September 14, 2020

The Chronicle

See Inside

Chase Brice impresses in first collegiate start

Page 5

The independent news organization at Duke University

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

ONLINE DAILY AT DUKECHRONICLE.COM

ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEENTH YEAR, ISSUE 7

Students question Title IX transparency

Cameron Oglesby | Graphics Editor

By Nadia Bey University News Editor

Leah Boyd University News Editor

Changes to Title IX policies have come to Duke, but the University didn’t give the community much time to offer feedback on them before implementation.

Title IX is a 48-year-old federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational or federally funded programs. It is also used to protect victims of sexual assault on university campuses, given legal mandates that schools are responsible for investigating cases of sexual misconduct.

New Trump administration regulations increased the standard of evidence for schools to investigate sexual misconduct, a move that advocates say puts students at risk by raising the standard for investigations and not adequately addressing misconduct that occurs off campus.

However, critics of the Obama-era regulations lauded the new rules, claiming that the previous rules pressured them to support accusers without offering fair treatment to the accused.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who facilitated the policy update, told The New York Times in May that she feels the new policy updates recognize “that we can continue to combat sexual misconduct without abandoning our core values of fairness, presumption of innocence and due process.”

The new rules were released May 6, and institutions were given until Aug. 14 to implement them. At Duke, the changes were published on the Office of Institutional Equity website Aug. 11 and announced via the Duke Daily, Duke’s email newsletter,

the following day.

Some students criticized the University for what they saw as a lack of transparency in communicating its implementation of the Title IX changes to the public, including

Aug. 12 Date the Duke Daily asked the community for feedback on proposed Title IX changes offering only two days for public comment after the new rules were widely announced.

How the rules were implemented

Kimberly Hewitt, vice president for institutional equity, wrote in an Aug. 31 statement to The Chronicle that the updated policy was constructed by “a working group of representatives from Human Resources, the Provost’s Office, Legal, OIE and Student Affairs who worked together and in subgroups to develop the policy and procedures.”

“As part of our process we presented the proposed policy to several stakeholder groups to get their feedback that included student and faculty governance, relevant committees, Human Resources at the University and the Health System, various levels of University leadership and other administrators,” Hewitt wrote.

One stakeholder identified in the statement was the Student Sexual

Misconduct Prevention and Response Committee—also known as the Student Sexual Misconduct Task Force—which was recently restructured under the leadership of Mary Pat McMahon, vice provost and vice president for student affairs.

Hewitt wrote that OIE and Student Affairs regularly meet with the Student Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response Committee, and that both offices will be “using this open forum this fall to get their perspectives.”

Hewitt also wrote that the working group engaged with a legal expert specializing in higher education and Title IX to create the umbrella Policy on Prohibited Discrimination, Harassment and Related Misconduct and the Title IX Sexual Harassment Grievance procedures that contain the rules mandated by the Department of Education.

McMahon and Hewitt sent an email to undergraduate and graduate students Sept.

9 regarding new sexual misconduct policies, including the Title IX rules. They outlined the implementation process and major changes from the previous rules.

Hewitt said in a Sept. 9 interview that one

Aug. 14 Deadline for submitting feedback on proposed Title IX changes of the most significant changes with the new rules is that staff and faculty on campus can be the accused party in a Title IX hearing.

Changes were also made to the cross-

INSIDE — Some straightforward and transparent journalism | Serving the University since 1905 |

@dukechronicle @dukebasketball |

examination element of Title IX trials. While Hewitt said that “historically, [they’ve] been able to separate people,” victims must now face the accusers in trial. The accused and victim each are appointed an advisor who is there specifically to ask questions of the other party.

The third big change Hewitt described is that any information that is to be used in the hearing must be available for cross-examination.

“So if we learn something in the investigation process, or somebody shares information, and they’re unwilling to testify or participate in the hearing, we can’t consider it,” Hewitt said, calling the rule a “big departure” from previous policies.

Hewitt said the working group set up a week-by-week timeline. They worked with an outside lawyer, who Hewitt said “made himself an expert on these rules,” which she said were thousands of pages long. At one See TITLE IX on Page 3

INSIDE How’s UNC’s COVID tracker?

Duke’s COVID-19 tracker compared to other Triangle universities’.

PAGE 2

Duke ranked well as employer for women Female-identifying faculty said the accolade was well deserved but there’s still progress to be made.

PAGE 2

No more sports, and that’s okay Columnist Angela Wu on how we no longer have sports as “a panacea for tougher times.”

PAGE 6 @thedukechronicle | ©2020 The Chronicle

2 | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

The Chronicle

dukechronicle.com

How Duke’s COVID-19 tracker compares to other schools

By Nadia Bey University News Editor

Duke rolled out its COVID-19 tracking dashboard Aug. 19. Other universities in the Triangle also have trackers—but they don’t all report the same data.

The Chronicle compared the roll-out process and content of dashboards at Duke, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and North Carolina Central University.

Roll-out process, reporting frequency

Duke’s dashboard is relatively new compared to the other universities; it was published the night of Aug. 19, and an official release was posted on Twitter by Duke Today Aug. 21. In comparison, UNC first announced plans to publish a dashboard July 30, and NCCU first referenced a tracking dashboard in an Aug. 13 news update.

The dashboard is maintained by the Office of Government Relations, Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, wrote in an email.

All data is collected and analyzed by a team from Duke’s coronavirus task force.

Each of the four universities had a different approach to reporting data upon launch.

Duke, NC State and NCCU each announced that tracking dashboards would be updated weekly. NC State switched to daily updates beginning Aug. 19, but Duke continues to update its dashboard on Mondays, and NCCU also refreshes its numbers weekly.

UNC initially disclosed daily case numbers but later switched to weekly reporting. The university cited the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act as the reason that the dashboard could not be updated with daily case numbers, according to The Daily Tar Heel.

However, the dashboard was changed to reflect daily numbers once again Aug. 20.

Case counts, isolation, quarantine

Duke’s dashboard groups students separately from faculty and staff for the purpose of case reporting. Similarly, the dashboards for UNC and NC State include distinct case numbers for students and employees.

In contrast, NCCU’s dashboard identifies

three groups: students, employees and subcontractors. Only one case has been reported among subcontractors as of Sept. 4.

While NCCU only reports cumulative case numbers, the other three universities include information about how many cases were reported each week, in addition to cumulative numbers. Duke does not provide a daily breakdown of case numbers, while UNC and NC State do.

UNC’s dashboard includes cases from as early as February 2020, while NC State and NCCU report cases beginning March 13 and July 1, respectively. In contrast, Duke’s dashboard contains information beginning Aug. 2, which excludes the 26 members of the football team who tested positive for COVID-19 before then.

UNC and NC State both include the test positivity rate in their respective dashboards.

The Duke dashboard does not state positivity rates, although it reports the total number of tests and positive results each week. NCCU does not report testing numbers.

Each university also takes a different approach to including self-reported data.

Duke’s dashboard primarily reports cases in relation to testing, although precautionary quarantine can be voluntarily reported, according to the notes section. NCCU’s dashboard includes information “based on cases reported to the University and verified by the Student Health Center and the Department of Human Resources.” It does not include “individuals who are self-quarantining without a confirmed diagnosis”.

NC State took a similar approach earlier in the semester: The dashboard only included cases that were confirmed by Student Health Services or via opt-in surveillance testing Aug. 16. The university eventually began including self-reported cases in overall case counts Aug. 18, as well as on the dashboard.

UNC’s dashboard is the only one of the four to include the locations of on-campus coronavirus clusters. NC State has reported multiple clusters since Aug. 18 and NCCU has reported one. UNC has also reported several clusters since students returned to campus.

Duke has yet to report any clusters.

UNC also reports the current occupancy of quarantine facilities on campus and overall

Henry Haggart | Associate Photography Editor Duke COVID-19 testing tracker is updated every Monday with new numbers.

housing occupancy. Similarly, NC State publicizes occupancy numbers on campus as well as the number of people in quarantine or isolation off-campus. NCCU’s dashboard does not indicate how many individuals are in quarantine or isolation.

Although Duke reports the number of individuals who are in quarantine or isolation, it does not report the occupancy of rooms set aside for this purpose.

“Duke has more than 300 designated isolation and quarantine spots for students who live on campus; only a small fraction have [been] used,” Schoenfeld wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “The vast majority of students who have been identified for quarantine and isolation live off-campus and are required to quarantine or isolate in their residence.”

Schoenfeld also clarified that these numbers referring to students in isolation or quarantine only apply for the given week and are not cumulative.

“People are coming in and out of quarantine and isolation every day,” Schoenfeld wrote.

Cleaning and protective equipment

UNC includes a colored indicator for availability of community protective equipment, such as masks, hand sanitizer and disinfectant. Green indicates a 30-day supply is available or expected to be delivered within 30 days, while yellow and red signify different levels of more limited supplies.

A similar indicator is used for “maintenance of enhanced cleaning”, which is defined as “disinfecting two to four times daily and one daily deep clean,” per the dashboard.

In contrast to UNC’s color coding, NC State includes exact numbers for supplies distributed to campus” 416,000 face coverings and 610 gallons of hand sanitizer, as of Sept. 6. The dashboard does not indicate usage or demand.

The Duke and NCCU trackers do not include information about supplies on their respective dashboards.

Duke ranked 7th-best educational employer for women Female professors give thoughts on accolade

By Anna Zolotor Local and National News Editor

Forbes Magazine recently named Duke the seventh-best educational employer for women in the United States, but what do female professors think about that accolade?

Forbes Magazine named Duke the 80thbest employer for women in the United States in July, out of 300 companies, and the seventh-best in the education industry, directly behind Harvard University.

Recreational Equipment Inc., Unilever and Ulta Beauty won the top three overall spots, while Clovis Unified School District, University of Utah and Montgomery County Public Schools led in education.

Forbes worked with a market research company to survey 75,000 Americans—45,000 of them women— working for businesses with more than 1,000 employees. The survey asked questions about topics like workplace conditions, diversity, salary equity, the importance of image and career-development opportunities.

Forbes noted that participants’ responses reflect their feelings during March and April of this year—before many of the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic fully took hold.

Claudia Gunsch, associate vice provost for faculty advancement and the Theodore

S. Kennedy associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, wrote in an email that part of her administrative role is “exploring how our university functions and ensuring that we build a community where women can thrive.”

She emphasized that although “Duke certainly is not perfect,” she believes that the university community is open to conversations and characterized by a “general desire to move forward.”

“I feel fortunate to be at a university where our Provost and 7 out of our 10 Deans are women. I am not aware of any other university with this record,” Gunsch wrote.

“This sends a clear message that there is room for women to advance at Duke.”

She mentioned two Duke policies that she believes further illustrate positive aspects of the University’s culture: Duke’s membership in the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education, and its recent expansion of the parental leave policy to include both parents “if they both work at Duke and meet the eligibility criteria,” she wrote.

Despite these positives, Gunsch acknowledged that the University’s culture and policies are not perfect, particularly for those with “intersecting vulnerabilities (race, sexual orientation, gender identity,

seniority, etc).”

“We have some work to do with respect to race and sexual orientation,” she wrote.

“There have not been enough conversations on these topics to change the status quo.

That being said, I am hopeful. The existing momentum and social movements we are experiencing will lead to some much needed changes.”

Maria Tackett, assistant professor of the practice of statistical science, arrived at Duke in the summer of 2018. In a message to The Chronicle, she shared that her experiences as a female-identifying faculty member have been overall very positive.

She wrote that she did not experience any issues during the hiring process.

“I felt I was treated fairly based on the rigor in which they evaluated me as a job candidate and based on how welcoming all members of the Duke administration and Statistical Science faculty were through each step of the process,” Tackett wrote.

Tackett expressed that she is especially pleased with the presence of women in leadership roles at Duke because they help to cultivate an atmosphere of equity.

“Part of what has shaped my experience here is the fact that women like Dean [Valerie] Ashby and Provost [Sally] Kornbluth have promoted a culture that respects women as

colleagues and leaders,” she wrote.

Melissa Simmermeyer, senior lecturer of romance studies, who has been teaching Spanish classes at Duke since 1999, echoed Tackett’s thoughts about the importance of female leadership at the University.

“There are some women in key positions of power and they are making significant changes. Women are getting it done, and [have] done well! It takes a long time, though,” she wrote, noting that she arrived at Duke during the tenure of Nannerl Keohane, Duke’s first and only woman president. “She has really left her mark on Duke as well,” Simmermeyer continued.

Despite her favorable experiences with female leadership, Simmermeyer expressed that overall she has had both positive and negative experiences as a woman faculty member at Duke.

Simmermeyer explained that although she has experienced instances of mockery and disrespect, likely because of her gender, she is protected by her status as a white, cisgender, heterosexual woman from harms more often experienced by her peers who are “BIPOC, and/ or LGBTQ+, and/or have disabilities, and/or who depend on the timely processing of visas, and/or who may be judged as less intelligent or See EMPLOYER on Page 8

The Chronicle

dukechronicle.com

TITLE IX FROM PAGE 1 point they even broke up into subgroups—one would focus on staff and faculty policies, another on students and another on “evidentiary questions and the process.”

She said that by the second week of July, they had a “rough outline of what the policy was going to look like” and had a series of meetings with different groups to get feedback on their work.

Two days for public comment

Once the new rules were drafted, Duke released them for community feedback. But for the Title IX changes, that public comment period was only two days after they were widely announced.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 | 3

On Aug. 12, the Duke Daily included a message announcing that community members were invited to submit feedback to the University about the proposed Title IX changes. The announced deadline for comments was Aug. 14, just two days later.

Duke Student Government included the link to submit comments in its weekly Thursday email to undergraduate students Aug. 13. The Graduate and Professional Student Council sends its weekly emails on Mondays and was not able to share the information with graduate students via a mass email before Aug. 14, according to Jay Lusk, GPSC president and an MD/MBA candidate at Duke.

However, the GPSC Executive Committee provided feedback about the Title IX policy earlier in the summer, Lusk wrote in an email. He added that they “took efforts to engage students who are not themselves active in GPSC when it was possible.”

Lusk wrote that the timeframe for commenting was inadequate.

“I do not think that a two day feedback window was sufficient and am disappointed that students were not able to engage more fully with the revisions to the Title IX policy,” he wrote.

The working group will “review the efficacy” of the new policies in January 2021, Hewitt and McMahon wrote in their Sept. 9 email to students. They invited students to submit comments to Victoria Krebs, associate dean of students for Title IX outreach and response.

“While our policies must adhere to federal guidance, we will incorporate community feedback and input to the fullest extent possible,” they wrote.

The initial comment deadline was later extended to Aug. 28, Hewitt said, but only for comments on the changes to the misconduct policies and procedures that were not related to Title IX, which were not subject to the Department of Education’s Aug. 14 implementation deadline.

“Given that these changes [to the harassment policy] also extend to aspects of the policy and procedure that do not relate to the federal Title IX regulations, the comment portal remained open until August 28 to allow for more responses,” Hewitt wrote. This extension for the non-Title IX policy was posted on the OIE website Aug. 14.

“We were very intentional about identifying the stakeholder groups and talking to them and getting feedback from them and integrating proposed policy procedures before we issued a public comment period,” Hewitt said Sept. 9, adding that there was “no agenda not to be open about [implementing the new policies].”

She wrote in an Aug. 31 email that the policy will be revised in six months and that a longer open comment period will be provided at that time.

“This will allow us time to monitor how the new policy and processes are working, and consider all the comments,” she wrote.

Hewitt also wrote in her Aug. 31 statement that OIE received 14 responses from the community between Aug. 12 and 14.

“We will do another communications push before the six-month review,” she wrote.

Other members of the community expressed frustration regarding the initial two-day period for feedback.

Emma Dolan, a fourth-year graduate student in the

Cameron Oglesby | Graphics Editor

See TITLE IX on Page 8

BE THE FIRST TO KNOW

ABOUT NEW ARRIVALS, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, THE LATEST IN TECHNOLOGY, SALES EVENTS, AND MORE.

SIGN UP!

IT IT S S 2AM. 2AM. YOU YOU RE RE HUNGRY. HUNGRY. BEST BEST BURRITO BURRITO EVER. EVER.

The University Store Duke eSTORE

Duke Technology Center Gothic Bookshop News & Events Medical Center Store Secret Sales

MENU MENU SAMPLING SAMPLING

Class of 2024

To sign up, visit our website at www.dukestores.duke.edu and click on the BTFTK icon on the left.

Our Privacy Policy: We respect your right to personal privacy. We promise to use this subscription service for the express purpose of keeping you informed of only those services that you have requested. Your personal information will not be disclosed to any third parties. We hope you will find our e-mails of benefit. We promise to keep them informative and to-the-point. You will have the option of unsubscribing from this service with each e-mail campaign.

OPERATION: Stores Administration

PUBLICATION: Chronicle

OLD OLD SCHOOL SCHOOL VEGGIE VEGGIE BURRITO BURRITO

$3.44 $3.44

REGULAR REGULAR CHICKEN CHICKEN BURRITO BURRITO

$6.86 $6.86

CHEESE CHEESE QUESADILLA QUESADILLA

$2.71 $2.71

CHICKEN CHICKEN QUESADILLA QUESADILLA

$5.44 $5.44

CHIPS CHIPS & & SALSA SALSA

$2.71 $2.71

1920 1/2 PERRY ST. @ NINTH ST. JUST A BLOCK FROM EAST CAMPUS

4 | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

dukechronicle.com

The Chronicle

sportswrap september 14, 2020

FOUGHT THE IRISH

COURTESY OF THE ACC

the chronicle

FOOTBALL: DROPS SEASON-OPENER AT NOTRE DAME COLUMN: DEFENSE NEEDS MAINTENANCE

The Chronicle

dukechronicle.com

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 | 5

FOOTBALL

Chase Brice impresses in first collegiate start

By Max Rego Assistant Blue Zone Editor

The opportunity was there for the Blue Devils to come away with an upset victory in Sept. 12’s 27-13 loss to No. 10 Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. Heading into the fourth quarter, Duke found itself trailing by four, despite the oddsmakers pegging the Fighting Irish as a three-touchdown favorite.

DUKE 13 One of the major reasons for that was performance of transfer quarterback 27 the ND Chase Brice. In his first collegiate start, Brice threw for 259 yards, displaying a rapport with his weapons on the perimeter.

Despite a limited amount of practice time in the preseason, the Georgia native appeared comfortable throughout Saturday’s contest. Head coach David Cutcliffe had a sound gameplan to get Brice’s feet wet in the early going, with a litany of roll outs and screens in the first few possessions. This included the first play of the entire season for Duke, as Brice found reliable tight end Noah Gray off play-action, with Gray taking advantage of some space in the open field to pick up 22 yards.

However, the play that seemed to truly get the offense into a groove was Eli Pancol’s catch-and-run for 55 yards four minutes into the contest. Pancol’s long scamper set up a Blue Devil field goal to put Duke ahead 3-0, and Brice was subsequently dialed in with his receiving core. As the afternoon wore on, Cutcliffe gave his redshirt junior quarterback the opportunity to air it out down the middle much more often, building on the camaraderie that Brice was developing with his pass catchers.

“Throughout the game, I started getting a better feel for [the Notre Dame] defense because that defense was pretty new. They lost a lot of starters from last year,” Brice said. “So a lot of it was the same but a lot was also different and how they played us, and so we had to adjust. But overall, I thought there were some miscues obviously, but our chemistry will only get better from this game.”

Courtesy of the ACC Clemson transfer Chase Brice totaled 259 yards through the air on 20-of-37 passing, adding a touchdown on the ground as well.

There was even a sequence that made Brice look like he had been learning this system for his entire college career late in the second quarter. A five-play stretch that saw Brice connect with Jake Bobo, Jalon Calhoun and Pancol, each time resulting in a first down, put the Notre Dame secondary on its heels.

When given time to scan the field and find his experienced targets, Brice showed many encouraging signs of how the rest of the season will fare. Furthermore, the Fighting Irish likely feature more defensive talent than every other team on Duke’s schedule, so the Blue Devil receiving core will likely be able to obtain even more separation down the field in the weeks ahead.

Despite the positives, Cutcliffe was still looking for

improvement in the aftermath of the loss, in tune with the overall message that reduced preparation this season will force continued growth on game day.

“We got to take a real good look at what we want to be, now that you’ve evaluated your quarterback under game conditions,” Cutcliffe said. “We’ve looked at the people we’ve got. I think we can be really good up front on offense, but I’m going to take a good hard look, and I think what you do is do what your personnel does best. When you do that, you will get in a rhythm.”

While Brice’s performance was far from perfect, his afternoon in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus was a clear indication that Duke is on the right track toward finding its rhythm through the air.

FOOTBALL

Column: Duke’s defense must tighten up on the perimeter Put some respect on Duke football’s name.

I’m not advocating that the Blue Devils are going to the ACC Championship, but after that performance against Notre Dame, they do deserve some credit. The 21.5-point spread was not representative of Duke’s talent, and head coach David Cutcliffe’s squad is a better football team than most viewed it as before Saturday’s contest.

That being said, there is some serious maintenance work that needs to be done on the Blue Devil defense.

Against inside run plays and the play-action, Duke was fine. Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book looked uncomfortable in the pocket for the Jake C. Piazza entire day, and the Blue Devil defensive backs had some impressive plays on one-on-one coverage that solidified that this defense can be as good as it was hyped up to be.

The concerning part is how vulnerable the Duke defense was outside of the tackles.

In the first quarter, senior running back Jafar Armstrong slipped underneath Duke’s nose on a fake end-around and stood wide open to receive a quick flip from Book, going on to pick up an easy 20 yards. Fellow running back Kyren Williams went on to find the end zone several plays later to give the Fighting Irish their first points.

Furthermore, Notre Dame’s second touchdown came on a fourth-and-1 attempt in which Williams bounced outside for an untouched 26-yard run. Williams was stuffed at the line of scrimmage but no Blue Devils were there to actually drag him down, so he was able to find green grass on the perimeter and break free.

Williams had way too much success on the ground, torching Duke for 112 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Most of his yards came via crafty play schematics from Fighting Irish offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, one example being his run late in the third quarter when he went off the edge for 14 yards on a counter.

The Blue Devils’ opponents will surely make note of Duke’s struggles with the counters and misdirections that Rees drew up, so that needs to be polished up immediately.

Whenever the Fighting Irish struggled to move the ball, they avoided stalling the drive by looking for either a pass

toward the sideline or an outside run. That can’t happen if the Blue Devils want to establish themselves as a legitimate ACC contender this season.

A perfect example was at the end of the half. Notre Dame receiver Joe Wilkins snagged two consecutive 10-plus-yard passes near the sideline to let the Fighting Irish sneak in a field goal before the teams headed to the locker rooms. On the first of these receptions, Wilkins broke a tackle to get out of bounds and allow Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly to save his last timeout.

Granted, Kelly never ended up using that timeout. But his playbook was wide open knowing he had it in his back pocket, which could have played a factor in the play-call that led to Wilkins’ second consecutive reception that ultimately got the Fighting Irish into field goal range.

The exact play on the perimeter that sticks out the most, however, is the missed tackle by Blue Devil cornerback Josh Blackwell that would have given Duke the ball back down only 17-13 early in the fourth quarter. Blackwell had Fighting Irish true freshman tight end Michael Mayer wrapped up far short of

the first-down marker, but Mayer shed the tackle en route to picking up the first down.

Blackwell was one of several Blue Devils to miss significant tackles. Earlier in the game on a goal line stand, safety Lummie Young IV had a clean shot on Williams in the backfield, but the sophomore back powered through Young and into the end zone.

There was a lot to like with Duke’s defense, but at the same time this problem out in space needs to be dealt with. The Blue Devil defensive line is too good to allow teams to dump the ball to the outside whenever the middle is clogged.

Future quarterbacks can’t be free to squirm around and extend plays out of the pocket, and Duke doesn’t score enough points to allow opposing quarterbacks to be gaining positive yards with their legs on broken pass plays.

Boston College will be a good test next week to see if the Blue Devils can make the necessary adjustments to get this defensive unit to the next level.

Courtesy of the ACC Notre Dame running back Kyren Williams torched Duke for 112 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, dominating the outside.

6 | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

opinion dukechronicle.com

The Chronicle

Sports are no longer a panacea for your tough times—why that’s okay

O

n August 27, the director of operations for Duke’s men’s basketball team, Nolan Smith, led a protest outside of K-ville in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

This isn’t the first time matters of racial justice and systemic discrimination have been publicly denounced. Nor is it the first Black Lives Matter protest that many of us have heard of or have taken part in. But there was something about this particular event that made it stand apart from others of the like.

Mike Buckmire’s cardboard sign, with the words “Am I Next?” etched out in black marker, was particularly powerful. The strokes that came together to create the written message were well-aligned and compact, leaving no

“

room for viewers to be distracted by a stray line or mark, instead forcing all eyes and thoughts on the message displayed. His voice, along with the urges of his teammates and coaches, signaled something larger to me and to the rest of the Duke community: racial inequality is no longer another bullet point in the long list of faults in the American social system, and athletes—professional or otherwise—will no longer serve as a panacea for your tough times.

The recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd have only served to underscore this movement. Last Wednesday, the Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court for their Game Five warm-up for their opening round playoff series against the Orlando Magic; that game, along with two

hot take of the week

“You’re telling me they can just write about whatever they want?”

—Passerby, on columnists, September 10, 2020

LETTERS POLICY

Est. 1905

”

Direct submissions to:

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.

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

The Chronicle

Inc. 1993

JAKE SATISKY, Editor DEREK SAUL, Sports Editor STEFANIE POUSOULIDES, News Editor NATHAN LUZUM, KATHRYN SILBERSTEIN, Managing Editors SHANNON FANG, Senior Editor MICHAEL MODEL, Digital Strategy Director MARY HELEN WOOD, CHARLES YORK, Photography Editor LEAH ABRAMS, Editorial Page Editor NINA WILDER, Recess Editor CHRISSY BECK, General Manager

CONNER MCLEOD, Sports Managing Editor CARTER FORINASH, University News Editor MATTHEW GRIFFIN, University News Editor PRIYA PARKASH, University News Editor MONA TONG, Local & National News Editor ROSE WONG, Local & National News Editor MARIA MORRISON, Health & Science News Editor ERIC WEI, Sports Photography Editor MICHELLE TAI , Features Photography Editor AARON ZHAO, Features Photography Editor MIHIR BELLAMKONDA, Editorial Page Managing Editor MAX LABATON, Editorial Page Managing Editor SELENA QIAN, Graphics Editor BRE BRADHAM, Video Editor

BEN LEONARD, Towerview Editor CARTER FORINASH, Towerview Managing Editor WILL ATKINSON, Recess Managing Editor MIRANDA GERSHONI, Recess Managing Editor JAEWON MOON, Editorial Board Chair OLIVIA SIMPSON, Editorial Board Chair BRE BRADHAM, Investigations Editor BEN LEONARD, Investigations Editor SHAGUN VASHISTH, Investigations Editor BRE BRADHAM, Recruitment Chair SHAGUN VASHISTH, Recruitment Chair ASHWIN KULSHRESTHA, Senior News Reporter TREY FOWLER, Advertising Director 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. @ 2020 Duke Student Publishing Company

other playoff games, were all later canceled.

That same day, tennis star Naomi Osaka refused to play her semifinals match in the Western & Southern Open; the tournament later also canceled all matches for the day. Similar postponements happened across the WNBA, MLB, and Major League Soccer.

Whether we like it or not, politics and sports have been deeply intertwined for a good part of the last century. The political climate has played a very consequential role in shaping the sports business and industry in America, and many times for far less laudable motives than perhaps managers like to tout. As Professors Munger and Salsman liked to so often remind our Econ 361 class, Jackie Robinson’s integration to the MLB was not because the Dodgers cared particularly about racial diversity and social justice. Rather, it was simply because as an African American man, Robinson was part of an “untapped labor pool” that could “justifiably” be paid far less than his white counterparts of equal (or even lesser) ability. The legendary story we grew up learning about how the audaciously progressive Branch Rickey shattered social barriers by signing the first Black MLB player was motivated more by economic incentives than they were any moral compass or respect for Robinson’s athletic capabilities.

And even though we’ve made strides in recognizing structural inequities, we still have a long way to go. A primary difference between today and 80 years ago is that modern political polarization has been exacerbated and manipulated by politicians so much that it can no longer be ignored, regardless how much you try. Discussions about racial justice did not diminish during the past five months; instead, their dire severity and significance were only heightened. And as modern media brings these once esoteric considerations and debates to the front and center of our social media pages and TV screens, the amplification of public figures expressing their discontent with the system has also led to an inevitable wave of pushback.

After Lebron James made negative comments about President Trump in an ESPN interview, Fox reporter Laura Ingraham commented that “it’s always unwise to seek political advice from someone who gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball” and asked James and his fellow sports stars to “shut up and dribble.”

As blatantly appalling as such statements are, even by the standards of the ferocious social polarization that our country is embroiled in, they are also very indicative of the challenges we face as a society, and also provide some insight into potential steps forward in combating these obstacles. Skepticism and disagreement towards an opposing viewpoint are inherent and natural reactions from any of us, but to thoroughly disparage the opinions of the other side is below all the moral values and standards we supposedly uphold and live by as 21st century humans. Confining athletes to their position on a team and preventing their minds and actions to go beyond the boundaries of the doubles alley and baseline in tennis or the end zones in football upholds the racist and false notion that Black men can only ever excel in sports. It also objectifies players as mere figures to serve as entertainment for our off time— when we want to take a break from the uphill battle that is fighting for racial justice.

But instead of spending time to gasp in abhorrent disgust at the insensitive and alarming words of the conservative right-wing media, let us continue considering the real stakes at hand.

Today, our generation is in the midst

of a great social movement. It is not a new movement, but the continuation of a fight brought on by several generations, simply in a new context and under new circumstances. We have the power of the media and its ability to swiftly spread information, for better or worse, at the tap of a screen. As the world becomes more interconnected, we have more eyes who scrutinize our community’s values, and the ways that these values are reflected in how we act, what we say, and how our institutions are organized. These eyes, whether from within our nation or from abroad, have picked out long ago the great inequities and imbalances that our institutions not only exist in, but sometimes proactively nurture. But picking out the problems of a system is easy; the real challenge comes in addressing and amending those faults.

Being a fan of an athlete who supports BLM or social equity does not make you a great martyr of the movement as well. You can’t start or be part of a social movement if you haven’t woken up yourself to realize that enacting lasting change involves slight inconveniences in your own life, since the very institutions your life is founded upon are the ones being challenged. Coach K has indicated to us that no matter how big of a basketball fan you are, basketball cannot and will not be the same if these social inequities persist. In short, you can no longer expect professional sports to be a neutral zone form of escape from the realities of social inequality. It might blow that we can no longer cheer for our favorite athletes with the same bliss we once enjoyed, but to sacrifice this pleasure in the name of fighting systemic racism? Feels pretty worthwhile to me.

Athletes who take a stand against systemic inequality serve as a reminder that the problems we are trying to address today are not abstract, theoretical concepts that only exist in places such as Minneapolis, Louisville, Atlanta, Kenosha, or anywhere that’s not-where-I-amright-now. There’s no reason to spend all our time and effort pointing fingers at where others have fallen short. Now more than ever, we all need to take the time to self-reflect on how we may have tacitly supported heavily flawed systems. Athletes recognize that their own industry is by no stretch of imagination free from the ramifications of systemic racism, and so they are now fighting tooth and nail to break free from the tainted moulds that folks such as Laura Ingraham try to force them to stay complacent in. Lebon James’ “qualifications” to speak out about political issues isn’t something to scoff at or shrug off; for all the meddling and under-the-table tactics politicians have played in sports, it’s about time those in the sports industry get the opportunity to turn the tables on politics.

Athletes enjoy a unique role within their communities; their passion on the court or field move us to take pride in who we are and to have a personal stake in our communities’ wellbeing. Thus, the strong stance sports stars are making now in the movement for social justice are not entirely new. Only this time, the attention has been brought off the court and into the streets of our communities. “I can’t change the world, but goddamnit, I can change Duke while I’m here,” Nolan Smith during his speech at K-ville. The same should hold true for each and every one of us.

Angela Wu is a Trinity sophomore. Her column “that’s what she said” runs on alternate Tuesdays.

The Chronicle

dukechronicle.com

The GOP’s original sin, as told by Charlie Kirk

D

onald Trump hijacked the Republican Party. At least, this is the argument forwarded by The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump PAC run by GOP operatives. I can buy this narrative; the president’s actions are hard to tie to conservatism. He is too aberrant, too individual for comparison with a stereotypical Republican. Put him next to Pence, even, and you’ll see more differences than similarities. Contrast this with the first speaker of this year’s Republican National Convention. His name is Charlie Kirk. Writing for Politico, Joseph Guinto aptly described him as “the kind of young conservative a sitcom writer would dream up.” He looks and thinks how you’d expect an RNC speaker to.

In short, he is the perfect vehicle for comparison–opposite of Trump.

Despite his boilerplate takes and his unremarkable aesthetic, Charlie is unique. I can even pinpoint the first time I noticed him. He’d posted a video of himself debating a student on Instagram. Attached was a caption like “leftist gets schooled.” I guess he saw himself as a Shapiro type. Unfortunately, that caption wasn’t appropriate; he was blustering and shouting over his opponent, not demolishing them with facts and logic. The irony was of a literary quality. He isn’t special for being bad at debate, though. Ben Shapiro is equally as unimpressive when he debates his equals. Rather, his uniqueness comes from a lack of subtlety.

Whereas others generally hide their faults, Kirk highlights them through the absurdity of his actions. In doing so, he blows everyone else’s cover. He’s like a soldier who’ll reveal their platoon’s position by tripping over their own feet. Thus, Charlie’s life is the perfect allegory to explain conservatism. As I already mentioned, it’s easy to relate the two, but it’s also a story full of extremes, as though it was designed to be didactic.

Kirk’s road to the podium began in 2012, from his economics classroom. His textbook had (rightly) claimed that many economists disregard supply-side economics. According to him, this was an attempt to “push a liberal leaning agenda,” and make American students stupid enough to depend on the government.

The architects of this plot were “unionized teachers” and liberals. When this take got published on Breitbart, his journey began. This represents a motif within the Republican party: self-victimization.

Despite taking a class whose conclusion is, invariably, “market capitalism rocks,” Kirk felt that his ideology was being targeted. In the real world, conservatives will worry about being “canceled,” though many have explained how this threat isn’t real. While people often accept that Republicans could be under attack from liberals, the bizarreness of Kirk’s theory allows us to question that narrative. Liberals obviously aren’t able to stupefy the youth, which prompts us to ask if they can end someone’s career, either.

Around the same time, Kirk received a reply to his West Point application. He got rejected. Since then, he has claimed that his spot was stolen by a woman of color. The way he describes it–specifically, his inability to consider that the spot wasn’t “his” to begin with–offers insight into his movement’s mindset.

Whereas many will insist that their opposition to affirmative action is based on meritocracy, this is the quiet part said out loud. Implicitly, these people argue on their own behalf–they imagine themselves as the most deserving candidate by default.

In the fall of that year, Charlie had begun studying at Harper College, a local community college.

Almost immediately, he dropped out. Instead, he wanted to manage Turning Point USA–an organization he’d founded that June–full time. TPUSA primarily concerns itself with college students, a title its founder only held for a few weeks. Despite this fact, the project got off the ground. This can be attributed to massive donations from wealthy, old men.

It’s a great story to illustrate “white mediocrity.” This is the idea that rich white people can become successful without clearing the bars they themselves set. Most people would scoff at the phrase “community college dropout starts an NGO.” If I told them this group wanted to “fix” universities, they’d suggest that this hypothetical dropout attend one first. Charlie’s success is therefore improbable. In some way, it shattered a glass ceiling. Would I rather that he failed? No, but it’s important to point out how he got a shortcut in life by knowing people. You could call this a more relatable “small loan of a million dollars” story. I want to be fair here and say that “white mediocrity” doesn’t just apply to conservatives.

What makes it their territory, however, is an insistence on the continuation of prerequisites which they failed. TPUSA accusing liberal students of lacking intellectual tenacity (and therefore being unworthy of arguing about policy) is hilariously hypocritical. After all, the content they produce is so uninformed that it achieved meme status. That’s not even mentioning how their own founder dropped out within a few weeks. Similarly, it’s funny to see conservative pundits tell people to work harder. Many, like Tucker Carlson, got their jobs off nepotism.

In the years that followed, TPUSA has been embroiled in many bizarre incidents. The most revealing story is what happened when Turning Point affiliates got power. Part of their program is to help campus conservatives get elected to student government. Politico, in telling the story of one such candidate who succeeded, notes that their first action was trying to defund the school’s Muslim Students Association.

Ostensibly, this is a part of TPUSA’s idea of defending conservatism: excluding minorities. At the very least, it’s a popular idea amongst its members. Given that, it’s no surprise that Kirk and his organization have gotten racist on several occasions. A few years ago, they were accused of padding their ranks with racists; this came after one of their members had declared that “the only thing the Nazis didn’t get right is they didn’t keep f-----g going.” Later on, Kirk’s right-hand woman was let go after she declared her hatred of Black people in a leaked text. Then, there’s Charlie. While describing Candice Owens, a Black woman working with TPUSA, he lied about both her parents being alcoholics. No matter how you spin any of these stories, it looks grim. I’ll be charitable and say this isn’t proof of any inherent racism in conservatism; however, it does show that they’re far too comfortable with it. The long career of former representative Steve King, who infamously asked why white supremacy was frowned upon, proves that. Given that antiracism is the only acceptable position, this is a concerning trend.

It’s now that we reach the conclusion of this saga: Kirk’s RNC speech. In it, he declares that President Trump is “the bodyguard of Western Civilization.” Note that Western Civilization was a common talking point of Steve King, and we have reason to be worried. Throughout this story, we saw feats of mental gymnastics. Believing that socialists are subverting economics, for example, shows a true flexibility of thought. Using a known dog-whistle for white supremacy, a belief which any reasonable conservative should denounce, shows the extent to which Kirk’s core principles can be shifted.

This is, in my opinion, the original sin of Kirk brand conservatism: beyond furiously opposing liberals, it is very flexible. While many conservatives are amazing, caring and kind people, their ideology seems to lack rigidity. Look at Trump’s campaign. What vision or goals did he have beyond “Make America Great Again”? In 2020, their slogan is to “Keep America Great.” This is an obvious call to keep Democrats out of office, and little else. That’s how they can support police brutality while arguing for small government in the same breath. There is no clear goal besides defeating the liberal agenda, whatever that may be.

I’m reminded of a piece from the Dartmouth Review which complained that Kirk had traded his beliefs for success. Looking at the way Charlie and his organization act, I don’t think they had foundational beliefs to trade. That’s why the party was so easily hijacked.

Dan Reznichenko is a Trinity first-year. His column runs on alternate Tuesdays.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 | 7

Tearing it down

“Y

ou won’t believe where we’re living,” my blockmate tells me, helping me with my luggage as we walk across the humid quad.

As the building comes into view, I’m struck by the iconography of the section’s fraternity sign. Two hands shaking as if sealing a lucrative business deal or making a pact of silence, the vague outline of a suit sleeve and a black and red color scheme. When I describe this picture to friends, I get two reactions: confusion or sympathy. For those who have been harmed by the violent fraternity of patriarchy, and to me, it’s a reminder that the University is not meant to be survivable.

Even in its absence, Greek life hangs like a shadow over campus. Discussions about how long we’ll be able to stay on campus are always punctuated with references to parties happening at luxury apartments off campus (not to mention that Greek sections insistent on living together exacerbate Duke’s gentrification of Durham).

Walking around an empty Duke feels like walking around a decaying Gothic landscape. Campus is eerie and unsettling, as if reminding us that the architecture (the very structure) is not indigenous to North Carolina (quite literally, considering the glaring absence of a single Indigenous professor), as if the emptiness holds the spectres of the past.

It may be controversial to say Duke, like most of US academia, is a monument to white supremacy, and may be more acceptable to say that Duke holds (or the even more acceptable answer, used to hold) monuments to white supremacy. The Robert E. Lee statue that used to stand above the threshold of the Chapel. The Carr Building, now named Classroom Building, that I lived adjacent to last year, and then Aycock, now East Residence Hall. Still, what does it mean when James B. Duke’s father stands on West Campus, holding a cigar representing his tobacco fortune, built by Black laborers? When Duke’s wealth roots from and still benefits from the important (and invisible) work of primarily Black workers?

Some may say that our job is to build new statues. We have a plaque for Abele Quad (though it’s not labelled on official maps). Spaces exist within the University where students of color, LGBT+ students and female-identifying students are supposed to feel welcome and imagine their futures. Is the solution to make reforms and change from within?

I’ve been able to learn and grow immensely due to the rich history of archival work in the University.

Classes taught in the tradition of ethnic studies (or Third World studies) have facilitated important conversations that allowed me to develop my principles and understanding of structures within the world. I’ve joined many extracurricular reading groups, building consciousness with others who feel a sense that not everything is right and injustice still exists within our world. For those who still believe in these values, inclusion and diversity have garnered more attention now than ever. So can we build an abolitionist University within the University (whatever that means)?

Finally reconstructing my shoe stand after excavating some missing pieces in the bottom drawer of my plastic dresser, I turn to my blockmate.

“I feel like I could build a deck right now! We should do some more construction projects, like fun father-son projects,” I joke. “Actually you know what, we should print out and put together something to cover up that frat logo at the entrance of the dorm!”

We’re the only women, women of color nonetheless, living in this section, a fact underscored by the quick sprint we all make from the showers to our dorms. I knew there was probably a limit to what we could put up. Maybe an aesthetic Angela Davis portrait with a quote, or a mural-like compilation of printed paper. We had already started dry-erase marker-ing on top of the stock photos of the Chapel that were used to display our room numbers with happy birthday wishes, daily schedules and fun facts like “Larry Moneta doesn’t get enough flack.”

Even if we paper over the most obvious signs of it (and even then we’re gaslit into thinking they’re not obvious), we can’t actually erase the ways that white supremacy has shaped and continues to shape the physical space of the university. The Center for Multicultural Affairs is in the basement of the Bryan Center, siloing off students of color and creating an access issue due to the high dust content. Meanwhile, we have funding for a new alumni center that students have to pay to use, with engaging activities like “planning your day” to go places more interesting than the alumni center, “learning new things” from the sanitized timeline on the wall or (my personal favorite) “going outside” to (once again) literally leave the uninteresting alumni center.

Space politics has even invaded cyberspace, with Greek life and student government taking up a fourth of the digital space of the quad during the Virtual Activities Fair. This is not even to mention the ambiguous status of workers, like housekeepers and contract workers, who aren’t being counted by the COVID tracker or supported by Duke. As this quandary sits in the back of my mind, I learn during my house course, led by the new Black LLC (which was going to be housed in Craven), the history of our previous President Braxton Craven.

If you were unaware here are a few facts, Craven: 1. Owned slaves (including children) 2. Oversaw the Cherokee Industrial School (which forced the assimilation of Indigenous children) 3. Recruited students to serve as guards at a Confederate military prison Does this mean we should rename Craven? What about John Franklin Crowell, who wrote that integrating education “will never do; if the colored children go to school...what will become of white supremacy?” Google “Tallman Trask light rail” to learn more about a man whose employment was extended because of the pandemic, thanked for his “extraordinary service” and replaced by a McKinsey consultant. Once again, what is to be done?

It may be a bit trite to cite the iconic Audre Lorde quote about the master’s tools, which like much of the language coined by radical Black theorists, has been decontextualized, sanitized and co-opted to the point of near meaninglessness—but it still holds true. I recommend reading “Black Study, Black Struggle” by Robin D. G. Kelley and “The Undercommons” by Fred Moten and Stefano Harney for some more ideas on what to do as a student who wants liberation and is surrounded by the University.

The solution to redress the harm done by Duke to an uncountable and unknowable number of people cannot be as simple as putting up a new statue. We deserve and can fight for more than liberal inclusion and diversity. Christina Sharpe theorizes the concept of “wake work”—a way of mourning and caring in a way that our justice system, media, and healthcare industries cannot—in her book “In the Wake,” which argues we must replace our present systems of violence with new systems of care.

Even if we tell ourselves that we see some sort of linear progress, HBCUs and ethnic studies departments around the country constantly have to fight for funding. Even when Duke hires minority professors, their positions are typically non-tenured, leading to a high turnover rate and lack of enduring presence on campus. This serves to remind us that progress is not inevitable; we have to fight for it. The moral arc of the Universe(ity) bends not towards justice, but rather towards profit at whatever cost. The University was never meant to be survivable.

I know deep down that no matter what I put up, it’ll eventually be torn down.

Celine Wei is a Trinity sophomore. Her column, “a spectre is haunting Duke,” runs on alternate Fridays.

ON DUKECHRONICLE.COM Duke falls to 12 in national ranking, jumps in undergraduate education

BY MARIA MORRISON | 09/14/2020 Duke has fallen to 12th place in the most recent U.S. News and World Report National Universities rankings, after tying with Johns Hopkins for 10th place last year and sitting at No. 8 the year before.

Job recruiters perceive Black women with natural hairstyles as less professional, Duke study finds Black women with natural hairstyles are commonly perceived by job recruiters as less professional, according to new research from the Fuqua School of Business.

TITLE IX

about the short comment period.

“I only found out about it two hours or so before commenting closed and didn’t department of pharmacology and cancer have time to comment,” she wrote. “It made biology, wrote in an Aug. 25 email to The me feel like they did not actually want Chronicle that she did not have time to review comments and were opening comments to the changes and provide comment given her ‘check a box’.” busy schedule.

Yavarow is a member of the Student “Unfortunately, I think the short Sexual Misconduct Prevention and timeframe for comments was indicative Response Committee. She wrote that of a lack of consideration for workers’ she was “under the impression by OIE input,” Dolan wrote. leadership that although the new Title IX The Graduate Student Union has regulations are less stringent, Duke would previously advocated for improvements to still hold itself to a higher standard”. the University’s policy on harassment, with “I think that they have failed at this and I a particular focus on expanding protections feel lied to,” Yavarow wrote. beyond federally protected classes and Hewitt wrote in a Sept. 8 email that she including neutral parties in investigations wants the community to “understand that rather than Duke employees. we care about this issue tremendously and “A lot of my energy went to the we understand the implications of these new harassment policies last year,” wrote Madeline regulations are challenging.”

Sells, a fourth-year graduate student in “Unfortunately, the 1000+ page federal pharmacology, in an Aug. 26 email. regulations do not allow much flexibility for She wrote that that recent policy changes universities and so I understand that there are “are not due to any of the work we have done, probably parts of the new Title IX procedures or fixing the issues we would like addressed, that are frustrating and disappointing to the but are simply to align Duke with new community,” Hewitt wrote. government policies, which they were very She also wrote that OIE would produce a direct about.”

Frequently Asked Questions page “in order “I think the short time frame for comment to be more responsive to the concerns is indicative that they are aware these changes being raised now and to help clarify what is were not designed to satisfy the needs of the legally required and the limited flexibility student body,” she wrote. that we have within the confines of these Zollie Yavarow, also a fourth-year new regulations.” graduate student in pharmacology, wrote “We areCorporation always open to meet with any The New York Times Syndication Sales York, N.Y.faculty 10018 or staff member who in an Aug. 26 email that 620 sheEighth was Avenue, angry New student,

FROM PAGE 3

For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 For Release Friday, March 20, 2020

ACROSS 1 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band led by Iggy Pop 11 Intermediate gait 15 Do thumb traveling?

18 Balanced 19 See 20-Across

34 Basement feature 38 Former Supreme Court justice William 39 (x, y), in math

16 Someone who’s well-off 17 “Well, then …”

32 Some road trip entertainment

41 Low, low price, in an expression 42 Subuniverses 44 Lessen 46 Losing money

47 Superimposed 20 19-Across pitcher 51 Message in smoke signals, 21 “No you ___!” maybe 22 Tankerful 52 Chummy 25 Successor 53 “___ So Fine,” language to 1963 #1 hit for Common the Chiffons Brittonic 55 Deal with it 27 0 on the Beaufort 59 ___ Douglasscale Home, 1960s British P.M. 31 Billionaire philanthropist 60 Corellia, to Han ___ Broad Solo

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE C H O O S E

C A R W A X

R E G R S A E R M A

T O A D

S H E I E A G I N N E D U C I S P O E A U V E R S A T I S L T S H A T H A O A L L T H L A L A A G E

R B V E S E R F I H P I N E D I E C T E I F R E A S T H E D I T R V E

S C I F I B N O I O N K T H A L C E O U S T O V E R

T A G E E L O T D A Y S N A Y M A E L A Y I D E A N A R Y E P I C V E D E E T I N A D S L I U S T S

63 Roman counterpart of the Greek goddess Selene 64 “Flash Gordon” genre 65 Trousers part 66 Driving distractions

Edited by Will Shortz 1

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11 16

17

18

19

20 22 28

23

24

29

25

Emails Carter hasn’t responded to yet: ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� leah girld Times I was locked out of my dorm room my first two years: �������������������������������������������������������������� mattyg Zoom meetings I’ve left in the middle of: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� nadia bae Times I’ve been ghosted on Tinder: ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� charlieinchina Layout Editors : ................................................................................................................................Kyle Harvey, Yoav Kargon, Priya Meesa, Evelyn Sturrock, Jeremy Tang, Bennett David Student Advertising Manager: �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Rebecca Ross Account Representatives:................... Juliana Arbelaez, Emma Olivo, Spencer Perkins, Sam Richey, Alex Russell, Paula Sakuma, Jake Schulman, Simon Shore, Maddy Torres, Stef Watchi, Montana Williams Marketing Manager:.................................................................................................................. Jared McCloskey The New York Times Syndication Sales Corporation 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 Student Business Manager...............................................................................................

Dylan Riley, Alex Rose For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 For Release Saturday, March 21, 2020

12

13

Crossword ACROSS

14

1

Drink every last drop from

8

Give a sop to, maybe

15

26 31

32

33

38

34

39 42

What we’d make a tracker for at Duke: Past DSG presidents who work for McKinsey: �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������carti b

21

30

41

The Chronicle

No. 0214

15

27

DOWN 1 No, not that!

2 Very small amount 3 ___ Candy, friend of Wonder Woman 4 Thought experiment in quantum physics 5 Fourth letter in Arabic 6 Kind of grass 7 Apex predator of the sea 8 Composer Puccini 9 Automotive sponsor of “Wagon Train” in the 1950s 10 Date 11 “You’re doomed!”

12 Get tangled up 13 Things with timers 14 Constitutional amendment regarding states’ rights 21 Rebus symbol for “everything” 23 Much-admired person 24 1987 #1 hit with Spanish lyrics 26 Kim Jong-un and others

2

wants to share their feedback with us,” and Grandes and declined an interview, Hewitt wrote. asking The Chronicle to email her written questions instead. Hewitt responded to the Declined interviews questions Aug. 31.

In May, The Chronicle reached out to The Chronicle reached out to Grandes Jayne Grandes, assistant vice president for and Hewitt Sept. 9 to ask for comment Title IX compliance at the OIE, to request an regarding transparency concerns, including interview about how Duke was planning to the declined interview requests. Grandes implement the proposed Title IX changes on did not respond, and Hewitt agreed to the campus.

Sept. 9 phone interview.

Hewitt responded on Grandes’ behalf, writing in an email that she and Grandes were not available for an interview at the time. She added that Duke was reviewing the FROM PAGE 2 rules so that they could be implemented by the Aug. 14 deadline. worthy because it is clear that English is not their “In this process we are necessarily making first language,” she wrote. adjustments to our existing policy in order “I will forever carry in my memory to be in compliance,” Hewitt wrote. “Duke particular instances at Duke when I remains committed to working with students, know my BIPOC women friends were faculty and staff to create a safer community for rendered invisible, not taken seriously, everyone.” or made targets of micro and even macro Hewitt said Sept. 9 that at the time of aggressions,” Simmermeyer wrote.

Both Simmermeyer and Tackett the previous interview request, the Title IX team “really didn’t have any answers.” She acknowledged that many positive or said they were busy attending webinars and negative aspects of their experiences at Duke working together to understand what the could just as likely be extended to any other university. Tackett reflected that despite the regulations said.

“I wouldn’t phrase it as a ‘refusal to talk,’” efforts of any institution to promote gender she said. “I just felt like at that point, we equity in the workplace, societal norms and didn’t have a lot of information to share.” expectations can still put female-identifying On Aug. 20, The Chronicle reached employees at a disadvantage.

“One example of this is the fact that women out again by email to Grandes and Hewitt to request an interview about how the have been disproportionately impacted by University handled the Title IX changes. children being out of school during the Hewitt again responded on behalf of herself COVID-19 pandemic,” she wrote.

EMPLOYER

BY PREETHA RAMACHANDRAN | 09/10/2020

Crossword

The Chronicle

dukechronicle.com

8 | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

35

36

37

16

Street protester or Tibetan monk

17

Duds

40

43

18 44 47

48

45

46

49

50

52

53

59

60

63

64

65

66

51 54

55 61

56

57

58

28 Capital of Latvia

37 V.A. concern

Bad vibrations

20

Things picked up on beaches

62

21 23

40 Second coming?

50 “Fingers crossed!”

43 Premium channel 54 Abbr. on an arena ticket since 1980 56 Remarkable 45 Nellie who person 30 Actress Anderson circumnavigated of old TV the world 57 Cheeky 33 Grammy-winning 47 Precious 58 H H H metal band with collection of a tasty-sounding Queen Victoria 60 Presidential name 48 Prize monogram 35 Georgia was once 49 Author 61 Word with sweet a part of it Ferrante of the or snow 36 Social media “Neapolitan phenomenon Novels” 62 Not just a “heh” 29 Mideast’s Gulf of ___

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.

Largest of the British Virgin Islands

19

PUZZLE BY DANIEL LARSEN

27 Uses a tissue, maybe

Was naturally a part of something

Pipe filler Epoch when modern mammals arose

24

“See you then”

25

Soft leathers

26

27

29

30 31 34 36

38 41 43

44

Like bodybuilders’ arms Fruity and fragrant compounds Ending with many fruit names Competitor of Century 21 Marijuana, in older slang Be in charge of Subjects of baseless charges?

Food that’s cured Dangers for swimmers Benchmark test for British students 1960s catchphrase

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE T H I S D A B S O P A L S

H I N T E U R O V A L U E

E T T A A D E N E L E N A

S C H R O D I N G E R S C A T

T O O G H A R I A T C A A C I L O C A L M O B O O N A N M I C B B I L A I N Y H E H O M S P A T E X

E D S E L K O R N

S E E D E S P O T S

A W L E C H O

S E P L C E O T A L

T H E R E I S N O E S C A P E

R A V E L

O V E N S

T E N T H

45

Young hares

47

Takes stock?

48

21st-century health menace

49

Millinery items

19

50

Source of running water

21

51

Chanel fragrance with a French name

52

S.R.O.

53

Units in a horse race

M E M E

P T S D

O N E R

P E R T

E T A S

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

DOWN 1

8

15 17

9

10

11

36

37

12

13

14

31

32

33

18 20 22

23

24

25

26

27

29

28

30 34

38

No. 0215

16

39

35

40

41

43

42

44

45

46

47

Mourn, in a way

2

Cold

3

Hynde of the Pretenders

4

Bob of old children’s TV

5

Theater portmanteau

6

It had a major part in the Bible

7

N.F.L. stat: Abbr.

8

Official proceedings

48

49

50

51

52

53

PUZZLE BY RANDOLPH ROSS

20

What are depicted in some blue prints?

22

Knight mare?

28

Jungle herbivore Chewed out Personal agenda Desperate hour Judges “Here, try this”

30

Call on a hot line?

31

10

British sitting room

32

11

Draws in

34

12

Made up (for)

13

Sister of Helios

14

Gets the lead out

9

U S S R

Edited by Will Shortz

33

35

Title for a retired professor

36

Had plateful after plateful

37

Animal hunted in “Lord of the Flies”

38

Site of a western gunfight

39

Third-largest city of the later Ottoman Empire, surpassed only by Constantinople and Cairo

40

Duties

42

Fur

46

Cough syrup amts.

49

Daughter of Loki, in Norse myth

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.