Turf wars erupt.
Lofty debate degenerates into low-stakes bickering.
But there was little of that at Duke University last month. And the proposal passed by a two-thirds majority. It was a particularly sweet victory for a university where the rigor of the curriculum did not seem to equal the rising quality of students who have flocked to Duke in the last 15 years. And it couldn't have happened at a better time, given the bad publicity swirling around Duke's English department, long a minefield of personal feuds and ideological divisions. By all accounts, political savvy and deft public relations had a lot to do with Duke's curricular coup.