“Longer term, I think it’s likely that Duke will be looking...to give students more flexibility,” says Lynne O’ Brien
Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series examining online education at Duke. To-day, The Chronicle looks at the future of online courses for credit and unique uses of the massive open online courses. In Part 1, The Chronicle as-sessed how Duke has already brought digital edu-cation to the physical classroom.
As Duke con-tinues its involve-ment with on-line education, administrators face questions of how courses might be count-ed for credit and
how new adaptations might be brought to the physical classroom.
Each semester since Duke’s initial part-nership with Coursera in Fall 2012 has seen the addition of new massive open online course offerings, or MOOCs. The growth of online education has been met with mea-sured optimism by students and faculty alike, said Lynne O’Brien, associate vice provost for digital and online education initiatives. Although early results have been largely posi-tive, student engagement will continue to de-pend on the way professors construct their classes—online or on campus.
“Positive responses have typically come when faculty have been able to keep the to-tal workload the same as a traditional class,” O’Brien said. “I’ve heard criticism when students perceive that somehow the course-load has been greatly expanded, or if the in-person part hasn’t been designed well and it ends up just being more lecture…or if it doesn’t feel like they’re making good use of class time.”
The growth of online education will also depend on continued innovation of the ways that online classes are offered to stu-dents.
Rethinking credit for online coursesTwo years ago, the idea of for-credit on-
line courses was first broached in terms of a partnership with online education com-pany 2U. The proposed plan would have
More OnlineRead the fi rst part of this story at www.dukechronicle.com.
Rita Lo | Th e ChronicleOn today’s Election Day, members of the Duke community will be able to vote at George Watts Elementary School or W.I. Patterson Recreation Center between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Read more election coverage on pages 2 and 3.
Emma BaccellieriNews Editor
Tests for potential Ebola patient negative
Anthony Alvernaz | Chronicle File PhotoA patient who arrived from Liberia and devel-oped symptoms of Ebola is being monitored for the disease at Duke University Hospital.
Preliminary blood tests are negative for a patient being monitored for Ebola at Duke University Hospital, according to an email sent to the Duke community Monday morning.
The patient, who has only been identified as a male, was admitted to Duke Hospital Sunday, after arriving in the United States from Liberia Friday. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services performed the blood test and notified Duke of the results this morning, the email said. A follow-up test will be run on the patient to confirm the absence of the disease in 72 hours.
“The patient’s care team at DUH has undergone extensive training over the past several weeks in caring for such a patient,” the email reads. “This patient is being cared for in a separate unit with no other patients, and staff caring for these patients will have no other patient contact during this time. The team has received hours of training in the proper use of personal protective equipment to prevent their exposure to the virus.”
DUHS Media Relations Specialist Sarah Avery deferred comment to the N.C. DHHS, who referred to a press release issued Monday.
The patient arrived from Liberia at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey Friday, and then took a bus to Durham. The individual did not display any symptoms of the disease at the time, but developed a fever Sunday morning after traveling to nearby Person County.
A special EMS unit transferred the patient to Duke, and the University committee was notified of the situation by an email Sunday night.
“I want to thank Person County Health Director Janet Clayton, Durham County Health Director Gayle Harris, county officials and Duke University Hospital staff to ensure that the patient was transported and admitted using the appropriate health and safety protocols,” Governor Pat McCrory said in a statement.
Until the results of the additional testing are clear, the patient will remain in the secure unit. He continues to be treated and evaluated for other possible diseases.Gautam Hathi contributed reporting.
2 | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2014 www.dukechronicle.com The Chronicle
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Voter-ID bill brings changes for North Carolina on Election Day
Is there some voter fraud? I’m virtually
certain. Th ere’s fraud in almost everything that goes on. Is there enough to indi-cate this is a big thing? No.
— David Rohde
Kirby WilsonTh e Chronicle
Chronicle File PhotoMembers of the Duke community voted at one-stop early voting stations in the Old Trinity Room during the 2012 elections.
“It’s clear that the Democrats have tried to use the change in the law as a motivator for people to go out and vote,” says David Rohde
Election Day brings a series of changes in voting for North Carolina’s residents—but the early voting period showed that not all of the modifications have had the ex-pected outcome.
Some experts initially said that a 2013 bill limiting ear-ly voting, eliminating same-day registration and requiring voters to present identification at polling places would drive down voter turnout. This was anticipated to affect Democrats in particular—whose most loyal constituents, minorities and youth, are already less likely to vote, espe-cially in midterm elections. But early voter turnout has increased across the state, with Democrats accounting for much of the surge.
In the year since the bill was passed in the Republican-controlled legislature, it has been labeled by a number of state and national Democrats as a voter suppression campaign.
“These measures are not only unnecessary but have a racially discriminatory impact on voters,” said Chris Brook, legal director of the North Carolina American Civil Liberties Union.
But overall voter turnout has increased by nearly 20 percent from the 2010 midterm election, though popula-tion increase can account for some of the spike. A par-ticularly large increase in turnout has come from African-American voters, said Josh Lawson, public information officer for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
When compared to early voting in the 2010 election, African-American turnout has increased 44 percent.
David Rohde, the Ernestine Friedl professor of political science, attribut-ed the overall increase in early voting at least in part to activism from the left.
“It’s clear that the Democrats have tried to use the change in the law as a motivator for people to go out and vote, implying that the Republicans are try-ing to restrict their voting,” he said.
But early voting rates have not been on the rise across all demographics when compared to four years ago. Law-son said the percentage of college-aged people who voted early this election dropped by 22 percent from 2010. He noted that factors beyond the new law may be at play.
The number of voter precincts at universities has fallen
since 2010, Lawson said. Under Democrat governor Bev-erly Perdue in 2010, the state officials in charge of setting up elections were more likely to set up voter precincts at universities—typically hubs for younger, more liberal vot-ers. When Republican Pat McCrory took the governor’s office, a number of those precincts changed location.
Although Duke has had a campus polling place in re-cent presidential elections, the University typically does not have on-campus voting for midterm elections.
In addition, recent legal battles over the voter fraud bill have left some voters— particularly younger, out-of-state college voters—wondering what it will take to cast their ballot this midterm season.
Early in October, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals restricted North Carolina from enacting por-tions of the law, including the same-day registration ban, until the legal battle over the constitutionality of the law is settled in the summer of 2015. The Supreme Court reversed that deci-
sion two weeks later—causing some confusion among the electorate, Brook said.
In particular, Brook said many constituents have called the ACLU office to ask about same-day registration and
whether or not voter ID would be required this election cycle.
Same-day registration has been outlawed, but voters will not be required to present ID at polling stations until 2016.
“Everybody is very concerned about the way this [bill] passed through the legislature with a very minimal amount of public participation and oversight,” Brook said.
Lawson noted that the bill also allocates some funds to the Board of Elections that allow it to hire a team of voter outreach specialists, who will educate the public about the requirement changes.
Rohde said he is skeptical about the idea that the anti-voter fraud bill was passed only to limit voter fraud.
“Is there some voter fraud? I’m virtually certain,” Rhode said. “There’s fraud in almost everything that goes on. Is there enough to indicate this is a big thing? No.”
Todd Poole, the executive director of the North Caro-lina Republican party, said he does not view voter fraud or the bill that was passed as political issues.
Despite the confusion, Brook said it is important that everyone remain a participant in the political system.
“We are encouraging everybody to get out there and vote and be knowledgeable about what the new rules are,” he said.
The Chronicle www.dukechronicle.com TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2014 | 3
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THEATRST 290-4 CoLAB: Contemporary American Collaborative Theater Making w/guest artist Lisa D’Amour (ALP): Work with award-winning playwright to examine practices of four American ensembles and apply theory to create short pieces in class.
THEATRST 390S-2 ADVANCED DRAMATIC WRITING w/Neal Bell & Jeff Storer (ALP, W): explore the ‘liveness’ of dramatic writing by performing: as writers, actors and directors, working with material that’s generated in class.
THEATRST 390S-3.1 PUPPET LABORATORY w/guest artist Tori Ralston (ALP): history & contemporary trends in puppetry; build, move, and experiment with puppets you make to create a public performance.
THEATRST 390S-3.2 SOUND, IMAGE, WORD: SOUND DESIGN IN THEATER AND FILM w/guest artist Brendan Connelly (ALP): How is sound used to make meaning in theater, film and TV? Intro to use & theory of sound; hands-on use of software and hardware.
THEATRST 390S-4 BLACK WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS (ALP, CCI): Address key issues in modern culture and politics by analysis & performance of scenes written by black women in the U.S., Britain and the Caribbean.
Durham pharm. company tests potential Ebola treatment
Immigration reform likely tipping point in Senate race
Michelle Xu The Chronicle
Photo Courtesy of the North Carolina Latino CoalitionThe N.C. Latino Coalition organized an interfaith prayer vigil for immigration reform in Durham last year and has been organizing similar events throughout the 2014 U.S. Senate campaigns.
The Durham-based pharmaceutical com-pany Chimerix has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to test an antivi-ral drug in Ebola patients.
The drug, called brincidofovir, has powerful antiviral characteristics and can be used safely through orally administered doses, according to the Chimerix website. The drug works by keep-ing harmful viruses from replicating. Chimerix is running trials of the drug that started in Oc-tober and will go through January 2016 with an estimated enrollment of 50 patients, which will determine whether the drug becomes one of the first to be effective at combatting the virus.
“We are developing brincidofovir for a num-ber of life-threatening viruses, and Ebola is one of those,” said Joseph Schepers, executive direc-tor of investor relations and corporate commu-nications at Chimerix. “There is a high medical need right now.”
Brincidofovir has been tested by Chimerix to fight many other viruses including cytomega-lovirus, adenovirus and smallpox. The drug is promising in the fight against Ebola, but its ef-fectiveness cannot be proven until the current studies are concluded, said Coleen Cunning-ham, chief of Duke’s of Pediatric Infectious Dis-eases Division and Global Health Division.
“In a test tube, it works against Ebola, but there are no animal or people studies showing if it is effective,” Cunningham wrote in an email Monday.
Schepers added that Chimerix currently provides the drug only to physicians and hospi-tals, rather than to individual patients.
The Chimerix website states that once the FDA approves a request for an emergency In-vestigational New Drug, such as brincidofovir, Chimerix can immediately send the drug to the ad-ministering physician and health center.
Two other medications are also currently being tested for their effective-ness in treating patients with Ebola. ZMapp, a type of antibody drug, has been manufactured and is being given to infected patients, Cunningham said.
“We don’t know for sure if they work, but the product was used to treat a few patients,” she wrote. “In one animal study, the product did work.”
The TKM-Ebola injection is another type of drug that works similarly to brincidofovir, blocking the genes that help the Ebola virus reproduce and spread, but it is in limited supply, according to the Associated Press.
Cunningham expressed optimism to-ward the trials of the new drugs, but also pointed out potential challenges including finding the right time to treat the virus.
“The drugs have the potential to be ful-ly effective, either the ones that are ready for testing or some that are further back in the development process,” she said. “The obstacle is to identify people who are early enough in the infection to treat.”
Once infected individuals have ad-vanced to the point of severe dehydration and/or shock, she said, it becomes less likely that the antiviral medications will have impact.
Joseph Schepers
Aleena Karediya Local & National Editor
See Immigration on Page 12
Immigration remains a hot-button is-sue in the North Carolina Senate elec-tion, as Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan and Republican Thom Tillis face off today in what many have deemed a dead heat contest.
Hagan was one of five Democratic sena-
tors to lead a filibuster against the Devel-opment, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, which granted immigrant minors citizenship upon graduation from United States high schools. She has faced criticism for her immigration position not only from Tillis but also from left-leaning immigration activists—shown by Spanish-language billboard ads reading “Sena-
4 | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2014 www.dukechronicle.com The Chronicle
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joined Duke with seven other universities as part of a consortium that would offer for-credit courses through a program known as Semester Online. At the time, faculty ex-pressed concerns about the choice of plat-form as well as the pedagogical techniques and a perceived dilution of the Duke de-gree, ultimately voting to reject the propos-al. Semester Online was disbanded less than a year after the vote was held.
Since the vote, faculty and administrators have continued to discuss the topic of for-credit online classes—and some are embrac-ing the idea. Although there are no imme-diate plans to introduce this type of course during the academic year, the University recently began offering fully online courses for credit during the Summer sessions, in-cluding four courses in Summer 2014. Stu-dents and faculty in these classes do not meet in person, instead interacting through various online resources such as chat rooms, video hangouts and blogs.
Last Summer, Denise Comer taught “Writing 270: Composing the Internship Experience” to 18 Duke students who were participating in internships around the world.
“We had students who were in New Zea-land and Durham and California and New York and India,” said Comer, assistant pro-fessor of the practice of writing studies. “We met weekly through Google Hangout. They also reflected on their work experience through blogging and a variety of social me-dia.”
The class will be offered again next Sum-mer, Comer said. There are no plans to make any significant changes to the course structure.
“We’re not going to scale it like a MOOC,” Comer said. “It’s not going to be me teaching thousands of students. It’ll still be with 18 students—because it’s for Duke and it’s for credit, and we want that close instructor-learner relationship.”
Expanding the boundaries of the MOOCAs some professors tinker with smaller
online seminars for credit, others are look-ing into new ways to use the MOOC.
The University has started to create “specializations”—series of online courses that revolve around a specific theme and include a capstone project. Specializations, which were introduced as MOOC courses by Coursera this year, will also include cer-tificate tracks that students can pay to take. In the future, these could be used to target specific professional or academic audiences, O’Brien said. Duke has plans to offer two specializations—“Reasoning, Data Analy-sis and Writing” and “Perception, Action and the Brain”—with more to come in the future. These classes will not serve as sub-stitutes for on-campus programs, although there may be integration between the two, O’Brien said.
“We will try to offer a set of related cours-es with the capstone experience rather than having every course be a complete stand-alone,” O’Brien said. “In the year ahead, we’ll be looking for other ways to do group-ings of things that showcase places where Duke is strong, or showcase Duke’s interdis-ciplinary approach to teaching—to say that this is the kind of place Duke is.”
Some classes offer students the oppor-tunity to create their own materials for MOOCs. Dalene Stangl, professor of the practice in statistical science, teaches one such class as part of a Bass Connections pro-gram.
“We’ve got our students actually doing videos as a central part of the course,” Stangl
ONLINEcontinued from page 1
Rita Lo | The Chronicle
said. “These are undergraduates who are do-ing videos on teaching statistical software.”
Once these videos are produced, they will serve as the foundation for future classes on that topic, Stangl said. Additional videos or revisions may be made as they become necessary. Ultimately, Stangl said, the goal is to have a self-contained set of materials that can be accessed at any time as opposed to being on a schedule.
Room to growSeveral faculty pointed out that, despite
the numerous innovations developed, online education has inherent limitations. Creating videos and other materials requires enor-mous amounts of work on the part of the faculty, and there is a definite learning curve associated with flipping a class or teaching a MOOC. In addition, Coursera does not allow the instructor to assess students using open-ended questions because there is no way to fairly grade thousands of subjective answers.
“I’ve got to do all multiple choice exams,” Stangl said. “I despise multiple choice exams, but it’s what the platform allows.”
Still, the expansion of online education at Duke has the feel of inevitability.
“An increasing number of classes will have some online component to them,” O’Brien said. “This is partly because so many incred-ible materials are being developed—not only at Duke but at other schools—that it’s hard
for me to imagine not taking advantage of the stuff that’s out there.”
In the meantime, faculty who have had experience with MOOCs and flipped classes will continue to refine the ways they teach these kinds of classes.
Dorian Canelas, assistant professor of the practice in chemistry, leads a Bass Connec-tions team in conducting research on the effectiveness of MOOCs and other styles of online education. Topics of interest include the qualitative experience of students in MOOCs and the low completion rates of on-line courses.
Duke may be able to expand its reach with online classes, but ultimately the lessons learned in those classes will be applied to im-prove the experience of students on campus, O’Brien said.
“Longer term, I think it’s likely that Duke will be looking for ways to give students more flexibility in their curriculum by allowing some blend of in-person and online courses,” O’Brien said. “Let’s say you got really fired up about some kind of lab experience and want-ed to do more than just a semester of a lab, or you got excited about Duke Engage and decided you want to pursue that project for a longer time. Those are opportunities that you can only get by coming to Duke—I think having a mix of more things you can do on-line will let students do more of those sort of high-value, personal types of activities.”
The Chronicle www.dukechronicle.com TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2014 | 5
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Satisfaction frontrunner to join Merchants on Points
Rachel Chason University Editor
“Satisfaction has done this in the past, and they’re very enthusiastic about trying it again,” says Nicole Kozlak
Local sports bar Satisfaction has emerged as the frontrunner to fill the fi-nal open space in the Merchants-on-Points food delivery program.
Members of Duke University Student Dining Advisory Com-mittee singled the res-taurant out as a top choice to join the MOP program. In order for Satisfaction to officially join, a contract with Duke Dining will need to be finalized, with the ear-liest possible start date for delivery around Thanksgiving. The de-cision comes exactly a week after sushi res-taurant Sushi Love began delivery through MOP after finalizing its contract earlier in October.
“The big thing with Sati’s is that they provide a late-night option that isn’t pizza,” said DUSDAC co-chair Gregory Lahood, a senior.
Members also noted that Satisfaction, which is open until 11 p.m. on weeknights and midnight on weekends, has a wide range of options on its menu and is well-known and generally well-liked among stu-dents.
DUSDAC members sampled items from Satisfaction’s menu last week, as Thurston
Jesús Hidalgo | The ChronicleDUSDAC singled out local sports bar Satisfaction as a top choice to fill the second opening in the Merchants on Points program, after The Pizzeria closed unexpectedly in September.
Lee, its kitchen manager, spoke about how excited he was by the possibility of becom-ing an MOP vendor. Lee explained that Satisfaction participated in Duke’s MOP program from the late 1990s to 2007, when it voluntarily dropped the program because it could not handle the volume of demand.
“Satisfaction has done this in the past, and they’re very enthusiastic about trying it again,” said sophomore DUSDAC member Nicole Kozlak. “My vote is all for it.”
Filling the vacancies in the MOP pro-gram has comprised the majority of DUS-DAC’s action this year. The school year be-
gan with one open spot in the program, and a second opening was cre-ated when MOP vendor The Pizzeria closed un-expectedly in Septem-ber.
DUSDAC has consid-ered a number of candi-dates this year —includ-
ing Q Shack, Chubby’s Tacos and wing joint Heavenly Buffaloes.
Representatives from Heavenly Buffa-loes were slated to present at Monday’s meeting, but took themselves out of con-sideration to be an MOP vendor because they could not fit the 18 percent commis-sion fee into their business model.
In other business:DUSDAC also discussed Sushi Love’s
performance as an MOP vendor so far, noting that student demand for the res-taurant has been extremely high.
Junior Brian Taylor, DUSDAC co-chair, said Sushi Love averaged approximately 130 orders a day for five days, in what
he described as a “crazy” first week. He noted that the restaurant has taken mea-sures, including adding delivery drivers, to accommodate demand.
A pager system is now up and running in Café Edens, the popular dining spot formerly known as Pitchfork Provisions
that was renovated and renamed this summer.
DUSDAC members said they had no-ticed the pagers working well during peak business hours, but noted that they were not used when the restaurant was less crowded.
The big thing with Sati’s is that they
provide a late-night option that isn’t pizza.
— Gregory Lahood
6 | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2014 www.dukechronicle.com The Chronicle
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2014-15 SEASON PREVIEW:JUSTISE WINSLOW sports.chronicleblogs.com
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Men’s Basketball
READY FOR ACTION Bye orbeware
Okafor named AP Preseason Player of the Year
Column
Men’s Basketball
Khloe Kim | � e ChronicleSophomore Matt Jones knocked down two of his three shots from behind the arc at Count-down to Craziness, and will look to bring energy and tenacity on the defensive end for the Blue Devils Tuesday against Livingstone.
TUESDAY, 7 p.m.Cameron Indoor Stadium
Livingstone
No. 4 Duke
vs.
See M. Basketball on Page 8 See Byes on Page 7
Khloe Kim | � e ChronicleDuke freshman center Jahlil Okafor added another honor to his growing list of accolades, as the Chicago native was named AP Preseason Player of the Year Monday.
Ryan HoergerBeat Writer
Sta� Reports
After living up to expectations at Count-down to Craziness, the Blue Devils will finally take the court against a new opponent for the first time in more than seven months.
No. 4 Duke will welcome Livingstone to Cameron Indoor Stadium Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the first of two exhibition con-tests prior to the start of the regular season. The Blue Devils open the regular season Nov. 14 against Pres-byterian as part of the
Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.Tuesday’s tilt is far from the biggest
game Duke will play this season, but the game will be the Blue Devils’ first chance this season to play against someone other than themselves. For many players, partic-ularly the quartet of heralded freshmen, that thought alone was enough to produce an adrenaline rush.
“It’ll probably be hard for me to sleep the next couple of nights,” freshman cen-ter Jahlil Okafor said Saturday after Duke’s open practice. “Just to put on a Duke jersey and play against another opponent—I’m so excited.”
Okafor, the nation’s top-ranked recruit coming out of high school, hasn’t played a game yet, but the expectations for the Chicago
Among NFL quarterbacks, there may be no better mind than the Denver Broncos’ Peyton
Manning. Now in his 16th season under cen-ter, Manning has turned signal-calling into a mas-terpiece, a blend con-sisting of equal parts art and science. Give him any extra time to study
your defensive schemes, and he’ll more than likely torch you all afternoon.
Manning’s career winning percentage is 69.8, fourth all-time among NFL quarterbacks. Given his attention to detail and innate ability to read defenses and make adjustments, it seemed likely that he and his team would be even more dangerous coming off of bye weeks—rest and recovery periods built into the NFL schedule to allow for a break from the monotony of the 16-game season. But although Manning’s teams are an impressive 12-4—winning 75 percent of the time—with an extra week to prepare between games, that’s not much different from his career winning percentage.
I bring up Manning because—as has been noted time and again—he honed his quarter-backing skills in college working with current Duke head coach David Cutcliffe when Cut-cliffe was the offensive coordinator at Ten-nessee. One of the game’s foremost offensive
Duke freshman Jahlil Okafor keeps reeling in the preseason honors.
The Chicago native became the third freshman in five years to be named to the the Associated Press’ preseason All-American team Monday, and was lat-er selected as the AP Preseason Player of the Year.
The spot on the team adds to the hype the Blue Devil big man has been receiv-ing heading into the season, as he was also named the Preseason National Player of the Year by CBSSports.com Oct. 7.
“It’s definitely an award I’m honored to receive, especially when you consider all the other players that have won the award,” Okafor said in a press release. “But here at Duke, we’re not about pre-season awards. We have a lot of team goals for the season so I am just focused See Okafor on Page 8
Ryan Hoerger
BYEScontinued from page 6
minds in his own right, Cutcliffe has guided the Blue Devils to a 7-1 start this season, their best since 1994. After sneaking out of Heinz Field with a 51-48 double-overtime win against Pittsburgh last weekend, Duke improved to 2-0 this season after a bye week. I wanted to see how Cutcliffe’s record following byes compared with his overall record in his six-plus seasons in Durham.
Through Saturday’s game, Duke has compiled a 38-45 ledger with Cutcliffe at the helm, with a 6-4 re-cord in games played the week after its open dates—a 14.2 percent improvement in its winning percentage. During the last two seasons, the squad is 17-3 in reg-ular-season games and has won all four of its contests with an extra week’s rest and preparation.
When Cutcliffe inherited a woeful program in 2008, the Blue Devils were far from competing week in, week out. Now that Duke will be going bowling for the third consec-utive season, his team is a threat in every game it plays, and especially dangerous when given extra time to prepare. The Blue Devils even average slightly more points per game (2.7) with two weeks between games, impressive consider-ing Duke’s recent trend of front-loading the schedule be-fore its first bye with non-Power Five nonconference oppo-nents against whom it usually lights up the scoreboard.
native continue to grow. The 6-foot-11 center was named the Associated Press Preseason Play-er of the Year Monday afternoon after earning ACC Rookie of the Year honors last week.
After dominating the intrasquad scrim-mage at Countdown to Craziness two weeks ago with 27 points and eight rebounds, Okafor seems ready to be the post-up offen-sive threat that the Blue Devils were missing last season. The freshman is also working
hard to improve his performance on the de-fensive end, admitting that he didn’t have to work as hard there in high school.
“I feel very confident on the offen-sive end. I [have the mentality that] I can score at will and get my teammates open,” Okafor said. “The coaches have given me a lot of fundamental things for
on working hard each day and helping the team reach our goals.”
North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes and Kansas’ Andrew Wiggins are the other rookies to be named Preseason AP Player of the Year. Like Okafor, Barnes—who was given the honor in 2010—and Wiggins, last season’s recipient, were also named to the AP First Team All-American team. At year’s end, Wiggins was named a second-team AP All-American; Barnes garnered AP honor-able mention honors.
Okafor will get a chance to face off against three of the other four play-ers selected to the All-American team, which consisted of a trio of ACC play-ers. In addition to the Chicago native, North Carolina junior point guard Marcus Paige and Louisville junior forward Montrezl Harrell were recog-nized by the committee. Paige was the leading vote-getter, selected on 58 of
But how does that 6-4 mark stack up compared to the rest of Duke’s peers in the ACC?
To answer that question, I tallied up the post-open-date records of all of the ACC’s current members since Cut-cliffe began pacing the Blue Devil sideline in 2008. Duke’s winning percentage ranked tied for fifth during this time period* and—as you might imagine—the usual suspects topped the list. The conference’s three strongest historical programs—Florida State, Miami and Clemson—posted the best marks, with the Hurricanes taking the top spot with an unblemished 8-0 mark in post-bye action since 2008.
The one surprise team ahead of the Blue Devils: Syra-cuse. The Orange have had three different head coaches since 2008, but have gone 7-3 after open dates. Neither team will be coming off a bye when the two programs meet Saturday at the Carrier Dome.
Cutcliffe, Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson and Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer are the only three coaches to remain at their school throughout this stretch, so the next step was to compare among individual coaches, not just programs. Among the 30 total coaches to lead ACC programs in this six-plus year stretch, Cutcliffe’s record after bye weeks ranked tied for 12th.
Despite recording the fourth-lowest overall winning per-centage in the conference since 2008 at 45.8 percent, Duke’s performance following bye weeks is the fifth-best in the ACC,
Darbi Gri� th | � e ChronicleWidely considered one of the smartest o� ensive minds in col-lege football, Duke head coach David Cutcli� e and his team have the � fth-best winning percentage in the ACC following bye weeks, dating back to 2008.
Graphic by Ryan Hoerger | � e ChronicleDuke has the fourth-lowest overall winning percentage in the ACC since 2008, but only Virginia and Syracuse have earned a larger percentage of their wins in the week after an open date—the Blue Devils thrive if given more time to prepare.
a reversal that can be partially attributed to the first few years of the Cutcliffe era—where wins of any type were hard to come by—and the extra studying and preparation put in by the players and Cutcliffe’s coaching staff during off weeks. And of course, not all post-bye games are created equal—the Blue Devils hosted Navy last year and Florida State in 2011. But 15.8 percent of the Blue Devils’ wins since 2008 have come after a week off—only Virginia and Syracuse have accounted for a higher percentage of their wins with victories after byes.
Blue Devil fans can only hope that Cutcliffe and his team are able to continue their recent success on the gridiron—bye week or not—so that the program’s success after bye weeks will more closely mirror its larger body of work. Just like Manning.
*Note: Unlike the majority of schools in the conference, Duke has not played a non-Saturday game in Cutcliffe’s time in Durham. Teams that play these irregular contests face a short turnaround from the previous week, but then get a lengthy break after a midweek game. They don’t play that Saturday, but these technically aren’t open dates, so I didn’t count any of the results following these breaks—usually nine days—when tabu-lating my totals. Fans will get to see Cutcliffe’s squad operate on short rest Nov. 20 against North Carolina after hosting Virginia Tech Nov. 15. The Blue Devils then won’t play again until Nov. 29 against Wake Forest in the regular-season finale.
Darbi Gri� th | � e ChronicleRedshirt senior quarterback Anthony Boone and the Blue Devils are unbeaten in their last four games played after an open date.
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MKT-473
Therapeutic Applications of VEGF InhibitorsProgress and Challenges
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
LECTURE
4–5 PMThe Great HallTrent Semans Center for Health Education
RECEPTION
5–6 PMAtrium, The Great HallTrent Semans Center for Health Education
For more information, contact Suzy Johnson at 919-681-8222 or [email protected].
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ELLED
Men’s Basketball
READY FOR ACTION Bye orbeware
Okafor named AP Preseason Player of the Year
Column
Men’s Basketball
Khloe Kim | � e ChronicleSophomore Matt Jones knocked down two of his three shots from behind the arc at Count-down to Craziness, and will look to bring energy and tenacity on the defensive end for the Blue Devils Tuesday against Livingstone.
TUESDAY, 7 p.m.Cameron Indoor Stadium
Livingstone
No. 4 Duke
vs.
See M. Basketball on Page 8 See Byes on Page 7
Khloe Kim | � e ChronicleDuke freshman center Jahlil Okafor added another honor to his growing list of accolades, as the Chicago native was named AP Preseason Player of the Year Monday.
Ryan HoergerBeat Writer
Sta� Reports
After living up to expectations at Count-down to Craziness, the Blue Devils will finally take the court against a new opponent for the first time in more than seven months.
No. 4 Duke will welcome Livingstone to Cameron Indoor Stadium Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the first of two exhibition con-tests prior to the start of the regular season. The Blue Devils open the regular season Nov. 14 against Pres-byterian as part of the
Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.Tuesday’s tilt is far from the biggest
game Duke will play this season, but the game will be the Blue Devils’ first chance this season to play against someone other than themselves. For many players, partic-ularly the quartet of heralded freshmen, that thought alone was enough to produce an adrenaline rush.
“It’ll probably be hard for me to sleep the next couple of nights,” freshman cen-ter Jahlil Okafor said Saturday after Duke’s open practice. “Just to put on a Duke jersey and play against another opponent—I’m so excited.”
Okafor, the nation’s top-ranked recruit coming out of high school, hasn’t played a game yet, but the expectations for the Chicago
Among NFL quarterbacks, there may be no better mind than the Denver Broncos’ Peyton
Manning. Now in his 16th season under cen-ter, Manning has turned signal-calling into a mas-terpiece, a blend con-sisting of equal parts art and science. Give him any extra time to study
your defensive schemes, and he’ll more than likely torch you all afternoon.
Manning’s career winning percentage is 69.8, fourth all-time among NFL quarterbacks. Given his attention to detail and innate ability to read defenses and make adjustments, it seemed likely that he and his team would be even more dangerous coming off of bye weeks—rest and recovery periods built into the NFL schedule to allow for a break from the monotony of the 16-game season. But although Manning’s teams are an impressive 12-4—winning 75 percent of the time—with an extra week to prepare between games, that’s not much different from his career winning percentage.
I bring up Manning because—as has been noted time and again—he honed his quarter-backing skills in college working with current Duke head coach David Cutcliffe when Cut-cliffe was the offensive coordinator at Ten-nessee. One of the game’s foremost offensive
Duke freshman Jahlil Okafor keeps reeling in the preseason honors.
The Chicago native became the third freshman in five years to be named to the the Associated Press’ preseason All-American team Monday, and was lat-er selected as the AP Preseason Player of the Year.
The spot on the team adds to the hype the Blue Devil big man has been receiv-ing heading into the season, as he was also named the Preseason National Player of the Year by CBSSports.com Oct. 7.
“It’s definitely an award I’m honored to receive, especially when you consider all the other players that have won the award,” Okafor said in a press release. “But here at Duke, we’re not about pre-season awards. We have a lot of team goals for the season so I am just focused See Okafor on Page 8
Ryan Hoerger
BYEScontinued from page 6
minds in his own right, Cutcliffe has guided the Blue Devils to a 7-1 start this season, their best since 1994. After sneaking out of Heinz Field with a 51-48 double-overtime win against Pittsburgh last weekend, Duke improved to 2-0 this season after a bye week. I wanted to see how Cutcliffe’s record following byes compared with his overall record in his six-plus seasons in Durham.
Through Saturday’s game, Duke has compiled a 38-45 ledger with Cutcliffe at the helm, with a 6-4 re-cord in games played the week after its open dates—a 14.2 percent improvement in its winning percentage. During the last two seasons, the squad is 17-3 in reg-ular-season games and has won all four of its contests with an extra week’s rest and preparation.
When Cutcliffe inherited a woeful program in 2008, the Blue Devils were far from competing week in, week out. Now that Duke will be going bowling for the third consec-utive season, his team is a threat in every game it plays, and especially dangerous when given extra time to prepare. The Blue Devils even average slightly more points per game (2.7) with two weeks between games, impressive consider-ing Duke’s recent trend of front-loading the schedule be-fore its first bye with non-Power Five nonconference oppo-nents against whom it usually lights up the scoreboard.
native continue to grow. The 6-foot-11 center was named the Associated Press Preseason Play-er of the Year Monday afternoon after earning ACC Rookie of the Year honors last week.
After dominating the intrasquad scrim-mage at Countdown to Craziness two weeks ago with 27 points and eight rebounds, Okafor seems ready to be the post-up offen-sive threat that the Blue Devils were missing last season. The freshman is also working
hard to improve his performance on the de-fensive end, admitting that he didn’t have to work as hard there in high school.
“I feel very confident on the offen-sive end. I [have the mentality that] I can score at will and get my teammates open,” Okafor said. “The coaches have given me a lot of fundamental things for
on working hard each day and helping the team reach our goals.”
North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes and Kansas’ Andrew Wiggins are the other rookies to be named Preseason AP Player of the Year. Like Okafor, Barnes—who was given the honor in 2010—and Wiggins, last season’s recipient, were also named to the AP First Team All-American team. At year’s end, Wiggins was named a second-team AP All-American; Barnes garnered AP honor-able mention honors.
Okafor will get a chance to face off against three of the other four play-ers selected to the All-American team, which consisted of a trio of ACC play-ers. In addition to the Chicago native, North Carolina junior point guard Marcus Paige and Louisville junior forward Montrezl Harrell were recog-nized by the committee. Paige was the leading vote-getter, selected on 58 of
But how does that 6-4 mark stack up compared to the rest of Duke’s peers in the ACC?
To answer that question, I tallied up the post-open-date records of all of the ACC’s current members since Cut-cliffe began pacing the Blue Devil sideline in 2008. Duke’s winning percentage ranked tied for fifth during this time period* and—as you might imagine—the usual suspects topped the list. The conference’s three strongest historical programs—Florida State, Miami and Clemson—posted the best marks, with the Hurricanes taking the top spot with an unblemished 8-0 mark in post-bye action since 2008.
The one surprise team ahead of the Blue Devils: Syra-cuse. The Orange have had three different head coaches since 2008, but have gone 7-3 after open dates. Neither team will be coming off a bye when the two programs meet Saturday at the Carrier Dome.
Cutcliffe, Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson and Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer are the only three coaches to remain at their school throughout this stretch, so the next step was to compare among individual coaches, not just programs. Among the 30 total coaches to lead ACC programs in this six-plus year stretch, Cutcliffe’s record after bye weeks ranked tied for 12th.
Despite recording the fourth-lowest overall winning per-centage in the conference since 2008 at 45.8 percent, Duke’s performance following bye weeks is the fifth-best in the ACC,
Darbi Gri� th | � e ChronicleWidely considered one of the smartest o� ensive minds in col-lege football, Duke head coach David Cutcli� e and his team have the � fth-best winning percentage in the ACC following bye weeks, dating back to 2008.
Graphic by Ryan Hoerger | � e ChronicleDuke has the fourth-lowest overall winning percentage in the ACC since 2008, but only Virginia and Syracuse have earned a larger percentage of their wins in the week after an open date—the Blue Devils thrive if given more time to prepare.
a reversal that can be partially attributed to the first few years of the Cutcliffe era—where wins of any type were hard to come by—and the extra studying and preparation put in by the players and Cutcliffe’s coaching staff during off weeks. And of course, not all post-bye games are created equal—the Blue Devils hosted Navy last year and Florida State in 2011. But 15.8 percent of the Blue Devils’ wins since 2008 have come after a week off—only Virginia and Syracuse have accounted for a higher percentage of their wins with victories after byes.
Blue Devil fans can only hope that Cutcliffe and his team are able to continue their recent success on the gridiron—bye week or not—so that the program’s success after bye weeks will more closely mirror its larger body of work. Just like Manning.
*Note: Unlike the majority of schools in the conference, Duke has not played a non-Saturday game in Cutcliffe’s time in Durham. Teams that play these irregular contests face a short turnaround from the previous week, but then get a lengthy break after a midweek game. They don’t play that Saturday, but these technically aren’t open dates, so I didn’t count any of the results following these breaks—usually nine days—when tabu-lating my totals. Fans will get to see Cutcliffe’s squad operate on short rest Nov. 20 against North Carolina after hosting Virginia Tech Nov. 15. The Blue Devils then won’t play again until Nov. 29 against Wake Forest in the regular-season finale.
Darbi Gri� th | � e ChronicleRedshirt senior quarterback Anthony Boone and the Blue Devils are unbeaten in their last four games played after an open date.
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guarding the post and guarding ball-screens. I think that’s one thing I’ve really improved on.”
A program that prides itself on defense, Duke struggled mightily to protect the basket last season, allowing 67.4 points per game, which ranked 104th in the country. Having Okafor down low should be an immediate boost to the squad, and the loaded stable of athletic guards on the roster should allow head coach Mike Krzyzewski to apply more full-court pres-sure than in previous years. At both Countdown to Craziness and the open practice, the Blue Devils experimented with different looks defending the length of the floor, including some trapping defenses.
“[We want] to make teams work, put pressure on the ball,” se-nior captain Quinn Cook said. “We don’t want to pace ourselves, we don’t want to get tired. If somebody gets tired, somebody else can come in and fill the void.... We’ve got to use our depth.”
M. BASKETBALLcontinued from page 6
65 ballots submitted by the national media panel. Harrell was second with 56 votes.
Wisconsin senior forward Frank Kaminsky joined Okafor and Harrell in the frontcourt. Kaminsky was the driving force behind the Badgers’ run to the Final Four last season, and turned down the chance to leave school for the NBA in order to make a bid to return to the final weekend of the tournament this season.
Kaminsky averaged 13.9 points and 6.3 rebounds per contest a season ago, and waltzed around an impos-ing Arizona frontcourt in the Elite Eight, burning the Wildcats for 28 points with an arsenal of creative post moves. Okafor and Kaminsky will go head-to-head Dec. 3 as Duke travels to Wisconsin in one of the season’s marquee early-season matchups.
Wichita State junior point guard Fred VanVleet rounded out the five-man team. Blue Devil freshman Tyus Jones also received votes, but not enough for the point guard from Apple Valley, Minn., to be included.
The Blue Devils will begin the season as the No. 4 team in the nation, according to the season’s first AP Poll released last Friday.
Duke will take on Livingstone Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Cameron Indoor Stadium in its first exhibition of the season.
OKAFORcontinued from page 6
Emma Loewe | The ChronicleJunior forward Amile Jefferson was named a captain this fall, and will be the vocal leader of the Blue Devils on the floor this season as well as a complement to freshman Jahlil Okafor in the post.
Khloe Kim | The ChronicleSenior Quinn Cook (left) and freshman Tyus Jones will look to continue to develop chemistry in the backcourt during Duke’s first exhibition game of the season Tuesday night against Livingstone.
Livingstone returns eight members of last year’s team, which won its first Central Intercollegiate Athletic Associ-ation conference title in program history. But head coach James Stinson’s squad will make the trip from Salisbury, N.C., to Durham looking to replace its two leading scorers from last season in Mark Thomas and Jody Hill, who com-bined for 40.1 points per game.
The Blue Bears boast considerable height for a Division II team, with five players on the roster listed at 6-foot-7 or taller. Livingstone’s forwards should provide good prepa-ration for the size and strength of the competition Okafor and the Duke big men will have to battle all season.
Although all eyes will be on the battle in the paint, Krzyzewski and his staff will also pay close attention to how the six Blue Devil perimeter players competing for playing time perform. Sophomore Matt Jones—lauded by Krzyzews-ki for his defensive tenacity—ran with the first unit in both the Countdown scrimmage and at Saturday’s open practice. The DeSoto, Texas, product has found himself—and his
shooting stroke—after a difficult freshman campaign.“I’m just more confident in my game and more in tune
with who I am. I’m definitely in a better place than last year,” Jones said. “Coach tells me to be myself out there on the court [and] bring a lot of enthusiasm. I feel like I bring a lot of good things to the team. He just tells me to be myself and not try to be other people.”
Senior point guard Quinn Cook, freshman Tyus Jones and junior Rasheed Sulaimon will likely all see time handling the ball against the Blue Bears, with Matt Jones and freshmen Justise Winslow and Grayson Allen to be rotated in and out on the wing.
Jones said the Blue Devils have gelled well as a group, but noted that two areas that caused Duke problems late in games last season could still use improvement.
“We’re a close-knit group, but we find ourselves not talking as much on the court,” Jones said. “[There are] lit-tle things we need to improve upon: rebounding, box-outs, that kind of thing. We definitely have a lot to improve on before the season starts.”
The Chronicle www.dukechronicle.com TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2014 | 9
35 Long-running game show with a feature spelled out clockwise by this puzzle’s circled letters
38 Dummkopf
39 Its chips aren’t for eating
40 Device read with a laser
41 How some home videos are stored
42 Food that gets tossed?
43 ___ Madness (Snapple flavor)
45 Principle
46 Father-___
47 Exudes
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53 Longtime host of 35-Across
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…”
DOWN 1 Zinger 2 Winner of a
popular TV talent show
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slack-jawed 9 Jimmy Fallon’s
home10 Planet with 27
moons11 One of 14 in a
gold chain12 18 of 38 roulette
numbers13 ___ bean19 Drives recklessly21 ∏ ∏ ∏24 Blue circle on a
range26 Fraternity party
detritus27 Mineralogist for
whom a scale is named
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29 Seed coat30 Bake sale grp.,
perhaps31 Canadian
comedy show of the 1970s-’80s
32 They may be given for rude humor
33 Like many horses’ feet
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37 Original name for J.F.K. Airport
41 At all
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43 Dinero
44 Palestinian leader Mahmoud ___
45 Canonical hour before sext
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51 Luke Skywalker’s twin
52 Broadway honor
54 “___ questions?”
55 “Don’t tell ___ can’t!”
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The weekend in photos
Jesús Hidalgo | The ChronicleThe Department of Romance Studies host-ed a community celebration of the Day of the Dead on Campus Drive Friday afternoon.
Carolyn Chang | The ChronicleThe Duke Artstigators, which aim to increase arts in-volvement on campus, provided students free Mo-nuts Donuts at the West Campus bus stop Friday.
Khloe Kim | The ChronicleAwaaz, an annual celebration of South Asian culture and heritage featuring more than 20 dif-ferent performances, took place in Reynolds Industries Theater Friday and Saturday evening.
Alex Deckey | The ChronicleStudents race to the top in a rock climbing competition at Wilson Recreation Center Sunday.
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What is the purpose of a Duke education?This fall, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences
debuted a new initiative featuring courses designed to confront students with the key and complex issues of our times—“signature courses.” This selection of specially designed classes seeks to engage students from all academic spheres and diverse niches on
campus because, according to Trinity Dean Laurie Patton, “it’s focusing on a big question that can help [students] fi nd a place in the world.” Beginning with two trial courses this semester—one on world history and the other on Italian art masterpieces—the program will expand to offer four new “signature courses” this upcoming spring term.
We applaud the spirit of the “signature courses” and the intellectual pursuits they embody. Ranging from “Soccer Politics”—where students will engage in the history and economics of soccer and the World Cup to examine the sport’s power to transform geopolitics in Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East—to “The Novel, Live!”—where students engage with “terrifyingly alive” novels in Socratic fashion and reconstruct the novel as a story
connecting the future with the past—these courses challenge academic boundaries and delve into complex issues. They offer a framework of critical thinking and normative analysis that extends beyond simply learning facts and concepts and, instead, grapples with deeper, nonmaterial questions.
Exemplary of this challenging introspection are the other two courses, “The University: what it is and why it matters,” and “Democracy: ancient and modern.” By wrestling with existential questions about the value and evolution of a university education and central aspects of democracy—freedom, citizenship, religion and hope—these courses embody the values that a university education ought to provide. Students connecting the past with the present within the walls of these classrooms will foster skills and integral inquisitiveness that they will take beyond the walls of Duke University.
Yet, while we support the initiative and commend the “signature courses” as a worthwhile endeavor for all undergraduate students on campus, we question the need to design a specialized program to achieve its worthy objectives. On the one hand, we are wary that these “signature courses” are yet another titled initiative—like Bass Connections and University Courses—that further embellishes the Duke brand.
Even more, however, should not all courses offered at Duke strive to address “large, enduring themes” and foster “habits of mind and intellectual practices for lifelong learning”? We recognize that some skills-based courses may be less amenable to these thematic questions. It is understandable that an introductory course to calculus, for example, does not engage in questions of life’s enduring themes. Yet, by setting these courses apart from others offered, the University implies that other offered courses do not fully achieve these fundamental values and do not always challenge students to partake in deeper analysis.
The “signature courses” initiative is a worthwhile pursuit that embodies the University’s academic mission, and we urge its incorporation into the broader selection of Duke classes. As a new curriculum is currently being discussed, particular emphasis should be placed on the intersection of self-refl ection and critical analysis, as discussed in a previous editorial; and enduring themes and questions like “what is the meaning of love and death?” as mentioned in “The Novel, Live!” description. Such critical questions ought to be explored and encouraged in an undergraduate education, regardless of one’s academic focus.
Editorial
Rick James once said that, “Cocaine’s a hell of a drug.” Obviously, he’s never had to bookbag before, because there is nothing
quite like the unlimited amount of possibilities surrounding the start of enrollment.
From the mindless rush towards my laptop to the internal debate of whether I should stay up the whole night before my enrollment window, bookbag season has always been one of my favorite Duke rites of passage. Cocaine may be a bit of an overexaggeration but the awesome feeling I get during a hardcore bookbagging session leaves no doubt in my mind that I will seriously miss bookbagging.
This year, bookbagging takes on a whole new tone for me and the other members of the Class
of 2015. This upcoming enrollment will be the last time that our class gets to partake in this undergraduate nirvana. Those who have read my column know that the upcoming end of my Duke career comes with a horde of bittersweet and conflicted feelings. I will be leaving the world of late night study sessions for a 10 pm bedtime (I ain’t mad). Bills will replace my FLEX account and I will have to say goodbye to late night delivery on food points.
Even though it may be my last, whenever I think about bookbagging it still fills me with the same joy as a pumpkin spice latte in the fall—that moment of pure inspiration, when I first look at my new and improved schedule and I say to myself, “Fed, we’re going to class this semester!” Bookbagging is all about hope. Hope in America, in myself, in having a better GPA next semester.
I still remember my first bookbagging session
three years ago, back when I was a young, fresh-faced freshman with the third registration window. Needless to say, I got into none of the classes that I bookbagged. But this year it all changes. In fact, one of the best perks of being a senior is access to the first registration window. With my recent adoption of the “Senior-Washed-Up-Girl” lifestyle, this year has been an experience in living the washed-up life, one that I will always cherish through bottles of red wine and Netflix marathons.
But nothing means more to the SWUG than spring semester, which is where the SWUG thrives. No longer will we be forced to suffer through waitlist mediocrity or even worse an 8:30 morning class. This time, I will get into
beginners horseback riding! There truly is nothing more SWUG than a second semester senior.
So to all my fellow SWUGs, as we prepare for this upcoming enrollment window, remember three key things. Firstly, mimosas are a SWUG’s best friend and they’re usually a sign of celebration! So celebrate to our last semester at Duke and may it be awesome. Secondly, morning classes are for freshmen so don’t be a noob and think that you’ll actually wake up because you won’t. And finally, it’s your last semester! Try something new and different. Shake up the schedule with a hip-hop dance class or even a physical education class like golf. It may be our last semester but that doesn’t mean we have to spend it in Perkins.
Fedner Lauture is a Trinity senior. His column runs every other Tuesday.
Bookbagging is bae
FednerLauture PROFESSIONAL SHADE-THROWER
Voting is kind of important. It is a Constitutional right that is sought by much of the world but exercised by only
a minority of Americans. It is a right that our leaders and soldiers have fought and died for. It is the most efficient mechanism through which we can hold our representatives accountable to their actions and responsible for our interests.
Yet many Duke students will not vote today. Some will rationalize their civic inactivity by prioritizing their schoolwork over the statistically near-impossible odds of their vote making a difference. Others will tell themselves that they know too little to contribute one way or the other. While I do not necessarily respect either justifi cation, at least these students will themselves choose not to cast their ballots.
Today, at least a few students will not vote because of newly established voter restrictions, disproportionately levied on minority groups and college students. Same-day registration has been eliminated, early voting has been cut by a week and Duke has been split into more than one precinct.
Starting in 2016, many North Carolina citizens will for the fi rst time need state-approved photo IDs to cast their votes. North Carolina’s conservative state legislature has effectively stripped many students of their most fundamental democratic tool. And unfortunately, this subtle disenfranchisement is not limited to Duke or North Carolina—throughout the “Land of the Free,” leaders of the GOP have been allowed to silence the voices of their opposition.
The GOP will suggest that these restrictions are being implemented in order to limit the potential for voter fraud. However, anyone can look at the facts and the context and realize that the goal is exclusively to help ensure Republican victories in competitive districts and states across the country. To vote to eliminate voter fraud, a legislator must make two assumptions. First, she would need to believe that voter fraud is actually a problem. Second, she would need to think that every legitimate vote is valuable, and therefore only try to eliminate voter fraud to the extent that doing so produces a net benefi t to all voters.
Let me tell you a bit about voter fraud. It hardly exists. Yes, it exists, but to an extent far lower than any other democracy in the world. Ironically, many instances of voter fraud happen behind closed doors rather than at the bidding of devious voters. In 2012, of 7 million ballots cast in the NC election, the Board of Elections referred a total of 121 alleged cases of voter fraud upward. This constitutes about .0017 percent of the votes, and these are not even confi rmed cases of fraud. Justin Levitt published a study with the Washington Times in which he retroactively counted 31 “credible incidents” of voter fraud involving a lack of photo identifi cation since 2000.
In a rare moment of authenticity from Speaker
Thom Tillis, who conveniently helped spearhead the restrictive legislation through N.C.’s legislature a year before his Senate race with incumbent Kay Hagan, the deeper explanation for voter restrictions came to light. Under questioning, he claimed: “We call this ‘restoring confi dence in elections.’ There is some voter fraud, but that’s not the primary reason for doing this.”
So Speaker Tillis acknowledges that recent restrictions are not so much to counter voter fraud, as they are to increase sentiments of voter effi cacy. That sounds nice—in fact, it sounds great! The funny part is that everyone would support efforts to increase voter effi cacy, so long as they didn’t simultaneously do exactly the opposite. Speaker Tillis and his colleagues are not trying to increase voter confi dence in general, but among their constituents.
Taken as a given that voter fraud is not a problem, let’s look into who these restrictions will affect. An important point before discussing this any further is that these restrictions have only come in the wake of a Supreme Court decision to strike down part of the Voting Rights Act, which set the standards by which a state legislature might require “preclearance” for changes in electoral law that disenfranchise minority groups.
More than any other group, African Americans turn out to vote early—now they have one less week to do so. Poor, elderly and urban minority groups are among the most likely to not have a state-allowed photo ID. Many of these individuals do not have access to a car or transport to a division of motor vehicles offi ce that can be more than 10 miles away. On the list of approved IDs in many states includes a gun registration license, but not a student ID card. At Duke, upperclassmen who may have voted on East in 2012 will not be able to vote this year unless they re-registered with their new address before the deadline. Out-of-precinct provisional votes will no longer be counted.
Notice a trend? Almost every demographic primarily affected by these restrictions tends to vote for the Democratic Party in elections. And maybe this would be fi ne, provided that new laws were communicated and efforts were made to make sure no one would lose his ability to vote. But let me tell you—these laws are extensive, and they are complicated. And the GOP doesn’t make it any easier. According to the Raleigh News and Observer, a conservative group associated with the Koch Brothers sent out falsifi ed voter registration information to those affected by the laws in an apparent effort to restrict their voices.
Voter disenfranchisement is not exclusively a GOP phenomenon—both parties are guilty historically of gerrymandering and trying to maximize their chances of winning. I oppose this type of legislation on all fronts. But for now, Republican legislators should be very clear about the true intentions behind these restrictions.
If for no other reason, go out and vote today to stick it to the legislators who have subtly disrespected and stolen your rights.
Brendan McCartney is a Trinity junior. His column runs every other Tuesday.
Voting with a vengeance
McKennaGanzTHE DUKE LIFE STRIKES AGAIN
BrendenMcCartneyA TOUCH OF GINGER
A large number of college students, including many at Duke, have no idea what they want to do after they graduate. Some of us (myself included) show up for our freshmen year, eagerly confident to
accomplish our goals, but a few years later find ourselves confused, turned around or on a different path entirely.
So, for many of us, the courses we take in our freshman or even sophomore years ultimately make no contribution towards our degrees. We may take introductory classes from various disciplines in an attempt to fi gure out what majors we want to pursue, or in pursuit of majors we will later drop. We, confused little babies, simply don’t always know what we are doing.
Take me, for example. I arrived on campus determined to earn a degree in economics, silly thing that I was. I immediately set to work on the major requirements, two of which were mid-level calculus courses.
To my chagrin, I discovered that no matter how many hours I spent in the library, I could not do as well as my Advanced Placement Calculus teacher had assured me I would. Calculus was simply not a natural talent. I persisted and accepted the fact that, although my grades weren’t the best, my successfully earned credits would fuel my path to a degree. Yet, ultimately, my diffi culties in my math-based classes drove me out of
economics and into the humanities (where, by the way, I’m much happier and more successful—more students should consider it).
Many have noted the dangers of weed-out classes and their potential to discourage students from learning and academic exploration.
But I think these issues go even deeper—failure not only discourages students from pursuing future challenges, but it also seriously presents diffi culties for them when they actually try to pursue the careers and goals they want to. In addition to providing a deterrent against academic exploration, the GPA system serves to punish students for the rest of their undergraduate careers, into their pursuit of graduate degrees, and even persists through the terrifying experience of looking for a job.
When you fail a course—heck, if you get a C—that literally stays with you for the rest of your career at Duke. Every transcript, every cumulative GPA includes that one evil letter. You literally can never escape from it—no matter how hard you try, that grade prevents you from ever achieving a GPA over a certain level. If you were to receive one F, you would never get a GPA over 3.875—even if you got an A in every single other class you ever took (that’s if you took four classes per semester like a sane person).
Your failure cannot be erased.Where does this leave us? We have students who don’t experiment or innovate,
students who didn’t get it right the fi rst time and suffer for it and students who didn’t get it right but stick with what they’re doing because they’re too scared to try anything else.
It leaves us with students who won’t take Chinese or Arabic, despite their importance in the modern world, with humanities students who don’t venture into an introductory computer science class that they could use later in life and with Pratt-to-Trinity transfers.
What can be done about this? Well, there are some immediate solutions that come to mind. One would be dropping every student’s lowest grade. Another would be to calculate GPA based only on classes used toward majors, minors and certifi cates. Like Yale Law, we could make all fi rst-year classes pass-fail.
But, of course, all of this leads to questions about the ethical implications of manipulating GPAs. If we artifi cially increase students’ GPA’s by dropping low grades, will we lose an incentive for students to strive for success in their courses? Would courses be graded differently? And would graduate schools adjust for the new grade infl ation?
These questions have one fl aw—they continue to place importance on the GPA system as a whole. We have gotten to the point where the GPA is some sort of all-powerful indication of a student’s worth or value. Even if we were to alleviate the penalties of failure, the GPA system would still place an excessive burden on students and continue to provide a major source of unnecessary stress.
This thought process, perhaps, leads to the proposal that we abolish the GPA system. Yes, this seems like a radical claim to make. But there are other schools that have chosen this path. One of our peers, Brown University, has eliminated the calculation of GPAs. In a 2004 statement, they said that the school “promotes the use of criteria for assessment and evaluation that go beyond grades and GPA.” Perhaps we should consider doing the same.
It is critical that the University consider an alternative to the current regime of the GPA. I say this not as a complaint, but out of an evaluation of the negative impact that the GPA system has had on my life, academically and emotionally.
The extreme importance that we currently place on grades is bad for our students’ wellbeing, bad for our community and bad for the production of academic material out of the University. We need to consider alternative ways to evaluate learning instead of processing students through an assembly line. And please, can we get rid of those calculus grades before I graduate?
McKenna Ganz is a Trinity sophomore. Her column runs every other Tuesday.
Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up
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The Chronicle @DukeChronicle
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”“ onlinecomment Of course everyone is for progress and improvements at Duke but not all on the backs of current students...that is what is so grossly unfair about all of this!
—“Bruce Coleman” commenting on the column “Tomorrow isn’t an apology for today”
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What is the purpose of a Duke education?This fall, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences
debuted a new initiative featuring courses designed to confront students with the key and complex issues of our times—“signature courses.” This selection of specially designed classes seeks to engage students from all academic spheres and diverse niches on
campus because, according to Trinity Dean Laurie Patton, “it’s focusing on a big question that can help [students] fi nd a place in the world.” Beginning with two trial courses this semester—one on world history and the other on Italian art masterpieces—the program will expand to offer four new “signature courses” this upcoming spring term.
We applaud the spirit of the “signature courses” and the intellectual pursuits they embody. Ranging from “Soccer Politics”—where students will engage in the history and economics of soccer and the World Cup to examine the sport’s power to transform geopolitics in Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East—to “The Novel, Live!”—where students engage with “terrifyingly alive” novels in Socratic fashion and reconstruct the novel as a story
connecting the future with the past—these courses challenge academic boundaries and delve into complex issues. They offer a framework of critical thinking and normative analysis that extends beyond simply learning facts and concepts and, instead, grapples with deeper, nonmaterial questions.
Exemplary of this challenging introspection are the other two courses, “The University: what it is and why it matters,” and “Democracy: ancient and modern.” By wrestling with existential questions about the value and evolution of a university education and central aspects of democracy—freedom, citizenship, religion and hope—these courses embody the values that a university education ought to provide. Students connecting the past with the present within the walls of these classrooms will foster skills and integral inquisitiveness that they will take beyond the walls of Duke University.
Yet, while we support the initiative and commend the “signature courses” as a worthwhile endeavor for all undergraduate students on campus, we question the need to design a specialized program to achieve its worthy objectives. On the one hand, we are wary that these “signature courses” are yet another titled initiative—like Bass Connections and University Courses—that further embellishes the Duke brand.
Even more, however, should not all courses offered at Duke strive to address “large, enduring themes” and foster “habits of mind and intellectual practices for lifelong learning”? We recognize that some skills-based courses may be less amenable to these thematic questions. It is understandable that an introductory course to calculus, for example, does not engage in questions of life’s enduring themes. Yet, by setting these courses apart from others offered, the University implies that other offered courses do not fully achieve these fundamental values and do not always challenge students to partake in deeper analysis.
The “signature courses” initiative is a worthwhile pursuit that embodies the University’s academic mission, and we urge its incorporation into the broader selection of Duke classes. As a new curriculum is currently being discussed, particular emphasis should be placed on the intersection of self-refl ection and critical analysis, as discussed in a previous editorial; and enduring themes and questions like “what is the meaning of love and death?” as mentioned in “The Novel, Live!” description. Such critical questions ought to be explored and encouraged in an undergraduate education, regardless of one’s academic focus.
Editorial
Rick James once said that, “Cocaine’s a hell of a drug.” Obviously, he’s never had to bookbag before, because there is nothing
quite like the unlimited amount of possibilities surrounding the start of enrollment.
From the mindless rush towards my laptop to the internal debate of whether I should stay up the whole night before my enrollment window, bookbag season has always been one of my favorite Duke rites of passage. Cocaine may be a bit of an overexaggeration but the awesome feeling I get during a hardcore bookbagging session leaves no doubt in my mind that I will seriously miss bookbagging.
This year, bookbagging takes on a whole new tone for me and the other members of the Class
of 2015. This upcoming enrollment will be the last time that our class gets to partake in this undergraduate nirvana. Those who have read my column know that the upcoming end of my Duke career comes with a horde of bittersweet and conflicted feelings. I will be leaving the world of late night study sessions for a 10 pm bedtime (I ain’t mad). Bills will replace my FLEX account and I will have to say goodbye to late night delivery on food points.
Even though it may be my last, whenever I think about bookbagging it still fills me with the same joy as a pumpkin spice latte in the fall—that moment of pure inspiration, when I first look at my new and improved schedule and I say to myself, “Fed, we’re going to class this semester!” Bookbagging is all about hope. Hope in America, in myself, in having a better GPA next semester.
I still remember my first bookbagging session
three years ago, back when I was a young, fresh-faced freshman with the third registration window. Needless to say, I got into none of the classes that I bookbagged. But this year it all changes. In fact, one of the best perks of being a senior is access to the first registration window. With my recent adoption of the “Senior-Washed-Up-Girl” lifestyle, this year has been an experience in living the washed-up life, one that I will always cherish through bottles of red wine and Netflix marathons.
But nothing means more to the SWUG than spring semester, which is where the SWUG thrives. No longer will we be forced to suffer through waitlist mediocrity or even worse an 8:30 morning class. This time, I will get into
beginners horseback riding! There truly is nothing more SWUG than a second semester senior.
So to all my fellow SWUGs, as we prepare for this upcoming enrollment window, remember three key things. Firstly, mimosas are a SWUG’s best friend and they’re usually a sign of celebration! So celebrate to our last semester at Duke and may it be awesome. Secondly, morning classes are for freshmen so don’t be a noob and think that you’ll actually wake up because you won’t. And finally, it’s your last semester! Try something new and different. Shake up the schedule with a hip-hop dance class or even a physical education class like golf. It may be our last semester but that doesn’t mean we have to spend it in Perkins.
Fedner Lauture is a Trinity senior. His column runs every other Tuesday.
Bookbagging is bae
FednerLauture PROFESSIONAL SHADE-THROWER
Voting is kind of important. It is a Constitutional right that is sought by much of the world but exercised by only
a minority of Americans. It is a right that our leaders and soldiers have fought and died for. It is the most efficient mechanism through which we can hold our representatives accountable to their actions and responsible for our interests.
Yet many Duke students will not vote today. Some will rationalize their civic inactivity by prioritizing their schoolwork over the statistically near-impossible odds of their vote making a difference. Others will tell themselves that they know too little to contribute one way or the other. While I do not necessarily respect either justifi cation, at least these students will themselves choose not to cast their ballots.
Today, at least a few students will not vote because of newly established voter restrictions, disproportionately levied on minority groups and college students. Same-day registration has been eliminated, early voting has been cut by a week and Duke has been split into more than one precinct.
Starting in 2016, many North Carolina citizens will for the fi rst time need state-approved photo IDs to cast their votes. North Carolina’s conservative state legislature has effectively stripped many students of their most fundamental democratic tool. And unfortunately, this subtle disenfranchisement is not limited to Duke or North Carolina—throughout the “Land of the Free,” leaders of the GOP have been allowed to silence the voices of their opposition.
The GOP will suggest that these restrictions are being implemented in order to limit the potential for voter fraud. However, anyone can look at the facts and the context and realize that the goal is exclusively to help ensure Republican victories in competitive districts and states across the country. To vote to eliminate voter fraud, a legislator must make two assumptions. First, she would need to believe that voter fraud is actually a problem. Second, she would need to think that every legitimate vote is valuable, and therefore only try to eliminate voter fraud to the extent that doing so produces a net benefi t to all voters.
Let me tell you a bit about voter fraud. It hardly exists. Yes, it exists, but to an extent far lower than any other democracy in the world. Ironically, many instances of voter fraud happen behind closed doors rather than at the bidding of devious voters. In 2012, of 7 million ballots cast in the NC election, the Board of Elections referred a total of 121 alleged cases of voter fraud upward. This constitutes about .0017 percent of the votes, and these are not even confi rmed cases of fraud. Justin Levitt published a study with the Washington Times in which he retroactively counted 31 “credible incidents” of voter fraud involving a lack of photo identifi cation since 2000.
In a rare moment of authenticity from Speaker
Thom Tillis, who conveniently helped spearhead the restrictive legislation through N.C.’s legislature a year before his Senate race with incumbent Kay Hagan, the deeper explanation for voter restrictions came to light. Under questioning, he claimed: “We call this ‘restoring confi dence in elections.’ There is some voter fraud, but that’s not the primary reason for doing this.”
So Speaker Tillis acknowledges that recent restrictions are not so much to counter voter fraud, as they are to increase sentiments of voter effi cacy. That sounds nice—in fact, it sounds great! The funny part is that everyone would support efforts to increase voter effi cacy, so long as they didn’t simultaneously do exactly the opposite. Speaker Tillis and his colleagues are not trying to increase voter confi dence in general, but among their constituents.
Taken as a given that voter fraud is not a problem, let’s look into who these restrictions will affect. An important point before discussing this any further is that these restrictions have only come in the wake of a Supreme Court decision to strike down part of the Voting Rights Act, which set the standards by which a state legislature might require “preclearance” for changes in electoral law that disenfranchise minority groups.
More than any other group, African Americans turn out to vote early—now they have one less week to do so. Poor, elderly and urban minority groups are among the most likely to not have a state-allowed photo ID. Many of these individuals do not have access to a car or transport to a division of motor vehicles offi ce that can be more than 10 miles away. On the list of approved IDs in many states includes a gun registration license, but not a student ID card. At Duke, upperclassmen who may have voted on East in 2012 will not be able to vote this year unless they re-registered with their new address before the deadline. Out-of-precinct provisional votes will no longer be counted.
Notice a trend? Almost every demographic primarily affected by these restrictions tends to vote for the Democratic Party in elections. And maybe this would be fi ne, provided that new laws were communicated and efforts were made to make sure no one would lose his ability to vote. But let me tell you—these laws are extensive, and they are complicated. And the GOP doesn’t make it any easier. According to the Raleigh News and Observer, a conservative group associated with the Koch Brothers sent out falsifi ed voter registration information to those affected by the laws in an apparent effort to restrict their voices.
Voter disenfranchisement is not exclusively a GOP phenomenon—both parties are guilty historically of gerrymandering and trying to maximize their chances of winning. I oppose this type of legislation on all fronts. But for now, Republican legislators should be very clear about the true intentions behind these restrictions.
If for no other reason, go out and vote today to stick it to the legislators who have subtly disrespected and stolen your rights.
Brendan McCartney is a Trinity junior. His column runs every other Tuesday.
Voting with a vengeance
McKennaGanzTHE DUKE LIFE STRIKES AGAIN
BrendenMcCartneyA TOUCH OF GINGER
A large number of college students, including many at Duke, have no idea what they want to do after they graduate. Some of us (myself included) show up for our freshmen year, eagerly confident to
accomplish our goals, but a few years later find ourselves confused, turned around or on a different path entirely.
So, for many of us, the courses we take in our freshman or even sophomore years ultimately make no contribution towards our degrees. We may take introductory classes from various disciplines in an attempt to fi gure out what majors we want to pursue, or in pursuit of majors we will later drop. We, confused little babies, simply don’t always know what we are doing.
Take me, for example. I arrived on campus determined to earn a degree in economics, silly thing that I was. I immediately set to work on the major requirements, two of which were mid-level calculus courses.
To my chagrin, I discovered that no matter how many hours I spent in the library, I could not do as well as my Advanced Placement Calculus teacher had assured me I would. Calculus was simply not a natural talent. I persisted and accepted the fact that, although my grades weren’t the best, my successfully earned credits would fuel my path to a degree. Yet, ultimately, my diffi culties in my math-based classes drove me out of
economics and into the humanities (where, by the way, I’m much happier and more successful—more students should consider it).
Many have noted the dangers of weed-out classes and their potential to discourage students from learning and academic exploration.
But I think these issues go even deeper—failure not only discourages students from pursuing future challenges, but it also seriously presents diffi culties for them when they actually try to pursue the careers and goals they want to. In addition to providing a deterrent against academic exploration, the GPA system serves to punish students for the rest of their undergraduate careers, into their pursuit of graduate degrees, and even persists through the terrifying experience of looking for a job.
When you fail a course—heck, if you get a C—that literally stays with you for the rest of your career at Duke. Every transcript, every cumulative GPA includes that one evil letter. You literally can never escape from it—no matter how hard you try, that grade prevents you from ever achieving a GPA over a certain level. If you were to receive one F, you would never get a GPA over 3.875—even if you got an A in every single other class you ever took (that’s if you took four classes per semester like a sane person).
Your failure cannot be erased.Where does this leave us? We have students who don’t experiment or innovate,
students who didn’t get it right the fi rst time and suffer for it and students who didn’t get it right but stick with what they’re doing because they’re too scared to try anything else.
It leaves us with students who won’t take Chinese or Arabic, despite their importance in the modern world, with humanities students who don’t venture into an introductory computer science class that they could use later in life and with Pratt-to-Trinity transfers.
What can be done about this? Well, there are some immediate solutions that come to mind. One would be dropping every student’s lowest grade. Another would be to calculate GPA based only on classes used toward majors, minors and certifi cates. Like Yale Law, we could make all fi rst-year classes pass-fail.
But, of course, all of this leads to questions about the ethical implications of manipulating GPAs. If we artifi cially increase students’ GPA’s by dropping low grades, will we lose an incentive for students to strive for success in their courses? Would courses be graded differently? And would graduate schools adjust for the new grade infl ation?
These questions have one fl aw—they continue to place importance on the GPA system as a whole. We have gotten to the point where the GPA is some sort of all-powerful indication of a student’s worth or value. Even if we were to alleviate the penalties of failure, the GPA system would still place an excessive burden on students and continue to provide a major source of unnecessary stress.
This thought process, perhaps, leads to the proposal that we abolish the GPA system. Yes, this seems like a radical claim to make. But there are other schools that have chosen this path. One of our peers, Brown University, has eliminated the calculation of GPAs. In a 2004 statement, they said that the school “promotes the use of criteria for assessment and evaluation that go beyond grades and GPA.” Perhaps we should consider doing the same.
It is critical that the University consider an alternative to the current regime of the GPA. I say this not as a complaint, but out of an evaluation of the negative impact that the GPA system has had on my life, academically and emotionally.
The extreme importance that we currently place on grades is bad for our students’ wellbeing, bad for our community and bad for the production of academic material out of the University. We need to consider alternative ways to evaluate learning instead of processing students through an assembly line. And please, can we get rid of those calculus grades before I graduate?
McKenna Ganz is a Trinity sophomore. Her column runs every other Tuesday.
Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up
Follow
The Chronicle @DukeChronicle
12 | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2014 www.dukechronicle.com The Chronicle
tor Hagan is no friend to immigrants” throughout the state. Tillis has also faced considerable opposition from the Latino community for his position on bipartisan reform. Because of the close nature of the race, some experts say this issue could serve as the tipping point to favor one candidate over the other.
Immigration, although not given as high a priority as issues such as the econ-omy, could be “huge, especially among the Latino populations,” said Mac Mc-Corkle, associate professor of the prac-tice of public policy.
Candidate PlatformsHagan was one of several Democratic
senators who asked President Obama not to issue an executive order halting the deportation of undocumented immi-grants. Immigration activists have been present at many of Hagan’s campaigns, and tensions came to a peak when they interrupted a pair of rallies for Hagan last week, one of which was attended by former Secretary of State Hil-ary Clinton.
Hagan’s press secre-tary, Chris Hayden, said she has been voting in Congress with good in-tentions. He pointed to her support of the bipartisan 2013 immi-gration reform bill—which includes pro-visions to increase border security and provides a path to citizenship for mil-lions of illegal immigrants.
“Kay is the only candidate in this elec-
tion who has voted for bipartisan im-migration reform that will boost North Carolina’s economy,” he said.
Tillis, who gives priority to directly se-curing borders and avoiding deportation of illegal residents be-fore any other reform is addressed, has criti-cized Hagan for back-ing President Obama’s immigration policies and voting against more fencing along the border three times since 2009. He also op-poses a bill approved by Hagan that would give illegal immigrants amnesty in the United States.
Hayden said that Tillis has been un-clear and biased in his immigration po-sition throughout the elections thus far.
“This is another in a long line of is-sues where Kay is fighting for a common sense solution while Speaker Tillis plays politics and fights for the wrong priori-ties,” Hayden said.
The Latino Press Secretary for the National GOP could not be reached for comment.
Role of Latino Interest GroupsMcCorkle said despite the high-
profile campaign against Hagan, she still enjoys the support of a number of Latino groups. One of these groups is the North Carolina Latino Coalition—a group comprising more 60 Latino lead-ers from across the state. They met with Hagan earlier this week to discuss several issues of immigration reform and were met with warm regards, said Ivan Parra, executive director of the North Carolina Latino Coalition.
“She both agreed and disagreed with our requests,” Parra said. “We go by the
commitment that she made to our mem-bers [in the meeting], and if she gets elected we will hold her accountable for her promises.”
Some of these promises included Hagan’s support of comprehensive im-migration reform and her opposition of any future executive action taken by the president. Parra acknowledged the un-popularity of Hagan’s past decisions in the Latino community, and said that as a community the Latino Coalition has de-cided to move past them.
“We understand that in the past she has taken stances on immigration that are not the ones that we agreed with, or the most popular,” Parra said. “We spent a lot of time thinking about our support for her, so she better keep her promises.”
McCorkle said that Hagan’s Senate voting and subsequent targeting by Lati-no organizations have nothing to do with the popularity that she has among the La-tino community as a whole, who feel even more polarized by Republican Tillis.
“I think many Latino voters will swing to Hagan’s side because of the promises she’s made,” McCorkle said. “She’s more open to the idea of im-migration reform than Tillis is, which really isn’t a surprise given party affiliations.”
Sean Haugh—the Libertarian candidate in the Senate race who has played a key role in drawing polling votes from both the Republi-can and Democratic candidates— has a different policy on immigration. Despite the attention that his support of open borders and lenient immigration laws has drawn, McCorkle said that liberal policies alone won’t draw many Latino
voters his way.“I think Haugh has a lot going for him,
especially in terms of foreign policy and education,” McCorkle said. “If anyone’s going to vote for him, it’ll be for these reasons and not for his abstract views on immigration.”
Latino Presence at the PollsDespite the candidates’ vying for La-
tino voters through the issue of immigra-tion, Latinos still make up a small portion of voters in midterm elections. Accord-ing to the National Council of La Raza, just three out of ten eligible Latino vot-ers cast a ballot in the 2010 midterm elec-tions. McCorkle said that Latino turnout may not be as much as the candidates hope, especially for a midterm election.
“The Latino community in North Car-olina shows astounding numbers at presi-dential elections, especially last year, but historically has been largely absent in state elections,” he said. “But the com-munity has a lot of potential in terms of the final vote.”
Parra said that the North Carolina La-tino Coalition has fought the problem of low Latino voter turnout through statewide voter registration campaigns that have un-folded in three phases—registration, early voting and voting on Election Day. Parra said the NCLC deems the campaign a suc-cess, noting that many Latino citizens have pledged to be active in voting and quoting a NCLR poll indicating that more than 115,000 Latinos are registered to vote in North Carolina, and 79 percent indicate they will vote on Election Day.
“People are saying Latinos won’t vote because they’re unhappy with the can-didates, but the reality is the opposite,” Parra said. “We’re completely sure that the Latino community will be present at polls.”
