September 18, 2017 by Duke Chronicle

The Chronicle

See Inside

Duke matches school record with eightgame win Page 6

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

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 DUKECHRONICLE.COM

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTEENTH YEAR, ISSUE 13

CLASS OF 2021 PROFILE

GETTING INTO DUKE: TRINITY VS. PRATT

Survey finds Pratt first-year class boasted better high school GPAs, minority representation the flip side, Trinity students reported a higher average SAT composite score— about 1500—than Pratt students, who averaged at 1480. In total, more students in the freshman class took the ACT Test than the SAT, with 55.7 percent of students reporting having taken the ACT. The average composite score on the ACT was a 33.25. The lowest report score was a 26, and the highest a 36—the highest possible score a test-taker can achieve. On the SAT, the overall mean score was a 1493, with the lowest reported score being a 1260, and the highest a 1600—the maximum possible score. Trinity survey respondents were slightly more likely to come from public schools and hire a private college admissions counselor than Pratt respondents. Overall, about 72.5 percent of the poll’s participants attended a public school, while 25 percent went to private school. About one percent were homeschooled. In all, almost 17 percent of participants reported hiring a private college admissions counselor. Enthusiasm for Duke was similar among both Trinity and Pratt students—about 65 percent of both said that Duke was their first choice. On average, survey respondents applied to eight schools, with a maximum of 30 schools. About 15 percent of participants had a parent or sibling go to Duke. However, the likelihood that a first-year carries legacy status increases if they are in Trinity, as opposed to Pratt, where about 13.5 percent of survey respondents reported being a legacy student. More members of the Class of 2021

By Likhitha Butchireddygari | Editorin-Chief

Shagun Vashisth | Health and Science News Editor

Pratt first-years have slightly higher GPAs and are less likely to be legacy students than Trinity first-years, according to a recent Chronicle survey. This past summer, The Chronicle solicited responses to a survey for members of the Class of 2021, in which 281 students— about 16 percent of the class—took the survey. Some of the questions centered on different aspects of getting into Duke, such as test scores, high school GPA and legacy status. Although Trinity first-years answered similarly to Pratt first-years for a few questions, there were also several questions for which the arts and sciences students diverged with the engineering students. One of the starkest differences was in racial and ethnic diversity of the schools. Overall, a little more than 58 percent of survey participants were minority students—which is over-representative of the actual 53 percent of the Class of 2021 that are minorities in terms of race or ethnicity reported by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. The survey reported that 62 percent of Pratt first-years were racial or ethnic minorities compared to about 57 percent of Trinity first-years. Whereas twenty-six percent of Pratt students were black or Hispanic, just about 20 percent of Trinity students were black or Hispanic. Similar proportions of Asian students were in both schools. Pratt participants had a slightly higher average GPA—3.95—than Trinity participants, who averaged at 3.91. On

See SURVEY on Page 16

Jeremy Chen | Graphics Editor

UNIVERSITY

Office of Student Conduct reduces power of appeals boards By Claire Ballentine and Neelesh Moorthy Towerview Editors

Bre Bradham | Staff Photographer Office of Student Conduct now requires appeals boards to return cases to OSC for final decisions.

For the first time since the 2002-03 school year, appeals boards in the Office of Student Conduct no longer have the authority to “resolve” cases. Instead, they must send the case back to OSC. The new policy also gives OSC more authority to decide what happens to students after winning an appeal. For the 2016-17 year, the appeals board had three options: it could resolve the case, it could remand the case to OSC or it could send the case back to the original hearing panel with instructions for how to proceed. This year, however, the appeals board must return the case to OSC. The new policy applies to both sexual misconduct cases and all other OSC cases. On its face, the policy’s language gives OSC broad discretion on what to do next. “When a case is returned to the Office of Student Conduct, the Office of Student Conduct may decide to drop the case (e.g., based on insufficient information to believe that a policy violation may have occurred), send the case to the original hearing panel for reconsideration,

send the case to a new hearing panel with the same or different charges, and/or (re)implement any aspect of the disciplinary process,” the policy reads. “A different decision (i.e., the decision of responsibility and/or sanctions) may subsequently result.” James Coleman, John S. Bradway professor of the practice of law, wrote in an email that the policy update “is something else.” He argued that it was an unfair approach, especially because the revised policy does not include explicit guidelines for how OSC can exercise its authority. When asked about the updates to the sexual misconduct policy, Stephen Bryan—associate dean of students and director of OSC—declined an interview and instead directed The Chronicle to Sue Wasiolek, associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students. Wasiolek explained via email that revisions to policies and procedures are made each year based on feedback from the community and ultimately approved or not by Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs. She noted that students are given annual notification of

@dukechronicle @dukebasketball |