As a Princeton University student and swimmer, I am truly disappointed with your seemingly rash decision to eliminate Dartmouth College's varsity men's and women's swimming and diving programs.  I can only hope that you listen to the swimmers and divers, students, alumni, supporters, and well-wishers across the country and reconsider your actions.  The national attention this situation has received has been phenomenal.  Dozens of newspapers, websites, and local news stations have covered the issue.  The E-Bay "auction," an extraordinarily creative means of attracting attention, received over 35,000 hits.  The team's supporters care about their program and have effectively spread the word.

    I understand that financial problems led to your initial decision, but supporters seem to have willingly volunteered to accept the short-term financial burden.  I hope you accept their generosity and further evaluate the program's long-term viability.  After looking into this issue further, I believe you will find the swimming and diving team has a future.  Additionally, I urge you not to make the necessity and funds for a new pool the focus.  Having swum in or seen almost all of the Ivy League's pools, I can promise you Dartmouth's is not the worst.  I feel the pool will be acceptable for at least another decade.  From the current support for the program, it seems to me that in these ten years, the Friends of Dartmouth Swimming and Diving will show why the program deserves to exist.

    Having competed against Dartmouth twice in my two years at Princeton, I can attest that your swimmers and divers truly love their sport and are among the most spirited in the Ivy League.  Based on my experiences and the biographies I read on the Support Dartmouth Swimming and Diving Website, the athletes who are going to be affected by your decision are representatives of the College that should make Dartmouth extremely proud.  They seem to embody everything an Ivy League institution could desire--they seem to be exceptional people.  I have had an amazing experience swimming at Princeton, and I'm sure Dartmouth swimmers and divers have had similar experiences.  They, current and past swimmers and divers, have probably learned more about commitment from being a student-swimmer than they can and will through almost any other activity in which they can ever participate.

    I look forward to swimming at Dartmouth on January 26th, and I sincerely hope to compete against your school's devoted student-swimmers next year at Princeton.
 

Jeff Yellin
Princeton '04