3-18-2010 More on K-Ville

✔Fact Checker here.

Well... this wandering quixotic view of K-Ville is fine. But there are some very very serious issues with this Duke "tradition" that need to be addressed.

First, it may make good B-roll for television sports coverage, but how does this spectacle collide with objectives of Duke? Week after week after week. Is the diversion worth it? What happens to academics? What happens to other aspects of student life during this period, like engagement and service.

We may experience, as the columnist found, spirit and friendships in tents, but it is at the great expense of what happens in dorms and dining halls. Is the balance appropriate?

Plus the nitty gritty. Student health. Did anyone get sick? And how about alcohol abuse?

In addition to essays off the top of one's head, and a light rewrite from page 85 of Professor King's book "If Gargoyles Could Talk" telling about the wartime Blue Devils, this newspaper -- and its columnists -- have a responsibility to dig and inform and present solid facts. How many people got ill? How many people needed medical attention because of alcohol abuse?

We had in one story during this year's tenting mention of "ambulances" and then hush!! As I documented ten days ago, the history of K-Ville is a chain of stories in the Chronicle -- curiously absent this year -- embracing words like "drunk," "drunken" and "alcohol abuse."

Remember when you see these body counts, they are not just numbers: they are the story of K-Ville and its tilted impact upon our community.

Finally, viewed from the official side of the University, I am left wondering why there is no evaluation or other comment from any Brodhead Administration official.

Did Dean Steve visit? Day or night? What do you think of the university enabling a weeks-long bacchanalia with unfettered under-aged drinking?

To be honest with you, I am surprised our insurers tolerate this at all, because some day, when something goes wrong, Duke will be zonked with liability claims from the victim or his and her family.

Did President Brodhead visit? Day or night? Did he hear the noise, smell the booze, wallow in the mud? Did he think students roused at 4 AM for a bed-check got proper rest -- not to mention students asleep in nearby quads not participating in K-Ville who hear line monitors blare their wake up call.

Chronicle, did you chase our president to ask if he went to the single most important "tradition" on our campus?

Did Brodhead see, as Deputy Fact Checkers did, fellatio in public between the tents, and urination when no one was thought to be watching.

Mr. Brodhead, are you satisfied with K-Ville? Do you endorse it? I hear only your silence. As a Chronicle editorial put it a few weeks back, where is the leadership?

✔Sorry, Cameron Crazies, some days Fact Checker must tell you what you do not want to hear.