In the Crimson, Lucy Caldwell writes about the “sensationalizing” of sexual violence in the Duke rape case and elsewhere.
So many facets of society have become so hypersensitive to such matters that we seem to be losing our ability to discern between legitimate issues of sexual violence and overblown or exaggerated circumstances… Weâd do well to keep that in mind at Harvard this week, as the annual Take Back the Night events kick off. Take Back the Night, which began in the seventies, consists of candlelight vigils, rallies, and informational events aimed at promoting awareness of sexual crimes. This all sounds fine enoughâpreventing sexual violence is a laudable goal. The trouble is that much of the dialogue of events such as Take Back the Night ignores the fact that in many cases, preventing sexual violence hinges on sexual responsibility.
Hoo, boy. Prepare to get flamed, Lucy. (Not by meâI give you credit for guts, though I think your column lets men off the hook too easily.)
Now, this is an interesting idea:
As for Take Back the Night at Harvard, I suggest that at their closing candlelight vigil, they light a candle for the other victims of sexual violence politicsâthe ones who find themselves unfairly accused of serious sexual misjudgment. To acknowledge those victimsânow that would be seizing the night.
There’s about as much chance of that happening as there is of Al Sharpton apologizing for his role in the Tawana Brawley fiasco….
As Johannah Cornblatt and Samuel Jacobs report, at yesterday’s faculty meeting, Derek Bok announced that FAS dean Jeremy Knowles was unable to attend because of unexpected complications from previously unannounced prostate cancer.
This is sad news. Let’s hope that this is minor and quickly remedied. Our best wishes for a speedy recovery go out to Dean Knowles.
Virginia Tech has created a memorial website, which shows that the title of this post isn’t quite appropriate; on the Web, the whole world can mourn.
Meanwhile, on the front page of its website, the Times boldly displays something called “Interactive Feature: The Victims.”
The paper continues to strike the wrong note…”victims” are not an interactive feature. They are victims.
Is it appropriate for the New York Times to run short bios of those killed at Virginia Tech, then ask readers to “Share Your Memories of _(Name here)”?
If the Times had some special connection to this campus and/or these students, maybe. But it doesn’tâand as a result, these special sections feel creepy and voyeuristic to me. Like crashing the funeral of someone you don’t even know while other people pour out their grief…all so that the Times can drive blog traffic.
Yuk.
Larry Summers is hugely popular in India, China and other Asian nations, according to the International Herald Tribune.
It is going to be so interesting when Summers returns to Cambridge! He has done an impressive job of rebuilding his reputation everywhere outside 02138 (and, to some extent, inside it). He goes to Davos, to the Aspen Institute, to Washingtonâall places that play to his strengths. His column in the FT seems to be well-liked. He may or may not be writing a book.
I can’t help but think that his presence at Harvard is going to be tricky for Drew Faust, who has many merits of her own but can not match Summers in terms of ability to make news and sheer intellectual firepower.
Here’s a name that’s been raised but I’d neglected to include on my previous list: Jorqe Dominguez, a professor of government and vice-provost for international affairs. (By the way, Gazette photographer linked to thereânice photo.)
I saw Dominguez speak recently in Toronto, and he’s certainly good with a crowd: calm, witty, polished. He’s also specializing in an areaâinternationalizationâthat’s of huge importance to the university.
Would he make a good dean? You tell me.
Even as our hearts go out to the families, friends and loved ones of the victimsâwhat a horrific, hideous eventâwe ask (and in some ways, we hope), “Is there larger meaning in the slaughter at Virginia Tech?”
Standing Eagle raises a good point in a comment below: Even as the nation is rightfully transfixed by this obscenity, we pay little attention to the everyday horror that is life in Iraq. Yesterday, for example, 34 people were killed in Baghdad alone. What would our reaction be if that was a typical day here in the United States?
There’s surely no literal connection between violence in Iraq and violence in Virginia, but I wonder if there isn’t some more abstract one. The Bush administration has for years operated on the cynical premise that it could export violence to another country without disturbing the peaceâthe culture of entertainment and greedâthat placates the U.S. citizenry.
Perhaps those chickens are finally coming home to roost…..perhaps the violence of a war based on lies can not be limited to the country in which it first occurs, but carries throughout the world, to land back at its source…..
Can we really practice violence around the globe and not expect it to infect us here at home?
Two interesting and connected pieces in the Crimson today. The first, by Sharon (no middle initial!) Wang details concern over the fact that international applications to GSAS haven’t reached pre-9/11 levels.
Theda Skocpol and others suggest that the shortfall is due to increased competition from other universities for international students.
And second is a thoughtful editorial by Joshua Patashnik (the middle initial monopoly is breaking up!) called “Is Harvard American Enough?“.
This is an issue that Harry Lewis first raised at a Morning Prayers talk early in the Summers era, and even though it’s not widely discussed, it’s a central question as Harvard prepares to take over the world. Even as Harvard searches for the best students from every country, should the university remain somehow fundamentally American? If so, why and how?
As Patashnik writes,
Harvard is indeed in peril of losing its American identity, but the problem is not one that can or should be fixed by a majority vote of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). At its root, this is a problem of emotion, rather than academics. The danger is not that future generations of Harvard students will lose the ability to study American labor markets, read Whitmanâs âLeaves of Grass,â or write essays about the Atlanta Compromise. It is that they will no longer understand, on a gut level, why they are doing those things.
This is the kind of issue that Larry Summers would have raised, then squelched. Let’s hope that Drew Faust has both the time and the inclination to pursue the question of what is evolving and what should be constant about Harvard’s identity in a shrinking world.
After all the discussion on this blog about when and whether it’s appropriate to name alleged victims of rape, here comes a terrible incident which makes me reconsider: the horrific rape and attack upon a student at the Columbia Journalism School.
This young woman was tied up and raped by her attacker, who then set fire to her apartment and fled. She survived by using the fire to burn through the rope, or whatever it was, that her attacker had used to tie her.
After all that I’ve said about the Duke case, I can’t imagine any reason for printing this woman’s name in the newspaper…..
Which leaves us where? With the idea that one should also avoid printing the names of the accused? Or the idea that, if an accusation turns out to be clearly false, then it’s appropriate to name a false accuser?
Can anyone tell me the point of this Crimson editorial? I’ve read it twice, and still have no idea what it’s trying to say…..