While Dartmouth students come from a wide variety of places, backgrounds and experiences, there are a number of freshmen traditions that change the thousand or so admitted members of the Class of 2007 from "prospies" into real members of the College. Dartmouth does things a bit differently than your run-of-the-mill Harvard or Princeton. After three days in the woods, a close encounter with President Wright and 107 laps around the bonfire, you will have well earned the right to wear your '07 shirt.
Dartmouth traditions are about celebrating the things that make Dartmouth unique. The most salient of these is the location of the school -- which is to say, the middle of nowhere. This is not something to lament, however, but something to exalt, and Dartmouth Outing Club trips (affectionately known as DOC Trips) are designed to this end.
Those members of the '07 class who decide to sign up for a biking (mountain or road), fly-fishing, farming, kayaking, canoeing or hiking trip -- and the majority of the class does -- get their first taste of Dartmouth in the form of an outrageously attired, boundlessly energetic and enthusiastic group of students known as Hanover Croo, or "H Croo."
H Croo is responsible for teaching the freshmen the Salty Dog Rag, the traditional Dartmouth dance which you will all learn to love, as well as the words and motions to "Blame It on the Boogie" by the Jackson Five. It is also responsible for plenty of tomfoolery, including awakening everyone (by means of high-spirited yelling) from peaceful slumber in the Choates at the ungodly hour of 5:45 a.m. to depart for the wilderness.
In the woods surrounding Dartmouth, be it on the Connecticut River, the 70-plus miles of Appalachian trail maintained by the Dartmouth Outing Club or the Second College Grant, freshmen bond with their fellow "tripees" over couscous and cheese, games of Mafia and a mutual need to shower.
At the end of the four-day trip, trippees assemble at the Ravine Lodge at Dartmouth's Mount Moosilauke to meet more classmates and for more Dartmouth-style debauchery, before returning home, or to Orientation in the case of later trip sections.
Having survived the New Hampshire woods, the Class of 2007 will nonetheless not be official members of the College until Matriculation. In this formal ceremony, all the members of the Class of 2007 are individually welcomed to the College via handshake by President James Wright. Following the ceremony is a barbecue at the President's House, where all of the freshmen class are brought together for the first time.
About half-way through Fall term, another tradition celebrating the freshmen class occurs: Homecoming.
At Dartmouth, unlike some other schools, Homecoming is about the freshmen class. First celebrated in 1893, when a bonfire was organized to celebrate victory over the Amherst College football team, today's celebration involves both football and a bonfire, with the latter serving as an event in itself.
Beginning a few days before Homecoming, the freshmen class supervises and carries out the construction of the 60-tier stack of wood in the center of the Green.
Not long ago, upperclassmen used to attempt to sabotage the structure during the night while first-years stood guard.
On a fateful Wednesday night in 1992, that tradition turned violent when approximately 600 students stormed the structure. The Hanover Police reported a full-fledged riot on the Green with students wielding baseball bats and hockey sticks.
Then-Dean of the College Lee Pelton suspended construction of the bonfire for a full day, and although the bonfire proceeded as scheduled that year, the brawl of 1992 had a lasting effect on the bonfire tradition.
Construction of the bonfire is closely supervised as well; the design structure is developed by engineers to ensure the bonfire collapses inwards, and the number of students on the structure at any one time is restricted for safety purposes. Freshmen are also required to wear hard-hats while working on construction.
Once the bonfire has been constructed, freshmen have an opportunity to sign the tiers, or the massive class year ('07) that is the pinnacle of the structure.
The night before the Homecoming football game, known as Dartmouth Night, the entire school gathers in front of Dartmouth Hall to hear student and alumni speeches.
The night's festivities commence with a fairly new tradition: "Freshmen Sweep." Begun in 1993 by the College to compensate for stricter bonfire regulations, the freshman, dressed in their best Dartmouth Green and their most flattering face paint, travel around campus from dorm to dorm collecting members of their class.
The tide of freshmen whisks through Hanover and up Main Street to the Green, where throngs of upperclassmen, faculty and Hanover residents gather for the festivities.
The first sweep in 1993 was almost the last, thanks to the destructive first-years in the Class of 1997. Much to the alarm of townspeople and the College, the class had a wild stampede through the town, trampling cars and uprooting street signs in the process. A picture in The Dartmouth from Homecoming Weekend in 1993 shows a member of the Class of 1997 running around the bonfire brandishing a stop sign. After 1993, the College limited the time allotted for the sweep to 30 minutes and provided more careful guidance and organization to the march.
Once the freshmen class has assembled on the Green, the bonfire is lit, and what is perhaps the most cherished of Dartmouth traditions commences. According to a tradition dating back to 1904, the freshmen class runs around the bonfire, traditionally as many times as their class year (that's 107 times, '07's!), to the cheers of the upperclassmen.
Other traditions first-years should know about include the all-school snowball fight on the Green. Weather permitting, the fight, traditionally begun by the 'shmen', occurs the night of the first snowfall of winter term.
A particularly unique tradition at Dartmouth occurs at the men's hockey game against Princeton during Winter term. Attendees pelt the ice with tennis balls after the first goal is scored against Princeton. In past years the downpour of tennis balls occurred after every goal scored on the Princeton goalie, but necessity has dictated the tradition be limited to the first goal only, with strict penalties resulting for failure to adhere to this rule.
While many Dartmouth traditions continue to this day, or have been modified from their original purpose, some traditions have ceased to exist over the course of time.
Other banned traditions include rushing the football field at the Homecoming football game by the freshmen class. Outlawed since 1986, this tradition is all but extinct due to the threat of three terms of probation, arrest by the Hanover Police, and a $500 dollar fine. Nonetheless, one or two daring freshmen usually attempt the feat each year.
A College sanctioned tradition before 1986, rushing the field involved an orderly filing of the freshmen onto the football field to form their class numbers. The tradition was banned for good after the 1986 Homecoming game, when the freshmen mobbed the field and injured two people sitting along the sidelines in wheel chairs.
Another tradition that no longer exists is that of the freshmen 'beanies'. Until 1973 the freshmen were forced by the upperclassmen to wear the caps or "beanies" for the first few weeks of school.
Dartmouth Night represented an opportunity for the freshmen to escape the beanies via a tug-of-war between the freshmen and the sophomores. If the freshmen won -- and the upperclassmen usually banded together to ensure they did not -- they were freed from the humiliation of the beanies. If the freshmen lost, they had to wear the beanies until Nov. 14.
This tradition resulted in violence in 1963 when the distraught freshmen class, having lost to the sophomores, burned their beanies and stormed Thayer Dining Hall.
