President Wright, Provost Scherr, Dean Larimore, Mrs. Harper, and Mr. Walker:

 

As a former swimmer at Penn State University and current father of a Harvard

swimmer, I am disappointed in your hasty decision to eliminate both men's

and women's swimming at Dartmouth. The initial reasons for your decisions

seem to be based on pure financial rationale that only address a bottom-line

-dollars and cents issue. Unfortunately, the reality of this whole issue is

much broader and diverse than that. While I understand that you do have to

make prudent decisions regarding your university and athletic programs, the

fact that you didn't embrace the swimming community beforehand leads me to

question whether your decision was looking at all the alternatives and

options available.

 

Last month, I attended the Dartmouth women's swimming meet against Harvard

and was truly impressed with the Dartmouth's coaches and women's attitude,

camaraderie and respect they had for their sport. Not only that, these

Dartmouth women's swimmers were some of the finest ambassadors any

University could hope to have. You could tell that they not only had the

love of their sport on their Dartmouth jerseys but were extremely proud to

represent your fine institution. As one of your former student/swimmer

states, "Dartmouth swimming is a place where you develop character, learn to

win and lose, and emerge as a champion. It's a place to develop discipline

and explore limits." This statement sums up what the college experience is

all about.

 

This weekend, I attended a women's swimming competition between Harvard,

Penn and Columbia in Philadelphia. The stands were all filled and there were

standing-room only available. I can certainly attest to the spirit and love

of swimming that emanated throughout the swimming pool by all the swimmers,

coaches, officials and spectators. Whether you were a Harvard, Penn or

Columbia fan, the most talked about subject was your decision to eliminate

collegiate swimming. Almost all who attended this meet were appalled by your

decision and a petition was circulated among the spectators that will ask

you to reconsider your decision to eliminate the sport. You can expect this

petition with about a thousand signatures to reach your offices sometime

within the next week.

 

I know that you have a difficult road ahead of you in resolving this issue.

I would only hope that you listen to the swimming community for ways of

effectively dealing with this issue. I am very confident, that if you work

with the swimming community on this issue, Dartmouth will retain swimming

for many years to come and that the University will be admired for the way

that they handled this delicate decision without having to straddle

financial burden.

 

Respectfully,

 

David Bright

The Pennsylvania State University '80

Proud Father of Two Swimmers!