Column: No standards at all?

The recent weekend of "out-of-control" off-campus parties that seems to have featured Duke students acting with irresponsible disregard of their next-door neighbors' well-being makes me question the nature of the so-called "Duke community." I wonder if such activity represents an isolated incident that does not reflect on Duke as a whole, or if is it symptomatic of a community that does not expect responsibility or ethical conduct from its members.

 Does one ex-fraternity president admitting to the atrociousness of the recent off-campus behavior while blaming said behavior on Larry Moneta reflect the sentiments of many Duke students, or are we willing to hold individuals accountable for their actions? Furthermore, are on-campus sexual assaults, hurtful fraternity hazing and other shameful behaviors characteristic of the Duke community, or are such actions merely a few aberrations from the norm?

 Specific concerns lead to broader, more provocative questions. What kind of community is Duke, anyway? What kind of community should Duke be? Many of us struggle with these questions. One of the most notable attempts at defining Duke as a community in recent months is the new Community Standard. The obligation of students to report their knowledge of all "cases of potential academic dishonesty" and the requirement that students behave "responsibly and honorably" define the Duke community as one that demands certain ethical behavior of students. Because the Community Standard apparently will be "phased in" to apply to different classes until all undergrads have signed on to it, the Community Standard seems to be not so much an attempt at defining a community that already exists as an effort to create a community with a set of rules that governs the conduct of its members.

 The Community Standard was adapted after surveys showed that many students admitted to actions of academic dishonesty; but there are ways that the Duke community appears in a shameful light outside of the classroom. Last year's assualt in a Wannamaker bathroom and the reaction to it present a case-in-point in how the Duke community tolerates behavior in a manner far removed from any sense of responsibility or honor.

 In a Chronicle column printed in February, President Nan Keohane wrote that the sexual assault that took place last year in Wannamaker was probably done by a student. The fact that a Duke student could have committed the assault speaks poorly of the behavior tolerated here at Duke because such toleration surely could have enabled the perpetrator to commit the crime. The assailant plausibly could have believed that the chances of being punished for his behavior were slim to none. If such speculation did occur, circumstances seem to have proven him right.

 Nan dropped her "a Duke student probably committed the assault" bombshell obliquely, presenting it as evidence that the threat of sexual violence on this campus is largely from within, not from without. Additionally, the "a student probably did it" tidbit was presented as if that admission rendered finality to the matter. We hear of no ongoing investigation, of no attempts to find the guilty party; we hear only that, months after the fact, Duke's President is willing to confirm a suspicion a lot of us had ever since we first heard about the incident. If the assailant is "still walking around campus," as Tal Hirshberg wrote in a recent column, where is he? Evidently, we as a community are irresponsible enough to harbor criminals in our midst.

 Despite instances of the Duke community failing in some fundamental ways, though, people allude to the existence of a Duke community with ethical standards quite often. A recent e-mail from the resident coordinator of my quad informed its recipients of reports of students throwing glass bottles out of their dorm windows in the paths of unsuspecting passers-by. In the e-mail, my RC referred to the responsibility we all have as community members to "hold each other accountable for community standards." Of course, the fact that my RC felt the need to refer to such responsibility is ample evidence that no such feeling of responsibility exists in our community. We are inundated with reminders about our responsibilities as community members. Do we think that by repeating such responsibilities so often, we can make ourselves take these responsibilities seriously?

 Duke has a long way to go before becoming a community that holds its members responsible for their actions. Scores of statements that describe the Duke community as an ethical one can do very little to make positive changes in our community.