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The Dartmouth
April 5, 2026
The Dartmouth
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Petition demands Berry Changes

By Jake Elberg | November 12, 1997

Joy Kenseth, the art history professor leading the movement to have the current plans for Berry Library modified, formally initiated a faculty petition yesterday, asking the College's Board of Trustees to halt action towards the construction of the library, which is currently scheduled to begin this spring. Kenseth, along with other members of the Art History Department, sent an electronic-mail message to all academic departments asking professors to sign a petition -- which asks that the exterior design of the building be more closely considered before construction begins. The exact language of the petition reads, "We the undersigned request the Board of Trustees to delay actions on the present plans for the Berry Library/Academic Center, especially its exterior design.

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Coeducation did not come overnight

By Maura Henninger | November 12, 1997

One day in 1971, a group of female exchange students forcibly "coeducated" the sauna in the "for males only" part of the gymnasium to protest the College's lack of facilities for women. Almost instantly, the women had won over some male converts to the cause of coeducation, as the men in the adjacent showers joined them -- either out of sympathy with their cause or so they could sit around with women wearing towels in a steam bath. When the director of the athletic department asked the group to leave, they refused.

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Coffin preaches love

By Katherin Weston | November 12, 1997

Peace and civil rights activist William Sloane Coffin, this term's Montgomery Fellow, stressed the importance of love and compassion not just in people's personal lives, but also in service to the community at large in a speech last night in 105 Dartmouth Hall. Coffin's address, titled "The Politics of Compassion," was delivered to a capacity crowd, with audience members crowding in the aisles and sitting on the floor long before the speech was scheduled to begin.

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Senior fellows pursue interests with independent study

By Kathrin Weston | November 10, 1997

While many seniors are laying the groundwork this term for their senior theses, a select few Dartmouth students are engaged in a more ambitious form of research: the senior fellowship. In choosing to become senior fellows, five students -- Brian Cina '98, Martin Kessler '98, Elena Reilly '97, Aaron Russo '98 and Onche Ugbabe '98 -- have committed themselves to going beyond the bounds of normal coursework to explore a given area of interest within their majors. Once they have met their distributive requirements, Senior Fellows are free to spend three full terms on their project, for which they receive credit equivalent to three courses. Candidates for the program, who apply for the fellowship during their junior year, must present a solid proposal of "intellectual value" -- a tight functional plan for their independent research projects, said Assistant Dean of the Faculty Sandy Gregg. In addition, those awarded fellowships usually have unique talents and interests as well as a burning passion for their project, she said -- and this year's group is no different. The working titles include "Representing Environments with Sound: Connections between Urban Dance Culture and Tribal Dance Ritual;" "Justice for the Poor Revisited: The Legal Aid Society of New York City and the Civil Legal Services Movement, 1960-1995;" "Venus and Adonis: a Masque for the Entertainment of the King;" "Agricultural Transformations within the Maya Communities of Western Guatemala" and "A Study in Musical Fusion." Senior Fellows are ultimately selected by the President of the College on the recommendation of the Faculty Committee on Senior Fellowships -- which is composed of the Dean of the College and two professors from each of the arts and sciences divisions. At the end of the fall term, the advisers and the Committee will evaluate and honestly appraise the students' progress.

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King calls for school choice as '90s civil rights

By Michelle Comeau | November 10, 1997

Dr. Alveda Celeste King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., addressed a group of 25 students last night in 105 Dartmouth Hall, delivering a speech in which she advocated school choice as the "civil right of the '90s." The 30-minute speech outlined King's concerns about the way our culture is moving.

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Kenseth to petition for Berry construction halt

By Jake Elberg | November 10, 1997

Art History Professor Joy Kenseth, who is leading the movement to have the current plans for Berry Library modified, said she will initiate a petition today to halt action towards the construction of the library until the design can be discussed further. Kenseth -- a member of the executive committee of the friends of Dartmouth Library -- said the petition will ask "that no further action be taken on the library until we can properly assess the impact this exterior design will have on campus as a whole and possible concrete solutions that could minimize what are now seen as troublesome aspects of the building." She said she will start the petition today by sending a BlitzMail message to the entire faculty. Dissension has arisen recently regarding architect Robert Venturi's proposed design for the 125,000-square-foot Berry addition to the Baker Library, with many faculty members saying the plan is not consistent with the character of the campus. In the meantime, Kenseth -- in what she called a setback for both her and the members of the Design Review Committee who oppose the current Berry plans -- was told Friday by College Provost James Wright she will be granted a meeting with just one of the members of the College's Board of Trustees later this week. Kenseth had been hoping to address the entire Board in an attempt to convince them to modify the Berry plans. The Trustees meet in Hanover this weekend, and Wright said the Board's weekend agenda has been set for several weeks -- and that the library is "not a part of any Board action at this time." He said he never suggested to Kenseth that she would be given a forum with the full Board of Trustees. College Trustee Kate Stith-Cabranes -- the chair of the Trustee Committee on Educational Affairs and Facilities -- will meet with Kenseth later this week, and Wright said he encouraged Stith-Cabranes to invite other members of the Board to the meeting.

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SA calls for better race relations

By Eun Lee Koh | November 6, 1997

The racial remarks recently published in the Jack-O-Lantern student humor magazine fueled a proposal by Student Assembly members directing the Assembly to take a leadership role in overseeing the problems of race relations and other concerns such as religion, gender and sexual orientation at the College. Members of the Assembly's Student Life Committee met Monday in a regularly scheduled meeting focusing on recent remarks in the Jack-O-Lantern and formulated a plan of action which was presented at the Assembly meeting last night. "It's the Assembly saying it's time to quit screwing around and pull all our resources together to deal with this problem," Vice President of Communications David Parker '00 said.

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Sears tells of Bosnian War horrors firsthand

By Andrew Allport | November 6, 1997

English Professor Priscilla Sears gave an emotional talk about her experiences in the war-torn regions of Bosnia and Croatia, and also emphasized the need for women to help bring about peace to an audience of 20 women yesterday in the Women's Resource Center. Sears, whose speaking style intertwined vignettes and historical facts, described the Bosnian countryside as "breathtaking," although the civil war had exterminated so much of its life that it "didn't seem real." The country had become a "garden of landmines," she said. Sears also read a short story she had written, "Rumours of Angels," which detailed the trip into Bosnia -- how the truck she rode in had to keep on the narrow road for fear of landmines, how the hotel she stayed in had recently been used as a "torture center" and how the guards at the Bosnian border had told her, "Welcome to Hell." Her experiences in Bosnia obviously had a profound impact on Sears, and at one point while telling an especially tragic story of a playground that had been hit by a mortar, Sears broke into tears and had to pause. Painful memories also moved members of the audience to tears as Sears related other atrocities of the war and criticized America and Americans for lack of involvement. In addition, Sears talked about the need for a Dartmouth Women's Studies program in a place where women's rights are truly suppressed, such as Kenya or China.

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New bridge opens for traffic

By Kimberley Tait | November 6, 1997

The Ledyard Bridge, the heavily traveled structure near Interstate 91 that has been undergoing extensive construction for two years, opened two eastbound lanes to traffic earlier this week. The construction of a new bridge to replace the old, deteriorating structure has been ongoing since 1995, and the opening of two lanes on Monday signals the halfway point in the project. The bridge -- which connects Hanover to Norwich, Vt.

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Building backlash is new to Dartmouth

By Hank Leukart | November 5, 1997

Although innovative architecture is often controversial, no building project at Dartmouth has stirred as much controversy as the plans for the Berry Library, which the majority of the Design Review Committee opposes. The Board of Trustees has never erected a building against the will of the Design Review Committee -- as seems possible in this case -- and the faculty have never mobilized to stop a building's construction, according to College Architect George Hathorn, who chairs the committee. It is too early to tell whether the faculty will oppose the designs by architect Robert Venturi, but 60 professors gathered in Carpenter Hall Monday to hear the committee's objections to the design. The architect who designed the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences, Lo Yi Chan '54, said some members of the Design Review Committee did not like Rocky when the plans were unveiled in the 1980s.

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