The president of Duke University, Richard Brodhead, today offered an utterly meaningless apology to the three Duke lacrosse players who were falsely accused of rape.The full text of the apology is here, and the key portion is this:
First and foremost, I regret our failure to reach out to the lacrosse players and their families in this time of extraordinary peril. Given the complexities of the case, getting this communication right would never have been easy. But the fact is that we did not get it right, causing the families to feel abandoned when they most needed support. This was a mistake. I take responsibility for it, and I apologize.Absurd. Broadhead didn't just fail to reach out, he actively worked to perpetuate the notion that these three innocent men were guilty. By canceling the lacrosse team's season and pressuring the coach to resign, he gave credence to the idea that the lacrosse team had done something warranting punishment.
If Brodhead wants to take responsibility, he should resign. Otherwise, this apology is meaningless.
The photo depicts a sign posted on the Duke campus on April 11, 2006. Some people realized early on that this case was a miscarriage of justice. It's a shame that Brodhead wasn't one of them.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-29-2007 @ 2:58PM
CARL said...
At least he did..unlike Sharton,Jackson or Nancy DisGrace
Reply
9-29-2007 @ 3:30PM
ZXE said...
When time of need we find out who our real friends are. Innocent until proven guilty is a myth. It's
guilty until proven guilty.Hypocracy is all around.
Reply
9-29-2007 @ 3:06PM
Louis said...
Not only meaningless, but disingenuous. Fox News reports that he also said that "the school could have done more to show that some members of Duke's faculty who were openly critical of the lacrosse team did not speak for the university as a whole."
They weren't just critical of the team, they were supportive of the prejudicial and hostile demonstrations of students who proclaimed the presumed guilt of the lacrosse players. They were mongering racial hate, which is surely an act of moral turpitude. A strong and fair-minded president would have said this out loud and pointed out to those 88 professors that moral turpitude is one of the very few grounds for dismissal despite tenure, and would have demanded, at least when the charges were dismissed, that the 88 individually and collectively retract what they had published and apologize to the players and to the University.
Really, that still ought to be done. And in default of a retraction and abject apology, the 88 should be either demoted or dismissed, depending on the individual degree of involvement, that is, whether a person just went along by signing what others had written, or was a ring leader.
Faculty are the heart of any university. It is vapid and almost a joke for a president to say that the University should have distanced itself from its faculty. It can't; that's not the way universities are built and operated. The stain on Duke is indelible, but it could be lightened. Until Duke's 88 have been disciplined, it remains as dark as ever. If Brodhead won't do that, it's just another reason why he himself should go.
Reply
9-29-2007 @ 7:57PM
Phil said...
By canceling the lacrosse team's season and pressuring the coach to resign, he gave credence to the idea that the lacrosse team had done something warranting punishment.
Any college team that got caught having strippers at a party would be in some shit. Varsity teams wouldn't get their seasons cancelled but its possible club teams would.
I agree with most of what you wrote, but they weren't exactly picking daisies.
Reply
9-29-2007 @ 5:48PM
The U is Dead said...
Have the race pimps....Jesse and Al, made an official statement yet?....Oh wait....This story is dead, no camera time here.....My bad
Reply
9-30-2007 @ 10:12AM
John Ballard said...
@Phil
But the record shows that there was a history at Duke of athletic teams, male and female, hiring strippers, male and female, at parties. But none of them were ever disciplined. So your daisy picking rationale falls a little flat doesn't it?
Reply
9-30-2007 @ 8:47PM
Tom Ranseen said...
I agree that the apology is totally meaningless. I am a graduate of Duke University and call on anyone and everyone who has every given a dime to to Duke or is considering it to withhold all contributions until Brodhead is fired/resigned. Individual professors who piled on have not left yet should be axed as well. The guy has needed to go since he aided and abetted the crucifixion of these guys.
Reply
10-01-2007 @ 2:46PM
Steve said...
Despite his claim that his decisions at the time were guided by a "presumption of innocence", his actions at the time did not in any way support that assumption.
Among other things, he caved in to the press and the liberal ideologues on campus, he suspended the lacrosse season, he allowed a great coach to lose his job, he illegally allowed the release of confidential information on the players without their required approval, and he allowed the legal representatives of Duke University to actively work against the accused's interests by advising them not to seek counsel.
Furthermore, he hid Duke's involvement after the fact by settling for an undisclosed amount of money, probably in the millions.
Now, eighteen months later, he offers a very weak explanation for his misdeeds, and an even weaker apology. These are the actions of a coward, not one who stands alone if necessary for the principles of presumed innocence and the rule of law, much less for the interests of the students at Duke.
I cannot understand why he is still there.
Steve Nelson,
Pasadena, California
Reply