The devils came out in Durham

Three weeks ago, an estimated 40 members of the Duke men's lacrosse team did something stupid: they attended a party hosted by three players at their off-campus house, a night of debauchery replete with underage drinking and a pair of exotic dancers.

If the allegations made by one of those dancers are true, the night also included more than just relatively harmless stupidity: she claims the players showered her with racist and misogynist slurs, then pulled her into the bathroom and gang raped her.

As appalling as the allegations are, I'm not totally shocked by them. Racism and sexual violence remain real problems on college campuses, even if no one likes to talk about it.

The accusations have forced Duke to confront those issues. They've also thrust another classic campus elephant in the closet into the public forum: athletes behaving badly.

At least 15 of the lacrosse players — a third of the roster — previously faced criminal charges, including underage alcohol possession, noise violations and public urination, according to an article in the Raleigh News & Observer. Most college sports teams don't have that kind of rap sheet, of course, but I'm sure the Blue Devils aren't the only team with such ignoble records.

Sadly, Princeton isn't immune, either.

Read through the Princeton Borough police blotter archives, and you'll stumble across the names of a few of Princeton's most accomplished athletes.

But you'll also find the names of plenty of non-athlete Princetonians, including student government leaders. Truth is, all college students — athletes and non-athletes, state schoolers and Ivy Leaguers — do stupid things.

Let me be clear: I don't believe that a student-athlete is inherently more likely to have an underage drink or break a window than a student-journalist. The vast majority of Princeton athletes I know are exemplary, upstanding citizens. They push themselves on the playing fields, excel in the classroom and contribute to the community.

So why do we stereotype athletes as behaving badly? And what should we make of a case like the Duke lacrosse team that reinforces the stereotype?

As Duke knows quite well, successful sports teams can lift an entire university, financially and academically. It's logical, then, that the athletes responsible receive the rewards they do, including expensive facilities and the adulation of their peers.

But there is a line. Academic favoritism is too high a price to pay. Ignoring bad behavior is, too. What I'm talking about might broadly be called a culture of entitlement — a pervasive sense that not everyone is playing by the same rules. It develops when a blind eye is turned one too many times, when lessons are not taught, when boorish behavior becomes perfectly acceptable.

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In the past week, numerous Duke students have told the national media they believe the lacrosse team fostered such a culture of entitlement. And I know some Princeton students who believe some Tiger athletes walk around campus with a similar aura.

Again, let me be clear: I don't believe that college athletics inherently breed such behavior or that the average Princeton athlete believes that he or she is above the law. But I do believe that college sports teams are more susceptible to breeding such a culture than an a cappella group is.

Who's to blame? Not just the athletes. Also blame the administrators too embarrassed to publicly admit that some students are destructive drunks. Blame the coaches more worried about their team's national rankings than their players' rap sheets. Blame the student newspaper editors who repeatedly give their friends a pass and feed the hero worship.

Take the 15 Duke lacrosse players with prior records — what price had they paid for their transgressions? Perhaps some steep legal fees but not much else. Almost all the charges were dropped thanks to deals with prosecutors. None of the players were ever suspended for games. Neither the Duke Chronicle nor Goduke.com ever mentioned the arrests.

"You have young people 18 to 22 years old," Duke athletic director Joe Alleva said last week. "Sometimes they're going to make some bad decisions."

Alleva is right: most college stupidity is relatively harmless, properly written off as "youthful indiscretion." But he's also rather naive. Stupidity has a nasty habit of snowballing, and eventually it must be relabeled: drunk driver ... drug dealer ... rapist.

I have no idea what really happened that night in Durham. Regardless, the members of the lacrosse team need to rethink their behavior.

Maybe they're not the only ones. David Baumgarten '06 is a politics major from Richmond, Va. and a former 'Prince' managing editor for sports. He can be reached at dbaumgar@princeton.edu.