Other Campuses: U. Iowa panel readies athlete code of conduct

By The Daily Iowan

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Iowa committee charged with creating a new student-athlete code of conduct approved its final draft on Thursday, cementing the athletics director’s right to punish athletes even if they have not been legally charged with any crimes.

The new policy spells out the rights and responsibilities of student-athletes and divides misconduct into two categories. The draft was originally to be presented during the Presidential Committee on Athletics’ April meeting, but the committee accelerated the schedule two months.

“We felt the need to move this up with the situation going on with the basketball team,” Ana Diaz-Arnold, the athletics-committee president, said.

The new code allows Athletics Director Bob Bowlsby to hand down punishment based on “specific and credible” information about a crime, including arrest records, statements from police, university records, witness statements or an athlete’s admission of guilt.

The athletics committee approved the draft and forwarded to UI President David Skorton and the university’s general counsel for final approval. Officials will re-evaluate it next fall to ensure that it coincides with any new university policy and it is clear to athletes. The athletics committee would review the policy every three years.

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If approved, the code will go into effect next fall; it will be read to athletes during their summer orientation.

While reviewing and tweaking the draft, athletics-committee member Dan Anderson highlighted specific language that, he said, would confuse student-athletes, such as “duly promulgated” – meaning established.

“Ten-dollar words were used when you could use 10-cent words,” he said. “To me, this document would be something student-athletes are able to read, not a lawyer can read when they’re in trouble.”

Other members argued that most of the language was readable and stressed against stereotyping student-athletes.

The final draft ended a two-year effort that began after former basketball player Pierre Pierce’s first run-in with the law. His second arrest in three years highlighted that the group had yet to approve consequences for breaking the code.

– Jane Slusark

The UI came under fierce criticism for its handling of the first set of charges against Pierce in the fall of 2002. The athletics committee’s former president made a series of recommendations to former interim UI President Sandy Boyd, including a complete draft of the rights and responsibilities of student-athletes and punishment procedures.

The subcommittee charged with composing the code presented the rights and responsibilities to the athletics committee in April 2004, and it was passed as a “working draft.”

Athletes were informed of the behavior guidelines outlined in it and told to “consider themselves bound by the code,” Marcella David, the chairwoman of the subcommittee said.