The Vanderbilt women’s tennis team has been sanctioned for hazing, but the university is not revealing the extent of it. Athletics director David Williams said in a statement that hazing is dangerous, violates both university and athletic department policy and will not be tolerated, but added that no one was harmed.
Vanderbilt’s women’s lacrosse team was sanctioned for the same violation. The sanctions included missing an event; the tennis team missed a tournament at Furman.
Williams said neither teams’ coach knew of the events and may punish their players further. Geoff Macdonald, a contributor to the <em>New York Times</em> Straight Sets blog, coaches the women’s tennis team.
“I would describe it as errors in judgment,” Macdonald told <em>The Tennessean</em>. “I don’t want to minimize it at all, but I felt like we dealt with it very well here. In addition to missing a (tournament), the people who we felt made errors in judgment were given additional penalties. A lot of this is we’re trying to create sensitivity. It’s not anything horrific—that word (hazing) can mean a lot of things ... I do know there has been no tradition on this team of it. They tried to do something that was not thought through at all. It’s not something we condone. In fact, it’s an aberration.”