Dear President Wright,

 

            My world was shaken this morning when I heard the news that Dartmouth College decided to cut the men’s and women’s swimming & diving teams.  As a 2002 graduate, I competed for four years on the swim team and was a captain last year.  Being a part of that team was one of my greatest privileges and serving as captain was among the highest honors I have ever been given.  I would not have come to Dartmouth if not for the opportunity to swim.  Dartmouth is a wonderful place and I spent the best four years of my life so far in Hanover, with a team full of the best people I have ever met.  However, you need to understand that athletes do not participate in Division I athletics just for something to do or to fill spare time.  We have pushed our bodies and have trained for over 15 years of our lives.  Swimmers and divers have devoted their entire lives to their sport.  We will not give it up easily.  I sacrificed in elementary, middle school and high school.  I made the decision to give up part of my social life in order to dedicate myself to being the best that I could be and I wanted to go to Dartmouth because it would allow me to be the best that I could be.  Dartmouth offered me opportunities that I had only dreamed of, with experiences that my friends would never have. 

I chose Dartmouth because I wanted to compete in Division I and get an Ivy League education.  I turned down other programs, many which offered scholarships, because I saw something unique in the Dartmouth swimming program.  My education will never fail me, but it is not even half of the education that I received at Dartmouth.  Where did I learn what it felt like to give everything I had and see it pay off?  Where did I learn how to succeed, how to fall short, and how to be a gracious competitor in either circumstance?  Where did I learn to be a leader, to encourage others, and be inspired every day of my life?  The pool.  Being a part of the Dartmouth Swimming & Diving team made my Dartmouth experience.  The swimmers and divers on those teams get up before the crack of dawn, put in two hours of a hard workout and lift weights before other students even hear their alarms.  They truck through snow in the morning before it is plowed…because they practice in any weather, because that’s what it takes to succeed in swimming and diving.  They do school work on bus rides and in hotel rooms because the inconveniences are worth it to them.  Two of my most treasured possessions include my log book that details thousands of miles of work-outs that I swam at Dartmouth and my worn-out ice bag that reminds me that success does not come easily or without pain.  These objects represent a work ethic that only swimming could teach me, a work ethnic that has served me well through college and into my professional life.

The swimming & diving teams are worth more than $212,000.  The privilege of competing in the Ivy League and in the NCAA is worth more than $212,000, more than .01% of the annual budget.  Believe me, we know the value of .01.  It can be the difference between a win and a loss in any swimming race.  With .01, a swimmer can achieve a lifetime best, a pool or team record, and a spot on the podium, making thousands of hours in a pool seem like Heaven.  Swimmers work hard to drop a mere .01 of a second.  And when a stronger kick, a different breathing pattern, or a tighter streamline doesn’t work, we find something else that does work.  Learn from us.  Find a way to make this situation work, find a different way to drop .01%.  You have not found it yet.  Why don’t you try getting up at 6AM with the swimmers & divers?  Why don’t you take a long bus ride to think about it?  Try staying in on a Friday night while your friends are out partying so that you can get your work done and find a way to succeed in everything.  That’s what swimmers and divers do. 

You cannot console athletes by telling them that they compete as a club team.  THEY ARE NOT CLUB PLAYERS. THEY ARE DIVISION I ATHLETES.  The swimming and diving teams may not win the Ivy Championship, but they beat Division I teams, hold records at many pools, and compete with Olympians at Ivy’s and Easterns.  Do not blame the pool, for 25 yards is all that one needs to have a swim meet.  We may not have the best facility, but it is better than several Ivy League facilities and many other Division I pools.  The swimming and diving teams are already subject to the highest admittance standards.  Our teams have among the highest SATs and GPAs.  Swimmers and divers are well rounded, driven people.  Do not drive them away.  It would be no problem to cut $212,000 from the athletic budget by reducing funding for every team.  This is Dartmouth.  There are intelligent people.  Challenge your coaches, your teams, and your athletes.  Make them be resourceful. It is adversity that makes us stronger people, friends, colleagues, competitors, and teammates.  If you want to see an athletic program or an athletic department succeed, challenge it.  Do not give up on it.  These athletes know how to dream big, how to set goals.  They pursue them at 6 in the morning, over five hours a day, through pain and injury, with all of their heart.

Do not punish these athletes for a bad economy, for poor decisions that you and your staff have made.  They do nothing but give everything they have, day in and day out, when the muscles hurt, when it’s easier to slack off, when no one is looking.  They have talent, they have drive, and they have a tradition of Dartmouth College Athletics behind them.  You have heard and will continue to hear from that tradition, because “stand as sister stands by brother” we will not let you take their passion away from them.  They represent Dartmouth in spectacular ways.  I will not support the college financially and a host of other current students, athletes, and alums will not support an institution that does not support its student-athletes.  We may have the still North in our hearts, the hill winds in our veins, and the granite of New Hampshire in our muscles and our brains, but we also have the love of Dartmouth Swimming and Diving in everything that we are.  Please do not make us harbor resentment for the College that we love.  There are alternatives.  Find them. 

You and I started together at Dartmouth in 1998; I as a freshman and you as the President of Dartmouth.  On Convocation Day, you quoted Emily Dickinson,

 

“We never know how high we are

Till we are asked to rise

And then if we are true to plan

Our statures touch the skies.”

 

Dartmouth’s swimming and diving teams allowed me the chance to touch the sky.  There are freshmen, sophomores, and juniors on that team right now poised to touch the sky.  And they will touch it, they will achieve great things, and they will make parents, coaches, friends, teammates and themselves proud.  Wouldn’t it be great if they were representing Dartmouth?

 

            Sincerely,

 

Julie N. Hasson

Captain, Women’s Swimming & Diving, 2002