INC NEWS - Misplaced blame shelters students, but fails to protect them (Durham News)

[John Schelp]

"Nor has Durham seen Duke take a stand against the
irresponsible and outrageous conduct of some of its
students. Durham's citizens, who have endured this for
too long, have taken their own stand. Duke has no
right to object."
--John Schwade, Durham News
 
Column: Misplaced blame shelters students, but fails
to protect them 
Durham News (N&O) 15 April 2006

Duke President Richard Brodhead faces a
public-relations disaster in the wake of revelations
that the lacrosse team -- including one member who
shares sadistic sexual fantasies via e-mail, one
composer of wounding racial harangues, 15 with North
Carolina criminal records, and others operating under
aliases -- convened at a Duke-owned house rented by
three team captains to enjoy a night of drinking
without regard to the legal drinking age, and of
"exotic dancing" without regard to the dehumanizing
aspects of their fun, entertaining activity.

Brodhead has a tough act to follow: Nan Keohane, the
master of disaster.

Keohane managed with a three-pronged Blue Devil
pitchfork: Diminishing the extent of a problem;
Deflecting criticism to Durham or the Bible Belt; and
Deferring to the desires of students, even when it was
potentially disastrous, guaranteeing their loyal
support.

For example, after an intoxicated student aspirated
vomit and died, Keohane downplayed Duke's alcohol
problem, pronouncing it, "no worse than most other
schools and better than some."

She implied that the Bible Belt around Duke students
was so constricting it caused fatal vomiting.

"As more students become teetotalers, perhaps
motivated by religious or spiritual beliefs, those at
the other end of the continuum diverge dramatically,
even to the point of courting disaster." (Ironically,
Keohane saw life-saving potential in "presentations by
athletes and coaches as role models.")

Although cheating threatens the integrity of the
academy and of every academic achievement therein,
Keohane deferred to students' childish desire to live
in a world devoid of punishment, opting for "a
community where honor is expected."

Unfortunately, Brodhead has continued Keohane's "3D"
strategy.

In a "Letter to the Community," he diminished the
extent of Duke's crisis by promising an "investigation
of men's lacrosse," obscuring the fact that since the
lacrosse team allegations were made public, four Duke
football players have been sentenced to community
service for their part in a Chapel Hill melee and a
member of the Duke wrestling team arrested for
breaking and entering.

It's not just the lacrosse team.

And it's not just alcohol, the drug Brodhead
implicated in the "bad behavior" of the lacrosse team.

The Chronicle (Duke's student newspaper) reported that
the wrestler charged with breaking and entering had
taken hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Brodhead promised to address racist language
"involving the men's lacrosse team," as if it were so
confined. In fact, egregious racist language can be
found in The Chronicle, where a white female columnist
urging students of her ilk to date black male students
wrote, "In the words of [rapper] Ja Rule, 'every thug
needs a lady.' " And Duke's faculty includes a black
assistant professor who calls himself and his black
students "thug niggas."

Brodhead's letter attempted to deflect allegations of
racism to Durham by grouping "the history of this
campus and city" in discussing "the legacy of racism."
That's disingenuous. As Allen Gurganus pointed out in
The New York Times, most lacrosse players come from
elite schools in the Northeast.

Their racism is not our racism.

When Brodhead was hired away from Yale, The Chronicle
expected him to defer to their juvenile desires,
heralding the move with this front-page headline:
"Alcohol flows freely, and Yale doesn't mind."

The Chronicle lauded Yale's "don't-ask, don't-tell"
alcohol policy, as well as Brodhead's acknowledgement
of lax enforcement of the written policy. Ironically,
the story appeared above a photo publicizing Sexual
Assault Prevention Week at Duke.

Brodhead's administration has lived down to students'
expectations, failing to even suggest they avoid
indulgences that are potentially disastrous to them
and their school.

An April 2005 Sports Illustrated On Campus story about
college poker players and their "staggering" financial
losses featured participants in a weekly $100-buy-in
game of no-limit hold 'em at Duke's Wayne Manor. The
magazine revealed this group included "four current or
former varsity athletes."

This should have set off alarms at Duke because
athletes with gambling debts are vulnerable to the
bettors who fix games. (Miss a critical shot or pass
and the debt is eliminated.)

Indeed, Sports Illustrated On Campus found it odd that
administrators were not alarmed, citing a statement to
The Chronicle by Duke's vice president of student
affairs, Larry Moneta: "My office is OK with it. I
don't see us taking a stand to prohibit fun,
entertaining activities."

Nor has Durham seen Duke take a stand against the
irresponsible and outrageous conduct of some of its
students. Durham's citizens, who have endured this for
too long, have taken their own stand. Duke has no
right to object.


John Schwade is a Durham resident and a psychologist
at a state prison.