Back on March 25 Duke’s President, Richard H. Brodhead, refused to meet with the parents of 46 students under investigation for multiple felonies, including gang rape. He hasn’t met with them since. He’s never said why.
On May 18 racists outside and within the Durham County Courthouse shouted threats, including death threats, at Duke sophomore Reade Seligmann.
Brodhead said nothing then and has said nothing since critical of racists threatening one of his students.
Duke News Service recently confirmed Brodhead’s silence on May 18 and since. But it said I needed to call his office to learn why he’s been silent. Calls to Brodhead’s office in which I identified myself and my purpose have not been returned.
On June 13 the Raleigh News & Observer published a letter from Duke Law School professor James Coleman in which he said Nifong had “undermined public confidence in the case” and should step aside.
For the next six months and nine days Brodhead declined to support Coleman’s request.
Instead, Brodhead urged us all to, like him, do nothing about Nifong’s conduct; and thus enable Nifong to bring David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann to trial in Durham where Brodhead said they would have their chance to be “proved innocent.”
Now, a week after a disgraced DNA expert admitted in court he teamed with Nifong to withhold evidence favorable to Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann, Brodhead announced he can support Coleman’s position after all.
What’s more, Brodhead is demanding Nifong “explain to all of us his conduct in this matter.” Excerpt from Duke News Service:
“The district attorney should now put this case in the hands of an independent party, who can restore confidence in the fairness of the process. Further, Mr. Nifong has an obligation to explain to all of us his conduct in this matter.”It’s a plus for justice whenever someone goes from silence in the face of Nifong’s travesties to endorsing what Coleman and so many others have asked for.
But excepting that, I’m not cheering Brodhead’s statement. It’s too little, too late and obviously self-serving.
Brodhead’s demand that Nifong “explain to all of us his conduct in this matter” would have been very helpful last spring or even a few weeks before November’s election which Nifong won with less than 50% of the vote.
By speaking out last spring, Brodhead might very well have helped prevent a witch hunt and the massive injustices it’s spawned.
Even if Brodhead had delayed speaking out until October, he might have helped defeat Nifong at the polls. In that case, Nifong would now have just over a week left in office.
Brodhead has often said the job of president of Duke University is a very tough one. He’s right. But there are matters and events that come a Duke president’s way that are very important and not really so tough. Yet Brodhead’s managed to fail at many of them.
What was tough about condeming the "Wanted" and "Vigilante" posters that circulated on campus and in Durham last spring? But Brodhead said nothing. Those posters endangered the lacrosse players most but they also endangered the rest of us.
How tough was it back on May 18 to speak out against the racists attacking Seligmann; or to say supporting words to him and his family? And if for some reason Brodhead didn’t think May 18 was the right day to speak, why hasn’t he spoken since?
What kind of university president remains silent for seven months about events like those of May 18?
Brodhead’s failed Duke and Durham. He needs to move on. The sooner, the better.
18 comments:
Why do you think Brodhead has been silent for so long? Is he intimidated by the Group of 88? Will Melanie Sill now apologize for the N&O's inflammatory and misleading March 24-25 coverage, which not only played into Nifong's hands but influenced other media coverage? Will the reporter who "interviewed" Mangum be disciplined? Will The New York Times ever replace the embarrassing Duff Wilson on this case? Will Paxton Media realize what damage Ashley has done to the H-S? Will Gov. Easley end his deafening silence and criticize his appointee Nifong? Will hell freeze over?
I am just trying to imagine all the strategizing that was/is going on in B's office around this.
I'm wondering if the "innocence" of the players is part of the conversation.
Oh, and, someone should explain to B that you are "innocent until proved guilty" and it is not your job to be "proved innocent" in court.
You'd think such a highly paid and educated cheese eating Yankee would understand the diffo.
-AC
John, your comments are on point. Keep up the pressure on Brodhead. If he is principled, he will: 1)apologize for his falure to speak out months ago about fairness; and 2)resign.
John,
I am with you 100 percent. Brodhead failed us in a big way. He has to go! With him at the helm there will be no healing at Duke. He must leave immediately.
Duke alum
I have been taking hits on K.C.'s blog from an anonymous Brodhead supporter. Yet, as I look at the man's record, what I find is not someone with courage, but rather someone who does not want to be caught on the losing side.
Prof. Coleman showed courage; Brodhead demonstrated the wetted finger held to the air. Enough said.
Congrats John for keeping the truth about Brodhead in the center ring. His main concern is what to do about shoring up Duke's failing image nationally as is evidenced by the dropping application and donations rate. He will attempt to spin it as the fault of the "lacrosse case" but those in the Duke community know where the real blame will eventually come to rest - weak leadership. How can you blame innocent kids? (Oh yeah I forgot, for underage drinking and hiring a stripper). They are innocent of the charges filed; if you want to charge them with an underage drinking then that's the only actual criminal violation they are guilty of - along with 48% of all underage college students (http://camy.org/factsheets/index.php?FactsheetID=5).
Thanks again John. Keep up the excellent work!
My child applies to Duke next fall. I would prefer he do the honorable thing and resign before my child matriculates. Duke is much more than Brodhead and will thrive quite nicely without him. Having him around depreciates the value of a Duke degree.
Brodhead learned from the Larry Summers incident that he had more to fear from his faculty than his students and alumni (or so he thought). He now believes he has cover from the recent revelations of a conspiracy to suppress evidence and the dismissal of the rape charge. Since there is no "honor" anymore, I don't expect him to resign; however, his continued presence as President of my university serves to disgrace both.--Buddy
Brodhead is not strong enough to be a leader. He's a weak man who refused to even defend his own students' due process rights. I picture him barricaded in his office, hunkered down under his desk thinking up literary references or something equally unhelpful. He kicked the entire lacrosse team and their coach to the curb. He failed his students and he failed Duke. His grade is an 'F'.
brilliant post, cedarford!
what a wonderful sentence:
"THIS IS BASIC MANAGEMENT" [emphasis added]
jc
Brodhead's a coward. Cowards never act on their own. Who tells Brodhead what to do and when to do it?
A true leader, which B isn't, not only would have called for Nifong to "explain to all of us his conduct in this matter," but would then have added that "I too owe the accused and their families, the unindicted players and their families, the students, the faculty, the alumni, the Durham community and the nation an explanation of my conduct over the past 9 months," provided it, and then immediately tendered his resignation.
What a remarkable transformation on his part from his pathetic press release of Monday, December 18th until his press release of Friday, December 22nd. Has jic has pointed out, it has only taken him 6 months and 9 days to begin to find his voice.
President Broadhead -> exit stage left.
Every time Duke writes to ask for money, I write back that they won't get any more money from me as long as Richard Brodhead is president and Bob Steel is chairman of the Board of Trustees. I urge all alums to do the same
Of course being president of Duke was too tough a job for Brodhead. So has manhood proven to be.
The ugly truth is that Dick Steele thought that having a president from Yale (Brodhead's never been anywhere else since he was a college freshman) would somehow work some kind of Prestige-Magic for Duke. (It's obvious that Nan Keohane and Keith Brodie had more to do with catapulting Duke into the upper eschelon of universities, and now the double-parked Brodhead is presiding over its decline.)
Until Duke rids itself of this disaster of a president and this disaster of a board chairman, its reputation will continue to sink. I would also suggest the immediate dismissal of the Machiavellian John Burness, university spokesman. This is not killing the messenger; it is evident that Brodhead is so weak and panicked the messenger is creating as well as delivering the message.
As the parent of two Duke grads, I am disgusted at the performance of Duke's president and agree that having Brodhead continue in that office devalues their degrees.
It seems imperative that the troika of Brodhead, Steele, and Burness be removed, forcibly if necessary, at once. They embody the perfect storm of disgrace, being both shameful and shameless men.
Sadly, I expected that a major, national news conference would be held by President Brodhead in reaction to the changes in the lacrosse case as of Friday, December 15th's news that the young men had been exonerated of rape charges by the lack of any DNA. I expected something along the lines of Mr. Cheshire's strong and impressive news conference that same day. Because there was no reaction apart from a short, equivocal and impersonal reiteration of prior weak comments, I too am convinced that Mr. Brodhead is no leader. I never thought in a million years that I would be embarrassed that both of my offspring are attending Duke University.
I certainly hope that President Brodhead makes a public announcement soon about Duke's support of the three young men, and that the university also brings enormous public pressure to bear in terms of getting the charges dismissed as soon as possible. I also want to hear in his news conference what Duke is doing to change the predatory nature of the Duke student police arrests in Durham, what Duke needs from Durham to guarantee the safety of Duke students when off campus in such an anti Duke town environment, and I want to know what Duke is doing in terms of a formal response to faculty members whose credentials are suspect and academically lightweight. Every day that goes by without this kind of a strong, public and forcefully directed response has reduced my faith in Duke University. Mr. Brodhead has not been an effective leader for this entire regrettable situation.
Lastly, I will look forward to Mr. Brodhead's resignation, a change at the helm of the Board, and a change in the job status of several of the Group of 88. As part of my agreeing to pay the extreme, life altering tuition, I have asked my children to refrain from taking any courses with the 88. We pay for those professors' salaries with dollars earned the old fashioned way, and that does not please me at all.
Well said.
How can we pay for our sons and daughters to go to a school with a coward at the helm.
Shame on Dick Brodhead.
He should be disgraced and his family should go through the embarassment that was thrust upon the innocent.
The gang of 88: History profs, English profs, "university writing"-a bunch of TA's with a social agenda. These are the Pharisees of the college of arts and crafts, and Brodhead is Pontius Pilate.
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