MIT requires every student to know how to swim. But why?

It's odd to me that concerns about equity are cited as the reason to get rid of a swimming requirement because some institutions discovered that the students who didn't know how to swim were predominantly non-white. I think it's a reasonable view that what they actually did was unearth an existing inequity and choose to do nothing about it.

Is it any more goofy than making an engineering major take a GenEd class in medieval history, or anthropology? School is just weird. Do it, get it done, move on.

I think the requirement was a matter practical concern back in the 30-50s when there was war and it was assumed that knowing how to swim would be useful , such as on a ship. naval engineering was a huge deal in the 19th and up to the mid 20th century. It seems arbitrary to require it, but it also makes sense in the historical context.