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Blog and Media Roundup - Tuesday, February 25, 2014; News Roundup
Topic Started: Feb 25 2014, 05:15 AM (265 Views)
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http://www.ncaa.com/news/lacrosse-men/article/2014-02-23/no-1-duke-eases-past-stony-brook-14-6-josh-dionne-scores-100th

No. 1 Duke eases past Stony Brook 14-6 as Josh Dionne scores 100th goal
NCAA.com
Last Updated - Feb 23, 2014 19:43 EST

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke’s defense held visiting Stony Brook scoreless in the first half while senior Josh Dionne joined the 100-goal club as the No. 1 Blue Devils posted a 14-6 win on Sunday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium.

The Blue Devils improve to 4-0 while the Seawolves fall to 1-2. The win pushes Duke’s win streak to nine dating back to May 5, 2013.

“Offensively, I thought we moved the ball and were unselfish,” head coach John Danowski said. “I think we would have liked to have gotten one or two more, but certainly going into the locker room with a seven goal lead we were happy.”

Duke’s Jordan Wolf, who matched his career high with seven total points on the day, scored two goals in the opening half as the Blue Devils raced to a 7-0 lead. Goalkeeper Luke Aaron, who surrendered just two goals before giving way to Justin Turri after three periods, carded eight of his career-high 11 saves in the opening 30 minutes.

Stony Brook got on the board after 31:03 and added five more as the Blue Devils only outscored the Seawolves 7-6 in the final 30 minutes.

With a pair of tallies, Dionne became the 16th player in Duke history to reach the 100-goal plateau. The group includes Wolf (130) and current Duke assistant coach Matt Danowski (170). Deemer Class, Kyle Keenan and Case Matheis added two goals each as Duke won its third game in three tries against Stony Brook.

The two goals for Keenan give him six for the year, which is just two shy of matching his combined total form his first two seasons. Keenan owns two goals in three of Duke’s four games this season and has at least one point in all four.

The Blue Devil defensive unit was spearheaded by Casey Carroll, who logged five caused turnovers and five ground balls. Brendan Fowler (9 of 15) and Jack Rowe (6 of 8) combined for a 15 of 23 effort at the faceoff X.

“It’s been really easy [settling in],” Aaron said. “It’s been seamless. The guys in front of me make it easy. The defense is playing really stout and has made my job really easy.”

For Stony Brook, Brody Eastwood logged three goals while Matt Schultz had one goal and two assists. In the net, Dan Shaughnessy was credited for 11 saves.
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http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2014/02/willinghams-letter-was-more-of-the-same

Willingham’s letter was more of the same

TO THE EDITOR:

This letter is in response to Mary Willingham’s Feb. 16 letter to the editor. Ms. Willingham’s never-ending narrative of non-truths grew even longer in her own letter. Ms. Willingham states that she believes the Institutional Review Board “acted in good faith” when it halted her research in January. Just six days earlier, she was quoted in this newspaper stating that she was considering a lawsuit against Provost Jim Dean because he was “the one who pulled the IRB status.” Quite a change of tune, Ms. Willingham.

Ms. Willingham’s lack of forthrightness should come as no surprise. Make no mistake, the IRB issue arose because Ms. Willingham was never honest with the IRB about the nature of her research in the first place, as explained in the Jan. 21 University release by Professor Daniel Nelson.

But let us not feign surprise that Ms. Willingham is once again changing her tune in an attempt to see her name in ink. There is nothing honorable or courageous about leaking unproven anecdotes about illiterate athletes to the media which cause rampant and baseless speculation. Hopefully Ms. Willingham has enjoyed her 15 minutes of fame, because the University’s reputation will remain strong long after her already crumbling reputation is in ruins.

Patrick Crane ‘08
Durham
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http://www.journalnow.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-outside-investigator-a-good-idea-for-unc-athletic-scandal/article_6f341fbe-9d79-11e3-8e38-001a4bcf6878.html

Editorial: Outside investigator a good idea for UNC athletic scandal

Journal editorial board | Posted: Monday, February 24, 2014 4:00 pm

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill may finally be ready to get to the bottom of its prolonged athletic scandal.

Chancellor Carol Folt and UNC system President Tom Ross have hired independent investigator Kenneth Wainstein, a U.S. Justice Department veteran who recently investigated the University of Miami athletic scandal, and told him to “follow the facts wherever they might lead.”

We hope that this will end the persistent trickle of embarrassing revelations about UNC, the unsatisfactory university responses to those news reports, and finally bring the facts to the public.

The university’s foot-dragging has gone on far too long and under-mined the university’s credibility.

UNC-CH has investigated the scandal before, but never with an outside, independent and experienced investigator of Wainstein’s expertise. And the university has not, until this appointment, given the public the impression that it wanted to get all the facts out, to finally provide believable answers regarding the genesis of the irregularities.

Wainstein will start with some of the information uncovered by Or-ange County District Attorney Jim Woodall, who will be prosecuting Julius Nyang’oro, the former chairman of the university’s African-American studies program.

Folt has been on the job less than a year, and the scandal has had the potential to consume her chancellorship, just as it did that of her predecessor, Holden Thorp. But unlike Thorp, Folt understands that danger.

Folt has initiated a process that should answer the lingering questions about admission standards and academic programs concerning student athletes. To this point, the university has fallen short in answering persistent questions about the qualifications of some of these student-athletes and the athletic department’s role in directing these students to phony courses.

Wainstein has a challenge ahead of him, and we wish him all the best. He must examine every detail and once he has made his findings, UNC must fully share them with the public.

Only then can the university repair its reputation and rebuild the confidence of North Carolina residents.
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http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2014/02/student-athletes-human-rights-project-looks-to-advocates-for-athletes-at-unc

Student-Athletes Human Rights Project looks to advocates for athletes at UNC
By Sara Salinas | The Daily Tar Heel

A locally-based human rights group has been striving to ease the tension after UNC’s recent athletic scandal, but some University officials are not as receptive to third-party involvement as the group had hoped.

The Student-Athletes Human Rights Project formed after UNC’s athletic scandal began in the summer of 2010 and has since grown to advocate for student-athletes across the nation, including Oklahoma State University and Rutgers University.

But the group’s efforts were directed back to Chapel Hill after former learning specialist Mary Willingham released controversial findings in January that examined the literacy levels of football and men’s basketball players.

National coordinator for the organization, Emmett Gill, said SAHRP began making calls to the University as soon as the news broke.

“At the end of the day, there’s no one out there advocating for student-athletes and that’s the void we’re trying to fill,” he said.

Algerian Hart, a member of SAHRP and professor of kinesiology at Western Illinois University, said the organization is still at the investigation stage of its involvement with the recent controversy between Willingham and UNC.

“I’m not asking the question, ‘How did it happen?’” he said. “Right now it’s really about who’s at fault.”

Hart said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Jim Dean’s response to the findings came a little too late.

“The fact that this conversation comes about and it deals with academic integrity and the provost isn’t immediately involved is problematic,” he said.

Gill said SAHRP scheduled two meetings with Dean following the release of Willingham’s study, but both meetings were cancelled.

“The provost appreciated Dr. Gill’s contacting him, and at the provost’s discretion a University representative has reached out to Dr. Gill to learn more about (SAHRP),” said UNC spokeswoman Karen Moon.

Gill said SAHRP offered to review Willingham’s data as an unbiased third party, but UNC “respectfully declined.”

“We’ve tried to support Ms. Willingham as much as we can without the data,” he said. “But we don’t need data to understand that there’s a challenge when it comes to educating at-risk student-athletes.”

The Rev. Marcia Mount Shoop, who is a member of SAHRP and is married to former UNC football offensive coordinator John Shoop, said she feels there is a need to reshape the debate surrounding college athletics.

“There’s a very well-established frame of conversation that pits athletics and academics against each other,” she said, “which disallows a deeper conversation about the system and how it works.”

Senior track and field athlete Devon Carter said he didn’t think the organization was needed with regards to advocacy for student-athletes.

“As a student body, we should all be one,” he said. “There shouldn’t be separation to the point where there are people designated to advocate for us.”

Carter said he thought the organization’s involvement was a good start toward cleaning up the damage left after Willingham’s findings were publicized.

Hart said SAHRP’s first step to doing so should be to start a dialogue.

“We want to be the conduit to help foster that conversation,” he said.

“Now it’s about ‘What are we doing to remedy this?’”

university@dailytarheel.com
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2014/02/25/expand-due-process-rights-students

Expand due process rights for students

By Editorial Board | February 25, 2014

Duke’s campus is an 8,470-acre legal exception. Students rarely have to confront the legal consequences of crimes like underage drinking or mild drug use, and the Duke University Police apparatus shields students from the law more often than it subjects them to unpleasant legal realities. As associate dean Tom Szigethy declared four years ago, “On campus, if you are drinking underage... no one is going to say anything.”

The advantages of living in Duke’s extra-judicial fiefdom are clear: smart students engaged in foolish behavior avoid blemishing a shiny legal record. But the price of insulation is high: students accused of policy violations forfeit the due process rights afforded to defendants in state and federal courts. “Disciplinary hearings are not trials,” states the Duke Community Standard in Practice, “and are not constrained by rules of procedure and evidence typically used in a court of law.” After all, according to the policy guide, a disciplinary hearings is just a “conversation.”

In eschewing both the language and practice of judicial procedure, the University unfairly limits students’ due process rights. Although the University outlines a number of procedural rights for disciplinary proceedings, the current code of conduct enumerates only a fraction of the rights protected by the 1999-2000 Community Standard in Practice. Students no longer enjoy the right to cross-examine witnesses, for instance, and the current conduct guide does not explicitly guarantee a presumption of innocence for accused students, except in cases of sexual assault.

Moreover, the code does not list a single sanctioning guideline for conduct violations. As we have previously argued, the lack of codified sanctioning guidelines for sexual assault hurts both the complainant and the accused. In our view, preferred sanctions for every violation should be written down. The powers of disciplinary panels should be explicitly enumerated, and students should be able to opt for an open hearing. The Community Standard in Practice should include an explicit presumption of innocence for defendants in all cases.

To justify the lack of enumerated procedural rights, administrators have historically argued that maintaining a list of all due process rights would not only be practically difficult, but might also be an “impediment to the educational message" that disciplinary hearings send. Student conduct hearings have very real consequences, however, and refusing, in the name of pedagogy, to outline fully students’ procedural rights understates the seriousness of disciplinary proceedings.

In 2007, when former Duke Student Government President Elliot Wolf mounted a soapbox and held forth on due process, Stanford boasted one of the most comprehensive systems of procedural rights in the country. And yet, in 2011, three Stanford students accused of plagiarism suffered serious and sustained violations of their due process rights. What the Stanford incident suggests is that, in a just disciplinary system, students would have not only a comprehensive list of enumerated procedural protections, but also the power to hold conduct officers accountable if those protections were abrogated.

To this end, the Office of Student Conduct, in cooperation with students, should revisit and, in some cases, expand the procedural rights of students accused of disciplinary violations. Students might be insulated from the law in some cases, but they should not be denied basic due process rights.
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UNC-CH leaders take right step in launching another academic review

February 24, 2014 Updated 2 hours ago

Kenneth Wainstein is a serious man with some serious business to do. The 19-year veteran of the U.S. Justice Department has been called in to conduct an independent investigation of the academic/athletics scandal at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Wainstein served as a white-collar federal prosecutor, as homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush and as the first assistant U.S. attorney general for national security. He is now a partner in a Washington law firm and well-regarded as a tough and thorough lawyer.

Wainstein was named by UNC system President Tom Ross and UNC-CH Chancellor Carol Folt.

At times, over the now years-long controversy first surrounding the football program and evolving into a scandal involving bogus classes in the African studies department that catered to athletes, the university has acted as if it simply had a public relations problem. Former Chancellor Holden Thorp exited under a cloud after first underestimating the problem and then failing to fully address it.

With this latest investigation, the university has a chance to put this crisis behind it. Clearly, Folt, who became chancellor after Thorp’s departure and was the interim president at Dartmouth, believes the university has been hurt by this scandal and is ready to face up to it.

Ross, who has been too quiet about the scandal, has taken a good step here.

Woodall’s role

An earlier investigation led by former Gov. Jim Martin concluded that the academic scandal was confined to African studies and appeared to put all responsibility on two people: former African studies department chair Julius Nyang’oro and department manager Deborah Crowder. It shed little light on the scandal and pronounced the problems confined to academics. That was a curious conclusion given the substantial number of athletes who were enrolled in these phony classes.

An investigation by Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall into possible fraud related to the phony classes has led to indictments. Apparently it was evidence turned up by Woodall that prompted the university to undertake another review.

It is reassuring that Woodall has praised Wainstein and expressed confidence in him.

Mary Willingham, the former academic adviser for athletes now working in a different department, was the staff member who pointed out problems. And some players appear to have been steered to easy classes for the purpose of keeping them eligible to play. Willingham says she was struck by an attack of conscience after she attended the 2012 funeral of William Friday, the UNC president emeritus who had long been a leader in demanding reform in college athletics.

Whole picture

Willingham stirred a hornet’s nest when she said her research of some athletes’ academic qualifications turned up many who could not read adequately and, in fact, one athlete who could not read at all.

Then she was attacked at the highest levels of the university’s administration in a way that seemed an overreaction at best and a calculated attempt to discredit her at worst.

Wainstein needs to look at everything, including athletes’ transcripts and their connections to the phony classes. And, yes, the university needs to release all of his findings, even if they prove embarrassing. How much of the findings she decides to make public will be a big test for Folt, who has spent her career at a smaller private institution without the obligations of public disclosure that UNC-Chapel Hill has.

The path to this point has been long and painful, and the university’s reaction to embarrassing disclosures has itself been disappointing. This is not about public relations. It is about an institutional scandal that has damaged the university’s reputation. When a school becomes, as UNC did in a national CNN story on corruption in college athletics, the lead example of problems, that university’s reputation is at serious risk. A serious man now will look at it.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/02/24/3651528/unc-ch-leaders-take-right-step.html#storylink=cpy
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Quasimodo

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Kenneth Wainstein is a serious man with some serious business to do.


Wainstein was the US Attorney for DC who had to decide on whether or not to prosecute Finnerty
after the phony charges were made in Durham.

He had previously avoided having to charge Cynthia McKinney for hitting a capital policeman (by
flubbing a grand jury indictment process); and had let Joseph Kennedy off after he struck a light pole
while driving under the influence of prescription medicine. (Political justice; and there is more on Wainstein)

Finnerty's diversion agreement, if it was like the standard agreements used in DC, required that he not
break the law for a period of six months--not that he not be accused of breaking the law.

The proper response for Wainstein would have been to wait and see the outcome of the Durham case,
to determine if the law had been broken. Wainstein himself didn't stick to the agreement.

Instead, we saw a full blown trial, replete with a staff of seventeen federal lawyers and attorneys--for a
case in which the defendant was not even alleged to have struck anyone, but only to have shouted at
the accusers and waved his fists at them after first having been struck from behind and knocked down.

However, convicting Finnerty permitted the judge to harass him thereafter with threats of being thrown
in the DC jail, which is rated worse than most federal prisons.

This followed the pattern used by Nifong (Elmo, McFadyen, Murchison) of arrest and intimidation;
threatening every member of the lacrosse team with prosecution as accomplices; etc. IE, either cooperate,
or face the consequences.

It is not likely imho that Wainstein (or Judge Bayly) could have believed that the Durham charges were
true; by July 2006 they should at least have had considerable doubt. But they went ahead in effectively
cooperating with a railroading and corrupted prosecution in Durham.


(MOO)

Edited by Quasimodo, Feb 25 2014, 07:57 AM.
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Quasimodo

Quote:
 
Expand due process rights for students


You can imagine what a disciplinary hearing for the lax players would have looked like,
especially if they had been acquitted but Duke wanted/needed to find them guilty of something
anyway (if only to avoid lawsuits; or to boost their PR standing with Durham).

With that kind of pressure, does anyone think the disciplinary group would have found them
not guilty?


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