Player Files Lawsuit Against Duke University

ABC News ^

[fieldmarshaldj]

Eh, Eliza Jane never did anything for me... :-P

[vamoose]

Duke Prez Broadhead said this on March 28, 2006:

While I have urged and do urge everyone to cooperate with this inquiry, unavoidably, we have to look to the Durham police to take the lead in the investigation. Duke does not have the power to compel testimony from citizens of this city, and it lacks access to warrants, DNA records and other confidential information. I have confidence in the authorities to find the truth and to take whatever legal steps are necessary in the best interests of the community. “While we await the results of the investigation, I remind everyone that under our system of law, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. One deep value the university is committed to is protecting us all from coercion and assault. An equally central value is that we must not judge each other on the basis of opinion or strong feeling rather than evidence of actual conduct.

[emphasis added]

1. Brodhead urged everyone to cooperate. One of the consequences of that cooperation in Dowd's case was that he missed class, albeit in meeting with attorneys. HE was punished for those absences even though he notified the instructor beforehand.

2. Contrary to Brodhead's pleading and Duke's anti-discrimination code, Dowd was judged by Curtis, "on the basis of opinion or strong feeling rather than evidence of actual conduct."

[bjc]

Professor Curtis's writings and her subsequent actions with regards to the Dule LAX players indicate that she is an ignorant hypocrite.

[bjc]

Can anyone explain what the first paragraph actually means?

This is total drivel.

The books first few pages talk about the immorality of citizens of El Paso ignoring the suffering that is taking place in its twin town Juarez - at some level she is right it is troubling. However, what seems lost to Professor Curtis is her very real and highly personalized "oblivion and radical forgetfulness" of Dowd and other Duke LAX players. Like Stalin's slaughtering of millions of kulaks, the destruction of the Duke LAX players is justified by historical inevitability. God save us from such moralists as Curtis and her ilk.