Fact Checker to President Brodhead: release two secret Kunshan reports now, or FC will liberate them Monday

FC is preparing an in-depth analysis entitled "Kunshan: the Folly" to appear as soon as possible.

As all Dukies now know, on Wednesday the Fuqua faculty shot down proposals for a Masters of Management Studies degree and Executive MBA program in Kunshan, leaving the China Initiative moribund if not already dead. The faculty had two committees that did the groundwork -- and each committee showed very pointed contradictions between what the Boston Consulting Group was saying about Kunshan -- and what the Brodhead Administration was putting forth.

These contradictions cover every dimension: is there a need for Duke to enter China and to create a new university, teaching Chinese in English? Will students come? What will they be willing to pay? What will be the faculty response to going to Kunshan? Why Kunshan? Will the atmosphere, and academic freedom, be conducive to the growth of a few programs into a full fledged university?

And ultimately, where else in the world can this be duplicated?

Boston Consulting did two studies for the Kunshan project. There is no reason why they should not be made public.

There is a big reason why they haven't been: they depict a small coterie within the Brodhead Administration hell-belt on a campus in Kunshan, a closed coterie giving succor to each other while ignoring others, an administration at once arrogant and conniving to disguise the sinkhole that lay ahead. We can only speculate at this time on the motive.

Fact Checker has been criticized by a few -- and praised by many -- for publishing a story last February on the confidential Duke Kunshan Planning Guide, a document prepared to brief the Trustees. Ditto the reaction when we liberated the consulting report of the China Market Research Group, which undermined the Planning Guide. In both instances, we know of no harm that was done to Duke University, and stakeholders acquired important ammunition for the fight against the Kunshan Folly.

In the spirit of transparency and accountability, we believe the two secret Boston reports must be made public, and call upon President Brodhead to release them forthwith. If he elects to keep these documents secret, FC will post them at midnight Sunday.