If Eleazar Wheelock could see us now, he would be rolling over in his grave. Yes, Dartmouth has remained a bastion of higher education over the centuries, and we are just as in the middle of the woods as we ever were. But if you take a look at some of our traditions, we also appear to be Keystone-soaked sex fiends. The Dartmouth Decade is just one of these raunchy traditions that walks the line between impressive and gross.
There are two different definitions of the Dartmouth Decade, and interviewed students said they had heard of both.
The first definition involves hooking up with at least one member of 10 consecutive graduating classes, one of which must be your own class. The second is hooking up with a member of each class that attended Dartmouth while you were a student. This does not actually add up to a decade, but whatever. Apparently people think it's a thing.
Whether sex is required for it to count is unclear, but if you are brave/drunk enough to even make out with someone who is potentially 10 years older than you, I say kudos to you! You should get credit and probably tested.
I'm not one to question these hallowed traditions of ours, because most of them make a lot of sense. Shot fairies? Everyone needs a stress reliever. The Dartmouth Seven? I guess some people like the thrill of knowing they could get caught, even if it's by thoroughly unsexy Hanover Police officers. But the point of the Dartmouth Decade eludes me. At 19, hooking up with someone 10 years older than me is too close to Lolita-ism for comfort, and anyone younger than me just feels like cradle-robbing.
Rona Sun '15 compared the Dartmouth Decade to the Dartmouth Seven in that completing either leaves one with a set of very special memories.
"I think it exists for the same reason that the Dartmouth Seven exists just for bragging rights," she said. "Also, it provides an excuse to hook up with alumni and prospies."
There are, of course, a few prime times during which the Dartmouth Decade can be completed. If you're going with the seven-year definition, every weekend is open season, but if you're going 10 years in one direction or another, there is some planning that must be involved.
Big weekends are a good place to start. Homecoming is clearly a no-brainer, as are Winter Carnival and Green Key. Beyond that, your best bets are figuring out when reunions for recent graduates are taking place (no one said the Decade has to be done at Dartmouth itself New Yorkers and Bostonians have an advantage, in this case) and which fraternities have alumni that just can't get enough of the College on the Hill and are here at least once a month.
"It'd be best to start freshman year, or maybe even as a prospie if you're really ambitious," Sun said. "Keep going through graduation. And you'd have to come back as an alumni to complete the Decade."
A '12 male who wished to remain anonymous due to the personal nature of the subject said he has completed half of his Decade and that timing and connections have been necessary to successfully accomplish this feat.
"You've got to start early," he said. "Those big weekends when alums come back are key. Also, you may not know anyone in a class I might get my friend who's a '09 or an '08 to introduce me to someone."
Students offered mixed perspectives on completing the Decade. Rachel Hein '15 said that while she has not personally tried to begin her own Decade, several of her male friends have already begun the attempt. Buck up, boys if the Dartmouth X has any validity at all, it'll get easier for you.
Sun said she personally would never try to complete the Decade.
"I would never hook up with someone five years younger than me," she said. "Or four or three, actually."
The '12 male said that he started "thinking it was possible" to complete the Decade during his sophomore year.
"As a '12, I'm going from '06 to '15 because I wouldn't really want to go younger than a '15," he said.
Although he has completed half of his Decade, he said the remaining classes may prove more difficult.
"I have an '09, '10, '12, '13 and '15, and I hooked up with an '08 but didn't have sex," he said. "'11 and '14 are pretty attainable, but '06, '07 and '08 are pretty ridiculous I don't think too many 27-year-olds who come back for their reunions are coming back looking to shack up."
A '14 male who also asked to remain anonymous due to the personal and explicit nature of the subject said he discovered that he had unwittingly begun his own Dartmouth Decade when he woke up next to a member of the Class of 2005 over Winter Carnival his freshman year.
"I was very blacked out and I stumbled into a basement," he said. "I ended up meeting some random people and playing pong, and the next thing I knew I woke up in the morning with a stranger in my bed."
Although initially surprised by the alum's presence in his bedroom, he said he was pleased to learn the class year of his previous night's hook-up.
"My first response when I found out the alum was an '05 was, OK, this fits in nicely to my Decade,'" he said.
He added that he would actively try to complete the rest of his Decade, because "it's a thing. Dartmouth loves its traditions."
That we do. Keystone-soaked sex fiends though we may be, that's no reason not to be proud. Lest the old traditions fail! And here's to another 25 decades of Dartmouth Decades.
