After reinstating men and women’s swimming and diving and 3 other varsity athletic programs on Friday, Dartmouth Athletic Director Harry Sheehy held an evening Zoom call with the returning teams – a Zoom call that the college newspaper described as “hostile.” The teams went into the hour-long call hoping for an apology and accountability for the decision to cut their sports which negatively affected recruiting efforts and potentially violated Title IX compliance.
“It was chaos,” former Dartmouth swimmer Connor LaMastra told The Dartmouth in an interview. LaMastra, who transferred to Northwestern in August to finish his collegiate career, says he asked Sheehy for a personal apology toward the end of the meeting.
Reportedly, Sheehy responded, “I’m sorry you transferred.”
Susannah Laster, a class of ‘22 member of the women’s swim team, told The Dartmouth that she and other teammates pressed Sheehy and senior associate athletics director for varsity sports Tiffani-Dawn Sykes for explanations and accountability. Sheehy reportedly did apologize, “for being wrong.”
In response to accountability, he reiterated that Dartmouth will be undergoing the gender equity review that was agreed upon in the settlement to find if Dartmouth is in compliance with Title IX. The Dartmouth Athletics FAQ states: “Based on these reviews, we will develop an action plan that will be posted publicly.”
The student-athletes touched on how transfers from all 5 programs have set back their teams. The decision to prune the number of varsity sports was partly made in order to keep Dartmouth sports well-supported and competitive, according to Sheehy. Now, that decision has halted the recruiting processes of 5 programs for 7 months. As the reinstatement of former coaches and search for replacements drags on, this may turn into “eight to 10 months,” LaMastra told The Dartmouth.
Class of ‘22 swimmer Ethan Moon, said in his interview with The Dartmouth that the swimming and diving team has now lost recruits to Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton. Moon, who called the meeting “entertaining,” “explosive,” and “a catharsis for the athletes” also placed accountability with Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon:
“I almost feel bad for [Sheehy] because he’s clearly been boxed into a horrible, horrible lose-lose situation…But I actually feel most bad for him because in [Friday’s] email from Hanlon, Hanlon so clearly threw him under the bus.”
This was not the first disappointing Zoom call the reinstated teams have had in the past 7 months. In July, shortly after the decision to cut the 5 programs was announced, Hanlon and Sheehy held a Zoom Q&A with members of the swim and dive team. Sophomore Connor Bishop and senior Maggie Deppe-Walker described their intention going into the call (to get statistics and an explanation as to why swimming was eliminated) on the SwimSwam podcast.
Requests for information were shirked, according to the team members. Bishop said, “The statement in the Q&A was ‘If I were in your shoes I would search for opportunities elsewhere.”
“One of the biggest things that’s keeping everyone at the school now is the community we’ve created…It’s hard to leave because that community is so ingrained but, it’s hard not to take that sentiment as ‘we don’t want you here.’”
Moving forward, some student-athletes are focused on healing the rift between the athletics department and their team members. In his interview with The Dartmouth, junior swimmer Parker Hershberger highlighted the questions of how the athletics department will regain the trust of both current and prospective athletes.
“I’m looking forward to working with the athletics department and the administration on how we can make Dartmouth athletics better because that’s ultimately what needs to come out of this. But I also believe there needs to be some degree of accountability.”
It sounds like the AD never mastered the good manners lesson I taught all of my children. It also seems that he has not mastered his role as AD. Lastly, it sounds as though he is not open to learning from mistakes. There are not signs of leadership material.
Just another case of an AD whose main credential is being a coach and who took Sports Administration masters classes in his first assistant coaching job and then coached basketball for 17 years in Division III before becoming an AD. He, like most athletic directors, lacks the background and experience in finance, labor law and management to competently run the athletics at Dartmouth or just about any other college. This is how cutting $5MM in minor sports gets justified to offset tens of millions of dollars in losses from lost football and basketball revenue. And, somehow, the university Presidents all buy this illogical nonsense fed to them by these ADs. So, when the cuts come, the money isn’t saved, Title… Read more »
Seriously? Hold that thought, let me check on the world-wide pandemic that is happening right now…..I read this and am reminded why this country needs to reinstitute mandatory national service for all 18-20yo men and women
Your comment says “reinstitute.”
The United States has never had mandatory national service for all 18-20yo men and women, so there’s nothing to reinstitute.
Splitting hairs Braden, yes this is where we learn the importance of comma placement. Here is a link to a brief history of mandatory conscription in US history
https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/conscription
Yes, I believe mandatory service should be reinstituted in the US. I believe it should be for all 18-20yo men and women and I believe their should be both civilian and military options. We can’t have a common conversation without a common experience. Pick up a gun, pick up a broom, pick something up and do your part.
So you want us to believe that young swimmers will stop complaining if there’s mandatory national service?
You must not have ever spent any time around Aaron Greenberg, who is a citizen of and represents a country with mandatory national service. If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about, give him a call and ask him about why he’s no longer with Team Elite.
While Israel does have mandatory conscription elite athletes are given the opportunity to be accommodated with a job that will allow them to maintain their elite level of training. All of the top swimmers included and the most notable example is with tennis player Shahar Pe’er who was a top 50 player while simultaneously balancing her national service commitment. I am not aware of what Aaron chose to do.
Reportedly, Sheehy responded, “I’m sorry you transferred.”
I can only aspire to burn so sickly.
Lol an apology? What a brat
What, I mean it’s not like the administration’s incompetence forced him to change schools only for the program to be reinstated. Asking for “leaders” to take responsibility for their actions is not bratty, but rather mature.
Put yourself in his shoes. Cut from a sport he loves, forced to switch schools to continue, just for his school to reinstate the program. You look like a real clown right now, david.
Resign! Resign! Resign!
Woah so much fancy formatting in this comment section
The W&M AD lost her job over her mismanagement of the proposed cuts there. Hopefully the same will happen at Dartmouth. There does need to be accountability.
I continue to be amazed at how some of these ADs/Presidents actually get hired in the first place. These are top positions at universities and they make such poor decisions you have to question their qualifications. What is the count up to on how many of these leaders have made such obvious under researched, short sighted, and overall poor management decisions? And how many of these decisions have wasted more money in the NAME OF SAVING MONEY that only invite Title 9 lawsuits and put the schools more in the hole. So so many unqualified and inept ADs and Presidents in college today.