The Dartmouth's most recent editorial ("Verbum Ultimum: Reassessing Recruitment," Jan. 6) did a tremendous disservice to Dartmouth's varsity student-athletes, denigrating both their academic credentials and their athletic achievements.
Based on an isolated fragment of data from an article in The New York Times, the editorial made sweeping assertions about the academic qualifications of Dartmouth's student-athletes. To our knowledge, no effort was made to speak with anyone in the Ivy League Office, Dartmouth's Admissions Office or the Dartmouth athletic department to research this topic. Had that been done, the following might have been learned:
The Ivy League stringently regulates the admission of recruited athletes to ensure that each school's student-athletes are representative of its student body. Dartmouth consistently exceeds its League requirements.
In the two most prominent national measures of academic success among student-athletes, Dartmouth ranked third out of 351 Division I colleges in 2010-11, both in National Collegiate Athletic Association Academic Progress Rate commendations and the NCAA Graduation Success Rate.
The combined graduation rate for the last five classes of Dartmouth's recruited student-athletes 95.3 percent is slightly higher than the overall rate for the undergraduate student body of 94.6 percent.
Finally, this past term, Dartmouth's varsity athletes collectively earned their highest average Fall term grade point average in eight years, with more than 40 percent achieving GPAs above 3.5 and nearly 80 percent above 3.0.
Citing a single statistic from a single year 2009-10 the editorial also made broad generalizations about the current competitive performance of Dartmouth's varsity teams. Had any additional research been conducted, the following might have come to light:
Over the last five years, the number of Big Green teams finishing in the top half of the Ivy League standings has risen dramatically, from seven teams in 2006-07 to 14 teams in 2010-11.
In 2010-11, 12 Dartmouth teams finished in the top three in the Ivy standings, with women's lacrosse and women's tennis earning League championships and six other teams finishing second.
Also in 2010-11, football achieved their best record in 13 years; men's soccer appeared in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen; skiing placed third at the NCAA championships; men's and women's hockey both made the Eastern College Athletic Conference Final Four, with the women earning an NCAA berth; baseball captured their fourth straight division crown; men's lightweight crew finished in second place at the Eastern Sprints; women's crew advanced to the NCAA championships; and 12 Dartmouth teams were ranked in the Top 20 in Division I.
This past fall alone, five of seven Big Green teams finished in the Ivy League's top half, with men's soccer capturing the Ivy title and football tying for second place, while Dartmouth runners claimed individual League championships in both men's and women's cross country. Furthermore, Big Green athletes earned Ivy Player of the Year honors in both field hockey and men's soccer.
Dartmouth takes great pride in its student-athletes and their exceptional contributions both in and out of the classroom. The Dartmouth's editorial suggests that greater success in athletics might allow for a less stringent set of standards for recruits. We could not disagree more. The College remains firmly committed to pursuing excellence in athletics while steadfastly embracing the Ivy League ideal that our student-athletes must be representative of our outstanding student body.
