Dear Dartmouth Community:
 
I believe that Dartmouth would do itself a deep and lasting disservice if the proposed swim team cuts take effect. As a former team co-captain (class of '96) and volunteer assistant coach (96-97 season), I am intimately connected to the coaches, swimmers, and the tradition of swimming at Dartmouth. My life and good health have been deeply affected by the sport I dedicated so many long hours to before, during, and after my four years as a Dartmouth undergraduate scholar-athlete. While I would stop short of calling this a "grave injustice" or a "tragedy," terms more befitting to the sort of people I fought for today in a protest against state-funded health care cuts in Massachusetts, Dartmouth's decision is still morally wrong and shortsighted.
 
A few points to consider:
 
1. THE SWIM FACILITY ARGUMENT IS NOT VALID. Arguments about the quality of Dartmouth's facility as compared to other Ivy League teams are simply unfounded. Cornell and Columbia have equally outdated facilities. If facilities need to be improved, Dartmouth should step up to the plate and solicit donors for that specific need. Why not let alumni direct dollars if we so choose? Such a facility would not only serve Dartmouth but the entire Upper Valley and northern New England community which Dartmouth should strive to support.
 
2. SHORING UP BUDGET CUTS BY CUTTING TEAMS SETS A DANGEROUS PRECEDENT. Cutting a program behind closed doors for bottom-line budgetary purposes puts up a clear warning flag about the College's commitment to its students and their value in the decision-making process. Are scholar-athlete applicants who practice similar sports (such as track, cross-country, and rowing), going to weigh this against Dartmouth in their college choice? I would if I knew the sport I had dedicated so many hours to from age 9 - 18 could be pulled out from under me one or two years into my undergraduate tenure. Might even non-athletes who are interested in low-profile academic programs worry? This certainly makes me think less of the institution as a whole - it's no longer the small college with those who love it but has instead become a large, heartless entity concerned with preserving a treasury more than its primary treasures, the students.
 
3. THE POOR RECORD IS A HALF-TRUTH. Using the team's losing record against it is not legitimate when one considers the history of Dartmouth admissions decisions that, had they been in favor of the swim team and the coach's carefully crafted list, could have put the team on a more competitive trajectory. There is no way to prove this, but the admissions department seems to have had it out for Dartmouth Men's Swimming for many years. We only had to look around when swimming Princeton, Harvard, or Yale, and there were always several swimmers that had been denied admission to Dartmouth but who were excelling as scholar athletes at these other institutions. Since beginning in 1993, coach Jim Wilson has never been given a chance to craft the kind of program he is capable of building due in large part to biased admissions department decisions. If the College wishes to strive for transparency and our trust, it should review the admissions lists submitted by the previous coach, Roy Coates, and Jim Wilson during the last decade and compare these lists with the actual acceptances. For those who were denied admission, it should check other Ivy League swim team rosters. I believe it would be a revealing investigation.
 
If the 3 points above are not enough, allow me to share a few memories that Dartmouth swimming left indelibly imprinted on my mind and my character.
 
- Winter training trips, excruciatingly painful weeks of double and triple practices in beautiful locales, were paid for entirely by the team's fall labor in cleaning the football stadium and by our own checkbooks.
 
-Swim lessons for community members and their children were conducted after Saturday morning practices, before the stadium cleaning.
 
- The death of a UMass swimmer at a home meet in January, 1996, only 3 months after my mother's death, left me completely rattled, but I was comforted by a teammate.
 
- I remember countless walks across the Green in a crowd of green, knee-length parkas, crunching the frozen ground beneath.
 
- "25 hours of Chlorine" - an overnight, continuous relay to raise money for the team in which I swam 10,000 yards straight for fun.
 
- After Dartmouth, I trained for months with another swimmer in the Connecticut River and near his home on Long Island to prepare for a swim around Manhattan Island, 28.5 miles, which I completed in just under 8 hours
 
Dartmouth Swimming deserves a permanent place at the College. Please reverse the decision to cut the program. By staying committed to the Dartmouth community, student life and alumni support will only continue to grow stronger.
 
Sincerely,
David Kramer '96