Frosh Party
ms Pre-Orientation A
See how fre shmen began their Duke social lives, PAGE 3
Project Waves makes its debut in Beaufort, PAGE 5
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Fall
Sports
The Chronicle previews
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Duke's fall teams, INSIDE
The Chronicle Durham kicks off 10-year plan to halt homelessness by
Leslie Griffith THE CHRONICLE
Joining more than 200 communities nationwide, Durham announced its intention to tackle homelessness with a longterm plan in June. The “10-Year Plan to End Homelessness in Durham,” aims to prevent or eliminate homelessness by 2016 by boosting both public awareness and services. The plan, drafted by a 90member steering committee, represents not only a renewed dedication to the issue but also a major shift in strategy, said Peter Anlyan, steering committee co-chair. “The key word is ‘ending,’ and not just ‘managing,’ homelessness,” Anlyan said. To achieve that goal, the 50page plan lays out four desired outcomes: affordable permanent housing, services for the temporarily homeless, adequate
income and prevention. “We want to identify people who are on the cusp of homelessness and prevent them from
starting in that downward spiral,” Anlyan said. He does not, however, expect that prevention alone will end homelessness. “People will always be coming out of treatment centers, incarceration and mental health institutions,” Anlyan said. “They’re going to need that three-prong approach from the health community —mental services, stable living facilities and income.” A major component of that approach will be permanent supportive housing, in which community and professional services cooperate to aid SEE HOMELESS ON PAGE 28
The ihronicle speaks with a Duke graduate who has first-hand knowledge of homelessness.
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JIANGHAI
Suicide Blonde, a
HO/THE CHRONICLE
1980 s cover band, rocked out Saturday night to celebrate the opening of the $lO-million West Campus Plaza.
Plaza opens with a bang BY SIIREYA RAO THE CHRONICLE
the newest addition
After one year of anticipation—and a little grumbling—students celebrated the newly opened West Campus Plaza Saturday night. From Dance Dance Revolution competitions on the lower floor of the Bryan Center to classic ’Bos hits and a foam-filled moon bounce on the plaza, the celebration attracted hundreds of students who came to enjoy
to
landscape.
the Duke
The event kicked off a fiveweek series dubbed “Plaza 2006.” In the past year, the University has spent about $lO million to build the 40,000-square-foot structure, which administrators hope will become a new place to go on campus. Some undergraduates, including Duke Student Government President Elliott Wolf, said Saturday night’s event was sue-
cessful in getting students excited about the possibilities of the new plaza. “This is a really nice event,” said Wolf, a junior. “Time will tell if this can be sustained, but if this becomes a model of weekend activity at Duke in the center of West Campus, that’s great.” Junior Brian Ovalle saw the plaza bash as much more than just a good time. SEE PLAZA ON PAGE 12
Pluto demoted, now considered dwarfplanet BY
IZA WOJCIECHOWSKA THE CHRONICLE
“My very excellent mother just served us nine.” The mnemonic ends there as of last Thursday, when members of the International Astronomical Union voted in Prague to narrow its definition of a planet, stripping Pluto of its status as the solar system’s ninth planet. Instead, Pluto—which has been a planet since* Clyde Tombaugh disco: ered it in 1930—was reclas-/ sified as a “dwarf planet. along with the asteroid Ceres and an icy object known as U 8313, nicknamed Xena, that orbits in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune. The union’s newly established criteria maintain that a planet must orbit the sun, be large enough for gravity to push it into a round shape and “clear the neighbor-
hood around its orbit.” Pluto’s orbit over-
laps with Neptune’s, thus failing to meet the third stipulation of the definition. A dwarf planet, however, must only have a round shape and be contained with-
in the solar system. “It’s a bit like initially calling a tomato a ..vegetable, and then yupon further study, reit’s really better classified as a fruit,” Scholberg, assist professor of physics, an e-mail. “That hardly changes how tomatoes are cultivated or cooked, or how they taste. A tomato’s still a tomato, and Pluto still is what it is.” The astronomers reached their final decision after a week of debating, which itself followed years of uncertainty and lack of a concrete definition for a planet. Nonetheless, '-
SEE PLUTO ON PAGE 16