Alston: Waste Your Vote
(11/02/12 3:00am)
This year, I'm going to waste my vote.
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This year, I'm going to waste my vote.
Dartmouth students are fortunate to have the opportunity to not only profoundly influence the coming election, but also to engage with each other about differing political views. While the overall Dartmouth community may swing to the left, the results of our recent poll of the student body illustrate that diverse views permeate this campus, and those voting Republican this year represent a substantial minority ("Poll finds students favor Obama," Nov. 2). Dartmouth's student body also includes a sizeable number of third-party supporters, adding another dimension of political diversity to the campus community.
Much to my chagrin, today's column will be my last before the 2012 election. I'll be saddened to see Nov. 6 come and go because paying witness to free and fair elections is a proud right of all Americans. I'm not saddened because I'm worried about the results (and the impending Armageddon), and I'm certainly not upset that I will be missing all the hoopla brought by the campaigns over the last two years.
The women (12-4, 5-1 Ivy) are first up and will take a six-game win streak into their game against Cornell University at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Although Dartmouth cannot win the Ivy championship outright, a win against the cellar-dwelling Big Red (1-13-1, 0-5-1 Ivy) would guarantee that the Big Green finishes no lower than second. If second-place University of Pennsylvania (9-5-1, 5-1 Ivy) can knock off first-place Princeton University (12-3-1, 6-0 Ivy) and Dartmouth can beat Cornell, then Penn, Princeton and Dartmouth will finish in a three-way tie for first place, sharing the Ivy League title. The conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament would be decided by a coin toss.
One of the keys for the Big Green will be getting off to a strong start, as sluggish first-half performances have often placed the squad in impossible holes this season. Last week against Harvard, Dartmouth went down 21-0 at halftime before opening the second half with a pair of touchdowns to bring the game within a touchdown. Ultimately, Dartmouth was unable to come all the way back.
Unidentified male outside of FoCo: I actually tried shrooms as an appetite suppressor, you know, to, like, stop the munchies. Turns out it just makes everything look like food.
Bring the Keg Jump back. Have you seen the YouTube videos? Haze the crap out of the freshmen by forcing them to run around a giant bonfire. Oh wait... Move Winter Carnival to the summer, Brazil-style. In preparation, build a beach off of the Connecticut River to accompany it. Green Key nope, we wouldn't change a thing. Insert a new big weekend just for upperclassmen during Orientation week, comprising several days of absolutely nothing and culminating in a school-wide Capture the Melon competition. Free T-shirts for all!
It is no secret that a lot of the things that fraternities and sororities tell their new members to wear are silly and, in light of the College's new policies, no longer required. But at a school as old as Dartmouth, for houses that have been on campus for a long time, the gear you spot on their pledges may actually be a part of their history.
It's hard to miss an athlete on campus. Armed with heavy duffle bags of gear and the latest Nike sneakers, it appears that Dartmouth varsity athletes have rightly squared themselves with popular media portrayals of the "college jock." Equally hard to miss are the throngs these athletes often form, whether they are eating in a dining hall or walking together to practice they represent a team in every sense of the word, and that includes their unique traditions.
Ranging from trampolines to tutus, bequests are an important Dartmouth tradition that tie students to the past and unite us with the future, more closely connecting us with campus organizations as older members depart and allowing us to cement our own legacies when we are the ones leaving.
The uninformed and uninitiated on campus probably think of members of the Ledyard Canoe Club as scruffy, sparsely showered masterminds responsible for time-tested Dartmouth staples like the Ledyard Challenge and the War Canoe. But digging deeper, there is more to these adventurous kayak enthusiasts: They invented two of the College's most intimate and unique traditions, Sophomores from the Source and Trip to the Sea.
In the early 1900s, Junior Prom was one of the most anticipated events of the year. Prom started in 1899 and consisted of a weekend of dances, sporting events, music and "prom girls," who would come up to the then-single sex Dartmouth, according to an 1899 program for the event. Prom was suspended during World War I, but sometime afterward, it morphed into what is now known as Green Key weekend.
There is a certain atmosphere of paranoia that comes with your senior fall at Dartmouth. After three years of accepting this place as your home, you suddenly feel like you've been strapped to a time bomb, ticking away the precious seconds until someone hands you a diploma and your life explodes. This stress manifests itself in two ways first, you start to look back, reflecting on your time at Dartmouth.
Dear Gardner and Kate,
Last weekend, there was a lot of self-imposed pressure on seniors to make the most of their last Homecoming as undergraduates to go out every night and have loads of fun, all while looking good in green the next day and attending every tailgate and sports game. Or maybe I'm projecting the pressure I felt to do it all, which I ended up failing to do when I somehow managed to nap through the football game.
Notable among these is the old tradition of freshman beanies. Incoming Dartmouth students were required to buy green caps emblazoned with their class numbers in large white text to identify themselves as new members of the community. The custom began in 1911 and continued until 1969, when freshman from the Class of 1973 last wore the beanies. On our contemporary campus, the wearing of the caps would likely be seen as hazing, especially because there was undoubtedly an element of degradation and subservience associated with the tradition.
Now that Priya and I are seniors and our reign of terror as Mirror editors is almost at its end, we can't help but get a little nostalgic every now and then. In fact, it's almost necessary that we drench you with some sap since this past weekend, the two of us attended our last bonfire as Dartmouth students we proudly ran a lap and then bowed out to heckle the worst class ever as they circled the blaze. When you think of Dartmouth traditions, you usually think of moments like this the bonfire, your freshman trip and the Polar Bear Swim. But some of the most memorable traditions at Dartmouth extend beyond Trips and big weekends. So this week, we wanted to take a look at the less frequently discussed traditions that still play an important role in many of our Dartmouth experiences. After participating in many different kinds of Dartmouth traditions for the fourth consecutive year, things that seemed pretty bizarre my freshman fall have become some of my favorite memories. At a place like Dartmouth, it's impossible to escape the fervor surrounding age-old traditions both big and small, and Priya and I thought it would be worthwhile to understand the history behind the items, activities and events that we treasure so much and pass on with care to younger classes in hopes that our legacies will live on.
