Death Penalty An N.C. court
overturns a death sentence, t re anse PAGE 3
and quest!
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Archivist A, The Chi
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The ironiidespea.iks with the _ man who holds Duke's answers, PAGE 3
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Football Duke led by 4at halftime but lost to Alabama, 30-14, Saturday, PAr£ll \
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The Chronicled Grad student could be deported Zoning for new Central hits hiccup
Tang spars with prof “ admins over conduct by
David Graham
THE CHRONICLE
Zihui Tang came to Duke in the hopes of getting her Ph.D. in history. Now she is fighting to stay in the country. Tang, who entered the Ph.D. program in Fall 2003, was dismissed by the Department of History in late June, after having been placed on probation. Tang has accused her former advisor, Associate Professor Sucheta Mazumdar, of creating an abusive and exploitative relationship, and said that her probation from the University is retaliation for lodging a complaint. If she is no longer a full-time student at Duke, Tang will lose her visa and be forced to return to China. “My case is very obvious: the advisor took advantage of my foreign status and my gender,” Tang said. “My case also put a lot of graduate and professional students in a situation where they’re scared. Their confidence in the grievance procedure has been rocked.” Tang’s experience has also put the efficacy* and transparency of that procedure under the microscope. Mazumdar, history department officials and Graduate School officials declined to comment for this article, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which prohibits the release of educationalrecords. The Office of Institutional Equity cited similar requirements for confidentiality. Tang’s grievance process began when she lodged a complaint about Mazumdar with then-Director of Graduate Studies Edward Balleisen in May 2005. Since
by
Holley Horreix THE CHRONICLE
The Durham Planning Commission voted four to seven against the University’s rezoning petition for the new Central Campus Tuesday night. The commission’s recommendation will be taken into account when City Council makes its final decision in November or December,
“This is a victory for common sense,” said John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association. The application sought to change Central’s zoning from residential to universitycollege—a classification intended to allow universides flexibility in growth while protecting the interests of neighbors. “The requested zoning district is exactly what we developed ages back to cover these universities,” said Vice Chair Deborah Giles, who supported the proposal. Debate over the rezoning proposal centered on plans for commercial spaces. The University offered to limit total retail space to 50,000 sq. ft., with no single space exceeding 20,000 sq. ft. “The University has engaged the
Graduate studentZihui Tang will find out this week if her appeal is granted and she can stay in America. then, her case has made its way up
through the DGS and the associate chair
of the history department to the associate dean and dean of the Graduate School and the Office of Institutional Equity. , It now sits with Provost Peter Lange, whose decision to reconsider her dismissal
The Chronicle spells out the sequence of events that may lead to the deportation of a Chinese student attempting to get a history PhD.
see pg. 6 _
SEE TANG ON PAGE 6
SEE CENTRAL ON PAGE 5
Apex fire has THES ranks Duke 13th in world little effect on International community Duke Adam Eaglin THE CHRONICLE
by
WOJCIECHOWSKA
BY IZA THE CHRONICLE
The approximately 16,000 residents of Apex, N.C., who were evacuated after an explosion at a chemical plant late Thursday night were allowed to return to their homes this weekend. Duke students from Apex who had returned home for fall break said they were largely unaffected by the accident. The hazardous-waste storage facility owned by Environmental Quality Co. caught fire at about 10 p.m. Thursday. Initial reports stated the explosion spewed potentially toxic chlorine gas into the air. “Apex is roughly 18 miles from Durham, and given the wind conditions Bruce Radford Apex town manager
SEE APEX ON PAGE 8
The Times Higher Education Supplement once again included Duke among the top universities in the world, placing the University 13th in its annual global rankings released last week. “It’s always nice to have these surveys and rankings sort of confirm what we know about the quality of our faculty and students,” said John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations. Duke fell from its spot in last year’s rankings, when it was placed 11th in the world. The change was less dramatic than last year’s, however, when the University rose 41 spots from 2004 to 2005. Despite its slight drop, Duke garnered attention for ranking first in the world in the “Faculty/Student” category, with a perfect score of 100. “The measure of staff-to-student ratio is intended to determine how much attention a student can hope to get at a specific institution, by seeing how well stocked it is with academic brainpower relative to the size of its student body,” said a statement on the THES website. “This is captured by SEE THES ON PAGE
5
rank: Change from last year: Rank among U.S. colleges: Faculty/student score:
100 Faculty/student rank:
Peer review score:
37
i
(the lowest of the top 35 I ranked schools accord- 1 ing to THES, right)
13 -2 10