All right, so maybe I did write a column in the fall saying that TV in the dorms might not be the best idea in the world. Well, I changed my mind.
The thing that precipitated this change was the recent events regarding the president, as well as the fact that we are almost at war in the Persian Gulf. I really don't know that much about what is going on in either of these cases. I only hear news on the new White House scandal through rumors. I don't have a clue what is going on with Iraq. The last I heard they were raising a million-man army or something.
It's true that there are news sources besides television available to the student body, but they truly don't match the convenience or ease of television, and honestly, I often don't have the time to read a paper. I don't really have time to waste watching television either, so in all likelihood, I'll watch the nightly news, and that will pretty much be it.
I imagine this to be the situation for many students. People at Dartmouth are far too busy keeping up with what they already have to do without spending time on a couch in front of a tube. Even as I write this column, I have a half dozen other things to do, and watching "Wheel" is not on the list.
One of Dartmouth's striking characteristics seems to be it's isolation from the real world -- whatever that is. Few people have cars, and even if they have a car, it isn't really used that much. The occasional trip to Montreal or Boston is about the extent of roadtrips. A trip to the commercial Miracle Mile is something that has to be engineered here. Find the person with a car, find out when they can go, etc., etc. It's a hassle that most people wouldn't ever deal with in their hometown.
I know a lot of people who get the Dartmouth equivalent of cabin fever when they just have to get off campus. Any reason will do, and in fact, it usually doesn't matter where they go as long as they aren't looking at the Green anymore.
Another factor contributing to our isolation is simply our location. Thank God for the interstate highway system, or I'd never be able to go anywhere. Dartmouth is in a beautiful setting, but there's also not much here.
Add to that the fact that we have no television. It is the most powerful medium of our time, and despite the fact that we can all surf the web for hours on end in our rooms, we can't watch the nightly news or, say, Sportscenter. We are already cut off from the world; we don't need to cut the world off from us also.
I guess my concern in the fall was that the campus would become lit by the blue glow of TVs in every window (not that this isn't already the case with computers) and that students wouldn't open their doors except to let in the EBAs delivery people.
On reflection, I think that the character of the school is such that that would never happen. Dartmouth students are too involved, too busy and too social to become uncreative loners staring at a tube all day long.
We have so many tools of information at our disposal, but we lack one of the most prevalent in today's culture. As the current administration leaves, I encourage them to make one last improvement to the resources of this campus, one for which preparations have already been made. Turn on the cable.
