camp
I
University ti a safer Cent
rpi 1 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2005
100th
.
ers.
ONE HUNDREDTH YEAR, ISSUE 85
THE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY
Plaza funds remain well short of target by
PETER GEBHARD/THE CHRONICLE
Douglas B. Maggs Professor ofLaw Walter Dellinger speaks with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Monday.
Ginsburg praises by
Kate Stamell
THE CHRONICLE
At 18, the jury duty notices
start to accumulate—everyone
has to serve eventually. But women used to be exempt from attending, and all-male juries decided the fate of millions. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who spoke Monday at the School of Law,
women
paved the way for equal rights for women under the law. “The notion that being a full citizen includes obligations as well as rights was something that was very strange,” she said. Ginsburg’s public interview with Walter Dellinger, Douglas B. Maggs Professor of Law, was a personal narrative that illuminated the history of gender
in law
discrimination and women and the law. “My mother told me two
things constantly,” Ginsburg
said. “One was to be a lady and the other was to be independent, and the law was something most unusual for those times because for most girls growing SEE GINSBURG ON PAGE 8
Seyward Darby THE CHRONICLE
The project design is nearly finalized and the construction time frame is set, but one piece of the planning puzzle for the new student plaza is still missing: money. Though the cost of the project dwindled as the initial “village” concept waned, the price tag of destroying the Bryan Center walkway and building an elevated plaza to connect the West Union Building, Page Auditorium and Bryan Center still stands at $lO million. To date, the University has raised only 2.5 percent of the needed funds. Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta acknowledged that the project’s coffers remain mostly empty despite years of planning, but he said the University has been “much more diligent in the last few months about fundraising.” With the final design for the plaza on paper, he expects these efforts to pay off—literally. Tve been staging prospects but not asking for gifts yet because I haven’t had something to show them,” Moneta explained. “All of these people who we’ve staged for potential gifts I’ll be meeting with over the next two
months and actually [asking] for gifts because we have a project to present to them.” Treat Harvey, major gifts officer for student affairs, said there are currently between six and 10 major prospects —mostly parents and alumni—“waiting in the wings” to donate to the plaza project. Throughout the planning process, administrators have these approached prospects several times with updated plans, cultivating interest at each stage of the project’s development. This reiterative process, Harvey said, benefits both the funding and design aspects of the project. “You literally keep going back and visiting folks who have shown some spark of interest so you are sort of working on the money side while at the same time going back to the architect [with ideas],” she said. One of the prospects—a Duke parent —recently donated the first contribution earmarked specifically for the plaza. Moneta noted that the $25,000 gift, while not huge, is an important first step in the financing process. The project, he added, will “need others of that magnitude” to succeed. SEE PLAZA ON PAGE 6
Local clinic opens doors with grant from Duke Endowment Kelly Rohrs THE CHRONICLE
by
After more than three years of
planning, the doors of a community health clinic opened to residents of Durham’s Walltown
neighborhood Monday. At a ceremony that trumpeted Duke’s recendy intensified commitment to community health as well as the advocacy of Walltown residents, several town and University leaders spoke about the need for health care that serves financially disadvan-
taged populations.
Plans for the Walltown Neighborhood Clinic began when leaders from the neighborhood, which is a block from East Campus, approached Duke about
creating a health center in Walltown, where about half of the residents do not have health insurance. Working with Duke through the Neighborhood Partnership Initiative and the Division of Community Health, local activists championed the project, which was initially thwarted by a lack offunds. ‘We believe in miracles and we say ‘thank you’ to Duke for seeing the need and making this miracle happen,” said Rev. Mel Williams, a member of the Walltown Neighborhood Ministries and one of the clinic’s original proponents. The Duke Endowment, which is not affiliated with the University, gave a $240,000 dona-
tion in early January to help launch the clinic. The grant will also partially finance an expansion at a similar clinic Duke helps operate in Lyon Park. John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations, said the Endowment donation “really saved” the project. The clinic features five examination rooms and a small laboratory for limited on-site tests. Named for Walltown founder George Wall, the clinic is a satellite of the Lincoln Community Health Center. Kaidyn Granda, a physicians’ assistant who will work at the SEE CLINIC ON PAGE 7
SPECIAL TO THE
CHRONICLE
Plans for the new student plaza are being presented to potential donorsand will be reviewed for approval by theBoard ofTrustees Feb. 25.