Everyone there seemed content to just let the waves of music wash over them, buoyed along by Taylor’s undeniably gorgeous vocals.

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10 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

AENEID from page 6 of the show rather than just a final product that’s been brushed over.”

In addition to its unconventional creation, where every cast member could leave a footprint on the development of the show, “The Aeneid” makes its ancient story relevant in a modern context. The ongoing historic refugee crises, in particular, were a point of reference for the theater company.

“Right now we’re getting all of our information about the refugee crisis through the news,” Duncan said. “It helps you empathize with people who are actually experiencing it by learning about it through art as opposed to just facts and news.”

By taking place in an ambiguous

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location, “The Aeneid” makes its themes universal. Anyone, Ruiz said, can relate to some feeling of loss, whether of a homeland or of a loved one. The decisions we make to overcome those losses and make it to other side form the backbone of Aeneas’s journey in the play.

“People need a place to live. They need a home. And if they don’t have a home, that’s when things start to go wrong,” senior and assistant director James Hamilton said. “Aeneas does all that he does—any bad stuff, any good stuff—all because he wants a place in the world.”

Working in a medium that can so easily be dominated by mere entertainment value, Hoof ‘n’ Horn’s newest production seeks to escape those constraints, breathing new life into an age-old story.

Special to The Chronicle 'The Aeneid' differs from other Hoof 'n' Horn shows in that it has a professional director.

CULTURE from page 7 the prominence of Greek life and SLGs within Duke’s social settings is not a side effect of their stranglehold over Duke’s social scene, but rather reflective of their proximity to certain resources.

“Greek life has a monopoly over parties because they have the money, the locations, the people… they have the infrastructure to throw parties,” Luksic said.

So, selective groups and organizations aside, where else can a student look to engage in Duke’s social culture?

The answer is perhaps Duke’s (and Durham’s) biggest anomaly, Shooters II Saloon. Its nefarious reputation as a hub for sweaty, swaying bodies and alleged sexual assault defines nearly every conversation about it, and yet Shooters is bustling and alive with Duke students all three days of the week that it’s open.

“There’s solidarity that comes from Shooters being a place that a lot of people at Duke can feel like they have a place to go to and have fun with other Duke students,” Bullock explained. “It almost feels like it’s more of an inclusive place, which is weird to think about.”

Weird, indeed, because while Shooters serves to diminish group factions and acts as a unifier for Duke students without discrimination (aside from the fact that one must pay a $5 entrance fee and risk potential sexual harassment), it also heavily influences Duke’s tendency to stretch partying and alcohol consumption outside of the weekend and into the weekdays.

“I used to joke, you better get your work done by Tuesday because the weekend starts on Wednesday,” Luksic

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The Chronicle mentioned.

There’s hypothetical truth to Luksic’s statement—it’s not unheard of for Duke students to head to Shooters on Wednesday, Devine’s on Thursday, a Greek or SLG party on Friday and back to Shooters on Saturday. Of course, most individuals take a break somewhere in between or opt to only party and consume alcohol on the weekends, but such a lore exists for a reason—Duke’s social culture can be all-consuming.

“I think Duke has this reputation— it’s cheesy to say it—that we work hard, party hard,” Bullock said. “It’s really unhealthy too, that I feel the need to frontload all of my homework and commitments so I can have fun while everyone else is having fun.”

None of this is to say that Duke’s social culture is inherently singular or doesn’t embody a universal party culture that pervades innumerable universities and colleges. Likewise, the idea that if a Duke student isn’t involved with selective groups, doesn’t drink alcohol or avoids Shooters like the plague then their social life will be ruined is hyperbole. And while some of my favorite social experiences in college have involved watching movies with friends and going to concerts in Durham, I would be lying if I said that I haven’t had fun at a frat party.

“I think social life in a greater sense can be realized in so many more aspects [than just parties],” Luksic said. “I really think it’s what you want to define as your social life.”

Truly, no matter how isolating, inaccessible or overbearing Duke’s social culture can seem, every student has a social niche waiting for them— it might be a little harder to find but unquestionably, it’s there.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017 | 11

THE BLUE ZONE

MBB PLAYER REVIEW—LUKE KENNARD

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WEDNESDY, MARCH 29, 2017

MEN’S BASKETBALL

COLUMN

Giles and Obi add to list of departures March delivers again

Staff Reports The Chronicle Almost a week after losing swingman Jayson Tatum when he declared for the NBA Draft, the Blue Devils will now say good-bye to his close friend Harry Giles.

Giles announced his decision to join Tatum in June’s NBA Draft on Twitter and in a press release through the team Tuesday afternoon. He is currently projected as a midto late first-round pick by most draft experts following a rocky freshman season and will be the team’s ninth one-and-done player since 2011. According to multiple reports, Giles is expected to hire an agent.

“With his uplifting personality and love for the game, Harry Giles has been a joy to coach,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said in the release. “He is only beginning to scratch the surface of how good he can be on the basketball court. Harry has an exciting NBA future ahead of him and we are here to fully support him as a member of our brotherhood.”

As was the case with Tatum, Giles’ season started with his own injury scare as the freshman underwent left knee arthroscopy Oct. 3 and did not take the floor for Duke until Dec. 19.

But after sitting out nearly a year and a half dating back to his right ACL tear during his senior season of high school, Giles was a work in progress for the Blue Devils and struggled to showcase the same skillset that made him the top-ranked recruit in the country. The freshman finished his Duke career averaging just 3.9 points and 3.8 rebounds in 11.5 minutes per game.

“Playing in the NBA has been my goal for as long as I can remember, and I’m so excited to take the next step in that journey,” Giles said in the release. “My time at Duke has been

This March has been, understandably, a rocky one for Blue Devil fans.

It started on a high note, as an unprecedented four-day run to the ACC tournament title in Brooklyn inspired hope that Duke could make a similar run toward the Final Four in Phoenix. America agreed, and 39 percent of ESPN brackets had the Blue Devils emerging as the champions of the East region, with 12 percent predicting that Mike Krzyzewski would bring home the program’s sixth national title next week.

But, as we learn every year, brackets are anything but predictable, and this time, Duke was one of the upset victims snatched by March Madness.

To make matters worse, the Blue Devil faithful had to watch their rivals from down the road clinch another ticket to the Final Four in an instant classic against Kentucky—the other team Duke fans hate rooting for. North Carolina is now in the Final Four for the second straight year and NCAA record 20th time overall as the Blue Devils are just trying to make sure their whole roster doesn’t flee before next season begins.

So it’s been a tough week and a half for the Cameron Crazies, to say the least.

But for most other college basketball fans, this has been another perfect example of what makes the NCAA

Brian Pollack

Jack White | The Chronicle Harry Giles did not play nearly as much as many anticipated in his freshman season but is still projected to be a first-round draft pick.

a dream come true. I’ve built so many strong relationships here and I have so many people to thank, from my teammates and coaches to our medical staff and strength coach. I can’t understate how proud I am to be part of the Duke basketball program forever.”

Giles enters the NBA draft as one of the biggest question marks among players expected to be selected in the first round. Although some teams will have a tough time getting past Giles’ bouts with foul trouble and difficulty on defense, others remain intrigued by the athleticism the Winston-Salem, N.C., native showed catching alley-oops and soaring high for rebounds near the end of his college career.

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Yet another transfer Forward Sean Obi announced his decision to transfer after graduating this spring Tuesday morning. The 6-foot-9 forward transferred from Rice after averaging 11.4 points and 9.3

rebounds per game as a freshman in 2013-14 and sat out during the Blue Devils’ national championship run in 2014-15.

As a physical rebounder, the Kaduna, Nigeria, native was expected to add to Duke’s frontcourt depth the last two seasons. But he only saw limited action in 10 games in 201516 and did not play at all last year following knee surgery.

A graduate transfer, Obi will be eligible to play immediately next season.

With the announcements, the Blue Devils have now lost four of the seven rotation players that they relied on toward the end of the season in Tatum, Giles, Matt Jones and Amile Jefferson, in addition to Chase Jeter and Obi to transfers. Duke will now wait for the NBA decisions of sophomore Luke Kennard and junior Grayson Allen to determine just how much production they will have to replace in the offseason.

See MARCH on Page 13

MEN’S TENNIS

SDSU settles with former player Hammond for $95K Phil Coons The Chronicle The wound from one of the strangest athletic injuries in Duke history has finally healed—at least financially.

San Diego State recently settled a lawsuit with former Blue Devil Cale Hammond for $95,000 following a freak injury that occurred during his match at the Aztec Tennis Center in March 2014, the San Diego Reader reported last week. Hammond’s left index finger was ripped off by a broken gate latch after he attempted to climb a fence and make a play on his opponent’s overhead smash that looked like it was heading over the fence. A redshirt junior at the time, Hammond returned to practice less than four weeks after the injury, but not before doctors had to amputate the top of his finger.

“I jumped up to get [the ball] and I put my

hand on the gate to brace myself,” Hammond told The Chronicle in 2014. “When my body hit the fence, it swung open and my finger was in the wrong place and it got smashed off.... As soon as it happened I knew I broke my finger but that’s all I knew immediately. Then I looked at it when I landed and I saw the bones and the fingertip was gone and then blood started flowing so I called for a doctor.”

Hammond originally filed a lawsuit against San Diego State and the California State University system back in May 2015.

According to the San Diego Reader report, the university’s attorneys argued that the university was not liable for Hammond’s injury because he was trying to play a ball during the match that was unplayable and was negligent in trying to play the ball by climbing up the fence.

According to court documents cited in See HAMMOND on Page 13

Chronicle File Photo Former men’s tennis player Cale Hammond lost part of his left index finger after climbing a fence at San Diego State to return a ball and placing his hand on a metal gate latch.

12 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

IMAGE from page 1 sports is part of the University…. None of us would be here if it weren’t for the interlacing of the many choices that were made on different fronts.”

Since the 1930s, several other choices have been made to keep Duke among the nation’s top institutions for both athleticallyand academically-inclined students.

‘Very few places could claim that’ When publications or other organizations rank the best colleges in the nation in terms of academics and athletics, Duke is mentioned with Stanford as the top two destinations for prospective students. The organization Niche actually ranked the Blue Devils ahead of the Cardinal for their 2017 rankings, though Stanford is normally thought of as the gold standard for having “the best of both worlds” with its 112 NCAA championships.

Although Duke is going through one of its worst two-year periods athletically in recent memory—the men’s basketball team’s recent ACC championship was the school’s first in any sport since 2014 and the University has not won a national championship since 2015—Duke’s reputation has not seemed to take a hit.

“Athletics are part of the fabric of this university. We have shown that we can go to the highest level academically while we still continue to go to the highest level athletically. That’s a combination [Brodhead] has put his arms around and hugged and made better,” Krzyzewski said. “Athletics is the window that a lot of people see this University from. Once they look into the window or walk through the door, they find truly one of the great, great institutions of learning in the world.

As long as we keep that combination of athletics and academics strong, Duke will continue to grow.”

Another major decision that has forged the University’s identity was the choice to hire an unheralded Krzyzewski from Army in 1980, then stay committed to him when his teams went 38-47 in his first three years.

Since that time, the five-time national champion has become a global basketball icon, and his decisions working with Brodhead and other administrators as college basketball has seen a rise in oneand-done players and transfers have only made the Blue Devils’ brand stronger.

“I think it’s the best school in the

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world,” Krzyzewski said. “I’m glad to be on the team that’s helped get it there.”

Even though Duke has had five players transfer and eight one-and-done players since 2011, its reputation for having veteran players who were also accomplished in the classroom was forged decades earlier.

“There’s no doubt that athletics has a huge impact on Duke’s visibility, and most of that relates to basketball.

For the longest period of time, Coach K wouldn’t put up the Final Four banner until every kid in the class had graduated,” said John Burness, former senior vice president for public affairs and government affairs.

“I remember when I first came, I was contacted by a reporter…. He was totally taken by this idea that Duke would not put up banners until everybody had graduated. The sense that was out there was that Duke did athletics and academics at a high level, although clearly it was basketball that was driving that image on the athletics side. There’s no doubt that Duke’s brand was excellence in athletics and academics combined. Very few places could claim that.”

‘A unique blend’ Although football was the first sport many people saw when they thought of Duke earlier in the 20th century, the Blue Devils became one of the nation’s worst football programs in the early 2000s. As Duke rose to or stayed at the top in a slew of sports, including men’s basketball, men’s lacrosse and women’s golf, its football team went winless three times from 2000 to 2007.

So one person who has a keen appreciation for how athletics can impact a university’s image is Cutcliffe, who has mentored Peyton and Eli Manning and already led the Blue Devils to an ACC championship game and bowl victory in his first decade at the helm.

“We are able to be somewhat of the curb appeal to a lot of people. For years, Duke basketball, with the national attention that it’s had and deserved, has given people a unique look at Duke. If I’m an extremely high-quality student and I’m looking for the best education in the world, the appeal, the change or the difference in the decision a young person might make might very well be based on the curb appeal,” Cutcliffe said. “It may be based upon Duke Athletics, so we’re a unique blend.”

Chronicle File Photo Duke won its first bowl game since 1961 in 2015, a decade after owning one of the worst Division I football programs in the country.

“There are two or three, maybe two, institutions at this level of athletics and academics. I think we prove daily that we’re on the same mission, that we’re about discipline, growth, learning and mentoring young, exceptional people, and that there is a place for extremely high-end athletics to live in the world of the best academic process.”

Brodhead’s tenure has also seen a new leader of Duke Athletics in White arrive. The vice president and director of athletics acknowledged that sports impact a university’s brand, but also noted how much that process has changed in the world of lucrative television deals and social media.

Duke men’s basketball’s social media presence is often lauded as one of the best in college athletics, with the team’s Twitter account boasting more than 1,200,000 followers. That number is greater than twice the followers for other blue-bloods like North Carolina, Kentucky and Kansas, and the University’s coaches have also noted how much recruiting has changed as a result of social media.

“With technology, there are a lot more engaging opportunities relative to athletics, access points if you will. It would have to have the potential of a larger impact on the brand of a place like Duke University, which isn’t just a domestic school, it’s a global institution,” White said. “Athletics does have the ability to enhance the image and the reputation.

There’s an innumerable number of opportunities for that to happen….

Athletics does play a role, and the role has changed because of technology.”

The relationship Duke’s students have with athletics has also changed along with the University’s demographics.

A recent year of admissions saw Duke’s first class ever with more students saying the one thing that attracted them to the University most was DukeEngage rather than Duke men’s basketball.

Many claim a more academicallyinclined student body is one of the reasons undergraduate student attendance has dipped in the past decade.

Others wonder if the current attention given to athletics—men’s basketball in particular—is excessive given the University’s other strengths.

That begs the question—are sports too big a part of the University’s image and identity?

sports

Chronicle File Photo Success in other sports like men’s lacrosse and women’s golf has only helped Duke’s reputation as a top destination for academically- and athletically-inclined students.

The Chronicle

An inherent tension Despite his extensive background as a student, professor and dean at Yale, Brodhead said he has not worried too much about the impact athletics has on Duke and whether it might be excessive. Instead, he focused on the benefits for students and the community as a whole.

“Before I came, I wondered if I would worry about it. But the truth is it’s very rare to meet someone at Duke who is a sports nut without being a somethingelse nut too. It’s an additive,” Brodhead said. “It’s not as if there’s a zero sum and every part of you that cares about sports is subtracting from something else.

That’s just not the way it works. It’s an enhancer. It’s an inspiritor, if you could use that word.”

As revenues for football and basketball have gone through the roof nationally with television contracts, conference realignment and arms races regarding everything from facilities to nutrition—starting a vigorous pay-forplay debate—most Power-5 conference schools have had to grapple with the same dilemmas.

“It’s out of control. The emphasis, the money, the amount of money coaches get paid, the facilities escalation—it’s not good,” former provost Peter Lange said.

“One has concerns about getting the right mix between athletics and academics all the time. That’s true at any institution, and it’s certainly going to be true at Duke, where we so value academics. On the other hand, as provost, that concern never became an alarm bell for me.”

Lange said that the emphasis placed on academics by Blue Devil coaches and their work with the admissions office to select players keeps the University balanced as it walks the fine line between seeking academic supremacy and maintaining its status as an athletic powerhouse.

And because of the decisions that have been made for more than a century, Duke’s reputation has endured, with the school not missing a beat even with the infamous lacrosse case in 2006 and other obstacles since then.

“Nowadays, I think the multiple of Duke’s strengths are pretty well known through the world. It’s a pretty rare place where the only thing you know about Duke is athletics,” Brodhead said. “There are countries that actually don’t care much about athletics, and Duke is still well-known in those places too.”

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After the opening round left fans desperate for some classic March magic, this tournament has delivered in just about every way. The Round of 32 produced a seemingly endless string of games that came down to the wire and kept you glued to your TV all day.

Oregon, Kentucky and North Carolina nearly had their national title hopes dashed before the second weekend began, and the entire ACC minus the Tar Heels bowed out before the supposedly-inferior SEC secured three teams in the Elite Eight.

In the Sweet 16, Wisconsin and Jeremy Chen | The Chronicle Florida—two teams that don’t Sindarius Thornwell and South Carolina have been part of another extremely exciting exactly play entertaining, fast-paced basketball—treated fans to the NCAA tournament. tournament’s only overtime contest. from page 11 With a regulation buzzer-beater, another one in overtime and a miraculous chasetournament the greatest spectacle in down, game-saving block, this game had collegiate sports. all of the makings to be the “game of the Surprisingly, the first two days of this tournament.” year’s tournament were almost painfully And it very well deserved to be, but dull. There were no dramatic overtimes, the Tar Heels and the Wildcats may have thrilling buzzer-beaters or significant stolen that honor themselves. Two of the upsets of any kind. No teams seeded country’s blue-blood programs came out 13th or lower pulled off a Round of 64 for an encore of their 103-100 regularvictory, and the one 12-seed that did, season thriller, and an ironic twist of Middle Tennessee State, was actually fate that effectively mirrored last year’s favored against a criminally over-seeded national championship game ending Minnesota squad. sent Kentucky home in tears.

But then, the East region imploded.

A great March Madness requires at Wisconsin upended top-seeded Villanova, least one Cinderella that advances way seemingly opening up the path for Duke further than it has any right to expect, to cruise to the Final Four. Except South and this year, 11th-seeded Xavier and Carolina had other intentions, and seventh-seeded South Carolina have suddenly upsets were contagious. stepped up as tournament darlings.

From the Blue Devils’ perspective, it Only Gonzaga’s suffocating defense was a heartbreaking weekend. But it also prevented a 7-11 Advertise here for Final Four matchup, felt like a return to normalcy—March nowresults the Bulldogs are also making theand best Madness was in full swing. their first Final Four appearance in

program history. As a team that spent from page 11 a good chunk of the season ranked No. 1 in the nation but hails from a notoriously weak conference, Gonzaga the story, many Aztec coaches and grounds somehow manages to feel like both a staff were aware of the worn welding on the favorite and an underdog at the same fences surrounding the tennis courts. During time—which makes the Bulldogs, if depositions, many San Diego State coaches, including women’s head coach Peter Mattera, nothing else, fascinating.

Now, we have a Final Four with a admitted to seeing similar structural issues five or team everyone thought should be 10 times since the center opened in 2005.

After suffering the shocking injury, here in the Tar Heels, and another team that nobody ever dreamed would Hammond was rushed to the emergency make it—just .06 percent of people room while the tip of his detached finger on ESPN had the Gamecocks in the was put on ice. Doctors realized that they could not reattach the tip without harming national semifinals.

Oregon, making its first trip to the Hammond’s nerves, so they amputated a final weekend in 78 years, rounds out the portion of it and shaved over the bone so it quartet after coming up just short in the could partially regrow.

“If it cut my finger off doing something Elite Eight last year. The Ducks eked out wins against Rhode Island and Michigan stupid or dangerous it would be a lot more by the skin of their teeth, then soundly depressing,” Hammond said shortly after the defeated a Kansas team that looked injury. “The fact that I did it going for a ball, like an unstoppable scoring machine doing what I love—playing tennis—makes it feel like it was supposed to happen.” barreling toward the Final Four.

After intense physical therapy that And there are still so many included exercises to stimulate the nerve storylines that haven’t been touched endings of his finger, Hammond returned to here—the incredibly fun style and the court one month after the injury. Luckily antics of Michigan and John Beilein, for the Tulsa, Okla., native, the index finger the De’Aaron Fox-Lonzo Ball point is not a vital part of his game—the left index guard matchup we were treated to finger is not heavily utilized by a right-handed in the Sweet 16 and Northwestern making the tournament for the player in his backhand swing—and he posted first time ever and nearly staging a three doubles wins in April 2014.

As a senior in 2015, Hammond posted a 20-point comeback against Gonzaga, 4-2 record in singles play and a 5-3 doubles just to name a few.

Some Duke fans may have buried record. He ultimately left the Duke program their heads after their team lost to with a 42-22 overall doubles record.

Hammond earned his undergraduate South Carolina, vowing not to watch any more college basketball for quite some degree in sociology and a master’s degree time. If they’ve sworn off the sport in from the Fuqua School of Business. According New York Times Syndication Corporation to his LinkedIn profile, he now lives in Los the past The 10 days, they’ve been missingSales 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 Angeles, working as a program coordinator quite a show—and there are still For Information Call: three 1-800-972-3550 ForRelease ReleaseWednesday, Tuesday, March for the Tennis Channel. games left to For go.

March28, 29,2017 2017

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A minor choice: majors

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

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A

s the major declaration process ends with the “Academic Homecoming: Major Madness” event Wednesday evening, many sophomores will indubitably find themselves picking up a t-shirt with the name of a major that they are less than excited about. Some will likely ask themselves whether they might have made a bad choice in choosing a “practical major” rather than one they are passionate about. Regardless of feelings or situations, all students should realize that although choosing a course of study is important, it need not be a high-pressure, lifedefining decision.

For one, students can simply change their major. Duke’s relatively lax core curriculum affords undergraduates a level of flexibility that lets them switch between even unrelated courses of study. Although perhaps scary, that choice is always open. It is important, though, for the agency of that choice to lie wholly with a student—not with the pressure of their friends or the words of their parents. While it is understandable that some parents might wish to influence their student’s major decision, they

onlinecomment “Duke University should be viewed as a leader in innovation and cutting-edge research, and the proposed Duke Energy natural gas plant is not taking a step in the right direction. Duke Energy has had a poor history of environmental compliance issues and is a major polluter of North Carolina’s air and water.”

—Anjali Kumar Orlando, responding to “Letter to the editor”

ought to realize that their kids, likely adults, must be allowed to begin making choices for themselves, starting with choice of what classes they take.

Students unsure about their major choice can take solace in the fact that most courses of study in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences take 12 or fewer classes. That leaves undergraduates between 20 and 35 other courses to explore their academic curiosities. A budding sophomore economics student could easily study the history of hip-hop,

Editorial become a pseudo-expert in Wittgenstein and become knowledgeable about health care by the time they graduate. And even if they were unable to take extra classes, they could easily choose to work with a professor, expanding their academic horizons in another way.

For students who have chosen a 16-course biophysics major and cannot take extra classes or work in labs outside of their academic concentration, there is more good news still: academic exploration at Duke does not end in

Direct submissions to:

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Letters should not exceed 325 words; contact the editorial department for information regarding guest columns.

The Chronicle will not publish anonymous or form letters or letters that are promotional in nature. The Chronicle reserves the right to edit letters and guest columns for length, clarity and style and the right to withhold letters based on the discretion of the editorial page editor.

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Inc. 1993

CLAIRE BALLENTINE, Editor

the lecture hall. If majoring in biophysics prevents someone from satisfying a penchant for writing, they could join any number of writing groups on campus (the Editorial Board among them). If that person were instead pining for a chance to explore politics, they could attend events held by the American Grand Strategy group or take a more active role by exploring local government at Duke and in Durham.

The bottom line is that Duke University allows students to explore academics both outside class and through an enormous number of possible combinations of majors, minors and certificates that can be safely completed with room to spare. Even students studying two disjointed topics have a chance to engage fully with both ends of their studies and produce world-class work.

Choosing a major is a necessary step in a Duke undergraduate career, but it need not be life altering. A computer science major does not prevent a student from becoming a chemist, and a chemistry major does not prevent a student from becoming a computer scientist.

A period for periods V

aginas are quite the controversial topic.

Half of the population has one and thus half of the population holds the secret understanding of this mystical body part.

The other half that doesn’t have one says they “know their way around one.” Except, in reality, men aren’t even willing to discuss a regular occurrence of the vagina: the period. Even worse, men believe they have the right to exert control over its existence. This quizzical relationship between man and the vagina is where the core problems of basic vagina rights emerge.

The period. It is a monthly occurrence that scares most people. It’s bloody. Some call it gory; some call it a battlefield. Teenagers rue the day it arrives. Most people don’t think about the fact that menstruation is an essential part of creating human life. Many people dismiss it as “gross” and an untouchable subject—something that can and should be hidden. Women tend to be ashamed of it and cover any evidence of it; we quickly whisper to a friend and execute the very strategic public hand-off of a tampon, or choose to stay home.

” edit pages

LETTERS POLICY

Est. 1905

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com commentary

14 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

Lizi Byrnes-Mandelbaum

the association of menstruation with shame and lack of accessibility to products. One of the speakers was the sole American employee of ZanaAfrica, an organization that provides schools across Kenya with sanitary napkins and sex education. The other guest was a lawyer working in New York to create federal and state policies that elevate access to menstruation products from the status of solely a reproductive right to a basic human right.

Thanks to the universal shame surrounding this necessary bodily function, many areas of the United States put a tax on tampons and pads. Yes, as of 2015, 40 states imposed a luxury tax on the already steep price of sanitary products under the pretense that the products fall under health care costs. The men that hold the majority of political office in this country have chosen to demand a surtax on a product that every single woman who gets her period needs, while allowing Viagra—a drug that I’m sure a large portion of the old white men in the new presidential administration use but most don’t necessarily need—to be sold

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Duke’s club Progress Period advertised an event about discussing the stigmatization of periods with a question: “What if you had to miss class every time you had your period?” They didn’t pose this question merely as a way to grab people’s attention. They meant to stir up a real and meaningful social dialogue.

Missing school due to menstruation is an issue the spans the entire world, including right here in the United States. Impoverished women struggle to purchase sanitary products and thus are forced to stay home or risk exposing their menstrual blood in front of their classmates. The first of the two options is the more attractive one due to the stigma behind periods. In rural places like Kenya or Malawi, this stigma leads far too many middle and high-schoolers to bypass their education, missing one-fourth of their schooling while staying home on their periods.

It is imperative to provide girls with menstrual products so they are able to get an education and a job and hopefully leave their familial loops of poverty within the villages in which they grew up. Apart from the practical advantages of using sanitary products, women feel empowered and have an equal stake in society with access to sanitary products.

Progress Period brought two women to campus in order to discuss issues surrounding

with no tax at all.

There is a necessity to provide girls and women with the products that enable them to go to school. We must continue to fight in order to shift the mindset about periods from a gross anomaly to the body’s incredible signal that it is capable of giving life. Some men want to keep the period stigmatized. They fear women’s power to create life; they are intimidated by it.

They feel the need to control every aspect of the vagina in the political and health care world.

But they shouldn’t be the people dictating how women care for their bodies. The ones with the vaginas should.

Access should be a human right and not a taxed, “optional” product. The ability to give birth should be a glorified, impressive characteristic— not one of which to be ashamed. We must fight to uproot this stigma and exert our human right to sanitary products for those women who cannot fight. Society should promote women’s confidence through a bodily process that makes the entire population possible.

Lizi Byrnes-Mandelbaum is a Trinity sophomore.

Her column, “dear dystopia” runs on alternate Mondays.

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com commentary

Regulating the unregulatable

T

o the dismay of speculative traders the world over, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently opted to reject a proposed exchange-traded fund that would have indexed the socalled cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

Bitcoin was the first of now many cryptocurrencies that operate off of a “blockchain.” This is a revolutionary system proposed by an anonymous individual (in this legendary whitepaper) that can achieve consensus through decentralized transparency and properly aligned incentives. Essentially, people who don’t trust each other can trust the system of ledgers that keeps a publicly available account of who did what.

The way that Bitcoins enter the world is through “mining.” At its most basic level, this involves people

David Wohlever Sánchez SIMPLE COMPLEXITY with powerful computers verifying transactions and receiving rewards for their efforts. Bitcoin and other coins can also be acquired by individuals or firms through exchanges.

The infamous Winklevoss twins had filed a proposal to start an exchangetraded fund that would track the price of Bitcoin, allowing easier and more institutionalized access to the asset for investors. The SEC rejected it, noting the ambiguities surrounding the platform, immense volatility, and lack of protection for stakeholders.

In their decision, the SEC made a few interesting remarks that leave the future of regulation and listing of digital currencies in a strange limbo.

This digital currency was rejected in part because “the significant markets for Bitcoin are unregulated,” which could raise “concerns about the potential for fraudulent or manipulative acts and practices in this market.” In a glimmer of hope, however, the SEC did note that “Bitcoin is still in the relatively early stages of its development and that, over time, regulated Bitcoin-related markets of significant size may develop.”

Bitcoin isn’t the only thing at state here. Hundreds of other cryptocurrencies have emerged that are changing the ways people are able to match with unique goods and services over the internet. One such crypto, Ethereum, allows users to create “smart contracts” in which parties that do not trust each other can agree to some sort of exchange, executed by code.

Another token called Golem creates a market for idle computer power. Other big coins that employ the power of the blockchain include Dash, Ripple, Monero, Litecoin, NEM and, of course, the comically named Dogecoin.

The SEC and other regulators ought to figure out where cryptocurrencies stand. Are they property or currency?

Are such transactions taxed like any other? Are earnings on trades taxed as capital gains or something else? And perhaps most importantly, how can we simultaneously recognize anonymous platforms as enablers of illegal

transactions and legitimate financial instruments?

These are not easy questions.

However, I hold the opinion that regulators ought to clarify these questions sooner rather than later, while cryptocurrencies are still (somewhat) in their infancy. This technology is advancing quickly and is here to stay—regulated or not.

Should regulators want any say over this decentralized system, they must work to understand the platform and respect the fundamentals of the system. They should make their expectations for compliance clear and reasonable, without distorting the markets so much as to discourage individuals and exchanges from cooperating.

This will require intense inquiry, including observations from areas

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017 | 15

Taming the dragon and courting the bear A

s the eagle retreats, the dragon and the bear have gained ground across the geopolitical realm. President Donald J. Trump directing our nation’s grand strategy inwards is playing into the hands of the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation.

Both nations seek to create and maintain a new world order—without the United States at the helm of global leadership—in order to undermine the progress made in bringing the world together instead of pushing us apart. This is a turn for the worse. Our country’s leadership needs to recalibrate its approach for the sake of ensuring stability, peace and prosperity for not only the United States of America, but also for the entire free world.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interests are not aligned with our American interests. Each leader salivates at the prospect of the collapse of the post-World War II liberal international order that values free markets, the rule of law and democracy. Both world leaders see this as a positive development in world history

John Guarco

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terrorism, will soon enjoy the financial advantages achieved through the Iranian Nuclear Deal. The nation has acquired access to new markets due to the reduction of economic sanctions imposed and increased productivity—and profitability— of oil. This will only make it easier for Iran to become a regional hegemonic power and engender a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. North Korea has tested the United States repeatedly, as the nation recently conducted a series of rocket engine tests that bring it closer to the final states of nuclear test preparations.

North Korean indifference to America’s warnings, aided by Chinese complicity, is likely to emerge as a significant national security threat.

President Donald J. Trump even suggested that President Barack Obama warned him that this was one of the more pressing matters at hand on the world stage.

Then, there is the bear. The Russian Federation has acted as a bulwark to world order through its annexation of Crimea, invasion of Ukraine, intervention in Georgia and involvement in Syria.

CARTHAGO DELENDA EST

of study including (but certainly not limited to) economics, ethics, public policy, political science, sociology, psychology, political economy, and philosophy. Considerations of this sort could offer a holistic picture of the interactions between people, value and the internet.

Additionally, consideration of how these currencies presently are used can only take us so far. Since their adoption rate is very low, the current use is likely not representative of how currencies would be used once they become mainstream.

Serious attention must be paid to the fact that cryptocurrencies, as they stand, often are utilized to more easily conduct illicit trades (especially drug trade). This is not a strikedown argument against their integration into mainstream use because keeping them in the limbo between legitimate and illegitimate will not end that class of usage. However, regulators ought to consider these realities when crafting the institutions, bearing in mind that we should strive not to disincentivize legitimate use through unbearable regulation.

If cryptocurrencies are anything, they are unpredictable; the only thing that seems clear to me is that smart cryptos will be a powerful force in the future. But for now, Bitcoin remains a non-mainstream but mainstream enigma, one that will keep regulators scratching their heads and traders kicking themselves for not buying or selling at the right price. And so long as these coins are not allowed at the “big kids” table, they will be limited in their adoption and progress will be stalled. It is time for serious consideration of how we as a society want to use this new technology, and how we want our governments to regulate them.

Columnist’s note: No part of this article should be taken as investment advice. This was adapted from a piece I wrote for Duke Political Review.

David Wohlever Sánchez is a Trinity sophomore.

His column, “simple complexity” runs on alternate Wednesdays.

because it would undermine the last remaining superpower: the United States. These western values embody themselves in the multilateral institutions created in the advent of the end of the second world war like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the European Union. These, and other global mechanisms of cooperation, are threatened from both exogenous and endogenous forces; particularly, the actions of both Russia and China.

On the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, President and Chairman Xi Jinping announced, “The world is on the verge of radical change. We see how the European Union is gradually collapsing, as is the United States economy—it is all over for the new world order. Our alliance with Russia will create a new world order within ten years.” China realizes it needs more than a unilateral effort to win the global game of chess being played. Militarizing the South China Sea has been clarified as a Chinese military ambition, as recent satellite imagery shows new placements for anti-aircraft weaponry on the Spratly Islands. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson condemned the Chinese for infringing on Japanese sovereignty during confirmation hearings. Efforts to seize control of the Japanese Senkaku islands in the East China Sea has led to a reaffirmation of Article V of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between Japan and the United States of America by Secretary of Defense James Mattis. Yet, our words alone have not deterred the dragon.

China sees itself as the rightful heir to global hegemony due to its rising power on the economic, military and political dimensions; however, it knows that it cannot do this alone.

The Chinese leadership understands that it needs Russia, Iran and North Korea to foster China’s dangerous ambitions. Each nation shares a common disdain for the United States and sees an opening to restructure our world’s order. This past September, China’s Defense Ministry convened joint maritime military drills in the South China Sea with Russia. Only a few days ago, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani proclaimed that, “The decline of the West and the end of capital monopoly have provided a historic opportunity for establishing a new world” at Moscow State University. This was just after meeting with President Vladimir Putin to sign oil production and arms trade agreements. These are not mere words. They are backed by empirical evidence of efforts to restrict American global influence at the expense of the Western order.

Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of

President Vladimir Putin’s nation has funded far-right, nationalist European parties skeptical of membership in the European Union and in favor of renewed relations with the Kremlin. The American intelligence community has concluded, upon consensus across agencies, that Russia did indeed intervene in the previous presidential election to undermine Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Even President Donald J. Trump worryingly has called NATO “obsolete.”

All of this in tandem paints a dark future for the world as we know it. The security apparatus implemented by the United States is gradually eroding as a new world order takes shape.

President Barack Obama rightfully said, “When trouble comes up anywhere in the world, they don’t call Beijing, they don’t call Moscow. They call us. That’s the deal.” We need to preserve this because a world where America leads is far more desirable than one where it steps both inwards and backwards.

It would be wise to hearken to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s advice on triangular diplomatic relationships. In explaining the relationship between the United States, China and the Soviet Union in the twentieth century, Kissinger notes that he aimed to “do something with China that annoys Russia and for which we can bargain.”

In essence, Kissinger describes our triangular relationship as “in itself a form of pressure on each of them, and we carefully maneuvered so we would try to be closer to each than they were to each other. One way we achieved that was by rather carefully informing each side what we were doing with the other, so that created its own pressures, but we added no threat.”

America must act. In order to prevent the rise of Sino-Russian relations that threaten global peace, the United States must move closer to China and Russia than the two nations are with each other. We are seemingly succeeding on the latter front, although to an extent that should be questioned—but this marks progress, nonetheless. We must also move towards engaging in diplomatic efforts with China to bring the nation closer to us than it is with Russia to bring about a true balance of power. The chaos that the unfolding new world order is bringing should not bring us to the abyss. As George R.R. Martin wrote, “Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder.”

The United States should be ready to climb this ladder to ensure that it remains at the top—both metaphorically and geopolitically.

John Guarco is a Trinity senior. His column, “carthago delenda est.,” usually runs on alternate Wednesdays.

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com

16 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

present 2017 AMI STUDENT FILM AWARDS SCREENING + RODGER FREY FILM ESSAY AWARD Thursday, March 30th in Griffith Film Theater @ 7 PM 2

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Total running time: 72 minutes

Works to Be Screened:

1) [Untitled], Salima Al-Ismaili (Grad)

9) Brought to Life, Joseph Park ’16 (Fall)

3) [Untitled], Justin Du ’19

11) Lines, Colleen Pesci (Grad)

2) Autumn (Vivaldi), Izzi Clark ’17 4) Quizás, Aurélia Fava ’17

10) 88.1, Colleen Pesci (Grad)

12) Self Doubt, Kattiesha Plum ’20

5) Snapshots, Youlim Kim ’19

13) Looking for Dark, Hunter Stark ’18

7) New Soul, Ruth Melka ’17

15) Conversations with My Mother; Trees

6) Settings, Caitlyn Martinez ’20 8) Ten Thousand Others, Elaine Pak ’17

14) Surprise Yourself, Vivian Wang ’19 and Undergrowth, Jennifer Zhou ’18

http://ami.duke.edu/screensociety |

@DukeAMI |

2017 Rodger Frey Film Essay Award The inaugural award goes to Upasana Chandra '16 for her essay, “Once Upon a Time: Warped and Uncanny Fairy Tales in Hitchcock’s Oeuvre.”

Sponsored by the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI).

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