Sunday, November 19, 2006
Ugh
So, as I keep trying to understand what all is going on with the lacrosse case, I keep finding things that either I missed or missed the importance of earlier with respect to many of the issues being faced by Duke and by Durham. One of the major issues has been the faculty and administration response. Early on, I had said that I was truly happy with how President Brodhead had not caved into to pressures to expel the entire team as well as his decision to reinstate the team after the Coleman Report came out.
However, some things are still very disturbing about the way the administration has proceeded. If the administration really did tell the lacrosse players not to tell their parents what was going on, and if the administration really did recommend a particular lawyer for them to talk to, then the administration has a LOT to answer for. Likely, several administrators should resign if such allegations are true. Beyond that, some quotes have come up from early on that are just truly disturbing in hindsight. This one is from President Brodhead from the Durham Chamber of Commerce (from WRAL):
"If our students did what is alleged, it is appalling to the worst degree. If they didn't do it, whatever they did is bad enough," he said. "Of the things that have pained me about this episode, one of the greatest ones is all the publicity that this has brought, unwished to Duke University and, indeed, Durham."
This quote is from April 20th. The "whatever they did is bad enough" part is just criminally negligent - by April 20th, nothing was really known, and I have gotten more and more angry over people - academics - not using their presumably finely-honed research and analytical abilities to do research and to analyze what was going on in the case.
To then follow this directly with a concern about the publicity of the case, well, it contextualizes the first statement in a sad, sad way. When all this began, I was worried about whether potential students would come to Duke, given the hyperbolic characterization in the Rolling Stones article as well as the microscopic press coverage we had received. While Duke took a little bit of a matriculation hit, it was far less than I had expected.
Now, though, I wonder how many people we are going to lose when they see a school that is unwilling to do seemingly anything to stand up for its students in the face of unjust police procedures and widely reported prosecutorial misconduct that has been pointed out by one of our own law school faculty members. I wonder how many parents will be willing to send their kids to Duke when our undergraduate judicial system has elected to extend its jurisdiction off campus without really having the resources to do so in a fair or just way - a judicial system that put illegally-obtained ALE violations in the citizenship records of its students.
Sometimes I wonder how much longer I can teach at a place where this is the reality. Where the people that are, very rightly, asking for attention to be paid to the problems of race, and gender, and privilege go forth and tie themselves to a case of dubious grounds, and then have nothing to say when their colleague (in the person of James Coleman) describes the mishandling of our students' civil rights and when the facts of the case, as they come out, point in a very, very different direction.
Ugh
Certainly I have voice many of the questions this prof has had too.
Good post. The sad thing is that it is one of so few. Hopefully, something will happen that will encourage this articular professor to stay at Duke and work to increase the objectivity of the administration and faculty.
[More commentary and letters by Duke Engineering Professor Gustafson: credit via FODU site.]
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Dear Mr. Saunders
Gotta love freedom of speech, and the xanga site that allows me to have it. Here's a letter I wrote to News and Observer editorialist Barry Saunders regarding his recent editorial, "He's here to stay, so get used to it":
Mr. Saunders-
Having read your recent editorial in The Durham News section of the News & Observer, I have to say that I'm truly disturbed by the way you decided to use stereotypes of Duke students to further the divide between the overlapping Duke and Durham communities. The mock sendoff speech you attribute to potential Duke parents is simply a shameful way of reinforcing the negative, and largely untrue, stereotypes that the media continues to use in order to gain the favor of the ill-informed. Even the subtle jab at Duke's Northern population, "...Duke parents send their kids off to college *down here*" (emphasis mine, but I suspect also yours) continues the sad history of some Durham residents trying to make Duke "The Other" for their own gain, rather than a part of the Durham community for all of our good. Through your editorial, you have contributed to a strengthening of prejudice rather than using your talents, position, and judgment to effect some positive change.
Beyond that, I would like you to consider, for a moment, that some of the votes cast against Mr. Nifong, or in favor of Mr. Cheek or Mr. Monks, came about as a result of Professor James Coleman's very public statement that he believes Mr. Nifong has engaged in prosecutorial misconduct. I would like for you to consider that none of us in the community would appreciate the kind of treatment Mr. Moezeldin Elmostafa has received at the end of the blunt instrument that has been Mr. Nifong's investigation.
Sincerely,
Michael Gustafson
Posted 11/12/2006 at 10:45 PM
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/546943224/dear-mr-saunders.html
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Outrageous
Outrageous is a word describing something that causes outrage. The following quote from District Attorney Mike Nifong did just that to me this morning (from WRAL):
"The majority have been very friendly. There have been a few people who have not," a cheerful Nifong said later as he greeted voters in the parking lot of Temple Baptist Church. "There was one guy who came by with a lacrosse T-shirt. I didn't talk to him. I might have prejudged him _ I'm not sure."
This is a man who, my colleague James Coleman has said, has practiced prosecutorial misconduct in railroading three Duke students for a rape, kidnapping, and strangulation charges. This is a man who holds the lives of these three men in his hand, as well as twisted this community around his finger so he could become the elected, versus appointed, district attorney. This is a man who knows that death threats were shouted at these men as they were in court. This is a man who hasn't met with the accuser NOR the attorneys for the accused.
AND he has the arrogance to make a JOKE about that - about prejudgment? The chasm into which Mr. Nifong's professionalism continues to sink apparently knows know bounds. I am outraged.
Posted 11/7/2006 at 11:45 AM
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/545406710/outrageous.html
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/544349155/on-midterms.html
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/542488544/another-kind-of-silence.html
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/540973343/will-the-gates-open-wide.html
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/540231190/on-voting.html
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/538669180/letter-to-the-editor.html
http://www.xanga.com/DukeEgr93/548808875/ugh.html
[For the record]