On Sept. 4, 2001, The Chronicle ran a staff editorial declaring, "It is sad that a top-10 institution like Duke is even considering [Sean] Dockery."
Every time I read that sentence, I'm embarrassed for this University.
I used to think that we'd moved past that way of thinking, and every time I thought that, I felt a little better. I thought that Dockery had done enough during his four years at Duke for people to understand how much student-athletes like him can contribute to our community.
But then something like the lacrosse scandal happens, and we start debating the role of student-athletes in our community. Almost always, Dockery's ACT score and GPA are trotted out as Exhibit A in the argument that athletes detract from our academic community. But not surprisingly (for anyone who has spent any time speaking to anyone else on this campus), looking beyond the facts of Dockery's admissions numbers reveals even more.
Fact: Dockery grew up in a bad neighborhood in South Chicago.
Fact: Dockery's ACT score was right around the average at his high school.
Fact: The summer before he came to Duke, Dockery was riding in a car with friends and the car was shot into.
Fact: Dockery said he gets about two phone calls per month telling him that someone was shot and killed in his old neighborhood.
Fact: Dockery graduated in four years with a decidedly non-bull major in African and African-American Studies.
Fact: Dockery told me he was just about the first person from his neighborhood with a college degree.
If Dockery didn't bring a new and different perspective to Duke, then who can?
While covering the men's basketball team the past two seasons, I spoke to Dockery on numerous occasions. Everyone knows that he hit a 40-footer at the buzzer to beat Virginia Tech and that his admissions numbers were below Duke's average; I know that he spent his first year at Duke staying up until 4 a.m. studying math until he caught up.
I'd bet that the friends that stayed up studying with him wouldn't have traded the experience for an esoteric discussion about physics with a 1,600-SAT dweeb.
Of course, proponents of the idea that athletes detract from a University's academic mission have more arguments than Dockery's admissions credentials. But central to any such argument is that athletes are dumb jocks-that their achievements are somehow secondary to the University's mission.
But so are the accomplishments of a chess champion or a famous actor or published writer of children's fiction. Should Duke lower its standards to admit a chess champion? A famous actor? A children's fiction writer?
Yes, yes and yes.
A well-rounded university community celebrates excellence. Every person on this campus who can teach a classmate something is a valuable member of the community.
Dockery can teach us about growing up in the inner city. All of Duke's athletes can teach us about school spirit, being part of a team and balancing 20-plus hours of practice per week with academic commitments-to say nothing of the experiences the student-athletes themselves get out of representing Duke.
It is arrogant for any student or faculty member to suggest that another community member who is excellent at what he or she does cannot contribute to the campus' collective education.
But forget about that argument. Assume for a second that athletes without some arbitrary SAT score and GPA contribute nothing to Duke's academic environment. Assume that no student is better for having known and spoken to Duke's student-athletes.
I can tell you that I would probably not be here without Duke's basketball team. I can tell you that many, if not all, of my friends (most of them non-athletes, some of them student leaders) would not be here without the allure of Duke's athletic program. I would estimate that at least a quarter of Duke's undergrads feel the same way, and I think that is an extraordinarily conservative estimate.
Duke's all-star professors and nationally-renowned academic programs are great, but lots of schools have all that. There is just one school in the entire country where you can get a top-10 education, cheer for a top-five basketball team, watch Florida State and Miami Football come to campus on back-to-back weekends and attend some of the highest-quality competitions in basically any sport.
If it takes a few kids that are-according to a 2000 report to the Board of Trustees- "less well prepared academically and personally to contribute to the intellectual atmosphere at Duke" (cough, cough, gag) to draw a thousand kids that are well prepared academically and personally, then that would be a fair trade-off.
But don't try to tell me that we're not all better off, at least most of the time, because of Duke's student-athletes.
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