Today at 5 p.m., Professor Jere Daniell will be giving a Palaeopitus-sponsored lecture in 28 Silsby on the history of the College. This marks the beginning of Palaeopitus' yearlong initiative to foster and rejuvenate a strong sense of Dartmouth community through an enhanced appreciation for the history and tradition that we, as Dartmouth members, all share.
The Dartmouth community is not all it can and should be. By community, I mean the spirit of teamwork and camaraderie common to all current and past Dartmouth students simply because they share Dartmouth itself. This spirit is evident in the eagerness of freshmen to meet other freshmen, and it is reflected in the instant connection we feel upon a chance encounter with a fellow student or alum in a different part of the world.
A strong sense of community has been and must continue to be among Dartmouth's primary strengths as an undergraduate institution. It makes being a Dartmouth student something altogether more valuable in the campus-wide communication it promotes and altogether more meaningful in the solidarity it fosters. It makes Dartmouth Dartmouth.
Though the recent matriculation of energetic '06s obscures the problem, campus-wide solidarity has been suffering lately: compare your friends' fervor with that of the alums; think of the decline of the snow sculpture; and read what even some '79 Dartmouth women (not the easiest thing to be at the time) observe about the loss of "wild enthusiasm" and waning "spirit of teamwork" at the College. ("Women reflect fondly on College experience," The Dartmouth, July 16, 2002.)
Proposition: Over the past 40 years, most of Dartmouth's "good ol' boy" traditions have been revised, expelled or lost, and this is a fundamentally good and necessary change that has produced far greater benefits than costs. I propose, however, that in our attempt to make Dartmouth a more welcoming and cohesive community, while rightly expelling the bad traditions, we have also inadvertently undercut the spirit that upholds the good traditions that comprised a large part of the collective Dartmouth experience and thereby spawned a popular sense of Dartmouth community. Individual campus-wide events can bring people together, but tradition is the only thing that links the present to the past, cultivating a collective appreciation for our shared heritage. This recognition of our place in Dartmouth history fosters individual pride in being a part of something hallowed and timeless, thus improving our relationships with the institution and with each other.
Palaeopitus is a society of seniors charged to "encourage working harmony among the various campus organizations, facilitate communication between undergraduates and the College administration, to preserve the customs and traditions of Dartmouth, to promote her welfare and to protect her good name." It is our intention this year, among other things, to work toward rejuvenating this lost spirit of community for the betterment of the College as a whole and the individual Dartmouth experiences of its members. We begin the initiative, with today's lecture, by attempting to increase common awareness of the history and tradition we are all a part of, irrespective of our particular experiences. Appreciation for this common ground will facilitate friendly and meaningful interaction between Dartmouth members that may not encounter each other in other facets of Dartmouth life.
When I speak of tradition, I certainly do not mean to promote the rekindling of any of the "good ol' boy" attitudes or behavior that, in any way, made the Dartmouth community less welcoming to some of its members, nor do I mean to imply that we must uphold tradition merely for tradition's sake. I am, however, encouraging a revitalized open-mindedness toward a traditionalism that has been out of favor for some time. This change will help revitalize the Dartmouth community, a spirit that is worth preserving at an undergraduate college for the fellowship it engenders and the communication it enables.
Dartmouth is not a perfect place, but it is a wonderful place. I encourage you to attend today's lecture and get a more substantial background on its heritage, for it is nothing short of awesome to walk across the Green and suddenly grasp the enormous legacy of the generations that have walked those same grounds. Subsequent Palaeopitus programming will examine Dartmouth's history through varied, more specific lenses, all the while realizing that in the same breath as we evaluate critically, we must seek out traditions to create and maintain the sturdy, cohesive center that has been one of the College's greatest assets throughout its history.
