Peg Brand speaks out

Philosophy professor Peggy Brand, wife of University President Myles Brand, told reporters in the gardens of Bryan House Thursday she's afraid ' afraid to live in her house and to teach.\n"Life for the past five days hasn't felt normal. I haven't felt safe," Brand said. "I've been forced to teach my class with a policeman."\nShe said she was moved to speak Thursday after talking with her students. They told her they were afraid of other students and of being attacked like freshman Kent Harvey.\nBrand called for "an end to the hostile environment in our community." She asked for students to take down "inflammatory" signs on fraternities and dorm windows and called for an end to threatening e-mail and phone calls to her and other administrators. She called on students and Karen Knight, wife of former basketball coach Bob Knight, to join her in "restoring calm and civility" to campus.\nBrand said she and her husband have received thousands of e-mail threats and letters in the last several days.\n"My friends and people I love are being individually singled out and targeted in a malicious way," she said in a statement.\nShe also defended the University administration, a response to criticism by Knight at Tuesday's student forum.\n"(The administration) is not a building. It's a group of people that works every day for the students," Brand said. "We are not faceless."\nShe said Knight has a "tactical way of targeting people."\nBut when asked directly about Knight's comments Wednesday, she wouldn't respond.\nShe also expressed concern for the campus image. \n"Look at the media coverage today," she said. "We are being portrayed all over the country as a campus out of control. I am here to tell you that we are not out of control. This is a University devoted to the love of learning, the free exchange of ideas and respect for all opinions."\nChristopher Simpson, vice president for public affairs and government relations, said Brand's comments were made at a particularly appropriate time. \n"Regardless of how you feel about this issue, six-and-a-half-days after it began, no one is advocating continued threats or hostility," he said.