Duke University, one of the finest in the country, is in a tough spot. The Lacrosse team embroglio seems no closer to being resolved. After Wednesday's suspension of a student and resignation of the team coach, morale is low. Duke is trying to rally and today President Broadband announced separate committees will examine and report back to him as quickly as possible on the following:

• examining the culture of the lacrosse team;

• investigating the Duke administration's response to the sexual assault allegations;

• examining the student judicial process and disciplinary procedures;

• launching a Campus Culture Initiative, a rigorous self-examination "to evaluate and suggest improvements in the ways Duke educates students in the values of personal responsibility."

• creating a presidential council, made up of people from the Durham community, national higher education circles and Duke, that will scrutinize Duke's responses to the lacrosse team incident and advise the president on whether the responses are appropriate and effective.

I spoke tonight with some Duke parents I've known for 25 years whose son is a Freshman at Duke. They are pretty freaked out and their son, who adores Duke, is confused. They said this couldn't come at a worse timing -- acceptance letters go out April 1, and those accepted have until May 1 to make their decision. So it is this four weeks high school seniors have to decide whether to go to Duke. Many of those that get into Duke also get into Harvard, Yale and other Ivy League schools.This Lacrosse incident could cause Duke to lose some of its brightest admission candidates, should they or their parents be scared by the lacrosse incident.

Update: Ryan McFadyen, the lacrosse player who lived in the dorm who wrote the email described below has been suspended from Duke.

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Original post

The coach of the Duke lacrosse team has resigned. The Dean cancelled the team games for the rest of the season. This is on the heels of new developments in the lacrosse players' alleged rape case. The Court unsealed and Smoking Gun has published the search warrant affidavit and search warrant return for the dorm room and vehicle that was searched by police on March 27.

Less than an hour after a woman said she was raped at a Duke University lacrosse party, authorities say one of the team's players sent an e-mail message in which he talked about hiring strippers and killing them.

A lawyer representing one of the team's members said the e-mail, while in bad taste, does not show that a crime happened at the house, and in fact could help show what team members have said -- that no assault happened.

Another defense attorney agrees:

Joe Cheshire, a lawyer representing one of the team captains, said the e-mail helps support the team's story. Team members told police, according to Cheshire, that they hired women to dance and those women left the party early.

Newsweek has an excellent wrap-up of the Duke Lacrosse team rape allegations, including a few new facts. One seems to make more viable a theory I floated in comments here and mentioned on Fox News yesterday-- that there may have been a physical altercation over the money, rather than a rape, that led to the broken fingernails.

In recounting the accuser's side, Newsweek writes:

They had just begun their performance when the men became "excited and aggressive." According to Nifong, one of the players called out, "Did you bring any sex toys?" When the women answered no, a man said, "That's OK, we'll just use a broom." Frightened, the strippers ran outside to their car. One of the men followed and coaxed one of the women to come back in. When she did, she told police, she was forced into a bathroom and held down while three men forced her to have sex. According to Nifong, she claimed that the men robbed her and that she broke off several fake fingernails clawing one of her attackers.

The best coverage of the story so far: There was a party at a house rented by three Duke lacrosse team members. They hired two exotic dancers. The dancers were black and 46 of the 47 team members are white. Later, one of the dancers alleges she was raped by three white males at the party. Both allege racial epithets were hurled at them.

The 46 white players go in for DNA tests and deny any sexual activity occurred. Duke cancels team games until more is known. Many in the media are convinced the players are guilty and have elevated the story into one about "classism, racism and sexual violence." Even charges of a "blue wall of silence" among team players have been bandied about.

Bloggers are lining up to castigate the players. The latter is so hot to convict she even mistates the most basic fact of the case in the description of her blog.