Cashwell: It’s Time to Reinstate Dartmouth’s Swim Take a look at and Extra.

My sophomore summer time to date has been pure bliss for 2 causes: my flip telephone and river dips. As a lifelong swimmer and former lifeguard, I’ve beloved the Connecticut River since I arrived at Dartmouth, however I acknowledge it holds deeply traumatizing recollections for numerous different college students. 

According to an off-the-cuff database compiled by former Hanover deputy fireplace chief Mike Hinsley, the realm of the river between Hanover and Norwich has claimed over twenty-six victims since 1816, with unintentional drownings accounting for many of the deaths. Despite this legacy, the required 50-yard swim take a look at was eliminated in 2022, and the Class of 2026 was the primary class in over a century to graduate with out the take a look at requirement. The resolution adopted a number of school committee votes and a ultimate vote by the College’s complete school. Their rationale is flawed.

The initiative was initially designed to organize college students for army service, however its practicality holds regardless. Our faculty borders a significant river that’s undeniably central to scholar life, particularly throughout sophomore summer time.

Dartmouth eradicated the take a look at for fairness considerations, citing that those that failed it and have been required to take a starting swim class to go it have been “overwhelmingly students of color.” In the July-August 2026 problem of the Dartmouth Alumni journal, Boer Deng ’10 cited comparable logic for her continued assist of the take a look at’s elimination, noting that “more than three-quarters of children from families earning less than $50,000 a year do not know how to swim or swim well, according to a 2017 USA Swimming Foundation survey.” 

Without a doubt, the shortage of entry to swim classes and even neighborhood swimming pools disproportionately impacts college students of shade and low-income college students. However, this disparity affirms the take a look at’s necessity. The Red Cross lately reported that Black, Native American, and Hispanic kids are two to eight occasions extra prone to die by drowning than white kids. The actual fairness problem at hand is the elimination of an initiative that retains all college students protected and shrinks the disparities between Dartmouth college students.

The College described these swim courses, which depend towards college students’ three required Wellness credit, as an “additional graduation requirement.” By this commonplace, we should always utterly put off any Dartmouth programs that Advanced Placement courses exempt college students from taking. After all, these programs operate as “an additional graduation requirement” for any scholar who attended a highschool with out AP courses. Dartmouth college students arrive in Hanover with inherently unequal backgrounds, however the reply isn’t to get rid of necessities that may degree the enjoying discipline. It’s to supply, and generally require, programs that assist graduating seniors find yourself on the similar end line.

Dartmouth clearly acknowledges that school college students don’t all the time make the neatest selections. While scholar freedom of alternative is vital, it has traditionally been restricted when there are issues of safety, which is why insurance policies just like the prohibition of onerous alcohol and the freshman frat ban exist. A swim requirement coverage is in the identical vein. 

Through First-Year Trips, the Dartmouth Outing Club and informal plunges, a lot of Dartmouth’s scholar physique will work together with the River in some unspecified time in the future, and eliminating the swim requirement excludes sure college students from these alternatives. While some argue that those that don’t know the right way to swim simply gained’t, we’ve seen time and time once more that college students don’t adhere to this assumption.

Last week I went on a run with a pal, and he instructed a dip within the river afterwards to chill off. I dove proper in and swam round just a little, however he obtained out and in pretty shortly. “Yeah, I don’t really know how to swim that well,” he talked about casually as we dried off. 

Just a few days later, I used to be fishing by Ledyard when a canoer needed to decide up a weak swimmer who had floated farther than meant from the dock and was struggling to get again.

Instead of instructing college students the right way to swim, the College has banned swimming from College-owned properties apart from through the summer time time period when a lifeguard is on obligation, particularly cracking down on Ledyard dock swimming through the offseason. While having lifeguards is optimistic, not all college students adhere to College insurance policies, and swimming within the river, whether or not on the Ledyard docks or throughout the river in Vermont, stays a preferred pastime year-round. The solely actual schooling round security comes from upperclassmen who warn youthful college students in opposition to risks like swimming whereas intoxicated. 

This previous winter, the Dartmouth Community skilled yet one more drowning tragedy with the loss of life of Enzo La Hoz Calassara ’27, who died on the Linguistics FSP from hypoxic blackout. Aslı Tavaslı ’27 lately wrote a superb article about this tragedy in The Dartmouth and exemplified simply how vital it’s to show each incoming scholar about swim security, together with hypoxic blackout.

In the alumni journal Boer Deng ’10 tells the horror story of an earache on commencement and an anxious peer with no swimming expertise compelled to finish their take a look at or not obtain their diploma. It’s clear the previous swim requirement coverage was removed from excellent, however right this moment, the College has the chance to convey security again to the river and the Dartmouth Community in a brand new manner. Every incoming freshman, starting with the category of 2030, ought to as soon as once more be required to finish a swim take a look at throughout orientation. If they fail, or declare they’ll’t swim properly, undergraduate deans ought to work with them to seek out time of their freshman schedule to take a free newbie swimming class.

Beyond the unique swim take a look at necessities, each scholar must also be educated and examined on swimming competency and water security, together with hypoxic blackout, the hazards of the Connecticut River and why it’s unsafe to swim alone, at evening, in chilly water or beneath the affect of gear.

The elimination of the Dartmouth swim take a look at was a misguided try to make Dartmouth extra equitable. A brand new and improved coverage has the potential to truly fulfill that aim and supply college students with abilities that may serve them at Dartmouth and past.

Guest columns symbolize the views of their creator(s), which aren’t essentially these of The Dartmouth.