The signing of a long-term lease with the College for The Dartmouth's current space in Robinson Hall is a historic event in the 200-year history of America's oldest college newspaper.
For years, The Dartmouth has been independent from the College - in spirit. Since the summer of 1913, when The Dartmouth chartered its own legal corporation, the newspaper has been completely in control of its news content and day-to-day operations. For nearly a century, student editors and the student-led Board of Proprietors have been making decisions about the long-term editorial and financial health of The Dartmouth.
The Dartmouth, however, has relied on the College for its operating space in Robinson Hall since the building was constructed in 1914. The College granted the space freely to this newspaper and it was to remain The Dartmouth's space as long the paper's staff "conducted themselves properly." Not since the 1930s, when Ernest Martin Hopkins was president, has The Dartmouth felt even the slightest pressure from the College regarding what stories would appear in the newspaper or in what manner the news would be reported.
With the signing of the lease, The Dartmouth can finally proclaim its complete financial and physical independence from the College. Little will likely change as a result of the lease, but now there can be no doubt - The Dartmouth is now officially what it always has been in spirit: student-run, student-owned and completely independent.
