The ChronicleThe independenT daily aT duke universiTy

wednesday, september 29, 2010 One HUndred and sIXtH year, IssUe 25www.dukechronicle.com

New plant will turn hog waste into energy, Page 3

Durham chosen to take part in national health study, Page 3

onTherecord“According to the DUU constitution, if you miss two meet-

ings... and you can lose your position.” —DUU President Yi Zhang, a senior, on DUU attendance. See story page 4

FEMA admin discusses emergency responseby Alex Bloedel

THE CHRONICLE

In emergency situations, bureaucracy and inefficiency hamper traditional relief efforts, FEMA Chief of Staff Jason McNa-mara said Tuesday night.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator spoke about the or-ganization’s “whole community approach to emergency management.” The ap-proach is an alternative to traditional top-down command, which he said he sees as too generalized of an approach.

The speech was the first event of this year’s Provost’s Lecture Series, which is titled “Natural Disasters and Human Re-sponses.”

“A lot of times, we look at emergency management as a generic approach,” said McNamara, who has more than 15 years of emergency management experience. “[We need to get] out of the mind set of an overly centralized, bureaucratic kind of one-size-fits-all approach to recovery.”

His proposed “whole community ap-proach” alternative is a more decentral-ized method that better fits a communi-ty’s specific needs. He added that FEMA began to integrate it during the past six to eight months. The philosophy focuses on fostering partnerships between local institutions and communities, govern-mental organizations and private sector groups.

The approach accounts for issues sometimes overlooked by federal

SEE mcnamara ON PAgE 12

irina danescu/The chronicle

Jason McNamara, chief of staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, spoke Tuesday on the benefits of a more holistic, less bureaucratic approach to national emergency management.

Study gives analysis of grad schools

by Maggie LoveTHE CHRONICLE

The National Research Council publi-cized its extensive Data-Based Assessment of Research Doctorate Programs Tuesday. Duke is among the 212 U.S. universities in-cluded in the study.

Thirty-nine Duke graduate programs were included in the report. The depart-ments will use the data to compare Duke programs with those of other universities, graduate School Dean Jo Rae Wright wrote in an e-mail Tuesday.

“My top priority is to discuss the data with our departments,” Wright said. “We will help them look through the data and understand how the information can be used to think about ways to strengthen our programs even further.”

Rather than a definitive list, the report provides ranges of the middle 90th per-centile ratings that rely on characteristics faculty in specific fields deemed important. The report provides data on schools based on ranges, which were created to be more accurate than clear-cut rankings, according to the report’s methodology guide.

Because schools have yet to review the data extensively, Wright declined

SEE graduate schools ON PAgE 12

Spiral staircase to connect third and fourth floors in McClendon Tower

by Dana KrausharTHE CHRONICLE

Renovations to McClendon Tower aim to connect the third and fourth floors in a more intimate way.

Residence Life and Housing Services announced plans to add a spiral staircase to connect the floors to create an open space conducive to individual and small group study.

Since its opening in 2003, the third floor of the tower has housed a game room while the fourth floor is occupied by Bella Union. Although the coffee shop is a popular venue for students to work, requests from undergraduates for more study space led RLHS to con-sider options to increase utilization of the third floor, said Joe gonzalez, associate dean for residence life. Renovations over the summer and the addition of new furniture aimed to convert the area to a more comfort-able study space.

“We installed some additional outlets for computer use as well as painted the room,” Deb LoBiondo,

Jimmy Carter falls ill, cancels Regulator visit

from Staff ReportsTHE CHRONICLE

Former President Jimmy Carter canceled his sched-uled book signing at Durham’s Regulator Bookshop Tuesday after spending much of the day in the hospital with a stomach ache.

Carter, who was to appear at the Ninth Street book-store to sign copies of his new book, “White House Di-ary,” reportedly fell ill during a flight to Cleveland Tues-day morning. Upon his arrival, the former president was taken to MetroHealth Hospital for observation, CNN reported.

As part of his national book tour, Carter was scheduled to do a signing in suburban Cleveland Tuesday afternoon before coming to the Regulator, where 1,000 people were expected to attend the 7 p.m. event, according to WRAL.

SEE carter ON PAgE 6SEE mcclendon ON PAgE 6

david chou/The chronicle

Residence Life and Housing Services refurbished McClendon Tower over the summer and will add a spiral staircase this year.

2 | WednesdAY, sepTember 29, 2010 The ChroniCle

The Sanford School of Public Policy and the Center for Documentary Studies present:

“The Geography of Marriage” by Anne WeberExhibit Opening and Panel Discussion

Thursday, Sept. 30, 6 pmRubenstein Hall, Room 153

This photography exhibit shows 30 couples in Boston and Raleigh who have married in civil ceremonies. The panel discussion “The Role of

Marriage in the 21st Century” explores changing practices andpublic policy affecting marriage.

Panel moderator: Sanford Assistant Professor Christina Gibson-Davis

Panelists:Anne Weber, photographer and 2010 Lewis Hines Documentary Fellow

Anne Jones, principal investigator for the StrongCouples, Strong Children program

Catherine Smith, Family Life Educator forEssential Life Skills for Military Families

Free and open to the public. Paid parking in the Science Drive Visitors’ Lot or in the Bryan Center.

For details, please contact Karen Kemp, kkemp@duke.edu or call 613-7394

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london — Fears that europe could see another Greek-like debt crisis unfold in ireland or Portugal escalated this week, with investors selling off their bonds and analysts warning that both nations might be heading into critical periods that could trigger bids for bailouts.

The mounting problems in two of eu-rope’s smallest economies are emerging as the biggest threat to an otherwise robust recovery underway in the ma-jor economies of the region, including Germany and Britain. deteriorating con-ditions in ireland and Portugal have al-ready pushed the euro off a five-month high against the dollar, causing fresh jit-ters in stock markets across the region and beyond.

a sharp turn for the worst, analysts say, could spark a new round of financial turbu-lence in global markets from new York to hong Kong.

Madison, Wis. — President Barack obama delivered an impassioned argu-ment to young voters Tuesday night, declar-ing that the changes he promised in 2008 are underway and that “now is not the time to give up.”

Trying to recapture the enthusiasm that catapulted him into office, obama returned to the proven format of a large college cam-pus to launch a pre-election push for fellow democrats. speaking to what was once one of his most fervent fan bases—students—he unleashed a string of dire warnings about republican control, arguing that his opponents are banking on democratic in-difference to return to power.

“The biggest mistake we could make is to let disappointment or frustration lead to apathy,” obama said. “if the other side does win, they will spend the next two years fighting for the very same policies that led to this recession in the first place.”

Obama gives speech to excite college-age voters

Drivers continue to textUS steps up drone strikes in Pakistan

Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice.— Samuel Johnson

MaTTheW sTaver/BlooMBerG neWs

Howard Cohen’s home in Tukwila, Washington is under foreclosure proceedings. Even though Cohen’s loan on the house is overdue by twelve months, he may get to keep his house because of delays in foreclosure proceedings. Due to faulty mortgage processing by an employee, Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC Mortgage unit has suspended foreclosure evictions in 23 states.

“Former duke guard and team captain Jon scheyer will attend training camp with the los angeles clippers. scheyer played on the Miami heat’s nBa summer league team back in July after going undrafted, but he suffered a lacerated eyelid in only his second game and was sent home for treatment. he has since made a full recovery and received clearance to play baskeball and lift weights.” — From The Chronicle’s Sports Blog

sports.chronicleblogs.com

Help For Biblical Exegesisdivinity school library, 12:30-1:15p.m.This workshop is an introduction to which library tools can help you in biblical exegesis. Register

online at buzz.duke.edu.

Concert and Eco Reception lsrc soe courtyard, 6-7p.m.

The Giving Tree Band will be put-ting on a performance promot-ing renewable energy. Food and

drinks will be provided.

Muslim Culture Film SeriesGriffith Film Theater, 8-9:30p.m. Enjoy a free, rare, subtitled 35mm screening of a film that has not been distributed in the U.S. and is not currently available on video.

Ireland and Portugal suffer Greek-like economic woes

onschedule...

onthe web

TODAY IN HISTORY1187: Saladin’s army marches

into Jerusalem.

offthe wire...

The ChroniCle WednesdAY, sepTember 29, 2010 | 3

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audreY adu-aPPiah/The chronicle

Economics professor Lori Leachman debates whether former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts should be extended in a discussion hosted by Duke Political Union and the Roosevelt Institute Tuesday.

Deep cutsDurham kids to take part in national study

Pilot system to turn hog waste to fuel

by Maggie SpiniTHE CHRONICLE

About 1,000 Durham families are ex-pected to participate in a national health study that monitors children between their birth and 21st birthdays.

Durham County was randomly selected earlier this month as one of 105 locations nationwide to participate in the National Children’s Study, which will track 100,000 children across the country to investigate the relationship between environment and health and development. The study aims to inform research concerning birth defects, injuries, asthma, obesity, diabetes, behav-ior, learning and mental health disorders, according to the study’s website.

Researchers from Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Bat-telle Memorial Institute will lead the study in the county. The team is seeking pregnant mothers and hopes to enroll 250 children per year for the next four years.

“This is an incredible study of environ-ment and children’s health,” said Barbara Entwisle, principle investigator for the North Carolina Study Center and Kenan Distinguished Professor of sociology pro-fessor and interim vice chancellor for research and economic development at UNC. “It’s really important to take a broad

from Staff ReportsTHE CHRONICLE

With the start of a new Duke project, one hog’s waste is a university’s treasure.

After two years of development, the Uni-versity, in collaboration with Duke Energy, broke ground Monday on a pilot system to manage hog waste in a way that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants and provide a source of renewable energy, ac-cording to a Duke news release Monday.

The waste-management prototype—ex-pected to be completed and fully running by February 2011—is being built at Loyd Ray Farms, about 115 miles west of Raleigh in Boonville, N.C. The farm, which was orig-inally used for tobacco and beans, has 9,000 hogs. The prototype in Boonville will act as a model for other farms when implement-ing renewable energy structures.

“Duke Energy is excited to learn more about using hog waste as a renewable fuel,” Emily Felt, director of Renewable Strategy and Compliance at the North Carolina-based utility, said in the release. “Building a better understanding of this technology allows us to determine how we can bring this type of renewable energy to our cus-tomers in a cost-effective way and meet our requirements under North Carolina’s re-newable energy portfolio standard.”

SEE energy ON PAgE 12SEE health study ON PAgE 6

4 | WednesdAY, sepTember 29, 2010 The ChroniCle

Robert Clark is Professor of Economics and Professor of Management, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship , North Carolina State University. Professor Clark has conducted research examining retirement decisions, the choice between defined benefit and defined contribution plans, t he impact of pension conversions to defined contribution and cash balance plans, the role of information and communications on 401(k) contributions, government regulation of pension s, and Social Security. He is currently the principal investigator on a project examining the influence of employer-provided pre-retirement planning programs on financial literacy and retirement decisions. Clark has recently completed books examining the development of state and local retirement plans in the twentieth century and retiree health plans fo r public sector employees. He has examined the economic responses to population aging in developed countries and has written widely on international retirement plans, especially th e Social Security and employer pension systems in Japan. Professor Clark has also been engaged in a variety of projects assessing the key issues in the economics of higher education and the future of higher education in North Carolina. Professor Clark is a Member of the Pension Research Council, Fellow of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, Fellow of the TIAA- CREF Institute, and a member of the American Economic Association, the Gerontological Society of America, International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, and t he National Academy of Social Insurance. In 2003, he chaired the Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods that was appointed by the U.S. Social Security Administration to review and evaluation the annual projects of the Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance program. Professor Clark earned a B.A. from Millsaps College and a M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke Universi ty.

The George L. Maddox, Jr., Ph.D. Lecture

Information from the

CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF AGING AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Thursday, September 30, 2010 5:00-6:00 p.m.

(Reception will follow) Lecture Hall, Searle Center,

Lower Level, Medical Center Library

Robert Clark, PhD Professor, Economics

North Carolina State University Professor of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

“Evolution of Retirement Plans in the Twenty First Century: Pensions and Retiree Health Plans”

You are cordially invited to attend a reception immediately following the lecture.

This lecture is supported by the George L. Maddox Lectureship Endowment of the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development in honor of the distinguished career of George L. Maddox, Jr., Ph.D. or additional information, please contact the D uke Aging Center at 919-660-7502 or email mini.jolly@duke.edu.

Parking is available between 4:00-7:00 pm in the Bryan Research Building parking garage, 421 Researc h Drive.

Group discusses attendance policy, upcoming eventsDUkE UNIvERSITY UNION

by Robert DunlapTHE CHRONICLE

Tuesday’s Duke University Union meeting addressed several topics including member attendance, Joe College Day and other upcoming events.

At the start of the meeting, DUU President Yi Zhang, a senior, brought up the issue of member attendance, which has been inconsistent. Zhang asked members at the meeting for their opinions on implementing harsher consequences for frequent absence, as stated in the DUU constitution.

“According to the DUU constitution, if you miss two meet-ings, we are allowed to put you on [a] panel, and you can lose your position,” Zhang said. Members, however, opposed the idea of losing one’s position in accordance with the laws of the constitution. Instead, members agreed that Zhang should use her own discretion in dealing with absences.

DUU committee chairs went on to discuss upcoming plans and events. Joe College Day Chair Nathan Nye, a sophomore, provided updates on the status of the event. He said that ev-erything was ordered and that the committee would be tie-dying bandanas Thursday on the Bryan Center Plaza.

Major Attractions Committee Director Karen Chen, a senior, said the group is planning a show next week. The show, which will take place on Oct. 8 in Page Auditorium, will feature the Charlotte-based “folk international” band Kenny Carr and the Tigers.

Chen added that the committee is finalizing its fall schedule.

Innovations Committee Chair Dustin gamza, a senior, said his committee is planning a Duke Laser Tag tourna-ment for Oct. 30. Equipment has already been ordered, including laser grenades, laser pistols and laser targets, he said, adding that prizes will be distributed.

gamza noted that later in the semester, the committee will also be sponsoring a black light olympics, which will take place in a rented gym with black lights illuminating the venue and all the sporting equipment painted white. Free white T-shirts will be given out, he added.

Junior Brendon Pierson, president of Small Town Re-

cords, said he is working on the label’s website. “We are trying to have a non-creepy version of Craig-

slist’s classified sections,” Pierson said, noting that he plans on creating a place where musicians can contact other mu-sicians and form a band.

In addition, DUU plans to host a “Twilight weekend,” with films from the series showing throughout this upcom-ing weekend.

In other business:DUU members spoke of establishing a DUU Internship

Program for prospective freshman members. Two options were considered—a full internship program, where freshmen would be assigned to their own group to plan their own events, as well as a freshman improvement program, which would in-troduce freshmen to DUU and immediately assign them to pre-existing committees. Members also considered a mentor-ship program, in which freshmen would eat lunch with and get to know current DUU members. In the end, members decided to place freshmen into their own group for the Fall semester and incorporate them into specific committees in the Spring. The mentorship program was also viewed favorably.

eliza BraY/The chronicle

At its Tuesday meeting, Duke University Union members discussed disciplinary measures for members with continual absences from meetings. Committees also talked over their plans for upcoming events and projects, including Joe College Day and a black light olympics.

The ChroniCle WednesdAY, sepTember 29, 2010 | 5

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Medvedev ousts longtime Putin supporterby Kathy Lally

THE WASHINgTON POST

MOSCOW — Russian President Dmit-ry Medvedev stepped out of Prime Minis-ter Vladimir Putin’s shadow long enough Tuesday to fire Moscow’s larger-than-life mayor, rattling a political establishment that until now has accepted Putin as the nation’s undisputed authority.

The mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, has ruled Rus-sia’s biggest and wealthiest city since 1992 with an authority that would have been the envy of Chicago’s legendary Richard J. Daley. He built grand cathedrals, circled the city with two beltways, erected glass sky-scrapers and made sure Moscow retirees received free transportation and pensions that averaged $350 a month, while other Russian citizens made do on $280.

His construction-magnate wife became a billionaire. And he always delivered votes to Putin.

Then a few weeks ago, Luzhkov, who has been a steadfast Putin backer, made a mistake. He broke the unspoken rule that requires absolute political harmony in public and openly sniped at Medvedev.

Speaking to a government newspaper, Luzhkov criticized the president for stop-ping construction of a project that the may-or favored, a St. Petersburg-Moscow high-way through an ancient oak forest. That gave Medvedev the opportunity to fire Lu-zhkov, offering Russia-watchers a feast after months of parsing crumbs: Is Medvedev his own man after all and not a Putin puppet?

“It means,” said Boris Nemtsov, a member of the democratic opposition, “that Medve-dev has a chance to be a real president.”

Officially, of course, Medvedev is presi-dent. He won the office in 2008 because Pu-

tin had served the then-limit of two terms and couldn’t run again. So Putin became Medve-dev’s prime minister and continued running the country. Medvedev’s camp was more pro-gressive, political pundits said, while Putin’s was more authoritarian. The only question: Which one did Medvedev truly belong to?

“Who is Medvedev?” Dmitri Oreshkin, a well-known political analyst here, asked Tuesday. “In 2008, it was clear he occu-

pied his position temporarily, and he was junior in the tandem. Today he made the decision he had to make so he would be more than a decoration.”

Over the past year, Medvedev has been solidifying loyalties, preparing for the 2012 presidential elections—but on his own behalf or Putin’s? The prime minister has played coy about running for the presidency again in two years, suggesting that it could be him or Medvedev. But the assumption has always been that whatever Putin wanted was his.

Tuesday’s dismissal was one of the most provocative political developments here since 2003, when Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the wealthy head of Yukos oil, dared to encroach on the Putin political landscape and was arrested on charges of corrup-tion. He remains in prison.

“When Khodorkovsky was arrested, the message was you can exist here only if you play by Putin’s rules,” Oreshkin said. “Now Medvedev is saying you have to play by Medvedev’s rules, too.”

On Tuesday, the political establishment piled on, siding with Medvedev. The presi-dent issued his decree while on a state visit to China, saying he had lost confidence in Luzhkov, who would be immediately but temporarily replaced by a deputy mayor. In the parliament, only a single member, Josef Kobzon, offered the once-untouch-able mayor any support. United Russia, the dominant political party, which Luzhkov helped create, abandoned him.

Putin, visiting the distant city of Syk-tyvkar for a timber conference, responded coldly. “It is perfectly obvious that the Mos-cow mayor had a conflict with the president, and in the meantime the mayor reports to the president, not vice versa. For that rea-son, the necessary steps should have been taken in a timely manner to normalize the situation,” Putin told reporters.

Stocks fell, along with the ruble, and some Muscovites shared the pessimism. “He has done a lot, especially for us pen-sioners,” said Zinaida gorshkova, a 70-year-old doctor. “I am afraid of changes.”

Luzhkov, 74, was elected in the heady and turbulent post-Soviet years. Though rumors of unsavory connections swirled around him, they had little effect in a nation of ambitious and widespread corruption.

“He is accused of corruption,” Ivan Prokhorov, a 20-year-old student, said Tues-day, “but there are no facts to confirm it.” Even if he were corrupt, Prokhorov said, he wasn’t as corrupt as he could have been. “Yuri Luzhkov was doing a lot for his city.”

“Today he made the deci-sion he had to make so

he would be more than a decoration.”

— Dmitri Oreshkin, political analyst

ridin’ dirtyPolice charged someone with unau-

thorized use of a motor vehicle and dam-age to property on West Campus Sunday morning.

caddy shackedA golf cart was found vandalized Satur-

day in Parking garage 4.

dazed and confewzedA law enforcement officer was assaulted

in Few Quadrangle early Friday morning.

childish behaviorToys and books were allegedly sto-

len from Duke North Hospital on Friday night.

a vicious cycleA bike was stolen from the bike rack

outside of Basset and Baldwin Wednesday afternoon.

rebel without a causeSomeone attempted to steal a laptop

from Perkins/Bostock Library Wednesday morning, but the theft was prevented.

crimebriefs

Visit dukechronicle.com

for our latestcontent.

6 | WednesdAY, sepTember 29, 2010 The ChroniCle

assistant dean for residence life, wrote in an e-mail. “We refurbished tables we already had in our warehouse and ordered new chairs.”

gonzalez said even though the staircase has not yet been installed, student responses to the new furniture have been positive.

“We see profound potential in McClendon Tower,” he said. “Already we’ve seen several small pockets of stu-dents studying and getting work done.”

The McClendon Tower construction project rep-resents RLHS’s efforts to meet perceived demand for more study space, especially in relatively remote ar-eas on West Campus like Keohane and Edens Quad-rangles. Students are generally optimistic about the possibilities that McClendon Tower offers in terms of study space.

“It’s a pity that people don’t really use [the third floor],” sophomore Jeanette Cheng said. “There’s a

lot of potential for greater use, especially as a study area for people far from The Loop or the great Hall.”

For students who do use the third floor of the tower, however, the construction may invite unwanted new visi-tors and noise.

“Right now the third floor is quiet—like a library. Adding a staircase would make the space more open, so that the third floor could lose some of its quietness,” said sophomore Allison Khoo, an Edens resident. “I’m not sure how I feel about this plan.”

Although administrators said they could not give spe-cific estimates for the project’s cost and completion date, LoBiondo said costs for the third floor renovations have been “minimal.”

gonzalez said he believes the renovations will be finished fairly quickly so that students can use the new space.

“We are encouraged by what we’ve seen so far by how the students are using this area,” gonzalez said. “We be-lieve the staircase will improve these trends.”

MCCLENDON from page 1

approach to understanding the environment in health.” The locations across the country were selected to reflect

the range of situations in which American children grow up. The strength of such a diverse subject pool is that the data will represent the country at large, said Anna Maria Siega-Riz, a member of the research team and an associate chair of the department of epidemiology at UNC.

In Durham, researchers will recruit participants through medical care providers’ offices. Durham is “uniquely poised” because it has a connected medical community and the abil-ity to take advantage of local university resources, said Dr. Emmanuel Walter, principal site investigator for Durham County and associate director of the Primary Care Research Consortium at the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

He added that the study is unique because it will con-sider a very wide range of factors that affect development.

“Environment is defined very broadly for this study: the places that kids play, the homes they grow up in... media influences, dietary intakes,” Walter said.

The consideration of the many factors that affect child-hood development will allow researches to conduct an “in-tegrated study,” Entwisle said.

“For example, if you look at all of the work that’s been done on poverty in children’s health, it’s rare in that litera-ture to see people also taking into account pollution,” En-twisle added. “And, likewise, if you look at the literature on say, pollution and children’s health, it’s rare to see them take into account poverty. To really understand this, we need to look at all those aspects of the environment simultaneously.”

Although the National Children’s Study requires a long-term commitment from participants, Siega-Riz said she thinks parents will be motivated by an altruistic desire to help the country better understand how to improve children’s health.

Analyses for conditions that occurred during pregnan-cy or right at the time of birth will be available long before the study is finished, she said.

“We might be able to understand some of the determi-nants of, for instance, gestational diabetes or pregnancy-induced hypertension,” Siega-Riz said.

HEALTH STUDYfrom page 3

Although it was originally reported that Carter—who will be 86 Friday—would be hospitalized overnight, his grandson, georgia state Sen. Jason Carter, told WRAL that the former president was out of the hospital and “resting comfortably.”

Tom Campbell, who owns The Regulator, said Carter’s representatives canceled the appearance at about 3 p.m., the news organization reported.

“Things happen—a lot worse than this could happen, and hopefully it’s just a little stomach bug for him,” Camp-bell said. “It’s not the end of the world—a stomach bug and a postponed book signing.”

Campbell told WRAL that the book signing will be re-scheduled, but he is not sure for when.

“White House Diary,” is an edited and annotated collec-tion of Carter’s diary entries from his presidency.

CARTER from page 1

sPecial To The chronicle

Former President Jimmy Carter was hospitalized Tuesday, forcing him to cancel a scheduled book signing at the Regulator Bookshop.

irina danescu/chronicle file photo

After collecting a pass from Chris Tweed-Kent, Cole Grossman tapped Duke’s only goal into the right corner of the net for his second goal of the year.

men’s soCCer

Hampered by own goal, Duke ties Elon

FooTbAll midweek notebook

Duke’s players try not to dwell on past

Withhold judgement on Renfree

margie truwit/chronicle file photo

Jason Palmatary writes that judgement should be withheld on sean renfree, despite his less than stellar numbers over the past two games.

JasonPalmataryOn Football

See palmatary on page 8See midweek on page 8

See m. soccer on page 8

ok. I’m willing to admit it. Just two short weeks ago, as I was drifting off to sleep

and mulling over possible topics for future columns, I thought I had settled on something. I was going to write a piece that made a statistical comparison between Sean Renfree’s numbers in his first handful of starts under head coach David Cutcliffe and those of other Cutcliffe protégés such as peyton and eli Manning, Heath Shuler and Tee Martin in their early days under the coach’s

watch.after just two collegiate

starts, Renfree had thrown for over 700 yards and six touchdowns and ranked fourth nationally in passing yardage, and it seemed ap-propriate to mention him in the same breath as his coach’s

nFL quarterback brotherhood. However, after he barely completed 50 percent of his

passes and threw more interceptions than touchdowns combined in his two most recent starts—both Duke losses—it is much harder to justify putting him in that company.

Such drastic, quick-changing views of players is the nature of big-time college football, especially when the player in discussion is a quarterback with just four starts and 200 career passing attempts under his belt.

and as Cutcliffe reminded us at his weekly news conference, the reality is that it is way too early to pass judgement on Renfree. I would have been mis-taken comparing him already to those quarterbacks with long and storied careers. Instead, we should get accustomed to the exciting ups being accompanied by deflating downs as Renfree develops as a signal caller.

“Sean started his fourth game of his career, and there is a learning curve,” Cutcliffe said. “Some of those experiences that you go through are pretty harsh teachers.”

For example, on his first interception in the loss against army, Renfree made the correct pre-snap read. However, when one of the linebackers that he initially identified as

More coverage from head coach David Cutcliffe’s press

conference: dukechroniclesports.

com

MOREONLINE

by Vigneth NathanTHe CHRonICLe

Duke’s season has taken a recent turn for the worse, falling short of its preseason expectations.

The Blue Devils have dropped their last three games. Their defense has struggled mightily, allowing an aver-age of 44.5 points per game this season. an offense that began the season prolifically, sporting one of the nation’s

best collegiate receivers, has be-gun to plateau, and maybe even decline. a football program that once firmly believed in its revival is again having doubts.

nonetheless, the players are determined not to dwell on the past. Their performance to be-gin the season has been disap-pointing, no doubt. But Tues-day, Duke and its coach put on a brave face and said they were moving ahead.

“everything we do, we do like winners. You’re only a loser if you let yourself be a loser,” head coach David Cutc-liffe said. “We will continue to carry ourselves like winners because that’s what’s expected. and if we continue to work like winners, that’s how [we will] work [our] way out of [our slump]. That’s why I am not in a bad state of mind, because I know we will not give into being losers.”

Cutcliffe has reason to believe that his team has the

DUKE

ELON1

1

by Bo TriplettTHe CHRonICLe

Last night against elon, Duke put up 22 shots. The one that would matter most, though, came on the defensive end.

The Blue Devils scored an own goal in the 74th minute, squandering a chance for a win against the phoenix and finishing with a 1-1 tie.

Before the own goal, the no. 9 Blue Devils (4-1-3) put to-gether a promising offensive display in the away match against elon (3-2-3). The matchup was an opportunity for Duke to

prove its abilities as one of the top ten teams in the country, especially playing away from home.

Ryan Finley continued to show why he is one of the most danger-

ous front men in the aCC, as he put three shots on goal. In the 56th minute Finley fired a shot that forced a deflection off of an elon defender. The ball fell at the feet of junior midfielder Chris Tweed-Kent, who showed great poise as he calmly slipped the ball to senior Cole grossman. With no hesitation, grossman coolly slotted the ball into the right side netting, marking his second goal of the season.

even though the Blue Devils continued to put forth an offensive assault, goals were difficult to come by.

“Sometimes in a game like that you want to make sure that you gain a second goal to make sure that you have a little bit of a margin of error,” head coach John Kerr said.

This statement would hold true, as Duke never put the

SportsThe Chronicle

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WEDNESDAYSeptember 29, 2010

>> SPORTS BLOG

SPORTS BLOG

John Calipari said Kentucky wanted to play Duke so badly it overlooked West Vir-ginia in its Elite Eight game Also, highlights from Cutcliffe’s press conference Tuesday

8 | WedneSdAY, SepTember 29, 2010 The ChroniCle

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a blitzer fell into coverage, he failed to make the necessary adjustment, and his pass was picked off.

“Had he gone outside with that ball, we might all be celebrating a victory,” Cutcliffe said. “It is that simple sometimes.”

as Cutcliffe pointed out, it is not about the plays that you make, but the mistakes that you avoid. as was the case in the army game, three or four bad plays that resulted in turnovers completely overshadowed an otherwise solid performance.

In Renfree’s case, instead of forcing a ball into traffic on first down, he should have thrown the ball away and lived to play another down. Learning to eliminate mental mistakes is crucial for him going forward.

“I am trying to forget as much as I can about the last two games,” Renfree said. “But there are some thing that I need to remember. I am constantly thinking about the things that I have been doing poorly and focusing on them in practice.”

True, Renfree has made his share of mistakes in his first few games, but it would be foolish for impatient football fans to jump to any hasty conclusions about the quarterback’s future. Looking back to last season’s army game, Thaddeus Lewis struggled before leaving with an injury. Then, Renfree came in and played the hero’s role off the bench by leading the Blue Devils to a come-from-behind victory. The Duke faithful begin to grumble that the senior Lewis should be benched in favor of the redshirt freshman.

Clearly, those opinions were a little premature as Lewis went on to lead the Blue Devils to five wins and ended up in second place on the aCC’s all-time passing yardage list.

a quick look at Renfree’s stats––he is tied for the national lead in interceptions with seven, but also 11th overall in passing yardage––indicate both his immense talent but also his early struggles. With a mentor like Cutcliffe, though, in three years time, we may see Ren-free becoming the next Cutcliffe tutee to join the nFL brotherhood.

potential to be “winners.” While his team’s win-loss record may not be up to standards, its performance has not been completely disappointing.

Consider the running game, which has seen sure signs of improvement from last season, when Duke’s ground attack was absent. The addition of talented freshmen and the improvement of the veteran running backs have transformed the running game into a legitimate offensive threat. The Blue Devils now have a wide array of talented backs to choose from: sophomore Desmond Scott, fresh-man Josh Snead and fellow freshman Juwan Thompson. The trio has combined for 474 yards this season, including 146 yards against no. 1 alabama’s defense.

“Last year, being last in the country [in rushing yards] was something we weren’t proud of,” offensive guard David Hard-ing said. “We knew we could do better. It’s been really nice to

see some running game, and we hope to add onto that.”although the running game has improved, many point

to Sean Renfree’s recent struggles as a cause for concern. In his last two games, he has thrown four interceptions, and his completion percentage has dropped considerably from his first two starts of the season.

But consider Renfree’s experience, and what can truly be expected from him. He has barely been the team’s start-ing quarterback for four weeks. as Cutcliffe explains, any drawbacks in performance shouldn’t necessarily be attrib-uted to his inadequacies as a signal caller; rather, it’s proof that he is experiencing the “learning curve” that all quar-terbacks go through.

“Some people say [Renfree] played bad [against army],” Cutcliffe said. “But Sean Renfree is right on track. I am so encouraged about his first four starts. There is no reason for him to hang his head.”

neither should the Duke faithful.

match to rest. The tables turned in the 74th minute, though, as a shot fired by the phoenix’s Denzel ogunyase ricocheted off the foot of a Duke defender into the back of the net.

With the momentum from the late goal, elon continued pressing the Blue Devil defense. Sophomore goalkeeper James Belshaw came up big for Duke in the final stretch, making a critical save to keep his team in the game. Belshaw’s superb goalkeeping lit a spark among his teammates. They fought hard in the final five minutes of regulation, gaining three cor-

ner kicks and a swerving free kick from grossman which bent around the elon defensive wall, nearly finding its way into the net.

as the game entered the first half of extra time both teams battled to control possession. Freshman Jonathan aguirre came close to grabbing the game-winner, firing a 22-yard shot that forced elon keeper Clint Irwin into mak-ing a desperate save, pushing the ball over the crossbar. The second half of extra time lacked creativity, as both teams failed to find their offensive flows.

Duke will attempt to move past this stalemate as it takes on no. 8 Maryland at home Friday.

the chronicle wednesdAY, september , 2010 | 9

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Starting next Fall, Duke will offer its first terminal de-gree in the fine arts, a Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts. The strength of the University’s existing fac-ulty, facilities and resources make this program a logical next step toward enhancing the arts scene at Duke.

Duke has admittedly “struggled to create an envi-ronment where the arts are central to the University,” according to its 2006 strate-gic plan. Fortunately, recent developments including the opening of the Nasher Mu-seum of Art in 2005 and the strength of Duke Performanc-es under new director Aaron Greenwald have started to change that perception.

The interdisciplinary, two-year MFA program should serve to build off of that mo-mentum by training talented art practitioners and allowing them to hone their skills to-

gether. By merg-ing two forms of artistic activity—

the documentary approach and experimental production in analog, digital and compu-tational media—this Master of Fine Arts is in line with the strengths of our existing faculty. By carving out a niche, the pro-gram’s founders have created an MFA that should differenti-ate itself from other programs and attract top talent.

Extensive collaboration and the joint faculty shared among the Arts of the Mov-ing Image program, Center for Documentary Studies,

Art History department and Visual Studies department should lead to a smooth start for the MFA. Moreover, the University already has the fa-cilities to accommodate such a program. The MFA will be based out of a 4,000 sq.-ft. Carpentry Shop and will also draw on existing facilities, such as Smith Warehouse and the Bridges House.

A strong graduate pro-gram in the arts could also bode well for undergradu-ates. MFA students will pro-vide a fresh pool of talent to draw from as teaching assistants and mentors. In addition, a strong graduate school in the arts could carry prestige over to related un-dergraduate programs.

This degree will help fill a void in the Southeast, a re-

gion with a strong art and lit-erary tradition but relatively few MFA opportunities. The notion of using Durham as a gallery for art is also compel-ling. Center for Documen-tary Studies Director Tom Rankin envisions students creating murals across the city or projecting films onto sides of buildings. A chance to work in the community should appeal to students interested in working out-side the traditional confines of a studio.

Some key considerations going forward include ensur-ing that top faculty in each de-partment commit to teaching MFA classes without compro-mising the quality of similar undergraduate courses. Main-taining fiscal responsibility and monitoring growth of the

program will also play a major role in establishing a repu-table MFA. The current target of 15 students a year appears to be an appropriate starting point that will offer an inti-mate experience for students and professors. In order to win the respect of the greater art community, Duke must offer a rigorous curriculum. This program’s emphasis on producing a tangible project after the first year appears to accomplish this.

The creation of a Masters in Fine Arts is another ex-citing development for the University’s arts scene. By building the degree off of our distinctive strengths, the program’s founders have laid the foundation to continue the upward trajectory of the arts at Duke.

“Be careful what you do. It just might change you.”

Even now, I can feel the peaking suspense bubbling up in the packed auditorium.

Those closing statements by Eric Mlyn at this past summer’s DukeEn-gage orientation session still ring in my head.

But the suspense has reached new heights. According to a Sept. 23 Chronicle article, “DukeEngage direc-tor Mlyn to lead through 2016,” Du-keEngage has now become the most cited reason for why students wish to come to Duke University. That’s right, the stereo-typical basketball rationale has become a little out-dated (too bad we won a national championship).

Forty-five years ago, a North Carolina program comparable to DukeEngage generated a similar level of hype. Robert Korstad and James Leloudis in their 2010 work “To Right These Wrongs” de-scribe the story of this initiative during a time when poverty issues were at the forefront of North Carolina politics. Over the summers of 1964 and 1965, more than 300 college students spread out across North Carolina in an effort to “defeat pov-erty” and “uplift the poor.” In the first application phase, more than 500 students vied for the coveted initial 100 slots. Those finalists would become the “foot soldiers” of the North Carolina Fund, a lead-ing antipoverty program during the 1960s.

Governor Terry Sanford, also a former Duke president, established the Fund in 1963. This was in response to the debilitating poverty statistics that surfaced around the time Sanford took of-fice. Factory workers earned some of the lowest industrial wages in the nation; 37 percent of resi-dents had incomes below the federal poverty line; half of all students dropped out before finishing high school; one-fourth of adults 25 years of age and older had less than a sixth-grade education and were illiterate.

The volunteer program was one of the first sanc-tioned projects by the Fund to fight the nemesis of poverty. Although they brought a mix of motivations to their work, volunteers emphasized a conception of citizenship fitting President John F. Kennedy’s call for “patriotic self-sacrifice.” The volunteers felt a responsibility to uphold American ideals, espe-cially with the threat of communism abroad and social conflict at home. One wrote, “Because I am a concerned American, I think to be able to help others is more than an opportunity.”

And yet as these students took to the field, they experienced a fundamental change in their under-standing of citizenship. Activism was embraced no

less than service as an essential element of democra-cy. They began to contend that the poor had as much responsibility to live productively and independently

as to demand “political rights, high-er wages, improved housing, and better schools for their children.”

But this newfound obligation was met with some resistance. A volunteer in the program, Szittya, reported her frustration with the political system: “We must remem-ber that we were employees (in ef-fect) of the City of Durham, and under the city’s thumb. We are here to serve as requested, not to

change the requests. In short, we are here to be uncreative, and not to fight poverty, but to play the city’s conservative ball game.”

When the summer program ended that Au-gust, the Fund decided to disband its volunteer program for financial and safety reasons. It in-stead started to focus its resources on indepen-dent “poor people” movements (Leloudis’s and Korstad’s words) and training “Community Action Technicians” who could live and work full time in places they served. Of course, those efforts were met with further confrontation; some opponents of the Fund purported that the empowerment of the poor did not promise so much economic development as social chaos and disorder. Add to that a developing conservative stronghold, and the Fund was finally disbanded in 1968.

Forty-two years later, we still face some of the issues of poverty that plagued Terry Sanford and other North Carolinian legislatures of that time. Given the rather recent past, it seems understand-able that current community service would want to stay clear of the political drama. Yet, has Duke community work lost its fiery edge? And with Du-keEngage initiatives now spanning the globe, have students effectively displaced that hype and gener-ated the passion for local engagement of the 60s?

At the very least, this story should highlight the importance of the historical relevance of our current community work. We would do a disser-vice (no pun intended) to ourselves to forget the profound roles students realized in their own communities.

As the future prospect of DukeEngage lingers for those caught up in the hype, look to the past as a reminder of what it means to fully engage and challenge your community status quo. If the work they did changed them, the work you do might change you. Just “be careful what you do.”

Brandon Maffei is a Trinity sophomore. His column runs every other Wednesday.

commentaries10 | WednesdAY, september 29, 2010 the chronicle

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MFA a step forward for the arts

”“ onlinecomment

this could have turned into the classic anti social netowrking rant so easily.

—“uh_no” commenting on the story “When Facebook crashes.” See more at www.dukechronicle.com.

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brandon maffeigiving back

commentariesthe chronicle WednesdAY, september 29, 2010 | 11

Pop stars, pandas get caught in

Asian crossfireThe powers that be allowed me out of the

hospital and into the wild this Saturday. With something like 38 hours free of

clinical responsibilities—in a row! On a weekend!—I decided to make the most of it. I went to Tailgate.

As a medical student, I don’t just do things; I learn about things while doing them.

For instance, I would never just ad-mit a patient with pneumonia to the hospital; instead, I admit him to the hospital while learning about pneu-monia. Likewise, I would never just kill a mouse in the laboratory; rather, I kill mice while learning about the mouse’s genes.

The point, of course, is that I have a lot to learn and not a lot of time to do it, and so there really isn’t any time to waste. After all, by this time next year, I’ll be a doctor.

So when I say I went to Tailgate, I didn’t just go to Tailgate. I went to learn. And since I write this column mostly as a weekly monument to my own ego but also as a public service to the Duke com-munity, I thought I’d share.

1. Despite what you may read on these very pages, dating at Duke is by no means dead. In three hours at Tailgate, I saw no fewer than eight couples making out. Let me be clear: When I say making out, I mean really going at it. Like, for an uncomfortably long time and with an uncomfort-able amount of visible body fluids.

And even more striking, these couples just would not be stopped. Most of the couples were getting jostled by the furiously dancing crowd and were actively being soaked with beer. Even the fact that it was approximately 5,000 degrees in the Blue Zone could not stop these modern-day Pyra-mus and Thisbes. If the delicate flower of love can blossom in the Blue Zone, then the soil on the rest of campus must be fertile.

2. A plastic sandwich bag will adequately pro-tect an iPhone from an unexpected (beer) shower. This advice may only come in handy for my class-

mates going into obstetrics.3. Never let it be said that this

new-fangled generation of young-sters played too many video games and forgot to learn perseverance. I saw one guy wearing a wizard hat and a cape with a whole bunch of beer cans taped together to make him-self a wizarding staff. As I watched, he walked over to the bushes, put down his staff and proceeded to vomit maybe three or four times.

Then he picked up his staff and jumped right back into the party.

As a member of the med school admissions committee, this is the type of resolve I look for when determining who has what it takes to suc-ceed as a med student. Back in my (grandpa’s) day, they called that gumption.

4. The summer before my senior year, Tow-erview magazine (which I edited) ran a cover that foretold, in giant pink letters, “THE DEATH OF TAILGATE.” The cover story, cleverly headlined “The Fall of a Fall Tradition,” told of the admin-istration’s attempts to shut down a pre-football party that focused too much on drinking and not enough on the football team. Four years later, it’s clear that story was totally wrong. (In Towerview, we also ran a story on Mike Posner, and now his single is No. 15—I’m looking at Top 100—on the Billboard chart, so we were occasionally not hor-ribly wrong.)

Tailgate is alive and pretty much exactly the same as ever. If I weren’t such a crusty old man, it just might’ve warmed my heart.

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

You know things are really bad when pop stars and pandas get drawn into a diplomatic dispute.

It started as a minor fender bender at sea—a Chinese fishing boat colliding with two Japanese coast guard ships. It exploded into a diplomatic crisis that produced a chilling message: Asia’s future is one in which two economic powers will increasingly be at odds over issues so petty that they beg credulity. And mar-kets will be caught in the crossfire.

Following the Sept. 7 detention of the Chinese fishing-boat captain, China severed senior-level contacts and street protests sprung up there demanding his release. Next came reports that China was banning the export of “rare earths” to Japan, threatening supplies of a raw material vital to hybrid cars, laptops, wind turbines, weapons and iPhones.

Oddly, the real indignity involved pop stars. Chinese organizers canceled concerts in Shanghai by boy band SMAP. Its five members are Japan’s biggest celebrities. Just try getting through an hour in Tokyo without seeing them on television and billboards or hearing their sugary tunes blaring out of karaoke bars. The souring tone of China-Japan relations went viral once Japanese learned SMAP got dissed.

And then there’s the bizarre panda scandal. Beijing dispatched investigators to a Kobe zoo to get to the bottom of the death of a giant panda on loan from China. Some conspiracy theorists con-nected Xing Xing’s Sept. 9 death during a medical procedure to the boat incident—all apparently an effort to annoy China’s 1.3 billion people.

Japan released the captain, making Prime Minister Naoto Kan look wimpy. He faces a public angry that he bowed to Beijing. China demanded an apology and compensation. Japan responded by call-ing for China to pay for repairs to its coast guard vessels. This dustup still has legs.

This is the first major tiff since China replaced Japan as Asia’s powerhouse. China’s overreaction smacks of diplomatic immaturity and makes a mockery of its charm offensive in Asia. Anyone who thinks the changing of the guard in Asia will go smoothly is dream-ing, and that’s bad news for investors.

Really, folks, can we all take a deep breath and relax? There’s just too much at stake here, not only for Asian relations but for the sake of the world economy.

The shifting balance of Asian power adds new tension to old dis-putes. Thankfully, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan has avoided a visit to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine since taking power a year ago. It houses memorials to war criminals and irks Asian neighbors who say it celebrates Japan’s wartime atrocities.

This latest Japan-China stalemate is colored by geopolitical des-tiny. China is steadily eclipsing Japan, and officials in Tokyo don’t like it. Their counterparts in Beijing aren’t about to back down now that the economic wind is at China’s back and Asian dominance beckons.

China’s efforts to draw neighbors away from the U.S. orbit just took a huge blow. It also has opposed U.S.-South Korea military ex-ercises aimed at deterring North Korea, and dismissed regional ef-forts to mediate maritime territorial claims. None of this is sitting well in Asia.

All this makes an even bigger mockery than normal of meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and Association of South-east Asian Nations groups. They get little done in the best of times, never mind with China and Japan exchanging barbs and weighing trade sanctions.

Officially, this dispute is over a group of tiny uninhabited islets and outcroppings about 200 miles off the northeast coast of Taiwan, for which there are rival claims. The tension is a product of past conflict and Japan’s penchant for whitewashing its World War II ag-gression. Really, it’s related to Asia’s future.

Even a whiff of a chance of further confrontation will dent Asia’s future. China is Japan’s biggest trading partner, and Japan is a major source of the foreign-direct investment on which China relies for its 10 percent growth. Asia’s two biggest economies at loggerheads is in no one’s best interest.

China and Japan must stay focused on the big picture. Flexing muscles won’t raise China’s per-capita income, which is a tenth of Japan’s. Japan must remember that China is becoming the growth engine on which its future rests. It’s never good to alienate your big-gest customer.

Asia’s rocky economic seas just got rougher, as even pop stars and pandas can attest.

William Pesek is a Bloomberg News columnist. This column originally ran on Tuesday.

Where the wild things are

I’ve started to forget how my life was before I came here to South Africa. At Duke I used to go to bed at 3 a.m. every night, and here I

cannot sleep in later than 6:30 a.m. My company consists of the same 27 people. It has been weeks since I’ve introduced myself to anyone, and last Monday was the first I could freely use the internet (though “freely” still entails walking from my fenced-in camp to the fenced-in offices, in a group of no fewer than three, before 5:30 p.m., when it gets dark and the leopards come out).

When I came to Duke and start-ed going to sleep late at night, I began forgetting my life at home. I became aware of this during one incident when I was back in Michigan and went to Wal-Mart. The boy at the register was tall and bulky, and as he scanned the Jif jar across the laser I noticed that his right forearm had been sliced open with something jagged.

It was quite grotesque, really—swollen pink scars wiggled from wrist to elbow and the skin be-neath them looked grated. The gouged arm had two-thirds the volume of its counterpart; he had lost a lot of blood and the stitches, if any, had been sloppy. What had happened? At this point I felt I’d stared too long at the wound and switched my gaze to his face. Then I realized I knew exactly what had happened. I had been there.

Abbie and I were 14 and waiting for her sister to pick us up from school. We were in the cafeteria, with chatty Coleton, who had long hair then, and a girl who was in love with him called Raggedy-Ann. Coleton talked and Raggedy-Ann beamed and lis-

tened. Then she left. A boy who loved Raggedy-Ann ran up—quite suddenly—grabbed Coleton around the neck mid-sentence and pushed him to

the ground.“You talk so much crap!” he

shouted. His eyes had tears in them; Coleton wasn’t fighting back. In fact, his face looked a bit gleeful. Abbie and I had our hands to our mouths.

“Break it up!” said the senior class clown with whom my brother used to be friends. They broke it up. Coleton sat up and laughed and the boy left. We went back to talking. But

moments later, there was another fight. Pushed by his attacker, the register boy, gray around the eyes, in a long jersey, put his arm through the double-sided glass cafeteria wall. We gasped and saw the hole he’d made. Glass and blood were on the floor. There was flesh in the hole.

Register Boy clutched his arm and made a dopey smile. His eyes lost some focus and his lips, bright and fat, opened and slipped out of compo-sure. His teeth were crooked. Eventually an ambu-lance came and the glass got swept up, but it was a while before they fixed the window.

At Wal-Mart, he bagged my peanut butter and we smiled at each other. I wondered if he remem-bered I’d seen the fight or if he recognized me at all, and I felt strange for having forgotten that bit of my own history.

Rachna Reddy is a Trinity junior. She is studying ecology in South Africa for the semester. Her column runs every other Wednesday.

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12 | WednesdAY, september 29, 2010 the chronicle

organizations, such as the need for child-friendly shelters, housing units with easy access for the disabled and meals with more nutritional value than the meals-ready-to-eat often distributed at disaster sites, he said.

“We need a closer relationship with the private sec-tor to bring those communities online,” McNamara said. “Faith-based groups are [also] a critical partner. It’s about leveraging and enhancing those things your com-munity does on a day-to-day basis.”

Before becoming FEMA chief of staff, McNamara worked in both corporate and government emergen-cy management positions. His wide-ranging experi-ences include assisting in the responses to the Sept. 11 attacks, the anthrax attacks on the U.S. Senate, the Oklahoma City bombing and Hurricane Opal in 1995.

McNamara said that although many relief organi-zations latch onto the Department of Defense’s mod-

el of top-down leadership, in emergency situations this method is inefficient and slow, and it does not adequately tailor responses to individual communi-ties’ needs.

“A lot of federal agencies will fall into that mental-ity,” he said. “In a disaster, [this is] way too slow, and you don’t have the same information as the people on the ground. If you move forward with centralized deci-sion making, you’re asking for trouble. [It is] a recipe for failure.”

The Hurricane Katrina relief effort was an example of this sort of dysfunctional leadership, McNamara said. The government was unable to make swift deci-sions and was “seeking information instead of seeking solutions.”

FEMA will release new guiding principles on its web-site next week, McNamara said. The principles are team-work, engagement, getting results, preparation, empow-erment, flexibility and accountability.

“We’re learning slowly,” he said. “The more we can show folks why what we are saying is correct, the better off any emergency response is going to be.”

mcnamara from page 1

to comment on the details of the report’s findings. She added that she will analyze the data, as will the Office of Institutional Research and individual departments.

Although the study was released yesterday, it takes into account data compiled from the 2005-2006 academic year. The report ranks more than 5,000 programs in 62 fields and includes “illustrative rankings” for each program cate-gorized into three groups: student support and outcomes, diversity and research activity.

Other overall ranking measures include average number of Ph.D.s graduated from 2002-2006 and average Graduate Record Examination scores. Researchers used a combination of surveys and data mining of publications through the Insti-tute for Scientific Information and 224 scholarly societies.

Wright and former Graduate School Dean Lewis Siegel collaborated with the NRC to provide data about the Uni-versity, Wright said.

Although the NRC rankings may affect a prospective graduate student’s choice of school, Graduate and Profes-sional Student Council President Daniel Griffin said the report will not necessarily become a major factor.

“Rankings on the whole, I think, will probably have little impact, especially given that the data is just about [2005-2006],” Griffin said.

According to the NRC, however, results are likely to be rel-evant today because of low faculty turnover in recent years.

The data also reveals larger trends about graduate schools. Doctorate programs are 72 percent public univer-sities, and minorities are underrepresented among faculty, contributing 5 percent or less in professorships to all broad fields except the social sciences and the humanities.

“If anything, I’d say that at this point the study reaf-firms in my mind the importance of routinely evaluating programs by external reviews and providing important information like time to degree, completion rates and placement for prospective students in a transparent way,” Wright said.

graduate schools from page 1

The system, which costs $1.08 million, will have sev-eral functions, one of which is to capture methane gas from the waste and then use it to generate electricity. The methane collected from the device will be able to produce 512 to 639 megawatt-hours of clean energy each year.

By capturing methane gas from hog waste, Duke will receive carbon offset credits and Duke Energy will get re-newable energy credits.

“Duke University has a goal of being carbon-neutral by 2024,” said Tatjana Vujic, director of the University’s Car-bon Offsets Initiative, in the release. “We need to account for those greenhouse gas emissions we can’t reduce by preventing or reducing emissions elsewhere... and we want those [carbon] offsets to come from projects that make a difference to our local and regional environment and economy.”

In addition to harvesting renewable energy, the infra-structure will also handle liquid waste better by altering treatment and then either recycling it as flush water for the hog houses or eventually for crop irrigation, thus forming a closed circuit.

Other members of this partnership include the United States Department of Agriculture and the North Caro-lina Department of Environment and Natural Resources Lagoon Conversion Program, which both provided grant funding for the project.

As compensation for letting the University and Duke energy use his facilities, Loyd Bryant, owner of the farm, will own the system at no cost after 10 years and will save on his electricity bill due to the new system.

energy from page 3

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