I never have an original thought. I try to be weird, thinking some stroke of originality will come of it, but alas the following is not a result of my own ingenious thought. While I have not been on many college campuses, Professor William Summers has been and he has seen how it is at other colleges. Here is the low-down on what I gathered after a three-hour conversation about all sorts of random things with him. Without talking to him, these ideas would never have entered my mind. After our discussion he said, "I don't know why more students don't put up a stink about this" (or something to that effect), and I thought, well because most of us don't know any better. Now I do and I want you all to know also so that we can all make a big stink out of it.
First: Most colleges have a nearby social space to meet, i.e. a bowling alley, an all-night diner or a disco. Granted we have the first two, but they are all but inaccessible to anyone without a car. We have a disco, but it is only associated with the Greek system and that is when they choose to have '80s nights.
Second: Most college students have places to hang out and have a drink with their friends. Much more than 1,300 undergrads are 21, (about the size of the Senior class), yet what does the College provide for them to gather and have a drink together? Lone Pine: Seats 120. That is only 10 percent of the Senior class. What else is there? The fraternity system? How many seniors haven't burned out of the fraternity scene by senior year?
Third: In most schools where tuition hits the five digit range per year, students don't shovel out nickels and dimes to get a decent gym nor do they pay large amounts of money to see performances. Other schools have art endowments. Students only pay a buck or two to see any show. If Baryshnikov went to Yale do you think they would shovel out $25 or $50? No way. One or two bucks.
Would more students go to these "high-culture" shows if they were cheaper? Look at the turn-out rates of student-run shows; Peter Tucker's "Credo," for example, sold out both nights, with about 418 people at each performance. Why? Students don't think twice about a buck or two for admission. If it isn't good, they don't lose much. It is low risk. No one will take the risk of expanding their horizons, such as seeing a jazz band they haven't heard of, if it costs $8 to see it.
Consequently, students are not encouraged to do normal activities on campus. We aren't encouraged or even SUPPORTED by the administration to do anything but go to fraternities. The beer, the music, everything is free with the exception of an occasional donation of canned food. The athletic equipment (pong tables) is in better shape than the equipment in the gym.
Finally, when the administration finally takes away our last frontier for social space, Webster Hall, what will be left? Leede Arena and Collis will be it, and both are inadequate. If the Violent Femmes can't sell out at Leede, who can fill that space? And Collis is, for some reason, a joke. A handful of people attend the dances that they have there each weekend. Yet anyone who went to the drag ball in Webster on Thursday night of Winter Carnival will tell you it was full. Why? Webster has style and so did the drag ball. Collis has no style. Webster has a history of style -- Natalie Merchant played there ('nuff said).
Putting Special Collections in Webster creates anything but social space. Take a walk through the Tower Room, with squeaky tennis shoes, to see how much socializing goes on in a Special Collections room. Your tennis shoes will say more in 30 seconds than what transpires in conversation in the Tower Room all week.
Why all this complaining? I am not complaining that there is not stuff to do. We have ideas, but not space. We are up in the mountains and the nearest city is Boston. The nearest realistic movie theater is Concord. We can't see any performances without shoveling out money. We can't even use the gym late night. We are stuck with two generic meeting areas: Leede and Collis. The best thing we have going for us late at night that isn't the frat scene is Food Court and those chicken fingers.
The administration cracks down on us for "abusing" the Greek system. Why do we go there? Where else is there for us to be together? They want us to rise above the system but give us no other option.
Dartmouth and the Greek system were fine when Dartmouth was "Animal House." All there was to do was drink and that was what was expected and that is what happened. Now all there is to do is drink, and that is what is NOT expected and that is what happens anyway.
If you want something out of us besides drinking in the frat basements, why don't you show us? Give us some money to do it. Set the funds up so all performances cost a dollar or two. Don't take away Webster. Invest in a larger Lone Pine that has a dance floor and dance music. Put a bowling alley where the BEMA is now. Open a diner that is open 24 hours -- especially on weekends and give it some great $5 milkshakes.
This is Dartmouth, but the administration's creativity and commitment to student activity runs as deep as the beer gutters in Alpha Delta fraternity.
