- Dear Dr. Wright,
-
-
Our daughter Karla is a senior and a four-year swimmer. When she was looking at colleges, she would only consider
those with a varsity women’s swimming team, and swimming has been the
centerpiece of her experience at Dartmouth.
She wanted to be a part of the tradition of Dartmouth swimming, a
tradition that you propose to obliterate.
We believe this decision is bad for Dartmouth and will have
repercussions far beyond the members of the team, their parents, and the
coaching staff. It will affect
your applicant pool; in terms of participants (rather than spectators)
swimming may be the most popular winter sport.
It tends to attract academically outstanding students, and many of
these students, whether or not they are certain to swim varsity in college,
look for a school that has a swimming program.
It will affect your reputation; Dartmouth already offers fewer
varsity sports than most of the other Ivies and would become the only Ivy
without a varsity swimming program. It
will affect your support. Swimmers
are dedicated to their sport, and passionate about it.
The present swimmers will have bitter feelings about Dartmouth, and
some of them may leave. None,
including the seniors who dedicated four years at Dartmouth to its swim
team, are likely to be boosters or advocates of Dartmouth.
Their parents, past swimmers, and other supporters proud of
Dartmouth’s tradition of student athletes will be less eager to contribute
green to the Big Green. Faced
with the abrupt, secret, and apparently arbitrary decision to cut swimming,
other teams will begin to wonder nervously if their turn is next.
-
Despite the elaborate and detailed
statement by the Dartmouth administration concerning the decision to cut the
swim teams, it is clear that we have not been given the real reasons behind
the decision:
- It is not about money.
One does not cut long term programs in response to short term
difficulties, and despite its current financial situation, Dartmouth remains
one of the most heavily endowed colleges in the country and one of the
richest per student. Savings
realized by cutting the swim teams are minor in the overall Dartmouth budget
and will not begin to accrue until June, 2003.
They will not help alleviate the immediate situation.
- It
is not about the facility. In
terms of the other Ivy League schools with which it competes, both for
students and in athletics, Dartmouth has an adequate pool – our daughter
has swum in all of them, and we have sat in the stands in most.
Only two Ivies have they kind of large, modern swimming centers you
claim are necessary for a competitive swim team.
Since the present pool will remain in service, issues about humidity
and water damage associated with the pool are irrelevant, as they are the
same whether varsity teams or only recreational swimmers use it.
- It’s not about being competitive.
The Dartmouth women swimmers may never have won the Ivy League
championships in its 25-year history, but only four of the eight Ivies ever
have, so we have company. In
our four years of being involved with Dartmouth swimming, it has been our
impression that swimmers are not admitted on a more favorable basis than
non-swimmers. This certainly
cannot be said for some of the other Ivies, who are well known for their lax
academic standards for good swimmers.
The decision to cut the swim teams is a bad one
and badly handled, and should be rescinded.
Open a dialogue with the Dartmouth community, present the real reasons
behind the decision, and help us work for a solution the will preserve the
swimming program and help Dartmouth continue to be the great school that we all
want it to be.
Sincerely,
Sharon Fitzgerald & Peter Leavens