The Invisible Hand of Accountability

Now that the official word on the Duke Lacrosse Non-Rape Travesty has been handed down, the messy, ad hoc mechanisms of accountability will be unleashed. The major question in terms of accountability is not who gets sued from here on in (and some people and institutions will indeed be targeted with civil claims) but to what extent the invisible hand delivers its version of accountability. It seems pretty clear that Reade Seligman and Colin Finnerty will not return to Duke as is understandable, but what ultimately matters to Duke's institutional health is how many college-bound high school seniors and rising juniors will make the same determination that the poisonous environment at Duke is hardly what they are looking for in a college experience. This is of primary concern for Duke given that, more than anything, it needs high caliber students to maintain its stature. If the A students and the 90th percentile SAT scorers and the top-notch athletes abandon Duke, then the B students and 80th percentile SAT scorers will fill the slots and a vicious cycle of declining standards could set in.

The same goes for the Group of 88. It is unlikely that there will be any official sanction undertaken by Duke's administration, but the invisible hand will have its say here too. There may always be demand for Karla Holloway's African-American Literary Genres class, but then again numerous students might independently decide that her conduct throughout the scandal has revealed a deeply illiberal mentality that is unfit to inform their educational experience. Likewise for any of her 87 discredited colleagues. Without students willing to sign up for their classes, what will become of many of these professors? Perhaps nothing will come of it and Duke will continue to employ them although their services are in low demand, but perhaps Duke will be forced to evaluate the need for teachers that students refuse to be taught by. Who knows. Such developments will hardly be noticable as they will unfold over the next several years and won't make the news. Still, the verdict of the invisible hand, whether it chooses to deal a soft blow or a hard blow to the institutional health of Duke, is unavoidable.