GREAT LEADERS IN Christianity: Martin Luther. Girolamo Savonarola. And Robert E. Lee?
Duke Chapel-goers may find salvation in the grace of the Confederate general. A statue of Lee (right), whom the official chapel guide describes as a “Soldier of the South and president of Washington and Lee University,” appears on the right side of the portal. With a scroll in his right hand and wearing what appears to be his old Dixie uniform, Lee stands about eight feet tall. He is bordered by Thomas Jefferson and the Southern poet Sidney Lanier. Figures of Luther, Savonarola, John Wycliffe, John Wesley and the Methodist leaders Thomas Coke, Francis Asbury and George Whitefield stand nearby.
Lee died in 1870; the Chapel was not formally dedicated until 1935. So that leaves 65 years for visionary James Buchanan Duke to approve of Lee's legacy....
WHAT’S WITH THAT GUY taking such good notes in International Relations? Well, he just might be a spy. The Central Intelligence Agency piloted a program in April 2004 for a maximum of 150 hired analysts to re-enter university programs for training. Any one of 15 U.S. intelligence agencies may approve a university's program for the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program, as the enterprise is known, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. It is not known whether Duke hosts any such students. Duke ROTC sources contacted by TV had never even heard of the program.
The names of participants are not made public. The Roberts program allows students to decide for themselves whether to disclose their association with the intelligence community. Most are not undergraduates, as founding professor Felix Moos of the University of Kansas anthropology program envisioned. The majority are graduates who return for more training or receive reimbursement for former studies.
The 2005 fiscal year budget for the Roberts program is $1.33 million, and as of the end of March, 110 students had joined, according to The Chronicle of Higher Ed. None of the other similar intelligence programs—the $8-million National Security Education Program, $15-million Department of Homeland Security fellowship program and $28.2-million Title VI fellowship program—refuse to disclose participants’ names....
START THE CAMPAIGNING because Mike Munger, political science chair, is entering the 2008 North Carolina gubernatorial race. A registered libertarian, Munger says his two aims are to offer a voucher of several thousand dollars to families of all North Carolina schoolchildren and to end “corporate welfare”—the state’s attempt to lure corporations here by offering large sums of money. “We offered corporations tens of millions of dollars to come to Global Trans Park in Greenville,” Munger says. “That hasn’t yielded anything.”
Should he win, Munger would become the third elected North Carolina politico currently in office with Duke ties. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), is a Duke alumnae, and Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), is a professor in the political science department.
Munger has already stepped into the tumultous world of Internet politics. Writing a blog under the pseudonym “Killer Grease Mungowitz,” a fictional professional wrestler, he won a loyal following during its year of activity starting June 28, 2004. Munger shut down his blog June 15; with two candidates up for tenure this year and an external review, he said he felt the blog gave the poli sci department “too unprofessional” an image. He vows, however, to return to the blogosphere after his term as department chair ends next year...
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