Brodhead should not make excuses

President Brodhead’s letter in response to the anti-Semitic column by Philip Kurian shows an inability to set the record straight and simply level with the Duke community about a real problem.

Brodhead devoted much of his letter to an embarrassing attempt to put some positive spin on a travesty of a conference that gave a fringe, extremist group some legitimacy at the loss of prestige of the University and resulted in little or no constructive dialogue.

The one “positive” outcome of the Palestine Solidarity Movement conference was that there was no physical violence, only injured feelings. For that everyone should be thankful.

The words of Kurian were hateful. Brodhead should not be making excuses for the author of those words. He should be condemning those words in plain, simple language that informs everyone that hate speech is not acceptable at Duke. This is what a real leader needs to do, public relations and spin be damned.

Brodhead has only been at his job for a few months. But on this and other matters he has shown little in the way of a backbone. For the benefit of the University, I hope that he finds some strength and courage in a hurry.

Stuart Rojstaczer

Associate Professor