What do Dartmouth professors think about the College's undergraduate dating scene? Do these perceptions match with students' own descriptions of their relationships? Conversely, do student images of their elders' college-era sex lives resemble what the professors themselves remember?
An informal survey by The Dartmouth found that some professors know -- or think they know -- exactly what transpires between students, while others are clueless about after-class behavior. Students who spoke to The Dartmouth generally had a uniform perception of old-style relationships, but often these assumptions weren't in line with professor recollections.
Profs view students
When asked to describe their perceptions of today's college relationships, most professors' first reaction was laughter.
But when pressed, most said it seemed like students today are more relaxed and comfortable around the opposite sex than their predecessors were. Many of the professors said they thought today's student relationships were healthy and the group environment is a good way to interact without having the intense one on one situation of a date.
As music professor Jon Appleton put it: "With the exception of alcohol being involved, the relationships that I see are healthy."
Others, however, noted a downside to the relationships they hear of on campus.
"It's too easy now," said Miriam Richards, a professor of English. "Immediate intimacy can be harmful. People have more potential to be hurt."
William Morris, a brain science professor, added, "Sexual attraction and intimacy can create a bond, and often people are not ready for that bond and the commitment [it entails]."
Other professors were still more emphatically opposed to the activity they think of as Dartmouth's norm.
English professor Ivy Schweitzer, for example, called the "traditional" Dartmouth hook-up scene "toxic."
"Dating is not about fun or pleasure, it is about scoring, telling your brothers what you did Wednesday night," she said.
She said she thought this tradition stems from Dartmouth's pre-coeducation days when busloads of girls were brought up to campus on big weekends. She said the traditional big weekends were created for male students to go on dates, and she said that after the celebrations, the men would share their success stories.
"Dartmouth has a tradition of not dating on campus. Where do you go to date? Frat basements are not conducive to dating by anyone's standards," she said.
Whether or not they think student relationships are healthy, almost all faculty members who spoke to The Dartmouth agreed that students today are necessarily more aware of sexually transmitted diseases.
"Today there are more dangers involved with being sexually active, maybe people are being careful, unlike they were in the past, but they need to be still more careful," said one professor who preferred to be anonymous.
Students describe themselves
Despite prevalent complaints about the on-campus dating and "hook-up scene," student views of relationships at Dartmouth covered a wide range.
Many students who talked to The Dartmouth said they weren't willing to talk about their personal relationships, citing tricky and yet-unresolved situations.
The one big exception to this rule were students who professed not to be engaged in Dartmouth's relationship arena.
Peter Jenks '05, for example, joked, "Sex? Life? I have neither."
Despite reluctance to share personal anecdotes, students were often willing to summarize and analyze what they saw as campus norms.
Most said they thought "hooking up" was a normal thing to do. But students differed widely when asked to estimate how frequently most of their friends engaged in this loosely defined random sexual activity. Some said three random hook-ups per week was normal, while others said one per term was the norm.
Quite a few students mentioned that hooking up and alcohol were related in their minds.
As one student, who preferred to remain anonymous, put it: "Hooking-upedness is directly proportional to drunkenness."
Some students believe that hook-ups were an acceptable sort of behavior. One student, for example, told The Dartmouth, "Hooking up sounds like a good idea to me."
Another agreed, saying that, if possible, it's best to engage in "regular hookups if possible."
Another said, "We're in college -- it's a time for us to explore, have, fun, and have the time of our lives. If for some people, that means being sexually active, then so be it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, and it's a personal matter."
But other students said such casual relationships were inappropriate. One, for example, said, "I don't like the random hook-up culture."
Jackie Hickman '05 said sexual activity is not necessarily a good development, but she said, "Getting away from being afraid of sex and talking about sex is definitely good."
Random hook-ups aren't the only type of relationships on campus, according to most of the students who talked to The Dartmouth.
Especially among upperclassmen, long-term relationships are common.
But even among those upperclassmen who said they or their friends were involved in serious relationships, many complained that there was little middle ground between one-night stands and "marriage."
Student images of profs
The majority of students seemed to think that there was more "dating" when our professors were in college than there is now, but that there was less openness and discussion of sexuality.
Most respondents had vocal opinions about past dating practices, having heard their parents' recollections and reading about the "good old days" in magazines and books.
One '02 woman who preferred to remain anonymous summed up this position well when she said: "Men and women did not mix as much back then, and were not as comfortable around each other.
Thus, while there was more dating, there was less communication, and women took a subordinate role, being the ones sought after, rarely the ones seeking -- a role that seems limiting to me."
Students generally said different sorts of sexual relationships were common in previous generations. When asked how students now measure up to those in the past, some students thought immediately of the American hippie movement.
"Free love, orgies, you know," said one member of the class of 2005, who thought that people were much more sexually active a generation ago than students are today.
But other students said modern-day college populations are more sexually active than were their predecessors.
"People start earlier now, we are more promiscuous, we have more partners, we no longer need a serious relationship before being intimate," said one '03.
The majority, however, said they thought that while current students talk more openly about sex, the same amount of sexual activity occurs now as has always occurred in college.
"Sex drive does not fluctuate; it is present in all humans," said Madeline Lufton '05.
One '04 male agreed, using different words: "College life hasn't changed -- there are girls, guys and alcohol, therefore there is sex."
Profs recall college years
Dartmouth's professors have no collective memory of "the college years," since some were at college in the 1950s and others in the 1990s.
Some professors said their college years did not involve much one-on-one dating. Many said they resorted to "group dating" as well as "hooking up." Others said formal dating was more common, adding that there were more couples' activities available than there are today at Dartmouth.
According to Richards, sexual activity was nowhere near as prevalent a generation ago as it is now.
"We had curfew at 10 p.m.," she said. "The dorm would be locked. You had to get back there. We had dorm mothers. When I was a senior, I had a key and could go when I wanted, but you always had to sign in and out."
Many of the professors said they were involved in long-term relationships during their college years. One who preferred to remain anonymous said, "My first date with my wife was our senior prom. We were married after my junior year in college. Many of my friends were also married in college."
Yet another group of memories stems from the sexual revolution of the 1970s. "Everybody slept with everybody else. [Today it] is much more tame," said Ivy Schweitzer of the English department.
