达特茅斯学院自20世纪初以来一直要求本科生在毕业前游完50码，但教员在2022年投票取消该测试，因此2026年春季毕业生成为一个多世纪以来首批不必会游泳也能毕业的学生。达特茅斯加入了近年取消类似要求的少数精英院校之列，包括威廉姆斯学院（2022年）、汉密尔顿学院（2023年）和华盛顿与李大学（2024年）。
美国大学的游泳要求曾经很普遍：康奈尔于1905年设立该要求，普林斯顿于1911年设立，并要求学生游完220码。此后这一传统快速衰落，1977年一项调查发现42%的四年制大学仍要求游泳测试，而1997年的估算已降至仅5%，显示20年间下降了37个百分点，约减少了近九成。
近年的争论集中在明显的种族差距上，而不是成本或管理不便。美国疾控中心称，5至14岁的黑人儿童在游泳池溺亡的可能性是白人同龄人的5倍以上，黑人成年人自称不会游泳的可能性也超过白人的5倍；威廉姆斯学院还发现，2013年至2019年间其50码测试未通过者中有81%是有色人种学生，这推动了一些学校取消要求，但康奈尔在2024年选择保留，认为正式游泳教学有助于缩小这种差距。
Dartmouth College had required undergraduates since the early 1900s to swim 50 yards before graduation, but faculty voted in 2022 to eliminate the test, making the spring 2026 class the first in more than a century able to graduate without necessarily swimming. Dartmouth joined a small group of elite schools that recently dropped similar rules, including Williams in 2022, Hamilton in 2023, and Washington and Lee in 2024.
Swimming requirements were once widespread on American campuses: Cornell introduced one in 1905, and Princeton followed in 1911 with a far tougher 220-yard test. The practice then collapsed over time, with a 1977 survey finding that 42% of four-year universities still required a swim test and a 1997 estimate putting the share at just 5%, a drop of 37 percentage points, or nearly nine-tenths, in two decades.
Recent debate has centered on stark racial disparities rather than cost or inconvenience. The CDC says black children aged five to 14 are more than five times as likely as white children to drown in a pool, and black adults are more than five times as likely as whites to say they cannot swim; Williams also found that 81% of students who failed its 50-yard test from 2013 to 2019 were students of color, a pattern that helped drive abolitions at some schools, while Cornell in 2024 chose to keep its requirement as a way to reduce the gap.
Source: A once-proud tradition is becoming awkward for elite universities
Subtitle: The slow demise of the swim test
Dateline: 3月 05, 2026 04:15 上午