t n i r P e u l B

S U P M A C
2013 MARCH

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d l r o W d n na o i t a N r u O n i e t Winners s g e t n n o a C lism f Ch o s otojourna r h P e s t v h i ig r D man R C Hu

CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR

THE NC BREAST BILL THE DEATH PENALTY IN NORTH CAROLINA UNC HUMAN RIGHTS PHOTOJOURNALISM CONTEST WINNERS
UNC Sexual Assault Policy Timeline UNC Timeline in Depth Making Yoga a National Priority Literature and its Place in the Classroom The Battle for Labor Rights Exposed Breasts Expose Inequality Drivers of Change: Package Intro Interview with Dennis Whittle STAFF
carey hanlin editor-in-chief grace tatter executive editor sarah edwards, troy homesley managing
editors

5 10 24

Dear Readers, Just as biological change requires evolution by natural selection, social change requires its own type of evolution. But unlike biological evolution, social evolution already has a particular endpoint in mind. Social change isnt about simple selection of what works and what doesnt; its a purposeful movement toward an ultimate end result equality for all. When we fight sexual assault, place education over war, and fight for the rights of workers, we are moving toward this final goal. When we decry the oversexualization of women, the use of the death penalty and feigned ignorance of extreme poverty, we are moving toward this goal. In this issue, we talk about these topics and more. We consider the factors that drive these changes and the results we could hope to see if we are persistent and continual in our fight.

UNC vs. Private Schools Abroad 14 3 4 The Death Penalty in North Carolina 16 Passive Support for Rape Culture 18 5 UNC Human Rights Photo Contest 20 6 Al Gores Complaint 23 8 10 Why We Love to Hate Lena Dunham 24 11 International Standards of Education 25 750,000 Bunkers 27 12

sophie bergmann creative director kyle ann sebastian blog and multimedia
editor

jenn nowicki, cameron lewis public relations

and social media directors

hannah nemer photo editor michael dickson, carey hanlin, troy homesley, wilson hood, molly hrudka, jenn nowicki, wilson parker, kyle ann sebastian, grace tatter, ina kosova, lily clarke, gayatri surendranathan, sarah edwards, nathan vail, cole wilhelmi, joe calder, samantha mccormick, christopher phompraseut staff writers janie sircey, katie coleman, christopher phompraseut, natalie curnes designers tyler tran, renee sullender, janie sircey, katie coleman, caitlin graham, natalie curnes, connelly crowe photographers wilson parker, wilson hood, anne brenneman, michael dickson, nathan vail copy editors aaron clayton treasurer

Happy reading! Carey Hanlin Editor-in-Chief

On the Cover: Untitled by Thomas Gooding Winner of the UNC AHR Photojournalism Contest

2 MARCH 2013

Timeline of UNCs Sexual Assault Policy

Jan, 2012

UNC begins interim sexual assault procedure.

QuimbayaWinship will officially take office at UNC.

Mar 11, 2013

Feb, 2012

Gambill charges her ex-boyfriend.

New federal Violence Against Women Act extension affects colleges.

Feb 19, 2013

Aug 1, 2012

Sexual assault cases are removed from Honor System.

UNC announces Title IX Student Complaints Coordinator Ew QuimbayaWinship.

Feb 5, 2013

Jan 13, 2013

Gambill, Manning, and Pino file complaint against UNC.

University hires attorney Gina Smith to serve as consultant.

Jan 28, 2013

MARCH 2013

Timeline of UNCs Sexual Assault Policy: An In-Depth Look

January 2012: UNC begins interim sexual assault procedure. The interim procedure is compliant with the new federal standards. Rather than having a hearing panel of five students, sexual assault cases are now heard in front of two students, two faculty members, and one administrative chair. However, sexual assault hearings are still presented to a hearings board that is part of the student-run Honors System (though separate from the Honor Court). February 2012: Landen Gambill charges her ex-boyfriend with sexual misconduct. He is tried under the interim system. Aug. 1, 2012: The new sexual assault policy goes into effect. Sexual assault cases are now completely removed from the Honor System. Students in hearing panels are now part of a Student Grievance Committee, appointed by the Student Body President, and overseen by a deputy Title IX student complaints coordinator. Jan. 13, 2013: Gambill, along with three other former and current UNC students and Melissa Manning, UNCs former assistant dean of students, file a complaint against the University with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights. The complaint alleges the University violated federal law in its handling of sexual assault cases. Jan. 28, 2013: The University responds to the complaint, and announces the hiring of attorney Gina Smith. Smith will serve as a consultant on the overhaul of sexual assault policy. She played a similar role at Amherst University following that universitys own sexual assault controversy this fall. Feb. 5, 2013: UNC announces that they have hired a permanent Title IX student complaints coordinator, Ew Quimbaya-Winship. Feb. 19, 2013: U.S. Congress passes an extension of the Violence Against Women Act, which includes further protections against sexual violence on college campuses. The act requires instances of sexual violence to be reported in annual crime reports, and for colleges to have more preventative educational programs. March 11, 2013: Quimbaya-Winship will officially take office at UNC, as students initial contact after instances of sexual violence.

4 MARCH 2013

National

MAKING YOGA A NATIONAL PRIORITY

Yoga May Relieve Symptoms of Depression, ADHD and Insomnia
GRACE TATTER

MARCH 2013

PHOTOS BY TYLER TRAN

our mind is often in the past or the future, UNC senior Nina Bryce said at the beginning of her yoga class. But your body is always in the moment. Bryce is a yoga instructor at Rams Head Recreation Center. Most students come to her class to get fit and toned. But according to a recent Duke University review of studies, they might also be alleviating symptoms of the kinds of mental illnesses that most often plague college students, including depression, ADHD and insomnia. Results concerning eating disorders werent as conclusive, but hinted that further research might find benefits there, too. Bryce began practicing yoga as a middle schooler, walking to the yoga studio when most of her peers were watching reruns of Full House and eating afternoon snacks. At the time, yoga seemed like a natural complement to her other activities, which included modern dance and figure skating. She wanted to improve her flexibility and liked the physicality of yoga. Her parents had long been into meditation, but that wasnt necessarily what drew her in. She soon found that yoga had another dimension that the rest of her extracurriculars did not. Its a great practice for feeling comfortable in your own skin, Bryce said. Bryce received her first teaching certification for yoga as a high school student, and has since been certified through the Asheville Yoga Studio and Carrboro Yoga Studio as well.

Today, she practices Kundalini, which focuses on breathwork, and Vinyasa, which focuses more on strength and is a favorite at gyms. But she includes meditation in all of her classes. Youre really focused on breathing and being in the present moment and it makes you feel more calm, Bryce said. The type of yoga that studies said had a significant impact on depression was Lyengar yoga, which also focuses on breathing as well as posture and strength. After five weeks of practicing Lyengar yoga, study participants, who were on average about 21-years-old, found their mood changes were more like normal up-and-downs, according to their scores on the Beck Depressive Index (BDI). Another study reviewed at Duke found that alcohol-dependent males practicing Sudarshan Kriya yoga, which focuses on rhythmic breathing, saw more improvement in their depressive symptoms than another group who took medication. Bryce says she has been lucky and

has never faced any severe setbacks. Spending time on the mat helps her deal with the curveballs of day-to-day life, and it alerts her to stress and anxiety so she can immediately address it. That mindfulness also helps when it comes to eating, Bryce said. So much of yoga is about appreciating the body and feeling strong and powerful and feeling loving toward your own body, she said. In a study of 90 women, binge-eating a common component of eating disorders was found to decrease by 50 percent. (Other studies about the effects of yoga on eating disorders were less conclusive.) Yogas use for prevention of mental illness is already recognized by many Integrative Medicine departments, including those at Duke and Wake Forest. Within the health insurance portion of their website, Duke even advises their students to practice yoga to keep down healthcare costs. There was no mention, however, about if it alleviates other symptoms of being a Duke student.

LITERATURE AND ITS PLACE IN THE CLASSROOM

PHOTO BY HANNAH NEMER

Taking a Long, Measured Look at the Common Core Standards for American Education

MICHAEL DICKSON

here has always been contentious debate about what or who or exactly how much we should teach the children of our nation. Logically, we want the next generation to be educated the right way. The problem is that the world is such an enormous and unpredictably diverse place; who is to say what would properly prepare our students best? The earnest academics and educators in the Common Core State Standards Initiative were bold enough to venture an answer. And as a gesture of good 6 MARCH 2013

faith, America is trying to apply their attempt at a thorough, uniform curriculum in every public school in the nation. Common Core produced its set of benchmarks and requirements as part of the ongoing federal attempt to set standards and equalize education across states thus ensuring no individual state has an inordinate edge when it comes time for national quiz bowl season. (Heres looking at you, Vermont.) So far 45 states and half of Minnesota have adopted the standards and nine states, including North Carolina, are using them for the 2012-2013 school year. The basic concept of mandating the same standard and curriculum is controversial and has attracted much criticism. One specific requirement has angered many, especially among the relatively small, but impressively articu-

late, demographic of English teachers. The Common Core mandates a new emphasis on informational readings as opposed to literary ones, and so has set new guidelines concerning the material assigned to students. In elementary school, students should be reading 50 percent nonfiction material and 50 percent fiction material and by twelfth grade students should be reading 70 percent nonfiction material and 30 percent fiction material. Naturally, there has been backlash. Book lovers everywhere reacted in disgust, worried kids might not be given the chance to develop an appreciation for literature. Scholars had the chance to bond over the preposterous implication that any textbook could teach history better than The Great Gatsby. And proponents of the liberal arts lamented the growing utilitarian trend in education policy, which gives mar-

ketable technical skills priority over their belts and selectively excise large For the Common Core, the goal is general cultural knowledge and critical parts of their ordinary curriculum. clear. The big idea, as it always is, is to thinking. However, we shouldnt be too quick prepare kids for college and careers. However, the standards were more in dismissing this trend as one that ru- David Coleman, an architect of the than a little misunderstood and the ins English education and forever shat- standards, has said in various public writers of the Initiative were quick to ters any chances these students had of appearances that kids are very rarely make announcements saying as much. developing a real lifelong love for read- prepared for the complexity of college This isnt to say those concerns are ing. Does our current English education reading. Even for kids who do a lot of no longer valid, end up teach- reading outside of class, he says, the however. ing much more material tends to top out at around a Many experts who The Common than how to use fifth grade reading level. fashioned the stanCore reading reSparkNotes or As well as increasing the amount quirements were find pirated copof primary documents and nonfiction dards have spoken out not meant to apagainst this widespread ies of The Cru- texts that students work with, Coleman ply only to Engcible film on- focuses on the increased complexity of misinterpretation, often lish classes nor line? Maybe the texts, which he believes students need. taking the opportunity to force teachers inclusion of an Maybe he has a point. Perhaps one to take classic interesting and of the reasons university life causes to criticize school adliterature out of a p p r o p r i a t e l y so much stress and severe mental anministrators reading the curriculum. literary nonfic- guish is that students are suddenly comprehension skills. The intention tion piece here expected to work closely and regularly was to bring and there would with dense academic texts that theyve more complicated and diverse reading interest otherwise bored students and never had to deal with before. Maybe materials into all classrooms and to remind them that literature isnt so dis- reforming education in primary and push science and social studies teach- tant from historical facts and modern secondary school is what we need as ers into making students read more social issues. as a country. and write essays, too. But the unavoidable question at But is intensely ramping up academic But regardless of the creators inten- the core of this heated issue concerns standards across the nation really the tions or the knee-jerk reactions of lit- the purpose of right way to do erature junkies across the nation, what English eduthis? Shifting matters is how its put into practice. cation itself. the academic Perhaps one of the Judging from the current practices in What is reading stress backreasons university life the nine states that have already ad- in school supwards onto the causes so much stress opted the standards, the people who posed to do for students who and severe mental anmake the decisions misinterpreted students? Does might already be these standards as well. Many experts it teach them falling behind guish is that students who fashioned the standards have certain skills, doesnt seem are suddenly expected spoken out against this widespread specific or genlike the most to work closely and misinterpretation, often taking the op- eral, or is its logical step portunity to criticize school administra- product much toward a soluregularly with dense tors reading comprehension skills. less quantifition. And what academic texts that However, many education experts able? Is the about those theyve never had to contend administrators will continue purpose of litkids who are deal with before. to place the majority of this burden erature in edualready hopeon English teachers. Science and his- cation to sow lessly behind by tory classes cant fill up 70 percent of the seeds of inmiddle or high the students readings on their own; tellectual growthto cultivate the be- schooldo we just expect them to start even with the corrected interpretation, ginnings of a rich internal life in these catching up if pushed hard enough? It English teachers are still left to tighten students? doesnt seem to have worked so far. MARCH 2013 7

Local

David Powers and the Battle for Labor Rights

New BOG Member Tied to Corporate Interest
GRACE TATTER

n 2011, David Powers was elected to the UNC Board of Governors by the N.C. General Assembly. Unlike others tapped for the board, Powers did not actively seek the position. He is vice president of state government relations at RAI Services Company, a subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc., the states largest tobacco company. And when Rep. Justin Burr, a Republican representing Stanly and Montgomery counties, asked Powers to consider the position, Powers says he did not immediately see himself as the ideal candidate. He doesnt have children, and as an alumnus of North Carolina State University, he was more interested in serving on the Board of Trustees there than on the systemwide Board of Governors. But Powers credits the entire UNC system not only for his own success, but for the entire states. Fifty years ago, North Carolina was overwhelmingly rural, segregated and burdened with some of the most severe poverty in the nationa far cry from the metropolitan business hub it is today. [I realize] what it meant to me, coming from a small town in eastern North Carolina, that we had this great 8 MARCH 2013

system that was very accessible, that traditionally has been very affordable, he said. [The UNC system] has traditionally been to me a real engine of growth of North Carolina. What weve accomplished in economic growth would not have been possible without the UNC system.

pays Powers his salary. FLOC estimates that 90 percent of workers in North Carolinas tobacco fields are undocumented. FLOC representatives say workers face slave-like conditions, living in filthy, undersupplied labor camps for little pay. According to Willis, farmworkers arent protected by the same standDeep connections ards as workers in other industries, What weve And even the accomplished low standards The tobacco fields in economic for farmworkers growth would are not upheld might seem far realso not be posby corporations moved from UNC stusible without like Reynolds. dents as they live and farmworkers, The tobacco learn on their respecsays UNC-Chapel fields might Hill senior Liz seem far retive campuses, but Willis. moved from theyre connected, Willis, a UNC students Willis said. senior from Polk as they live and County, first belearn on their came involved respective camin farmworker activism after taking a puses, but theyre connected, Willis service learning course with Professor said. Hannah Gill, wherein they traced The tobacco farmworkers are helpmigrant worker movement back to ing keep together the foundation of Guanajuato, Mexico. industry that supports our schools by Today, through Student Action With keeping the state economically viable, Farmworkers, Willis works with the and they are also parts of our comFarm Labor Organizing Committee munities, however invisible. (AFL-CIO), largely on their campaign Thats why Willis and her peers in against Reynolds American Inc., which Alianza, the UNC-CH student organiz-

ALEC - a nonprofit organization that works to advance free-market enterprise and limited government.

MARCH 2013

PHOTO FROM CREATIVE COMMONS

ation that advocates for farmworkers with ALEC to represent Reynolds, and educates campus and community which has had an official on the corabout the issues, started a petition porate board at ALEC for over 20 years. asking Powers to step down from his As a Private Enterprise Advisory Counposition on the Board of Governors. cil member, he doesnt have a vote in They are concerned that the val- any of ALECs actual policy decisions, ues of two institutions he represents, which are decided by the legislators Reynolds and the American Legislat- and scholars on the primary boards. ive Exchange Council, clash with the Even though I believe in free-marvalues of the students he represents ket principlesin issues that dont reby virtue of being on the Board of Gov- late to the company, I have no direct ernors. involvement with ALEC policies, he The petition follows an earlier one said. requesting only that Powers meet with In fact, Powers said, on issues rethemsomegarding higher thing they say education, he he never did. differs from The tobacco farmmany of his workers are helping No connecconservative keep together the tion peers. foundation of indusBut Powers Im a Resays his roles publican, but try that supports our outside the I always told schools by keeping the Board of Govpeople I differ state economically viernors at greatly [from] R e y n o l d s some conserable, and they are also and ALECare vatives on isparts of our communitotally separate sues of educaties, however invisible. from his role tion, he said. in UNC system, W e v e and that he has made a commade a conscious effort to keep them mitment to North Carolina that we separate, even recusing himself from need to abide by, Powers said. I una vote about smoking on campuses. derstand economic times are tough, We are working with stakeholders but we need to keep up with the comto try to address farm labor issues. Personally, as a member of the Board of Governors, I have an obligation to keep my roles at Reynolds and the university Board of Governors separate, he said. He said Reynolds has met with FLOC, tobacco growers and a variety of other players to address the issue. And he said his role at ALECwhich he called one of the most misunderstood organizations in the world is also minimal. Powers says he is only involved

mitment to fund education to North Carolinians. Willis said her primary concern isnt so much the decisions Powers will make concerning the universities, but how he represents the student community. Our university and the people that are making decisions about the university system should really reflect the students and interests, Willis said. When were talking to David Powers, were really bringing [human rights violations] to the table as UNC students and saying, this is something we as students are concerned about. Powers said farmworkers dont fall under his purview at Reynolds, but he knows the corporation as a whole is working to improve conditions. Willis said she understands that. Its not like hes going directly into the field, violating the rights of farmworkers, she said. But he is in a position to help plead their case. Its not a case of bad guys versus good guys, Willis said. And its about something bigger than students. What affects our community is reflective of students at UNC, Willis said.

Bill 34 has sparked controversy.

EXPOSED BREASTS EXPOSE INEQUALITY

present double standard for women: bare-chested men are socially acceptable, while shirtless women are offensive. Men also participated in the rally, donning bras to exhibit their solidarity. Donna Newman, coordinator of the second annual rally, said, My goal is to help women feel free about something they already possess. Theyre not using their rights. But Rayne is attempting to remove these rights before women have the chance to exercise them. This bill attempts to turn a social double standard into a legal nightmare. Male nipples, while identical to their feminine counterparts, are not included in the law. Criminalizing bare breasts limits a specific groups right to protestor sunbathe or breast feedand leaves others unaffected. Equal rights for all or for nonethats what this is about, said a shirtless female protester.

SAMANTHA MCCORMICK

omen protesting topless in Asheville inspired a legislative move, but not the kind they were after. Their bare breasts so offended Republican Representative Rayne Brown that she introduced Bill 34 to the North Carolina Senate, which bans the exposure of the nipple, or any portion of the areola, of the female breast. The women in Asheville were making a statement about societys ever10 MARCH 2013

The law even deepens the inequity; an exposed female nipple is a felony if the womans intent is to arouse or excite. Such a law is nearly impossible to enforce. How is intent to be determined? Arousal is a highly subjective and variable term. Raynes proposal is exactly what the protest was attempting to prevent. While it is easy to see why gallivanting through the mall with exposed breasts is probably an unwise course of actionas demonstrated by the ideology of a few male observers at the protest arguing if she didnt want to be exploited, she didnt have to come out here and get nakedit is also absurd to think the answer is tossing Janet Jackson in jail with felony charges after her infamous nipple slip during her Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. After all--what if her intent was to arouse or excite? The only way to put women on an equal playing field is to desexualize their bodies, and that can only be achieved by treating their chests like mens. Criminalizing the choice to go shirtless is only reinforcing the misogynistic ideas behind covering women up lest they might tempt and distract men. The fact that it is acceptable for women to be plastered half-naked on billboards but considered felons for removing their shirts in public is what needs to be addressed. To add insult to injury, the Asheville protest occurred outside of Raynes district. A representatives duty is to serve the needs of her constituents, so legislating a legal protest that took place in a different district is a puzzling political move. Within a party that touts small government, why is this Republican intent on policing how people choose to cover or uncover their chests? As one protesters sign read, The real boobs are in city hall.

PHOTO BY HANNAH NEMER

DRIVERS

OF
GRAPHIC BY CAREY HANLIN

MARCH 2013

11

DENNIS WHITTLE:
UNCs Entrepreneur in Residence, and the Story Behind Doing What Makes Sense
LILY CLARKE

While hiking in Nepal, a Californian Entrepreneur in Residence at UNC, woman broke her leg and was nursed will tell you that it really happened. back to health by the people in a local He could also tell you thousands of village. As she recovered, she learned other stories where humanity and a that the young girls in the village are commitment to serving human besold into slavery because of economic ings has motivated people to do great hardship. Determined to repay her things. Global Giving, the organization debt to the community, she facilitated Dennis co-founded in 2002, helped the several agricultural programs that Californian woman find funding for her generated income for the villagers project, and has distributed 110 million and prevented girls from being sold dollars to local, grassroots projects in in the future. 130 countries. Furthermore, the Dennis says Global Giving, the woman opened Global Giving a house in Kathcame about organization Dennis mandu where simply beco-founded in 2002, the girls who cause it makes helped the Californian were formerly sense. woman find funding slaves were While Denpampered for a niss work imfor her project, and has couple of weeks pacts peoples distributed 110 million before returning lives daily on a dollars to local grassto their villages. global scale, he She wanted to didnt start out roots projects in 130 give them a few with ambitious countries. weeks of a childideas about hood they never helping the saw with hot showers, silk dresses, world. He almost dropped out of colfluffy pillows and soft dolls. lege his freshman year at UNC. While the story described seems After graduating from UNC in 1983 too good to be true, Dennis Whittle, with a degree in Religious Studies, 12 MARCH 2013

Dennis went to Princeton for his masters. In 1986, 25-year-old Dennis became the youngest employee on the professional level staff at the World Bank. Whittle worked at the World Bank for 14 years, setting up lending programs to governments that he says increasingly consist of good, educated people. However, Whittle says he was frustrated that teams were not able to learn and refine their approaches fast enough. Another concern was his inability to work directly with regular people. The World Bank makes loans to governments, who distribute funds as they see fit. When Dennis saw the challenges and creative responses of local people, he felt frustrated that he could not directly help them realize their potential. The issues Dennis faced with his job at the World Bank manifested themselves in the Washington protests of the 1990s against the World Bank. Resentment against the multibillion dollar, multinational corporation was a result of many Americans who felt the banks money was not well invested and its policies were unsound. When

Dennis ventured out onto the streets, At the end of the day a woman who he was surprised to find a crowd of didnt win an award declared to Dennis normal people with innovative and that she couldnt wait till next year legitimate ideas about where money to try to find the funding, and there should be spent. It occurred to Dennis should be a place for [her] ideas every that what made sense in the situ- day. ation was for the World Bank to listen While Dennis initially brushed aside to these individuals ideas. the comment as fantastical, he reIn February of 2000, 339 teams from turned to the prospect and questioned 82 countries set up booths in the at- the possibility of a marketplace for rium of the World Bank, where they ideas. had the opportunity to give 15 minute Eight months later, Dennis and a pitches on the coworker starscope of a probted Global Dennis describes the lem and the Giving, where course of action people from event as the Academy they would take all over the Awards of developif provided with world share ment, which has been the resources. their ideas and These were find the funddone 70 times since its issues that, if ing they need dbut in 2000. addressed by to realize their the governprojects. Dennis ment, might require 80 million dollars, says he could not think of a single but on a local scale might only need reason why it couldnt or shouldnt 80,000 thousand dollars. -exist. Its not about us telling them One telling story is that of a team what to do, rather we help them frame of 60-year-old Ugandan women. None the challenge, mobilize the resources of the women had ever been outside they need, and connect ideas with of their home province before their people with money. journey to the World Bank. They made While Dennis stepped down as the trip to pitch an idea for a clinic for CEO of Global Giving, he is still on the new, poor mothers whose children Board and involved with their work. were malnourished. The older women Project transparency is evolving, and wanted to start a microcredit system he says, Soon donors will be able to to enable these mothers to earn an in- see whether or not the local people come, allowing them to purchase mi- think the project being funded is efcronutrients for their children. fective. The last recipients of an award that The bridge Dennis built between day were the women from Uganda, those who need help and those who who danced on the stage with the can provide the resources to help depresident of the World Bank as they creases in length as donors and recipaccepted $82,000 and the chance to ients become increasingly connected. change the lives of the people they Someday, Whittle hopes Global Giving loved. will be as big as the World Bank beDennis describes the event as the cause in contrast to the place of his Academy Awards of development, previous employment, where he felt which has been done 70 times since disconnected from the lives he was its debut in 2000. trying to improve, Global Giving lets

him and millions of other people help people directly. After all, that is what makes sense. Whittle recalls that during his time at UNC the only thing for socially active people to do was to march around with signs, petitions, and protest.He says that is all changing now with products and services through social entrepreneurship. He says that students at UNC are coming up with radical approaches to clean water and sanitary health that could radically improve the quality of life around the world.He loves the fact that students want to be a part of the solution, and that the school provides two important factors in the equation for progress; motivation and skills. What is most important, he adds, is that Carolina is turning out people who want to help the world.

Dennis Whittle speaks at TEDx UNC in 2012.

MARCH 2013

13

PHOTO PROVIDED BY TEDx UNC FLICKR

UNC
GAYATRI SURENDRANATHAN In just one year, Duke University students will have the option of attending the Duke we know down the road in Durham or one 8,000 miles away in Kunshan, China. With the help of the Chinese Ministry of Education, the university is working to establish its first international campus. The 200-acre site, located near Shanghai, will offer a liberal arts education to students from around the world. Duke is not the first American university to found a branch abroad. New York University has a small campus in Abu Dhabi, and Yale recently established one in Singapore. These schools are bastions of liberal arts values and many are highly selective when it comes to admissions. NYU Abu Dhabi only accepted 189 students from over 9,000 applicantsan admissions rate of 2.1 percent. On the surface, international campuses such as these seem like a good idea. They allow students to spend longer than a semester or a year abroad (though at first Dukes Kunshan campus will only have semester-long programs for undergraduates), and they foster relationships between students from what could be vastly different backgrounds. But these institutions are riddled with problems both moral and administrative. Within the context of historical Western imperialism, do international campuses send a message of American superiority? And what of academic freedomin repressive nations like the United Arab Emirates, can 14 MARCH 2013

[VS]

PRIVATE SCHOOLS ABROAD

UNC student Katie Howard enjoys her study abroad adventures in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands in fall 2011.

faculty members hold lectures on controversial topics or invite speakers from countries like Israel?

Undertones of Imperialism
Rebecca Willas, a junior English major at Duke, said that although the new campus was not on her radar, she was excited for the university to have a more global presence. From what Ive read, its mostly for high-achieving Chinese students and other international students, Williams said. First-year Chinese major Ethan Ruby said he saw the new campus as a way to improve intellectual connections between the

United States and China by training Chinas future elite. But some find the implications of western univerisities training a new elite imperialistic. Imperialism as a concept refers to the creation of unbalanced relationships between societies in which one clearly has the upper hand. Cultural imperialism, then, is the promotion of the more powerful societys values and beliefs within foreign nations. Though imperialism is closely associated with the era of Western colonialism, the fact is, it still continues both economically and culturally. The question then becomes, is a Western university campus a form of cultural imper-

PHOTO PROVIDED BY KATIE HOWARD

ialism? The universities are certainly highly selective, ultimately encouraging mostly students from privileged backgrounds to attend, and the liberal education propagated in classrooms in countries like Singapore would likely not be endorsed by the host countrys government. This bubble effect creates a system reminiscent of apartheid, where the Western-backed academic community is allowed to exercise full rights while the rest of the countrys residents are subject to what may be an authoritarian regime. In spring 2012, the international advocacy group Human Rights Watch accused Yale University of betraying the spirit of the university by embarking on its venture to establish a campus in Singapore. And a more immediately pressing concern for students considering attending these institutions is the quality of education. Though the name of the American university will be on the students diplomas, whether or not faculty and facilities are equivalent across borders is a tough question to answer.

UNC student Katie Howard enjoys her study abroad adventures in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands in fall 2011.

A Different Approach
At present, no UNC system school has an international campus. The associate dean for study abroad at UNC-Chapel Hill, Bob Miles, said the lack of branch campuses allows UNC a freedom that schools struggling to establish their institutional presence abroad might not have. There are huge challenges involved with setting up campuses elsewhere, financial and otherwise, Miles said. We prefer to operate by setting up partnerships with foreign universities. He said that by establishing relationships with established, often world-class schools around the globe, UNC has been able to exchange resources to mutual advantage. Though negotiating with foreign schools has not been without its challenges, he said that he placed a premium on going into these relationships with consideration and respect for the cultural con-

text of any school. By working with schools, we dont have to purchase and maintain property, work out labor laws, etc. we essentially subcontract these arrangements, Miles said. The longstanding UNC programs in Sevilla, Spain and Montpelier, France were some examples he cited of successful collaborations that huge numbers of UNC students take advantage of each year. And UNCs Summer in India, headed by UNC Asian Studies Professor John Caldwell, is a newer program that takes advantage of the faculty and facilities at schools like Aligarh University and Jamia Millia Islamia. In addition to their academic training, Indian faculty have local expertise that we as UNC professors dont, Caldwell said. He said he doubted any American public university would be able to pull off constructing a branch in India, legally and financially. Nor, he said, does he think it would necessarily be beneficial for American students. Its no surprise that the goal of private university remote campuses is to enroll Indian students and sell a degree at a premium to Indian students who can afford it, Caldwell said. The benefits to American students are minimal, especially compared

to the opportunity to live and study at an Indian university. His questioning of the motives behind branch campuses is likely well-founded. Though university presidents at Yale, NYU and Duke all emphasize education and intellectual freedom, political and commercial incentives are lurking beyond the horizon after all, if the campus cant sustain itself financially it will have no choice but to fold. However, it is too soon to know whether these American branch campuses will be successful in the long run. Patrick Clay, a senior Environmental Science major who studied abroad at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador through the UNC Gaias program, said he would not have wanted to carry UNC around on his back while studying abroad. The point of being abroad is immersing oneself in a completely new context, he said, and a UNC Quito campus would have robbed him of some of that experience. If theres room in foreign universities that are willing to work with UNC, I dont see a need for a branch campus, Clay said. There are already world-class universities in Quito, what reason would there be to create another?

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PHOTO PROVIDED BY KATIE HOWARD

Race and Innocence in North Carolina

The New Chapter for the State Death Penalty
TROY C. HOMESLEY

he death penalty in North Carolina is going through monumental transformations, and now many are watching to see what its future might look like throughout the country. North Carolina has a long history of using the death penalty, ranking fifth amongst all states in total executions. Since the Supreme Courts ruling in Furman (1972), North Carolina has executed 43 individuals. However, since Aug. 18, 2006, there has been a de facto moratorium on executions in North Carolina, although there are currently 152 people on death row in the state. This moratorium is a result of many factors on both practical and theoretical levels. The moratorium began when death row inmates in North Carolina raised objections to lethal injection. Citing its potential to cause severe pain before death, they objected on the grounds that it violated their Eighth 16 MARCH 2013

Amendment rights, which protect people from cruel and unusual punishment. Although the Eighth Amendment issue was largely resolved, the North Carolina Medical Board ruled that it would be unethical for doctors to participate in executions. The NC Supreme Court ruled that such an action by the board undermines state law and thus is not a binding order. Yet another reason for the recent moratorium on executions in North Carolina was the development of the Racial Justice Act (2009) an extremely progressive piece of legislation that allows sentences to be reduced to life without parole if an inmate can present broad statistical evidence that race played a significant role in the imposition of the death sentence. On a theoretical level, the death penalty faces challenges from what Dr. Frank Baumgartner of the UNC-CH

calls the innocence frame. The innocence frame is a relatively new concept, explained in detail in Dr. Baumgartner and Suzanna De Boef s book, The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence. Since 2000, media attention to the possibility of innocence amongst those sentenced to death has increased dramatically. With the rise of the innocence frame, many are left wondering if the death penalty may inevitably lead to wrongful executions and impose on the requirements of due process. The innocence frame is important because it supersedes religious, moral or economic arguments for supporting or opposing the death penalty. Innocence is something everyone understands and agrees on as a standard, which makes it much more salient and appealing to people with diverse stances on the issue.

PHOTO FROM THINK PROGRESS

People are outraged at the idea that the government might execute an innocent person, said Dr. Baumgartner. The rise of the innocence frame has come along with an increase in exonerations and the attention that is paid to these exonerations. Since 1973, more than 140 people from around the country have been exonerated of their crimes and released from death row. In North Carolina, there have been seven such exonerations. But there are those who do not find these results so compelling. Beyond the innocence frame, recent questions concerning the death penalty have focused on the role race plays in the imposition of the sentences. Of the 152 people on death row, 80 are black or part of another minority group. In the state of North Carolina, however, blacks make up less than one fourth of the total population. The Racial Justice Act (2009) strives to correct and avoid the ability of racial bias to exert influence on the delivery of death sentences to individuals. But In 2011, the new state legislature revised the RJA, watering it down in several key ways. The racial composition of the jury, however, remained an important factor in the act. If the inmate can prove that the jury was racially biased and blacks were taken off by peremptory strikes by prosecutors, the RJA could apply, Dr. Baumgartner said. 40 percent of inmates on death row had either zero or one black on their jury. Studies have revealed that when you are only one person of your group, you are unlikely to stand up against the pressure of others, he said. Race plays a massive role in the imposition of the death penalty. But, interestingly enough, studies have re-

vealed that the race of the victim can be much more important than the race of the defendant. Dr. Baumgartners research shows that someone who kills a white female is 40 times more likely to be executed than someone who kills a black male. This simple statistic implies that our justice system values the lives of some racial groups more than others. Such a system also levies a race penalty upon those who are part of certain racial groups by not prosecuting the perpetrators of violence towards them equally. If we choose to use capital punishment, it should be applied equally. This is what the Racial Justice Act hopes to accomplish. However, with the influx of conservatives into the North Carolina legislature, the Racial Justice Act looks doomed to a repeal. Legislators such as Representative Paul Stam are prepared to repeal the act in hopes of continuing North Carolinas long death penalty tradition. North Carolina has always been progressive in the death penalty system, establishing the first indigent defense service for defendants who could not afford a lawyer and reforming eyewitness identification techniques. Perhaps now is an opportunity to continue that tradition by upholding the RJA. But beyond race, the issue of innocence looms heavy in the air. As the death penalty debate continues to undergird politics around the country, North Carolina provides an intricate case study from which we might assess the future of the death penalty system. Dr. Baumgartner points out that although there have been no executions in eight years, and there was not one death sentence handed down last year, homicides in North Carolina steadily continue to decline.

Groups such as the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham and the Innocence Project continue to fight for death penalty abolition and the recognition of innocence. Meanwhile, scholars like Dr. Baumgartner gather statistical evidence that shows the system is flawed and that a strong racial bias exists. Actions like these provide a hopeful outlook for death penalty abolitionists as the death penalty slowly becomes recognized as an inherently flawed and potentially discriminatory practice. Dr. Baumgartner is hosting a Death Penalty Speaker Series this semester every Wednesday at 5:30 in Room 200 of the Genome Sciences Building. Speakers include district attorneys, exonerated death row inmates and North Carolina legislators.

More information can be found online at http://www.unc.edu/~fbaum/ teaching/POLI195_Sp13/poli195-sp13home.htm.

A death watch area where a prisoner stay for up to a week prior to his or her execution.

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PHOTO FROM NCDPS.GOV

PHOTO BY ALEX SHIN, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

18 MARCH 2013

Passive Support for

Rape Culture
North Carolinas Outdated Definition of Rape
only the forced vaginal intercourse lina. Equally important are the ways of a non-consenting individual. Such in which the vaginal intercourse outdated provisions not only ignore statutes unfairly discriminate against real-life conditions, but also cause se- survivors who have been sexually asrious issues for the culture of rape in saulted, rather than raped, at least North Carolina. according to the state. Perhaps the Definitions most important limited to vagiTo say the least, North fault of this nal intercourse, definition of Carolinas statutes con- at the exclusion rape is its utter of forced oral cerning what qualifies ignorance of and anal interas rape do not measure the existence course, marginof male rape. alize and belitup to the proper stanPsychology Totle those whose dard: namely, the right day says five violation is now of all citizens to equal to 10 percent considered to protection under the of all reported be less severe rape victims are than that of law. male, but by the those who have outdated stanbeen traditiondards used by the state of North Caro- ally raped. lina, literally none of those men could To say the least, North Carolinas have filed their claims. statutes concerning what qualifies as Men from all over the sexual spec- rape do not measure up to the proper trum gay, straight, bisexual or other- standard: namely, the right of all citiwise can and have been the victims zens to equal protection under the of rape. And yet, laws in North Caroli- law. na refuse to acknowledge such facts. As they stand now, North Carolina These laws are not only offensive in rape laws create an under-class of that they trivialize male rape, but also equally violated individuals who canunjust, in that they deny full legal re- not seek the same recompense as course to those men who have been others. While these laws do not repraped. resent acts of active misogyny or the Of course, it wouldnt be telling intentional perpetuation of rape culthe whole story if we just focused on ture, they passively support a system the male discrimination inherent to that allows for such structures to exthe outdated statutes of North Caro- ist. MARCH 2013 19

JOE CALDER

ome girls, they just rape so easy, says Roger Rivard, Wisconsins former 75th district state representative. Mr. Clayton Williams responds, if its inevitable, just relax and enjoy it. They both laugh, come to grips with themselves, and thank God theyre so blessed as to be rich, white men. Welcome to Misogynists Undersigned, a sleep-away camp in my mind for the empathy-impaired, where the misogynists of America go to exercise their God-given right to be ignorant to the suffering of other people. For these men, rape is a vague, alien concept that means nothing more to them than the forced sexual assault of a woman one who was likely asking for it. In fact, in the state of North Carolina, the concept of rape as anything besides the forced penetration of a female is outside the purview of the law. North Carolina statutes 14-27 define both first and second-degree rape as

UNC
Advocates for Human Rights
Photojournalism Contest Winners

Name: Corinne Goudreault Year: Sophomore Class of 2015 Title: Home Year: 2012 Description: These children live at a Nicaraguan trash dump where waste is constantly being burned; they lack a home and access to any resources, be it food, water, income, healthcare or political representation and have no way of gaining these things.

Name: Amy Dingler Year: First-Year, Class of 2016 Title: Rupee Madame Year: 2011 Description: In Kolkata there are thousands of street children like this boy. Many are exploited by their parents and forced to work long hours begging for money. It is a business in India, and if you watch long enough sometimes the child will report to a well-dressed man with their earnings. MARCH 2013

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Name: Thomas Gooding Year: First-Year, Class of 2016 Title: Untitled Year: 2011 Description: Harrison doesnt have shoes. He wears the same clothes every day. Hes exposed to disease, malnutrition and extreme poverty. Why? He is the son of exploited Guatemalan farmersoppressed descendants of the Mayan population. They rely on corn, coffee and banana exports, but unfair trade devastates their economic sustainability. Name: Hannah Nemer Year: Junior, Class of 2014 Title: Celebrating Prayer: The Right to Religious Expression. Year: 2012 Description: Members of Ugandas minority Jewish community join together in Havdalah prayer to usher in a new week. Under the religiously intolerant dictatorship of Idi Amin in the 1970s, they were violently forced to convert or to pray in secret. The community now celebrates its survival and resilience through open worship. 22 MARCH 2013

Culture: Book Review

AL GORES COMPLAINT
A Review for The Future
Nathan Vail Al Gore: journalist, Vice President, businessman, activist, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and wannabe Nostradamus. In a startling, dry, long, and surprisingly sobering book, Gore offers the freshest look at where the world is headed. In the tradition of Brave New World Revisited, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change includes prophetic ramblings chronicling the highway to hell the world is rigged to. Firstly, Gore identifies the emerging economic model as Earth Inc., a holistic, wasteful version of globalism that does nothing to halt the impending oil crisis and curve environmental waste. He warns against unsustainable growth and encourages that the same powers that made the world flat (to borrow a word from Thomas Friedman), can make it healthy again. What Gore says isnt new. Friedman has been saying it for years in Hot, Flat, and Crowded and The World is Flat. Gore takes ignorant globalization to what he thinks is the most logical conclusion. In this extraordinary time of exponential change Gore fears the US may not be up to the task. He writes poignantly: The United States Congress, the avatar of the democratically elected national legislatures in the modern world, is now incapable of passing laws without permission from the corporate lobbies and other special interests that control their campaign finances. Gore continues his rail against the wealthy, denounces inequality, and especially attacks the oil industry, which is where Activist Gore meets Business Gore in an awkward, schizophrenic, Dr.
PHOTO FROM CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS Al Gore speaks at the National Clean Energy Project: Building the New Economy, an event to discuss national energy policy.

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sort-of way. Ironically, in The Future, Activist Gore writes, Virtually every news and political commentary program on television is sponsored in part by oil, coal and gas companies. The earnest message broadcast by Activist Gore is undermined by Business Gores actions, which go unmentioned in the book. In January Gore sold Current TV to Al Jezeera, the Qatar-based news network (that is financed by the oil-wealthy country) for $500 million. Looks like Business Gore scored it big, leaving Activist Gore to (unsuccessfully) clean up the spill. How inconvenient. Current TV started as a noble project in 2005 with Gores business partner Joel Hyatt. It was designed as a channel where viewers created the content, sort-of like a legitimized YouTube. Current aimed to empower anyone with a camera to make something meaningful, such as a documentary or creative

expos. Yet the station remained unpopular, and after a series of re-brandings, Current landed in its current condition: A lame-duck leftist outlet. Yet these grievances are teardrops in the ocean. Back to the book: It is easy to see that The Future is the best case-study synthesis of Gores virtues and vices. It is a work that, if you can look past the aforementioned slug of Business Gore, is often fascinating and courageous. But its sprawling 600 pages could have used some editing, and would pack a whole lot of punch if it were more concise. While the book has some noble ideas, you cannot read it without having Business Gore close in mind. If Activist Gore and Business Gore werent the same person (the titillating conclusion of Fight Club may come to mind), my best bet is they wouldnt be friends.

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Culture: Media
Lena Dunham, of the TV show, Girls.

SARAH EDWARDS

rying to say anything new about the HBO series Girls is hardand this, in itself, should say something about the show. Its a show that most people heard about long before they actually watched itthe sort of show born to be paraded across the headlines of pop culture pieces. Because this is the thing about Lena Dunhams Girls: everyone has an opinion. And, inevitably, you will have heard about the controversy before the plot - measurements of main-character Hannahs thighs before any substantial measurement of the impact of her character. When I Google Lena Dunhams name, the search engine automatically fills in the blank with the word weight. And it is, in essence, attention-seeking. Season two begins with generous, lingering screenshots of Hannas derrire and rounds out nicely with an episode in which Hannah plays naked pingpong with a character played by the well-aged Patrick Wilson. But, no matter how self-aware the show is; this backlash isnt a malaise of the show. Its a malaise of the culture to which the show has come of age in. Every HBO show is attention-seeking this, indeed, seems to be the point of HBO, and, while were at it, what the point of television is. Emmy Rossums 24 MARCH 2013

show Shameless also an HBO serieshas an equal amount of nudity and much more, in terms of underage drug-use, sexual innuendo and generally bawdy content. But Emmy Rossum, by pretty much unanimous social agreement, is a Hot Person and her character fits the prototype of someone who deserves to get naked. She is a hard worker. She takes care of her 500 other siblings and is generally always sympathetic. Hannah of Girls is different. She is not a culturally Unanimous Hot Person and, unlike Emmy Rossums character, she is privileged. Everything about her body seems to be antonymous to what is generally considered an acceptable nudity: pear-shaped, she is fond of wearing floral rompers that partition parts of her stomach into neat folds. Like most 20-somethings, her character seeks attention, affirmation - approval in ways that incite frequent cringing. She exemplifies a white-coffee-shop privilege that generally makes her unsympathetic to a recession-era viewer. And at least one thing Hannah shares with Emmy Rossums Fiona character is this: the quality of shamelessness for both her sexuality and her privilege, things which viewers tend to resent her for.

Popular opinion condemns the Lena Dunham/Hannah duo (a case where artist and subject are difficult to separate) as exhibitionism, and online commenters are prone to go on diatribes demanding that Hannah just cover up her body for once. But Hannah doesnt cover up, and she doesnt apologize. But shes not required to. Hannah Horvath is just another imperfect character on a television showwho, as she says, is the voice of my generation, or at least a generation.and this isnt something that requires apology or mediation. If Hannah is taken, not as a spokesperson for all 20-something women, but as a character deeply comfortable with her physicality, where does that leave us? It leaves me, at least, watching a show in which I have complicated feelings about the main character, and Im okay with that. No one thinks Hannah is a flawless role-model. Far better, when I watch Girls I am able to have a deep appreciation for a show which doesnt catalog its characters into people who do and dont deserve to have an active sex life, who do and dont deserve to love their body. And that, if anything, is a new thing to hear about.

PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Why We Love to Hate Lena Dunham

International

INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS OF EDUCATION

How Countries Produce A+ Students
COLE WILHELMI

ducation: Its a cornerstone of American life and American politics. Its a key concern for policymakers at the national, state and local levels, who pour millions of dollars into public education programs every year. But despite all the money we throw at our educational system (nearly $11,000 per student at the primary and secondary levels), the United States is rapidly falling behind the international community in educational performance. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), recently administered standardized exams to students around the world. The results? The United States finished a disappointing 26th overall, mediocre for such a highly-developed country. At the top of the class were Finland, South Korea and Singapore, whose students excelled consistently across reading, science, and mathematics categories. Theres been a lot of debate regarding the best strategies to increase the competitiveness of American education standards. President Obama wants to increase the number of schooling hours and implement stricter testing standards; NC Gov. McCrory recently claimed that the best solution is to focus on vocational training and cut liberal arts spending. But perhaps the most sensible thing

we could do is take a closer look at the A+ students - what are countries like Finland, South Korea and Singapore doing differently with their education systems that make their students so much more competitive? The Finnish education program presents an intriguing paradox: students start school two years later than most kids in the United States and are typically enrolled in fewer hours. Students barely receive any homework, and standardized testing is rarely used to measure performance. It doesnt seem like a winning combination, but Finland has repeatedly smashed the international education standard. A lot of factors account for this success, but a lot of it can be narrowed to teacher performance and classroom learning technique. In the United States, the typical elementary or middle school teacher takes a very inflexible, traditional approach of conveying information. Harvard education expert Tony Wagner likens them to assembly-line workersthey tell their students what textbook pages to read, grades the homework assigned, and lecture on topics pursuant to a draconian curriculum. In Finland, the scene is very different. The teachers there are far from assembly-line workers - all of them are trained

to use novel techniques to connect the students with the material theyre studying. The emphasis is not on homework, tests or memorization. Instead, creativity, integration of concepts and hands-on interactions are the primary focus of Finnish teachers. In one such example, high school students in an entrepreneurship class were assigned the task of starting a business. They literally stayed in the school all night with their teams and adult leaders, learning about the methods and innovation that go into marketing a product or service. It taught social skills, creativity and group collaboration, and the students loved it. This is the norm in Finland, where teachers have broken out of their traditional roles and develop more engaging curricula and learning tools. [Teachers] have become knowledge workers, Wagner says. Theyre thinking of their classroom as their laboratory for continuous innovation, trying to understand how to ensure that all students achieve at very, very high levels. Finnish high schools usually offer two tracks that students may choose to follow. Around 60 percent choose the academic, or liberal-arts based curriculum, while the remaining 40 percent follow a vocational track based on a specific interest that they have. Finnish educa-

MARCH 2013

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PHOTO BY HANNAH NEMER

tion officials agree that having numerous education paths for secondary and post-secondary students is creating a system thats more representative of the employment demand and embraces the diverse career interests among the students. So Gov. McCrory might have been half right - liberal arts funding should not be eliminated, but vocational learning should also be considered as an available education path at the secondary and post-secondary level. On the other side of the world, several East Asian countries are experiencing the same measure of educational success as Finland, albeit in a different fashion. Unlike Finland, countries including South Korea and Japan have very centralized systems, where a national administration oversees education at the primary and secondary levels. It is mainly responsible for setting curriculum guidelines, universal academic standards and national education budgets. In South Korea, the Ministry of Education also oversees a comprehensive accountability system, by which schools are evaluated based on performance. The best schools are given monetary bonuses. The poorer schools are not punished, however. Instead, the administration recommends ways that the school can improve its system. As a re-

sult, the schools are constantly striving to have the best standards possible, and schools in need of assistance are quickly brought back to speed. The competitive nature of nearly all East Asian schools, however, is the main factor involved in placing their students among the worlds best. The expectation that students excel in their studies so they can go to a top-ranking university is the cultural norm, especially in China and Japan, where the number of university acceptances is far lower than the total number of applicants. Students in South Korea and Japan typically supplement their regular studies with private tutoring sessions on specialized topics. In Tokyo alone, an estimated 70 percent of students attend these private sessions to improve their grades and test scores. The high cultural value placed on academic excellence, which is not prevalent in the United States, allows East Asian education systems to perform exceedingly well on international achievement tests. What can American policymakers learn from the Finnish and East Asian educational programs? First, understand that there are many different paths to excellence in education. Finland and South Korea embrace very different learning environments, but both ultimately

achieved the same academic success. There are positives and negatives to all educational programs, and policymakers have to be aware of these trade-offs. Choosing an educational program that addresses the unique needs of the student population is essential; there is no one size fits all solution, and simply throwing money at the problem wont help, as weve already discovered. Finally, look at the common themes: The Finnish and East Asian systems both hold teachers to very high training standards, have a variety of academic options available to improve student performance and interest in learning, and have a cultural foundation in which the desire to learn is ingrained within students. Just as countries around the world have emulated the United States, let us, in turn, learn from lessons taught by international standards and incorporated them into American educational code. It will take time, resources and significant cultural adjustment, but its a necessary step in dragging American education out of mediocrity and making our youth competitive in the global market.

26 MARCH 2013

Communism in Albania

INA KOSOVA

itting in a 1998 blue Mercedes, on my way to my grandparents home in Korca, Albania, I tried to catch my uncles gaze in the rearview mirror. How much longer until we reach the city? I winced at the words as they echoed in my head, the native sounds of the language deformed by my American accent. It was the summer of 2012, the first time I had been back to Albania since 2008, and I longed for the familiar sights of what had once been home. And then, upon entering the city, I was greeted by a vast expanse of blacktop. My uncle boasted, All the dirt is covered now. The asphalt goes right up to our garage. As I stared at the road, I mourned the clay-hued soil that, in the absence of grass and concrete, once carpeted the city. I know it must sound strange, this sympathizing with dirt. But the terracot-

ta soil is inseparable from memories of my childhood. On hot summer nights, it floated in tiny air currents through the air, layering my skin with a tiny coat of dust. I could feel it deep down in my throat, on the edges of my eyelashes, in my scraped knees and molded into my clothes. What was I going to do with gravel? It is coarse and unmolding; it creates stiff, hard sounds, hollow and ugly. Abandoned by the dirt, I desperately searched for familiarity elsewhere. My panic subsided as we approached the main square. Here, nestled around the marble statue of a soldier, a massive field of violets, verbenas, forgetme-nots, Queen Annes lace, and daisies would surely greet me as of old. I remember, at age 5, how careful I had been in the garden, tiptoeing around the stems, constantly mindful of the petals. I now leaned closer to the window, hoping to smell the violets. There was the statue, and there wasa tiny circle of flowers, one meter in diameter. My uncle explained, They took away the flowers to widen the street. The petals were not those of my childhood; they were so limp, intoxicated with car exhaust. As the driver next to us flicked his cigarette into the daisies, I saw the flowers sag, their heads bowed in disgrace, reduced to a hiding place for

trash. I tried to mask my disappointment as the car gurgled to a halt in front of my grandparents apartment. My grandfather was the first to come downstairs. He chuckled, You look so different. Funnyas I stared at the city around me, I was thinking the same thing. This complete sense of unfamiliarity, of strangeness, of discomfort, consumed me as I traveled through my old home that summer. Id look up as I walked through the main square and see Sky Caf, a ten-story skyscraper wrapped in cold steel and glass, so awkward as it towered over the hundred year old, whitewashed, brick houses with their shingled roofs. I stared sadly at the T-Mobile and Western Union billboards, hanging above the centuries-old Ottoman Mosque. I could see it in the people too. The young boys with their cigarettes and Mercedes cars, the girls with their Starbucks lattes and Zara shoes, walking around with a certain noblesse oblige, slipping in their Oh my gods, and Ciaos, every chance they got. Couldnt they see they were putting on a show, couldnt they see how vulgar their modernity was, a combination of fake pearls and cheap perfume? Sitting on the veranda with my grandfather one day, I said, simply, I dont MARCH 2013 27

PHOTOS BY INA KOSOVA

750,000 Bunkers

understand. My grandfather, Dylber, looked up from the book he was reading and said, Dont you see they are freefree and lost and confused and ignorant but free? They spent 47 years starving, living off of pound of butter and a pound of flour, 47 years in wooden shoes and cheap coats, terrorized and terrified. Just because they were told from kindergarten to the funeral home that the world outside Albanias borders was ugly, violent and immoral doesnt mean they felt any less trapped, any less like a herd of animals beaten back with a stick. And so now theyre free and theyre hungry, voraciously hungry for what the rest of the world experienced in those 47 years. They are paranoid, their scars still raw and burning, hyper-aware of the bunkers and concrete buildings that still crowd the cities, now painted over an ugly shade of yellow and red, but still there. Those 47 years my grandfather kept referring to were the 47 years the Albanian people were ruled by the Communist dictator, Enver Hoxha. In 1944, Hoxha founded the Albanian Party of Labor and led the country in one of the most suffocating, violent Communist regimes in history. His dictatorship was characterized by an acute sense of paranoia; he was so sure of an immi-

nent invasion from the West that he ordered thousands of bunkers to be built throughout the country, next to landfills and in parks, in schoolyards and on mountain trails. He then sought to secure his regime from the inside, setting up an intricate network of secret police. My parents tell me how anything from outside of Albania was strictly banned, from Western clothing to British literature to Michael Jackson tapes. To avoid the police, my dad and his brothers installed a radio underneath a floorboard in the attic, listening to Elvis with their ears on the floor. Enver Hoxhas communism, though forgotten by the West, was terrifying in its orthodoxy. Albania allied itself to China and the Soviet Union after World War II and the form of socialism practiced by the three countries was similar. However, after Stalin and then Maos death, Hoxha renounced both the Soviet Union and China as allies. In 1960, in a conference in Moscow, Hoxha pointed his finger at the post-Stalin Communist party and called it a traitor to Marxism-Leninism. Beginning in 1970, a new form of communist doctrine emerged, today labeled Hoxhaism, which stresses the irreconcilability of revisionism with Marxist doctrine. How could the Albanian people, mis-

erable, hungry, dirty, stand up to this man? Imagine his face, the same one suicidal enough to scold the Soviet Union like a child, to refuse membership in the Warsaw Pact, to break with China though his people were starving, staring at you from posters glued to every building. There was constantly a feeling of being walled in on all sides by this ruthless man that lived and breathed the dirty doctrine of communism. It was not until 1991 that massive student protests caused the regime to break down, finally allowing for the formation of pluralism with the Democratic Party. My father, one of those students, explains, The students revolted because they no longer feared death; they did not believe anything could be worse than the hell and darkness and misery they were already living in. And so, they fought, fought only as desperate men can who have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I think I can see it now, the beauty of that ugly, metallic skyscraper, of those gaudy billboards beside the mosque. These are signs to the outside world that we exist, that we deserve a part of the world denied to us 47 years ago.

28 MARCH 2013

PHOTOS BY INA KOSOVA

Published with support from: Campus Progress, a division of the Center for American Progress. Campus Progress works to help young people advocates, activists, journalists, artists make their voices heard on issues that matter. Learn more at CampusProgress.org
Also paid for in part by student fees.

Campus BluePrint is a non-partisan student publication that aims to provide a forum for open

dialogue on progressive ideals at UNC-Chapel Hill and in the greater community. MARCH 2013

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