‘Playing volleyball here was a nightmare’: Inside the Dartmouth women’s volleyball team’s culture
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Anonymous
But why should athletes who can't make it based on academic criteria alone, go to a school where they are at the bottom of the academic ability distribution? This isn't true of the drama kids, the instrument players, the real or fake non-profit creators. Athletics is one of the areas where kids with lower credentials get onboarded essentially for business reasons. I am not saying this is a Dartmouth issue. I'm just speaking generally. I rarely hear about admirable scholar athletes like the Indiana quarterback who actually had the drive and academic talent to complete his undergrad degree before moving on to what seems like a potentially sketchier grad school arrangement at Indiana. I am associated with a school well known and much loved for sports success. And I find the compromise in standards to be offputting and the occasional sports scandals to be enraging. They seem to be part and parcel of big money sports. |
Anonymous
| Didn't Dartmouth also have an abusive track coach until recently? What is going on there?? |
Anonymous
The “long way from training male priests to female volleyball setters” line is not the profound point you think it is. It just restates that universities evolved. They also moved from excluding women entirely to educating them, from theology to modern science, from classical languages to engineering and public policy. For some reason, all of that evolution is acceptable, but women competing at a high level in sports is where you draw the line. That reads less like a historical argument and more like selective discomfort. The “I’m tired of pastimes that attract scandalous leaders” point also falls apart once you apply it beyond athletics. Those same dynamics show up anywhere there is hierarchy and pressure. Theater programs have had recent repeated harassment and misconduct cases at places like University of Oklahoma, Indiana University, University of Michigan, University of Central Oklahoma, Central Connecticut State University, Salve Regina University, Mesa Community College, and Columbus State University. Research labs and graduate studies programs have long-standing issues with abusive advisors. Music and dance programs produce real, sometimes permanent injuries. ROTC does as well. Universities do not respond by eliminating these areas. They impose oversight and hold people accountable. Then there is the suggestion to “start with football and basketball.” At many schools, those programs help fund large parts of the broader university ecosystem, including non-revenue academics and arts. So the proposed fix for problems in one volleyball program is to remove revenue streams that support everything from niche departments to student services. That is not a targeted solution. What you’re really arguing is not about structure, it’s about personal preference. You don’t value athletics, so you’re comfortable treating it as disposable. But once you apply your own logic consistently across campus, it takes down far more than sports. That’s why no serious institution operates the way you’re suggesting. |
Anonymous
Incompetent control freak is my conclusion as well. |
Anonymous
“Get a dorm floor team together” is the kind of throwaway take that sounds neat until you think about it for five seconds. Universities are full of non-revenue activities that exist because students want to pursue them at a serious level, not as a casual dorm hobby. Nobody is suggesting orchestra becomes a jam session in the dorm’s common area, theater becomes skits after dinner, or research gets downgraded to weekend tinkering because it doesn’t turn a profit. Athletics sits in that same category. Treating it as uniquely disposable just shows you don’t understand how any of this works. |
Anonymous
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No, recruited sports is its own special category, from a separate admissions process to special housing to extra academic support to NIL etcetcetc. It is treated as uniquely essential. More important than any other extracurricular (let’s leave academic research out of the discussion since research and education are, you know, the reason these schools exist).
It’s the money. Except most sports, like volleyball, don’t make money. |
Anonymous
As a grad student (and TA) I had athlete students in my section who barely made it out with a passing grade. The constant practice and travel makes it almost impossible to keep up with the academics. Not that they were extremely interested in academics except to pass. I don't know how they were doing in other courses, but sciences were not their strong suit. But I can say the same for many other students who were not athletes. Some were doing better than others. They would pass as long as they were doing enough to pass. I was not there to criticize their life choices or whether they were playing sports. |
Anonymous
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The coach's name is Kevin Maureen Campbell, so I asked ChatGPT:
can kevin be a name for a female? “Kevin” is traditionally a male given name, derived from the Irish name Saint Kevin (from Caoimhín). That said, names don’t have strict rules—a woman can be named Kevin, but it would be quite unusual in English-speaking countries. More commonly, feminine forms or similar-sounding names are used, such as: Kevina (rare) Keva (uncommon but used) Kendra or Kaitlyn (not directly related, but sometimes chosen for a similar feel) So: possible, but uncommon. |
Anonymous
| There are likely many more stories like this that have not been made public. |
Anonymous
+1 To put it more succinctly, but less eloquently, this poster sounds like someone who doesn’t like sports and resents their presence on college campuses when the vast majority of students and alumni love their college sports teams and that component of their educational experience. |
Anonymous
I agree this is less eloquently put and it sounds more like a personal attack. The original post focused on why the ideas don't make sense rather than attacking the poster. |
Anonymous
"Small, non-revenue sports like volleyball" - women's volleyball is the fastest growing sport in the country. Here you are participating in a thread in a dedicated forum about it. 
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Anonymous
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Volleyball doesn’t make money.
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Anonymous
Tell that to Nebraska and Kentucky. |
Anonymous
I think even UMD made money from volleyball when Nebraska and Penn came to town. The UMD team may become better and better if they can stick long enough in this competitive environment. |