INDEX
Emory Events Calendar, Page 2
Crossword Puzzle, Page 12
Staff Editorial, Page 10
Police Record, Page 2
Student Life, Page 13
On Fire, Page 15
THE EMORY WHEEL Since 1919
The Independent Student Newspaper of Emory University
Volume 94, Issue 28
www.emorywheel.com
Friday, January 25, 2013 DEPARTMENT CHANGES
Every Tuesday and Friday
RUN THE ROW
Committee to Review Department Changes Motion Barely Passes, Faculty Debates Merits of Looking Back By Evan Mah Editor-in-Chief By the slimmest of margins, College faculty voted in favor of an independent review committee that would investigate the decision-making process that led to the department changes announced last semester. The motion, which passed on Wednesday at the monthly faculty college meeting, set specific guidelines and clarified the original version of the resolution passed in December. The final vote passed 88 to 84. Faculty also voted to create a committee to examine faculty governance in the College and potentially recommend structural reforms. The motion, which passed almost unanimously, is a clarification of the initial motion, which originally passed in December as well. The approximately 200 professors in attendance got down to business quickly, first discussing the details of the committee that would examine faculty governance. The first faculty member to speak questioned whether the motion was too broad, believing that “many parts of the college governance are working quite well.” Some faculty members also requested that the motion be amended to specify areas of concern. Others disagreed, noting that the very point of the committee would be to determine what is “broken” and investigate “parts that may need change.” “Sometimes when you take your kids to the pediatrician, they stick a thermometer in them and say 98.6
[degrees], everything is okay,’” said one faculty member. “So for some of those things you’re saying that aren’t broken, you put the thermometer in and if the thermometer comes out normal, you move on [to] the next thing.” One faculty member pointed out that the proposed committee did not address governance issues between the College and the Laney Graduate School (LGS). The speaker questioned how “a college finance committee could eliminate graduate programs” and asked how the new committee would intersect with the Executive Council of the LGS. After some deliberation, the room voted and approved an amendment that would have the committee “review the relationship between faculty governance in the College and other governing bodies in the University, including the Laney Graduate School.” The room also voted to charge the committee with making a presentation to the full faculty in fall 2013 before the release of its full report and findings in spring 2014. The next item on the agenda aimed to set procedures for another committee that would review the “processes, procedures and criteria by which the [department changes] were reached in order to ascertain whether accepted procedural standards were followed,” according to the resolution. According to the resolution,
See FACULTY, Page 5
Emily Lin/Photo Editor
Y
esterday evening, rushees ran down Eagle Row into the fraternity houses they have selected to pledge following a closing ceremony by the Interfraternity Council in Harland Cinema. Starting on Jan. 19, the boys have attended numerous rounds at the various houses as part of the recruitment process. Here, the 21 new ZBT pledges cheer in front of their new fraternity house.
ADMINISTRATION
COLLEGE
HB 29 Would Allow Guns on Ga. Campuses Reduced Graduation Requirements Approved By Jordan Friedman Associate Editor
Since the tragedy at Newton, Conn. shook the United States on Dec. 14, the debate over gun control has made its way back into the national spotlight. In the past month alone, several state legislatures have introduced measures to either enhance or reduce gun control measures in the country. In Georgia, State Representative Charles Gregory (R-Kennesaw) intro-
GUN CONTROL SERIES
This story is part of an ongoing series regarding gun control in Georgia and the United States.
duced four bills last month that would eliminate many of the state’s current restrictions on concealed weapons. This includes House Bill (HB) 29, or the Campus Carry Act of 2013, which would allow those with permits to carry guns on both public and private colleges and universities. An indi-
vidual may obtain a permit only if he or she is 21 years of age or older, has not been convicted of a felony and has no history of drug or alcohol abuse or mental illness. The bill itself would revise Georgia’s current state law that prohibits the carrying of firearms in government buildings and school safety zones, striking colleges and universities from these two categories. In regard to government buildings, the
See STUDENTS, Page 5
ALUMNI
A DREAM
Years Later, Alum Reflects On Father Held Hostage By Harmeet Bhagrath Staff Writer
James Crissman/Asst. Photo Editor
C
ollege senior Riakeem Kelley gives MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Dobbs University Center yesterday afternoon as part of the “King Week” events. The next event will be a worship service on Sunday at 11 a.m. in the Cannon Chapel. A reception in Brooks Commons will follow the service.
SCIENCE
Study Explores Fairness in Chimps By Lydia O’Neal Staff Writer Think the common chimpanzee, or Pan troglodytes, doesn’t know how to play fair? Think again. At Emory’s Yerkes National Primate Center, post-doctoral researcher Darby Proctor and Emory professor and primatologist Frans de Waal recently discovered a preference for fairness in chimpanzees once believed to be a solely human characteristic. Proctor, a Fellowships in Research
and Science Teaching (FIRST) fellow and the study’s author, tested 20 human children between the ages of two and seven along with six adult chimpanzees by engaging both species in the Ultimatum Game, a game which the behavioral economics community once believed animals were incapable of playing. In the game, researchers pair two individuals of the same species and named one a “chooser” and the other an either passive or cooperative partner. The chooser is given the choice
between two tokens that can be exchanged for prizes — the children received stickers, while the chimpanzees received small foods. The chooser can pick either one token or the other: one would give him or her the entire reward, while the other would split the reward evenly between the two partners. When paired with cooperative partners, who were required to deliver the token of choice to those doling out rewards, both human and
See AUTHOR, Page 4
NEWS NEW EYE
OP-EDS AMBIGUITY OF
TECHNOLOGY ADDRESSES
FACULTY LETTER SUPPORTING
BLINDNESS
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DEAN
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David Levinson (’09C) has not seen or talked to his father in six years. A history major and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, Levinson is like any other highachieving alumnus of Emory. Except that his father is being held hostage off the coast of Iran. Robert Levinson, now the second longest held hostage in United States history, was a private detective and retired FBI official investigating cigarette smuggling on the Iranian Kish Island. When David and his mother, Christine, didn’t hear from him in March 2007, that’s when the family went on high alert. For the next nine months, the family was in contact with U.S. and Iranian government officials. Christine wrote a letter to Iran’s foreign minister asking permission to visit the country, according to a 2007 CNN article. The family was granted permission in September and visited three months later. According to David, the Iranian government was accommodating and helped them retrace his father’s steps in Iran. However, the trip yielded no results. Two years went by with no word on David’s father’s whereabouts. Then, in November 2010, the family received a hostage video sent to them anonymously. The video depicted a fatigued Robert saying said he was being held by a “group,” according to the Associated Press. The anonymous group sent the family five photos in April 2011 with Robert clad
STUDENT LIFE PASTA JOHN EXPOSES HIS MORE SERIOUS SIDE ... PAGE 9
in an orange jumpsuit and sporting unkempt hair. In each photo, Robert holds a sign bearing a different message. In one photo, the sign reads, “This is the result of 30 years serving for USA.” Another sign reads, “I am here in Guantanamo. Do you know where it is?” David said his family has met with the State Department and President Obama. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has even asked the Iranian government to return Robert, but Iran has denied involvement in the hostage situation, according to a 2011 BBC article. Now in an effort to revitalize the campaign to bring Robert home, on Jan. 8 of this year the family has released photos it anonymously received two years ago. David said the family hopes to redirect attention to the situation. “We feel we need to regain momentum in the case and bring the case back to the forefront of Americans’ minds and the governments’ minds,” David said. “My dad’s still out there. He’s still alive. He’s still waiting.” Although Levinson’s case has been covered by many major media organizations, including the Washington Post, BBC News and CNN, David doesn’t believe enough people know about his father. David said that he could not explain why the issue has not gained widespread attention in the media. “We need to make it so that people feel pressured to bring him home,” David said. David’s family now publicly
By Jordan Friedman Associate Editor The College will officially reduce its graduation requirement to 124 credit hours from 128 next fall because of a second faculty vote approving the change at a meeting last month, according to Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Joanne Brzinski. Current students will be “grandfathered” into the new graduation policy, meaning it will impact those enrolled in the College at the time it is implemented. According to a Nov. 1 Wheel article, this alteration coincides with the credit-hour changes that will go into effect next fall. Emory University will begin following the Carnegie Unit System, in which the number of credit hours designated for courses matches the number of “contact hours,” or the amount of time students are in the class, each week. Because the “standard” College class will be worth three credits, rather than four, the reduced requirement is an attempt to “make it a little bit easier on students,” Brzinski told the Wheel in November. Faculty approved the graduation requirement change by a nearly unanimous “voice vote” at both November and December faculty meetings, Brzinski said. In general, faculty members must approve policy changes regarding graduation and distribution requirements at two successive faculty meetings for them to take effect, as stated in Emory College’s Faculty Bylaws. The Educational Policy Committee — a group of faculty, student and committee representatives that makes decisions regarding College policy changes — proposed the alteration and approved it at the beginning of the fall semester. In addition to the College, the Goizueta Business School announced last spring that it would also be reducing its graduation credit-hour requirements to 128 from 138, as most B-School courses will be worth three credits starting next fall.
— Contact Jordan Friedman at See EXPERT, Page 5
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