COMMENCEMENT PLANS

The Commencement of 1918 will be a "war time Commencement." The exercises will not be omitted or materially curtailed, but a new atmosphere will prevail. To release college men for earlier summer work, vacations have been omitted, and the dates of Commencement set at May 24-27. Returning alumni need have no fear that the shortened period and the influence of the war will result in a Commencement less interesting to them than usual; the peculiar features of this gathering of undergraduates, seniors and alumni, all alike pledging their allegiance to their country and their College, promise to make it unique in Dartmouth annals.

President Hopkins, desirous of the presence of a large number of alumni at Commencement, has written the following letter to be sent out with the usual Commencement notices:

"I wish to urge the presence this year of every alumnus who can possibly arrange to come back to the College.

"Dartmouth's effort has been persistently to keep up its program, and to do its work in Hanover, as well as afield, with purpose intent upon the needs of both the present and the future. We hope to have the Commencement season significant alike to those two groups of the senior class: the one which felt the call to lay down its College work and to enter service at once; and the other to remain to complete its course before making any other move. We anticipate the presence in the senior class at that time of many of the men in the service. We hope! for the inspiration of the reunion classes in numbers as little depleted as possible. We hope also for the support of a considerable body of individual graduates outside of those who return for class reunions.

"It is not a one-sided proposition, for the alumnus who returns for a Commencement generally finds it more worth while than he had counted upon. I wish to emphasize, however, that it is a part of the responsibility of those of us who are graduates of the College that the men of the senior class who have remained to complete their course, and the men in service who are to return for the day to which they have long looked forward. shall have the opportunity of assembling' for the final day of their College course under conditions as little unfamiliar and as little lessened in attractiveness as the alumni can make them.

"It will be an occasion that alumni should not miss. It will be an occasion likewise that ought not to be under the necessity of missing the presence of its friends."

A military flavor will be given to the exercises of the period by the presence of many Seniors, it is hoped, who will return on leave from the various Army and Navy camps at which they are stationed, in order to receive the diplomas which the Trustees have voted them. In addition, it is planned that a picked company of Freshmen from the military course in the College stay over to act as an escort to the various processions on Saturday and Monday.

A large proportion of the undergraduate body will probably remain in Hanover this year to witness the Commencement ceremonies. This is made possible by the early date of closing, and by the fact that the Class Day exercises will take place on the day following that of the last examinations instead of a week later as is usually the custom. Many of the fraternities have consequently planned house-parties for the Commencement period. All in all, although an unusual one, this Commencement should prove no less interesting and enjoyable than any previous occasion.

The complete program follows:

Commencement exercises of the one hundred forty-ninth year of Dartmouth College, nineteen hundred eighteen:

Saturday, May 11—Evening, "Wet Down" Exercises, Initiation of Palaeopitus, College Dinner to Senior Class.

Sunday, May 12—Vespers: Senior "Sing Out."

Friday, May 24—Afternoon: Alumni Council Meeting; Evening: Organ Recital on the new Rollins Chapel organ.

Saturday, May 25—Morning: Review of Freshman Battalion, Alumni Association Meeting, Baseball, Dartmouth vs. Amherst. Afternoon: Meeting of Phi Beta Kappa Society, Class Day. Evening: "Hum" and Band Concert, Play by Dramatic Association, Promenade Concert.

Sunday, May 26—Morning: Baccalaureate Address, Dr. Willis Butler; Afternoon: Band Concert; Vespers: Memorial Service to Dartmouth men who have died in the war, conducted by President Hopkins; Evening: Reunions of Fraternities and Societies.

Monday, May 27—Morning: Prayers in Rollins Chapel, Commencement Exercises; Noon: Alumni Luncheon; Afternoon: President's Reception; Evening: Commencement Dance.