Posted on 05/02/2007 9:30:09 AM PDT by freespirited
The following is a paid ad placed in the Duke Chronicle yesterday by more than 1000 people.
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The following petition was endorsed by over 1,000 Duke Students along with recent graduates:
WHAT DOES A SOCIAL DISASTER SOUND LIKE?
On April 6th of last year a full page ad ran in The Chronicle signed by 88 professors and 16 academic programs and departments at Duke University. Weeks before any indictment was issued, in disregard for due process, our own professors projected guilt onto our peers on the lacrosse team. In the ad they not only tacitly supported the accusations of the now utterly discredited accuser, but praised protestors who similarly rushed to judgment, while levying baseless accusations of racism against our student body.
In a time of intense emotions and enormous stakes, when our community dearly needed a call for calm, for patience, for rational and careful thinking, these professors instead took a course of action which escalated tensions, spurred divisions along lines of race and class and brought our community into greater turmoil. Their actions also further undermined the legal process and most likely emboldened a rogue district attorney.
WE, THE STUDENTS OF DUKE UNIVERSITY, DEMAND AN APOLOGY FROM THE GROUP OF 88
As students who love Duke we are ashamed by the apparent decision of these faculty members to exploit a tragic situation to further their own political and social agendas. As an institution of higher learning we expect our professors to provide a model of intellectual integrity to which we can aspirenot to act with reckless disregard for fairness, justice and jurisprudence, and then callously refuse to make an apology or accept responsibility for their actions.
For those who would argue their ad has been mischaracterized we offer the following excerpts, which leave no doubt as to the material it contained
Students are shouting and whispering about what happened to this young woman
If something like this happened to me what would be used against memy clothing? Where I was?
No one is really talking about how to keep this young woman herself central to this conversation, how to keep her humanity before us
To the students speaking individually and to the protestors making collective noise, thank you for not waiting and for making yourselves heard.
Some of the Group of 88 went even further in their ill-begotten rush to judgment. Some professors are alleged to have maligned lacrosse players in their courses; Professor Kim Curtis is alleged to have failed a student (with a 3.5 GPA) simply because he was a member of the team.
Other professors have made some truly shocking public statements, such as
Prof. Houston Bakers claim of Young, white, violent, drunken men among us - implicitly boasted by our athletic directors and administrators - have injured lives, and his remark that the lacrosse team may well feel they can claim innocence and sport their disgraced jerseys on campus, safe under the cover of silent whiteness. But where is the black woman who their violence and raucous witness injured for life? Will she ever sleep well again?
Prof. Mark Anthony Neals claim that, Regardless of what happened inside of 610 N. Buchanan Blvd, the young men were hoping to consume something that they felt that a black woman uniquely possessed.
President Brodhead has yet to come forward and defend his students against the assaults launched by his own faculty.
WE CALL UPON PRESIDENT BRODHEAD TO FINALLY STAND UP FOR HIS STUDENTS
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
Bravo!
Go Students of Duke!
Geez... Take a close look at the moronic statements by some of these so-called ‘professors’. Some of them are barely literate! Did they only hire those who have an inablility to use proper grammar?
Awesome development. I hope they keep it up. Maybe an appearance on some TV shows will help.
Isn't there an Alumni association that could get its membership involved by suggesting they withhold future donations to the college unless formal apologies are issued and maybe even ask for some resignations.........?
Good for them.
Exactly. Instead of feeling any remorse, the gang of Stalinists will further attack this group (as evil conservative backed). You cannot reason with Stalinists. They must be defeated. The only justice would be for all of them to be fired and their pensions revoked -- an absolute impossibility.
What’s the 88’s defense? That their accusations were fake but accurate?
It should be a lot more than 1000. A LOT MORE.
Duke has an honor code. It applies to students and faculty. It all points to the top; el presidente Duke.
Make them all resign. Boycott their classes.
Right you are, sand!
No way those intellectual meatheads are going to apologize.
You cannot reason with snobs either.
After all, they must be correct! My word, just look at all those initials behind their names!
BTW, does anyone know what PHD really means?
God bless these students for standing up for their school and against these faculty hangers on.
Here’s hoping nobody told the 1,000 students to hold their collective breath waiting for an apology, because as we all know thats the one thing a Liberal cannot provide.
If it has a penis, it must be guilty of something.....
Excellently written. Someone has done an extremely careful job. Not one word wasted, no exaggerations, and absolutely devastating to the pretentions of these academic charlatans.
Imagine the reaction to the following statement:
“No one is really talking about how to keep these young men themselves central to this conversation, how to keep their humanity before us…”
Reciprocity and equality are fundamental. Those are what should be "central to the conversation." Two wrongs don't make a right.
Prejudice and bias are as simple as assuming someone is either innocent or guilty, based solely on race, religion or social status. Placing one such group above another is always wrong, redardless of which groups are elevated or denigrated.
The group of 88 has been proven to be prejudiced and biased against young white men from well-to-do families, and should either apologize, or should be fired. If not, then parents would be foolish to send young white men to Duke University. Parents should make that quite clear to the Duke University administration.
The David Duke’s of Duke U. I guess the Klan is alive and well in the south.
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