DURHAM, N.C. - Several Duke University alumni questioned the school's president Saturday about suspending two lacrosse players charged with raping a stripper at a team party, with one saying his alma mater is guilty of “a tremendous rush to judgment.”

“It was convenient to throw the lacrosse team overboard along with their coach,” said Joe Baden, a 1970 Duke graduate from Raleigh.

Baden was among about a half dozen alumni to question President Richard Brodhead during a forum held as part of a weekend of class reunions. During a talk about the school's strategic plan, Brodhead stopped the program for a half hour to specifically take questions from the crowd of nearly 100 about the lacrosse team and the rape allegations.

Duke has not confirmed it suspended the two players charged with rape, although the university has said the school's practice is to issue an interim suspension when a student is charged with a felony or when the student's presence on the campus may create an unsafe situation.

“We really asked ourselves, on the matter of interim suspension, 'How do we do these things?”' Brodhead told a questioner. “The custom of this place, I assure you it is the custom of many places, on indictment for a felony ... that's the way to go with it and that's the way we did it this time.”

Sophomores Reade Seligmann, of Essex Fells, N.J., and Collin Finnerty, of Garden City, N.Y., were charged this past week with first-degree rape, sexual assault and kidnapping.

Authorities believe they were two of the three white men who a 27-year-old black single mother says raped her at a March 13 lacrosse team party.