For anyone following the NCAA Division III Landmark Conference Championships, which took place over the weekend at Maryland’s Germantown Indoor Swim Center, you most likely noticed a significant contending team missing from the heat sheets and results.
The championships were one team short this year, as the University of Scranton’s men’s and women’s swimming squads have been suspended pending investigations into alleged violations.
The exact instance or instances of violations’ details have not yet been released, only the statement published by the University of Scranton’s public relations department.
The statement reads as follows:
“The University of Scranton is investigating alleged violations by some members of the men’s and women’s swimming teams
of the university’s hazing, sexual harassment and sexual misconduct, and alcohol policies.”
It is not known how many team members are involved in the alleged violations, but all team members were prohibited from participating in the conference championships. Last year the Scranton women finished 3rd, while the men finished 4th in the meet’s team standings.
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I would suggest contacting the coach at this point through email or best by phone. If this does not work I would try the athletic director. If your son wants to talk more about the program itself I would try to contact a swimmer on the team
My high school senior stayed with the team overnight as a recruit and was seriously considering going there.
Will this effect status of the team next year? Any suggestions as to who he should talk to?
As parents of a senior male swimmer we can say up to this point, his experience at the University of Scranton has been wonderful. The professors and coaches have encouraged and supported our son over the last four years and has made academics the main priority. Our son will be graduating with a GPA over 3.75 in the sciences and being part of the Royal swimming family has been a positive experience. Unfortunately, your question regarding the team’s future will probably not be answered for a very long tine since the investigation is still on-going and the University has not given us much information. As far as contacting the coach, according to our son, the coaches can’t speak to anyone… Read more »
We have had a similar experience as Marie states in regards to our daughter and the support she has received from the coaches and many of the professors in regards to her swimming as a Royal and her education. It is one of the things she has truly loved about being at Scranton – professors going to meets, asking about the team and the connection and bond with teammates and coaches. They are a close team, that accepts all types of swimmers and individuals. She is a dean’s list student who finds an outlet with the sport which helps her perform better in school and the friendships she has made with the team are so valuable to her. We were… Read more »
I am a father of one of the freshman swim team members and this entire controversy looks like a planned attack to make a point to the entire school. The student have been interrogated punished like criminals with the same limited amount of information about the investigation as has been presented in this article. Scranton, like almost all schools, has issues with underage drinking. The AD, who comes from a basketball background, and the deans of student affairs appear to have planned this investigation at a time to get the entire schools attention. This is not WKU. No one was assaulted, no one was injured. There has been nothing reported to police or to the DA in this matter. If… Read more »
I’ve been hearing about this for a few weeks, and most comments are about how bad they feel for the punishment of not competing at conference. I can understand and relate to that.
I have not heard one person, inside or outside the program, argue that these allegations are untrue or completely unfounded.
It seems people are upset about the punishment while softly acknowledging the bad behavior. Just something to think about. In the long run this could be the best thing to ever happen to this program. An opportunity to change the culture from “everybody does it” to “we’re better than that!”
Please don’t imply that you can relate or understand unless you have experienced it yourself. Everyone we have heard from “inside and outside” the program have not softly acknowledged the severe allegations at all as you suggest – please know that.
Think about judging an entire group so quickly and realize the interrogation/investigation process was just as ScrantonParent indicated and the punishment, thus far, has been more than missing their champs meet. We have never seen anything like this…be glad you can not relate.
The school took the action of suspending the program. This is a step that isn’t taken lightly. The fact is that there is a climate of drinking, parties, and less than responsible behavior on college campus’s. You have to be realistic as a parent. However, little things do get out of hand and become big things because students, athletes aren’t thinking about the consequences. If you are a parent of a potential college student-athlete you need to be cautious. You need to research the schools, the team’s, and coaches of the program’s you are considering. You should have open and frank discussions with your sons / daughters before and after campus visits. Find out how the team behaves and the… Read more »
While it is better to play it safe regarding school policies, I agree that we should wait until facts are made public before making snap judgements. Although it seems harsh, I wouldn’t tag an entire team as hostile and out of control from this one reported incident. I’m sure the men and women on the team have positive attributes that greatly outweigh the negative circumstances.
Like what was mentioned before, facts need to come out before any judgement can be made. Most of the people on the team aren’t even sure why all of this is happening. Everyone that I know on the team are extremely smart with the choices that they make. Don’t let one or two people ruin everything for an entire team.
New athletic director wanted to make a name for himself…. well he certainly did. Hope it was worth publicly shaming these kids while under investigation and no charges made yet.
Also, can’t believe were in the 21st century and the newspapers in Scranton are interviewing people on the street asking them their opinion based on a sole email the whole community received. Such a shame on how the administration of this school carried out this investigation in public.
I wonder what would’ve happened if this was the basketball team… Oh right nothing.