Wrestling fights, students jumping off buildings, people pulling fire alarms, power outages and vandalism are some of the incidents that Safety and Security has dealt with over past Green Key weekends, according to Director of Safety and Security and College Proctor Harry Kinne.
Still, Green Key is not a weekend that usually generates many "unusual" circumstances, Kinne said.
"Green Key isn't oftentimes as big of a weekend as a real active weekend in the fall," he said.
While Kinne said he could not remember any specific instance that stands out, he said many incidents have involved alcohol or large crowds.
In recent years, Safety and Security broke up a party at the Bema in the midst of a campus-wide electricity blackout and retrieved an intoxicated man from a hole at a construction site on Tuck Mall.
During Green Key 2010, one individual not affiliated with the College ran into a Safety and Security officer and knocked him to the ground after he was caught carrying alcohol entering a party.
Nearly 80 students gathered at the Bema for a Green Key celebration during an electricity blackout in 2008, according to Kinne. When Safety and Security arrived on the scene, though, the entire party "split and ran, leaving behind an awful lot of 30-racks," Kinne said. These students escaped disciplinary action, but 11 others were arrested by Hanover Police over the course of the weekend, according to Hanover Police communications officer Kevin Lahaye.
Hanover Police responded to a fire alarm set off by a flooded shower at Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity during Green Key of 1991. When the officers entered the shower, they found an unconscious student blocking the drain.
In the past, mishaps during Green Key have also led to the cancellation of traditional events and even the weekend itself.
Chariot races were discontinued in 1984 following a series of incidents, most notably a fist fight between members of two fraternities in 1976.
A student at a nearby college created a stir during Green Key weekend in 1931 by riding completely naked across campus on her bicycle before church services. The event, highly controversial at the time, caused Green Key's cancellation for the following three years.
The "rowdy" behavior of students in 1924 caused campus officials to cancel the weekend that year as well.
At 3 a.m. on May 18, 2004, a police officer on patrol near downtown Hanover heard loud shouting coming from the direction of Massachusetts Row and spotted two male students walking down the middle of West Wheelock Street, shouting loudly. In an attempt to quiet the two men, the officer shined his spotlight at them. Still yelling, the two men began to run down Main Street. After observing one of the students grab a milk crate and throw it against the brick wall of the Dartmouth Bookstore, the officer flashed his lights and began to chase after the students. With the help of another officer, the police were able to detain both of the males. One of the students was 21 years old and therefore was only taken into protective custody, while the other male, who was 20 years old, was arrested for unlawful possession of alcohol and intoxication.
"Scavenger incidents" such as minor thefts were the only unusual crimes during Green Key in 2001, Hanover Police Chief Nick Giaconne said at the time. That weekend, a Dartmouth undergrduate and an alumnus were arrested for the theft of a sailfish from the Dartmouth Outing Club and a sign from Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park.
An alleged assault occurred at Home Plate in Thayer Dining Hall, now Class of 1953 Commons, on the night of May 14, 1999. Two male students became engaged in a pushing contest, in which one was pushed into a table where other students were eating, according to an observer.
"At first a group of four guys were throwing plates and food on the floor," Rachel Globus '02, who was at Home Plate at the time, previously told The Dartmouth. "They [seemed] really drunk and rowdy and getting pissy."
Globus said that one student poured a bottle of Gatorade onto another. A confrontation ensued, and the assaulted student shoved the other student. While no one was injured in Home Plate, when a Safety and Security officer responded to the situation, the student who poured the drink ran from the scene. He did not get far, however, as he tripped down the staircase upon exiting the dining facility and injured his knee according to Globus.
