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Quoted from GoDuke.com and WRAL-TV
Kyrie Irving, benched with a big toe injury since early December, could return to action this week, Coach K said.
Irving practiced with the team Tuesday and is ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation. "We never expected him to be where he is today," the coach said. He'll hit the hardwood again Thursday with the team in Charlotte before a decision is made about Friday's NCAA game.
If Irving returns, he would be limited and would not start, Krzyzewski said, adding with a laugh, "We have a few other good players."
The way FC figures it, we have a chance for the best double-double in history on April 4th, when Duke could repeat as national champion and Coach K could take over sole possession as the coach with the most wins in Division I. GO DUKE!
✔ FC is expanding -- but unlike Fuqua which is galloping in all directions at the same time, we're only moving one slow step. Fact Checker Too will appear often (but not every day) with shorter items; we will still offer our definitive essays as in the past. Tell us what you think! Duke.Fact.Checker@gmail.com
✔ Our most recent full essay was quite important, telling about Fuqua's unbridled ambitions and the conflict they pose with Duke's new campus in Kunshan. Please scroll down to read.
✔ Lilly, Perkins and Bostock Libraries are tightening late night security after "several incidents... raised concerns about the safety of staff and users."
The quote is from an internal document within the Library system made available to FC by a Loyal Reader.
The problem is homeless people from Durham. Welcome to use our libraries, they are "increasingly" staying overnight -- causing "freak outs" -- those quotes from our source -- as well as worries about the safety of books and other library materials. Not to mention the laptops of students.
One student working in the library told a Deputy FC that it can be gross, with people peeing on bookshelves, and thus books, on occasion.
The Brodhead Administration is taking weak steps to solve the problem:
-- there will be new notices posted at the doors to the libraries saying that generally normal hours are 8 am to 9 pm and that only people with Duke ID can stay inside after 9 PM. There is some leeway for people with valid ID from other universities.
-- rules for late night arrivals are not changing. Only people with a Duke Card to swipe will be allowed in.
-- this policy will not be enforced by librarians; in fact the document we saw read as if there is a worry if they attempt to step forward and ask people to leave. Rather the policy will be in the hands of security guards -- well not plural but one guard at each library -- and that means guard hours will be to be extended.
At Lilly, the guard will report at 9 PM instead of 11 PM Sunday through Thursday and stay until closing at 4 AM. And for the first time there will be a guard Friday and Saturday, from 9 PM until the library closes at midnight.
"For now, the security officer hours at Perkins and Bostock will remain unchanged." That means 11PM until 7 AM Sunday through Thursday. Nothing other nights. These libraries are 24 hour facilities.
So the sum of this: We have memos and conferences and meetings, we have consultation with other universities via list serve. We got three new signs. And we have a $9 security guard working 16 more hours a week in one library, total cost $144.
Oh... we also have a pledge -- not to students and faculty facing danger -- but to the outsiders, that the new policies can be enforced in a "positive, community-friendly manner."
In the past decade, there has been a shift: Duke Police once patrolled all parts of the campus, but increasingly various departments are being left on their own to hire security guards. The guards -- from an outside agency, hired by the hour -- are much cheaper than professional staff police officers who get training, benefits and guns.
Bean counter Tallman Trask, executive vp, has long advocated this move, saying there are few occasions when an armed officer is needed.
Well let's see about that. During spring break, we had four thugs on campus who held up a graduate student with a gun. At least one threw one punch -- we do not have complete details yet. So this was the sort of pregnant situation that could very easily escalate, meaning we'd be writing about a homicide and not an armed robbery.
Last year an undergraduate was shot in the abdomen during a robbery. Also last year, officers shot and killed a man at the hospital, a legal homicide never explained to Dukies. And the year before that a graduate student was killed in a robbery.
Beyond cost, there's one other "benefit" to having a security officer handle a problem. So far as FC can find out -- and we often get no university cooperation in these inquiries -- the Duke Police log, and thus the annual Clery Report alerting us to campus security issues, does not include what's handled by security officers.
✔ When Wuhan University became our silent partner in Kunshan -- as required by the Chinese government -- the Chronicle promptly turned to US News and World Report and discovered Wuhan wasn't even on the list of 400 of the world's leading universities. Ouch.
Allen Building started a spin, slamming the methodology of the magazine.
Well at 12:01 AM Tuesday morning, US News and World Report put out a list of leading graduate schools in the US, and within 12 hours, our PR department had posted all the good news about Duke. Voila, no methodology problems at all!
Here are the latest, nothing dramatic, only some small jiggles in our rankings.
Duke Medical School
Research tied for 5th
Nursing school 7th tie
Physician assistant program 1st
Pediatric nurse practitioner 5th
Geriatrics 4th
Internal medicine 4th
Women's health 5th
AIDS 8th
Family medicine 10th
Fuqua 12th
Law School 11th
Pratt 31st. Whoops. Hey it was 33 last year, 35 the year before.
Want more? Buy the magazine, which is their entire point.
✔ Squib in the NY Times, from "Metropolitan Diary: Readers' Tales" a man named Bob Sullivan wrote in:
"Southern ethics in New York? During the past four years of going to my Upper West Side gym, I have seen exactly three people wipe clean the machines after use, as suggested by the management. Two of the three were women with Duke sweatshirts."
✔ Durham is in a "severe" drought. For example since January 1st, there's been only 5.01 inches of rain, versus a normal 9.27 inches.
This is a continuation of a three year drought, with everyone including Duke cutting back water use. In the 2009-10 academic year, water use dropped 26 percent from pre-drought levels.
Still not enough. Next week, 20 showers in Epworth, Bassett and Aycock freshman dorms will get timers. It's unclear how these will work and our inquiry was not answered -- if it's just a clock that will buzz or if the water will cut itself off after five minutes.
Sustainability coordinator Tom Atwood '13: “We feel it’s very easy to lose track of time while in the shower, resulting in wasted water."
Next: shower with a friend!
By the way, speaking of Aycock dorm, the Potti Mess and the expansion into China have taken much of our time this semester. So this puts off until the fall a full Fact Checker assault: this dorm is named to honor a racist who fomented a race riot that killed as many as 100 blacks. The name must go.
We have written President Brodhead repeatedly about this issue, in order to understand his position. He has never responded. That's leadership!
✔ In 1901, the sister-in-law of Washington Duke gave Trinity College an elegant fountain to honor him. Ironically, the fountain took on her name, not his, as it became a centerpiece of the college's grand lawn in front of the East Duke Building.
Advance a century. Location, location, location. The building of the new East Campus after the creation of Duke University left Roney Fountain nowhere, and it fell into disrepair.
Now, thanks largely to a bequest by Dr. J. Robert Teabeaut II '45, M.D. '47, the fountain has been moved to the entrance to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, which is about as prominent a location as you can get. With finishing touches still to come, it's unclear if all of the original fountain will be restored, with two tiers, flanked by birds and topped by a crane with its wings spread.
One of the ironies of Duke University is that its founder was gung-ho flowing water, yet we have so little on display. He planned a lake where the Gardens are, a giant plume of water into the air at the West traffic circle, and another in front of the Chapel. But with the Great Depression, there was no money for any of that.
