Dartmouth is a good school. In fact, it's a great school. Sometimes people get wrapped up in rankings and forget what the college's liberal arts program is all about. Does the school really have to change?
Inherent to the liberal arts program is the term liberal. The idea behind the program is that you need to be a well-rounded individual. By exposing students to everything and letting them make their own choices, they learn more. Instead of focusing entirely on accounting or medicine, which many people our age are doing at this point in their lives, we have the luxury of not making up our minds and looking around a little. This is the main reason I came to this school and we often forget what a relief it is to put off important decisions and enjoy ourselves. At the end of it I'm sure we'll all have a much better idea of who we are and what we want to do than we had four years earlier.
This liberal arts attitude does not just apply to studying, however. It applies to life in general. A member of the Class of '45 put it best when, speaking to a friend of mine, he said "Only half of Dartmouth is book-learning." If I was betting on worldly advice, I would definitely put my money on a World War II veteran any day. And, sure enough, it's true. We learn as much in our dorm rooms, our DOC outings, our fraternities, and our beloved administration buildings (hi registrar) as we do in our classes every week.
If the College is to be changed, at least look at some of the consequences. I know of at least one professor who has decided not to renew his contract with the school because he was told to stop spending so much time on his undergraduates and worry more about his research. This is an obvious case of the administration deciding between offering a better education to the enormous bulk of the student body or beefing up the school's image for the rankings. One of the best things about Dartmouth is its focus on undergraduates. Why is that not good enough? Because there's no way to quantify energy spent on undergraduates?
Consequences would result from another proposed change as well: de-recognition of the Coed Fraternity Sorority system. The idea that the College would de-recognize the Greek system is based on the assumption that non-drinkers are better students than drinkers. Given some of the immortalized names in scholarship, I beg to differ on this matter, but I'll let it stand. On top of this assumption lies an even greater fallacy: that a dry campus can exist. If the CFS system were dismantled, the result would not be a dry campus, and it would not be a bar scene either, because the drinking age is 21. We have to be realistic in assessing why no one ever goes to those Collis dance parties. It's not because of the lack of pizza, or because they serve Coke and not Pepsi. It's because there's no alcohol.
The immediate result of de-recognition would be that people would throw parties in their rooms, like they do at Harvard. Not only are these parties too hot, they also smell bad and suck pretty hard. Because students have to own their own alcohol in this situation, they are faced with hiding their illegal substances from the local authorities, and suddenly the campus becomes drenched in Bacardi 151. (For anyone that doesn't know, 151 means 151 proof -- more alcohol for your dollar in a compact container that can easily be stashed in a drawer.) Believe me, if you want to avoid alcohol related deaths, you definitely want to avoid Bacardi 151. Also by making it more difficult for students to get alcohol, you make it relatively easier for them to get 'more illegal' drugs. The consequences have to be recognized, and I don't believe these are at all unreasonable. Another one to think about -- there's no social scene in Hanover. After the students get sick of seeing the same movie three times a week at the Nugget and playing hacky-sack on Main St., they need to drive places to do anything, and drinking and driving will become an issue. The real problem here is that the administration thinks that Dartmouth's drinking problem is worse than other universities. It's not. Greek system or no Greek system, low drinking age or high drinking age, college kids are going to abuse drugs. I hope this didn't come as a shock to anyone.
We have to appreciate the fact that we are stuck in the middle of nowhere in the most serene setting with a group of intelligent and talented individuals, and if we have choices taken away from us, it deteriorates the experience. I only wish that the administration could take a little pride in its rigorous admittance procedures and allow the individuals at Dartmouth to do what they're naturally going to do. I'm not saying turn a blind eye to everything, I'm just saying that if you did, and you miraculously regained sight in that eye a little while later, you probably wouldn't see a pile of drunken freshmen lying in ditches with syringes sticking out of their veins. Just have a little faith in us. If the 'college community' wants to get rid of fraternities, sororities, and coed houses, the 'college community' will stop joining these organizations. If you want something to change, lobby the ridiculous drinking age. Or at least admit that it's ridiculous.
