Is a degree from Duke University a mark of shame?

Question

Unless and until Duke alumni demand and receive the resignation of the current President of Duke University?

http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/05/point-of-emphasis.html

Just a sample from the blog I linked to:

On April 20, 2006, Brodhead said,
“If our students did what is alleged, it is appalling to the worst degree. If they didn’t do it, whatever they did is bad enough.”

Sjean - Did you read the blog? The basketball team had a party with strippers. He didn't suspend (or apparently even criticize) them?

Why blame the students?

Why give them credit for graduating from an institution of higher bias?

If the Duke alumi disapprove of the Duke President, he'll be fired. If not, we can logically assume that the typical Duke graduate is as bone-headed as their President.

Answer 1

Yes, what they allowed to happen to those lacrosse players should be criminal.

Answer 2

So the Duke lacrosse players were treated unfairly: the university had a group of feminist professors sign a petition damning the accused, put their faces on fliers all over campus, and were later sued by those same students. The school administration, realizing that there was a problem, decided to create an even stronger policy in which friends of supposed victims can expel men from campus....BRILLIANT! I think take back the night at Duke should just be a bunch of women chasing down men and setting them on fire. If they are out to create witch hunts, then why go half way. I can't wait to see the media frenzy when one of Coach Ks players gets kicked of the university, l am interested to see what they would do if he threatened to leave. I love how women are just as capable as any man, unless that situation involves, alcohol or peer pressure. Then they need someone to be their daddy because they can't take care of themselves. I find it odd that Feminists scream about the abilities of women, yet fight to enact policies with the sexist assumption that a woman can't decide for herself whether or not she was victimized. Equal accountability is part of equal rights. Women either have an rationale equal to that of a man and the intellectual capacity to make independent decisions, or they are just children in adult bodies. If women want equal rights they need to "woman up" and admit THEY made a bad choice and LEARN from it.

Answer 3

No. Anyone who earns a degree anywhere should be proud of it and others should recognize their individual accomplishment. I'm certain that academically Duke is still a fine university.
There is shame to be borne from this fiasco however. There is the original shame that our society accepts that the activities at many colleges such as wild parties and underage drinking occur, that we condone this as a society and have for as long as I can remember. The time was when young people learned culture and morals at universities in addition to purely academic subjects. It's time to return to that standard.
There is also the shame that a young woman is forced into at least stripping (and likely prostitution) in order to maintain her lifestyle and that our country is unable to help people like her.
There is the shame of the DA who, in the pursuit of the anticipated black vote in his county, made egregious mistakes in his handling of the entire case and who is now disbarred and ruined and may be sued in civil court.
There is shame in our judicial system and out journalism associations that allowed the de facto conviction of first, the youth for the alleged crime, then the prosecutor for being over zealous, then the school and maybe even the county for which the prosecutor worked.
I think there is much shame but none is due to one who graduates or graduated from Duke.

Answer 4

No, having a degree from Duke isn't a mark of shame. Yes we've had some problems in Durham, and mistakes have been made at the university, both by the staff/administration and the students; but that doesn't mean that it's not one of the top universities in the country. Should alumni look into the actions of the Mr. Brodhead, yes, but the actions of one individual don't overshadow the entire university, it's history and its accomplishments.

Answer 5

Of course not! Duke is an outstanding university with many fine programs. To attach political stigma to a college degree is the mark of an exceptionally shallow person.

Answer 6

Duke is what ignorant people in the south consider a good university. Then in reality, its no better then most public state universities here up north.

Answer 7

OK, let me see if I've got this right... because the President of Duke is probably a bonehead, then anybody who graduates from Duke, after busting their butt for 4 years, should be ashamed? You need a course in logic - I suggest you try Duke.

Answer 8

Not at all. I'm not a big fan of Duke anymore. I have lost a lot of respect for the way the school is being run these days.

Answer 9

Degree from any university never be a mark of shame.Degree is always be a degree either it comes from oxford or duke.

Answer 10

they threw a party with strippers and underaged drinking as "suppossed" upstanding members of the Duke community and then hurled racial slurs at the 2 young women, yeah, what they did was bad enough, maybe you should stop and think...WHAT they did was still a violation of their scholarship and why they got a settlement baffles me

Answer 11

Why blame the university for an overzealous prosecutor?

The fact remains that you have bad people at every university but it does not speak to the quality of the education.