As the members of the Class of 2013 complete or not their 113 laps around the bonfire tonight, they will share their first Dartmouth Homecoming experience with College President Jim Yong Kim, who was officially inaugurated this September.
"Everything I do here is a first, so this is my initiation into the Homecoming tradition for sure," Kim told The Dartmouth this week. Kim said that alumni from across the country have shared their memories of the weekend with him in anticipation of his first Homecoming at the College.
"Everyone remembers [Homecoming] at Dartmouth," Kim said. "I think that it's really important to have touchstones where we declare ourselves as a community in very meaningful and prescribed ways."
Kim said that bonding among members of the Dartmouth community is one of the primary attractions of the College's Homecoming weekend.
"I think Dartmouth has a greater appreciation for tradition and the linkages to the classes that have come before than any place I've ever seen, and I think that's fantastic," Kim said. "As an anthropologist, I can tell you that having that kind of link to previous classes is good for you."
Kim, who would have been a member of the Class of 1982 had he attended the College, will be adopted into that class over Homecoming.
Kim said that alumni "often give [him] the greatest compliment, which is: You might have gone to Brown, but you're really a Dartmouth person."
Dartmouth's emphasis on Homecoming differs from other colleges where Kim has taught and attended, Kim said, adding that he did not think there was any such event at Harvard University or Brown University.
And, in deference to the history and tradition behind the event, Kim said he has no plans to alter Dartmouth's Homecoming weekend, explaining that he does not want to "mess around with" 130 year-old traditions.
"I think that Dartmouth is a place where we revere tradition and where we revere our connection to all the other classes through traditions," he said, adding later, "These rituals are really important to restate on a regular basis your commitment to each other as a community."
For example, Kim said that a friendship with Harold Ripley '29, connects him by association to Ernest Martin Hopkins, who served as president of Dartmouth from 1916 to 1945.
Hopkins, Kim told The Dartmouth, once said he knew a graduate of the Class of 1841 who knew a man from every graduating class in the history of Dartmouth, starting in to 1773.
"Three degrees of separation from every graduating class at Dartmouth: that's very moving and emotional for me to think about," he said. "I think that's what people love about Homecoming it connects us at least back to 1880. That's pretty cool."
Kim, who played quarterback for his high school football team in Iowa, also pointed to this weekend's football game as an important part of the upcoming weekend. The Big Green, in the midst of a 17-game losing streak, will face Columbia University on Saturday.
"I'm really looking forward to unleashing all of our pent-up frustration and beating the pants off Columbia, and I'll be disappointed if we don't," Kim said.
A victory in this weekend's game would hold special significance for Kim, who said he lost every one of his high school homecoming football games. While football certainly sticks out in Kim's memories of his own homecoming experiences, he said that other events a pig roast, bonfire and parade were also memorable parts of his high school experience.
"I remember the football team we played, I remember how much we got beat by, so these are things that stay in your mind," he said.
On Dartmouth Night the night of the bonfire Kim will make a short speech to the community.
"People, they're not coming out to hear me, they're coming out to run around the fire and celebrate community," he said.
Although he said he will prepare remarks, Kim told The Dartmouth he plans to get a sense of the feeling and the spirit at the time, he said and give a speech that his "right for the moment."
As with the inauguration and convocation, Kim said, the focus of the weekend is not on the College's president but rather "reaffirming our ties to each other as a community."
Dartmouth Night speeches by previous presidents have also addressed this sense of community and tradition.
Former College President James Freedman called the night a "celebration of community and aspiration" during the 1996 Homecoming.
At Dartmouth Night in 1982, former President David McLaughlin discussed the event as "a time when alumni wherever they might be would turn their thoughts to Hanover and reaffirm their devotion to the College."
McLaughlin also brought up the "historic past" and "spirit" in his speech.
