Between September of 1994 and this July, issues reverberated through the campus, some of them related strictly to the College and some of them reflecting national controversies.
The year began with one tragedy, the death of Adam Brown '97, and ended with another, the suicide of Sarah Devens '96.
In between, President Bill Clinton's appearance at Commencement, College President James Freedman's six-month sabbatical, a meningitis outbreak, divisiveness within the Student Assembly and a flurry of sexual assault allegations against College campus leaders served as a reminder that life is not all that quiet on an isolated Ivy League campus. Clinton and Commencement
The year culminated with President Bill Clinton's speech at the 1995 Commencement ceremony. Clinton's visit marked only the second time a sitting United States President has appeared at a Dartmouth graduation.
Clinton, College President James Freedman and Class of 1995 Valedictorian Kristin Cobb all spoke at Commencement about the need to maintain federal aid to college students.
Their speeches echoed the concerns of about 50 students who in February protested the GOP-controlled Congress's proposed cuts to education aid.
Later in the year, the Student Assembly also called on the College to lobby Republicans to maintain current levels of student financial aid.
Freedman's appearance at the Commencement ceremonies also marked his return from a six-month sabbatical. Freedman spent his six months at Harvard University, his alma mater, pursuing what he called the three R's -- reading, writing and rest.
During Freedman's absence, Dean of Faculty James Wright took over as acting college president.Student Assembly in-fighting
Dartmouth's Student Assembly continued with its own particular tradition this year, marring its image among students by fighting amongst itself.
By the end of a year which had seen a veritable game of musical chairs among its top executives, the Student Assembly took measures to reform itself.
Student Assembly President Danielle Moore '95 resigned from her presidency at the end of fall term, in what she dubbed a protest against the resistance to female leadership she said she encountered as Assembly president.
At the same time, the remaining Assembly executives asked for the resignation of the firebrand Assembly Secretary John Honovich '97, but he refused to go.
At the beginning of the next term, he instead became vice president in place of Rukmini Sichitiu '95, who became President upon Moore's resignation.
Sichitiu and Honovich, never friends, pledged to work together to overcome the divisiveness that cost the Assembly credibility in students' eyes.
Sichitiu led a campaign to replace Webster Hall, the College's only medium-sized performance venue scheduled for renovations in order to house Baker Library's Special Collections.
Meanwhile, the Assembly also went through extensive self-evaluations.
Prompted by Honovich's motion to dissolve the body, the Assembly opted to form a review committee of non-assembly members.
Chaired Class of 1995 Vice President Hosea Harvey, the committee spent Spring term researching methods of improving the Assembly's constitution.
The Assembly, at its last meeting of the term, approved four amendments to its constitution in an effort to reestablish its credibility. It gave the president more power and expanded the body.
Next year, Jim Rich '96 will take over as Assembly President and Kelii Opulauoho '96 will act as vice president.First-Year Plan
For much of the year, students, faculty and administrators hotly debated the report on the first-year experience released late in the spring of 1994, which recommended, among other things, creating residence clusters exclusively for freshmen and having freshmen live with the other students in their freshmen seminar.
Over the year, Dean of the College Lee Pelton listened to different responses to the committee's report, a process that included holding a "town meeting" where he talked directly to students about their concerns at the Collis Center.
By May, Pelton released his final recommendations, significantly pared down from their original form. In place of freshmen clusters, the final recommendations call for "mixed-class clusters."
It also recommended a faculty committee to look at how residential and intellectual experience at the College could be better integrated, an Office of Residential Life review of dormitory life and reforms to the period of freshman orientation.Campus tragedies
Most recently, the college received national attention because of the suicide of three-athlete star Sarah Devens '96, who shot herself in her Essex, Mass., home on July 10. Devens' will be remembered in an official College memorial service in the Fall.
Adam Brown '97 died from complications from by meningeal cancer in late September. Brown was remembered in a memorial service Oct. 23 at Rollins Chapel.Students speak out on issues
In the spring, Emily Stephens '97 accused the College of mishandling a case of sexual abuse she reported last year.
Once Stephens publicized her dispute over the College's procedures for sexual abuse, two student coalitions formed to address the problem and propose changes to the College's judiciary body, the Committee of Standards.
Dean of the College looked at their recommendations, but has not definitively said which he would implement and which he would let fall by the wayside.
Also in the spring, Dartmouth protested loudest of all the Ivieswhen Playboy Magazine photographers arrived on campus to audition women for the Playboy's "Women of the Ivy League" spread, which will be released in October.
About 35 students marched around the Green and rallied outside the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts to show their opposition to pornography.
A crowd of 1,100 students and other members of the College community came to hear the Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel speak about the importance of not forgetting the Holocaust.
Many students expressed feelings of anger and paranoia over Hanover Police's alcohol policy, which was recently made a state law.
The "internal possession" law stipulates that if a blood or breath test reveals a minor has alcohol in his or her bloodstream, that is ample proof to arrest the minor for underage drinking.
A woman living in French Hall woke up one November morning to find an unidentified male stranger in her room.
The incident was the first of a series of such illegal entries which resulted in one instance of sexual assault in Morton residence hall during Winter Carnival weekend.
