Transforming the Tobacco Warehouse

21 Sep 2011, Posted by Sheila Janardhan in News, 2 Comments

David Kornberg/Duke Chronicle

What do you do with a 100-year-old tobacco warehouse?

Renovate it, of course! Smith Warehouse was redesigned by Lambert Architecture, which received the magazine’s Educational Interiors Showcase Award for Students Centers/Service Area. After the company transformed the warehouse—the ten-year project completed construction Fall 2010—it became a home to many student organizations and resource offices.

“We used shutters that were salvaged from the building’s exterior for the major building directories,” said Lambert Architecture representative Stuart McCormick in an email. ”Warehouse lights were incorporated in the interior Bay signs and industrial type materials used in their construction. Another major theme was the use of color.”

Smith Warehouse was built in 1906 by James B. Duke and was home to a growing tobacco industry in Durham, according to the Duke University Facilities website. Duke’s American Tobacco Company once controlled 90 percent of the American tobacco market but Duke sold his interest in the tobacco company near the turn of the century.

Utilizing the industrial past of the building as inspiration, Lambert redesigned Smith Warehouse with the goal of flexibility in mind.

“The interiors of either can be customized through the use of furnishings to accommodate user needs, but having that consistency helps,” McCormick said. “For example, there are two primary office sizes and three principal open office sizes.”

How does the building fare to his inhabitants?

“It’s open, but there’s no privacy,” said Brittany Painter, staff assistant of the career center. “There are confidentiality restrictions the building doesn’t conform to. If I could change something, I would put up walls instead of cubicles to tune out all that white noise.”

Despite the privacy issues in the warehouse, the architecture itself has received recognition that has helped Lambert.

McCormick said, “We’re now working on other student-focused projects at other central North Carolina universities and while this recognition did not get us these projects, it certainly helps our credibility.”

DSG senate election results

20 Sep 2011, Posted by Andrew Luo in News, 0 Comments

Following a week of heavy campaigning, the freshman DSG senate election results were released late Monday night.

Official polls opened from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday. Students voted for their candidate through DukeGroups after a message was sent to their email inboxes. On the ballot, voters were also given information regarding each candidate’s position and platform. 862 total votes were cast, representing about a half of the freshmen class.

The ten Senator-elects are Leighanne Oh and Max Lipscomb for academic affairs; Tre’Ellis Scott and Michael Washington for student life; Zoe Bulger and Emily Kuo for residential life; Emily Feng and Wendi Oppenheim for athletics; services and the environment and Derek Rhodes; and Bret Lesavoy for Durham and regional affairs.

Although elections have just ended and campaign posters stay hang on bulletin boards across East Campus, senator-elects are already looking ahead to their future term as part of DSG.

“I’m beyond excited—I think my heart jumped out of my chest when I received the phone call.” said Senator-elect Tre’ Ellis Scott, “The next thing is becoming a listener and observer to the system in place with DSG. Duke Student Government is filled with great leaders that I can’t wait to work with.”

The excitement was not limited to candidates. The campaign commotion on East over the past week did not go unnoticed to the upperclassmen on West or to the senior members of DSG.

“I was pleased with the high level of participation from freshmen,” said DSG President Pete Schork, “People were creative with how they campaigned, and all the candidates showed an advanced understanding of DSG through the platforms they ran on.”

As for the freshmen who have just voted in their first college election, needless to say many were thrilled and perhaps even a little overwhelmed.

“It was really interesting seeing new posters spring up in the dorms last week,” said freshman Sanmay Jain. “By the end, I had a really hard time picking candidates because they all seemed so qualified!”

Nevertheless, the DSG doors are not closed for the senate candidates who did not win the race.

“For those who still want to participate in DSG, the best thing to do is to apply through At-Large. There are a lot of positions available,” Schork said. “People with good ideas should definitely still get involved.”

Soundoff: Defense of Marriage Act

20 Sep 2011, Posted by Jack Mercola in News, 0 Comments

Stephanie Kozikowski/The Chronicle

North Carolina voters will be given a chance to vote on the Republican-sponsored N.C. Defense of Marriage Act in the upcoming election. This bill would amend the state constitution to define marriage as strictly a union between a man and a woman. The Chronicle‘s Jack Mercola spoke with Duke students on the issue.

“Marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state. This section does not prohibit a private party from entering into contracts with another private party; nor does this section prohibit courts from adjudicating the rights of private parties pursuant to such contracts.”

—North Carolina Defense of Marriage Act

“I think the real question is, ‘Should the marriage of same-sex couples be regulated by the government?’ I don’t think personal beliefs should have anything to do with the laws, or, in this case, constitutional amendments, that we pass. The question facing voters should not be, ‘Is this amendment acceptable to me?’ but rather, ‘Is this amendment acceptable to the U.S. Constitution, in an objective sense?’.… I believe that the marriage of same-sex couples should not be recognized by the government because I believe that marriage of any kind should not be recognized by the government.”

—Ryan Gaylord, freshman

“I think the legality of same-sex marriage is a human rights issue as marriage—specifically in the United States—offers certain privileges to a couple that can not obtained outside of that legal bond. Furthermore, not allowing a certain group of people within a countries population the same rights as the rest is discrimination. By creating laws that set apart same-sex couples we are creating a hierarchy of power relations that systematizes further discrimination and rights violations.”

—Addie Wyngaarden, senior

“To recognize that all of your fellow citizens are worthy of respect is not partisan. To demand that they have equal rights is not partisan.”

—Elena Botella, junior

“[Same-sex marriage is a partisan issue], but only because the American political climate is such that politicians feel they have to cling to party lines for the sake of their own reelections, which I have to respect since I would do the same in their positions.”

—Jay Kennedy, freshman

“Marriage is the union of one man and one woman at one time. No other relationship shall be recognized as a valid marriage by the State.”

—Paul Stam, North Carolina House Majority Leader (R-Wake)

“Marriage is merely a term used to describe the loving bond between two people that wish to spend their lives together. Marriage doesn’t involve race or appearance, and antiquated notions that homosexuality is a choice is comparable to saying that being black, Asian or any other race is a choice. Besides, the counterargument that traditional marriage needs to be preserved is ridiculous. What is a traditional marriage? Every past culture has a different definition. The issue isn’t to define what marriage is, but the meaning behind it—giving someone the ability to have legal benefits and proudly and publicly proclaim their love.… North Carolina is no San Francisco, but from what I’ve experienced, it’s a rather accepting state.”

—Cameron Mazza, freshman

The green clean

20 Sep 2011, Posted by Caroline Meade in News, 0 Comments

David Chou/The Chronicle: Duke laundry practices are not "green."

Although having clean clothes is important, doing laundry is a chore that causes stress for many Duke students.

Nevertheless, once time can be made, all you have to do it put your laundry and soap in a washer, and with a simple swipe of a Duke card, the wash cycle begins. What many people might not realize, is that this mindless chore is actually bad for the environment.

In an effort to be more environmentally friendly, Duke washing machines were updated in 2007, after Durham suffered one of the worst droughts it has ever seen, said Pat Walker, general manager of duke store operations.

“During the drought, I called our contractors and said that we needed to save some water,” Walker said. “We installed speed-queen high efficiency front load washers, and by installing these we reduced the water usage on campus by 50 percent, which is approximately 2.9 million gallons of water per year.”

Walker added that the washing machines we use on campus are energy-efficient, cutting the energy cost associated with laundry by about $75,000 per year. The old machines used 30 gallons of water per load, but those installed in 2007 use only 15 gallons.

An additional precaution that can be taken to make laundry “greener” is the use of cold water to wash clothes, instead of hot water. The machines on campus offer both options to students when choosing wash cycles, but that doesn’t guarantee that students are aware of being energy efficient while washing out those stubborn stains.

“I haven’t thought about the environment while doing my laundry, but I’ve definitely thought about the cost,” said freshman Cynthia Wang. “I always wash my clothes in cold water so that they don’t shrink, but didn’t really think about the fact that using cold water would save energy.”

The washers on campus are also cited to work better with the use of high efficiency detergent. Many students come to campus not even knowing how to do laundry—let alone what kind of detergent to buy or which cycle works best to save energy.

Although Duke students are often environmentally aware in other aspects of life, with laundry, the focus is just to get it washed and folded without turning a white shirt pink, or a size large sweatshirt into a size small. Our thoughtless actions may have on something much bigger: the state of our environment and the costs we pay for it.

Dark chocolate: the new elliptical

20 Sep 2011, Posted by Mary Hoch in News, 0 Comments

Kelsey Linton/The Chronicle

Eating dark chocolate may be better than exercising, according to a recent study.

The study reports that epicatechin—a compound in chocolate—causes the same muscle response as vigorous activity, making chocolate apparently as good as exercise.

“If chocolate has the same effect as exercise, why am I getting up at 7 a.m. to go to the gym every morning?” asked freshman Erin Stidham in reaction to the study.

Not so fast—the article goes on to explain that exercise increases the number of mitochondria (the “powerhouse of the cell,” if you remember from biology class) in muscle cells.  Dark chocolate appears to cause the same effect.

An increase in mitochondria could in turn “raise energy levels and… offset muscle aging,” said Moh Malek, the chief researcher on the study.  He goes on to explain that so far this effect has only been found in mice, and it may be years before the benefit is proven in human systems as well.

We all love chocolate. It’s our go-to food for sweet cravings, break-ups, snacking and late-night cram sessions. The food most often slanted into the “junk food” category, however, is anything but.

Dark chocolate (containing at least 70 percent cocoa) is what you want to look for when buying chocolate because the health benefits come from the cocoa—not the high amounts of milk and sugar found in milk and white chocolate, according to webmd.com. Milk chocolate may be creamier, but rich dark chocolate will keep you healthy.

The health benefits of dark chocolate have been known for decades, and include some of the following:

• Chocolate has been proven to be one-third more effective at relieving a cough than codeine, the active ingredient in most cough medicines.
• Dark chocolate is the second-best source of antioxidants in the world (behind the açai berry). Antioxidants stop free radicals, potentially reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.
• Eating a small amount of dark chocolate each day can lower your blood pressure significantly—up to two points for diastolic and five points for systemic over two weeks.
• The serotonin released when eating chocolate makes you feel happy, and some describe it as the same feeling as falling in love.

As time goes on, I’m quite sure that science will continue to discover even more reasons we should all be eating chocolate. I think we all knew subconsciously, as we powered through that Godiva chocolate bar, that the delicious food of the gods is really good for us after all.