On SwimSwam Podcast, we’re giving you an in-depth listen at all things swimming. Host Coleman Hodges welcomes guests and guest co-hosts alike to get perspective on our ever-changing swimming universe and break down the past, present, and future of aquatic sports.
Last week’s announcement by Dartmouth College that they would be cutting their men’s and women’s swimming & diving programs, along with their golf teams and men’s lightweight rowing team, isn’t the first time that the school has tried to drop its aquatics team.
In 2002, Dartmouth announced the elimination of its swimming & diving teams as well. That was a simpler and smaller time in college athletics, though, where the program’s budget was just $212,000. These days, fundraising thrice that amount in some cases can’t even get a conversation with an athletics director. We had ’04 Dartmouth swim alum Priscilla Zee give her take on how that affected her as an athlete and student, and what she thought might change moving forward.
However, when Dartmouth swimmers did get an audience with the school president via Zoom, the results were disappointing. Sophomore Connor Bishop and Senior Maggie Deppe-Walker recapped the call, saying after they felt ultimately discouraged to even try to revive their swim program.
However, that hasn’t stopped the team yet.
The website for saving Dartmouth Swim/Dive has launched and can be seen here.
Sign the petition to save Dartmouth Swim here
VIsit the Official Save Dartmouth Swim/Dive Instagram here
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
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If the Title IX numbers dont add up, sue them to place a restraining order to keep the underrepresented gender….and do this yesterday.
My condolences to the current and alumni/ae in Dartmout swimming. For current swimmers: Dartmouth owes you the full set of resources available for those that choose to transfer at this late date. A fair question: should you trust the AD with “full resoruces available”. Another real question is did Dartmouth have a burden to tell the teams earlier so departing athletes had a fair opportunity to compete for scholarship money in other programs? An attorney can help you answer that question. It seems a real shame that a college that was saved by one of its students, Daniel Webster, when the college was threatened with a takeover by the State of New Hampshire has such a shoddy attitude in dealing… Read more »
Appreciate your help in this fight, we won’t back down!
It still baffles me that a school with a swimming requirement for ALL STUDENTS to graduate does not see the value of having a swim team on campus.
Coleman, thanks for getting this message out and giving them a pedestal from which to be heard. It’s simply heart-wrenching to hear what these athletes are losing and the way in which their college experience is being transformed. Huge kudos to the alums for organizing a strong response, and also to the folks totally unaffiliated with Dartmouth who recognize that every loss of a team right now signals greater freedom for administrators to disband programs elsewhere.