Everybody In!

Sooner or later every student makes a splash—by having to comply with the swimming requirement, a tradition many would like to see sink.

IN HIS RECURRING NIGHTMARE STEW WOOD '56 thinks back with pride on his academic accomplishments. High school, college, theological seminary, graduate study—years out of school, and he still remembers his hard work and dedication.

But then, in a crushing wave of panic, he discovers that all of his degrees are in jeopardy. More than 50 years after graduating from Dartmouth Wood realizes there is no record that he ever passed the swim test. He must retake it—or else.

The dream is as silly as it is nonsensical. In reality Wood recalls passing the swim test with no difficulty, yet it reflects an experience shared by many alums. Since Spaulding pool was built in 1932, Dartmouth students have had to pass a swimming test as part of the physical education requirement for graduation, a stipulation New Hampshire Gov. Rolland Spaulding levied in exchange for his generous donation. For some, such as Harold Ripley '29, the swim test was so insignificant as to be unmemorable. For others, such as Wood, it appears as if the dreaded swim test caused a touch of anxiety.

Dartmouth, Columbia and Cornell are the three Ivy League schools that still require a swim test. At Dartmouth students must swim 50 yards without stopping, using whatever technique they choose. Those who fail must complete one term of swimming lessons. Dartmouth refuses to grant diplomas to certain sheepish students who haven't passed by graduation. But if they can send proof of taking a swim class or passing a swim test after graduation, the diploma goes out in the mail.

According to Associate Athletic Director Roger Demment, 60 to 80 percent of students pass the test just prior to their freshman trips, which many consider the meanest timing ever—introduce 100 terrified freshmen to one another and have them strip to their skivvies. The remaining students have until their senior spring to complete the task.

While the uncomfortable freshman orientation scheduling has lasted as a traditional the Dartmouth swimming requirement has undergone a few changes since its implementation. When Ronald Keenhold coached mens swimming and diving from 1961 to 1999, he witnessed a gradual transformation of this watery rite of passage. For starters, when he arrived on the scene students had to swim their 50 yards inunder a minute.

"When we tested the swimmers wed stand there with a stopwatch," Keenhold recalls. "And if a student didn't do it in under a minute he didn't pass the test." Students who consistently failed the test had to take three terms of swimming lessons to make up for it. Today, in addition to the one rather than three terms of lessons requirement, the need for speed has also gone by the board.

Another change since the test's early days? Now swimmers wear suits—a policy that went into effect before coeducation, when the test moved from Spaulding to the less-secluded Karl Michael pool, built in 1962.

The last changes made to the swim test and physical education requirement occurred in the early 19905. "The athletic department began to get more and more complaints that the swimming test was unfair," Keenhold says. "Over time they kept watering down the requirment to what it is now."

The initial hiccups in the system during the transition to coeducation might have predicted such a diminished requirement. Numerous female '73s recount never having actually taken the swim test, either because they had already done so at other schools or because administrators simply forgot to require it.

"I wanted to remind someone that we needed to do it, but another classmate said she'd kill me if I brought it to someone's attention," says Caren Diefenderfer '73.

It's a wonder that Diefenderfer isn't the one having swim test nightmares.

Carolyn Kylstra, a former DAM intern, works at Men's Health.