Soundoff: LDOFinals

06 May 2012, Posted by Melissa Dalis in News, 0 Comments

The last day of finals came and went and students, amidst the stress of finding storage and a ride to RDU, were able to reflect on their year(s) at Duke. It’s a nostalgic time but a happy one too. The Chronicle’s Roshni Jain spoke with Dukies about their sentiments and goodbyes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Thanks to Duke I have a new favorite holiday: LDOC”

– John Bowman, Trinity ’15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“This year has made me a true blue Devil. How could I not feel blue? I mean, no one else gets the privilege to be as cool as us.”

– Lawrence Nemeh, Trinity ’15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“People always say that Duke becomes your home away from home, after this year, I would have to say its become my home.”

– Nitihin Pusapati, Trinity ’15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“And we worked. And we played. And we laughed. And had a really really really good time.”

– Sophia Durand, Trinity ’15

 

 

 

 

 

“Awaaz withdrawal. All the time.”

– Ray Liu, Trinity ’15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Freshman year has been an extraordinary experience for me – I have made an extremely diverse group of friends and had the opportunity to explore my culture in much more depth; all the while, I have continuously pushed myself to accomplish the most and have the best time I can.”

– Abhishek Balakrishnan, Pratt ’15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“It’s been a grand. I came into this year with much more clarity and conviction after a great summer experience. Getting a little bit of perspective when away from Duke let me be much more deliberate with my time here.”

– Ramy Korshed, Pratt ’14

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“This year has been absolutely incredible! I had the opportunity to star in the biggest theatrical production to ever happen at Duke (Ragtime). I would definitely call that a high point in my life!”

– Martavius Parrish, Trinity ’14

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“First semester was really tough academics-wise, which also cut into opportunities to just hang out, but I think it was that way for a lot of people. Spring semester was ten times better!”

– Naureen Huda, Trinity ’14

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I can’t believe the year is over…it was a stressful year academically so I am totally ready for the summer. but that means I am almost a junior in college? Where has the time gone?”

– Swetha Iruku, Trinity ’14

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I came, I saw, I survived…barely.”

– Tessema Alpha, Trinity ’13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I feel like I came into this year with the goal of focusing on relationships with friends and really just enjoying what Duke had to offer and I think I accomplished that.”

– David Oberst, Pratt ’12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Everything that you do on this campus has the potential to shape someone else for a lifetime. In that light, they rightly determine the actions you take and the decisions you make. Take the full gravity of that, hold it in your hands, yet laugh and be joyful. That’s the challenge of life here at Duke and beyond.”

– Jason Wong, Trinity ’12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“It’s cool to reflect on my senior year and realize that I’ve accomplished things that a year ago I didn’t think I could do.”

– Kevin Lieberman, Pratt ’12

Pop Culture Grid: Ginn vs. Hayward

27 Apr 2012, Posted by Annie Wang in Pop Culture Grid, 0 Comments

Duke is known for its stellar athletic programs. Baseball and football prove no exception. The Chronicle’s Annie Wang spoke to football player Carson Ginn and baseball player Garrett Hayward to learn more about these two athletes.

Pop Culture Grid: Oh vs. Borrey

27 Apr 2012, Posted by Annie Wang in Pop Culture Grid, 0 Comments

Diversity abounds at Duke, as reflected by our unique student body. While Duke boasts a diverse international student body, quite a few Duke students are local Durhamites. The Chronicle’s Annie Wang interviewed Leighanne Oh, a Durham local, and Julian Borrey, an Australian native, to learn more about these two.

Now that’s called school spirit

24 Apr 2012, Posted by Ashley Mooney in News, 0 Comments

For some, school spirit means attending the occasional basketball game. For senior Braveen Ragunanthan, it meant wearing Duke apparel for every day of the academic year since stepping on campus in 2008.

Excluding summers and breaks, Ragunanthan has worn one of his 73 different pieces of Duke apparel—including T-shirts, sweatshirts, jerseys, dress shirts and others—each day. Even during his semester switch to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as part of the Robertson Scholars program, Ragunanthan donned Duke paraphernalia amidst a sea of Tar Heel blue.

“Something that really stands out at Duke is the powerful spirit of Duke students compared to other universities,” he said. “Every day you’ll notice people who are proud of their school and represent that through T-shirts or memorabilia that they have.”

Ragunanthan was so inspired by the students’ school spirit that he decided to wear a Duke shirt every day until he receives his diploma.

“Ever since the beginning of my freshman year I wore a Duke T-shirt every single day, even under professional attire and when I went to UNC,” Ragunanthan said.

When Ragunanthan decided to attend Duke, he bought approximately 12 shirts in preparation for the school year. As the years went on, he acquired Blue Devil gear through various sales, organizations and events.

“I acquired a lot of shirts for free,” he said. “I count shirts like Midnight Breakfast shirts and [Last Day of Classes] shirts.”

Ragunanthan noted that his craziest outfit is a Duke jersey featuring the number 38—a number that is not used according to NCAA rules.

“One basketball game I lined up with my friends and I was in the front row,” he said. “The team was warming up and Andrew Dawkins came up to me and said, ‘who is number 38?’”

Ragunanthan’s dedication earned him the title of “crazy T-shirt guy” in the Feb. 2010 edition of Rival Magazine.

Crazy T-shirt guy, however, will not be dressing in Blue Devil paraphernalia for much longer as he will be attending medical school in the Fall.

“Since I have so much Duke gear I’ll keep wearing Duke shirts, but I won’t necessarily wear them every day,” he said.

Although he may not don Duke blue for much longer, Ragunanthan added that he will “definitely” wear Duke gear during his graduation.

Study finds preference for leaders with lower-pitched voices

02 Apr 2012, Posted by Hong Zhu in News, 0 Comments

“I urge you to vote for me in Novemeber,” implores two voices that differ only in pitch. As it turns out, people are consistently more likely to vote for the lower-pitched voice. A recent study, co-authored by a political scientist and two Duke biologists, found that both men and women prefer leaders with lower voices. In an email interview, Duke biologist Rindy Anderson spoke to The Chronicle about crafting the study, working with Duke student subjects, and what the findings could mean for society.

The Chronicle: Where did the idea for the research question originally come from?

Rindy Anderson: [co-author] Susan Peters and I are behavioral ecologists that study acoustic communication, mostly in birds, so we’re generally interested in the kinds of cues that vocal signals contain, and how these cues might influence the perceptions of listeners.  We’ve been struck by the impression that media broadcasters tend to have low voices, or tend to speak in low voices, and in particular female broadcasters seem to have lower voices than the average woman.  So this prompted us to start looking into existing studies on voice pitch, and we found evidence that pitch influences listeners’ perceptions with regard to qualities like attractiveness and social dominance.  At the time, no one had applied these findings to candidates and electoral politics, and in particular no one had looked at women’s voices, so we teamed up with a Political Scientist –Casey Klofstad from the University of Miami- to design a study asking whether voice pitch influences electability.

 

TC: Where you surprised by any of the results?

RA: We find that men are more attentive to vocal cues of other men’s strength and competence than are women. This could be because men with lower voices tend to be physically stronger and have more testosterone, and testosterone is linked to physical and social aggressiveness. So, men may be attending to vocal cues of competitiveness, be it physical or political competition, in other men’s voices.  We are still not certain why women didn’t discriminate in a similar way, but we hope to into that question more deeply future research.

 

TC: What implications might this study have for gender relations?

RA: We found that women with lower voices are perceived as stronger, more trustworthy, and more competent. Because women tend to have higher voices than men, voice pitch could be one of the many different factors that influences gender inequality in leadership roles.  At the very least, voice pitch does not appear to counterbalance social norms that are biased against women in leadership positions. It is possible that the optimal voice pitch for a politician is in the male range, but that is a hypothesis that requires testing.

 

TC: What implications might this study have for real-life settings?

RA: Our results raise the possibility that both men and women with lower voices may have an edge when running for office. However, these findings are based on hypothetical elections conducted in the lab. We need to be careful in interpreting these results and generalizing them to the real world, where elections involve many factors.  It remains to be seen whether real elections are influenced by the voice pitch of the candidates, but this is something that we plan to test.

 

TC: Could you comment on what it was like to collect data from passers-by in the Bryan Center?

RA: Working in the Bryan Center was an excellent experience.  People were very interested in the study and asked great questions about it. We were able to get a nice cross-section of the general population as well — students, parents, faculty and staff.  Some days and times were easier than others to convince people to sit down and participate, but in the end we were able to get a good number for our study.

 

TC: How did you enjoy working on a study dealing with politics, a topic that isn’t traditionally thought of as relating to biology?

RA: This was one of the most fun and engaging studies we have been a part of for exactly that reason. None of us could have pulled this study off on our own — it required three people with different experience, knowledge and skills.  When scientists from different disciplines come together to ask a question or solve a problem, each bringing their own experience and expertise, good things happen.

 

TC: In your opinion, what is the importance of this study to the everyday voter/citizen?

RA: Our suggest that perceptions of candidates’ voices are one of the many factors that we consider when selecting leaders. Understanding how physiological qualities affect how a speaker is perceived is important because it helps us understand why we often make snap judgments about candidates. Knowing this can help us understand, and address, various aspects of our sociality, including gender inequality in leadership.