E-mail's language coercive in urging consensus

We write in response to the e-mail that Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, sent Feb. 20 to the student body regarding Saturday's lacrosse game. The e-mail's language and tone assume that we are all ready to move beyond the terrible situation that has engulfed our community since last spring. Yet as recent attacks against members of the Duke faculty show, that situation is ongoing and far from being resolved.

We must continue to address our divergent responses to this situation, even as the criminal charges of rape have been dropped. For that fact alone does not exempt certain lacrosse players from being held accountable for their alleged use of racial slurs and other hateful actions (many of which have been made public only as a result of the criminal investigation). If Moneta wanted to convey necessary (safety) information about Saturday's game, he should have done only that, without the rhetoric of "support." Instead, his language is presumptuous and even coercive. Statements such as, "I trust I can count on all of you to show up in your Duke blue," and, "We have much to gain as a community with our best effort and even more to lose with our worst," imply that the lacrosse team is now beyond reproach (or criticism of any sort) and that any decision not to support the team goes against our community's best interests. We reject Moneta's false claim to consensus. Superficial measures such as putting on our "Duke blue" cannot heal the deep fissures in our community. We believe that these fissures should be addressed through sincere and respectful dialogue and with the acknowledgment that no one involved in this situation is exempt from criticism. Although we are out of the country and had no means to attend the lacrosse game, we register our decision that we would not have attended this game and that we will not blindly support this team.

Leigh Campoamor

Graduate Student, Trinity '10

Kinohi Nishikawa

Graduate Student, Trinity' 08