From what Donte Davis remembers about being drug tested by Syracuse University’s athletic department, there was little wiggle room to get around the rules.

‘It’d be real early in the morning. They don’t want you to be able to do nothing like get rid of any drugs or anything like that, so they’ll test you real early,’ said Davis, a former football player. ‘They make you pull your pants down. They watch you pee into a cup. It’s like no cheating the system.’

But according to a Yahoo! Sports article released yesterday, four sources with knowledge of SU basketball teams alleged at least 10 players in the last decade cheated the system and avoided punishment outlined by the athletics’ drug policy.

There is a drug policy in place within the department today, but the policy is not made available to the public.

Whether the information is made public is completely determined by the institution, said Andrea Wickerham, vice president of Free Drug Sport, which oversees the NCAA drug testing program. She also said it does not matter whether the university is public or private.

‘I know some of our clients put their institutional testing program on their athletic department website,’ Wickerham said. ‘And I’m familiar with some institutions that aren’t our clients that put it out there for access for their student athletes, for their coaches, for the public. To me it’s not something that they should be concerned about. It’s just a written document.’

When asked why the policy is not made public, Sue Edson, assistant director of athletics for communications, cited privacy as a reason.

‘Because it’s something we choose to keep private because it impacts student athletes, and it’s not something that we deem necessary to be public information because we believe its private information,’ Edson said.

Though the athletic department could not go into detail regarding the policy, former athletes gave some insight regarding what they experienced during their time at Syracuse.

At the start of the school year, all athletes attend an orientation that explains what the athletes must do to stay eligible throughout the season. This ranges from many topics, including avoiding drugs to stay in compliance with department and NCAA policy.

‘The meeting is basically of eligibility outside of academics,’ former football player Da’Mon Merkerson said. ‘All the things that can get you in trouble.’

Wickerham said what the NCAA tests for and what individual institutions test for are usually different.

The NCAA has a stronger emphasis on steroids, for which Drug Free Sport administers tests automatically at Division-I football programs, Wickerham said.

The focus of college drug testing is more stringent regarding street drugs, which include marijuana, cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamines, certain prescription drugs and opium, Wickerham said.

‘Individual institutions and I’m guessing Syracuse would be similar. It tends to focus most of their testing on street drugs, but probably does some anabolic steroids testing, and that could be for a variety of reasons,’ she said.

As for punishment, Merkerson, who never failed a drug test during his time at Syracuse, said he doesn’t have firsthand experience with what the consequences are.

But from what he understood, the athletic department has its own punishment. Then, depending on the coach of a certain sport, he or she can level a more sincere punishment.

Merkerson said every team received equal treatment.

Wickerham said that the NCAA does not dictate to schools what its individual sanctions should be if an athlete fails a drug test, but a school can face consequences if it does not enforce the sanctions it sets.

Don Siegel, the chair of the University Senate Committee on Athletic Policy at SU, said from what he has seen of the drug policy, the athletic department goes to great measures to ensure the policy is adhered to. Siegel added that the department self-reports if it does not follow procedure.

Siegel said his position, along with others on the committee, is an advisory board for the department. He said he couldn’t remember the last time the committee and the athletic department talked about the drug policy. Still, speaking generally, he thinks the drug policy is fine.

‘From our understanding, the athletic department has always done it’s best to adhere to NCAA policy and then go beyond that sometimes,’ Siegel said. ‘To ensure that our program is as compliant as possible to the benefit of the student and that athletic program.’

dgproppe@syr.edu 

Published on March 6, 2012 at 12:00 pm