When first-year students arrive at the College, they will find themselves in the footsteps of 229 generations of first-year students who came before them, who each defined a little more the special quality of Dartmouth with memories, academics and of course, traditions.
Immediately, first-year students will find themselves referred to as "'shmen", rebelling against the more traditional and conventional "frosh" used at most other colleges.
With this great word, others are easily and affectionately created to describe the many phenomena we see occur year after year to people entering the Dartmouth world for the first time.
One of these is the "'shmob", which describes a large group of freshmen who travel, eat and spend a lot of time with each other. The Green Book of the current freshman class is known as the "'shmenu."
Meet the wilderness
For a huge portion of the freshmen, the first time you step on campus is to start your Dartmouth Outing Club trips, with your "trippees."
Every year since 1937, many freshmen have begun their Dartmouth careers with a freshman trip. Although hiking was the predominate activity for many years, now, there is a choice between hiking, canoeing, climbing, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, kayaking, mountain biking and organic farming, with new options being created each year.
After three days, all trips converge at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge where participants spend a day of playing and dancing and a night of unforgettable excitement.
Perhaps it is the bonding through the inaccesibility of showers, or perhaps its the couscous. Whatever it is, Freshman trips have proven Dartmouth's most successful orientation program.
Build a bonfire
In the middle of the Fall term, when freshmen have begun to settle down or perhaps just get going, comes a night freshmen can call their own.
Probably regarded as one of the most sacred and honored traditions, Freshmen build a 60-foot bonfire to be burnt on Dartmouth night as part of the Homecoming celebration.
This tradition dates back to 1888 when Dartmouth celebrated a baseball victory over Manchester, NH. The first organized bonfire was built in 1893 when the football team won a game against Amherst College.
For many years after that, bonfires were built using anything flamable in Hanover, including fence posts and once a farmer's barn. Some of the resulting infernos were not well-recieved by the public.
The 1904 freshmen class added another aspect to this tradition by running around the lit bonfire. Today, upperclassmen encourage freshmen to run around the number of times associated with their class year.
For example, the Class of 1999 ran around 99 times. The Class of 2000 chose 100 times over the less strenous zero.
As the fire begins to burn hotter and hotter the ring around the bonfire grows larger and larger. It still does not protect you from the burn/sunburn that most students have the next day from the intense heat.
As the bonfire became more organized, the tradition emerged that for each year that a class was, there would be a tier of the bonfire, so 70 rail-road ties for the Class of 1970.
Unfortunatly, during the 80's the town of Hanover decided that the structures were becoming much too large, approaching four stories, and so they set a permanent limit on how high it may be.
It also used to be that when underclassmen were putting together their tower, upperclassmen would sneak in the middle of the night and attempt to sabotage construction, while brave freshmen guarded their work.
One year members of the Dartmouth Outing Club substituted water for lighter fluid and the lighting was delayed until the DOC folk announced their prank.
In 1992, this tradition lost its innocence when 600 students violently stormed the Green.
The Hanover Police reported a riot with students waving baseball bats and hockey sticks.
Dean of the College Lee Pelton allowed the bonfire to proceed, but suspended construction for a day. Since then, students have had fewer days for building and are not allowed to work from dusk until morning.
Safety and Security patrol the half-constructed bonfire at night.
March in the Freshman Sweep
In 1993, the Freshmen Sweep was initiated.
At some pre-arranged time, freshmen leave their residence hall and join the mass of freshmen making a tour of all the dormitories. When every freshman is collected, the group marches through the rest of campus, joining a procession of Dartmouth students and alumns that is headed by the oldest living alumnus of the College. The parade and sweep pass through downtown Hanover end on the Green for the lighting of the bonfire.
The first sweep was a destructive one, which saw the freshman Class of 1997 wildly stampeding downtown, uprooting street signs and overturning parked cars.
Since then, the College restricted the Sweep to a maximum of 30 minutes and gave more guidance and organization.
Rush the field
The morning following the bonfire, Homecoming offers freshmen one more endeavor -- to jump the guarded fence of Memorial Field and run across the field during half-time of the football game.
Upperclassmen cajole freshmen to do this with shouts of "Rush the field!" and the persuasive "They can't catch you all!"
Although banned by the College since 1986, when a stampede of freshmen injured many onlookers, every year a few students brave the stringent penalties and follow the advice of their elders in pursuit of upholding tradition, often to enthusiastic applause.
Hanover Police in addition to Safety and Security patrol the stands with a video camera to identify the rogue runner and officers ready to chase them down.
Rushers are usually immediately arrested and charged a $100 fine, though some do escape and go down as a ledgend. Unfortunatly for those who are brave enough to rush the field, in addition to the financial penalty, the College also enforces a three term disciplinary probation action.
Wear your beanie - just kidding
Although these traditions have lasted through the years, many others have been created, made popular, but could not escape evolution and died.
Among this category are the Indian mascot and the original alma mater, "Men of Dartmouth." Though political correctness and co-education effectively made those unacceptable to many, they are well remembered. It was not too long ago when freshmen were forced by upperclassmen to wear brightly colored caps, called beanies.
Although the College has a history rich in tradition to introduce to its newest students, each class makes its own memories and its own experience to the history of Dartmouth College.
