63 DUKE 85OSUActivist gifts $1M to women’s history center HE WENT TO JARED

SEE M. BASKETBALL ON PAGE 8

Super committee failure, budget cuts to impact Duke

Duke senior receives Marshall Scholarship

by Yeshwanth KandimallaTHE CHRONICLE

The recent implosion of congressional deficit reduction negotiations has raised un-certainty about federal dollars that Duke and other universities will receive in the coming years.

After the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction failed to reach a biparti-san agreement last week, automatic cuts to the federal budget are sched-uled take effect January 2013. The cuts, per the Budget Control Act of 2011, must total $1.2 trillion divided equally be-tween security and non-security spending in the next 10 years. The cuts will be initi-ated through a process called sequestration, which could lead to cuts to different federal agencies that provide grants for higher edu-cation, research and student aid.

“There will definitely be some implica-tions for Duke but we don’t know what that will be,” said Christopher Simmons, associ-ate vice president of federal relations for the University. “But there are a lot of things that are going to happen before we get to seques-tration, including the presidential election.”

As of now, sequestration will occur in 2013, unless lawmakers introduce legislation to undo the cuts to specific areas.

If Congress does not take steps to repeal the cuts, the budgets of most education pro-grams will be slashed by 8 percent across the board, Tony Pals, director of commu-nications for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities—of which Duke is a member—wrote in an email Tuesday. Although Pell Grants will be ex-cluded from the cuts, student financial aid programs overall will be cut by $134 million, Pals added.

by Caroline FairchildTHE CHRONICLE

Senior Daphne Ezer was awarded the es-teemed Marshall Scholarship this year for

her significant laboratory research and undergrad-uate achievements.

Already a highly expe-rienced computational biologist following her undergraduate research at Duke, Ezer said she aspires to use the scholar-ship to pursue a doctoral degree in genetics at the

University of Cambridge.The highly selective Marshall Scholar-

ship, which was established in 1953, an-nually finances two years of graduate-level study in the United Kingdom for up to 40 young Americans.

“I knew right from the onset that she had

a commitment to research and was a really special student in that regard,” said Duke computational biologist Alexander Har-temink, who supervised Ezer’s undergradu-ate research. “I am really proud of her.”

Ezer, who is a biology and computer sci-ence double major from New Jersey, had completed research in computational and mathematical biology even before arriving on campus her freshman year.

“She contacted me when she was still a high school student and was very eager to do research in my group,” said Hartemink, who is also the Alexander F. Hehmeyer associate professor of computer science, statistical sci-ence and biology. “I was really surprised and impressed that she was already on the ball.”

Ezer is an Angier B. Duke Scholar, Fac-ulty Scholar and president of the Duke chapter of the Association for Computing

Daphne Ezer

by Lauren CarrollTHE CHRONICLE

Duke’s literary collection on women’s culture, history and rights has the financial capability to grow into the future.

Women’s health care pioneer, political activist, and journalist Merle Hoffman donated $1 mil-lion to the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, the University announced Tuesday. The donation will increase program-ming expenses and grant funding to the center, which is a national leader in research on women’s history and culture. The donation will also name the directorship after Hoffman.

“I want to be sure that women and activists can go someplace and read what I’ve done and what my colleagues have done, and this will be a his-tory that hasn’t left the public sphere,” Hoffman said. “I would hope the Bingham Center could be a beacon for women’s rights and reproductive rights all around the world.”

The Bingham Center was founded in 1988 and is part of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Bingham Center Director Laura Micham said the donation is the culmination of the cen-ter’s long-standing partnership with Hoffman. This particular contribution will allow the cen-ter to direct more money toward programming,

SEE CENTER ON PAGE 5

SEE BUDGET CUTS ON PAGE 4 SEE MARSHALL ON PAGE 5

news analysis

TYLER SEUC/THE CHRONICLE

Aaron Craft had a game-high eight assists along with 17 points in the Buckeyes’ rout Tuesday night.

By Scott RichTHE CHRONICLE

COLUMBUS, OHIO — Apparently, Ohio State thinks Duke is all talk. It might have proven it Tuesday night.

In an unusual move, the sold-out crowd at Value City Arena was treated to a pre-game hype video taking aim particularly at the Blue Devils. Footage of Dick Vitale and other ESPN analysts praising the No. 3 Blue Devils was mocked, and ended with the tagline, “It’s time to talk about THIS,” as the No. 2 Buckeyes took the floor.

After Ohio State’s performance in Co-lumbus, it now looks like no one will be talking about anything else.

In the premier game of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, the Buckeyes (7-0) hand-ed Duke its worst loss since its season end-ing blowout to Villanova in the 2009 NCAA Tournament, defeating the Blue Devils 85-63. Four Ohio State starters scored more than 16 points, and the team shot 59 per-cent from the field compared to Duke’s 47-percent clip.

“Sometimes you just get your butt kicked. We got our butt kicked,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said following the loss. “Tonight my butt’s sore.”

After being knocked down by an 11-0 run to start the game, the Blue Devils (7-1)

The ChronicleTHE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH YEAR, ISSUE 65WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM

Women’s cross country Women’s cross country season wraps up, season wraps up, Page 7Page 7

Kenan-Biddle Partnership Kenan-Biddle Partnership awards grants to 10 projects, awards grants to 10 projects, Page 3Page 3

ONTHERECORD“Few overachieve for the sake of overachieving. Many,

like me, are actually cramming at the last minute.” —Rui Dai on being pre-med. See column page 10

2 | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 THE CHRONICLE

National DayBenin

schedule

National DayBenin

“At the Harvard University vs. Yale Univer-sity football game Saturday morning, a U-Haul truck hit three women, killing one and injuring two, according to the Crim-son. After hitting the three women, the driver of the U-Haul, a Yale junior, hit an-other U-Haul truck, which then hit a third. ”

— From The Chronicle’s News Blogbigblog.dukechronicle.com

“At the Harvard University vs. Yale Univer-sity football game Saturday morning, a U-Haul truck hit three women, killing one and injuring two, according to the Crim-son. After hitting the three women, the driver of the U-Haul, a Yale junior, hit an-other U-Haul truck, which then hit a third. ”

— From The Chronicle’s News Blogbigblog.dukechronicle.com

ANNA FINKE/THE WASHINGTON POST

Dancers from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company are performing the renowned original piece — eyeSpace. Recognized as one of the most distinctive dancing groups in the country, the Company will disband after the final stretch of its international Legacy Tour, which ends in New York on Dec. 31.

ANNA FINKE/THE WASHINGTON POST

Dancers from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company are performing the renowned original piece —eyeSpace. Recognized as one of the most distinctive dancing groups in the country, the Company will disband after the final stretch of its international Legacy Tour, which ends in New York on Dec. 31.

worldandnation

“”

TODAY:

5336

THURSDAY:

57

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Farm income will jump 28 percent this year to a record $100.9 billion because of higher crop and livestock prices. The U.S. Department of Agriculture lowered its estimate from $103.6 billion forecast in August because of declines in grain and oilseed prices since September.

CAIRO, Egypt — Egyptians thronged the polls to cast their votes in the first round of historic elections that they hope will usher in an era of democratic governance. The staggered parliamentary ballot, which will continue across the country until March, has so far been relatively calm.

Farm income to reach record $100.9B, USDA says

Egyptians to have first post-Mubarak election

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Consumer confi-dence snapped back more than forecast in November as Americans turned less pessi-mistic on the outlook for jobs and wages, one reason why spending has jumped at the start of the holiday season.

The Conference Board’s index in-creased to 56 from a revised 40.9 read-ing in October, the biggest monthly gain since April 2003, figures from the New York-based private research group showed Tuesday. The gauge, at a four-month high, exceeded the most optimis-tic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.

The improvement in sentiment may help sustain household purchases, which account for about 70 percent of the economy, after sales climbed on Nov. 25 and Nov. 28, so-called Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Another report showing home prices continue to drop raises the risk that, without a pickup in hiring, con-sumers will retreat in early 2012.

Jump in consumer confi-dence exceeds forecasts

32

onthe web

DukeEngage Domestic GroupProgram Information Session

Physics 130, 4-4:45p.m. This session will offer an overview of the 11 DukeEngage Summer 2012 Group Domestic Programs as well as the application process.

Duke in Australia 2012Information Meeting

Allen 229, 5-6p.m. The director of the program will provide an overview of this one-month, one-credit study

abroad program.

Duke Visiting Artist Lecture Series

Smith Warehouse Bay 4, 6-8p.m. Meridith Pingree, a New York-based sculp-

turer, will discuss her recent work.

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but

otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in

the world.— Paul Dudley White

TODAY IN HISTORY1835: Mark Twain is born.

oono the calendarBonifacio Day

Philippines

Harvest HolidayTurkmenistan

Independence DayYemen

East Asian Cinema: Seopyeonje

White Lecture Hall 107, 8-9:50p.m. Seopyeonje, a Korean film produced in 1993, tells stories about pansori, a type of tradition-

al Korean folk-song, and pansori singers.

on

THE CHRONICLE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 | 3

Duke-UNC partnership funds 10 joint projects

by Shucao MoTHE CHRONICLE

Funding is now in place for a new set of collaborations between Duke and UNC.

The Kenan-Biddle Partnership awarded $5,000 grants to 10 projects Monday that aim to enhance the intellectual life of both cam-puses. Now in its second year, the $150,000 initiative distributes up to $50,000 annually over three years to projects at Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The partnership is funded by the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation.

The selection committee—composed of students, faculty and administrators from both campuses—read over the proposals and discussed and compared the pros and cons of each before making the final deci-sion. The proposals were due in October.

Compared to last year’s 91 applications, the number of applications decreased to nearly 50 this year.

Carol Tresolini, vice provost for academ-ic initiatives at UNC-Chapel Hill, said that she is not sure why the number of applica-tions decreased this year.

The decrease may have to do with more effective self-selection among applicants, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta wrote in an email Monday.

“[The] smaller number represented better understanding of the grant’s inten-tions,” Moneta said. “Many last year really didn’t fit. This year, nearly all were quite qualified, which made the decision-making process extremely challenging.”

Tresolini said that the committee placed an

emphasis on proposals that were initiated by students and considered the extent to which the projects contribute to each campus.

Duke Student Government President Pete Schork, a senior, who served on the selection committee, noted that there were overarching guidelines in the selec-tion process, but each committee member was able to use his own subjective criterion when evaluating the proposals.

“I was looking for applications that play upon the strength of each campus and for those that would receive the greatest ben-efit by having the grants,” Schork said.

Awarded projects include Emerging Scholars of Media and Technology, Tri-angle Race Conference, Duke-UNC South Asian Classical Music Partnership and UNC-Duke China Leadership Summit.

Each project was required to include at least one public exhibition, presentation or performance and preference was given to proposals made jointly by students from both universities.

Sophomore Helen Cai, the Duke ini-tiator of the UNC-Duke China Leadership Summit, said that the grant will allow her team to focus on developing a more com-plex structure for its annual conference, which will create a stronger collaborative relationship between Duke and UNC.

“We have a positive affirmation from fac-ulty [after receiving the grant],” Cai said. “We are able to expand the conference—finding speakers around the country, in-viting international delegates, extending the length of the conference and creating more networks.”

Biden in Iraq as US withdrawal gathers pace

By Liz SlyTHE WASHINGTON POST

BAGHDAD — Vice President Joe Biden flew into Baghdad on Tuesday to mark the end of the Iraq war and the start of a new chapter in the relationship be-tween Baghdad and Washington, as U.S. troops stream out of Iraq to meet the year-end deadline for their departure.

A key focus of Biden’s talks with Iraqi leaders will be the thorny question of fu-ture military cooperation and how much assistance it will be possible for the Unit-ed States to continue to provide to the Iraqi security forces given the breakdown of negotiations to keep some U.S. forces

here longer, U.S. officials say.The visit comes as the U.S. military

accelerates efforts to meet the Dec. 31 withdrawal date stipulated by the security agreement signed during the George W. Bush administration. The main highway leading south to Kuwait has been clogged for weeks by convoys, and the skies over Baghdad echo nightly with the roar of air-craft flying soldiers home.

With only 13,000 troops now left in Iraq, down from a peak of around 170,000, both Iraqi and U.S. officials say it is unlikely any new agreement will emerge

JULIAN SPECTOR/THE CHRONICLE

Students performed chamber works from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries Tuesday.

Fiddler on the east duke

SEE IRAQ ON PAGE 6

4 | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 THE CHRONICLE

Duke researchers will continue to be strong contenders in the competition for fed-eral grants from institutions such as the Na-tional Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, but they will be compet-ing for a smaller amount of money if the cuts go forward, Simmons added.

Sequestration will also trigger a 2 percent reduction in federal reimbursement for hos-pitals that subsidize the costs of treating pa-tients using Medicare, said Paul Vick, associ-atevice president for government relations for Duke Medicine. This loss is in addition to the collective $155 billion in Medicare reimburse-ments hospitals, including the Duke Universi-ty Health System, will lose over 10 years as part of the health care reform enacted in 2010 but set to take effect 2014.

Vick noted that the super committee was considering proposals that would have led to deeper cuts for DUHS. Although federal money given to hospitals was not a major target in the deficit reduction efforts, every recipient of federal funding was vulner-able, assuming that the committee aimed to make small cuts across a broad range of programs, he added.

“I don’t think any cuts to health care are appropriate, but it is a such a large portion of federal spending—they would have to look at it as part of a deficit reduction package,” he said.

Although universities are beneficial to soci-ety in the long term, they are financial drains for the federal government in the short term by using funds without directly contributing to the tax base, said Jacob Vigdor, professor of public policy and economics.

“With the failure of the super commit-tee, everything by default will occur through spending cuts, which is bad from the univer-sity perspective,” Vigdor said. “In exchange

for all that government money, [universities] do a lot of great things for a society.... You can adopt a policy to cut money for the things we do, but there will be consequences.”

Some members of Congress are deeply concerned about automatic cuts to the de-fense budget due to sequestration, but less federal funding for research and education could be equally harmful to the United States’ future economic growth, said Rep. David Price, D-N.C.

“All budget cuts are not created equal,” Price said. “You are never going to balance the budget without a healthy growing economy, which is much more about better-targeted in-vestments in research and education than it is simply cutting those things.”

It remains unclear whether sequestra-tion will be reversed before 2013, Simmons said. The legislation aiming to do that could come as a broad measure or gradual changes, but the University remains fully committed to supporting congressional proposals that maintain research and fi-nancial aid funding.

“Most Republicans and Democrats want to avoid sequestration and have some control over where cuts are made,” he noted. “Mem-bers of Congress may raise questions about the quality of research or education but at the end of the day, colleges and universities receive pretty good bipartisan support... but there’s going to be cuts everywhere to fix the budget.”

Sequestration was most recently intro-duced in 1985 as part of a balanced budget law but was eventually reversed, Vick noted.

President Barack Obama has noted that he will veto any attempt to reverse the 2013 sequester.

“The whole idea of sequestration is to put pressure on policymakers to come up with something that is less painful,” Price said. “If [sequestration] comes into effect, that is a sign of failure.”

BUDGET CUTS from page 1Colleges fear rise of stimulant drugs

By Jenna JohnsonTHE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Ameri-can University junior never finishes her monthly prescription of instant-release Adderall used to control her ADHD. She says taking the medication daily might re-sult in sleeplessness or the pills losing their effectiveness. So she shares the extras with friends who promise to use it as a study aid, not a party drug. She sells whatever is left to friends of friends for $5 to $10 each.

“I really try to avoid doing it because it makes me feel like a drug dealer,” said the student, who didn’t want her name used because sharing or selling prescrip-tion drugs can be a felony and a violation of university policies. If caught, she could get kicked out of school or face jail time, but she doubts that would ever happen.

For more than two decades, college stu-dents have illegally taken prescription stim-ulants such as Ritalin and Adderall to stay awake and hyper-focused while studying. As sales of medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder soar, administrators worry that illegal use also is increasing.

The White House Office of Drug Con-trol voiced concern about the increase in its latest strategy report, which prom-ises to introduce policies in the next few years that will target college students and a range of substance abuse issues.

But cracking down on study drugs is nearly impossible, said several college ad-ministrators who have worked on the issue as it has gained wider attention in recent

years. Students who abuse study drugs don’t reek of marijuana or show the tell-tale signs of excessive drinking. They rare-ly end up in hospital beds or jail cells.

Study drugs are “kind of a silent issue,” said Daniel Swinton, president of the As-sociation for Student Conduct Adminis-tration and an assistant dean at Vander-bilt University. “Everyone’s aware of it, but I think we’re all focused on the more prevalent one — alcohol.”

When misused, prescription stimu-lants can cause an irregular heart beat, panic attacks and in rare cases death, especially when mixed with alcohol or other drugs. These prescription medica-tions are similar to cocaine and can be addictive. But experts say there is little evidence of a widespread medical crisis or growing rates of addiction.

In the past decade, University of Virginia students have made about 16,000 visits to the emergency room. Only a handful of those visits involved stimulants, said James Turner, executive director of U-Va.’s Department of Student Health and former president of the American College Health Association.

“Maybe they just use it once to stay up late to study, but they’re not becoming chronic users,” Turner said.

It’s difficult to pinpoint the amount of illicit use taking place, as studies often use different measures that result in a wide range of results. Most college substance-abuse policies now include the words “pre-scription drugs,” and many schools educate

SEE DRUGS ON PAGE 6

THE CHRONICLE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 | 5

operating expenses and grant funding. Micham added. Hoffman, who donated her personal and professional pa-

pers to the center in 2000, said she hopes the funds will allow it to remain a strong resource for women’s history—particularly in health and reproductive rights. She is the founder and CEO of Choices Women’s Medical Center, one of the nation’s larg-est women’s health facilities. She is also the publisher and edi-tor-in-chief of On the Issues Magazine—a progressive feminist publication founded in 1983.

Hoffman’s donation validates the center’s history of excel-lence, said Deborah Jakubs, Rita Di Giallonardo Holloway Uni-versity librarian and vice provost for library affairs.

“[Hoffman] is so committed to the kind of work the

Bingham Center carries out and makes possible through the provision of scholarly research and programming, and it is something she thinks so highly of that she wanted her name associated with it,” Jakubs said.

Hoffman said this donation comes at a time when she is reflecting on her involvement with women’s health and re-productive rights. This year marks the 40th anniversary of her women’s medical center, and she is currently writing her auto-biography, “Intimate Wars: The Life and Times of the Wom-an Who Brought Abortion from the Back Alley to the Board Room.” In her years of work in women’s rights activism, she has used the Bingham Center’s archives multiple times.

“I’ve gone back to my own archives and others’ archives to assist my own work,” she said. “[For my autobiography], there was a lot of research that had to be done on myself because there have been so many things I’ve done that I’ve forgotten....

We’ve been through this together all throughout the years.”Women’s Studies Chair Ranjana Khanna, said faculty mem-

bers and students in the women’s studies program work closely with the Bingham Center. Hoffman’s contributions have also inspired other women’s rights activists to donate their papers to the center, allowing Duke students and faculty members interested in women’s rights and women’s health to conduct thorough research. The center, Khanna said, contains many resources not available at other universities.

Khanna also serves as director of undergraduate and gradu-ate studies for the department.

“[Her donation] has created a foundation for docu-menting reproductive rights beyond Merle’s efforts,” Khanna said. “It’s become a repository for papers that are not available in the same way elsewhere and our students will benefit from that.”

CENTER from page 1

MARSHALL from page 1

Machinery. She was also an organizer of the 2011 National Undergraduate Bioethics Conference, a winner in the un-dergraduate division of the Duke Start-Up Challenge.

Alex Rosenberg, director of the Angier B. Duke Memo-rial Scholarship Program and R. Taylor Cole professor of philosophy, said the program has a history of producing Marshall Scholars because it attracts students interested in this type of opportunity, such as Ezer.

“Daphne is a perfect example of the student we aim to bring to Duke,” Rosenberg said. “It’s because they do so well at the research that make them great candidates for these scholarships.”

After graduation, Ezer plans to work with Cambridge researcher Boris Adryan to work on predictive models of how genes are turned on and off. Although research is important, Ezer said the impact of research on the larger world must be considered as well.

“Research is only half of the process of science. For science to have any impact, research must be shared with others,” Ezer said in a news release Tuesday. “Once knowl-edge is communicated, it is public knowledge. It can be used and misused by anyone. Therefore, scientists must consider the ethical or policy implications of their work.”

Lauren Carroll contributed reporting.

KENZIE BROWN/THE CHRONICLE

A student donates blood at the Red Cross Blood Drive Tuesday.

How to save a life

6 | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 THE CHRONICLE

to reverse their governments’ mutual deci-sion to adhere to the deadline.

“For the moment, the priority for us is to carry out the security agreement of 2008 and to finalize the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq,” U.S. Ambassador James F. Jef-frey told reporters.

But Biden will be looking for ways in which the U.S. military can sustain the close relationship it has forged with the Iraqi security forces over the past eight-and-a-half years under the terms of the Strategic Framework Agreement, an accord signed at the same time as the security pact and laying out the terms for cooperation in a variety of fields.

Alongside Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Biden will co-chair a meeting of the Higher Coordination Committee, the body set up to implement the agreement, according to a White House official who briefed reporters on the visit.

The visit heralds “a new phase in our relationship—a long-term strategic partner-ship across a range of sectors,” the official said.

Among the many possibilities being discussed are an expanded role for NATO trainers, joint military exercises both inside and outside Iraq and some form of air co-operation that would address concerns on both sides that Iraq is unable to defend its airspace, Jeffrey said.

“These are all ideas. There is nothing concrete. But the Iraqis are talking to us

about them and as time goes on in the weeks ahead we may come to some further decisions,” he said.

“There could be various kinds of air co-operation, and it gets around the immunity thing as long as people aren’t deployed on the ground,” he added.

Negotiations on a continued U.S. mili-tary presence collapsed last month after Iraq refused to grant immunity from prose-cution to U.S. troops who kill Iraqis, some-thing the United States said was essential if American soldiers who stayed here were to be able to defend themselves.

But Iraqi military officials and U.S. com-manders say there are still huge gaps in the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces that will not easily be filled. Foremost among those is the lack of an Iraqi air force ca-

pable both of defending Iraq’s airspace against external threats and of launching the kind of airstrikes that have taken out al-Qaida in Iraq leaders in recent years.

The Iraqi army has placed more than $8 billion worth of orders for U.S. mili-tary hardware, including M1-A1 Abrams tanks and howitzers, in addition to 18 F-16s that won’t be delivered until 2015. All require sophisticated training, U.S. officials say.

About 200 members of the U.S. military will remain behind as part of the Office of Security Cooperation Iraq, under the aus-pices of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, but it is expected that the bulk of the training will be carried out by civilian contractors provided by the companies supplying the equipment.

IRAQ from page 3

students about the dangers of study drugs during orientation or health seminars. They also are trying to identify the issues that drive abuse, such as excessive stress, poor study skills or too much partying on school nights.

At some schools, parents are told to check in with their students during midterms and finals and ask questions about how they manage stress. At U-Va., students are told that if they need drugs to make it through their homework, they should get tested for ADHD or a learning disability. Duke Univer-sity declared that illegally using prescription stimulants is academic dishonesty.

Other schools are targeting potential dealers. At George Washington University, students with ADHD prescriptions are told to purchase a safe for their dorm room.

Students who want to try the drugs usu-ally don’t have to look far for a classmate with a prescription. Millions of children and

adults have received a diagnosis of ADHD. Last fall, five percent of incoming college freshmen had the disorder, according to the Higher Education Research Institute.

Without prescription drugs, many of these students might not have made it to college. In the 1980s and ‘90s, Ritalin became the first ADHD drug to gain renown. But most of to-day’s college students are more familiar with Adderall, an amphetamine introduced in the United States in 1996 that comes in a variety of generic forms with different names. Sales of ADHD medications have increased from $4 billion in 2006 to $7.2 billion last year, ac-cording to IMS Health, a health-care infor-mation company.

For many students, college is an ongoing experiment in risk assessment. As they con-template popping one of the illicit drugs, they probably weigh the potential benefits (hours of laser-like focus) against potential conse-quences (getting in trouble or getting hurt).

“I think that’s the calculation that a lot of college students are making,” said Molly

Young, 24, a New York writer. “It can be re-ally helpful. That’s the truth.” Young said she often took extended-release Adderall without a prescription when she was an un-dergraduate at Brown University. Her pills mostly came from friends, although she also ordered some online.

While some students flaunt the fact that they take what is nicknamed “Ivy League crack,” others hide it. Young said she told very few people at Brown about the habit because, “there was something shameful in conceding that you needed chemical help.”

But the average user is often a below-av-erage student, according to a study by the University of Maryland’s Center on Young Adult Health and Development. The cen-ter surveyed 1,250 students and found that those using stimulants had a grade-point average of 2.82, lower than the non-user av-erage of 2.96. Users also studied two hours less per week, socialized three and a half hours more and missed more classes.

Such evidence suggests that some students

party so much they fall behind academically, and turn to study drugs in an effort to catch up. So, are these students cheating?

This fall, the Duke University Office of Stu-dent Conduct added another bullet-point to its list of things that are considered cheating: “the unauthorized use of prescription medi-cation to enhance academic performance.” If the office learns that a student might have violated the policy, the charge would go through the disciplinary process and, if war-ranted, a punishment would be assigned.

The student newspaper’s editorial board largely backed the decision, comparing a scholar on stimulants to a football player on steroids. But it cautioned that stimulants are only symptoms of a bigger problem—unhealthy academic competition.

“Students see their peers as direct com-petition for job offers or spots in graduate and professional school,” wrote the Duke Chronicle staff. “With this mind set, many students strive not only to do well them-selves, but also to do better than their com-

DRUGS from page 4

SportsThe Chronicle

www.dukechroniclesports.com

WEDNESDAYNovember 30, 2011

BLUE ZONE Further coverage of Duke’s loss to Ohio State online on the Chronicle’s sports blog, including what the defeat means for the Blue Devils moving forward.

by Sarah ElsakrTHE CHRONICLE

Just before the season’s start in early September, the Blue Devils were excited about the opportunities that lay before them, voicing their commitment to taking the season ‘one day at a time.’ Although their optimism was cautious and both head coach Kevin Jermyn and his runners refrained from setting specific goals, they did admit to a desire to improve upon the previous year’s results. After the end of a difficult season, however, Duke will have to walk away knowing that it was unable to ac-complish its goal.

The 2010 season was one that did not live up to its potential, Jermyn said during the 2011 preseason. But after last week’s NCAA meet ended a season that has been character-ized by performances that were consistently worse than those of the previous year, the same can be said about the 2011 season.

“Looking back, it’s a disappointing sea-son just knowing we didn’t make nationals,” senior Esther Vermeer said. “That’s kind of the overarching disappointment.”

The Blue Devils opened the first few races of the season with success but ran into setbacks once they entered more competi-tive meets. At the ACC meet, despite goals of improving on a third-place finish in 2010, Duke crossed the line in seventh. Shortly

afterwards at the NCAA Southeast Region-al meet, the Blue Devils finished fifth, two places worse than the previous year. Only one runner, junior Madeline Morgan, was able to rise above the disappointing result and make it to the national meet as an indi-vidual. For the rest of the team though, that fifth-place finish represented an unsatisfac-tory end to a frustrating season.

“We came into the season with pretty high expectations,” Jermyn said. “But un-fortunately we had a couple injuries to our top people… and continued to find too much adversity… to go out and compete at the level of our original goals.”

Duke, which expected to return its top six competitors from the previous season, including NCAA 10k champion Juliet Bot-torff and 2009 All-American Carly Seymour, was disappointed to discover that four out of those six were unable to compete due to injury. As a result, the incoming freshman class was forced to make up the difference, going straight from high school competi-tions to top-level collegiate meets. The lack of experienced runners traveling with the team also minimized the amount of upper-classmen leadership that Jermyn identified as a necessity for success.

Despite the multiple setbacks, however, there were some highlights as a few runners proved themselves capable of stepping up

under pressure. Seniors Suejin Ahn and Vermeer led the team throughout much of the season and a few freshmen, includ-ing Chloe Maleski and Julianna Miller, also showed rapid improvement and were able to contribute successful performances.

“Personally I ran, in the races before regionals, better than I ever have any season,” Vermeer said. “So it’s kind of disappointing. It’s just really hard to be proud personally when the team doesn’t perform as well as we had hoped.”

But even though these few successes were not enough to bring the season around, both Jermyn and his runners agree that the difficulties they faced have helped the team grow. And despite the fact that upperclassmen such as Ahn and Vermeer were hoping for a success-ful ending to their collegiate cross coun-try careers, they are setting their sights on the future and trying to take the frus-tration in stride.

“Even though there have been disap-pointments along the way I have learned a lot about myself and about myself as a runner,” Vermeer said. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world even though it didn’t go quite as I had planned…. We learn from our mistakes and try to move forward. We’re working harder this track season and hopefully it will pay off.”

Injuries derail promising seasonWOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY: SEASON IN REVIEW

fromstaffreportsSelby suspended indefinitely after Jam

Shay Selby has been suspended indefi-nitely for violation of team rules, women’s basketball head coach Joanne P. McCallie announced Tuesday.

The senior guard has started in all five of the Blue Devils’ games so far this season, av-eraging 6.2 points and 3.0 assists per contest. The 5-foot-9 Cleveland, Ohio native and class-mate Kathleen Scheer are the only two seniors on the Duke roster.

The move comes days after the team returned from the Freeport, Bahamas, where it suffered its first lost of the sea-son to then-No. 4 Notre Dame, 56-54, in the championship game of the Junkanoo Jam. In the Blue Devils’ 97-31 semifinal win over Gardner-Webb, Selby had 11 points and five assists.

Selby played in all 34 of the Blue Devils’ games last season, starting ten. She shot 40.4 percent from beyond the arc, earning all-ACC Academic team honors.

No. 7 Duke will take the court without Selby Thursday night against No. 13 Pur-due. The game will tip off at 7 p.m. at Cam-eron Indoor Stadium as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

Shay Selby

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Sullinger-centric offense too much for Dukeby Matt Levenberg

THE CHRONICLE

COLUMBUS, OHIO — Duke head coach Mike Krzyze-wski’s teams have always been known for their defensive prowess. But Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio State had its way with an inexperienced Duke squad that struggled to contain the Buckeyes’ balanced attack.

From the outset, the Blue Devils were faced with a vari-ety of scoring options they would be tasked with defending for the duration of the contest. Ohio State opened up an 11-point lead, going 5-for-6 from the floor.

The Buckeye starters proved too much for Duke as Jared Sullinger, Aaron Craft, Deshaun Thomas and William Buford combined for 76 of the team’s 85 points.

“We all got beat in our individual matchups, so it wasn’t just one person,” forward Mason Plumlee said.

Ohio State was able to do so by moving the ball ef-ficiently through the post and around the perimeter. Craft, the efficient point guard, racked up eight of his team’s 18 assists.

Although Sullinger was only credited with one assist, there were countless times when Blue Devils collapsed into the paint, leaving guards unguarded on the perim-eter. Sullinger showed great vision and delivered passes to his teammates who worked the ball around the perimeter and made open shots.

In the first half, the Buckeyes boasted ten assists to just four turnovers while Duke had recorded only three assists and had turned the ball over eight times.

Patience and good decision-making allowed Ohio State to exploit the Blue Devils’ defense and shoot over 59 per-cent from the field, including 57 percent from beyond the arc for the game. Before last night’s loss, Duke had allowed

opponents to shoot just 42 percent from the floor and 30 percent from 3-point range.

“We just played bad defense,” freshman guard Austin Rivers said. “If you know anything about Duke, the best thing we do is play defense. Tonight, we [all played as indi-viduals] instead of team defense.”

Rivers did all he could to keep his team in the game, scoring a team-high 22 points and using his penetration to create open shots for his teammates. The Blue Devils had shot the ball very well early in the season, making over 45 percent of their 3-point attempts.

Against Ohio State, however, guards Seth Curry, Quinn Cook and Tyler Thornton shot a combined 1-for-11 from 3-point range while fellow shooters Andre Dawkins and Ryan Kelly did not pull the trigger on a single attempt from deep. Although the Buckeye defenders played well, there were several open shots that the guards missed badly.

Mason Plumlee was one of the few bright spots of Duke’s offense. The middle Plumlee scored 16 points and added eight rebounds while going up against one of the best big men in the country.

“I thought [Sullinger] and Mason played hard,” Krzyzewski said. “Mason played Sullinger well, and he wanted the ball.”

Although Plumlee matched Sullinger with eight boards apiece, no other Blue Devil hauled in more than three re-bounds. Each of Ohio State’s starters grabbed at least five rebounds, leading to the Buckeyes winning the battle on the boards by six.

The Blue Devils have their work cut out for them as they must improve their team defense and rebounding if they are going to be a force in the national title picture.

“We’re a very young team,” Krzyzewski said,” We’re still trying to figure out who we are as a basketball team…. Our team is going to get a lot better by playing against this level of competition.”

Game Analysis

TYLER SEUC/THE CHRONICLE

Mason Plumlee had 16 points and eight rebounds against Jared Sullinger, but no other Blue Devil had more than three boards.

8 | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 THE CHRONICLE

ANNOUNCEMENTS

A LOT OF CARS INC. Most vehicles $595-$795 down $250-$280/month.

250+ Vehicles. Layaway option w/$500. Financing Guaran-teed!

Duke ID $150 discount. 20+ cars between $999-$2995 cash. www.alotofcarsnc.com. Owned by Duke Alumni 919-220-7155

DUKE IN RUSSIA/DUKE EN-GAGE MEETING

Students of all majors are in-vited to attend a brief meeting about the Duke in Russia/Engag-ing Duke in Russia summer pro-grams on Friday, December 2, at 4:30, in Languages 320.

See the Global Education Office for Undergraduates (GEO-U) website at global.duke.edu/geo for more details.

SUBLETS

SUBLET 1BR IN 3BR/2.5BA LUXURY TOWNHOUSE (new construction) for Spring 2012. $450/mo. +utilities. Cen-trally located between Duke (30min drive), UNC (25min) and NCSU (30min). Email elliottsub-let2012@gmail.com

RESEARCH STUDIES

PARTICIPANTS ARE NEED-ED for studies of visual and hearing function using mag-netic resonance imaging (MRI). These studies are conducted at the Brain Imaging and Analysis Center (BIAC) at Duke University Medical Center. Participants should be 18 years or older and should have no history of brain injury or disease. Most studies last between 1-2 hours, and par-ticipants are paid approximately $20/hr. Please contact the BIAC volunteer coordinator at 681-9344 or volunteer@biac.duke.edu for additional information. You can also visit our website at www.biac.duke.edu.

HELP WANTED

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ALUM SEEKING AFTER SCHOOL CHILDCARE for 9 & 11 yr olds from 3:30-5:30pm. Flexible days based on your schedule but need Tue and/or Wed. $10/hr. Email spatel@nc.rr.com

MEETINGS

DUKE IN AUSTRALIA sum-mer 2012 info session (Weds. Nov. 30). Learn about Australia’s amazing biogeography and earn one Duke course credit on this one month summer program. The 2012 faculty director, Prof. Rytas Vilgalys (Biology Dept), will give an overview of the pro-gram. The meeting will be in Al-len 229, at 5pm on 11/30.

TRAVEL/VACATION

BAHAMAS SPRING BREAK

$189 for 5-Days. All prices in-clude: Round-trip luxury party cruise. Accommodations on the island at your choice of 13 re-sorts. Appalachia Travel. www.BahamaSun.com 800-867-5018

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M. BASKETBALL from page 8

battled back behind the offense of Mason Plumlee and Austin Rivers to cut the lead to one point with 12:33 to go in the first half. The Buckeyes responded, though, as Jared Sullinger, William Buford and Deshuan Thomas combined to score 19 of Ohio State’s next 23 points as the lead ballooned to 13.

But the true dagger didn’t come until later in the half. After a three-point play by Rivers brought the lead back down to ten with 4:15 to go, Duke looked poised to make a run and narrow the deficit before halftime. While Buford answered Rivers with an impressive fade-away jumper, however, the Blue Devils lost their shooting touch. Tyler Thornton, Quinn Cook and Riv-ers missed four open threes, two of which were airballs, and Duke would only score two points the rest of the half.

Meanwhile, the Blue Devils were flum-moxed by Thomas, who scored nine straight Buckeye points following Buford’s jumper and even exploited a rare zone de-fense implemented by Krzyzewski.

Duke found itself down 19 at the half, and would not close the lead to less than 17 the rest of the way.

“They went out there and they took a punch at us,” Rivers said. “We just put our hands up and fell back into the ropes. We never ever struck back, not once.”

Although Duke’s defense was the main culprit of the blowout loss, the Blue Devils also struggled to find an offensive rhythm in a hostile environment. Rivers and Plumlee accounted for 38 of Duke’s 63 points and

took nearly 55 percent of the team’s shots.Seth Curry scored only seven points, his

lowest total of the year, after taking only four shots in the first half. Ryan Kelly, com-ing off MVP honors at the Maui Invitation-al, was invisible in Columbus. The junior captain took just two shots in 14 first-half minutes, and played only one minute the rest of the way. He finished with no points and three rebounds.

The team accumulated just ten assists and is now ranked 242nd in Division-I basketball in as-sists per game.

According to Krzyzewski, though, the trip to Maui played a major role in Duke’s lackluster effort Tuesday. The Blue Devils had just

come off a grueling schedule of seven games in thirteen days, while Ohio State has not left Columbus yet this season.

“They haven’t been on the road. We just got back from a hellacious tournament in Maui,” Krzyzewski said. “We weren’t able to get juiced up in this short amount of time to go on the road. That had a bearing on it. Even if we did that I’m not sure if we would have beaten that team.”

The Buckeyes were also on the end of ev-ery bounce—in the first half alone Ohio State had ten second chance points, compared to none by Duke. And a team that is shooting be-low 35 percent from beyond the 3-point arc this season went 5-for-5 in the second half to stymie any hope of a Blue Devil run.

Regardless, Duke was never able to over-come those first half runs that turned a top 5 matchup into a laugher.

“I just think they were more ready to play,” Plumlee said. “You can tell by the way the game started. We just didn’t come ready.”

TYLER SEUC/THE CHRONICLE

Austin Rivers led all scorers with 22 points, but it was not enough against the No. 2 Buckeyes.

“We just put our hands up and fell back into the ropes. We never ever struck back,

not once.” — Austin Rivers

THE CHRONICLE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 | 9

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A nswer to puzzle

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The Chronicle What we’d spend $1M on:

black friday pt 2:........................................................... katie, caitlina new computer: ..................................................... nickyle, sanettethree extra hours: ...................................................................chinnya mac of my very own: ............................................................. drewlet’s go to jared’s: ....................................................... ctcusack, tomxmas decorations: .................................................dallbaby, yeoyeoa rotating slideshow: .......................................... dean, dalis, cchena clone: ................................................................................... yueranBarb Starbuck says the buck stops here: .................................. Barb

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Courtney Clower, Peter Chapin, James Sinclair,Daniel Perlin, Emily Shiau, Andy Moore, Allison Rhyne

Creative Services Student Manager: .......................... Megan MezaCreative Services: ................Lauren Bledsoe, Danjie Fang, Mao Hu

Caitlin Johnson, Erica Kim, Brianna NofilBusiness Assistant: ........................................................Joslyn Dunn

There are many things that need to be taken into account when you try to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life. I

thought I had my priorities straight when I fi rst enrolled at Duke; since then a lot has changed.

Freshman year, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to do. One day I was going to be a sharp-dressing businesswoman using my not-so-kick-butt Mandarin skills to make powerful deals between the U.S. and Chinese business worlds. The next, I was bound to become a bleeding-heart social worker who was going rid the world of hunger AND poverty.

The last thing that I wanted to become was a pre-med. Pre-med students have an unfortunate reputation for being extremely intense and com-petitive. They are usually the ones in the library late at night cramming for the organic chemistry exam the next day. They are also the most likely to have argued every half-point with their high-school biology teachers about obscure medical facts that only made the overworked educators sigh with exasperation.

Pre-meds are perfectionists. There is a reason why we will one day trust them with our lives. Their future profession demands a spotless record, and anyone who comes up short is not fi t to wear the laurel-like white coat.

Even then, pre-meds will always try to out-do one another. It’s as though being good is never good enough. Good can never be measured on a permanent scale. It completely depends on how you are doing compared to the person next to you. Being pre-med isn’t about being your best; instead, it’s about being as close to the top of the pile of your peers as possible.

I remember one of the smartest people I’ve ever known groaning a couple years ago about how all the pre-meds in biology 119 made the class so much harder. I stopped in my tracks. Pre-meds can even make a class diffi cult for someone whom I consider to be one of the smartest in-dividuals on this planet? What kind of academic beasts are they?

If I wasn’t anti pre-med before I heard this, I certainly was afterward.

As you can probably imagine, after battling my way through a sea of over-achieving high-school-ers just to get into college, the last thing I wanted

to do was closet myself in a library cubicle every Friday night in order to maintain a 4.0 GPA. A number isn’t going to defi ne the rest of my life.

I want to make friends and build those relationships. College is sup-posed to be one of the best four years of our lives and I am sure not going to waste it to become some-thing I don’t want to be 20 years down the road.

Yet here I am, two and a half years later, a pre-med.

I don’t know at exactly what point my opinion of pre-meds and their aspirations changed. But over

time, I realized that, yes, pre-meds are competi-tive, but they are not any more competitive than the average Duke student.

My decision to hopefully become a doctor is based on what I want to do with my life and how a medical career would be perfectly suited to my goals. I realize that, at the end of the day, I am a scientist. I like science and I want to push its boundaries. But the reason why I want to push those boundaries is because I want to help people. I want to know that my work has an impact on oth-ers. Doing research in a lab 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just isn’t going to cut it. I want to have personal interactions with those I help.

As a result, I have transformed into a pre-med, focusing only on getting my degree with as few damages to my GPA as possible. Being pre-med is just a means to an end. All I want is to go to medi-cal school. I will keep my head down and avoid as many academic competitions as possible.

Over time, I have realized that everyone else has the same plan.

Most pre-meds are just trying to stay afl oat. Pass the class with a reasonable grade and move on. Few overachieve for the sake of overachiev-ing. Many, like me, are actually cramming at the last minute. I’ve only heard of a handful of super-students who make a habit of reading one or two chapters ahead of the lectures. And those exist in almost every major at Duke.

Yes, pre-med is hard. It is a career path that will undoubtedly come hand in hand with a couple Friday nights in the library. But it certainly isn’t every Friday night.

Rui Dai is a Trinity junior. This is her fi nal column of the semester.

commentaries10 | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 THE CHRONICLE

The C

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editorial

Prepping pre-med

Housing exemptions unwise but not fatal

”“ onlinecomment

An easy way to reduce carbon and water usage is to turn off lights in unoccupied rooms and make sure faucets are tightly secured and not leaking. Don’t need any lofty rhetoric to do that.

—“Robert Taylor Holmes” commenting on the story “University making progress toward carbon-neutral pledge.” See more at www.dukechronicle.com.

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Direct submissions to:

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rui daia picture’s worth

www.dukechronicle.com

Housing lottery exemp-tions for four University-spon-sored selective living groups stand in direct contrast to the underlying pillar of equity in-tended to defi ne the house model alloca-tion process. Al-though the Uni-versity should have been more transparent and timely in an-nouncing preferential treat-ment for the four groups, the error is not fatal to the house model’s future success.

The Baldwin Scholars, Women’s Housing Option, Wellness Community and Substance-Free houses were all granted exemption from the housing lottery and were guaranteed placement on West Campus. Members in all four of these groups are selected by University admin-

istrators and leaders to fulfi ll certain criterion.

Housing, Dining and Residence Life’s placement of these groups on West con-tradicts the University’s as-

sertion that all campuses are equal. Instead,

it recognizes West’s superi-ority over Central Campus and asserts certain groups’ entitlement to this cherished space over others’. Perhaps the University is not respon-sible for bestowing increased value to one campus over another—that is the result of student opinion. But the administration is certainly guilty of reinforcing such stereotypes, fi rst by granting University-sponsored SLGs exemption from the house model allocation process and

then by placing these groups on West. Justifi cation for placing WHO and Baldwin Scholars on West may be to ensure a gender balance, giv-en Panhellenic Association sororities’ collective decision to seek placement together, which placed them on Cen-tral. But the Substance-Free and Wellness groups cannot seek shelter under such an explanation.

Before the housing lottery occurred, HDRL should have been more transparent about its intention to unconditionally place the four groups on West. Panhel women stated their preference for joint housing late in the housing model lot-tery discussions. This change threatened to upset gender distribution across campuses and makes understandable

the placement of WHO and Baldwin Scholars. Regardless, the groups’ exemption should have been communicated to the student body immediately upon HDRL’s decision, in or-der to ensure transparency in an already unpopular housing transformation.

University-sponsored living groups have no special value, or attendant privilege, above student-run SLGs. Member selection by University ad-ministrators does not render these kinds of groups eligible for special treatment. This se-lection process does not make these groups inherently more valuable and hence deserving of house lottery immunity. But they have received special treatment nonetheless.

Steve Nowicki, dean and vice provost of undergraduate

education, noted in Septem-ber 2010 that “social selective groups have a level of privilege, and then there are the inde-pendents who have a much lower level of privilege.” But isn’t giving special treatment to four selective living groups also a way of providing some groups a higher level of privilege?

The University’s breach of student trust in this instance was not catastrophic—the con-sequences to the majority of students will be unfelt. None-theless, administrators must recognize their errors both in failing to be transparent in this situation and in a fl awed prac-tice of favoring certain groups. Such violations of trust must not occur again, and in the meantime, students should ac-cept that what is done is done, and move forward.

commentariesTHE CHRONICLE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 | 11

Put a lot of weight on standardized tests and kids will develop a talent for them—it’s a fact. And a number of internet organiza-

tions are trying to give them anoth-er hoop, according to a recent New York Times article.

The Fourth Digital Media and Learning Competition (DMLC), a Humanities, Arts, Science and Tech-nology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC) initiative, has received funding and support from, among others, the MacArthur Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation and Duke to start a competition—co-administrat-ed by our very own Professor Cathy Davidson—to encourage the use of digital merit badges that reward learning and accomplishment. The program will be completely open source: Any organization can make and award any badge they want, and once earned, they will be displayed in online profi les.

As the DMLC website explains “a badge is a validated indicator of accomplishment, skill, qual-ity or interest that can be earned in any learning environment” and that “can signal traditional aca-demic attainment or the acquisition of skills such as collaboration, teamwork, leadership and other 21st century skills.”

The idea is to “make the accomplishments and experiences of individuals, in online and offl ine spaces, visible to anyone and everyone, including potential employers, teachers and peer communi-ties.” It’s a great idea, in theory.

The problem is that the only way these digital merit badges could work as a quick, stable infor-mation system for employers or colleges, or badge-earners for that matter, is if each one is highly spe-cifi c. Merit badges are typically used as a shorthand that conveys mastery of a larger skill set (like hunt-ing or fi shing or cooking), but, as is suggested by a video on the DMLC website, digital badges can be awarded for any small activity, like attending a workshop. If this is the case, the badges will have parodic specifi city. Setting up a wireless router in your house doesn’t merit a computer science or IT badge; it merits a Non-Commercial-Wireless-Router-Confi guration badge. It would be a disser-vice to leave the badges vague and general. Un-like military medals, the badges say nothing about general levels of achievement—they could often be rewarded for individual tasks accomplished.

The effectiveness of each digital merit badge depends entirely on the depth to which it allows an employer to evaluate a prospective hire. If a Javascript badge links to a detailed report of the programming done, as The New York Times ar-ticle suggests, claims about the superfi ciality of badges are certainly mediated. Thoroughness of this sort ought to be encouraged (but then again, why can’t you just put this kind of stuff in a resume or a cover letter?)

Nevertheless, the badge culture itself is some-

thing we should avoid. Barry Joseph, director of the Online Leadership Program for Global Kids, Inc. explains in a video on the DMLC website

“Badges are giving young people a way to not just learn new skills and knowledge but actually develop language around it that they might not have had before to talk about it, whether it’s in a job interview or on a resume or applying for col-leges.”

In other words, these badges will teach our youngsters how to pack-age themselves more effectively. Joseph even explains that in a beta-test with a group of kids who were

awarded various badges for exploring a commu-nity around a museum, the high-achievers strove to get all of the possible badges. And so the digital badges regress to a checklist culture. The DMLC website encourages this: “For a learner, a sequence of badges can be a path to gaining expertise and new competencies. Badges can capture and dis-play that path, providing information about, and visualizations of, needed skills and competencies.” This is not the kind of education we should be pro-moting. (If you think the classical studies depart-ment is having trouble fi lling seats now, wait till we start putting badges on classes. Oh, Euripides doesn’t get me a badge in Excel or PowerPoint? That’s just too bad!) It encourages students—from a very young age—to pick an endpoint and fi gure out how to get to it. Learning, once completely incentivized, can easily become more discrete and instrumental than it is continuous and cherished.

Corporations even understand how to take ad-vantage of this. Gabe Newell, president and owner of Valve Corporation, a game developer, is also ex-cited at the idea of the badge system. He explains that game developers will be able “to think about the kinds of educational experiences gamers will have” and to create badges for them. Well that’s handy. Now we can fi nally commodify skill. After all, playing videogames (after purchasing them from companies like Valve, that is) can improve your career prospects. Parents of the Old World: afraid that your child is playing Xbox Live a little too much? Have no fear! He’s earning his col-laboration badges. Think he’s spending too much time pushing around blocks in Zelda? No worries! Goldman’ll pay a premium for that analytical rea-soning badge!

It’s kind of funny when you think about lifelong badge-earning. It reminds me of that episode of “Full House” when Stephanie or Michelle—I can’t remember which—spends the whole show trying to earn her merit badge for cooking (spoiler alert: she makes frozen popsicles out of orange juice). I like the name: digital merit badges. It couldn’t be any more contemptuous.

Michael Goodrich is a Trinity senior. This is his fi nal column of the semester.

Governments tend to foster ineffi ciencies. It’s simple logic: Politi-cians and laws help mitigate certain issues that the free market does not address and help those that capitalism misses. Economics says

that, if solutions to certain problems were effi cient or profi table, capitalism would step in and some corporation would do it.

And that is all fi ne and dandy. The only problems occur during political bro-kering—when certain entities get explicit protections or relief due to anything other than their benefi t to the people. For ex-ample, allocating extra subsidies to specif-ic corn farmers hinders competition and the benefi ts consumers receive from it.

Favoritism does have its benefi ts. Helping failing businesses can save jobs in the short run and allow those companies a second chance to innovate and compete. Certain specifi c interventions have come in order to stop volatility and prevent widespread turmoil. If a governing body’s purpose were to represent the people, however, competition—including allowing failing compa-nies to fail—would be the correct thing to do. Less intervention would lead to lower prices, higher effi ciency and less government spending. In theory, any job losses would be rectifi ed when effi cient corporations increase market share, and cuts of unnecessary or ineffi cient workers would further lower prices for consumers.

Are there problems? Yes, but there are many more problems with favoritism.

The one place where ineffi ciencies and ineffectiveness affect student life on a regular basis is through dining. Let me be clear from the start: Workers do their jobs and get paid for it. Although there is constant ar-gument about the ineffectiveness of union workers, it is hard to blame people for taking a job that pays them well and allows them to feed their families. Ask any professional basketball player if they felt it was their responsibility to take less pay than offered. Despite the fact that there were teams losing money, none of the players placed the burden upon themselves. And why should they?

Instead, the ineffi ciencies are due to a problem with the dining system as a whole, especially in the way it fosters (or rather does not) competition amongst dining locations. In an effort to protect the interests of current dining locations on campus, Duke University has made signifi cant strides to limit the amount of outside interferences. The University has helped prop up failing dining locations by eliminating the competition. Outside of ordering from vendors on Duke’s delivery (which administrators also attempted to limit this year), there is no way for students to use their food points outside of the campus limits. Local restaurants and other eateries are placed at a serious competitive disadvantage, as they are unable to provide their goods on students’ most widely used currency.

This obviously has its benefi ts. By only allowing students to use food points at locations on campus, Duke helps foster a community. Further, the University also maintains a well-defi ned location for security and Duke University Police Department offi cers to patrol.

The problem with this is that by maintaining a distinct barrier be-tween the campus and local dining locations, there is a signifi cant burden placed on students as consumers. With limited dining op-tions, locations are not forced to be effi cient or cost-friendly. Instead, they can make signifi cant mark-ups.

Furthermore, by not extending the use of food points to off-campus vendors, Duke is hindering a more complete relationship between stu-dents and Durham’s rising small businesses. With a signifi cant number of restaurants on Ninth Street and Erwin Road, the interaction between students and Durham residents would increase simply from opening up the dining options. Villanova University in Pennsylvania currently allows over 70 nearby off-campus vendors on their “Wildcard” plan, and many other universities blur the lines between off-campus vendors and those on campus. Nearby bagel shops, restaurants and even convenience stores allow students to use their student cards to make payments. Duke can implement a similar plan and allow local businesses of its choosing to use food or FLEX points. The University can also charge a fee to those businesses, causing them to mark up their products (and therefore help on-campus businesses compete) while also alleviating the dining defi cit.

Obviously there are problems with allowing for off-campus dining options on food points. There are safety concerns with people wander-ing into Durham at night, but this can be mitigated by only extending the option of food points to nearby businesses as well as shutting off late-night dining at off-campus locations. Further, constant foot traffi c from large numbers of students going throughout Durham will make picking off individual students more diffi cult.

In essence, allowing off-campus options on food points will increase competition, thus increasing quality of goods (and lowering prices) on campus while also providing more variety for students. Also, it will help foster a connection between Duke and Durham and create a mutually benefi cial relationship. It is time Duke stopped allowing its students to be burdened by an underwhelming and ineffi cient dining plan.

Antonio Segalini is a Trinity junior. His column runs every Wednesday.

Getting in our own way

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12 | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 THE CHRONICLE