As college campuses go, Dartmouth is pretty laid-back. Our social lives do not revolve around nightclubs shared with non-Dartmouth residents. We tend not to be kept awake at night by traffic, and certainly not by the passing sounds of subway trains or the angry honking of public buses. In fact, our traffic lights (all one of them) turn off at midnight.
"The Dartmouth Bubble" is not, as so comprehensively pointed out by The Dartmouth Mirror (Jan. 20), a microcosm of the world outside, but rather a parody of it. To an extent, all college campuses are artificial versions of the real world; there are fewer consequences and fewer responsibilities. We students basically decide where we are going to be, at what time of day, on whatever day we like. We can go to class, or we can skip -- not so with a job. Most of us live in dorms provided by the College -- as opposed to finding an apartment or house ourselves. College effectively postpones our own self-sufficiency, and -- let's face it -- that is one of the reasons why we love it.
But Dartmouth, specifically, has a way of luring us into a sense of security unmatched by many other universities. Dartmouth culture creates -- and is created by -- an aura of safety. Our isolation suggests immunity and our natural surroundings soothe us. We can choose to pick up a copy of The New York Times and read about the rest of the world, but if we opt not to, we are not forced to confront certain facts on an everyday basis, unlike students on big-city campuses. It is the age-old contrast between life in a city versus life in a rural area such as Hanover: The skills we pick up are appropriate for the places in which we live. Whereas we at Dartmouth know the rules of safety on the Skiway inside and out, most of us don't think twice about walking home to our dorms by ourselves in the earliest, darkest hours of the morning after a night on the Circuit. This is not a strictly good or bad habit; it simply means that unless we live in small towns like Hanover after we graduate, the lifestyles we are now accustomed to will be markedly different than the ones we will adopt in the future.
Dartmouth students' trust of others in the College community is easily bestowed, and nowhere can this be more clearly seen than in the library. Many students own valuable and desirable items (laptops and iPods come to mind), but we are often quick to temporarily leave them unattended. During finals week, it is not uncommon to abandon backpacks, laptops, textbooks and even wallets (I saw one in Berry Lower Level, Spring term '05) in the library both during the day and overnight. Why are we willing to do this? Because we know that no one steals at Dartmouth. Theft simply goes against the culture.
This culture, however, is both a blessing and a curse. It is wonderful to live in a place so trusting that students leave valuable belongings effectively in the care of strangers. On the other hand, when something does get stolen, our sense of safety suffers a blow unmatched by that of a jaded student living at a city college. At one point last year, the laptop of an '05 senior fellow was stolen from the library on the night before her senior fellowship project was due. The event made the front pages of The Dartmouth. The incident was undeniably terribly unfortunate; it was tragic and angering that a year of hard work was lost in a matter of minutes. But it also revealed that we at Dartmouth tend to view actions that would be thoughtless and risky on another campus -- such as leaving a laptop unattended -- as insignificant and harmless. Moreover, when a theft occurs, we classify it as front-page news.
It is interesting to examine what we think of as news here at Dartmouth. A more recent example highlights the extent to which we allow ourselves -- understandably, perhaps -- to lower our guard in this insulated place, perhaps without even realizing it. When news of the "stalker" was made public ("Hostile man stalks students on Main St.," Jan. 6), the occurrence sparked a great deal of discussion and worry among students. In a city, this sort of event would not be less worrisome, but it may be more commonplace, and therefore would probably not make the front pages.
We all should enjoy the freedom and security that we are given during our time here at Dartmouth. But perhaps it may also be useful to be aware in the back of our minds that people are people, regardless of whether you live in small-town Hanover or the middle of Manhattan. As comforting as it is to pretend that we do not need to worry about various real-world concerns while we are in Hanover, popping the Dartmouth Bubble once in a while may ease the culture shock when it is time for us to leave for good.
