In response to the violence that surrounded the traditional Dartmouth Night bonfire last year, the College will increase security and delay wood delivery in an attempt to insure safety during the construction of the bonfire.
The bonfire is a freshmen class tradition begun in 1895. Each year the new class builds a 40 to 60-story bonfire on the Green using thick tiers of soft wood. They light the fire after a pep rally in front of Dartmouth Hall and then run in circles around the burning pyre.
Last year, approximately 600 first-year students and upperclassmen, some of whom were intoxicated, nearly started a riot as freshmen defended the bonfire from raiding upperclassmen.
To prevent future violence, the Student Assembly, administrators and faculty created guidelines last year to try to make the construction process safe.
The new rules require that wood for the bonfire will now be delivered on Thursday morning instead of Monday morning to prevent upperclassmen from attacking the bonfire. That means the class will have one day to build the forty-foot structure.
Safety and Security officers will patrol the site, which will be lit with spotlights and cordoned off by a rope surrounding the structure at a distance of 110 feet. Hanover Police will also patrol the area.
"We're going to have an ample staff of officers ready if there is a repeat of last year's events," Hanover Police Chief Kurt Schimke said.
Dean of Student Life Holly Sateia said the violence will stop this year." If there is an incident this year ... the bonfire tradition will end," she said.
Last year's violence stemmed from a freshman "tradition" of guarding the bonfire against the upperclassmen.
The confrontations occurred on Wednesday night. After fraternities finished their weekly meetings, intoxicated students including fraternity brothers and pledges attacked the bonfire.
Students used baseball bats, rocks and threw bags of feces, vomit and lighter fluid, said Justin Ruben '95.
Several people were taken to Dick's House with injuries.
Along with the issue of safety, questions have also been raised about the environmental hazards of the bonfire and its appropriateness in a community where many people do not have enough wood to heat their homes.
The extent to which the bonfire contributes to deforestation is debatable, said Ruben. The wood comes from the white pine -- a relatively common and fast-growing tree -- and is acquired from plantations.
"There's no shortage of white pine in the area...[and] it's a relatively fertile area," Ruben said. "The problem lies in not knowing the long-term effects."
Some people feel the bonfire is an excessive display of affluence while many in the Upper Valley lack enough wood to heat their homes during the winter, according to Ruben.
But Ruben said he feels the bonfire is not connected to the home heating issue.
"As I understand it, no one is burning soft woods," he said. "We're not pulling food from the hands of the hungry."
The bonfire structure uses only soft wood.
