Dartmouth Accused of Anti-Asian Bias in Varsity Team Cuts
Dartmouth Accused of Anti-Asian Bias in Varsity Team Cuts
(Bloomberg) -- Dartmouth College’s decision to cut five varsity teams discriminates against athletes of Asian descent, a group of students claimed in a letter to the university’s board of trustees.
The Ivy League school announced in July that it was dropping men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s golf, and men’s lightweight rowing to help address a massive budget deficit caused in part by the coronavirus pandemic. Those five teams included more than 30 Asian-American varsity athletes, nearly half the total number at Dartmouth, 11 members of the swimming and diving teams said in a Tuesday statement.
The group is asking the Dartmouth board to conduct an independent investigation into the decision to cut the teams.
“The college’s decision will further discourage young athletes of Asian descent from pursuing athletics, emphasizing that they are unwelcome from competing in sports at the collegiate level,” the group said in its statement, which also noted that Asian Americans comprise less than 2% of all NCAA Division I athletes.
Diana Lawrence, a spokeswoman for Dartmouth, said Wednesday the college had received the letter and was considering it carefully. President Philip Hanlon said in a statement at the time of the announcement that “these decisions were made with great care and with the long-term interests of the learning experience provided by Dartmouth Athletics front and center.”
A number of other elite colleges have also revised their athletic programs in recent months. Stanford and Brown both announced they were dropping a number of varsity teams. In Brown’s case, the decision triggered accusations that the university was violating its settlement of a landmark lawsuit over gender equity in college sports.
The Dartmouth students in their statement also cited recent accusations by the Justice Department that Yale University illegally discriminates against Asian-American and White applicants in undergraduate admissions.
In an Aug. 15 letter to Hanlon, Greg Earhart, the executive director of the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America, slammed Dartmouth’s “inept leadership” for “eliminating a racially diverse program,” saying the decision “illustrates a shocking tone-deafness to society today.”
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