Duke University Alumni Magazine

"Unlike Princeton, Harvard, or the other schools with endowments dramatically higher than ours--Princeton's endowment, for example, is approximately $25,000 per student in spend-able income, while ours is $3,000 per student--we must pay the vast majority of financial-aid costs out of our operating budget. Approximately 10 percent of the Arts and Sciences budget, for example, goes to financial aid." -- William Chafe, dean of Arts & Sciences, addressing the Arts & Sciences Council in September on budgetary problems "The faculty was really a catalyst for change in the Perk. They were major, major supporters of Cup of Joe." -- Rick Owen, general manager of dining and special events at Duke, on replacing the Starbucks brand with a local brand, based on complaints from faculty and some students at the coffee shop in Perkins Library "A demand that The Chronicle print their advertisement with-out question was, essentially, a request that the newspaper forfeit its First Amendment freedoms. And the charges of censorship, levied by Students for Choice and the National Abortion Rights Action League of North Carolina, are unfounded." -- Chronicle editor Brian Harris, a Trinity senior, responding in an editor's column to criticism for refusing to accept a pro-choice ad; a pro-life group's ad submitted last year was also rejected, based on the paper's printed advertising policy "It's the only place where students have the best seats--but never sit down." -- Men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski on Cameron Indoor Stadium and the Cameron Crazies, in a talk to 300 students--mostly freshmen--gathered in the Marketplace on East Campus "This is not some aberrant individual doing an isolated act. I think it's part and parcel of the way the military has structured its views on...what it means to be a man." -- Duke law professor Madeline Morris, who has researched military sex crimes dating back to World War II, on the military's recent sex scandal involving rape and harassment by training instructors, quoted in Durham's Herald-Sun

What do you think was the biggest surprise from the November elections?

     Clinton was able to pull off a victory of this magnitude, ironically, by acting like a lame-duck president--moving toward the Congress on many issues, thereby inoculating himself against the standard Republican charges of "tax and spend." Bob Dole really didn't have anywhere to go. In the postwar era, Democratic presidents have been elected to defend the poor and working classes, reduce unemployment, and protect entitlements; Republicans have been elected to rein in inflation and keep the country at peace. In 1996, we had low inflation, declining unemployment, and few international threats. What more could the voters ask for?

     The Republican Congress behaved the same way. No more storming the ramparts of Washington in 1996. No more shutting down the government and staring down the barrel of fiscal meltdown. Instead, Republicans trumpeted their "can do" philosophy, somewhat smaller government, and incumbency service.

     Clinton hasn't put forward any major policy issues since the 1992 election, and I don't expect much more. The Republicans are mad that Clinton hasn't suffered for what they perceive are his moral and ethical lapses. Also, they have the deepest respect for Dole, who got hammered in the campaign, and it's payback time. We have to hope that it won't get too nasty as the investigations heat up and the economy slows down, just in time for Republican gains in the midterm elections.

-- Paul Gronke, assistant professor in Duke's political science department

What two books would you put at the top of your holiday gift- shopping list?

     Jerry Eidenier, director of Duke's Gothic Bookshop, chooses Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres. "It's a wonderful book that romps through the Second World War by way of an Italian soldier who finds himself and his regiment occupying a Greek island in a tenuous relationship with the Germans," he says. "Corelli's a mandolin player, and the story weaves his relationship with the Greek villagers, his sensitivity to music, and the human condition against a background of the war." He also recommends E.P. Sanders' The Historical Figure of Jesus, "a very good treatment of the social context from which the New Testament and the figure of Jesus arose. It's written well--with no unnecessary commentary--concerning the complexity of the movement around Jesus." (Sanders is a Duke religion professor.) Takcus Nesbit, a Trinity senior and president of Duke Student Government, picks The Winner-Take-All Society by public policy professor Philip Cook. "It's a thought-provoking look at the growing class differences in America: how the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer," he says. Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, "which most people have probably already read," is his other choice. "I like the way the two characters are pitted against each other, the clash between the idealistic Howard Roark and the ever-so-opportunistic Peter Keating."

     David Ferriero, Duke's new university librarian, chooses Three Gospels by Reynolds Price '55 for its "contribution both to biblical scholarship and the Bible as literature category." In his translations of the Gospels of Mark and John, says Ferriero, Price has gotten closer to the original Greek than other translators. "His informative introductory essay elaborates on both the translation and creative processes."

     Shifting from the divine to the macabre, Ferriero recommends The World of Edward Gorey by Clifford Ross and Karen Wilkin. This "coffee table" book, in addition to samples of his artwork and writings, "contains an excellent essay on his work by Wilkin, visiting professor at the University of Toronto," he says, "and a delightful interview with Gorey covering such topics as the inspiration for his work, a typical day, and reflections on his collections of finials, driftwood, iron utensils, and stuffed animals."

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