<p>There simply must be a segment of the Duke faculty that is suicidal.</p>
<p>The best spin that could be put on the original letter was that people had learned something from it and were sorry and the faculty weren’t all the boobs they portrayed themselves to be even if it was a case of better late than never.</p>
<p>Instead they have chosen “never”. Running from the “best defense is a good offense” and “the story was true even if all the evidence was fake” and the Nifong playbooks, they get 87! faculty to sign this new letter!!!</p>
<p>Why would any sane parent ever allow their child to go to Duke???</p>
<p>Either its the horrible place so described by the faculty, or the faculty is filled with the lowest kind of liars. Which it is is unimportant - its a no win either way.</p>
<p>“Either its the horrible place so described by the faculty, or the faculty is filled with the lowest kind of liars.”</p>
<p>I don’t think that those are the only two possibilities, but the third isn’t too appealing either: the faculty apparently has no respect for its own undergraduates and the culture they create at the school. That’s a problem whether said culture is actually racist/sexist or not; if the faculty is antagonistic towards the undergrads, or some subset of the undergrads, that’s inherently a problem.</p>
<p>I will be interested to read DukeEgr’s take on this new development. </p>
<p>Like I said before, IMO, it is a PR disaster. I don’t think a segment of the faculty is suicidal, but they clearly don’t care a whit about the public’s perception of Duke. Unfortunately, I don’t think they understand that it is those outside of Duke faculty who are paying the $40,000 plus per year to send their children there, and those parents may be leery of sending their kids to such a “sexist, racist, and sexually violent” environment. I guess when you are sitting fat and happy with tenure, you can say whatever you want and get away with it, or maybe they really don’t understand how they have come across. </p>
<p>Poor Richard Broadhead, how will he possibly mitigate the damage done by this “Open Statement.” I guess the next “statement” will be that, once again, they have been misinterpreted. </p>
<p>And that’s another thing- it really galls me when people write something that can be clearly understood, but when it causes a flap, they then claim that they were misinterpreted. How stupid do they think people are?!?</p>
<p>Did the original ad (to quote the “open letter”) “prejudge the rape case”? Or didn’t it? The ad is so poorly written that it could be read either way.</p>
<p>What does the “open letter” offer by way of clarification? The rather startling proposition that the “disaster” referred to in the original ad was not any particular event; rather, it was the campus “atmosphere.” Well, according to my dictionary (The New Oxford American Dictionary), the word “disaster” refers to a “sudden event.”</p>
<p>There’s only one possible grade for writing that is this confused and this confusing: F.</p>
<p>Does anyone know what this means? I don’t! It is somewhat perplexing that these alleged “scholars” are trying to teach our kids. :eek:</p>
<p>"Professor Lee D. Baker was one of the scholars who discussed the content and signed the letter. He says the group discussed an apology before posting the letter. When asked if the group had considered apologizing, he said:</p>
<p>“We had a long discussion about what the word ‘regret’ means, and philosophy professors weighed in and we had a whole range of very detailed discussions in terms of the etymology of specific words. We were disappointed people did not understand the intention — it was never to rush to judgment, it was about listening to our students who have been trying to make their way in a not only racist and sexist campus, but country.”"</p>
<p>As a parent, I have to say that the professors’ comments about the sexist, racist and violent campus would make me run screaming in the other direction if my kid was accepted there.</p>
<p>I had heard that the Durham community did not think much of Duke students as a group. Did not know that the faculty at Duke felt that way. I wonder how faculty at other colleges feel about their students and what their responses would be to a situation like this, had it occurred at their schools.</p>
<p>“I had heard that the Durham community did not think much of Duke students as a group. Did not know that the faculty at Duke felt that way. I wonder how faculty at other colleges feel about their students and what their responses would be to a situation like this, had it occurred at their schools.”</p>
<p>That is a great question and observation. I’d heard (anecdotally) from someone I know slightly in admissions there that the admissions staff has a somewhat condescending view of many of the students because they feel that there are too many athletes, legacies and developmental admits whose acceptance is an affront to the admissions folks’ delicate sensibilities, deeming those particular admits not worthy. I wonder if the professors feel the same way and how common that POV actually is.</p>
<p>“As a parent, I have to say that the professors’ comments about the sexist, racist and violent campus would make me run screaming in the other direction if my kid was accepted there.”</p>
<p>I know a real live student who currently attends Duke. ;)</p>
<p>This will be his third year there. He has never mentioned anything about racial or sexual tension on campus. However, he is one of the evil white (athlete) males. He has never been discriminated against in class. … I don’t think. </p>
<p>At this point, the loyal “anti-Dukies” can and will use this media inflated dribble to further promote their anti-Dukie agenda. (again)</p>
<p>Now I will duck and cover and wait for the flames… :eek:</p>
<p>“I wonder how faculty at other colleges feel about their students and what their responses would be to a situation like this”</p>
<p>Good question. My experience as a university undergrad was that members of the faculty viewed us with attitudes ranging from parental warmth to detached professional respect. Individual professors tangled with small groups of students sometimes (see <a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=98893[/url]”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=98893</a> for one professor’s view of final club members bringing chickens into his classroom), but I never got the sense that they viewed the student body negatively. Would I learn otherwise in the face of this kind of scandal? Who knows?</p>
<p>" know a real live student who currently attends Duke. </p>
<p>This will be his third year there. He has never mentioned anything about racial or sexual tension on campus. However, he is one of the evil white (athlete) males. He has never been discriminated against in class. … I don’t think. "</p>
<p>THis is one of those things where I don’t REALLY think this problem is anymore wide spread at Duke than anywhere else, but that the words would replay in my mind at 3 am (“what if it’s true?”) kind of thing. I just don’t think the professors’ words and letters were at all helpful to anyone.</p>
<p>Yet, as someone pointed out on another thread, just because a Professor at Penn murdered his wife, it doesn’t make all Professors at Penn murderers! </p>
<p>Remember that the President of Harvard was recently forced to quit because of his anti-feminist attitude? Did he show disrespect to half the student population? That’s what the media said.</p>
<p>“Remember that the President of Harvard was recently forced to quit because of his anti-feminist attitude? Did he show disrespect to half the student population? That’s what the media said.”</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t think he did, but that’s just me! However, a lot of professors signed the Duke letters. From an individual it might not have caught my attention, but such a large number has to mean something. What, I have no idea, but something.</p>
<p>Again, it’s all about context. First of all, it’s an open letter to the Duke Community, not to the entire world! The open letter states:
</p>
<p>I would definitely question the sexual violence part. (forum censor won’t let me acronym “what the freak”) are they talking about? How much sexual violence is there on the Duke campus? What does “prevalent” mean? 1 violent attack in 5 years? 10 attacks per week? Women plucked off the street by strangers and mutilated? Acquaintance date rape? They really shouldn’t just throw out a bomb like that without explanation. They complain that their statements are misinterpreted, but their language lends itself to various interpretations.</p>
<p>As far as the sexism and racism part, I believe these faculty members, from the AA and women’s studies department, would find equal fault in the rest of the country, even the world, and they do not see these problems as necessarily unique to Duke.</p>
Who knows?</p>