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April 5, 2006
A Letter to the Duke Community
I want to speak to the issue that is troubling our community and
announce five steps we are taking to address it.
Allegations against members of the Duke lacrosse team stemming from
the party on the evening of March 13 have deeply troubled me and
everyone else at this university and our surrounding city. We can't be
surprised at the outpouring of outrage. Rape is the substitution of
raw power for love, brutality for tenderness, and dehumanization for
intimacy. It is also the crudest assertion of inequality, a way to
show that the strong are superior to the weak and can rightfully use
them as the objects of their pleasure. When reports of racial abuse
are added to the mix, the evil is compounded, reviving memories of the
systematic racial oppression we had hoped to have left behind us.
If the allegations are verified, what happened would be a deep
violation of fundamental ethical principles and among the most serious
crimes known to the legal system. Such conduct is completely
unacceptable both within the university and in our society at
large. If the truth of the allegations is upheld, it will call for
severe punishment from the courts and from Duke's disciplinary
system. This university has cooperated and will continue to cooperate
to the fullest to speed the ongoing investigation by the police, and I
pledge that Duke will respond with appropriate seriousness when the
truth is established.
But it is clear that the acts the police are investigating are only
part of the problem. This episode has touched off angers, fears,
resentments, and suspicions that range far beyond this immediate
cause. It has done so because the episode has brought to glaring
visibility underlying issues that have been of concern on this campus
and in this town for some time -- issues that are not unique to Duke or
Durham but that have been brought to the fore in our midst. They
include concerns of women about sexual coercion and assault. They
include concerns about the culture of certain student groups that
regularly abuse alcohol and the attitudes these groups promote. They
include concerns about the survival of the legacy of racism, the most
hateful feature American history has produced.
Compounding and intensifying these issues of race and gender, they
include concerns about the deep structures of inequality in our
society -- inequalities of wealth, privilege, and opportunity (including
educational opportunity), and the attitudes of superiority those
inequalities breed. And they include concerns that, whether they
intend to or not, universities like Duke participate in this
inequality and supply a home for a culture of privilege. The objection
of our East Campus neighbors was a reaction to an attitude of arrogant
inconsiderateness that reached its peak in the alleged event but that
had long preceded it. I know that to many in our community, this
student behavior has seemed to be the face of Duke.
Given the history of this campus and city, this has been particularly
painful. Only forty years ago, the first African American student was
admitted to Duke and at that time men and women lived on separate
campuses. Today, more than one-third of Duke undergraduates are
members of minority groups. Many, many dedicated members of the Duke
and Durham communities have worked hard to bring us all forward. Duke
has worked to be a good neighbor, supporting health care, K-12
education, affordable housing, neighborhood stabilization, and
economic development through the Duke-Durham Neighborhood
Partnership. Duke is not, as some have reported, just an institution
for the children of wealthy families. This university admits
undergraduates without regard to their family's ability to pay, and we
invest more than $50 million a year to enable the 40% of students who
receive grant aid to afford a Duke education. Duke's Women's
Initiative, launched by my predecessor Nannerl Keohane, took the
national lead in exploring issues of gender inequality across the
university. Perhaps most important, I know -- and I suspect our students'
harshest critics know too -- that the huge majority of Duke students are
well-behaved and good-hearted, and many work hard for the larger
social good.
But if the dark aspect is not the whole truth, this is not a moment to
take comfort or mount defenses. To get the good of the current
situation, we all need to face up to the profoundly serious issues
that recent events have brought to light and address them in a
positive, substantive, and ongoing way. If none of these issues is
peculiar to Duke, that's no reason why we should refuse to address
them in our midst. As we decide what steps to take, let me underline
the values that must govern our actions.
The university is guided by the principles of openness, inclusiveness,
mutual toleration, and mutual respect. Everything that furthers these
causes advances our ability to work together toward the truth no
individual or group can reach alone. Everything that hinders these
causes retards the search for wisdom and knowledge. The university is
also founded on the principle that we have an obligation to seek the
truth, and that truth is established through evidence and disciplined
inquiry. Reaching certainty without evidence or process is a double
wrong in a university because it opens the door to injustice and
violates our commitment to the truth.
In keeping with these values, I want to announce five steps Duke will
take to address the issues before us. Some will be accomplished in a
short period of time; others will require our sustained attention.
1. Investigation of men's lacrosse. In regard to men's lacrosse, I
have announced today that the men's lacrosse season and all associated
activities have been cancelled. Lacrosse coach Mike Pressler
submitted his resignation today to Athletics Director Joe Alleva and
it was accepted, effective immediately.
The criminal allegations against members of the team must continue to
be investigated by the Durham police and we will continue to cooperate
with that investigation to the fullest. Many have urged me to have
Duke conduct its own inquiry into these charges. Frustrating though it
is, Duke must defer its own investigation until the police inquiry is
completed, first because the police have access to key witnesses,
warrants, and information that we lack, and second because our
concurrent questioning could create a risk of complications -- for
instance, charges of witness tampering -- that could negatively affect
the legal proceedings. I assure you, however, that the Duke
disciplinary system will be brought to bear as soon as this can
appropriately be done. Until that time, I urge us to be patient and
remind ourselves that allegations have been made, the team has denied
them, and we must wait until the authorities act before reaching any
judgment in the criminal case.
Quite separate from the criminal allegations, there have been reports
of persistent problems involving the men's lacrosse team, including
racist language and a pattern of alcohol abuse and disorderly
behavior. These are quite separate from the criminal allegations, and
these we will address at once. The Athletic Council, the body with
oversight of athletics in Duke's governance system, is the right group
to perform this investigation. The Executive Committee of the Academic
Council and I have asked a faculty subcommittee of the Athletic
Council to investigate all the evidence regarding objectionable
behavior prior to March 13. The intention here is not to single out
the behavior of individuals but to understand the extent to which the
cumulative behavior of many over a number of years signifies a deeper
problem for which significant corrective actions are called for. I
have asked this group to report its findings and to make any
recommendations it may have by May 1. I am pleased that Professor
James Coleman of the Duke Law School, an Athletic Council member, has
agreed to chair this committee.
2. Investigation of Duke Administration Response. I have heard a good
deal of criticism of the Duke administration for being slow to respond
to the allegations against the team associated with March 13. At
meetings with faculty, students, community members, and others, I have
explained why it took time to know how to respond: we learned the full
magnitude of the allegations only gradually, as police and other
information was reported in the media, and indeed it appears it took
the police themselves some time to understand the nature of the case.
Nevertheless, I want to address the concern that my administration did
not respond as quickly as we should have and to learn any lessons this
episode can teach. To that end, I have asked two individuals with
outstanding experience in higher education and civil rights to look
into the role of the Duke administration and Duke Athletics in
handling this episode. I am grateful to William Bowen, President of
the Andrew Mellon Foundation and former President of Princeton
University, and Julius Chambers, former Director-Counsel of the NAACP
Legal Defense and Educational Fund and past Chancellor of North
Carolina Central University, for agreeing to take on this task. They
have agreed to report their findings and make any recommendations to
me by May 15.
3. Examination of student judicial process and practices. Questions
have been raised within the Duke and Durham communities about the way
Duke deals with problems of student behavior and the applicability of
our Community Standard to social life. The Executive Committee of the
Academic Council has charged the Council's Student Affairs Committee,
chaired by Professor Prasad Kasibhatla, to study Duke's existing
judicial processes and practices for students and make any
recommendations for change to the administration and faculty by June
1.
4. Campus Culture Initiative. Duke traditionally has given its
students a great deal of freedom, but at times the exercise of that
freedom is not matched with a commensurate sense of responsibility. We
must be concerned about issues of campus culture this episode has
raised quite apart from the lacrosse team. This is a time for Duke to
take a hard look at our institutional practices to assess the extent
to which they do, or do not, promote the values we expect students to
live by.
I have asked Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Dean of
Trinity College Robert Thompson to direct a Campus Culture Initiative
involving faculty, students, and staff. The task of the Initiative is
to evaluate and suggest improvements in the ways Duke educates
students in the values of personal responsibility, consideration for
others, and mutual respect in the face of difference and
disagreement. The goal of this initiative is not to tell students
"what to think" in some simplistic or doctrinaire way. Nevertheless,
this is our chance to take the ethical dimension of education much
more seriously than heretofore. An important task of the Initiative
will be to enlist the faculty more fully in this broader work of
education. Since we need to engage the whole of the student population
in this process, we will also need to involve all of Duke's
overlapping student groups and communities and learn how they can be
parts of the solution.
Although the academic year will soon draw to a close, I believe the
Initiative's work should begin this spring. We should not lose the
chance for education in large and small groups supplied by this moment
of heightened sensitivity. Some work can be done over the coming
summer, and we are looking to pioneer a period of focused engagement
on campus issues for upper class students in the fall. In honesty,
some of the Initiative's work will require long-lasting attention and
is unsusceptible to any quick fix. This would include promoting a more
responsible approach to the culture of campus drinking, a major factor
in Duke's recent crisis and the source of much bad college conduct
throughout the United States. I have asked Vice Provost Thompson to
report on the Initiative's progress at the end of this term and again
in the fall.
5. Presidential Council In addition to these steps aimed at the
lacrosse team culture and our larger student culture, I will convene a
presidential council to give advice and offer guidance to me and the
Board of Trustees. This group will be made up of wise figures from
within the university community, from the larger Duke family, from the
national higher education community, and from the city of Durham. I
will ask it to receive and critique our internal policies and
self-assessments regarding the promotion of these central values; to
inform our on-campus efforts with the best practices in other
university settings; and to consider ways that Duke and its community
can work yet more closely to promote these values in a larger social
setting. Emeriti Trustees Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke, Provost and Vice
President of Academic Affairs of the University of the District of
Columbia, and Roy Bostock, Chairman of The Partnership for a Drug-Free
America, have agreed to chair and I plan to convene the first meeting
of the Council this spring.
In addition to these five steps, I look forward to continuing a
dialogue with leaders in Durham and at North Carolina Central
University. I'm indebted to Mayor Bill Bell for hosting a meeting on
the Duke campus last week that brought together many African American
leaders to discuss the incident of March 13. We concluded that
meeting with the resolve to meet again; I look forward to further
discussions with this group and others at the next meeting, which my
colleague NCCU Chancellor James Ammons has offered to host. Durham is
a proud city with a rich history and a diverse population that
responds to the challenges of the day better than many other cities in
this country. I'm resolved to seize the moment to do what I can to
strengthen what is in many aspects, but surely not all, a positive
relationship between our university and city.
Nobody wishes trouble on one's house and I regret the trouble that
this incident has brought to Duke and Durham. But when trouble
arrives, it's the test of a community and its leaders to deal with it
honestly, act accordingly and learn from it. This is a deeply
emotional time as well as a rare opportunity for education -- for our
students, faculty, administrators, and members of our community.
Let's move forward with a serious commitment to make progress on the
many complex issues that confront us now.
Richard H. Brodhead
President
Duke University My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide
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