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
Friday, april 15, 2011
Role of RGAC scores remains up in the air
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH YEAR, Issue 135
www.dukechronicle.com
A&S council
Nashed potatoes
Patton to push collaboration in new position
by Maggie Spini THE CHRONICLE
The Residential Group Assessment Committee will submit its evaluations of selective living groups today to the body that will determine whether groups will be placed on probation. Administrators said the scores’ role in the transition to and placement of groups in the house model in Fall 2012 is yet to be determined. The scores reflect the completion of RGAC’s contribution in the inaugural year of the Collaborative Housing Process. Under the process, RGAC—made up of student representatives—evaluates residential living groups based on their contributions to campus, among other factors. The Approval and Removal Committee—composed of students and administrators—then uses the scores to determine if any group should be placed on residential probation. CHP was created last April, after administrators decided to end campus-wide shuffling of living groups. The ARC will begin its process of evaluating fraternities and selective living groups today to ensure that groups are adhering to residential policies, said junior John Nelson, ARC student co-chair. “RGAC scores will be released, and then after ARC will meet to determine whether or not action should be taken against one or more SLGs,” Nelson said. Deb LoBiondo, assistant dean for residence life, said CHP is assessing the contributions campus living groups make to the community
by Lauren Carroll THE CHRONICLE
RLHS officials said in March that RGAC scores will likely not be used to determine where groups are placed under the house model, using size and groups’ historical ability to recruit instead. It remains unclear, however, how exactly RGAC scores or assessments
It’s time for students and faculty to get a little closer. Across all academic disciplines of the University, there is potential for increased interaction between faculty and students, said Laurie Patton, the incoming dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences, in her address to the Arts and Sciences Council Thursday. “I have a profound commitment to collective genius,” Patton said. “It will drive the educational communities of the 21st century.” Patton, who currently serves as Charles Howard Candler professor of religions at Emory University and director of Emory’s Center for Faculty Development and Excellence, shared her expectations for her new position. As dean, she hopes to answer three questions she said are challenging modern universities, and Duke in particular: how to maintain a balance between online and face-to-face learning, how to remove the boundary between the University and the outside community and how to evaluate Duke’s global impact as it increases its international efforts. She said this is possible by ensuring research collaboration between Duke faculty, graduates and undergraduates.
See RGAC on page 4
See council on page 4
tracy huang/The Chronicle
Students enjoy free food at Nash-Up, an event Thursday to celebrate the Nasher Museum of Art’s fifth anniversary. The event featured musical performances and free tote bag making. to determine if groups should continue to have space on campus. “It is a privilege to have space in our halls and with that comes certain responsibilities,” LoBiondo wrote in an email Wednesday. “The generated scores [and] the assessment process will assist [RGAC] to determine what groups should continue to have space.”
Sororities petition against Duke College ACB forum by Yeshwanth Kandimalla THE CHRONICLE
The nine sororities in the Panhellenic Association have initiated petitions among their members to end Duke’s affiliation with the gossip website CollegeACB.com. Panhel President Jenny Ngo, a junior, said members of the group’s leadership have learned that their counterparts at other institutions successfully removed their schools’ forums from the site earlier in the academic year. After Ngo became president in January, many sorority members began searching for ways to curtail the site’s presence, which they consider detrimental to Duke student life. Ngo said Panhel aims to have the majority of members in each chapter sign petitions and then present them to Student Affairs. As of now, she said there are two options to remove Duke from the website: blocking the site internally—which Ngo said she does not think is feasible—or attempt to take some sort of legal action. Panhel will continue to explore options as well, she said. “It has affected our chapters on a collective level,” she said. “It fuels a social hierarchy that leads to competitive-
The Blue Devils face the Cavaliers for the ACC’s top seed, Page 7
ness between our sororities.” Ngo added that she knows members of sororities who have deactivated their sorority membership or withdrawn from Duke based on negative posts on the Duke forum of the site. Each chapter is distributing its own petition, she said, though a number of the petitions consist of similar wording. One such petition obtained by The Chronicle is an online form that reads “College ACB has become a negative forum for hurtful gossip that should no longer be associated with this school. Campus organizations have come together to petition against Duke’s affiliation with this site. Sign the petition and help demonstrate to our administrators that we do not want to be exposed to College ACB any longer.” Ngo said students at Cornell University and Tulane University are also attempting to remove their schools’ forums from the site, but Panhel chapter presidents are still researching which schools have already had success See college acb on page 3
Chronicle graphic by melissa yeo
Members of the Panhellenic Association sororities on campus have signed petitions to remove College ACB’s presence in Duke student life.
ONTHERECORD
“So far, the North has yet to release its own balloon bombs in response.”
—Professor Hwansoo Kim in “Balloon bombs.” See column page 11
MCAT could see first change in 20 years, Page 3