tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post2223404851491101097..comments2024-02-24T05:19:10.949-05:00Comments on Durham-in-Wonderland: Dowd and Dukekcjohnson9http://www.blogger.com/profile/09625813296986996867noreply@blogger.comBlogger168125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-61652414471336408392007-09-27T15:04:00.000-04:002007-09-27T15:04:00.000-04:00To 4:23 PM, back in January:Dowd was assigned an "...To 4:23 PM, back in January:<BR/><BR/>Dowd was assigned an "F", not a "D". Clearly that was *NOT* a "fairly assigned grade".<BR/><BR/>(C+)+(C-)+(F)+(F) = D<BR/><BR/>She gave him, by contrast, an "F".<BR/><BR/>The university had to adjust the grade after the fact, in their first of two changes of his grade, to get to the "D" which you support as "fairly assigned". If it was "fairly assigned", it has the unusual characteristic of not having been assigned by the instructor...<BR/><BR/>After that correction, you can argue that the "corrected" grade was "fairly assigned" only if you believe that the final paper was genuinely worth an "F", and his participation was genuinely worth an "F". <BR/><BR/>Given that his early grades were in the C range, and the grades assigned at the end of the class were uniformly "F", it certainly looks suspicious. <BR/><BR/>Cap that off with the fact that she managed to average it down to an "F", and all presumption of good faith has to go out the window.<BR/><BR/>In retrospect, Duke agreed to change it from a "D" to "Pass", as he was requesting. That doesn't make a huge statement for the grade being "fairly assigned".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-80810278741361690462007-01-09T16:23:00.000-05:002007-01-09T16:23:00.000-05:00To 3:51 PM:
Dowd got a fairly assigned grade - a ...To 3:51 PM:<br /><br />Dowd got a fairly assigned grade - a D.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-48079257036885207532007-01-09T12:33:00.001-05:002007-01-09T12:33:00.001-05:00This jury is in Durham, NC. Now they are to be tru...This jury is in Durham, NC. Now they are to be trusted with a decision? Better hope Duke makes a deal.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-42282699101077535242007-01-09T12:33:00.000-05:002007-01-09T12:33:00.000-05:00This jury is in Durham, NC. Now they are to be tru...This jury is in Durham, NC. Now they are to be trusted with a decision? Better hope Duke makes a deal.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-17073374166413654752007-01-08T15:51:00.000-05:002007-01-08T15:51:00.000-05:00Oh yes you can. Curtis is Duke's agent. She is emp...Oh yes you can. Curtis is Duke's agent. She is employeed by them to deliver a contracted eduaction to the customer student. Part of that value is a fairly assigned grade, which was not done in this case. <br /><br />The Poly Sci administration already had a caution that a recriminatory environment was in place, and yet their response was completely lacking.<br /><br /><br />I believe that a jury will have no trouble holding them liable. And for that reason Duke will pay up before they are ever held accountable on the public record.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-30869044963594507182007-01-08T00:46:00.000-05:002007-01-08T00:46:00.000-05:00If Curtis had given Dowd an F based upon her own p...If Curtis had given Dowd an F based upon her own political biases (which she probably did) and Duke had refused to allow Dowd to graduate and had refused to review or change his grade that would be one thing. But Duke did allow him to graduate and they did change his grade. You cannot hold Duke liable for fraud based upon the actions of the professor when Duke reversed and negated the actions of the professor.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-64305808847246227452007-01-07T18:54:00.000-05:002007-01-07T18:54:00.000-05:00I was able to get into the pdf of the suit. It ba...I was able to get into the pdf of the suit. It basically alleges breach of contract -- the various bulletins, accreditation standards, course syllabus, etc., establish a contract between Duke and the Dowds. Duke breached that contract by allowing Curtis to grade on the basis of race, sports team membership and scholarship status, in violation of the terms of the various statements, binding on Duke and Curtis. Duke and Curtis engaged in fraud by misrepresenting that Dowd had failed the course, when he hadn't (tellingly, his class absences were not in violation of Duke policy). The multiple explanations Curtis gave for why Dowd "failed" the course were fraud, and Duke did nothing to correct the problem. Duke inflicted emotional distress by telling Dowd and his family that Dowd wouldn't graduate. But suddenly let him graduate. (Think mock execution.) <br /><br />Doesn't sound frivolous to me, and in fact the plaintiff is basically expecting Duke to adhere to its published standards on grading, appeals, and so forth. <br /><br />It's an additional problem that Duke and other institutions inflict the unqualified spouses of faculty on undergraduates. I had that problem many years ago myself, a faculty wife read the papers for a course I took and was basically trying to show how hard she could treat the students so they'd hire her as a prof full time. Nothing new here, but it really ought to stop.<br /><br />John BruceAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-79065634633446756432007-01-07T17:53:00.000-05:002007-01-07T17:53:00.000-05:00To 5:01 PM:
I doubt that Dowd's lawyer has taken ...To 5:01 PM:<br /><br />I doubt that Dowd's lawyer has taken the case on a contingent fee because the odds of a large recovery are so low. If he is on an hourly fee, he presumably will file any lawsuit the client wants him to file as long as he can make a good faith argument in favor of his client's position so that the lawsuit is not deemed frivolous, which would expose him to sanctions.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-88170713439241344002007-01-07T17:27:00.000-05:002007-01-07T17:27:00.000-05:002:57 -- Thank you for this information -- that exp...2:57 -- Thank you for this information -- that explains why Curtis is still at Duke as a visisting prof for 10 + years. Nothing like the full employment act for professors -- to hire me you also have to guarantee a job to my less than scholarly spouse.... so I wonder how many of the 88 got their jobs this way?Dukex4https://www.blogger.com/profile/00465640862549819265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-47330297255322376922007-01-07T17:01:00.000-05:002007-01-07T17:01:00.000-05:00Stop laughing. Dowd has retained a real lawyer and...Stop laughing. Dowd has retained a real lawyer and real law firm. <br /><br />They dont have an election coming up and arent race mongering. They are motovated by an expectation of recovering damages, therefor their involment is indicitive of the strength of the case. <br /><br />See how the logic is different?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-30552350062397775842007-01-07T14:57:00.000-05:002007-01-07T14:57:00.000-05:00Professor Curtis is married to Professor Romand Co...Professor Curtis is married to Professor Romand Coles.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-54879653910054568732007-01-07T14:44:00.000-05:002007-01-07T14:44:00.000-05:00I have to laugh at the commenters who say why woul...I have to laugh at the commenters who say why would Dowd's lawyer file the lawsuit if he did not have a case? That is exactly the same logic used by the Nifong supporters who say Nifong must have something up his sleeve otherwise he would not be pursuing the case.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-89802644082528720072007-01-07T14:35:00.000-05:002007-01-07T14:35:00.000-05:00To Richard Aubrey:
You state that Duke has a stud...To Richard Aubrey:<br /><br />You state that Duke has a student body with the critical thinking skills of a kindergarten. In reality, I suspect their critical thinking skills are a lot sharper than yours.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-77380915424496465372007-01-07T13:08:00.000-05:002007-01-07T13:08:00.000-05:00William Buckley once said that he
"would rather li...William Buckley once said that he<br /><i>"would rather live in a society governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone directory than in one governed by the 2,000 members of the Harvard faculty."</i><br /><br />Undoubtedly true in the case of Duke too. But why? On their own merits these professors would seem to have a great deal of inate intelligence, critical thinking ability, verbal facility and a generally wide knowledge base. <br /><br />But you shudder to think of what type of society these people would construct....<br /><br />Speech codes and the rest of it in academia are just the start of it.<br /><br />What causes this disconnect between academic knowledge and the ability to govern? Is it because acedemia rewards take of novel positions and being able to defend them in verbally principle? Is it a sense of intellectual superiority leads to megalomania (I have had those instructors). Or is it being cloistered in educational environment and building up resentments against accomplishments of those in the business and technical fields. Do they feel the need to position themselves as counter weights to soceity and therefor go off into completely unworkable positions?<br /><br />Living under the Rule of 88 government would be terrible and would probably make the Great Leap Forward look well conceived and yet I am interested in some of the courses they are teaching this semester.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-36696946051159110772007-01-07T12:17:00.000-05:002007-01-07T12:17:00.000-05:009:45 AM:
Thank you for giving us the right wing w...9:45 AM:<br /><br />Thank you for giving us the right wing wacko point of view, as if we have not heard it before.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-87706118878579050992007-01-07T10:51:00.000-05:002007-01-07T10:51:00.000-05:009;45 right on Brother. Excellent article. Why does...9;45 right on Brother. Excellent article. Why does it appear that Duke is making no effort to xorrext the situstion?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-80707204880980504772007-01-07T09:45:00.000-05:002007-01-07T09:45:00.000-05:00I have never been to Duke. The only time I spent ...I have never been to Duke. The only time I spent in North Carolina was part of a summer at Ft. Bragg, hanging with what is clearly a higher class of people.<br /><br />So I say this from the outside.<br /><br />Duke is broken. They hired Brodhead, despite his record of trying to avoid trouble by throwing somebody under the bus irrespective of facts. They hired the profs in the Gang of 88. They paid the profs to teach garbage courses and actually gave kids credit for taking them. Various majors may actually have required some of those courses.<br />Duke has a student body with the critical thinking skills of a kindergarten. Now, I know that the 18-22 year old demographic can be awfully bright, but apparently they regress when in the extended adolescence of college. However, Duke doesn't seem to have figured out how to stop the regression.<br />Duke's problems are not this case, but the underlying institutions which put Brodhead & Co. in their various offices.<br />If Duke is well and truly hammered over Dowd and other issues, if the alums send their money and kids elsewhere, perhaps--I speak with no great expectation--somebody will wake up. And fix Duke. or not. In the latter eventuality, its deserved catastrophic drop in reputation, funding, and attraction for top-tier kids will serve to protect society from Duke.<br />And, perhaps too much to hope for, the effect will spread to other universities.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-32200317543060978722007-01-07T09:36:00.000-05:002007-01-07T09:36:00.000-05:00Regarding TP,
A previous poster researching the p...Regarding TP,<br /><br />A previous poster researching the possibility of a plan to flip real estate in the Trinity Park area may want to see if there is any connection between John Dagenhart who was the President of the Trinity Park Homeowners Assosciation as of March 31, 2006 (per a NYT Times article published on that date), his wife Ellen Dagenhart who managed Marie Austin Reality Company, and Duke. (I remember them from a Free Republic discussion months ago and simply Googled to find out basic information posted here).<br /><br />The Dagenharts apparently are active in the Durham community and seem to have been involved in community activities with prominent Duke individuals. For example, Ellen served on the 2005-2006 Durham Arts Council Board of Trustees along with Cynthia Brodhead, Mike Woodard, (and Sioux Watson from the Independent Weekly). The Dagenharts and both Richard and Cynthia Brodhead and Robert K. Steel served as members of the George Watts Hill Leadership Circle 2006, a group that works for historic perservation. While there is nothing wrong with this, it is easy to see why Duke leadership could have been more "connected to" and more concerned for "the community" than for their own students.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-52431701556902547692007-01-07T03:32:00.000-05:002007-01-07T03:32:00.000-05:00KC,
An important 20th century novel, one that mos...KC,<br /><br />An important 20th century novel, one that most high school students have to read, is "To Kill a Mockingbird." While I am not schooled in the secret codes of literature, I thought that some of the lessons in that book was not to judge people by their backgrounds and to certainly not make false accusations of crimes, especially serious crimes, such as rape. These lessons seem to be lost on the group of 88, esp. the lit. profs.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-23245018255398469542007-01-07T00:24:00.000-05:002007-01-07T00:24:00.000-05:00I am starting to think that all this was predictab...I am starting to think that all this was predictable. I was curious by what KC meant by speech codes so I googled it. The third google link was about an organization called FIRE (from what I could gather a small type of ACLU mainly concern with university issues ?). What I found interesting about their sites was that they had a <a href="http://www.thefire.org/index.php/topic/4" >Due process" </a> section and in that section they had a challenged a few cases Columbia and Brandeis University about due process in University for people charged with sexual offences. After reading a good number of the article, I came to the conclusion that the reaction of the group of 88 (accusing before any due process in a sexual assault case) was inline with policies that seem to exist at some universities. Even a prestigious university like Columbia seem to have fallen pray to this king policies. I do not know if these types of policies are widespread, but its seems to me that some university are intentionally promoting the attitude that if some is accused of a sexual offence, they are guilty. I believe the Duke 88 would be the types of faculty that would agree with the policies like the ones that were made at Columbia and Brandeis University and I now believe this is why the group of 88 will never issue an apology, doing so would have consequences greater just admitting wrong doing in this particular case, admitting they were wrong would make it harder to push for policies that deny due process when it does not suit their ideological needs.<br /><br />In short, I now think the action of the group of 88 seem to have been somewhat predictable and expected and should not really surprise the accedamic types. Of course I am being an arm chair quaterback here, but I'm not in academia and went to university 20 yrs ago so I don't really know if its as bad as it look, but it does not look pretty from where I sit.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-64314315145951856132007-01-06T22:20:00.000-05:002007-01-06T22:20:00.000-05:00i suspect the timing of the suit is anything but a...i suspect the timing of the suit is anything but accidental<br /><br />A coordinated effort (now that Finnery and Seligmann have been readmitted) to warn Duke and every single one of the 88 that their every move will be scrutinized.<br /><br />Brilliant in its own way.<br /><br />With lawyering, you get what you pay for.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-83742283029661319762007-01-06T22:18:00.000-05:002007-01-06T22:18:00.000-05:00lm,
The timing to me appears to be good. It come...lm,<br /><br />The timing to me appears to be good. It come right after Duke invited Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann to return for the spring term. To me, the law suit by Dowd helps me understand some of the factors Finnerty and Reade must considered when making their decision to return. Can they be assured that they will be treated fairly by members of faculty and administration? How about by members of the group of 88? <br /><br />At least they've received the assurance that they will be treated fairly from at least 17 profs, but the Duke 17 are not the one who should have been giving them these assurances, it should have been the group of 88. <br /><br />I do understand why it might seem like bad timing and tacky, but I still think it is a good strategic move even if its a tacky tactical move. <br /><br />In the end.<br />1)the suit should not affect the ongoing trial.<br />2) And if others have been subject to the same treatment, it help them know that they can do something about it before all evidence and and opportunity disappears.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-3477278241353026482007-01-06T21:30:00.000-05:002007-01-06T21:30:00.000-05:00Am I the only one who thinks that it is well...a l...Am I the only one who thinks that it is well...a little tacky for another lacrosse team player to be filing a lawsuit over how he was treated while there are three still facing jail time (if they seat a jury of HER peers)? Is there some pressing reason it had to be done now? Some strategy in place? Or just "Better get in line sooner rather than later." ?<br />Let's see Colin, Reade and Dave cleared of all charges first.....then the other lacrosse players can line up and air the problems caused by the situation. Until then, it is like screaming over a paper cut while someone else is standing quietly next to you has a gaping knife wound.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-33334718064461689732007-01-06T20:46:00.000-05:002007-01-06T20:46:00.000-05:00violence feminist style !!!violence feminist style !!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32542246.post-17180586414439126192007-01-06T19:50:00.000-05:002007-01-06T19:50:00.000-05:00For your amusement Munger's comments:
http://munge...For your amusement Munger's comments:<br />http://munger4ncgov.blogspot.com/2006/12/lacrosse.html<br /><br />He thinks that the season should have been suspended, because of underage drinking, strippers [hey thats exotic dancers to you], and racial epithets. And there may have been transfats present. <br /><br />Thats just silly and he is pandering to someone. Excepting the strippers, I am guessing that 90% of college parties have drinking and someone says the 'N' word. If they sent monitors to Spring Break they could probably expell the whole undergraduate school. <br /><br />Oh yeah and Nifong: " Nifong should be removed from office and disbarred." Because he was abusing his office. Kind of like a certain Poly Sci Ass Professor. <br /><br />And: <br />"I would go so far as to say that the city of Durham should have to pay most, or all, of the legal costs of the three young men.<br />"<br /><br />If the actions an agent, Nifong, of the citizen of Durham means they have to pay, then logically the actions of agent Curtis means that Duke should pay damages too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com