Expanded McDonald House opens

by Michelle MenchacaTHE CHRONICLE

The Ronald McDonald House of Durham celebrated its completed expansion with a special ribbon cutting ceremony Tuesday.

Volunteers and staff celebrated a 25,000 sq-ft. addition to the Ronald McDonald House—a long-term residence for families of

critically ill children during their treatment in the Duke Children’s Hospital. Started in 2011, the $6.8 million project has increased the amount of bedrooms from 29 to 55. The expansion is intended to accommodate more families who must travel great lengths to get treatment for their children.

Ric Richards, president of the house’s

board of trustees and owner of the Bryan Center McDonald’s restaurant, spoke to a crowd of about 275 people about the expansion and what it would mean to the community.

“We believe that when you change a

SELIAT DAIRO/THE CHRONICLE

At the opening ceremony for the newly expanded Ronald McDonald House of Durham Tuesday, Angela Angelina, a former patient who stayed at the house, cut the ribbon. Other local leaders, such as Mayor Bill Bell and Gov. Bev Purdue, attended the event.

Algorithm picks who gets what

by Jack MercolaTHE CHRONICLE

As certain pharmaceuticals are be-coming increasingly scarce, hospitals should create fair and consistent poli-cies to decide how to apportion limited drugs to patients, said Dr. Phillip Rosoff, director of Duke Hospital’s clinical eth-ics program.

In response to shrinking supply in the profit-driven pharmaceutical indus-try, an interdisciplinary group at Duke Hospital drafted a policy that allocates scarce drugs based on fairness and eq-uity for all patients. The policy uses mathematical models and algorithms to determine a patient’s priority in receiv-ing drug treatment. Since the Hospital adopted the new policy a year and a half ago, the program has largely been suc-cessful, noted Rosoff, lead author of the policy.

“If there is not enough of an effective agent to go around, some people are go-ing to go without it and some people are going to get it,” he said. “Our goal was

Med School center nears completion

by Andrew LuoTHE CHRONICLE

Classes in the Medical School’s newest building will emphasize flexibility and col-laboration.

The Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans Center for Health Education will open its doors for classes in January. Construction of the six-story building is nearing comple-tion, and the facility will be lo-cated in the heart of the medi-cal school campus, next to the Seeley G. Mudd Building and the Duke Cancer Center. The new facility will include a 400-seat great hall on the ground level, a 140-seat amphitheater and six networked teaching

labs with retracting walls on the third floor.

The building was initially funded with $35 million from the Charlotte-based Duke En-dowment.

“The Trent Semans Center was built because we needed a space that was of the same quality as the educational program that we are deliver-ing at Duke,” said Dr. Edward Buckley, vice dean for medical education. “We tried to design a building that had multiple functionalities, that can ac-commodate any need that may arise.”

The design of the Trent

This year, junior Weinberg leads Duke soccer in goals

by Matt PunTHE CHRONICLE

Laura Weinberg has always had a knack for finding the back of the net.

And this year, despite playing on a front line that’s been missing players due to national team com-mitments and injuries throughout the season, the junior has been scoring at an even quicker pace—just under a goal a game.

“Her attacking mentality has been outstanding,” head coach Robbie Church said. “She’s been a lot more consistent this year run-ning at players, staying wide, be-ing able to take players on… and getting serves in. So, as a coach,

you really appreciate the growth in her, and that comes from hard work.”

Weinberg, who is tied for ninth in the NCAA in goals per game this year, already had a taste of national recognition for her offensive talent before even arriving at Duke.

As a high school freshman, the Boca Raton, Fla. native scored 24 goals to lead St. Andrew’s School to its first state championship. Her continued success as a sophomore for the Scots earned her a feature in the Feb. 18, 2008 issue of Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” section.

SEE MCDONALD ON PAGE 3 SEE DRUGS ON PAGE 4

SEE CENTER ON PAGE 6 SEE WEINBERG ON PAGE 8

ELYSIA SU/THE CHRONICLE

Weinberg has scored just under one goal per game this season.

Guide details allocating scarce drugs ethically

WOMEN’S SOCCER

The ChronicleTHE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012 ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH YEAR, ISSUE 30WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM

Former Pentagon Former Pentagon offi cial talks foreign offi cial talks foreign policy, policy, Page 2Page 2

Golf ties for Golf ties for fourth in fourth in

Fighting Illini Invitational, Fighting Illini Invitational, Page 7Page 7

ONTHERECORD“Since I can’t do normal adult things like drink and interact with

human people, I’ve tried taking up some adult hobbies....” —Lindsay Tomson in “Peter Pan syndome.” See column page 11

2 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012 THE CHRONICLE

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On foreign policy: Q&A with Michele FlournoyMichele Flournoy, former under

secretary of defense for policy, played an influential role in formulating defense policy in President Barack Obama’s administration. During her time as under secretary, she contrib-uted to policy developments regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the intervention in Libya and the Ameri-can response to the Arab Spring.

While she was visiting Duke to give a lecture Sept. 27, Flournoy spoke with The Chronicle’s Samantha Brooks about foreign policy decisions, maintaining a strong military in times of tight budget constraints and her experience as a female leader in the Pentagon.

The Chronicle: What was the calculus within the Obama admin-istration for intervening in Libya? How was that different from Syria, where the uprising against the dic-tatorial Assad regime continues?

Michele Flournoy: In the case of Libya, you had a situation where clearly there was an immi-nent threat to tens of thousands of civilians in Benghazi.

You had our European friends calling for international interven-tion. Very importantly, you had the Arab League, the surround-ing neighboring states calling for intervention and then you had the resolution on the part of the U.N. Security Council authoriz-ing international intervention to prevent the killing of civilians and so forth.

We also had an invitation ba-sically from the opposition say-ing, “Please come to our aid.” So, there was very strong internal and external consensus.

The Syria situation is much more complex and difficult in the sense that you have a divided opposition, you have a division of opinion on the part of the sur-rounding countries as to whether

they want any outside interven-tion, you have Russia and China clearly opposing any U.N. sanc-tioning of any intervention and you have a much more capable military on the ground.

It is less clear in the case of Syria whether an intervention would actually help the situa-tion or whether it would make it worse. Instead, the Obama ad-ministration has focused on pro-viding humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people on the ground, pressuring the Assad regime to step down through sanctions and other pressure and working with the opposition so they can build their cohesion. [This way], they can provide a viable alternative to the regime and present a transi-tion plan that actually allows peo-ple to change sides and jump on board a new government.

TC: How much does pressure from other nations versus what’s taking place within a country af-fect the U.S. approach to the situ-ation?

MF: Whenever you’re thinking about intervention you really have to have a sense of clarity about the mission and how the intervention will actually get you to a better po-sition over time.

Again, in Syria, the opposition has not wanted outside military intervention, they wanted sup-port. I think the administration along with several of our interna-tional partners are providing that. But it’s always a combination of factors, and each case is unique. I think the administration has had a consistent, principled approach to the Arab Spring, but the truth is each of these countries is in a unique situation and our policy has to be tailored to a case-by-case basis.

TC: What was your experience working with President Obama? What is his leadership style? How does he make decisions?

MF: I think he’s an extraordi-nary leader and an extraordinary commander in chief. He is ex-tremely deliberate in his decision-making. He is capable of being decisive, but he is someone who wants to get all points of view and as many facts on the table before he makes a decision.

If you’re in the back of the room and you have a scowl on your face because you are concen-trating or disagree on something, he will find the person who looks like they don’t agree and solicit dissent. He’ll say, ‘You look like you don’t agree with what the consensus is, tell me what your thoughts are.’ He seeks out that different point of view and creates space for people to speak up and tell him if they think he is about to make a mistake. I think that’s yielded better and smarter deci-sion-making.

TC: Has the pressure in the of-fice grown as the elections have drawn closer?

MF: I left office in February, so I’m a little dated in my experi-ence, but my experience with the president is that he really tried to keep the election pressures in context and at bay when he was making national security deci-sions. He really tries to focus on what’s the right thing to protect and advance the American inter-est, what’s the right thing to be true to our values, how do we sus-tain our leadership position in the world, and I didn’t see him factor-ing election politics into those decisions when he’s wearing his commander in chief hat.

TC: What was it like to be a

female leader in the Defense De-partment? Did you ever feel treat-ed differently because you are a woman?

MF: It was a wonderful experi-ence. The good news is there are more and more women taking leadership positions. When I was in the Clinton administration in the Pentagon, we could fit all the women leaders around a small dining table. Now we would over-flow the dining room. So progress has been made. I felt very much a welcomed part of the secretary’s team, and it was an extraordinary experience.

TC: Have you ever felt like you were treated differently in your career because of your gender?

MF: Well, you have to get used to being the only woman in the room and unfortunately that’s still the case in certain circles, but you just have to not mind it and if someone else has an issue with it, it’s their problem, not yours. And certainly in this administration, I didn’t have any experience where

my gender was at all an issue in terms of my ability to do my job.

TC: How will U.S. strategy have to change in an era of ever tight-ening fiscal constraints?

MF: Given the pressures that we face and given the fact that we’re going to have to constrain spending to reach a budget deal and a deficit deal in order to move this country forward, it re-ally puts an emphasis on being clear about your priorities. We can’t do everything, we can’t be everywhere, and we can’t invest equally in everything, so you have to place your bets.

One of the things President Obama has been clear about is that as we come out of this decade of war [in Afghanistan and Iraq], we have to place our focus. He’s really made the argument that in terms of driving the future of our economic prosperity and a lot of the dynamics in the world, Asia Pacific is going to be the number one region of interest to us. Now

NICOLE SAVAGE/THE CHRONICLE

Michele Flournoy, former under secretary of defense for policy, spoke with The Chronicle about working with President Barack Obama and American foreign policy.

SEE FLOURNOY ON PAGE 5

THE CHRONICLE WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012 | 3

German Campus Week October 4 - 11, 2012

Organized by the Duke German Department

For more info visit: http://german.duke.edu/news-events/german-campus-week

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Sponsored by: Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany (Washington, DC)

***All events start at 6:00 pm and include refreshments***

Thursday, 10/4 in the Mary Duke Biddle Rare Book Room in Perkins Library Opening reception with German Americana rare books showcase and Q&A session about student projects with rare books

Monday, 10/8 in the Alumni Room, Divinity School Welcome celebration with remarks from a German embassy representative & Duke University Dean of Humanities, Peter Burian Prizes for poster competition winners!

Tuesday, 10/9 in the Sauer Classroom, Fuqua School Interactive presentation on transnational business with the German marketing firm H,T,P, Concept Information session on internships facilitated by the Duke German department

Wednesday, 10/10 in Old Chem 116 Roundtable discussion with German business representatives from the NC area & Duke professors from various disciplines: “Germany as a Gateway to the World”

Thursday, 10/11 in Old Chem 116 – at 5:00pm !!! – Student presentations: “Think Transatlantic: Challenges and Solutions” Prizes for essay competition winners!

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!MCDONALD from page 1Romney suffers from

‘47 percent’ commentby Philip RuckerTHE WASHINGTON POST

DENVER — Everybody watching this weekend’s Redskins game saw the ad featuring Mitt Romney saying it. In fo-cus groups, pollsters only have to say “47 percent” for voters to know what they’re talking about. And lest anyone in Ohio or Florida or Virginia forget, President Barack Obama reminds them at each of his campaign stops.

The remarks in question were, as most of the country now knows, uttered by Romney in May to wealthy donors at a private fundraiser, at which he said that 47 percent of Americans will support Obama’s re-election and are government freeloaders who pay no income taxes, see themselves as “victims” and can’t be persuaded to “take personal responsibil-ity and care for their lives.”

In the two weeks since a surreptitious video of the remarks surfaced, they have pierced the national consciousness in a way that few blunders do. In the closing stretch of the presidential campaign, the moment has become a defining element of Romney’s candidacy.

And on Wednesday, the 47 percent is-sue is likely to come to the fore in an even more pronounced way, during the first presidential debate. Romney’s advisers— who acknowledge that the moment has hurt the Republican nominee among in-dependent voters in battleground states —said he has rehearsed debate answers in which he argues that he is for “the 100 percent” and that his policy prescrip-

tions would help the growing number of Americans under Obama’s presidency who are struggling to find work or living on food stamps.

“We wouldn’t be surprised, obviously, if that came up in the debate, and the gov-ernor’s prepared, obviously, to respond to that,” senior adviser Ed Gillespie told reporters Monday. “We believe the voters will see and appreciate the fact that what Governor Romney’s talking about would improve the quality of life for 100 per-cent of Americans.”

Ticking through a slew of economic statistics that make up the Republican in-dictment of Obama, Gillespie previewed Romney’s message: that he is running to help the 23 million Americans who are struggling to get jobs, the one in six who find themselves in poverty, the addition-al 15 million now relying on food stamps and the 50 percent of college graduates who cannot find employment.

But before Romney has a chance to say all that, his “47 percent” has already taken a toll, strategists in both parties said. The comments go to the heart of the way Obama is trying to define the race: not as a referendum on his stew-ardship of the economy, but as a choice between a president who fights for the middle class and a candidate who fights for the few.

“The Obama guys are pouring the coals on this on TV and driving it,” Re-publican strategist Alex Castellanos said.

child’s life, you change a family’s, which can change a community and ultimately the world,” he said.

Distinguished guests at the ceremony included North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue, Duke University Hospital representatives, community leaders and members of the Ron-ald McDonald House board.

The Durham House opened in 1980 and was the first of its kind in North Carolina.

Although the name Ronald McDonald is typically associated with fast food, critically ill children and their families associate the name with a place that fosters solace and sup-port during treatment, Richards said. The celebration acknowledged all the hard work and fundraising that went into making the renovation possible.

With tears in his eyes, Richards thanked those who pitched in and made the expan-sion possible.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the guid-ance and steadfast love of my family,” he said. “You know how much this house means to me and I thank you for this gift… I love you all.”

The expansion increased space at the house from 16,000 square feet to 41,000 square feet and included upgrades, such as the addition of a chapel, learning center, computer room, reading nook, play area and community boardroom. Although it cost $6.8 million to make the renovations, more work is to be done. The house hopes to raise another $750,000 in order to contin-ue renovating the kitchen, living room and main entrance.

Perdue noted the importance of the house for the families of children receiving long-term care.

“To have a place like this instead of hav-ing to stay in a hotel is really, really special,” she said.

After opening remarks, Angel Angelina, a former patient whose family stayed the house, cut the ribbon. Guests were then in-vited inside for refreshments and a tour of the house.

House staff member Nancy Jones, who helped run the ribbon cutting ceremony, noted that this is one of the most meaningful jobs she has ever had.

“Seeing the difference this house and the volunteers make for the families during this difficult time is so special,” she said.

The Clarks, a family whose prematurely born daughter had to stay at Duke Hospital to receive treatment, said the house helped them get through a difficult time.

Zandra Clark noted the support the house offered her family amid the challenges pre-sented by her daughter’s health issues.

“We would not have maintained our home, sanity or the parental care our daugh-ter needed [without the house],” she noted.

SELIAT DAIRO/THE CHRONICLE

Members of the community attend the opening of the newly expanded Ronald McDonald House of Durham Monday.

SEE ROMNEY ON PAGE 4

4 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012 THE CHRONICLE

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“You inform with reason, and you per-suade with emotion. They’ve made the ra-tional case that Romney’s policies would hurt the middle class, and this is the emo-tional counterpart.”

Castellanos, who advised Romney’s 2008 campaign but is not affiliated with his current one, said there is reason for the Republican’s team to be alarmed.

“The only thing in politics that is worse than voters deciding that they don’t like you is when voters decide you don’t like them,” he said.

The Obama campaign has widely cir-culated a television ad that shows im-ages of factory workers, veterans and families against audio of Romney’s 47 percent comments. The spot has a sig-nificant footprint, airing across each battleground state in nearly every local television market where the Obama cam-paign is doing any advertising. It is be-ing shown not only during newscasts but also during such mainstream network programming as NFL games and “Sat-urday Night Live,” according to CMAG Kantar Media.

Romney’s comments about the 47 per-cent are weighing him down with voters, according to recent polls. Almost six in 10 voters nationally say that as president, he would do more to favor the wealthy than the middle class, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Monday. Specifically regarding the re-marks, respondents to a Post-ABC poll from last week were displeased with Rom-ney’s viewpoint: Fifty-four percent had an unfavorable impression of his comments, compared with 32 percent who had a fa-vorable view.

to create a policy to allocate the dwin-dling supplies that we have in the most fair process that is possible.”

In a fair process, there should be no “special” patients who have priority on receiving drugs for unethical reasons, Rosoff said. Unethical reasons that sometimes result in patients receiving drug priority include ability to pay, per-sonal connections at the hospital, hos-pital donor status and relative clout of doctors.

“Similar situations must be treated similarly,” Rosoff added. “Two people who are medically similar—say even an undocumented immigrant with no medical insurance and a major hospital donor—who have an equal chance of benefitting from a drug should have an equal opportunity to access that drug. That was our bedrock principle.”

Many pharmaceutical producers have recently shrunk their supply for business reasons, though demand for pharmaceuticals has remained con-stant, he said. The industries for gener-ic intravenous drugs and chemothera-peutic agents have taken the largest hit because those drugs are expensive to produce and only generate large profits if they are sold in very high volumes.

Complicated single-producer drugs are also at risk for supply shock when their patents expire, Rosoff added.

“Companies are making decisions based on what is most profitable,” said Dr. Kuldip Patel, associate chief pharma-cy officer and co-author of the policy.

The interdisciplinary team consisted of practicing physicians, pharmaceutical specialists and medical ethics specialists.

It considered five main principles in drafting the policy, a process that started about two years ago, Rosoff said.

The policy must be completely trans-parent and have no secrets. There must be a way to enforce all parts of the policy. There should be a mechanism for alter-ing the policy if needed. There should be an appeals process in which both pa-tients and doctors have a path to appeal apportioning decisions. And the policy should be completely fair, he said.

Although each case of scarcity is unique, the policy outlines a general model. According to an article pub-lished in the Archives of Internal Medi-cine Sept. 24, when a hospital’s central pharmacy notices a “critical” shortage of the drug, an immediate inventory of the drug is taken. Additionally, a memoran-dum is sent to an allocation committee that offers advice in making a prioritiza-tion tree and conserving the drug.

This early reaction to a shortage is what makes the policy so effective, Patel said.

Some conservation methods include scheduling patients who need the same intravenous drug in the same session so leftovers can be put in a single vial and only administering scarce drugs for uses which are Food and Drug Adminis-tration-approved, meaning that a breast cancer drug would not be used to treat other forms of cancer unless extensive research is published proving the drug is useful in both instances.

Patel noted that extensive algorithms are used when creating the priority tree for a specific drug. There are a num-ber of variables at play and it is difficult to single out a specific factor, such as patient age, as a dominating variable. In some critical shortage cases, prior-

ity has been given to patients who can most be readily cured by the drug, exist-ing patients and new patients from the immediate referral region surrounding Duke Hospital.

“We have mostly avoided what we call a ‘tragic choice,’ meaning where we have one dose of drug and two pa-tients who can equally benefit from it,” Rosoff said. “In that case, necessarily, one patient who really needs it gets it and the other does not get it, [but] we have not faced that situation.”

Rosoff added that the policy has not taken any criticism yet, but he said he believes it will when the hospital does inevitably have to make a “tragic choice.”

He also said he sees Duke Hospital as a role model for other hospitals con-cerning drug-apportioning policy.

“In terms of publication, we’re the only one out there,” he said. “Every hospital in the country has to deal with this in one way or another, and I think that we are at the forefront for stan-dardizing this and certainly publicizing it. Hopefully this policy will serve as a guide to other institutions to show this is a workable and reasonably successful way to approach this problem.”

But Duke Hospital is somewhat unique because of the extensiveness of its pharmacy, Patel noted. Duke’s pharmacy has the ability, in some—but not all—cases, to purchase raw materi-als and produce scarce drugs on-site, if need be. This gives Duke a leg up against some smaller hospitals that do not have this privilege.

“You’re sick and a particular drug can help you? That’s all that matters,” Rosoff said. “That’s how we’re supposed to treat everybody here.”

ROMNEY from page 3DRUGS from page 1

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FLOURNOY from page 2

it doesn’t mean that we’re going to withdraw or turn our back on the Middle East, or turn our back on our NATO allies, but we need to be putting more strategic focus on Asia Pacific given its importance and I think that’s been a clear part of the president’s strategy.

TC: Will it be feasible or worthwhile to maintain the current numbers of troops stationed around the world?

MF: There will be a withdrawal in Afghanistan, certain-ly, as we get to the point of transition in 2014. There will probably be a small residual force still there to help the Afghans with their training in counterterrorism.

I don’t think you’ll see lots of American forces or addi-tional American forces permanently stationed around the world, but I think what you will see in our interest to be present is a lot of rotational forces—forces visiting regions, going and training with partners or conducting training exercises with allies and then rotating back out. And that’s a good thing for the United States because the more pres-ent we are, the more engaged we are, the more we can be a force for the stability that really underlies our economic dynamism.

TC: Will we see a shift toward more tactical exercises of force, such as drone strikes?

MF: I think that the president has lead an extremely effective counterterrorism campaign against al Qaeda, and in the Afghanistan and Pakistan region the pressure is so severe that they are mainly focused on their own survival opposed to any plotting against the United States homeland.

Drone strikes have been necessary where the U.S. has not had an adequately willing or capable counterterrorism partner on the ground, a country that can really assert its sovereignty or its territory and really take care of the prob-lem itself. In general, our preferred approach is to partner with another country and build up their capacity to really take control of their own territory and deny a safe haven to terrorists in their home territory. But again, where that’s not possible and where there are imminent threats to the United States, active plotting going on, sometime unilat-eral measures are necessary.

I don’t think that they will necessarily increase. We could actually get to a tipping point with al Qaeda’s leader-ship that you’ve so decimated the ranks that that kind of pressure is no longer necessary, and I certainly hope that that is what takes place.

TC: If another conflict with a threat level similar to al Qaeda arises, will this be the next approach, or do you plan to continue to stress partnerships?

MF: I think the emphasis will be on building the capac-ity with partners, for them to be able to deal with terrorist organizations on their soils. These unilateral kinetic mea-sures are only when that’s the only way to deal with an im-minent threat, when you don’t have other options.

TC: What was your role in planning the raid that led to killing Osama bin Laden?

MF: My role was supporting Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in his participation in the National Security Council deliberations. When the raid actually occurred you can imagine there was a lot of engagement that had to happen: telling the Pakistanis, telling the Afghans, informing Con-gress, informing our allies. I was very much apart of again supporting Secretary Gates in his role in that dimension.

TC: In such extreme cases, how do you manage the re-lations with the other nations involved?

MF: In the case of the bin Laden raid, the secrecy around the operation was extreme given who Osama bin Laden was, given the risk that he would flee if any infor-mation leaked out, and so it was very tightly held as a planning effort. As soon as possible, outreach was made to all of the countries that were involved, first and fore-most Pakistan.

It was a very tough decision for the president to de-cide whether or not to involve Pakistan in the front end. On the one hand, they’ve been a very important ally in the counterterrorism efforts in some cases, but we’ve also had numerous experiences when sharing information with them had lead to loss of control of that information inside our own intelligence services or premature action on their part that was not very successful. In this case, giv-en the stakes, the president chose to take U.S.-only action knowing that that would be challenging for U.S.-Pakistan relationship, and I think we’ve been working through that and other tensions in that relationship to get back to a solid partnership.

CAROLINE RODRIGUEZ/THE CHRONICLE

GANO, Gente Aprendiendo para Nuevas Oportunidades, is a volunteer organization through which Duke students teach English as a second language to Latino adults in Durham.

New opportunities

6 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012 THE CHRONICLE

Dear Duke Students:

As members of the Duke community, we share common values of respect, inclusion and excellence.

As Vice-President for Institutional Equity, I and my office are committed to encouraging and

supporting these values. We appreciate and understand that our best work is accomplished when

our community values are woven throughout our day-to-day experiences.

One of the ways our community values are demonstrated is through the manner in which we

engage with one another. Each member of our community should be treated with respect and

dignity. Harassment of any kind is unacceptable and conflicts with our sense of community.

As Vice-President for Institutional Equity, I also serve as the Duke University Title IX

Coordinator. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination at educational institutions

receiving federal funds. As the Title IX Coordinator, I am responsible for implementation and

administration of Duke’s nondiscrimination and harassment policies, which support Duke’s

commitment to learning and work environments that are respectful and inclusive.

It is my hope and expectation that you will never encounter conduct that is inappropriate or

harassing. Nonetheless, should you ever feel you have been subjected to such conduct, do not

hesitate to seek help. Undergraduate students can contact Stephen Bryan, Associate Dean of

Students and Director of the Office of Student Conduct, at (919) 684-6938 or conduct@duke.edu.

If you are a graduate or professional student, you can contact your respective school dean or

department chair.

You can always contact me directly. My office telephone number is (919) 684-8222 and we are

located at Smith Warehouse, 114 S. Buchanan Blvd., Bay 8, Durham, North Carolina 27708.

Please visit our departmental website for more detailed information at www.duke.edu/web/equity.

Many wishes for a successful year.

Sincerely,

Benjamin D. Reese, Jr., Psy.D.

Vice-President for Institutional Equity

DUKE UNIVERSITYDUKE UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM

office of the vice-presidentfor institutional equity

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The Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans Center for Health Education, which will open to medical students in January, is designed to suit the collab-orative nature of the School of Medicine’s evolving curriculum.

Semans Center is flexible in order to accommodate changes in the nature of medical education in coming years, Buckley said. In the amphitheater, the movable chairs allow students to work on small group activities in a large space. Additionally, although there is one large hall that can fit 400 people, the room is adjust-able to form smaller rooms for fewer people. There are also small discussion rooms in which groups of 10 to 15 students can gather to study.

Medical school classes, which have traditionally been lecture-based, are making a transition toward teamwork-style learning. By having movable walls that can form varying classroom sizes, students can break off into groups to work and discuss projects together.

The design of TSCHE invites collaboration among medical students, said Dr. Linton Yee, one of the course directors for Body and Disease, a first-year medical school course that will be taught in TSCHE.

“Rather than having professors present material, students can spend more time reviewing problems to-gether,” he said. “It’s a more effective way of utilizing class time.”

Another class that will be moving into TSCHE in January is Brain and Behavior, a first-year course that introduces human neuro-anatomy. The class, which in-volves the study of human brains obtained at autopsy, will be better equipped in rooms in the TSCHE build-ing, said Leonard White, associate professor and direc-tor of education for the Duke Institute for Brain Sci-ences.

“When we are studying human tissue samples such as the brain, we would want a place that has proper ventilation and proper surfaces for displaying them,” White said. “The Trent Semans building will accommo-date these needs, while providing other tools such as wireless connection and projectors.”

The opening of TSCHE will offer a central gather-ing spot for medical students, like the Link in Perkins Library, Buckley added. The design of the building fa-cilitates communication between medical students and faculty. This, in turn, fosters the hidden curriculum of medical school, which occurs when people come to-gether to discuss their ideas.

“I’m definitely excited to move in there,” Yee said. “It makes the medical school more unified, and incom-ing first-year students will be able to interact with grad-uating senior students.”

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The beginning of the 2012 NFL season was overshad-owed by a high-profile labor dispute with its referees, creating an unusual emphasis on officiating. As faulty replacement officials altered the outcomes of games at the professional level, college football’s officiating crews

are forced to make controversial decisions of their own in order to protect players against debilitating head injuries, much to the dismay of players and coaches.

One of the more noticeable adjust-ments the NCAA has made this season is to kickoffs, often considered one of the most

dangerous plays in football. For the first time, kickoffs at the col-legiate level were moved up to

the 35-yard line and touchbacks were moved from the 20 to the 25-yard line to encourage players to take a touchback rather than return the kick.

A subtler rule change, however, requires a player whose helmet comes off in the course of play to leave

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>> THE BLUE ZONE Check out the sports blog for quick hits from Duke football head coach David Cutcliffe’s weekly media luncheon Tuesday.

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Freshman Jela Duncan lost his helmet after a reception this past weekend when Wake Forest linebacker Justin Jackson ripped it off.

NCAA needs to use its head

the field for one play before returning. Although this occurs infrequently, the rule has been met with mixed reviews for slowing the game down.

“I think they thought that players weren’t wearing it strapped up or not fitting it properly, but I don’t think that’s the case,” Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said during his weekly media luncheon on Sept. 18. “The few coaches I’ve talked to about it feel like I do. It’s not a very reasonable rule. I don’t think it has anything to do with player safety, taking him out of the game.”

Little did Cutcliffe know, his team would have to deal with this rule last Saturday and the results could have been costly.

Searching for its first win against Wake Forest since 1999, freshman Jela Duncan had an opportunity to score his first career touchdown for Duke and extend his team’s lead to two scores in the process. Catching a swing pass in the flat from redshirt senior quarterback

MEN’S GOLF

Duke ties for fourth in Fighting Illini Invitational

SEE CARP ON PAGE 8 Randle not to consider Duke

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Byas earns ACC honors

FOOTBALL

from Staff ReportsTHE CHRONICLE

Jordon Byas had the game of his career Saturday against Wake Forest, recording his first career interception and a ca-reer-high 11 tackles.

The conference named the redshirt senior the ACC Defensive Back of the Week as a reward for his perfor-mance. Byas missed Duke’s first three games of the sea-son after knee surgery, but has started the two contests since, accumulating 17 tackles in the team’s wins against Memphis and Wake Forest.

“He is a coach’s player,” head coach David Cutcliffe said at his weekly press conference Tuesday. “You get a productive safety out of our system, and they can be a good pro player.”

Byas is the second Blue Devil this season to earn the award after fellow defensive back Ross Cockrell earned Defensive Back of the Week honors following his two-interception game against N.C. Central earlier in the season. Senior wide receiver Conner Vernon is the only other Duke player to earn ACC honors thus far.

from Staff ReportsTHE CHRONICLE

Julius Randle, the top-ranked forward in the class of 2013, is now down to six schools, and Duke is not one of them.

Rated the No. 2 overall recruit by ESPN.com, Randle’s list is down to Kentucky, Florida, Oklahoma, N.C. State, Florida and Texas, according to a tweet from ESPN college basketball recruiting analyst Dave Telep.

The news comes as a surprise since Duke was believed to be heavily in the mix for the 6-foot-9 power forward. Randle is AAU teammates with Matt Jones, who is al-ready committed to Duke and is a member of the 2013 recruiting class.

With Randle off the board, Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski still has two targets in this year’s recruit-ing class—Jabari Parker and Austin Nichols.

Nichols is a 6-foot-8 power forward and the No. 11 over-all recruit in the class, and he is scheduled to make his of-ficial visit to Duke this weekend. Parker, the No. 1 overall recruit in the class, is scheduled to visit Durham the week-end of Oct. 27 for his official trip.

KEVIN SHAMIEH/THE CHRONICLE

Byas recorded his first career interception and 11 tackles at Wake Forest.

SEE M. GOLF ON PAGE 8

by Jackie KlaubergTHE CHRONICLE

Sometimes you can tell a hole-in-one by sound, not sight. And Blue Devil head coach Jamie Green knows a hole-in-

one when he hears it.“I was a hole behind. I was walking with another player

behind him and we looked up onto the green and heard a pretty loud roar,” Green said. “You know the sound of a cheer of a hole-in-one…. We looked up there and saw lots of arms raised.”

Adam Sumrall scored a hole-in-one in his second round of play at the Fighting Illini Invitational in Olympia Fields, Ill. The South Bend, Ind. native recorded his second ace in tournament play for Duke, helping his team to a fourth place finish overall.

Fellow Duke senior Brinson Paolini finished the tourna-ment tied for second place, five shots behind the winner, Stan-

ford’s Patrick Rodgers, who also won the Invitational last year as a freshman. Rodgers was the only player to finish the tourna-ment under par, finishing with a 3-under-par 207.

Paolini, who was paired with Rodgers in the final round of play, finished the tournament with a 2-over-par 212.

Green noted that playing alongside the tournament leader is no easy feat.

“Neither of them could do anything about the other guy, nor did they know how anyone else stood at that time,” Green said. “But to watch the guy with you get two, three or even four shots ahead, that’s definitely depressing.”

Duke senior Julian Suri finished just two shots behind Paoli-ni to earn himself a seventh-place finish with a 4-over-par 214.

The Blue Devils, who finished tied with Stanford in fourth place with a 33-over-par 873, played consistently throughout

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Senior Brinson Paolini tied for second this weekend.CARP from page 7

WEINBERG from page 1 M. GOLF from page 7

“Her attacking mentality was something we saw as a youth player,” Church said. “Her teams were not really great teams that she played on… but she just stood out…. Our pro-gram at that time was kind of wrapped up at sixth, seventh, eighth in the ACC. To get to the upper echelon, we had to be more athletic, so she provided us with that. And she provided an attacking mentality for us.”

Weinberg’s transition to the ACC did not slow down her offensive output. As a freshman, she led the Blue Devils with 10 goals, including two game-winners. And last season, Weinberg—sharing the load with double-digit goal scorers junior Mol-lie Pathman and sophomore Kelly Cobb—registered another eight goals.

This year, the forward has taken her con-sistent offensive output to an even higher level, scoring 11 goals in Duke’s 12 games.

Referred to as “a sniper in front of the goal” by Church, Weinberg has also great-ly improved her accuracy, shooting a .216 percentage in comparison to her career average of .134.

“When I was a freshman, I didn’t know

what I was getting myself into,” Weinberg said. “I didn’t really know the level of competition, but now, I’m a lot more familiar with the teams that we’re playing in our conference. You real-ize after playing in the ACC for two years just how good the competition is, so I think just becoming familiar with that has really helped my game a lot.”

Church credits much of Weinberg’s success this year not only to her veteran experience but also to her training regimen over the summer. While in New York for a marketing internship with Meredith Corporation, she trained with Blue Devil teammates redshirt junior Kim De-Cesare, senior Libby Jandl and redshirt junior Callie Simpkins. The four played for N.Y. Ath-letic Club and also worked two to three times a week with a trainer.

In addition to training with her team-mates, the junior also sought to expand her game in the offseason to include other re-sponsibilities on the field.

“I took the corners for my summer team,” Weinberg said. “That’s something I wanted to work on, just add that element, bring it to Duke. I’ve been working a lot on free kicks also.”

The Blue Devils benefited greatly from

the entire tournament. Duke recorded an 11-over-par 291 in all three rounds of play.

“They played it as a par-70 as opposed to the scorecard which listed the course as a par-72,” Green said. “So what they do is take some par-fives and just call them par-fours.... So you had a couple of par-fours that were 500-plus yards. So if you have the wind in your face, it is a hard green to get to in two shots.”

Arkansas, which led the field after the first two days of play, went into the final round with a 12-shot lead over its nearest competition, Auburn. The Razorbacks ulti-mately finished the tournament 14-over-par and 13 shots ahead of second-place Florida. With the fourth-place finish, Green knows his team has room to improve.

“We were hoping for much better rounds, especially [Tuesday],” Green said. “We had a pretty good round going through 14. We had made nine birdies, but on the last four holes we ended up eight over. That was obviously not the finish we were hoping for, but we did play a lot of good holes.”

The Blue Devils return home for the Rod Myers Invitational at the Duke University Golf Course Saturday Oct. 13. The tournament marks the Blue Devils’ only tournament on their home green.

Weinberg’s improved performance, having played their first seven games without Path-man and Cobb who were participating in the U-20 FIFA World Cup. And since the duo’s return, Cobb and DeCesare have suffered injuries, leaving Weinberg and freshman Cassie Pecht with the majority of responsi-bility for the offensive third of the field.

“She needs to be that player that is going to produce every night,” Church said. “She en-joys that role, and I think she’s done a great job in that role this year.”

Beyond contributing her own scoring, Weinberg has also faced the task of a becom-ing a mentor to her younger teammates. Weinberg—who personally trains a 12-year-old girl during her time at home—comment-ed that she has taken on the responsibility of a larger leadership role.

Recruited to bring Duke to the top of the ACC, Weinberg helped take her team to last year’s NCAA title game. As the team’s leading scorer, she’s now in a position to help bring the Blue Devils back.

“I definitely feel the pressure, but I would say it’s a good kind of pressure,” Weinberg said. “I like when the stakes are high.”

Sean Renfree in the third quarter, Dun-can ran powerfully until he was met by Demon Deacon linebacker Justin Jackson, who put a big hit on Duncan and ripped off the running back’s helmet.

Duncan sustained the decapitating hit, spun away and broke into the open field just before the play was called dead be-cause his helmet came off. Even without his helmet, Duncan would have scored easily. Wake Forest was assessed 15-yard face mask penalty from the end of Dun-can’s eight-yard catch.

Because the removal of Duncan’s hel-met resulted from an illegal play, he was not forced to leave the field for one snap as the rule dictates. And the Blue Devils still found the back of the end zone on that drive. Luckily for Duncan, he was not robbed of his first career touchdown for a second time and notched his first col-legiate score on a 17-yard scamper with 2:50 remaining in the game.

Although the enforcement of this rule did not prevent the Blue Devils from win-ning the contest, it needs to be reexam-ined by the NCAA. Not only does the rule affect the flow of football games, but also could potentially endanger the same play-ers it strives to protect.

In Georgia Tech’s 56-20 drubbing of Virginia Sept. 15, Yellow Jacket head coach Paul Johnson said in his post-game press conference that his quarterback was being targeted by the Cavalier defense. Johnson argued that Virginia’s defense was targeting quarterback Tevin Washing-ton’s helmet in goal line situations. Wash-ington’s helmet came off twice in scrums near the goal line, forcing the signal call-er to exit the field of play both times.

The worst part is, it all makes perfect sense. If you were a college football play-er and had the opportunity to take out your opponent’s best player at a crucial juncture in the game, why wouldn’t you at least try?

In a game fueled by drive and aggres-sion, college football players are now giv-en an incentive to rip opponents’ helmets off to force them off the field. Not only does this soil the sanctity of the game, but it could also potentially result in a greater quantity of hits to the head and increase concussion risk, which is ironically what this rule is meant to prevent.

Jim Kovach, CEO and Co-Founder of Athleticode Inc., studies genetic influ-ence on traumatic brain injuries’ sus-ceptibility and response on a daily basis. Kovach has analyzed countless contact in-juries and dished out a few hits as well. He played seven NFL seasons as a linebacker

for the New Orleans Saints and San Fran-cisco 49ers while simultaneously earning a medical degree during his offseasons from his alma mater Kentucky.

Shortly after his playing career ended, Kovach also earned a law degree from Stanford. When asked about the new NCAA rule, Kovach claimed it was de-signed to enhance player safety, at least in theory.

“The way it would enhance safety is if [the rule] disciplined players to snap their chin strap and keep their helmet fit-ted properly throughout the year—this in turn could reduce injuries,” Kovach wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “However, there is no study as far as I know that has correlated helmets that pop off with in-creased head injuries.”

Although Kovach said he “doesn’t see [the rule] enhancing or harming the safety of the game,” he added that many of the game’s chippier moments are not visible to the naked eye.

“In a pile there are no rules,” Kovach said. “You wouldn’t believe what goes on in there.”

The NCAA needs to examine the way it regulates the game in the name of player safety. Despite good intentions, the NCAA has failed to examine whether it is inad-vertently incentivizing the types of con-tact it seeks to eradicate from the game.

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When you consider any respectable MRS degree pursuant, there’s a black-gold standard of success: the oil mogul. Whether it’s Eike Batista, the richest man in Brazil, or Mukesh Ambani, his Indian counterpart with a net worth of $22.3 billion, oil, gas and mining magnates dominate the rankings of billionaires on Forbes.

It’s no secret why fossil fuels are so lucrative. Relatively low front-end costs and huge demand allowed any-body able to control oil fi elds or ex-traction and production in the early 20th century to thrive. Even today, when there is a pervasive awareness of environmental issues posed by fossil fuel-burning power plants, it’s hard to look at the price tag on a kilowatt-hour of coal and say, “Four cents? No thanks; I’d really rather spend a little more.” There’s not enough momen-tum in the United States to move forward away from conventional energy. Despite this, with a little inno-vation and a refocusing of energy perceptions, a new option can be brought to the table: nuclear.

Over the past few years, nuclear energy has picked up quite the unfortunate rep. In 2010 when a terrifying earthquake-tsunami combination caused the meltdown of three reactors in Fukushima, Japan, the world was reminded of the power behind nucle-ar technology and why it has applications in the mili-tary sector. Widespread health concerns with radio-active iodine and cesium isotopes fl oating around the Japanese countryside were well publicized. In the aftermath of the incident, Germany even an-nounced its belief that the use of nuclear energy has no place in commercial energy production.

Any move to introduce nuclear energy as a le-gitimate source of production would require huge amounts of public support, but we continue to as-sociate nuclear energy with Chernobyl, the burgeon-ing Iranian weapons program and that terrible chill that runs down our spines when we hear George W. Bush even try to say “nuclear.”

But nuclear energy’s poor public image is just that—a poor image. In reality, nuclear safety is scary by nature, but not a real threat. Accidents are sta-tistically unlikely and most modern nuclear reactors have passive security systems. In the case of a slight disturbance, no manual intervention is required be-cause mechanisms relying on gravity or natural con-vection will eliminate the risk of meltdown. The third generation nuclear reactors have been designed to operate at high effi ciency, creating optimal amounts of electricity while using a minimum amount of fuel and reducing waste. Finland is close to fi nishing one of the fi rst long-term storage facilities for nuclear waste—a no-surveillance, no-maintenance setup 500 meters underground. The collective ability to pro-

vide safe nuclear energy is present. It’s just not being fully exploited.

On top of all of its horror fi lm-esque attributes, nuclear energy is a huge pain when it comes to

starting from scratch. Building a plant itself with all of the requisite safety and effi ciency features is a huge capital investment, and the licensing process is not easy. Any industry that seeks to supply an en-tire country with the ability to read at night or charge their infi nite vari-ous appliances must be at its core based upon profi t. An industry that receives capital investment and is subsequently propped up by govern-

mental subsidies can only last as long as the subsi-dies themselves; thus, the industry becomes depen-dent on political fl uctuations. So isn’t it great that nuclear energy represents a private venture that is just as economically sustainable as current baseload power production?

Nuclear energy really is no more expensive than fossil fuels. When it comes to the price per kilowatt-hour of energy produced, nuclear energy costs the same as coal, a whopping 4 cents. This is slightly mis-representative because it describes a plant that has been in operation—it doesn’t depict the massive ini-tial investment or the years and years of waiting before the fi rst return on investment. If a carbon tax were ever actually incurred in the United States, however, then nuclear energy would surge ahead in cost effi -ciency. Effi cient nuclear plants produce .01 percent of the carbon emissions of coal power plants, and the overall societal costs from health issues and climate change without a legislative tax are estimated to be 25 times more costly in coal generation.

Nuclear energy is the answer to many energy production problems in the United States; it’s both where we need to go and where I fi rmly believe we will end up. With that, here’s my call to Duke stu-dents and graduates and whatever other ambitious, intelligent individuals my column will reach: Go nu-clear. Make it profi table. Environmental protection and the economic stimulus of domestic production are pretty appealing possibilities. Not to mention the next generation of Batistas and Ambanis, of innova-tors and businessmen, has some openings. So do you want to make billions but retain your “wanting to make a difference in the world” inner fl ower child? Because I’m willing to bet that in 20 years, Forbes will feature a new demographic: those who were will-ing to bet on nuclear energy.

Lydia Thurman is a Trinity sophomore. Her column runs every other Wednesday. You can follow Lydia on Twit-ter @ThurmanLydia.

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While CarlyRaeJepsen is upset that Call Me Maybe is now out of season, she commends the Duke wrestling team for their dance moves.

—“CarlyRaeJepsen” commenting on the story “Duke wrestling gets down to Gangnam Style.” See more at www.dukechronicle.com.

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The author Jeffrey Eu-genides, in his novel “The Marriage Plot,” once de-scribed college this way: “...everyone felt compelled to be upbeat... when everyone knew, in his or her heart, that this wasn’t how they really felt.”

Eugenides attended Brown University, but he might as well have been describing Duke. Masking vulnerability with false confi dence is no mystery to Duke students. In-deed, we have coined our own term for the phenomenon: ef-fortless perfection. After years of working at Counseling and Psychological Services, Gary Glass, CAPS assistant direc-tor for outreach and devel-opmental programming, said many Duke students possess

an unhealthy fear of express-ing open and raw emotions. They instead perform pol-ished, unfl appable, but ulti-mately invented personas in their daily lives. The problem

these days is not so much the stigmatiza-

tion of mental health disor-ders, Glass noted. It is the stig-matization of vulnerability.

As next Sunday marks the beginning of national Mental Illness Awareness Week, it is a good time to consider the mental health of Duke’s cam-pus holistically. That means looking outside the bound-aries of the psychologist’s of-fi ce. Specifi cally, addressing student mental health means addressing the cultural prob-lems deeply entrenched in the expectations, interactions

and mores of the Duke com-munity. The problems CAPS often addresses—academic-related stress, depression, eat-ing disorders, social anxiety and so forth—arise from the tension between how stu-dents, pressured by the seem-ingly expert put-togetherness of their peers, think they should feel and how they ac-tually feel.

We agree that the solution lies in connecting struggling students to each other, thus making students realize they do not have to face mental health issues in isolation. “I often wish my 10:30 appoint-ment could meet and talk to my 2:30 appointment,” Glass said. He suggests that, with Duke’s culture of invulnerabil-ity, his patients often feel they are the only ones affl icted by

a certain problem. In reality, they are dealing with similar problems as their classmates and dormitory neighbors, and knowledge of this fact would make them feel less lonely.

Although patient confi den-tiality remains intact, CAPS and other student groups are looking outside the consulta-tion room to improve campus dialogue about mental health. For example, the Duke chap-ter of To Write Love On Her Arms, a national organiza-tion dedicated to increasing mental health awareness, will again erect their “Dreams and Fears” tree in Perkins Library where students can share their candid feelings. Peer For You, a website where Duke students can anonymously ask and give help on mental and physi-cal wellness issues, is slated

to launch this month. CAPS is also partnering with more organizations, including Com-mon Ground, Project Build and the Offi ce of Fraternity and Sorority Life, to ensure that students know they do not have to deal with mental health issues alone.

Duke’s culture of invul-nerability will not be eradi-cated quickly. But we believe that continuing to “treat the water,” in Glass’ words, is the right approach. In other words, we should seek to view mental health issues through the prism of environmental factors rather than individual dysfunction. Once Duke fos-ters more spaces, formal and informal, where students can talk about their emotions openly and honestly, we will all feel less alone.

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lydia thurmandoubly a lie

commentariesTHE CHRONICLE WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012 | 11

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and recess blogs.

This week will mark the first presi-dential debate between the in-cumbent Barack Obama and his

challenger, Mitt Romney. Although the two are cer-tain to discuss a number of hot-button issues, ma-jor media outlets have begun to suggest that the debate will serve mostly as an evaluation of the can-didates themselves. Thus, the winner of the debate is perhaps less likely to be measured by reason and strength of argument than he is by his eloquence and the vague category of “likeability.”

Although they can in this way remain generally uninformative, presidential debates can serve as a vibrant illustra-tion of one of the pitfalls of the par-ticularly American form of democracy. In order to observe this, however, it is important to appreciate exactly what characterizes the variant of democracy in question, and how it differs from de-mocracy qua democracy.

In the most direct form of democ-racy, each citizen is awarded a vote on every issue, and every issue is decided strictly by the voting patterns of the majority. In the case of universal health care, for example, citizens would some-how decide on the terms of the vote, and then the polls would open to the entire nation for a straightforward vote. The side with the most votes would win, and in that way the question of univer-sal health care would be decided en-tirely by the people. So it would go with any other issue that the people saw fit to put to the vote.

It goes almost without saying that a state under direct democracy would be a nightmarish society, indeed. This, of course, is one of the main reasons why America itself was not structured as a direct democracy. It was conceived instead as a federal constitutional re-public, under which the people would vote on leaders to represent them and make (presumably) informed decisions on their behalf. The rationale typically given for this is that, under a direct democracy, the burden of understand-ing placed on the citizen is too high. A functional direct democracy would require that each citizen be entirely informed on every issue, which itself would require that each citizen be ca-pable in the first place of adequately consuming and evaluating social, po-litical and statistical information. Since it is unlikely that most citizens will achieve such nuanced knowledge of every issue, it is supposedly better to al-low them to elect experts to make these decisions for them.

This solution of representative de-mocracy, however, comes with its own set of often overlooked problems. For one thing, it does nothing to mitigate the challenges facing the uninformed citizen, for even in a representative de-mocracy is the citizen forced to come to a conclusion on political issues on the basis of incomplete knowledge. A citizen who is trying to formulate an informed opinion on universal health care will, under a representative de-mocracy, still suffer from a lack of med-ical and economic knowledge. He and his decision-making process are not al-tered simply by virtue of the fact that

he is now living under a representa-tive democracy instead of a direct one. There is nothing about representative

democracy that resolves this issue, and thus it can-not really be said to be any improvement over the problems offered by direct democracy.

If anything, in fact, rep-resentative democracy ac-tually requires the citizen to navigate an even more difficult decision-making process. In addition to

encountering all of the same problems in evaluating the issue itself, the citizen is now introduced to a new set of vari-ables that complicate his decision even further. It is no longer enough for him to understand only how he feels about universal health care; he must now at-tempt to understand how a political candidate feels about it as well.

This is easier said than done. In the first place, it is relatively common knowledge that politicians are dishon-est, and thus the citizen must first de-cide whether or not to take a given can-didate at his word. This would require a discerning evaluation of the candi-date’s moral character, which is dif-ficult to accomplish without extensive personal contact. On top of that, even if he decides the candidate is trust-worthy, he must make up his mind on a number of other issues. Could it be likely, for example, that the candidate will be weak once he makes it to office? Will he cave under political pressure and abandon his pursuit of universal health care? Or will he pursue it too ag-gressively, and in the process make too many enemies to reach the goal? Even if he is reliable on universal health care, will he be derailed by some other per-sonal or political issue before he is able to achieve it? Is it possible that, once elected, he will become too concerned with holding on to his office to go out on a limb and propose legislation? Will he become corrupted by money and the pull of special interests? Is he al-ready? Does he suffer from either an inferiority complex or a megalomania that, hidden even to him, could influ-ence his decision-making? And, after all of this, why does he espouse the views that he does? Is it because he genuinely agrees with the progressive agenda, or because it simply works well to serve an agenda of his own?

To answer some of these questions, a citizen would need a level of personal familiarity with the candidate. To an-swer others, he would need either a behind-the-scenes understanding of political privilege in Washington or an advanced degree in psychology. It is thus time to appreciate that represen-tative democracy not only fails to miti-gate the problems of the direct democ-racy, but it actually builds on them. If, after all, the people are unfit to decide how they themselves feel on any given issue, then it is a contradiction in logic to suggest that they are fit to decide how one candidate or the other feels about it instead.

Chris Bassil, Trinity ’12, is currently working for Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Mass. His column runs every Wednesday. You can follow Chris on Twit-ter @HamsterdamEcon.

The problem of representative democracy

Let me preface this by admit-ting something: This article has no journalistic merit whatsoever. You’re about to dive head first into a pool of mean-ingless, delightfully embarrassing updates. Spoiler alert: I’m still not cool! “Still” being the operative word.

I’m having a hard time growing up. I haven’t quite resorted to green tights and frol-icking with pirates, but my recent behaviors in the adult world certainly merit the addition of a new self-diagnosed disorder to my repertoire: Peter Pan syndrome.

You’d think that graduating col-lege and stepping into the realm of occupation would have shaken me of some childish habits. Surely I should’ve adopted some grace and decorum as this big girl version of myself? But no, I’m apparently stum-bling through my 20s as valiantly as I stumbled through my adolescence.

Nothing epitomizes this more than my experiences with the op-posite sex. Dating or even speaking to men I don’t meet at Shooters has proven challenging, because I try to sound mature when really I am not. The other day, while texting a boy I find objectively attractive, I paused the flowing banter to Google syn-onyms for “holla at me.” You see, I wanted something more unique than “call me” but less ’90s than the aforementioned subject of my slang search. I don’t remember what I landed on, but it nonetheless af-firmed my superb flirting technique (sarcastically speaking, of course). It takes me back to my elementary school days where I revealed my in-terest in a boy by just staring at him for approximately 30-45 seconds.

This sexting example is just a small fraction of the mass evidentiary support for my interpersonal inepti-tude. Other moments include chal-lenging unwilling male participants to dance-offs, greeting cute boys with “sup bro” and trying to rock pigtails without looking like I’m starring in a “She’s Almost TOO Young” porno.

While we’re talking movie genres, it’s clear my life isn’t quite a roman-tic comedy or a raunchy sex comedy or… wait, is my life a tragedy?? What-ever the Blockbuster classification, this lack of Georgian sexploitation allows me bountiful time to confront plenty of other more challenging adult situations. Like drinking alco-hol. How many people can say that their first alcohol-induced vomitus maximus was after they had graduat-ed college? I can I can! After 21 well-behaved and hangover-free years,

I had a raucous night in. Just me, a friend and some White Russians. Two, count ‘em, TWO, vodka des-

serts later, I was puking on my own living room floor.

Since I can’t do nor-mal adult things like drink and interact with human people, I’ve tried taking up some adult hobbies. They actually might be too adult. I have an unex-pected arsenal of slutty past times—namely

pole-dancing classes and nude art modeling. For the former, a gal named Virgo instills shimmy skills in me once a week. The latter one, ad-mittedly, is more of a bucket list item than a solid hobby for now.… I sub-mitted an application to be a nude model and got rejected. Thanks, Duke degree!! But just because the local art school doesn’t want to see my naked body doesn’t mean that I won’t keep striving toward my goal. Craigslist, for instance, seems to have a high demand for people interested in such craftsmanship. When one door closes, a creepy loner with an online ad opens his bedroom win-dow… or something like that.

When I’m not learning lessons from strippers or stripping for learn-ers of the arts, I promise I’m trying to mature. For example, I went to Ikea for the first time! I mean, it was a little overwhelming so I just ate dinner in the café and left. But the next day I went back and got a clev-erly packaged lamp—improvement! Oh and when I met this orthopedic medical student at a bar on Saturday, I didn’t resort to my usual childish antics. Instead, I asked him for his professional opinion on my double-jointedness. Smooth, right??

Maybe I’m just a slow-learner. No boy, Big Lebowski beverage or lap-dance seminar has managed to teach me the delicacies of growing up. So what? If I were a grown-up, I wouldn’t still be writing for my college news-paper. Or at least I would be writing about something newsworthy. But I have fun writing this garbage, and I expect a couple of you readers (like my ashamed, yet easily amused fami-ly) have fun reading it. If I can public-ly sport pigtails, then The Chronicle can handle a little silly self-satire.

Peter Pan had the right idea. Now it’s off to Never Neverland.

Lindsay Tomson, Trinity ’12, is cur-rently applying her Duke-developed skills of sarcasm and awkwardness in the real world. Her installation of the weekly Socialites column runs on alternate Wednesdays. You can follow Lindsay on Twitter @elle4tee.

Peter Pan syndrome

chris bassilhuman action

lindsay tomsonmiddle child

syndrome

The Socialites

12 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012 THE CHRONICLE