Last week, both Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann announced they will not return to Duke next year. Given the grace and dignity they have displayed throughout their 13-month ordeal, I am saddened by the prospect of their departure. This University is losing two of its finest students.
But that report got me thinking - why should our wrongly accused classmates come back after everything they've been through? Can we say we have learned anything from their (and our) ordeal?
Alas, the answers are not encouraging. At this juncture, there is no reason to believe Duke students as a whole are any less vulnerable to being "Nifonged" than they were last spring. Setting foot on campus today, Collin and Reade would be just as imperiled as ever.
Of course, the same "rogue prosecutor" who targeted them remains very much in office, with his June 15 ethics trial before the North Carolina State Bar still seven weeks away. Defiant until the end, the Herald-Sun reports Mike Nifong is personally handling a quadruple homicide case right now. He has also made headlines fighting the release of a man jailed for 28 years after stealing just $173. Although his egregious misconduct will probably cost him his law license eventually, Nifong has not yet faced a single consequence for his actions.
Neither have the Durham police officers accused of disproportionately targeting Duke students for arrest and citations. This abuse, which was documented by The Chronicle in September 2006, extended well beyond the lacrosse players; rather, dozens of students were reportedly endangered, and the tales of police violence and inappropriate behavior point to ongoing, systematic abuse. Startlingly, we have no reason to believe that any Durham official has ever confronted or investigated these allegations, nor does it appear that the University has ever asked the city to do so.
Even more outrageous was the University's silence when Durham police officers entered (perhaps illegally) Edens Quadrangle last spring. The officers spent 75 minutes interrogating lacrosse players, and this despite knowing that the entire team already had legal representation. That Duke officials did not howl in protest at such serious misconduct on our campus is unforgivable; that they have maintained their silence for more than a year defies credulity.
Back in February, I personally encouraged Duke officials to consider seeking a "consent decree" against Durham authorities; this legal remedy would both monitor and punish any future abuses. To my knowledge, no such action was ever taken, and administrators have remained inexplicably unwilling to address what blogger KC Johnson calls the "separate-but-equal" justice system that we're all potentially subject to.
How can we expect Seligmann and Finnerty - much less any self-aware Duke student - to return when not one meaningful change has been made to the way we are treated by Durham authorities?
And why should they come back to a campus where so many still don't seem to "get" what happened to our classmates? Indeed, when asked recently whether administrators would apologize to the players, John Burness, vice president for public affairs and government relations, retorted "For what?" Burness also offered that "Duke has been humbled, knocked down a peg on the prestigious scale of universities" by the lacrosse case.
I'm relieved to note that Burness later backpedaled and apologized for the extreme inappropriateness of his remarks, admitting they were "not consistent with the viewpoint or sentiment of the leadership of Duke University." But that he would say such a thing at all - and to Newsday, Collin Finnerty's hometown newspaper - reveals that this campus still has plenty of self-reflection left to do.
The bottom line is this: whether either Collin or Reade ever wants to set foot in Durham again is an entirely personal decision, and I can certainly understand their reluctance. But whether we have made this place worth returning to is another matter entirely, and our efforts (or lack thereof) to that end reflect poorly upon our community.
Personally, I love this University with all my heart and soul. My three years here mean everything to me, and I can say without hesitation that becoming a Dukie was the best decision I ever made. For that reason, it is saddening to learn that my classmates made no longer share those feelings. But it is far more painful to acknowledge that we have not learned from our mistakes and perhaps hastened their departure in doing so.
Kristin Butler is a Trinity junior. Her column runs every Tuesday.
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