The Class of 2005 experienced much change during their first three years at Dartmouth. They were the largest class the College had seen in sometime, possibly spurring the much-needed construction that occurred in their upperclass years and they became closer when the landmark events of September 11 occurred during their first quarter at the College. Classes before the '05s entered a Dartmouth torn by the Student Life Initiative, but this Fall term tragedy brought the campus together in many ways.
FRESHMAN YEAR: 2001-2002
Some upperclassmen dotted the campus during the Summer- Fall interim, and many '05s were participating in different stages of their Dartmouth Outing Club trips, when terrorists attacked buildings in New York and Washington D.C. on September 11. The tragedy changed United States history, and impacted the Dartmouth first-year experience in a way no event in recent memory has done. Several alumni died in the attacks, and reaction to the news permeated many aspects of campus life.
Students tried to understand the attacks themselves and the culture in which the terrorists had lived. Panel discussions on the events and a vigil on the Green drew hundreds. Enrollment in Introductory Arabic and Introduction to the Islamic World surged.
Terrorism concerns in Italy shrunk the size of the spring foreign study program in Art History. After the State Department warned that Florence, the location of the Foreign Study Program, was a potential terrorist target, five students returned to campus early. No threats materialized.
Also during their freshman year, debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict engulfed the campus. Former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, spoke to a crowd that filled Spaulding Auditorium.
The '05s first experienced the Greek scene sans one official fraternity, as Zeta Psi marked its first year as a derecognized house after its members published an in-house parody newspaper that derogated specific women and promised date rape tips in a future issue.
Hanover violence occurred with unusual frequency in the year. In February, a student was bitten and beaten outside Tuck Mall by an assailant who attempted to mirror the mythic vampire. Other attackers sexually assaulted students outside the Lodge and the Gold Coast.
In April, the two Vermont teenagers who had murdered Dartmouth professors Suzanne and Half Zantop in January 2001 received long jail sentences.
This academic year also marked a surge in housing shortages when the unusually large Class of 2005 entered Dartmouth. In response, the College hastily constructed six temporary "Tree House" dorms to be filled by sophomores.
Although smaller news, the debut of Greenprint was an important addition to the lives of Dartmouth students. Greenprint replaced the old Berry printing window, which often proved inefficient when students would print papers and sometimes find them mysteriously absent.
The Greek system experienced a new regulation for rush when administrators moved the process to Winter term for the first time ever, a policy that has since been changed.
In this same winter, a particularly powerful strain of conjunctivitis (pink eye) hit hundreds of students and gained national attention. Representatives from the New Hampshire Center for Disease Control descended upon the campus, distributing disinfectant bottles in buildings and Hinman Boxes. Fears of a repeat epidemic returned senior year.
SOPHOMORE YEAR: 2002-2003
Monetary woes marked the Fall term of sophomore year after the College announced many wide-ranging budget cuts.
The budget constraints removed $1 million from the library system, which controversially responded by integrating the Sherman Art Library into the Baker-Berry complex and converting Sanborn Library into a reading room, despite some student protest.
After the College tried to cut the swimming and diving teams, however, students were not nearly as passive. While the administration argued they would rather cut one team entirely than hurt each team slightly, reaction to the choice was vehemently negative. The day after the announcement, hundreds of students, along with alumni and parents, marched through campus chanting protests against the decision. They ended their night with a rally in front of the houses of the President and the Dean of the College. In the end, though, it was generous alumni donations to the tune of $2 million that saved the swimming and diving teams.
In further reaction to budget cuts, some departments had to downsize course offerings, and the Board of Trustees upped tuition by 4.9 percent.
Phi Delta Alpha fraternity, suspended in 2000 for attempting to burn down Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity, was granted colony status by the College. Phi Delt alumni returned to the house to conduct rush events, where prospective members were offered the unique opportunity of joining an empty house.
New revisions to the alcohol policy required all events where alcohol was being ser ved to more than 40 people to be registered with the College. The rules limited each house to only two registered parties per week and were met with criticism from Greek houses.
Despite worldwide SARS fears, the College decided not to quarantine students traveling from infected areas. College health officials, though, sent mass blitzes to students regarding the disease and the Beijing foreign study program was cancelled.
At the beginning of the summer the Supreme Court struck down the University of Michigan's points-based affirmative action policy but upheld a broader affirmative action principle. Dartmouth had filed a friend-of-the-court brief defending Michigan's use of race as a factor in admissions.
JUNIOR YEAR: 2003-2004
As the January New Hampshire Democratic Primary approached, Dartmouth was buzzing with election-related hubbub. Democratic presidential candidates stumped on campus in the weeks leading up to the nation's first and most-watched primary election. Howard Dean, the most popular candidate among students, unveiled his higher education plan in a November speech. Candidates Wesley Clark, John Edwards, Joseph Lieberman, John Kerry, Dennis Kucinich and Carol Moseley-Braun all made visits to the College.
In a poorly orchestrated, but nationally-televised debate that attracted only three candidates, Kucinich, Dean and Lieberman debated about women's issues before a crowd in Moore Theater.
In College politics, the Board of Trustees voted to add six seats over the next ten years, only the second size increase in the Board's history, and Julia Hildreth '05 won the race for student body president a single vote. Her lack of a majority spurred the controversial instant-run-off voting system that was implemented the following year.
The Student Assembly's mascot search was ended when a majority of students in a poll disapproved of the moose as a mascot. Two students involved with the Jack-o-Lantern humor magazine, however, responded to the search by creating an unofficial mascot. Keggy the Keg, a characterized beer cask with green tights and large eyes, appeared at the Homecoming football game, on an ESPN special, in the pages of Playboy and in other national news outlets.
Campus crime resurfaced when Hanover police booked three students on cocaine charges after officers at a stakeout by Theta Delta Chi fraternity witnessed a drug deal.
Junior year ended with a return to Fall rush, but only after Greek leaders protested an administrative effort to cut the rush term in half. The compromise reached by the Office of Residential Life and the Greek Leadership Council was the first of an arguably more positive relationship between Greek houses and the College as the 2005 entered their final year.
