Faculty should stand by its students

As I watched Duke University's men's basketball team fall to its arch-nemesis North Carolina Tar Heels last week, I could not help but recall the sordid affair that unfolded at that gothic enclave in Durham just under a year ago. I speak not of the drunken lacrosse parties or the procurement of exotic entertainment that held the nation's media captive. I am referring to the disgraceful aftermath: the despicable political maneuverings, the unleashed intellectual egotism and the eager media that forever tarnished the lives of three young men who, though certainly not exemplary, were convincingly shown as not guilty. The disturbing series of events has been retold by Charlotte Allen in her article, "Duke's Tenured Vigilantes," in The Weekly Standard.

Without considering the potential innocence of their students, the postmodern elite among the faculty at Duke sprung into action, unleashing a torrent of intellectually stylish buzz words such as "race," "class," "gender" and the granddaddy of them all: "white male privilege." It was irrelevant that the case against the students deteriorated daily; it was irrelevant that the accused were members of the Duke community and, as such, might be entitled to respect and support; and it was irrelevant that the young men were innocent until proven guilty. Their status as wealthy Caucasian males was enough to pass judgment on their actions and their character.

Within a few weeks of the allegation, apparently outraged faculty members seized the opportunity to promote their radical leftist ideology of racial, sexual and financial oppression in the local press. Allen makes a convincing case that the rush judgment by the faculty enabled both the district attorney and the national media to forge onward with their own crusades against the hapless lacrosse players.

Some of the statements provided by Allen show the intellectual arrogance of the faculty who appointed themselves judge, jury and executioner. English professor Houston Baker, only two weeks after the incident, when the facts of any criminal case are still in doubt, decried the "abhorrent sexual assault, verbal racial violence and drunken white male privilege loosed amongst us." In an online article published several weeks after the events, when the players' guilt was most in doubt, African-American studies professor Karla Holloway published a disturbing suggestion. She wrote that "judgments about the issues of race and gender... cannot be left to the courtroom." This sentiment that only the intellectual elite have the ability to determine true innocence and guilt was echoed by literature professor Wahneema Lubiano, who termed the accused "perfect offenders" by virtue of their racial, sexual and economic status.

Three weeks after the infamous party, 88 members the Duke faculty signed a full-page advertisement in the student newspaper essentially endorsing the accuser's account of the "crime" and suggesting campus protests. The result were displays of self-righteousness by students, the New Black Panther Party and allegedly some faculty members who "shouted 'rapists' and 'time to confess,' hurled death threats and distributed 'Wanted' posters bearing the photographs of all 46 white lacrosse players."

One would hope that now, after the accuser and the prosecutor have been discredited and the allegations have been all but obliterated, the faculty who encouraged this shameful display would have the humility to acknowledge their error. Many of those who signed the original document have endorsed a new letter, published only a few weeks ago, which pompously rejects all requests for apology or retraction.

The award, however, for the most childish response to the players' innocence must go to English professor Cathy Davidson, who absolved all responsibility for the disgraceful actions of the faculty, judging, according to Allen, "that the real 'social disaster' in the Duke case was that '18 percent of the American population lives below the poverty line' and 'women's salaries for similar jobs are substantially less than men's.'"

No, Professor Davidson, the real social disaster is that the Duke faculty appointed themselves the sole arbiters between right and wrong, innocence and guilt. The real social disaster is that the intellectual elite determined the guilt of the lacrosse players based solely on preconceived notions about their race, gender and financial situation-prejudices equal to racism and sexism. The real social disaster is that the postmodern faculty decided that confirming their radical ideology was more important than maintaining the humanity of the accused. And now three lives are forever altered because of their intellectual smugness.