Update: Princeton Men’s Swimming and Diving Season Canceled
Athletic director: Vulgar messages from team members ‘antithetical to the values’ of athletic program
The Princeton men’s swimming and diving season has been canceled following the discovery of “vulgar and offensive” materials that included messages on a University-sponsored team listserv. Athletic Director Mollie Marcoux Samaan ’91 first announced a suspension of the season Dec. 15, and on Dec. 22, she told the team that it will not compete in its remaining meets.
According to a University release, a complaint made last week alerted administrators to content that was “misogynistic and racist in nature,” prompting a review. “The behavior that we have learned about is simply unacceptable,” Samaan said in the release. “It is antithetical to the values of our athletic program and of the University, and will not be tolerated.”
University spokesman John D. Cramer told The Daily Princetonian that after Samaan and head coach Rob Orr met with the men’s team on Thursday, the athletic director joined coaches of the women’s swimming and diving team to meet with members of the women’s team.
The Prince reported Cramer would not say whether the comments in the complaint were made about members of the women’s team, but according to The New York Times, he confirmed that they were. In an email exchange with PAW, Cramer declined to clarify the discrepancy.
President Eisgruber ’83 said in a statement, “I am deeply disappointed by the behavior of the men’s swim team. I strongly support the decision of our athletic director, Mollie Marcoux Samaan, to suspend a team that has failed to respect the values of this University and the dignity of other students.” He added that he has “asked the athletic department to redouble its efforts to ensure that our teams conduct themselves with the character and ethics that we expect from students representing Princeton University in athletic competition.”
At the time of the suspension the team’s schedule had two regular-season meets remaining in January and February, followed by the Ivy League Championships Feb. 22-25.
The men’s swimming and diving program is the fourth Ivy athletic team to be reprimanded this fall, following similar incidents involving the Harvard men’s soccer and men’s cross country teams and the Columbia wrestling team. The Harvard teams each made lewd documents about members of corresponding women’s teams; officials canceled the final month of its men’s soccer season and placed men’s cross country on probation. Columbia punished wrestlers who had shared racist text messages and cleared the remainder of the team to return to competition in late November.
Princeton men’s swimming and diving was involved in an earlier controversy on campus in 2015, after members of the team performed at a dance event under the name Urban Congo. When fellow students complained that Urban Congo’s performance was demeaning to African and Native American cultures, the group apologized and disbanded.
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5 Responses
Martin Schell ’74
7 Years AgoLong on Morals, Short on Justice
Indeed, PAW’s coverage of this embarrassing event seems long on morals and short on justice, suggesting that urgency is leading to a narrowing of perspective in regard to what the editors think readers wish to know.
For example, is a team permitted to field a number of individuals in swimming events if the total number of team members is insufficient to win the match? If not, PAW could have simply mentioned the fact. If so, the issue of punishing the innocent along with the guilty becomes more glaring.
Further, no mention is made of the # or % of team members who were guilty. Isn’t this a fact worth reporting? Perhaps the offenders used diverse online usernames, but IT sleuthing should be able to sort that out, especially in a case where disciplinary action is called for.
The failure to quantify the portion of the team that was guilty leads one to wonder if there were differing opinions about how many were guilty, perhaps based on different judgments about whether specific comments were offensive or not. A matter this serious calls for clear standards and fair implementation, both of which seem to have been lacking.
Punishing the innocent along with the guilty is a very old conundrum. Unlike Princeton, Columbia chose to protect the innocent, following precedent that goes back millennia, even in cases where the guilty outnumber the innocent (Genesis 18:23).
Ronald A. Wittreich ’50
7 Years AgoMy interest was to observe...
My interest was to observe it is difficult to imagine every one on those teams is guilty of the indiscretions. Why is no distinction made? There must be innocent men who are being deprived of competing in the league championships because of their mates’ misbehavior. Why are they penalized?
Miranda Johnson-Haddad ’80
7 Years AgoThis is absolutely shameful,...
This is absolutely shameful, and it’s going to take more than President Eisgruber and others exhorting the directors of the men’s athletic programs to “redouble [their] efforts” to prevent this kind of thing. Mandatory “sensitivity training,” or whatever they want to call it, for all athletes is an essential first step. I am appalled, though hardly surprised, that this kind of behavior, which I remember all too well from the late 1970s when I was at Princeton, is still happening on campus.
Miranda Johnson-Haddad ’80
7 Years AgoCanceling the Swim Season
Re “Princeton Men’s Swimming and Diving Season Canceled” (posted online Dec. 22): This is absolutely shameful, and it’s going to take more than President Eisgruber and others exhorting the directors of the men’s athletic programs to “redouble [their] efforts” to prevent this kind of thing. Mandatory “sensitivity training,” or whatever they want to call it, for all athletes is an essential first step. I am appalled, though hardly surprised, that this kind of behavior, which I remember all too well from the late 1970s when I was at Princeton, is still happening on campus.
Ronald A. Wittreich ’50
7 Years AgoCanceling the Swim Season
My interest was to observe it is difficult to imagine every one on those teams is guilty of the indiscretions. Why is no distinction made? There must be innocent men who are being deprived of competing in the league championships because of their mates’ misbehavior. Why are they penalized?