INC NEWS - Sheehan column: Lacrosse team out of control

[John Schelp]

Column: Lacrosse team out of control
Ruth Sheehan, News & Observer, 3 April 2006

That Duke University owned the house where the
lacrosse team lived -- and a stripper claims she was
beaten, raped and sodomized -- was "merely a quirk."
It was chance. Bad luck.

The university had just purchased the house on
Buchanan Boulevard and 11 others, on Feb. 28, in an
effort to help "stabilize the neighborhood."

So just because a third of the lacrosse team players
had been arrested in connection with "Animal
House"-type behavior, don't get the impression that
Duke was hosting some kind of wild quasi-fraternity.

Duke wasn't hosting -- but it wasn't doing much to
shut it down, either.

In a conversation Friday afternoon with John Burness,
Duke's senior vice president for public affairs (aka
the man in charge of Duke's image), I learned that the
university was fully aware of the antics of its
lacrosse team before the sensational gang-rape
investigation.

Burness said that Durham police had been asked to
inform the university when its students were arrested
in town. The charges then were dealt with in the
student court system.

So yes, Duke officials were aware.

They were aware of the neighbors' complaints in
Trinity Park about loud parties and rowdy behavior.

They were aware of those past charges against the
players. (Although, to be fair, the charges against 15
players came in dribs and drabs over two years.)

And they were aware of the lacrosse team's general
reputation. It's no coincidence Tom Wolfe chose
lacrosse players as the most vile characters in his
depiction of life at "Dupont University." (Gothic
campus, you got the picture.)

Unfortunately, the university's awareness did not
translate into action.

In fact, at a press conference last week, and then in
a TV interview on MSNBC, Duke President Richard
Brodhead and Burness, respectively, made remarks that
seemed to suggest that the earlier charges against the
lacrosse players were your standard college student
antics. Drunk and disorderly, public urination, we've
all done it -- right?

On Friday, Burness assured me that both he and
Brodhead were only trying to distinguish between the
hiring of strippers and serving of alcohol to minors
-- which was "stupid and boorish" -- and "something as
horrific as sexual assault and rape."

Well, duh.

My point was that, whatever comes of the rape
allegations, the lacrosse team was widely known to be
out of control long before those allegations were ever
made.

Instead of stabilizing neighborhoods, Duke might want
to first stabilize its student-athletes; you know, the
ones who are supposed to be role models?

Upholding Duke's standards, Burness said, was lacrosse
coach Mike Pressler's responsibility.

So dump him.

Because the coach and athletic director Joe Alleva are
the university's responsibility.

After all, I asked Burness, do you think Coach K would
allow this sort of behavior from his basketball
players?

Of course not.

Owning the home where a lacrosse team party careens
into hell may be a quirk.

But having a team that behaves responsibly and
honorably happens only by design.