With the more serious charges dropped against three Duke lacrosse players accused of raping an exotic dancer last April, many in Durham, N.C., are hoping for a respite in the fervor of national attention that developed as the scandal unfolded–at least until the players go on trial this spring for lesser charges of sexual assault and kidnapping.
But in terms of the undergraduate class of 2011, the trouble may be only beginning. Duke's office of admissions recently announced that applicants for the binding early decision admissions option were down 20 percent from the previous year's 1,500, a consistent figure for the past few years. In spite of the small pool, 469 of those applicants were admitted to the school, almost identical to last year's number.
The drop in early-decision applicants runs counter to a national trend of rising figures, particularly among elite universities, says David Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Even in 2004, when the national trend in early applications briefly dipped, highly competitive schools continued to see rising numbers of applicants, he says.
So, kids were not attracted to the place labeled as a community racked with seething racial animosities, where the local prosecutor is up on ethics charges for running the legal equivalent of a lynch mob, and where the university basketball team is favored by Satan himself? (Alright, the last one might just be my opinion.)
Boy, it sure is hard to please the youth of today. Don't they know that Stanley Fish is there?? His warm lefty lunacy makes everything better, right?
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