Otterblog

It’s hard to think of another university that consistently gets such adoring coverage in the media as Duke University. Maybe not always in the local media, but certainly in the national press. Part of Duke’s rise to national prominence, in my opinion, has been about finding a brand, which I will call here “Excellence through enlightened competition” and then living it and selling it each and every day.

The poster boy for all this is of course Coach K, teacher, leader, mentor, talking about trust and Chevys, etc. A great brand.

So, it’s interesting when that brand is challenged, as it is today with the widening investigation into allegations of rape involving members of the Duke Lacrosse team. Instead of basketball coaches in their suits on the sidelines, we have a photo of a swaggering lacrosse coach in a pair of sunglasses. A much different image.

Time magazine had a good read on the rape case, as did the Associated Press in the past weekend. They’re both a little overwritten, but the bones of this case, regardless of guilt, read like something from an episode of Law and Order. White athletes, rich school, black student at the HBCU across town working as a party stripper for some extra cash, town and gown, etc. This is a story that writes itself, and for an institution such as Duke that has been extremely successful in controlling or at least managing the story lines that get written about it, the pounding is just brutal.

Not that PR is everything. Again, this is a serious allegation of a serious crime, and how the university addresses the systemic issues raised here is what will determine whether the old image and brand of Duke survive or what takes its place.