Dr. Wright:

 

Last summer, my wife and son, Andrew, drove East looking at colleges. One of them was Dartmouth, where the diving coach graciously met with Andrew, even though he was only a rising junior. Andrew came away from his visits with Dartmouth definitely being his favorite.

 

Then, in late November, we heard that Dartmouth was ending its swimming and diving program. I showed Andrew the press release; he was crushed.

 

As an alumnus of Harvard and the University of Chicago Graduate B-school and now a trustee of a smaller college in Illinois, I was incredulous. How can Dartmouth, with all its assets, be ending swimming and diving, I thought, when the college on whose board I sit has a puny endowment by comparison and facilities far less impressive than Dartmouth?

 

What do we know as trustees at little North Central College that seems to have escaped the folks at Dartmouth? A superb liberal arts education is about educating the whole person, about developing life skills--insight, persistence, discipline, dedication. That is why one swims or dives in college. How can Dartmouth pretend to be that kind of institution when it begins to strip away elements of that education, such as intercollegiate swimming and diving?

 

How can the Dartmouth admissions office pretend to build a well-rounded class of individuals each year when it ignores one of the most dedicated and good-hearted class of student-athletes: swimmers and divers?

 

To an outside observer, the Dartmouth decision to end swimming and diving simply doesn't add up. To my son, a fine student and currently the #2 diver in the state of Wisconsin, it's a big disappointment, too. He loves diving; he loved visiting Dartmouth. Now, he must look elsewhere, but all the other choices are second best.

 

Please rethink your decision to end Dartmouth aquatics. It is not becoming of Dartmouth. More importantly, it denies Dartmouth the opportunity to have some of the most dedicated and hard-working students and alumni it can hope to have.

 

Todd A. Berry

 

Middleton WI 53562

MCP Harvard; MBA Chicago