Nechyba Honored

From the Economics Department website:

Duke University will honor outstanding students, faculty, employees and alumni at its annual Founders’ Day Convocation in Duke Chapel at 4 p.m. this afternoon. The University Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award, given by the Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church, will be presented to Thomas J. Nechyba, professor of economics and public policy and chair of the economics department.

Nechyba’s name should be familiar to those who have followed the case. The Economics Department chairman was a spokesperson for the letter of January 4 that showed all that the Group of 88 no longer was the sole public voice of the faculty.

To the Editor:

We, the undersigned Economics Department faculty members at Duke University, are cognizant of the fact that, to date, the only collective signed statement by faculty members concerning the events of last March was an advertisement in the Duke University Chronicle subsequent to protests and a forum on March 29, 2006. We are aware too that the advertisement was cited as prejudicial to the defendants in the defense motion to change the venue of the trial involving the three Duke lacrosse team members. We regret that the Duke faculty is now seen as prejudiced against certain of its own students.

1) In light of recent events detailed in court proceedings, it appears that there were a number of irregular acts committed by members of the Durham law enforcement agencies and District Attorney’s Office. We join with President Brodhead in calling for an investigation of those acts, inimical to students at our university.

2) We welcome all members of the lacrosse team, and all student athletes, as we do all our students as fellow members of the Duke community, to the classes we teach and the activities we sponsor.

In the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction category, Group member Rom Coles attacked Nachyba and his colleagues for the letter. Here was David Graham in the Chronicle:

First, [Coles] said it did not address the veracity of accusations made about the original ad, and second, he said there was a "possible insinuation" that the signatories to the ad did not support and welcome members of the lacrosse team--a suggestion for which Coles said there was "absolutely no evidence."

Coles' wife was a fellow Group member. Her name is Kim Curtis. She certainly had an unusual method of welcoming members of the lacrosse team into her class.