Beyond the Ivies

Out in the cold

Despite a program on the rise and 122 years of tradition, the Swarthmore board of managers voted recently to drop its varsity football team. Citing the desire for a diverse campus, the board noted the high number of recruits necessary to field a successful squad as the primary reason for disbanding the team.

"Ten to 15 percent is the appropriate proportion of a class to pick primarily because of athletic ability," Dan West, Swarthmore's vice president of alumni, publicity and public relations told The New York Times. West noted that providing for a competitive football team in addition to a wrestling team, which was also dropped, was pushing that number closer to 30 percent.

The decision was not without detractors; two members of the board of managers have threatened to resign, and University President Alfred Bloom was widely heckled at a meeting of students, parents and alums.

—Compiled by Ted Diskant

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