A look back on news for the Class of 2023
This article is featured in the 2023 Commencement & Reunions special issue.
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This article is featured in the 2023 Commencement & Reunions special issue.
On April 28 and 29, the Native American Program hosted a cleansing ceremony in Silsby, Wilson and Carpenter Halls, around one month after the College announced the discovery of Native American remains in the anthropology department’s and Hood Museum of Art’s teaching collections. The buildings were closed during the event to faculty, staff and students not “directly involved” in the cleansing ceremony, Dartmouth News reported.
Dartmouth, to put it very mildly, is going through a rough patch. Last Monday, the Department of Safety and Security sent a campus-wide email alerting to the assault of a graduate student on Main Street. On Tuesday, The Dartmouth reported that the assault was being investigated as a hate crime by the Hanover Police Department. On Wednesday morning, interim Dean of the College Scott Brown sent a campus-wide email announcing the death of Joshua Watson ’22, who died in his hometown of Indianapolis on Aug. 27 while on leave from the College. At 6:19 p.m, the Office of the President at the College followed up by expressing “outrage” over the graduate student attack. Just two hours later, at 8:21 p.m., we learned of the death of a second classmate, Sam Gawel ’23, who died by suicide in Hanover on Wednesday. And just yesterday, College President Phil Hanlon announced that Luke Veenhuis, a Thayer researcher, died over the weekend.
In two years, at least four Dartmouth students have died by suicide.
This article is featured in the 2022 Commencement & Reunions special issue.
The turbulence that was the 2020-21 academic year will not escape the collective memory of the Dartmouth student body. Last year, mental health for many students was at rock bottom; COVID-19 policies were strict and students were feeling the disruption of an ongoing pandemic. This was especially difficult for the Class of 2024, as they transitioned into a new space without much support. Three first-year students — Beau DuBray ’24, Connor Tiffany ’24 and Elizabeth Reimer ’24 — died by suicide, and a fourth student — Lamees Kareem ’22 — died of a medical condition.
Dartmouth’s 50th annual Powwow, hosted and organized by the Native American Program, will take place on the Green on Saturday, May 7. The Powwow will feature dances, food and music to honor and celebrate Indigenous communities, according to Powwow co-chairs Ahnili Johnson-Jennings ’23 and Jess Meikle ’23. On Sunday, May 8, Hōkūpaʻa, the Pan-Pasifika student organization on campus, will hold the Dartmouth Annual Lūʻau on the Gold Coast lawn to celebrate Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander identity on campus, according to an announcement on the NAP website.
On Jan. 25, College President Phil Hanlon announced in a campus-wide email his intentions to retire in June 2023 after ten years at the helm of College administration. In the week since the announcement, students have expressed a wide range of opinions on Hanlon’s presidency and what they hope for in his successor.
On Tuesday, Jan. 25, College President Phil Hanlon announced in a campus-wide email that, after a decade at the helm, he will step down from leadership of the College in June of 2023. Shortly after this announcement, an email from the Board of Trustees praised President Hanlon for “steer[ing] the institution to ever greater academic excellence, inclusion, and impact.”
In many cases, what 2020 took away, 2021 brought back — chaotically. As Dartmouth and the nation slowly emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic under the protection of increasingly widespread vaccines, the community has grappled with the long-term impacts of the “return to normalcy,” from a housing and labor crunch to a new awareness of mental health on campus. Here’s a look back at the stories that shaped the year.
Most current Dartmouth students remember the hell this campus went through last year: Dealt a bounty of pandemic-related stressors, students’ mental health suffered tremendously over the course of last year, and three first-year students — Beau DuBray ’24, Connor Tiffany ’24 and Elizabeth Reimer ’24 — died by suicide within a matter of six months. In response to these deaths and years of complaints from students about Dartmouth’s mental health infrastructure, the College announced a four-year partnership with the JED Foundation, a national nonprofit that promotes emotional health on college campuses. The partnership began last week when the “Healthy Minds” survey was fielded to students. Over the next two years, that survey and other findings will be used to implement interventions on campus before the survey is readministered in the 2024-25 academic year. Some community members see this partnership in a positive light; one student referred to it as “a step in the ‘right direction’” in a recent article.
Updated 2:20 p.m., Oct. 31, 2021.
This editorial is featured in the 2021 Homecoming special issue.
This column is featured in the 2021 Freshman special issue.
Last July, five Dartmouth students conducted a study on student perspectives regarding the College’s planned COVID-19 policies. The Aug. 3, 2020 report, titled “Achieving Public Health Success at Dartmouth: The Student Perspective,” outlined concerns from the student body about student mental health, many of which materialized later in the year as student mental health declined and the College saw three deaths by suicide among members of the Class of 2024: Beau DuBray, Connor Tiffany and Elizabeth Reimer.
Matthew Magann ’21 hits on some very key points in his Tuesday article, “Resign, President Hanlon.”
On my graduation day, June 13, I published what I believed would be my last article in this newspaper. It was a bittersweet moment, saying goodbye to a place at which I had worked for years, first as a writer, then as editor of the opinion section, and finally as Executive Editor.
During spring term, C.J. Henrich ’24 learned that his friend had just discovered a student in her building attempting suicide. Henrich rushed to North Massachusetts Hall, where his friend lived, and he watched another student walk out with paramedics as he tried to comfort his friend. He said that everyone on Mass Row must have seen the ambulances.
Signs on the River Trail along the Connecticut River honor Beau DuBray ’24, one of the students who died by suicide this year.
In the best of times, Dartmouth’s 10-week term is notoriously demanding — it’s nearly impossible for most students to focus on anything other than their academics. In the worst of times, the intensive Dartmouth schedule is nothing short of debilitating. Students’ schedules leave little room for anything to go wrong, so if — or when — that happens, they struggle to balance their personal situations and mental health with the omnipresent pressures of life at Dartmouth. And sometimes, things go wrong for nearly everyone, especially when tragedy strikes on campus. Many would expect the College to be sympathetic to students in such situations, but too often, it is not. At best, Dartmouth ignores students’ cries for help; at worst, the College exacerbates their problems. When the situation calls for it — when events make it impossible for academics to be a student’s top priority — the College must recognize reality and give students a break from classes.