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Dartmouth College
- This article should include material from Dartmouth college aquatic facilities, Dartmouth College Glee Club , Dartmouth College Men's Reserve Team and any not-yet-merged marterial from Dartmouth College student life
Dartmouth College is a four-year private liberal arts college located in Hanover, New Hampshire (USA). Founded in 1769 by the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock and Samson Occum under royal charter of King George III of Great Britain, Dartmouth's original purpose was to "Christianize", instruct and educate "Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land ... and also of English Youth and any others." Dartmouth is the smallest college in the Ivy League.
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The College
In 1819, Dartmouth College was the subject of the historic Dartmouth College case, in which the State of New Hampshire attempted to amend the College's royal charter to make the school a public university. Daniel Webster, an alumnus of the class of 1801, presented the school's case to the Supreme Court, which found the amendment of Dartmouth's charter to be an illegal violation of a contract, and prevented New Hampshire from taking over the college. Webster concluded his defense with the words,
- It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet there are those who love it.
Dartmouth's motto is Vox Clamantis in Deserto, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness" (a reference to John the Baptist as well as to the college's location on what was once the frontier of European settlement). The school's color is a forest green. The sports teams go by the name Big Green, a nineteenth-century nickname that is considered more politically correct than the former mascot, the Dartmouth Indian. Dartmouth was strictly a men's college until 1972, when women were first admitted as full-time students and undergraduate degree candidates.
At about the same time, Dartmouth adopted its unique "D Plan", under which year-round operation allowed an increase in the student body (with the addition of women) without enlarging campus accommodations. The year was divided into four quarters corresponding with the seasons; students were required to be in residence for at least one summer during their college career, and spend at least one autumn, winter, or spring term on leave. One wag described it as a way to put 4,000 students into 3,000 beds. Although new dormitories have since been built, the size of the student body has also increased and the D plan remains in effect.
Dartmouth is governed by its Board of Trustees, which includes the college President, the state Governor, seven (Charter) trustees nominated by the board itself, and seven (Alumni) trustees selected by the Association of Alumni of Dartmouth College , a body created in 1854 representing over 60,000 alumni.
Dartmouth College comprises the undergraduate college of roughly 5,000 students as well as a small graduate school and three other professional institutes, the Dartmouth Medical School (1797), the Thayer School of Engineering (1867), and the Tuck School of Business (1900). With these graduate programs, conventional American usage would accord Dartmouth the label of "university"; but for historical and nostalgic reasons (such as the Dartmouth College case) the school as a point of pride continues to use "Dartmouth College" for the entire institution, rather than just the undergraduate liberal-arts program.
Famous graduates and students include former US Senator Daniel Webster, former Chief Justice of the United States Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, Theodor Seuss Geisel (renowned children's author Dr. Seuss), poet Robert Frost, and former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller of New York.
Dartmouth was formed through efforts of three puritan ministers, the Revs. Eleazar Wheelock, Nathaniel Whittaker, and Samson Occom (an early Native American clergyman). They raised funds for the college in England through an English trust whose benefactors and trustees included several prominent English statemen, including King George III's Secretary of State for the Colonies in North America, William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, for whom Dartmouth College is named. Dartmouth College is the ninth and last colonial college.
Presidents of Dartmouth College
• Eleazar Wheelock (1769–1779) • John Wheelock (1779–1815) • Francis Brown (1815–1820) • Daniel Dana (1820–1850) • Bennett Tyler (1822–1828) • Nathan Lord (1828–1863) • Asa Dodge Smith (1863–1877) • Samuel Colcord Bartlett (1877–1892) • William Jewett Tucker (1861) (1893–1909) • Ernest Fox Nichols (1909–1916) • Ernest Martin Hopkins ('?) (1916–1945) • John Sloan Dickey (1929) (1945–1970) • John G. Kemeny (1970–1981) • David T. McLaughlin (1954, Tuck 1955) (1981–1987) • James O. Freedman (1987–1998) • James Wright (1998– )
Nelson A. Rockefeller Center
The Nelson A. Rockefeller Center is a center for interaction and discussion on public policy. Dedicated in 1983, the center stands tribute to Nelson A. Rockefeller (Class of 1930). Known on campus as “Rocky,” the Center provides students, faculty and community-members opportunities to discuss and learn about public policy, law and politics. Sponsoring lunch and dinner discussions with prominent faculty and visitors, the Center aides provides close interaction and discussion.
The Rockefeller Center has established a Public-Policy Minor at Dartmouth College and an exchange program on political economy with Oxford University (Keble College). In addition, the Center provides grants to students engaged in public-policy research and/or activities.
Student Life
Musical activities
As of 2004, student musical groups include the Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble, the Dartmouth Glee Club, the Dartmouth Chamber Singers, the Dartmouth Aires, the Dartmouth Cords, the Dartmouth Dodecaphonics, the Dartmouth Gospel Choir, the Handel Society of Dartmouth College, the Dartmouth College Marching Band, the Dartmouth Rockapellas, the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, the Dartmouth Wind Symphony, and the World Music Percussion Ensemble.
The Dartmouth Wind Symphony is comprised mostly of non-music majors. In addition to performing on campus, each winter it presents a joint concert another college or university's wind ensemble, such as Yale University, MIT, McGill University, and the New England Conservatory.
A cappella singing groups
Dartmouth Cords
The Dartmouth Cords are an all-male singing group which was founded in 1996 and have usually consisted of around 15 members. The Cords are known for wearing corduroy pants to every performance. Their eclectic repertoire has always included pop, rock, hip-hop, and Dartmouth songs. Voice parts include tenors, baritones, basses and vocal percussionists. The group incorporates choreography, comedic skits and visual media to enhance their shows.
Auditions for the group are held at the beginning of every fall term. Every Winter term, the Cords go on a Winter Tour traveling to sing at colleges and venues throughout the country. Every Spring term, the group holds a Sing-Out, where Cord alumni from past years come back to Dartmouth to sing Cords’ songs old and new.
The Cords’ CDs, Elements of Style 2002, Against the Grain 1999 and Accordingly 1997 have won awards from the national collegiate A Cappella organizations CARA and BOCA .
Dartmouth Dodecaphonics
The Dartmouth Dodecaphonics (Dodecs) is an a cappella created in 1984. They sing mainly contemporary pop music, with arrangements by such artists and groups as the The Calling , Maroon 5, Guster, Evanescence, and Alanis Morissette. They also sing doowop favorites, '80s songs , traditionals, Dartmouth songs, and sometimes disco. Dodex was the first Dartmouth group to be recognized on Boca , a compilation a cappella CD, with their rendition of the Smashing Pumpkins' "Drown." As of 2004, they are working on their fifth album.
Dartmouth Rockapellas
The Dartmouth Rockapellas (often called "The Rocks") is one of three all-female a cappella groups on the campus. They were founded on February 7th, 1989 with a musical and also a political purpose: to spread social awareness by performing "freedom songs."
The Rockapellas has typically consisted of around 16 members from diverse backgrounds. Their repertoire of over 100 songs includes hip-hop, country and pop. They have toured the United States, the Bahamas and Hawaii, competed in the International Championship of Collegiate Acappella ICCA tournament, and have been featured on the ICCA's BOCA CD.
The Rockapellas' recordings include BARE 2003, Velvet Rocks 1999, Think On These Things 1996, and Off the Track 1994 and, Definitions 1992.
Dartmouth Wind Symphony
Consisting mostly of non-music majors, the Dartmouth Wind Symphony (DWS) performs three official concerts a year, one each academic term (except for summer), at the college's performing arts center.
The DWS also plays joint concerts each winter term with another college or university's wind ensemble. Past exchanges have taken place with Yale, MIT, McGill, and the New England Conservatory . On these exchanges, the DWS plays one half of the concert while the visiting school plays the other. The DWS also visits the other school and plays half the concert there.
The DWS has hosted many special guests for its concerts, including the New York Philharmonic's Phil Smith , and the long-running star of Broadway's Phantom of the Opera, Ted Keegan . These guests usually play a few selections with the Wind Symphony as well as solo pieces on their own.
Marching Band
The Marching Band is a "scatter band" like every Ivy League Marching Band except Cornell's. During each show the band writes a half time show which is read over the loudspeaker as they scatter into different formations, and they play a song related to the show.
The band continues to play the fight songs that were played during the very first football games. These songs include “Dartmouth’s in Town Again”, “As the Backs Go Tearing By” and “Glory to Dartmouth”.
The band boasts many skilled musicians, even some music majors, however they also include a kazoo section as well as a “liquid percussion” section in which liquid containers (kegs and jugs) are used as percussion instruments.
Every homecoming the band doubles in size as alumni come back in their sweaters knitted by the Faculty Advisor’s wife and marches with the band. There are two alumni who have come back for over 50 homecomings.
The uniform consist of white pants and a green blazer for football, and green and white striped rugby shirts for basketball and hockey.
Drama and performance
The Harlequins is the only student-run musical production organization at Dartmouth College. It was founded in 1995 and produces musicals. Its first production was Godspell, a musical about the new testament written by Stephen Schwartz, performed in Dartmouth Hall in 1995. Other productions have included Guys and Dolls, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum "(2001) by Stephen Sondheim, "Taxi-Cabaret "(2002), Jesus Christ, Superstar , Love, Sex and Everything in Between(a revue done in fall,2002), "A Chorus Line(2003), "Little Shop of Horrors"(2003) by Alan Menken, That's Entertainment(a revue done in fall, 2003), The Last Five Years (By Jason Robert Brown) (2004), Pippin(2004)(By Stephen Schwartz), Your A Good Man, Charle Brown (2004) and the first summer show A Summer Revue produced in 2004. The Summer Revue consisted of 18 musical numbers from musicals as diverse as Adam Guettel's [Myths and Hymns]], Cy Coleman's City of Angels, Andrew Lloyd Webber's [Sunset Boulevard], and Jason Robert Brown's [Songs For a New World]". As of 2004, the group consists of over 300 student singers, intrumentalists, production staff-members and officers, and hopes to put on additional shows at Dartmouth each term in the coming year.
The Hopkins Center
The Hopkins Center ("the Hop") houses the college's drama, music, film, and studio arts departments, as well as a woodshop, pottery studio, and jewelry studio which are open for use by students and the public. Its façade is a replica of Manhattan’s Lincoln Center. Facilities include two recital halls and one large auditorium. It is also the location of all student mailboxes, and the Courtyard Café dining facility. It adjoins and is connected to the Hood Museum of Art and the Loew Auditorium, where movies are shown. The Hopkins Center is an important New Hampshire performance venue.
Winter Carnival
Winter Carnival is, as of 2004, a 94-year-old tradition at Dartmouth College and was particularly famous during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.
The Dartmouth Outing Club, founded in 1909, organized a winter weekend "field day" in 1910. This was an athletic event centered on skiing, a sport which the Outing Club helped to pioneer and publicize. In 1911 the event was called Winter Carnival, social events were added, and women were invited to attend. By 1919 the emphasis had shifted to dances organized by fraternities. Special trains made runs to transport female attendees to Dartmouth, and National Geographic Magazine referred to it as "the Mardi Gras of the North." The event became famous, much as Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale was to be in the 1950s and 1960s.
It was the subject of the 1939 frothy motion picture comedy Winter Carnival, starring Ann Sheridan, who plays a former Winter Carnival Snow Queen who makes a bad marriage to a European duke, and revisits Dartmouth in an attempt to save her younger sister, the current Snow Queen, from repeating her mistake with a European count.
The movie is remembered mostly for its extracinematic associations; F. Scott Fitzgerald and Dartmouth alumnus Budd Schulberg were hired to write the screenplay. While gathering background in Hanover, Fitzgerald drank so much at fraternities that it became scandalous and he was forced to leave the project. Although portions of his work were used, he was not given a writer's credit. The events and personalities bear a resemblance to those recounted in Schulberg's novel, The Disenchanted.
Winter Carnival takes place each year on a weekend in February and include such events as: ski competitions on Dartmouth Skiway; a polar bear swim; a cappella and jazz concerts; a human dog sled race; a drag ball; and a showing of the 1939 movie. A Carnival-themed snow sculpture is erected in the college green. The 1987 sculpture currently holds the Guinness record for "tallest snowman."
Numerous parties are thrown by the campus's fraternities and sororities. In 1999, these parties were cancelled by the Greek system itself to protest more restrictive administrative policies. To protest the banning of kegs on campus, a snow sculpture featured a grinch sitting on a beer keg.
Dartmouth Night
Dartmouth Night starts the college's traditional Homecoming weekend with an evening of speeches, a parade, and a bonfire. Traditionally the freshman class builds the bonfire and then runs around it for a predetermined number of times; the class of 2006 performed 106 circuits, the class of 1999 performed 99.
In 1888, students from all four classes built the first bonfire, using wood from the forests around the college, to celebrate a baseball victory over Manchester. An editorial in The Dartmouth criticized the fire, saying:
- It disturbed the slumbers of a peaceful town, destroyed some property, made the boys feel that they were being men, and in fact did no one any good.
The students nevertheless continued to build bonfires, both before athletic events and in celebration of victories, and five years later, the college officially recognized them.
President William Jewett Tucker introduced the ceremony of Dartmouth Night in 1895. The night was created to celebrate the accomplishments of the college's alumni. Originally the night consisted of long speeches, but over time other events began to become more important and popular.
Richard Hovey's Men of Dartmouth was elected as the best of all the songs of the College at Dartmouth Night in 1896. In 1904, the Earl of Dartmouth visited the campus on Dartmouth Night with his companion, the young Winston Churchill, and marched around the Green with the students.
Football first began to be associated with Dartmouth Night in the 1920s. Memorial Field was dedicated on Dartmouth Night in 1923. For decades the raucous pre-football rallies remained separate from the dignified official activities. In 1936, the College first began the tradition of Homecoming games; ten years later the formal College events and the rally were combined in a single grand event, and for the first time Dartmouth Night was intentionally scheduled on Homecoming.
In the 1950s, a hexagonal structure for the bonfires was adopted. Following the tragic bonfire accident at Texas A&M in 1999, professionals were hired to do the bulk of the building. The tug-of-war between the freshman and sophomore classes has faded from the nights festivities. Nevertheless the night still remains a highlight of the school year.
Clubs
Dartmouth Mountaineering Club
Founded in 1936 by Jack Durrance, the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club (DMC) is part of Dartmouth College's Outing Club. It is a student-run club dedicated to exploring climbing around the world and introducing beginners to the sport. The nearby climbing areas most frequented by members of the club are Winslow Cliffs near the Dartmouth Skiway; Rumney, an East Coast sport climbing venue that attracts climbers from as far away as Montreal and Boston; Cannon Cliff in Franconia; and Cathedral and Whitehorse Ledges near North Conway. Every term, the club runs four beginner trips out to either Rumney or Winslow, one intermediate/advanced trip to Cathedral or Cannon, and one weekend trip to the Shawangunks in New Paltz, New York. In the winter, DMC clubbers ice climb at Holt's Ledge, Rumney, and Crawford Notch on Mt. Washington. When spring break rolls around, the DMC ventures out West to climb in a warmer locale for two weeks. For the past two years, Red Rocks, Nevada has been the destination of choice.
DMC members seeking adventure can apply for money from the Mountaineering Club Expeditionary Fund. Initially established in 1963 as the John E. Breitenbach Memorial Fund and later renamed in 1973, its stated purpose is to fund expeditions planned and executed by club members. After their travels, once they are back on campus, the students present a slide-show of their experiences to the Dartmouth community, so sharing what they learned and accomplished.
Dartmouth Film Society
The Dartmouth Film Society is one of America's oldest student-run film societies. Established in 1949 by Maurice Rapf '35 [1], and Blair Watson '21, the DFS is an important center of film culture in the Upper Valley area.
The DFS presents a themed series of twenty or so films each academic term. "The Open Road," for example, featured road movies, while "Breakthroughs" presented the breakthrough films of various directors, writers, and actors. The films are projected twice weekly onto a 16-by-28-foot (5-by-8.5-meter) screen in the college's arts center auditorium and are open to the public.
The film society meets regularly to discuss the films exhibited and to develop new series proposals.
The DFS also organizes annual tributes to film artists; honorees have included Meryl Streep, Buck Henry, Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, and Budd Schulberg.
Athletics
As of 2004 Dartmouth College hosts 34 varsity sports: sixteen for men, sixteen for women, and coeducational sailing and equestrian programs in sailing and equestrian. This place it among the top United States colleges and universities in this regard. In addition, there are twenty-three club sports and twenty-four intramural sports.
Nicknamed "The Big Green," Dartmouth's varsity athletic teams compete in NCAA Division 1 as well as in the eight-member Ivy League conference, which includes Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania. Some teams also participate in the ECAC (Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference). Dartmouth athletics have earned several high honors, excelling in NCAA championships ranging from track and field to basketball, cross country to soccer, as well as skiing, golf, lacrosse and diving.
Dartmouth hosts many athletic venues. Dartmouth College Alumni Gymnasium, the center of athletic life at Dartmouth, is home of the Dartmouth College Aquatic facilities, basketball courts, squash and racket ball courts, indoor track, fencing lanes as well as a rowing training center. The college also maintains both indoor and outdoor track facilities, hockey arena, foot ball stadium, rowing boat house, and tennis complex.
As is true of all Ivy League schools, Dartmouth College does not offer athletic scholarships, yet is home to many student athletes. Currently many as three-quarters of Dartmouth undergraduates participate in some form of athletics.
Dartmouth Womens Crew Team
Coached by Molly McHugh, Kate Woll and Chris Schmidt, the Dartmouth Womens Crew Team ranks among the most competitive college programs in the country. The team considers itself very lucky to have the Connecticut River as its rowing venue. The over 15 miles of rowable river is only used by the Dartmouth Crew Teams, Hanover High School Crew and local scullers, so water time is not hard to schedule and traffic is minimal. Highlights of rowing on the Connecticut include frequent flat water, and gorgeous leaves in the fall. Downfalls include the late thawing of the ice in the spring and avoiding icebergs for the first week back on the water.
Women’s rowing at Dartmouth was founded as a varsity sport in 1975. Over the past 30 years of rowing the team has graduated three rowers that went on to compete in the Olympics. This reputation has made for a very popular program. Each year the team avidly recruits inexperienced freshmen to walk on, welcoming them to make an impact on the team. These walk-ons make up more than half of the team while the rest are recruited women, totaling nearly 60 at the beginning of the fall. Through cuts and self-selection, the freshmen compete in two or more eights by the time spring season comes around. They are led by a large varsity team, generally made up of around 30 women.
The team puts in about 16 practice hours a week, consisting of long endurance building rows, short piece workouts and weight training. Every day, each member of the team pushes herself past her limits. While the fall and spring are spent on the water, the most important training of the year is done in the winter. Our indoor facilities consist of over 30 ergs, an indoor rowing tank and Manley Weight Training Gym in the Dartmouth Athletic Center. The Friends of Dartmouth Rowing Boathouse boat bays are converted into winter training facilities. Here the team is able to practice on slide ergs on which trains of four erg together, practicing following as they erg.
The Friends of Dartmouth Rowing Boathouse serves as the home for the Womens Crew Team. It is this building, completed in 1985, where the women of the crew team can be found six days a week training for competition. As part of one of the most competitive college leagues in the nation, the EAWRC, the women set lofty goals each year in hopes of further program growth and success.
See also
External links
- Dartmouth College website
- The Dartmouth — the USA's oldest college newspaper
- Dartmouth's Alumni Association
- Dartmouth webcam
- BuzzFlood — Recent News about Dartmouth
- Books — Faculty book publication list
- Dartmouth Skiway
- The Mardi Gras of the North History of the Winter Carnival
- 2004 Winter Carnival Celebration: "Oh! The Places It Snows: A Seussentennial"
- IMDb: Winter Carnival
- Dartmouth's Hopkins Center for the Arts
- Dartmo.: The Buildings of Dartmouth College
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Categories: Articles to be merged | Universities and colleges in New Hampshire | Ivy League | Dartmouth College