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The Chronicle

commentary

2 | MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017

Mike Doherty

Inc. 1993

LIKHITHA BUTCHIREDDYGARI, Editor HANK TUCKER, Sports Editor KENRICK CAI, News Editor SAM TURKEN, Managing Editor VIR PATEL, Senior Editor ADAM BEYER, Digital Strategy Team Director IAN JAFFE, Photography Editor JACKSON PRINCE, Editorial Page Editor ALAN KO, Editorial Board Chair SYDNEY ROBERTS, Editorial Board Chair CHRISSY BECK, General Manager ISABELLE DOAN, University News Head

1997-2017

JOYCE ER, University News Head

BRE BRADHAM, Local & National News Head NATHAN LUZUM, Health & Science News Head

DIANE HU, Local & National News Head SHAGUN VASHISTH, Health & Science News Head

JIM LIU, News Photography Editor

WILL ATKINSON, Recess Editor

NINA WILDER, Recess Managing Editor

SUJAL MANOHAR, Recess Photography Editor

SANJEEV DASGUPTA, Sports Photography Editor

MITCHELL GLADSTONE, Sports Managing Editor

LEAH ABRAMS, Editorial Page Managing Editor

CARLY STERN, Editorial Page Managing Editor

NEAL VAIDYA, Audio Editor

JAMIE COHEN, Social Media Editor

JEREMY CHEN, Graphic Design Editor

CLAIRE BALLENTINE, Towerview Editor

JUAN BERMUDEZ, Online Photography Editor

NEELESH MOORTHY, Towerview Editor

NEELESH MOORTHY, Investigations Editor

ABIGAIL XIE, Investigations Editor

CAROLYN CHANG, Towerview Photography Editor

CAROLINE BROCKETT, Recruitment Chair

CLAIRE BALLENTINE, Recruitment Chair

SHAGUN VASHISTH, Recruitment Chair

SARAH KERMAN, Senior News Reporter

KAT BERKO, Senior News Reporter LEXI KADIS, Senior News Reporter

SAMANTHA NEAL, Senior News Reporter MEGAN HAVEN, Advertising Director

The Duke community suffered a tragic loss when junior Michael Doherty’s body was found in mid-May. We are still learning details of his passing and will try to relay those details to you in a timely fashion. The Chronicle accepted letters to the editor remembering Michael, which are featured on the following pages. Our thoughts are with Michael’s family and friends during this difficult time.

JULIE MOORE, Creative Director

Likhitha Butchireddygari Editor, The Chronicle

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.

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The Chronicle

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MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017 | 3

Lettertotheeditor Remembering Mike Doherty

F

or the longest time Mike was just another pWaves kid to me. I didn’t take part in the pre-orientation program, but my roommate for the past two years did, so I got to know all his friends from it. Though, over the past two years, me and Mike’s relationship grew from just saying “hi” when passing each other by to small conversations.

We were never close friends by any measure, but I liked my relationship with Mike. I liked it because I always heard how people regarded him.

They described him as this genuine, nice kid with an innocent smile that showed his good nature.

I liked my relationship with Mike because it meant I was acquainted with such a well-regarded guy.

Being able to talk to such an esteemed man was usually one of

the highlights of my day.

Although from what I can gather he was a bit quiet, he was able to show his personality in other ways.

I remember freshman year he grew out a “mullet” for the hockey team as they were getting to the tail end of their season. Little things like that would just make you smile.

But, I’ll never know if I was able to make Mike smile. For although yout smile was infectious, I can only hope I was able to send some happiness back at you Mike. You were the last person to deserve having to leave us so soon, and my prayers are with you and your family. Rest in Peace.

George Gallagher is a rising junior in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences.

LETTERS POLICY The Chronicle welcomes submissions in the form of letters to the editor or guest columns. Submissions must include the author’s name, signature, department or class, and for purposes of identification, phone number and local address. Letters should not exceed 325 words; contact the editorial department for information regarding guest columns.

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

Direct submissions to: E-mail: chronicleletters@duke.edu Editorial Page Department The Chronicle Box 90858, Durham, NC 27708 Phone: (919) 684-2663 Fax: (919) 684-4696

Interested in writing for the Opinion pages?

Contact Jackson Prince at jrp56@duke.edu.

Want to contribute to campus dialogue?

Send your letters to the editor to lb255@duke.edu

onlinecomment

“What a lovely young man, thank you for letting us get to know him.”

— Wendy Cashin on May 26’s “Junior Michael Doherty remembered for quiet kindness and positivity”

onlinecomment “Adam - thank you for reaching out to folks to put this together and for allowing those of us who knew Michael in one or two aspects of his life to get to learn about the rest as well.”

— Michael R. Gustafson on May 26’s “Junior Michael Doherty remembered for quiet kindness and positivity”

CRISIS NEAR FIERY CROSS REEF United States Spirals Into National Security Danger with China A naval incident near the man-made island in the South China Sea spirals the U.S. into a national security crisis. Students will work in teams to diagnose the crisis (military, diplomatic, cyber, intelligence and policy realms) and prescribe a way out to avoid the next world war.

The application is available starting Monday, August 28 at http://undergrad.duke.edu/winter-forum. The deadline to submit an application is 5 pm on Friday, September 29, 2017.

The Chronicle

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4 | MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017

You’ll be here for four years.

Get to know Durham.

Duke Service-Learning THINK OUTSIDE THE BOOKBAG.

During registration consider these service-learning courses that will connect you with your new community.

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SOCIOL 178FS Refugees, Rights and Resettlement

Explores the history & theories behind activist sexual health education theatre and creates and tours a live performance for high school students.

Examines ways schools may or may not perpetuate and reproduce social inequities.

EDUC 112FS Medical Ethics, Aging, and End of Life Care in US Studies medical ethics, policy, clinical, and personal issues in working with dying and bereaved people.

EDUC 113FS Enterprising Leadership and Civic Engagement

Develops innovative, resourceful solutions to important civic issues within and external to Duke.

Examines the nature of giving and how specific religious traditions and communities have understood personalsocietal obligations through time.

Examines international refugee policy and works with refugees from Bhutan, Burma and Iraq recently resettled in Durham.

SPANISH 205-01, 02 Advanced Intermediate Spanish

Develops language skills and exposure to Spanish-speaking cultures in Durham.

THEATRST 290-4 Stories for Social Change

Explores how personal narratives and radical storytelling can serve as tools for confronting sexual and gender violence and shifting policy.

Visit servicelearning.duke.edu to learn more

The Chronicle

Lettertotheeditor Remembering Mike Doherty

I

n the recent days, we have been blessed with hundreds of heartfelt messages from Michael’s family and friends. Their words have touched on so many facets of Michael’s brilliance as a human being: his sweetness, his intelligence, his athletic prowess, his contagious joy, among so many others. To all of who have publicly shared these messages, I wanted to start off by thanking you. While we often write to cope with our own feelings, our message can blossom to impact the people around us. Your message has been heard by me, and all of us who have suffered from this tragedy, and your message has helped ensure Michael lives on through us. Thank you. Here are some of my own thoughts with the hope that they provide similar support to all those whose lives were touched by Mike.

Michael had a youthful face, seemingly forever caught in a blushed smiled. It invited a dash of innocence, just enough

Lettertotheeditor Remembering Mike Doherty

M

ichael Doherty was someone who had the ability to light up any room merely with his presence. As I thought about how to write a fitting tribute to Mike Doherty—my classmate, fraternity brother, and friend who passed away this week—I began to look for pictures. To my frustration, there was not a single picture of the two of us alone, or even of the two of us in a small group of three or four. Instead, all of the pictures that Mike and I shared were as part of a larger group—they were almost all pictures of our entire fraternity.

I was disappointed. Disappointed that I would be unable to put together a tribute that truly displayed how much he meant to me and the hole he would leave in my life.

Disappointed that my attempt at honoring his memory would lack that personal touch. But most of all, disappointed in myself for seemingly never having a moment with Mike so special as to deserve our own picture. For never taking full advantage of the amazing person that he was.

Michael Doherty was someone who had the ability to light up any room merely with his presence. There were so many times over the year and a half I knew him, and especially in what would become the final weeks of our friendship, where I would be having a miserable day and walk into the common room of our fraternity, searching for something. Without fail, Mike was there, doing work, sleeping on the couch, or just hanging out watching that show Impractical Jokers that the guys in his class love. On all of those occasions, I found that nothing had the ability to cheer me up like Mike’s smile.

It was bright and contagious. Most of all, it was soothing and heartening. Sometimes we’d have a personal conversation, sometimes we’d grab a bite to eat, sometimes we’d play video games, and, on a few occasions, we went to play ping pong in a nearby common room. I don’t think either of us could’ve picked out a single occasion in our short friendship as being momentous, but the amount of life that radiated out of Mike on a daily basis never failed to brighten up my day and make me thankful to have a brother like him. I realized it was the little things, the little moments, that made me so grateful to have someone like Michael Doherty in my life.

Upon learning of Mike’s death, many emotions ran through me. The first, of course, was sadness. I was devastated. Devastated for his mom, dad and brothers, for whom his presence was a central part of life. Devastated for his best friends, people like John Morini and John Clarke, who spent a week searching for him in Franklin, Mass., and kept 100 people calm with their strength and resilience, all while they were breaking inside. Devastated for the broader Duke community and the rest of the world, who will never get to know the rare combination of unparalleled excellence in academics, athletics, and empathy coupled with beyond-his-years humility that Mike brought everywhere he went. Devastated because it’s difficult to comprehend a kid so full of life with so much to look forward to being gone in an instant.

His adorable, smiling face will never leave my mind, and Mike serves not only as a shining reminder of not only how to be a good person simply by being empathetic and optimistic, but also how much doing all the little things the right way can positively impact the lives of so many.

Rest in Peace Dohboy, we’re all so much better for having known you.

Aditya Joshi is Trinity’ 17.

commentary

so that you could watch peoples’ eyes when they first him and see them instantly become at ease with his presence.

After initially meeting Mike, he would often not say much to you. But once you reached a sense familiarity with him, you opened yourself to a world of endless joy. I can confidently say I never interacted with Mike without feeling his warmth and his bliss. He could walk into a room visibly dejected after a tough test or a hockey loss, and, as long as we got him to crack just a little bit of a smile, the mood of everybody else around him would improve. Never have I met someone else with that unique ability to inspire happiness so effortlessly. It was an absolutely remarkable trait and something I, and so many others, will miss dearly.

I always thought Mike’s radiant positivity made a lot of us secretly protective of him. He really was the best of us and, deep down, we knew that. We were so honored to be his friend that we intrinsically always feared what life would be like without him.

As I have come to see that fear turn into a reality, and as I have come to recognize how fragile our world can turn out to be, I am left searching for answers for how to adapt to life without Mike. I know nobody can replace what he was able to bring to me every

MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017 | 5

day. I will have to come to accept that. I know I can never express to others, through my spoken words or through written letters, how great of a guy he really was. I will have to come to accept that too. What I can do though is encourage all who knew Mike or have learned of his story to dedicate themselves to looking within and finding a way to lead a life that is principled on bringing joy to others. It is not an easy task and we are all certainty not as gifted as Michael in doing so. Furthermore, this could initially appear as too vague a recommendation to guide a change in your behavior. Yet, if you knew Mike, I simply invite you to look back at your memories with him and watch the many ways he made you smile. If you did not know Mike personally, I invite you to read as many reflections of his loss as you can to gather an idea of the impact one can have. Then, we can all take a step forward, while at the same time forever honor the beloved past, and be a little bit more like Michael.

I miss you Dohboy and I will never forget you.

Isaac Nicchitta is a rising junior in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences.

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The Chronicle

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6 | MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017

Welcome to 301 Flowers

O

ne of my favorite things to do when I’m alone is to walk through The Chronicle office in 301 Flowers as if it were my first time. Each time I do, I discover something new as 301 Flowers is a place of history. If it’s not the photos of staff members from years past, inspirational memos

Likhitha Butchiredygari EDITOR’S NOTE from previous editors or a framed front page from 1971, something will take you back to a different era of history. Most recently, I found a stylebook from 1979 with tips on how to edit and write good stories, amongst other advice. In this stylebook, there was also

a short history of The Chronicle.

Founded by two literary societies, The Chronicle published its first issue on December 19, 1905, when Duke University was still called Trinity College. Back then, it was a four-page tabloid that was published weekly.

After a rocky start, it grew to a bi-weekly publication in 1943 and then a daily in 1969.

This short history also includes a record of the involvement of women at The Chronicle. In 1920, the first woman was elected associate editor. In 1944, Donna Hughes became the first woman editor-in-chief of The Chronicle. By the time the stylebook was published, it had had eight women editors. As I write this column, there have been many more, including myself and my predecessor, Claire Ballentine.

I bring up the history of The Chronicle because it is so tied with the history of Duke University. Often, when we think about the value of a news organization, we

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think in terms of what it does for a certain community in the present. We are holding power accountable now. We are questioning authority now. We represent the almost inaudible voices now. But journalism has another value: archiving our history.

If you wanted to revisit any year at Duke, the first place you would go is The Chronicle. If you wanted more information about the lacrosse scandal or the Allen building takeover, you would seek out The Chronicle. If you wanted to relive some of Duke’s shining moments such as winning the Nobel Prize or a men’s basketball national championship, you would come to The Chronicle. There isn’t a more vigilant record of history at Duke University than us. When we write, we aren’t just writing for today or tomorrow. We are writing for history.

We decide what is and what isn’t relevant in the grand scheme of time. What we decide to cover is what will be remembered by most. What we decide not to cover will most likely be forgotten. Every year, the staff at The Chronicle leaves behind a legacy—a volume of stories which immortalize that year’s trials and triumphs, scandals and accomplishments, heartbreak and joy.

For that reason, I urge any and every member of the Duke community to engage with The Chronicle. Most likely, there is a place for you in 301 Flowers. We will teach you everything you need to know—no experience necessary.

This year, we covered the world’s biggest news event—a presidential election. We sent reporters to protests and rallies all over North Carolina. We also wrote about the latest scientific breakthroughs in cancer and autism. We introduced Duke’s 10th President, Vincent Price, and we covered the last days of President Richard Brodhead and David Rubenstein, chair of the Board of Trustees. If any of that intrigues you, come join our news department.

Or maybe you’re a fan of Duke men’s basketball.

Throughout our history, we have sent reporters around the world to cover the men’s basketball program. This year, we sent reporters to New York to see the men’s basketball team win the ACC championship. And basketball is just one of the 27 sports we cover in our sports section.

Duke is more than its classes, its research and its sports. It also includes a vibrant arts community.

Our Recess department has covered everything from Durham’s Moogfest to South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. If you are interested in writing about arts and culture, consider joining Recess.

No article is complete without the accompanying visual. Some of the most iconic pictures we’ve taken this year include those of students on election night at Sanford, at LDOC and in Cameron Indoor Stadium. If your passion is photography, join our photo department.

Often, articles require visuals that bring to life the numbers or quotes in them. If you want to create stunning graphics, join our graphics team.

Last but not least, we have one of most engaging venues for opinion at Duke. Whether it’s a pointed critique aimed at Duke’s not-always-inclusive social culture or the crazy world of national politics, our opinion section hosts a wide array of viewpoints and discussions. If you have something to say, write a biweekly column or join the Editorial Board.

If none of these sections entice you, I still urge you to stay engaged with The Chronicle by reading our print edition—which comes out Monday, Wednesday and Friday—or reading content online, which is updated everyday Monday through Friday. We are a digital-first organization, so like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Today, respect for the truth seems to be declining in popular esteem. Newspapers like ours have had a long history of being champions of truth. While we might not always get it right, we do our best to bring you the most accurate, up-to-date information. We also strive to dig a little deeper. Ultimately, we hope to help you have a better understanding of the world around you.

What we do at The Chronicle is a public service, but it’s also a lot of fun. Late nights of last-minute edits and early mornings of breaking news have bonded the staff at The Chronicle. We are a family with roots over 100 years old. We take care of our own and we’ll take care of you.

Welcome to 301 Flowers.

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Likhitha Butchireddygari is a Trinity junior and Editorin-Chief of The Chronicle. You can reach her at likhitha. butchireddygari@duke.edu

The Chronicle

commentary

MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017 | 7

Escape artists

I

f parents, mentors, recent college graduates or even your peers tell you that “college will be the best four years of your life,” tell them “I sure hope not.” Or, better yet, ask them why.

forgetting about what made them so good.

And talking up “the college years,” and the opportunity they offer to escape from the challenges of the real world, reflects a short-term memory problem. Most of

Jackson Prince EDITOR’S NOTE Most likely, they’ll tell you that your college years are going to be your last moments before entering the real world.

Four years of carefree partying before things start to really matter, they’ll tell you. Before you become a real adult.

And, most likely, they are wrong.

It’s a common statement, nonetheless: “College will be the best four years of your life.” But it’s a strange thing to assert as a clear-cut truth. That engineers and artists, surgeons and traders, sorority sisters and SJWs, somebodies-who-became-nobodies and nobodies-who-became-somebodies will all agree that their best years were spent on a college campus between ages 18-22, living it up “before the real world.”

They were your parents. They are your older siblings. They are your peers.

And these “real-life” superheroes (who apparently all peaked at the exact same age) then look back on their college years, and encourage the next generation to experience their four years through the same rosé-colored lenses (yes, you read that right).

In a world that is harsh, and unfair, and at times impossible to accept, it’s almost instinct to reminisce on the good times,

these nostalgic alumni have forgotten that their world had its own set of troublesome circumstances. In fact, there’s always a war to be fought, jobs to be denied and leaders who fail us. And the college careers of these “best-four-years” people came when the country was united on a progressive, activist path, on which college students were encouraged to join the revolution.

But now, tired of fighting and eager to protect us from the same kinds of battles that defined their “best four years,” these once-pioneers inspire their kids to just sit back and indulge ourselves, escaping reality.

And escape, we do.

I’ve been through two of the “best four years of my life” at Duke University, and I’ve experienced a collegiate escapism that is not only practiced, but perpetuated. When our collegiate world is harsh, and unfair, and at times impossible to accept, we slip on those tinted glasses to reminisce way back to the debauchery of last night’s party, and look forward to taking in today’s escapist drug of choice: Netflix, Instagram, the next darty or basketball game, and maybe some shots and lines to lighten the mood.

This is the essence of the disinterested, isolated way of life. It not only divides our

campuses, but also disenfranchises our generation as individuals, stripping us of any sort of legitimacy because we aren’t “real adults” yet.

And so, denied the battles of our predecessors, we live out these “unreal” lifestyles in a pretty little bubble. We expend our energy in search of decadence, lost in days and nights of fantasy. We mull around with our homework, we sleep more than enough, we inhale gourmet food for no good reason, and once in a while we call home, to confirm that we are living reminisce-able (if not, meaningless) “best four years of our lives,” right now.

But this is where that advice has gone dangerously wrong. 20 years from now, what will matter to us about these four years? Right now, we hold the keys to adulthood, but are discouraged from opening any doors. Distracted by the temptation to escape, we’ve become too good at it to stop.

More than ever, today’s college students must learn how to recognize our world’s set of challenges, to raise our voices to represent ourselves, emboldened by professors and our peers and our own conscience. And we need to practice it, making ourselves active determinants of our own circumstances, domestic warriors in the real battles that must be fought. All the while, we can embrace the fact that we’re learning, we’re enjoying ourselves, and we’re young. But we’re still young adults.

There are glimpses of such young adults today. Just this year, my newspaper saw a problem with Duke’s in-house sexual assault cases, and chose to create a conversation about a victim, her assailant

and the campus, disturbing the peace of our community. In the last North Carolina state election, my vote was one of the 5,000 college students directly responsible for ousting former Governor Pat McCrory and electing an African-American democrat to the state’s supreme court. I heard what Matters about Black Lives, I saw how an anti-immigration order terrorized my peers, and I felt the divisions that haunt Duke’s campus, and campuses across the country, on Nov. 9, 2016.

The pieces are here. Even the very escape routes themselves—our social media platforms and our Netflix shows—have become excellent grounds for representing our interests and creating meaningful communities. The balance between the carefree bliss that has been prescribed for us and the effective action that we can own is ours for the taking, moreso for us here and now than ever before.

But it starts with acknowledging that the real world doesn’t start in four years. It’s already begun, and we’re already behind in making it a better place. It’s not okay for college to be a “bubble.” College isn’t better than or separate from the real world; it is a part of the real world that only 40 percent of our generation have the great fortune to experience.

So don’t try to escape it. These four years of college are our first years of adulthood, our first years as influential, powerful people in the real world. Accept that, and begin to make the best of what very well might be the best four years of our lives.

Jackson Prince is a Trinity junior and the editorial page editor for The Chronicle.

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o Dip a grilled cheese into some tomato soup at the

o Chat with a basketball player

o Quiz yourself at Trivia Night at Fullsteam o Grab lunch at the Law School

o See the fall foliage in the Blue

Ridge Mountains

o Tent in K-Ville

o Make it to midnight pizza on LDOC

Chronicle’s weekly email blast at thebluedirt.com

o Don’t fall behind at Duke – sign up for The

o Enroll in a golf class at The Washington Duke

o Go-kart at Frankie’s Fun Park

o Go “crazie” at the Duke-UNC basketball game

o Dance for a cause at the Duke Dance Marathon

group perform

o Instagram the Chapel/take a Chapel selfie

o Get a Cosmic burrito after a long night out

Meat and Sweets Shop

o Treat yourself to an ice cream sandwich from Rose’s

Film Festival

o See a movie at the annual Full Frame Documentary

o Host a Duke radio broadcast

commentary

o See the Pitchforks or another student a cappella

o Play an IM sport

Hoof ‘n’ Horn production

o Attend Me Too Monologues, All of the Above, or a

milkshake

o Drive through Cook-Out late night and order a

o Watch a game with friends at Satisfaction

o Do the walk-up line for a non-UNC game

o Show up to a frat party

dessert

donut for

then get a

at Monuts…

sandwich

own bagel

o Make your

Breakfast

at Midnight

o Grub for free

your freshman year

o Go to O-week after

o Take a dip in the ocean at Wrightsville Beach

years

clubs, and get spammed with emails for the next four

o Go to the activities fair as a freshman, sign-up for 10+

o Make Dean’s List

o Order The Pile at Geer Street Garden

cage at Shooters

o Ride the bull then dance in the

o Read an issue of FORM and check out The Standard

o Buy wine or champagne on food points

o Check out local art galleries at Third Friday Durham

WaDuke

o Treat yourself to dinner at the

catch it)

Divinity Cafe

o Meander through the Duke Gardens

o Visit the Duke Marine Lab

o Run for the bus (it doesn’t count if you

o Take a service-learning class

sure they leave by midnight)

o Bring your family members to Shooters (just make

Angus Barn

o Treat yourself to a steak dinner at

BEFORE YOU GRADUATE

o Live it up at an SLG event

o Go to a Def-Mo show

o Chill with the lemurs at Duke’s Lemur Center

o Cook dinner in your dorm

o Run the Al-Buehler Trail at WaDuke

101 THINGS TO DO

8 | MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017

The Chronicle

o Cheer on the Durham Bulls

o See an event at DPAC

o Watch live music at the Coffeehouse

o Hang out with a professor outside of a classroom

o Read an issue of The Chronicle cover-to-cover

o Taste authentic southern BBQ at The Pit or Q-Shack

o Enjoy Jazz at the Mary Lou Williams Center

o Visit the Biltmore Estate in Asheville

o Hike to Eno Quarry and swim

o Climb to the top of the Chapel

Basketball Museum

o Explore the Duke

dorm

freshman year

o Re-visit your

session

o Attend summer

at Pompieri

o Cut your own pizza

pool

o Swim in the Central

Campus loop

o Run around the East

Cinnamon

o Study at Cocoa

East Campus

o Explore the tunnels on

Reading Room

o Study in the Gothic

in Myrtle Beach

o Go wild at beach week

Dame’s

o Devour chicken and waffles at

o Travel to an away sporting event

o See a show at the Carolina Theatre

commentary

Chapel Hill

o Drink out of a famous blue cup at He’s Not Here in

o Attend a rally

on central

o Play volleyball

at Cat’s Cradle

o Catch a concert

after 2 a.m.

Heavenly Buffaloes

o Order in Jimmy John’s or

o Table for a cause

o Go to The Nasher to check-out art exhibits, then grab

brunch at the Café

o Drink at The Loop on food points

Music Library

o Study in the Mary Duke Biddle

questions

o STINF a class – we won’t ask any

o Walk the American Tobacco District

PNC Arena

o Make your way to a Carolina Hurricanes game at

o See a local band play at Motorco

o Tailgate for a Duke football game

o See the Ciompi Quartet perform at Baldwin

student section at Cameron

o Paint your face Duke blue and show your spirit in the

Saturday

o Sample local food at the Durham Farmer’s Market on

Confederate surrender

Wallace Wade

o Go to a sporting event outside of Cameron or

o Actually check a book out of the library

o Visit Bennett Place, the site of the largest Civil War

o Sample bites at a Food Truck Rodeo

o Take an art class

o Grab a burger at King’s Sandwich Shop

o Take an impulsive trip to another college campus

o Flunch a professor

o Dress up and head to Franklin Street for Halloween

o Attend a Chapel service

o Get kicked out of Perkins at closing

o Check out the galleries at the 21c Museum Hotel

not a requirement

o Take a class on a topic outside of your major that’s

up to four scoops)

o Indulge at The Parlour (get the advanced bowl with

The Chronicle MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017 | 9

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10 | MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017

The Chronicle

Homecoming

I

n the last few days of this past semester, in between my last final exam and my flight back to Houston, I got the FOMO that I’ve come to expect, find amusing and also dread at the same time.

come with classes and extracurricular involvements. Some people characterize it more literally, pointing out that it is possible (and perhaps too easy) to never step off Duke’s campus for months at a time. I like to characterize the bubble

Amy Fan FANGIRLING As I was packing my stuff and saying goodbyes, I realized that a bunch of people, some whom I was closer to than others, were staying in Durham for classes, research or some other opportunity. And the FOMO started getting to me—about missing out on the experiences that people staying on campus were having, the inside jokes and stories that I wouldn’t understand once the fall semester started up again.

What if all my friend groups morphed, and what if that sickening feeling of “not belonging” persists?

That was when I realized that these thoughts were precisely the reason I needed to get away from Duke as quickly as possible, that my flight home was a blessing and not a curse, that outside the literal and metaphorical walls of the campus none of my concerns mattered and that I could finally focus on other things at home.

Duke, for all the things that it does well, is exceptional at making you think only about Duke. Some people characterize the “Duke bubble” as the never ending string of busyness and deadlines that

socially, as it’s also means that the only people whose opinion you care about is that of your peers.

For me, this got to the extent that almost all my columns from this past year have been about Duke’s social culture, starting from Orientation Week, through rush, through the end of my first year.

I suspect this will also be the subject of most of my columns this upcoming semester. (Read: what seems to be the only thing about which I can write 800 words on a regular basis).

Now back home, I feel like being forced to think about Duke and writing something relevant to the Duke community is weird, as I haven’t thought nor talked about college much. Sure, people ask me what I plan to study, and sometimes I joke that our (now former) president’s name was unironically Dick Brodhead (thank you for your service), and sometimes I mention that the economics major t-shirts were misprinted as “economy” major t-shirts, and sometimes I say something about basketball.

Maybe I just spend a lot of time

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around non talkative people, but asides from these tidbits, none of the other stuff seems to matters.

This is depressing. It means that the stuff I spent hours fretting over this past year has no significance to others. But it’s at the same time liberating. It means that few mistakes are irreversible, the whole origin of the phrase, “What happens in (blank) stays in (blank).”

I recently found one of the essays from my Baldwin Scholars application in my OneNote notebook. I lost the exact prompt, but it was something like, “How would a close friend or family member describe you, and how are you different from that?” While I was working on the application, this prompt had bothered me. I was convinced that it placed me in a double-bind—either I had to be fake to the people I was closest to, or I just didn’t let anyone know me well enough.

I ended up writing about how I tried escaping any identity that people tried pinning on me, concluding with this: “Sometimes it feels like I’m endlessly striving to be the exception to some unwritten rule, a hypocrite who’s motivated by fear of commitment to any one identity. And indeed, people also say that I’m defensive of any identity people pin on me. But I’d rather try on a wide range of personalities and identities that ever stay static.”

The Baldwin Scholars ended up being one of the many things I ended up getting rejected from, but that’s besides the point. Instead of being seeing as multi-faceted and beyond labels, I wonder if this just makes me seem...dull, as if nothing describes me.

It’s not like being at home is necessarily less restrictive. Having very unstructured days means that I have long stretches of leisure time, which quickly feels like a bubble of its own. This means that I spend a lot of time on my computer, a lot of time listening to music, a lot of time reading books, a lot of time finding stuff to occupy myself. It also means trying to figure out how to live my sophomore year so that it fits that elusive concept of “enough,” but that’s another column (Productive enough? Fulfilling enough?

Happy enough? Impressive enough?

Who knows?).

Clearly, I’m starting to ramble. I shall go back to being a recluse.

Amy Fan is Trinity sophomore and a Chronicle columnist.

onlinecomment “Unbelieveable, are we still living in the 60s? Do we need diversity training? The Dean should be let go.”

— Lori Okerblad Urness on May 9’s “Divinity School professor resigns after dispute with colleagues about diversity training, calling it a ‘waste’”

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MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017 | 11

orage

to g and

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12 | MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017

Not my president, still my country

L

ong story short: in the Icelandic epic “Njal saga Brennu,” the nobleman Gunnar is betrayed by his fellows and exiled from Iceland. In one of the proudest moments of Icelandic literary heritage, Gunnar is thrown from his horse, sees the bucolic beauty of his farmstead, and decides to stay in his home. To the death, if necessary. America needs more Gunnars.

to engage in the political process is slowly but surely crippling political progress. In a decay greatly accelerated by the recent election, the cooperation and civility once prized in a healthy system of government has given way to ruthless and unexamined partisanship.

The sacrifice of character to party interests, the borderline vulgarity of public discourse and even allegations of foreign sabotage have shaken confidence in the place we call home.

The central issue is this: what do we owe a nation that we feel is no longer our own?

On the one hand, there is the old path: ever more partisanship, and ever more distrust. The political FIRST COLUMN tremors of the past year, let alone the past eight, inform even the casual observer that in America What Nordic lore has to do with our present state of there is a Right and a Left and nothing in between. affairs is this: the intensifying hesitation of Americans For the Republicans, Merrick Garland’s greatest

Tim Kowalczyk

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sin was being a Democrat. For the Democrats, Neil Gorsuch’s greatest sin was being a Republican. Do you call my people the 47 percent? Then I’ll call yours a “basketful of deplorables.” And we all know how well that works.

This is perhaps the most childish moment in American political history. We let our petty partisanship blind us to the reality that, when all the votes are counted, someone will bear the result.

Heaven forbid that a sensible policy—no, any policy—originate with the opposing party, because it is earmarked for resistance and revulsion. Of course there are matters in which there is a clear right and a clear wrong. But there is nothing right and everything wrong in insisting that whatever I do not believe in must be bad, full stop. Republicans want tax cuts to bring manufacturers back to America; or should someone in the Rust Belt stay on welfare for a little while longer? Democrats want more humane immigration reforms; or is it better for human beings to die of thirst in the desert?

A Republican sits in the White House. Should we deadlock any progress, because he’s “not my president?”

What we need now more than ever is a new path: a dedication to doing what it was right, for human beings who deserve what is right; a dedication to working with others, and not against them, so long as we both want what is best. Where is the righteous passion that drove Freedom Summer? College students of every possible background were outraged by rights abuses, boarded southbound buses in droves, faced injury and death to help people they had never met—and yet we do nothing, oppose everything, do not offer solutions, give only empty defiance, because he’s Not My President?

Of course, there is only so much we can do; we must finish our time as undergraduates before moving on. But that is no excuse to give up. Being miles and years away from Capitol Hill or K Street or being at odds with the party in power does not resolve us of our responsibility for the future. Do we care about refugees? Volunteer with them. Are we pained by the plight of the urban hungry? Help feed them. Does the lackadaisical money-grubbing of some health and legal professionals sicken us? Train to be better than they ever were. Wrong prevails when good people do nothing and rejoices in dissension.

We must dedicate work toward a better future, in whatever ways that we can; but we must not refuse to work with others toward that goal because they fill out a ballot differently than we do. The 46 percent of Americans who voted Republican in this election will not be going anywhere; neither did the 47 percent who were sure to vote Democrat. Are there people in this country who think differently than I do? It is a proud American tradition. Is an idea bad, just because a Republican or Democrat thinks of it? The First Amendment says not.

If we see that the country must be fixed, if we think that it needs remaking, we must do the good work; but we cannot go boldly toward that future and leave one half or the other behind. The “inconvenience” of our republic is that, whenever we move forward, we have a duty to move together. It will never be our-vision-andnothing-else; it was never meant to be.

So then there is a choice, and that choice is entirely yours. Will you refuse to move toward anything better, because there must be compromise along the way? Or, will you see people as people rather than parties, at least understand what they want, and try to include them in this bold experiment called America?

No one is asking you to jump into Normandy, get on a southbound bus, or burn your draft card. All anyone asks is that you remember why countless people, of your own age, made such sacrifices: so that voices like yours, and like theirs, would at least be heard.

When the hour for action is at hand—and it is—what will you do? Will you turn your back on everyone you could have helped? Or, will you brace yourself, turn into the fray and do the good work that only you could?

I leave you with this anecdote. After the close of the Constitutional Convention, a woman approached Benjamin Franklin and asked him what kind of government had been made. Franklin replied, “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.”

Will you?

Tim Kowalczyk is a Trinity junior and a Chronicle columnist.

The Chronicle

commentary

MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017 | 13

7 things they don’t tell you before coming to Duke

T

sophomore, junior and senior is a lot more common than wholesome independent communities. When you invariably you’d be inclined to perceive. For instance, The Chronicle come to doubt this, refer to number one. This is a note to tell is always looking for more columnists, staff writers and fun you that your worth as a debater, writer, singer, athlete and people to have in the office. all-around-individual should not and cannot be determined 6. Selectivity is a problem. But it doesn’t need to be. by any organization on Duke’s campus.

Without social organizations, Duke students would 7. Everyone’s in this together. perhaps be more willing to expand their social circles to Between diligent pre-professional networking groups beyond the span of what is explicitly convenient. Through ands established personalities on social media, it may be formal and informal recruitment processes for living easy to look around at your peers, namely those older than groups and extracurricular clubs, students—both potential you, and assume they have it all together. At the end of the new members and existing members—are often forced to day, however, we are all mostly between 18 and 22 years old. rate, rank and profile. These processes can be ultimately “Faking it till you make it” is a defense mechanism, not an rewarding for some, but also damaging for others…especially unapologetic and genuine celebration of our mistake-ridden IN FORMATION if you’re not accepted in a selective living group where the trek into adulthood. only spoken “qualification” is your personality. Everyday, hundreds of unaffiliated students happily live fruitful and 1. Your RA is your friend.

RAs, or resident assistants, are responsible for your healthy lives without formal social groups, and rather share Sabriyya Pate is a Trinity junior and a Chronicle columnist. health, safety and educational needs. They are tasked with building community on residence halls, connecting students to resources, providing both social and academic programming, ensuring compliance with Housing, Dining & Residence Life rules and procedures and more. But what most people don’t recognize is that RAs spend more time consoling residents after breakups, offering shoulders to cry on, helping resolve roommate conflicts, providing candid— even if unsolicited—advice, sharing their own lives with you and much more. So when the going gets tough, it’s not uncommon for the tough to get going to their RAs. 2. You can apply for special permission to take courses in professional schools, such as the Law School and Business School Students in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences may apply for special permission to take graduate level courses at the 700 to 900 level. They may also apply to take courses in the Divinity School, Fuqua School of Business, School of Nursing and Law School. Of course, the decision to even consider one of these courses alone is not one to be made with nonchalance. Peruse the litany of options and reach out to the relevant academic dean and schedule a meeting, if you’re interested. Another piece of advice, face-to-face interactions not only spare you from intricate email chain webs but also increase your likelihood of getting what you want because you make a personable impression. First-year students have taken and will continue to take graduate level classes, so don’t use your age or limited experiences to disqualify yourself before someone who really is qualified to make that call can do so. If you have an interest in something, ask about it. You have nothing to lose but an opportunity to learn.

3. Social media is as deceptive as it is anywhere. So don’t invest an ounce of your value in it.

Everyday, people with hundreds of likes on their profile pictures feel alone. Everyday, people obsess over the pictures they take and share on social media, to reinforce to the world their sociability. Whether they are authentic or not is not for anyone but that individual to discern. What we can all learn, however, is that social media inevitably leads to curated and sometimes deceptive profiles. Nothing can top the opportunity to engage in candid and sincere conversation— not even hours of lurking on a Facebook profile.

4. Listening to and speaking with people who are different from you isn’t always easy. But you still have to do it.

STUDIO, ONE, & TWO BEDROOMS AVAILABLE NOW! CALL NOW FOR PRICING & SPECIALS Across universities in the U.S., student protest against speakers with whom they ideologically disagree has become tradition. To protest the specific actions of an individual is a separate practice, but for this purpose, the act of turning deaf ears to those with which one finds beliefs to be insufferable, is quite a disservice to the liberal arts education universities like Duke promise. As former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, freedom of thought includes “freedom for the thought we hate”—that includes what we find offensive. Cosmopolitan arenas like Duke offer an opportunity to practice open-mindedness, listening and debate skills. Don’t let that opportunity go to waste. Remember to listen to understand, not to challenge or immediately respond.

5. The Student Activities fair is not the end all, be all.

In the spring of my sophomore year, a then freshman asked me about clubs to join. He thought that it was too late to join groups he thought were fully satisfied with their membership and unwilling to welcome a new face.

He also thought that he wasn’t “qualified” to apply for a position as an “associate editor” for a campus publication.

But the reality is that most experiences, even those you don’t intuitively perceive as such, can be telling indicators of what really matters—your work ethic, your ability to learn INCLUDING CABLE/INTERNET, VALET TRASH PICK-UP quickly and your ability to simply get along with others in a & PEST CONTROL team setting. Even if you don’t join an organization early on, don’t believe it is no longer an option. Joining groups as a wo years at Duke University have not left me unchanged. From joining (and leaving) various student groups, and spending countless hours speaking with professors and students alike, I’ve compiled some reflections and takeaways, based on my experiences and those of others. At the end of the day, your Duke narrative is what you make of it. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Sabriyya Pate

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hit the push-to-start button on my Chevy Volt and make my trip to work—I teach high school English Literature, so I make the same trip, every morning. I plug in my iPhone 7 and turn the volume all the way up. The opening to Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” blasts through the speakers and I bob my head and rock my shoulders. The guy in the car next to me doesn’t like it. He swerves off, Confederate flag bumper

else. There were evenings of ramen noodles and episodes of Good Times and Martin, and there were also weekly Sunday classes with an Imam up the road, who happened to be from the same part of Guyana my mother was from, and though our knuckles took some mean lashings, he was my first real teacher, the one who never let me forget the guttural pronunciation of certain letters in the Arabic alphabet.

Fast forward several years, past 2001, past the berating comments and terrorist jokes, way past the isolation of finding out that I was in fact too black for some groups, but too Muslim for everyone else, and hit the stop button right at this moment—the moment we usher in a GUEST COLUMN president who makes my brownish/blackish, Muslim-ish identity cause for my own concern. sticker in plain view, and I raise the volume louder. Teaching in As I mentioned earlier, I teach high school. I use whatever North Carolina is a unique kind of experience. sense of nobility teachers in movies use to survive each day, Growing up in South Florida in the 90s exposed me to parts but meet the same, tragic reality of the current state of things of my identity as a Black Muslim kid I just couldn’t get anywhere before falling asleep each night. My kids came with a barrage

Jamal Michel

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Get an insider’s look at who’s who and what’s what at Duke.

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of questions, concerns and expletive laced comments about Donald Trump after election night, and I tried mightily to let them know that their black Muslim teacher was going to provide them with insights. What those insights were, I couldn’t tell you, because I began doubting my stake, my claim in this American life I was living because of a man who ran on an agenda scapegoating communities I identified with.

One of my favorite things to do once in a while in class was talk about the jokes my father brought home from work or of the ones he created from memories of Port-au-Prince. My kids constantly wondered how I could be Haitian, yet Guyanese, yet Muslim, yet totally into video games and Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN., yet be a teacher. I tell them even though my father never taught me and my sisters creole and that my mother’s West Indian side preferred Bollywood to Hollywood, I could still very much identify as all of the above, so long as I can share some of my culture with you and in return you can do the same with me. And that’s much of what my English classes are built on—the grounds that, who we are can be mutually exchanged and can allow us a glimpse into the lives of people we often label “other.”

My mother and grandmother have something of a mini competition going on, I tell my kids in third period. West Indian custard is, beyond a doubt, my Achilles’ heel. I will surrender to its creamy, syrupy goodness, so long as I’ve a large enough spoon and bowl. Think of a creamier version of flan, not that flan is any less hypnotizing. My grandmother makes it all the time, which means my mother makes it all the time, and by that I mean when our larger than normal family comes together, which, unsurprisingly, is all the time. My grandmother’s home in Miramar, Florida housed generations, and those generations meet every so often to relish in memories, chicken curry, and, occasionally, sporting events. So this custard, I tell my kids, has two versions: mom’s and grandma’s. They start to tell me that no one can outdo grandma’s cooking, and I tell them when they get old enough they’ll know that a mother’s child will do well to keep such thoughts delicately hidden. And they laugh, and I laugh in return.

And then we move on to families in literature, like the Maxson’s of Fences, or Salinger’s Glass Family. We talk about tragedy and grief, anguish and despair. We talk about characters trapped in the margins or poetry of huddled masses growing too big to fit in their tight spaces. We talk about our shared, lived experiences because they are necessary and remind us of our collective humanity in a most divisive time.

One day I had used Kendrick Lamar’s track “Black Boy Fly” with my seniors to analyze the depths of his despair watching other black boys in Compton leave a city rife with poverty and seemingly commonplace hopelessness. The school I teach at has a large black and Latino student body, and too often I hear my kids speak about their fears and uncertainties because of “this stuff on the news”. My kids ask about 9/11, they ask about Black Lives Matter. They talk to me like one of their own and ask if I’ll “be okay.” They comically bring up brown and black actors who I remind them of (most recently, Pitch Perfect’s Utkarsh Ambudkar) and we all relish the moments where our being “something different” does not impede on our connecting with one another.

Some days I use John Cheever to drive home a point about humanity, other days it’s Ava DuVernay or John Lewis or Frantz Fanon. Either way, my kids come to my class anticipating topics that will move them or jar them, as some are even supporters of Donald Trump’s administration.

Another semester we were reading Frantz Fanon and the native/settler relationship he often explored, and we had worked on an Instagram page that used the intersectionality of BLM movements and the NDAPL protests to highlight the native/settler struggle at the heart of each. Back in South Florida in 2015, my students had put together a lightly used clothing and canned food drive to help the influx of displaced Syrian refugees after we read up on the ongoing civil war destroying their cities. As a teacher, I try to use texts and standards and grammar and spelling as often as I can, but I use the world outside my classroom more. My kids know that when they step into my room they will be exposed to more than just pedestrian social media posts—rather they will be shown the inner workings of the world they are set to take up.

Knowing is a form of protest in and of itself. It says, “I know what’s going on, and you cannot take that from me.” I want to give my kids a knowing that will allow them to challenge, to resist…to grow. I try and provide that as best I can, because for many who walk into my class for an hour and a half Monday through Friday, that is about the only time they have ever thoughtfully engaged with someone black or Muslim, and as someone who embodies both those things, it behooves me to engage them thoughtfully in return.

Jamal Michel is a Duke graduate and high school English teacher in Durham.

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MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017 | 15

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