President Nan Keohane stood at a podium before the Board of Trustees Friday and offered a heartfelt confession.
Her voice quivering with emotion, Keohane shared a shocking admission of guilt in the University's handling of Pratt junior Raheem Bath's alcohol-related death.
Although she insisted that concerns about patient confidentiality and general sensitivity made it impossible to openly discuss the details surrounding Bath's death immediately, the president acknowledged that administrators should have addressed rampant rumors and capitalized on the teachable moment.
"In retrospect, we should have been more aggressive in our response at the outset, less sensitive to the immediate tragedy perhaps and more sensitive to the long-term implications of this particular death," she said. "We should have talked openly about this in December, bringing home the shocking import of this death as a cautionary tale for others, while the emotional wounds were still fresh."
Administrators have long believed that Bath's Nov. 27 death was caused by aspiration pneumonia, which he contracted by inhaling his own vomit. In December, Keohane shared that information with the Board and began speaking about the incident with groups of alumni and parents, although she did not name Bath specifically. But the true details of his death were not shared with students until last month, after a second student apparently contracted pneumonia in the same way.
"I believe that I missed an opportunity to use my office as a 'bully pulpit' for students who were seeking guidance and clarification," Keohane said.
Keohane's pledge for repentance was as sincere as her confession.
She cited a letter written by six university presidents that urged administrators to "be vocal, be visible and be visionary" in responding to drinking on campus. "I intend to take that counsel to heart in the weeks ahead, and I will urge my colleagues... to do the same," she said.
The open discussion of Bath's death came earlier this month after a series of alcohol-related incidents captured widespread public attention. Specifically, Pi Beta Phi sorority caught substantial heat when a letter to the editor alleged that pledges were harassed and encouraged to consume excessive quantities of alcohol. A subsequent mixer between Pi Phi and Phi Kappa Psi fraternity resulted in both greek organizations' suspensions.
"We have a serious problem at Duke around binge drinking, and we need to do something serious about it. We are not unique in this by any means, but that is not our concern here," she said. "We can learn from others about strategies that have worked to combat this profoundly troubling problem, but we cannot blame our situation on the fact that this is prevalent on other campuses. Our problem is a Duke problem, and we need to do everything we can to solve it."
Trustee Robert Richardson agreed that pointing out the national scope of the problem is an unacceptable excuse. "[This problem] is in our own community...," he said. "People need to be very aware of the dangers that can be in the short term, not just the long term."
The issue of excessive drinking on campus consumed a bulk of the Trustees' discussions, both in committee meetings and in a larger group discussion. "All we've done all day is spend a great deal of time talking about how concerned we were about binge drinking on campus," said Trustee Emeritus John Forlines.
The Trustees passed a resolution Friday morning expressing ideological and financial support for the Office of Student Affairs as it develops and implements plans to combat excessive drinking. Administrators are also considering ways to make students more responsible for the behavior of their peers. Specifically, Keohane said, fraternity and sorority members must insist that "binge drinking is not cool."
"[Raheem's death] has not changed with the passage of time, and our memory of him should not be dulled so quickly," she said. "Now we need to use the memory of that death to help prevent the deaths of others in the future. Only in this way can there be some redeeming meaning to the tragic, senseless death of a vibrant, life-loving young man at Duke University."
Jaime Levy contributed to this story.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.