THE COLLEGE
The nip in the air, the football squad practicing on Chase Field, the calendar on the wall all proclaimed fall; but, figuratively speaking, it was spring-time in the life of the College last month as the new freshman class, young and full of vital juices, flocked into town to begin their educational blossoming. A week later the rest of the undergraduates followed, and amid all the scenes and happenings that are familiar and repetitive, and at the same time fresh and revitalizing and exciting, Dartmouth College was off to a good start on its 185th academic year.
To an overflow student-faculty audience in Webster Hall on the morning of September 23, President Dickey delivered his eighth Convocation Address, to launch the new year officially. Many new faculty faces were there along with the new Class of 1957, numbering 729 men. Total enrollment for the fall semester cannot yet be reported with the exactness of the freshman figure, but it is expected that last year's total of 2,839 men will be approximated. Twenty Korean veterans are spread throughout the four classes this fall.
The freshman class, assembled from 43 states and ten foreign lands, is somewhat smaller than last year's entering class of 745 men. The first installment of '57s arrived as early as September 12 when 175 freshmen hit town for the annual D.O.C. mountain trip. On September 17 the entire class began a six-day orientation program that left the freshmen with little spare time on their hands. With class meetings; ROTC briefings; faculty adviser conferences; language placement tests; aptitude, proficiency, reading, hygiene, vocational interest, and physical ability tests; medical examinations and x-rays; registration and matriculation, the freshmen had a rugged start.
In the evenings, with the new Sophomore Orientation Committee in charge, the freshmen were treated to a sequence of torchlight Cheerleading in the Bema, learning Dartmouth songs with Professor Zeller in Webster Hall, seeing Dartmouth movies, meeting the football team at a special rally, attending a student activities meeting, followed by a Dartmouth House reception, and finally meeting "People You Should Know" in a class assembly in 105 Dartmouth Hall. The 67-man Sophomore Orientation Committee was established by the Undergraduate Council in an effort to give the freshmen a better and more personal introduction to Dartmouth life. The black-hatted S.O.C. worked hard at its job and came back a week early in order to do it. By the time the rest of the upperclassmen reached town, the freshmen knew they were loved and welcomed even if life did become harsher.
