The time has come to move forward. The primary issue is how we live as a community at Duke-how we behave toward each other, the values we espouse, the rules we pledge to uphold in our interactions. Now is the time to turn what has been a time of crisis into an opportunity for constructive change-to help make Duke a model of mutual respect and caring.
Whatever happened at the lacrosse party last spring, three facts remain undisputed: racial epithets were used; a Duke student group hired two female strippers for the entertainment of young men; and underage drinking was encouraged. In the ensuing months, we have heard our students grapple with these and related issues that reflect patterns of behavior found, not only on our campus, but-according to colleagues elsewhere-at our peer institutions as well.
The comments of one Duke student illustrate the larger problem. "I went to a fraternity party on campus last fall," a first-year woman disclosed, "and was shocked to see a stripper there, and hear insulting remarks made about her." After listening to numerous such comments, it is clear that the hiring of such dancers for organized parties is no anomaly at Duke.
"We are all guilty," another woman student declared, "because we have never called to account those people who have engaged in date rape or sexual assault." Stories of racism (often indirect) are frequent, as are those of women being treated as sexual objects, or of gay students being denigrated. These stories from our students expose a reality many of us had previously ignored. It is time to create a different kind of campus culture.
How do we do that? First by making diversity a substantive and pervasive reality in our daily lives. Our curriculum needs to engage the reality of difference in American society and culture, as well as in civilizations around the world. Our service-learning courses should make experience with those different from ourselves a time of growth and enhanced understanding, not just additions to student resumes. The recent Gates and Duke Endowment gifts are important first steps in that direction.
Second, we need to create patterns of residential life that discourage exclusivity and encourage interaction across barriers of ethnicity, region and gender. Every student is free to choose their own friends. But the structures of the University should discourage, not encourage, parochialism. Living with people of different backgrounds is part of the rich challenge of existing in a world of many colors and varied cultural perspectives. Previous attempts by the University to address this issue have not been particularly successful, and we believe a new effort is in order.
Third, we need to demand accountability from every member of our community to maintain respect for each other, especially across racial, ethnic, sexual and gender lines. No use of racial epithets should be tolerated. Any denigration based on gender or sexuality should be equally unacceptable. Duke students who experience abusive or irresponsible behavior should feel confident that they can speak out and know that their concerns will be heard and acted upon.
Fourth, we should redeem, and uphold, our belief in the student-athlete. We should have no double standards in academics or admissions and should insist on full integration of academic life and athletic life.
Finally, we at Duke should take pride in being part of a community of honor. Students and faculty alike should pledge to uphold a code of mutual respect and of caring about each other. Pride in those standards should be essential to being part of the Duke community.
As faculty members, we promise to reassert our obligation to participate in the governance of this university, and to acknowledge our responsibility for helping to create a more healthy campus community.
In this spirit, and consistent with the principles articulated by President Brodhead when he established the task force on Campus Culture, we ask our president, our administrative leaders and our Board of Trustees to embrace these goals and the specific measures needed to achieve them. Because without such leadership, this moment of promise will pass, and Duke University will be a poorer place.
This column is signed by John Aldrich, professor of political science; Peter Burian, professor of classical studies; William Chafe, professor of history; Kerry Haynie, associate professor of political science; Fred Nijhout, professor of biology; and Wendy Wood, professor of psychology.
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