{"id":440296,"date":"2020-07-18T06:18:29","date_gmt":"2020-07-18T13:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=440296"},"modified":"2020-07-18T06:18:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-18T13:18:29","slug":"we-still-have-hope-dartmouth-swimming-fighting-to-survive-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/we-still-have-hope-dartmouth-swimming-fighting-to-survive-again\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We Still Have Hope:\u2019 Dartmouth Swimming Fighting to Survive – Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018We Still Have Hope:\u2019 Dartmouth Swimming Fighting to Survive – Again<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even by the standards of a global pandemic, last week was a hectic blur for Maggie Deppe-Walker<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, what could\u2019ve been bad news actually provided hope: The Ivy League cancelled sports during the fall semester<\/a>, but deferred the decision on winter sports. That allowed winter sports like Dartmouth swimming and diving, for which Deppe-Walker is one of the women\u2019s captains, to practice in the fall. As she looked into off-campus apartments, scheming how to get her team into the pool regularly, Deppe-Walker didn\u2019t have much time to cushion the blow of what Thursday brought.<\/p>\n

Around noon on July 9, the members of the Dartmouth swimming and diving teams were notified of an unexpected Zoom call. Within the hour, athletic director Harry Sheehy<\/strong> told them their sports were among five cut with immediate effect. Ten minutes later, the news went live to the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we were so shocked and hurt because we were just blindsided by this decision,\u201d Deppe-Walker told Swimming World<\/em> this week. \u201cImmediately, we started mobilizing. We still have hope, and we had hope before, that we could fight this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dartmouth\u2019s effort to save its swimming and diving program has utilized the usual toolkit. A change.org petition is approaching 30,000 signatures<\/a> (for a college with an enrollment of around 6,500). An Instagram account, @save_dartmouthswimdive<\/a>, with nearly 5,000 followers has been broadcast by swimmers like Elizabeth Beisel.<\/strong> At just about a moment\u2019s notice, a network of more than 200 alumni have convened for weekly calls.<\/p>\n

What differentiates Dartmouth swimming\u2019s effort to save itself<\/a> is that the Big Green have been here before. And the fight for survival is leaning on a network and a playbook that pulled the program back from the precipice in 2003.<\/p>\n

\u2018Hard to stomach\u2019<\/h4>\n

\u201cBlindsided\u201d seems to be the operative word for the demise of Dartmouth swimming. Deppe-Walker used the term, as did coach James Holder<\/strong> to Swimming World<\/em> the day the decision was handed down<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The process of cutting programs began last fall, even if no one gave the affected programs \u2013 men\u2019s and women\u2019s swimming and diving, men\u2019s and women\u2019s golf, men\u2019s lightweight rowing \u2013 a heads up. Sheehy and college president Phil Hanlon<\/strong> aimed for a 10 percent reduction in athletics admissions slots. Dartmouth is looking to stem a $150 million budget gap once COVID-19-related costs are factored in. The athletic cuts save about $2 million off an annual athletic budget of $25 million. The college\u2019s endowment is $5.73 billion<\/a>, which generated $250 million for the fiscal year 2019 operating budget.<\/p>\n

The changes would reduce Dartmouth\u2019s varsity offerings from 35 programs to 30. It would be the only Ancient Eight institution not to offer varsity swimming.<\/p>\n

Instead of a surgical approach to trim the budget across the board, Sheehy traded his scalpel for a chainsaw. And to rub salt in the wound, the administration has offered only the thinnest consolation.<\/p>\n

Hanlon explained the decision to reduce the athlete population as an effort \u201cto achieve the right balance between applicants who are accomplished in athletics and applicants who excel in other pursuits.\u201d Many swimmers perceived that as a slight<\/a>, and the team\u2019s Instagram published a response showing that its SAT and ACT scores were slightly higher than the Dartmouth average.<\/p>\n

\u201cI as a walk-on took that as an insult,\u201d sophomore sprinter Connor Bishop<\/strong> said. \u201cI didn\u2019t take anyone\u2019s admission spot. And frankly I feel like they\u2019re trying to put my team and all the teams they cut into this box of, you don\u2019t contribute to the academic environment of the school unless you\u2019re a top athletic achiever. It\u2019s very hard to hear that. I came here because of the link between academics and athletics, because I wouldn\u2019t be in the spot I\u2019m in academically without my athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dartmouth Swimming and Diving excels in the classroom, and we have the numbers to prove it. President Hanlon stated in his announcement that \u201cathletic recruitment at Dartmouth has begun to impact our ability to achieve the right balance between applicants who are accomplished in athletics and applicants who excel in other pursuits\u201d. Dartmouth swimmers and divers excel in many other pursuits, and academics is certainly one of them.<\/a><\/p>\n

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