At least from an off-campus perspective, Dartmouth's mascot seems to be the pressing issue of the term. Moose? Mountaineers? Indians? Kermits? Big Green Slimes? Opinions and suggestions abound, as does criticism of the group that is attempting to bring a new mascot to The Big Green. In a recent issue of The Dartmouth, Anat Levtov '98 disparaged the move to find a new mascot when there are more pressing issues at hand ["The Next Project for Dartmouth," Oct. 21, 1996]. Levtov is both correct and in error.
Certainly there are more important causes to rally around, more urgent social imperatives to champion. The actions taken by the Committee On Standards as revealed in its annual report, indicate a dire need for a change in philosophy -- all suspensions from the College last year were for Academic Honor Code violations, while a rape earned a three-term slap on the wrist.
There is actually a panoply of deserving issues. Dartmouth students can be mightily intolerant, for erudite folk. Just recently a friend of mine was physically threatened outside Collis while the Dartmouth Rainbow Alliance dance was going on inside. This past summer bore witness to other such classic examples of boorish behavior: Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority was vandalized, fecal matter spread through the house and the head of a decapitated teddy bear put in the freezer; Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers chased and tackled (with or without punches thrown) Sigma Nu brothers and then hurled racist, homophobic slurs ("chink faggot") at Tabard members, thus earning Beta its fourth sanction in the past five years.
Although many of these incidents occurred within the Greek system, the problem is actually more widespread, as has already been pointed out: there is a serious absence of respect for one another among the members of the student body, and a serious absence of taking this serious absence seriously. I am wearied of keeping my pen poised, waiting for the next embarrassing or heinous deed from my peers.
We all attend the same school. Most of us love it. Many of us criticize it. But we all have Baker Tower, the Green, the football stadium and Collis in common -- they are the repositories of good memories for all of us. Yet apparently we do not have sufficient motivation to relinquish our acquired animosities, cast away our assumptions, discard our prejudices, and embrace one another as people whose commonalities are stronger than our differences.
A new mascot will not remedy these problems and their offshoots, but then no one said it would, as Levtov implied. Rather, deciding on a new mascot is a separate, and admirably positive, venture. Just because a new mascot will not feed starving children or house the homeless ... or move the Women's Resource Center ... does not mean it is an issue devoid of merit. Brushing my teeth every day gives me a smile to bestow on the world and it builds abridge of goodwill between me and the people I meet. In other words, my smile and the mascot are good public relations, both are as companionable as a handshake, and a handshake is a beginning.
The impetus to find a new mascot was borne of Dartmouth pride, a pride that is most evident in the alumni. I noticed last weekend at Homecoming how easy it is to separate the alumni from the locals who come for the spectacle. Besides the repetitive green T-shirts, sweatshirts, neckties, socks, scrunchies, tie tacks and key chains that give them away, there is the wistful look on their faces as they stare into the bonfire, seeing the sweep of bonfires through Dartmouth's long history. Their affiliation with the College and devotion to the Big Green has remained steadfast through some divisive issues, including the 1972 cataclysm of co-education. Their loyalty is a reminder.
Standing behind the search for a new mascot is 200 years of Dartmouth tradition set in 200 years of democratic tradition. "The pride we as students take in this institution can overcome individual grievances for the betterment of what we all hold in common," the mascot web site tells us. Our individuality is symbiotic with our membership in the Big Green: Dartmouth thrives because the students thrive, and vice versa. The mascot may have no direct impact on race and gender relations on this campus, but we should try to keep the mascot search unencumbered by petty political bickering because a mascot, playful as it is, represents what brings people together.
In an open campus society, with trusted, mutually-agreed-upon emblems in place, we can comfortably clamor for our individual rights. Life and campus life are widening ripples. Let the mascot be the stone.
