Junior Carol Merritt finds solace in running. A sprinter with the women's track team since her freshman year, the track is a place where she felt protected and confident. That is, until her refuge became distorted forever with a song.

Captains and awards were the main agenda of the first track and field team meeting Sept. 5. At the end of the meeting, the freshmen men's track and field squad hopped in front of the team and tried to show solidarity and break the ice with their new teammates by giving an impromptu "remix" combining the Deacon fight song and Outkast's rap song "Rosa Parks." It backfired. While rapping the remixed fight song, the word "niggas" was left in. Many students, including Merritt, said they were shocked.

"Towards the end of the remix they made up, they used the word n----s in it. They made copies of it and passed it around the room. There are only a handful of minority runners on the team, I mean you can count it basically on two hands, and nobody said anything," Merritt said. "We're just sitting there like, did this really happen? It was just kind of hurtful, and in the same, it was just like, oh my gosh, this kind of stuff really happens. Out of all the coaches, none of them said anything and none of the other teammates said anything."

Annie Schweitzer-Bennett, director of track and field, said the coaching staff and the rest of the team had no prior knowledge that the remix would be performed.

"The track staff knew nothing about it," Schweitzer-Bennett said. "We did not recognize it."

According to an e-mail statement issued to the Old Gold and Black by the original authors of the remix, "The song was a surprise to the team members as well as the coaching staff. Both athletes and coaches alike found the skit to be extremely offensive. The group involved sincerely felt bad for their ignorant mistake and offered their apologies. The coaching staff and athletic department quickly and effectively handled the situation as disciplinary actions were taken. The performing group meant absolutely no harm and felt terrible for offending the athletes and coaches."

Schweitzer-Bennett said the remix was not intentionally meant to offend anyone.

"Most people in the room could not hear what the song was because the acoustics were so bad," Bennett said. "It was not intentional. There was nobody trying to hurt anybody's feelings."

Merritt said the remix is not the only instance of racial insensitivity she has felt since joining the track team. Since her freshman year, Merritt alleges that an assistant coach has referred to her on multiple occasions as "Buckwheat."

"We've had name calling on the team where one of my coaches actually called me Buckwheat because my hair is really wavy when I don't blow-dry it. Stuff like that is just uncalled for," Merritt said. "At the same team meeting where the fight song went down, one of my teammates heard that same man say, 'there goes Buckwheat' when I was getting one of my awards. It really didn't hit me until she said that because, as a freshman, I was the only sprinter that was recruited, so there were a lot of things that I just let go because (it was) me training by myself. I didn't really know who to talk to."

Two other track athletes verified that assistant coach Michael Bennett, has referred to Merritt as "buckwheat."

Bennett, who is the husband of Coach Schweitzer-Bennett, said the allegations are "absolutely not true."

Schweitzer-Bennett said she considered the allegation to be "a very strong accusation."

"I stand behind my staff 100 percent," Schweitzer-Bennett said. "I don't believe in any of that."

Merritt's example shows just one way student athlete/coach relations can potentially skirt the fine line between mutual understanding and grave, potentially discriminatory miscommunication.

While the outcome may not be guaranteed as a happy ending, the Athletic Department does have a system of resolving grievances.

According to the university department of athletics student-athlete handbook, student athletes are encouraged to "speak first with the head coach involved. Every effort should be made to work out any grievances at this level."

After talking with the head coach, students may then contact a senior associate administrator if their grievance has not yet been resolved.

According to the handbook: "if the matter still remains unresolved; the Director of Athletics should be contacted directly by the student-athlete. It is hoped that all matters can be resolved 'in-house.'"

If no solution arises, the dean of student services, the dean of the college or the university ombudsman should be contacted by the student.

Robert Beck, university ombudsman and a professor of psychology, said that most student-athlete grievances rarely make it to the third and final stage.

"There are very few cases that reach me," Beck said. "These are cases where a student athlete has somehow gotten him or herself in some kind of a bind with either a coach or a faculty member and has no place to turn that they can see."

Beck said he's only dealt with a handful of cases since he became ombudsman in 1998, and the position only serves as a possible liaison between a student athlete and an administrator, coach or instructor.

"The ombudsman position came into being as a result of a 1991 report on academics and athletics," Beck said. "In the course of this came out the idea there would be somebody the athletes could turn to when they felt they couldn't turn to a coach, couldn't turn to an official with the university. Any student who comes to see me does so in complete confidentiality."

Beck said he might be asked to intervene "if a coach were in some sense abusing an athlete in terms of making demands on the athlete that were really above and beyond the call. For example, if a student hypothetically had an exam with some length of time, and there was a practice scheduled, but not a match, or say the exam was rescheduled the time was in the conflict, and the student thought they had to go to the exam and the coach was saying you shouldn't do that, you should be with the team. Or studying for an exam."

Merritt's case never made it as far as the Dean of Students or the university ombudsman, but according to Dwight Lewis, associate athletic director, her grievances with both the remix and the name-calling were expressed in a meeting which included members of the athletic department, track and field coaching staff and student athletes.

"We addressed all of the issues and believe that all the issues have been resolved so that we are able to move on. We know that part of the reason why we wanted to deal with it accurately, effectively and promptly was because we know how sensitive the issue is," Lewis said. "(The behavior in question is) inappropriate and it's not tolerated here at Wake Forest, nor in the athletic department, and we were able to move on."

Merritt said she did not directly speak with Schweitzer-Bennett, and instead expressed her objection to another assistant coach Sept. 5.

Merritt said it took Schweitzer-Bennett until the following Tuesday to address the issue of the remix.

Merritt described Schweitzer-Bennett's reaction as "nonchalant."

"Even though we didn't tell her, it took her four days to realize that this hurt a major portion of the team, and nothing was done about it until four days later. When it was done, she tried to sweep it under a carpet," Merritt said. "I guess it just struck us the wrong way. It was really just covered up the wrong way, and it didn't come uncovered until we had to go to an associate athletic director and tell him and then he was upset about it."

Schweitzer-Bennett said she the issues were resolved.

"Carol left my office feeling comfortable about it," said Schweitzer-Bennett. "I think the issue is very resolved. I think the team feels it's very resolved."

While the athletic department and the rest of the track team appear to consider the matter resolved, Merritt said she may not be able to view her position on the team in the same way again.

"Being on this campus, a predominantly white campus, myself as well as some of my teammates, we kind of see track as our safe haven, that's the place we go to get away from reality. I was deeply hurt, I was deeply offended.

"I do see track as my safe haven, and I hated the thought that I couldn't think of it that way," Merritt said. "I still don't know if I can think of it that way just because this one incident has happened. Not by any means (am I) saying that it's been a big problem, but I think this is just the one time when we were like, we're athletes here too, and we have just as right as anybody else on the team."

"We should be able to voice that and say, hey, this hurt my feelings, and regardless of if you know or not, you did hurt me," Merritt said.