November 30, 2002

Dear Ms. Harper,

As you are well aware, the Dartmouth swimmers and divers and their parents are a determined bunch. We are devastated by your decision to eliminate the swimming and diving team, and we are obsessed with finding a way to reverse your position. I assure you, this is not an issue that is going to go away.

And, frankly, the longer this goes on, the more onerous the consequences for all of us. We, as parents, don't want to get to that point and I doubt that you want your tenure as AD  tainted by the long-term effects of this decision.  I do have some sympathy for the pressure that you were under as the newly elevated AD to make budget cuts, and I have some sympathy for the pressure that you are under now. I believe that it was painful for you to make the decision to take away the sport that our children love -- but, ultimately, it was a very, very wrong decision that makes everyone (you, us, Dean Larimore, the coaches, our children, Dartmouth College and the greater Hanover community) a loser.

I'm sure that your PR people predicted our protest and advised you to stand firm, express understanding and sympathy, and not to budge -- eventually the students and parents would get tired, the heat would die down and everything would be all right again. But, under the current circumstances, Dartmouth is never going to be all right again for our children, and that means it won't be all right again for you.

Yes, this has been personally painful for you. Yet, let me assure you, the pain that you have caused is far more than the pain you're feeling. You just have no idea.  You could not stand to be in my shoes over this Thanksgiving vacation, looking in my daughter's eyes. You could not stand to hear her despair about having her swimming career end abruptly and unceremoniously...so that more valued sports teams could have new competition fields. This, from a recruited swimmer who had many, many other academic and athletic options. Dartmouth recruited her under false pretenses and took our prepaid tuition under false pretenses!

But, you don't understand swimming. It's an unusual sport, an acquired taste. And, I'm not sure that anyone not intimately familiar with the sport truly understands swimmers and the swimmers' mentality. So, let me explain.

First, swimming and diving is different from other sports because children enter the sport very young -- perhaps ages 5 - 8. By the time they're 10 - 12, if they're serious swimmers, swimming is the only sport in which the majority are participating. And, they're doing it 11 months a year, six days a week -- with daily double sessions during the summer and often during the school year. Often, those pools are miles away from home, adding hours a day onto the practice routine.

Then, there are swim meets. An average swim meet typically runs three days and may be hundreds of miles from home. Championship meets may run longer. This number probably varies by locale, but it would be a reasonable guess to say that the typical swimmer participates in maybe 15-20 USS or YMCA meets a year (more if he/she is also competing on a high school team).

Second, swimming and diving parents are a committed bunch. The kids don't get to those practices or meets on their own. And, typically, all of this training and competing goes on within the structure of private swimming clubs or YMCA teams -- for which, in most locales, parents pay handsomely. Meets often involve multiple day stays at hotels ... along with meals, pet care and significant other expenses. Then, there are private coaches and swim camps. And, remember, this goes on virtually all year long, so family vacations are adjusted around swim schedules, etc. Swimming rules in swimming households. We've lived like this for years -- all of us -- and that's why we aren't going away.

The $64,000 question is -- why do we do it? Why do we rearrange our lives, postpone vacations, travel incessantly and spend the money? The answer is found on a bumper sticker: SWIMMING KEEPS KIDS CLEAN. That's it in a nutshell. We, as parents, have done our very best to send you student-athletes whose character has been honed by competition the likes of which most kids never encounter. We have devoted years to giving you our very best, and -- in turn -- the "adults" at Dartmouth have shown them the very worst.

Third, you can't imagine how painful the "dig" was that suggested that in addition to the budgetary reasons, swimming and diving had to go because Dartmouth athletes were noncompetitive. And, you implicitly offered them the option of becoming club swimmers! These children haven't trained for the last 11-15 years to become club swimmers. That's like trying to appease the football team by saying that in lieu of playing on the college level, they might be able to find a spot on a Pop Warner club. You'd never think to insult another team the way you did our swimmers and divers.

They are excellent athletes. You need to understand and appreciate that. The men and women who represent Dartmouth on the swimming and diving team were among the top athletes in their USS LSAs, YMCA competitions and state high school competitions. They qualified for state meets, Age Group Championships, YMCA Championships and Junior Nationals! They are not the also-rans that you portray.

So, what's the problem? Why doesn't Dartmouth show better in Ivy League competition? Let me tell you why -- because the competition includes some of the best in the world! Let me restrict my comments to women's swimming because that's what I know best. My jaw  dropped last year at Ivy Championships when the women in the final and consolation final heats were announced. Included in this group were numerous Olympians from their home countries and women who hold their country's record in the events they were swimming. Of the native US swimmers, there were women who participated in Olympic trials, the Pan Am games and other major international swimming competitions. Most were multiple Senior National qualifiers! Now, THAT is competition!!!

What would the W-L record of other Dartmouth teams look like if each league rival included a handful of athletes who were among the world's best 18-22 year olds in their sport? It makes you shake your head, doesn't it; yet, this is the caliber of competition that our swimming and diving team face ... and to you, they're noncompetitive. I don't know, maybe the answer is to reduce the level of competition in women's Ivy League swimming so that we can be competing at a lower level, but creating the perception that we're a stronger team.

Perhaps the solution is giving Dartmouth swimmers and divers more opportunities to compete out of league, where the the relative competition was lower and our athletes would shine!

OK, you've had enough of this and so have I. You didn't take this job to jettison teams to hurt 53 Dartmouth students. You took this job for the challenge of making Dartmouth athletics the best they can be. And, that's not what's happening. You were put into a corner by Dartmouth administration and now it's time to stand up and get out. You can effect change and it is the right thing to do.

Despite our intense feelings about the recent events at Dartmouth that have so negatively impacted our children, right now, we are all willing to work with you to find a way that everyone comes out a winner. It is our true hope that this can be accomplished. But, in order to find the solution that we know is out there, we need to establish a real dialogue. Speaking honestly, despite the huge effort we've put behind trying to communicate with you and the others, we don't believe you're listening. Certainly you are expressing your sympathy and saying kind words about our children, but you are not hearing us. We feel stonewalled, and that's not a good thing. You don't want us feeling like that.

Change your position and the positive, good work can begin.

Sincerely,
Marilyn Bochichcio