This summer, students can rent canoes, kayaks and paddleboards for free at Ledyard Canoe Club, according to Outdoor Engagement Committee member and economics professor Bruce Sacerdote ’90. The Dartmouth Wellness Office and Outdoor Engagement Committee are subsidizing the cost as part of an effort to make outdoor activities more accessible, he wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth.
“We want to remove barriers of all sorts to the use of Dartmouth’s wonderful outdoor resources,” Sacerdote wrote. “This is an administration that looks for ways to build on Dartmouth’s strengths.”
Before the free rentals, prices at the clubhouse were “pretty expensive” for students, according to Ledyard desk worker Genevieve Shahin ’26. Even with the half-off discount provided to all Dartmouth students, students had to pay $10 an hour to rent a canoe, $5 an hour for a kayak and $7.50 an hour for a paddleboard, she said. Students spoke out about steep boat prices in The Dartmouth last fall, prompting Ledyard’s directorate to promise to work toward free rentals for all students.
Ledyard business manager Owen Duncan ’26 said the club has struggled in the past to make boats affordable for students while covering staffing costs. This summer, the College is covering the amount of money that Ledyard typically spends on paying their desk workers, Duncan said.
“We don’t like [charging students] and we try to have options to make it more affordable with memberships and getting financial aid to cover things,” he said. “It was just a frustrating situation.”
Now that boats are free for the summer, Duncan said that more students have come down to the Connecticut River to enjoy Ledyard’s resources.
“So far, it seems like there are far more people at the river taking out boats on any given day than there were before,” he said. “It’s wonderful.”
Student Wellness Center director Caitlin Barthelmes said that engaging in nature is critical to student wellbeing. She explained that accessible boat rentals are a “tangible” way for the College to positively impact student wellness and connection to the outdoors this summer, even though she personally did not orchestrate the change.
“We know that from a wellbeing perspective [interactions with nature] can have a lot of benefits for a person’s stress and mental health,” she said. “Increasing access to outdoor activities is a part of the Commitment to Care strategic plan for mental health and wellbeing.”
The Outdoor Engagement Committee also organized free golf, pickleball and fly fishing for students, Sacerdote wrote. The group of students, alumni and faculty is offering free physical education swimming lessons starting this summer and helped open swim docks with lifeguards at the river for the season.
Duncan and Ledyard junior business manager Aksel Paul ’27 said they hope students continue to paddle in droves so they can make a compelling case for continued funding.
“We’re hoping that a lot of people come down in order to show the [Wellness] Office that if you provide free boats, people want to use free boats,” Paul said. “If things end up going well, we’ll be able to make it a permanent change.”
Tyler Grubelich ’26 said he’s more excited to go down to the Ledyard clubhouse now that the boats are free.
“I’m really happy about [this decision] because one of the biggest things I was most excited for about sophomore summer was being at the river and being able to canoe and kayak and paddle board,” Grubelich said. “This makes me more eager and more likely to go and actually rent a kayak because it’s free and I can go whenever I want.”
One of Dartmouth’s main selling points is its access to the outdoors, Duncan said. By making boat rentals free, every student can enjoy paddling on the river without worrying about financial burdens.
“We are very lucky to go to a school in a place that is as beautiful as Hanover and have access to a natural space like a river right on campus,” Duncan said. “There’s really no barrier to entry now, so I would encourage everybody to take advantage of this.”
