Letter to the Editor

Ladies and Gentlemen: (Is this okay to say?)

The guest column from the Duke Open Campus Coalition published Jan. 20 brought back memories of my skirmishing with the nascent politically correct/multicultural radical scholars in the early 1980s as editor and publisher of Spectator Weekly. As the first Triangle-wide publication, the three major universities were significant areas of our coverage.

At that time, Duke was not just the leading hot bed of radical scholars in the region. The school was known nationally for the escapades of Dr. Stanley Fish, chairman of the department of English and Law. Kenny Williams, a black female professor under Fish, was instructed to hand out high grades for badly written essays if the student author displayed sensitivity to politically correct causes. She refused to sacrifice proper standards, leading to her being ostracized in the Department.

Ms. Williams called me to say she was going to tell her story to two publications, the Wall Street Journal and the Spectator. We published a cover feature I urge you to read. The 22 years of Spectator issues are not digitized, as of yet. However, it is available through the North Carolina Collection at UNC and most area libraries. It's an important part of Duke history that I am sure has been banished by the radical scholars.

The main intent of this letter is to encourage Duke students to research why your school was and still is nationally known for a movement that has caused embarrassment to higher education.

Bernie Reeves has no affiliation with Duke University, but graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1970 and founded the Triangle Business Journal.