Students in an introductory engineering course last fall developed products to solve everyday problems like roller-skating on rocky roads and transferring a person from a wheelchair to a regular seat. Engineering Sciences 21, Introduction to Engineering, divides students into four or five person teams that must invent a product and develop a marketing strategy for it.
The Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center will start transporting patients to emergency rooms by a helicopter staffed with a specialized critical care unit in July. The staff will assist in medical care at the scene of severe accidents before airlifting accident victims to the most appropriate facility in the area.
Members of co-ed Greek organizations last night discussed establishing a constitution that would mark the first step in a proposed secession from the Co-ed Fraternity Sorority Council. But the houses did not vote on a constitution last night at house meetings, and probably will not this term, said Mark Griffin '96, president of the Co-ed Council, which has drafted a constitution for the co-ed organizations. Griffin said the council still has to look over the proposed constitution again, distribute it to the co-ed houses, vote on it and then submit it the College. "It's not near completion," Griffin said. The CFSC is an umbrella organization for the Greek houses and the various subcommittees, including the Co-ed Council.
An ad hoc committee of the Office of Residential Life has proposed renovations to the Choates dormitories that would create two-room triples and two-room quads by connecting adjoining rooms. The first part of the plan would create several two-room quads by removing the wall between rooms that are now one-room doubles.
Seven hecklers joined approximately 50 students who turned out at the Tavern Room in the Hanover Inn last night for The Dartmouth Review's fall open house. One protester said the conservative off-campus journal "makes many people at Dartmouth feel uncomfortable and we want to let them, especially the freshmen, know that there are people who strongly disagree with the opinions of The Dartmouth Review." The Review's president, Douglas Beekman, addressed critics who say the journal is a bastion for the opinions of conservative, white men. "If you're a white male, please come up to the office, or else we're going to start losing our reputation," Beekman joked. Following Beekman's speech on the business side of the Review, staffers showed a video of clips from national television shows that featured the Review. The clips, from news shows such as "Crossfire" and "60 Minutes," included a "20/20" interview with Professor William Cole, the former chair of the College's music department, who resigned in 1988 following a controversy in which the Review staffers severely criticized his teaching methods in class and in the journal. The video, which elicited much laughter from the audience, also included an interview with a former Review editor-in-chief who said Cole was "emblematic of one of the main problems at Dartmouth: if you seem oppressed you can get a job for life at Dartmouth." In his speech following the video tape, Review Editor in Chief Oron Strauss '95 called the journal's accomplishments "mighty" and cited the current absence of a gay and lesbian studies department at the College as one of the Review's "great triumphs." The College is the only Ivy League school that does not have a gay studies department. Strauss also called the Review a model for more than 100 papers nationwide that "defy the politically correct, liberal orthodoxy." Protesters laughed when Strauss said, "The only hate at Dartmouth is the hate directed at the Review." Strauss also mentioned that he and other Review staff members are often called racist by administrators and faculty who have never met them. Professor Emeritus Jeffrey Hart, a senior editor at The National Review, said the journal has kept the discussion on racism, sexism and homophobia going and "not let it sink to name-calling and intellectual bullying." He cited some of the achievements of former Review staff members and said "the editorship of the Review has been more diverse than [College President James] Freedman's own office." Hart said, "To work for The Dartmouth Review is one of the best things you can do for Dartmouth College." Hart said the Review was responsible for changes made this year to Social Issues Night, an activity held during freshman week.
Following a recent appeal by African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela for the end to economic sanctions against South Africa, the College is considering reinvesting in companies doing business there. The Council on Investor Responsibility, which makes recommendations on how the College should invest its money, has been asked to submit a proposal to the Board of Trustees at the board's next meeting, according to Trustee Chair E.
A Washington-based educational organization earlier this month named English and African American Studies Professor William Cook the New Hampshire Professor of the Year. Cook, an expert in African-American literature and one of the College's most popular professors, said he has been a successful teacher when "students are so inspired that they continue." "I've never been the great books, core-curriculum type, because developing a competent knowledge of the text doesn't empower a student to approach others," Cook said.
Twenty-three new professors in 15 different departments will teach their first classes this year as members of the College faculty. Stanley Abe joined the art history department and will teach this winter.
Two top deans of the faculty will step down this summer after completing four-year terms. Bruce Duncan, the associate dean of the faculty for the humanities, and David Lindgren, who is the associate dean for the social sciences, are in charge of hiring and promoting professors in their divisions and determining how much money each department should receive. Duncan will hand over his post to Professor Mary Jean Green, who is currently the chair of the French and Italian Department.
Motorcycle crashes in on party before the music even starts