{"id":25393,"date":"2023-08-23T15:39:38","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T19:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=25393"},"modified":"2023-08-23T16:08:09","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T20:08:09","slug":"swim-test-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/swim-test-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"The Swim Test: A (Wet) Rite of Passage for Undergrads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the Hill dives into another academic year, we unleash a tsunami of memories about a shared Big Red milestone<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joe Wilensky<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the happenings that herald the beginning of the fall semester is one that starts many Cornellian careers off with a (literal) splash: the swim test. Dating back more than a century, the University requirement has long been a rite of passage\u2014embraced with confidence by some, with trepidation by others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We asked alumni to share their swim test memories\u2014the good, the bad, and the simply wet\u2014and got a delightful deluge, with more than 100 comments flowing into our email inbox and on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had always been a decent swimmer since I learned young, but by Orientation I had not been in the pool in a number of years,\u201d recalls Kate Ofikuru \u201905. \u201cI prayed it would be like riding a bike and I could make it the three lengths. I doggy paddled the last length, I was so tired.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>
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Those who fail the test\u2014or opt out of it\u2014must, in order to graduate, take a beginning swimming class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Requests can be made for modifications or exemptions, and the requirement doesn\u2019t apply to transfer students.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI came out of the locker room and was told something to the effect of \u2018just swim across and back,\u2019\u201d recalls Jon Heidelberger \u201970, JD \u201973. \u201cSo I jumped in, swam across the pool and\u2014barely\u2014made it back to where I had started. The same guy was waiting for me and, as I struggled to the edge, said, \u2018No, dummy\u2014the long<\/em> way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cornell is one of just a handful of universities nationwide that mandate basic swimming competency\u2014though two of the eight Ivies do. (The other is Columbia; Dartmouth long had its own requirement, but dropped it in 2022.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
In the swim during Move-In 2015. (Lindsay France \/ Cornell University)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Physical Education website stresses the importance of swimming<\/a> as a core life skill, noting that drowning is the world\u2019s third leading cause of death by unintentional injury. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning to swim is transformational to many, the department notes; it can also break an intergenerational cycle where parents who can\u2019t swim don\u2019t encourage their children to pick up the skill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had spent most of my childhood trying to not learn to swim, despite my parents\u2019 attempts\u2014but I really wanted to go to Cornell,\u201d recalls Laura Duran Gober \u201998, who took the swim class her first semester. \u201cIt taught me that fears should never stand in the way of dreams. And I made sure my kids learned to swim before they were five!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After a pandemic hiatus, the test returned in August 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the guidelines state, each first-year must \u201center the deep end of the pool with a feet-first jump and make a continuous 75-yard swim using a stroke or strokes of the student\u2019s choice.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no time limit, and (in a departure from past rules) specific strokes are not required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Tales abound from across the decades of undergrads who waited to satisfy the requirement until their last semester\u2014and sometimes even its final weeks, as graduation (and the threat of a withheld diploma) loomed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just ask Jay Wyatt \u201902. <\/p>\n<\/div>

\"A
Smooth strokes in 2013. (Cornell University)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

He had to skip his freshman test as he waited for a visit from tech support to help him hook up his computer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was a strong swimmer, so I figured I could knock it out any time during the ensuing four years,\u201d Wyatt recalls. \u201cFast forward to May of my senior year, when I get a call that an audit had indicated I would not graduate unless I passed the swim test ASAP. Whoops!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one alum points out, the test even makes a key appearance in a novel by famed author Kurt Vonnegut \u201944\u2014specifically, Player Piano<\/em>, published in 1952. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
Many a first-year friendship blossoms from the test line. (Lindsay France \/ Cornell University)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne character in the book reaches a very high role in the dystopian society [Vonnegut] describes,\u201d says James Euchner \u201978, \u201cbut then someone discovers that he never passed his swim test at Cornell\u2014meaning that nothing he achieved after it was valid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cornell\u2019s requirement dates back to Colonel Frank Barton 1891\u2014namesake of Barton Hall<\/a>\u2014who instituted the test for men in 1905, stressing that the nation\u2019s military academies had made the ability to swim a prerequisite for graduation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecent wars,\u201d Barton noted, \u201chave conclusively demonstrated that a soldier who cannot swim is so much dead timber in the command.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

The test’s establishment made Cornell the first non-military college in the country to require one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until sometime in the 1970s, men typically took it in the buff, reportedly on the grounds that swimsuits could fray and clog pool filters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Helen Newman Hall opened, the relatively tiny pool in Sage Gymnasium\u2014built in 1872 and measuring seven yards by four\u2014hosted the women\u2019s test, which began around 1920. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a 1940 Daily Sun<\/em> article, women had to swim around it four times, float for 30 seconds, then jump in and \u201ccome up smiling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

In 1975, the requirements were standardized for men and women at 75 yards (and swimsuits were de rigueur<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy Cornell swim test still ranks as one of the most anxiety-filled experiences of my life\u2014right up there with taking the SATs and enduring childbirth,\u201d admits Heather Reiter Furman \u201903.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"Students
Leaping in. (Lindsay France \/ Cornell University)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the longest distance I have ever swum, and all these years later I\u2019m still shocked that I passed!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T.J. Carrizales \u201901, MPA \u201903, by contrast, felt confident as he joined other first-years in Teagle Hall; he\u2019d grown up near the water in South Texas and had always been comfortable swimming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he didn\u2019t pace himself\u2014launching into the test as if it were a race\u2014and found himself tiring after the first lap. He ignored the rescue pole extended to him by a swim monitor, and pressed on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
The waiting: the hardest part? (Cornell University)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I swam my final lap, I knew everyone was watching\u2014and the nervous energy gave me the needed strength to finish,\u201d Carrizales recalls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I touched the wall, I heard the entire swim complex erupt in cheers; everyone was high-fiving me and congratulating me. I knew then that Cornell was going to be a competitive place, but also quite supportive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top: Taking the test in the Teagle Hall pool in 2005. (Cornell University)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published August 23, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the Hill dives into another academic year, we unleash a tsunami of memories about a shared Big Red milestone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":25527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"alumni_hub_syml_posts":[20898,11517,21097],"footnotes":""},"categories":[224],"tags":[],"cornell_year_post":[405,457,463,473,513,519,521,523,527],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-25393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cornelliana","cornell_year_post-405","cornell_year_post-457","cornell_year_post-463","cornell_year_post-473","cornell_year_post-513","cornell_year_post-519","cornell_year_post-521","cornell_year_post-523","cornell_year_post-527"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Swim Test: A (Wet) Rite of Passage for Undergrads - Cornellians | Cornell University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the Hill dives into another academic year, we unleash a tsunami of memories about a shared Big Red milestone\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/swim-test-memories\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Swim Test: A (Wet) Rite of Passage for Undergrads - 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