camp us
J&
jg
Bienvenido:s! Spanish benches arrive after month-long delay
f
finances Experts: Pell Grant changes neglect middle income families
Duke travels to Raleigh for first ACC test vs. N.C. State
;
loot- Anniversary
f
i
*lP|
ine Uiromde ft |
THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2005
9
THE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY
University Tenters push admits 31% of early applicants by
sports
ONE HUNDREDTH YEAR, ISSUE 73
K-ville's city limits by
Saidi Chen
THE CHRONICLE
Issa Hanna
THE CHRONICLE
While current Duke students were en-
joying theirwell deserved winter vacations, 1,494 high school seniors from around the world were on edge. They were anxiously awaiting word back from the Office of Um dergraduate Admissions on the status of their early decision applications to join Duke’s Class of 2009. Almost one-third of those applicants 465 in all—were admitted Dec. 15, while 262 students were denied admission and 767 were deferred and-will be reconsidered for admission in the spring. Based on early decision results, the admissions office could become more selective this year: only 31 percent of early applicants were admitted this time around, compared to last year’s rate of 36 percent and 33 percent the year before. Demographically speaking, the Class of 2009 figures to be especially diverse. Approximately one-fourth of the 465 students already admitted are students of color, and half are women. About 43 percent have applied for financial aid. “The group as a whole is slightly more diverse racially and economically than last year,” said Christoph Guttentag, director of undergraduate admissions. “Beyond that, I’d say that in many ways they are typical of early decision students we’ve admitted in the past several years—very bright, very talented and very enthusiastic about Duke.”
“|
—
PETER GEBHARD/THECHRONICLE
Freshmen Drew Braucht and Sofija Degesys are among thehundreds of students already camping out.
Instead of the usual gripes about the frigid weather, the complaints heard this year in Krzyzewskiville seem to be about the noise level as hundreds of students have been partying late into the night. As the weather has stayed near a balmy 60 degrees, reaching 70 at times, students have flocked to K-ville as the social center ofcampus. The new Black Tenting period has been hugely popular as more than 460 students returned to tent before classes started. The turnout for early tenting was so high that the line monitors decided to expand the cap that is usually set on the number of Blue and Black tents from 30 to 40 tents. Even with the increased cap all 40 spots were filled and there will be no new tents allowed in K-ville before the start of White Tenting a week before the Duke-UNC men’s basketball game Feb. 9. “I think since the weather has been unbelievable, people thought ‘if it’s going to be this easy we might as well go out earlier and get a better tent spot,”’ Head Line Monitor Steve Rawson said. ‘This year’s freshman class has also been more excited about basketball than the classes we’ve had for a couple years, and that’s great.” Returning from four weeks of rest, Duke students are gettingright back into the swing of college life as hundreds have headed out to K-ville to watch movies, throw a football around or play a game at one of the many Beirut tables. The tents set up on the can-strewn lawns in front ofCameron Indoor Stadium show that though students are willing to leave their dorm rooms for SEE TENTING ON PAGE 7
SEE ADMISSIONS ON PAGE 7
6
Junior endures tsunami
Our beach was gone by
Skyward Darby THE CHRONICLE
tarted out like any othervacation. Junior Jenny Heyand her family spent a relaxing few weeks in Thailand, lounging at a beachside resort, shopd traveling to nearby villages for a flavor of the ture.
The Chicago family’s idyllic experience was ihattered, however, on a bright Sunday morning, when the ocean waters suddenly rose and swalowed the shore. “I didn’t even really know the term ‘tsunami,’” Heydemann said Tuesday, curled on an overtuffed chair in her brand new Durham apartment. “I just thought our town was gone, our each was gone.” Heydemann and her family were among the thousands of tourists in Southeast Asia on Dec. 26, when the most powerful earthquake of the last 40
years triggered a tsunami that slammed the coasts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and several other countries on the Indian Ocean. To date, the disaster has claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people, mosdy natives of the region but many tourists as well. Indonesia experienced the greatest loss of life, with estimates ranging from 77,000 to over 106,000. In Thailand—the Heydemanns’ holiday destination 5,309 are dead and 3,396 are missing, according to government numbers. Heydemann said she had left her family eating breakfast on a terrace overlooking the ocean just before the wave struck. Her sister, Lizzi, came up to their third-floor hotel room a couple of minutes later and told her—as an afterthought —the “weirdest thing”: a wave had washed the beach away. Her father, Peter, had gone to the shore to investigate. —
SEE TSUNAMI ON PAGE 8