Vigil held for student allegedly raped by Duke lacrosse playersStudents at North Carolina Central University held a vigil Monday for an N.C. Central student who was allegedly raped by three members of the Duke University lacrosse team.
According to Associated Press reports, the student, who works as an exotic dancer, told police that she was choked, restrained and raped by three men while working at a March 13 party in Durham, N.C., where both N.C. Central and Duke are located. Since the accusations, Duke President Richard Brodhead has indefinitely suspended the lacrosse team from play until the school learns more about the incident.
No one has been charged in the case. A North Carolina crime lab is expected to complete analysis of DNA samples from 46 of the 47 players on the lacrosse team this week. The team's only black player did not have to submit a sample because the dancer, who is black, said her assailants were white. If a case can be made, the players could face 16 to 20 years if convicted.
The allegations have rocked the Duke and N.C. Central campuses. At Duke, which is four miles away from the historically black N.C. Central, students have rallied almost daily since the accusations became public, and the university's student newspaper, the Chronicle, reported that racial tensions were high.
"This is a matter of white privilege," Duke senior Tiana Mack said of the allegations in a March 28 Chronicle article. "When I read what was going on, it made me think about Jim Crow. ... If these three culprits get away with it, it will prove to me that Duke does not honor the black woman's body."
About 250 students attended Monday's N.C. Central rally, which was the first large public gathering at the university concerning the alleged rape.
Facebook potentially up for sale, according to rumorsFacebook.com, the popular online network for college and high school students, is reportedly on the sales block, according to a March 28 report in BusinessWeek Online.
According to the online magazine, Facebook owners turned down a $750 million offer in hopes of fetching as much as $2 billion. But a source close to the Facebook told TheDeal.com, an online business and finance site, on March 29 that the report was untrue. The source did note that Facebook owners had been approached by prospective buyers.
Last year, another social networking site, MySpace.com, was purchased for $580 million by News Corporation, a Rupert Murdoch-owned media conglomerate.
Facebook officials declined to comment to various media sources on the matter.
Since its creation two years ago by a group of sophomores at Harvard University, Facebook.com has become the seventh-most heavily trafficked site on the Internet, according to market researcher comScore Media Metrix.
Harvard expands financial aid programStarting this fall, parents from families with annual incomes of $60,000 or less will not have to contribute to the cost of their child's education at Harvard University.
In addition, families with incomes between $60,000 and $80,000 will have to contribute less, according to the Associated Press.
"There is no more important mission for Harvard and higher education than promoting equality of opportunity for all," Harvard President Lawrence Summers said in a statement. "These increases ... send a clear signal to middle-class families who have all too often felt that Harvard and other leading universities are out of reach."
The previous income threshold, set two years ago, for complete fee waivers at Harvard was $40,000. Two-thirds of the university's students currently receive financial aid, and the average grant for the next academic year is expected to be $33,000. It costs about $42,000 to attend Harvard for the current academic year.
