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111 L vl LLvvyi i IvLL Old honor code sees last hurrah www.chronicle.duke.edu
Charity Strinp Star Charity game tonight will feature 10 former
Vol. 98, No. 2
THE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY
� Although the Class of 2006 will spend three-fourths of their Duke careers abiding by the new Community Standard, freshmen signed the current Honor Code Thursday. By ALEX GARINGER The Chronicle
Although the scene outside freshman convocation Thursday much resembled those of past years, the Class of2oo6’s signing ofthe Honor Code on the Chapel Quadrangle had a hint of irony this year. By next fall, the Honor Code will be abandoned in exchange for the new Community Standard, a policy that bridges both social and academic integrity. The University decided to use this academic year as an education and training period for students, faculty and administrators to become comfortable with the new standard. “Anytime you have something new, there is a transition between the old and the new and we didn’t feel we could make that transition abruptly,” said Vice Provost for Academic and Administrative Services Judith Ruderman, who chaired the Academic Integrity Council that created the new Community Standard. One of the major changes under the new policy will be the requirement that a student who reports another’s academic dishonesty must also provide his or her own name. Ruderman said the AIC recently decided not to mandate that these students appear as witnesses in subsequent judiciary hearings, a move that she said somewhat weakens the policy. Freshmen who signed the Honor Code Thursday said they were unaware of the new Community Standard and thought it was strange that, in only a year, integriSee HONOR CODE on page 14
DAVE LEWIS/THE CHRONICLE
SIGMA NU and DELTA SIGMA PHI FRATERNITIES will be neighbors in Kilgo Quadrangle, where they will share a commons room. Most selective groups have moved in this year’s residential life shuffle.
Selectives react to new homes By WHITNEY BECKETT The Chronicle
Even seniors will feel the freshman rush of excitement this year as they return to campus. Why? Many of them will be finding their way in a new world too. Over the summer, the University moved some selective living groups to make way for an independent corridor on Main West Quadrangle. As a result, 24 of the 26 selective groups moved to new locations on West. “It’s always hard when we make changes, particularly on West Campus, where things have been
stagnant for a while,” said Todd Adams, director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life. When the University chose new locations for selective groups last November, 11 received their top choices, but another 11 received housing that was not within their top three preferences. Drawing the most attention was the selective house grouping in Kilgo Quadrangle. Home to Brownstone, Delta Sigma Phi fraternity and Sigma Nu fraternity, Kilgo will cultivate what some are calling the residential plan’s social experiment. See SELECTIVE HOUSES on page 11
UNC officials look back on Quran controversy
Duke experts respond to UNC; Keohane pens letter of support
By RUTH CARLITZ The Chronicle
In the wake of a lawsuit challenge, legislative action and fevered controversy, discussions ofthe summer reading assignment Approaching the Qur’an proceeded calmly this week among freshmen at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. All first-year UNC students were required to read the book, by Haverford College professor Michael Sells, which presents an English translation of some of the Islamic holy text’s main passages. But to some, the assignment looked like religious indoctrination. In July, three anonymous UNC freshmen and two taxpayer members of the Family Policy Network, a Virginia-based conservative Christian group, sued the university. And on Aug. 12, the state House approved a budget that included an amendment to cut public funding for the reading program, which costs the university about $15,000. Carlton Tilley, a US. District Court judge, refused last Thursday to block the program, but the assignment remains controversial. Monday’s discussions were a great success, said UNC Provost Robert Shelton. “What I wish is that some of the critics had an opportunity to sit in and see what a real academic exchange of ideas is,” he said. “Nobody was converting anybody.” Earlier this week, UNO’s Board of Governors failed to See QURAN AT UNC on page 10
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By KEVIN LEES The Chronicle
Duke, no stranger to the national spotlight, stepped back from the stage this month as its nearest colleague, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, became a lightning rod in a national brouhaha over its decision to have incoming freshmen read annotated passages from the Quran. Duke professors are nearly unanimous in their support for UNC, but disagree on which issue is most central—including the nature of academic freedom at publicly funded universities, the separation of church and state, Western awareness of Islam and the role of higher education itself in American society. In a letter to Sue Estroff, chair of UNC’s Faculty Council, Duke President Nan Keohane pledged her support for the school’s steadfast adherence to aca-
demic freedom. “Not the least of [our values] is the visible and historic
APPROACHING THE QUR’AN, the summer reading assignment for UNC freshmen, has spurred a nationwide uproar.
Martin Luther King, 111, in town for a Fuqua School of Business leadership' conference, found time to visit E.K. Rowe Elementary School. See page 4
national leadership our institutions have provided in support of academic freedom and of the essential right—indeed the duty—of our faculty and students to engage in thoughtful inquiry and robust debate about all kinds of issues, even the most controversial,” Keohane wrote.
The Princeton Review ranked Duke University one of the most diverse schools and one of the best overall under-' graduate experiences. See page 6
See DUKE RESPONSE on page 10 Read the excerpted text of President Nan Keohane’s address to the Class of 2006 at the New Student Convocation Thursday. See page 8