To the Editor:
In the April 27 issue of The Dartmouth there were two front-page articles concerning freshmen.
One was a proposal to have all freshmen live in one cluster, much as is done at Harvard. This change would significantly make a difference in the freshman experience.
The second article reported Dean of Freshmen Peter Goldsmith's proposal to change the title of the Freshman Office to the "First-Year Office." This change would make no difference whatsoever in the freshman experience.
Changes in nomenclature, such as the shift from the use of "black person" to "African-American," are wholly justifiable when there is a significant portion of the membership of such groups that feels more comfortable being referred to in that manner.
However, an informal poll tells me that there is virtually no feeling of discontentment with the label "freshman." I would venture that the vast majority of Dartmouth's female '97s who are active in women's issues are much more concerned about real ones such as discrimination and date rape, than about trivialities of convention.
Therefore, the enforced usage of the term "first year" will accomplish little other than creating an annoyance and incurring the expense of changing all documents and signs reading "Freshman Office" to "First-Year Office." Meanwhile, brevity and conciseness of language will have been sacrificed once again a la Facilities Operations And Management (formerly Buildings and Grounds).
If one were to be very scrutinous, one could interpret "sophomore" as offensive because of its being a shortened version of "sophisticated moron;" "junior" could be seen as denying a college student his or her adulthood; and "senior" could lead to the false impression that graduating students are ready to collect Social Security.
In short, there is a limit to how far the name-changing craze should go. I ask Dean Goldsmith to concentrate on continuing his excellent work with the Freshman Office rather than worrying about what it is called.
JACOB WEGMANN '97
