I was reading a recent article in the Boston Globe Sports section about Dartmouth alumna Diana Goldman Bronsihan. At a time when we constantly quibble about how much the fraternities and sororities define the College, whether or nor to have the Indian reinstated as a mascot, or whether or not Dartmouth is too intellectual or lacking in academic credibility, it is Bronsihan who should help put these debates in perspective and tell us what Dartmouth is really all about.
Ten-time ski champion and winner of a 1988 Downhill gold medal, I wondered why she is not quite a household name. This is all the more puzzling when I learned that she won these accolades without the benefit of a right leg, lost to cancer when she was 12. (Perhaps it's because I grew up in the South, far removed for winter sports.) Bronsihan was featured in the Globe because she is one of this year's four inductees to the Women's International Hall of Fame. Hopefully with this prestigious honor bestowed upon her, she will achieve the campus wide recognition she deserves.
The depth of optimism she demonstrates in excelling despite her disability and the courage she demonstrated in facing a double mastectomy should be an inspiration to every Dartmouth student. It is her undaunted and determined effort to succeed against such adversity that embodies the spirit of the College. So in trying to define Dartmouth's image, forget about the largely inane debates that have come to characterize the College in recent years and look to the upstanding examples that abound among alumni such as Bronsihan.
I think it's particularly apt that her induction into the Hall of Fame comes as Dartmouth celebrates coeducation. Let Bronsihan act as yet another example to silence any traditionalist critics among the student body or the alumni who question coeducation (something I think occurs when certain men sing "Men of Dartmouth" -- as though women should be deliberately excluded).
In any event, I am not trying to hold Bronsihan up as a political weapon, and I am not suggesting that she receive attention only because she has had to face cancer and it's physically and emotionally damaging effects. Instead, I want to point out how successful she has been by any possible standard. Furthermore, I want to underscore that it's the determined, gifted and courageous alumni and students like her that embody the true spirit of the College. Who cares whether we reinstate the Indian? Does anyone seriously think that our annual US News ranking or admissions statistics define the College? Whether you vehemently hate the fraternities or are a patriotic defender of their existence, I believe you have to concede that they are but a single facet of the College.
What are those other facets? Look around you as you go about campus and attend performances by student organizations, take note of the attitudes displayed by our athletes when they take the field against any opponent and listen to your fellow students in class. You will find that the wonderful qualities Bronsihan embodies are far more characteristic of the Dartmouth student body than creative loneliness or beer-fueled Greek mayhem.