Remember that infamous "swim test" we all took during our freshman DOC trip? I'm sure you do -- it was the easiest test to pass at Dartmouth. Though the test's original goal was noble, ensuring that every student have a basic level of swimming competency, it is no longer effectively test students' swimming ability, hence no longer serves a purpose.
One of the first facts I heard about Dartmouth when applying to school was that the College demanded that each student pass a swimming test. This requirement sounded rather impressive: a school ensuring the aquatic aptitude of each of its students. Only two Ivy League schools, Cornell and Dartmouth, go to such lengths for its students. It's a great "marketing" strategy, but, alas, lacks any substance. Even calling it a test is debatable. The swimming test administrators turn a blind eye to flailing arms and pathetic doggy paddles. Many sneaky students simply walk through the shallow end of the pool -- some are caught, most aren't. This soft approach to the swimming test is doing a great disservice to the student body and mocks those who established the test for its original purpose.
Clearly the administration needs to revamp the swim test. Do they want to beef up the swimming requirements? Perhaps. To make every student swim across the Connecticut River is a more worthwhile test. These ideas seem like feasible remedies. However, if the school is truly serious about its students' safety, it should consider making Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, or CPR, certification a graduation requirement. Though people do unfortunately die from drowning each year, cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in America. Few students will need their swimming skills in the future; many more will encounter a life threatening situation that requires CPR.
At first, you might think that learning CPR might be too difficult for all students to learn, or that it's too time consuming. This is false. All CPR consists of is manually compressing the heart and administering breaths in an organized, timed manner. These simple steps keep the brain and vital organs alive until more advanced life support services arrive. Dartmouth Emergency Medical Service has already taught a slew of CPR classes, most less than four hours long. Every student can muster up four hours to spare his or her four years at Dartmouth, especially for an important skill like CPR. Students already receive Physical Education credit for CPR; why not just make it mandatory? The swim test took less than fifteen minutes, but this was due to the fact that there were hundreds of students being methodically tested, like a Ford automobile factory. Dartmouth EMS CPR classes have one instructor for every six students -- each student will correctly learn CPR, guaranteed. At the end of the class, each student will be properly tested, unlike the swim test. In fact, American Heart Association supervises the teaching and testing of CPR to ensure an adequate level of learning. Although requiring CPR certification for graduation will cost more, Dartmouth EMS instructors are volunteers, minimizing costs.
CPR is a necessary skill in society. Almost three out of five Americans die from a heart attack. Every day in America 2,500 people die from cardiac arrest. It's scary. Even worse is that half of all heart attack victims wait two hours or more until any help arrives. Many of these victims are surrounded by friends and loved ones who watch helplessly as the victim dies. CPR is a great "life" skill that everyone needs to know; however, the majority of people haven't the vaguest sense of CPR. Dartmouth students shouldn't be in this majority -- they should be better.
When people ask Dartmouth students what they have learned in such a prestigious school, why not say CPR? No other university has such a requirement. A concrete improvement in Dartmouth's educational system such as this one will increase Dartmouth's notoriety. Talk about being cutting edge.
The swimming requirement is risible. Scrapping the swimming requirement might not be a bad idea. But adding CPR as a requirement is a great one. If the administration is as concerned about its students as it says, it should make CPR class a graduation requirement. Dartmouth EMS has a crew of CPR instructors ready to wage war on CPR ignorance. The administration needs to play its part and help them tackle cardiac related death.fea
