fair tifade Crunchy 10;000 Villages store opens in Ch.apel Hill, RECESS
pearly whites
TEN
Dukies react to a study on the importance of good teeth, PAGE 5
THOUSAND
VILLAGES.
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The Tower of Camj Thought and Actic
Leveling the playing field The impact ofrace on the search for Duke's next head footballcoach by
Ben Cohen
the chronicle
Deep in record books documenting J.J. Redick’s scoring averages and the 1938 Iron Dukes’ box scores rests a conspicuous absence of fact. Duke has never employed a black head coach in any sport. For all of its record-breaking achievements, the athletics department with perhaps the foremost national reputation has a stark lack of diversity at the top of its programs. Duke is far from an exception. But in the ongoing quest to find its 21st head football coach, Duke can buck the trend. Director of Athletics Joe Alieva—who leads the committee to find Ted Roofs replacement—has the opportunity to hire a minority candidate to lead a team comprised of42 percent blackathletes in a sport that was more than 50-percent black in 2007 in Division I-A. College football is an outlier in the sporting world, which features increasingly diverse coaching ranks. In 2007, there were six black head coaches in Division I-A college football, roughly five percent of the country’s total. In the sport’s history, only 22 head coaches have been black. Almost all sources agree that Duke should hire the most qualifled candidate, regardless of skin color. But the question remains: how critically will race factor into that decision? “You make efforts to try to get [minority head coaches] at certain times, but it’s often a func-
tionof the pool,” said JohnBurness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations. “President [Richard] Brodhead has said explicitly that he intends for us to make aggressive searches, particularly in football, and expects that minority candidates will be looked at But I don’t think anyone is particularly satisfied, nor should we be, with the current situation.” Burness is not content with Duke’s stale, and national organizations like theBlack Coaches and Administrators are displeased with searches throughout the country. The problem, they believe, is that coaches of color do not receive enough interviewsand simply are not given the chance to be considered for headcoaching positions. As a prominent athletic powerhouse, though, Duke is in a uniqueposition; it could help trigger national change, said eminent dvikights lawyer Cyrus Mehri, who works to encourage diversity in sport “With Duke being as prestigious a place as it is, it really can not only quietly show leadership—which is what it’s doing now—but hopefully publicly show leadership,” Mehri said, Duke and the BCA Almost 20 years after its founding in 1988, the BCA has emerged as the watchdog of college football hiring practices, The BCA issues a report card every year grading college football SEE BLACK COACHES ON PAGE
12
Employee held up on
West
Two thieves take $5O before fleeing scene Two men robbed a Duke University staff member Tuesday night near the intersection of Union and Towerview drives on West Campus, according to a Duke University Police Department report. The victim of the robbery, an employee of the Armadillo Grill, was walking along Union Drive toward Towerview at approximately 7:30 p.m. when a vehicle flashed its lights at him from a nearby parking lot, reports said. Two men exited the vehicle, approached the staff member and demanded he empty his pockets, the victim told police. The victim gave cash to the suspects and fled the scene unharmed. The police report states that the man gave his assailants $5O in cash. After driving home a short time later, the victim reported the incident to DUPD, with the report being filed at 9:30 p.m. Police immediately searched the area without results, reports said. The suspects were described as two black males approximately five feet and 10 inches tall. One was wearing a hat and glasses. No description of the vehicle was available. Calls to DUPD were not immediately returned Wednesday.
—from staff reports
New site, similar Santorum warns ofjihadists to gossip page, by
Sean Moroney THE CHRONICLE
Addressing the threat ofIslamic jihad, formerU.S. sena-
raises by
questions Emmeline Zhao THE CHRONICLE
Another gossip queen has made her entrance. Although campusNewslol.com, a message board that launched Sunday, allows a free-exchange ofinformation among students on Duke’s campus, the purpose of the site is different from that of Juicy Campus, site creator Nick Alexander said. “It’s similar because you can post messages,” said Alexander, a junior and Chronicle columnist. “But the aim I’m going for is a lot different because it’s kind of like craigslist—if you want to carpool, sell a book, just talk about anything else—it’s like a forum.” Stephen Bryan, associate dean of students and director SEE CAMPUSNEWSIOI ON PAGE
6
tor Rick Santorum spoke in Griffith Film Theater Wednesday night to a crowd of around 200 people. “I’m here because I want to win the war,” he said
At the speech, which was followed by a question-andanswer session, Santomm, a Pennsylvania Republican, discussed the need for Americans to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to better define who is the enemy. Duke Conservative Union President David Bitner, a sophomore, said he was pleased with the event thatDCU organized. “I was particularly impressed that so many people attended the event, especially in the week before finals when so many people are busy,” he said. Santomm served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991 to J995 and the U.S. Senate from 1995 to ln the 2006 U.S. Senate elections, Democrat Bob Casey defeated Santomm by a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent of the vote —the largest margin of defeat for an incumbent in a Senate race since 1980. Former Pa. senator Rick Santorum discussed the threat of jihadists SEE SANTORUM ON PAGE 6
to America in a speech he delivered Monday night.