A Walk in the Woods

a special meeting on Jan. 4, theBoard of Managers let stand its Dec.2 decision to cap at 15 percent theIIn admissions spaces reserved for recruitedathletes, end intercollegiate football andwrestling, and change women’s badmintonfrom varsity to club-sport status. The meeting,which was held in New York City, wascalled under bylaws that allow a minimumof five Managers to request a Board meeting.The only item on the agenda was furtherdiscussion of the recommendations ofthe Athletics Review Committee (ARC).In December, the ARC, which had beencreated by the Board a year earlier, calledon the College to limit the number ofrecruited athletes (those students forwhom athletic talent is a deciding factor intheir admission) to between 10 and 15 percentof each entering class—a figure thatwould make it impossible to continue football.The Board approved its recommendationby a vote of 21–8.In January, the Board heard new presentationsby spokespersons for both sidesand conducted what Board Chairman J.Lawrence Shane ’56 called “an informedand thoughtful discussion." This time, novote was taken, and the Board’s earlierdecision was reaffirmed by “a sense of themeeting."“I thought it served a useful purpose,"said the Board chair. “It allowed manyManagers to recheck their thinking on theissue after listening again to those whodisagreed."Debate over the process that led to theBoard vote has been almost as contentiousas controversy over the decisionitself. Many alumni who objected to thedecision said that, by voting at its Decembermeeting, the Board of Managers hadbroken its tradition of reaching conclusionsby consensus. December’s vote wasunusual, said Shane, “but the Board wasunanimous in agreeing that, for a variety ofreasons, a decision on the future of athleticshad to be made at that meeting. In theB O A R D R E A F F I R M SA T H L E T I C S C H A N G E Send, we all felt that it was important tohonor the position of those who could notaccept the ARC proposal by making their‘no’ votes part of the record."According to Dulaney Ogden Bennett’63, Board members on both sides of theissue agreed that delaying a decision on thefate of football and other sports wouldhave put the Admissions Office and coachesin an unethical position with prospectivestudents. Acting Dean of AdmissionsJim Bock ’90 told the ARC and the Boardthat Swarthmore could not admit studentathletesin good faith unless the future ofthe sports program was clear.College administrators spent much ofDecember explaining the need for athleticsreform to students, parents, andalumni.After responding to immediate studentand parent protests (see “The End Zone,"December Bulletin). President Alfred H.Bloom and Provost Jennie Keith, who hadchaired the ARC, met privately with footballplayers, wrestlers, and members of thewomen’s badminton team. Bloom told thestudent-athletes that he valued all aspectsof their contribution to the College andurged them to stay at Swarthmore.Dean of the College Bob Gross ’62reported in January that three athletestransferred to other schools after the endof the first semester and that several othersare considering transfers at the end of theacademic year.Asked to describe student reaction, JordanBrackett ’01, co-chair of Student Councilduring the first semester, said, “Reasonablepeople can disagree about importantissues, and there’s a reasonable disagreementhere," he said, “but it’s important tolisten [to students]. There were mechanismsin place, but [those] didn’t happen."Brackett acknowledged that “you can’thave a campuswide discussion about whichsport to cut. You have to prevent differentsegments of the community from going towar with each other.... But there’s a trickyPHOTOS BY ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANSAT AN OPEN MEETING ON DEC. 12, MEMBERS OFTHE ATHLETICS REVIEW COMMITTEE, TOPADMINISTRATORS, AND BOARD MEMBERS (TOP)EXPLAINED THEIR CONTROVERSIAL DECISIONAND LISTENED TO ALUMNI REACTION. FORMERDEAN OF ADMISSIONS BOB BARR ’56 (CENTER)WAS AMONG THE SPEAKERS OPPOSED TO THEDECISION. AFTER THE MEETING, BOARD CHAIRMANEMERITUS EUGENE LANG ’38 CONTINUED THECONVERSATION WITH BOB McCANN ’89 (BOTTOM).balance between releasing enough informationand releasing too much."Student protest included a two-hoursit-in outside the Admissions Office onDec. 4 and a large turnout for an openmeeting with members of the ARC and topadministrators that night. Reacting to fastmovingevents, The Phoenix published newarticles daily on its Web site and printed anunprecedented 36-page issue on Dec. 7.Sports columnist Kate Nelson-Lee ’03, avarsity lacrosse player, expressed the feelingsof some student athletes: “Thoughneither my coach nor the AdmissionsOffice has directly stated it to me, I firmlyM A R C H 2 0 0 15