Free Republic

They are the Duke 88. Or Nifong 88. They are the leftists, feminists and fascists — professors all — who signed an ad in the student newspaper in April 2006 that condemned the culture of racism and sexism on the campus. They also bemoaned "what happened to this young woman" in the politically motivated lacrosse case. They have been conspicuously silent since the facts started to overtake the fabrications of sleazebag district attorney Mike Nifong. Nifong has been disbarred now, and the university has reached an undisclosed financial settlement with the three former lacrosse players wrongly accused of raping a...

As of now, the President of Duke has made numerous statements essentially chronicling the outcomes of this case as it moves forward. Absent is an apology to the lacrosse team for cancelling their season, to the lacrosse coach for firing him, and perhaps most glaring is the absence of a faculty statement offering an apology to the three students they branded as rapists to fit their own knee-jerk myopic world-view. If you are outraged by this, please let Duke know. Make them never forget the time and energy they had to spend dealing with this issue, or we can all...

Dozens of Duke professors have posted "an open letter to the Duke community" on the Web, explaining an ad last spring that has been widely criticized as a condemnation of lacrosse players. The new letter, signed by 87 faculty and posted at www.concerneddukefaculty.org, refuses to apologize for the ad and reiterates concerns about issues of race and sexual violence on the Duke campus. It says the so-called "Group of 88" ad _ published in the university student newspaper The Chronicle last April _ has been grossly misinterpreted. That ad has been a subject of heated debate on blogs and its...

The following letter was submitted to The Chronicle, the campus newspaper at Duke: To the Editor: We, the undersigned Economics Department faculty members at Duke University, are cognizant of the fact that, to date, the only collective signed statement by faculty members concerning the events of last March was an advertisement in the Duke University Chronicle subsequent to protests and a forum on March 29, 2006. We are aware too that the advertisement was cited as prejudicial to the defendants in the defense motion to change the venue of the trial involving the three Duke lacrosse team members. We regret...