PrintJanuary 12, 2007
The decline and fall of academic standards
Dr. Karla Holloway carries two lofty titles at Duke University: William R. Kenan Jr., Professor of English and Professor of Law. She is so upset with the university's re-admission of two indicted lacrosse players that she has resigned in protest from a "diversity committee" the university put in place following the incident.
One would think the good doctor would have some familiarity with the presumption of innocence for those accused of crimes and would use language with some precision. Yet according to an article in the Diverseeduation.com website:
"The decision by the university to readmit the students, especially just before a critical judicial decision on the case, is a clear use of corporate power, and a breach, I think, of ethical citizenship," says Dr. Karla Holloway, the William R. Kenan Jr., Professor of English and Professor of Law at Duke. "I could no longer work in good faith with this breach of common trust."
Corporate power?
Perhaps Duke, like Harvard, calls itself a corporation. Corporations do have the ability to take actions concerning their operations. Duh. Or does the erudite master of two disciplines mean that big business is somehow pulling the strings? What the reasoning here would be is unclear. Most big corporations enthusiastically sign on to the entire diversity agenda, and many have, for instance, filed briefs in support of affirmative action discrimination, as in the Grutter case at the University of Michigan.
Ethical citizenship? Is it ethical to punish people for crimes they have not been proven to have committed?
Frankly, I have to wonder about the intelligence of the distinguished scholar. Perhaps the doctor is only inadequately quoted by the diversity mavens of the website. But based on what they published. She sounds rather incoherent. She also sounds like a wounded bully:
"The public support [the administration] has extended to these students has been absent in regard to faculty who have been under constant and often vicious attack," she wrote.
Like most bullies, she can dish it out but she can't take it.
Hasn't the dual professor been getting her salary checks? That qualifies as support in my book. Reversing an unjust punishment is less support than never having been punished and continuing to get paid.
Meanwhile, the university has been pandering to her interest group. In October
the board of trustees elevated the Black studies program to a department. While the program already offered undergraduate and graduate degrees, trustees said at the time that the promotion reflected Duke's "commitment" to its Black students.
If Dr. Holloway really wants to protest the situation at Duke, she should resign her professorships. By leaving the diversity committee she harms her own cause, and gains free time. Where is the bite in that? I hope she does leaves the university, which clearly does not deserve her services.
Hat tip: John Kinsellagh
