The Undergraduate Chair
SOME months ago (i.e. last Monday) a group of 2800 very tired Dartmouth men began another semester. In Great Issues the opening speaker gazed at his audience and alluded to their state. He noted that there were two kinds of people in the audience - those who were already asleep and those who were about to go to sleep. "My task is defined as not interfering," he added. (Note to the Steering Committee: I have obtained security clearance for this quote.) Despite the fact that he gave one of the finest talks of the year, many admitted that they were so beat that they dozed despite themselves.
The week has been a hectic one for the campus. People have been running around getting settled in courses, seeing the Registrar for "Noes," and participating in interminable meetings. Saturday arrived none too soon and we were able to relax chained to our typewriter.
The big news of the week came in the form of three reports of plant changes that promise to add to the quality of Dartmouth life. The first concerned the Hopkins Center, that seemingly mythical structure that we have been awaiting for a good two decades and which seems at long last to be approaching reality. The plans for extensive recreational facilities seem to offer great opportunities for the improvement of student life. The new lecture hall facilities are eagerly awaited by those who have had to crane their necks behind the posts in 105 Dartmouth, not to mention The Players, who have had a case of perpetual claustrophobia.
There is no question but that the clean modern lines of the two new dorms to be built on the old Clark School field will add to the appearance of the campus. The extensive library and commons facilities and the provision for an adequate home for a faculty adviser should contribute greatly to better dormitory conditions. The only complaint we've heard is that eight men are going to have trouble partying in one living room, but minor problems like that should be easily surmounted by enterprising Dartmouth men. Besides the bedrooms are rather spacious - at least more so than most existing singles and doubles - and it should compensate.
Finally Miss Gill announced that students would have to pardon the inconvenience while Thayer Hall gets ripped apart in preparation for the completion of the remodeling project. What with part of the building closed to operations, she was forced to limit the number of upperclassmen contracting for the fourth quarter. The promised results bid fair to end the envy with .which the Harvard dining facilities have been viewed. Miss Gill is promising better preparation of food, served hot on genuine dishes instead of those tin trays left over from the V-12.
It's enough to make one feel like a character in that comic strip about being born twenty years too soon.
The Undergraduate Council started the semester by bringing up a plan for the honor system. To resolve the reporting clause dilemma, they have proposed a "flexible" clause. We hope it is flexible enough to please everyone.
Our debate team managed to roll back into town after spending Carnival in Florida, debating in my old Miami stamping grounds, where the University of Miami beat out ten rivals who probably were more interested in the sun and watersports.
One debater, Robert H. Gile '56, remained "South" — in Washington, D.C. - to organize the U.G.C. Conference on Political Affairs by consulting with interested parties, including his speakers - Senator Estes Kefauver and Presidential Adviser Harold Stassen. Bob is the conference chairman.
Back in Hanover thirty students were named to panels that will discuss a variety of political issues ranging from farm subsidies to foreign policy. Eight others were named to head the six panels (one of which is being chaired Cerberus-like by three men) and are in the midst of preparing discussion questions and bibliography for the guidance of the participants. One conscientious leader has been meeting with his Dartmouth cohorts for five hours in an attempt to set things up, and all expect the conference to be a huge success. Next month's column will contain a detailed report on the event.
Another "political affairs" conference took place on the campus last week under the auspices of the National Student Association (an event completely unbeknownst to all but an elite circle). The politics turned out to be NSA politics the international relations of the group. Seems like the French students are suspicious of the Tunisian students or something like that.
The Daily D was showing the shock of the week. A reporter discussing Vilhjalmur Stefansson's suggestion that Arctic travelers follow native customs of dress stated that the explorer's advice was "go naked." There was also a classified ad reading: Getting Psyched Up: don't pay a headshrinker - buy Dirty Dick's Do-It Yourself Psychoanalytic Kit. Complete with couch, introspection, a copy of the General Introduction [by Freud], and a set of autographed Phil 25 notes [a course that studies Freud in detail].
All of which goes to prove that Carnival can be a hell of a thing to recover from while starting a new semester. A Carnival post-mortem, discussing the inner workings of the weekend and the problem of getting students to pitch in and participate, follows this column, but we would like briefly to give our version.
The event begins sometime in the middle of Christmas vacation when you invite your first choice - you do this because you need time if, as likely, she refuses. As soon as this is finished you let things take care of themselves and start getting revved up for finals. At a convenient time like the day before exams start, the various College organizations start selling tickets and you have to stand in line for them. To get good seats you can either arrive four hours early to get a good place in line, arrive so late that all your friends have good positions and can buy your tickets, or you can play it cool and buy up the tickets of some shafted Sam at distress prices.
As exam tension continues, you begin to get excited over Carnival and the promise of merry sunshine it brings. By the time your date arrives, you will be expecting heaven and so will she. (God help the man who gets the word via Western Union that she can't make it. There is nothing for him to do but take the train home - and I had a wonderful weekend in Boston myself.)
The D.O.C. men are going frantically mad what with a million details to finish and a shortage of workers - not to mention this year's lack of snow. The snow god came through Monday with just enough snow to make statue-building feasible and a blizzard on Thursday made skiing possible. During the week, it was necessary to play musical chairs with the skiing events, the slalom alone being scheduled for three different places.
Then Carnival starts and to the surprise of cynics many people indeed have weekends that live up to expectations. For those who do not, "Dr." Dimick at the Nugget has the perfect remedy with a really entertaining film on Sunday night. Hordes of depressed students fill his seats (and on occasion the aisles) and if, as this year, he picks it correctly, they leave with spirits lifted. He also deserves credit for bringing up really entertaining movies during finals when good tension relief is badly needed.
A Report on the 1956 Carnival indicates that despite a collection of weird events, it was one of the best in history. Oddity number one was the nickname of lovely Carnival Queen Jane Barber. Seems she doesn't like her delightful given name (to which I'm partial because the last two charming Daily D secretaries bear it) and neither did her German nurse, who started calling Jane Putzie (Poot'sie), which means "sweet little thing" and it has since been Anglicized in spelling to Putsie. Then there was a fire in Gile, a flood in South Mass and no doubt a famine with all the eating places crowded. The traffic jam was the worst in history - more prosperity, not more people, commented Dean Art Kiendl. Less happy was a tobogganing accident in which a date broke her back. She will be in Dick's House for weeks recovering.
By Thursday after Carnival the center-of-campus statue had been dynamited (not before it had been climbed by the Mountaineering Club at 2 a.m.) and the College was back to normal.
Jane Barber, daughter of William H. Barber '21 of Manchester, N.H., was chosen Queen of the Snows at this year's Winter Carnival. Four other finalists standing behind her are (l to r) Carol Wiedenmayer, Alice Condon, Jean Carter and Barbara Rees. Miss Barber is a freshman at Bradford Junior College.
Ullr, Norse god of skiing, towered over the campus during Carnival weekend.
The Queen's escort, well attired for the job of standing around, was Jonathan Strong '56, son of the late Dean Robert C. Strong '24. He and the Queen are shown at the ski jump.
The prize-winning fraternity snow statuewas "Icequire" by Phi Sigma Kappa.
