HANOVER — Maggie Deppe-Walker has tried to make the best of her Dartmouth experience this fall.
But the college’s decision on July 9 to cut five varsity sports programs — men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s golf, and men’s lightweight rowing — to balance its budget and make more room for future admissions has left Deppe-Walker at the wayside.
A senior, she’s one of 110 student-athletes that was affected by this decision. Fifteen staff members were also laid off, and Hanover Country Club was permanently closed.
“It’s definitely caused me to have a more negative view of the school,” said Deppe-Walker, who was set to be the captain of the women’s swim team this season. “I’m trying not to (think poorly about the school) because it is my undergraduate experience, but it definitely has been tainted. And the lack of transparency and coldness (from Dartmouth) has been really frustrating.”
The decision was delivered on an abrupt Zoom webinar held by Big Green athletic director Harry Sheehy, with all 110 student-athletes on the call and no opportunity to ask questions.
The swim and dive programs quickly mobilized and formed Save Dartmouth Swim and Dive (DCSD), an organization that has brought together alumni, current student-athletes and parents. The campaign has created a website and maintained a strong social media presence, and as of Friday night, a change.org petition has been signed by more than 32,500 people.
On July 29, DCSD placed more than 850 pairs of swim goggles on the college’s green in protest. The number of goggles represented the local youths the programs have taught to swim.
Still, trying to be reinstated during a global pandemic brings challenges. When Dartmouth cut the swim and dive programs back in 2003, a group of more than 600 students gathered at Parkhurst Hall, the college’s main admission building. This fall, the campus population was cut in half.
“Fundamentally, it’s different (than the first time),” Zack Doherty, a 2013 Dartmouth swimming grad who is helping manage DCSD public relations, said. “I will say I’m optimistic that we can affect that change. If we really didn’t believe in the cause, then we wouldn’t still be fighting the way we are.”
Along with fighting for reinstatement, Deppe-Walker and DCSD are searching for answers of why swim and dive was chosen as one of the five programs cut.
When the word broke, Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon issued a news release explaining the decision: Due to the financial strain the COVID-19 pandemic has caused, Dartmouth was facing a projected $150 million deficit. The cuts are expected to save more than $2 million. The college’s endowment rose to a record $5.98 billion this September.
Hanlon also wanted Sheehy to reduce the number of recruited athletes per entering class by 10%. Sheehy and his athletic leadership team used a specific set of 10 factors, which ranged from community impact to financial cost to competitive success.
Dartmouth is the only school in the Ivy League that has never won a team title in men’s or women’s swimming and diving.
“Before we did it, I did tell President Hanlon and some of the senior leadership, ‘This will be unlike anything you’ve gone through. So you should be ready,’ ” Sheehy said in a Zoom interview in October. “My sense is President Hanlon, the Board of Trustees, our athletics advisory board and key leaders on the campus are resolute in the decision. I know of no plans to revisit the decision.
“In order for us to remain a vibrant Division I program that can win Ivy League championships and compete in sports like football, which we’ve spent a lot of time rebuilding here, we just couldn’t do it (making cuts equally across the athletic department) in any sort of equal way. It was going to eviscerate us.”
Swim coach Jamie Holder was affected by the college’s decision, too. He would have been in his fifth season in charge this winter and had the least number of recruiting spots of any swim program in the Ivy League with which to work. He also coached the 2019-20 season without a written contract, which Dartmouth College spokesperson Diana Lawrence confirmed in an email.
The Dartmouth Board of Trustees penned a letter on Nov. 9 outlining that it will not revise the decision made in July. Unlike circumstances in 2003, when $2 million was raised to revive swimming and diving, no such number has been provided to possibly endow the program.
The former student-athletes have the option to join the club swimming team, but some have decided to transfer. A meeting with Hanlon was scheduled for Friday, in hopes of having a conversation about how the decision was made, but the president told the student-athletes wouldn’t get many answers.
“I understand your ongoing disappointment and frustration and I would, of course, be willing to meet with you (and any interested student),” Hanlon emailed to members of the swimming and diving teams regarding the meeting. “However, I want to be clear that the meeting won’t result in a different outcome nor in any additional information about the criteria used by athletics in the decision-making beyond that which we’ve already provided.”
Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com.