<p>I think the bolded words are quite clear in their meaning...........as a quote.</p>
<p>Here's North Carolina Central's administration's response to the rape allegations. The response indicates that the dancer was indeed a NCC student.</p>
<p>"N.C. Central Rallies Behind Alleged Victim of Duke Team Rape
By Deneesha Edwards and Rony Camille
Black College Wire</p>
<p>North Carolina Central University is rallying behind a student at the school who allegedly was gang raped by members of the Duke University lacrosse team. The charge has led to suspension of the season for the nationally ranked athletes.</p>
<p>North Carolina Central President James H. Ammons said his Durham school would establish a student support fund for the educational and family needs of the woman, a 27-year-old mother of two who worked for an escort service to help pay her way through school.</p>
<p>In a March 29 meeting organized by the student group, VOX: Voices of NCCU, about 50 students gathered to develop ways to support the woman. The student organization, which is dedicated to raising awareness of domestic violence, planned a candlelight vigil for April 3....</p>
<p>"Our hearts go out to her, and we'll do everything to support her," Ammons said of the student. "We throw our arms to our student with moral and financial support.</p>
<p>"There's no place for racial discrimination or sexual violence," Ammons said. "We stand firm in our stance."
<a href="http://www.blackcollegewire.org/news/060330_Duke-rape-charge%5B/url%5D">http://www.blackcollegewire.org/news/060330_Duke-rape-charge</a></p>
<p>Hazmat, I know you're not an idiot. So please, state your argument clearly.</p>
<p>Stop hiding behind troll like innuendo and be straight with us.</p>
<p>On the contrary, I think hazmat's post has a great deal to do with the current topic. His background as an English (poetry) professor greatly enhances his abilities as a speaker, as the press conference showed. Brodhead shares the same values as Duke (unstated, but eduditio et religio?), which says a lot. For another set of Duke's values, I find this enlightening:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Peter Gomes, a favorite guest preacher here at Duke Chapel, tells of a conversation with then President of Cornell University, Dr. Hunter Rawlings. Dr. Rawlings said that in his first weeks as president, he had gone around the university asking people what held together a modern research university, for what purpose was the university gathered? About the best he could determine was that the university believed in two principles, two goals, excellence and fairness. These were the only two values that attracted a quorum. He did not say this with satisfaction, recalls Gomes, but with a sense of a weary coming-to-terms with the nature of modern academia.... It was not to truth or to beauty, not to goodness or even to light or to wisdom or virtue that the modern research university could commit itself, he found, but to excellence and fairness.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The behavior of many people on all sides hasn't exactly been excellent. One can only hope the actions are at least fair.</p>
<p>Re: The article about Brodhead -- I found it very interesting that his wife is a lawyer.</p>
<p>Wow, what a rough week for Duke. First Tyrus Thomas ate J.J. Redick for dinner. Now the lacrosse team has permanently damaged Duke's reputation. </p>
<p>It's somewhat unfortunate (although I hate Duke, so I'm gloating) that Duke's reputation will be so negatively affected, as the lacrosse players probably make up the bottom 25th percentile of the Duke admits. They are not representative of the typical, achievement-oriented student at Duke.</p>
<p>I found the story about Brodhead to be quite interesting and to stand on its own without comment. Of course people would want to know information about who is at the helm during this kind of scandal.</p>
<p>What was interesting to me was that the story did not include Brodhead's views on a univeresity's responsibility in building students' character and sense of ethics. I wonder if the absence of this information means that it wasn't that important to Brodhead or to the committee that hired him.</p>
<p>"I wonder if the absence of this information means that it wasn't that important to Brodhead or to the committee that hired him."</p>
<p>Oh...come on...</p>
<p>Apparently this is hardly the beginning of behavior problems with the lacrosse team. 15 members with prior misdemeanor charges. Puts into perspective the reaction of the campus. This may be more than one bizarre indicident from a handful of people.</p>
<p>The News & Observer's story March 30:</p>
<p>"In the past three years, about a third of the members of the Duke lacrosse team, under investigation in a reported gang rape, have been charged with misdemeanors stemming from drunken and disruptive behavior, court records show.</p>
<p>Of the team's 47 members, 15 faced charges including underage alcohol possession, having open containers of alcohol, loud noise and public urination.</p>
<p>Most of those charges were resolved in deals with prosecutors that allowed the players to escape criminal convictions.</p>
<p>On Monday, details continued to emerge in the March 13 incident in which a woman who was hired as an exotic dancer for a lacrosse team party said she was held down, beaten, strangled, raped and sodomized. When the woman and another dancer began their routines, the woman said, one of the men watching held up a broomstick and threatened to sexually assault the women, according to court documents released Monday."</p>
<p>The above is why I noticed the absence of information about Brodhead's stance on character and ethics in the article that's posted.</p>
<p>Clearly, character and ethics weren't Brodhead's priorities, otherwise he wouldn't have allowed his lacrosse team to behave that way with no repercussions. As long as they kept winning and nothing went public, it must have been fine with the administration, but that strategy certainly backfired now. </p>
<p>Now that all of this information on team history is becoming public, the administration's previously indifferent attitude puts them in an even worse position. If they had been more proactive and assertive in the past, maybe this could have been prevented. </p>
<p>I don't know if this has been posted already, but Duke started a website discussing the lacrosse "incident." This is the link: </p>
<p>For those wondering why a North Carolina Central college student might choose to be an exotic dancer:</p>
<p>"For many students at North Carolina Central University in Durham, money is tight. In fact, 70 percent of the freshman class comes from homes with incomes of less than $30,000 a year.</p>
<p>"You've got living expenses," NCCU student Brandon Sanders said. </p>
<p>"Then, you've got other stuff you need to pay for, and books.</p>
<p>"I just saw a good friend leave school because he could not afford school. It is kind of sad."</p>
<p>In-state students at Central face an 11.5-percent tuition increase next year. Chancellor James Ammons said it is up to administrators to find ways to help money-strapped students.</p>
<p>"It would be important for us to work to close the gap between financial-aid packages, the loans, the scholarships," Ammons said, "so students won't have the extra burden."</p>
<p>By comparison, 11% of Duke's students come from homes making $40,000 or less a year.</p>
<p>cnp55,</p>
<p>Thanks for differentiating between non-revenue and revenue sports. But 1200 is pretty easy to get and still quite a bit lower than 1400+ that average Duke student has.</p>
<p>Northstarmom,</p>
<p>When I said "caliber", I didn't mean just test score. Perhaps I should elaborate instead of just throwing out test score. I also meant maturity, sense of responsiblity...etc. These are considered by the admission through teacher evaluation forms and most Duke students are probably top 5% or even 1% or something like that in each of those categories. But when it comes to these athletes, the standard is lower (since test score is substantially lower, other areas are likely held to lower standards also). I know my statement is probably not very PC, but I don't expect *repeated" immature/stupid behavior like public urination (never seen any during my time at Northwestern), loud noises...from other regular student groups at Duke. That's what I was trying to say.</p>
<p>" I know my statement is probably not very PC, but I don't expect *repeated" immature/stupid behavior like public urination (never seen anything like that during my time at Northwestern), loud noises...from other regular student groups at Duke. That's what I was trying to say."</p>
<p>I understand. I imagine that as is the case with me, you also wouldn't expect that kind of behavior from any kind of group except perhaps a group of sociopaths.</p>
<p>Northstarmom - my problem with your comment above is that you could fill an encyclopedia with what <em>isn't</em> in the story about Brodhead being named president. For example, to take your words and change them slightly, "What was interesting to me was that the story did not include Brodhead's views on a univeresity's responsibility in researching potential cures for breast cancer. I wonder if the absence of this information means that it wasn't that important to Brodhead or to the committee that hired him."</p>
<p>The story was not written in a way that would shed all light on the administration's take on the particular issues involved - specifically on student leadership and ethics. Lack of a specific blurb in a single news story is not proof of a lack of attention paid to one or more issues.</p>
<p>Also - with respect to test scores - how do you know the test scores for the members of the lacrosse team are any lower?</p>
<p>"The story was not written in a way that would shed all light on the administration's take on the particular issues involved - specifically on student leadership and ethics. Lack of a specific blurb in a single news story is not proof of a lack of attention paid to one or more issues."</p>
<p>For many colleges, building character and a sense of ethics is a major part of their mission, so important that having that perspective would be the top criteria for a prospective president to have.</p>
<p>Also, one of the experts on leadership, the late industrial/organizational psychologist Donald Clifton said that his research indicated that having strong ethics is the most important characteristic of a good leader.</p>
<p>I've looked all over Duke's site and can't find its mission statement or vision statement.</p>
<p>Here are examples, however, of other colleges statements, which one can easily find.</p>
<p>Rhodes College (Memphis): "Rhodes College aspires to graduate students with a life-long passion for learning, a compassion for others, and the ability to translate academic study and personal concern into effective leadership and action in their communities and the world. We will achieve our aspiration through four strategic imperatives:....</p>
<p>(4. ) To provide a residential place of learning that inspires integrity and high achievement through its beauty, its emphasis on values, its Presbyterian history, and its heritage as a leader in the liberal arts and sciences."</p>
<p>Vanderbilt: "Vanderbilt University Mission, Goals and Values
Vanderbilt University is a center for scholarly research, informed and creative teaching, and service to the community and society at large. Vanderbilt will uphold the highest standards and be a leader in the quest for new knowledge through scholarship, dissemination of knowledge through teaching and outreach, creative experimentation of ideas and concepts.</p>
<p>In pursuit of these goals, Vanderbilt values most highly
intellectual freedom that supports open inquiry,
equality, compassion, and excellence in all endeavors."</p>
<p>Emory's vision statement: "A destination university internationally recognized as an inquiry-driven, ethically engaged, and diverse community, whose members work collaboratively for positive transformation in the world through courageous leadership in teaching, research, scholarship, health care, and social action."</p>
<p>I have scoured the Duke site and can't find its vision or mission statement. If someone can find it, I'd love to see it. Here is the part of the president's statement on his page that deals with his vision of the school.He does mention service to the community in his statement.</p>
<p>" I see Duke as an institution with the feel and human scale of a small school but the intellectual resources of a big school, with its excellent undergraduate college anchoring a full array of outstanding professional and graduate schools. Each part of Duke has its own character, but the parts add up to a coherent whole. </p>
<p>Beyond this sense of spirit on its campus, Duke is also a place that takes seriously its role in the wider community -- Durham and the Triangle in particular and North Carolina more generally. Duke's roots run deep, and its students share a strong tradition of service, a sense of connection with our increasingly global society and a love of the social experience of college -- as evidenced by their justifiable enthusiasm for our teams. "
<a href="http://www.duke.edu/president/%5B/url%5D">http://www.duke.edu/president/</a></p>
<p>Mission: <a href="http://www.planning.duke.edu/mission.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.planning.duke.edu/mission.html</a></p>
<p>Also - "For many colleges, building character and a sense of ethics is a major part of their mission, so important that having that perspective would be the top criteria for a prospective president to have." Agreed - I am just saying that <em>not</em> having a word about it in an article is no cause to wonder if it is unimportant - or rather no cause to imply that it must have been unimportant to the candidate and his electors.</p>
<p>Thanks, DukeEgr93, for posting the link to the mission, which I'm pasting below. </p>
<p>Normally when a president of an organization is selected, a major criterion is how well the person can help the organization achieve its mission. </p>
<p>Given the below mission, it seems surprising to me that the article in Duke's magazine made no mention of how Brodhead would assist the university in the character development of its students.</p>
<p>"James B. Dukes founding Indenture of Duke University directed the members of the University to 'provide real leadership in the educational world' by choosing individuals of 'outstanding character, ability and vision' to serve as its officers, trustees and faculty; by carefully selecting students of 'character, determination and application;' and by pursuing those areas of teaching and scholarship that would 'most help to develop our resources, increase our wisdom, and promote human happiness.'</p>
<p>To these ends, the mission of Duke University is to provide a superior liberal education to undergraduate students, attending not only to their intellectual growth but also to their development as adults committed to high ethical standards and full participation as leaders in their communities; to prepare future members of the learned professions for lives of skilled and ethical service by providing excellent graduate and professional education; to advance the frontiers of knowledge and contribute boldly to the international community of scholarship; to promote an intellectual environment built on a commitment to free and open inquiry; to help those who suffer, cure disease, and promote health, through sophisticated medical research and thoughtful patient care; to provide wide ranging educational opportunities, on and beyond our campuses, for traditional students, active professionals and life-long learners using the power of information technologies; and to promote a deep appreciation for the range of human difference and potential, a sense of the obligations and rewards of citizenship, and a commitment to learning, freedom and truth.</p>
<p>By pursuing these objectives with vision and integrity, Duke University seeks to engage the mind, elevate the spirit, and stimulate the best effort of all who are associated with the University; to contribute in diverse ways to the local community, the state, the nation and the world; and to attain and maintain a place of real leadership in all that we do."</p>
<p>Quick thing on our web-page -- they just redid it, and it was <em>supposed</em> to make finding things like that easier. But apparently the weighting hasn't quite caught up yet... For example, it would be nice if a search for "Engineering" or "Pratt" would have our front page as the top link instead of 10th or 8th (respectively). The mission statement used to have a clear path from the front page -- I'll let the web folks know that needs to be fixed.</p>