Lacrosse coach, season out

Duke University lacrosse coach Mike Pressler resigned Wednesday, the same day a search warrant revealed new information about a lacrosse player's behavior and the rape investigation related to a lacrosse team party last month.

Hours later, university President Richard Brodhead announced the appointment of five groups to investigate campus culture, student behavior and the lacrosse program.

Brodhead also terminated all lacrosse activities immediately and canceled the rest of the season. When asked whether he had fired Pressler, Brodhead said, "Let me just say that when he offered his resignation, I quite agreed that it was an appropriate step."

No matter what happens with the police investigation, Brodhead said, the university must respond to misconduct by lacrosse players, which included underage drinking, hiring exotic dancers and, according to a neighbor and police reports, racial slurs directed at black women.

"There is a body of behavior that's already established, and it's there for us to deal with, and every day we learn more about it," Brodhead said in an interview Wednesday. "It's just time to take action on what's there before our eyes."

Brodhead said he would convene five groups to report to him quickly on a variety of issues including: the lacrosse team culture; Duke's response to the sexual assault allegations; the student judicial process and disciplinary procedures; and the way Duke teaches students about values of personal responsibility.

A presidential council, composed of Durham residents, representatives from Duke and national higher education leaders, will scrutinize Duke's overall responses and advise Brodhead. Another group examining Duke's handling of the allegations will be led by former Princeton University President William Bowen and civil rights attorney and former N.C. Central University Chancellor Julius Chambers.

The lacrosse investigation will be led by Duke law professor James Coleman Jr., a well-known lawyer and former chief counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

In a statement, Coleman said the faculty committee will steer clear of the rape investigation but examine the lacrosse program's culture.

"We will begin by reviewing all available records -- disciplinary records and complaints made to the Duke and Durham police -- and we'll look at the various procedures in place for monitoring the conduct of students in general, and athletes in particular, to determine the adequacy of those," the statement said.

Brodhead has been criticized for what some said was the university's slow response to a major crisis. The story has made international headlines and spawned protests on and off campus. It touches on issues of race, class, sexual violence and the university's fragile relationship with Durham.

Professors on Wednesday lauded steps Brodhead is taking.

Robert Korstad, an associate professor at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy, said Duke was moving in the right direction.

"A lot of our faculty members are sufficiently upset about the way this makes the university look, the way it makes us look, the way it makes it difficult to deal with the students," he said. "I think there will be pressure on the administration to really follow through with a lot of these things. This is actually a tipping point on campus for the whole way of life for undergraduates. I don't think things will ever be the same."

During the past week, Brodhead met with students, faculty and Durham community leaders. He said he had formulated the actions after those discussions.