March 8, 2006

Page 1

towerview Pick up the March issue of the fr magazine o n stands today!

technology

/

f

sports

St§qm New video gaining room

debuts in John Hope Franklin Center, PAGE 4

rpi

—'

C v

*.

f

Senior J.J. Redick earns title of ACC Player of the Year, PAGE 11

1

1 lie Chronicle f\

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2006

ONE HUNDRED AND FIRST YEAR, ISSUE 112

THE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY

Protesters criticize firing of employee Wenjia Zhang THE CHRONICLE

by

“Housekeepers are human.” The slogan was written on a sign held up in front of the Allen Building Tuesday at a rally demanding due process for Johnny Hudson, a former custodian in Cameron Indoor Stadium who was fired Feb. 10 during his probationary period. The rally was led by Duke Organizing—a campus group “committed to changing the cultures of working, living and learning at Duke”—and Duke Students Against Sweatshops. Approximately 30 students and a handful of Duke employees attended the event. Rally participants urged University administrators to reconsider Hudson’s dismissal and set up guidelines to ensure fair firing practices during probationary periods—a trial time before employees become permanent Duke workers. Employees are often dis-

missed on ambiguous grounds during their probationary period, noted David Rice, a secondyear graduate student in the political science department. Students and employees also demanded due process so that trial employees —who cannot join a union—have a standardized procedure to file appeals against dismissals and have their cases reviewed in a timely fashion. Duke Organizing filed a petition Feb. 20 appealing Hudson’s dismissal, which was justified on grounds of bad job performance. He was fired 10 days before the end of his 90-day probationary period. Students presented Hudson’s case to those gathered at the rally and paraphrased anonymous employee testimonies that claimed the decline in Hudson’s performance was due to an increased workload after a change in supervisors. SEE HUDSON ON PAGE 6

Tenting season ends with mixed reviews by

David Graham

THE CHRONICLE

Senior Chinedu Okpukpara arrived in Krzyzewskiville an hour before the men’s basketball game against the University of

North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Saturday night. Okpukpara had

not been tenting for weeks or even sitting in the walk-up line for 48 hours, but by tip-off, he was seated in prime territory, three rows back near the UNC bench. Instead of braving the elements, he jumped in at the end of the walk-up line 10 minutes before the game began. “I saw there weren’t that many line monitors around, and so I just went to the end of the walkup line when 20 to 30 people were left,” Okpukpara said. “I was the only single in a bunch of groups, but no one stoppied me. It helped that the senior line monitors had gone in to watch the senior ceremony.” He also said several of his friends snuck into the game “just to see if it would work” and that by the time he entered, monitors were not checking

identification carefully.

TOM MENDEL/THE CHRONICLE

Although still popular as a social hub, Kville was the site of unrest at the end of the men's basketball regular season.

The confusion Saturday capped off a tenting season SEE KrVILLE ON PAGE 7

Conservative writer David Horowitz promotes his new book about academic freedom at a speech Tuesday.

Horowitz stirs up crowd in Page by

Neal Sen Gupta THE CHRONICLE

Notorious conservative author David Horowitz spoke Tuesday evening about what he deems radical liberal bias in Duke’s academic departments. The event, which was taped by C-SPAN, drew an audience of about 600 to Page Auditorium. It was in part a promotion of Horowitz’s new book, The Professors: 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America. Horowitz spoke about the need to fight “intellectual corruption” at universities such as Duke. He compared the problem of political radicals taking

over academic departments to an event “bigger than Enron.” Horowitz attacked specific Trinity College ofArts and Sciences academic programs and departments as examples of “political parties,” including the Women’s Studies Program, Program of Literature, the Department of African and AfricanAmerican Literature and the cultural anthropology department. “Large parts of this University have been subverted by radical, leftist recruiting,” Horowitz said. He pointed out that most speakers invited to campus are politically radical, noting Nor-

man Finkelstein and Harry Belafonte as examples. “I’m amazed by the number of events and courses on this campus that have the sole purpose of pressuring students into thinking that America is a racist, sexist, homophobic country that should be attacked,” Horowitz said. Horowitz criticized several Duke professors. He said Jane Gaines, the director of Duke’s Marxism in Society Program and professor literature and English, is a “film critic with no relevant expertise” in what she teaches. SEE HOROWITZ ON PAGE 8

Audience members, T-shirts blast speaker’s views by

Neal Sen Gupta THE CHRONICLE

Student groups and professors made sure David Horowitz heard their criticisms during his

speech Tuesday night

An e-mail organizing a protest of Horowitz’s appearance circulated to several student groups Tuesday several hours before Horowitz’s speech began. The e-mail was initially distributed by Associate Professor Diane Nelson of the cultural anthropology department. It suggested that students pull their shirts off at a set time during the speech “They claim [Horowitz] will ‘expose academia’.... Here are some ways we will ‘expose them,’” Nelson wrote in the e-mail, proceeding to describe how students should literally expose themselves. “I say we all wear jogbras (for ladies) and nothing (for boys) under our T-shirts and at

see protest ON

page 8

dad in shirts mocking the speaker's list of dangerous academks, students and professors protest David Horowitz's speech.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
March 8, 2006 by Duke Chronicle Print Archives - Issuu