INC NEWS - Moneta co-chairing presidential committee???

[kjj1 at duke.edu]

Am I the only one who is dismayed to learn that President Brodhead has 
appointed Larry Moneta to co-chair the Campus Culture Initiative committee? 
The same Larry Moneta who sent out an e-mail to EVERY single student, 
warning them of retaliatory, drive-by shootings at the lacrosse house? An 
e-mail based on unsubstantiated, third-hand rumors? An e-mail that 
represented Durham to students as a dangerous city of predatory 
gang-bangers and was picked up in the New York Times and other national 
news outlets?

This is the person President Brodhead has appointed to chair the committee 
charged "to evaluate and suggest improvements in the ways Duke educates 
students in the values of personal responsibility, consideration for 
others, and mutual respect in the face of difference and disagreement."

Are we to take it that the administration approves Moneta's e-mail and 
considers it an appropriate example of "personal responsibility . . . and 
mutual respect in the face of difference and disagreement"? Or does 
responsibility to and respect for  Durham not factor in to Duke's 
examination of campus culture?

Surely Moneta could have warned students to be careful and mindful in these 
tense and difficult times without engaging in blatant, irresponsible fear- 
and rumor-mongering.