[QUOTE=athelas]
In my defense, though, the earlier points still stand. A campus e-mail would still have been a good move if there was a chance of violent thugs running around. And likewise, the Duke and Columbia folks had no problem giving a same-day response. And as the fabrication was discovered by a single professor, it seems unlikely that the administration was being cautious due to the possibility of a hoax. In retrosopect, of course, their silence has turned out to be the best move.
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I may be biased, seeing as I was a studinet at Claremont during the Kerri Dunn incident, but I think the adminstration’s response sounds just right. Given the high proportion of phony hate crimes to real hate crimes on mainstream college campuses, anyone confronting such an incident should logically lean towards believing that it’s a hoax. Obviously that’s not saying the administration should ignore such things entirely. But realistically, the chance of a normal university housing a secret society that beats up on Jews, conservatives, blacks, or any other group is quite low. Thus there’s no reason to involve the entire campus until it’s certain that the incident is genuine.