Sink or Swim

On a recent tour of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, I was revisited by a recurring nightmare. As we approached the gym that houses the W&L pool, our tour guide proudly announced that Washington and Lee was one of only 8 universities in the country with a mandatory swim test. And, if you don’t pass you don’t graduate.

Visions of Weightman Hall immediately flashed before me as I recalled the utter humiliation of failing my first university exam—the dreaded swim test. Lucky for future generations of Penn women, the university did away with the requirement not long after I sank midway across the pool in front of a large audience of freshman. In fact, the W&L tour guide was almost correct. Only 11* schools (not including the service academies) still require demonstrated aquatic proficiency to graduate:

• Berea College*
• Bryn Mawr College
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• Dartmouth University
• Davidson College*
• Hamilton College
• MIT
• Notre Dame University (the test is no longer administered in the nude)
• Swarthmore College
• Washington and Lee University

As recently as 1977, 42% of all post-secondary institutions had some sort of swimming requirement. Many legends come attached to these tests, the most frequently cited of which involve a wealthy donor and a relative who tragically died as a result of not knowing how to swim. In fact, most requirements came about as a result of an American Red Cross campaign to improve water safety after WWI. At Columbia, tour guides recall that the university began its 75-yard test to ensure that undergraduates could swim across the Hudson River to New Jersey in case of attack--engineering students are exempt presumably because they can rely on raft-building skills to stay afloat. Engineering is looking better and better.

Although each school puts a different spin on the requirement, the Bryn Mawr test seems fairly typical: 10 minutes continuous swim demonstrating 2 strokes; 1 minute treading water; and 1 minute motionless float. Those failing to pass are required to take a swim class which may count toward the mandatory PE requirement if taken before senior year. Note that Dartmouth is not nearly so generous, as swim class does not count toward the school's 3-credit physical education requirement.

* Edited from original post.