For seniors, the week between the end of finals and Commencement Day -- just one week from this Sunday -- will be full of activities planned just for them by their classmates and various other college groups.
The 2000 Class Council, in association with the Programming Board, Alumni Relations and the Office of the President, is currently finalizing plans for activities that will take place between June 6 and 11 during Senior Week.
Everything But Anchovies will kick off the week's activities on Tuesday, offering the seniors free pizza and soft drinks, as well as cheap draft beer from 9 p.m. to midnight.
"It's just our way of sending our thanks for the last four years of patronage," EBAs general manager Jimbo Dowd said of the reception the popular Hanover restaurant has held for the graduating class annually for the last five years.
On Wednesday, President Wright and his wife, Susan, will host a barbecue for the seniors at their house on Webster Avenue from 12 to 1:30 p.m.
Andy Thompson '00 said this is a chance for the Wrights to get together and spend time with the graduating students in an atmosphere that is less formal than that at other events leading up to graduation.
The final Senior 'Tails for the Class of 2000 will take place Thursday evening, possibly on the patio outside the Courtyard Caf in the Hopkins Center.
2000 Class President Eric Buchman said this is the only event that the class council is expected to plan, although the group traditionally does organize other activities.
Buchman said he is looking forward to the event because, unlike at other parties, the focus is not on alcohol. "It really is about mingling and socializing," he said.
Friday afternoon, the Office of Alumni Relations will be holding an open house for the graduating students at the Blunt Alumni Center from 1 to 4 p.m.
Besides music and food, there will be tables set up to give students information on a variety of topics relating to their new status as alumni, including ways to contribute money to the College and how to interview applicants for the Admissions Department.
Events planned for Commencement Weekend will be designed to accommodate the guests and family members of the graduating students who will be arriving as well as the students themselves.
President Wright will host a reception for the seniors and their guests Friday at 6 p.m. at his house on Webster Avenue, and the Commencement Choral Concert will take place at 9:15 in Spaulding Auditorium.
After the commencement ceremony rehearsal Saturday morning, seniors will proceed to the Bema for Class Day exercises, featuring History Professor Jere Daniell '55 as the faculty speaker and several members of the Class of 2000 -- including class orator Olivia Carpenter '00 -- who will share their thoughts on their time at Dartmouth.
"I think Class Day is great ... because it's really geared more toward the seniors" than other events during the weekend, Thompson said.
Baccalaureate ceremonies will take place at 3 p.m. on Saturday in Rollins Chapel.
The interfaith services will include representatives from all of the student religious organizations, their ministers and advisors and speakers from the Class of 2000.
From 5 to 6 p.m., members of the Dartmouth community on campus will have the chance to meet this year's honorary degree recipients -- including baseball great Hank Aaron and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin -- in the main corridor of Baker Library.
One of the week's big social events is the Graduation Gala, which will take place Saturday evening beginning at 8 p.m. The Gala, planned by the Programming Board, takes place in and around the Collis Center and Robinson Hall and features food and entertainment of all sorts.
In the past, the "eclectic" event -- on which the Programming Board spends the balance of its annual budget in an effort to make it as large as possible -- has attracted over a thousand seniors and their families, Buchman said.
Also in the works is a movie night, although plans are still tentative as to both time and location.
The class council will decide tomorrow whether to project the movie onto the side of the Blunt Alumni Center or to rent space at The Nugget theaters.
