Group Meets on Duke Case

A modest crowd of around fifteen people gathered in the Winthrop Junior Common Room last night to discuss the implications of the alleged incident of rape at Duke University and to raise questions about how the Harvard community would have responded to a similar situation.

The event addressed the recent criminal case in which members of the Duke lacrosse team were accused of raping a local African-American college student, who had been hired as a dancer for a party.

Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (OSAPR) Director Susan B. Marine said Duke President Richard Broadhead should make public statements about the university’s moral standpoint on the incident, adding that she thinks Harvard’s leadership would not have done a better job.

“Do I think President Summers would have come out? No,” Marine said.

Students brought up issues of race, class, and athletic privilege complicating the alleged rape.

“You can’t examine the incident without looking at class and entitlement to some degree.” OSAPR Prevention Specialist Gordon W. Braxton said.

Winthrop Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment adviser M. Ellen Phelps, a Kennedy School student, said that disparities that exist in Durham—where Duke is located—between the white upper-class community and the rest needs to be taken into account.

“The Durham majority-minority situation is important,” Phelps said. “The Duke environment is like Harvard in that there’s a lot of rich white students, and that sets up a lot of tension.”

Nicole M. Laws ’06 raised the question of lack of DNA evidence in the Duke case, which organizers said is a common misunderstanding.

“DNA evidence is corrupted by air,” said Heather Wilson, OSAPR’s Education Specialist. “There are plenty of convictions without DNA.”

Wilson explained that popular culture and defense attorneys perpetuate the myth that a lack of DNA evidence means no crime occurred. But according to Wilson, only two out of 35 rape cases that occurred in Middlesex County—which includes Harvard—had been supported by DNA evidence.

Many women in attendance expressed concern about a culture which condones athletes that commit crimes against women.

Association of Black Harvard Women Action Chair Marisa S. Williamson ’08 said she feels that when athletes are in a group together, they behave in a more daring manner.

“I hear team members say things with one another that they wouldn’t say to me if they were alone.” Williamson said.

“In groups, people are in their own comfort zones,” said Alison E. Cohen ’07, suggesting that a similar mentality was at play in the recent racial incident on campus where an undergraduate was reportedly assaulted following a Hindu dance event.

The event was hosted by OSAPR, the Association of Black Harvard Women (ABHW), and the Winthrop House Sexual Assault Sexual Harassment (SASH) advisers.