"Blue Devils Made Them Do It" - New York Times, 4.9.06

[Byerly]

<p>“What happens when a school sells its soul for sports”</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/opinion/09gurganus.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/opinion/09gurganus.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[alexatduke06]

<p>I don’t know, you seem to be eager to make a point though so why don’t you tell us? Sheesh.</p>

[Byerly]

<p>The author, a 2006 Guggenheim Fellow, has an interesting background, so you might, perhaps want to put his views in context:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.salon.com/books/int/1997/12/cov_si_08gurganus.html[/url]”>http://www.salon.com/books/int/1997/12/cov_si_08gurganus.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[warblersrule]

<p>Thanks for posting that Byerly. I found it very interesting.</p>

<p>

From north of here, this story must seem like yet another involving Southern frat boys run wild, besmirching the great-granddaughters of their own ancestral slaves. But Duke’s lacrosse team is largely recruited from Northeastern prep schools. The player who showed such lively interest in peeling skin off his next stripper has a white S.U.V. with New Jersey plates. </p>

<p>Though Duke is in Durham, N.C., whose namesake family made its billions in tobacco, most of Duke’s students hail from elsewhere. The university’s popularity as an alternative to the Ivy League has been refined in recent years. Students fondly call the campus Gothic Wonderland.

</p>

<p>

I know firsthand the good will of the Durham community. Through Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies, I have taught fourth graders writing and drawing. My class included professors’ children as well as children of the cleaning crews who nightly scrub their labs and offices. It is criminal that this sexual and racial accusation might seem typical. It’s sad that the university administration’s three-week silence appeared to sanction such acts. </p>

<p>I have also taught at Duke. My students have been exemplary. Certain young writers from my class proved idealistic enough to go teach at rough public schools, one in a section of Durham far from the calming sight of Duke’s cathedral-sized chapel. The level of teaching at the university is superlative. And it is done by actual professors, not teaching assistants. One-third of Duke’s students are members of minority groups. Duke is hardly the lily-white institution some suppose.

</p>