Entries for April 12, 2007

Exuberant students donned T-shirts reading "Innocent", the three players whose charges were dismissed got a standing ovation at a nationally covered press conference, and the chair of Duke's board of trustees sent an E-mail to the entire campus, the Duke Chronicle reports. The last time he sent such an E-mail was in 2003, when he announced a new university president. "It is not common, but everything about this case was uncommon," a university administrator tells the Chronicle.

Will this be the last time the allegations bring unusual attention to Duke? More news could come with an investigation of the local district attorney's handling of the case and from an ongoing campus conversation about race, class, and culture sparked by the charges last spring. But one student called yesterday a healing moment. "The problem wasn't rape itself. [It was] the racial slurs [that] brought on the tension," he says. "Hopefully, [dropping the charges] will start to heal some of those things."

"In fact, Mr. Vogel is heterosexual, does not reside in New York City, and does not even know anyone by the name of Julian," a correction in the latest Yale Alumni Magazine reads. A friend of the 2002 Yale alumnus had submitted a prank item suggesting the opposite. After the magazine published it, the real Matt Vogel submitted an update. "Would that my life were as exciting as Jon made it out to be in last month's issue." Apparently, his life includes mundane things like continuing to be heterosexual and finishing law school.

IvyGate spotted this and has the excerpt.

The trade group sent letters to 22 schools yesterday offering to settle with the students or personnel the group says downloaded music illegally. While some users have already been sued, these letters let students avoid a lawsuit by paying a settlement fee in advance. Fees so far have been steep; at the University of Michigan settlements have averaged between $4,000 and $4,500, the Michigan Daily reports.

Yesterday's was the third batch of offers in a push that began in late February, with the aim of educating students about what is legal and what isn't--and curbing the illegal behavior. Said Steven Marks, RIAA's executive vice president: "The question we ask of students is this: With high-quality legal music options available for free or deeply discounted, why take the twin risks of exposing your computer to viruses or spyware by downloading from an illegal site or exposing yourself to a costly lawsuit?"

• George Washington University's choice of outgoing university President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg as commencement speaker is practically a "public relations suicide attempt," the G. W. Hatchet opines today.
• The University of Toronto will sell $10 million of tobacco investments, following a student campaign, the Varsity reports.
• A Class of 1937 alumnus gave Columbia University $400 million yesterday, to be spent on financial aid. "I'm interested in minds, not buildings," John Kluge said, the Spectator reports.