Replies

http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/534132.html

Letter: Published: Jan 20, 2007 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 20, 2007 02:40 AM

She should talk

Regarding Ruth Sheehan's Jan. 15 column "Nifong made call too late":
How can Sheehan criticize Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong for his actions, when just last month she was attacking Cary Academy officials for not speaking to the media until all the facts were known [about a teacher's case] -- while she was the one speaking out too quickly? Maybe Sheehan should take a hint from Nifong and step aside.

Bill Wagner

Cary

http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/534136.html

Letter: Published: Jan 20, 2007 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 20, 2007 02:40 AM

Degrading culture

District Attorney Mike Nifong's sensationalizing of the Duke lacrosse case is reprehensible. If the rape charges were false, it is unforgivable. However, dropping the rape charges does not acquit us from seriously considering the values we teach our children.
There should be little doubt from the underage binge drinking, racial taunts, hired strippers, e-mailed violent sexual fantasies and past criminal offenses that some lacrosse team members would be no one's first choice to date their daughter. But to what extent are these incidents also reflective of our own culture's flaws?

We are bombarded every day by violent and sexual images in the media, many of which are degrading to women. To what extent have we become desensitized? To what degree do we dismiss truly alarming behavior and attitudes as simply youthful indiscretion?

The facts of the Duke lacrosse case -- regardless of guilt or innocence -- will disappear all too quickly from the media. Already the accused are being portrayed as upstanding, wrongfully accused nice guys who have always tried to do the right thing. I hope we do not so easily dismiss the past and its warnings.

Leigh-Anne Krometis

Chapel Hill

http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/534130.html

Letter: Published: Jan 20, 2007 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 20, 2007 02:40 AM

Agenda-driven

Cathy N. Davidson's Jan. 5 opinion piece shows how removed she is from the facts of this issue. The statement she signed with the other 87 at Duke is very clear.
I have a much different definition of "social disaster" than Davidson. The real social disaster here is to heighten race at the expense of reason. District Attorney Mike Nifong could not have found better friends than the Duke 88, who fed the irrational response based on one woman's unproven claims.

Who look the fools now? The backpeddling and damage control has begun, and this opinion piece is just one recent example. Instead of dealing with the facts of the false rape claim, Davidson continues to pound a racial agenda to cover for the ignorance of decisions made earlier.

The more of this mind-set that is exposed, the more potential students who will decide to find a less agenda-driven group of professors at another university.

Nancy McCaffrey

Fuquay-Varina

http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/534135.html

Letter: Published: Jan 20, 2007 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 20, 2007 02:40 AM

Poisoned comments

Regarding the Jan. 12 article "Venom has aftereffects for Duke":
Of all the insults hurled throughout the Duke lacrosse scandal, Tricia Dowd's vitriolic attack on Karla Holloway was among the most revealing. Lacrosse parent Dowd charged Duke professor Holloway with being a selfish, failed mother of her mentally ill son. [The article also quoted Dowd as saying she regrets her comments about Holloway.]

Apparently Dowd defined successful parents as ones whose sons urinate on neighbors' lawns, hire strippers for entertainment and shout racial epithets at minorities. Holloway and her husband, on the other hand, adopted a 4-year-old abused boy with a history of mental illness and gave him a second chance at life.

Choose your definition of success.

Marjorie George

Durham

http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/534129.html

Letter:

Published: Jan 20, 2007 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 20, 2007 02:40 AM

Out of control

Regarding a Jan. 14 People's Forum letter-writer who said the decrease in applications at Duke University may be because mothers are afraid to have their sons suffer the same fate as the accused lacrosse players:
Some of us are afraid to send our daughters to a university that lets student athletes run amok by hiring strippers and allowing underage drinking.

Donna M. Stewart

Raleigh

http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/534133.html

Letter: Published: Jan 20, 2007 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 20, 2007 02:40 AM

Siding with the defense

I am disturbed by the way The N&O, unwittingly or not, has presented lacrosse-case defense team accounts of District Attorney Mike Nifong's conduct as if these were fact. The latest example was your Jan. 15 front-page story headlined "Nifong conduct rebuked early." The headline appears to suggest that there were concerns early on about Nifong's conduct, and the term "rebuke" suggests an official concern, perhaps by the Bar Association.
However, it turns out the rebuke was actually a defense representation of Nifong's conduct. Anyone following this case is aware that from the start a key defense strategy has been to draw questions about Nifong's early remarks on the case, characterizing these as exceptional and unprofessional. What was missing was any outside substantiation of defense attorney Joe Cheshire's account of professional standards and norms. As it stands, you act as a conduit for the defense team's narrative and argument.

David Need

Durham

http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/534128.html

Letter: Published: Jan 20, 2007 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 20, 2007 02:40 AM

Naming the accused

Under no circumstance is there justification for a woman to be raped. But there is a flaw in the policies that protect the accuser's identity.
Until such time as the accused has been tried and convicted, that person should have the same protection -- keeping his name from publication.

The Duke lacrosse players' names and pictures have constantly appeared in the national press. How can they ever be compensated for defamation of character if they are innocent, as it certainly appears?

It is way past time for equal justice under the law to be practiced in all circumstances.

Dolores Collins

Kinston

http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/534131.html

Letter: Published: Jan 20, 2007 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 20, 2007 02:40 AM

Unequal justice

I find People's Forum letters about the lacrosse case very disturbing. The enraged outcry about judicial misconduct in this case was noticeably absent in the case of Alan Gell, who faced the death penalty as a result of prosecutorial skullduggery. Gell was poor, unconnected, without a prestigious legal team. What strikes me about the lacrosse case is how so many are so outraged about three privileged young men experiencing unfairness, and the level of vitriol and hatred directed to those who suggest this case is about more than legal culpability.
I notice that these young men (and their parents) insist on innocence without appearing to take responsibility for team members' behavior at the party on the night in question. Forget the team's culture of longstanding, irresponsible and unaccountable behavior. Forget the elitist, racist, sexist behavior on campus exposed by this case. Forget the larger context of violence against women.

Instead, decry with wrath and resentment any threat to assumed privilege while remaining silent about insidious injustice that happens to nameless people every day. My hope is that we might instead hold equivalent compassion and concern for everyone in this community.

Tema Okun

Durham

http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/534134.html

Letter: Published: Jan 20, 2007 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 20, 2007 02:40 AM

Faculty trouble

Regarding the Jan. 17 article "Duke post seeks to defuse '88' ad":
How much longer must the public endure the train wreck in Durham? Sadly, this travesty has been made even worse by the Group of 88 professors at Duke whose selfish antics only serve to create a constant atmosphere of discord, with whipped-up archaic fantasies of mass victimhood.

The only victims here are the three innocent Duke athletes, Duke alumni, and Duke parents who fund the often six-figure salaries allowed for these troublemakers to teach courses whose subject matter would make anyone interested in serious scholarship laugh out loud.

In the meantime, Duke might consider a new course of study. One that teaches the meaning of due process, the destructiveness of mob rule and the art of giving real victims an apology.

Duke President Richard Brodhead and his administration should work decisively to rein in this madness in order to avoid having to write some very large checks.

Debrah Correll
Chapel Hill

http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsletters/

LAX coverage unfair

What hypocrisy! Nowhere in your Jan. 11 editorial do you admit culpability for the rift between town and gown, black and white, rich and poor, private and public education.

You, along with Duke's administration, were the very first to join with District Attorney Mike Nifong in his vainglorious pursuit of a higher profile by leading a figurative lynching party against three lacrosse players. When this is all over, if there is any justice, Nifong will be disbarred, disgraced and both unemployed and unemployable.

Duke's administrators will probably reach a settlement with the families of the accused and should, but probably won't, lose their jobs. The paper will remain whole, and that will be a grave injustice.

Perhaps the next time, the paper will at least pretend to be objective and report events as they unfold, rather than play apologist for some incompetent bureaucrat simply because he shares your leftist philosophy.

David Highlands
St. Petersburg, Fla.
January 20, 2007

More media exploitation

There was yet more media exploitation of Durham's lacrosse tragedy Tuesday night. Paula Zahn of CNN swooped into town for another round of hit-and-run "television journalism." Zahn hosted a televised forum on race.

Those of us who work and live in Durham know this wonderful city and its wonderful people -- who come in all colors, shapes and sizes. Out-of-town media shills like Zahn know and care nothing about Durham, its history or its people. They've proven it innumerable times in the last months. Their only interest in Durham is to play on this city's tragedy to whip up their ratings and their paychecks.

It would have been great if Paula Zahn gave her "forum" and nobody showed up.

John Madden
Durham
January 20, 2007

Nifong's fumble

I am appalled at District Attorney Mike Nifong's handling of the Duke lacrosse case. It seems Nifong has been trying to make a name for himself at these young men's expense. The whole dirty episode has backfired on him and now he wants to turn the heat over to someone else.

After all that has come out in the news, it seems to me the girl should be put on the hot seat. No, actually, Nifong should drop the case and let all concerned get on with their lives. It's about time our prosecutors start trying to get to the bottom of cases and quit trying to make a name for themselves.

Well, this one has made a name for himself, but you can't print it in a family newspaper.

A.D. George
Hot Springs, Ark.
January 20, 2007

Tired of LAX case

The first thing Roy Cooper, North Carolina's attorney general, does after receiving Mike Nifong's request to take on the Duke rape case is to go on CNN and hold a press conference. All he had to do was issue a one sentence press release but it seems that politicians cannot resist the opportunity to grab their one minute of fame.

Sadly, this is all at the expense of the three young men who are accused. I hope this fiasco ends soon.

John Garand
Durham
January 20, 2007

No excuse for Nifong

Three years ago, I had the opportunity to travel to the Durham/Chapel Hill area a couple of times to visit a friend who was doing her residency at Duke. I found the area to be a great place to dine, shop and visit historic sites. After the Jan. 14 story on "60 Minutes", I was appalled at the way the Duke boys in the rape case have been treated by law enforcement in Durham.

I hope District Attorney Mike Nifong gets his day in court. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior.

Denis Crivello
Alton, Ill.
January 20, 2007

Not visiting Durham

As a Tennessee transplant in Ohio and a Democrat to boot, I am totally embarrassed by the prosecutor in the Duke rape case. Durham and Duke University are the laughing stock of America and the southern justice system. Anyone who would send their child to your county to attend Duke would have to be crazy!

Anyone guilty of the things the Duke students are accused of should be made an example of, but to not even investigate the charges or the credibility of the alleged victim and drag it out for 10 months is criminal.

Who is going to pay the legal bills for the accused? Who is going to wipe this rape charge from the memory of all the people these accused Duke students come in contact with for the rest of their lives?

It certainly appears District Attorney Mike Nifong was playing politics at the expense of three boys who only wish to obtain a degree from Duke.

The people of North Carolina should be embarrassed and most especially the citizens that elected Nifong. The university should be ashamed for their actions as well.

The common, decent people of Durham should be protesting and marching in front of the prosecutor's office demanding the state take action against him. How many other cases has Nifong railroaded?

Not only will my children not be attending Duke, I certainly won't be visiting your county anytime soon.

Monte Scott
Centerville, Ohio
January 20, 2007

http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/534131.html
I was not surprised to see Tema Okun speak out about unequal justice. I looked up Ms. Okun months ago because she is an active member and organizer of the potbangers at UBUNTU.
http://iambecauseweare.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/we-wont-believe-the-hype-by-bryan-proffitt/
"This essay could not exist without survivors, fighters, and lovers. It was shaped and reworked and made infinitely better by the thoughtful support and critical editing of Nancy Wilson, Tema Okun, Aiden Graham, Serena Sebring, Bob Pleasants, Michelle Lanier, Precious-Jewel Zebriskie, and Manju Rajendran."

From the ground in Durham, NC–an essay on the ongoing struggle to end sexual violence. Please circulate.

Won’t Believe the Hype

by Bryan Proffitt

The following essay is about the ongoing struggle against sexual violence, especially in the context of the last year’s events in Durham, NC. Readers should know that it could trigger difficult emotional responses among survivors and those folks close to survivors.

It’s been a dizzying couple of weeks here in Durham. Rape charges dropped against the lacrosse players. Another survivor’s life poked and prodded by a public that has little interest in her health or happiness. District Attorney Nifong’s scandal. Finnerty and Seligmann invited back to Duke in “good standing.” Survivors of sexual violence re-traumatized by public attacks and re-assertions of one myth about rape after another.

Those of us living here, and those of us struggling to end violence: we’ve been busy. Many of us are survivors and supporters of survivors, and this has been the perfect recipe for a few weeks of nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, and despair. We’ve been working to heal ourselves and each other, and building strength and strategy for the fight ahead.

In the media frenzy of this case, the lack of instant response has led many to believe we’ve gone away. Not the case. Our timetable is different. Our work is not the work of headlines and sound bytes. We have not gone anywhere.

Be assured. We will continue to fight until the violence ends.

We know that there are people across the country looking for a grounds-eye perspective on this one. Others are better equipped to come with legal analysis and media strategy, but for those of us focused on the long-term struggle to end sexual violence, here’s some thoughts. Please share them with others and take action in your own communities.

1) Sexual violence happens every day. We knew this when the charges first became public; we know it today; we’ll know it until the day it stops. In building a survivor-centered response, this has been our emphasis from the start. We know that anywhere from 1 in 3 to 1 in 8 women will experience sexual assault in the U.S. in her lifetime. Countless men, children, and people who live outside the gender binary are subject to this same plague. It is vital to fight against ALL sexual violence until the day it no longer happens. A crucial part of this fight is believing those who bravely step forward, every single time. This is the first step.

2) It is more likely to happen to people who are more socially, politically, and economically vulnerable. It’s no accident that sexual violence occurs most commonly among women and children. It is a tool to control, humiliate, and batter the bodies and souls of those deemed less-than-human by our society. People of color, prisoners, transgender people, sex workers…anyone historically denied respect, less likely to find sustainable employment, less connected to institutions of power (schools, government, the military, corporations, etc.) is at a greater risk. Every day.

The fact that the survivor in this case is working class and Black has everything to do with the reality of how this case has unfolded. From the lacrosse team’s request for a Black dancer, to the racist attacks heaped on her as she left the party, to the police officer who assumed she was drunk rather than in need of help, her race mattered that night in March. It has mattered since. She has been disbelieved, denigrated, spoken for, spoken about, and stripped of her agency; all without the privileges of whiteness to shield her.

3) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is real. Imagine the survivor of a traumatic car accident being asked for a second-by-second detailed account of a crash in which she lost a leg and watched her child die. Would we expect that she would tell same exact story twice? Would we call her a liar when it inevitably changed, as certain details became clearer while others clouded?

Anyone who has experienced trauma is going to suffer long-term consequences. Add alcohol or drugs, a disorienting situation, the stress of your trauma’s publicity, threats against your family, and your life’s story splashed across every television in the country the way this survivor’s has; most of us who are close to, or are, survivors were not surprised when the story changes multiple times. We know that it is a reality of survival of any traumatic situation.

4) The judicial system is an unlikely source for justice in the case of sexual violence. In five minutes the other day, I counted in my head the names of over 20 people I know who have survived sexual violence and not reported it. This is the case for the strong majority of survivors. Factor in those who go to the police and are not believed, and those who are believed, have charges pressed, and see them beat or dismissed in a trial or investigation: now you have the typical story of almost all survivors. After all of that, it’s not hard to doubt the legal process.

Further, once a case goes to trial, as we have seen, a person’s life becomes public property. Names, reputations, and lives are dragged through the mud as the defense works for a not-guilty charge, whether or not their client is innocent.

It is hard to believe that someone would make up a story, subject themselves to such scrutiny, only to face tiny odds of legal “success.” I can’t think of a single decision I’ve regretted enough to go through all of that for. For every hyper-publicized account of a false story, there are millions of survivors who never see justice in the courts. Success in a court will never guide my decision to believe.

5) The judicial system is an unlikely source for justice part II. The court systems in this country were created to serve the interests of wealthy white men. They have proven this time and again by denying American Indian land rights, disproportionately sentencing Black men to prison, and claiming that women cannot withdraw consent once it has already been given (see the recent case of Baby v Maryland), among other daily atrocities. The lacrosse players posted bail over $300,000, hired superpower attorneys, and relied on this system to do what it does best, protect their interests. I don’t believe that this is because of malicious bigotry, just a 200-plus-year-old system doing what it is supposed to do.

Most of us never expected that the court case would go far, and we won’t be surprised if ALL the charges are dropped. For us, the successful prosecution of rape charges and a rape actually occurring are two phenomena so different, they’re hardly on the same planet. When a Black woman is involved, historical precedence says that they’re not in the same universe. For centuries, Black women were considered “un-rape-able.” Same system, different case.

6) The judicial system is an unlikely source for justice part III. What justice can the court do here? If imprisoned, these men are at a greater risk of violence at the hands of guards and/or other prisoners than that of women on the outside. For those of us who want sexual violence to end, this is not the answer. Prisons are not around to keep crime from happening, nor “reform” those who have committed it. They are another way for us to legitimize violence and pretend that our problems are solved, when they have merely been relocated.

We must begin to imagine alternatives for real accountability. Throughout the world, survivors are leading community responses that challenge instances of sexual violence, hold people who commit violence accountable, and work to prevent it from ever happening; all without resorting to the violence of prisons.

7) Sex workers are human beings. I’ll say that again: sex workers are human beings. They are not any number of the dehumanizing names I’ve heard tossed about since last March. They are people who have responded to the wretched lack of options that capitalism presents them by taking advantage of one of the few avenues that may allow them survival, material gain, or happiness. One’s means of making a living, regardless of its social “legitimacy,” ought to have little to do with whether or not one is safe from sexual assault.

Many people who disbelieved this survivor’s story from the start did so because of her occupation. It meant, to them, that “she deserved it,” or that “she was asking for it.” No one makes similar comments when a construction worker is hurt in an accident or a police officer is shot on the beat. Sex workers, like Black women and other women of color, are often considered “un-rape-able.” A Black sex worker has a double burden here.

Similarly, many who believed her story did so despite her occupation. They pitied her and prayed for her. They still missed the point. There isn’t anything that a person could do, including taking off her clothes and dancing for people, operating a phone sex hotline, or actually exchanging money for intercourse, that would justify violence or any sexual act against her will.

By denigrating and denying the humanity of sex workers, we simply open the door for more violence.

Men find solidarity in violence. The day after the charge was dropped, I was listening to the radio. The DJ asked for women to call the show because all of the men “know what’s going on. She’s lying, lying, lying.” It could have been Bill O’Reilly or Bill Bellamy: across racial lines men have a perception that we are under attack by vicious rape-charging women. In close to 100 workshops I’ve run with men as an activist/organizer against sexual violence over the last 5 years, I don’t think I’ve ever facilitated one and not been confronted with this myth. Over and over again, we are willing to deny the reality of every fourth woman we know and take the side of a man we’ve never met.

Maybe we don’t want anyone to know what we, and our friends, have participated in.

9) White people find solidarity in violence. At the beginning, we heard, “they couldn’t have done it,” as though good-looking, well-educated, well-mannered white men haven’t been responsible for some of the most monstrous acts of inhumanity ever perpetrated. Then it was the “Innocent” wristbands around town, and the Duke Lacrosse shirts in the store at the airport. Now it’s, “look, the legal system is going to work this one out. We’ll find out the truth, and you all should apologize if you were wrong.”

Few of these people actually know these young men. Even fewer were in the house on the night in question. I’m quite certain these assumptions of innocence and/or faith in the court system to serve justice have at least a little bit to do with the guys that we’re dealing with here. These are our sons here, the all-Americans.

The history of white men’s sexual violence against Black women in the U.S. is well-documented. I’m not prepared to assume innocence because of these men’s whiteness.

10) These men’s lives are not ruined. I don’t envy them, whatever the results are. There will be rough times, prejudicial treatment, and a lost opportunity here and there. If they are, in fact, innocent, this is a travesty.

Their lives, however, are not ruined. Their position in society is allowing them the best defense money can buy. Duke has issued them an invitation for readmission in “good standing.” They will graduate from one of the top schools in the country (Duke or another) and immediately access the network of power and privilege that has brought them safely to this point. Given what’s been said about them in the media, they are likely to be held up as martyrs; heroes who nobly and stoically suffered a horrible injustice.

Having one’s life ruined looks a bit more like perpetual anxiety, nightmares and an inability to sleep; a disconnection from healthy sexuality; a lifetime of therapy, medical bills, and drugs to avoid mental hospitals; stays in mental hospitals; physical wounds that never heal; depression, alcoholism and drug abuse; eating disorders; suicide. Or simply having your life’s plans and daily activities controlled by the constant threat of the reoccurrence of violence. These are the realities of survivors that I have known.

Know that we haven’t gone anywhere. We aren’t going away because these charges have been dropped. We are healing ourselves and each other, and steeling ourselves for the fight ahead. We recognize that alliances will come and go and those responding to the bright lights of controversy will fade when the lights do; but we’ll be here. We will believe. We will struggle until sexual violence no longer exists. We will create a new world.

Bryan Proffitt is a Hip-Hop generation white man who belongs to Men Against Rape Culture (MARC), a Durham, NC-based organization committed to building the struggle to end sexual violence, and Ubuntu, a women of color and survivor led coalition committed to ending sexual violence. He can be reached at bproffitt33@yahoo.com. This essay could not exist without survivors, fighters, and lovers. It was shaped and reworked and made infinitely better by the thoughtful support and critical editing of Nancy Wilson, Tema Okun, Aiden Graham, Serena Sebring, Bob Pleasants, Michelle Lanier, Precious-Jewel Zebriskie, and Manju Rajendran.

http://www.masada2000.org/list-NOP.html
Okun, Tema (Tom Stern's "roomie")
Tema Okun (no "t" at the end of "Okun") teaches at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina in their Justice and Policy Studies Department. She is also one of the organizers and speaker for Jews for a Just Peace-North Carolina. She is also a member of the National Lawyers Guild which embraces every anti-America, anti-capitalist, anti-war, pro-Arab, anti-Israel, and so-called "anti-imperialist" cause in vogue among the far left. It has organized junkets to Israel/"Palestine" as a show of solidarity with Arabs. The National Lawyers Guild, not content to merely express "solidarity" with terrorists abroad, works to make the U.S. a safer place for terrorists. The Guild uniformly opposes anti-terrorism measures and laws, yet supports those who have engaged in terrorist or anti-law enforcement acts, including cop-killer Mumia Abu-JamalIt has also been at the forefront of American organizations that have denounced Israel's supposed repression of the Palestinian people.
Okun recently signed a one-sided petition for "U.S. Jewish Solidarity with Muslim and Arab Peoples of the Middle East"... which was nothing less than a full-fledged "mugging" of Israel!

http://www.pubpol.duke.edu/centers/hlp/about/faculty/okun-tema/index.html (photo at this link)
Tema Okun
Duke University, Hart Leadership Program, Faculty/Staff
Visiting Lecturer, Public Policy Studies
Tema Okun has worked with community-based non-profits for over 20 years. Her work as a staffer for the Rural Advancement Fund, the Carolina Community Project, Grassroots Leadership, and the Institute for Southern Studies has formed the core of her organizational experience, where she has served in such varied roles as development director, training director, and interim executive director.

Tema has worked with literally hundreds of organizations on organizational development issues including fundraising, long-range strategic planning, member and board development, issue and organizing campaigns. She has extensive development experience helping non-profits establish successful donor campaigns. She served on the fundraising staff for Harvey Gantt’s 1990 Senate campaign against long-time incumbent Jesse Helms, where she was responsible for coordinating major donor efforts. With James Williams, she helped to develop Grassroots Leadership’s Barriers and Bridges program, which worked with organizations over a three-year period to address race, class, gender, sexual identity and other issues impeding effectiveness.

For the past 12 years, Tema has partnered with Kenneth Jones and other skilled trainers at ChangeWork, a not for profit training collaborative, to facilitate a Dismantling Racism process designed to help organizations and communities effectively address racism and other oppression issues.

Tema has a B.A. from Oberlin College, Ohio (1975) and an M.S. in Adult Education from N.C. State University (1997). She also teaches at Guilford College in Greensboro in their Justice and Policy Studies Department.