The Undergraduate Chair
SPRING is here? Weil... yes. The snow is melting and the grass is through. However, after the fiasco of the last few weeks, no one dares express confidence that it's for real this time. We have hopes, however, because spring is our favorite season in Hanover and we do want the last one to be a good one.
Hanover springs are delightfully pleasant, what with the trees bursting forth and the grass regaining its greenness. The afternoons are occasions to spread out in the sunshine and pretend to study. Most students resort to the college lawns but I prefer to head to the bank of the Connecticut and watch the water flow by, not to mention the boaters. A winter of plodding through snow and the spring mud are both forgotten with the delight of spring fever.
Alas, as I write, we have not yet put the winter behind us, let alone the mud, but I already have the fever.
Spring vacation has become a memory for all but the Glee Club, which at this date is still out West on its tour. Reports filtering back suggest that they took the West with more aplomb than the U.S. Cavalry .complete with Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill and Rin Tin Tin. Leader Paul Zeller was, among other things, made an Admiral in the Nebraska Navy and, all in all, good will was created in huge quantities.
Less happy vacation news came in the first serious auto accident involving undergraduates this year. Two seniors returning to school early suffered major injuries when they crashed their car in Springfield, Vermont. They are currently confined to Dick's House.
When the College Chest Fund fell a few dollars short of its goal of $12,000, Belden H. Daniels '56 of Camp Hill, Pa., the drive chairman, was heard to remark, "The world's a farce." He thus became the first undergraduate to join the ranks of Socrates, Spinoza, and the Bible as a source of Daily D words of wisdom.
When the Green Key Prom comes rolling off in May, it will feature the music of Les Elgard.
Checking the calendar, I discover that I am within two months of graduation and that this marks my next-to-last column. Therefore, it is time to start winding up affairs with the beginning of a look ahead for both Dartmouth and the men of Dartmouth in the Class of 1956. Already the common question on campus is "What are you doing next year?" Increasing numbers of seniors can report that they have received the job of their choice or have been admitted to the graduate school they desired. There are, of course, some others who still cannot decide where their fate lies. They grapple between the non-remunerative but enjoyable and the tough but lucrative, or perhaps they reject both and cannot find anything that has appeal. They move forward rejecting possibility after possibility, and come June, who knows, they may find themselves.
As for the College, the years ahead show more and more promise, and envy for those who will be active participants is softened only by the fact that there will be great personal challenge ahead for those of us who are leaving.
Representative of the better things in store are the new dorms of contemporary design, which we have previously discussed with favor. The imaginative planning, in answer to present-day requirements of undergraduate work and social life, and the clean and vital form in which this planning will be made effective seem to have won the approval of the student body.
Postscript to Frank Pemberton and Sidney C. Hayward: The items on undergraduate slang suggest that either I've been travelling with the wrong people or the two writers have. I suspect that undergraduate slang varies among groups, for my definitions vary in several instances. One might suggest that the two writers "took gas" on the matter (i.e. the gas pipe - that is, they goofed. One may equally well take the pipe). Personally, I thought the "loser" had yielded to the "spook," not to mention the "winner" (who lived during my freshman year). There is of course "the tool" with his relative "the wedge" (simplest possible tool) or a Stanley (good tool). If things get bad and you've had it, the Dean tells you to "shape up" or "ship out."
I have currently been searching for the spook who uses "ipsy-pipsy," which I plan to couple with my personal use of "ickypooh." As for exams, the idea is to "handle" them (a nebulous term which means everything from downright chicanery to outsmarting the teacher by sheer brilliance or bull). In other circumstances people have been heard to say, "I can't handle it." But this refers to other matters, and let it be known that only the exams of certain professors are labeled bull and it's multiple, not many, guess. I always thought a "zip" was a flat zero. As for the quad gag, well the nearest I've been able to figure is that it's an elaborate joke with Smith College roots. Anyway, most of this slang is "bush" (as in bush leagues) and I'm not all over it (like a tent).
Finally, let us note that a rich part of undergraduate lingo can't be reproduced in a magazine that goes through the mails.
Milestones
The Dartmouth Directorate: President, George H. Stern '57, Elizabeth, N.J.; Editor, John D. Austin '57, Glens Falls, N.Y.; Business Manager, Peter Nessen '57, Brookline, Mass.
Quarterly Directorate: Editor, Christopher S. Wren '57, Marlowe, N.H.; Business Manager, Donald H. McCree Jr. '58, Gladstone, N.J.
Dartmouth Outing Club: President, Clark A. Griffiths '57, LaFayette, N.Y.; Vice President, Robert T. Dennis '57, Falls Church, Va.; Carnival Chairman, Charles H. White '57, Medina, N.Y.; Winter Sports Chairman, H. Anthony Williamson '57, Pawling, N.Y.; Cabin and Trail Chairman, Anthony H. Ryan '57, North Salem, N.Y.
WDBS Directorate: Station Manager, Frank A. Sauter '57, Riverside, Conn.; Technical Director, Adam T. Block '57, Long Island City, N.Y.; Program Director, Richard M. Harris '58, New Britain, Conn.; Business Manager, Merwyn Bagan '57, Millville, N.J.
Aegis Directorate: Editor, David C. Baldus '57, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Managing Editor, James B. Dawson '57, Verona, N.J.; Business Manager, David B. Sharrock '58, Ashland, Ohio.
Cosmopolitan Club: President, Mamoru Mitsui '58, Tokyo, Japan.
Phi Beta Kappa, Class of 1956: Richard I. Abrams, Lynbrook, N.Y.; Norman R. Angell, Needham, Mass.; Marvin L. Bender, Mechanicsburg, Pa.; Frederick C. Chang Jr., Memphis, Tenn.; John E. Cole Jr., Middletown, Dela.; Belden H. Daniels, Camp Hill, Pa.; Donald E. Dillon, Manchester, N.H.; Richard L. Gordon, Brookline, Mass.; Robert D. Hall, Philadelphia, Pa.; Leon E. Induni, Barre, Vt.; Henry R. Jaenicke, Stratford, Conn.; Paul Kreindler, Port Washington, N.Y.; John H. Krumpe, Staten Island, N.Y.; Robert L. Long Jr., Rochester, N.Y.; Donald N. Mackay, Stonington, Me.; Eric W. Mell, Prairie View, Ill.; Sidney I. Picker Jr., Sherman Oaks, Calif.; Preston V. Pumphrey, Port Washington, N.Y.; Chester A. Zinn Jr., York, Pa.
Interfraternity Council: President, Charles F. Schroeder '55, Evanston, Ill.; Vice President, Robert W. Holland '57, Chatham, N.J.; Secretary, Robert E. Lee '57, Cut Bank, Mont
Players: President, Richard W. Hume '57, Lexington, Ky.
DC AC Undergraduate Members: John H. LaMonte '57, Columbus, Ohio; James W. McDowell '57, Providence, R.I.; D. Monte Pascoe '57, Denver, Colo.
1960 Green Book: Editor-in-Chief, Stuart L. Fuld '59, Baltimore, Md.; Managing Editor, W. Thomas Margetts '59, Morristown, N.J.; Business Manager, Robert B. Friedlander '59, Brookline, Mass.
