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DUKE UNIVERSITY Ninety-Ninth Year, issue 8
Sports
Opinion
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W. basketball player Wynter Whitley out until December
Senior Yousuf Al-Bulushi: Blood, oil, water In ir?q
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(iiromcle DURHAM, N.C.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2003
WWW. CHRONICLE.DUKE. EDU
IN THE CLASSROOM
University neutral on political discussions by Cindy Yee THE CHRONICLE
Since Sept. 11, 2001, many people have expressed support for “patriotic correctness” in higher education—a concept that discourages teachers from expressing dissent
Zaid Al-Husseini has all but stopped downloading music due to the recent spate of recording industry lawsuits.
TOM
MENDEL/THE CHRONI
Download music? Call your lawyer. The recording industry has sued more than a thousand peer-to-peer music sharers, including many college students. Are you next? By Gabriel Chen The Chronicle •
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Jaid Al-Husseini is frustrated He hails from Saudi Arabia, a place where albums by Britney Spears and N*SYNC may be purchased in stores but songs by his favorite artists —including Marvin Gaye and some techno acts—are harder to come by. With the rise of file sharing over the Internet, however, he has been able to obtain music that would otherwise be inaccessible. “I can download the rarer songs with Kazaa,” said Al-Husseini, a sophom
more. “Anything that sounds good, anything I hear on the radio, or songs
that my friends recommend.” Now Al-Husseini, who used to download about six songs a day, has cut back on his downloads, as the Recording Industry Association of America has begun threatening to sue students who use file sharing
programs. Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, released a letter to the public two weeks ago stating that the industry
would not target “de minimis” users. Instead, subpoenas would be sent to people who download “a substantial amount,” although the letter did not specify how much that is. Industry officials hope the campaign will scare students away from copying songs when they see classmates who have downloaded significant numbers of tracks getting slapped with lawsuits. SEE DOWNLOADING ON PAGE 9
from American foreign policy in the classroom. Members of the Duke community, however, say faculty members should be allowed to express personal opinions in an academic setting, at least to a degree. Many professors said there is no clear line between expressing an opinion and pushing a political agenda, but that faculty members have an obligation to separate fact and opinion if and when they express their own views in class. “We should have the right to express our views, but perhaps not the right to impose our views,” said Frederick Mayer, director of graduate studies for public policy studies. He added that faculty members must be careful not to punish students who take different views from their own. Provost Peter Lange echoed Mayer’s sentiment, saying faculty members should be able to express theirviews as long as students understand that differences of opinion will not influence how they are evaluated in the class. This sort of punishment, Lange said, would negate some of the positive effects of SEE ACADEMIC FREEDOM ON PAGE 7
Fuqua class increases by 60 by
Andrew Gerst
THE CHRONICLE
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Even with a 17 percent jump in daytime MBA students it’s been business as usual at the Fuqua School ofBusiness, which started classes Monday. Amid some concern for “team Fuqua,” the school’s catch phrase commitment to a learning environment of cooperation over competition, Fuqua decided last year to add a sixth section of 60 students to the daytime master’s of business administration program—but the move has been highly successful, said James Gray, associate dean of marketing and communication. “When you add another 60 students...you want to make sure the quality is not diluted by going farther into the applicant pool,” Gray said. “And we were concerned about whether having another 60 students would make it a little less personal around here, but a lot of good work has been done by students, faculty and staff to make sure that we did well on both those counts.” By the usual objective measures, Fuqua has continued a streak of strong performance. This year’s matriculating
class of 405 daytime MBA students boasts a mean GMAT score of 704, up from last year’s 701; the average undergraduate GPA, however, went down from 3.59 to 3.39. “When you [add students], you always fear the quality is going to go down,” said Provost Peter Lange. “I think the quality has gone marginally up.” Associate professor Simon Gervais was optimistic about the entering class with regards to previous student performance. “On paper, [they’re] at least as good,” Gervais said. “If anything, there’s a slight improvement.” Gray said Fuqua plans to add more students again next year, making for a total of 120 new MBA spots in two years. ‘Typically, higher education is counter-cyclical,” professor Michael Bradley said. “When people find it’s difficult to get a job, they decide instead to increase their human capital and go back to school, and that’s what we’re seeing now.” Meanwhile, Fuqua, traditionally one of the smallest SEE FUQUA ON PAGE 9
ANTHONY CROSS
for THE CHRONICLE
Tina Boyadjiefa, Michelle Cheung, Matt Drawz and Jonathan Tan, first year Fuqua students study in theFox Student Center.