One Duke Professor “saw signs”

A Duke Professor has come forward into the media glare surrounding an exotic dancer’s charge she was raped at a party hosted by 3 members of the university’s lacrosse team.

We read in today's Durham Herald-Sun:

History professor Peter Wood said Saturday he complained to athletic department representatives after it seemed to him a group of half a dozen or so men's lacrosse players didn't take one of his classes seriously in the spring semester of 2004.

The course was a survey of Native American history that Wood said has been popular among lacrosse players because of the sport's roots in American Indian culture.

Wood's unhappiness with what happened in the spring 2004 class focused on what he termed the players' "lack of engagement in classroom activities and discussions, and giving priority to unnecessary athletic commitments created by the coaching staff, such as a practice called during class time at 10 a.m. on a Friday."

The professor didn't put his concerns in writing and now wishes he had done more at the time.

"I feel badly that I didn't follow up on it more directly because I think all of us, many of us, realize we saw signs of a developing problem," Wood said.

Imagine that.

Somehow I’d convinced myself that most students at one time or another do the sorts of things professor Wood's talking about.

I even did some of them when I was in school. What about you?

Did you realize before today that what we thought were common, largely innocent student behaviors were really early “signs” of the “developing problem” professor Wood has in mind?

What will happen now? It might be something like this ----

“Our guest this morning is Duke’s Peter Wood. I understand, professor, you saw early signs of what was going to happen; and you we’re one of the first to warn the university. But it took no action. Is that true?”

“Yes, it is, Katie. As I told Brian Williams last night …(click)

It’s sad that a professor would take common student behaviors evidenced two years ago, and package and label them in a way he must have known would get him media attention.