Seniors returned to Hanover in the fall to find the campus transformed into a hotbed of political activity. With the 2004 presidential election fast-approaching, President George W. Bush and his challenger, Senator John Kerry, stumped throughout the state with their respective high-profile supporters in tow. Meanwhile, student political groups worked at a fever pitch to drum up support for their party's man, showering the Big Green with leaflets and mobilizing their organizations.
The Democratic and Republican parties clashed on the state level over voter registration, which had created headaches for students who tried to take advantage of New Hampshire's same-day registration laws during the last midterm elections. The ambiguity of laws requiring out-of-staters to change their domicile if they wanted to vote in New Hampshire, a swing state, left many students unclear as to whether they would be required to change their driver's licenses or forfeit state-based scholarships. Republicans stressed these prospects and encouraged students to vote in their home states, while the Democrats aggressively urged out-of-state students to register in New Hampshire.
Residential halls became cluttered with hundreds of leaflets promoting certain candidates and adding to the debate on student voting rights. Students also humorously noted the lawyers present at voting registration tables at Hanover high school.
Popular get-out-the-vote campaigns contributed to New Hampshire's Democratic success, the only state to switch party support from 2000 to 2004, although its four electoral votes would not be enough to turn the national tide.
The 2004 fall term also saw a grand effort by the College to alleviate housing shortages. The David T. McLaughlin '54 and Tuck Mall clusters will add approximately 500 beds to campus. The construction also influenced campus life in many ways, from blocking the heavily-trafficked route between south campus and Webster Avenue to helping students rise in the morning with the sound of jackhammers.
The new residential halls will put an end to the housing crunch that became very real with the large Class of 2005. The Office of Residential life hopes that more rooms will house the 85 to 90 students that sometimes find themselves camping out in floor lounges while they wait for rooms to open up.
Construction on the new 60,000-foot Kemeny Hall and adjoining Haldeman Center north of Baker-Berry library was also started in the fall. Kemeny, to house the math department, and Haldeman, to house the Dickey Center, Leslie Humanities Center and Ethics Institute, are scheduled for June 2006 completions. The buildings will replace the architecturally-deviant buildings of Bradley Hall and Gerry Hall -- commonly referred to as the "shower towers."
Gifts received as part of the College's $1.3 billion fund-raising effort are being used to fund the construction projects. The "Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience," officially launched in November, is President James Wright's first capital campaign.
The first fall rush was held in 2004 after three years of winter rush for Greek houses. Fall rush proved to be successful for fraternities and sororities, and produced high turnouts for pledge classes.
Theta Delta Chi fraternity and Delta Delta Delta sorority had a problematic pledge term, however, as the two houses found themselves embroiled in a hazing scandal toward the end of Fall term. Police investigated a Tri- Delt pledge activity held at Theta Delt, involving sorority pledges performing alleged provocative dances for the fraternity brothers. Although the police inquiry failed to yield enough evidence to bring either house up on criminal charges, both houses were put on College probation at the end of the Winter term following a joint Committee on Standards and Organizational Adjudication Committee hearing in February.
A firing, a hiring and a controversial letter put Big Green football center stage heading into the Winter term. After a disappointing 1-9 season, 13-year head coach John Lyons was fired by the Athletics Department in December. Lyons led the team to two championships earlier in his Dartmouth career, but ran out of gas in his last six years in Hanover.
Just a few weeks later Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg would find himself at the center of a major uproar after a local newspaper printed a private letter he wrote to Swarthmore President Alfred Bloom four years ago, commending him for cutting his college's football program, which Furstenberg termed a "sacrifice to the academic quality and diversity of entering first-year classes." When the correspondence surfaced it unleashed a torrent of protest from studentathletes and the College community, which exploded into a campus-wide debate on admissions and athletics.
As the controversy raged on, Buddy Teevens '79 was tapped as the new head football coach. Teevens returned to the helm of Dartmouth football after a fiveyear stint as head coach that started in 1987.
"We were all aware of it," cornerback Steve Jensen '05 said of the letter incident. "Teevens told us that he sat down and talked to [Furstenberg], and he reassured us that he is committed to football and athletics at Dartmouth."
Later in the year, mounting discord between the administration and two College employees resulted in highprofile Spring term resignations.
Sexual Abuse Awareness Program coordinator Abby Tassel tendered her resignation in April, citing a lack of support from supervisors and hostility from colleagues.
Tassel's resignation elicited vocal responses from students. Sexual Abuse Peer Advisors and others who worked with Tassel compiled testimonials from victims who benefited from Tassel's work and are now spearheading efforts to find a replacement.
"It was really, really frustrating," said Cait Farrell '05, one of Tassel's former interns. "Part of why she left was that she wasn't being supported in the work that she was doing by other people within staff or administration. That's really disheartening because she was working for the students."
On the heels of Tassel's departure, friction with administrators produced another resignation in April. In a scathing letter, Jim Kuypers, the sole faculty member of the Speech Department, blasted faculty deans for belittling the speech program, which he had run solo for 10 years, and denying proposals to hire more faculty and install a tenure track. Kuypers went so far as to compare Dean of the Faculty Carol Folt and Associate Dean of the Humanities Lenore Grenoble to mythological monsters Scylla and Charybdis.
Kuypers' exit marked the end of speech study at Dartmouth, a field that was taught by a full department from 1920 until 1979 but scaled down to office status thereafter.
The comings and goings of the spring term helped fuel some criticisms from students and alumni who were concerned that the administration was mismanaging personnel priorities, compounding course oversubscription in Dartmouth's economics and government majors.
But while relations between administrators and some employees disintegrated, successful collaborative efforts between students and the administration also distinguished the Spring term.
May saw Dean of the College James Larimore accept the proposals of the Social Event Management Procedures committee he convened in the fall to analyze the portion of the College's alcohol policy regarding party registration. The committee, comprised of students and administrators, came up with changes to shift more responsibility to the houses in organizing and running their events.
Policies on registering alcoholic events had created some tensions between the Greek community and administrators, especially in the wake of the controversial Student Life Initiative, which was perceived by many as an attack on Greek life.
"In the [initial] post-SLI years, people were fairly confrontational, and I think things are starting to change," said Rob Freiman '05, former Phi Delta Alpha fraternity president and SEMP committee member. Freiman said the SEMP committee was an example of a recent trend of partnership between students and administrators. Provost Berry Scherr also agreed to extend library hours to 2 a.m. on weeknights, following a proposal by Student Assembly.
Making a solid mark on Dartmouth culture, Student Activities director Linda Kennedy, unveiled the wildly popular "Party Packs," or midnight deliveries of pizza to registered parties on campus. Although some people disagreed with the program, empty pizza boxes in Greek basements became the standard before long.
A battle between insiders and outsiders also played out in the spring race for Student Body President, in which Student Assembly veteran Noah Riner '06 narrowly defeated non-Assembly member Paul Heintz '06 and three fellow Assembly members by sweeping up a majority of votes under the new instant runoff voting rules.
The Class of 2008 proved its affinity for self-defenestration when one freshman launched himself out of a window in Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity. Another jumper, this time in the Choates, made news in the Spring term.
Alumni elected two petition candidates for Board of Trustees in the Spring, filling two empty seats. Peter Robinson '79 and Todd Zywicki '88 defeated four Alumni Council-nominated candidates, during a campaign where they focused on the administration's handling of academics, athletics and free speech issues. When third party group Alumni for a Stronger Dartmouth stepped in to endorse the four Council candidates, the distinction between the nominated and write-in candidates became even sharper, despite the fact that all six candidates supported most of the same platforms.
Dartmouth also focused on the Class of 2009 throughout the Spring term, and thanks in part to recruiting efforts like the Dimensions weekend, over 50 percent of accepted students will matriculate at Dartmouth. The '09s are one of the strongest academic classes to date with many students graduating at the top of their classes.
