A once-proud tradition is becoming awkward for elite universities

THIS SPRING Dartmouth College will graduate a class fluent in literature, science, writing and foreign languages—but, for the first time in more than a century, not necessarily able to swim. Since the early 1900s the Ivy League university has required undergraduates to swim 50 yards, equivalent to a lap, before receiving a diploma. But in 2022 the faculty voted to scrap the test, beginning with this year’s seniors. Dartmouth joins a handful of other elite institutions that have abandoned their swimming requirements in recent years, including Williams (2022), Hamilton (2023) and Washington and Lee (2024). The shift says less about the merits of staying afloat than about universities’ preoccupation with racial equity.