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ONE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH YEAR, ISSUE 65

Former men’s golfer joins Trump White House Grad students withdraw unionization petition Staff Reports The Chronicle

Andrew Giuliani, a former men’s golf player who sued the University, has taken a role in the Trump White House, according to a press release. Giuliani, Trinity ’09, will serve as associate director for the Office of Public Liaison, which interacts with interest groups. Giuliani, who is the son of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, was on the men’s golf team while at Duke. But he was dismissed from the team in Spring 2008, and he subsequently sued the University. The suit was eventually dismissed. While at Duke, Giuliani aspired to be a professional golfer. Giuliani told The Chronicle in 2008 that although he did not have an athletic scholarship during his time on the team, he had been offered one before matriculating at Duke. O.D. Vincent was head golf coach when Giuliani was suspended. According to a Chronicle report, the decision was made after Giulani broke golf clubs, disrespected a trainer and threw an apple at a former teammate. Giuliani then sued the University for the dismissal, claiming that Duke had violated its own policies by suspending him for a cause not listed in the various documents that laid out rules for student-athletes. He also claimed that Vincent conspired to remove him from the team by requiring a note of support from each of his teammates in order to end the suspension.

Neelesh Moorthy The Chronicle

Chronicle File Photos While on the Duke golf team, Andrew Giuliani broke golf clubs and threw an apple at a former teammate.

“The only University document that is consistent with O.D. Vincent’s scheme is the library’s copy of William Goulding’s [sic] The Lord of the Flies,” the suit read. “O.D. Vincent’s bizarre scheme violated both the spirit and the plain meaning of the contract.” In his suit, Giuliani sought monetary damages from the University as well as access to training facilities available to former student-athletes.

The suit was eventually dismissed in 2010 by U.S. District Judge William Osteen. Osteen determined in his ruling that the documents setting out rules for student-athletes do not constitute a contract between athletes and Duke. When Lewis McLeod sued the University after being expelled for sexual misconduct in 2014, Duke cited the Giuliani decision, arguing that McLeod could not allege breach of contract.

On behalf of the Duke Graduate Students Union, the Service Employees International Union has withdrawn its petition to unionize, according to new documents from the National Labor Relations Board. A prior unionization vote led to inconclusive results, with 691 students voting against the union and 398 in favor. However, 502 ballots were challenged between both Duke and the SEIU, which would have represented DGSU had they won the election. Had the petition not been withdrawn, the NLRB would have held hearings to settle the challenges. The new NLRB document notes that the SEIU is not allowed to file a petition encompassing a similar group of students within six months of the order. Although there will be no graduate student union, Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and See UNION on Page 16

The bark is back: Duke Gardens allows dogs to return Claire Ballentine The Chronicle

Special to The Chronicle Professor Thomas Metzloff, who walks his golden retriever Buzz (above) in the Gardens, said he is pleased with the policy change.

Last September, Duke Gardens announced a policy banning furry friends—but after complaints from the Duke community, dogs will now be allowed to return. The Sarah P. Duke Gardens will permit visitors to walk their dogs before 10 a.m. and after 5 p.m. William LeFevre, executive director of the Gardens, said the change was made after discussions with Duke students and faculty who are passionate about dog-walking. “We decided with the University that an accommodation would be a good way to try to make it at least a little less dramatic,” he said. The original policy was instituted because of the growing threat that dogs pose to plant life in the Gardens. Due to Durham’s rapid growth and the increasing popularity of the Gardens, the number of dogs visiting

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the grounds has risen substantially in the past few years. However, LeFevre said that many people have grown accustomed to walking their dogs in the Gardens and were dismayed to learn they that they would no longer be permitted to do so. Following meetings with faculty, administrators and the Graduate and Professional Student Council, the Gardens decided on a compromise allowing dog walking during certain hours. Dogs will still not be permitted in the Gardens without a leash or at all in two specialized gardens—the Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden and the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants. Thomas Metzloff, professor of law and co-chair of the University’s Committee on Facilities and Environment, said he was concerned when he heard about the Gardens plan to ban dogs. “I made inquiries about the extent it had been discussed with the Duke community, and

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it turned out it really hadn’t been,” he said. Metzloff noted that he heard many students in the Law School upset about the change. He also had a personal stake in the issue—he walks his golden retrievers several times a week in the Gardens. He brought the matter to Executive Vice President Tallman Trask who agreed that the Duke community should have a say in the policy. CFE then helped the Gardens craft its current regulation. LeFevre explained that the hours were chosen because most people walk their dogs in the early morning or after work. He stressed that the Gardens staff found it important to create hours that will not change with the season. “We don’t have a front door, so we decided with whatever we needed to do, we needed it to be simple,” LeFevre said. “People just need to know when they can and when they can’t.”

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House Bill 2 repeal ‘not Survey reveals ‘startling’ sexual misconduct statistics likely’ to pass in legislature Kara Fox The Chronicle According to a recent survey released by the University, 40 percent of undergraduate women at Duke and 10 percent of undergraduate men reported being victims of sexual assault since enrolling. Sue Wasiolek, associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students, said the rates were “unacceptable.” Nationally, the percentage of women who experience sexual assault in college is estimated to be approximately 20 percent—making the Duke statistic two times higher than the national average for undergraduate females. Additionally, 10 percent of undergraduate males reported being a victim of sexual assault since enrolling at Duke, compared to national estimates placed at approximately six percent. Although a majority of students in the survey reported feeling safe on campus and said that they thought the University cared about their safety, more than half of students reported that they still thought sexual assault

was a big problem at Duke. “For students to say that they feel safe and yet at the same time so many have fallen victim to sexual assault is an interesting question,” Wasiolek said. “It speaks to the fact that the vast majority of what we’re talking about in this report is related to the individual experiences that students are having with others that they know, and maybe that’s one of the reasons that they are not necessarily correlating those experiences with overall safety,” Wasiolek said. African-American and Hispanic undergraduate women and gay, lesbian and bisexual undergraduate students reported the highest rates of sexual assault. The most common locations for sexual assault incident were off campus—in places like Greek houses and “bars, pubs and restaurants.” On campus, residence halls were the most frequently reported location of sexual assaults. Students in the survey said that alcohol and drug use was a factor in more than half of sexual assault incidents. See SURVEY on Page 16

Special to The Chronicle The survey found that 40 percent of undergraduate women at Duke had experienced sexual assault—two times higher than the national average for undergraduate females.

Diane Hu The Chronicle A bipartisan proposal to repeal House Bill 2 has emerged, but critics say it may not pass. Although previous repeal attempts have failed, House Bill 186 has received media attention as a potential way to repeal the law passed nearly a year ago. If passed, the bill would allow localities to craft their own nondiscrimination ordinances. However, voters could decide whether the ordinances should remain if they petition for a referendum. The bill would also create exemptions to nondiscrimination ordinances for religious organizations and impose tougher penalties for crimes committed in bathrooms and changing facilities. “At the moment, [the passage of HB186] doesn’t sound likely,” said Pope McCorkle, associate professor of the practice in the Sanford School of Public Policy. McCorkle noted that the bill has been

sent to the Rules Committee, commonly known as a “traditional burial ground” for legislation. “When something is sent to Rules, it’s usually sent to die, or sent there to hang out and see if a consensus majority can get behind it,” McCorkle said. McCorkle speculated that a bill only undoing the original House Bill 2 would pass, but that Republican leadership has thus far refused to allow such a bill to receive a vote. Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Democrat from Greensboro, N.C., agreed with McCorkle’s assessment. “The problem is the Republican leadership doesn’t want to bring it up unless at least half of their caucus supports it,” Harrison, Trinity ‘80, said. House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President pro tempore Phil Berger, both Republicans, did not respond to requests for comment. According to the News and Observer, See HB2 on Page 16

Chronicle File Photo Gov. Roy Cooper said that House Bill 186 would not eliminate discrimination or bring jobs back to North Carolina. T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y

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Nancy Andrews highlights successes in diversity, fundraising Vir Patel The Chronicle Nancy Andrews, the outgoing dean of the School of Medicine, reflected on her vision and the school’s progress during her final State of the School address Monday evening. Andrews—who also serves as vice chancellor for academic affairs and Nanaline H. Duke professor of pediatrics—joined Duke in 2007 as the first female dean of the School of Medicine. Last year, Andrews and other administrators unveiled the school’s 2016 Strategic Plan, its first formal update since 2006. Four guiding principles went into the plan, Andrews explained. “[We want the School of Medicine] to become a destination of choice for world-class people, to develop a portfolio of world-class research, to have a campus that inspires and to expand and use [its] resources wisely.” During the event, Andrews described some of the school’s major advances in achieving these goals. Regarding her aim of recruiting top faculty, Andrews complimented recent hires in the past year. These hires are Duke’s “sunmakers,” she said, for their role in promoting the School’s reputation. “The reason we use the term ‘sunmaker’ is because you usually associate ‘rainmaker’ with a lot of money,” she said. “And while lots of money and grants can be good, that’s not exactly what we meant here. We want to recruit faculty leaders who have outstanding work that shines, who collaborate in new ways and who attract new great recruits.” Even during the financial crisis of 2008, she said the school maintained their recruiting goals. This has contributed to the School of Medicine’s prestigious standing today, she noted.

Neal Vaidya | The Chronicle Nancy Andrews applauded the School of Medicine’s success in recruiting top faculty during her final State of the School address.

“During the economic downturn, we continued to recruit basic scientists, when some of our peer schools decided that was a luxury that they couldn’t afford,” she said. “I hope you’ll agree now that that paid off for us, and certainly from what I’ve heard from colleagues outside of Duke, that’s enhanced our reputation.” Andrews pointed to newly announced chairs Dr. Moira Rynn—the incoming head the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences—and Dr. Matthew Barber, who will soon lead the department of obstetrics and gynecology. She also noted that the School of

Medicine has become more interdisciplinary, for example by working with MEDx, which attempts to bridge the medical and engineering communities. Discussing diversity, Andrews provided statistics for the racial and gender makeup of the School of Medicine and noted progress in both areas. As part of these efforts, she explained that the School has created the new position of assistant dean for underrepresented faculty development—held by Dr. Kevin Thomas. She also applauded work by black physicians at the School of Medicine. Thomas

and orthopedic resident Kwadwo Adu OwusuAkyaw have recently used the “Black Men in White Coats” video campaign to encourage underrepresented communities to join the medical profession. Moving to academics, Andrews said that the newly-established Center for Population Health Sciences has quickly transformed itself into a core division. She said the Center should be designated as a full department around July. This would be the School of Medicine’s first department in the social sciences, she noted, and would align closely with the larger goal of broadening the school’s research interests. “I believe we should have a research spectrum that does span the entire biomedical spectrum, from basic sciences to population health, with good representation at every level in between,” Andrews said. She also described growth in the school’s funding mechanisms, emphasizing their role in sustaining research and clinical activities. Between fiscal year 2015 and 2016, she said, there was a $50 million increase in grants from the National Institutes of Health. In her concluding remarks, Andrews reflected on the importance of diversity to the School’s overarching mission, and encouraged continued efforts after she leaves. Dr. Mary Klotman, chair of the department of medicine, will succeed Andrews in July. “Diversity, inclusion and equity are fundamental to our excellence and to our success. We’ve made strides in diversifying our education programs, our staff and our faculty, but we still have a long way to go,” she said. “That said, the commitment of the school’s senior leadership gives me confidence that we’ll be led in the right direction and reap the benefits of a community where many perspectives and backgrounds are not only represented but are truly valued.”

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What is the University’s paid parental leave policy? Bre Bradham The Chronicle For parents working at Duke, the amount of time off they have to bond with their new child depends on a number of factors. Different positions at the University have different guaranteed paid parental leave times. For example, faculty paid parental leave is largely determined by whether the professor is regular-rank and whether they are the primary caregiver for their child. For Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, associate professor of the practice of statistical science, the policy allowed her to have the entirety of last semester off from teaching for the birth of her son. “I think it would be very difficult if I had to teach a class partway and then stop, or pick a class up partway,” she said. “I think that would, most importantly, be very

difficult on the students. I’m glad I haven’t had to do that, and I think the policy of being off from teaching for a semester comes from that.” The parental leave policy for faculty can be found in chapter four of the faculty handbook, which explains that “a regular rank faculty member on a multiple-year appointment” will be given a semester’s leave with pay for the birth of their child, adoption of a child or the birth of a domestic partner’s child. The paid leave only accrues to the “primary caregiver,” or the parent who has “primary responsibility for the care of the child.” For example, if only one member of the couple is on faculty, then that faculty member must be the “primary caregiver” in order to receive the leave. Çetinkaya-Rundel and her husband, statistics professor Colin Rundel, faced a slightly different situation. Only Çetinkaya-Rundel could get the parental leave because she was the primary caregiver, she said.

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Nonetheless, the flexibility inherent in academic scheduling allowed him to plan his classes for the same day and work from home on other days. He was back in the classroom a week after the baby was born. “It’s a lot more generous than what others in this country are working with, but is it ideal? I don’t know,” she said. “A lot of research seems to show that early bonding is very important, and some countries seem to be very respectful of both fathers and mothers taking the time off.” Regular-rank faculty on the tenure-track who take parental leave also get a one-year extension of the tenure probationary period—the time in which they have to demonstrate they are qualified for tenure. The amount of paid time off for non-regular rank faculty is different. For Duke’s non-regular rank faculty, six weeks of paid leave are guaranteed. However, the Family and Medical Leave Act guarantees 12 weeks of unpaid leave, so non-regular rank faculty can also use six weeks of unpaid leave. This means professors such as adjuncts and lecturing fellows can take up to 12 weeks total when welcoming new children, but only half is paid. The University only provides three weeks of full-paid parental leave policy for staff members at Duke and at the Duke University Health System. In order to spend more time away from work, they must “use vacation, sick leave, discretionary/designated holidays or [paid time off.]” After that has elapsed, they can take the remainder of their 12 weeks of unpaid leave time through the FMLA. Because staff can accrue sick and vacation leave while faculty cannot, the guaranteed paid parental leave of staff is lower than that of faculty, wrote Kyle Cavanaugh, vice president of administration, in an email. “It is important to understand that the paid parental leave is in addition to Duke vacation and sick leave benefit,” he wrote. If the University’s policy sounds confusing, it may be because of the disjointed location of the information. “I think one of the things that is always challenging when it comes to things like this is how do you find the information? As a student, you may not be sure where to look, but even as a faculty member it is not immediately clear where to look to find this information,” said Çetinkaya-Rundel. “You ask around, your chair usually helps you. So you get to it eventually, but oftentimes this type of information is in some booklet, you just need to know where to look.” However, the University policy may soon be influenced by the White House. President Donald Trump promised during his campaign to provide a minimum of six weeks paid maternity leave, although recent reports suggest that could be family, not only maternal, leave. “We have been monitoring [it] closely and will make any required adjustments,” Cavanaugh wrote.

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VOLUME 18, ISSUE 20

MARCH 8, 2017

recess Spotlight on Tony Johnson

Local choreographer on dance, Duke and Durham, page 8

‘Get Out’ shocks audiences

Peele’s directoral debut confronts racism, page 7

Lorde’s return: what does it all mean? Recess sounds off, page 9

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recess editors What do you do with a CD?

Dillon Fernando ........ only owns 1989 Christy Kuesel .............. mixtape, baby Kirby Wilson ......... selling in back alley Drew Haskins ..................problematic Tim Campbell .............. what are those Aditya Joshi ....................they’re dead Georgina Del Vecho..........wish i knew Jessica Williams ......tunes for the bae Will Atkinson ....... making a comeback Nina Wilder .............with the boombox

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In today’s music market, listeners are often presented with a false dichotomy between two formats. On one hand, there is streaming. The now-ever-present product of the Internet that, despite the questions surrounding its ethics, has quickly succeeded both MP3 downloads and physical purchases as the most popular source of music for casual and serious listeners alike. On the other hand, there’s the analog counterrevolution, whose most observable result has been a Crosley turntable in every college student’s dorm. I find myself attempting to identify either as a forward-looking music fan in a digital world or as a purist still intent on building my record collection in the face of an industry that has left its values behind. Lost amid these two extremes is the compact disc, the consummate hybrid of the digital and the physical. We’re at a point in history where the CD’s favor is at its lowest. It has outlived its utility, but not by long enough to become cool, the way vinyls and cassettes have, leaving it in an awkward stage. Not many, in 2017, would rise to the defense of the CD. Today, I present a case for the humble, forgotten medium. My personal connection to the compact disc dates back to the days of family road trips, where the only distraction for my impatient eightyear-old brain was a Walkman and a bootlegged copy of The Shins’ “Chutes Too Narrow.” I credit that album— along with the various greatest hits compilations and Broadway musical soundtracks that littered my home’s shelves—with launching a transfixion with music that continues to this

day. Listening to CDs taught me the power of sequencing, each track on an album its own unit within a larger whole. Nothing was more satisfying than clicking through the tracks on that primitive digital display, watching the seconds tick down on each song and feeling the hum and the heat from the disc that all the while spun furiously inside. Later in life, CDs once more proved their worth when I started driving. I amassed binders-full of discs either bought or burnt, relishing the process of putting together mixes. Because the CD maintains the long-playing nature of vinyl while introducing the discrete skip-ability of the MP3, it makes the perfect vehicle for the playlist. The process of choosing and ordering a set of songs, burning it to disc and

editor’s note pulling out a Sharpie to personalize it requires a level of manual effort not replicated by a shuffle-ready Spotify playlist, no matter how wellcurated the latter may be. (Hipster courtship died the day cars stopped manufacturing CD players.) Laptops likewise began phasing out CD players recently, making the opportunities for CD listening few and far between. The two-headed monster of streaming services and wireless sound systems is rapidly becoming the norm for music listening. While the newer medium increases music’s

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ease of access and opens the door to endless libraries at the touch of a screen, the integrity of sound quality (not to mention the proper compensation of artists) has taken a back seat. Say what you will about those brittle jewel cases and those absurdly fragile glass surfaces, but no one can deny the CD’s commitment to affordable, quality sound. The CD, despite the odds, has stubbornly refused to die a swift death. Many independent radio stations still play the bulk of their music on CD. Retail stores like Target still carry the newest releases on disc—and they still sell out. Upstart and seasoned bands alike continue to peddle CDs at their shows alongside cassette tapes and T-shirts. Independent bookshops and record stores like the ones I used to scour in high school often feature shelves upon shelves of used CDs, an endless repository of discovery for any music fan. Even if it isn’t quite “cool,” the compact disc is far from obsolete. And if the twenty-year wheel of nostalgia continues to turn, we’re due for a CD renaissance soon. The vinyl reawakening peaked years ago. (Once they started appearing at Barnes and Noble, the end was nigh.) The cassette is having its moment now. Give it five years or so, and the time may be ripe for the CD to make a comeback. ––Will Atkinson

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Ed Sheeran’s album ‘÷’ fails to measure up to past work Drew Haskins The Chronicle Last week, Stereogum published an article that declared, “Ed Sheeran is the king of pop.” There must have been some mistake; surely, the fair people at Stereogum weren’t discounting better, more entertaining male pop stars like The Weeknd or Bruno Mars. Even Justin Bieber in all of his inconsistency must lay a better claim to the title of king of pop. However, Sheeran’s influence is undeniably pervasive. His particular brand of treacly, earnest acoustic folk-pop has spawned a litany of imitators like Shawn Mendes and James Arthur. Significantly, he wrote Bieber’s execrable 2015 hit “Love Yourself,” one of the most lyrically malicious pop songs of the past decade. Terrible as it is, “Love Yourself” would be a top five song on Sheeran’s latest album “÷” (pronounced “divide), a tuneless, problematic slog that easily rates as both his worst album and one of the worst major pop releases in a long time. Starting with the positive, “Shape Of You” is the best song Sheeran has ever put to record. Danceable let typically low-key, the production grooves gently along a syncopated, plucked guitar line like a watered down version of a Major Lazer song. It was reportedly written for Rihanna, and you can imagine her giving silly lines like “I’m in love with the shape of you/We push and pull like a magnet do” the kind of sexy gravitas and confidence she’s so known for. As such, Sheeran has none of those attributes, and the whole enterprise feels mildly icky. His shift

into falsetto when impersonating his female lover in the pre-chorus is one of several cringe-worthy moments on the record at large, yet overall, “Shape Of You” is the only song with any sort of forward momentum and contains several nice moments. The sonorous backing vocals in the latter half of the chorus are downright transporting, so ethereal and otherworldly that, for a brief moment, you can pretend you’re not listening to “÷.” The rest of the album is dismal, filled with tracks that range from innocuous fluff to affronts against decency and taste. A common theme is Ed Sheeran’s female problems. Ed Sheeran does not like it when girls are not into him, and Ed Sheeran does not like any man who dates his exes. The gross “New Man” puts down one of these guys, jeering that “Your new man rents a house in the ‘burb/and wears a man bag on his shoulder but I call it a purse.” It’s bad enough that Sheeran feels the need to derisively feminize and domesticize his male “rival,” though it’s much worse delivered in a snotty rap. Sheeran loves to rap, but— shockingly–he’s not very good. He’s an adequate enough singer, especially in his soft lower register, yet his insistence upon spitting out every line in a clipped, monotone way further dulls the impact of arrangements that were already dead on arrival. The album opener, “Eraser,” is the worst rapping offense, a bloated account of his rise to fame punctuated with guitar work that sounds like that kid in your freshmen hall. The pettiness of “Eraser”’s narrative is borderline unlistenable, and several tracks on

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Ed Sheeran’s album “÷” is both boring and long, marking a poor return to pop for the singer.

“÷” attack all of Sheeran’s perceived haters in ways that come off less as triumphant and more like bullying. Even when he tries more sonically adventurous fare, Sheeran can’t help but get in his own way. “Galway Girl” is a morass of Irish-rock clichés over ‘NSync production; the best thing that can be said about it is that it’s over in under three minutes. The bouncy— for this album, at least—“Barcelona” is dampened by Sheeran’s excessively hoarse vocals, which sound like he’s dealing with a particularly nasty case of strep throat. It also contains Sheeran speaking in Spanish. Deluxe edition track “Bibia Be Ye Ye” is even more dubious and culturally appropriative. Its interpretation of Afro-pop has no real thought put into it, unlike similar works from Vampire Weekend and Paul Simon, and it lands with a thud

in an album that has fifteen of them. Indeed, “÷” has one good song out of sixteen(!) total, which makes for an unconscionably boring and long listening experience. Sheeran lacks a sense of pacing both within individual songs and within the album itself, taking too long to build to weak choruses. There are also far too many ballads, pretty enough yet tainted by his inability to write a solid hook or lyrics that don’t put down someone else or pander to audiences searching for “real” music. On the U2 knockoff “Castle on the Hill,” Sheeran sings of the nostalgic past, “I was younger then/take me back to when.” I’ll take the paternalistic histrionics of “The A-Team” or the Marvin Gaye-aping schmaltziness of “Thinking Out Loud” any day over the sour, spoiled “÷.”

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‘Get Out’ combines comedy and horror to confront racism Nina Wilder The Chronicle

Dusk has fallen over an affluent neighborhood and the manicured lawns and pristine architecture are barely visible in the dim illumination of a few street lights. A young black man walks along the suburban sidewalk in supposed solitude, mumbling house numbers and street names in an attempt to discern his surroundings. Nimble camerawork and the innate tension of such a scene alert us that the figure is not truly alone, and our fears are quickly confirmed as a suspicious car slinks alongside the man like a predator deftly hunting its prey. The man quickens his pace in fright and we are struck with the familiarity of the situation. It’s horror movie trope played out a million times before, that’s for sure—think of Michael Myers stalking his victims in “Halloween”—but it’s also alarmingly similar to the circumstances that led to the death of Trayvon Martin, a black 17-year-old killed for being black in a rich, white neighborhood. It’s in this opening scene of “Get Out” that writer and director Jordan Peele illustrates to us the two-fold nature of his film: it is both a loving homage to the horror classics that preceded it and a biting commentary on American racial politics. After its harrowing prologue, “Get Out” finds its focus on Chris (played by Daniel Kaluuya), a talented black photographer, as he prepares to accompany his girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) on a trip to her parents’ house in the country. Chris is visibly nervous–he frets over his suitcase and pointedly asks Rose, “Do they know I’m black?” She tells him that they don’t know, but insists that it’s okay because her parents are bona fide liberals who would’ve voted for Obama a third time if they could’ve.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons “Get Out” stars Daniel Kaluuya as he faces the creepy microagressions of white suburbia.

(Because white convention leads us to belief that voting for Obama absolves you of all aspects of racism.) The uncertainty of the trip and Chris’s reception is palpable. But, for the most part, everything is amiable when the couple arrives at the home of Rose’s parents, Dean (Bradley Whitford) and Missy (Catherine Keener). The scenario is comparable to that of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” but without the overt hostility and racial tension. Sure, Rose’s parents are a little awkward and cringe-worthy when conversing with their daughter’s boyfriend—Dean calls Chris “my man” with a forced affectation and proudly brags that his father lost a spot in the Olympics to the black athlete Jesse Owens—but they aren’t chasing Chris off the lawn, wielding shotguns and spouting racial epithets. Still, though, Chris is somewhat uneasy. The groundskeeper and maid

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(played by Marcus Henderson and Betty Gabriel) are both black, and their behavior is forced and eerie, disengaged from reality like robots with their wires pulled too taut. At the family’s annual gathering of friends, Peele lays the racial microaggressions bare—the upper-class whites divulge to Chris their love of Tiger Woods, ask him what he perceives the African-American experience to be and grope his muscles without his permission. The inexplicably bizarre and racially-charged encounters pile up and Chris is left puzzling over whether the white folks are just offkilter or if something more insidious is taking place. Peele, a quick-witted comedian by trade, elegantly weaves the conventions of horror and comedy together in a manner that’s both smart and effective in conveying his cinematic and racial commentary. He’s clearly aware of the more over-

done aspects of the horror genre— more often than not, viewers grow frustrated and disengaged with a protagonist who willingly places himself in peril’s way. In “Get Out,” Peele builds the tension of the film in a deliberately slow manner, allowing the viewer to sympathize with Chris’s continued involvement in the family’s strange affairs. And while Peele’s indictment of the white liberal elite may seem overt at times, it’s not far from the truth—claims of a ‘postracial America’ were vehemently present during Obama’s tenure. At its core, “Get Out” is a surprisingly strong debut from Peele. The film’s direction, pacing and script are all indicative of a filmmaker who’s been creating cinematic masterpieces for quite some time, not a newcomer to the craft. The horrific moments blossom onscreen in a timely manner and the twist is revealed in handfuls, the viewer left to string the narrative together with previously dispatched clues. Likewise, Peele turns Chris into a singular and well-developed character, but he never allows the protagonist to lose his universality. In particular, when a police car comes across Chris in a bloodied and vulnerable state at the close of the film, our automatic reaction isn’t elation at the prospect that he’s been rescued—instead, we are terrified, praying that the officer isn’t white and won’t fatally shoot him on the spot. Indeed, “Get Out” isn’t subtle about confronting the racial issues currently present in America. Peele doesn’t water down the racial aggressions voiced by his characters and doesn’t provide a morally-sound white person to rally around. He channels real, overt fears into a wickedly funny and terrifying horror flick, guaranteeing that racist attitudes and the subjugation of black bodies are scarier than any masked killers or flesh-eating monsters will ever be.

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The healing power of stories: Patrick Ness’ ‘A Monster Calls’ Maria Carnovale The Chronicle

“The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do.” Connor was not scared. The 13 year old boy had worse monsters to face than the ominous yew tree thrusting at his window: the malignity of school bullies, the suffocating sympathy of the teachers, a neglecting father, his mother terminally ill. Cancer corrodes these characters as the life of their originator. Siobhan Dows, human right activist and children’s book writer, lost her fight against breast cancer at age 47. “She had the characters, a premise, and a beginning. What she didn’t have was time” acknowledges in the introduction Patrick Ness, the author, who was handed over the job to shape that idea into a novel. The Virginiaborn writer accomplishes the task with simplicity and profundity. Don’t be fooled by the back cover’s “age 12 and up.” Like most books in the young adult aisle, this is a book for adults in disguise. The novel’s agile and witty prose will make you want to read it cover to cover in one afternoon (and probably cry copiously

before you hit the end mark). Resist that temptation: pace yourself. Let the chapters sink in and get to your bones. Appreciate the marvelous illustrations by Jim Kay. His brisk and emotive brushes are an integral part of the book’s artistic content and perfectly frame this powerful story. Ness has the ability to build a complex story into a simple, almost stereotypical, frame (how many books’ monsters have visited young boys) and innovate on the theme. The book has multiple themes and multiple layers that weave, messy and contradictory, like life itself. In its essence, though, it is a story about stories and their ability to fight your demons, to uncover the one thing we all usually shroud under the noise of our daily lives: the truth. The monster offers three parables that intertwine with Connor’s life as the various themes surface: the deluded hope of his mother recovery; the daily lies used to shield from suffering; isolation and annihilating power of pain. Nobody could see him anymore under the thick blanket of his misfortune and “if no one sees you […] are you really there at all?” Finally, guilt sneaks into Connor as he falls into the secret wish to stop fighting that wearing battle next to

his mom. A type of guilt we are all pray of at times, that comes from the inability to detach thought and action, as if thoughts could influence reality as actions do. They do not. In the good and in the bad, “What you think is not important. It is only important what you do,” says the healing tree. The monster’s intervention is not

free though and what he wants in return is a story. It forces Connor to face his own nightmare that if left looming in the dark would have drowned the boy. And by doing that, it saves him. Behind suffering and grievance, this is a book, fiercely honest and beautiful, about hope and the healing power of stories.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons “A Monster Calls” appeals to all ages in its commentary on coping with diseases like cancer.

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Durham choreographer Tony Johnson on identity and dance Aditya Joshi The Chronicle Dance never came easily for Tony Johnson. Let me rephrase. Tony Johnson has always had the talent. But, for the freelance dancer, teacher, choreographer and Duke institution, his circumstances were rarely conducive to his passion. As a child he had to sneak around and pretend like he wasn’t practicing dance because of the religiosity of the community he grew up in. As he got older and started taking continuing education dance courses at Duke, he had to deal with being the only black, queer man—and for a long time, the only man—in the program. Johnson worked at bookstores and drove buses and did odd jobs for decades, making sure his schedule was flexible so he could continue taking classes through the dance program. Of course, Tony never minded, because real jobs didn’t make him happy. Dancing, on the other hand, was his pride and joy. For more than 20 years, dance was never Johnson’s occupation. In many ways, it’s still not. When I ask him if in his younger days he had a plan to make a living through dance, he furiously shakes his head, saying that he still doesn’t. “When my work becomes survival for me, I don’t want to do it anymore. I feel like I’d become enslaved to society as an artist. So for me, [odd jobs] paid the rent and put food on the table.” he explains. This mentality has meant a very simple life, and that’s just the way Johnson likes it. For a few years in Washington D.C., he lived on $100 a month. He slept on the floor, like he “loves to do.” “Efficiency,” he calls it. He rarely owns things for long periods of time and has even left three apartments full of his belongings in search of a new abode. “I would leave everything there, and only take a few things with me. I even left a car,” Johnson says to me, giggling. “The only things I wanted to be tied down was the spiritual part of my life as well as dance.” When Johnson got involved with the Duke Dance program in 1984, the choreographer sent him home because the pieces in the show were only for

women. He persisted, and after a few phone calls to the head of the department was able to begin taking classes. “I lived a lonely life,” he tells me, “I was always in search… So when I danced there, as the only African-American, only gay guy, it wasn’t about them, it was about my own search. About embracing his body that was supposedly condemned. And so I was willing to pay that price.” One of his first choreography positions was as a choreographer-inresidence for the Duke Chapel in the late 90s, an opportunity he was hesitant to take. “I was never really a church person,” he laughs, citing his sexuality as one of the reasons he had always been distant from religion. “I thought, I’m the biggest sinner out here by religious standards, and now you want me to dance in a chapel?” But he took the job, and through that, found a place. He was always searching for a spiritual meaning, struggling to find his place in a world that he believed had rejected the fundamental premise of his identity. “I tried to stay away from it,” he shrugs. “But it didn’t happen. I became a seeker, for this god I felt didn’t love me.” The ideas of spiritual journeys and an identity that faced rejection and ostracism by the world we live in are common throughout our conversation. Johnson understands that he is one of the ultimate minorities, and expresses that emotion and struggle the only way he can, through the other consistent thread of our conversation: dance. These days, Johnson has been working on projects about injustice. His most recent piece, “My Heart is Heavy,” reflected his feelings about N.C.’s HB2 law. Other pieces have touched on subjects like slavery, gender relations and police brutality. Though he’s spent almost his last 40 years in Durham, he’s struggling to reconcile his home with the racism he sees in the state, and the lack of artistic community he feels in the city. A few years ago, he worked with Duke’s United In Praise group, and thought to himself, “What the hell do we have to praise on this campus? There’s so much racism and hate here.” So now his work and activism are steering him

recess Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Tony Johnson has choreographed over 300 dances pieces and held fellowships of prestige.

back in the direction of Washington D.C., and, well, he’s okay with that too. Johnson has spent the better part of four decades weaving his way in and out of the Duke and Durham dance communities by way of the American Dance Festival. He’s choreographed over 300 works, been written about in many local papers, spoken at dance conferences across the country and held fellowships of prestige. Through dance he has found faith and self actualization, which have enabled him to teach dance in a homeless women’s shelter, volunteer at clinics to help people dying of AIDS and raise money

for LGBTQ churches. But at this stage in his life, Johnson is stepping back from performing. His life’s mission “is not to dance. It’s to teach, and pass dance on to others.” As usual, he punctuates this statement of purpose with a selfdeprecating crack, “I would not want to make people suffer with an old man like me on stage. I wouldn’t even want to watch that myself.” As we part ways, I give Tony a little wave through the window of the coffee shop. He grins, waves back and pulls out his cell. A flip phone. Simple, but efficient.

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Durham restaurant superlatives: For every mood and flavor Melissa Letzler The Chronicle The Best… …bang-for-your-buck: Chubby’s Tacos …hangover food: Rise Biscuits and Donuts …decoration/ambiance: Gonza’s Tacos and Tequilas … bar w/ a firetruck: Surf Club …big burger: Dain’s Place …downtown hidden gem: Old Havanna Sandwich Shop …specialty cocktail: Bar Virgile … casual dinner: Lily’s Pizza

…hushpuppies: Q-Shack

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…quiet café: Francesca’s Dessert Caffee …fries: James Joyce The Most…. … tragic when it closed this year: Epa Chamo …likely to confuse with each other: JuJu and JuJuBee …reminiscent of the 1960s: The Federal …loved by Tarheels too: Monut’s Donuts …comforting environment campus: Divinity Cafe

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Monut’s brings together young and old, Tarheel and Blue Devil, for a scrumptious treat.

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Recess sounds off on: the resurrection of our Lorde & savior Recess Staff The Chronicle

“LOVE IT. Flawless. Brilliant. Stunning. Never been done. One of a kind.” ––Drew Haskins “Haven’t heard it, can’t imagine I’ll be that impressed. ‘Royals’ was bleh. And that other song of hers that was big, with disclosure or whatever, no thanks.” –-Aditya Joshi “Unexpected.” ––Georgina Del Vecho “The cool thing about Lorde was her no-frills apathy paired with crunchy beats. Not sure why she went with

‘Adele mixed with Icona Pop’ for the second release.” ––Kirby Wilson “Lorde, I’ll dance on top of an Uber with you any day.” ––Dillon Fernando “Lorde’s first album was formative for my blossoming music taste early on in high school, and rightfully so–her anxiety about growing up so deeply resonated with me. ‘Green Light’ is proof that Lorde has finally embraced her growth–it’s a mature, nostalgic and irresistible pop track that forewarns an incredibly fun album to come.” ––Nina Wilder “Lorde and ‘Green Light’ are brilliant.” ––Christy Kuesel

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Lorde’s return to music features the vibrant song “Green Light,” exciting fans everywhere.

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Local Arts

The curious incident of the boy in the balcony: a DPAC review

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons The play “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” came to DPAC last month.

Jaya Pokuri The Chronicle Last week, I watched “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime” at the DPAC. I was expecting to see a masterclass show that would leave me speechless, considering the numerous Tony Awards (2015) that

the Broadway show had garnered, yet here I am, certainly not unable to express my words. There are many reasons why I might have disliked this show. Maybe it’s because I was in the upper echelons of the balcony, far away enough from the stage to not be able to see the actors’ expressions and mannerisms. Or maybe it’s because

the show wasn’t a musical and was thus less enjoyable than when I saw the “Lion King” or “Mary Poppins” at DPAC some time ago. But whatever the case, I could have repurposed the $40 ticket price for something else such as a night out with friends or one meal from Farmstead in West Union. First of all, for those who are unaware, this play is a first-person narrative of an autistic fifteen yearold boy, Christopher Boone, who is trying to figure out who killed his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, with a garden fork. During his search, Christopher performs detective work and learns that not only did his dad kills Wellington but his dad also lied to him about his mom dying when really she had left the dad for another man. Consequently, Christopher loses all trust in his dad and plans to travel to London by himself to live with his mom. This is no small task for Christopher who is overwhelmed by large amounts of sensory information and ends up having panic breakdowns when overloaded as when he traveled to the Paddington train station. I enjoyed how this was portrayed in the show—with lots of laser lights, fog effects and trippy music with bass drops. Now I associate the Paddington train station in London with the sickest night club around. Eventually, with the help and frustration of many people, Christopher finds his way to his mother’s house. Overall, the show could have delved further into the realm of spectacle by incorporating color, music and dance,

Admission is always free for Duke students.

as is typically desired of a Broadway show, instead of strictly adhering to the novel. The plot from the book was accurately portrayed in the play but had a subpar visual interpretation. The setting of the play was essentially a black chalkboard box with white grid lines every few feet. Aside from the actor’s clothes, which were also dark, color was almost non-existent. I understand the play was trying to display the mind of an autistic child, but Christopher’s mind doesn’t have to be restricted to drab colors. Christopher is very emotional and has frequent mood swings which could have been represented by divergent color schemes in the play’s setting based on the mental state being expressed. Doing this would have led to a more appealing stage presence that would keep the viewer constantly attentive to Christopher’s state of mind. In addition, building song and dance into important scenes to present the story in an alternate approach than the book might have made the play more successful. Instead, many scenes felt either too dramatic or boring and without any element of fun with the exception of a few sporadically placed jokes. In fact, I found myself looking forward to the intermission for some respite from the tedious progression of the play. Having said this, my final recommendation is to definitely not see this Broadway play and instead use the three hours you would save to do something more enjoyable and rewarding.

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TOUGH ROAD AHEAD

Duke looks to make history with 4 wins in the ACC tournament Hank Tucker The Chronicle After dropping out of the top four in the ACC in the last two weeks of the season, Duke is heading to the conference tournament a day earlier than expected and in need of an unprecedented run to bring home its first title in six years. The fifth-seeded Blue Devils open play at the Barclays Center in New York Wednesday at 2 p.m. against No. 12 seed Clemson, with a gauntlet awaiting Thursday and Friday if they beat the Tigers. This is the second straight year Duke has missed out on a double No. 12 Clemson bye in the ACC tournament—the vs. Blue Devils got No. 5 bounced in the Duke quarterfinals last WEDNESDAY, 2 p.m. year, and no team Barclays Center has ever won four games in four days to win the title. A win Wednesday would possibly secure a top-four seed in the NCAA tournament for Duke, and put the Blue Devils in good position to stay close to home in Greenville, S.C., for the tournament’s first weekend. “We’re a good team, and we have to believe that. We’ve had a rough stretch where we just dropped a lot of close games,” graduate student Amile Jefferson said after the team’s loss at North Carolina Saturday. “Going forward, everything is in the past.

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Contenders or pretenders?

N.C. State and Boston College to finish out the regular season, head coach Brad Brownell’s team ran past the Wolfpack 75-61 Tuesday afternoon. The Tigers are still searching for their first win of the year against a ranked ACC opponent, and a deep run this week could put them back in the NCAA tournament conversation. If the Blue Devils do not match Clemson’s energy coming off a few days of rest and fall victim to the defensive lapses

Throughout this tumultuous regular season, through all the ups and downs, there has been one question that I cannot get out of my head—one that, before the season, I never really thought would need to be asked. Is Duke good? Like legitimately good, a national championship contender? By now, it is no secret that the Blue Devils failed to meet the expectations that were, perhaps unfairly, set for them in October. Eight regular-season losses were nearly unthinkable for a team that opened the season as 9-2 favorites to win the national title, with a host of talented freshmen arriving to supplement a strong core that featured a National Player of the Year frontrunner in Grayson Allen. And yet, right from the beginning of the season, something just seemed a little… off. On one hand, Duke losing at the buzzer to title-contender Kansas in November without three of those freshmen—Jayson Tatum, Harry Giles and Marques Bolden, each of whom were expected to play a major role—is nothing to be ashamed of. But even then, the Blue Devils were pretty clearly outplayed by the Jayhawks and only a fervent lategame scoring spree from Frank Jackson kept the outcome close. National championship-caliber teams

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Brian Pollack

Carolyn Chang | The Chronicle Graduate student Amile Jefferson and the Blue Devis have lost three of their last four games heading into the postseason.

Everything we’ve done is in the past. It’s about right now.” Clemson (17-14) gave Duke all it could handle at Cameron Indoor Stadium Feb. 11, eventually falling 6462 when Shelton Mitchell could not get a clean shot off on the Tigers’ last possession. It was one of nine ACC games Clemson lost by six points or fewer, but it finally started to close games with three straight wins against the conference’s bottom-feeders heading into Wednesday’s contest. After knocking off

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Luke Kennard earns first-team All-ACC honors Staff Reports The Chronicle

Carolyn Chang | The Chronicle Luke Kennard was the league’s only unanimous first-team all-conference player after leading the ACC in scoring but finished fourth in ACC Player of the Year voting.

A Blue Devil guard earned first-team All-ACC accolades once again Sunday—just not the one everyone predicted entering the season. Sophomore Luke Kennard was the only unanimous selection to the team, which was announced by the conference Sunday afternoon along with the rest of its postseason awards. Kennard established himself as one of the best players in the nation this season, averaging 20.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game and shooting 50.4 percent from the field and 45.0 percent from the 3-point line. His 28 points Saturday at North Carolina earned the Franklin, Ohio, native the ACC scoring crown for the season. Kennard was joined on the first team by North Carolina’s Justin Jackson—the

league player of the year—Wake Forest’s John Collins, Notre Dame’s Bonzie Colson and Louisville’s Donovan Mitchell. Kennard finished fourth behind Jackson, Collins and Colson in ACC Player of the Year voting. Many expected Grayson Allen—the preseason ACC Player of the Year—to compete for the award, but injuries have set the junior back and he did not land on any of the three all-conference teams. Despite missing the start of the season with a lower-leg injury, freshman Jayson Tatum did, however. The St. Louis native garnered third-team all-conference honors and landed on the All-Freshman team after averaging 16.0 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. With those numbers, Tatum joined Jabari Parker as the only Blue Devil rookies to average at least 15 points and seven See AWARDS on Page 12

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Carolyn Chang | The Chronicle Third-team All-ACC swingman Jayson Tatum will look to find a rhythm after shooting 31.0 percent in his last three games.

M. BASKETBALL from page 11 that made their first meeting close in the second half, they could fail to reach the quarterfinals for the first time in 10 years. “Our record is 0-0 now,” freshman Jayson Tatum said. “That’s how we’ve got to look at it.... It’s going to be tough, but I definitely think that we can do anything.” All-ACC forward Jaron Blossomgame was shut down by senior Matt Jones in the Tigers’ first matchup with the Blue Devils (23-8) but still averages 17.3 points per game, and Mitchell has scored in double figures in every

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game since pouring in a career-high 23 against Duke. Sophomore Luke Kennard led the way with 25 points in 36 minutes in that contest, which actually matched his lowest minute total in February. The 14th-ranked Blue Devils have played 12 straight games decided by 10 points or, forcing their starters into heavy workloads, and a blowout win for the first time in two months would be just what the doctor ordered heading into the rest of the week. Junior Grayson Allen still does not appear close to 100 percent due to a left ankle injury, and Jefferson has looked better the last two weeks but continues to battle a lingering right-foot bone

bruise that kept him out of two games in January. If head coach Mike Krzyzewski has the luxury of using a deep rotation Wednesday afternoon, it would benefit all of Duke’s stars. “We have to play back-to-back-toback days and we have to take care of our bodies, but at the same time, we can’t take any game lightly,” Kennard said. “Whoever we play, we can’t take any plays off.” With Allen’s minutes up for grabs, freshman Frank Jackson emerged late in the year with at least 15 points in each of Duke’s last three games, and Clemson does not have the size to exploit the Blue Devils’ lack of depth in the post. But their biggest weakness could be exploited soon later in the week. If Duke prevails Wednesday, No. 4 seed Louisville awaits at the same time Thursday. The 10th-ranked Cardinals present a tough matchup for the Blue Devils due to their physicality and will be well-rested, and if Duke finds a way to get past that test, it would likely meet up with another big team in top-seeded North Carolina during Friday’s semifinals. With the ACC as deep as ever, it appears unlikely this will be the year a team pulls off four tough wins in four days— especially in the Blue Devils’ brutal half of the bracket—but a win or two in Brooklyn would give Duke some momentum heading into the Big Dance. “We are getting better,” Krzyzewski said. “We just have to keep going and try to do a great job in Brooklyn and then be ready for the big tournament the week after.”

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AWARDS from page 11 boards per contest. He finished a distant second in ACC Rookie of the Year voting behind N.C. State’s Dennis Smith Jr. Senior Matt Jones was also recognized Sunday as part of the league’s alldefensive team, becoming Duke’s first honoree on the team since Mason Plumlee in 2013. The defensive stalwart has struggled with his shot lately but is routinely matched up with an opponent’s best player, and will look to shore up a leaky Blue Devil defense that struggled to end the season. The No. 5 seed in the ACC tournament, Duke will open play at the Barclays Center in New York Wednesday against Clemson at 2 p.m.

Carolyn Chang | The Chronicle Senior Matt Jones was Duke’s first ACC AllDefensive team performer since 2013, when Mason Plumlee earned the honor.

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CONTENDERS? from page 11 routinely dominate inferior opponents, and rightly or wrongly, that was the standard I held Duke to. At the end of nonconference play, the Blue Devils were still far below that threshold, and close games against the likes of Tennessee State and Elon made it particularly clear that Duke was nowhere close to the team it was supposed to be. But still, the Blue Devils were not exactly bad, either. A convincing victory against Florida—now a potential topfour seed in the NCAA tournament— showed that the Blue Devils could easily handle quality opponents, a dangerous flash of what they could be capable of. At 12-1, Duke passed the resume test, if not the eye test. Luke Kennard was playing better than anyone had a right to expect, and, after all, Tatum, Giles and Bolden were still very much getting their legs under them after late starts to their college careers. Then came the road debacle at Virginia Tech—arguably Duke’s worst game of the season. With Allen suspended, the Blue Devils looked listless and disjointed on both ends of the floor as the Hokies romped and gave Duke’s newcomers a rude awakening to ACC play. Those who, like myself, had questioned the Blue Devils’ sluggishness during nonconference play were, for the moment, vindicated. It was clear then, and even more so after three additional January losses, that the expectations for Duke needed to be amended. A cakewalk to the Final Four was out of the question, and integrating the freshmen was proving to be no simple task.

Even as the team made strides during conference play, some of the rookies were stuck taking baby steps. Bolden and Giles combined to score double-digits just twice, and Krzyzewski has made a habit of keeping them both securely on the bench during second halves, trusting only six players in crunch time. The overwhelming depth this team was supposed to have simply does not exist as the postseason begins. But once Krzyzewski returned from back surgery and the roster was healthy at last, the Blue Devils started piling up wins. Duke rattled off seven in a row, knocking off three ranked teams in Notre Dame, North Carolina and Virginia, and it finally looked as if all the pieces were fitting together. The offense was clicking—Tatum and Allen began to figure out when to defer to teammates and when to look for shots themselves. Jackson’s continued growth as a sparkplug off the bench gave Duke’s offense another element, and Kennard cemented himself as one of the most efficient scorers in the country. However, the roller coaster continued. The Blue Devils seemed to regress in the last two weeks, dropping three of four to close out the regular season. In classic tantalizing fashion, Duke’s one win in that stretch was a relatively stress-free victory against then-No. 15 Florida State. All of this uncertainty and inconsistency manifested itself perfectly Saturday at the Dean Dome. In the first half, I sat there watching Duke stay neck-and-neck with one of the best teams in the country, thinking that if Joel Berry II cooled off at all, the Blue Devils would sweep the season series against the Tar Heels.

Carolyn Chang | The Chronicle Grayson Allen’s health is still a major question mark for the Blue Devils heading into the postseason. The junior has been battling an ankle injury.

Except in the closing minutes, all of But Duke’s mistakes were representative that disappeared. With Giles and Bolden of glaring flaws that this team still has relegated to the sidelines, Duke’s thin to fix, and these flaws are not just going frontcourt had no answer for North to disappear now that the postseason is Carolina’s swarm of big men. The Blue starting. Devils’ defensive communication and A great basketball team has to be rotations were almost nonexistent, and better than the sum of its individual parts, they did not share the ball well enough and for most of the season, Duke has on offense to get buckets when push not been. The continuity is not there— came to shove. It all culminated in granted, the Blue Devils have used another close loss after four late missed 10 starting lineups—and they are still free throws, a learning experience for a banged up with players whose skillsets do team that finished league play 11-7 for not seem like natural fits. the second straight year. So after 31 games, I have to answer As I left Chapel Hill, I once again had negatively—this Duke team does not seem to ask myself—is Duke good? I had just ready to make a deep run toward Phoenix. seen the Blue Devils go toe-to-toe with a But with the way the roller coaster has The New York on Times Corporation Final Four contender theSyndication road, andSales unfolded, who knows what could happen 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 the game could have easily gone the other when the Big Dance begins? Either way, For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 way with a fewFor bounces here and there. running out of time to find out. ForRelease Release Wednesday, Tuesday, March Marchwe’re 7,8,2017 2017

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The Chronicle Our favorite ACC mascots: Otto: �� clairity Cavman: ��beyerbeware Blue Devil!: ��theneeldeal Cardinal: �� merryman Leprechaun: ��#amrithisnotimpressed Rameses: �� jimliu Student Advertising Manager: �� John Abram Student Marketing Manager: ��Beatriz Gorostiaga Account Representatives: ��Megan Bowen, Griffin Carter, TJ Cole, Paul Dickinson, Jack Forlines, Francis L’Esperance, Leeshy Lichtman, Rachel Louie, Gabriela Martinez-Moure, Jack McGovern, Jake Melnick, David Meyer, Lauren Pederson, Levi Rhoades, Maimuna Yussuf, Matt Zychowski Creative Services: ��Daniel Moore, Myla Swallow Marketing ��Hunter Bracale, Nicolette Sorensen Student Business Manager �� Will Deseran

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Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 7,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/studentcrosswords.

The crying shame of apathy

T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y

The Chronicle

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ast Friday, the Provost’s office held an allday forum on race, policing and the broader justice system in the United States. Over nine hours, speakers from across the country, including law professors, sociology professors, police chiefs and activists, gathered in panels to discuss and debate. The event, free for students, offered a chance for members of the Duke community to gain intimate knowledge of the intersection between policing and race relations that all too often makes news headlines with tragedy, but rarely generates educated conversation. Duke graduate students and professional students clearly recognized the importance of the opportunity, showing up in droves to attend the event. Duke undergraduates, however, did not. In a sad demonstration of apathy, they largely spurned the day-long event. The forum itself was masterfully composed and executed. Throughout the day, it moved through a series of six panels designed to walk the audience through a broad overview of the problems of “policing color.” A few of the panels were cerebral; more of them were painful and emotionally trying. All, however, were worth attending. By calling upon a combination of expert voices on policing and voices of those effected by policing, the forum wove

onlinecomment

“There is plenty of space on the planet. Population density is very low. And modern technology provides the ability to feed growing populations. The tragedy would be if everyone goes ‘organic,’ which somewhat ironically would need far more land and lead to considerably higher food shortages. Malthus promoted this idea of overpopulation in the late 1700s. We’re still going strong.” — “Jimbo,” responding to “Where to go with nowhere left,” published March 7, 2017

together strands of a multifaceted story often quickly brushed over with carelessly broad strokes. Many of us at Duke are guilty of thinking along those broad strokes. When speaking about issues of police and race, we regurgitate CNN headlines, offer up baseless memes and hide behind social media hashtags to make up for a lack of substantive knowledge about the topic. This forum was a chance to improve that—to engage with social justice on a humanistic and academic level. Yet we failed. Perhaps the failure simply stems from a

Editorial lack of buy-in. Unlike most graduate and professional students, undergraduate students at Duke do not live in areas of Durham with many people of color. Perhaps, though, the lack of undergraduate Duke students at the event suggests that many simply do not care of about the issues they constantly post about to Facebook and Twitter. A quick read on the Huffington Post or the National Review constitutes enough effort for them to convince themselves that they understand the problem. That is a crying shame: many will go on to influence policy related to police brutality without a clear idea of the of its all-too-

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Inc. 1993

CLAIRE BALLENTINE, Editor

real repercussions. Even those who do not go into policy will carry on conversations about police and race in the future lacking worthwhile knowledge. Students were not only failed by themselves, though. Bar a couple of Duke emails, the administration made little effort to advertise the Provost’s Forum to their own undergraduates. In the future, that should not be the case. In addition to promoting such events more heavily themselves, the administration ought to use its sway with certain academic departments like political science, public policy and AAAS to persuade them to sell the event to students. It would be a pity for any student who cared about issues of race and policing to miss the entire event simply because they did not hear about it. Realistically though, most students probably did hear about the event; it was just brushed away as a timesucking presentation stealing away hours of a precious Friday. On an ostensibly progressive campus like Duke’s, that is astonishing and revelatory of thinly concealed hypocrisy among students. Those who claim to support people targeted by discrimination and oppression ought to show up to events like the forum. Passive support of allies is even more insulting than outright denial from those who hold opposing views, and Duke students certainly seemed passive last week.

Talking overrepresentation L ast fall, I was hosting a high school senior in my dorm for an overnight campus visit. She had already submitted her early decision application before visiting campus, so I thought I didn’t have to do much more to convince her to come. The next morning over breakfast, she asked me, “Is UNC more diverse than Duke?” Aside from the fact that she mentioned the school whose name I typically only said after “go to hell,” I was confused. “Uh…diverse in what sense?” “Why are there so many Asians here?” (She was Black.) After her visit, I had found out that she retracted her application to Duke. It’s not fair to say that the Asian and Asian American students were the only reason she chose not to apply to Duke anymore, but I still can’t shake the feeling that I must have been a bad host. I’m still not sure how to process the fact that someone wouldn’t want to go to a school because there were too many people who looked like me. (For the record, Duke’s class of 2020 is 28 percent Asian/Asian American/Pacific Islander, 12 percent Black/African American, 10 percent Latino/Hispanic and 50 percent White. UNC-Chapel Hill’s class of 2020 is 14 percent Asian and 71 percent White.)

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LETTERS POLICY

Est. 1905

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Amy Fan

saying that “most Asians don’t pick Duke as their first choice, since the atmosphere in the South is predominantly white.” Duke was only 13 percent Asian and Asian American at this point—less than half of what it is now. And in explaining why it’s so difficult to overcome preconceived stereotypes, this Chronicle column entitled “Erasing Race,” written in 2011, explains it best: “I wanted to say that the stereotypes confined Asians into a box that stripped us of any other characteristics. But I didn’t want to fall into the indignant-Asian-screaming-herhead-off stereotype. So I didn’t say anything. And instead, I became the meek-little-docile-Asian-girl stereotype.” I’m writing about the Asian and Asian-American community because I am Asian-American myself, but I would think that the same issues of trying to outrun stereotypes, of being perceived as self-segregating, of feeling the need to “pick sides,” of feeling left out of the conversation, of not quite feeling like one of them. A 2005 Towerview article about multiculturalism brings up an interesting point. It starts off by interviewing Serena Wang, a Tri-Delta member who called herself the “poster child for sell-out Asian banana” (yellow on the outside, white on the inside) who says: “When I did hang out with [Asians],

FANGIRLING

AMRITH RAMKUMAR, Sports Editor ABBY XIE, News Editor NEELESH MOORTHY, Managing Editor ADAM BEYER, Digital Content Director HAN KANG, Photography Editor JACKSON PRINCE, Editorial Page Editor SURABHI BERIWAL, Editorial Board Chair ASA ROYAL, Editorial Board Chair

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SAMEER PANDHARE, Sports Managing Editor ADDISON MERRYMAN, Editorial Page Managing Editor GAUTAM HATHI, Towerview Editor CAROLYN CHANG, Sports Photography Editor AMRITH RAMKUMAR, Recruitment Chair

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JULIE MOORE, Creative Director The Chronicle is published by the Duke Student Publishing Company, Inc., a non-profit corporation independent of Duke University. The opinions expressed in this newspaper are not necessarily those of Duke University, its students, faculty, staff, administration or trustees. Unsigned editorials represent the majority view of the editorial board. Columns, letters and cartoons represent the views of the authors. To reach the Editorial Office at 301 Flowers Building, call 684-2663 or fax 684-4696. To reach the Business Office at 1517 Hull Avenue call 684-3811. To reach the Advertising Office at 2022 Campus Drive call 684-3811. One copy per person; additional copies may be purchased for .25 at The Chronicle Business office at the address above. @ 2017 Duke Student Publishing Company

As 28 percent, 28 percent, 30 percent and 27 percent of the classes of 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively, Asian and Asian American students make up plenty of the student body who tents or lives on Central Campus, many of those who actually end up pre-med at the end of 4 years and, according to the admissions page, just a bit less than the 2,000 seats in the Duke libraries. But it seems like these topics have a much larger presence on campus than going to Duke as an Asian or Asian-American student. To be fair, tenting, living on Central, being pre-med and going to the library are all conscious choices that students can choose to do or not do. Race is notably one of those things that is assigned to you at birth. And while I would secretly enjoying ranting about how the conversation has, Chronicle archives suggest otherwise. In 1993 (over 23 years ago), the President-elect of the Asian Student Association wrote about how he wanted to move away from the perception that ASA was simply “a group of ‘cliquey’ Asians who contribute little to the Duke community.” In 2000, The Chronicle published a letter titled “Chronicle exhibits discrimination against Asians” where a student wrote “I challenge The Chronicle to publish this letter to show just how marginalized Asian-Americans are in this university, devoid of power and representation, denied the opportunity to address and discuss important issues” after they had failed to cover a talk given a professor about discrimination faced by Asian-Americans. A year later, in 2001, the president of ASA was quoted

I felt I could be more at ease, but it was almost like taking them for granted, like they should accept me regardless, as opposed to when I hung out with my greek team. There was always a sort of unsaid tension where I’m expected to be carried a certain way because I am the novelty, the token.” Later, the author quotes Leo Ching, chair of the Asian and African Languages and Literature department at the time, as saying, “The problem with multiculturalism is that it promotes the idea that ‘everybody is different from me.’ That’s the problem. ‘Everybody is different except me or my group.’” I could have shared more personal anecdotes, like how I get confused with the Other Chinese-American Girl Named Amy Who Is Also From Houston Who Also Lives In A Single Next Door To Mine And Whose Birthday Is A Week After Mine, or how I found myself subconsciously counting the number of Asians I saw in each SLG during rush, but maybe focusing exclusively on the divides that make me and my experiences different isn’t the best option. Neither is pretending like these differences don’t exist. Maybe my p-Frosh was simply expressing an underlying sentiment that many students are unwilling to mention when she called out the overrepresentation of Asian and Asian-American students at Duke. Until these conversations become normalized, maybe they will only be present in snippets of Chronicle archives. Amy Fan is a Trinity first-year. Her column, “fangirling” usually runs on alternate Tuesdays.

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High cost drugs: Solutions Price considers relocating and steps forward campus to New Orleans

n two of my recent columns, I examined why the cost of many drugs is so high in this country, and whether or not there might be some sort of normative judgement we can make about “fair” pricing. In this column, I would like to wrap up that exploration by examining potential solutions, or at least a few steps forward. In my article “Medicine: What is a fair price?”, I made note of a few basic realities that inform the pharmaceutical space and can help explain why costs are so high. First, there are plenty of barriers to entry, both regulatory (FDA, etc.) and financial (think high Research & Development costs). Second, there is no transparency on the manufacturing side, which makes price hikes easier to justify (assuming they have a responsibility to justify their prices to begin with). This is to be expected, given that drugs are generally treated as a commodity. Third, patent laws are applied somewhat loosely, allowing manufacturers to “evergreen”

David Wohlever Sanchez SIMPLE COMPLEXITY their way to longer patents. These factors inform the market realities surrounding manufacturing drugs, which in turn inform the strategies that the actors employ to maximize their utility. Given the system that develops, there is virtually no downward pressure on the demand for certain kinds of drugs that exist in low-competition circles. First, there are patented drugs which are given temporal monopolies through patent laws. Second, there are generics that exist in very niche markets, where there is relatively inelastic but low demand. Third, there are what I call “Super Generics” which can exist due to evergreening; this can mean combining two generics into one or possibly devising a new method of administration (think, perhaps, of nasal replacing injection). These drugs are promoted over cheaper options as a result of strategic partnerships between manufacturers and patient advocacy groups (which generally do not consider value-based pricing), pharmacy benefit managers and researchers. As I previously noted, “it would be ideal for this market to be like any other, where the ‘fair price’ is the price of the market, in which there are plenty of competitors who fight over your business.” However, these interactions—as well as the reality that humans often need certain medicines to survive, making demand very inelastic—beckon us to consider a normative case for some sort of incentive shift in favor of more reasonable prices. If we want to live in a society where people who become sick with curable ailments can get treatment, then we need to address the pricing of medicine, among many other items. Should we agree that a problem does exist (i.e. that this market is, in some cases, unhealthy), the question becomes how we can move towards healthier pricing schemes. Simultaneously, we want to avoid stifling research and development, eliminating incentives to enter the market or driving manufacturers away from the marketplace. Basically, how can we promote fair prices without further worsening the situation for patients who need treatment?

In my research with two other undergraduate students, we have come across various players with ideas regarding how to mitigate the problem. The root problem in the three classes of high cost drugs is lack of healthy competition, so we must address that issue head on to address high prices. It would be ideal to face this problem through new, more effective health policy. However, the status quo benefits all kinds of players in the market who are able to leverage their position to lobby against institutional changes that might mitigate prices. The amount spent on lobbying by drug manufacturers is astonishing. Given the pressures that currently exist to keep prices up, we have focused on ways that we could put downward pressure on prices without significant legislation. The first way is the manufacturing of generics—or perhaps patented drugs—by nonprofit corporations more driven by a

“I

t is not clear whether the intercepted communications had anything to do with Mr. Trump’s campaign, or Mr. Trump himself. It is also unclear whether the inquiry has anything to do with an investigation into the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computers and other attempts to disrupt the elections in November.” The paragraph above was extracted from a New York Times Article entitled “Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry into Trump Associates.” The four-line admission that the entire premise of the piece— published amidst fervent media promotion of the idea that Russia “hacked” the results of the election—was preceded by two paragraphs that seemingly contradicted it. The first stated that there was a “broad investigation into possible links between Russian officials and associates of [then] President-elect Donald J. Trump,” and the second reaffirmed the first.

Michael S. Schmidt, Matthew Rosenberg, Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo for the New York Times. If I had published a piece under the title, “Incoming President Vincent Price Considering Relocation of Duke’s Campus to New Orleans, La.,” only to state somewhere down in my article that it is “not clear” whether Price intends to move Duke’s campus to Louisiana and also “unclear” if Price has even considered relocating Duke from Durham, you would probably call it “fake news” too. At the very least, it is terrible journalism. As evidenced by the contributors’ reliance on declarations of uncertainty, the piece was entirely conjectured; however, it was not received as such. The combination of a title that confirmed what many wanted to hear, the populace’s generally short attention span and the postponement of relevant information within the article produced the piece’s desired effect. The vast majority of people—myself

Jacob Weiss

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NOT JUMPING TO ANY CONCLUSIONS

social need than by a desire to maximize profits. While it is possible that these organizations might be less efficient than profit-driven firms, it seems that their existence in low-demand markets could help mitigate prices closer to the cost of production than they currently are in many generic markets. The first such nonprofit, Drew Quality Group, Inc., is working to make this class of solution a reality. A second path forward is public/private partnerships, through which these nonprofit manufacturers could first seek funding from venture capitalists and then seek funding from government grants. This is alternative to the sometimes discussed “solution” of making grants to nonprofit manufacturers that somewhat sidesteps the problem of the government choosing winners and losers on the market. While imperfect, it could help nonprofit manufacturers reach the necessary levels of funding without distorting the market too much through unchecked government intervention. A third partial solution would involve nonprofits that, unlike patient advocacy groups, consider value pricing in addition to promoting optimal patient health outcomes. Currently, patient advocacy groups often consider only health outcomes without making recommendations that consider pricing. A network of nonprofits that educate patients about all options, not only the more expensive ones, could help balance the market. This is surely a complex space and these solutions are imperfect, but action is needed given the current problem landscape. These are various starting points that individuals in the nonprofit sector and policy circles could consider to make drugs more accessible and ultimately improve people’s’ lives. Author’s note: I would like to thank Jackie Xu and Qiang Zhang for helping with the research and analysis of this issue. David Wohlever Sánchez is a Trinity sophomore. His column, “simple complexity” runs on alternate Wednesdays.

Join the conversation! dukechronicle.com/section/opinion

Facebook first made me aware of the article. The social media site, which the average smartphone user checks 14 times a day, listed the piece as its most popular trending item. My newsfeed was littered with shares, comments, likes and wowreacts. I scrolled through the unending stream of response to the as-the-title-wouldhave-you-believe “groundbreaking” New York Times Article in disbelief of the recent news. Simultaneously, the lock screen of my phone filled with messages and group texts all pertinent to the article. My immediate reaction was one of shock. I contemplated the gravity of the situation and became seriously concerned for the future of our nation. Would the soon-to-be President have to resign? Had the integrity of our sacred electoral process been compromised? Was this the end of democracy, as we know it? In desperate need of a way to calm my nerves, I closed Facebook and opened up a new tab for the sole purpose of browsing Reddit. I began my quest for levity on the /r/mildly_ interesting page, but eventually found myself on /r/The_Donald—a page devoted entirely to supporters of Trump. There, I discovered that my anxiety—much like the narrative promoted by the misleading title of the New York Times article— largely was unfounded. Somewhere in the sea of memes that populated /r/The_Donald, I stumbled upon a link which redirected me to an image containing a screenshot of the third paragraph in the New York Times article. The link was accompanied by the phrase “fake news” in all-caps and boldface. While typically I could not imagine myself agreeing with people who operate under pseudonyms like “CANTSTOPWONTSTOPMAGA” and “Lord_Kek_69,” I do not know how else to describe the reporting done by

included—all jumped to the conclusion that Trump was complicit in a Russian manipulation of the election results, despite a substantial lack of evidence. A frenzy of confirmations of this baseless claim arrived almost instantaneously in my hands as they gently cupped a cracked iPhone 5s. However, it took me several hours and an in-depth search of a relatively lowtrafficked Reddit page to find the truth. Perhaps Trump’s promotion of an equally baseless claim that Obama had wiretapped the Trump campaign will result in a formal investigation that will diminish the narrative promoted by the infamous New York Times article as a partisan attack; however, that is unlikely because it requires more analysis than most are willing to afford. After all, one simply needed to read the article to realize it was “fake news,” but most did not. As a result, our confidence in the electoral process and our confidence in the legitimacy of the Trump presidency have been unjustifiably undermined for the past month-and-a-half because a large percentage of Americans—myself included—believe “fake news.” This is either because they want to, they hate putting in the effort to critically engage with it or a combination of the two. As much as we would like to hear that Price is considering relocating Duke to New Orleans— especially in the wake of Mardi Gras—and as much as you all detest reading my biweekly column of politically-themed aggravation, it is “not clear” whether Price intends to move Duke’s campus to Louisiana and “unclear” if Price has even considered relocating Duke from Durham. Jacob Weiss is a Trinity junior. His column, “not jumping to any conclusions” runs on alternate Wednesdays.

Interested in contributing to campus dialogue? Submit a guest column to jackson.prince@duke.edu.

SURVEY from page 2 Most undergraduate victims of sexual assault reported that their perpetrator was a Duke student. In the majority of cases, it was someone victim already knew, with only 30 percent of female undergraduates reporting that their perpetrator was a stranger. Despite the high reported prevalence of sexual assault, most male and female undergraduate students said that they understood the definition of sexual assault and consent. Efforts should be made to assess whether students’ understanding of consent is accurate, Wasiolek noted, and then to ensure students’ behavior reflect their knowledge. Only eight percent of undergraduate women who were sexually assaulted formally reported the incident to any official, but 85 percent of women who did report said that the official was helpful to them. Overall, undergraduate women reported more negative perceptions of how Duke treats sexual assault victims than undergraduate men and graduate men and women. More than half of undergraduate women said that Duke is not doing a good job of preventing sexual assault. In the past few years, administrators and student activist groups have mainly focused on improving the sexual misconduct policy and reporting process, said senior Jessica Van Meir, co-president of student activist organization We Are Here Duke, co-founder of the coalition Duke Students Against Gender Violence and a member of the Sexual Misconduct Task Force. “I think there’s been a lot of good improvements to the policy, but that’s after the fact [of sexual assault]. So now we’re trying to turn our efforts to preventing sexual assault in the first place,” she said. The survey findings have been presented to the Sexual Misconduct Task Force, which

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consists of students, faculty and staff and is co-chaired by Larry Moneta, vice president of student affairs, and Zoila Airall, associate vice president of student affairs for campus life. The task force, which meets twice a semester, is charged with making recommendations on sexual misconduct prevention and intervention policies. Van Meir said that she hopes the “startling” statistics in the report will “shock students into action.” By educating themselves and intervening in bystander situations, students can help fight the problem, she noted. Wasiolek agreed that it is important to engage as many people in the conversation as possible, particularly people who are less aware of the issue and groups who reported higher rates of experiencing sexual assault or harassment. “[The University is] committed to finding answers for prevention,” she said. “These numbers are unacceptable.”

HB2 from page 2 Berger said he was pleased by the potential for compromise but faulted Gov. Roy Cooper for a failed December attempt to repeal the law. Cooper, whose campaign promises included a repeal of House Bill 2, has stated that House Bill 186 would be an insufficient solution. “I am concerned that this legislation as written fails the basic test of restoring our reputation, removing discrimination and bringing jobs and sports back to North Carolina,” he said in a February statement. McCorkle described House Bill 186 as a failed attempt to satisfy both sides. “They’re not addressing the problem that HB2 needs to die,” he said. “HB2 needs to go away and anything short of that is

probably not going to help.” Democrats in the legislature have filed bills that repeal and restore nondiscrimination ordinances struck down by House Bill 2 without stipulations attached. Harrison said these “clean” repeal bills would go a long way toward restoring North Carolina’s reputation, while HB186 “just continues to stain the state and brings us down.” However, the chances of any sort of bill passing were “very slim,” she said. Harrison added that the NCAA is in the process of determining the location of its future tournaments. Without a repeal bill, North Carolina may not be able to host until at least 2022. “Enough is enough,” she said. “Let’s repeal it. Let’s restore our state’s reputation. Let’s get our economy back on track. Let’s get these games back in the best state in this country.”

DOGS from page 1 Feedback on the policy change has been overwhelmingly positive, he added. Metzloff explained that permitting dogs in the Gardens is important because it brings people from across the University together. “I don’t think there’s a walk that goes by that I don’t meet a Duke student,” he said. “It’s wonderful for communities.”

UNION from page 1 government relations, wrote in an email that the University would continue to work with this community. “We look forward to continuing the important collaborative partnership with our Chronicle File Photo graduate students to support their educational On behalf of Duke graduate students, the Service Employees International Union withdrew a experience at Duke,” he wrote. petition to unionize Tuesday.

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