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Duke’s global reputation weakens

18 Oct 2011, Posted by Melissa Dalis in News, 1 Comments


Sophia Palenberg/The Chronicle

Despite Duke’s recent obsession with global expansion, its global reputation may not be as strong as its national reputation, according to U.S. News and World Report’s World’s Best University rankings published Tuesday.

Duke was ranked 19 on the list with an overall score of 89.2, which accounted for factors such as academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, international faculty, international students and citations per faculty scores.

Duke had the 13th highest ranking of any U.S. university, which is lower than Duke has ever scored on USNWR’s national university rankings.

University of Cambridge topped the list, and each of the following national universities surpassed Duke in the rankings: Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Stanford University, California Institute of Technology, Princeton University, University of Michigan, Cornell University and Johns Hopkins University.

In the faculty-student ratio category, Duke was 4th of the top 20 universities scoring 99.8 out of 100 and following only Yale, University of Oxford and MIT.

Out of the top 20, Duke had the 10th highest citations per faculty score.

Duke’s worst performance was in the international students and employer reputation scores, and the international faculty score was listed as “N/A.”

Although Duke did manage to remain ahead of some of its peers, such as University of California at Berkeley (21), Northwestern University (24), Brown University (39) and Dartmouth College (99), it did not manage to retain its spot as 14th on the list from 2010.

DevilWatch: “It was for medical purposes”

17 Oct 2011, Posted by Melissa Dalis in DevilWatch, News, 0 Comments


A report of possession of marijuana and and drug paraphernalia in Duke Hospital North was “exceptionally cleared” by the Duke University Police Department last Wednesday afternoon—maybe it was for medical purposes?

Although DUPD seems to have forgotten to report the crimes from the week of Oct. 3 to Oct. 9, they have just reported 24 crimes during the week of Oct. 10 to Oct. 16.

Bicycles were a hot commodity last week with four stolen bicycles from Lilly Library, the Social Sciences building, Southgate and Gilbert Addoms.

Other thefts this week included a Blackberry phone, two cell phones, game console, license plate, mints, stamps, TV, video console and volt meter.

Friday and Saturday night were apparently big party nights, with underage consumption reported from Shooter’s, East campus bus stop, West campus bus stop, Wannamaker fire lane and twice from Alexander St.

Other reported crimes include assault of a law enforcement officer in the Williams Ward, injury to personal property in Duke Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant and two counts of breaking and entering on Alexander St. and Swift Ave.

The only arrest this week was for one count of possession of Marijuana in “Parking Garage 2.”

BY THE NUMBERS

Total crimes: 24

Crimes after sun down: 14

Thefts: 13

Weekend crimes: 10

Underage consumption: 6

Stolen bicycles: 4

Sex, mumps, cavemen and Goldman Sachs

12 Oct 2011, Posted by Melissa Dalis in News, Welcome to Academia, 0 Comments


Sophia Palenberg/The Chronicle

This is the second post of our new series called Welcome to Academia, which will give a weekly update about the interesting, weird and newsworthy happenings at Duke’s peer institutions.

A naked masturbator nicknamed “jerking Tom” has been walking around Brown University‘s campus recently, according to the Brown Daily Herald. One female senior living off campus said that she saw the man standing outside her kitchen window at least five times last month. One Brown student described the man to the Daily Herald as “as having a mop of black hair and wearing gym shorts with a shirt on top of his head.” The Providence Police Department said they think they know who it is—the suspect has been arrested 22 times.

A recent mumps outbreak at the University of California at Berkeley has grown to 44 suspected and confirmed cases since a Berkeley student contracted the virus while in Great Britain, according to the Daily Cal. Berkeley’s Health Services believe that the outbreak began in high-population housing with shared dining and bathroom facilities. Medical Director Brad Buchman said that the reported cases have mostly been “mild”—parotid gland swelling and testicle inflammation.

Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer cancelled a speech he planned to give at Barnard College Oct. 12 because of travel issues, but missing the event also allows him to avoid protests that had been planned for during his speech, according to the Columbia Spectator. Columbia University students had organized “School of the Squid” week to honor the writer Matt Taibbi who called Goldman Sachs “a great vampire squid,” and thus the week would focus on the issues of corporate greed and abuse of power.

Sex columnist Dan Savage visited Cornell University last week as part of his college tour that will form the base of his MTV pilot show “Savage University” that will air in January, according to the Cornell Daily Sun. During a question-and-answer session, Savage said that most men lose their virginity at 17, and a few males in the audience reportedly raised their hands in agreement. “I think that must be a Cornell thing,” Save said to the Daily Sun. “We spoke at a more conservative university where [people remained virgins] on purpose, as compared to here where it’s more, ‘I wish I weren’t.’”

Anthropology chair of Northwestern University, William Leonard was featured on an Oct. 2 Discovery channel show called “I, Caveman,” which explores the idea of modern humans adapting to a Paleolithic diet and lifestyle, according to the Daily Northwestern. The show followed 10 people for 10 days as they lived as cavemen and cavewomen in the high-altitude environment of Colorado. Only eight of the 10 participants lasted on the show for the full 10 days, and many members of the group reportedly lacked the proper background of natural resources. Females on average lost 10.3 pounds and males 15.8. All the participants did, however, experience an improvement in blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose and hemoglobin, as well as enduring strength.

Welcome to Academia

07 Oct 2011, Posted by Melissa Dalis in News, Welcome to Academia, 0 Comments


Our new series called Welcome to Academia will give a weekly update about the interesting, weird and newsworthy happenings at Duke’s peer institutions.

Sophia Palenberg/The Chronicle

To celebrate the Harvard University‘s 375th birthday on Oct. 14, a nearby Boston bakery will bake a gigantic red velvet cake in the shape of an H, according to this YouTube video. Serving 4,000 students, this cake will consist of 278 pounds of butter, 1,000 eggs and 1,290 cups of sugar as just a few of its ingredients.

Con artist Eugene Tinsley pretended to be a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania last year and was arrested in June for theft, forgery and receiving stolen property as well as deceptively executing documents, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian. Tinsley even became pledgemaster of his pre-med fraternity, and would even “come home and write papers,” according to the Daily Pennsylvanian. Although Tinsley was banned from Penn, students and faculty have reportedly seen him around campus this year.

Emory University sophomore Sam Eshaghoff was arrested Tuesday for taking the SAT for six students from Great Neck North High School in New York for $1,500 to $2,500 per student, according to the Emory Wheel. Eshaghoff could face up to four years in prison if found guilty, and the six students who hired him were also arrested and now face misdemeanor charges.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University are building computer circuits made of diamonds rather than the typical silicon because diamond-based electronics are faster and more resistent to heat and radiation, according to InsideVandy.com. Because creating these diamond-based computers only requires methane and hydrogen, the researchers believe that the cost could compete with the silicon manufacturing.

Three recent assaults at Georgia Institute of Technology have prompted the university to increase its police presence on campus. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, all three attacks involved what could have either been one man or three different men coming behind three women on three different occasions, grabbing them and running away when the victim screamed.

DevilWatch: Drunk freshmen, stolen calculator in Blackwell

06 Oct 2011, Posted by Melissa Dalis in DevilWatch, News, 0 Comments


In the weekly blog series DevilWatch, The Chronicle‘s Melissa Dalis highlights each week’s crimes, as released by the Duke University Police Department.

After Duke Hospital North, Blackwell saw the most crimes during the week of Sept. 26 to Oct. 2 with two counts of underage consumption and a stolen calculator.

Following what seems to be a weekly trend, Duke Hospital North saw the most crimes this week, including burning building and injury to personal propert, simple assault, three thefts and simple assault and communicating threats.

Thefts this week included a backpack, calculator, three cell phones, copper wire, currency digital camera, driver’s licence, iPad, two iPhones, three laptops, lighter, purse and television.

People were arrested this week for a concealed weapon and second degree trespass in Bostock Library, false bomb report in the Bryan Center and simple assault and communicating threats in Duke Hospital North.

Crimes were primarily reported during the weekdays. Only five crimes were reported on Saturday and Sunday, while 21 crimes were reported Monday through Friday. Tuesday and Thursday saw the most crime with six counts each.

BY THE NUMBERS

Total crimes: 26

Crimes closed or cleared: 18

Counts of theft: 15

Crimes in Duke Hospital North: 6

East Campus crimes: 5

Arrests: 3

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