Duke bans strippers from campus — again
Rule had been inadvertently removed from book
RALEIGH, N.C. - A policy banning strippers from on-campus events is back in the rule book at Duke University, after allegations that members of the school's lacrosse team raped an exotic dancer led officials to notice it had been inadvertently removed.
The policy governs only on-campus events and wouldn't have applied to the March off-campus lacrosse team party where an exotic dancer has said she was sexually assaulted by three men in a bathroom.
The rule — "strippers may not be invited or paid to perform at events sponsored by individual students, residential living groups, or cohesive units" — had been a part of Duke's Bulletin of Information and Regulations long before the lacrosse case surfaced, said Stephen Bryan, the school's associate dean of students and judicial affairs director.
While the ban on strippers remained among the Residential Life and Housing Services rules for decorations and theme parties, it was omitted from Duke's Bulletin when a section regarding fire safety and events was revised prior to the 2004-05 school year, Bryan said.
"It was a complete error," Bryan said. "When the lacrosse thing happened, that's when I looked at it and realized it was inadvertently removed."
Bryan, who has been at Duke for eight years, said the policy was established before he arrived.
"We haven't had problems with strippers for many years," he said.
Because the policy applies specifically to organized, on-campus events, students can hire a stripper to perform in an apartment or dorm room on or off campus. There are no plans to change that, Bryan said.
"The bottom line is that strippers are not illegal," he said. "It's a moral choice. ... We made a decision that a stripper at a campus event is something that we don't want to support."
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"It's never been on our radar screen," said Jonathan Sauls, assistant dean of students at UNC Chapel Hill. He said the university instead relies on a broadly written code that governs student conduct.
"You're letting people know what the standards are without trying to forecast every specific way that someone might violate the policy," Sauls said.
At Duke, student government leaders said they will look at the policy and seek feedback from classmates.
Duke is "based primarily on freedom and liberty and we want to make sure our policies reflect that," said Maggie McGannon, the student government's vice president of student affairs. But she said banning strippers from campus events seems reasonable.
"The event on campus could cause harm to other students in the sense that they might see something they might not want to see," she said.
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