Resignations and controversial visiting speakers were some of the major events in the busiest Winter term the College has seen since the destruction of shanties on the Green garnered national attention in 1986.
The biggest newsmaker on campus last term was Dean of the College Lee Pelton, who announced in early January that he will step down on June 16 to become the president of Willamette University in Salem, Ore. Pelton will begin his presidency at Willamette in July.
Pelton's upcoming resignation prompted the creation of a search committee for a new dean chaired by Dean of the Faculty Edward Berger. Watt Boone '00 and Cara Mathews '99 were selected by Berger and College President James Freedman as student representatives from a group of six nominees presented by the Student Assembly. Assembly President Frode Eilertsen '99 will be the third student on the committee.
Assistant Provost Sheila Culbert, College Counsel and Director of External Relations Cary Clark and Director of Alumni Relations Nels Armstrong are the administrators on the Committee, while the faculty members are Religion Professor Susan Ackerman, History Professor Richard Kremer and Anthropology Professor Deborah Nichols.
While others were beginning to search for a replacement dean, Pelton had a busy term of his own.
Pelton organized the panel formed to investigate sophomore Brian de Moya's allegations that he was threatened and mistreated by Safety and Security officers on January 31. The panel, which was chaired by Acting Director of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Ozzie Harris, completed its report and submitted it to Senior Associate Dean of the College Dan Nelson.
In mid-February, Student Assembly Vice President Nahoko Kawakyu '99 announced her resignation at an Assembly meeting. Kawakyu, the first write-in candidate ever to win Assembly office, said she made her decision because Assembly issues were forcing her to neglect her friends and herself. Janelle Ruley '00 was elected as the new Assembly Vice President later that month, but she only served until the end of Winter term.
Controversial visitors
The College hosted several interesting visiting lecturers and professors last term. Pulitzer-prize winning playwright August Wilson was the Montgomery Fellow for all 10 weeks of the term, -- the first fellow since Winter term 1996 to remain in residence for an entire term.
Highlights of the term related to Wilson's visit were the Dartmouth drama department's production of Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" and a Black Theatre Summit convened in early March to examine the state of black drama in the United States.
Conservative pundit William F. Buckley addressed a crowd of more than 500 in Rollins Chapel in late January. He said Dartmouth should not be afraid of the ideal on which he said the College was founded -- to Christianize its Christian students. He also echoed statements he wrote in a Nov. 18 Op-Ed piece in the New York Times. The piece stated that fear of anti-Semitism at Dartmouth has caused the College to unnecessarily move away from its Christian roots.
Three-time Academy Award-winning writer/director Oliver Stone added the Dartmouth Film Award to his laundry list of achievements in late January. The filmmaker responsible for "Platoon," "JFK" and "Natural Born Killers" received both an award and a tribute at the Hopkins Center.
Meanwhile, the cold, snowy streets of Hanover were transformed, if only for one night in March, into an island of tropical magic as Ziggy Marley, son of famous reggae artist Bob Marley, performed in Leede Arena with his band, the Melody Makers.
Boxing promoter Don King gave 200 students ringside seats in 105 Dartmouth Hall in mid-February as he discussed racism and the history of America, while offending many people with his description of Native Americans.
King wasn't the only athletic figure antagonizing Dartmouth students last term, as Olympic ice hockey gold-medal-winning goaltender Sarah Tueting '98 made several disparaging comments to the press regarding her time here at Dartmouth with the women's hockey squad which tarnished, in some minds, Tueting's achievements.
In with the new
The term opened with the appointment of John Baldwin, a cardiac surgeon and the chairman of the department of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, as the new dean of Dartmouth Medical School. Baldwin will replace current dean Andrew Wallace who began his term in 1990. Wallace had announced his resignation in September 1996 citing his age as the main factor for his decision.
In other news in early January, the College chose about 40 percent of the Class of 2002 under the early decision program. Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg described the number of students accepted -- 433 out of 1,214 applicants -- as "unusually high."
The College is following a current Ivy League trend toward increased early acceptances; Harvard and Princeton regularly accept close to 50 percent of their classes through the early decision plan. Furstenberg went on to call the Class of 2002 "an anomaly," saying that unless the pool grows stronger and more diverse the rate should decrease next year.
Later on in the month of January, Cynthia Anderson '99 and John Muckle '99 were elected as the new presidents of the Panhellenic Council and Coed, Fraternity and Sorority Council, respectively. Anderson, a sister at the Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority, hopes to "improve communication among the different houses and with the CFSC." Meanwhile, Muckle, a brother at the Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity, wants to improve the CFS system's image through community service and better public relations.
Different charges
In late January, Dartmouth alumnus Jeffrey Sudikoff '77 plead not guilty to federal charges that he had faked millions of dollars in profits in order to increase the value of his company. Sudikoff, who donated over $3 million for the construction of the Sudikoff Laboratory for Computer Science in 1993, had his trial, initially set for March 10, postponed to late October.
The beginning of the month of February saw several responses to the report filed by the College Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs Fall term. There was a heated debate inside the Student Assembly in an effort to reach a consensus on the proposal to be sent to Dean Pelton. The proposal included the fact that a significant portion of the student body objects to Safety and Security's involvement in fraternity life.
According to Muckle, the CFSC proposal specifically addressed each of the recommendations and proposed methods they plan to use to further enforce existing alcohol policies.
The Board of Trustees announced that monthly phone service fees will be incorporated into the overall cost of room and board beginning next fall, but all students living on campus will be required to pay for service under the new system. The announcement, made in the middle of February, enables financial aid to cover the DarTalk service fees.
Later that week, the Office of Residential Life installed a new public printer station in the study lounge of McLane residence hall for those students who live in the River cluster. The idea for the project was conceived of over a year ago, and construction began before Christmas to allow students who live in the cluster easier access to printers.
Investigations and more
Later on in February, both Safety and Security and the Hanover Police began investigating after discovering a racial slur which said "Death to You" underneath a Star of David. It was found written on the door of a Channing Cox apartment of four undergraduate females -- three of whom consider themselves Jewish. Pelton responded with a letter published in The Dartmouth stating that the goal of the College is "to do all that we can do to identify the person who is responsible ... and provide appropriate support for the students."
The end of February and the beginning of March saw several apparently related incidents of vandalism strike the second-floor women's restroom of Streeter residence hall. While the Hanover Police Department only has the final of three alleged incidents, the sighting of an unidentified male in the bathroom at 4:30 a.m., on record, other incidents included feces found in a shower stall and semen and used condoms discovered on the bathroom floor.
The first of March saw the completion of the Assembly's Visions program in which more than 800 students submitted responses to questions regarding the status of the College and goals for its future to be delivered to the new president upon his or her arrival.
