The Undergraduate Chair
THE ALUMNI Winter Carnival, which will take place over the week-end of February 19th and aoth, is, for many reasons, more attractive in anticipation than ever before. It looks as though there will be an abundance of snow; the Inn is offering added winter sports facilities, varying from a St. Moritzlike meals-on-the-ice service to a daily ski school; and there will be several skiing races that week-end: the Women's Eastern Slalom Championship, the College championships, and informal races run by the D. O. C. and the Inn. Offhand it seems obvious that if you've come to Hanover before for the Alumni Carnival you'll want to come this year, and if you have never come, this is a good year to start.
Coming back to the present, we find college settled back into harness after the Christmas vacation. Several announcements greeted the returning students. One of the more important items brought to undergraduate attention was the publication, by the Alumni Council, of a pam- phlet entitled The Needs of DartmouthCollege. This folder includes suggestions for improvements ranging from the building of a million-dollar auditorium to the establishment of a fund to provide retirement allowances. The alumni probably know more about this than the undergraduates, but they shouldn't feel that the undergraduates are disinterested or that anything done by the alumni and friends of the College is too casually appreciated.
Also announced the first day of classes was the expected dissolution, at the end of the year, of the Dartmouth chapter of the Theta Chi fraternity. A lack of members was the reason ascribed for what will be the fourth fraternity to disband in the last eight years. The Dartmouth described the collapse of the Theta Chi chapter as being due in part to a lack of funds, resulting in turn from a lack of members which made it impossible for the fraternity to build a fine, new house and get more members. That, it seems to us, is not the true reason. We feel that there is no one reason, no traceable single cause for the decline of a fraternity. We also feel that a fraternity can be successful in its own eyes, and in the eyes of the college without being rich, without having one of the better chapter houses. The implied criticism of fraternities—that there is a constant race, with successful perpetuity as the goal, to see which fraternity can build the biggest, newest house—is, to our mind, unwarranted.
Speaking of building, the college, as a result of proposals made by the interdormitory council, is starting work on the social rooms in three dormitories. Wheeler, Streeter and Middle Fayerweather will have new rooms built, and the present social rooms in North and South Massachusetts Halls and in Hitchcock Hall will be reconditioned. In addition to this beginning of the process of providing all dormitories with social rooms, the college is going to paint the corridor walls of dormitories a lighter color, to give more light and do away with the cell-block atmosphere. In the early fall we noted the great decrease, near cessation, of the familiar interdorm fights that usually occur during the first days of college. It's beginning to look as though dormitory life will eventually become a more gentlemanly form of existence. We hope it is not prudery to say that mature behavior in the dormitories is more desirable and just as masculine as the old, roistering way.
The announcement of the approval of these social rooms, etc., came out in the Special Carnival Issue of The Dartmouth. This special edition, which was sent to many Alumni, was a bit of pre-event publicity for Carnival. Somehow Carnival seems closer than mid-year exams. It is widely talked of, even this far ahead.
Last year a Bostonian said to us, "How unfortunate that your Carnival gets so much publicity!" We feel that there is nothing unfortunate in the publicity itself. The size of the non-Dartmouth crowd is something that might be criticized, but these crowds are still being successfully controlled, and as long as they are, no serious objection should be made to the publicity that brings them. They are, after all, largely composed of winter sports enthusiasts, and in our experience persons with that interest are friendly and likable.
The attitude of the Bostonian, not be- cause the two are similar, but because they deal with the same type of thing, reminds us that we want to join forces with William F. Rice '95, who objected, in the January issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, to the use of the term "Big Green" as used in reference to Dartmouth teams. Mr. Rice objected because he feels the term "smacks a bit of bravado." We object for that reason and also because the term, while it is supposed to suggest the well-known gusto of spirit found in the teams themselves and in the undergraduates, in reality, when it is used by Dartmouth men, it indicates a self-consciousness about that spirit which is detrimental to the true spirit.
Continuing our report, after this "opin- ion-digression" we find that Aldous Huxley spoke to a capacity audience in Dartmouth Hall on January seventh. Mr. Huxley's carefully given, clearly thought out talk was another of the extremely interesting "evenings" that have been enjoyed and appreciated by the students this year. Brought to Hanover by the Junto and the English department, commented on by Professor Allan Macdonald the day before he was to speak, Mr. Huxley drew a larger audience than most of the speakers who have been here this year.
As though with an eye to the coming examination period, when all such things will be suspended, the various winter athletic teams, intramural and varsity, began and continued in a burst of activity. Interfraternity and interdormitory competition is an established and regular thing now, accepted by everyone and participated in by many. This year, incidentally, a new group has been added to the field of intramural competitors. Interclub ski races, one of which has been held already, will be run at intervals this winter; and the more enthusiastic of the competitive-minded skiers who are not on the varsity or freshman squads will have a chance to enjoy the thrills of competition.
Two entertaining events of the week of January 10th, though of a slightly different nature, may be mentioned together because they can both be praised in somewhat the same terms. On Tuesday, January nth, Lotte Goslar, interpretive dancer, appeared in Webster Hall and gave what was termed by many an amazing performance in which color, grace, drama and ingenuity were equally displayed. The next day out on Oak Hill thirty members of the varsity and freshman ski squads put on an exhibition for the benefit of the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital Auxiliary Fund. Color, grace and ingenuity were certainly displayed in the splendid runs down the course which was, in spots, quite icy; and obviously, in an exhibition by a group of such high general caliber, there was drama too.
Held just in time to catch the MAGAZINE on its way to press, the results of the freshman class officer elections were announced on January 13th. Louis A. Young Jr., who captained the freshman football team, was elected president. Young, who prepared at the Hun School, lives in Narbeth, Pa., and is the son of the former Pennsylvania football coach. Lionel Trudeau, of North Adams, Mass., a graduate of the Westminister School, was chosen vice president. Esmond Crowley, of Danvers, Mass., a graduate of Clark School, was made secretary, and Richard Spillane, who prepared at Loomis, and lives in Bloomfield, Mass., is treasurer.
A FAMILIAR SCENE DURING WINTER CARNIVAL Main Street proves inadequate for foot and automobile traffic during the gala week-endprogram. It is estimated that Hanover's population of students and residents is doubledfor the two days when the Outing Club's Winter Carnival becomes a focal point ofsocial and winter sports interest.
