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The Chronicle!
THURSDAY, MARCH 23,2006
PERSPECTIVE
THE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY
i RECRUITMENT
Schools eye minority recruitment by
Tiffany Webber THE CHRONICLE
As admissions officers at and universities across the country put the finishing touches on acceptance, waitlist and rejection letters, the debate about specialized
colleges
The step show is a popular part of the Black Student Alliance Invitational, a recruitment program for black students.
HDUKE
ONE HUNDRED AND FIRST YEAR, ISSUE 118
vs. Sll
Georgia Dome, Atlanta
•
7:10 p.m. CBS •
programs
student recruiting rages on. Although few dispute the importance of holding recruitment programs for prospective scholars, many people affiliated with higher education are beginning to reassess the value of hosting minority recruitment weekends. “Coming off of the Civil Rights Movement, there was a sense that you can’t expect [minority] students to walk into a newly integrated place and feel like they belonged there on the same terms as students who had been welcomed there forever,” said President Richard Brodhead. “That’s why theserecruitment [strategies] started.” But more than 30 years after integration, some higher education officials are questioning whether programs directed to minority students are still necessary. “There is no eternally right answer,” Brodhead said. Many schools, including SEE RECRUITMENT ON PAGE 5
ANTHONY CROSS/THE CHRONICLE
With two wins in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, head coach Mike Krzyzewki's squad advanced to the Regional semifinal.
Duke aims to avoid Sweet 16 stumble by
Gregory Beaton THE CHRONICLE
For most teams in Division I basketball, simply making the Sweet 16 is an accomplishment in and of itself. Many major-conference programs value a berth in the regional semifinals as a benchmark for a successful season. Similarly,
Officials identify lizard as cause of power loss from staff reports Monday’s power outage that affected much of West Campus and sections of the Medical Center was not caused by a construction mishap or mysterious power surge. It seems that it was caused by a lizard. The reptile was in a part of the health system when it crossed from one wire to another wire, causing an electric current to flow through its body. The connection between the two wires caused a break in the electrical circuitry that surged back to a substation. “A lot of places there are these wires that are not supposed to touch each other,” Executive Vice President Tallman Trask said. “When the lizard climbed from one wire to the other wire he connected [them], and he shorted out the switch.” University officials ascertained where the break in circuity occurred by looking at maps of the electrical system and sent technicians to examine the area, he explained. It was there that they located the guilty reptile and determined the source of the electrical failure. “They found a fried lizard on the
ground,” Trask said.
The incident was the second time in the last several years that Duke has experienced a full blackout, and an animal has been to blame both times, Trask added. In the first instance, a squirrel transmitted a current between two wires in a substation next to the health system parking lot, causing a short in the circuitry. Trask said that when Monday’s power failure occurred all of the backup systems “kicked in in a matter of nanoseconds.” “We have a fairly high-end, fairly expensive, double backup electrical system that rarely fails, and when it does it’s always these goofy lizard things,” Trask said. There were two other power disruptions last week—what Trask termed “circulation blips.” Officials are still trying to investigate what caused the blips. Trask admitted that two occurrences in one week is uncommon. “It may, in fact, have been construction but we haven’t been able to confirm that,” Trask said. “It was not necessarily plaza
construction.”
emerging mid-major programs see reaching the Sweet 16 as a statement announcing they have arrived on the national scene. For Duke, however, the Sweet 16 is old news. After cruising to wins over Southern and George Washington in Greensboro last weekend, head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s teams have reached
the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament nine consecutive years. The top-seeded Blue Devils (32-3) play fourth-seeded LSU (25-8) at 7:10 p.m. tonight in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. But while the streak of Sweet 16s is surely an accomplishment, SEE LSU ON PAGE 10