Duke Fallout Continues as Top Black Professor Resigns From Race Committee

Diverse Issues in Higher Education ^ | January 10, 2007 | Christina Asquith

[TBBBO]

From Diverse Online

Current News Duke Fallout Continues as Top Black Professor Resigns From Race Committee By Christina Asquith Jan 10, 2007, 08:13

The Duke University professor heading a university-appointed committee to investigate race relations on campus in the wake of last spring’s men’s lacrosse scandal has resigned from that committee in protest against the recent decision to invite two of the players back on to campus.

“The decision by the university to readmit the students, especially just before a critical judicial decision on the case, is a clear use of corporate power, and a breach, I think, of ethical citizenship,” says Dr. Karla Holloway, the William R. Kenan Jr., Professor of English and Professor of Law at Duke. “I could no longer work in good faith with this breach of common trust.”

Holloway, who is Black, had agreed to head one of the four committees formed by Duke President Richard H. Brodhead late last spring. She says she’d hoped to improve the racial climate on campus after a Black exotic dancer accused members of Duke’s men’s lacrosse team of rape and racial slurs — prompting a media frenzy and nationwide accusations of racism against the university and its students.

Since that time, though, the prosecutor’s case has all but fallen apart, and public opinion has swung drastically in defense of the lacrosse players. Professors like Holloway — who had condemned the players — are now facing criticism for prematurely assuming the players’ guilt and, ironically, making racist charges against the White players.

In her resignation letter, Holloway criticized the Duke administration for not coming to her defense, as attacks in the form of blogs and letters to the university newspaper have mounted in recent months.

“The public support [the administration] has extended to these students has been absent in regard to faculty who have been under constant and often vicious attack,” she wrote.

University spokespeople did not respond to Diverse’s requests for comment.

Holloway’s resignation is the latest turn in a roller coast ride since last year for those representing Duke’s Black community. By 2006, the Black studies program ought to have been stronger than ever, since the university spent 10 years — from 1993 to 2003 — implementing it’s “Black Faculty Strategic Initiative.” The initiative doubled the number of Black professors, from 44 to 88, and poured millions into funding the Black studies program, which Holloway led for a time.

However, some professors have claimed that the lacrosse scandal shone a spotlight on underlying racism on campus. The accuser was a Black single mother, working her way through college at nearby North Carolina Central University, while the three defendants were all White and from wealthy families. Adding to the racial tension, a neighbor said he overheard the players slinging racial slurs at the dancer.

Initially, many at Duke supported the dancer. Students held candlelight vigils on campus and 88 professors, now known as the “Group of 88” signed an advertisement in the student newspaper calling for the administration to take a stronger stand against the players. The administration “failed to recognize the racial dimensions of this and failed to address it quickly,” wrote Duke political science professor Paula McClain in an article published in the summer of 2006.

Also during the summer, six Black professors left Duke, although most said their departures were unrelated to the scandal. A university spokesman said at the time that 10 more Black professors had been hired for the start of the 2006-2007 academic year, but Holloway claims that number is inflated.

In recent months, the pendulum of public opinion has swung in favor of the lacrosse players as controversy and criticism have dogged district attorney Mike Nifong’s handling of the case. Multiple DNA tests have found no link between the dancer and the players, and it has been revealed that Nifong never met with accuser and hid evidence that would excuse the players. Not long after the charges were filed, many Duke students could be seen wearing blue bracelets with white letters proclaiming “INNOCENT.” In an October editorial, a science professor accused those who had not supported the lacrosse players of abandoning the Duke family.

“The faculty who publicly savaged the character and reputations of specific men’s lacrosse players last spring should be ashamed of themselves. They should be tarred and feathered, ridden out of town on a rail and removed from the academy,” he wrote.

Holloway says she was deeply shocked by that editorial, and the administration’s failure to offer even a note of support to her.

Later in October, however, the board of trustees elevated the Black studies program to a department. While the program already offered undergraduate and graduate degrees, trustees said at the time that the promotion reflected Duke’s “commitment” to its Black students.

Although Nifong dropped the rape charges last month, the kidnapping case against the three players is set to go to court this spring. Many speculate, however, that the case will never make it to court given the seemingly weak evidence. But regardless of what happens in the case, Duke is already feeling some chilling effects from the tide of negative publicity.

Applications have dropped 3.3 percent since the scandal broke, from 19,387 in 2006 to 18,495 in 2007. The university also received 20 percent fewer early decision applications this year compared to last year.

“We must work together to restore the fabric of mutual respect,” said Duke president Brodhead in a recent letter addressed to the Duke community. “One of the things I have most regretted is the way students and faculty have felt themselves disparaged and their views caricatured in ongoing debates.”

© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com

[Guilty by Association]

Repeat (sorry) post from the tail end of the last thread, re: http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/s...gepublisher.com

Shadee Malaklou's "piece" is all that and more, albeit a piece "of $hit" being the more. "Slim" Shadee is unable to see the world through anything other than the ebony-colored glasses her column so clearly illustrates.

I attended Duke twice: once each in the 80s and 90s. I was a Varsity athlete, and can assure you that I failed to witness women "throw themselves so ardently at men" (much to my dismay at having missed out on the supposed phenomenon).

Either the campus culture has (d)evolved, or I simply ran with the wrong (or right) crowds. My guess is that what Ms. Malaklou describes is, for the most part, a characteristic of the "self-segrated" demographic.

[JLS]

So are we now down to the Gang of 87 at Duke?

I think she is still there. We are down to at most 86 of the gangsters at Duke still as Mr. and Mrs. Baker left for Nashville. Other gangsters may have left too, but I have not checked that out.

[Red Badger]

Perhaps I should use the "/s" more often.........

[abb]

The judge presiding over the Duke University lacrosse case has ordered a paternity test to be administered on the accuser's child.
The order, filed today by Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III, appears to confirm reports that the woman had a child. In a December hearing, lawyers for three former Duke lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting the woman requested the paternity test to show the child was not fathered by the players.

District Attorney Mike Nifong said in the hearing last month that he didn't believe the child had any connection to the lacrosse players, but the judge ordered anyway that a test be performed when the child was born.

In another order, Smith directed that transcripts of a closed hearing be provided to the lawyers in the case. In that closed hearing in December, the lawyers and the judge discussed sealed records.

The lacrosse players maintain their innocence and say the accusations are lies.

The case is next scheduled for a court hearing in February

http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/530882.html

[Repub4bush]

Do we have the name of the Fiance yet?

My GPD friends won't tell me, because they think I will post it here. They also won't tell me how this arrest came about, for the same reason!! They know me too well) :)

[JLS]

The drop in enrollment is probably accompanied by a drop in quality of applicants as some people who previously did not think they could get in are taking a shot at applying to Duke. Someone on one of our threads said her student's high school advisor told them it would be a good year to apply to Duke.

[Howlin]

You know, I think I read that name on here or somewhere yesterday, but I cannot remember the name or where I saw it.

Maybe somebody will be along to tell us.

[Crawdad]

Jermeir Stroud was the fiancee.

[Repub4bush]

Thanks! I was wondering if I knew him, but I don't.

I wonder how long he has been on the force? Does it tell that anywhere?

[Crawdad]

I read somewhere 4 years on the force. He was also, the president of the NCCU chapter of the NAACP when he was there.

[OldFriend]

The lies continue unabated. She had a baby in December, she had a baby in January.

Seems there is nothing but lies in this case.

[abb]

http://z9.invisionfree.com/LieStoppers_Board/index.php?showtopic=1370&st=0&#entry7361244

Per ABC News' Lara Setrakian, who is in town working on a story to air after the case ends: Defense attorneys are expected to file a motion before next Thursday asking for sanctions against Nifong. Sanctions requested will include contempt of court, payment of attorney's fee (relative to costs of discovering the withheld DNA test results), and removal from the case.

[Alia]

Another article by Asquith in re Karla Holloway, she was going to "quit" three months after she was hired; and so I guess this latest "quit" is being used as an excuse to justify the "quitting":

Black Professors Under Pressure At Duke; Six Black Faculty Quit
By Christina Asquith
Jun 13, 2006, 08:14

Three months after she was chosen to head the committee on race in response to the university’s lacrosse scandal, Duke University Professor Karla Holloway threatened to quit yesterday citing exhaustion.

“I’m working on a culture initiative when I should be doing research,” says Holloway. “Of course you want a chance to make your campus better, but at what cost? When you are serviced to fix the problem and you are also the victim; it’s a double duty.”

By the end of Monday, Holloway had met with colleagues and reluctantly decided to stay on as committee head. But her frustration raises questions as to whether there is too much pressure on Black faculty at Duke to respond to the March crisis, in which a Black exotic dancer accused members of Duke’s lacrosse team of rape and racial slurs — prompting nationwide accusations of racism against the university.

“It’s true,” says Duke provost Peter Lange about the burden placed on Black faculty. “If you have a small number of African-American faculty, and a crisis emerges of the kind that emerged here in March in which African-American students seek support from African-American faculty members, and in addition the institution needs input from African-American faculty, then the burden on them shoots way up.”

Since the March incident, six Black faculty members have departed the university, most notably Dr. Charlotte Pierce-Baker, a professor of women’s studies, and her husband Dr. Houston Baker, a professor of African-American literature. Both left for Vanderbilt University.

All six professors say they left for personal reasons, and many had already made plans to leave before the March incident. However, the timing has led some to question whether an exodus is afoot.

“If these people start to leave, it creates all kinds of concerns for those of us who are left,” Dr. Kerry Haynie, a professor of political science who was recruited to Duke from Rutgers University in 2003, told The News & Observer last week. This year, Haynie has served on seven committees, including one on the culture of the lacrosse program.

...
Spending on retention efforts of Black faculty has more than doubled from $700,000 in 2003 to $1.6 million today, he adds.

Nonetheless, the loss of six Black professors is particularly painful given that the university recently finished an extremely successful decade-long initiative to build up its Black faculty. From 1993 to 2003, the university doubled its Black staff to 88 by offering financial incentives and generous research opportunities.

However, when the race initiative ended in 2003, it was replaced by a “diversity” initiative, says Holloway; and that was when Blacks “fell off the radar”.

...
In response to the charges associated with the lacrosse case, the university formed four committees — race, gender, alcohol and athletics — which meet weekly and report to Duke President Richard Brodhead. The committees will continue to meet throughout the summer.

Holloway says she decided to stay on the committee after she was convinced that it would have more of a voice with her participation.

However, Holloway says her patience is being tried.

[Howlin]

Yes, that's what I read! Gosh, collectively we remember everything, don't we?

I wish you all were in my real life.........LOL.

[Howlin]

Well, it's coming full force now, isn't it? Like a tidal wave.

payment of attorney's fee (relative to costs of discovering the withheld DNA test results),

That could be virtually everything since the day they were hired!

Joe Cheshire wasn't kidding when he said that they were going to pursue each and every person and event, was he?

[Guilty by Association]

"...does anyone know if the quality (e.g. SAT scores) of the Duke applicant pool has changed?"

We will be able to infer that from the statistics Duke will publish regarding the class it eventually enrolls. I would bet my bottom dollar that it will show a marked decline.

[Ready4Freddy]

Judge Smith's Order in December was a Contingent Order (contigent upon a baby being born). This new Order tells us that the birth has indeed happened, otherwise Ozzie wouldn't be signing it.

[abb]

Joe Cheshire wasn't kidding when he said that they were going to pursue each and every person and event, was he?

"Today we settle all family business..."

[OldFriend]

To what end a paternity test when the baby could clearly not have been parented by any of the defendents in this case.

Do the authorities have DNA samples from the New Black Panthers.

[Enterprise]

"The Duke University professor heading a university-appointed committee to investigate race relations on campus in the wake of last spring’s men’s lacrosse scandal has resigned from that committee in protest against the recent decision to invite two of the players back on to campus."

Well then, adios FOOL!