The ChronicleThe independenT daily aT duke universiTy

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2011 ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH YEAR, ISSUE 86 www.dukechronicle.com

Nadine Fahoum strives for

coexistence, Page 7

Read what students have to say on Obama’s speech, Page 5

onTherecord“When I read his e-mail, I realized that he was right and

the rest of my education had been wrong.” —Fourth-year med student Alex Fanaroff in “Dr. Price’s Duke.” See column page 11

Admins give more details on Global MMS

STATE OF THE UNION

College students focus on socializing over studying, report says

caroline rodriguez/The chronicle

Students watch from the Old Trinity Room as President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address, which focused on innovation and the importance of American economic advancement.

by Samantha BrooksTHE CHRONICLE

President Barack Obama began his ad-dress to the American people Tuesday night with an eye on progress.

“The first step in winning the future is en-couraging American innovation,” he said.

Obama largely focused his State of the Union speech on the theme of American jobs and global economic competition, from which he laid out his strategy for tackling issues such as education, environmental ad-vancement, immigration reform and deficit reduction. He called for American citizens to embrace creativity and imagination in order to further innovation, which he said could define an ever unpredictable economy.

In an attempt to convey bipartisan civility in light of the recent shooting in Tucson, Ariz., many congressmen wore black and white rib-bons and sat side-by-side with members of op-posing parties. In the speech, the president called for future commitment to bipartisan cooperation, stating that the tragedy should remind the “American family” that progress can only be made through political synergy.

“We will move forward together, or not at all—for the challenges we face are bigger than party, and bigger than politics,” Obama said. “At stake right now is not who wins the next election—after all, we just had an election. At stake is whether new jobs and industries take root in this country or somewhere else.”

From there, Obama stressed the impor-tance of regaining the country’s economic

by Lauren CarrollTHE CHRONICLE

Administrators are actively planning for the recently-announced Global MMS pro-gram, which the Fuqua School of Business hopes will prepare students around the world with the skills needed for success in the 21st century.

Fuqua hopes to offer the Global Mas-ters of Management Studies program in several countries including China, India, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, Fuqua Dean Blair Sheppard announced at Academic Council last week. In an in-terview with The Chronicle he provided further details about the program, in-cluding that it will have a curriculum al-most identical to its Durham counterpart but with varying region-specific concen-trations.

The program, which will likely first be offered in China, is expected to begin in August 2012—coinciding with the opening of the Duke campus in China’s Kunshan Province.

Students will be required to take eight core courses in basic business dis-ciplines and four thematic courses in a chosen area of concentration, such as public policy.

For example, a Global MMS student in

by Chinmayi SharmaTHE CHRONICLE

In an ongoing debate about the value of the under-graduate experience, a recent report suggested that at many colleges, a prevalent social scene comes at the cost of education.

Recent publications have said this generation’s college students prioritize socializing over studying in the academ-ic spectrum—spending 75 percent of their time sleeping or socializing and only 16 percent in class or studying. Stu-dents spend their remaining time eating and participating in extracurricular activities, the study reported.

With the price of a college education constantly ris-ing, many wonder whether the gains of an undergraduate education are worth the cost. For many Dukies, however, the college experience is not as black and white as the study portrays.

“It seems that many people are coming to college for the sake of spending four years doing something they think they’re supposed to do,” said freshman Michael Oli-ver. “Education does not mean taking classes for the sake of taking classes or joining a career track because it’s easier than taking risks with your future career.... And we defi-

nitely shouldn’t live from frat party to frat party.”The findings about typical college schedules were

featured in a book that was published this month titled “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Cam-puses,” which interviewed more than 3,000 full-time col-lege students from 29 campuses nationwide. Throughout their four years in college, the participants of the study took a learning assessment test, a standardized exam that gauged students’ critical thinking, analytical reasoning and writing skills.

The study reports that 45 percent of students showed no significant gains in learning after their first two years, and that 36 percent showed little change after the full four years. The authors, Richard Arum and Josipa Roska, con-cluded that the trend is due to a collective shift in atten-tion from educational pursuits to social endeavors.

“Compared to past generations, the education system seems to have become much more ends-oriented, and par-tially due to cultural self-confidence we no longer feel the academic urgency our parents did to compete globally,” said freshman Andy Chu. phoTo illusTraTion by addison corriher

A recent study has shown that college students in the United States today spend 75 percent of their time sleeping or socializing.

SEE obama ON PAGE 5SEE mms ON PAGE 12

SEE learning ON PAGE 12

Obama emphasizes innovation, cooperation between parties

2 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2011 ThE ChRoNiClE

coming soon

The Chronicle’s Spring Menu Guide inserted into the newspaper on Friday, Feb. 11

“ ”

worldandnation Today:

4327

Wednesday:

4828

cairo, egypt — in the largest protest in egypt in years, thousands of anti-gov-ernment demonstrators Tuesday called for the end of president hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule, a cry inspired by the fall of an arab dictator in Tunisia.

by late Tuesday night, some 15,000 pro-testers were encamped in cairo’s Tahrir square, saying they had no plans to leave, as supporters brought blankets, food and water to sustain them. among their de-mands, posted online and circulated by activists on Twitter, were a call for Muba-rak’s immediate “abdication of power.’’

according to the associated press, a large security force moved in around 1 a.m. Wednesday, arresting people, beating some, chasing others into side streets and filling the square with clouds of tear gas in an effort to clear the square. Many of the protesters said they were publicly de-nouncing Mubarak’s rule for the first time.

WashingTon — president obama and his party may have suffered a historic de-feat in november’s midterm elections, but in his state of the union address Tuesday night, obama was anything but on the de-fensive.

his speech was most notable not for the nods he made to the changed political bal-ance or the issues that cost the democrats their majority in the house and that shaved their majority in the senate—although he did do that. More striking was his effort to frame the coming debates over spending and the role of government in ways that are designed to put republicans on the defense as the fights begin.

although this was a speech long on policy and big ideas, it was a political ar-gument as well. obama’s address, a call for the nation to win the future, was an effort to move the debates that framed the election to a different place.

Obama takes firm stance even after midterm results

Art is born of humiliation.— W.H. Auden

brendan hoffMan/blooMberg neWs

Peter King, R-N.Y., has called for a series of hearings to discover whether or not certain members of Long Island’s Islamic Center may be involved in terrorist activity. The House hearings, scheduled to begin in February, have simultaneously raised fear and anger within the Muslim community. These congressional investigations indicate that the effects of 9/11 continue to emanate in powerful ways.

“severe mental illness is more prevalent among college students now than it was a decade ago, according to a new study by the american psychological association.This conclusion is not new, as the release by apa states, “the data support what col-lege mental health professionals have noted for some time.”

— From The Playgroundplayground.chronicleblogs.com

2011 MLK Packaging Event southern high school, 4-8p.m.

Help NCCU and Southern High School work towards the goal of packaging 50,000 meals in one

night. Refreshments provided.

Diversity Networking Dinner Von canon rooms, 7-9p.m.

The Career Center’s Diversity Team is hosting a dinner de-signed to connect Duke students

to employers seeking diversity.

Duke Basketball vs. Clemson cameron indoor, 7-10p.m.

Come out and cheer on the Duke women’s basketball team at Cameron Indoor Stadium as they

take on the Clemson Tigers.

Tunisian protest inspires similar action in Egypt

onschedule...

onthe web

TODAY IN HISTORY0066: 5th recorded perihelion

passage of Halley’s Comet.

CorrectionThe Jan. 25 story “Semi-finalist pool shows little diversity” incorrectly stated that only

one of last year’s Young Trustee semi-finalists was affiliated with Duke Student Government. Three semi-finalists last year had DSG connections. The Chronicle regrets the error.

ThE ChRoNiClE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2011 | 3

by Cecilia KangTHE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — With a wave of new smartphones and tablet computers threatening to overwhelm wireless networks, the Federal Communications Commission is preparing to take another aggressive step to ease the grow-ing capacity crunch.

On Wednesday, the agency is expected to grant a crucial waiver to Reston, Va.-based LightSquared that would pave the way for the firm to create a mobile net-work offering affordable broadband service based on satellite signals.

LightSquared, backed by billionaire Philip Falcone and his Harbinger Capital hedge fund, would be a rare new entrant to the U.S. wireless market, in which six out of 10 subscribers rely on broadband networks run by AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

FCC officials say they see LightSquared’s proposal as a way to spur competition in the sector and have already granted an overall operating license to the firm.

“This is a promising opportunity to promote mobile broadband,” said a FCC senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the waiver had not been formally approved. “LightSquared would be a new competitor and entrant into mobile broadband with new sources of capital and a new kind of business model that consumers find appealing.”

If granted, the waiver would allow LightSquared to provide wireless broadband access without also having to sell satellite service. Such an exemption is key to Light-Squared’s ability to attract business customers who desire Web access but don’t want to spend extra to lease satellite connections.

LightSquared’s proposal, however, has met with op-position from Global Positioning System operators and federal agencies, who have argued that the firm’s service could knock out their signals. The FCC says that Light-squared would be expected to resolve any concerns about GPS interference.

“We are requiring that the process be completed to the FCC’s satisfaction before LightSquared offers com-mercial service under the waiver,” according to the FCC official.

If granted, the waiver would follow other recent FCC moves aimed at freeing airwaves.

Earlier this month, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the agency would push to redeploy television broad-casters’ unused airwaves to meet exploding wireless de-

mand that has been fueled by the surging popularity of iPads, Droids and other must-have handhelds.

For now, LightSquared does not plan to offer service directly to consumers. Instead, it would lease space on its network to a range of companies, such as Apple and Wal-Mart, that might want to offer wireless devices under their own brands.

For some consumers, the plan could spell the end of long service contracts. And the FCC likes the idea of more options for wireless users, who have increasingly com-plained of billing confusion and penalties for leaving their contracts early. The plan could also enable gadgetmakers to break free from exclusive partnerships with the carriers that sell their devices.

“Lightsquared has several important arguments in its favor,” said Rebecca Arbogast, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. “We understand the [GPS] interference issues are real and complex, but may be resolvable.”

Lightsquared says filtering technology can be used to pre-vent interference with GPS service, and an FCC task force studying the issue is optimistic a resolution can be found.

“We have common interests here with the GPS com-munity and want to work with them,” said Jeff Carlyle, an executive vice president at Lightsquared. “Devices on our network will have GPS technology, so why wouldn’t we want to make sure it works?”

GPS providers, however, doubt that filtering technology will be enough and have presented studies and tests to the FCC that show interference.

“Not only us, but other government agencies have strong concerns of interference potential,” said F. Michael Swiek, executive director of the U.S. GPS Industry Coun-cil. “That should be enough caution to say let’s take a deep breath, let’s not rush down that road.”

The departments of Defense, Transportation and Homeland Security have all voiced concerns about pos-sible GPS disruptions, and earlier this month, Commerce Department assistant secretary Lawrence Strickling wrote to Genachowski, saying LightSquared’s proposal needs more time to be examined.

Slowing down the process is exactly what the FCC and LightSquared want to avoid, analysts say. LightSquared told the FCC it would commit $20 million for interference tests.

The FCC’s decision on the waiver comes at a critical time for LightSquared, Falcone and his backers at Harbin-ger, who together have sunk more than $2.9 billion into the venture and are facing pressure from investors to pro-duce returns on the broadband investment.

With more than $1 billion in debts and a $7 billion com-mitment by Nokia to build out the ground network, Light-Squared has promised investors and regulators to build a network that will cover up to 100 million Americans by the end of 2012 and 260 million by 2016.

FCC taking another step to free airwaves

“We have common interests here with the GPS community and want to work with them. Devices on our network will have GPS technology, so why wouldn’t we want to make

sure it works?” — Jeff Carlyle,

a Lightsquared executive vice president

4 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2011 ThE ChRoNiClE

Wednesday, january 2611 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Bryan Center , main level

2011

Questions? Call 919-684-4304

by Craig WhitlockTHE WASHINGTON POST

The number of U.S. troops killed by roadside bombs in Afghanistan soared by 60 percent last year, while the number of those wounded almost tripled, new U.S. military statistics show.

All told, 268 U.S. troops were killed by the improvised ex-plosive devices, or IEDs, in 2010, about as many as in the three previous years combined, according to the figures obtained by The Washington Post. More than 3,360 troops were injured, an increase of 178 percent over the year before.

Military officials said an increase in attacks was expected, given the surge in U.S. and NATO troops, as well as the in-tensified combat. Even so, the spike comes despite a fresh wave of war-zone countermeasures, including mine-clear-ance machines, fertilizer-sniffing dogs and blimps with so-phisticated spy cameras.

The U.S. military has struggled for years to find an anti-dote to the homemade explosives. IEDs - concocted primarily of fertilizer and lacking metal or electronic parts that would make them easier to detect - are the largest single cause of casualties for U.S. troops, by a wide margin.

Army Lt. Gen. Michael Oates, the director of a Pentagon agency dedicated to combating the bombs, noted that the per-centage of IED attacks that have inflicted casualties - on U.S., NATO and Afghan forces, as well as Afghan civilians - has actu-ally declined in recent months, from 25 percent last summer to 16 percent in December, according to U.S. military statistics.

“My main concern is driving these effective attacks down,” he said. “We’re enjoying success there, and I do believe we’re going to continue to reduce [the enemy’s] effectiveness.”

Oates and other military officials have emphasized

US roadside bomb casualties skyrocket in Afghanistan

Senate nears OK of filibuster changeby Paul Kane

THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — The Senate edged closer Tuesday to resolving a standoff over the chamber’s arcane rules after leaders presented a set of modest changes designed to satisfy a group of junior Demo-crats who are pushing to dramatically revamp the filibuster process.

In separate huddles, Democrats and Republicans considered several proposals that are designed to more quickly approve noncontroversial legislation and more smoothly confirm lower-level nominees to federal agencies.

“I think we have a way to proceed forward,” Sen-ate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told report-ers, a position that GOP leaders echoed. “We’re making good progress,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

The leaders have negotiated a small set of changes to rules that will require a couple of days to resolve, ac-cording to lawmakers and aides.

The key proposals would reform the practice of “secret holds,” which let a single lawmaker de-lay even the most noncontroversial provisions; al-low for hundreds of junior nominees to agencies to be confirmed without a floor vote, rather than be slowed by the logjam of the more than 1,000 posi-tions that now require full Senate votes; and forbid the minority to force Senate clerks to read full legis-lative amendments, a tactic rarely used but one that Republicans temporarily forced during the 2009

health-care debate.This comes in reaction to a broader proposal

from Sens. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., both elected in 2008. Their key idea was a “talking filibuster”: If the majority failed to get 60 votes, the minority would have to hold the floor with an old-fashioned “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”-style filibuster. Once the minority no longer had speakers to hold the floor, the Senate would move toward a final vote.

Such a proposal was considered too much change by all Republicans and many Democrats, particularly veteran Democrats who are fearful of altering rules now that would lessen their powers if they lose the ma-jority in two years. “That’s part of the minority’s right, to extend the debate,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., a 32-year veteran who supports more modest steps to alter the rules.

Junior Democrats also failed in their effort to win a change in their party’s internal rules that grant committee chairmanships based on seniority. They were pushing for full-fledged internal elections simi-lar to those used in the House. That was rejected, according to senators, and instead they are likely to approve an unusual new rule: The most senior Democrat on the committee would have to stand for a secret-ballot election before his or her colleagues, but no junior member would be allowed to chal-lenge the senior senator.

In this fashion, seniority would still rule the day, but committee chairmen would be informed of how much displeasure there was with their perfor-mance.

Udall’s most far-reaching idea is a provision that Democrats could just change the rules in a simple majority vote, despite provisions in the chamber’s standing rules requiring a two-thirds majority to al-ter the rules. Senior Democrats, such as Reid and Levin, believe that such a unilateral change in the

SEE filibuster ON PAGE 6 SEE casualties ON PAGE 6

“That’s part of the minority’s right, to extend the debate.”

— Carl Levin, U.S. Senator

ThE ChRoNiClE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2011 | 5

Duke University Schoolof Nursing

307 Trent DriveRoom 1014

Durham, NC 27710

Presents

The Fourth Annual Global Health Lecture

Thursday, February 3, 20114:30pm – 6:00pm

(Reception immediately following in Café DUSON)

Duke University School of NursingOffice of Global and Community Health Initiatives

Presents

The Fourth Annual Global Health Lecture

Thursday, February 3, 20114:30pm – 6:00pm

(Reception immediately following in Café DUSON)

2011 Lecturer:Russell Porter

Coordinator, Haiti Task Team

U.S. Agency forInternational Development

This event is FREE and open to the public, however, registration is required. To register go to www.nursing.duke.edu. The deadline for registration is January 31, 2011.

For more information contact Belinda Wisdom @ 919-684-9554 or via email: belinda.wisdom@duke.edu.

All photos provided courtesy of US Agency for International Development. All Rights Reserved.

Duke University School of NursingOffice of Global and Community Health Initiatives

Duke University Schoolof Nursing

307 Trent DriveRoom 1014

Durham, NC 27710

“USAID in Haiti: One Year After the

Earthquake… A Vision for the Future”

Co-sponsors

OBAMA from page 1

by Matt BarnettTHE CHRONICLE

Students gathered Tuesday in the Old Trin-ity Room to watch President Barak Obama’s State of the Union address. The viewing party was organized jointly by Duke Political Union, Duke College Republicans and Duke Demo-crats. In an astounding act of bipartisanship, students of all political affiliations answered the questions of The Chronicle’s Matt Barnett.

“I thought [Obama] did a good job trying to reconcile two very different opin-ions, but I think there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed. I would have liked to hear more about the health care plan and more about the deficit, but I think it’s go-ing to take a while for the American people to decide what they really think about it, and we have a long way to go.”

—freshman Alissa Wall, a member of DCR

“I thought it was very optimistic. I think that he glossed over some details, but I do hope he follows the trajectory of the speech.”

—junior Taylor Callobre, who sometimes attends Duke Dems events

“I think it was wonderful. I think it was innovative and sharp. I took a lot away from it. I think it gave us a sense of what we can do as individuals to improve the country to move us all forward, together.”

—freshman Marcus Benning

“I thought that it was a good speech. I thought that he highlighted education, innovation and infrastructure as the three main things that we need to work

on. He gave a firm blueprint.... The whole thing was centered on [America] having a stronger economy. I thought that his speech last year was much better.”

—sophomore Charles West, a member of the National Association for the Advance-

ment of Colored People

“I thought he kind of got back in the hang of the speaking that I remember him for from when he campaigned. It was very moving. I was actually talking to some of my friends around me that were Re-publican, and they were saying that they were actually impressed with him. Hope-fully he’ll get back to his goal of bipartisan cooperation—the tone he struck after the Tucson tragedies. It was unifying in some sense, and it was inspirational, as well.”

—sophomore Colin Baker, a registered independent

“I thought Obama’s speech was very good. He definitely had a ‘bend-dont-break’ attitude towards domestic legisla-tion for the upcoming year. I think that’s definitely a risky move trying to work with the Republicans because it hasn’t worked for the past few years, but it definitely is optimistic and promising and uplifting, so I enjoyed that. I want to see how his words actually play out in actions.”

—freshman Eli Kozin, a member of Duke Dems

“I think it’s good that someone orga-nized [the watch party], and I think it’s cool that all the political groups are to-gether to do this.”

—sophomore Sarah Van Name, who considers herself liberal

StateoftheUnionsoundoffcompetitive edge and acknowledged the way in which employment opportunities have changed in the past three decades. At a time when American unemployment is hovering at approximately 9.4 percent while econo-mies in countries such as India and China are booming, the president said he hoped for the country to reach a new level of devel-opment and research. He called for the pres-ent generation’s “Sputnick moment,” which he hopes to achieve through proposed in-vestments in biomedical research, informa-tion technology and clean energy technol-ogy. He noted that the country must “break [its] dependence on oil with biofuels and become the first country to have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.”

Obama also presented his strategy for de-creasing the deficit and maximizing tax dol-lars. His plan is to impose a five-year freeze on nonmilitary discretionary spending, which he said would involve cuts in expendi-tures in places such as the military and com-munity action programs but also reduce the deficit by $400 billion over the next decade.

“Now, most of the cuts and savings I’ve proposed only address annual domestic spending, which represents a little more than 12 percent of our budget,” he ex-plained. “To make further progress, we have to stop pretending that cutting this kind of spending alone will be enough. It won’t.”

Outside of his strategic focus on eco-nomic rejuvenation, there were many is-sues the president chose not to address, particularly gun control, Social Security and Medicare. The president also only briefly addressed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but noted his intentions to bring troops in both countries home.

“This year, our civilians will forge a lasting partnership with the Iraqi people,

while we finish the job of bringing our troops out of Iraq,” he said. “America’s commitment has been kept —the Iraq War is coming to an end.”

Obama added that he hoped the war in Afghanistan would result in an “en-during partnership” with the country through empowering its people.

On campus, students gathered for a watch party organized by the Duke Political Union, Duke Democrats and Duke College Republicans in the West Union Building.

President of Duke Democrats Ben Bergmann, a senior, said that although he thought the speech went well, he found nothing in it to be surprising.

“I think it was the speech everyone ex-pected him to give in light of the new re-ality in Congress,” Bergmann said. “This was the first speech of the 2012 [presi-dential] campaign. I think he tried hard to move on from the divisiveness that was created by health care.”

Indeed, in his brief acknowledgement of the health care reform bill, the presi-dent said he was open to addressing the concerns of dissenters.

“Let me be the first to say that anything can be improved,” Obama said. “If you have ideas about how to improve this law by making care better or more affordable, I am eager to work with you. We can start right now by correcting a flaw in the legisla-tion that has placed an unnecessary book-keeping burden on small businesses.”

Duke College Republicans Chair Ste-phen Bergin, a senior, said he also found the speech to be within his expectations and noticed the president’s efforts to ap-peal to moderate voters.

“There was nothing particularly re-markable about it,” Bergin said. “I’m surprised that [Obama] didn’t [mention gun control laws], but at the same time, he’s not looking to start that fight now.”

6 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2011 ThE ChRoNiClE

Arts.News.Click to buy photos.

www.dukechronicle.com(Click on any photo slideshow)

orphotos.dukechronicle.com

rules would fundamentally alter the chamber and would result in an even more forceful rules change by Re-publicans whenever they reclaim the majority.

Because of that fear, some major unions and abortion rights groups have mounted a behind-the-scenes ef-fort to scuttle the Udall-Merkley pro-posal, which has support from other ranks of the liberal coalition such as MoveOn. “We have a longer range perspective on this. . . .We will need the filibuster to protect our core in-terests,” said one union official, re-questing anonymity to talk about the liberal division on the issue.

Udall and Merkley are taking an approach that junior Republicans took during their long tenure in the majority from 1995 to 2007, during which they held power for all but 18 months. The Democrats say their dis-tinction is that the chamber’s rules can be changed at the start of each new Congress, on the first day that new senators are sworn in, as op-posed to the unsuccessful 2005 effort by the Senate GOP to change rules midyear.

A final consolation that is going to be offered to the younger Democrats is a vote on some of their proposals, but Republicans and senior Democrats ex-pect to allow that vote only if it is set in the traditional sense that a two-thirds majority is required for it be consid-ered successful.

figures showing that IEDs killed fewer troops in the NATO-led coalition last year than in 2009 - a slight decline, from 447 to 430.

A further examination of those num-bers, however, shows that casualty rates among U.S. troops have skyrocketed as they have taken over responsibility from European allies for fighting in south-ern Afghanistan, where resistance from insurgents has been most fierce. Mean-while, casualty rates among allies have dropped.

Afghan insurgents planted 14,661 IEDs last year, a 62 percent increase over 2009 and more than three times as many as the year before.

Army Col. George Shuplinkov, chief of counter-IED programs for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, said he is guardedly optimistic that the number of bombs has crested, after reaching a “high-water mark” last summer.

“I think this [past] year we stopped the momentum,” he said in a telephone inter-view. “We will know next spring. If it starts spiking back up in May or June, we’ll have to reassess.”

Oates predicted that the overall num-ber of bomb attacks would not increase significantly this year. But he said it is un-realistic to expect the military to eliminate the threat as long as the Afghan insurgen-cy persists.

“The narrative has been that we’re losing the IED fight in Afghanistan, and that’s not accurate,” he said. “The whole idea isn’t to destroy the network. That’s maybe impossible. It’s to disrupt them.”

The bomb attacks have risen steadily since 2005, when the Taliban began copy-

ing tactics used by insurgents in Iraq.The Pentagon created Oates’ agen-

cy, the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), in 2006 to coordinate efforts among the armed services. With an an-nual budget of about $3.5 billion, it is supposed to speed the deployment of counter-IED programs to Iraq and Af-ghanistan.

Critics - including members of Con-gress, the Government Accountability Of-fice and some military officers - have said that JIEDDO in the past moved too slowly and wasted money on unproved technolo-gies. Such concerns took on new urgency in December 2009, when President Ba-rack Obama announced an expansion of the Afghan war and deployed 30,000 ad-ditional troops.

Around the same time, Defense Secre-tary Robert Gates created a separate high-level task force - led by Marine Lt. Gen. John Paxton and Ashton Carter, the Pen-tagon’s chief weapons buyer - to rush even more counter-IED equipment to Afghani-stan to coincide with the troop increase.

One result has been a blanketing of the Afghan skies with blimps.

The white helium-filled airships, also known as aerostats, are outfitted with spy cameras that can track movements as they hover 2,000 feet above ground. The U.S. and Israeli militaries have used them for years, but only a handful were operating in Afghanistan, primar-ily over Kabul, when the troop increase began.

Since then, the Pentagon has shipped 60 more to the war zone and expects to double that total this year. It also plans to equip the blimps with a new spy-camera technology, known as Wide-Area Airborne Surveillance, which is designed to focus multiple sensors on an entire village si-multaneously.

Cameras now on the blimps have a range of 20 miles and can zoom in on people and locations, day or night. Video is transmitted to operators on the ground who steer the airships with joysticks.

“It just provides a level of situational awareness that otherwise wouldn’t be there,” Carter said in an interview. He said the blimps also provide a deterrent: They are easily visible to Afghans on the ground, who can never be sure whether they are be-ing tracked.

Defense officials said they do not have data that can measure the blimps’ effective-ness, although Carter said he has received anecdotal reports of airships catching in-surgents burying IEDs.

Air Force Col. Scott Murray, who served as the U.S. military’s chief of intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance opera-tions in Afghanistan until this month, said airborne spy cameras are more useful to detect patterns of movement that can pro-vide information about how insurgent net-works function.

In addition to the blimps, he said, the military is relying on a range of surveillance technologies to gather intelligence about bombs and bomb builders. The equipment includes high-flying Global Hawk drones as well as cameras mounted on a stick, which foot patrols can use to peer into culverts and under bridges.

The U.S. military has increased the number of teams that clear roadside bombs along highways and other routes from about a dozen a year ago to 75 today. The teams are equipped with hand-held drones that are about the size of model airplanes and can look for bombs around corners or over hills.

Even with all the technology, military of-ficials said the best method for detecting buried bombs has proved to be old-fash-ioned: a dog’s nose.

FILIBUSTeR from page 4 CASUALTIeS from page 4

dukechronicle.com

by Tom GierynTHE CHRONICLE

Although the husky may be the most feared animal in women’s college basketball, it’s critical to remember that a tiger can still maul you if you’re not paying attention.

So even with the No. 2 Connecticut Huskies loom-ing less than a week away, the No. 3 Blue Devils (19-0, 5-0 in the ACC) will keep their focus on tonight’s 7 p.m. contest against the Clemson Tigers (9-12, 2-4) at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Duke stands as the last unbeaten team in women’s col-lege hoops, and its 19-0 start is the fourth time in school history that it has won its first 19 games. This early success bodes well for the last Blue Devils: The 2006-07 team blew straight past 19-0 to win their first 30 games and reach the Sweet 16, and two other Duke teams to have started 19-0 reached the Final Four. Still, the players aren’t focused on the zero in the loss column.

“The media are the only people that talk about us being undefeated,” senior Krystal Thomas said. “To us, we have

so much work to do, we have so many things to get better, so that’s not even something that we think about.”

Clemson, by contrast, has had an especially rough time of late, winning just three of its last 11 games. But seven of those 11 contests have been played against ranked op-ponents, so taking on a top-tier opponent will be nothing new for rookie head coach Itoro Coleman’s squad.

The Tigers nonetheless have the talent to represent a threat to Duke—they boast three double-digit scorers to the Blue Devils’ one. Senior guards Sthefany Thomas, who averages 12.6 points per game, and Kirstyn Wright, who averages 11.6 points, comprise a dynamic backcourt duo while 6-foot-3 center Shaniqua Pauldo chips in 10.3 points and 4.7 rebounds per contest. Only Jasmine Thomas aver-ages over 10 points per game for Duke.

The Tigers will also test the Blue Devils’ perimeter defense, as they lead the ACC in 3-point shooting at 35.4 percent.

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Head coach Joanne P. McCallie said Duke “gave away 20 minutes” against N.C. State, but was inspired by the second half comeback.

woMeN’S baSketball

SEE w. basketball ON PAgE 8

SEE fahoum ON PAgE 7

BRIDGING THE DIVIDENADINE FAHOUM’S FIGHT FOR COEXISTENCE

by Alex KrinskyTHE CHRONICLE

In Israel, it can be easy to choose a side. In the volatile country strained by the tension between Arabs and Jews, some choose to hate.

But Duke tennis standout Nadine Fahoum is an Israeli that does not hate. As an Arab growing up in Haifa, Fahoum was exposed to the politi-cal discord and periodic violence inherent to the conflict. Thanks to Nadine’s parents, however, she was given the opportunity to understand the other side.

“We don’t think about coexistence, we just live it,” Fahoum said. “It’s not something that my fam-ily has to think too much about. We just do it. It’s normal, that’s how it should be.”

Nadine’s mother, Wafa Zoabi Fahoum, a law-yer by trade, was formerly the head of Beit Hage-fen, a non-profit organization in Haifa that works toward improving relations between Arabs and Jews. She and her husband, Anan, made the un-usual decision to send their daughter to the Reali Hebrew School, rather than choosing a school predominantly composed of Arab students. When Nadine enrolled, she was the only Arab student there.

Consequently, from a young age Nadine was completely surrounded by Jewish people. And even though her family had many Arab friends, most of Nadine’s friends were Jewish kids.

“I never noticed it,” Nadine said. “When I was with Jewish people, I felt welcome.... All the time I heard both sides. I heard the Jewish side, and I heard the Arab side. And I’m somewhere in the

middle trying to decide what’s right and what’s wrong. When you hear everything, it’s easier for you to see the whole picture.”

At the age of nine, Nadine began playing ten-nis at the Haifa Tennis Center where she was, once again, the only Arab. She was also the most talented athlete. Under the tutelage of her first coach Eli Tzarfati, Nadine won her first national championship at the age of 11, competing almost entirely against Jewish opponents.

“I knew for people to actually see me I had to be the best in the country,” Nadine said. “Other-wise nobody was going to look at me. No matter who you are or what you are, you have to be the best for people to notice you. It’s tougher for an Arab person to be noticeable because we are the minority.”

Two years after her championship Nadine began attending Wingate Academy, a sports-centric school outside of Tel Aviv that provided exceptional amenities and opportunities for its athletes. Every day, Nadine drove an hour from Haifa to Netanya to practice with the best men’s and women’s tennis players in Israel.

Nadine was dominant on the court, earning a spot on the Israeli national team each year from 2003-2008. She was an Arab representing the Jew-ish state of Israel. But despite this honor, she still was profiled and screened more intensely than her Jewish teammates.

Apart from her experiences with airport security, though, Nadine was generally not

SEE fahoum ON PAgE 8

graphiC by addison Corriher/the ChroniCle

8 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2011 ThE ChRoNiClE

discriminated against in her everyday life. She always felt that other Israelis deserved to experience her peaceful co-existence with both Arabs and Jews, and so off the court Nadine continued to work for the cause. As a member of the Freddie Krivine Foundation, which her parents were both actively involved with, Nadine taught tennis to both Jewish and Arab children together.

“Very few people had this path,” Na-dine said. “I’m very fortunate that my par-ents sent me to a Jewish school. Hopefully many other people will have this oppor-tunity.”

While Na-dine’s Jewish friends graduated from high school and began their mandatory ser-vice in the Israeli army, Nadine was conflicted with the decision of whether to continue her schooling or turn professional. Just six weeks before school started in the United States, Nadine rushed through the SATs and her application and was accepted to Old Dominion University.

In the United States, Nadine was no longer recognized as the Arab tennis player, and there were no spectators watching her break barriers for the next generation of Arab athletes in Israel. The pressure to promote coexistence, along with the anxiety over turning pro-fessional, melted away at Old Domin-

ion, and her performance on the court reaped the benefits.

“To her, it’s just a tennis match,” Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “She doesn’t put the whole world on her shoulders when she walks on the court. The situations that she’s been in and her family’s been in, she keeps things in perspective very well.”

Nadine was dominant during her three-year tenure as a Monarch. As a freshman, she was a Colonial Athletic Association Co-Rookie of the Year, and then was named to the CAA First Team in both singles and doubles as a sophomore. In her final year at Old Dominion, Nadine was voted CAA

Co-Player of the Year.

“Nadine has a lot of self-disci-pline,” said her brother Fahoum Fahoum, who also attended the Reali Hebrew School, played tennis at Wing-ate Academy and currently plays at Old Dominion. “I learned from her

to work hard and appreciate your achieve-ments, but keep your head down to earth. There’s always room to improve.”

Nadine decided after her junior year she wanted to improve elsewhere, and after assessing her possibilities, she be-came the first senior transfer in history to join the Duke women’s tennis team. Ash-worth explained that not only did she fit in academically, but she was also already familiar with several of the girls through junior tennis competitions. The players were confident she would be an asset and a team-oriented player.

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The key to the game, though, could be momentum. Both teams are coming off emotional games: Duke rallied from a 20-point deficit against N.C. State Sunday to win by one, while Clemson garnered its first overtime win of the year the same day when it defeated Wake Forest, 77-73. The Blue

Devils are motivat-ed to demonstrate that their first-half struggles against the Wolfpack were a fluke.

“You can’t help but be in-credibly inspired by that second half, something that was special in its own right,”

head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “But also you’re totally motivated, because you’re wondering why you gave away 20

minutes.”Thomas agreed with her coach. “We showed for 20 minutes how bad we

can play, and then we showed for 20 min-utes how resilient we can be,” she said. “So we’re trying to match the second half from the N.C. State game, and carry that resiliency all the way out. We don’t want to be at any more 20-point deficits.”

McCallie thinks her team needs more consistency if it hopes to continue im-proving.

“I think it’s all about everybody go-ing after their role, and fulfilling their role, and not taking games off,” she said. “We’ve had too many people take certain games off, and that’s led to some predica-ments, so to speak.”

For McCallie, though, it’s not about the minutes her team “gave away” against N.C. State, or about the upcoming show-down with Connecticut. All that matters is getting the next victory.

“It’s about the chase,” she said. “It’s about chasing after what we can be.”

“It’s tough for Jews and Arabs to forget. They rely on his-

torical things. You just have to start new—we are at this point now, and we have to

solve it.” — Nadine Fahoum

If you can’t make it to Duke’s game against Clemson, check out our live blog of the

contest:sports.chronicleblogs.

com

MOREONLINE

faHouM from page 7

Caroline rodriguez/the ChroniCle

Nadine fahoum, who recently won her 100th career match, grew up as an arab in Israel before coming to the u.S.

It didn’t hurt that she was gifted with a racket in her hand. After just two match-es this season, Nadine has picked up her 100th career win and helped a promising Blue Devil squad jump to a 2-0 start.

“There’s not a shot that she can’t hit,” Ashworth said. “A lot of girls are very one-dimensional, but she brings so many dimensions and so much depth to her game that it’s hard to play against her, and we saw that... when she was at Old Dominion.”

Depending on her performance this year, Nadine will once again have to de-cide if she wants to turn professional or

continue her studies in graduate school. But regardless of her choice, she will con-tinue to play tennis because she loves the sport, and she will continue to fight for coexistence in Israel because the cause is close to her heart.

“It’s tough for Jews and Arabs to for-get,” Nadine said. “They rely on historical things. You just have to start new—we are at this point now, and we have to solve it. Don’t look back because it’s never going to be solved this way. You just have to work from this point on how to solve it…. You don’t have to agree, you just have to live peacefully with each other.”

w. baSketball from page 7

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the chronicle what obama should have talked about:

job creation... oh, wait: ................................................ twei, lincolndefinitely needed more talk of the high speed rail: ... dough, ruppdumber college kids: ............................................................... julianthe axis of evil: ......................................................................... drewlegalizing it: ......................................................... andy, mr. comfortgetting job done on time: .......................................c-rod, fraddisanbetter immigration reform:...................................................... xtinaother stuff: .................................................................................alemBarb Starbuck liked the tea bagger response: ......................... Barb

Student Advertising Manager: .........................................Amber SuAccount Executives: ............. Cort Ahl, Phil deGrouchy, Will Geary,

Claire Gilhuly, Gini Li, Ina Li, Spencer Li,Christin Martahus, Ben Masselink,

Emily Shiau, Mike Sullivan, Kate ZeligsonCreative Services Student Manager ...........................Christine HallCreative Services: ..............................Lauren Bledsoe, Danjie Fang,

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After graduating just a sin-gle class, it looks like Fuqua’s Master of Management Stud-ies program is here to stay.

At last week’s Academic Council meeting the Fuqua School of Business an-nounced its plans to make permanent the recently created MMS offer-ing. Simultaneously, Fuqua will seek to expand globally by creating an international supplement program, with an eye toward attracting stu-dents in emerging markets such as China and Brazil.

We have serious reserva-tions about Fuqua’s plans to so quickly make the MMS program a permanent part of the Duke educational land-scape. And while the rapid international expansion is

certainly opportunistic—a business savvy move by the business school administra-tion—committing to such an unproven program without serious institutional review is

worrisome.Implement-

ed just last year, the MMS degree was intend-ed to fill a specific niche. For students unable to obtain a job directly out of college, an MMS degree could serve as a way to spend one year learn-ing about the business world. With such a short period of study, the true depth of the educational offerings is sus-pect, as we have covered here before. Surging interest in the program, despite its heavy price tag, suggests an ancillary motive for prospective MMS matriculates—the chance to

improve their employment prospects by adding a Duke degree to their resume.

When initially conceived, Fuqua Dean Blair Sheppard stressed the importance of taking it slow. But immedi-ately making permanent the MMS degree, without taking the time to fine-tune its cur-riculum and assess the educa-tional quality, seems to belie Sheppard’s commitment to the development of a “world-class” degree program.

If educational excellence were the primary concern, Fuqua would stick to its initial plan of a three-year pilot run. In fact, in the single year that the MMS degree program has existed, serious questions have been raised, especially in regards to its relation-ship with the undergraduate

population. Concerns about MMS students overwhelm-ing already strained on-cam-pus career services, as well as questions about whether the degree does more than improve a student’s resume, have not been addressed.

Educational concerns aside, there is clearly a global market for students seeking jobs in American business. Consider-ing the revenue stream the MMS program produces for the University, expanding in an economy in which jobs are scarce can help Fuqua achieve greater financial stability in challenging times.

Further, a well conceived MMS program actually does make sense on an interna-tional scale. Ambitious, tal-ented students in foreign countries could benefit from

a year to acquire knowledge of American business prac-tices and economic struc-tures before seeking jobs in the global economy. Having these ambitious, talented stu-dents associated with Duke as they pursue prominent jobs in the business community could be a boon for the Uni-versity’s global presence.

Ideally, Fuqua would seek to make permanent the MMS program and expand interna-tionally only after a thorough review of the program’s edu-cational quality. In the end, all programs reflect on the Uni-versity. A program that offers a shoddy education or an in-ability to provide students with the business opportunities ad-vertised would reflect poorly on Duke, both internationally and in the business world.

commentaries10 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2011 thE chRoNiclE

the c

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editorial

Finding the gray swan

MMS moving too fast

”“ onlinecomment

I agree fully with the writer. When Nolan is playing point he is not sharing the ball enough and is forcing his shot too often. Playing Tyler works on both offense and defense. Good article.

—“capecodlaw” commenting on the column “To help Smith, play Thornton at the point.” See more at www.dukechronicle.com.

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Inc. 1993Est. 1905

My curiosity got the better of me last week-end – I watched a movie about ballet. I saw the film “Black Swan.” I had been

hesitant to see it, despite the favor-able reviews and the categorization of the movie as a “psychosexual thriller.” I just didn’t see myself en-joying a movie with ballerinas and tutus, yet I ended up thoroughly enjoying it.

I love movies with metaphor–movies whose characters embody some trait or idea. Metaphor is the reason why I loved “No Country For Old Men,” but was not so crazy about “True Grit.” There is something subliminal and fascinating about the manifestation of an idea inside of a character. I came to associate Anton Chigurh in “No Country”, for example, with the fortuitousness of fate and death. He was the Grim Reaper, only in a leather jacket.

While “Black Swan” was less understated than “No Country,” I was nonetheless intrigued by the duality of good and evil presented in the story. Essentially, the story revolves around Nina Sayers, a “good” ballerina, played by Natalie Portman, at-tempting to get in touch with her darker, more “evil” side. This darkness is embodied by Mila Kunis’ character, Lily. She smokes cigarettes, eats cheeseburgers and hooks up with random guys in nightclubs. She is the bad girl, in stark contrast to Nina. The conflict between these two charac-ters is what made the film appealing to me. Oh, and Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman making out didn’t hurt either.

Upon further reflection, I came to see the movie not just as the psychological conflicts of a tragically flawed protagonist, but as an internal struggle between good and evil that can be ap-plied to Duke students.

There is the Duke student by day: the book bag-wearing, polite conversation-having, morally con-scientious student who attends class religiously, studies with zeal and acts with dignity. The Duke student by day is who our parents and adminis-trators want to see. We are the upstanding young citizens that are preparing to change the world and be the cream of our generation’s crop. We go about our daily business, accumulating the quali-fications needed to succeed in the real world. By day, we are White Swans – structured, regimented, precise.

Behind this facade, there lies an inner iden-tity that we would probably not like our grand-mothers to know about. When the sun goes down, and the weekend begins, we let out our dark sides. Duke students are known to drink,

to philander, to fight and to generally embrace the demons they so successfully suppress during the workweek.

What I realized upon watching “Black Swan” was not that there are some people who are completely good and some who are completely evil. Rather, the film was an ex-treme illustration of what I believe to be true: there is a good side and a bad side in all of us. The girl who debates political science with her professor by day could be dancing in the cage at Shooters later that night.

Part of the reason why we are all here is that we have found a way to quiet these dark sides. We keep them out of sight in order to achieve success and move to the top of the academic ladder. We are so adept at doing this, in fact, that we manage to convince the people around us that our dark sides don’t exist at all. We portray ourselves as pure and punctilious, and shock the higher pow-ers when they see our (formerly) lewd behavior at Tailgate, hear about the latest freshman that got too wasted last weekend, and so on.

There can be disastrous consequences to sup-pressing our demons as much as we do. Students drink unhealthy amounts and do dangerous things as a way to relieve the stress we allow to accumulate. Our issues, doubts and fears come roaring to the surface and can result in more damage than just scrapes and bruises. Between the exhausting workload some of us have and the above-average pressure to drink alcohol on this campus, good and evil have combined in a most unhealthy fashion.

Nina Sayers eventually embraces the dark side of her personality, and in so doing achieves what she considers to be perfection. She delivers an in-spired performance onstage and is given a stand-ing ovation. It was only through embracing, and not suppressing, what made her unique as a hu-man, that she finally gave the (tragically) master-ful performance.

We all have a Black Swan inside of us - a side that we tend to repress, sometimes with dire con-sequences. We are used to success, and we are ac-customed to appearing perfect. Yet perfection lies in the ability to embrace idiosyncrasies, to recon-cile the duality of seemingly contradictory perso-nas into one authentic and genuine personality. Perhaps this is the only way that true perfection can be achieved.

Milap Mehta is a Trinity Junior. His column runs every other Wednesday.

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milap mehtawhat i think i think

I spent a week in Hungary over Winter Break. Most Hungarians I talked to while I was there had a negative—they called it “realistic”—outlook for

themselves and their country. The chal-lenging times they’ve experienced over the past 70 years have caused them to become disillusioned with the govern-ment and with institutions in general. It’s probably a tourist’s naïve over-gen-eralization to conclude that Hungar-ians are pessimistic people, but that’s definitely the impression I got. Given that Hungary ranked number 103 in the 2010 Gallup World Poll of happiest countries, maybe my gut feeling wasn’t too far from the truth.

One day I was sitting in a small res-taurant in Budapest. It was 10 degrees outside and snowing, and the gusty winds were making the weath-er bone-chillingly cold. It was dark outside, there weren’t many street lights, and few people were walk-ing about. All in all, a rather gloomy evening.

Eating a plate of lamb stew, I suddenly heard a familiar tune playing on the radio.

“I know a placeWhere the grass is really greenerWarm, wet and wild,There must be something in the water...California gurls, We’re unforgettableDaisy dukes, bikinis on topSun-kissed skin so hotWe’ll melt your popsicleOh oh oh oh” You got it, that’s “California Gurls” by Katy Perry.The five minutes I spent listening to that song en-

capsulated, for me, the mystique of America. There I was in not-too-cheery Hungary on an exceptionally dreary day and Katy Perry was singing to me most enthusiastically about a place “where the grass is re-ally greener” and where the “unforgettable” girls all have “sun-kissed skin.”

If you’re an American, you might not be aware of the aura that surrounds America, but as an interna-tional student from Singapore I can tell you that it definitely exists.

Before coming to America for college, it really seemed to me like Americans were better-looking, wealthier, cooler and happier than everyone else. Over the past four years, though, I’ve come to real-ize that there are good-looking and less good-look-ing, wealthy and poor, cool and uncool, happy and unhappy Americans.

Don’t get me wrong, I think America is a wonder-ful place with amazing things to offer anyone who sets foot here: opportunities, freedom, hope, bus-

tling cities, beautiful landscapes… But America also faces challenges such as healthcare reform, immigra-tion issues and social inequality.

The charming, alluring side of America is the one that most often gets projected to the rest of the world, usually in a most compelling manner. At the end of the day, however, that’s only part of the story.

Nations are not the only entities that present idealized images of themselves. This phenomenon of revealing only a portion of the truth is something that we do in our personal lives too.

Whether it’s a rush event or a job interview, we try to present an image of ourselves we think others will like,

but when we’re constantly adjusting our behavior be-cause of how we anticipate others will perceive us, we eventually come to a point where it’s hard to truth-fully answer the question “Who am I?”

In this digital age we live in, “Who am I?” has be-come an even more complex question. We exhibit a different persona when we blog, tweet, GChat, use Facebook or LinkedIn. For example, most people try to appear more intellectual when they blog, more fun when they use Facebook, and more professional when they’re on LinkedIn. It’s a trend Soraya Darabi, named the 53rd most creative person in business in 2010 by Fast Company, has called the “multiple e-dentity disorder.” This is a problem that we as a digi-tal generation need to address.

In his book “American Scandal,” Pat Williams tells the story of Mahatma Gandhi speaking before Eng-land’s Parliament about granting independence to India. Gandhi spoke eloquently for almost two hours without referring to any notes, and received a stand-ing ovation at the end of his address. Afterward, a re-porter asked Gandhi’s assistant, Mahadev Desai, how Gandhi had been able to deliver such a rousing speech without any notes.

“You don’t understand Gandhi,” Desai replied. “You see, what he thinks is what he feels. What he feels is what he says. What he says is what he does. What Gandhi feels, what he thinks, what he says, and what he does are all the same.”

I believe an important life goal is to become a completely authentic person, where—like Gandhi—what we feel, think, say and do are perfectly aligned. But we first need to recognize that nobody’s flawless, not even “California gurls,” who judge us for not hav-ing “sun-kissed” skin like them, and that the people who don’t like us for who we are are the ones who usually ought to matter least to us.

Daniel Wong is a Pratt Senior. His column runs every other Wednesday.

commentariesthE chRoNiclE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2011 | 11

Let’s begin like this: When discussing Reynolds Price, I don’t have a unique vantage point.

I was his student in Spring 2005, when I was a sophomore. I took his Two Gospels seminar. I took it because it was taught by the world-famous Reynolds Price, and because it only met once a week. I got a B. I don’t think I meant more or less to him than any of his average students, which is to say that he seemed to care a great deal about my development as a writer and an intellectual.

As part of the seminar, we read his translations of the gospels of Mark and John. Each student then wrote his own gospel. My gospel was told from the point of view of Jesus. It incorporated some stream-of-consciousness ele-ments and reflected the same ethos as “Christmas Song” by Dave Matthews, which I discovered while writing my gospel.

I prepared for class by reading Professor Price’s trans-lation of the gospels and whatever other reading was as-signed, but I never read anything else. I attended every class session, but I never went to see Price during his of-fice hours. I went to the end-of-class tea at Price’s house, but I didn’t stay any longer than I had to. Put simply, I did everything that was expected of me, and I did noth-ing else.

I turned in my 42-page gospel on the appointed day. Later that summer, I received a package in the mail. In the package was a copy of my gospel, marked up by Price’s red pen. He also included three-quarters of a page worth of comments. He wrote that my gospel was “very good” and that with some more work, it might even be worth publishing. (It will not surprise you to learn that I did not put any more work into it.)

Since I was still a punk pre-med at the time, I wrote Price an e-mail, asking why he said my gospel was “very good” and then gave it a B. The e-mail he sent me was impressive in its clarity. Very good is a B, it said; excellent is an A.

When I read his e-mail, I realized that he was right and the rest of my education had been wrong. I hadn’t done excellent work, and I didn’t really deserve an A—even if the same work would’ve earned me an A in most other classes at Duke.

Like I said, I’m not telling this story because I think it’s unique. I didn’t have a special Reynolds Price experience; I think I had a garden-variety, regular Reynolds Price ex-perience. Still, it was among the most important experi-ences I had as an undergrad.

Class with Price was a throwback to a time when being a college student—being a Duke student—really meant something. He was a throwback to his own undergradu-ate days, the time when, as Price said in his famous 1992 Founders’ Day speech, the University “gloried in a pro-portionally greater number of absolutely first-rate stu-dent minds.”

In Price’s classes “fruitful personal exchanges between teachers and students were far more common.” We were encouraged not to be “students who exhibit a minimum of preparation or willingness for... serious conversation in the classroom.” We were not graded as though “standards of grading [had] steadily inflated.”

Unfortunately, it took me until after the semester was over to realize what was going on, and it took me until well after I graduated to realize what it meant. I treated Price’s class as though it was just like any other, when, quite clearly, it was not.

Price’s own brilliance and force of personality made his classes what they were; he was one of a handful of pro-fessors I had while an undergrad who could turn back the clock to the time he described in his Founders’ Day speech. But what all those teachers had in common was how much they asked of their students.

As students, we all have the capacity to turn Duke into an institution of which Price could be proud. We only have to ask more of ourselves.

Alex Fanaroff is a fourth-year medical student. His column runs every Wednesday.

Dr. Price’s Duke

lettertotheeditorWhat makes a qualified candidate

While I expected the acknowledgement that the Young Trustee semi-finalist pool shows little diversity, I take issue with Young Trustee Nominating Committee Chair Christine Larson’s assertion that Duke Student Government experience tends to make for a ‘more qualified’ candidate. I find this assertion to be errone-ous, as DSG appears to be quite an insular organization that has a very limited (and far from eclectic) view and understanding of campus issues beyond topics such as gender relations between the Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Association. Let us not overstate a student’s experience on DSG as one that produces

a ‘more qualified’ candidate, more so than any other prominent leadership entity on campus. In fact, these ‘more qualified’ candidates who come from a DSG background may speak volumes about the lack of diver-sity among the candidates and the often homogenous and limited vision of campus issues. We shouldn’t de-lude ourselves into thinking that experiences with oth-er campus organizations don’t, in fact, produce more qualified candidates than those with present or prior DSG affiliation.

Nana AsanteTrinity ’12

Even California gurlsain’t perfect

daniel wongloving life,loving lives

alex fanarofffarewell tour

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experience and training for most careers and graduate programs.

Shanghai might choose to concentrate in banking, Sheppard noted, calling Shanghai “the New York of China.”

“It’s highly likely that in your career, you will work for people conducting firms everywhere in the world,” Sheppard said. “Students are saying, ‘I want to go to a school that’s preparing me for the 21st century, not the 20th.”

Fuqua hopes to partner with oth-er Duke schools to give students the opportunity to gain knowledge in business management and a chosen sub-field. The Duke Global Health In-stitute has already agreed to organize global health courses for MMS students abroad. This combination of different graduate programs to provide students with an interdisciplinary global experi-ence will make the program valuable and unique, said Kathie Amato, assis-tant dean of executive education at Fuqua.

Michael Merson, director of DGHI, said that providing courses abroad would benefit the institute’s current ef-forts to expand globally as well as en-hance the quality of the University as a whole.

“One of the real strengths of Duke as a university is its ability to bring together faculty from different schools and in-stitutes and disciplines in its education and research,” Merson said. “Many of the world’s problems today are best ad-dressed through a multidisciplinary ap-proach.”

Both the Global MMS degree and the traditional MMS program, which was im-plemented in 2009, are intended to teach recent college graduates the business

skills needed to pursue entry level jobs with companies and organizations. The Global MMS program will be tailored to the needs of the region in which it is taught.

“In some parts of the world, the thematic courses will be different than what we have [in Durham] because the needs in that global region are differ-ent,” Amato said. “That’s where the rest of Duke comes into play.”

The MMS program addresses two separate needs: Recent college gradu-ates with a liberal arts background and no work experience were having trouble starting their careers, and undergradu-ate programs were not successfully pre-paring their students for roles in major global firms.

After outlining a one-year masters program that would give American students an advantage when entering professional settings, Sheppard said he realized that the MMS degree was also a “perfect” solution for the needs of students around the world. It would help students become familiar with the global economy and network with major business leaders, and it would also increase Fuqua’s international standing.

Although the Global MMS program in China has not yet been approved of-ficially by the Academic Council or the Chinese Ministry of Education, Shep-pard said he is hopeful that the proposal will be successful because of the poten-tial research opportunity for faculty, cur-rent successes of the local Duke MMS program and Duke’s current investment in Kunshan.

“It’s our belief that if we don’t go, we won’t be meeting the needs of our core students,” said Sheppard.

mms from page 1

A supporting statistic from the book shows that this generation’s college stu-dents dedicate half as much time to their studies as their parents did. Today’s stu-dents spend much more time studying in groups, which results in fewer gains in learning than those who spend more hours studying by themselves.

Steve Nowicki, dean and vice provost of undergraduate education, said he is not deeply persuaded by the study.

“I think the problem is that you can’t measure value by some of their methods. You can’t quantify how a student’s life has been changed or the satisfaction of civic engagement,” said Nowicki, who said he was familiar with the recent book. “An academic environment like the one we provide brings out the potential in people by providing an academic haven for con-stant interaction with people of diverse backgrounds including socioeconomic situations.”

President Richard Brodhead echoed No-wicki’s sentiment. He said he thought the study oversimplified a multi-faceted prob-lem, adding that he believes an undergradu-ate education is a “million-sided, complicat-ed process” that is hard to calculate.

“Every hour of every day is part of a pro-

cess of education,” Brodhead said. He added that the study aims to equate

all schools under the generalized conclu-sions it drew. He emphasized, however, that Duke has the luxury of being highly selective, choosing “smart, lively, energet-ic” students every year from an increasingly competitive pool.

“There are definitely many students who are here to work and participate very little in social activities,” said Alex-andra Ashinoff, a sophomore. “At the same time, there are definitely students who take the easiest classes to give them-selves the least work. The driven students may not be as evident unless you go to the library.”

Although partiers may be more vis-ible, Ashinoff said they are just a “loud minority.”

Nowicki stressed that Duke is first and foremost an academic institution. Immer-sion in the college environment is crucial for developing life skills, he added.

“People are having a hard time getting jobs, and tuition prices are a large sum to pay without the guarantee of getting a job,” he said. “But when I look back on my college experience at Tufts [Univer-sity], I cannot remember much about what I learned in classes specifically... but I cannot possibly imagine being successful without [that] education.”

learning from page 1

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