The College currently does not have plans to replace the Lodge, according to Associate Provost Mary Gorman.
"While it is something that needs to be considered, it's not like the Lodge is going to be disappearing," Dartmouth Outing Club President Andrew Palmer '10 said in an interview. "The advisory committee has recognized that the Lodge is aging, and plans for replacement need to be considered. It's not saying that the Lodge will be torn down by the end of the year."
The Lodge, now almost 70 years old, was originally built to last between 35 and 50 years.
Currently, the logs are beginning to dry out and crack, and the Lodge does not meet modern building codes. A re-evaluation of the Lodge that will examine whether the logs are rotten will take place this August, according to MAC Chair Put Blodgett '53 Tu'61. The College hopes to conduct a full-scale audit of the Lodge, but such a review has not yet been scheduled, Gorman said.
While there is no immediate safety problem, according to Bernie Waugh '74, who has been a member of the committee for the past 30 years, many committee members fear there could a safety risk in the future.
The committee began to discuss the Lodge's future in 2005, according to Blodgett. Both renovation and replacement were discussed at the time, but over the past three years, the committee has gradually reached a consensus that renovation would be too expensive, leaving replacement as the only option, according to both Waugh and Blodgett.
"It just doesn't make sense to try and save an old building," Blodgett said.
Any replacement would not occur for several years, Blodgett said, because of fundraising and planning needs. He added that it was too soon to know about the design or expense of replacing the Lodge.
"I feel that it should be replaced with something similar to what it is," Waugh said. "The majority of the committee also agrees that we don't want a modern hotel-looking thing up there. We would like to retain sort of a rustic character."
There has been debate about whether a potential new structure should have a larger capacity than the current Lodge, with some pointing to the difficulties in accommodating first-year trips. Some committee members want to preserve certain parts of the Lodge, like the Great Hall, but others believe this would be too expensive.
Input from students and other members of the Dartmouth community would be considered in the planning for any new structure, Blodgett said.
Earl Jette, who became interim OPO director after former director Andy Harvard left the College on Friday, said he will examine the issue of the Lodge's replacement, but that it was too soon to reach any conclusions.
"I am aware of some of those discussions, but let's keep in mind that the advisory committee is just an advisory committee," he said. "They do not make decisions."
Jette, who worked in OPO for 32 years and served as its director before retiring eight years ago, said discussions about whether the Lodge needs to be replaced have been occurring since at least 1990 because of the Lodge's age. These previous discussions have lacked any real justification, he said, but he did not know whether replacement is needed at this point, since he has been away from the College for some time.
Talking about replacing the Lodge is difficult, several people involved with the decision said, due to the emotional attachments to it that members of the Dartmouth community have formed throughout their time at the College. They said, however, that this attachment should not prevent people from discussing it.
"We can't cling to this building because of its tradition and its place in all of our hearts," Palmer said. "We can't cling to that and ignore the fact that it's becoming an issue. There are reasons why an alternative solution needs to be looked at."
The advisory committee is comprised of students, alumni and others connected with the Lodge, such as the president of the Dartmouth Outing Club and former Lodge managers. Although the MAC's recommendations are non-binding, they have usually been respected in the past, according to Waugh.
