Duke University

Perdue on tour

bniolet — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:05:12 -0500

In the last couple weeks, Gov. Bev Perdue has been hitting the ribbon cuttings and rubber chicken circuit of banquets and dinners.

Just last week there was an N.C. Bankers Association luncheon, a visit to the N.C. Rural Partners Forum, a speech at a women's conference and a groundbreaking ceremony at the Duke University cancer center. On Monday, there was a big road-building announcement in Charlotte. Today, she is scheduled to promote her JobsNow initiative at Nash Community College.

All the public events follow a shakeup with her communications director. Could this be the start of a campaign to reverse Perdue's flagging popularity?

Stimulus goes to research

bniolet — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:42:21 -0400

Triangle area researchers won a massive infusion of $145 million in federal stimulus money Wednesday for scientific projects large and small — including an ambitious effort to seek cancer treatments by unraveling the complex genetics of tumors.

Of the 521 grants awarded to the state, 415 are in Rep. David Price's 4th Congressional District, which includes the Triangle. The big winners were UNC-Chapel Hill, with 186 grants worth more than $60 million, and Duke University, with 181 grants totaling more than $75 million.

The stimulus bill enacted this year included $10 billion for the National Institutes of Health, which opened the financial spigot to projects that might have otherwise taken years to fund.

In addition to creating high-paying jobs in scientific fields, the money will spur the pace of discovery into conditions that affect millions, including heart disease, autism, Alzheimer's and breast cancer.

"What it should do is help to extend existing research programs but also help to create new research programs into the future that will be very competitive with respect to obtaining other funding," said Wayne Holden, an executive vice president with RTI International, a think tank in Research Triangle Park that received 10 grants. (N&O)

N.C. link to new U.S. senator

bkrueger — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:10:59 -0400

Paul Kirk, who was named Thursday as the late Ted Kennedy's replacement in the U.S. Senate, once defeated North Carolina's Terry Sanford in the race for Democratic National Committee chairman.

Kirk, a former Kennedy aide, was the frontrunner to become party chairman in 1985, when Sanford entered the race, reports Rob Christensen.

At the time, Sanford was nearing the end of his tenure as president of Duke University. But he was political veteran, having served as North Carolina governor (1961-65) and having run for president in 1972 and 1976.

Sanford tried to put together a coalition of Southern and western Democratic party chairs.

"A great many people in the South feel it is time for the Southern Democratic Party to exert greater national leadership," Sanford said. "The Democratic party cannot do without a strong base in the South."

More after the jump.

UNC students need to wash more

bniolet — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:30:13 -0400

* The state's universities and colleges are being hit hard with cases of flu, most likely of the H1N1 variety.

A type of influenza easily passed among young people, H1N1 is circulating so commonly that health officials don't even test for it specifically. They simply say students have "influenza-like illness" and assume the strain is H1N1.

The largest numbers are at UNC-Chapel Hill, which through last week had nearly 700 cases. That's more than twice the 309 cases reported by N.C. State over essentially the same period, and NCSU is a larger institution.

Most other universities report far lower numbers. Wake Forest has seen about 200 cases, and Duke has had about 170. At Peace, the small women's college in Raleigh, Murray is one of 13 students to get it.

The totals are likely higher. These numbers represent only students who seek help from a campus health office. The cases are mild and so far have not led to mass absences.

More hand washing could help slow the virus spread. One professor says students need to hear how unpleasant the illness is to get them to wash up. (N&O)

* A program set up last year to help North Carolina homeowners with subprime loans avoid foreclosure has been expanded to include those with traditional mortgages.

The State Home Foreclosure Prevention Project lets homeowners call a toll-free number and receive counseling and legal advice through a network of state and local government agencies and nonprofit agencies.

Mark Pearce, state chief deputy commissioner of banks, said Tuesday that North Carolina's foreclosure crisis has spread far beyond people who took on mortgages at high interest rates. Foreclosure filings over the first eight months of the year totaled just under 40,000 and are up 7 percent over the same period last year. Pearce said 60 percent of the foreclosure filings in the state now involve prime loans. (N&O)

* A North Carolina safety panel adopted emergency changes to its gas guidelines on Tuesday, three months after an explosion at a Slim Jim factory killed three people.

The N.C. Building Code Council to require that workers who are purging indoor gas lines to vent the pipes outside of the building. New guidelines demand that workers take proper precautions if venting is not possible, including the evacuation of those not directly working on the gas lines. (AP)

Kristof coming to Duke

janestancill — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:45:19 -0400

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof will speak at Duke University next week about gender inequality in the developing world.

Kristof is the keynote speaker for Duke's Jean Fox O'Barr Distinguished Speaker Series. The lecture is scheduled for Sept. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in Page Auditorium. It is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a book signing.

Kristof, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, is the co-author of a new book, "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide."

Gates saw racism at Duke

bniolet — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:38:36 -0400

Henry Louis Gates Jr. was sometimes mistaken for a servant at the grand home he bought when he was a professor at Duke University.

New York Times columnist Stanley Fish, a former chairman and now professor emeritus of the English Department at Duke, recalled that renovation workers at Gates' home would often ask him for the owner of the house.

"The message was unmistakable: What was a black man doing living in a place like this?" Fish wrote.

Gates of course, was arrested after he had to break in his own home in Cambridge, Mass. Police officers say he had become disorderly.

Fish wrote that Gates was not readily accepted at Duke, which Gates came to call "the plantation."

At the university (which in a past not distant at all did not admit African-Americans ), Gates’s reception was in some ways no different. Doubts were expressed in letters written by senior professors about his scholarly credentials, which were vastly superior to those of his detractors.

Duke prof goes to Washington

janestancill — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:31:18 -0400

Another Duke University professor has been tapped for President Barack Obama's administration.

Public policy professor Bruce Jentleson was sworn in this month as a senior adviser to the U.S. State Department policy planning director, reports Barb Barrett.

Jentleson previously served in Bill Clinton's administration in 1993-94 and was a senior adviser to then-Vice President Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000.

Jentleson will work as a consultant, splitting his duties between Washington and Duke.

At the State Department, his job will be to think strategically about the United States’ future role in the world, he said in an interview. Much of his focus will be on the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Jentleson also will be involved in writing planning documents, developing broad strategies and writing speeches.

He joined the Duke faculty in 2000 and served as director of the Sanford Institute of Public Policy through 2005.

Obama previously nominated Duke professor Christopher H. Schroeder to become an assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice, and Duke's Richard G. Newell to lead the Energy Information Administration, an agency that tracks energy-related statistics in Washington.

Williams leads Coach K in popularity

bniolet — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:21:28 -0400

University of North Carolina men's basketball coach Roy Williams is more popular among state voters than Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, according to politically irrelevant but still interesting polls conducted by Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling.

The firm did a poll on the statewide popularity of Williams last month and found that 61 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of the coach, who led his team to a national championship earlier this year.

Perhaps to take a break from running hypothetical candidates against Sen. Richard Burr, PPP asked a similar question about Coach K. The result: 52 percent of voters have a favorable opinion. PPP's Tom Jensen also concludes that fans for each school don't hate the other side as much as you might think.

While 68% of Duke fans last month said they had a favorable opinion of Williams, only 53% of Carolina fans say they view Krzyzewski positively. Among State fans 60% had a favorable opinion of Williams, while 51% have one of Krzyzewski. And among supporters of the Demon Deacons 59% like Roy and 53% like Coach K.

Of course the numbers may just serve to make some politicians jealous.

Clinton praises Franklin at ceremony

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:02:26 -0400

Former President Bill Clinton said today's service at Duke Chapel was historian John Hope Franklin's "last gift to me."

The former president was the final speaker at the two-hour celebration attended by hundreds of admirers of the late Duke professor and historian whose work laid the foundation of the study of African American history, Jane Stancill reports.

Clinton thanked the previous speakers who were Franklin's former colleagues, students, relatives and friends, including Clinton pal Vernon Jordan, who ended his remarks on Franklin by saying, "Glory, glory, hallelujah, his truth is marching on."

Then, Clinton came to the podium and joked, "Vernon, you did everything but pass the plate. There's not much left."

But Clinton was eloquent as ever, recalling when he appointed Franklin to lead a national initiative on race in 1997. "I said, before this is over, you'll be accused of racism," Clinton remembered telling Franklin.

But Franklin soldiered on, despite being shouted down at some of the race forums, Clinton said, and produced a "world-class report" on the issue. Clinton said his last message to Congress before he left office was a challenge to leaders to deal with the unfinished business from Franklin's report.

"He was a genius at being a passionate realist," the former president said of Franklin. "He was an angry, happy man, a happy, angry man, don't you think?"

Obama nominates Duke professor

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:47:23 -0400

President Barack Obama has nominated Duke professor Christopher H. Schroeder to become an assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to his Duke biography Schroeder has served as acting assistant attorney general in the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, Barb Barrett reports.

There, he was responsible for legal advice to the attorney general, the executive office of the president and other executive branch agencies.

At Duke Law School is he is director of the Program in Public Law.

He would replace Elisebeth Collins Cook. Her job is to manage the development of civil and criminal policy intiatives, according to her biography on the Department of Justice website.