Monday, December 3, 2001
Sunny High 64, Low 33 www.chronicle.duke.edu Vol. 97, No. 67
The Chronicle
Stick to football The men’s basketball team hunted down the Clemson Tigers for a win at home Sunday night, 96-80.
See Sportswrap
THE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY
Blue Devils trounce Lady Techsters Midway plans return to RDU By CATHERINE SULLIVAN The Chronicle
76 ORLANDO, Fla. Maybe it’s the nationLa. Tech 64 al television coverage; maybe it’s the top-10 opponent. Whatever the reason, the No. 14 Duke women’s basketball team has performed up to its ambitious preseason expectations in its biggest contests of the year, and Sunday’s convincing 76-64 win over No. 6 Louisiana Tech in the Honda Elite Four Holiday Classic was no exception. “I think that they like to play on TV”
Duke
� Midway Airlines, which first declared bankruptcy in August, is scheduled to begin operations on a smaller scale within the next few weeks. By MATT ATWOOD The Chronicle
Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. “I guess that’s a good thing because the ACC and NCAA tournament games will be televised.” After several inconsistent games that included disappointing losses to Toledo and then-unranked South Carolina, Duke (5-2) found its stride Sunday, shooting 52 percent from the field while holding the Lady Techsters (2-2) to 39 percent for the game. The Blue Devils broke Louisiana Tech’s 47-game streak of holding its opponents to under 50 percent shooting. The last team to accomplish that feat against the Lady Techsters was Connecticut in January 2000. Duke, led by sophomore All-American candidate Alana Beard, trailed only once in the game, as Louisiana Tech’s Essence ,'ARSONS/THE CHRONICLE V Perry scored her only points ofthe afternoon on the game’s opening play. DUKE’S ICIS THUS puts up a hook shot during the first half of the Blue Devils’ match against Louisana Tech. See TECH in SpOVtSWVap page 7 >
Midway Airlines—albeit a smaller incarnation—may be back in business within a few weeks, airline officials announced Friday. Midway, which was Raleigh-Durham International Airport’s largest carrier until declining business travel revenues and repercussions from the Sept. 11 attacks forced the airline to suspend operations, has been declared eligible to receive $12.5 million in federal airline relief funds, CEO Robert Ferguson said. That money, combined with an $8.5 million loan from a lender in Connecticut, will allow Midway to resume operations “around Christmastime, maybe a little bit before,” Ferguson said, adding that the time will allow the airline to work out the operational logistics. “We’ve got to bring the employees back and... start advertising and selling tickets,” he said. But Keith Debbage, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro who specializes in transportation issues, said that in an environment where even airlines that were not having problems before Sept. 11 are struggling, Midway will have difficulty coming back. Sec MIDWAY on page 8 �
TA unionization Chapel hosts no same-sex unions unlikely at Duke By MATT BRADLEY The Chronicle
� Despite an upcoming unionization vote at Brown University and strikes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, officials said such prospects are dim at Duke. By WHITNEY BECKETT The Chronicle
Teaching assistant unionization has again gained attention after a Friday ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that certain Brown University graduate students have the right to unionize, and following TA strikes at the University of Illinois at Ur-
bana-Champaign.
Duke Graduate School administrators and Graduate and Professional Student Council officers said they doubt either case will significantly affect the University, which they said has shown little interest in unionization.
The Brown ruling, issued by Rosemary Pye, director of the NLRB’s Boston office, dismissed the university’s argument that TAs are students before employees. Brown graduate students will vote on unionization this week. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, if the university does not adhere to the ruling—something it is considering—the NLRB has said it will sue the school. “Our position has been that all of our graduate stuSee UNIONIZATION on page 11 >
Ineifip liidilitS
Almost a year after Duke Chapel lifted its ban on same-sex unions, the University community has yet to see a gay couple married on its altar. Last December, President Nan Keohane and Dean of the Chapel Will Willimon announced their decision to lift the ban in a letter to the Committee to Explore the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions in the Chapel. The committee was appointed by Keohane and Willimon to debate and make recommendations on the issue.
“There had been people in the past who had requested a service, and been denied,” said the Rev. Mark Rutledge, a United Church of Christ minister at the University. Rutledge wrote an article in Out-Lines, the newsletter for Duke’s Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Life, that outlined possible reasons gay couples have not taken advantage of the Chapel’s new “open and affirming” policy. According to Rutledge’s article, gay couples in Duke’s community may have trepidations about “1) the question ofwho at the Chapel would perform such a ceremony; 2) the current conflicted status of this issue in most churches; 3) the current atmosphere on campus; 4) the legal and ecclesiastical status ofsuch unions; and 5) uncertainty about what to expect from a potential officiant about the process of preparing for a ceremony.” Rutledge said he hoped that by writing the article, he would relieve gay couples of their reservations about getting married in the Chapel. As one of the only orALLISON WILLIAM SAME CHRONICLE dained ministers on the Religious Life staff whose defor over CHAPEL DOORS same-sex unions last year, but opened him THE gay unions, allows to Rutpreside nomination no gay couples have chosen to be married there yet. . See SAME-SEX UNIONS on page 11 �
Several new vendors will open shop on Ninth Street in the upcoming weeks and months, including a 25,000 squarefoot building across from Elmo’s Diner. See page 3
Despite the Unlveristy’s membership with the Workers Rights Consortium, economists argue that anti-sweatshop groups hurt employees. See page 3
Four cars behind Trent Drive Hall were broken into sometime around Nov. 28, according to the Duke University Police Department. See page 6