Dartmouth, for the lack of a better phrase, is filthy rich. We're not talking about a few million dollars here and there. Besides holding a huge chunk of New Hampshire, it owns land in Florida and other states. Last year President Freedman raised over half a billion dollars in Dartmouth's name. The parents of Dartmouth students donated over $16 million last year, enough to pay for the tuition of all Dartmouth students. It owns mutual funds, bonds and stocks and yet we don't even have air conditioning in our dorm rooms.
Where does all the money go? I don't claim to know who actually handles all the fiscal matters or how the budget works. Sometimes I wonder how much Dartmouth is actually worth. I know this much: with thousands of students paying $120,000 to go here and fanatically loyal alumni giving millions of dollars a year, Dartmouth is wealthy, very wealthy.
Everybody knows the truth about the D-Plan. The College may pride itself, at least on paper, that its academic plan is unique and provides a lot of opportunities for its students. But everybody knows that the College instituted the D-Plan because it cannot accommodate its students. There simply isn't enough dorm space to house all the students.
It seems that whenever the students get motivated and organized enough to actually voice their needs, the plea falls on deaf ears. In the past, the alumni came through while the College ignored the demands of the students. For example, when the students wanted to renovate the old weight room, the alumni provided the money. The construction of the Berry library behind Baker was prompted by another wealthy alumni and paid for by him, not the College.
My friend in the Student Assembly tells me that it has tens of thousands of dollars to plan and organize student activities. From the stories I hear, it seems that the only thing the Student Assembly does is order food, talk and order more food. I know that the Assembly does a lot more, but it should try to be more visible and I am not talking about groveling to students to fill out flimsy surveys.
At times I envy Rice University where the students run the college. Although it may be tedious at times, the students at least know where all the money is going to. We, the students, should lobby for more fiscal control. It is, after all, our money they are spending.
As I write this editorial, I find myself becoming angrier by the minute. Coming from a dry climate, I am overwhelmed by this humidity and I find myself taking three showers a day. Thank God for my huge fan. I never thought I would say this but I actually miss the sub-zero temperatures. If the College is going to make us sophomores stay on campus, the least they could do is provide air conditioning.
During the Spring term, people would tell me how wonderful the summer term is going to be. I couldn't see anything exciting about having to go to school during the summer. They told me, "You'll see." Well, I'm still waiting.
