Dear President Wright,

   We have met at numerous alumni functions over the past couple of years

and most recently at the meeting of the Dean's Council for the Future of

Dartmouth Medical School.  We have always been loyal supporters of Dartmouth

and its Medical School. Together we have eight years of Green blood in us.

We were thrilled when our daughter decided to follow our love and attend

Dartmouth. Unfortunately, we now doubt the wisdom of that decision.

 

   You see we are also parents of a Dartmouth swimmer. A young women who

loves her sport despite the hardships and demands it puts on her life. Your

brusque decision to end this program has shown such lack of leadership,

character, commitment and loyalty to your students. It is not what we would

have chosen for our daughter to learn from the leaders of her institution.

The process that was followed in making this decision lacks creativity,

openness and outreach in a difficult time. The treatment of these student

athletes was nothing less than cruel and demeaning. These are young people

you should be holding out as an example to the entire academic community as

true student/athletes. Do you not feel you had made a commitment to these

students who were recruited to come to Dartmouth to be part of the swim

program? We certainly feel like that commitment was made. (Should we not

fulfill the commitments we have made to the college?)

 

   Will you show courage and recognize that this process was poor at best,

that your responsibility to these students and all students at the college

must be reconsidered? Are you a strong leader, able to take a step back and

reexamine the process and the outcome? Are you willing to work with others

to improve this situation for the students, alumni and college?

 

   We want to be able to tell our daughter that Dartmouth's leaders are

good role models, that she can learn from watching. Instead as she left to

return to Hanover this past weekend these were our words: "Dartmouth the

place is what you love, the students, the surroundings, the learning.

Dartmouth's leaders will come and go, do not hate the place because of poor

leadership."  What a sad message to have to give our daughter.

 

We expect to hear from you soon.

 

Dirk and Kathi Nelson

Dartmouth '76, DMS '79

 

P.S. You need to change the home page for Dartmouth athletics. You have

not "demonstrated a total commitment to athletics."