Duke will study initiative's ideas

Alleva looks to keep athletics strong

DURHAM -- Duke athletics director Joe Alleva said Wednesday that he will work to see if changes suggested by a new Duke University study are the best for Duke athletics.

"I think the Campus Culture Initiative is out there, and it's something we'll discuss over the summer and the next few years," he said. "I'm sure some parts will be implemented and some won't."

Released Tuesday, the Campus Culture Initiative made 28 recommendations meant to increase diversity, to bring athletics into a better balance with the rest of the campus and to change what has been described as the campus' "culture of excess."

The meatiest recommendations relating to athletics suggested raising admissions standards for athletes, decreasing admissions exceptions for athletes and cutting practice and travel time.

Alleva said most Division I schools do have lower criteria for athletes, though they differ in how far they'll go and how many athletes they bring in on those lower standards.

Duke has made admissions exceptions for athletes who play football and basketball, sports that traditionally also have graduated a high number of athletes at Duke, Alleva said. The most recent NCAA graduation rates showed that 93 percent of football players, 91 percent of women's basketball players and 67 percent of men's basketball players who entered Duke from 1996 to 1999 earned degrees.

"Therefore, I don't consider them exceptions," he said. "Just because a kid has a lower SAT than someone else doesn't mean he or she is an exception. ... Whether a young man or women can graduate from Duke University, that's the criteria."

Duke supports 650 athletes, in 26 varsity women's and men's sports, with 242 full scholarships.

The point suggesting that the school admits fewer athletes who fall at the lower end of the admissions standards directly would affect a difficult situation for the Blue Devils' football team.

It also could undo a change made by former Duke President Nan Keohane. Five years ago, she agreed to adjust football admissions practices. At the discretion of the undergraduate admissions office, two or three more players, for a total of four to six per year, could be admitted from the lower end of admissions criteria.

"I think your assessment there is accurate, but it doesn't mean it's going to happen," Alleva said. "It's something we'll discuss."

The committee also suggested further limiting practice and travel time for Duke's athletes. The NCAA already limits practice and travel time to 20 hours per week and requires a mandatory day off each week during the season.

Alleva said that to restrict those things more would not jibe with other parts of the report.

"It also says in the report that the university wants to have a strong, competitive Division I athletic program," he said. "To have that, you have to travel and practice up to the maximum the NCAA allows."

Duke President Richard Brodhead said Tuesday it was time for the Duke community to have long, hard discussions about which recommendations would work best.

Alleva said evaluating the athletics department has been a healthy process.

"The CCI [has] suggestions for us to talk about and look at and see how we can improve as an athletics department and university," he said. "As long as it is taken in that context, I'm fine with it."