In prayer and speech, the future of Dartmouth's social and residential life dominated much of Convocation yesterday as the College opened its 230th year in a ceremony at Leede Arena.
Interim College Chaplain Gwendolyn King invoked the Initiative during the prayer that opened the ceremonies.
King prayed that Dartmouth have "the courage as a community to be open to new perspectives" and that its students would go beyond their "comfort zones."
She also prayed that people listen to each other so that with the Five Principles, Dartmouth could "truly become a rich and diverse community in progress."
Without mentioning the Five Principles by name, keynote speaker Lori Arviso Alvord '79, assistant dean of student and minority affairs and assistant professor of surgery at the Dartmouth Medical School, alluded to them by saying "Dartmouth College is trying to make a better version of itself. Like a tribe, its elders have said it needs to change."
Alvord talked first about "imbalances" in communities that are a result of self-absorption, a situation she says is becoming "an epidemic."
Alvord compared a community to an organism, saying that people are its cells and that like an organism, a community is bigger than the sum of its parts.
She said communities, "even colleges, need the opportunity to change, to grow, to heal."
Unlike other speakers, College President James Wright did not refer directly to the Five Principles and the upcoming announcements by the Committee on the Student Life Initiative.
Wright called the Convocation ceremony a "time to challenge ourselves and remember our promise."
He said the historian in him could not resist commenting, with the impending new century and millennium, on what humans in this century have witnessed.
He recalled what Dartmouth students at the last turn of the century found when they arrived on campus after a train or horse-and-buggy ride.
Dartmouth students arrived at a school where a fence for cows grazing had just been removed from the Green and classics still dominated the curriculum.
Wright highlighted noted Dartmouth alumni Kan-Ichi Asakawa, E. E. Just and Robert Frost as turn-of-the-century students, who despite having to make adjustments to acclimate to Dartmouth life, went on to contribute greatly in their fields of interest during the century.
He said the words of Frost, who wound up leaving the College after one year, should inspire those in the Dartmouth community,
Wright said Frost wrote "the utmost reward of daring is still to dare" and that he feels students, especially the Class of 2003, "should dare to dare at your time at Dartmouth."
Student Assembly President Dean Krishna '01 started his remarks with a mention of Jenica Rosekrans '00, who died during Senior Week in June of an infection of meningococcal bacteria.
Krishna said Rosekrans "graced us with generous spirit," and taught the College a powerful lesson "to appreciate those around us."
Krishna urged members of the Class of 2003 to keep an open mind when exploring the College and to educate themselves by asking questions of those they don't know.
In the year of the Initiative, Krishna challenged the freshmen to keep involved in College life so that student voice would be "heard at the greatest level possible."
Krishna also challenged the Board of Trustees to listen to students and to trust them "with real responsibility" that as the future leaders of society, they deserve.
