An open letter to the Duke community

After last Wednesday's high-profile protest on campus, a few subscribers to the mailing list china@duke.edu anonymously sent out messages verbally attacking one student using language we found troubling and heinous, as well as releasing this student's private information. This mailing list was set up mainly for the purpose of helping students exchange information such as second-hand car or apartment sublease. It is open to the public, not limited only to Chinese students and scholars at Duke, for subscription and currently has more than 900 registered users, and like many other mailing lists of this kind, we do not have a dedicated member to monitor it closely on a daily basis.

We, however, removed all the relevant messages once they were brought to our attention. And starting Saturday, April 12, we have imposed stricter filter rules for messages sent through the mailing list. Duke Chinese Students and Scholars Association hereby declares our unequivocal position that we strongly disagree with and condemn the behavior of these few anonymous subscribers.

However, we are very disappointed by the April 14 story "Student gets threats after China protest." We feel regretful that this student considered it was DCSSA's fault for releasing "all kinds of information" about her, and several other student organizations on campus blamed DCSSA for actions taken by certain subscribers to our mailing list, which, for the reasons stated above, we have to disagree with. We are sympathetic to this student's situation, and as the representatives of DCSSA, we will try to contact this student to resolve any misunderstandings.

As one of the largest student groups on campus, DCSSA is an organization dedicated to promoting diversity on Duke campus. We are always proud to bring the culture from China-our home country, which has a glorious history of more than 5,000 years-to the Gothic Wonderland that we also call home. We hope that by learning from each other, we can work towards an even brighter future. We appreciate the increasing attention on China recently received from the Duke community. In light of the recent events on and off campus, we welcome your constructive comments and healthy reflections on a wide range of topics, including the impartiality of media, freedom of speech and effectiveness of cross-cultural communication. Please feel free to send your e-mails to dcssa2008@gmail.com.

Zhizhong Li, DCSSA president

Weina Wang, DCSSA vice president

Weining Bian, DCSSA vice president