Members of the Duke and Durham communities came together Friday afternoon to discuss the comforts and costs of security on local, national and international levels. Panelists paid particular attention to the harm in adopting an "us versus them" mindset that isolates those who fear from those who are feared.
"No doubt we derive comfort from feeling safe in myriad ways," said Srinivas Aravamudan, director of the Franklin Humanities Institute, who moderated the panel discussion. "However, these comforts are never cost-free."
Though a perennial topic of discussion, security has became a more prominent issue on campus since a student was robbed at gunpoint in the Bryan Center in November 2003. Last month, two female students reported sexual assaults on campus, leading some to question if the University's already intensified security measures were enough.
Others, however, have questioned if the school's heightened security alert is creating a rift between Duke and the rest of Durham.
"Some are wondering if Duke is trying to isolate itself from Durham. Others are wondering if Duke is using security as a pretext to do so," said John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, to an audience of about 50 people.
Susan Kauffman, special assistant to the senior vice president for public affairs and government relations, addressed Schelp's concerns, stressing that Duke has no intention of closing off its campus to the Durham community. She noted that the Duke Forest and Sarah P. Duke Gardens are open to the public and that hundreds of Duke students and employees volunteer in Durham.
"We are told by an increasing number of people from the Durham community that they've never seen Duke so engaged with Durham," Kauffman said. "At the same time, we need to balance safety issues on campus so we can ensure a safe environment for students to learn and work and for patients who come for treatment at the Duke Hospital."
Kauffman added that thousands of Duke employees and many students live within the Durham community. "When you talk about Duke, you're talking about Durham residents," she said. "It's a false dichotomy."
Panelists were asked to explore the connections between campus security measures and strategies adopted on a national and international level since Sept. 11, 2001. For many, this meant talking about the barriers, both physical and invisible, that have been constructed in the name of security.
Rania Masri, director of the Southern Peace Research and Education Center at the Institute for Southern Studies, spoke passionately against a wall currently being constructed to separate the Palestinians from the Israelis.
She noted that although the wall is being constructed in the name of security, over 100 Israeli officials have argued that the wall will not make anyone safer. "But what if it makes it safer?" she said.
"Does that justify having children play in the shadow of the wall? No."
Wahneema Lubiano, associate professor of African and African American studies, said Americans are currently living in the "psychosis of a fortress state, a bully nation, all wrapped in a false notion of safety."
The mindset of the nation, she said, inevitably affects the mindset of Duke, eliciting more fear of the Durham community than is warranted.
"We have more to fear from Enron and John Ashcroft and what they might do to the nation than what the rest of Durham may do to Duke," she said, noting that Duke is producing students who increasingly see themselves as potential victims. "Duke is doing its small part in training students to be bad citizens of the world. Fortress Duke, fortress U.S.A."
Lubiano said her own vulnerability and need for comfort could not be allowed to justify walling off her fears.
Stephane Robolin, a graduate student who is originally from France but who has been studying in the United States for many years, recounted a recent episode in which he was detained while traveling because he was not carrying proper documentation of his right to be in the United States. The spectacle of his interrogation, he said, served both to remind the citizenry of an invisible threat and to assure the public that the threat was being addressed.
"The appearance of security that is at play here is over and above the actual achievement of it," Robolin said.
He added that the incident raised questions of "us" versus "them" because he, as a light-skinned and educated foreigner, was released relatively quickly despite his inability to produce proper documentation. He wondered if a darker-skinned, less educated person would have been so easily dismissed.
"When the line is drawn between insiders and outsiders, who exactly falls in the circle of protection and who falls outside? And who gets to draw the line?" he asked.
A number of panelists noted that though the nation and the University have put a lot of emphasis on keeping danger out, many people remain blind to the dangers that come from within their own communities.
"It's still important to recognize that stranger rape or assault is not the most common," said Donna Lisker, director of the Women's Center. "By far the most common is one student on another, typically fueled by alcohol consumption in a way that is considered the 'normal' social scene."
Lisker added that while she does not want to send a message to students to be afraid, she sometimes wished they had a little more fear when it came to dealing with a familiar social scene.
On a similar note, Martina Dunford, executive director of New Horizons School in Durham, noted that people need to exercise common sense in order to provide for their own safety.
"People need to understand that be you black, white, Jewish or gentile, you should not be walking around the street alone," she said.
"Just please take some precautions. Don't panic. Just be careful and still enjoy life."
Dunford said the recent stir about security on Duke's campus need not be taken as a sign that Durham is becoming more dangerous and must therefore be avoided. "It may be a good thing that it's taken [Duke] longer to realize there's a security problem than it has taken [the rest of Durham]," she said. "But if the United States can come under attack, what makes you think Duke can't come under attack?"
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