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See Inside Marques Bolden starts to shine Page 8

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

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2019 DUKECHRONICLE.COM

ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEENTH YEAR, ISSUE 36

Paradise Papers: Duke invested $10.3 Panel discusses U.S. gun violence million in controversial Brazilian company By John Markis Staff Reporter

Last Valentine’s Day, a gunman barged into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., taking 17 lives. On Tuesday night, first-year Carlee Goldberg, a Parkland resident, moderated a panel on gun violence to discuss the repercussions of the shooting and the future of firearms in America. The four panelists concurred that the nation is failing to adequately protect its citizens under current firearm statutes. “If there’s a misunderstanding about guns in this country, it’s the thought that the Second Amendment cannot coexist with regulation,” said Darrell Miller, Melvin G. Shimm professor of law. “Constitutional law doesn’t work that way.” Philip Cook—ITT/Terry Sanford professor emeritus of public policy studies—grew up in rural North Carolina and noted that American gun culture has shifted See GUN VIOLENCE on Page 4

Selena Qian | Staff Graphic Designer

The leaked documents offer a rare look at how the Uni. manages its investment portfolio behind closed doors By Julia Donheiser

Corporation—Duke’s two investment groups—declined to comment on whether they were aware of the protests or Ferrous’ entanglement in the alleged money laundering scheme. Julianna Rennie Lawrence Baxter, the chair of Duke’s Advisory Committee on Staff Reporter Investment Responsibility, said the committee is “not in a position When the Paradise Papers made headlines in 2017, the to offer comment” on Duke’s investments in Ferrous because it is not confidential documents revealed Duke’s investments in Ferrous authorized to speak on behalf of the University’s investors. Resources—a company whose plans to build a controversial And although there is an established process for community pipeline sparked years of protests in Brazil. members to inquire about investments—as well as publicly available A new investigation by The Chronicle found the specific tax returns that must summarize Duke’s holdings—many details amount of those holdings: between 2008 and 2015, Duke about the University’s investments are still unclear. invested a total of $10.3 million in Ferrous. The Paradise Papers consist of 13.4 million confidential The University invested in Ferrous amid the company’s documents about offshore investments, which were leaked to entanglement in alleged government corruption. In 2012, journalists Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer at the the Brazilian federal police arrested German Süddeutsche Zeitung. The 28 people—mostly government newspaper shared the documents officials—for allegedly diverting with the International Consortium more than $13 million from the of Investigative Journalists, which city of Presidente Kennedy through then organized a global reporting public bidding fraud. collaboration. The Chronicle The police report alleges that million dollars is how much Duke held investigated the Paradise Papers as Ferrous was granted tax incentives in part of ICIJ’s Alma Mater project, in Ferrous as of December 2018 exchange for buying land at artificially which explores offshore investments high values from companies owned made by universities. by government officials. Ferrous submitted a brief to the court This investigation digs into the at least 10-year relationship stating that it was granted those incentives for bringing business between Duke and Ferrous, shedding a rare light on how the to the region. Further information about the trials—which are still University manages its investments behind closed doors. ongoing—is under an order of secrecy by the case’s judge. You can read our full methodology for the investigation online. As of December, the University’s holdings in Ferrous stand at approximately $1 million, wrote Michael Schoenfeld, vice Ten years of Duke and Ferrous president for public affairs and government relations. He declined With its high concentration of iron, gold and gemstones, Brazil’s to comment on whether Duke had sold shares since 2015. Iron Quadrangle has long been a lucrative region for mining. It Both Schoenfeld and Neil Triplett, president and CEO of Duke Management Company (DUMAC) and Gothic See FERROUS on Page 12 Contributing Reporter

Christina Zhang | Staff Photographer The Monday talk addressed gun violence in the U.S.

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Sundance Q&A: ‘Bedlam’ director, BLM founder talk mental health By Miranda Gershoni Staff Writer

Millions of Americans struggle with mental healthrelated illnesses every year, according to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, but many individuals are not fully aware of the workings of the mental health system. The haunting documentary, “Bedlam,” which just premiered at Sundance, marks a unique opportunity to shed light on this crisis to the masses. See SUNDANCE on Page 7

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Church asks Duke to turn over Byzantine-era manuscripts By Lexi Kadis Senior Editor

When Bulgarian soldiers ransacked an Eastern Orthodox monastery in Greece on March 27, 1917, they allegedly took the ancient manuscripts housed in its library, three of which are currently stored at Duke’s Rubenstein Library. The Eastern Orthodox Church wants them back. Alex Karloutsos, a reverend and assistant to the archbishop of America, said the Church seeks the return of the documents to the Theotokos Eikosiphoinissa Monastery—also known as the Kosinitza Monastery—in Kormista, a small village in northern Greece, where they will be preserved and protected. “It’s a very painful thing when we get

Courtesy of Duke Archives The cover of M.S. 60, one of the manuscripts.

robbed of our cultural and spiritual legacy,” Karloutsos said, adding that “these manuscripts are priceless to us.” George Tsougarakis, the lawyer who represents the Church in cases regarding manuscripts, claimed that the three Byzantineera manuscripts were part of a collection that was illegally removed from the monastery by Bulgarian troops in March 1917. Duke acquired the three manuscripts, which are catalogued as Greek MS. 1, Greek MS. 13 and Greek MS. 60, over the next six decades—respectively in 1931, 1950 and 1973. The manuscripts in question are now housed in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Tsougarakis said that he first contacted Duke about the manuscripts on behalf of the Church in 2015. The University is still in the process of reviewing their claim. “We have submitted our evidence, which we find very compelling,” he said. “Duke is in the process of reviewing our evidence and conducting its own investigation to determine the provenance of the manuscripts.” Karloutsos noted that though the University has taken the time to seriously consider the Church’s claim, they “haven’t been overwhelmingly supportive of the idea” of returning the manuscripts. “They have not been deaf, but they have not been responsive,” he said. Kristen Brown, Duke’s associate vice president for news and communications, declined to comment on the Eastern Orthodox Church’s request, or any other specific claim, in an email to The Chronicle. She did, however, explain the process through which the University evaluates claims made regarding items in the library’s collection, noting that the goal is to “understand the item’s history and how it

arrived in our collection.” The first step is for a Duke Libraries staff member to reach out to representatives from the organization who made the claim, Brown wrote. The library staff will then conduct its own investigation into the provenance of the item, occasionally contacting outside counsel to conduct further research and to seek advice on how to better understand the claim. “Duke wants to be a responsible steward of the materials it holds, and so we want to ensure that we have as much factual information as we can before making any decisions about items that may affect access for researchers or the long-term safety and integrity of the materials,” Brown wrote. This is not the first time the University has had to deal with a claim regarding a Byzantine-era manuscript. In 2015, Duke returned another 11th century Byzantine manuscript to the Holy Monastery of Dionysiou on Mount Athos in Greece after Greek officials presented Duke with evidence that the manuscript had been stolen from the Greek monastery in the 1960s, according to a Duke Today press release. When Duke officials purchased the manuscript in 2011, they were unaware of the theft, they said. “As a cultural institution, it’s important to make sure that culture and heritage is maintained and preserved,” said Andy Armacost, curator of collections and head of collection development at the Rubenstein Library, in the 2015 press release. “We had no indication when we purchased the manuscript that it had been stolen, and we’re happy to make things right.” In addition to submitting claims to Duke, Tsougarakis also contacted Princeton University, New York’s Morgan Library & Museum and the Lutheran

Courtesy of Duke Archives A page inside M.S. 60.

School of Theology at Chicago to request the return of manuscripts. The Lutheran School is the only one to have returned a requested manuscript since Tsougarakis first made the requests, he said. Tsougarakis filed a lawsuit against Princeton in December 2018 after the university refused to return the allegedly “stolen” manuscripts. Regarding why the Church has not yet filed a similar lawsuit against Duke, Karloutsos said the Church “hope[s] to avoid litigation.” The Church wants Duke to return the manuscripts voluntarily, Tsougarakis added. “We don’t want to file a lawsuit unless we’re forced to. We were forced to in the Princeton case,” Tsougarakis said. “We are hopeful that negotiations are ongoing with Duke and we want Duke to do the right thing.”

find housing at The Chronicle’s online guide to living near Duke.

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2019 | 3

A ‘broken ladder’: Anirudh Krishna studies complexity of poverty By Matthew Griffin Staff Reporter

Poverty is more complex than you might think, according to Anirudh Krishna, Edgar T. Thompson professor of public policy in the Sanford School of Public Policy. Krishna’s research focuses on the way people fall into poverty and how they can escape it. Recently, he established a network of “social mobility promoting organizations” (SMPOs) across India to address the barriers facing impoverished children. SMPOs encourage youth to get involved in careers they otherwise wouldn’t pursue by fostering professional and personal development. He began his research in the early 2000s and after ten years of work in a variety of countries, Krishna found that several factors contributed to people becoming impoverished—most of which were out of their control. “[For] the most part, it was because of things like several people in the family falling ill or having an accident and there being inadequate health coverage,” Krishna said. For one, selling assets to pay for treatment—which can range from a herd of cattle to a house depending on the country—is a path to poverty. Krishna also found that, for someone who is already impoverished, there are a number of barriers to achieving success. It might not be enough to improve education in a poor community—children also need role models with high paying jobs to motivate them to push for success. He recalled that, in his own life, he was inspired by family and family friends who had “great careers.” “For a kid growing up on the wrong side of the railroad tracks, there’s no one like uncles or cousins or friends or parents’ friends or anybody in their social network to provide them with the same information,” Krishna said. Instead, these children aspire to have lower-paying jobs that are valued in the community, such as teaching. Krishna likened this multitude of barriers to a “broken ladder.” It is not enough to fix one rung. Instead, multiple interventions are necessary at various points in someone’s life. Krishna was inspired to do something about this problem when a student at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India’s top management school, wrote to him

Henry Haggart | Sports Photography Editor Anirudh Krishna says the “hope is vibrant” for developing poverty outreach programs in India.

and asked if she could help with his research over the summer. At the time, Krishna was looking for other organizations who were working on social mobility, and he tasked her with finding such groups. The team eventually identified about 15 organizations in India and reached out to them. Today, there are about 45 SMPOs in Krishna’s network, which works with more than 100,000 children. Their work includes helping high school students prepare for the college admissions process, mentoring children, supporting young entrepreneurs and educating children in specific areas such as computer skills and the English language. “When I started telling [each SMPO about the others], they were going wild,” Krishna recalled. He helped organize the National Federation of Social Mobility Promoting Organizations of India, which has elected an interim council to help structure the organization. The work has not all been easy—Krishna commented that it

was often difficult to convince each organization that working with others was worthwhile. “These are all very new, very young, very fast-growing organizations,” he said. “To ask their CEO or someone senior to spare a couple of days or even a couple of hours for the common good is almost like pulling teeth.” Despite the challenges, Krishna has hope for the future. “The hope is vibrant,” he said. “The hope is that the India federation will demonstrate the utility of having such outreach in every country.” He added that the effects of social outreach are visible in a country like Sweden. Despite the nation’s small population, there are Swedes in every area of public life, from athletics to science to literature. He theorized that this is because every Swedish child has the resources necessary to develop his or her talents. “The system has a place for them to rise, a viable route—a viable ladder—for them to rise,” Krishna said.

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4 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2019

Higher education overlooked as key to women’s progress, prof says By Jake Satisky University News Editor

At The Regulator Bookshop Tuesday night, a Duke professor talked to the mayor about the federal government’s role in empowering women. Deondra Rose, assistant professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, spoke about her new book, “Citizens by Degree: Higher Education Policy and the Changing Gender Dynamics of American Citizenship.” Durham Mayor Steve Schewel moderated the discussion. In the book, Rose argued that the mid-20th century’s higher education policies—notably the National Defense Education Act of 1958, the Higher Education Act of 1965 and Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments—paved the way for women to earn more bachelor’s degrees than men annually. She claimed that those policies have been overlooked in favor of women’s recent gains in political and socioeconomic status.

Title IX: Treating schools like ‘kindergarteners’ Title IX was passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972 after government leaders realized that they couldn’t always trust educational institutions not to discriminate, Rose said. Congress had to use a carrot-and-stick approach—a strategy that involves both offering a reward and threatening with punishment—to curb discrimination. Congress incentivized universities with financial aid and Pell Grants, but those weren’t effective enough to stop schools from discriminating against women. As a result, it passed regulations like Title IX that forced institutions to be more inclusive—they had to be treated like “kindergarteners,” Rose said. Rose: We should learn to love the ‘welfare state’ Schewel pointed out that Rose often includes the phrase “welfare state” in her book even though the expression is commonly used to express distrust of the government. She countered that although the phrase is “politically fraught,” people

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are unaware how much they benefit from the government. The welfare state encompasses more than just food stamps, she explained. It includes federally funded financial aid, such as Pell Grants, and popular programs such as Medicare. To Rose, government should not always be viewed as the problem. She argued government policy can do a lot of good when conducted properly. The education bills she wrote about all expanded access to education for women, and as a result women took home greater incomes and were more informed voters, she said. Thus, according to Rose, they became more politically involved. Rose says she loved her research Researching for a book can be a grueling process that sours researchers’ interests in their subjects after it’s all over. That’s how Rose said she felt after writing her graduate dissertation on higher education policy’s effect on gender dynamics. When she attended a seminar on women’s progress a few years ago, she noticed how none of the causes listed—access to birth control, more job opportunities, changing gender norms—mentioned education or policy. That’s when she decided to begin research for “Citizens by Degree.” Rose loved conducting interviews over the course of her research to hear firsthand accounts of how different education bills got passed. One of her interviews was Bernice Sandler, a women’s rights activist whom she called “godmother of Title IX.” Sandler told Rose that she was excited to lobby Congress in support of the 1972 Education Amendments and Title IX. However, former Rep. Edith Green (D-OR) told Sandler not to lobby Congress because men might drop their support of the bill. Upset, Sandler replied, “but we have stickers!”

GUN VIOLENCE FROM PAGE 1

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substantially from viewing firearms as only relevant to hunting and sport. He asserted that the National Rifle Association, in dominating the gun debate for 40 years, has shaped popular opinion to minimize the number of gun restrictions. Miller agreed with Cook’s point, citing his own experience. “We had fire drills when I was in school, but the idea that a school shooting could occur was inconceivable,” Miller said. He then criticized the manner in which federal law can supersede local gun laws. Miller explained that although a community may wish to outlaw handguns, the Second Amendment is able to override even overwhelming public support. Such was the case in the neighborhoods of Washington, D.C., before the decision of the District of Columbia v. Heller Supreme Court case in 2008. Although the conservative majority of the Court did not abolish local regulation entirely, it obscured the extent to which local lawmakers can pass laws restricting constitutional gun rights, he said. Joseph Blocher, Lanty L. Smith professor of law, went on to identify three hallmarks of successful gun legislation: effectiveness, popularity and constitutionality. He noted that popular gun control legislation that successfully curbs gun violence must still abide by the Second Amendment in order to retain its power. Blocher said he did not disagree with this stipulation but respected the function of the Second Amendment within a free state and suggested that liberty and safety need not be at odds. Just as the First Amendment does not protect slander, he said, the Second does not necessarily extend to assault weapons. Jeffrey Swanson, professor in psychiatry and behavioral science, spoke to discredit the association between mental illness and gun violence. “We learned in our research that the overwhelming majority of people with mental illness are not violent,” Swanson explained. “Flash forward to now, and now we focus on mental illness and gun violence, when those cannot truly be correlated.” Swanson pointed out that two-thirds of firearm-caused deaths are suicides. He described it as an “American tragedy” that gun stores in states with less stringent requirements on background checks likely sell firearms to domestic abusers and people with suicidal histories. He recommended that audience members vote as often as possible and encourage others to follow suit. Swanson also pointed out that baby boomers are among the strongest supporters for gun possession and American gun control discourse will likely shift as millennials take their place. Cook encouraged audience members to seek out volunteer groups such as the Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham, a private, community-driven group which has driven meaningful progress in gun control discourse. Miller concluded by stating that gun control affects everyone, regardless of geography or socioeconomic status—children in both Chicago, Ill., and Newtown, Conn., are privy to the catastrophes guns can cause when mishandled. This unifying factor, Miller reasoned, will eventually lead to national bipartisan agreement on gun control legislation.

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2019 | 5

VOLUME 20, ISSUE 36 | JANUARY 30 2019

sundance 2019 ‘Bedlam’ explores personal narratives in American mental health system, page 7

for the sake of keepsakes Recess editor discusses sentimentality and materiality, page 6

‘honey boy’ Shia LaBeouf reflects on childhood in latest film, page 7

recess editors

Which LaCroix flavor are you? Christy Kuesel .................... dr. pepper

Sarah Derris............... pamplemousse Will Atkinson .............................. pure Nina Wilder ................. cran-raspberry Selena Qian ................................lime Eva Hong..........................passionfruit Alizeh Sheikh ............................ berry Lexi Bateman ................... peach-pear Sydny Long .............................orange Ashley Kwon ........................... perrier Jessica Williams .....................mango Bre Bradham......................... coconut

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6 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2019

I wouldn’t say I’m a hoarder. I’m a big proponent of tidiness (though perhaps not to Marie Kondo’s level), and I’ll clean my room well before turning to homework, or perhaps a pressing editor’s note that I have to publish in a few hours. But over the last three years, I’ve made more and more room in my dorm to house smaller objects on desks and dressers, all meant to capture some snapshot of my college years. Perhaps this is most noticeable in my dorm decor. Freshman year, I went to the career fair and purchased as many Michelangelo and “How I Met Your Mother” posters as I could fit in my room, trying to fill up all the white space on my walls with proof that I was an interesting and cultured person. As the years passed, more and more of these posters ended up tucked under my bed or hidden in a desk drawer, no longer necessary to make me feel like I had passions worth expressing. As senior year rolled around, I realized I had too many small keepsakes to justify taping each one individually to my wall and risking peeling the paint off. So I fashioned two lines of twine and bought some clothespins from Michael’s, and clipped up all the small pieces of paper that had littered the bottom of my desk drawer for the past year: old football and movie tickets, a witty postcard from my trip to Nashville, a handwritten note from my mom, a button given to me for my birthday, a photo of my dog at the beach by my house, numerous Polaroid pictures we had forgotten to turn on the flash for. When I went abroad to Berlin last fall, I didn’t buy many keepsakes for myself, knowing that they would get left at home or forgotten. Instead, I bought a postcard at each of the (admittedly numerous) museums I wandered into, collecting paintings of German biergartens and a Van Gogh sunflower or two. I couldn’t walk out of a museum without combing through its gift shop and picking out the post card most representative of the

Admission is always free for Duke students.

two hours of my life. Now, they’re all arranged in a five by five square by my desk, a tangible reminder of my abroad experience. For me, they have more value than photographs, which can be awkwardly staged or badly shot. The postcards remind me of what I have seen and what I hope to see again. Across from the postcards are all of the Recess covers from this year, a physical representation of the hours spent editing stories in 301 Flowers. I was home over break and realized that this preoccupation with keepsakes wasn’t a recent discovery. I looked through boxes from middle school and high school, trying to scale down the amount of old notebooks and reading

editor’s note assignments that littered my closet floor, and found dozens of little notes and doodles tucked away for posterity’s sake. I couldn’t even bring myself to throw out an old planner due to old inside jokes scribbled in the margins, even though I had forgotten the meaning of the joke years ago. Seeing these items again felt like viewing them for the first time, or like peering into the life of an old acquaintance who you’d lost touch with over the years. I didn’t make much progress in sorting through my old notes, deeming many of them to have an emotional significance stretching beyond helping me pass AP Euro. Most of the contents of that closet floor ended up placed in plastic bins, to be perused again when my next wave of nostalgia hits me. When I went to the Women’s March with my roommate this past weekend, I

asked her if I could keep the program of the speakers. I didn’t want to look up them up, exactly, but I liked having something to remind me of how it felt to be surrounded by so many empowered, inspiring women, beyond a few quickly snapped selfies. So I tucked the program in my jacket pocket and brought it home. What is it about keepsakes that make us hold onto them, long after they’ve served any purpose at all? What keeps cheap kiosks on boardwalks across the country in business? They become so much more than objects, hearkening back to however you were feeling when you went to that concert or received that birthday card. And there’s something powerful about choosing to display certain objects instead of hiding them in photo albums or file folders, no matter how insignificant they seem. It’s the choice of which pieces of paper are worth holding onto, which photographs deserve to be framed, that show as much about us as our music tastes or hobbies. Maybe keepsakes stay with us because, in Kondo’s words, they spark joy, or at least a sense of permanence. I only have three months left at Duke, so soon all of these photographs, postcards and movie tickets will be shoved into a folder, dropped in a cardboard box and shipped off to, well, I’m not sure where yet. But wherever I am next, I’ll be comforted my little snapshots of college — until I have new memories to replace them.

on the cover: Egyptian Theater in Park City, UT by Sarah Derris

IT’S SO CREAMY

Artist Talk: Tom Rankin Thursday, February 7, 6 PM

Meet Tom Rankin, Director of Graduate Studies for the Masters of Fine Arts in Experimental & Documentary Arts at Duke, whose work is part of Across County Lines.

FINAL DAYS! Across County Lines, a group exhibition presenting 39 artists, is on view through Sunday, Feb. 10.

Tom Rankin, Copiah County, Mississippi (detail), 1990 (printed 2018) (detail). Archival pigment print. Courtesy of the artist, Durham, NC. Across County Lines is supported by the Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family Fund for Exhibitions and Parker & Otis.

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SUNDANCE FROM PAGE 1 Directed by Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, the film gives viewers an inside look into the mental health system and how it got to where it is now. By following the lives of several mental health patients over six years, Rosenberg supplements the history and facts of the issue with humanity and stories and visuals of the real-life effects of these institutions. Rosenberg, who also practices psychiatry with a specialty in addiction medicine, tells the story of his own sister, who struggled with mental illness her whole life, and his journey alongside her. Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, plays a key role in the film. She has spent years advocating for more just mental health systems, in part because her brother, Monte, who we meet in the film, struggles with mental illness. The Chronicle spoke with Kenneth Paul Rosenberg and Patrisse Cullors at the Sundance Film Festival. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The Chronicle: One thing that struck me about the film was the personal connection both of you had to it. What was that like for you both, having that personal connection and wanting to make a film about your experiences? Ken Rosenberg: What’s personal makes sense. My older sister, who was kind of my role model, once said, when I was seven years old I had to write a thing for school, she said, “Write about yourself.” And I think that was very good advice. And I think that also filming Patrisse and filming the families that I filmed, I really learned that the personal political, art, theater, is all one. So, what was it like for me? It was honestly one of the most gratifying things I’ve ever done. Patrisse Cullors: I spent a lot of my

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childhood wanting for my brother to get the help he deserved, and the care he deserved, that the way he was being treated by — whether it was the school system or the prison system or the mental health system — was absolutely egregious. When I met Ken and he said that he wanted our family to participate in this documentary, I understand the power of storytelling, and how important it is when you tell a story, not just to the public, but when you tell the stories to elected officials, who really have the power to change these systems, that was really important for me. What I didn’t realize was going to happen during the process was a kind of support system that would be created between Ken and me, and our relationship. TC: I feel like a lot of people don’t really make the connection of mental health and mass incarceration. How have you come to understand the way those two issues intersect? PC: It’s unfortunately a really simple story, which is deeply political, and that’s the Reagan administration singlehandedly getting rid of hospitals and many folks who were in those hospitals ended up on the streets and as we ratcheted up a system around criminalization, people with severe mental illness became the sacrifice of this system. L.A. is really a microcosm of what’s happening across the nation, and what happened to Monte and many of the other families are just a microcosm of what’s happening to millions of other families. For our family, we really should have had early intervention. Monte showed signs of mental health issues as a teenager, and instead of receiving intervention, he received criminalization. TC: In the film, there was a scene showing how you helped organize people in the streets, bringing jail beds to block the road to shine light on the injustice of the mentally ill in prison. As a leader

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2019 | 7

Miranda Gershoni | Contributing Photographer Director Ken Rosenberg and BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

of the Black Lives Matter movement, how have you garnered support and energy throughout the movement? PC: I’ve been doing organizing work for 20 years since I was 16 years old. The basis of me doing organizing work is where I grew up and how I grew up, but it also has a lot to do with witnessing what happened to my brother. When I met Ken, we were at the very beginning phases of building a local organization that was supporting the ending of building a mental health jail in Los Angeles. And by the following year, as we were filming, I started Black Lives Matter with two of my other co-founders, and some of the biggest issues that we have seen in both our local movement and our national movement are that many people who have been killed by police have mental illness. Police have become the first responders for people with mental illness, and we’ve seen that become very deadly. And so we are also in a moment of really advocating that we really treat mental illness as we treat cancer. TC: In making the film, what was

both the most challenging and the most rewarding parts of it? KR: For me, that’s a very easy question. I think that both the most challenging and rewarding part was putting my own story in it. That was not my intention. My intention was to make a film about mental illness, and as I went along to make that film as deep as I could, I realized that the viewer was watching something but they didn’t know why they were watching. And they knew these stories were compelling and dramatic and tragic and triumphant, but they didn’t really understand why I was doing this, why I was behind the camera. So I took a complete risk and put myself in it, and gradually, more and more, until I kind of bookended the film. I think that the most rewarding part was meeting families, working with Patrisse and getting to know people in that intimate way, and come to a point where we could send this message out. Patrisse has been doing this for years, and by complete accident, or spiritual encounter, however, you want to think about it, we are here.

Sundance 2019: ‘Honey Boy’ showcases Shia LaBeouf’s vulnerability By Eva Hong Features Editor

I only realized that “Honey Boy” is an autobiographical story of Shia LaBeouf ’s own troubled childhood and chaotic famed life after I walked out of the theater. It is a habit of mine to refrain from reading reviews before seeing a film. LaBeouf wrote the screenplay for “Honey Boy” while in rehab and played the character that is based on his own abusive father. When I learned the backstory I was deeply struck by his sheer vulnerability and sincerity. Premiering Jan. 25 at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, “Honey Boy” alternates between 2005 and 1995 to tell the story of the complicated relationship between Otis Lort and his ex-felon father. The young Otis, played by the 13-year-old Noah Jupe, is working toward his dream of becoming a movie star by running between different sets. His career is managed by his dad, a former rodeo clown, who would otherwise be unemployed. Lucas Hedges plays the role of the older Otis, who is also running between film sets and profiting off his willingness to get blown up, tied up or beaten in action movies as a stunt double. After a blurry night of drinking, hooking up and an incidence involving a flipped car and some shattered glass, he is told that he has PTSD and has to check into rehab. But what caused it? Surely, it can’t be those fake traumatic movie scenes he was in. “Honey Boy” is a film of humanity’s subtle, ambivalent, dark, hopeful, ugly, beautiful emotions. Therefore, it has to be a film of details. LaBeouf ’s character swears in virtually every single line and action: His rash mannerisms while pulling out a beach chair,

his wet eyes while confessing his remorse for mistreating Otis at a combat-veteran meeting. Every small gesture. All the perfect timing. Before knowing the autobiographical nature of the script, I was sitting there thinking, “Shia LaBeouf is perfect for this role.” Now I know that he has poured his heart out into the screenplay and I can only guess what he was thinking when he was acting (or re-enacting) those scenes. The film could not be this moving without Jupe’s in-depth understanding and impeccable portrayal of Otis — from his yearning and nervous gaze at LaBeouf, his silent obedience to do anything that LaBeouf orders and his childish smile while sitting between LaBeouf ’s laps on the curb and smoking his cigarette. Jupe’s innocence and gentleness complements LaBeouf ’s fiery temper well. The father and son are like two hedgehogs, eager to get close to one another but extremely afraid of getting hurt and hurting the other. This paradox of human relationships would resonate with a broad range of audiences, even though some might not have personally experienced a problematic father. But what initially drew me to “Honey Boy” was neither LaBeouf nor Jupe, but the director Alma Har’el. I became a big fan of hers after watching her renowned documentary “Bombay Beach” in a film class last year. I was curious to see what her fiction would look like and she did not disappoint me. She brought her signature dreamy brushes to paint “Honey Boy” with vivid, emotionally charged colors. The clearness and blueness of the swimming pool, as well as the brightness and softness of the sunset, are all reminiscent of “Bombay Beach.” In one scene, after being slapped in

the face by his dad, Otis pretends to play baseball with the girl next door, who also appears to be suffering. The two seem halfacting and half-dancing. All their motions are slowed down in silence. In the purplish blue night, the camera caresses and kisses the two broken souls. Har’el has that ability to turn pain into poetry and to remind us that shadows always lead to the light. Her direction enhances LaBeouf ’s story to another level and gives it a bittersweet aftertaste that leaves the audience savouring after they walk out of the theater. At Sundance, I could hear journalists and

critics talking about “Honey Boy” everywhere — on the bus, in the press line and at restaurants. Everyone was asking each other, “Have you seen ‘Honey Boy’ yet?” With its great cast, intimate story and under-explored theme of father-and-son dynamics, “Honey Boy” has the potential to become a film that everyone would hold dear to their hearts in 2019. Shia LaBeouf may have written the movie selfishly, to help himself cope with his inner demons, but I still want to applaud his inspiring courage and rare, raw vulnerability that proves cinema has the power to expose and heal.

Special to the Chronicle ‘Honey Boy’ premiered at Sundance Film Festival and details Shia LaBeouf’s relationship with his dad.

Sports 8 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2019

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MEN’S BASKETBALL

TOUGH LUCK

Strong start from Zion Williamson propels Duke past Notre Dame

COLUMN

How Coach P’s squad can get back on track

By Michael Model Sports Editor

SOUTH BEND, Ind.—When T.J. Gibbs hit a layup with 4:50 remaining in the first half to cut the Duke lead to single digits, everyone at Purcell Pavilion rose to their feet. After trailing 26-7 less than 10 minutes into the contest, Gibbs’ DUKE 83 layup capped a 16-6 61 run and gave the ND Fighting Irish faithful hope that a second straight blowout to a topthree team was not imminent. Just 16 seconds later, Zion Williamson sat them down with a triple at the top of the key. The second-ranked Blue Devils finished the half on a 14-5 run en route to an 83-61 blowout of Notre Dame Monday night. Williamson spearheaded Duke’s offensive outburst with 17 first-half points and 26 total points on just 12 attempts. The Spartanburg, S.C., native continued to show he can do it all on the court, adding nine rebounds, four assists and four blocks in the contest. “You could feel it with the crowd. I feel like I thrive in situations like that,” Williamson said of his clutch triple. “My man was playing off me, so I shot a strong, confident three, and I knew it was going in from the second I released

Jim Liu | Opinion Photography Editor

Zion Williamson continued his recent dominance with 17 first-half points Monday. it, and I think the crowd kind of got a little quiet. That sparked our run.” The Blue Devils rebounded from a dreadful 2-of-21 performance beyond the arc Saturday against Georgia Tech with dominance from the opening tip, shooting 54.2 percent from the field and 10-of-19 from downtown. Duke (18-2, 7-1 in the ACC) came out firing as freshmen Tre Jones and Cam Reddish knocked down the team’s first two triples in the opening minutes to match the pair of makes in the entire

game against the Yellow Jackets. The Blue Devil offense looked unstoppable as Duke made 10 of its first 13 attempts from the field and coupled it with stifling defense to open up a 19-point advantage midway through the half. “We hit them hard to begin with, not because they didn’t play well, but we just hit everything,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Two games in three days and travel, you never know what’s See M. BASKETBALL on Page 9

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Finally healthy, Bolden starting to shine By Derek Saul Blue Zone Editor

SOUTH BEND,Ind.— Following underwhelming freshman and sophomore campaigns for the former five-star recruit, it finally seems like Marques Bolden’s year. Coming into the 2018-19 season, the center earned the fifth starting spot alongside Duke’s four heralded freshmen, and Bolden produced early—in the first five games of his junior year, Bolden averaged 2.6 blocks per game and shot at a 66.7 percent clip from the field, at last looking like the talented big man he was touted to be. And then, somewhat inexplicably, Bolden’s production entirely fell off. The Desoto, Texas, native had a December he did not want to remember, and his slump led Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski to send Bolden to the bench in favor of fellow junior Javin DeLaurier. Nearly a month after initially losing his starting spot, Bolden had a monster 12-point, 11-rebound performance against Syracuse, and re-earned his place in the starting lineup against Virginia Jan. 19. Since that contest against the Orange, Bolden continued the breakout he started at the onset of the season,

and is averaging 6.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in his last five games, including a solid eight-point, seven-rebound effort in Duke’s 83-61 victory against Notre Dame Monday night. “[I’m] just playing my game. I have teammates that are confident in me.” Bolden said. “I have coaches that are confident in me, so that’s really all I need right there for me to just go out and perform.” Although foul trouble early in the second half against the Fighting Irish prevented Bolden from racking up his third career double-double, he submitted one of his most complete performances of the season, and impressed from the start of the night. On the Blue Devils’ first possession, Bolden pulled down a Tre Jones miss, and the offensive rebound resulted in a Jones 3-pointer, giving Duke a lead it didn’t relinquish. A key difference for Bolden comes with his clean bill of health. At the beginning of his freshman season, the DeSoto High School product was sidelined with a leg injury, delaying his collegiate debut until December. Last winter, Bolden missed a seven-game chunk in January due to injury as well. While Bolden has not missed any game

action in 2018-19, he was not entirely healthy for much of December and January, battling foot issues. Feeling fully in form and playing See BOLDEN on Page 9

Jim Liu | Opinion Photography Editor

Junior Marques Bolden has looked as strong as ever the past few weeks.

Since the 2013 season, the Duke women’s basketball team has been on a rollercoaster. There have been highs and lows, stars have come and left, and many players have fallen into a cycle of injury that just won’t seem to let them go. But I have never, in the years that I have been watching this team, seen the kind of bad luck that the 2018-19 Blue Devil squad has faced. Flash back to star point guard Kyra Lambert—one of the strongest All-American candidates in the ACC, floor general and stronghold for the 2015 recruiting class. After the graduation of Lexie Brown and Becca Greenwell, Lambert and fellow guard Haley Gorecki were charged with stepping into their shoes. The transition would be difficult, with Lambert having sat an entire season and the Brown-Greenwell duo having combined for more than 45 percent of the Duke scoring from last season. But, it certainly would not be impossible. With Lambert’s court vision and transition prowess, her threat would spread the floor enough to give Gorecki opportunities on the wing and junior Leaonna Odom space for as many 10-foot floaters as she wanted to put up. Then the news came that Lambert was out for the season with another knee injury. And unfortunately for Duke, the high-value point guard wasn’t the only loss the team endured. Freshman Rayah Craig, who played a key part in the Blue Devils’ fourth quarter comeback run at Northwestern, was declared ineligible for the spring semester. Sophomore center Madison Treece, who provided another set of legs for Duke off the bench, declared she would transfer. Mikayla Boykin, a highly-touted recruit out of high school and a much needed ball-handler, fell victim to another ACL tear. What remains? A Blue Devil roster with only 10 names and a 1-6 ACC record. The picture seems poor for Duke. The scoring is gone. The current roster contains three true freshmen and two players who clocked less than six minutes per game in less than 13 appearances in their college careers. Gorecki and Odom cannot singlehandedly support the Blue Devil offense. A turnaround is not impossible, but three key things need to happen for Duke to right the ship. If they do happen, the Blue Devils will return to the successful program they were in the past few years and Duke might even be able to recover and get a spot in the NCAA tournament. The first is that the Blue Devils need to

Emily Davis

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shown signs of being very capable, particularly in rebounding from the guard position. As the Duke offense circles more around shots from downtown—from the likes of Gorecki, Adams and freshman Miela Goodchild—rebounds do not drop close to the basket. For the Blue Devils to succeed, the pawns in the paint need to box out effectively so that the guards can contain the long rebounds. The Duke women’s basketball team has been extremely unlucky and underwhelming this season, yes. But, the season is far from over. If the Blue Devils can perfect their zone, Jayda Adams can light up the court and guards can give the team second-chance opportunities, Duke will be able to compete with the other teams in the ACC and secure a spot in the NCAA tournament.

M. BASKETBALL

BOLDEN

W. BASKETBALL

FROM PAGE 8

going to happen. Our guys really handled tonight well and I’m proud of them.” Jones and fellow freshman R.J. Barrett supplemented Williamson’s dominance with efficiency of their own. Jones finished with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting and Barrett took advantage of Williamson’s presence in the interior to find space on the perimeter. The Mississauga, Ontario, native added 17 points with three triples and nine rebounds. Notre Dame’s leading scorer, John Mooney, could not find the rim, missing each of his first seven attempts before getting on the board in the final seconds of the half. Despite scoring a team-high 14 points, Mooney ended the contest a dismal 4-for-15 from the field, representative of the Fighting Irish’s struggles as a whole— Notre Dame (11-10, 1-7) converted a mere 34.8 percent of its attempts Monday. “We were just trying to double team on the post,” Williamson said of the defense on Mooney. “But some of the shots, he would have a good look, and he just missed a good four or five of them, so it wasn’t his night, but it worked for us.” The Fighting Irish tried to fight back in the second half, but could not make a dent in the Blue Devils’ lofty advantage. Freshman Prentiss Hubb complemented Mooney with 13 points, but his effort went unnoticed as his team never got closer than 16 points in the second half. “We were ready,” Barrett said. “We went up big and [Krzyzewski] kept emphasizing to just keep playing hard, and that’s what we did for the rest of the game.” Following the victory, Duke will have a four-day layoff before playing its final nonconference game against St. John’s Saturday afternoon at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

solid basketball are no coincidence, and an able Bolden is key for the Blue Devils. “He’s been able to work where he hasn’t had the foot problems,” Krzyzewski said. “There’s the expression, ‘trust your work,’ and if you haven’t been able to work, then you don’t have anything to trust. “He’s worked, so he trusts his work, he’s been much more vocal. What we did defensively in three of our last four games, we switch one through five where he’s on a guard and that worked real well for him because he can defend that when he’s healthy like that. He’s playing really well.” The improved athleticism from Bolden is clear compared to his first two seasons—he is no longer a center anchored to the paint. Rather, he is somebody who is comfortable with any role defensively. Although Zion Williamson and Jones garner more attention for their defensive abilities, Bolden is perhaps the most important component of Duke’s defense. The 6-foot-11 big leads the Blue Devils in blocks and defensive box plus/minus. “He just looks really active out there. He’s just really working out how to use his length and athleticism to block shots and come over,” Duke captain Jack White said. “You saw tonight, he just affects so many plays in different ways and he’s all over the court rebounding and running the floor.” After some turmoil, it seems as though Krzyzewski has found his fifth starter for good. As long as he avoids the lower-body injuries that have nagged him for the last three years, Bolden should continue his breakout campaign and provide a menacing defensive presence for the Blue Devils.

get comfortable with and perfect their zone defense. While Duke has a special affinity for more active types of defense, from match-up zone to man, it is imperative that the Blue Devils focus on containment defensively. A strong zone will prevent teams from driving into the paint against relatively inexperienced Duke forwards. It will also help the younger Blue Devil roster work more as a unit and communicate better without the lack of communication becoming immediately detrimental to Duke’s success. The second key for the Blue Devils is Jayda Adams. Adams has always been a spark for Duke on defense, which was especially key after losing Lambert last season. Her energy is imperative for the Blue Devils in maintaining momentum, something that Duke depends on heavily to win basketball games. Adams might not be the headline name that people think about when they think about the Blue Devil women, but she will make or break this season for Duke. Adams can provide defensive energy, even within the context of a more passive zone. Adams can also provide another perimeter option for the Blue Devils, as proven in her 4-of-5 mark beyond the arc in Duke’s 66-52 win against Wake Forest. But, more importantly for the Blue Devils’ style of play, she is another weapon in transition. With a guard shortage, Adams can use her speed and agility to get down the floor with Odom and Gorecki and improve Duke’s opportunity to get quick buckets. The final key for the Blue Devils is guard rebounding, particularly on offense. Thehas New York Timesfor Syndication Rebounding been difficult Duke thisSales Corporation David Xian | Staff Photographer 620 Eighth Avenue, 10018 season so far and will only continueNew to beYork, as N.Y. Haley Gorecki has found her rhythm after a For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 slow start the season progresses. But, the Blue DevilsJanuary have For ForRelease Release Wednesday, Tuesday, January 29, 30,2019 2019to the season.

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Zion Williamson vs. my GPA: Who would win?

s a senior who hasn’t tented before, this tenting season was my last chance to endure the frosty temperatures, complain endlessly about how much I don’t want to sleep in a tent tonight, and forge friendships through a shared suffering. As ludicrous I think tenting actually is, here I am, a K-Ville resident. Tenting is the least productive activity I do, but

Martin Li COLUMNIST it also takes the highest priority. At the beginning of the semester, I had allocated time on my weekly calendar to go to Wilson and pursue personal electronics projects, both of which have now been woefully neglected. Yet, I go to my tent shift more punctually than I attend class, and even structure the rest of my day around it. And it’s just as difficult to do work in the tent as I imagined. While I realize how unwise it is to reserve

onlinecomment “I honestly can’t tell whether this person is trying to be funny or if they are serious???” —Claire Jackson, responding to “Dear Duke, stop being racist toward white people” by Monday Monday via Facebook on Jan. 28, 2019

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some of my work for my tent shifts, I do it anyway. I’ll arrive to my tent shift, sit on the floor on a pile of pillows and sleeping bags, and eventually get a little too comfortable. The drowsiness hits, and I ponder how nice a nap would be, and besides, my shift doesn’t end for another 2.5 hours. I don’t bother to set an alarm, and next thing I know it’s gotten cold and dark and I don’t want to leave the warmth of my sleeping bag. Well, I guess I’m browsing my phone for the next hour of my shift, and my Biophotonics lab report will have to wait until after dinner. I’ve heard from people that if I tent, my grades will drop, or at minimum I will struggle to maintain the same level of grades. Unwilling to test the veracity of those claims, I put tenting off until senior year. It did seem quite unappealing to do an ECE110 problem set in the dark, with my fingers freezing, or to do my programming assignment for ECE250 with my laptop battery draining in the cold and no outlet to charge, or to go to class tired after having been woken up multiple times in the middle of the night for tent checks. To be fair, it’s difficult for me to judge how difficult it actually is to do work in a tent, because as a part-timing senior, I now have little work to begin with and no sense of urgency to avoid procrastination. While many have no issue excelling academically while tenting, I think it would have been quite stressful for me had I tented in previous years. I’ve also heard from people that college grades don’t matter as much as high school grades, and at first I believed them. After all, when I got to Duke, I thought to myself: I’ve made it; courses might be challenging, but competing against other Duke students, average will be a decent accomplishment in and of itself. This isn’t saying I didn’t care about my grades—I had an underwhelming first semester, and tried a little bit harder each following semester to bring my grades up. The success of my efforts was quite limited, but in the process I didn’t let myself tent because I wanted to have better grades. It wasn’t until end of sophomore year when I realized how untrue that “grades don’t matter as much” actually was. After fall and spring recruiting seasons rolled around, many of my fellow sophomore friends had internships. Wanting the same, I spent countless hours applying online to various internship postings, and received more rejection emails than Piazza notifications. Wondering how my other friends did it, I soon realized a common thread among them: they all had GPAs higher than 3.9. Mine wasn’t even close. I realized how difficult it was to stand out amongst the hordes of qualified individuals: juniors seeking internships with more classes and experience under their belt, with the added bonus of able to receive full-time return offers, as well as the sophomores who, like me had little experience, had higher GPAs and demonstrated that they were hard-working enough through their grades. My grades were mediocre, I didn’t have any desirable skills, and, well, I wasn’t competitive. It was

a harsh reality. Having passed on tenting twice, I was confused… I didn’t tent, but my grades that semester looked like I did. In my junior year, I finally figured out how to study, and wasn’t going to let tenting get in the way of my new upward trend, and again, passed on tenting. Senior spring rolled around, now only one class from graduating, and at the point where grades no longer matter, I was finally ready to tent. Tenting is both enjoyable yet miserable, and I’m glad I finally decided to tent. I realize that obviously the Duke-UNC game is important, but it’s also about the process getting there: the mutual endurance of black tenting, where we can barely fit ten people in our nine-person tent; the sawing and hammering to build an over-engineered platform for our tent; and the conversation I’ve made with the people in my tent that I’ve seen around for years but haven’t talked to. But of course, most everyone knows this already; it isn’t some groundbreaking revelation. I do wonder what other experiences and friendships I might have developed had I tented in my other years. Who would win in a fight between Zion Williamson and my GPA? What a silly question, and there’s no real answer unless I’m able to peek into alternate universes where numbers can also play basketball. But as an intellectual exercise, had I tented the first three years of my college career, my GPA might have taken a hit like Syracuse’s Mark Dolezaj did against Zion Williamson. Martin Li is a part-time Pratt senior and part-time tenter. His column runs on alternate Tuesdays.

Ian Jaffe | Special Projects Photography Editor Freshman Zion Williamson goes up for a block against Syracuse.

Letter: Chinese students chastised for speaking Chinese at Duke

was amazed to read about a member of the Duke faculty criticizing some Chinese students for having a discussion in their own language while on the Duke campus. I was pleased to read about the prompt reaction to this absurd event. Most of the world’s leading universities have a somewhat international student body these days and it was hard to fathom what was going through that professor’s mind. After graduating from Duke and MIT, I earned a Doctorate at the ETH in Zurich in the 1960s. The primary language of teaching there was German which became my second language, but many languages were heard among the student body. The native language of most of my colleagues included Swiss-German dialect, German, French, and Italian. Those not native to one of those languages often spoke English. An amusing characteristic of conversations among students and my colleagues was that, in a given conversation, words from two or three languages might sometimes be used in a single sentence. Basically, the first words that sprang to mind were used,

and we rarely had any problem deciphering the meaning of that conglomeration of words. I suspect that the addition of Chinese to the language mix in American universities has probably developed mostly in the last 20 years. Between 1981 and 2010 I made 15 business trips to China, adding up to the equivalent time spent of about 9.5 months. My Chinese colleagues were predominantly engineers. Those over 40 often could speak Russian as a second language. Those under 30 often spoke very good English. Anyone who plans to work in a field which brings them into contact with groups of foreigners had better get used to the fact that they may frequently find themselves near groups conversing in a language that they don’t understand a word of. If they are uncomfortable in such an environment, there are three obvious options. Get an interpreter, learn an additional language, or find a different job. Arthur J. Wennerstrom is Duke alum, Pratt ‘56.

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2019 | 11

In Greek life? We think you matter less

n Friday, we were told that three of our Greek chapters are being investigated for alleged hazing. Our community has been silent for five days. On Saturday, we were told that a professor had acted in a manner certainly offensive and possibly illegal. I have never seen so many people come online so fast. Why are we selectively outraged? I do not put these two reports on a scale, as if to know which is worthier of outrage. I observe that our response to one developing report does not absolve our silence towards another. For the sake of full disclosure, know that I hold Greek life in no

Tim Kowalczyk COLUMNIST particular esteem. At best, it seems an odd and forced way to make friends. At worst, it’s an enclave of sexism and groupthink which can’t get from here to there without doing bad things. However, I, like Greek-affiliated students, am a member of the Duke community. I, like Greek-affiliated students, am a member of the human community. And when I hear that people may have been abused, I think it’s the right thing to say something about that—no matter who they are. “Duke’s chapters of Delta Tau Delta and Pi Kappa Phi have been suspended, and all new member activities at Sigma Pi Epsilon have been suspended pending a hazing investigation,” read Friday’s Chronicle article. And how does Duke define hazing? Per The Duke Community Standard, “hazing is defined as any action taken or situation created, whether on or off university premises, that is harmful or potentially harmful to an individual’s physical, emotional, or psychological well-being, regardless of an individual’s willingness to participate or its bearing on his/her membership status.” A hazing investigation across three chapters means that at minimum, three of your peers were allegedly harmed or put into harm’s way.

This story was published on Friday the 25th. We have been silent about this for five days. Is that because we don’t like Greek life students very much? I speak now to independents. (The relative silence of Greek organizations in the wake of these reports is reprehensible and deserving of its own full treatment.) It’s no secret that we resent Greeks. It’s an us-versus-them mentality. “They” are less-than. We perform this mentality annually in the agonized shouldyou-or-shouldn’t-you-columns about rushing. We perform it daily in eye-rolling conversations. When there’s a social problem at Duke, it’s the Greeks’ fault. Consider this theory, penned earlier in the month: “I would venture to maintain that most, if not all, independent students would struggle to identify the ‘personality’ of their house, to name even one of their house’s ‘traditions,’ and to honestly assert that their house is a ‘home.’” A house is no more than the people in it. Giving the Blue Devils in Greek life their due, they’ve discovered that communities sink or swim with the effort people put into them. Who would have thought. Consider this lovely thought from last April: “It’s no surprise that independent houses are having problems; they’re a series of communities largely composed of people that were cut from SLGs [Greeks included].” The problem isn’t with us, but with the people who didn’t like us. We aren’t failing to take responsibility for building up our own communities. We were just excluded from ready-made communities—the odds of joining which we knew to be very much against us. We resent students in Greek life. They are the reason that we are consistently unable or unwilling to build the least semblance of community in our own situations. So how do we treat those involved in this process of rejecting and being rejected? We reject them from our circle of empathy when they might need us most. Where is the outrage for these alleged victims? Where is the “L-Mo” email telling concerned pledges how to connect with Duke’s support services? Where is the strongly-worded email from President Price saying that whatever happened, the University thinks hazing is unacceptable? Perhaps you think “So what? If something did happen, they

knew what they were getting into.” Is that your reasoning? They were asking for it? Are there any other kinds of harm that you’re prepared to say victims were “asking for?” Do you believe only certain kinds of victims? Or maybe you’re trusting the “proper channels” to take care of this. One such channel, alongside “the University” and DUPD, is the fraternities themselves. For students so concerned about systemic obstructions to justice, we seem fine with trusting the people who may be at fault to help decide whether they’re at fault. We demand independent investigations of anything that needs investigating, except for the alleged abuse of our peers. Or you think that this is an allegation—really there’s no proof—so why react now? None of the fraternities are on record as denying the allegation. Do Greek organizations have a gaping hole where diversity should be? Yes. Does the selectivity of Greek organizations inflict real emotional harm? Yes. I am the first person to say that Greek life does immense harm and needs to put its house in order if it hopes to retain what little of our respect it enjoys. I also believe that when immense harm is allegedly done to people involved in Greek life, they deserve the same sympathy as anyone else who may have been harmed. I am not calling for a rush to judgment. I am not calling for some kangaroo court. I am calling you to consider whether your silence, your quiescence about this investigation, is due to a bias against students in Greek life. I opened with no quotation, and I will close with no quotation, because the hypocrisy displayed by this community in the past week needs no ornament to show it for what it is. Reform housing? Reform yourselves. Do you feel big, as you go about calling out everyone else’s prejudices while keeping your own tucked in place and turning a blind eye? My only argument is this: we shouldn’t turn a blind eye when a bad thing may have happened because of whom it may have happened to. We care all the way, or not at all. Tim Kowalczyk is a Trinity senior. His column runs on alternate Wednesdays.

The case against virginity

miss the days before Monday nights were reserved for wine and virginshaming. Colton Underwood, the new Bachelor, is a 26-year-old virgin—and it’s all anyone is talking about. In fact, this entire season of the Bachelor revolves around Colton’s virginity. And it’s really screwed up.

Rebecca Torrence COLUMNIST I’m not the only one disturbed by this. Thousands of viewers have raged on Twitter about the show’s focus on Colton’s lack of sexual experience. There are two main complaints: that virgin-shaming is trite, and that Colton’s virginity is irrelevant. Though pathetic, the well of virgin-shaming jokes seems to be bottomless. Why, though, do we find these comments funny in the first place? To answer that question, we must turn to the root of the other complaint: why are we so interested in virginity? The argument for the irrelevance of virginity is a tricky one. Of course, definitional virgins—people who have not had sex—must exist. (I’ll address how the ambiguous definitions of sex and virginity exclude the queer and trans communities another time, because that’s another issue entirely.) But as a social concept, virginity had to be created. The concept of virginity was constructed to serve the institution of marriage. According to the rules of this institution, the only women fit to be married were virgins. Pure. Untouched. Any unmarried woman who was not a virgin was tainted, making her a worthless possession. Thousands and even hundreds of years ago, the purpose of marriage was primarily social,

another way for men to raise their status by acquiring a new asset—a virginal wife. Because a man’s virginity was socially meaningless, he was free to engage in whatever sexual pursuits he might desire, regardless of his marital status. This solidified a crucial distinction—sex as masculine, virginity as feminine. Fast forward to today. Virginity is no longer a necessity. There are, for most people, no institutional consequences to having sex or to not having it. It shouldn’t matter. But it does, for two main reasons. The first is more obvious: we’re obsessed with sex. Of course, not all of us actually experience sexual desire. But because most do, it’s hard to evade its consideration. To some degree, this is in our nature. Whether or not we consciously want to have kids,

now or ever, our bodies and our minds are evolutionarily primed to desire sex. As college kids, we know this all too well. Our hormones are running on high, and we’re finally allowed to act on them. The fact that sex is a taboo topic makes its discussion even more enticing. Regardless of whether you’re doing it, you want to know who is, and with whom, and all the juicy details in between. You want those details both because their private nature makes them even more compelling, and because your neurons start firing at any mention of the one action completely integral to humanity’s survival. But there’s another reason we still exploit the concept of virginity. It no longer serves the institution of marriage, but it does serve

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

another social system: sexism. Even though it’s often impractical, virginity remains the ideal for women because it is deeply ingrained as a feminine trait. Of course, this makes no sense—how do men expect to have heterosexual sex (the only “manly” form of sex) if women are expected not to have it? Luckily for men, women are finally beginning to fulfill their desires, but at a cost: the creation of a double standard. Women are both expected to have sex and not to have it. Female virgins are simultaneously pure and prudish, while female non-virgins are both sexy and slutty. There is no winning, and that’s the point. At every turn, the social ideals of sex and virginity are designed to degrade women while supporting men. That dynamic is intentional. But men aren’t immune entirely from the consequences of this sexism. Because virgins are presumed female, male virgins are shamed. Not merely because having sex would make them explicitly more masculine. But because their lack of sexual experience makes them explicitly more feminine. And to be feminine—rather, to be a woman—is shameful. The core of virgin-shaming jokes isn’t sex at all: it’s sexism. We justify these quips by assuming that sex jokes, in general, are funny. But in reality, we’re ridiculing what we see as an inferior trait—femininity. Virgin-shaming is trite. Colton’s virginity is irrelevant. But to address these problems, we can’t merely say that “being a virgin doesn’t make you any less of a man.” We must seek to remove the concept of virginity from gender entirely. Otherwise, it is only when women are not seen as weak that virginity will not be seen as weakness. Rebecca Torrence is a Trinity sophomore. Her column runs on alternate Wednesdays.

12 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2019

FERROUS FROM PAGE 1 falls within Minas Gerais, a southeastern state bordering Rio de Janeiro. After Ferrous Resources was founded in 2007, it raised more than $1 billion with plans to build a pipeline to transport iron from its mines in the Quadrangle to Espírito Santo, a state along the Brazilian coastline. The following year, Ferrous bought land throughout Espírito Santo to build an iron processing plant and a port to export processed materials to China. Environmental impact studies raised concerns about the pipeline’s proximity to the San Bartolomeu River, a key water source for communities along its path. The river supplied water to over half of the city of Viçosa, and was the only water source for the Federal University of Viçosa. One study notes that in a region already experiencing severe water shortages, the operation posed a potential threat to clean drinking water for more than 110,000 Brazilians, many of whom were rural farmers. Locals also voiced concerns about increased erosion and deforestation in the region. Duke bought more than 1.7 million shares in the company in 2008, valued at $10 million. The University maintained its investments in Ferrous amid the company’s alleged participation in an illegal land sale scheme organized by government officials: a Brazilian police report states that Ferrous appeared to be nothing other than a “front company” for an operation in which it allegedly bought land at artificially high prices from businesses owned by public officials in exchange for major tax incentives. The scheme allegedly diverted $13 million from the city of Presidente Kennedy to the officials who orchestrated it. Officials at Ferrous did not deny that the company had been offered tax incentives, but said they were granted them for bringing business to the region, according to a letter to the Court of Justice of Espírito Santo that was obtained by the Brazilian newspaper Seculo Diario. ZMM Empreendimentos e Participações Ltda., created less than a year before the series of sales, was one of the companies doling out land to Ferrous. It was partially owned by the, Marcos Antonio Vieira de Novaes, councilor and municipal secretary of planning of Presidente Kennedy. BK Investments—one of ZMM’s partners— was owned in part by Jose Teofila de Oliveira, the state’s former secretary of finance. In one sale, ZMM bought land and resold it to Ferrous just 25 days later at 150 times its initial value. In another series of transactions, ZMM bought land and resold it to Ferrous five days later at over 300 percent its original value. When news of the investigation broke in 2012—the same year that protests about the potential environmental impacts of the pipeline reached a climax—the police arrested 28 people and issued 51 search and seizure warrants in connection with the scheme. Meanwhile, back in Minas Gerais, over 100 people took to the streets to march against the operation. Following the demonstration, the City of Viçosa filed a motion to repudiate the pipeline. Ferrous halted its plans for the pipeline that same year, citing decreased momentum in the iron market. In 2015, Duke bought an additional 1.9 million shares in Ferrous—valued at $300,000. The University’s holdings now stand at $1 million. Vinicius Borges, a representative for the Court of Justice of Espírito Santo, wrote to The Chronicle in an email that the trial is still underway, with no “decisions or resolutions whatsoever.” He could not provide further comment on proceedings due to an order of secrecy by the case judge. Luciano Santos, general counsel for Ferrous, declined to comment on the company’s entanglement in the ongoing lawsuit when reached by phone Tuesday. Schoenfeld, Baxter and Triplett declined to comment on whether they or other administrators were aware of the company’s entanglement in the ongoing lawsuit.

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Pending approval by Brazilian regulatory authorities, Ferrous will be acquired by Vale— one of the world’s largest mining corporations. In an email to The Chronicle, a representative of Vale declined to comment on Ferrous’ involvement in the alleged land sale scheme, writing that it is still an “independent company with its own management.” Although Schoenfeld said it is against University policy to comment on specific investments, he provided The Chronicle with the value of Duke’s holdings after he was presented the findings of its investigation. “The university does consider investments of the endowment to be something that reflects the values of the institution,” Schoenfeld said. Inside Duke’s investment process With its $8.5 billion endowment at a record high, Duke is among the 15 wealthiest schools in the United States. The University manages its investment portfolio through two groups: The Duke Management Company, or DUMAC, and Gothic Corporation—a wholly owned subsidiary of DUMAC. In 2016, Gothic managed $6.9 billion of the University’s then $7.9 billion endowment. “The purpose of the endowment is not to make money,” Schoenfeld said. “The goal of the endowment is to ensure a permanent level of support and that gets done in a variety of ways.” As of the end of fiscal year 2017, Duke held a total of $13.8 billion in investments. Gothic doesn’t make its own investment decisions independent of DUMAC, according to Schoenfeld. In fact, they share the same president—Neil Triplett, a former hedge fund manager—as well as the same treasurer, David Shumate. Both are nonprofits overseen by a Board of Trustees for investments as well as the University’s Board of Trustees. The primary reason for splitting funds between the groups is investment utility, Schoenfeld said. “Much as you would with your retirement account or your personal investments, you would not have all of your money in a pillow on your bed, so there are a lot of different investment vehicles that DUMAC uses,” Schoenfeld said. Although DUMAC and Gothic may not always invest in the same entities, both groups bought shares in Ferrous in 2008. Furthermore, they both increased their holdings in 2015. The only difference is that Gothic bought shares in Ferrous directly, while DUMAC bought shares through Bank of New York Mellon, according to share receipts and shareholder lists. As a private university, Duke does not have to disclose its investments to the public beyond its tax returns. Some information about where Duke invests is detailed in these Form 990s, which is the tax return form that Gothic and DUMAC file with the Internal Revenue Service. But the IRS only requires summaries of investments—-not line items—and the University’s practice of investing through blocker corporations obscures the true recipient of those funds. “It is the longstanding university policy that the university doesn’t disclose or comment on individual investments,” Schoenfeld said. “That’s as much a competitive matter of endowment management as being able to make multiple investment decisions that require some level of confidentiality in order for the University to have access to those kinds of investments.” Blocker corporations are companies located in tax havens, or countries with laws that allow investors to pay low taxes on large sums of cash. Some companies establish headquarters in tax havens to save cash, while carrying out operations elsewhere. Ferrous is an example of a blocker: Despite operating in Brazil, it is based in the Isle of Man—a small island located between

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Ireland and England. The Isle of Man has a 0 percent corporate tax rate. And since the IRS only requires that nonprofits report the location of the headquarters of its investments, Gothic and DUMAC’s holdings in Ferrous are listed under Europe—-not South America. “The 990 is not necessarily designed to make everything transparent,” said Richard Schmalbeck, Simpson Thacher and Bartlett Professor of Law. “There’s a compromise between the interests of transparency and the interests of readable information. If you’re looking at an organization like Duke, with an $8 billion endowment, the 990 would be the size of a telephone book.” There is also nothing inherently nefarious about blocker corporations, said Schmalbeck, who studies nonprofit tax law. He described Duke’s involvement with blocker corporations as an avenue to maximize the return on its investments by avoiding a corporate income tax, similar to how hedge funds and wealthy individuals might invest their money. ‘This is not our burden to bear as students’ When members of the Duke community want to inquire about or make recommendations regarding investments, they must first submit a request to Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility. If the committee votes that the request is of significant interest to the University, they send the president a report. Then it’s up to the president to make a recommendation to the Board of Trustees, which might impose guidelines on DUMAC and Gothic. The process is dependent on wellresearched petitions, according to Baxter. “We have no research office, we are not an ombudsman, and we do not conduct roving inquiries without some basis for believing that there is a matter that needs further discussion and investigation,” Baxter said. Some students say that can be a major undertaking. “It’s not fair to put that all on students,” said senior Ethan Miller, who works on the Duke Climate Coalition’s divestment campaign divestment team alongside Seaver Wang, a graduate student at Duke’s Cassar Lab. Miller said he and Seaver spent over 120 hours researching and writing three memoranda focused on Duke’s divestment from fossil fuels and proving that DCC met all the requirements to propose decarbonizing the endowment before their labor paid off. “It was like no transparency,” Miller said. “They didn’t give us any numbers, and they didn’t give us any names. They were kind of just listening and giving their feedback, but they weren’t doing any work on their side.” Responses to questions about the value of Duke’s holdings are generally limited by the University’s guidelines to keep detailed investment information private. Miller said that at first, ACIR only gave him

and his colleagues “ideas” of how much Duke invested in Carbon 200 companies. The list is comprised of the top public fossil fuel companies, according to Fossil Free Indexes. In December, Miller and Seaver’s work paid off. The duo, along with two other members of DCC, signed non-disclosure agreements to gain access to detailed information about Duke’s investments. They now participate on a subcommittee that focuses on divesting from companies in the Carbon 200. “That’s not to say that it hasn’t taken away from us doing classwork at times,” Miller noted. “This is not our burden to bear as students. Duke and ACIR were not fulfilling their job in doing all the research and work to invest environmentally responsibly. We should be able to do all our classwork and push Duke to be more environmentally friendly. It’s not fair to have to weigh those two options. ” Although Miller and ACIR are still limited by what information DUMAC is willing to share, he said they are currently developing a proposal to bring to President Vincent Price about divesting from fossil fuels. Miller added that since signing the NDA, members of ACIR have been helpful. If the Board of the Trustees takes action on inquiries or suggestions, the results are publicized. That last happened in 2012, when Duke adopted investment guidelines on conflict minerals following student pushback. With regards to the inquiry process, Schoenfeld acknowledged that students and the administration may not agree on the results, but said that Duke’s process is on par with peer institutions and “balances the needs and demands of a complex investment vehicle with the goals and the interests and the input of multiple stakeholders within the University.” Duke students fighting for increased transparency around investments are not alone. Following the Paradise Papers, undergraduates at Stanford University also voiced concerns about the school’s lack of clarity on how it invests its endowment. At Columbia University, which held more than eight million shares in Ferrous, it is also against school policy to comment on specific investments. Although the university divested from private prisons and thermal coal, some students worried that it could be investing indirectly through blocker corporations or hedge funds. With 15 percent of higher education institutions holding 74 percent of the wealth, the policies established to maintain a competitive edge among a small pool of schools also makes tracking those investments difficult. When navigating the opaque world of blocker corporations and multibillion dollar investment funds, high-risk document leaks like the Paradise Papers shed a rare light on where the investments of elite universities end up.