T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y
The Chronicle
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2012
ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH YEAR, ISSUE 31
WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM
Romney surprises in Clinical trials omit children debate performance by Callie Gable THE CHRONICLE
A crowd of some 40 students headed to Lilly Library Wednesday night for a expert talk before the presidential debate. Public policy associate professors Don Taylor, a health policy expert, and Mac McCorkle, a former Democratic campaign consultant, framed the key issues in the first debate between President Barack Obama and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney before the event was streamed live from the University of Denver. McCorkle began the talk by framing the debate in terms of his career as a consultant in 29 states and highlighted the importance of Romney’s success in convincing voters that he is the future of America. Much like Obama’s 2008 campaign, the Romney campaign can reach undecided voters with a message of change. “One way for Romney that would be really important in this debate is to prove that he wants to go forward, that it’s not just Bush, not a Bush redo,” McCorkle said. Taylor traced the history of sup-
port for the individual mandate, a highly controversial part of the Affordable Care Act. Contrary to popular belief, the Republicans played a paramount role in the birth of the concept as an alternative to President Bill Clinton’s employer mandate plan. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney implemented the individual mandate as a means for expanding coverage at the state level. Taylor also highlighted that in his 2008 election campaign, Obama did not support such a law. “In the 2008 Democratic primary, who was against the individual mandate was President Obama,” Taylor said. “What Governor Romney would have said four years ago is the individual mandate is the responsible way to do health reform.” Attended predominantly by freshmen, the pre-debate talk had to be moved to a larger room within the library to accommodate the attendance. The event was the first of six in a series called Lilly Presents Election 2012—Debates, Election SEE DEBATE ON PAGE 2
CHRONICLE GRAPHIC BY ELIZA STRONG AND ELYSIA SU
Of 60,000 research trials entered into the clinicaltrials.gov registry from 2005 to 2010, the analysis revealed that around 5,000 of them—about 8 percent—were designed for children younger than 18 years old. by Gloria Lloyd THE CHRONICLE
A study conducted by Duke researchers empirically shows for the first time what many pediatricians have suspected for a while: children are largely
underrepresented as subjects in clinical trials. Published Oct. 1 in the journal Pediatrics, the study analyzed more than 60,000 clinical trials from 2005 to 2010 listed in the public database clini-
caltrials.gov. The researchers found that, although children under 18 make up nearly 25 percent of the overall population, clinical trials used children in only about 8 percent SEE DRUGS ON PAGE 4
African students enroll Swain introduces year in scholarship program -long agenda, priorities DUKE STUDENT GOVERNMENT
by Ryan Zhang
by Imani Moise
THE CHRONICLE
THE CHRONICLE
Five freshmen brought together by a common scholarship are determined to create change in their home countries in Africa. The MasterCard Foundation granted Duke $13.5 million to fund scholarships to economically disadvantaged African students and provide them with resources to improve their home countries. There will be seven classes with five scholars each, the first of which started class this Fall. The students said they plan on using the opportunities generated by the program to give back to their home nations. Scholarship recipient Olaotan Awoyomi,
The Duke Student Government Senate met Wednesday evening to discuss its year-long agenda. President Alex Swain said her priorities for the year include addressing the statute of limitations policy, revamping the DSG website, continuing to improve football tailgating and finding a sustainable way to support Senior Sendoff, which replaced Beer Trucks, because the Duke Alumni Association has pulled most of their funding from the event. Each vice president who was present took the floor to present priorities to the senate. Many presentations focused
SEE SCHOLARS ON PAGE 3
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
The new MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program brings students from Sub-Saharan Africa to Duke.
on building better communication on campus. Sophomore Tre’ Scott, vice president for services, said he hopes to enhance student awareness of on-campus events through the institution of a mobile app called “Campus Quad.” Scott said he believes many events are not well attended—not because there is a lack of interest, but because current methods of promoting events are unconsolidated and inefficient. Campus Quad is a mobile app that allows users to post electronic flyers and search events based on time, location and category, Scott said. Scott SEE DSG ON PAGE 3
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