"If women didn't choose whoring" (to paraphrase). Oh, please...

As a former Duke grad student, I think the deepest problems are with the administration:

1. Athletes do get a pass--on everything. As a T.A., I saw star basketball players get away with academic murder to keep them eligible.

2. There's a real unwillingness to pay more than lip service to investigating and prosecuting sex crimes through the university's judicial system--which is what students are urged to use. When I was there, a student told me of being raped at a party (yes, she was dressed so provacatively--a tank top & jeans in August in North Carolina!) in front of witnesses, a few days before her freshman year even started. Even though the witnesses testified on her behalf, the guy got off; the committee decided that "something weird had happened," but basically not weird enough to, you know, ruin his college career. She was also urged, repeatedly, not to pursue the case, and was ostricized for doing so. She told me that, of all of the rape cases that had been through Duke's judicial process, something like five out of 45 had come out with a guilty verdict. (This was several years ago--the exact numbers are fuzzy now; I remember the five part clearly, though, and the presence of a much larger number on the other side of the equation.)

3. And as an aside, Larry Moneta is such a tool, warning against drive-bys...that's exactly the kind of fear-mongering that really adds class to the situation, and shows just what Duke's leaders think about their community.

On a non-administrative note, the neighborhoods around the campus are some of the nicer neighborhoods in Durham, for the most part. Trinity Park, in particular, is a beautiful historic neighborhood that's close to a regenerating downtown; unlike most Durham neighborhoods, it's actually walkable, with stores and restaurants nearby. Why should townspeople be forced out by idiot kids?

If this incident changes anything, that would be lovely, but I'm not holding my breath; when it comes to rape, very little ever seems to change, sadly enough.

"Johnson, who is black, says that lacrosse players have always been at the top of the university's social strata."

I went to Duke, after living in Durham for a decade prior, and I didn't know Duke had a lacrosse team. Has anyone heard of the Duke basketball team? THEY are the top of the university's social strata, hands down. All of the sorority girls were always trying to find out what classes Battier and Wojo were taking so that they could take them too; I never heard one ask what classes the lacrosse players were taking.

Three members of a sports team - mostly white, are investigated for an assualt and rape - yet all members of the team, 46 of them - except the back dude (#47), are required to offer DNA. The accuser/victim is black.

Can you imagine a white woman claiming rape - and a whole team of blacks is made to give up DNA based on her charge - but the white player gets a pass? What would the reaction be? What should the reaction be?

Unfortunately, in a world where Asians and Latinos and popular music stars (not to mention black kids) utter the "N" word with frequency, and in a world where obscenity and degredation and pornography is celebrated, the charge of sexism (regarding an exotic dancer), may be a tough sell.

Ah the letters section of Salon. So many righteous people slamming on the privileged elite of Duke. But before I can join you all in this bash fest against the evil rich, I have to watch an advertisement.

Salon…a magazine for those who hate the rich, brought to you by PORSCHE.

I appreciate the contribution of "anonymous" regarding race, but it's flat-out stupid to blame the "black victimization choir" (whoever they are) for introducing the matter of race into a situation where it was clearly an element. Question: Did the black victimization choir make these guys hurl racial epithets? Oh, I know, I know; being called "honky" wouldn't hurt YOUR feelings. The reasons for that, my friend, have much to do with the situations of privelege and separation on the campus, and in society, that the author rightfully explores. Is it the whole issue? No. Did anyone say it was? No. Is it an element? Yes. Case closed. No need to go off at length on the black victimization choir. Darn those blacks, anyway. They have too much power and privelege in society as it is, thanks to their whining.

It's nice to see so many readers reminding Salon that athlete gang rapes occur across lines of race and class, and that the sexual abuse, here, is being minimized and ignored because there is a desirable (cynically desirable) race angle to plumb. Would Salon, the New York Times, or the national press, even be talking about this case if it didn't give them the opportunity to express outrage that white men stand accused of assaulting a woman who is black? My personal e-mail is filled this week with earnest statements from "feminist activists" who wouldn't dare speak out about the rape of a white girl by black athletes and also can't be bothered to rally for black victims of black assailants or white victims of white ones. Would black politicians and activists in Durham be throwing their support behind a black woman who reported being raped by black athletes? The answer is no, and sadly, examples abound. It's not that the racial slurs don't matter. But this type of selective outrage minimizes the experience of rape in the interest of fulminating about race. Not a new phenomenon, but now it's called progress (instead of prejudice) and justice (instead of injustice).

Yo brainiac. Read the combination of my posts. I specifically excluded investment returns.

The reason I am writing this is because there is a large population, seemingly well represented on Salon.com, that likes to respond to what they wish were written instead of reading what was actually written.

While at say a Princeton or a Harvard investment returns make up a much larger percent of the budget, historically at Duke that is not the case.

Why did I exclude investment returns in my comparison?

-We don't really have hard evidence as to who contributed those dollars. I think it is likely a fair amount of it was contributed from rich people that are so maligned on this board. Rumor on the street is that poor people don't have a lot of money to give.

-Investment returns are variable. A standard figure to use is about 4% when estimating the expected value of the amount of the return that can be applied to an anual budget while preserving the present value of the endowment.

Please note fine denizens of the message board. The Duke Hospital and Duke University are run on seperate books.