The Chronicle Nation prepares for Saturday’s inauguration Bush reveals plans for first weeks in office By TOM RAUM and RON FOURNIER Associated Press
FIREWORKS EXPLODED OVER THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL last night as part of the opening ceremony will be sworn in Saturday as the 43rd President of the United States.
As his inauguraWASHINGTON tion celebration began Thursday, President-elect George W. Bush ruled out federal intervention on electricity prices and discouraged any notion of a US. bailout to ease California’s energy crisis, saying state officials must “correct the law that has caused some of this to happen.” He said he was optimistic that the power interruptions in the nation’s most populous state would not turn into a financial crisis that would spread throughout the country. Bush, a former oil man who campaigned for increased energy production, noted that he was criticized during the campaign by environmentalists and yet “a lot of the harshest critics of ROGER WOLLENBERG./UPI. ITOS a balanced environmental policy are of the presidential inauguration. George W. Bush beginning to have rolling blackouts in their communities.” In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press on the first day of his three-day inauguration celebration, Bush pledged to stick by his $1.6 trillion Brook, vice president of the North Cartax cut program—but said he was open olina Federation of College Democrats. to speeding up its effective date, as ReBrook, a senior at the University of publican leaders have suggested. North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is lead“The bill I’m sending up is the bill I ing a group of about 65 students to D.C. campaigned on,” he said, saying an this weekend. across-the-board tax cut was only a matMost Democratic students say they ter of time. “I have a lot of work to do on take issue with the way the election was the issue, but I believe we’re going to get decided, and in light of that, the degree something done.” to which Bush has supported socially Turning to foreign policy, Bush said conservative politicians like Attorney he believed he could persuade Russian General-designate John Ashcroft. President Vladimir Putin as well as Eu“I’m pretty dissatisfied with the naropean allies of the wisdom of allowing ture of the election, not so much how it the United States to move ahead with a See BUSH on page 6 � See STUDENTS IN D.C. on page 6 P-
To celebrate or protest, students plan to be in D.C. By AMBIKA KUMAR The Chronicle
Where will you be Saturday at noon? More than 100 North Carolina college students will be in Washington, D.C. to witness the inauguration of the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush. Some will be celebrating the first Republican sworn into the office in 12 years, while others will be protesting what they call a violation of the democratic process. “Obviously, we think this is a very historic time,” said junior Courtney Laginess, co-chair of Duke College Re-
publicans. “We’re very happy with the outcome of the election. It’s going to be a time of celebration for us.” For others, this weekend’s festivities represent an opportunity to voice dissension not only about the swearing in ofBush, but also what they consider to be the disenfranchisement of millions of
voters across the country. “Our main goal is basically to show the Bush White House and North Carolina that there are people who are definitely watching the Bush presidency and will not forget how he gained his election in the year 2000,” said Chris
‘Best Practices’ final draft emerges By MOLLY JACOBS The Chronicle
The long-awaited document outlining graduate education has reached its final draft form. But many feel the years of work put into finalizing “Best Practices: Core Expectations for Graduate Education at Duke University” have simply resulted in a statement of current conditions. Administrators are making only minor word changes to the document. “Some students were concerned that it simply described the status quo, but we believe it will encourage good faith between different parts of the Graduate School,” said Graduate and Professional Student Council President Cybelle McFadden, a member of the committee that drafted the document.“We finally have a set of core principles that will raise that bar on what the best practices are.” Some graduate students feel that while the document may describe the status quo for some departments, it sets standards for all to work toward. But
Timeline of the Graduate Education Outline
other students do not feel uniformity is the answer. “Things are different within a department too,” said Mike Ezell, a graduate student in sociology. “Some people don’t need a document to regulate and specify what they do because different students have different needs. This makes it difficult to get one general idea of what everyone’s needs are.” GPSC Attorney General Carol Chancey, a thirdyear graduate student in biomedical engineering, said the effectiveness of the document will depend on its enforcement, which lies in the hands of the Graduate School. A judicial committee will be responsible for hearing complaints and issuing penalties once students have followed the complaint procedure outlined in “Best Practices.” Some graduate students feel they need more administrative support when initiating complaint. “Unless there is some level of support from top down, which I don’t know if that will ever exist, the burden will reSee BEST PRACTICES on page 8
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Hindu Students Council hosts conference, page 4 � Women’s basketball beats NCSU, page 15