April 12, 2004

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Men's golf won its first tournament of the year

The Chronicle

DUKE UNIVERSITY Ninety-Ninth Year, issue 134

Student held up at

DURHAM, N.C.

MONDAY, APRIL 12,2004

WWW. CHRONICLE.DUKE. EDI!

GREEN JACKET FINALLY PHILLED

allegedly

knifepoint by

scammed

Cindy Yee

THE CHRONICLE

A student was robbed at knifepoint early Sunday morning at the corner of Erwin Road and Anderson Street. Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta notified the student body of the incident in an e-mail later Sunday morning. The student told Duke police that he was walking home alone from Cafe Parizade on Main Street after getting into a fight with his friends. When he reached the intersection of Erwin Road and Anderson Street around 1:50 a.m., he was approached by two black males who asked him for money. When the student said he did not have any money, one of the suspects pulled out a knife. The two men took the student’s wallet, which contained a driver’s license, bank card, video card and WalMart card with a combined value of $5O. The student described the suspects, who fled after taking his wallet, as wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes and gray sweat-type jackets with hoods. Maj. Phyllis Cooper of the Duke University Police Department said Duke police are working with Durham police to investigate the incident. “We will be stopping and talking to students and any in the area where this incident occurred to see if they saw anything,” she said. “We’ll also be stopping and IDing any suspicious person in the area.” Security has been a prime topic of conversation, on campus since a student was robbed, presumably at gunpoint, in the Bryan Center in November 2003. Last month, a student was reportedly raped on West Campus and, just two days later, SEE ROBBERY ON PAGE 5

Emily Almas THE CHRONICLE

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Phil Mickelson celebrates his Masters victory withcaddie Jim MacKay, on the 18th greenof Augusta National.

Mickelson captures Masters, first major by

CliftonBrown

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

AUGUSTA, Ga. Finally, it was Phil Mickelson’s time. For years, Mickelson chased a dream that seemed as elusive as a butterfly. But on the final hole of the 68th Masters Sunday, the butterfly was finally captured. Punctuating a brilliant back-nine charge by sinking an 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole, Mickelson edged Ernie Els by a stroke and claimed one of the most scintillating tournaments in the history ofAugusta National Golf Club. The moment Mickelson had longed for was as good as it gets in golf. For a split second, his winning putt hung tantalizingly on the left edge before it circled the

hole and finally disappeared into the cup. Mickelson jumped for joy, and everyone who witnessed the scene sensed his elation. After the close calls, the disappointments and the criticism that accompanied being the world’s best player without a major championship, Mickelson seized his moment, shooting an improbable 5-under-par 31 on Augusta’s nerveracking back nine. It was the lowest back nine by a winner since Jack Nicklaus’ 31 in 1986, and for Mickelson, the feeling was everything he expected. “I really don’t know what to say, to tell you how awesome it feels,” Mickelson said after his 23rd career victory, but his first SEE MICKELSON ON PAGE 5

Proposed damage policy scrutinized Kelly Rohrs THE CHRONICLE

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As the University considers a policy to charge students for damages to their residence halls, students are thinking about whether membership in selective living groups should be a factor in their accountability. Eddie Hull, director of Residence Life and Housing Services, announced last week that the University is re-examining its residential damage policy, in part because independent students are not held financially responsible for damage to their residence halls, whereas students in selective living groups are.

Students

Students recognized the double standard, but most—whether affiliated with a selective living group or not—said two sets of practices are merited. “Since the selective students choose to live together, they have some sort of structure so they can influence each other,” said sophomore Marvin Wickware, who lives in Crowell Quadrangle. “But I don’t have any influence over people I don’t know.” Wickware noted that there is a window near his room that has been broken several times this semester, but that he does not know who is responsible for the repeated damage. He said it would be “completely

ridiculous” to charge him and the other members ofhis hall to replace the window. Senior Ben Peterson, a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, agreed that members of living groups have a greater responsibility for their surroundings than unaffiliated students because they all know each other and have greater influence over each other’s behavior. “How do you fine somebody just because he lives next door to the damage?” Peterson asked, adding that in selective groups students know their hallmates. Most students did not believe that SEE POLICY ON PAGE 5

A now-defunct student-run travel company may have cheated dozens of Duke students out of over $25,000 through various trip schemes in the past year. Three freshmen filed complaints with the Duke University Police Department Friday after their repeated attempts to recoup funds from a botched spring break trip were unsuccessful. The three had purchased spring break trips from Duke Travels, a student-operated organization, but the trips never materialized and their reimbursement checks from the company bounced. “There’s little reason or confidence to believe we’re getting our money back,” said freshman David Cardenas, one of the victims. “At least, by doing this, we prevent [the organizer] from doing a future crime.” Cardenas and two friends, who each paid $799 for their all-expenses paid trip to Cancun, Mexico, originally saw a flyer promoting the travel company and its trips on East Campus in September 2003. The flyer—proclaiming “the way Duke travels!!”—promoted the spring break trip to Cancun as well as “Spring Break Miami,” “Ski Weekend 2004,” ‘DukeCruise 2004,” “Myrtle 2004” and “Mardi Gras 2004.” “We basically thought since they were using the school’s name they were a legitimate company,” Cardenas said. But shortly after signing up on the company’s website", ■www.duketravels.com, and paying a $lOO deposit, the students became concerned when they could not obtain any information about their trip from the company. It was not until the day before spring break began, March 5, when Cardenas and his friends were notified by Cyril Broderick, who also uses the name Joe, that their trips were nonexistent. “It [was upsetting], especially psychologically and emotionally—here we are anxiously awaiting a trip from October,” Cardenas said. “We were still trying to make the best of it, but no matter how much we tried to forget about it, the whole week we were thinking about Cancun.” The 12 students whose trips to Cancun never materialized were not the only purported victims of DukeTravels. First-year graduate student Jennifer Miller and three of her friends paid Duke Travels $lB7 per person for a weekend of skiing at Sugar Mountain, after the SEE SCAMMED ON PAGE

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