While Homecoming promises flair-filled fraternity basements and heart-stopping athletic intensity, many members of the Class of 2015 are most eagerly anticipating Friday night's bonfire, a central part of Homecoming weekend and one of the College's most hallowed traditions.
"I'm extremely excited," Scott Gladstone '15 said. "It's an awesome tradition."
While many students report not knowing the details of planning the bonfire, bonfire co-chairs Samantha Webster '15 and Ester Khachatryan '15 told The Dartmouth that a significant amount of work is required to arrange the night's festivities.
"It's going to be a busy couple of days, but it's coming together," Webster said.
Webster and Khachatryan, along with build chair Etai Klein '15 and Collis Center advisors Danielle LaJoie and Eric Ramsey, have met frequently since Sep. 29 to determine the design for the official t-shirts and to coordinate building volunteers, cluster parties, the freshman sweep and the infamous run around the bonfire, the chairs said.
The bonfire chairs arranged a t-shirt design contest earlier this month for members of the Class of 2015, Webster said. Webster and Khachatryan were then responsible for finding a clothing vendor and determining supply and shipping costs. During the planning process, the chairs discovered that the Town of Hanover requires a permit to sell merchandise on the Green, which required them to reserve space in Collis to sell the shirts and reserve a card reader to allow students to pay for shirts with DA$H, according to Webster.
The Homecoming t-shirts which will be available for purchase by all students and will raise money for the 2015 Class Council are indicative of the extensive collaboration involved in bonfire planning, Webster said. Jordan Craig '15 designed the front of the t-shirts, Aaron R. Pellowski '15 submitted the catchphrase for the back, and the order was filled by Vox Sportswear, a student-run apparel business, according to Webster.
In another show of student involvement and enthusiasm, approximately 80 freshmen have signed up to help build the bonfire, with shifts running from Thursday at 8 a.m. to Friday at noon, Webster said.
"People are willing to help because it's so important," he said.
The bonfire will be built according to strict blueprints in order to ensure structural integrity, according to Khachatryan.
The accidental student deaths during the construction of a bonfire in 1999 at Texas A&M University convinced Dartmouth administrators to engineer a "safety-conscious design" at the time, she said. The collapse, which occurred during the construction of the University's once-annual "Aggie Bonfire," killed 12 people and injured 27 others, Texas A&M's The Battlion reported.
The Thayer design features a base with 33 tiers in the shape of a star, 22 tiers in a hexagonal shape and 10 tiers in a square shape on top, The Dartmouth previously reported. In 2009, the College revised the construction process to include lulls, large forklifts use to move heavy materials, rather than having students move the wooden beams themselves. Other notable details surrounding the capstone event on Friday night include an order for 282 pizzas from Everything But Anchovies for the pre-bonfire cluster parties, College President Jim Yong Kim's promise to sign the "15" that will top the wooden structure, and the build chairs picking a few of the most consistently helpful build volunteers to assist in the lighting of the bonfire, according to Webster and Khachatryan. Traditionally, freshmen run laps around the bonfire equivalent to 100 laps plus their graduating year. This year, the members of the Class of 2015 will run up to 115 laps around the burning structure, Webster said.
While freshmen are generally excited for the bonfire, many are unsure about their level of participation in the run due to its length, according to students interviewed by The Dartmouth. Some students have signed up to ring the bells in Rollins Chapel as an alternative activity, Webster said. "I'd like to run all 115 [laps], but realistically, I'm just going to run as many as I can," Suyash Bulchandani '15 said.
