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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

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018 DUKECHRONICLE.COM

See Inside Comeback not enough in stormy tournament game Page 11

Ian Jaffe | Special Projects Photography Editor

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTEENTH YEAR, ISSUE 84

By Ben Leonard Managing Editor

A racial epithet written on a door during the night. Students overheard chanting a racial slur loudly along with the lyrics of a song. Snapchats containing the same word exposed on the Duke Memes for Gothicc Teens page. As students prepare for exams, a series of racially charged incidents have come to light on campus in recent days. First, a student’s Snapchat story appeared Thursday in Duke’s meme page. The first image showed a hand holding a bottle of Hennessy with the caption “Howdy, I’m a n*****.” A second photo pictured two men holding bottles captioned “JK i am not a n*****.” The next day, an email from Janine Weaver-Douglas, associate dean of Central Campus residence life, informed Central Campus residents in an email that a 300 Swift apartment complex resident’s door was defaced with the racial epithet. Lisa Beth Bergene, associate dean of East Campus, wrote in an email sent to East Campus resident assistants and graduate residents Friday night that the slur used was “n***** lover.”

As students prepare for exams, incidents including racial epithets have come to light on campus, resulting in a petition by some students to create a formal policy against hate speech.

“Behavior and action in this vein are unacceptable on this campus,” Weaver-Douglas wrote in the Friday morning email. The same morning as the incident at 300 Swift, a recently created Facebook account—listed under the name Michael Scayfield—posted a message in the meme page Friday morning with a racially charged request to “discuss why people say blacks are feeling unsafe right now.” No one with the name Michael Scayfield is enrolled at Duke. Duke’s administration has denounced the acts—but with no policy banning hate speech, no formal action has been taken on the Snapchat incident. According to Bergene’s email, no responsible party had been found for the 300 Swift incident. Two weeks prior to these incidents, a student reported to a residence coordinator that in a West Campus residence hall, a group of students was “loudly” and “enthusiastically singing the word racial slurs along with the lyrics of a song,” according to Bergene’s email. These events are not the only ones to spark campus-wide discussion in recent years. See INCIDENTS on Page 3

Protesters want the Board of Trustees to increase transparency. We asked Board members for their response. By Adam Beyer | Digital Strategy Director Sarah Kerman | Senior News Reporter Two weeks ago, a group of student protesters demanded greater transparency from the Board of Trustees. In an effort to gather the Trustees’ opinion on that demand, The Chronicle investigated the matter and found that even contacting the members could be a challenge. The student group—who calls themselves the People’s State of the University—interrupted President Vincent Price’s speech to demand changes at the University. Their second demand calls for greater transparency in the University’s Board of Trustees meetings. “In opening up Board of Trustee meetings to public review, Duke gives its community a chance to weigh in on significant policy decisions,” the group wrote in their manifesto.

“These necessary reforms can only be made possible with a more transparent Board of Trustees and community-based approaches to monetary budgeting.” Responses to the demand We reached out to the Trustees to ask whether they plan to bring up the demand for transparency at the Board’s next meeting. We also asked whether the Trustees would support reinstating a public session for the Board or whether they would favor any other transparency measures. The inquiries to the Board members were largely met with a unified response—silence. When Trustees did respond, they deferred all comments to Board Chair Jack Bovender. In an email sent by Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, Bovender wrote that the Board

attempts to maintain confidentiality in its When asked about the Trustees deferring governance and that this is common practice all comment to the Board Chair, Riddell wrote among other peer institutions. in an email that this “has been a Board practice “As fiduciaries of the for a long time, and University, Trustees seek As fiduciaries of the University, was in place when [he] to create an environment Trustees seek to create an started working with at their meetings where the Board in 2007.” everyone is encouraged environment at their meetings The Chronicle asked to speak openly and where everyone is encouraged to whether the policy of candidly, confident that deferring to the Board what one says will not be speak openly and candidly... Chair was written. reported to others who Riddell responded that were not in attendance jack bovender it is not, but rather is or participated in the long-established CHAIR OF THE BOARD “a discussion,” Bovender practice, consistent wrote. “For this reason, the minutes of Board with that at boards of peer institutions.” meetings are confidential for 50 years.” John Burness, who formerly served Subsequent inquiries to Bovender were as Duke’s senior vice president for public directed to Richard Riddell, senior vice president See BOARD on Page 4 and secretary to the Board of Trustees.

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