Character

Kennison State University Men's Swim Team

courageous policy-impacted victimized community-engaged education-focused tragic community anchors under-resourced essential athletic supportive selfless respected heroic tragically lost

The Men's Swim Team at Kennison State University fields male swimmers in collegiate competition. The team suffered severe losses from the bombing at their campus: three swimmers died, and two others landed in critical condition. President Bartlet spotlights their tragedy during his DNC fundraiser speech, naming the victims to transform grief into national resolve and heroic purpose. This reference underscores the bombing's human toll on student-athletes and bolsters the administration's crisis leadership.

5 appearances

Collegiate Swimming

Also known as: students, teachers, men's team

Kennison State …'s Journey

A timeline through the narrative

5 moments

S2E4 · In This White House

Backstage Warning — Ainsley Meets Sam

Referenced in Sam's statistic about lack of textbooks; part of the factual claims under discussion.

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S2E4 · In This White House

Ainsley Publicly Unravels Sam's Textbook Claim

Implied hardship

Invoked by Sam as suffering textbook shortages (40% in Kirkwood), central to his bill defense.

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S4E2 · 20 Hours in America Part II

From Mourning to Resolve

As an invoked group: bereaved and emblematic of campus loss; remembered publicly.

The Kennison State University Men's Swim Team is referenced collectively as suffering casualties—three killed and others critically injured—and serves as a concrete locus for the tragedy Bartlet names.

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S4E12 · Guns Not Butter

Century of Hope: Bartlet's Foreign‑Aid Appeal

Implied hopeful and dignified — presented as the human payoff of the policy.

Teachers are named as one of the concrete beneficiaries of the promised aid; they are invoked to humanize abstract policy and to signal long-term development goals.

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S4E16 · The California 47th

Bartlet's Onstage Solidarity Amid Kuhndu Crisis

Proud and engaged as community representatives, invested in presenting students with a positive civic example.

Referenced by Sam as having brought students to the rally; their presence is used rhetorically to emphasize the President's role-model status while bolstering the local emotional appeal.

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