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The Chronickff
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2005
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THE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY
ONE HUNDRED AND FIRST YEAR, ISSUE 47
Experts debate Supreme Court shifts Students bemoan IR crunch by
Pali Sci to hire profs, revise curriculum by
Tiffany Webber THE CHRONICLE
It’s been a difficult semester for the
political science department. A shortage of international relations professors and concerns about the curriculum have led to fervent criticisms from undergraduates. Students have complained that desirable professors are on leave, there are too few new hires and the undergraduate major is not as structured as they would expect. Michael Munger, chair of the department, acknowledged students’ concerns and said plans are in the works to provide solutions, including more faculty hires and a revision of the curriculum. “They’re absolutely right,” he said of the criticisms. He told The Chronicle earlier this year that the number of undergraduate majors in the department has doubled since 1998, but there has been no corresponding increase in faculty. Of the 34 newly hired faculty in Arts and Sciences this year, three are within the political science department, said Carla St. John, staff assistant to the chair SEE POLISCI ON PAGE
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MICHAEL CHANG/THE CHRONICLE
Professor ofLaw Erwin Chemerinsky sounded off on Supreme Court nominations in a panel discussion Tuesday.
Dan Englander THE CHRONICLE
More than 50 undergraduate, graduate and professional students flocked to Sanford Institute of Public Policy to hear four professors weigh in on recent Supreme Court nominations. Professors touched on the difference between political and judicial ideologies, discussed the liberal-conservative balance of the court and offered their opinions on the recent Supreme Court nominees. When Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced her resignation from the court July 1, speculation raged about who President George W. Bush would choose to replace her. He first nominated John Roberts, an appeals court judge who found himself in line instead for the Chief Justice seat after former Chief Justice William Rehnquist died Sept. 3. Bush then tapped White House Counsel Harriet Miers, who withdrew her nomination last week after many liberals worried that she would let a rightwing bias seep into her judicial decisions and many Republicans questioned if she would be a reliable conservative. When Bush nominated appeals court judge Samuel Alito to fill O’Connor’s seat Monday, his judicial ideologies were already well known. Conservatives have applauded the choice and some Democratic senators are threatening to filibuster the nomination. Professors of Law Erwin Chemerinsky and Jefferson Powell sat on the panel along with Assistant Professors of Law SEE PANEL ON PAGE 9
Pre-orientation offerings to expand by
Daniel Feinglos THE CHRONICLE
DEVIKA JUTAGIR/THE CHRONICLE
With several professors taking sabbaticals and an increased student interest in the discipline, the political science department has had to make changes.
They’re in your halls, they’re in your classes, they sit next to you on the bus. Every year, about 10 percent of all incoming freshmen come to campus a weekbefore their classmates to take part in Project WILD’s mountain trip or Project BUILD’s community service program. But with the freshman class larger than ever before, administrators and students acknowledge the limited size of Duke’s preorientation programs has become a significant problem. “Last year, Project BUILD had to turn away over 50 students,” said Ryan Lombardi, assistant dean of students and director of orientation. To keep from rejecting interested students from the programs, the University plans to increase its pre-orientation options with two additional offerings: an expanded version of Project CHILD, which places students as tutors in Durham public schools, and a completely new program situated on the North Carolina coast. The coastal program, tentatively known as Coastal Waters Initiative Learning at Duke, or CWILD, would begin about one week before freshman orientation, Lombardi said. “It’s kind of a hybrid offspring of Project WILD and the programs on the coast,” Lombardi explained. “We’re looking into setting it up at our facilities at Beaufort, but the final location SEE ORIENTATION ON PAGE 7
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Project WILD is one ofthe few undergraduate pre-orientation programs offered to incoming freshmen.The University plans to expand on options for students.