September 30, 2009

Page 1

THE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY

The Chronicle

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30,

2009

WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH YEAR, ISSUE 29

Top admins consider new Keohane wing by

Zachary Tracer THE CHRONICLE

Duke administrators have begun to discuss the construction of a fourth wing of Keohane Quadrangle, Executive Vice President Tallman Trask said Thursday. Several top administrators will present a proposal to the Board ofTrustees Saturday, asking for $75,000 to study the feasibility of a 150-bed addition to the quad, said Steve Nowicki, dean and vice provost of undergraduate education. The new building, code-named K 4, would run across the back side of the quad near Edens Quadrangle, turning the horseshoe-shaped set of buildings into a square. “I’m hoping that by adding residence space we can improve the residence model quicker and that we can piggy-back some of this into creating social dining spaces that really bring out the potential of McClendon [Tower], which has never been realized,” Nowicki said. He added that the new dormitory, first conceptualized in Duke’s Action Plan 2000, will help link Edens with the rest of West Campus. The project would also be an early piece of the New Campus plan, a long-term $5OO million effort to revitalize SEE KEOHANE ON PAGE

Plea deal discussed in Lombard case

Employee Benson dies at 26 Menwrialscholarship willhonorLoop ivorker who loved to laugh! Lindsey Rupp THE CHRONICLE

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Saber Benson, a 26-year-old employee ofThe Loop, has died from injuries he sustained when his moped crashed on campus Saturday night. Benson was hospitalized after he collided with the iron gates at 11:45 p.m. on Union Drive offTowerview Drive. Loop Owner Dennis Lane had known Benson since Benson was five years old. He was also Benson’s football coach for four years at East Chapel Hill High School where Benson played defensive and offensive line. Benson went on to play football at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C, but was injured and transferred to North Carolina State University, Lane said. “It’s part of life—you’re going to havefriends pass away, but you never can prepare for it, especially when they’re 26,” Lane said. “It seems like a week ago he was playing football for me.” Benson was not responsive when Isaac Hatcher, Benson’s roommate who worked with him at The Loop, visited him in the hospital. Benson was taken offlife support Monday, though it is unclear exactly when. “I guess they could have kept him alive as a vegetable, but that just wasn’t the kind of guy he was,” said Hatcher,

who had known Benson since the two were in kindergarten. “If they’d done that, he would have gotten a gun and shot himself—or wanted to, anyway.” The Duke University Police Department is investigating r whether Benson was trying to maneuver through the gates as they were closing when his moped collided into them. Alcohol was also found on the scene. DUPD ChiefJohn Dailey said DUPD has asked the Durham Police Department to handle the investigation of the accident scene. A Durham traffic services investigator highly trained in fatal and serious accident scenes will lead the crash investigation, said Kammie Michael, public information officer for the Durham Police Department. The investigator will also follow up on autopsy and toxicology reports to determine whether alcohol was involved, she said. Benson’s Loop co-workers described him as an outgoing, hands-on guy who loved to laugh. Nate Uhlenberg, a Loop employee who had known Benson since the sixth grade, said Benson’s accident and death have been very difficult for many of his co-workers

A Sept. 18 minute entry from a U.S. District Court proceeding indicates that former University employee Frank Lombard is seeking to negotiate a plea agreement on child sex abuse charges. According to the minute entry from a proceeding held before Magistrate Judge John Facciola ua the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, both prosecution and defense discussed a plea agreement and Lombard’s bond status at the hearing. Christopher Sheila, Lombard’s attorney, declined to comment Tuesday. Federal prosecutor Keith Becker could not immediately be reached for comment. Lombard, the former associate director for the Health Inequalities Program at the Center for Heath

SEE BENSON ON PAGE 6

SEE LOMBARD ON PAGE 6

ontheRECORD "It'd take three of you to carry [the health care bi11].... You could fit the Constitution into [a] little pamphlet."

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N.C. Republican Party Chairman Tom Fetzer on health care reform. See story page 3.

by

Will Robinson THE CHRONICLE

Men's Soccer: No Easy Go Eion gives Duke all it can handle in 2-1 win, PAGE 7


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September 30, 2009 by Duke Chronicle Print Archives - Issuu