With beer in hand, a student is caught drinking by Safety and Security during Orientation Week -- just days before matriculation. As most freshmen will tell you, that student will immediately be separated from the College forever ... or so the story goes.
Not true, according to Dean of First-Year Students Peter Goldsmith.
"It's patently untrue," Goldsmith said. "It has all the qualities of an urban myth -- incredibly tenacious despite the fact that there's absolutely no evidence to support it -- like the white alligators of the sewers of New York City."
The Student Handbook notes no distinction between disciplinary procedures for students prior to the Matriculation Ceremony, and no one in the First-Year Office has any idea where the myth started, Goldsmith said. But year after year freshmen hear the rumor, and year after year they believe it.
"I'm guessing it predates me by quite a while," said Goldsmith, who has been first-year dean since 1993.
Goldsmith said matriculation is a ceremony to commemorate "the official moment that students become members of the Dartmouth community."
"It's a ritual of transition," Goldsmith said, but it has no bearing on disciplinary procedures. "Once students step on campus they are responsible for upholding the community's standards of conduct whether they've matriculated or not."
Although the myth was spread through virtually the entire freshman class, many say they doubted its truthfulness from the beginning. Still, most say it was at least in the back of their minds as they made plans during orientation week.
"There were some freshmen who it definitely changed their plans for the evening," Seth Hill '02 said. Hill said he doubted the rumor and asked his Undergraduate Advisor about it.
Most UGAs said many of the freshmen in their groups mentioned the rumor -- something they expected since they had heard the rumor themselves when they were freshmen.
UGA Travis Buono '99 said many of the freshmen in his group mentioned the rumor, but said he thinks few of them actually believed it.
"I don't think they really feared it," Buono said. "There was a lot of partying that week."
New president, old tradition
Even before his inauguration, College President James Wright brought back an old Dartmouth tradition by greeting all first-year students individually in his office in Parkhurst Hall during matriculation, as President John Sloan Dickey did until his presidency ended in 1970.
After a short address from Goldsmith on the front steps of Parkhurst Administration building, students walked one at a time up the stairs to the second floor of Parkhurst into the president's office to shake his hand and receive their matriculation certificates.
Years ago, the College president sat down with each student individually and signed their matriculation certificates. In recent years the ceremony has taken place in the Tower Room of Baker Library.
"This is a president who wants students to be made to feel welcome in Parkhurst, and more importantly, in the president's office," Goldsmith said. "He wants students to know that he is a president who wants to meet them."
Freshman Christina Miller said she thought it was a "nice gesture."
"It was nice of him to take the time to meet with everyone," Miller said.
