MIT requires each pupil to know how one can swim. But why?

The legend on MIT’s campus goes that college students as soon as needed to leap into the Charles River and swim throughout its soiled water with out stopping to graduate.

That was by no means true. But the establishment does require all college students to show their swimming skill — within the heated indoor pool.

Students can both take swim classes or full a 100-yard check.

“I always tell them ‘There’s no style points. I can be here ’til 5,’” mentioned Carrie Sampson Moore, the college’s director of bodily training and wellness.

Swim exams was once frequent at American faculties, however MIT now finds itself more and more within the minority. It’s one of many few colleges that’s clinging to the check, arguing that swimming is a crucial life talent. Since the requirement all of a sudden rose in reputation round World War II, many faculties have dropped it on account of fairness or sensible issues.

The custom dates again greater than a century. Cornell claims credit score as the first college to mandate swimming in 1905. MIT started its follow throughout World War II. Poor recordkeeping makes it onerous to know the true origins of why colleges carried out this customary, however many faculties cite drowning charges amongst service members as a motivating issue.

“Higher education was a training ground for physically getting our troops ready,” mentioned Sampson Moore.

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Over the a long time, institutional priorities have shifted.

Amherst College reconsidered its requirement in 1973 after a pupil drowned through the swim check. Gerald Penny, a Black pupil from segregated New Orleans, had by no means realized how one can swim.

“They ended the swim test as a mandatory part of graduation,” recalled Amherst graduate Anthony Jack, who as soon as ran the school’s Black Cultural Center on campus, which was named after Penny.

Jack is now a sociologist who teaches at Boston University and research inequities in increased training. He argues faculties ought to abandon swim necessities altogether.

“When you talk about inclusion on a college campus, you need to understand where your students are coming from and what experience that they’ve had access to,” he mentioned. 

More just lately, for numerous causes, a number of colleges all scrapped their swim exams, together with Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Hamilton, the University of Chicago and Williams College.

“To some extent, it felt outdated and anomalous,” mentioned Williams professor Christopher Nugent, who led the college committee that reviewed the requirement.

The committee found that almost all the scholars positioned into swim class had been college students of shade or worldwide college students. Only 3% of these enrolled within the swim class had been white home college students.

“There were some demographic issues there that we found a little troubling, and we would find troubling with any graduation requirement,” Nugent mentioned. He famous that Williams doesn’t require college students to study different life expertise like CPR, private finance or a international language to graduate.

U.S. service academies nonetheless have swimming mandates, although the Air Force Academy solely requires it for choose roles. Only a handful of universities nonetheless have swim exams, together with Cornell, Columbia, Swarthmore — and, after all, MIT.

Administrators say they’re preserving the requirement as a result of swimming is a life talent.

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GBH News

“We have a very intellectually bright population,” Sampson Moore mentioned. “Sometimes either they don’t have the time to do it as they’re growing up because they’re really focused on their studies, or they didn’t have access because they were an international student and it wasn’t as common.

“All of our students, I would bet my paycheck, are going to be leaders of something, right? Whether they’re a leader of their family or they’re leader of a department or a corporation, they can influence those around them,” she continued.

Students who don’t go the check can take it once more. MIT additionally presents swim lessons for college kids who wish to earn a bodily training credit score or get extra follow within the pool to fulfill the commencement requirement.

Alexis Boykin grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and took swim classes at an area Y.

“As I got older, I just didn’t really go to pools that often, so I lost that skill,” she mentioned.

Kirk Carapezza


GBH News

She first tried the check at an MIT orientation occasion. “If you go, you get a free shirt,” she mentioned, laughing. “So I went, and I made it about halfway and had to stop.”

It wasn’t till her senior 12 months that she enrolled within the swim course.

“The first classes were just breathing, getting underwater, trying to float,” she mentioned. “Then you eventually progressed into different strokes, arm movement, leg movement and getting into the deeper pool.”

Now a graduate working in a lab, Boykin mentioned she’s grateful she realized how one can swim once more. She hopes MIT retains the requirement.