To the Editor:
Obnoxious, intoxicated frat boys yelling insults and slurs at an opposing team during a soccer match. This is something that is all too common at colleges in this country, and Dartmouth is obviously no exception. I went to the Dartmouth vs. St. Francis game with a van load of friends from Burke Mountain Academy last weekend. Although the game was great, the conduct of the fans left something to be desired.
I'm not going to say that a lot of the remarks made weren't funny -- who doesn't get a kick out of someone telling the ref just "where they can put that flag"? It makes me uncomfortable, however, to be cheering for the same team as someone who is booing an injured player off the field. That's just something completely unneeded.
Almost worse than this was the girl sitting next to me, also a student. She was the most stereotypical blonde I have ever come in contact with. I say this mainly because, although she seemed completely sober, she found every single remark made curiously witty and intelligent, and when she could finally control her laughing, she too booed the injured player off the field.
This situation was totally ironic because in a Burke class the day before we discussed a letter from Dartmouth's Dean of Admissions, Karl Furstenburg, outlining the criteria for selection to the school. Furstenburg used words such as "compassionate" and "open-minded" to describe the Dartmouth student body. Frankly the qualities I saw displayed were anything but.
I had always thought that Dartmouth would be a great school to apply to, but if going to Dartmouth means ending up like these people, I'd be nervous to even set foot on campus.