To the Editor:
A "hollow and spurious tradition?" "Hazing?" "Hitler Youth?!"
I'd like to clarify a few facts about the much-maligned "rush" at football games.
I went to a number of Dartmouth football games with my father in the mid '80s. At halftime of each home game, the freshman class ran down from the stands, formed its class number on the field, cheered for a few minutes, maybe sang the fight song and were back in their seats before the band came on. No damage, no mayhem, no truncheon-armed security officers lining the track.
About two years before I started here, the tradition had apparently begun to get out of hand; over-exuberant 'shmen were rushing the visiting stands, knocking people over, and causing serious problems. Clearly something had to be done. So rather than trying to tone down the rush to remove the excesses, the College took the reasonable first step of banning it outright. Which, of course, added to the ranks of the spirited those who had no motivation save to snub the administration.
I rushed my freshman year, with about fifty other '95s, and I count myself firmly in the former category. It was my first football game, intensely exciting, and when my classmates began running towards midfield (not towards the visiting stands) I followed.
I was caught and assigned College discipline and a fine, a penalty considerably harsher than those often handed down for repeat alcohol violations or even for hazing. I was also charged with "criminal trespass" by the town of Hanover. I was 17 and went through the Hanover Diversion Committee, which gave me community service, and told me essentially that they couldn't see what the fuss was about; they particularly felt that the criminal charge was ludicrous.
A footnote to all this is that at the last game of the year, I worked through the Freshman Council to approve an official "rush" after the game, for which the majority of the class -- including the band -- showed, formed a "95" on the field and dispersed. This took exactly two phone calls and one blitz to arrange. Clearly not a major health hazard nor an exercise in Naziist conformity.
I cannot say I would recommend that this year's 'shmen keep rushing by the eights and 10s; it's pointless, not worth the penalty, and does not make for much of a class -- or school -- spirit spectacle.
I would like to appeal, however, to the administration to work with the student body on this issue, not against us. Why pit the freshmen against the Freshman Office? Why set up Safety and Security as some kind of riot guard?
The first years of the rush and the last game of my freshman year are incontrovertible evidence that it can exist in some harmless form. It was conceived among the student body, and it is still we, after all, who dictate the coming and going of our traditions.
