If you happen to cross the Green late at night during your first few weeks at Dartmouth, many of the lights on campus will be out, and a majority of students will probably be asleep.
But take a peek up at the second floor windows of Robinson Hall and chances are you'll see the lights are still on.
That's because five nights a week, the student editors of The Dartmouth -- the newspaper you are reading right now -- work late into the night to produce Dartmouth College's only regular source of campus news, sports, arts and opinion-writing.
Founded in 1799 by a small band of enterprising students including Daniel Webster (Class of 1801), "The D" is the oldest college newspaper in America, and it is the only daily newspaper of Dartmouth College.
The Dartmouth -- or The D, as it is called around campus --is delivered to students' Hinman mail boxes at the Hopkins Center Monday through Friday mornings, and is required reading for anyone at the College who wants to know what's happening at the College and in the world.
The D is completely student run -- student editors research and assign stories that are written by student reporters; student photographers capture the images that are seen in the paper; students are responsible for the layout and design of the printed page; and student representatives solicit and design the advertisements that help keep the newspaper going.
With a staff of close to 100 students, someone is always busy at The D. The student carriers arrive at 7 a.m. to distribute that day's paper around campus, and the offices don't close down until the last editor leaves at about 3 a.m. the next morning.
Unlike most other campus organizations, The D is a place where freshmen can jump right in and make an immediate impact -- whether you were editor-in-chief of your high school paper or you have never before written a newspaper article.
No matter what your interests or prior experiences in journalism, The Dartmouth welcomes you with open arms. Each year The D attracts a bright corps of new reporters, many of whom ascend to editorial positions during their junior year.
From writing to taking photographs to selling advertisements, The Dartmouth offers a wealth of hands-on experience that will be useful to you at Dartmouth and years after.
Staff members of The Dartmouth have in recent years held internships at CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Hearst newspaper syndicate -- and many of our writers have gone on to full time jobs at The Times and The Post after graduation.
The D has produced many high-profile journalists, including The Boston Globe's Washington bureau chief David Shribman, former USA Today editor-in-chief Peter Prichard, New York Times writers Christopher Wren and David Rosenbaum and Philadelphia Inquirer columnist David Boldt.
Despite being in a small rural area, Dartmouth often finds itself in the national spotlight -- and The D has always been right there to cover the news.
Last winter during the contentious Republican New Hampshire presidential primary, some of The D's student reporters spoke face-to-face with all the top candidates, including former Sen. Bob Dole, commentator Pat Buchanan, Sen. Phil Gramm and publisher Steve Forbes.
When newly elected New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen paid a visit to Dartmouth earlier this year, one of The D's reporters gained an exclusive interview and probed the governor for her views on Dartmouth and higher education in New Hampshire.
And when Dartmouth sports teams have excelled, The D has been there with extensive coverage: from the football team's amazing 10-0 season last year to the men's basketball team's shocking victory over U. Penn in Philadelphia -- the first victory by a visiting Ivy League team at Penn in six years.
The D also occasionally explores a far-reaching issue in a series of in-depth articles.
In the winter, The D took a look at the controversial role of alcohol at the College, and in the spring there was a detailed series on athletes and athletics at Dartmouth.
But there is more to The D than campus news.
The World and Nation page keeps readers appraised of what's happening in the "real world" and in the stock market.
The Sports page keeps readers abreast of each one of Dartmouth's athletic squads -- male and female -- blended occasionally with some national sports.
The Arts & Entertainment page features CD, book, movie and play reviews written by our arts staff, as well as previews and features on important campus arts events.
And the Commentary page, perhaps the most-read section of the newspaper, is home to some of the best debates on campus. The D prints submissions from the Dartmouth and Hanover communities, and is also home to an army of staff columnists and cartoonists. And when there is a salient campus issue, odds are The D's editorial board will weigh in with an opinion of its own.
The Dartmouth, Inc. -- a $250,000 corporation that is run by a nine-member student board -- is charged with maintaining the long-term financial health of the newspaper.
Though The D is now a fairly large business, it wasn't always that way.
When it was founded in 1799, it was called The Dartmouth Gazette, and published quite irregularly.
In June 1820, the Gazette became The Dartmouth Herald, and for the next 20 years or so, the paper was mostly a literary journal, rather than a newspaper.
Another two decades passed and in November 1839, The Dartmouth Herald changed its name to The Dartmouth. Around 1875, it became a weekly paper, and in 1920, the student editors voted to go to the current daily format.
One thing that The D has always treasured and protected throughout all these years is its independence. The D has absolutely no affiliation with Dartmouth College. All income is generated through subscriptions and advertising sales, and The D does not receive a cent of College funding.
And even more importantly, administrators have no control over the paper's news or editorial content. The D often has printed editorials critical of administration decisions and policies, and just as often praised administration successes. Either way, a College administrator would have just as little reason to tell The D what to print than he or she would The New York Times.
The D is looking for the next generation of editors -- and you could be one of them. We have openings for news writers, photographers, advertising representatives, columnists, cartoonists and several other positions.
We'll be having a few open houses for anyone interested in The D during the first week of Fall term -- keep an eye out for the exact dates and times when you arrive in Hanover.
We look forward to meeting you, and introducing you to Dartmouth College's one and only school in undergraduate journalism.
