Howard W. Hewitt – The Duke Lacrosse case has significant implications for higher education, Professor of Religion Stephen Webb told students, faculty, and staff in Thursday’s Chapel Talk. Click here to hear the entire talk in a Wabash Podcast.

Webb used the majority of his Chapel Talk to give a “book review,” in his words, of Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor Jr. and K.C. Johnson. Read a New York Times book review here.

The book details Duke’s desire to become known as an athletic and academic powerhouse. In building a strong humanities department, the authors contend the administration hired a large number of liberal faculty. The vast majority of that faculty was behind the quick condemnation of the Lacrosse players and program.

The book, Webb noted and emphasized, that the faculty members and administrators who condemned the players never apologized nor admitted they might have rushed to judgment even after all charges were dismissed and the prosecutor was disbarred.