Princeton University has suspended the remainder of the men’s swimming and diving team’s season for comments that were described as both “vulgar and offensive” and “misogynistic and racist.”
Though the specifics of the comments are unknown, we do know the comments were made on the team’s e-mail list, and they involved the women’s swimming and diving team, according to the Associated Press. Princeton officials were alerted to corresponding materials—including the team’s school-sponsored mailing list and other online correspondence—via an anonymous complaint.
If this story sounds eerily familiar, that’s because similar situations have occurred at two other Ivy League schools this fall. Last month, Harvard suspended its men’s soccer team, and Columbia suspended some of its wrestlers. Both incidents involved lewd comments about female students.
“The behavior that we have learned about is simply unacceptable,” athletic director Mollie Marcoux Samaan said in a statement. “We make clear to all of our student-athletes that they represent Princeton University at all times, on and off the playing surface and in and out of season, and we expect appropriate, respectful conduct from them at all times.”
It is not yet known whether the entire season will be canceled.
Requests for comment from Princeton Athletics were not immediately returned.
