TOWERVIEW FEBRUARY 2015 | VOL. 16 | ISSUE 5
WHEN WEST RAN DRY HOW DUKE’S SOCIAL SCENE SHIFTED OFF CAMPUS
‘It’s just not done’ could an unfinished kunshan one day be great?
WHERE THE ‘A SECOND-BEST DECISION’ LACROSSE HOUSE STOOD WHY ADHAN WAS NINE YEARS AFTER THE DUKE LACROSSE CASE, A NEW HOUSE FINALLY FILLS THE VOID
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TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE
TOWERVIEW
CONTENTS
FEBRUARY 2015 - VOL. 16 - ISSUE 5
CONTENTS TOWERVIEW STAFF
DANIEL CARP
05
BEST FOOD ON CAMPUS
06
WINS AND LOSSES
Top choices at major Duke eateries.
On the heels of Mike Krzyzewski’s 1,000th win, the death of Dean Smith reminds us what a true legacy means.
DANIELLE MUOIO
DANIEL CARP
ANDREW KRAGIE
07
WHAT’S WITH THE CAMEL?
10
WHERE THE LACROSSE HOUSE STOOD
15
The story behind Duke’s strangest statue.
Nine years after the Duke lacrosse case, a new house finally fills the void.
‘A SECOND-BEST DECISION’ Why adhan was moved from the Duke Chapel.
DANIELLE MUOIO
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
BECKY RICHARDS
MADHAV DUTT
22
‘IT’S JUST NOT DONE’
26
PHOTO ESSAY
28
WHEN WEST RAN DRY
31
FINAL EXAM
Could an unfinished Kunshan one day be great?
Faces of Durham.
On campus parties now a thing of the past.
Rachel Eulau trains dogs in her spare time.
ON THE COVER PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ELYSIA SU Step 1: Too many cover stories, only one cover. Step 2: Too many cover stories, not enough images. Step 3: Solo cup majestically blowing in the breeze. Step 4: Only 9,000 headlines to go. TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE
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EDITOR’S NOTE
letter
towerview ’
the chronicle s news and culture magazine
EDITORS-IN-CHIEF daniel carp and danielle muoio
PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR CREATIVE DIRECTOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR EXECUTIVE EDITOR
ELYSIA SU ELIZA STRONG HAILEY CUNNINGHAM BECKY RICHARDS CARLEIGH STIEHM
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS daniel carp, hailey cunningham, madhav dutt, andrew kragie, danielle muoio, becky richards
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS izzi clark , hailey cunningham , sophia durand , darbi griffith , jesús hidalgo , danielle muoio , natalie ritchie , elysia su , silvia vieira
CONTRIBUTING STAFF emma baccellieri, hailey cunningham, sophia durand, nick martin, georgia parke, carleigh steihm
GENERAL MANAGER ADVERTISING DIRECTOR CREATIVE DIRECTOR OPERATIONS MANAGER
Chrissy Beck Megan Haven Barbara Starbuck Mary Weaver
@TowerviewMag
dukechronicle.com/ towerview
Towerview Magazine
towerviewletters@ gmail.com
Towerview is a subsidiary of The Chronicle and is published by the Duke Student Publishing Company, Inc., a non-profit corporation independent of Duke University. The opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Duke University, its students, faculty, staff, administration or trustees. Columns, letters and cartoons represent the views of the authors. To reach The Chronicle’s editorial office at 301 Flowers Building, call (919) 684-2663 or fax (919) 684-4696. To reach The Chronicle’s business office at 103 West Union Building, call (919) 684-3811. To reach The Chronicle’s advertising office at 2022 Campus Drive, call (919) 684-3811 or fax (919) 684-8295. Contact the advertising office for information on subscriptions. Visit The Chronicle and Towerview online at dukechronicle.com ©2014 The Chronicle, Box 90858, Durham, N.C. 27708. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior, written permission of the business office. Each individual is entitled to one free copy.
from the editors
Dear readers, As Bob Dylan once wrote, the times they are a-changin’. We’ve been thinking a lot about change as we approach our graduation. There are the personal changes we are about to experience: making our own income, paying our own bills, becoming real adults—all the lackluster events that occur after graduation we attempt to ignore until the day we are actually in a cap and gown. But then there are the changes we’ve experienced that exist outside of ourselves. The Chronicle cutting a day of print with our ascension to the masthead. The main quadrangle transforming from a spacious and social campus to a maze of construction and mulch paths. Don’t even get us started on Chick-fil-A’s departure from the West Union (but never from our hearts). It’s for this reason we curated this issue of Towerview to focus on change. Our cover story focuses on how Duke’s social life has transformed dramatically in the last four years—from music blaring on West Campus to a more exclusive, off campus nightlife. An inside look into Duke’s decision to hold a Muslim call-to-prayer from the Chapel bell tower and later reverse its decision provides a closer examination of an unprecedented move. Danielle’s trip to Kunshan highlights the changes happening to Duke overseas and questions whether we should be wary or hold faith. And Dan writes about the loss of a coaching icon and chronicles the history of the property at the center of the Duke lacrosse case and its very new owners. Change over time is nothing new. Every group of seniors who graduate from Duke’s campus remember how different the University’s culture was when it started. When we began here, Tailgate (RIP) was one of the most contentious issues on campus. Today, we struggle to explain to our younger peers what it even was. Even party themes find a way to become dated after a while. Good luck explaining to a kid born in 1996 what Y2K was. They were only allowed to stay up until 9 p.m. on New Years Eve at that point. Of course, not all changes are necessarily bad ones. We’ve learned more than a few things during the last four years. The fact that The Loop added a buffalo chicken wrap to their menu doesn’t hurt, either. Sometimes, watching monumental changes take place is a sign of a person’s deep investment into something. Spending a lot of time in one place or becoming deeply involved with a group or process gives you both a deeper understanding and a greater sensitivity when it comes to change. People choose to deal with it in different ways. Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with a healthy dose of denial. Others choose to moan and gripe about the good old days. We’re probably guilty of both, but hope that with every change we can also recognize its cause and future implications. Fasten your seatbelts as this magazine takes you through the changes—old and new— that have come to shape the Duke you see today.
DANIEL CARP 4
TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE
DANIELLE MUOIO
best food on campus with a kick
Let’s be honest: you probably didn’t choose Duke for the array of food options and you definitely are tired of the few we have. But there are a few items around campus that provide a saving grace from all of your bland go-to meals. Why not spice it up with one of these? Next time you make the trek to Central Campus, don’t miss Food Factory’s
chipotle macaroni and cheese. With per-
fect al dente pasta served family style, it might seem like this mac and cheese will take you back to elementary school. But don’t be fooled because this dish packs a chipotle punch. Don’t worry—we won’t tell your mom you prefer this twist on a classic.
food factory
the loop
The Loop’s buffalo chicken wrap is the dish that bites back. With plenty of spice and a balance of textures with the creamy sauce and the crisp lettuce, this savory wrap is easy to devour. Choose to add the bleu cheese dressing for a traditional take.
A mound of tater tots drenched in chicken gravy and melted cheddar and topped with crunchy jalapenos and crispy bacon, the haystack at Pitchfork Provisions (also known as Café Edens to unsuspecting freshmen) is the ultimate drunchie. This grub is supposed to be ordered at 1 a.m., not 1 p.m. because you might seriously question your decision in the light of day. But just taste it! We promise it’s easy to do some serious damage.
Café Edens TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE
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wins and losses
STORY BY DANIEL CARP
O
ne thousand. It’s such a big, round, daunting number. The college basketball world was so wrapped up in the number 1,000 when Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski captured the 1,000th win of his career Jan. 25 against St. John’s, becoming the first coach in the history of men’s Division I college basketball to reach that milestone. The internet was flooded with columns and testimonials from the game’s greatest players and pundits, praising the 35th-year Duke head coach for his unparalleled level of success. Even I became one of those people, publishing a column in The Chronicle’s 24page commemorative issue on the
COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS genius of the man known simply as Coach K. Two weeks later, on the other side of Tobacco Road, legendary North Carolina head coach Dean Smith passed away at the age of 83. Coaching the Tar Heels for 36 years, winning 879 games, two national championships and taking his team to 11 Final Fours, Smith accrued a similarly impressive coaching resume to that of Krzyzewski. When he retired, Smith— who served for the last 17 years of his coaching career as Krzyzewski’s foil in college basketball’s greatest rivalry—held what is now the Duke head coach’s place atop the sport’s all-time wins list. ELYSIA SU
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TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE
Smith never reached that mythical 1,000th win, but when he died his 879 career victories and all the accolades that came with them were merely an afterthought. Instead, people remembered Dean Smith for the man he was. A father figure and mentor to not only some of the game’s greatest players but every single person who was involved with the North Carolina basketball program. A champion of civil rights and one of the driving forces behind integration at a flagship institution in the American South. Someone not only larger than life, but potentially larger than his entire sport. “The thing that Dean did best is that he made men of the boys that came to him,” Krzyzewski said following his team’s 73-70 win at Florida State two days after Smith’s death. “And all those men revere him. They don’t love him, they revere him. That’s his biggest accomplishment, and he has done that better than anybody.” Hearing that type of testimony from Krzyzewski and countless other players and coaches has made me reconsider the significance of even a milestone as big as 1,000 wins. Records are set only for someone else to break them, and as unfathomable as it seems, one day someone will eclipse Krzyzewski’s mark, regardless of where he ends up. The impact one person can make on another is something that will truly never die.
STORY BY DANIELLE MUOIO PHOTOS BY MIKE MA
What’s with the camel?
THE STORY BEHIND DUKE’S STRANGEST STATUE
D
uke has three notable statues. There’s George Washington Duke, president of the American Tobacco Company that funded the Duke we know today, overlooking East Campus. There’s Washington Duke’s son, James Buchanan Duke, who stands in front of the Chapel. And then there’s the camel statue next to the Biological Sciences Building on Science Drive. Unlike the Duke statues that sit prominently on Duke’s two main quadrangles, the camel statue is really only accessible to those who frequent Science Drive or go out of their way to find it. But its off-kilter location speaks to its symbolic significance. The camel statue was built to honor the scientific contributions of Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, who did his research in Biological Sciences while a professor at Duke. It is the only statue at Duke that honors the contributions of a professor.
THE MAN BEHIND THE STATUE Schmidt-Nielsen became a James B. Duke professor of biology in 1952 where he specialized in comparative physiology. But Schmidt-Nielsen—who passed away in 2007—was not always in his laboratory. The physiologist could easily be considered an expeditionary biologist, said Joseph Bonaventura, professor emeritus of marine science and conservation, who knew Schmidt-Nielsen as a colleague. Schmidt-Nielsen’s research required him to travel the globe from Africa to Australia. “He went on grand expeditions to Africa or west Africa, and at the same time through this he maintained an active research lab in the biology building,” Bonaventura recalled. His research focused on how desert animals inhabit hot and dry places
without losing water. Fieldwork in North Africa in 1953 and Australia in 1961 provided him with insight regarding the adaptive devices in camels that allow them to survive in such difficult climates. He found that camels are able to tolerate elevations in their body temperature throughout the day as well as high levels of dehyrdation, while storing high volumes of water when available. But it was in the Duke laboratory that Schmidt-Nielsen learned the role the nose plays in regulating body temperature with many mammals and birds. He discovered that camels have adaptations in their nose that allow them to retain moisture so they can still respire and cool themselves. Duke actually modified the Biological Science building to accommodate Schmidt-Nielsen’s research. The University paid to limit the amount of immovable furnishings and built an exterior door that would allow an adult camel to TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE
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as a soft-spoken man who needed time to feel comfortable in a conversation. “To many people, he was off-putting a little bit because of the way he spoke and carried himself in a regal—I mean that, regal—fashion,” he said. “But at the bottom of it all, he was somewhat shy. As soon as he found out...the person with whom he was speaking had substance or common interest, he was very interested in carrying out a deep conversation.”
A RESEARCHER AND PROFESOR
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDRE BOUSTANY walk into the building. He was then able to bring in a camel and further his desert research. A smaller chamber existed next to the camel chamber for research on desert mice. “His office was like a small museum,” Bonaventura said. “[It was] filled with biological and non-biological artifacts that reflected the expeditions he had been on. I remember my two daughters when they were between 5 and 10 years old would always, when we were near the biology building, say, ‘Daddy can we go
see Knut’s office?’” Ostrich eggs, vertebrae of different animals and animal skulls all lined SchmidtNielsen’s laboratory, Bonaventura said. There were also cultural artifacts from his trips, like tapestries and a carpet. In the back of his office, a bird called an Anhinga was caged. The Anhinga is known to stretch its wings to capture the heat of the sun, which was relevant to SchmidtNielsen’s research interests, Bonaventura added. Bonaventura recalled Schmidt-Nielsen
Go ahead, play your music as loud as you want.
Although Schmidt-Nielsen spent countless hours traveling the globe doing his own research, he aided several Duke students with their projects. “He was remarkably good about giving his doctoral students free range concerning what they studied,” Bonaventura said. “If they were to come to him with a great research idea he would support them to the nth degree with allowing them to move forward with their work.” Although he would work with the postgraduate students on their studies,
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he frequently had the studies published without his name on them, Bonaventura added. Students were encouraged to pursue their own research instead of work on Schmidt-Nielsen’s projects. Andre Boustany, a postdoctoral researcher at the Nicholas School of the Environment, considers Schmidt-Nielsen his “academic grandfather” because he trained his doctoral supervisor, Barbara Block—the Charles & Elizabeth Prothro Professor in Marine Sciences at Stanford University. Block discovered some brain and eye heaters in certain warm-blooded sharks and fish as a postgraduate student under the supervision of Schmidt-Nielsen. “While this area was not something Knut ever did work in, he recognized that he had a lifelong interest in comparative physiology that he supported her to work there,” Bonaventura said of Block, who was Schmidt-Nielsen’s last doctoral student. Block could not be reached for comment in time for publication. Schmidt-Nielsen’s legacy is still felt by the biology department today. “At Duke specifically, it would be in-
teresting to trace the number of people he’s trained, the number of really top names in the field and even the people they’ve trained,” Boustany noted. “in the early part of Knut’s career, he has probably trained people that have trained two generations of scientists and a lot of top names in the field.” It would be fair to say that SchmidtNielsen invented some fields of study, which have been advanced by the scientists he trained, Boustany added. Stephen Wainwright, James B. Duke professor emeritus in the biology department, had the camel statue commissioned to honor Schmidt-Nielsen’s legacy and be-
cause he felt there were not enough statues on campus, Bonaventura said. Wainwright could not be reached for comment in time for publication. On Science Drive, the life-size statue of Schmidt-Nielsen looks up at the camel statue. Both are made out of bronze. The statue was sculpted by Jonathan Kingdom, a British artist known for his portrayal of animals, and completed in 1993. “The existence of the statue just goes to show how well-respected and what a force he was within that field,” Boustany said. “To think that they erected a statue of him when he was still working here is pretty impressive.”
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STORY BY DANIEL CARP PHOTO BY JESÚS HIDALGO
WHERE THE LACROSSE HOUSE ONCE STOOD A
t first glance, it looks like any other construction site. Construction sign out front. Trucks rolling on and off the lot. Two stories of yellow-painted walls waiting for someone to finally call it home. But the lot at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., sitting directly across from Duke’s East Campus between Dacian Ave. and Urban Ave., is not your typical construction site. It is the first house to be built on the land since three Duke men’s lacrosse players were falsely accused of raping stripper Crystal Mangum there nearly nine years ago. Two houses down from the construction site, Durham resident Gwen Palmer opens her door on a rainy Monday afternoon. It takes her no time to make the connection herself after I inquire about the construction site. “Do you want to come talk about the Duke lacrosse house?” she calls up the stairs to her husband, Ed. Even as construction wears on and the house grows closer to completion each day, the lot continues to attract attention from passersby. Cars driving along Buchanan Blvd. tend to slow down ever so slightly around the 600 block to catch a passing glimpse, Ed Palmer said. Joggers circumnavigating
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Duke’s East Campus wall conveniently stop to take a rest. “Everybody’s interested in it. They always tell their friends,” said Ed Palmer, who has only lived in his house since 2008 but had family living there for decades prior. “They’re always pointing at the vacant lot, and you know what they’re talking about.” Before the infamous Duke lacrosse case, there was no reason for people to stop and stare at the modest white house that stood at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. It was just another rental property in Trinity Park home to Duke undergraduates, which was abundantly common nearly a decade ago.
NOISY NEIGHBORS Taking advantage of their ability to live off campus during their final year at Duke, undergraduates often rent houses in the Trinity Park and Trinity Heights neighborhoods, which—along with Downtown Durham and Ninth Street— encircle East Campus. Designed to curb student behavior in these neighborhoods, a decades-old Durham zoning ordinance mandates that only three unrelated persons can inhabit a single-family home. Landlords renting to Duke students would often turn a blind eye when it
came to this statute. “There were multiple landlords, two or three—always worked very carefully with the students to have only three names on the leases even though it was apparent if anyone ever drove by the house and you saw the cars parked that a whole lot more kids were living in those houses,” said John Burness, who served as senior vice president for public affairs and government relations until 2008 and is now a visiting professor of the practice at the Sanford School of Public Policy. Students and their Trinity Park neighbors were constantly at odds. Loud parties would rage on until as late as 4 a.m. Drunk students would urinate on people’s lawns and damage their properties. Phones in Duke’s administrative offices would ring off the hook with complaints. “Neighbors were just outraged with the University for not doing something to clamp down on the behavior of the students,” Burness said. “They came to us— and we spent a lot of time on this—literally it got to the point where they sent a letter home to the parents of anyone they could identify who was living in any of those houses at the beginning of the year letting them know that the students were expected to be decent neighbors.” In January 2004, city-mandated hous-
ing inspections took place in the neighborhoods of Trinity Park and Trinity Heights. Among the violations inspectors were looking for was the illegal conversion of single-family homes into multiplefamily homes—occupancy greater than three. It was also around this time that residents of Trinity Park approached the University about potentially buying out rental properties with the hopes of moving students out of the area. “The neighbors came to us and said they were thinking of putting together a non-profit and [asked] would it be possible to raise enough money to purchase from one landlord there between 12 and 14 of these properties,” Burness said. “They wanted to know if we could help them purchase these houses out from under [Guy Solie, who rented the properties] and deal with that. We thought about that, and it was really complicated for the University to do.” Solie, Trinity ‘67 and Graduate School ‘76, had built up a portfolio of desirable real estate near Duke’s East Campus for his company, Trinity Properties. The house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. was one such property. Despite the quickly growing tensions between the neighbors and University regarding student housing in residential neighborhoods, Burness said the lacrosse house at 610 N. Buchanan didn’t receive close to the majority of neighbors’ complaints. “No. Absolutely not,” Burness said when asked if he recalled the house being more of an issue than others in the neighborhood. “To me, it was just one of the other houses.” Joanna Darby, who has lived directly behind the property at 705 Watts Street since 1999, added that though she recalled more than three students living in the house at 610 N. Buchanan, that house was nowhere near the neighborhood’s biggest concern. “There were occasional parties at that house,” she said. “Not a lot, but occasional.” With the neighbors clamoring for the University to step in and buy Solie’s properties in 2004, Burness threw his support behind the complicated move. Ultimately, Burness’ efforts were unsuccessful. “We were spending so much time and
CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO
getting so much beef with the neighbors. The police were unhappy and the city was unhappy. My argument didn’t carry,” Burness said. “Perhaps, if we had been successful in purchasing it... when I originally recommended it, what later became the big issue never would have occurred.” By early 2006, pressure from Trinity Park residents had finally mounted on the University. It was time for Duke to make a move. On Jan. 18, 2006, Solie filed to create a new corporation called Soleil, LLC. A month later, between Feb. 22 and Feb. 27, Solie transferred 15 of his properties from Trinity Properties to Soleil, LLC. On Feb. 28, Durham Realty, a company owned by Duke University, bought all 15 properties—including the house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd.—for a total of $3.7 million. Now their new landlord, Duke allowed students living in the houses at the time to remain there for the duration of their existing leases, even those that extended beyond the end of the academic year. Although Burness noted that the final price tag may have been inflated due to future potential earnings of the rental properties, the property acquisition was heralded by the Durham community as the right move for Duke. “Neighbors were ecstatic with us when it got out that we were doing this,” Burness said. “There were editorials in the local paper talking about how Duke was doing the right thing and what a good neighbor we were and blah blah blah. It was one of those things that was pretty universally seen as Duke acting
responsibly.” Little did the University know that one of the houses it had purchased as part of a good public relations move was about to become the epicenter of a media firestorm.
THE DUKE LACROSSE CASE Exactly two weeks after 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. was purchased by Duke, on March 13, 2006, members of the Duke men’s lacrosse team held a party at their house. It was at that party where Mangum—one of the two strippers the team had hired for the evening—accused senior David Evans and sophomores Colin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann of raping her. Ed and Gwen Palmer were not in Durham when the allegations finally surfaced later that month—their house was undergoing renovations at the time. But from a distance, it didn’t take long for them to realize that the 600 block of N. Buchanan Blvd. had become ground zero for what would become some of the darkest days in Duke’s history. “My brother called me and said, ‘You won’t believe this, but your house is on CNN right now.’ They were doing all their TV stuff down the block, showing the whole block,” Ed Palmer said. “I turned on the TV and whoever it was from Fox News was standing on the front porch.” Television crews would make frequent pilgrimage to the house, making it the backdrop for many of their reports during the ensuing weeks and months. Supporters tacked posters to the walls of the TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE
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house while dissenters defaced it with angry messages and accusations. Protestors walked up and down the block banging pots and pans and shouting for change. The lacrosse case drew dividing lines across Duke’s campus, the city of Durham and the entire United States. Even before there was a trial, even before any arrests were made, most condemned the three players as guilty. Academics pitted themselves against athletes when a cohort of professors, later known as the Group of 88, published an advertisement in which they vilified the accused lacrosse players. The idea that three privileged, white athletes at an elite private institution had raped an African American woman sparked racial tensions in a city that juxtaposes the University community with the city’s large black population. The University was tied for fifth in the nation in the 2005 U.S. News and World Report, and pundits debated whether that prestigious ranking would drop alongside the number of applications and donations received. “It was like a meteor had hit the campus,” said Michael Schoenfeld, who currently serves as Duke’s vice president for public affairs and government relations. The Blue Devils played their last game of the season on March 21, falling to No. 3 Cornell 11-7. By April 5, President Richard Brodhead cancelled the remainder of Duke’s lacrosse season and head coach Mike Pressler was forced to resign. Finnerty and Seligmann were arrested and indicted on charges of first degree rape, first degree sexual offense and kidCHRONICLE FILE PHOTO
napping on April 18, 2006. By May 15, Evans had joined them as the third defendant in the Duke lacrosse case. On June 8, court documents indicated that Kim Roberts, the other stripper at the party that night, was with Mangum for all but five minutes of the evening. Roberts expressed skepticism that the sexual assault ever took place. As inconsistencies continued to surface regarding the case, the focus began to shift from the defendants to Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, who had taken it upon himself to help lead the Durham Police Department’s investigation. Nifong later came under fire for falsely reporting the results of DNA tests and intimidating witnesses in the case, ultimately resulting in his removal from the case and disbarment. A key piece of the inconsistencies in Mangum’s testimony and DUPD’s investigation had to do with the physical layout of the house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. Throughout the investigation and ensuing civil cases, the house stood vacant as a piece of evidence. After Nifong removed himself from the case and turned it over to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper in January 2007, the attorney general and special prosecutors visited the house to examine the space themselves. It turned out to be one of the turning points of case. “That was one of the compelling dimensions of the evidence to them in their investigations—that the story the complaining witness had given did not square with the physical realities of that space,” said Bob Ekstrand, who represented various members of the 2006 Duke men’s lacrosse team in civil suits against the University and city of Durham. On April 11, 2007, Cooper dropped all remaining charges against Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann. Although their names were finally cleared after a year-long legal battle, Nifong’s fraudulent misrepresentation of the case had done significant damage to the Duke community.
BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE As several members of the men’s lacrosse program took civil action against Duke and the city of Durham, the house continued to stand vacant as a part of le-
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gal investigations for the next four years. During that period of time, the structure’s condition continued to deteriorate. “I think the house was always in a state of disrepair,” Darby said. “I’m sure it got worse by being empty and not kept up.” The house’s mailbox began to overflow with junk mail. Year after year of local phone books, delivered but untouched, sat on the front porch. An ominous black question mark was spray-painted on its back wall. Even though the doorbell still rang, nobody was there to answer—the house’s front door padlocked shut. On July 12, 2010, when the University was finally able to once again access the property it had bought more than four years prior, the white house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. was demolished. Local news crews and a small crowd gathered outside the house for its swift and unceremonious funeral—demolition took just 15 minutes. “It happened like that,” Gwen Palmer said. “All of a sudden here they are, and the house is gone.” Schoenfeld did not attend the demolition, but had someone save him a brick from the old lacrosse house. He pulls it out from the back of his bookshelf and lays it on the table in his office. When asked why he saved the brick, Schoenfeld responds that he collects Duke souvenirs. Not all believed the house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. should have been demolished. Opponents of the demolition likened the property to a memorial of the injustices of the lacrosse case. “There was never any consideration to doing anything with the house other than returning it to being a healthy, important part of the neighborhood. The structure itself was far less important than some of the ideas and other things that came out of the events of 2006,” Schoenfeld said. “It had become both an eyesore and a safety hazard.” Ekstrand believed that despite the condition the house had fallen into after four years of vacancy that it could have been repaired. Furthermore, he alluded to a higher purpose the property could have served. “It had a pretty visible role in all the public turmoil surrounding the false allegations. In light of that, it always made sense to me that there was significance
to be drawn from that. I always, whenever I wondered what would happen to that house, thought its best use would be to turn it into an innocence project office,” Ekstrand said. “It would stand as a pretty powerful reminder for all of us that the truth is not always what you think and when accusations of the most serious kind are made, they should be responded to with the care and caution that would have served the defendants so well back then.” After the lot was cleared, it sat vacant under the University’s control for more than four years. Despite the high level of publicity surrounding the lot, Schoenfeld said selling the land was no easy task for Duke. “It’s a very odd-shaped lot, so the size of it and the shape of it make it kind of challenging to build something on,” Schoenfeld said. “There had not been many offers to buy the property, as far as I know.” Conversations with residents of Trinity Park told a slightly different story. Many surrounding neighbors had expressed interest in buying the land in hopes of adding it to their current property. Duke had
prioritized selling the land for the construction of another single-family home. “There were several people around here who wanted to buy that lot and just keep it as their backyard. People wanted to buy the lot and just keep it as a garden,” Ed Palmer said. “Duke owned the property and didn’t want to do that. They wanted a house there.” While Duke continued to wait for the
right offer, the vacant lot continued to attract the same attention from passersby as it did when the white house once stood. Even in the house’s absence, the lot remained a landmark in the Trinity Park community. “Several people besides us would say, ‘I live two houses down from the Duke lacrosse lot,’ because everybody knows where that is,” Gwen Palmer said. “The
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people on the other side two houses down do it too, because I’ve gotten their guests.” At one point, the weeds in the vacant lot grew to be three feet tall. Shortly after the Palmers called Duke, landscapers began cutting the grass every other week. Darby would often use the vacant lot for what she called “guerrilla gardening.” For multiple years she attempted to grow pumpkins and tomatoes on the site where the lacrosse house once stood, with admittedly limited success. “I liked having that open space,” Darby said. “It was empty and no one was using it, and it was the only area that got sun.” She also began to notice before long that the garage behind the house had become somewhat of a haven for Durham’s homeless population who couldn’t make it to a shelter on time. Days drifted into months and years as the vacant lot at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. remained uninhabited. It watched as students who lived across the wall on East Campus as freshmen moved into other nearby rental properties as seniors and graduated. Shortly after the house’s demo-
lition, the last students who were at Duke during the lacrosse case were gone—an entire generation turned over. It wasn’t until June 20, 2014 that Duke finally sold the lot for $100,000 to University City, LLC, a company established by Aaron Lubeck just two months prior. A founding member of Trinity Design/Build, Lubeck—who is no longer affiliated with the firm—contracted the group, which specializes in green building and eco-friendly interiors to build a single-family home at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. One of the first pieces of the project was the installation of a geothermal well, which provides for more environmentallyfriendly heating and cooling of the home. Lubeck, a former adjunct lecturer at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, and Trinity Design/Build both declined to comment for this story. Although Lubeck still currently owns the land, the house will be sold on completion to Alan Townsend, who took over as Dean of the Nicholas School in May 2014. Townsend could not be reached for comment in time for publication. Schoenfeld was unaware of the details concerning the house’s future, but ex-
pressed excitement for what the construction of a new house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. could mean for the neighborhood of Trinity Park. “The Trinity Park neighborhood has become, over the last 15 or 20 years, one of the most desirable and interesting neighborhoods in Durham and even in the state of North Carolina,” Schoenfeld said. “Having another residence there and another family there is a positive thing for the neighborhood.” Whether the construction and completion of a new house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. will affect the overall memories and consciousness of the Duke lacrosse scandal is unclear. Though the run-down white house and vacant lot both served as physical reminders of the case, the events of 2006 are forever stitched into the fabric of this University, for better or for worse. With a new family moving in, the physical void in the neighborhood will be filled. But all likelihood is that cars will still slow down ever so slightly and joggers will still take a quick break when they reach the 600 block of Buchanan— pointing at the new yellow house where the lacrosse house once stood.
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ELYSIA SU
STORY BY ANDREW KRAGIE PHOTOS BY CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
STORY BY RYAN HOERGER PHOTOS BY CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
‘A SECOND-BEST DECISION’
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WHY ADHAN WAS MOVED FROM THE DUKE CHAPEL
hen Duke canceled plans for a weekly Muslim call to prayer, or adhan, from the Duke Chapel, many who opposed the cancellation claimed that the University had caved to conservative evangelical Franklin Graham and the financial boycott called for in a Facebook post where he called “on the donors and alumni to withhold their support from Duke until this policy is reversed.” Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, said there were “credible safety concerns” that ultimately led to the adhan’s cancellation. With different rumors circulating about what caused the cancellation, the campus overflowed with criticism of Islamophobic donors and acquiescent
administrators. On social media, some students denounced the administration for sacrificing religious freedom on the altar of big money. The Duke community was left to wonder: Why was the call to prayer really canceled? Over three weeks, I asked that question in two dozen interviews with administrators, students and religious life staff. As with every topic worth pursuing, it led to new questions—of origin, of approval, of process. Where did the idea come from? Who approved the event, and when? Who made the decision to cancel, and what factors did they consider—security, or big money? Last but certainly not least, investigating the specifics of the Duke call to prayer led me to a broader question: What is the
Chapel, anyway? I aim to share what I have learned fairly and thoroughly, but not without bias— I do not pretend to cover this objectively, as I am involved in the Chapel’s Christian and interfaith ministries. I hope this article answers some of the questions that have nagged at Duke’s mind and conscience since Jan. 16. I hope it raises new questions for you—and I hope you keep asking them, in private and in public, for the issues raised here go to the heart of Duke’s identity, its interfaith relations and the role of religion on campus.
THE TIMELINE Chapel staff first conceived the idea for a bell tower call to prayer in mid-September. Duke’s Chapel—which for nearly a TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE
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century has stood as the University’s most iconic landmark—has a long-standing tradition of hosting events for different student groups and different faiths. “The idea of a call to prayer from the Chapel tower is just a continuation of what already has been,” said Dean of the Chapel Luke Powery. Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta also said that the proposal was neither student-initiated nor Muslim-initiated, and President Richard Brodhead called it “a gesture of pure goodwill.” Chapel staff then shared the idea with Adeel Zeb, the new imam and director of the Center for Muslim Life, shortly after he started at Duke Sept. 20. Zeb brought the idea to student leaders in the Muslim Student Association, who he said were excited about the prospect. One of those officers, MSA vice president Rasheed Alhadi, a senior from Monterey, Calif., said he appreciated the Chapel’s offer. “It took a lot of courage to even think of the idea in the first place,” he said. The MSA’s general body learned of the plan Jan. 9 at the first Friday prayers of the Spring semester and through the group’s email newsletter on Tuesday morning, Jan. 13. A few hours later, the Chapel announced the plan to have a weekly call to prayer in a Duke Today news release. It used quotes from Christy Lohr Sapp, associate dean for religious life, that would appear in her op-ed the next day. In her News & Observer op-ed, Lohr Sapp identified two motives for the callto-prayer: it “communicates to the Mus-
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ELYSIA SU lim community that it is welcome here” and “represents a larger commitment to religious pluralism that is at the heart of Duke’s mission [of Eruditio et Religio].” The Duke Today news release also quoted Zeb: “The collective Muslim community is truly grateful and excited about Duke’s intentionality toward religious and cultural diversity.” In order to execute the weekly call to prayer, the religious life staff had to go through other chains of command, Zeb said. Top Duke administrators, including Moneta and Schoenfeld, knew of the plan weeks in advance. Since the call involved amplification,
it required a special exception from the University Center Activities and Events, which reports to Moneta. He said that he was not the one to initially approve the plan, because exceptions are an everyday matter. “We knew of this plan for the call weeks before, no question about that,” Moneta said, adding that he personally learned of it “a couple of weeks” before the event, almost by accident. “I don’t even know if I heard it in passing, or [whether] Christy [Lohr Sapp] may have sent me an email saying, ‘Just something you might appreciate knowing.’” Brodhead said that though he did not
the Chapel. “As we understood it, it was very, very small and not likely to be disruptive in any way,” Moneta said, adding that the device used for the actual event was a “$12 Radioshack speaker.” Although administrators approved the plan weeks in advance, not everyone on campus was consulted, as one dean made clear. In a public letter on Jan. 15, Divinity School Dean Richard Hays called the call to prayer “ill-advised” and said he was not consulted or even notified in advance. Before allowing Muslims to make use of a place of Christian worship, he said the discussion “should take into careful account the perspective of millions of Christians living in Islamic societies where their faith is prohibited or persecuted.” Shortly before lamenting the threats directed at Duke, Hays listed Lohr Sapp’s email address and directed all questions to her.
THE BACKLASH hear about the plan before the news release, he had heard the plan crossed Schoenfeld’s desk back in October. Although national media portrayed the amplification as echoing over campus— Time magazine said the call to prayer was to be “broadcast” from the bell tower— the original plan was actually quite modest. Students would climb to the top of the Chapel and chant the 60-second adhan while facing Islam’s holy city of Mecca; a small speaker on the Chapel quad would make the call audible on the ground. Schoenfeld said the amplified sound likely would not have been audible past the bus stop—not even 500 feet from
Reactions came pouring in before Graham’s well-publicized Facebook posts, and they were not just negative ones. Powery said the Chapel heard a “wide range of perspectives… positive and negative.” Some people called to express their support for the move. “Not everyone who expressed a concern I would classify as narrow-minded or bigoted,” Schoenfeld said. “We heard from a number of constituents who had thoughtful and legitimate concerns about the use of the Chapel, about public displays of religion on campus.” Before Graham’s comments, questions came in from people who were actually
affiliated with Duke, and many concerns were reasonable and respectfully expressed, Schoenfeld said. By early February, Graham’s Jan. 14 Facebook status calling for a financial boycott of Duke had 80,000 likes, 10,000 comments and 62,000 shares. It was the post heard ‘round the world. The call to prayer had escaped national attention before Graham’s remarks. A Google News search turns up exactly one story about the call to prayer from Tuesday Jan. 13, the day Duke publicly announced the plan. There were few—if any—Google searches related to “Duke call to prayer” that day, according to Google Trends. Graham published his first Facebook post at 2:32 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 14, the proverbial first spark thrown onto a topic that became nothing short of incendiary. Volume of both news coverage and Google searches jumped exponentially. After Tuesday’s announcement received virtually no media attention, Wednesday’s headlines screamed “Franklin Graham Blasts Duke” and “Duke University Under Fire.” Of course, reactions were not limited to Google searches. “People who were motivated on this looked for every opportunity to call and email many offices around Duke,” Schoenfeld said. “I had 600 voicemails on my office voicemail before it turned over.” Brodhead did not hear about the announcement until he walked into his office, where he said his office’s phones were “ringing off the hook.” Calls flooded into the Chapel, the Center for Muslim
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Life, admissions and even the hospital— such a deluge, Moneta said, that it tied up the hospital switchboard. “People who were trolling for any place on campus were communicating to the patients’ visitor line at the hospital,” Moneta said. “People were just hungry to find a willing ear to complain to.” A typical email I obtained was copied to over a dozen officials and staff, mostly at the Chapel. Like many others, it claimed persecution of Christians, and came from someone outside the Duke community. “I don’t know if I can even express my disappointment with the school for not only allowing this, but also to discriminate against Christians in allowing them to express their religious views,” the author wrote. “I would support any cause that rises up against this decision and I have the power of Jesus on my side. I wish I could say the same for Duke.” The torrent of complaints did not end with Friday’s adhan. Moneta said he had received yet another “full treatise of 30 pages” on our Feb. 3 interview—18 days after the original event. “I didn’t personally get threats, just a smaller sampling of the external outrage,” Moneta said. “It’s not new to me, whether it’s when we hosted the Palestinian Solidarity Movement [in 2004], or any number of speakers on this campus.”
Schoenfeld noted that the University is not a stranger to criticism regarding events or speakers hosted on campus. “We do controversial things all the time, and controversial things happen at Duke all the time,” he said. “Pick a number, pick a day.” He added, however, that the “vehemence and outright nastiness” of the reactions to the call to prayer was worse than a typical speaker or event.
A N AT O M Y O F A COMPROMISE “Basically what happened was panic,” Zeb said. “There’s no manual. You have to react to things in a very short amount of time.” Wednesday was “a blur” with all the reactions flooding in, Moneta said. “By Thursday afternoon, we’d already come to a conclusion of what needed to happen,” Moneta said. “This was not one of these things that dragged on for days.” Moneta identified the participants in the decisive Thursday morning meeting, referring to them as “the characters you would expect.” Vice President for Administration Kyle Cavanagh, Lohr Sapp, Moneta, Powery, Schoenfeld and Zeb were all present for the meeting. “The response from Franklin Graham and his followers had zero to do
DARBI GRIFFITH
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with the decisions that Duke made,” Schoenfeld said. Beyond that, however, Schoenfeld declined to give any details about the decision-making process. “It’s going to serve no purpose to reconstruct individual conversations and who was involved,” he added. Some participants, however, were more forthcoming. “The logical decisions were: cancel it, postpone it, or carry through with it,” Zeb said. “Postponing was going to cause more drama…. I thought that was the worst idea possible.” Postponing would have meant another week of threats and negative attention, and the officials considered the security concerns serious enough that following the original plan was not an option. They sought a compromise that would support Muslim students while reducing the security risks. Moneta said that though the Duke University Police Department was concerned about safety and would have had an easier job if the event were canceled, the department never backed down from the job. “If Duke decides exposure is part of life in order to advance academic freedom and religious freedom, then our job is to protect that,” said Moneta, referring to DUPD’s attitude toward providing additional security at the site of adhan. Speaking a few days after the Super Bowl, Moneta said, “It was clear that we needed to, instead of advancing the ball 100 yards, advance the ball 50 yards.” Moving the call to prayer emerged as a compromise that balanced the competing priorities, though it was far from ideal. “The decision to move it from the bell tower... was probably a second-best decision,” Zeb said. Brodhead said his role in the deliberations was indirect. He learned about the plan from a student working in his office after the press release sparked the first reactions. He did not participate in the Thursday morning meeting, but he “was in intermittent touch” with the issue through Schoenfeld—they talked three or four times that day. “I certainly do not hide from the fact that it was I who made the final decision,” Brodhead told me. “When the time came, it seemed to me unquestionable that the
uniformed female police officer on a bicycle. When I asked whether they were involved in security for the event, one of the men referred me to the DUPD public affairs officer.
BOWING TO BIG MONEY?
consequences had such a mismatch with the intention.” Brodhead was aware of the security concerns, but they did not drive the decision. Rather, he thought the event “was not working as intended.”
‘CREDIBLE CONCERNS’ Zeb said the Center for Muslim Life received threats, but declined to discuss specifics, citing a desire to avoid scaring students. “There was definitely a security threat,” he said. “There’s no doubt about that. We received threats at the Center for Muslim Life.” The University stationed a police car outside the Center for Muslim Life and heightened security around the Freeman Center for Jewish Life and the Chapel for several days. “Going to the [Center for Muslim Life] and seeing the police car there kind of secures you,” said senior Safa al-Saeedi, an MSA member from Yemen. “But it also signals the insecurity around you. Do I really need a car like this?” CNN reported that the local FBI office was “made aware” of the security concerns. Schoenfeld declined to comment on the FBI’s role but said that “DUPD consulted with outside law enforcement.” “There were significant and credible
concerns about security expressed by law enforcement given the vehemence of the response,” he said. DUPD closed down the Chapel early on the morning of the call to prayer. They locked every entrance and swept the building, stopping to look through suspicious boxes. A DUPD major told me after the event that there had not been a specific bomb threat directed at the Chapel, but it seemed they were taking precautions against the possibility. Uniformed police officers with walkie-talkies watched over the actual call to prayer and the crowd of 400-500 supporters that gathered at the base of the Chapel. There appeared to be plainclothes police sprinkled in the crowd. Well after the crowd had dispersed, I saw two men who had been in the crowd join a
Top Duke officials were emphatic that financial considerations played absolutely no role in the decision to modify the call to prayer. When I asked about donor influence, Brodhead was adamant. “That’s absurd,” he said. “The notion that Duke would do something against its principles because of a donation is foreign to the thinking of this university. No serious donor of this university would ask or expect such a thing.” After he stated it in general terms, I asked him to specifically confirm that no serious donor had asked for the change. “I promise you,” he said, “I raise my hand and swear to you.” Powery had a similar response. He said there was never an explicit mention of financial or donor concerns at any point when he was around the table— and he was present at the crucial meetings. However, when I asked what role financial considerations had played in the decision-making process, he talked around the question. “I think there were many factors,” he said. “That’s basically what I can say to it. There were a lot of considerations. That’s the reality of any complex institution.” Zeb echoed this complexity when I asked him whether he was convinced the call to prayer was changed because of security reasons alone. He laughed a moment and chose his words carefully. “I’m not saying that,” he said. “What I’m saying is that security reasons were definitely part of the equation.”
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While Powery and Zeb—key players in the Allen building meetings—did not say that security was the only consideration, they gave me no reason to believe that donor influence played a role. Their comments left room for me to believe there were other considerations in addition to security. Administrators, however, emphasized that the University is no stranger to controversy. “In my line of work, I’ve been at the helm in lots of very challenging situations,” Brodhead said. “I don’t believe in bowing to forces of intolerance.” Both he and Moneta pointed to the Palestinian Solidarity Movement conference that Duke hosted in Oct. 2004, just
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months into Brodhead’s presidency. It was not a universally popular decision, to say the least. “I’ve seen our University withstand far greater assault from people who would claim that they’ll never fund again,” Moneta said. “I’ve done this for a long time. I’ve never seen Duke, I’ve never seen Duke make a change based on a donor concern. Ever. We’ve hosted no shortage of controversial things to which people claim that they will withhold their funding.” Officials addressed concerns that the ongoing Duke Forward capital campaign might have weighed on the decisionmaking process. Referencing the $2.3 billion that has already been raised, Brod-
head said donors do not support Duke so they can control its decisions but rather, “because they believe in the University, its ambitions and its importance to the future.” “Here’s the thing: when you say donor influence—Duke raised $450 million last year,” Schoenfeld said. “People who are committed to and invested in the University, are committed to and invested in the University regardless of what it does.” I wanted hard answers to the question of donor influence, so I asked the question another way: “Do you think it would be fair to say that the decision was due to a combination of safety concerns and constituent or donor concerns?” Schoenfeld responded, “You can
ANDREW KRAGIE
keep calling it donor concerns, but that would be incorrect. There’s no single donor to Duke that could influence a decision like that.” There have even been some positive financial effects after the call-to-prayer. The Chapel received many calls of support during the week of the event. One couple, which had never even met Zeb before, gave a donation in his honor. Moneta told me about an influx of small donations since the event. “We have had so many $20 gifts in the last two or three weeks,” he said. They may have totaled just a few hundred dollars, but their importance was more symbolic than financial.
W HAT I S TH E C H A P E L ? Most everyone I spoke with agreed that the call to prayer was such a controversial event and complicated issue because it involved Duke’s iconic Chapel. Powery said the building has a “three-fold” identity, as expressed in the Chapel’s Sunday service bulletin: as a grand building suitable for hosting major events, as a moderator for the “diversity of religious identity and expression on campus” and as as a “Christian church of an unusually interdenominational character.” Zeb emphasized the iconic nature of the Chapel when we met. “If you look at my ID, what’s on the ID,” Zeb posed. “Muslim students are paying tuition just like any other student. So why can’t we use the Chapel?” Moneta noted that Chapel simultaneously serves each of the three functions listed in the Sunday service bulletin,
which caused different interpretations on how the Chapel could be used. “No one should assume just the one role,” he said. The Chapel is at once a Christian worship space, an interfaith facility and a secular university symbol. Like the Christian Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, its three identities are both distinct and indistinguishable. Christian, interfaith and secular: three and yet one, an unresolvable paradox at the heart of campus. Although it might be entirely appropriate to invite a minority faith group to use the campus’s most prominent symbol or the most common space for interfaith prayer, many questioned the offer because the Chapel is a church in addition to a symbol and an interfaith space. This objection about the Chapel’s use was expressed clearly in Hay’s letter. “Its architecture and iconography identify it unmistakably as a Christian place of worship,” Hays wrote, leading him to question the original plan’s “wisdom and propriety.” On the other hand, some argue the Chapel is not technically a church. Paul Griffiths, professor of Catholic theology at the Divinity School, argued that it cannot be considered a church even though it “looks awfully like a church.” “[The Chapel is] owned lock, stock and barrel by the University, administered by the University, come[s] under the University bylaws and the dean is an employee of the university,” he said. “[It] can’t be a church—if by church we mean something devoted uniquely to Christian worship owned and run by
an ecclesial organization.” When I asked Powery whether the Chapel was or was not a church, he only replied, “Is church a building, or is it a people?” In his Jan. 18 pastoral letter, he dispelled the idea of the Chapel as solely a church, affirming its role in offering “hospitality towards the diverse religious and cultural traditions of Duke students.” In our interview, he also questioned the claim that architecture and iconography make a building a church. When I brought up that the Chapel is built in the shape of a cross, he replied, “crosses alone do not necessarily mean Christian. Think about burning crosses in the South and the KKK.” While the three statues on your left as you climb the steps of the Chapel are figures from Christian history, the three statues on your right are figures from Southern history: Thomas Jefferson, the founding father who never freed his slaves; Sidney Lanier, a poet who criticized the North and parodied black American speech; and Robert E. Lee, the commander of Confederate forces in the Civil War. If the Chapel’s iconography mark it as sacred space, I would ask: Sacred space for whom? The question of the Chapel’s identity and role on campus will not be answered by any discussions about the call to prayer. “Every time we think we have answered the question, something comes up that reminds us that it will probably be one of those eternal questions,” Schoenfeld said. TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE
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‘It’s just not done’
Could an unfinished Kunshan one day be great? STORY AND PHOTOS BY DANIELLE MUOIO
T
rying his best to talk over the KTV karaoke music blasting down the hall, junior Jordan Elkins described to me the highs and lows of his semester abroad at Duke Kunshan University. We were in one of the lavishly designed common spaces in DKU’s conference center. Students and faculty had been living in the conference center because the residential buildings were still not complete. In fact, the conference center had just been completed a couple weeks prior to my Nov. 19 arrival—before that students were living and taking classes in a nearby hotel. Despite the unconventional living arrangements, students living on Central Campus would be wildly jealous of the DKU facilities. The rooms were large with king-sized beds, and the common rooms had plenty of space for studying or socializing. But it was clear DKU had gone
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through various hoops to sell an experience, without providing the actual promised experience. When students lived in the hotel the first two months of their semester abroad, they lived very comfortably, but the morning egg-white omelet and croissant did not make up for a slow Internet connection and lack of an academic environment, Elkins wrote in a Nov. 6 column in The Chronicle. Even though students had finally arrived at DKU, it appeared they were made as comfortable as possible to make up for studying abroad on an incomplete campus. “I think DKU is gonna be the best thing to ever happen to education in China,” Elkins told The Chronicle in November. “Right now, it’s just not done.”
UNFINISHED BUSINESS DKU has a long history of not being done.
Academic Council detailed plans to begin working on Kunshan facilities December 2009, which were slated to open Fall 2012. The campus opening was then delayed to Spring 2013 due to weather-related construction issues, then-Provost Peter Lange said in a 2011 Chronicle article. Construction slowed to almost a complete halt in 2012 due to insufficient funding and construction issues, delaying the opening to Fall 2014. The campus did open Fall 2014, but not in time for students’ arrival. Despite the facts that students now live on campus, only two of the six promised buildings were functioning at the time of my visit. The incomplete nature of the campus has affected the experience, several students said. Elkins told me he had not been on campus for a single weekend while studying at DKU, mostly because “there’s not much to do on campus socially.” Students began to address these concerns by starting various oncampus activities, like photography and reading clubs. A varsity club that performs various physical activities, like soccer and hiking, also exists for students, but meets off campus due to a lack of facilities. Whereas most Duke students socialize several times a week while abroad on other programs, the social life at DKU does not compare, Elkins added. “It’s a little more low key than other abroad experiences,” he said. The academic building is the only other structure complete on campus, which is where students take their classes. But with the other four buildings still in construction mode, the campus is relatively quiet. As of my Nov. 19 visit, the library consisted of a few bookshelves, and one could not even purchase a t-shirt at the bookstore. There was one small cafe in the conference center with sandwiches and fruit, but for large student gatherings like the KTV karaoke night, administrators order from off campus. “It’s a new establishment… there have been challenges so we handled
that well,” Kennedy Opondo, a student from Kenya pursuing a master’s degree in global health, told The Chronicle in November. “The program itself is quite good… I find the experience at DKU—for now it is okay.” Some may choose to find respite from the reality of DKU’s on-campus situation by venturing into Kunshan, but it too has its limitations. The campus is not close to within walking distance of the main town, requiring access to a vehicle. A Dukesponsored shuttle does take students into town, Opondo said, but Shanghai is the more popular destination choice among students. Students will venture into Shanghai once or twice in a given week, Opondo said. Elkins also added that he did not find Kunshan to be “the most interesting city.”
first full day in China. A quick search online had told me that the must-sees in the city were to try the Aozao noodle—which literally translates to “foul noodle”—and Tingling Park. Part zen garden, part amusement park, Tingling Park was an interesting experience. Maybe it was the time I decided to show up (mid-afternoon) but the amusement park was eerily empty. There were several brightly colored kids’ rides decorated with cartoon characters like Minnie Mouse, but probably only four families present. If anything, the park was bizarre. I walked out of the amusement park to find a giant lake to my left and a set of stairs leading up to a large, gold buddha statue and heavy incense. In the lake, there were giant inflatable devices that people could walk into to then glide over the lake, as well as colorful boats in the shape of mice. Up the NOT-SO-NEARBY KUNSHAN stairs to the giant buddha, a woman With a notebook, pen and camera, was practicing tai chi. One part of the I asked the hotel concierge to call the park was literally serving as a place of cab to take me into Kunshan on my worship while overlooking a lake filled
with various games. The most important element of the park was the memorial dedicated to Gu Yanwu—a Kunshan native who was part of a 19th century movement to combine Western teaching with Chinese tradition—which gave a detailed account of the philosopher’s life. The park itself was worth seeing while I was in Kunshan, but I could not say I would go out of my way to see it if I had limited time in China. Other than the park, I found the rest of Kunshan to be lacking. There were several small restaurants and some clothing and jewelry shops, but other than that there wasn’t much to do. But the main takeaway I got from my time wandering around Kunshan was that the ability to speak Chinese was certainly necessary. I walked into about 10 different stores and none of the store owners spoke English. When I tried to cab home, I was kicked out of three cabs because the drivers did not speak English either. I approached a police officer who also could not understand me.
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Eventually, I walked to an international hotel where I managed to get a concierge to write the name of my hotel in Chinese characters, which I then showed to the next available cab driver. It is not necessarily a bad thing that one must speak Chinese to navigate Kunshan. DKU students noted that their Chinese improved by attending Chinese language classes at DKU and through their experiences in Kunshan itself. “I was a bit apprehensive to what it was going to be like, but by the end, it was okay,” Sambhavna Bisivas Shinav, a global semester undergraduate student, told The Chronicle in November about navigating the city. My apprehension with Kunshan mainly stemmed from how little there was to do there. With little to do in the host city, students going to DKU would need a lively campus environment. This is particularly concerning considering that the school will still need several years to get to a point where it could become a fully thriving campus. Mary Bullock, the executive vice chancellor of DKU who will retire summer 2015, compared Kunshan to Durham in that it’s a small city with potential for growth. Kunshan does have potential for growth—it is one of the most rapidly developing cities in China. Its GDP has grown from 20 billion yuan in 2000 to 210.028 billion in 2010. “I have become very fond of Kunshan. From an institutional strategic viewpoint we have a partnership with the leaders of Kunshan and we are important to Kunshan,” Bullock said. “If
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we were in Shanghai we would be of no significance because of the other institutions.” But the fact that students prefer to travel into Shanghai once or twice a week speaks volumes in and of itself. The DKU website advertises that living in Kunshan is “minutes from Shanghai.” During the opening events at DKU, administrators also referred to the bullet train that shuttles people from Kunshan to Shanghai in a mere 22 minutes. But to say the campus is “minutes from Shanghai” is certainly a stretch, considering it takes 30 minutes just to drive from the DKU campus to the train station. There is a bus that runs every hour from campus to the station, but factoring in the wait-time for the bus, the bus ride itself, the train to Shanghai’s station and subsequent subways to specific parts of the city, a conservative estimate would place the trip at an hour and 30 minutes. The trip from Kunshan to Shanghai was relatively easy since I was equipped with index cards of locations in Chinese characters, but it definitely required that I set aside a day to make it worthwhile. I could see why students ventured to Shanghai as often as they did—it was a far better cultural experience than my time in Kunshan. About 10 minutes into my arrival in the city I stumbled upon a tea festival I navigated with some Peking University students I met on the subway. I saw the Bund—the city’s waterfront—and walked around the Old City. Shanghai has so much history that one day simply is not enough to fully take it in.
WHY STUDY IN KUNSHAN? Although students had mixed reviews on the city itself and campus life, most students spoke highly of their academic experience at DKU. Elkins said he learned a vast amount of Chinese because of his experience at DKU and felt the classroom experience was more focused on learning than getting a grade when compared to Duke. Cathy Fu, a Chinese global semester undergraduate student, noted that the courses were challenging at first due to the high volume of English reading, but if she were to retake an exam from earlier in the semester, her grade would markedly improve. Duke professors also spoke highly of their experience. Vicki Russell, senior lecturing fellow and director of the Writing Studio, taught a course called “writing across cultures.” She said that what made the course so interesting was teaching students from so many different cultural backgrounds. “I was particularly interested in was taking advantage of the fact that I had a much more diverse group of students than I ever had in my teaching career,
and I’ve taught for 45 years,” she said. Russell added that she did not have to structure her class any differently with the variety of students at DKU. “I found it was smooth sailing…. There was lively debate about different issues and it was interesting,” she said. “You can’t really generalize about Chinese students believe X and American students believe Y—there is always a diversity of opinions about different things.” Russell also added that academic freedom was “not an issue at all.” Academic freedom at DKU has been a concern since 2009, when the Board of Trustees opened discussion on building the city-funded campus. The government has cracked down on Chinese professors considered to have outspoken views, and various academic topics have been banned from universities. When I asked Duke trustee Xiqing Gao about academic freedom at the grand opening, he referred to it as a “relative concept.” “I know there is a certain line you
don’t want to cross, but its not a line of truth versus false—it’s a line of societal norm and cultural acceptance,” he told The Chronicle in November. “Talk about Taiwan going independent and then maybe you have a problem…. There [is] certain speech we can’t have.” Although students reported positive academic experiences, it is questionable how that experience could change as DKU is transformed into a fullfledged, four-year university down the road. If Gao himself admits that there are topics not up for discussion, how much of Duke will be present in DKU? With state-of-the-art facilities and praise-worthy academics, DKU could very well turn into a powerhouse in just a few years. The campus’ completion has lagged for far too long, but there’s promise evident in the few buildings I saw, which rival anything on Duke’s campus. And one could argue that the same qualms I have about Kunshan were the same qualms others had about Durham. As always with DKU, it’s a waiting game.
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southern cultural landscape SOPHIA DURAND
IZZI CLARK
SILVIA VIEIRA
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Students from the Center of Docu to document their vision of what it butcher shop to the Durham Resc tured the different facets of Durha out our slideshow online.
{faces of durham}
umentary Studies ventured off campus t meant to be in the South. From a local cue Mission, these photographers capam. To see more of their projects, check
SOPHIA DURAND
IZZI CLARK
ELYSIA SU
NATALIE RITCHIE
PHOTOS BY CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS SILVIA VIEIRA
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THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED On campus parties now a thing of the past.
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eon leggings, over-sized hoop earrings, side ponytail—the makings of a 1980s-themed fraternity party. When I spoke to Duke seniors, this is the Sept. 2011 party they reference most often. Students gathered in Craven quadrangle, holding red cups and trying to talk over the loud 80s music while moving in and out of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity section. Duke students have become less exposed to open parties on West campus since Fall 2011. Part of this change comes from having fewer fraternities on West Campus—but the driving force behind the cultural shift is restrictive University Center Actvities and Events policies that have made fraternities and selective living groups reluctant to host events. “Remember O-week of our freshman year?” senior E.J. Baldridge, president of Duke’s Interfraternity Council, posed. “Freshmen would get off the bus on West Campus and just follow the music...” When Duke instituted the new housing model in 2012, five IFC fraternities and all nine Panhellenic sororities were moved off West and onto Central Campus. This presented a monumental shift
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in the University’s housing demographics—West Campus used to be seemingly dominated by Greek life, but today 53.8 percent of Central Campus houses are Greek houses, compared to just 18.9 percent of West Campus houses. The physical shift clamped down on the sheer number of parties that could exist on Duke’s main campus. But various party restrictions and space regulations have also changed the tone of Duke’s social scene over time as well, Baldridge said. And the result is that section parties on West Campus have become virtually nonexistent, with the majority of weekend excursions requiring a bus to East and then walking or riding a cab to an off-campus house. He specifically referred to the UCAE rule that fraternities give a week’s notice before hosting an event, which has eliminated the ability to throw together a casual party in just a couple of days. Needing to declare what dormitory rooms will be part of the event and having a set guest list to ensure there are enough party monitors also detracts from the ability to host casual parties on West. Additionally, registering a party
STORY BY BECKY RICHARDS PHOTOS BY ELYSIA SU through DukeGroups obligates a residence coordinator to drop by the event, making fraternities reluctant to host parties that could get them into trouble, Baldridge said. “As far as open parties go, I’d have to say that there are about the same amount as before, but only if you know people,” he wrote in an email following the interview. “People won’t wander around Trinity Heights like they would West Campus, looking for a party—they need to know which house to go to. So it can be really restricted.” Senior Zeena Bhakta, president of Maxwell House, echoed a similar sentiment, stating that there is still a thriving social scene on West Campus, but it is necessary to know someone to gain entry. “We don’t have as many open or larger events because of housing restrictions,” she said. “We feel limited by some of the guidelines and are then more hesitant to throw larger events. The various UCAE restrictions have changed the type of events we can host and how we go about planning them.” So what sparked this shift in campus
culture and moved the night scene from campus to the surrounding streets of Durham? Many students may attribute this change to an administrative decision, but there are several factors responsible for the shift. “There has not been a concerted effort to shift parties off campus,” said Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek. “It is important for students to have a full range of social experiences, on campus as well as off campus.” According to Wasiolek, this transition has been a long time coming and can be traced to the 1980s when the drinking age was raised. In the state of North Carolina, the drinking age for beer and wine was raised to age 19 and remained 21 for liquor in 1983. It changed again in 1986, when the age increased to 21 for consumption of all forms of alcohol. “This change in the drinking age may have prompted students to rethink their drinking choices,” said Wasiolek, who also serves as assistant vice president for student affairs. A second contributing factor to this gradual transition is the strict enforcement of fire codes. “The fire marshal inspected campus buildings, including the Chapel, Cameron Indoor Stadium and residence halls. Consequently, common spaces were more regulated to respect the fire code, which had an impact on social life,” said Wasiolek. But quad parties existed in 2011 when the members of the current senior class were freshmen, so it seems that only recently have these policies for campus living spaces been enforced
more stringently. “I think part of it was everyone decided it was easier to go off campus, given the various UCAE requirements,” Baldridge said. “On campus, there are restrictions enforced by resident assistants and graduate residents, so I think students feel that it’s more private to go off campus. Also, fraternity parties are often spur of the minute.” Bhakta also noted that cutting down on West Campus parties has increased off-campus social life because students do not have to worry about UCAE restrictions. Senior John Hosey, a member of Round Table and a resident assistant in Craven dormitory, said he often sees on campus fraternity sections empty on weekends. “They likely choose to spend weekends at off campus houses to avoid HDRL staff and to avoid violating campus policy in regard to drinking. Round Table and other selective living groups often have no off campus houses, so I would say that those sections are still thriving on campus,” Hosey said. Those who have attended on-campus quad parties of days past probably remember having to maneuver through a maze of cramped dorm rooms and packed hallways. “I remember everyone in a West Campus dorm crowded together. It was sweaty and disgusting. You couldn’t get out if you needed to, and you couldn’t get in if you wanted to,” said senior Esha Solanki, recalling a party she attended on West Campus her freshman year. But on-campus parties came with their
own perks as well. One of which was that students “always knew when they were going on,” said senior Asa Jordan. Because the party scene has become increasingly removed from campus, it seems likely that soon the idea of a large party right outside one’s dorm window will become a foreign concept. “It’s a whole culture thing,” said Baldridge. “Just as the student body got used to not having Tailgate, we’re getting used to not having parties on West. And once people get used to something, it’s hard to change it.” Though as Baldridge reflected, there are pros and cons to this change in the location of student parties. “With off campus parties, you can have all the things you can’t have on campus, and many houses are close to East Campus, making parties accessible to freshmen,” said Baldridge. “There just aren’t enough places on campus that are big enough for parties.” Of course, the primary concern when it comes to moving parties off campus is safety. “I feel it was safer on West. Though I don’t think people drink any more or less. It’s just safer when there are people around who know you,” Baldridge said. “Especially during Orientation Week, students don’t know their limits, so they go too far. On West, there are [resident assistants] and other people who have been trained to help those students. When parties are off campus, people will still try to help them, but they don’t necessarily have that same training.” Senior Andrea Mendoza agrees that campus parties were safer than those hosted off campus. “If parties aren’t on campus, it’s much harder for Duke to be aware of issues, especially those related to alcohol and student health,” Mendoza said. Groups of freshmen venturing off East or students of any age wandering through Durham from party to party can put Duke students’ safety at a much higher risk than while on campus. “Off campus, there’s a crime rate to think of,” Baldridge added. There was an 18.23 percent spike in Durham violent crime in the first 10 months of 2014, according to a Durham Police Department report. The spike was partially attributed to a cycle TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE
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of gang violence. Although the University has taken steps to increase campus security—especially along the outskirts of campus—in the past few years, some students worry that these heightened measures aren’t enough. Senior Ro Yadama recalled encountering several freshman females--who were unaware of the surrounding danger--during Orientation Week this year. “They were about to leave West to walk to Partners apartments. They had no idea how dangerous that decision was. Anything could have happened,” he said. Students also face the threat of legal danger when they decide to venture off campus to participate in parties. “Neighbors off campus are getting tired of it. They used to call the fraternity to complain, but now, the first thing they do is call the police,” said Baldridge. In regard to a fraternity party that was shut down by Durham police during orientation week of 2012, Baldridge thinks that that is when students “realized there are real consequences.” “Off campus is the real world. Duke will take care of its students, but Durham
police will not do that,” he added. Nevertheless, administrators can only do so much to ensure the safety of students. “Safety is always in the forefront of our minds when it comes to policy issues,” Wasiolek said. “Students have become better partners when pursuing social life off campus. My hope is that students venture off campus together and stay in a group.” And as Wasiolek pointed out, alcohol consumption is risky regardless of where it is consumed. “Things can happen on campus as well as off when students let down their guard. I hope they remain alert and aware of their surroundings at all times,” she added. Even if Duke students are attentive to their own personal safety as well as that of their friends, off campus parties still hold to threaten something perhaps just as vital to students—their social lives. “When everyone was on West, it was easy to meet people. I would hear the music and know where the party was, but you wouldn’t just walk up to a fraternity house off campus without being in-
vited or hearing about it first,” Baldridge said. “So in that way it was possibly more inclusive then.” Space restrictions on West Campus, however, and a maze of cookie-cutter dorm rooms can create unintentional exclusivity. “On the other hand, with off campus parties, spaces are bigger, so parties can be larger and more inclusive,” Baldridge continued. So though it still may not be uncommon to see Duke students dressed in ornate costumes en route to a party, it is uncommon to see that party’s destination on West. Students now seek social outlets at off-campus houses, but for the majority of Duke’s current students, that is all they know. Crowds of students piled into dormitory common rooms and hallways, spilling out onto quads and mingling with fellow party-goers on large wooden benches painted with fraternity insignia may now be an element of Duke’s past. I t would seem that treks off campus to socialize within the locked doors and beerstained walls of fraternity houses are the way of the future.
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Rachel Eulau: the final exam Freshman Rachel Eulau truly is a dog person. Since elementary school, Eulau has spent her spare time training dogs for various competitions. The Chronicle’s Madhav Dutt sat down with Eulau to discuss her hobby and where she hopes it leads her down the road.
BY MADHAV DUTT The Chronicle: For starters, could you tell us a little about yourself? Rachel Eulau: I’m from Seattle. We have a farm with dairy goats, pigs, chickens and vegetables just outside of the city. I also enjoy playing Ultimate Frisbee. TC: What is it about dog training that drew you in? How’d you get into dog training? RE: I always really liked dogs and was actually not allowed to have a dog until the fourth grade. I joined what’s called a 4H club, which is like a youth interest club. They have them for cows, sewing, etc. So I started with that. We met every week on Tuesdays, which is why Tuesdays became my favorite night because I would get to train my dog with other kids my age, which was obviously something hard to find. I started there and then did county fair and state fair competitions. Then I got more into the theory behind dog training which revolved around child psychology. I also tried to train my little brother—it worked sometimes. I also got more interested in dog agility in particular, which is a category that requires the dog to race an obstacle course in the fastest possible time. Then I started competing outside of 4H with adult trainers. As a result of this I have all these friends who are 40-year-old divorcees. They always sit there and drink their beers and say, “When I was your age, Rachel...” and I would just smile and say, “Okay...” TC: Were you a dog lover as a child, and do you have own any dogs at home? RE: I have two dogs. One is completely retired because she’s 15. She was my first dog. And then Gordy, my second dog, is almost retired—he’s 10 years old. My stepdad has two dogs and my dad also has two dogs. I mostly train my dogs though. My stepdad also used to do dog agility, which was a random thing be-
DARBI GRIFFITH cause we didn’t realize it until my mom started dating him. When I found out I was like, “You’re the coolest person ever!” TC: How do you practice training for events? RE: A lot of it is not specific training for events, but involved conditioning and developing a relationship with your dog. So we actually did a lot of stupid things that would help me with my dog training and help the dogs learn. We’d also go to classes with a Coach-type figure once a week for about an hour. I had some equipment in my backyard that we’d use. It’s a twopart system: a) the dog needs to know how to do the weaves and pulls, and b) they also need to know how to get from the jump to the weave pulls. Often times the courses require dogs to bypass things. TC: Which breed do you most enjoy working with? RE: I really like all dogs. I worked at an animal shelter so I got to train different types of dogs but my dogs are all herding dogs. There are a lot of border collies who are made for agility because they’re really smart, they really want to please you and they’re also really fast. One of my dogs is an Australian cattle dog... and the other dog is half border collie, half Australian shepherd. TC: Do you plan on making this into a career or is training more of a hobby for you? RE: It’s definitely a hobby. It’s funny though because my coach actually went to Duke, did five years of graduate school with a dissertation in biochemistry and then decided she didn’t want to be a biochemist and became a dog trainer. So you never know. I’m interested in being a veterinary behaviorist, which combines dog training with veterinary science, but there aren’t
that many of them so it isn’t the most viable option. If you think about all these anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication for humans, they’re there for dogs too. Combining this with behavior modification is the subject. TC: Are you still keeping up with it at school? RE: Not really. I got one dog-training-, dog-sitting job over Fall break, but because my dogs are in Seattle it doesn’t exactly work out. TC: Just to clarify, are you more of a cat person or a dog person? RE: I’d go with a dog person. But I’ve actually worked in a cat-only vet clinic, and I even have the scars to prove it. Working there was a good experience because I got to know cats a lot better. They’re really different animals. I’ve never owned a cat before. TC: Have you ever had to take a break from the semester for events? Does Duke support your hobby? RE: No, I really haven’t had the need to. Though there is actually a professor here, Brian Hare, who runs the canine cognition lab, and I’d really like to get involved with that. Right now he’s on sabbatical, though. TC: Is there anyone who you look up to and aspire to emulate? RE: There’s definitely people who are really successful in the dog-training world, and people who I’ve taken training methodologies from. This woman named Susan Garrett. But there’s no one who I agree with 100 percent because everyone has their own style. Karen Pryor is another figure that did a lot to bring positive influence to the mainstream. TC: Do you enjoy going to professional dog training events? RE: Yeah, like I said, it’s a lot of fun because you get to make these friends who wouldn’t necessarily make otherwise, and there’s pretty ribbons too. But my dog would rather eat the ribbon than wear it. You don’t always do well but over a long stretch of time you tend to get better. There are different levels and over time you start recognizing people so that’s great. And I also really like training shelter dogs to help them get adopted because it’s both enjoyable and rewarding. TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE
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