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The Dartmouth
June 13, 2025 | Latest Issue
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Opinion

The Next 'Project For Dartmouth'

By Anat Levtov | October 21, 1996

Like most of us, I go through stages when I seriously doubt my decision to attend Dartmouth. We are lacking in so many respects up here in rural New England -- not enough social outlets, not enough people, not enough culture, and really not enough snow.

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A Unified Community

By Holly Sateia | October 18, 1996

Given the recent discussions on campus about reviving the Indian symbol, I thought it might be helpful to share with the newer members of our community a statement former Dean of the Tucker Foundation Warner Traynham made regarding the Indian symbol.

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Examing the anatomy of a bonfire

By Jess Jacob | October 18, 1996

Crawling over a sixty-tier wooden tower, members of the Class of 2000 will have worked for two days on the Homecoming bonfire by the time it is set ablaze tonight. The structure, which looms over the Green, has come under restrictions in recent years. Ken Jones, the assistant athletic director who has overseen bonfire construction since the 1970s, said the restrictions are primarily for safety. The structure is made up of a 33-tier six-pointed star base which closes in to a 22-tier hexagon and tapers to a 7-tier square with class numerals on top, he said. The College regulates the shape and height of the bonfire and supervises its construction. Jones said the supervision of the bonfire creation was originally the responsibility of the First Year Office, but a former athletic director later accepted the responsibility. The shape of the bonfire structure may have originated in the Thayer School of Engineering, Jones said. "The structure of the bonfire is chosen for stability and is determined by the size and shape of the beams used," Engineering Professor Francis Kennedy said. "The goal was to build something tall without nails that can hold fill inside," he said.

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Editors' Note

By Jean Blackerby | October 18, 1996

Tonight, as the Class of 2000 takes its turns around the bonfire on the Green, they will be thinking many things, but the least of their worries will be where they are. But after the parties have discharged their last disoriented stragglers, and the bonfire is reduced a few smoldering beams, each Dartmouth student, faculty member and alumnus will have created a personal memory of this year's Homecoming. For the members of the class of 2000, it will be their first, and probably their most powerful, Homecoming experience.

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A Bastion of Civility

By Laura Mannix | October 18, 1996

Freshman fall, I could find nothing wrong with Dartmouth. The "College on the Hill" was my own private Utopia -- I had fallen in love with the picturesque autumn scenery, the students who seemed so good at balancing work and fun, and the professors who inspired me. Life was good, so I shoved all criticisms to the back of my mind.

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Students read during weekend

By David Kung | October 18, 1996

Not all students partake in the festivities of Homecoming. Even at Dartmouth there are those that find the weekend just like any other -- or perhaps far worse. With midterms just around the corner, some students cannot find the time to enjoy in the festivites of the weekend.

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Past bonfires loom large in history of Homecoming

By Lillie Ng | October 18, 1996

Tonight the College will enter its second century of Homecoming celebrations as the Class of 2000 joins upperclassmen and alumni for Dartmouth Night. One hundred and one years ago, the ceremony was inaugurated by College President William Jewett Tucker, who hoped the event would "promote class spirit and would initiate freshmen into the community." The purpose of Dartmouth Night was "to perpetuate the Dartmouth spirit, and to capitalize the history of the College.

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Law and order tested during weekend

By Kyle Marchesseault | October 18, 1996

For many students and alumni, Homecoming Weekend is the highlight of fall--three days of fun to make up for working the rest of the year. However, three days of celebration for most students translates to three days of work for those in charge of keeping Dartmouth's students and grounds safe. A special College committee prepares for the weekend months in advance, planning everything from the delivery of the lumber for the bonfire to the security at half-time of the football game. Members of the Homecoming committee include Sgt.

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Charles Simic's poetry lights up Sanborn

By Kelly Sidley | October 18, 1996

With a distinctive blend of humor and gravity, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Charles Simic delighted his audience with a poetry reading delivered before a full audience in the Wren Room of Sanborn Library yesterday. While speaking to a group of creative writing students before the public reading, Simic discussed the difficulty of making writing into a career, the poets and writers that have influenced his own work and the constantly difficult task of expressing the simplest ideas in clear, direct language. He includes Hart Crane, William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, the Surrealists, and modernist authors of the 1950s and 1960s as his influences. When asked to offer advice to a young student interested in making writing into a vocation, Simic said, "You really can't make writing a career ... The chances of anyone succeeding in any art are pretty small." He said, "You spend a lot of time practicing and then find out you're not very good." He urged young writers to work steadily, to read literature voraciously, and to "do something else in life so you can eat ... There's no short-cut." While many of his poems seem like they were breathlessly written -- that Simic jotted the lines down on a scrap of paper while waiting for his morning coffee to brew -- he stressed that he constantly reworks and analyzes pieces. He said he rarely suffers from "writer's block" since his numerous folders of old poems and ideas always give him material with which to work. Simic began his reading with six unpublished works. "Mummy's Curse" evoked the style of a "horror movie made in the 1950s," Simic said.

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Big Green football to battle Bulldogs

By Kevin Demoff | October 18, 1996

The Big Green return to Ivy League play this Homecoming Weekend when the Bulldogs of Yale come to Hanover to try and stop Dartmouth's 11-game unbeaten streak. Dartmouth, which is 4-0 for the first time since 1977 and received votes in this week's Division I-AA poll, has dominated the Bulldogs in recent years, winning the last seven contests.

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Local citizens flock to campus for Homecoming

By Michelle Gregg | October 18, 1996

As students gather in the center of the Green, continuing the long-standing Dartmouth traditions of running around and touching the bonfire, they may fail to notice another group standing on the fringes, a group for whom the bonfire has become just as much of a tradition. They are the local residents, adults and children alike, who take part in the Homecoming activities alongside the Dartmouth students. "The College certainly does encourage people to come to the events that are public, such as the football game," said Rick Adams, the College's public information manager. Adams said the College does not advertise Dartmouth Night solely for the purpose of attracting more bystanders. "There's enough publicity for the alums, and combined with the students, that's enough people," he said. "We have done news releases in past about Dartmouth Night," Adams added.

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The Best of Times and The Worst of Times

By Julie Sloane | October 18, 1996

Towards the end of the summer, as the rest of the college world was already humming with the new school year, we Dartmouth students had a little extra time on our hands for reflections on the past year.

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