Posted on 03/23/2007 6:35:33 AM PDT by SkyPilot
This is their story.
This is the story of professors who tried to listen to their students and sparked a shouting match that overpowered any original statement.
This is the story of how an 832-word advertisement in a student newspaper sparked thousands of vitriolic, misogynist and racist e-mails and became a national media spectacle.
This is the story of how faculty received phone calls in the middle of the night, endured mail fraud and overcame death threats for speaking out.
Many view the "Group of 88"--as the signatories were eventually dubbed by bloggers--as a symbol of the community prejudging the lacrosse team. Of the out-of-touch ideals of academia. Of hate.
They have been accused of damaging the very same campus culture they intended to address, of forcing President Richard Brodhead to cancel the remaining games of the lacrosse season, of spurring District Attorney Mike Nifong to indict.
How did it reach this point?
"When you take a political stance, this is what happens sometimes-people resist that," says Diane Nelson, associate professor of cultural anthropology. "None of us want pity."
"I, for one, did not think through all of the unintended consequences, nor did I believe almost a year later it would be dissected in the Chronicle of Higher Education and the subject of such acrimony," says Lee Baker, another associate professor of cultural of anthropology and chair of the Arts and Sciences Council.
(Excerpt) Read more at media.www.dukechronicle.com ...
"I had not had my coffee, and the sun was in my eyes. Once I sort of woke up and figured out what was really going on, I said repeatedly that we did not rush to judgment and presumed that they were innocent?. They only aired me mumbling something unintelligible."
Concerned Faculty
The following members of the Duke faculty have signed the Open Letter to the Duke Community, posted here.
Stan Abe
Benjamin Albers
Anne Allison
Srinivas Aravamudan
Lee Baker
Sarah Beckwith
Paul Berliner
Tolly Boatwright
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
Jack Bookman
Matt Brim
Bill Chafe
Leo Ching
Elizabeth Clark
Rom Coles
Michaeline A. Crichlow
Kim Curtis
Roberto Dainotto
Leslie Damasceno
Ariel Dorfman
Laura Edwards
Grant Farred
Jeffrey Forbes
Mary M. Fulkerson
Erin Gayton
Jehanne Gheith
Margaret Greer
Michael Hardt
Erik Harms
Joe Harris
Kerry Haynie
Karla Holloway
Bayo Holsey
Mary Hovsepian
Sherman James
Alice Kaplan
Keval Khalsa
Ranjana Khanna
Fred Klaits
Claudia Koonz
Robert Korstad
Pedro Lasch
Caroline Light
Marcy Litle
Ralph Litzinger
Michele Longino
Wahneema Lubiano
Anne-Maria Makhulu
Tamera Marko
Paula McClain
Louise Meintjes
Sean Metzger
Walter Mignolo
Alberto Moreiras
Cary Moskovitz
Mark Anthony Neal
David Need
Diane Nelson
Jocelyn Olcott
Charles Payne
Charlie Piot
Ronen Plesser
Maureen Quilligan
Jan Radway
Tom Rankin
Marcia Rego
William Reichert
Deb Reisinger
Alex Rosenberg
Marc Schachter
Stephanie Sieburth
Laurie Shannon
Pete Sigal
Irene Silverblatt
Joshua Socolar
Kristin Solli
Helen Solterer
Fiona Somerset
Roxanne Springer
Rebecca Stein
Kenneth Surin
Susan Thorne
John Transue
Maurice Wallace
Priscilla Wald
Kathryn Whetten
Robyn Wiegman
David Wong
Tomiko Yoda
90% plus of those 88 obviously have degrees in fields where their earning potential outside of a university setting would be just about minimum wage
"It's all a croc if you axe me."
PC = Pure Crap.....Ever notice how the feminists are all ugly? My theory is that they are feminists because they couldn't get dates w/guys.
As will those who are taking those classes as part of their Major.
"One tenet is that all sexual relations between men and women a rape."
Rape of the women or rape of the men ? ;-)
Sadly true. In my experience as a former academic with a Ph.D. in the social sciences, most universities have a hard-core radical Left (10-20% of the faculty and administration) that receives tacit support from liberals who make up the vast majority of the faculty and administration.
The liberals are afraid to speak out against the radicals for fear of being branded racist, homophobic, culturally insensitive, and worst of all "conservative". As a neocon, I learned to carefully pick my battles and choose my words. Nonetheless, I felt not-so-subtle intimidation for doing so.
The university system is slowly becoming Stalinist. Hopefully, this will cause its collapse.
Judging by her choice of hairstyles, I'd say she's got some issues.
Looks all the wascals from wight to Wong.
What makes these people think they have a right to damage the reputation of Duke students and fellow faculty members? Nothing is going to happen to these stupid bastards. Their only interest is in turning universities into leftist crapholes.
A check of names and disciplines finds that with one exception those who signed were members of the soft studies in liberal arts and social sciences. At the university level anthropology, sociology and such things as women studies and ethnic studies would just as well be taught in high school; the studies would, however, pollute the minds of those bent on learning something. I note that the one hard prof was Ronen (The Barbarian) Plesser, Associate Professor of Physics. Something tells me that Ronen, wo teaches something called "string theory" got his degree somewhere in California or Oregon.
This fake "diversity" was designed expressly to override the principles of the founders. The group of 88 hate the very idea of due process or individual rights. They represent the very thing the founders fought against.
Wow. That is some seriously twisted beliefs on the link you posted. That crap is actually taught in schools?
People PAY to listen to that babble?
Whew!
In defense of my profession, please note that only 2 of these leftists, one in math and the other in physics, are in the hard sciences. As I have stated on numerous occasions most scientists, engineers, and math professors are not subject to manipulation by the sniveling liberals on the left.
I do hope that the young men and their families sue each of the 88 hate-mongers for everything they have, and they are reduced to flipping burgers and living in homeless shelters. Compared to what they put the accused through, that would be just a little justice.
At the very least, every one of them should be fired and made to reimburse these families for all their tremendous legal bills, as well as a healthy sum of restitution for the young men for their suffering.
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