Fact Checker has previously reported anomalies in plans for Kunshan, in both the confidential Trustee briefing papers that we obtained exclusively in mid-February and in Global Vice President Greg Jones's presentation to the Academic Council at its December meeting. In each report, the Fuqua School of Business was portrayed as the driving force in developing Kunshan, yet key Fuqua programs were not mentioned.
Curious of course, Deputy Fact Checkers were told to make following up and resolving this apparent contradiction a top priority. And voila, this morning we share new documents from deep within the Brodhead Administration -- and share a shock.
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The Fuqua Business School is eschewing locating its premiere degree granting programs -- apparently including its highly touted Cross-Continent MBA -- in Kunshan. Rather, Dean Blair Sheppard is quietly -- the adverb clandestinely seems appropriate too -- seeking to develop a separate Duke campus in Shanghai. And he's doing so with minimal faculty involvement.
While Dean Sheppard does not use the same description of Kunshan as Fact Checker -- that it is a "backwater" with no university and little cultural development -- he concedes this point time and time again in documents we have just obtained. He also acknowledges the interest in Shanghai is undercutting Kunshan, and it is obvious to FC that Duke is not being forthright about it with the city or our new partner, Wuhan University.
Dean Sheppard (not to be confused with Duke's fundraising chief Bob Shepard) stresses the importance of being located in "The Bund" section of Shanghai, the beautiful, historic financial and tourist center, listing "location" and "intellectual (climate)" and "immediate connection to banks" among the reasons. This would "solve a key dilemma for Fuqua of not being ... in a major market or money center. This is a big constraint for (the study of) finance" at Duke.
The dean presents a map showing possible locations, and even picture after picture of glorious old buildings under re-construction to bring them up to 21st century standards.
✔ ✔ ✔ In a stark admission, Shepperd says "our students had become increasingly disaffected with the quality of their (international) experience" in both the Cross-Continent MBA and the Global Executive MBA. "This resulted in declining enrollments in both programs even before the recession," with one program taking a seven percent and the other a 13 percent hit. "If you wish to understand how bad it had gotten.... just speak to our Associate Dean for executive MBA programs, who was the person on the front line fielding complaints."
In other words, the students complained they were not exposed to top level executives or real corporate problems, as they were being warehoused in make-shift classrooms in hotel ballrooms. And the last thing Sheppard wants is these programs planted in the backwater of Kunshan.
His assessment: They will not "work" there. Period.
(We have been attempting to find out if Sheppard communicated this dissatisfaction to the Academic Council, charged with maintaining the quality of Duke's degrees, and our initial review of the Council's thorough minutes indicates he did not. In the confidential Trustee briefing papers, one or more faculty members is/are designated to monitor the strength of international offerings, but we do not know if this safeguard was in place during the period Sheppard described, or if it is in place even now.)
Dean Sheppard's conclusion that Kunshan is not appropriate is a major blow to the Brodhead Administration. In the face of growing criticism for picking this city as our home in China, the President and his team have gone to great lengths to praise every dimension.
Sheppard states he wants Duke to become "THE business school of Shanghai," a dream that is clearly at the expense of Kunshan. Or as he put it, Duke might experience a "potential loss of focus" and have to "limit" resources in Kunshan. Indeed Sheppard speaks not only of an initial foothold, but a "planning process" with a goal of "a more extended campus" in Shanghai.
✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ And worse, he recognizes the city of Kunshan might see this as double-dealing: under the label of "problems" and the subhead of "trust," the Dean states "it would be really important to manage the (Shanghai) deal and discussions with Kunshan in order to avoid loss of the very good relationships we have with them. So far so good." Yes, he used that phrase.
Advocating simultaneously for Kunshan and Shanghai with the Chinese Ministry of Education will be key. And tricky, for as Sheppard notes, "could be interesting."
✔ FC has made repeated requests for an interview with Dean Sheppard, stressing to him the importance of his input and perspective for this Special Report, and received no response. Come on Dean, "could be interesting."
This is consistent with what FC has found other administrators doing: circling their wagons as the glitz on our move into China wears off, with stakeholders asking probing questions and learning disturbing facts.
The documents FC has seen list various Fuqua programs under either Kunshan or Shanghai. This list does not include the signature Cross Continent MBA, which costs a staggering $140,000 over a 14-month period and includes only 70 classroom days, with the rest self-study at home. Self-study. Means homework. While not included, the surrounding discussion makes it clear Sheppard wants this in Shanghai.
One of Sheppard's definite plans for Shanghai is a joint Ph.D. with Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). This is the school that elected to bow out of sponsoring Duke's entry into Kunshan -- we need a sponsor according to Chinese law -- a year after a very elaborate ceremony during which President Brodhead signed a deal and broke ground with a silver shovel.
One source tells FC that people at Duke familiar with the details now believe SJTU cancelled the deal in Kunshan because it is going into competition with it. Officially Duke said Shanghai Jiao Tong did not want to be involved with a school in another provence (state), an explanation that FC labeled specious since everyone knew from day one where Kunshan was located.
(We have conflicting information on whether the joint Ph.D. survived the breach in the Duke-SJTU agreement. One source says the idea is dead. But in a memo to faculty reporting on the last Trustee meeting, Sheppard notes without elaboration that plans for Shanghai are on track.)
SJTU has plans to invest $300 million in its business school -- clearly a pie big enough for Duke to savor a slice.
The joint SJTU - Duke Ph.D. is unique in all of our international plans for two reasons:
-- The government of China has agreed to pay for ten students -- the first indication in any of our ventures of where the money is coming from.
-- And the ten would spend the first two years in Durham -- the first indication any of the new Chinese students would have any intercourse with the mother Duke campus at all. Sheppard also makes vague reference to faculty post-docs funded by China.
The Shanghai campus would also rob Kunshan of the Masters in Management Science degree focusing on finance, the same degree focusing on accounting, and a vague part-time MBA focused on "finance and professional services."
Sheppard also talks about a masters degree in law in finance and international business in Shanghai.
✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ And if starting a new university in Kunshan and a new campus in Shanghai were not enough, Sheppard has also revealed incorporating in a third Chinese location -- Jiangsu Province, which has 77 million people in the last census. Sheppard notes the governor is a vigorous advocate for an executive MBA focused on the Yangtze River delta. The province's capital is perhaps better known than the province, the city of Nanjing.
"We would need to put more attention into China, faster under this model, limiting resources to do other locations."
✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ And the list of other locations -- cities that Fuqua seeks to move into in one gulp -- is overwhelming: London, Dubai, New Delhi, St. Petersburg, Kunshan, Shanghai, Nanjing. Brazil, believed to be the city of Sao Paulo, was recently visited by Duke's new global VP Gregory Jones. Then there is Seoul, where an executive education program is underway. And Johannesburg, for Global Academic Travel Experience (GATE) elective courses, and Global Consulting Practicums which have flown under the radar.
This list does not include Sheppard's undisclosed plans for the Master of Management Studies (MMS) degree. Unlike most business school degrees, which contemplate students will work for several years before seeking an MBA, this is designed for students immediately after they get their undergraduate degrees. It has feasted off the lack of jobs in the economy, with many students finding this a more attractive opportunity than unemployment or working in a supermarket.
The initial plans for the MMS in Durham included a three year trial run. But after only one graduating class last May, Sheppard began lobbying to make the degree permanent, which he has done, and to be allowed to create a "template" for international expansion at his call, which is under consideration. The template is an unusual idea since usually the faculty approves venture by venture, city by city.
The list would be even longer -- but earlier Fuqua excursions fizzled. These include the loss of millions of dollars in Frankfurt, the failure of a program with the London School of Economics, and animosity enough in Moscow that we had to flee to St. Petersburg.
In discussions with one source, FC used the word "grandiose." We got instant agreement.
We note that the rapid -- the unbridled -- global expansion is coming as Duke in Durham has had to contract because of the financial meltdown. Just 17 months ago the Trustee chair said the university was in "dire financial strait," after a year in which fully 30 percent of all the wealth accumulated by Trinity College and Duke over the generations disappeared. We have previously written about the unexpected capital contribution Duke is having to make in Kunshan, and the massive operating losses which were not in the original plan. Based upon documents presented at the last Trustee meeting, FC believes the losses will easily be $100 million in the first decade, more likely $150 million and possibly higher.
All this while we are crimped in Durham.
We still do not know if Duke is going to be able to break its two year wage freeze, but we can assure Loyal Readers that any thaw will be meager. We still do not know if the Arts and Sciences, which has a critical budget problem, will be able to keep its full staff of professors.
And now for an overview, three concluding FC observations:
✔ First, Fuqua faculty whom we talked to in complete confidence do not have a total picture of the scope of the school's adventure. Some faculty are now openly discussing the need for facts and figures independent of those developed by the Brodhead Administration. (FC has asked Trustee David Rubenstein, chair of the special China committee, for a list of committee members, whether there are students, faculty and other shareholders on this committee like on other Trustee committees, and whether there is a staff or consultants who are providing information independent of the administration. He has not yet responded to this very recent request.)
✔ Second, we were most surprised to see in the internal documents that FC gained access to, a repeated emphasis on making money, on profits. Phrases like "a key aspect of continued profitable growth for the school and a key to our brand." It is a frank admission that some of the menu Fuqua has assembled is just to make money. We always thought a university was purer than that.
✔ And the other observation is that all of this is different from earlier international ties. These programs are designed for Chinese students studying in China. With the exception of the joint PhD program outlined above, none of these people will come to Durham. And only a small handful of Dukies will leave the main campus and go to Kunshan, perhaps 20 students a year for an undergraduate certificate program in public health, just enough to mollify the Chinese government and satisfy its legal requirement.
We anticipate two more Special Reports based upon the latest documents we obtained, just as informative, just as explosive. Loyal Readers are invited to submit news tips and documents anonymously and in total confidence to Duke.Fact.Checker@gmail.com
✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ GO DUKE!
3/13/2011
Imam who is target of right wing talk radio to speak at Duke. FC prepares new disclosures on Kunshan. Schoenfeld ducks questions on armed robbery
Sunday, March 13. Did you remember to reset your clock?
Fact Checker is expanding. We are testing frequent posts of shorter items, called Fact Checker Too, in addition to our major essays. Tell us what you think! Duke.Fact.Checker@gmail.com
✔ Salman Rushdie (scroll down, FC for 3-9-2011) won't be the only speaker at Duke this spring who is highly controversial because of a nexus to the Muslim world. Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf will speak on Thursday.
Whoops, a day earlier he is delivering the Weil Lecture on American Citizenship at UNC, so they got the jump on us.
The Imam became the target of right-wing talk radio when he announced an effort to build a Muslim Cultural Center called Park 51 (also called Cordoba House) near the site of the World Trade Center in New York.
The radio right wingers dubbed this the "Ground Zero Mosque" -- accuracy be damned -- and said it was inappropriate since we all know it was every Muslim who joined in the September 11 attacks and besides, the Trade Center grounds are now "sacred" and "hallowed." The right wingers did not seem to mind that a strip club, major porn store selling videos and toys, and even a city-sanctioned horse betting parlor are right there too.
And FC got the biggest laugh when the conservatives said "the mosque" should not be built because it would attract inappropriate, loud demonstrations. You know, bunches of conservatives. And indeed a group from the late Jerry Falwell's hometown of Lynchburg, Va, calling itself Christian, plans to picket the Imam in Chapel Hill -- no plans for Duke yet.
✔ We are monitoring developments in the armed robbery on campus Friday night. The victim a graduate student who also took one or more punches. A gang of four thugs was involved. We have received an e-mail from VP Schoenfeld which is a poor response to our inquiry about the level of Duke Police protection.
✔ ✔ FC has new internal documents from the Brodhead Administration about Kunshan. Explosive. We plan on publishing ASAP.
✔ It's getting crowded around here. US Census figures show Durham County with 267,587 people, up nearly 20 percent in a decade. Similar growth statistics statewide, population now 9.5 million.
✔ Duke research: humans While humans age much slower than most animals, we're not so special for we age at the same rate as other primates, like chimps and gorillas.
✔ Survey of 450 law firm partners who hired new associates nation-wide. Understand, please, that these firms have a corporate and high level business practice, rather than anything involving human beings. Harvard #1. Usual suspects follow, with Duke in a five way tie for 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.
✔And if all the talk about China were not enough expansion in one gulp, Triangle Business Journal has just featured Duke's aspirations in India. Fuqua again. Talk of a whole campus, not just an outpost.
✔And if you are wondering what people in Fuqua do when they do not talk expansion... try this. A team of Fuqua researchers analyzed 57,293 Major League Baseball games between 1952 and 2009 -- roughly 4.5 million at-bats to see if weather played any factor in the pitcher's beaning the hitter. Yep... if the weather is in the 50's the risk is much less than when the temp hits the 90's. Researchers in Tennessee and Texas helped Duke figure this one out. This was in a Duke press release; while our PR stories usually note who paid for research and how much it cost, this time the name of the fool or fools were omitted. My guess: federal government.
✔ Grant Hill, Duke basketball legend, erstwhile NBA rookie of the year and now filmmaker. His debut about Duke's long-time (try 45 years) track coach Al Buehler will be screened at the March 31 opening night of the Phoenix Film Festival. Title: "Starting at the Finish Line: The Coach Buehler Story".
✔ ✔ We've lifted from the Raleigh News and Observer the following commentary by Professor Charles Clotfelder of the Sanford School on big time athletics.
Buckle up. It’s time for that annual 21-day wild ride known as “March Madness,” a media event so lucrative that the name is actually copyrighted. For the next three weeks, millions of Americans will talk nonstop about brackets, seeds and upsets, and then remain glued to their TV or computer screens to see how their predictions hold up.
This 68-team tournament is a spectacular illustration of why commercialized sports, with all its problems, has an unshakeable hold on American higher education, and why universities do little to rein in its influence.
Universities with big-time ss are like the man in the old joke who complains that his brother thinks he’s a chicken. Asked why he doesn’t have the brother committed, the man explains, “I would, but I need the eggs.” Like this man, these universities choose to live with the contradictions inherent in big-time college sports rather than get out of the game.
For the last three years, I have been doing research to understand how and why big-time sports has become so deeply embedded in many American universities. Not surprisingly, I found that sports often dwarfs the intellectual side of universities. For instance, I looked at news coverage of 58 universities with leading athletics programs. Of the 600 articles that appeared over a year in The New York Times, 87 percent were about sports.
In addition, the head basketball coaches at these universities had more than three times the number of Google hits than their presidents. Again this is hardly surprising, considering that the basketball teams of these universities appear on television an average of 27 times a year.
Add to this mix intense fan loyalty and it is clear that millions of Americans are hooked on college sports. In Lexington, Ky., for instance, a third of those surveyed agreed that the following statement best described their own level of interest in Kentucky basketball: “I live and die with the Wildcats. I’m happy if they win and sad if they lose.”
College basketball’s popularity comes to a climax during March Madness, which begins on the Monday after “Selection Sunday” with the widespread ritual of filling out brackets for the office pool. To see if the widely reported estimates of lost productivity due to the tournament are fact or urban myth, I gathered daily figures from 78 research libraries across the country on the number of articles that patrons viewed on a widely used Web-based archive of academic journals. I found that usage dropped about 6 percent immediately after Selection Sunday. And, at universities with teams in the tournament, usage remained below normal as long as their teams kept winning.
The popularity of the tournament is easy to exploit for commercial gain, of course, since broadcasters are happy to sell advertising time and businesses want to advertise their products to as wide a viewership as possible . Ads accounted for more than a third of the 65 hours of TV coverage of the 2009 tournament. There were 2,600 conventional commercials, plus another 650 product placements, including sponsored game summaries and “brought to you by” announcements. Among the most heavily advertised brands: Chevrolet, McDonald’s and Bud Light.
The tournament’s commercial success has generated rapidly growing revenues for universities, by way of the NCAA. Earnings from TV alone, corrected for inflation, have increased by more than 400 percent over the last 20 years. Universities have eagerly taken these earnings and used them, as they have income from bowls and regular season telecasts, in a relentless effort to remain competitive in the revenue sports.
In order to field winning teams, universities have made clear-eyed decisions to compromise some traditional academic values. They relax admissions standards for revenue athletes, so that a third of the teams in last year’s tournament had graduation rates below 50 percent. They place enormous demands on athletes’ time, often playing games in distant cities or late at night. They require players to display logos for apparel companies and they sell replica jerseys bearing the numbers of star players in their bookstores.
For universities, these compromises are simply a cost of getting into this wildly popular, and lucrative, business. Don’t just blame market forces for the commercialization of college sports. It’s also the result of complicity by the universities, who are convinced they need the eggs.
Charles Clotfelter, a professor of public policy at Duke University, is the author of the forthcoming book "Big-Time Sports in American Universities," Cambridge University Press.
Researchers in Tennessee and Texas helped Duke figure this one out. This was in a Duke press release; while our PR stories usually note who paid for research and how much it cost, this time the name of the fool or fools were omitted. My guess: federal government.
Grant Hill, Duke basketball legend, erstwhile NBA rookie of the year and now filmmaker. His debut about Duke's long-time (try 45 years) track coach Al Buehler will be screened at the March 31 opening night of the Phoenix Film Festival. Title: "Starting at the Finish Line: The Coach Buehler Story".
We've lifted from the Raleigh News and Observer the following commentary by Professor Charles Clotfelder of the Sanford School
Buckle up. It’s time for that annual 21-day wild ride known as “March Madness,” a media event so lucrative that the name is actually copyrighted. For the next three weeks, millions of Americans will talk nonstop about brackets, seeds and upsets, and then remain glued to their TV or computer screens to see how their predictions hold up.
This 68-team tournament is a spectacular illustration of why commercialized sports, with all its problems, has an unshakeable hold on American higher education, and why universities do little to rein in its influence.
Universities with big-time ss are like the man in the old joke who complains that his brother thinks he’s a chicken. Asked why he doesn’t have the brother committed, the man explains, “I would, but I need the eggs.” Like this man, these universities choose to live with the contradictions inherent in big-time college sports rather than get out of the game.
For the last three years, I have been doing research to understand how and why big-time sports has become so deeply embedded in many American universities. Not surprisingly, I found that sports often dwarfs the intellectual side of universities. For instance, I looked at news coverage of 58 universities with leading athletics programs. Of the 600 articles that appeared over a year in The New York Times, 87 percent were about sports.
In addition, the head basketball coaches at these universities had more than three times the number of Google hits than their presidents. Again this is hardly surprising, considering that the basketball teams of these universities appear on television an average of 27 times a year.
Add to this mix intense fan loyalty and it is clear that millions of Americans are hooked on college sports. In Lexington, Ky., for instance, a third of those surveyed agreed that the following statement best described their own level of interest in Kentucky basketball: “I live and die with the Wildcats. I’m happy if they win and sad if they lose.”
College basketball’s popularity comes to a climax during March Madness, which begins on the Monday after “Selection Sunday” with the widespread ritual of filling out brackets for the office pool. To see if the widely reported estimates of lost productivity due to the tournament are fact or urban myth, I gathered daily figures from 78 research libraries across the country on the number of articles that patrons viewed on a widely used Web-based archive of academic journals. I found that usage dropped about 6 percent immediately after Selection Sunday. And, at universities with teams in the tournament, usage remained below normal as long as their teams kept winning.
The popularity of the tournament is easy to exploit for commercial gain, of course, since broadcasters are happy to sell advertising time and businesses want to advertise their products to as wide a viewership as possible . Ads accounted for more than a third of the 65 hours of TV coverage of the 2009 tournament. There were 2,600 conventional commercials, plus another 650 product placements, including sponsored game summaries and “brought to you by” announcements. Among the most heavily advertised brands: Chevrolet, McDonald’s and Bud Light.
The tournament’s commercial success has generated rapidly growing revenues for universities, by way of the NCAA. Earnings from TV alone, corrected for inflation, have increased by more than 400 percent over the last 20 years. Universities have eagerly taken these earnings and used them, as they have income from bowls and regular season telecasts, in a relentless effort to remain competitive in the revenue sports.
In order to field winning teams, universities have made clear-eyed decisions to compromise some traditional academic values. They relax admissions standards for revenue athletes, so that a third of the teams in last year’s tournament had graduation rates below 50 percent. They place enormous demands on athletes’ time, often playing games in distant cities or late at night. They require players to display logos for apparel companies and they sell replica jerseys bearing the numbers of star players in their bookstores.
For universities, these compromises are simply a cost of getting into this wildly popular, and lucrative, business. Don’t just blame market forces for the commercialization of college sports. It’s also the result of complicity by the universities, who are convinced they need the eggs.
Charles Clotfelter, a professor of public policy at Duke University, is the author of the forthcoming book "Big-Time Sports in American Universities," Cambridge University Press.
✔ That's FC for today.
Fact Checker is expanding. We are testing frequent posts of shorter items, called Fact Checker Too, in addition to our major essays. Tell us what you think! Duke.Fact.Checker@gmail.com
✔ Salman Rushdie (scroll down, FC for 3-9-2011) won't be the only speaker at Duke this spring who is highly controversial because of a nexus to the Muslim world. Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf will speak on Thursday.
Whoops, a day earlier he is delivering the Weil Lecture on American Citizenship at UNC, so they got the jump on us.
The Imam became the target of right-wing talk radio when he announced an effort to build a Muslim Cultural Center called Park 51 (also called Cordoba House) near the site of the World Trade Center in New York.
The radio right wingers dubbed this the "Ground Zero Mosque" -- accuracy be damned -- and said it was inappropriate since we all know it was every Muslim who joined in the September 11 attacks and besides, the Trade Center grounds are now "sacred" and "hallowed." The right wingers did not seem to mind that a strip club, major porn store selling videos and toys, and even a city-sanctioned horse betting parlor are right there too.
And FC got the biggest laugh when the conservatives said "the mosque" should not be built because it would attract inappropriate, loud demonstrations. You know, bunches of conservatives. And indeed a group from the late Jerry Falwell's hometown of Lynchburg, Va, calling itself Christian, plans to picket the Imam in Chapel Hill -- no plans for Duke yet.
✔ We are monitoring developments in the armed robbery on campus Friday night. The victim a graduate student who also took one or more punches. A gang of four thugs was involved. We have received an e-mail from VP Schoenfeld which is a poor response to our inquiry about the level of Duke Police protection.
✔ ✔ FC has new internal documents from the Brodhead Administration about Kunshan. Explosive. We plan on publishing ASAP.
✔ It's getting crowded around here. US Census figures show Durham County with 267,587 people, up nearly 20 percent in a decade. Similar growth statistics statewide, population now 9.5 million.
✔ Duke research: humans While humans age much slower than most animals, we're not so special for we age at the same rate as other primates, like chimps and gorillas.
✔ Survey of 450 law firm partners who hired new associates nation-wide. Understand, please, that these firms have a corporate and high level business practice, rather than anything involving human beings. Harvard #1. Usual suspects follow, with Duke in a five way tie for 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.
✔And if all the talk about China were not enough expansion in one gulp, Triangle Business Journal has just featured Duke's aspirations in India. Fuqua again. Talk of a whole campus, not just an outpost.
✔And if you are wondering what people in Fuqua do when they do not talk expansion... try this. A team of Fuqua researchers analyzed 57,293 Major League Baseball games between 1952 and 2009 -- roughly 4.5 million at-bats to see if weather played any factor in the pitcher's beaning the hitter. Yep... if the weather is in the 50's the risk is much less than when the temp hits the 90's. Researchers in Tennessee and Texas helped Duke figure this one out. This was in a Duke press release; while our PR stories usually note who paid for research and how much it cost, this time the name of the fool or fools were omitted. My guess: federal government.
✔ Grant Hill, Duke basketball legend, erstwhile NBA rookie of the year and now filmmaker. His debut about Duke's long-time (try 45 years) track coach Al Buehler will be screened at the March 31 opening night of the Phoenix Film Festival. Title: "Starting at the Finish Line: The Coach Buehler Story".
✔ ✔ We've lifted from the Raleigh News and Observer the following commentary by Professor Charles Clotfelder of the Sanford School on big time athletics.
Buckle up. It’s time for that annual 21-day wild ride known as “March Madness,” a media event so lucrative that the name is actually copyrighted. For the next three weeks, millions of Americans will talk nonstop about brackets, seeds and upsets, and then remain glued to their TV or computer screens to see how their predictions hold up.
This 68-team tournament is a spectacular illustration of why commercialized sports, with all its problems, has an unshakeable hold on American higher education, and why universities do little to rein in its influence.
Universities with big-time ss are like the man in the old joke who complains that his brother thinks he’s a chicken. Asked why he doesn’t have the brother committed, the man explains, “I would, but I need the eggs.” Like this man, these universities choose to live with the contradictions inherent in big-time college sports rather than get out of the game.
For the last three years, I have been doing research to understand how and why big-time sports has become so deeply embedded in many American universities. Not surprisingly, I found that sports often dwarfs the intellectual side of universities. For instance, I looked at news coverage of 58 universities with leading athletics programs. Of the 600 articles that appeared over a year in The New York Times, 87 percent were about sports.
In addition, the head basketball coaches at these universities had more than three times the number of Google hits than their presidents. Again this is hardly surprising, considering that the basketball teams of these universities appear on television an average of 27 times a year.
Add to this mix intense fan loyalty and it is clear that millions of Americans are hooked on college sports. In Lexington, Ky., for instance, a third of those surveyed agreed that the following statement best described their own level of interest in Kentucky basketball: “I live and die with the Wildcats. I’m happy if they win and sad if they lose.”
College basketball’s popularity comes to a climax during March Madness, which begins on the Monday after “Selection Sunday” with the widespread ritual of filling out brackets for the office pool. To see if the widely reported estimates of lost productivity due to the tournament are fact or urban myth, I gathered daily figures from 78 research libraries across the country on the number of articles that patrons viewed on a widely used Web-based archive of academic journals. I found that usage dropped about 6 percent immediately after Selection Sunday. And, at universities with teams in the tournament, usage remained below normal as long as their teams kept winning.
The popularity of the tournament is easy to exploit for commercial gain, of course, since broadcasters are happy to sell advertising time and businesses want to advertise their products to as wide a viewership as possible . Ads accounted for more than a third of the 65 hours of TV coverage of the 2009 tournament. There were 2,600 conventional commercials, plus another 650 product placements, including sponsored game summaries and “brought to you by” announcements. Among the most heavily advertised brands: Chevrolet, McDonald’s and Bud Light.
The tournament’s commercial success has generated rapidly growing revenues for universities, by way of the NCAA. Earnings from TV alone, corrected for inflation, have increased by more than 400 percent over the last 20 years. Universities have eagerly taken these earnings and used them, as they have income from bowls and regular season telecasts, in a relentless effort to remain competitive in the revenue sports.
In order to field winning teams, universities have made clear-eyed decisions to compromise some traditional academic values. They relax admissions standards for revenue athletes, so that a third of the teams in last year’s tournament had graduation rates below 50 percent. They place enormous demands on athletes’ time, often playing games in distant cities or late at night. They require players to display logos for apparel companies and they sell replica jerseys bearing the numbers of star players in their bookstores.
For universities, these compromises are simply a cost of getting into this wildly popular, and lucrative, business. Don’t just blame market forces for the commercialization of college sports. It’s also the result of complicity by the universities, who are convinced they need the eggs.
Charles Clotfelter, a professor of public policy at Duke University, is the author of the forthcoming book "Big-Time Sports in American Universities," Cambridge University Press.
Researchers in Tennessee and Texas helped Duke figure this one out. This was in a Duke press release; while our PR stories usually note who paid for research and how much it cost, this time the name of the fool or fools were omitted. My guess: federal government.
Grant Hill, Duke basketball legend, erstwhile NBA rookie of the year and now filmmaker. His debut about Duke's long-time (try 45 years) track coach Al Buehler will be screened at the March 31 opening night of the Phoenix Film Festival. Title: "Starting at the Finish Line: The Coach Buehler Story".
We've lifted from the Raleigh News and Observer the following commentary by Professor Charles Clotfelder of the Sanford School
Buckle up. It’s time for that annual 21-day wild ride known as “March Madness,” a media event so lucrative that the name is actually copyrighted. For the next three weeks, millions of Americans will talk nonstop about brackets, seeds and upsets, and then remain glued to their TV or computer screens to see how their predictions hold up.
This 68-team tournament is a spectacular illustration of why commercialized sports, with all its problems, has an unshakeable hold on American higher education, and why universities do little to rein in its influence.
Universities with big-time ss are like the man in the old joke who complains that his brother thinks he’s a chicken. Asked why he doesn’t have the brother committed, the man explains, “I would, but I need the eggs.” Like this man, these universities choose to live with the contradictions inherent in big-time college sports rather than get out of the game.
For the last three years, I have been doing research to understand how and why big-time sports has become so deeply embedded in many American universities. Not surprisingly, I found that sports often dwarfs the intellectual side of universities. For instance, I looked at news coverage of 58 universities with leading athletics programs. Of the 600 articles that appeared over a year in The New York Times, 87 percent were about sports.
In addition, the head basketball coaches at these universities had more than three times the number of Google hits than their presidents. Again this is hardly surprising, considering that the basketball teams of these universities appear on television an average of 27 times a year.
Add to this mix intense fan loyalty and it is clear that millions of Americans are hooked on college sports. In Lexington, Ky., for instance, a third of those surveyed agreed that the following statement best described their own level of interest in Kentucky basketball: “I live and die with the Wildcats. I’m happy if they win and sad if they lose.”
College basketball’s popularity comes to a climax during March Madness, which begins on the Monday after “Selection Sunday” with the widespread ritual of filling out brackets for the office pool. To see if the widely reported estimates of lost productivity due to the tournament are fact or urban myth, I gathered daily figures from 78 research libraries across the country on the number of articles that patrons viewed on a widely used Web-based archive of academic journals. I found that usage dropped about 6 percent immediately after Selection Sunday. And, at universities with teams in the tournament, usage remained below normal as long as their teams kept winning.
The popularity of the tournament is easy to exploit for commercial gain, of course, since broadcasters are happy to sell advertising time and businesses want to advertise their products to as wide a viewership as possible . Ads accounted for more than a third of the 65 hours of TV coverage of the 2009 tournament. There were 2,600 conventional commercials, plus another 650 product placements, including sponsored game summaries and “brought to you by” announcements. Among the most heavily advertised brands: Chevrolet, McDonald’s and Bud Light.
The tournament’s commercial success has generated rapidly growing revenues for universities, by way of the NCAA. Earnings from TV alone, corrected for inflation, have increased by more than 400 percent over the last 20 years. Universities have eagerly taken these earnings and used them, as they have income from bowls and regular season telecasts, in a relentless effort to remain competitive in the revenue sports.
In order to field winning teams, universities have made clear-eyed decisions to compromise some traditional academic values. They relax admissions standards for revenue athletes, so that a third of the teams in last year’s tournament had graduation rates below 50 percent. They place enormous demands on athletes’ time, often playing games in distant cities or late at night. They require players to display logos for apparel companies and they sell replica jerseys bearing the numbers of star players in their bookstores.
For universities, these compromises are simply a cost of getting into this wildly popular, and lucrative, business. Don’t just blame market forces for the commercialization of college sports. It’s also the result of complicity by the universities, who are convinced they need the eggs.
Charles Clotfelter, a professor of public policy at Duke University, is the author of the forthcoming book "Big-Time Sports in American Universities," Cambridge University Press.
✔ That's FC for today.
3/12/2011
Armed robbery on West Campus. Fists fly but no bullets as gang of four thugs attacks grad student. Developing.
✔✔✔✔✔
✔✔✔✔✔
DEVELOPING STORY - So far the only information we have is the Duke Police handout, forwarded to us by a Loyal Reader. Immediately, a Deputy Fact Checker sent e-mail --reproduced below -- to Duke spinmeister Michael Schoenfeld, who in the past has refused to acknowledge much less answer questions about Duke Police. Rest assured that we view this not as a discourtesy to us, but as an affront to every one of our Loyal Readers.
First the e-mail from the Deputy Fact Checker to Schoenfeld. Then the official Duke police statement.
✔✔✔
Dear Mr. Schoenfeld:
We renew our request for specific information about the levels of staffing of Duke Police, and whether the promises made in the latest Clery Act are being met.
We would like details about the extra patrols now promised for Circuit Drive -- which to our count is the fourth area where extra patrols are promised. Where are the officers coming from?......
...We look forward to your prompt response to these vital questions.
✔✔✔ Duke Police handout.
DURHAM, N.C. -- A Duke graduate student reported he was robbed at gunpoint Friday night as he walked to his car on Circuit Drive.
The student said he was approached by four males at around 10:30 p.m. He said the suspects, one of whom reportedly had a handgun, demanded his wallet and cell phone. The student said he was hit by one of the suspects, who were last seen heading toward Erwin Road.
The student was examined by medical personnel at the scene but not sent for any further medical attention. He is receiving support from Student Affairs.
The student provided a description for one of the suspects, who was described as a black male in his late teens to early 20's, approximately 5-feet, 8-inches tall, with a medium complexion and a slim build. The suspect reportedly was wearing a tan cap, brown jacket and green plaid shirt.
The Duke University Police Department and Durham Police have been searching the area since the incident occurred. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Duke Police at (919) 684-2444 or Durham Police at (919) 560-4427.
Duke Police also encouraged students needing after-hours transportation to contact Duke Van Services at (919) 684-2020. The service provides on-demand transportation from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. within a defined boundary area.
✔ An earlier post by FC questioned whether a Clery Alert had been sounded, but did not say if it had nor had not. A Loyal Reader reports receiving a text and e-mail in a timely manner. And we are pleased to update.
✔✔✔✔✔
DEVELOPING STORY - So far the only information we have is the Duke Police handout, forwarded to us by a Loyal Reader. Immediately, a Deputy Fact Checker sent e-mail --reproduced below -- to Duke spinmeister Michael Schoenfeld, who in the past has refused to acknowledge much less answer questions about Duke Police. Rest assured that we view this not as a discourtesy to us, but as an affront to every one of our Loyal Readers.
First the e-mail from the Deputy Fact Checker to Schoenfeld. Then the official Duke police statement.
✔✔✔
Dear Mr. Schoenfeld:
We renew our request for specific information about the levels of staffing of Duke Police, and whether the promises made in the latest Clery Act are being met.
We would like details about the extra patrols now promised for Circuit Drive -- which to our count is the fourth area where extra patrols are promised. Where are the officers coming from?......
...We look forward to your prompt response to these vital questions.
✔✔✔ Duke Police handout.
DURHAM, N.C. -- A Duke graduate student reported he was robbed at gunpoint Friday night as he walked to his car on Circuit Drive.
The student said he was approached by four males at around 10:30 p.m. He said the suspects, one of whom reportedly had a handgun, demanded his wallet and cell phone. The student said he was hit by one of the suspects, who were last seen heading toward Erwin Road.
The student was examined by medical personnel at the scene but not sent for any further medical attention. He is receiving support from Student Affairs.
The student provided a description for one of the suspects, who was described as a black male in his late teens to early 20's, approximately 5-feet, 8-inches tall, with a medium complexion and a slim build. The suspect reportedly was wearing a tan cap, brown jacket and green plaid shirt.
The Duke University Police Department and Durham Police have been searching the area since the incident occurred. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Duke Police at (919) 684-2444 or Durham Police at (919) 560-4427.
Duke Police also encouraged students needing after-hours transportation to contact Duke Van Services at (919) 684-2020. The service provides on-demand transportation from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. within a defined boundary area.
✔ An earlier post by FC questioned whether a Clery Alert had been sounded, but did not say if it had nor had not. A Loyal Reader reports receiving a text and e-mail in a timely manner. And we are pleased to update.
Hoops watch: two toes in the tournament headlines. Kyrie, Nolan and their injuries
Quote from Coach K:
Kyrie Irving, in uniform, on the practice court in Greensboro prior to Friday night's game
Coach K: "With Kyrie he is just going through the next phase of his rehabilitation... He's progressing very well, and because we are in this tournament atmosphere, to get him on the court, do exercises, get some shooting in. There's no timetable on him, though. He is not going to magically appear tomorrow or anything like that because he hasn't done anything with the team, but it's coming along, really, it's coming along great and we just want to take advantage of the fact that we are in the gym and the crowd and whatever, that keeps his spirits up, too."
============================
Following from GoDuke.com
GREENSBORO, N.C. - While Seth Curry was answering a question on whether he should be preparing mentally to handle the majority of Duke's point guard duties in Saturday's semifinal contest against Virginia Tech, head coach Mike Krzyzewski interrupted his sophomore and answered for him.
"You better start getting ready," Krzyzewski said.
With Nolan Smith's status questionable after suffering a toe injury in the second half of Duke's quarterfinal win over Maryland, the sophomore guard will be relied on even more for the Blue Devils.
The Blue Devils responded after Smith went down with 6:49 remaining, outscoring Maryland 22-11.......
"I'm not sure of Nolan's status for tomorrow," Krzyzewski said. "We won't know that probably until tomorrow morning. He wasn't able to come back into the ball game so we are concerned about that."
Krzyzewski said Smith will have an x-ray on his 'second toe' and will be a game-time decision.
Kyrie Irving, in uniform, on the practice court in Greensboro prior to Friday night's game
Coach K: "With Kyrie he is just going through the next phase of his rehabilitation... He's progressing very well, and because we are in this tournament atmosphere, to get him on the court, do exercises, get some shooting in. There's no timetable on him, though. He is not going to magically appear tomorrow or anything like that because he hasn't done anything with the team, but it's coming along, really, it's coming along great and we just want to take advantage of the fact that we are in the gym and the crowd and whatever, that keeps his spirits up, too."
============================
Following from GoDuke.com
GREENSBORO, N.C. - While Seth Curry was answering a question on whether he should be preparing mentally to handle the majority of Duke's point guard duties in Saturday's semifinal contest against Virginia Tech, head coach Mike Krzyzewski interrupted his sophomore and answered for him.
"You better start getting ready," Krzyzewski said.
With Nolan Smith's status questionable after suffering a toe injury in the second half of Duke's quarterfinal win over Maryland, the sophomore guard will be relied on even more for the Blue Devils.
The Blue Devils responded after Smith went down with 6:49 remaining, outscoring Maryland 22-11.......
"I'm not sure of Nolan's status for tomorrow," Krzyzewski said. "We won't know that probably until tomorrow morning. He wasn't able to come back into the ball game so we are concerned about that."
Krzyzewski said Smith will have an x-ray on his 'second toe' and will be a game-time decision.
3/10/2011
Tragedy claims life of championship Duke athlete; FC gets more confidential papers on Duke in China; Salman Rushdie to speak in Page
✔ FC here. Good day!
We are testing Fact Checker Too, a compilation of shorter items of great interest to Dukies. We will of course retain our longer essays. Tell us what you think. Duke.Fact.Checker@gmail.com
✔ A Loyal Reader has sent in information from Maricopa, Arizona, about the tragic death of a championship Duke athlete: Sally Meyerhoff '06. (Actually the alumni directory is unclear if she was '06 or '07). Sally won several ECAC titles, including the 5000-meters outdoors in 2004, and the 3000-meters indoors in 2005. She had career best times of 33:03.19 for 10,000m, 1:12:52 for the half-marathon, and 2:35:49 for the marathon. One of America's leading runners, she was training for the next Olympics.
In January, she was the winner of the women's division of P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon. The website UniversalSports makes note of long red hair, usually in pigtails, and a penchant for wearing bright colored (if not iridescent) running skirts -- a standout not only for speed and endurance but in appearance. She also was interested in triathlons, and had qualified for last year's Ironman World Championships as an amateur.
Meyerhoff died died instantly when her cycle (conflicting reports on whether this was a bicycle or motorcycle) missed a stop sign in her hometown and hit a pickup truck. Police checked out the driver for DUI, cleared him, and did not issue a summons. She was 27 years old.
Her next event was to be the marathon in Chandler, Arizona, which has now been named in her honor. Race director Dave Shapiro: "I remember she'd finish a race, win it, look at her watch, jump up and down, then run a two- or three-mile cooldown. It's a huge loss not only for Arizona but for the national scene."
From Facebook: "I love my life, especially my dogs ♥ Barney♥ Wilbur ♥ Winston ♥ and now Maxx ♥. I would do absolutely anything for those that I love. A Duke Blue Devil forever :) I still miss the unbelievably gorgeous campus..."
✔David Broder has passed away, for several years on the Duke faculty, best known as the Washington Post pundit and Sunday talk show regular, the Pulizer Prize winner for his part in explaining the importance of Richard Nixon's misdeeds in Watergate. Teaching? He concluded he preferred reporting.
✔ Fact Checker has secured three additional internal documents about Duke's expansion into China. Just like the confidential comprehensive briefing that we brought to light, which was provided members of the Board of Trustees before their meeting at the end of February, the new materials are eye-opening if not explosive. Rich with detail the Brodhead Administration has not make public -- or perhaps did not want to be made public because of the potential impact.
Deputy Fact Checkers are assigned to run down different angles. A Special Report expected in seven to ten days.
✔ Duke has announced that the author Salman Rushdie, completing a five-year residency at Emory University, will lecture in Page Auditorium on April 12. The announcement was made while students were away from campus (another Brodhead administration disconnect), but at least they are waiting until March 15th to start making free tickets available.
Rushdie has written ten novels, establishing himself as a great writer with his second, "Midnight's Children" in 1981. It was reaction to his fourth, "The Satanic Verses" in1988 that brought him world attention.
A Muslim at birth (pursuing no religion as an adult) the novel was perceived by some as an irreverent depiction of the prophet Muhammad. Iran's screwball Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, directing Muslims around the world to kill Rushdie anytime they could lay eyes on him. Khomeini promised a rich reward if anyone were successful, presumably both cash on earth and special privileges among the virgins in heaven.
Rushdie went into hiding in Britain (he was born in India but went to Cambridge University) while Khomeini proved his good faith by fomenting several acts of violence in different parts of the world. Rushdie took several years to emerge -- appearing first at a Columbia University literary event with the level of security that New York City cops usually accord the President of the United States.
In time, Iran eased the fatwa (the government will "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie") but only Khomeini can lift it, and he is now dead. Rushdie went public again in the 1990's, at a U2 concert in London. He had provided the lyrics to one of their songs.
✔ Speaking of events in Page Auditorium, FC wants to set the record straight. Duke's PR handout on the $80 million The Duke Endowment will provide to renovate original university buildings noted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr had spoken in Page on November 13, 1964 -- putting the best blush on a horrible snub. In fact Dr. King was refused an invitation for many years ("too militant") and Duke powers relented only after he won the Nobel Peace Prize. But nasty people would not allow King -- the foremost Christian preacher of the era -- to climb to the pulpit in the Chapel, relegating him instead to the podium in Page.
Stop! If all this sounds pretty impossible to you, consider that only six years earlier, the president of the University (one Hollis Edens) overrode an invitation by drama students to their counterparts at North Carolina Central to attend a Page performance. Edens explained there were no bathrooms in Page or anywhere close that Negroes could use. Yes, this is the same Edens we honor with a dorm complex.
Needless to say the PR department offered a sanitized summary of Page's history, proving the need for a Fact Checker.
✔As previously noted, FC does not yet cover Duke sports, though from time to time we post something we think is of interest.
✔ Announcement of the ACC All-Academic team. Congratulations to Ryan Kelly '13 (public policy studies major) on the list for the second time, to Mason Plumlee '13 (psychology) and Kyle Singler '11 (visual arts) on the list for the first time. And what's a sports story without some statistics: no other school had three selections, Miami and Virginia had two. This is the 7th time in Duke's history -- and the first since 2000 and 2001 -- that Duke has had three or more selections.
We are testing Fact Checker Too, a compilation of shorter items of great interest to Dukies. We will of course retain our longer essays. Tell us what you think. Duke.Fact.Checker@gmail.com
✔ A Loyal Reader has sent in information from Maricopa, Arizona, about the tragic death of a championship Duke athlete: Sally Meyerhoff '06. (Actually the alumni directory is unclear if she was '06 or '07). Sally won several ECAC titles, including the 5000-meters outdoors in 2004, and the 3000-meters indoors in 2005. She had career best times of 33:03.19 for 10,000m, 1:12:52 for the half-marathon, and 2:35:49 for the marathon. One of America's leading runners, she was training for the next Olympics.
In January, she was the winner of the women's division of P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon. The website UniversalSports makes note of long red hair, usually in pigtails, and a penchant for wearing bright colored (if not iridescent) running skirts -- a standout not only for speed and endurance but in appearance. She also was interested in triathlons, and had qualified for last year's Ironman World Championships as an amateur.
Meyerhoff died died instantly when her cycle (conflicting reports on whether this was a bicycle or motorcycle) missed a stop sign in her hometown and hit a pickup truck. Police checked out the driver for DUI, cleared him, and did not issue a summons. She was 27 years old.
Her next event was to be the marathon in Chandler, Arizona, which has now been named in her honor. Race director Dave Shapiro: "I remember she'd finish a race, win it, look at her watch, jump up and down, then run a two- or three-mile cooldown. It's a huge loss not only for Arizona but for the national scene."
From Facebook: "I love my life, especially my dogs ♥ Barney♥ Wilbur ♥ Winston ♥ and now Maxx ♥. I would do absolutely anything for those that I love. A Duke Blue Devil forever :) I still miss the unbelievably gorgeous campus..."
✔David Broder has passed away, for several years on the Duke faculty, best known as the Washington Post pundit and Sunday talk show regular, the Pulizer Prize winner for his part in explaining the importance of Richard Nixon's misdeeds in Watergate. Teaching? He concluded he preferred reporting.
✔ Fact Checker has secured three additional internal documents about Duke's expansion into China. Just like the confidential comprehensive briefing that we brought to light, which was provided members of the Board of Trustees before their meeting at the end of February, the new materials are eye-opening if not explosive. Rich with detail the Brodhead Administration has not make public -- or perhaps did not want to be made public because of the potential impact.
Deputy Fact Checkers are assigned to run down different angles. A Special Report expected in seven to ten days.
✔ Duke has announced that the author Salman Rushdie, completing a five-year residency at Emory University, will lecture in Page Auditorium on April 12. The announcement was made while students were away from campus (another Brodhead administration disconnect), but at least they are waiting until March 15th to start making free tickets available.
Rushdie has written ten novels, establishing himself as a great writer with his second, "Midnight's Children" in 1981. It was reaction to his fourth, "The Satanic Verses" in1988 that brought him world attention.
A Muslim at birth (pursuing no religion as an adult) the novel was perceived by some as an irreverent depiction of the prophet Muhammad. Iran's screwball Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, directing Muslims around the world to kill Rushdie anytime they could lay eyes on him. Khomeini promised a rich reward if anyone were successful, presumably both cash on earth and special privileges among the virgins in heaven.
Rushdie went into hiding in Britain (he was born in India but went to Cambridge University) while Khomeini proved his good faith by fomenting several acts of violence in different parts of the world. Rushdie took several years to emerge -- appearing first at a Columbia University literary event with the level of security that New York City cops usually accord the President of the United States.
In time, Iran eased the fatwa (the government will "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie") but only Khomeini can lift it, and he is now dead. Rushdie went public again in the 1990's, at a U2 concert in London. He had provided the lyrics to one of their songs.
✔ Speaking of events in Page Auditorium, FC wants to set the record straight. Duke's PR handout on the $80 million The Duke Endowment will provide to renovate original university buildings noted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr had spoken in Page on November 13, 1964 -- putting the best blush on a horrible snub. In fact Dr. King was refused an invitation for many years ("too militant") and Duke powers relented only after he won the Nobel Peace Prize. But nasty people would not allow King -- the foremost Christian preacher of the era -- to climb to the pulpit in the Chapel, relegating him instead to the podium in Page.
Stop! If all this sounds pretty impossible to you, consider that only six years earlier, the president of the University (one Hollis Edens) overrode an invitation by drama students to their counterparts at North Carolina Central to attend a Page performance. Edens explained there were no bathrooms in Page or anywhere close that Negroes could use. Yes, this is the same Edens we honor with a dorm complex.
Needless to say the PR department offered a sanitized summary of Page's history, proving the need for a Fact Checker.
✔As previously noted, FC does not yet cover Duke sports, though from time to time we post something we think is of interest.
✔ Announcement of the ACC All-Academic team. Congratulations to Ryan Kelly '13 (public policy studies major) on the list for the second time, to Mason Plumlee '13 (psychology) and Kyle Singler '11 (visual arts) on the list for the first time. And what's a sports story without some statistics: no other school had three selections, Miami and Virginia had two. This is the 7th time in Duke's history -- and the first since 2000 and 2001 -- that Duke has had three or more selections.
3/09/2011
Fact Checker Too: Duke silences local reporter who probed its affairs. Star from heyday of Duke football dies. Nolan Smith ACC player of the year
✔ Fact Checker is expanding. We're experimenting with shorter items of interest to Dukies, in addition to our deep essays. Let us know what you think. Duke.Fact.Checker@gmail.com
Search terms: Duke University, Anil Potti
✔ Duke University has silenced one of the reporters who dug the deepest into university affairs.
Fact Checker learned very early Wednesday morning from a concerned Loyal Reader that Sarah Avery has left the Raleigh News and Observer and has been hired at Duke. We confirmed the move with the city desk, but Avery does not yet have a listing at Duke (we checked with the overnight phone operator and on-line directory), and we did not want to wake PR VP Michael Schoenfeld at 2 AM to ask him if she's joining his department or what.
One of Avery's most recent stories was a poignant portrayal of 63 year old Joyce Shoffner, breast cancer patient (or victim if you prefer) of the quack Dr Anil Potti. FC broke the news about her ordeal in December with exclusive posting of a letter that her brother sent to President Brodhead. At that time, Shoffner declined to speak -- but Avery elicited moving testimony from her that newspapers around the nation picked up because at last we saw a suffering face attached to the story.
Sample quote from the Shoffner article:
"She feels betrayed by Duke, an institution she trusted, and by science, an endeavor she has long championed. 'I'm devastated by this whole thing,' she said. "If you have a very serious cancer and two-and-a-half years later you think you are involved in a study that is cutting edge and [it's discredited], it is devastating."
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/09/908283/flawed-research-appalls-cancer.html#ixzz1G55Ptg4S
We got tipped to Avery's move by a Loyal Reader whose daughter had surgery in 2004 at one of the two Duke operated hospitals (but not the main one on West Campus), and went from "a beautiful healthy single mother to someone that lives in pain and the unknown each and every day."
Duke operated on several thousand patients even though surgeons observed their instruments felt "slippery" and "greasy." Yes several thousand. The surgical instruments had been mistakenly washed in used hydraulic fluid from elevators, not sterilizing detergent. The results were devastating in some cases.
Avery's work exposed the malpractice. But Duke kept the lid on the story by settling with many patients; it wore others out by immorally using its firepower to procrastinate lawsuits. One of the worst legal moves in FC's opinion involves a man who was not hurt: for five years Duke wouldn't tell him if he was exposed to the filthy hydraulic fluid, so he sued. It turned out he was not affected, and now Duke is suing the man to recover its defense lawyer costs. Some days I just seethe at Duke's general counsel Pam Bernard for such tactics.
Deputy Fact Checkers assigned; we'll know more.
✔ Belatedly, the Law School has informed alumni that that John Adams Law '62 has received the nation's highest civilian honor -- the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Obama honored him at the White House in mid-February,
Adams founded the National Resource Defense Council in 1970 after his son woke up next to an open window, soot on his forehead. (We believe this was in New York City.) Adams is senior statesman of the environmental community.
✔ Headline in Forbes: "The Best Law Schools for Getting Rich." With little explanation of methodology, the magazine looked at the earnings of mid-career graduates working in the private sector. (So that excludes lower paying government and charitable organizations) Stanford #1 at $236,000, Duke #2 at $221,000. Yale a surprising #33 at $159,000.
The magazine notes that only a sliver of graduates nation-wide get the $160,000 a year starting salaries touted by major firms. Disclosure: those salaries climb very slowly and people are dropped like flies. FC friend at one major NYC firm says only 3 percent of the incoming associates will make partner.
✔ US News and World Report: Duke in the top five for undergraduates doing internships, presumably a step toward a better job. #1 Colorado School of Mines.
✔ “More people are being killed in Libya than in all of the other Arab countries combined, far more,” said Bruce Jentleson, professor of public policy and political science.
✔ New fund-raising gimmick. An anon alum has challenged the alumni office to round up 1,000 people who did not contribute to the Annual Fund last year, but are willing to write checks this year. The prize: $100,000.
✔ Basketball news. FC does not cover team competition for Duke sports, yet, but we do encounter interesting tidbits which we will pass along.
✔✔ Nolan Smith '11 was named ACC player of the year. 73 out of 75 votes. Kyle Singler '11 got one, some kid at UNC another. Coach K: "From his freshman year to now, Nolan has probably progressed more than any player we've had here. It's not like he was this instant star. He's done it because he continually looks for ways to improve."
✔ Duke men's basketball brought in $26,667,056 in 2009, according to Forbes Magazine. That makes us #1, with Louisville second and UNC third at $20,551,168.
✔ While you began spring break, our joint (men, women) indoor track and field team excelled with seven members going to the NCAA's. Tanner Anderson '14 qualified for the high jump with a season best 7' 2 1/2". He's now 14th in the national rankings. Curtis Beach '13, currently tied for 2nd in the nation in the heptathlon, gets an automatic bid, as does Kate Van Buskirk '11, women's mile and mile medley relay. Joining her on the MDR will be Devotia Moore '11, Cydney Ross '12 and Rebecca Craigie '14. And lastly Amy Fryt '11 holder of Duke's pole vault record.
✔ The university announced the death of one of the greats from the heyday of Duke football. Elmore Hackney '38 passed away Saturday in California at age 95. Known as "Honeyboy," he ran for 1,359 yards and 20 touchdowns in three seasons, leading the team to 24 victories in 1935, 36 and 37. To boot, in one game against Colgate, the quarterback picked up 136 yards returning punts. After his playing days, Honeyboy operated the Duke stadium scoreboard for more than 50 years. Final note: he's in our Duke Athletics Hall of Fame.
✔ What happened in evolution? Duke assistant professor Brian Hare has spent several months a year in the Congo studying bonobos -- chimps to you. Though humans share 98.7 percent of our DNA with chimps, we've managed to become far more violent. Hare: "There has never been a recorded case in captivity or in the wold of a bonobo killing another bonobo."
Thank you for reading -- and tipping -- FC.
Search terms: Duke University, Anil Potti
✔ Duke University has silenced one of the reporters who dug the deepest into university affairs.
Fact Checker learned very early Wednesday morning from a concerned Loyal Reader that Sarah Avery has left the Raleigh News and Observer and has been hired at Duke. We confirmed the move with the city desk, but Avery does not yet have a listing at Duke (we checked with the overnight phone operator and on-line directory), and we did not want to wake PR VP Michael Schoenfeld at 2 AM to ask him if she's joining his department or what.
One of Avery's most recent stories was a poignant portrayal of 63 year old Joyce Shoffner, breast cancer patient (or victim if you prefer) of the quack Dr Anil Potti. FC broke the news about her ordeal in December with exclusive posting of a letter that her brother sent to President Brodhead. At that time, Shoffner declined to speak -- but Avery elicited moving testimony from her that newspapers around the nation picked up because at last we saw a suffering face attached to the story.
Sample quote from the Shoffner article:
"She feels betrayed by Duke, an institution she trusted, and by science, an endeavor she has long championed. 'I'm devastated by this whole thing,' she said. "If you have a very serious cancer and two-and-a-half years later you think you are involved in a study that is cutting edge and [it's discredited], it is devastating."
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/09/908283/flawed-research-appalls-cancer.html#ixzz1G55Ptg4S
We got tipped to Avery's move by a Loyal Reader whose daughter had surgery in 2004 at one of the two Duke operated hospitals (but not the main one on West Campus), and went from "a beautiful healthy single mother to someone that lives in pain and the unknown each and every day."
Duke operated on several thousand patients even though surgeons observed their instruments felt "slippery" and "greasy." Yes several thousand. The surgical instruments had been mistakenly washed in used hydraulic fluid from elevators, not sterilizing detergent. The results were devastating in some cases.
Avery's work exposed the malpractice. But Duke kept the lid on the story by settling with many patients; it wore others out by immorally using its firepower to procrastinate lawsuits. One of the worst legal moves in FC's opinion involves a man who was not hurt: for five years Duke wouldn't tell him if he was exposed to the filthy hydraulic fluid, so he sued. It turned out he was not affected, and now Duke is suing the man to recover its defense lawyer costs. Some days I just seethe at Duke's general counsel Pam Bernard for such tactics.
Deputy Fact Checkers assigned; we'll know more.
✔ Belatedly, the Law School has informed alumni that that John Adams Law '62 has received the nation's highest civilian honor -- the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Obama honored him at the White House in mid-February,
Adams founded the National Resource Defense Council in 1970 after his son woke up next to an open window, soot on his forehead. (We believe this was in New York City.) Adams is senior statesman of the environmental community.
✔ Headline in Forbes: "The Best Law Schools for Getting Rich." With little explanation of methodology, the magazine looked at the earnings of mid-career graduates working in the private sector. (So that excludes lower paying government and charitable organizations) Stanford #1 at $236,000, Duke #2 at $221,000. Yale a surprising #33 at $159,000.
The magazine notes that only a sliver of graduates nation-wide get the $160,000 a year starting salaries touted by major firms. Disclosure: those salaries climb very slowly and people are dropped like flies. FC friend at one major NYC firm says only 3 percent of the incoming associates will make partner.
✔ US News and World Report: Duke in the top five for undergraduates doing internships, presumably a step toward a better job. #1 Colorado School of Mines.
✔ “More people are being killed in Libya than in all of the other Arab countries combined, far more,” said Bruce Jentleson, professor of public policy and political science.
✔ New fund-raising gimmick. An anon alum has challenged the alumni office to round up 1,000 people who did not contribute to the Annual Fund last year, but are willing to write checks this year. The prize: $100,000.
✔ Basketball news. FC does not cover team competition for Duke sports, yet, but we do encounter interesting tidbits which we will pass along.
✔✔ Nolan Smith '11 was named ACC player of the year. 73 out of 75 votes. Kyle Singler '11 got one, some kid at UNC another. Coach K: "From his freshman year to now, Nolan has probably progressed more than any player we've had here. It's not like he was this instant star. He's done it because he continually looks for ways to improve."
✔ Duke men's basketball brought in $26,667,056 in 2009, according to Forbes Magazine. That makes us #1, with Louisville second and UNC third at $20,551,168.
✔ While you began spring break, our joint (men, women) indoor track and field team excelled with seven members going to the NCAA's. Tanner Anderson '14 qualified for the high jump with a season best 7' 2 1/2". He's now 14th in the national rankings. Curtis Beach '13, currently tied for 2nd in the nation in the heptathlon, gets an automatic bid, as does Kate Van Buskirk '11, women's mile and mile medley relay. Joining her on the MDR will be Devotia Moore '11, Cydney Ross '12 and Rebecca Craigie '14. And lastly Amy Fryt '11 holder of Duke's pole vault record.
✔ The university announced the death of one of the greats from the heyday of Duke football. Elmore Hackney '38 passed away Saturday in California at age 95. Known as "Honeyboy," he ran for 1,359 yards and 20 touchdowns in three seasons, leading the team to 24 victories in 1935, 36 and 37. To boot, in one game against Colgate, the quarterback picked up 136 yards returning punts. After his playing days, Honeyboy operated the Duke stadium scoreboard for more than 50 years. Final note: he's in our Duke Athletics Hall of Fame.
✔ What happened in evolution? Duke assistant professor Brian Hare has spent several months a year in the Congo studying bonobos -- chimps to you. Though humans share 98.7 percent of our DNA with chimps, we've managed to become far more violent. Hare: "There has never been a recorded case in captivity or in the wold of a bonobo killing another bonobo."
Thank you for reading -- and tipping -- FC.
3/07/2011
OH MY. Brodhead captures largest gift in University history: $80 million for West Union, Page and Baldwin
e. On duty. No spring break.
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✔✔✔✔✔
Well make no mistake about it. This is a spectacular gift that will enable the university to re-activate plans to gut renovate the West Union, Page and Baldwin -- plans that had to be postponed because of the financial meltdown that cost fully 30 percent of all the wealth that Trinity College and Duke University ever accumulated.
But the announcement has more holes than good imported Swiss cheese, and aside from letting out a cheer at this moment, we do not have information needed to properly assess the gift.
✔Question one: Unlike the announcement of $75 million from The Duke Endowment (henceforth, we shall use the insider’s term TDE) for the Financial Aid Initiative in 2005, Monday’s press release did not say if the $80 million is above and beyond what TDE would normally be giving the university. The issue is whether this is just a public relations gimmick, packaging money that James B. Duke directed be paid to the University, or if we have a genuine addition from funds Mr. Duke left for use at the discretion of TDE trustees.
(TDE is a separate charity based in Charlotte with many beneficiaries, Duke University getting the lions share. It is frequently confused with the university because both had the same founder. To make matters worse, the university has its own endowment. And TDE invests its money right along side Duke University’s in one pool. Got it?)
✔ Question two: While Mr. Brodhead walked off with a $10 million check, unlike the Financial Aid Initiative where the announcement said the total would be paid over three years, there is no schedule for the installment payments that TDE will be making. Thus it is hard to ascertain if this is a break in the freeze on major capital gifts that TDE imposed on itself after it too lost a third of its money, or merely a commitment to be dribbled at the University in the future.
✔ Question three: It is also very curious that when the $75 million for the Financial Aid Initiative was announced, Mr. Brodhead also had $25 million in pledges from other donors. FC has this interpretation: it is still proving very hard for Duke University to raise capital funds, even for such high profile facilities as the Union, Page and Baldwin which present numerous naming opportunities. If we cannot sell these, what happens when we need money for a power plant, a parking garage, a road or new pipes?
✔ Question four: You have to wonder who decided that the Union, Page and Baldwin would be the highest priority -- among all the construction projects the university has had to shelve. Unfortunate answer: this decision was made behind closed doors with no stakeholder input. FC does not oppose the choice of the Union, Page and Baldwin -- indeed they are reasonable and vital -- but wishes the voices of students, parents, faculty and alumni had been incorporated. And if a different set of projects emerged, surely Mr. Brodhead could have influenced the TDE trustees to support them.
✔ Question five: You have to wonder too why the announcement was made on Monday after Spring Break began, when students whose experience at Duke will be so profoundly impacted are absent. FC interpretation: this is just another example of the administration’s disconnect with stakeholders. (The PR people did not put the Chronicle atop the situation either; it was approximately 10 hours after the event that the newspaper caught up with the news that FC broke around noon.)
✔✔ And so in the summer of 2012 or soon thereafter, there will be major disruption on West Campus. With the Union out of commission, thousands of people will have to find other places to eat. One idea in the works: tents on the main quad. Ultimately, the new Union will emerge not as a feeding station, but as an integral part of the education experience, with meal-times contributing substantially to the culture.
For Page Auditorium, there are two issues: will the auditorium, which has a capacity of only 1200 as well as a stage inadequate to mount major productions, be expanded and thus become a competitor for the Durham Performing Arts Center which opened in November 2008 and has already stolen several events traditionally held at Duke?
And then there is the possible re-naming, as Duke is sure to seize the opportunity presented by such a high profile facility to grab additional gifts from donors who will want to be memorialized; Page carries the family name of the first Trinity College alumnus who gave his life for his country in World War I (as well as the name of his uncle who was an ambassador) and FC puts the administration on notice that any tampering with this honor will be dealt with severely.
✔✔ President Brodhead hinted at a ceremony in the deserted Great Hall that this gift will be one cornerstone of a new, very large capital campaign. Typically such campaigns have about 25 to 33 percent of the money in hand during the “quiet” phase before a public splash is made. And it is very rare indeed for a press release to be issued during the quiet phase without announcement of the larger goal.
36 other universities are raising $1 billion or more right now. Stanford is aiming for just over $4 billion, and Columbia, with awesome success in raising $4 billion, is about to jump over Stanford and claim bragging rights for the biggest jackpot in the history of higher education.
There are tricks to all this of course: one way to make a campaign seem larger is to drag it out over more years, and to include money that otherwise would flow to the University. Thus, Princeton’s rather modest fund drive at the moment is largely phantom -- bolstered by funds that alumni traditionally give to the Annual Fund in any event.
There was also a gimmick in Duke’s last two major fund-raising drives. Nan Keohane’s spectacularly successful Campaign for Duke raised $2.4 billion, the 6th biggest jackpot in the history of higher education, but it relied on TDE for fully 17 percent of the stash. Similarly Mr. Brodhead’s rather modest $300 million Financial Aid Initiative relied on TDE for 25 percent. (FC had a good laugh with today’s press release, since the PR people wove the word “success” into close proximity to mention of the Initiative twice more, a common practice)
The flow of TDE money is a two sided coin. On the one hand it is nice to have a rich uncle who brings big gifts. On the other TDE merely holds money that James B. Duke might have vested in the University to start with, which was the pattern of all other college founders. Thus, the $80 million we got today would merely be listed as earnings on Mr. Duke’s 1924 gift via Indenture and his 1925 bequest, and not the subject of a big splash.
FC believes that TDE’s contributions are a crutch for the administration, disguising how much new money and new strength is flowing in, and we’d be better off not counting this as part of our fund-raising prowess.
Translated into today’s dollars, Mr. Duke’s original gift and bequest is bigger than the $80 million. But who cares if they claim this is the biggest gift in University history. In fact it does not even eclipse the $75 million for the Financial Aid Endowment if you do another translation. And it hardly beats the $72 million that Peter ‘64 and Ginny Lilly Nicholas ’64 pledged -- pledged -- to round out the Campaign for Duke in 2003. One big difference is that while the Nicholas family stiffed the university, we’re sure to collect from TDE.
Thanks for reading FC.
✔✔✔✔✔
✔✔✔✔✔
Well make no mistake about it. This is a spectacular gift that will enable the university to re-activate plans to gut renovate the West Union, Page and Baldwin -- plans that had to be postponed because of the financial meltdown that cost fully 30 percent of all the wealth that Trinity College and Duke University ever accumulated.
But the announcement has more holes than good imported Swiss cheese, and aside from letting out a cheer at this moment, we do not have information needed to properly assess the gift.
✔Question one: Unlike the announcement of $75 million from The Duke Endowment (henceforth, we shall use the insider’s term TDE) for the Financial Aid Initiative in 2005, Monday’s press release did not say if the $80 million is above and beyond what TDE would normally be giving the university. The issue is whether this is just a public relations gimmick, packaging money that James B. Duke directed be paid to the University, or if we have a genuine addition from funds Mr. Duke left for use at the discretion of TDE trustees.
(TDE is a separate charity based in Charlotte with many beneficiaries, Duke University getting the lions share. It is frequently confused with the university because both had the same founder. To make matters worse, the university has its own endowment. And TDE invests its money right along side Duke University’s in one pool. Got it?)
✔ Question two: While Mr. Brodhead walked off with a $10 million check, unlike the Financial Aid Initiative where the announcement said the total would be paid over three years, there is no schedule for the installment payments that TDE will be making. Thus it is hard to ascertain if this is a break in the freeze on major capital gifts that TDE imposed on itself after it too lost a third of its money, or merely a commitment to be dribbled at the University in the future.
✔ Question three: It is also very curious that when the $75 million for the Financial Aid Initiative was announced, Mr. Brodhead also had $25 million in pledges from other donors. FC has this interpretation: it is still proving very hard for Duke University to raise capital funds, even for such high profile facilities as the Union, Page and Baldwin which present numerous naming opportunities. If we cannot sell these, what happens when we need money for a power plant, a parking garage, a road or new pipes?
✔ Question four: You have to wonder who decided that the Union, Page and Baldwin would be the highest priority -- among all the construction projects the university has had to shelve. Unfortunate answer: this decision was made behind closed doors with no stakeholder input. FC does not oppose the choice of the Union, Page and Baldwin -- indeed they are reasonable and vital -- but wishes the voices of students, parents, faculty and alumni had been incorporated. And if a different set of projects emerged, surely Mr. Brodhead could have influenced the TDE trustees to support them.
✔ Question five: You have to wonder too why the announcement was made on Monday after Spring Break began, when students whose experience at Duke will be so profoundly impacted are absent. FC interpretation: this is just another example of the administration’s disconnect with stakeholders. (The PR people did not put the Chronicle atop the situation either; it was approximately 10 hours after the event that the newspaper caught up with the news that FC broke around noon.)
✔✔ And so in the summer of 2012 or soon thereafter, there will be major disruption on West Campus. With the Union out of commission, thousands of people will have to find other places to eat. One idea in the works: tents on the main quad. Ultimately, the new Union will emerge not as a feeding station, but as an integral part of the education experience, with meal-times contributing substantially to the culture.
For Page Auditorium, there are two issues: will the auditorium, which has a capacity of only 1200 as well as a stage inadequate to mount major productions, be expanded and thus become a competitor for the Durham Performing Arts Center which opened in November 2008 and has already stolen several events traditionally held at Duke?
And then there is the possible re-naming, as Duke is sure to seize the opportunity presented by such a high profile facility to grab additional gifts from donors who will want to be memorialized; Page carries the family name of the first Trinity College alumnus who gave his life for his country in World War I (as well as the name of his uncle who was an ambassador) and FC puts the administration on notice that any tampering with this honor will be dealt with severely.
✔✔ President Brodhead hinted at a ceremony in the deserted Great Hall that this gift will be one cornerstone of a new, very large capital campaign. Typically such campaigns have about 25 to 33 percent of the money in hand during the “quiet” phase before a public splash is made. And it is very rare indeed for a press release to be issued during the quiet phase without announcement of the larger goal.
36 other universities are raising $1 billion or more right now. Stanford is aiming for just over $4 billion, and Columbia, with awesome success in raising $4 billion, is about to jump over Stanford and claim bragging rights for the biggest jackpot in the history of higher education.
There are tricks to all this of course: one way to make a campaign seem larger is to drag it out over more years, and to include money that otherwise would flow to the University. Thus, Princeton’s rather modest fund drive at the moment is largely phantom -- bolstered by funds that alumni traditionally give to the Annual Fund in any event.
There was also a gimmick in Duke’s last two major fund-raising drives. Nan Keohane’s spectacularly successful Campaign for Duke raised $2.4 billion, the 6th biggest jackpot in the history of higher education, but it relied on TDE for fully 17 percent of the stash. Similarly Mr. Brodhead’s rather modest $300 million Financial Aid Initiative relied on TDE for 25 percent. (FC had a good laugh with today’s press release, since the PR people wove the word “success” into close proximity to mention of the Initiative twice more, a common practice)
The flow of TDE money is a two sided coin. On the one hand it is nice to have a rich uncle who brings big gifts. On the other TDE merely holds money that James B. Duke might have vested in the University to start with, which was the pattern of all other college founders. Thus, the $80 million we got today would merely be listed as earnings on Mr. Duke’s 1924 gift via Indenture and his 1925 bequest, and not the subject of a big splash.
FC believes that TDE’s contributions are a crutch for the administration, disguising how much new money and new strength is flowing in, and we’d be better off not counting this as part of our fund-raising prowess.
Translated into today’s dollars, Mr. Duke’s original gift and bequest is bigger than the $80 million. But who cares if they claim this is the biggest gift in University history. In fact it does not even eclipse the $75 million for the Financial Aid Endowment if you do another translation. And it hardly beats the $72 million that Peter ‘64 and Ginny Lilly Nicholas ’64 pledged -- pledged -- to round out the Campaign for Duke in 2003. One big difference is that while the Nicholas family stiffed the university, we’re sure to collect from TDE.
Thanks for reading FC.
3/06/2011
Fact Checker Too. Economics Dept swamped with PhD, masters applications. Austin Rivers wraps up his high school career. Potti Mess now in 5 states
Fact Checker is expanding. Fact Checker Too is an experimental compilation of smaller items that we encounter. We hope you will find this one more compelling reason to read FC. Tell us what you think. Duke.Fact.Checker@gmail.com
Monday, March 7, 2011
✔Scramble to study economics at Duke. The Department of Economics says it has 685 applications (up 32 pct over last year) for the Ph.D. degree, but can only accomodate 18 or 20 next year. On the masters level, 580 applicants (up more than 20 percent over last year) for 40 to 45 slots.
✔AUSTIN RIVERS --- Maybe it's contageous, this business of missing three point shots that plagued Duke so much on Saturday night in Chapel Hill.
Down in Florida, Austin Rivers, future Blue Devil of course, led his team to a 2nd consecutive state championship. He scored 25 points but missed 7 of his first 9 attempts beyond the arc. Rivers had 11 rebounds and four steals. (No word on assists).
✔KYRIE IRVING In an on-line Duke video showing his rehab, Irving talks of playing with the team this summer. Nothing beyond that.
http://dimemag.com/2011/02/the-kyrie-irving-duke-rehab-video/
Austin quoted in Sporting News three days ago: "(Kyrie) has a lot on his mind. I think he’s probably 50/50 right now about leaving (Duke), but if he does go, he’ll go high (in the draft). I sure would love to play with him. If Kyrie does leave, I’ll probably play a little bit at both (guard positions) when I get there. Quinn (Cook) will mostly play the point, and sometimes I might be kind of an aggressive point (guard)."
✔Potti Mess spreads to more states and more hospitals. --- HensonFuerst, the Raleigh law firm that is expected to represent a large number of patients enrolled in clinical trials by Duke's fraudulent cancer doctor Anil Potti, says the human experiments were not only held at Duke, but in other North Carolina hospitals, plus more in Florida, Illinois, South Carolina and Virginia. In a video, David Henson says large medical centers duck, dodge and deny they are responsible for hurting patients, when the facts suggest otherwise. Watch his discussion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxmSFFygNGQ
✔Freshman Film Competition winner --- Good acting, good direction, good creativity, good shooting, good editing, and good heavens, Wilson Hall takes honors in the annual competition among fresman dorms to produce a film based on their new Duke experiences. But oh the color of those sneakers! You can watch it by clicking http://news.duke.edu/2011/03/froshlife.html
✔Is that Hitler in the background of DUKE Magazine's cover? -- The latest issue (for alumni) features the newly available personal papers of Doris Duke with a tantilizing cover picture, Doris in the foreground, maybe the Fuhrer in the background.
Doris was no stranger to the Nazis, even dining at the Ritz Hotel in Paris during the occupation with Nazi Reichsmarschall and Hitler heir desigate Hermann Goering. He gave her two cookie jars with big swasticas, kept prominently in the kitchen of Doris's New Jersey estate. Inquiries to DUKE magazine -- both the writer of the feature and the editor -- were not answered.
Take a look, on the left.
http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/
Monday, March 7, 2011
✔Scramble to study economics at Duke. The Department of Economics says it has 685 applications (up 32 pct over last year) for the Ph.D. degree, but can only accomodate 18 or 20 next year. On the masters level, 580 applicants (up more than 20 percent over last year) for 40 to 45 slots.
✔AUSTIN RIVERS --- Maybe it's contageous, this business of missing three point shots that plagued Duke so much on Saturday night in Chapel Hill.
Down in Florida, Austin Rivers, future Blue Devil of course, led his team to a 2nd consecutive state championship. He scored 25 points but missed 7 of his first 9 attempts beyond the arc. Rivers had 11 rebounds and four steals. (No word on assists).
✔KYRIE IRVING In an on-line Duke video showing his rehab, Irving talks of playing with the team this summer. Nothing beyond that.
http://dimemag.com/2011/02/the-kyrie-irving-duke-rehab-video/
Austin quoted in Sporting News three days ago: "(Kyrie) has a lot on his mind. I think he’s probably 50/50 right now about leaving (Duke), but if he does go, he’ll go high (in the draft). I sure would love to play with him. If Kyrie does leave, I’ll probably play a little bit at both (guard positions) when I get there. Quinn (Cook) will mostly play the point, and sometimes I might be kind of an aggressive point (guard)."
✔Potti Mess spreads to more states and more hospitals. --- HensonFuerst, the Raleigh law firm that is expected to represent a large number of patients enrolled in clinical trials by Duke's fraudulent cancer doctor Anil Potti, says the human experiments were not only held at Duke, but in other North Carolina hospitals, plus more in Florida, Illinois, South Carolina and Virginia. In a video, David Henson says large medical centers duck, dodge and deny they are responsible for hurting patients, when the facts suggest otherwise. Watch his discussion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxmSFFygNGQ
✔Freshman Film Competition winner --- Good acting, good direction, good creativity, good shooting, good editing, and good heavens, Wilson Hall takes honors in the annual competition among fresman dorms to produce a film based on their new Duke experiences. But oh the color of those sneakers! You can watch it by clicking http://news.duke.edu/2011/03/froshlife.html
✔Is that Hitler in the background of DUKE Magazine's cover? -- The latest issue (for alumni) features the newly available personal papers of Doris Duke with a tantilizing cover picture, Doris in the foreground, maybe the Fuhrer in the background.
Doris was no stranger to the Nazis, even dining at the Ritz Hotel in Paris during the occupation with Nazi Reichsmarschall and Hitler heir desigate Hermann Goering. He gave her two cookie jars with big swasticas, kept prominently in the kitchen of Doris's New Jersey estate. Inquiries to DUKE magazine -- both the writer of the feature and the editor -- were not answered.
Take a look, on the left.
http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/
3/04/2011
Fact Checker Too. Additional items of interest. Nick Altermose wins huge award. Kyrie's boot gone!! Yale rocked by sex party
FC and the Deputies are considering several expansion formats. We are testing posts of shorter items of interest and importance to Duke's stakeholders. Let us know what you think!!
Headlines for Friday, March 4 and Saturday, March 5:
✔✔ Nick Altermose '11 has won a huge Howard Hughes Medical Institute Award. Already the recipient of a Marshall scholarship for two years at Oxford, he's now been selected by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to receive almost $250,000 for five more years of graduate study. How many check marks is that!!!!!!!!
✔✔ Duke security officer saves a life. Although not reported at the time in any PR release nor media, Security Officer Charles Norris encountered a man choking and tugging at his mouth and throat in a Duke clinic waiting area on February 8. Norris got behind the seated man, eased him forward and struck his back once, dislodging a portion of a sandwich.
✔✔ Kyrie loses boot, begins basketball activities. Just in time for spring break, Kyrie Irving '14 no longer has a protective boot over his foot. And it's likely he will begin some light basketball activity. Coach K: "We're not expecting him to play" this season.
✔✔ Sex party rocks Yale. YALE is being rocked by allegations growing out of a private party (apparently an initiation) for Pundits, the university's prank group. People were instructed to disrobe and engage in various sexual activities -- with Yale Police thinking some of this amounted to illegal hazing. Come on FC, tell us about the sex. Well several people were selected for same sex kissing, and one Yale gentleman had a penis pressed to his face. Several people sought hospital treatment, apparently from alcohol abuse.
Yale has a house system that is supposed to solve culture problems like this. When last seen, Dick Brodhead was heading to New Haven for the spring break to instruct them on the quad and dorm model.
✔✔ Harvard is putting out the welcome mat for Navy ROTC. Harvard's president and the Secretary of the Navy have signed a contract for ROTC to return to campus. Over the generations, Harvard has given the nation 17 recipients of the Medal of Honor (often called the Congressional Medal of Honor) behind West Point with 82 and Annapolis with 74. ROTC was driven off Harvard's campus as a protest against the Vietnam War, and stayed off because of Don't Ask, Don't Tell discrimination against gays. With that absurd law dying, Columbia, Yale and Brown are also weighing ROTC programs.
✔✔ Potti Mess. Additional identification of co-authors. In our last post, we noted that 8 Duke scientists had joined Dr Anil Potti in withdrawing an article on lung cancer from the New England Journal of Medicine. We now have just gotten biographical information on some:
Susan Mukherjee. Statistic science professor pursuing research in complex diseases.
Michael Kelley MD, lung cancer specialist. Co-chair of the "Protocol Review and Monitoring System" for Duke's Cancer Institute.
Jason Koontz MD. We have traced only one Jason Koontz and he's a cardiologist. Deputy FC's continue to investigate.
✔✔ THANK YOU FOR READING FACT CHECKER!!!
Headlines for Friday, March 4 and Saturday, March 5:
✔✔ Nick Altermose '11 has won a huge Howard Hughes Medical Institute Award. Already the recipient of a Marshall scholarship for two years at Oxford, he's now been selected by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to receive almost $250,000 for five more years of graduate study. How many check marks is that!!!!!!!!
✔✔ Duke security officer saves a life. Although not reported at the time in any PR release nor media, Security Officer Charles Norris encountered a man choking and tugging at his mouth and throat in a Duke clinic waiting area on February 8. Norris got behind the seated man, eased him forward and struck his back once, dislodging a portion of a sandwich.
✔✔ Kyrie loses boot, begins basketball activities. Just in time for spring break, Kyrie Irving '14 no longer has a protective boot over his foot. And it's likely he will begin some light basketball activity. Coach K: "We're not expecting him to play" this season.
✔✔ Sex party rocks Yale. YALE is being rocked by allegations growing out of a private party (apparently an initiation) for Pundits, the university's prank group. People were instructed to disrobe and engage in various sexual activities -- with Yale Police thinking some of this amounted to illegal hazing. Come on FC, tell us about the sex. Well several people were selected for same sex kissing, and one Yale gentleman had a penis pressed to his face. Several people sought hospital treatment, apparently from alcohol abuse.
Yale has a house system that is supposed to solve culture problems like this. When last seen, Dick Brodhead was heading to New Haven for the spring break to instruct them on the quad and dorm model.
✔✔ Harvard is putting out the welcome mat for Navy ROTC. Harvard's president and the Secretary of the Navy have signed a contract for ROTC to return to campus. Over the generations, Harvard has given the nation 17 recipients of the Medal of Honor (often called the Congressional Medal of Honor) behind West Point with 82 and Annapolis with 74. ROTC was driven off Harvard's campus as a protest against the Vietnam War, and stayed off because of Don't Ask, Don't Tell discrimination against gays. With that absurd law dying, Columbia, Yale and Brown are also weighing ROTC programs.
✔✔ Potti Mess. Additional identification of co-authors. In our last post, we noted that 8 Duke scientists had joined Dr Anil Potti in withdrawing an article on lung cancer from the New England Journal of Medicine. We now have just gotten biographical information on some:
Susan Mukherjee. Statistic science professor pursuing research in complex diseases.
Michael Kelley MD, lung cancer specialist. Co-chair of the "Protocol Review and Monitoring System" for Duke's Cancer Institute.
Jason Koontz MD. We have traced only one Jason Koontz and he's a cardiologist. Deputy FC's continue to investigate.
✔✔ THANK YOU FOR READING FACT CHECKER!!!
3/02/2011
Potti apologizes. Withdraws article from the highest prestige New England Journal of Medicine. 8 other Duke scientists involved
Search words: Anil Potti Duke University
Fact Checker here.
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For the first time, Dr Anil Potti has apologized.
In a retraction letter co-signed with other authors of an article on lung cancer in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, Potti and the others say they "deeply regret" the effect their mess has had on other scientists.
FC notes that there was no mention of patients whom Potti enrolled in clinical trials -- that is, experiments on human beings.
Three other Potti papers in other journals have been retracted, but only with the signature of his mentor Dr Joseph Nevins, a heavyweight in Duke's genome research. Since many journals require all authors to join a retraction request, it has been a subject of much speculation whether Potti had gone along.
In the initial hours after the Journal printed the retraction, the University has made no comment.
Potti, the Duke cancer doctor who faked a Rhodes Scholarship and other credentials, who claimed discoveries that would have revolutionized genome science that turned out to be wrong or fraudulent, and who conducted experiments on human beings that Duke itself says should not have been allowed, resigned from Duke in November. He has been in seclusion at his home in Chapel Hill.
The journal published the retraction rather inconspicuously under its "Correspondence" section. It was signed by Potti and eight other Duke researchers as well as others.
Text:
To the Editor:
We would like to retract our article, “A Genomic Strategy to Refine Prognosis in Early-Stage Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer,” which was published in the Journal on August 10, 2006.1 Using a sample set from a study by the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) and a collection of samples from a study by the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB), we have tried and failed to reproduce results supporting the validation of the lung metagene model described in the article. We deeply regret the effect of this action on the work of other investigators.
Anil Potti, M.D.
Chapel Hill, NC
Sayan Mukherjee, Ph.D.
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
Rebecca Petersen, M.D.
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Holly K. Dressman, Ph.D.
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
Andrea Bild, Ph.D.
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Jason Koontz, M.D.
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
Robert Kratzke, M.D.
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Mark A. Watson, M.D., Ph.D.
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
Michael Kelley, M.D.
Geoffrey S. Ginsburg, M.D., Ph.D.
Mike West, Ph.D.
David H. Harpole, Jr., M.D.
Joseph R. Nevins, Ph.D.
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
As noted above, the last signatory -- Nevins -- is Potti's mentor and a Medical Center heavyweight. Ginsburg is another star, founding director of the Center for Genomic Medicine. Harpole is a noted Duke surgeon. Dressman is director of the Duke Microarray Facility. West has flown under the radar, but was the bio-statistician in most of Potti's research. FC has been unable to trace the others identified as Duke scientists.
We know that Potti is facing formal faculty misconduct charges -- but have no information on the others. At one point, Chancellor Dzau stated the science of Nevins was also under investigation, but later e-mail to the medical community omitted his name.
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For the first time, Dr Anil Potti has apologized.
In a retraction letter co-signed with other authors of an article on lung cancer in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, Potti and the others say they "deeply regret" the effect their mess has had on other scientists.
FC notes that there was no mention of patients whom Potti enrolled in clinical trials -- that is, experiments on human beings.
Three other Potti papers in other journals have been retracted, but only with the signature of his mentor Dr Joseph Nevins, a heavyweight in Duke's genome research. Since many journals require all authors to join a retraction request, it has been a subject of much speculation whether Potti had gone along.
In the initial hours after the Journal printed the retraction, the University has made no comment.
Potti, the Duke cancer doctor who faked a Rhodes Scholarship and other credentials, who claimed discoveries that would have revolutionized genome science that turned out to be wrong or fraudulent, and who conducted experiments on human beings that Duke itself says should not have been allowed, resigned from Duke in November. He has been in seclusion at his home in Chapel Hill.
The journal published the retraction rather inconspicuously under its "Correspondence" section. It was signed by Potti and eight other Duke researchers as well as others.
Text:
To the Editor:
We would like to retract our article, “A Genomic Strategy to Refine Prognosis in Early-Stage Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer,” which was published in the Journal on August 10, 2006.1 Using a sample set from a study by the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) and a collection of samples from a study by the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB), we have tried and failed to reproduce results supporting the validation of the lung metagene model described in the article. We deeply regret the effect of this action on the work of other investigators.
Anil Potti, M.D.
Chapel Hill, NC
Sayan Mukherjee, Ph.D.
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
Rebecca Petersen, M.D.
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Holly K. Dressman, Ph.D.
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
Andrea Bild, Ph.D.
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Jason Koontz, M.D.
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
Robert Kratzke, M.D.
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Mark A. Watson, M.D., Ph.D.
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
Michael Kelley, M.D.
Geoffrey S. Ginsburg, M.D., Ph.D.
Mike West, Ph.D.
David H. Harpole, Jr., M.D.
Joseph R. Nevins, Ph.D.
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
As noted above, the last signatory -- Nevins -- is Potti's mentor and a Medical Center heavyweight. Ginsburg is another star, founding director of the Center for Genomic Medicine. Harpole is a noted Duke surgeon. Dressman is director of the Duke Microarray Facility. West has flown under the radar, but was the bio-statistician in most of Potti's research. FC has been unable to trace the others identified as Duke scientists.
We know that Potti is facing formal faculty misconduct charges -- but have no information on the others. At one point, Chancellor Dzau stated the science of Nevins was also under investigation, but later e-mail to the medical community omitted his name.
Deputy Fact Checkers are at work.
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