Not an indecent proposal

At first blush, it’s hard to see how the Black Student Alliance’s Black Culture Initiative—a list of demands literally hand-delivered to the Allen Building’s doorstep—has a leg to stand on. The proposal and the events surrounding it, which both accuse the Allen Building of neglecting the black student community and let administrators know what they should have done differently, comes off as an attempt to save face following BSA’s poorly informed, but very aggressive, protest of the controversial study, “What Happens After Enrollment? An Analysis of the Time Path of Racial Differences in GPA and Major Choice.”

But all this is just to say that BSA has bad timing: Even if its proposal comes at a time of controversy and angst, it captures something important about what Duke needs to do.

Unfortunately, the proposal’s first four demands undermine its legitimacy: These demands tend to ignore available information and make unjustifiable requests.

First, the proposal calls for the creation of an endowment to institutionalize funding for cultural events and enrichment. This is a bit vague. In fact, it is so vague that we wonder why funding from the Student Organization Finance Committee will not do the job. SOFC already funds these types of events and typically finishes the year with a budget surplus to boot.

Second, the proposal accuses the administration of not acting “in good faith” in relocating the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture from the West Union Building after it is renovated. But this is not true. Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta has made a strong public commitment to restoring the Mary Lou Williams Center to a desirable location. We do not know where this location is yet, but that is hardly bad faith—no group is currently certain of where it will end up in the wake of the West Union upheaval.

Third, the proposal demands that the University “commit to a renewed investment in and expansion” of the Black Student Alliance Invitational weekend. Duke may not plan to spend even more on this annual recruitment weekend, but the University continues to sustain the practice, despite the controversy it generates. BSAI might be a hot topic, but it is not in danger.

Fourth, the proposal calls upon the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to clarify the role of race in admissions. We wonder whether this information exists: Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag is well known for describing admissions as an art, not a science. One thing is clear, though: Race is one consideration among many that plays a role in building an undergraduate class. In other words, this information is already available; we do not need to ask for it.

All this is clear enough. But the proposal’s final paragraph, which calls for the creation of a working group to assess the experience of black students at Duke, has real power. To accuse the administration of failing to conduct such a study would be wrongheaded—administrators may have worried, reasonably, that such a study unnecessarily highlights differences in the black student experience.