Duke's athletic department has long been considered among the nation's best in competition and in the classroom.
For the second consecutive year, Duke finished in the top 10 in the Director's Cup standings--a measure of overall athletic excellence--and the Blue Devils were among the most well-represented on every All-ACC Academic team.
Still, rape allegations against the men's lacrosse team that surfaced in March cast a shadow over Duke's entire athletic program and forced the school's administration to examine the department and its practices. As a result, the athletic department is drafting a new ethical standards policy that should be finalized by the fall.
The code, which will apply to all members of the athletic program-student-athletes, coaches and administrators-is intended as an umbrella statement of the department's values centered on integrity and respect, said Senior Associate Athletic Director Chris Kennedy.
"When you get right down to it, our 600-some-odd kids have really been good," Kennedy said. "I didn't want to produce something that suggests that we have a huge problem. I've wanted to affirm what they've accomplished--we never want to stop trying to get better."
Contrary to what some athletes and coaches originally believed, the new standards are not meant to be a penal code with a list of sins and punishments, Kennedy said. Instead the guidelines give coaches latitude to apply rules as they see fit, while reminding student-athletes that it is a privilege to represent Duke.
"In agreeing to be on one of our teams, they also agree to hold themselves to higher standards," Kennedy said. "If they do something and get cited, it's much more likely to be in the papers and get attention."
As a condition of its reinstatement, the men's lacrosse team wrote and agreed to a strict and detailed code of conduct that outlines policies and consequences for breaching them. It stipulates, for example, that student-athletes must report violations to their head coach and athletic director within 24 hours or face suspensions.
"I think the lacrosse team has to take responsibility for their actions, the key word is responsibility," Director of Athletics Joe Alleva said of the team's code.
Not all teams, however, are expected to adopt such stringent policies, Alleva added, and the level of detail can differ greatly among the programs. Women's golf head coach Dan Brooks has never felt the need to establish a set of rules, but the football team has a 30-page rulebook, Kennedy said.
Men's basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski has never been a proponent of strict rules. Instead, he merely advises his players not to do anything that would embarrass themselves, their families or their university. Such a policy has given him flexibility to handle situations on a case-by-case basis.
For example, when Tommy Amaker was Duke's senior point guard in 1987, he arrived one minute late for a team bus. Krzyzewski said he held the bus and never questioned Amaker once he arrived. On a separate occasion, however, two freshmen were late for a bus and Krzyzewski had the bus leave without them.
"Tommy had built up equity, good will--every once in a while you're going to make a mistake," Krzyzewski said. "But the freshmen hadn't built up any equity. Someone said, 'Well that's not fair,' and I said that's the way it is.. You have to be cognizant of the culture your kids are in."
The newly drafted ethical standards-Alleva said he prefers to refer to them as "values"--which have been supported by coaches and several student-athletes, are intended to be a unifying force among all of Duke's teams, while also aligning athletic guidelines with those of the rest of the University.
"We have to do our rules in conjunction with [University] rules because our student-athletes are still students," Alleva said. "First and foremost our students have to come in under the rules of the University, then our rules should be supplemental and additional to those. It has to be done in harmony."
Greg Beaton contributed to this story.
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