Robert KC Johnson: Rushing to Judgment in the Lacrosse Scandal
[KC Johnson is a professor of history at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York Graduate Center.]
In response to the scandal surrounding the men’s lacrosse team, Duke president Richard Brodhead has initiated a “conversation on campus culture.” The first installment provided little insight. To Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African and African-American Studies, recent events showed that “we need an innovative and brave curriculum that will allow our students to engage one another in a progressive manner.” It’s worth remembering that only two years ago at Neal’s institution, a department chairman jokingly explained the faculty’s ideological imbalance by noting, “If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire.” It seems rather unlikely that Duke’s curriculum lacks a sufficiently “progressive” nature.
Indeed, far from needing a more “progressive” campus culture, the lacrosse scandal suggests that a considerable portion of the Duke faculty and student body need to reread the Constitution and consider the accused — regardless of their group identity — innocent until proven guilty. Moreover, if, as Duke officials have claimed, Brodhead seriously desires to use this event as a “learning opportunity,” he needs to explore why voices among the faculty urging local authorities to respect the due process rights of Duke’s students seemed so overpowered by professors exhibiting a rush to judgment....
Read entire article at Inside Higher Ed
In response to the scandal surrounding the men’s lacrosse team, Duke president Richard Brodhead has initiated a “conversation on campus culture.” The first installment provided little insight. To Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African and African-American Studies, recent events showed that “we need an innovative and brave curriculum that will allow our students to engage one another in a progressive manner.” It’s worth remembering that only two years ago at Neal’s institution, a department chairman jokingly explained the faculty’s ideological imbalance by noting, “If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire.” It seems rather unlikely that Duke’s curriculum lacks a sufficiently “progressive” nature.
Indeed, far from needing a more “progressive” campus culture, the lacrosse scandal suggests that a considerable portion of the Duke faculty and student body need to reread the Constitution and consider the accused — regardless of their group identity — innocent until proven guilty. Moreover, if, as Duke officials have claimed, Brodhead seriously desires to use this event as a “learning opportunity,” he needs to explore why voices among the faculty urging local authorities to respect the due process rights of Duke’s students seemed so overpowered by professors exhibiting a rush to judgment....