For most students, Summer term not only marks the midway point of their College careers, but also the deadline for filing major cards, completing the foreign language requirement and fulfilling the physical education requirement.
A student at Dartmouth is required to file a major card by the end of his fifth term of enrollment, according to the Organization, Regulations and Courses bulletin.
Students who have not chosen a major by the end of their fifth term are not permitted to register for their sixth term until they do so.
The P.E. requirement -- including the swimming proficiency test -- must be completed by the end of the summer following sophomore year.
Sophomores who have not finished their P.E. requirement by the end of the summer face a $50 fine each term until the gym time is served.
Students who have not finished their P.E. requirement by the end of senior year cannot graduate, Associate Registrar Mary Farrington said.
"We have it every year," she said. "People not graduating because they have not finished their P.E. requirement."
"We are very sad when that happens but this is a degree requirement," P.E. Associate Director Kenyon Jones said.
Every student who has not completed their requirement receives a registration card from the P.E. department at the beginning of each term.
The label on the registration card includes standard information like the student name, Hinman Box and ID number as well as the date of the swim test, if taken, and a number that denotes the number of terms of P.E. credit needed.
Nearly 400 sophomores needed to complete their P.E. requirement at the start of Summer term, Jones said.
"We're making headway in making students complete their requirement on time," he said.
There has been a steady drop in the number of failed P.E. classes and students unable to complete their requirements by graduation, Jones said.
More than 200 Class of 1996 members still had their P.E. requirement unfulfilled by senior year, Jones said.
"We have gotten more aggressive in our fining procedures," Jones said. "We are assessing fewer fines because students now get it done on time."
David Hung '98 said that he has only completed two terms of P.E. but will not be able to complete the third term of P.E. until next spring.
"I had an incompatible schedule," he said.
Hung said the time limit imposed on the P.E. requirement was ridiculous.
"It is just another way for the College to make money," he said. "If they eliminated the time limit, [the requirement] would be fine."
Jennifer Karlen '98 and Tracy Tylee '98 said they completed their P.E. requirements without ever taking a gym class.
Both play varsity sports and were exempted from the requirement altogether.
Not all sophomores are worried about impending deadlines. One male sophomore, who asked to remain unnamed, did not bother with the College's swim test deadline.
Unable to swim, the student resorted to chicanery.
"I just got a friend to take it for me," he said. "I gave him my ID and had him go down to the swimming test place."
"The guy apparently thought that my friend was me, and he took it," he said.
The sophomore said he was not worried about his friend being punished.
"It is a bigger risk for me," he said. "It is not like they are going to restrain him."
The sophomore said he did not pay his friend.
The language requirement must also be completed by the end of a student's seventh term.
Those who have not completed their foreign language requirement cannot register until they have made arrangements for a waiver with the office of the Dean of Upperclass Students.
"It is not hard to make other arrangements, [students] just must make them," Farrington said.
Assistant to the Dean of Upperclass Students Alison Gorman said students who have not finished their requirement by the seventh term must complete a deferment form.
"It is just a petition to defer it beyond a seventh term, such as if they plan to take a [Language Study Abroad] in the fall" following sophomore summer, Gorman said.
The deferment petition must be presented before the Committee on Standards.
"If a student gets the deferment, there is no consequence but for any term without deferment the student will have registration withheld," Gorman said. "They can defer until senior year but those petitions are less likely to be approved."
A student's foreign language record is checked every term, beginning from the fifth term in residence, to ensure that the requirement can be fulfilled by the seventh term, Gorman said.
