Dear President Wright and Dartmouth Administrators,

I am writing, as no doubt have hundreds of others, to protest the recent
decision to terminate the Dartmouth Swimming and Diving programs.  That
statement is not quite true; my protest is against the process, not
specifically the decision although I disagree with that as well.

I love my college.  I live in Hanover because Dartmouth is here.  I sent my
daughter to Dartmouth.  I have worked as a Dartmouth interviewer,
fund-raiser, reunion chairman, class officer, fraternity and senior society
advisor, Alumni Club officer, and currently as Class Newsletter Editor.  I
have defended my College against all sorts of criticism, humorous and
serious.  Why must you make it so hard for her loyal sons and daughters to
do so?

You speak often of the various constituencies of the College, those groups
that make Dartmouth special.  Where was the input of those constituencies in
this decision?  Obviously not from the undergraduates, who clearly were
stunned.  Not from the coaches, equally stunned.  Not from the faculty, my
acquaintances there are stunned.  Not from the alumni; my daughter captained
the team for the '93-'94 and the '94-'95 seasons, and she was stunned.
Fortunately, as you are now discovering, none of these groups were stunned
into silence.

As with the aborted hiring of an Athletic Director, Dartmouth seems to be
taking great pains to create a perception that these decisions are made
arbitrarily by a small group of administrators, unhampered by input from the
Dartmouth family.  The alumni were not consulted because "budget decisions
do not come within their purview"?  Come, now.  Do you not understand how
ridiculous that sounds to an alumnus who truly cares about the school?  An
alumnus, or a group of alumni, who might well have had constructive
alternative suggestions as to how to breach the athletic budgetary gap
without such Draconian measures?  Any astute business person understands
that one does not solve short-term problems (particularly those brought on
in part by one's own internal errors in calculating such mundane items as
the permissible withdrawal from the endowment) by the use of long-term,
irreversible actions.

As to the swimming program itself, clearly a part of the decision hinged on
the fact that "One of the considerations was the ability to be as
competitive as possible", according to Ms. Harper.  Am I the only one to
find this inconsistent with President Wright's comment the very next day, at
the football dinner (excuse my paraphrase), that won-loss records are not
the measure of success of an athletic team?  If won-loss records are to be
considered when evaluating an individual sport's life expectancy, should we
consider that as recently as 1995 the women's swim team had a record of 8 -
3, including 4 -3 in the Ivy League?  Perhaps, just perhaps, factors other
than funding may play a part in the success of this team.  Does Cornell's
physical plant, inferior to that at Dartmouth, cause it to cancel an entire
program?
I'm disgusted with this decision and do not know how to defend myself
against the barbs of my Ivy League and non-Ivy brethren.  Dartmouth has
embarrassed me, and I am deeply hurt.  I believe if I enter politics, I
would want my opponent's campaign to be managed by Dartmouth Public Affairs.
I pray that the activist spirits you have aroused with this ill-considered
decision will be successful in gaining reconsideration.
      
Respectfully,
      
Bob Murphy '65  '95P