Editorial Swimmers / Divers appropriately punished

Author: [no author name found]

If social houses are required by College policy to make pledge a sober process, it follows that athletic teams should be held to the same, if not even stricter, standards for their recruits. Coach Peter Solomon's desire to respond quickly and severely when he became aware of the men's swimming and diving team's violation of clearly explicated team policy in regards to alcohol is therefore right on target.

The prevention of College athletic teams from participating in competitions due to alcohol violations is a rare, though not unprecedented, action. Because the last drastic incident occurred when the Rugby team had an entire season cancelled in 1996, it was perhaps time to reemphasize to Middlebury athletes that hazing and violating team policy is unacceptable behavior. That such a wakeup call had to come at the cost of the remainder of the men's swimming and diving team's season, however, is extremely unfortunate.

Though the situation is not a happy one for any party involved, from a disciplinary perspective it is ideal. Coach Solomon - with the support of the College athletic director - set team policy and punished the team when his expectations were not met. Athletes should answer to their coaches, and team disciplinary procedure need not follow a bureaucratic review process when violations occur.

Coach Solomon had clearly articulated his expectations to his team with respect to alcohol, and he had every right to act as he did when these directions were not followed. All coaches should follow suit and discuss alcohol and hazing with their teams, and emphasize the consequences of failing to meet team behavioral expectations.

While the argument against punishing the entire team when everyone may not have been responsible for the violation of team policy could be made, allowing only some swimmers to continue their season would have jeopardized the team spirit of collegiate athletics, not to mention the inherent difficulty of discerning which individuals were or were not involved.

Athletes must remember that as students at Middlebury College, they are held to higher standards on multiple levels than athletes at many other schools. The first assumption under the Intercollegiate Athletics headline of the recently released Strategic Planning report is that "Athletic programs should be fully consistent with [the College's] core values of academic and intellectual excellence, and should teach students how best to achieve overall good health and well-being."

The College champions the balance of athletics, academia and personal character. Such expectations must not be compromised by reckless hazing activities, whether they discovered and accounted for or not.