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Chancellor Praises N.C. Central's Patience During Duke Lacrosse Ordeal

By Rony Camille
Black College Wire

Roderick Heath/Campus Echo Battista McNeil, a senior in criminal justice at North Carolina Central, holds a candle during a moment of silence at an April 3, 2006, vigil.

The Duke lacrosse case apparently has come to an end. Like many others touched by the ordeal, James H. Ammons, chancellor at North Carolina Central University, is relieved.

“There is a lot we can learn from this and I am just really proud of the NCCU family and [that] the larger community remained calm, even though there was a temptation to do otherwise," Ammons said in an interview with the Campus Echo, the student newspaper.

The chancellor praised members of the university family for their patience in the days when many were jumping to conclusions about the guilt or innocence of the lacrosse players, who were accused of rape.

Ammons spoke a day after state Attorney General Roy Cooper dismissed all charges against Dave Forker Evans of Bethesda, Md., Colin Finnerty of Garden City, N.Y., and Reade Seligmann of Essex Fells, N.J. The three men, former members of the Duke University lacrosse team, were charged with the sexual assault, rape and kidnapping of a former NCCU student on March 13, 2006.

Crystal Gail Mangum, 27, who is black, was hired to perform as a dancer that evening at a Durham, N.C., house where members of the Duke lacrosse team held a party.

It was there that she claimed the three players raped her.

Cooper said on April 11 that his office dropped the case based “on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness.”

The case put NCCU and Duke in the spotlight of the national media. But the two institutions were able to work together despite that.

James Ammons

They also began to listen to each other.

"We built with relationship with Duke University, especially with the student body, that had not been there before,” said Ammons.

Student leaders from the two schools held meetings in the early days of the case to see how they could improve their relationships.

In the fall, they hosted meet-and-greet events and outings to sporting events so that students could get to know one another.

In January, they came together to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day with an act of community service. As they packaged dry foods for people in developing countries, they created a social opportunity for students from the two schools.

The accused went to Duke and the accuser to North Carolina Central. In April 2006, a month after the incident, members of the NCCU community held vigils in her support. Many said she was “a fellow Eagle.”

Mangum was taking courses in police psychology. According to documents obtained by the Campus Echo, she was an honor student.

Outside the McLean Hall dormitory, the university community showed its support for Mangum with four blue banners filled with encouraging words, such as “God be with you.”

In January she gave birth to a girl fathered by her boyfriend, Orange County, N.C., records show.

Over the passing months, Mangum changed her story about the Duke incident nearly six times.

The faded banners are there no longer. Mangum is no longer enrolled at NCCU.

Students at NCCU have mixed feelings about the outcome of the case.

"Part of me is disappointed, but I am not surprised," said Mark Searcy, an education junior. "But you can't get mad, because we don't really know the story."

Latoya Williams, a mass communications sophomore, said, "I'm glad that the case is over with. I felt that she brought a lot of negative attention to herself and the school because she couldn't even get her story straight."

For Joshua Worthy, an environmental science major, it’s time to look ahead.

“Whether being charged or not, both sides have suffered enough," he said. "Both have been tormented and humiliated. I think more could have been done in a shorter time, but now that it's all over, it's time to move on."

Rony Camille, a student at North Carolina Central University, is editor in chief of the Campus Echo. Shatoya Cantrell of the Campus Echo contributed. To comment, e-mail [email protected]

Posted April 13, 2007