Federal officials search student's dorm room
Officials from the U.S. Customs Service searched the dorm room of an undergraduate last month as part of a worldwide crackdown on Internet piracy and copyright violations.
At 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 11, the officials, accompanied by Duke University Police Department officers and a Student Affairs official, entered the West Campus room with a search warrant and confiscated computer equipment allegedly used by the student as part of a global network that pirated software, movies, music and other digital files.
"Students, when they enroll at Duke, are reminded about appropriate use of computers and facilities at Duke and are expected to be responsible in use of the facilities," said David Jarmul, associate vice president for news and communication. He added that the student is still enrolled and legal action has not yet been brought against him, but he is the subject of an ongoing judicial investigation.
Jarmul also noted that, although the University cooperated with Customs officials, they did not initiate the investigation or the search warrant. He did say, however, that the event may cause the University to reconsider its present hands-off approach to students who may be pirating software. In September 2000, President Nan Keohane declined to keep students from using the file-sharing program Napster, citing academic freedom.
"This will probably be one of the issues [incoming Vice President for Information Technology Tracey Futhey] will be considering, and I would expect that sometime after her arrival there will be a re-examination of how Duke deals with these issues," Jarmul said.
Fourth Duke Rhodes scholar selected
In addition to three undergraduate Rhodes Scholars named in December, Christian Campbell, a third-year graduate student in English became the University's fourth scholar.
Campbell, a native of the Bahamas, is a poet who will head to Oxford University to further his studies in the oral traditions of poetry and the history of his region.
Campbell joins Duke undergraduates Alexis Blane, Pavan Cheruvu and Sam Malone as Rhodes Scholars, an all-time high for Duke. Previously, only two scholars had been named in one year.
Campbell said he will use his time at Oxford to get a M.Phil degree to compliment the doctoral dissertation he plans to write at Duke on Caribbean writers. He received a scholarship when he was 16 to leave the Bahamas to get an undergraduate degree at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., before coming to Duke for graduate study.
Kerckhoff, professor emeritus, dies at 77
Alan Kerckhoff, professor emeritus of sociology and two-time chair of the department, died Friday, Dec. 21 at the Medical Center after a lengthy illness. He was 77.
"He was a world-class professor, and cared deeply about his department, his university, his colleagues and his students," said Ken Spenner, current chair. "We shall miss him greatly."
Much of Kerckhoff's research focused on how educational systems affect subsequent occupation and family life. In his 1990 book Getting Started, Kerckhoff compared how the educational structures of the United States and Great Britain affect people later in life.
After earning his master's and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin and teaching at Vanderbilt University, Kerckhoff came to Duke in 1958 as an assistant professor of sociology. Six years later, he was promoted to professor of sociology. He chaired Duke's sociology department from 1972-76 and 1981-86.
Kerckhoff retired in 1993, but continued to be involved in a number of research projects. Kerckhoff's wife of 52 years, Sylvia Kerckhoff, served two terms as mayor of the City of Durham during the 1990s.
In addition to his wife, Kerckhoff is survived by a daughter, Sharon Connery, and her husband Marc of Hillsborough; son Steven and his wife Barbara of Palo Alto, Calif.; and four grandchildren.
Department of Education closes Title IX complaint
The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights closed in December a complaint against Duke, filed four years ago, that accused the University of failing to comply with Title IX's mandate to equitably distribute scholarship dollars among male and female athletes.
In June 1997, the National Women's Law Center, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., filed sex discrimination complaints against 25 colleges and universities, including Duke, alleging the schools had discriminated against women in the opportunity to receive athletic scholarships.
In a letter dated Nov. 21 to President Nan Keohane, the OCR said they felt Duke has distributed athletic financial assistance to the men's and women's programs in a substantially proportionate manner, as required by Title IX, over the last two academic years.
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