The College
SERIOUS issues to the contrary not-withstanding, spring and its accompanying fun and games did come to Hanover: the former belatedly and briefly, with only a two-week time-lapse between the last ice sighted on the banks of the river and the fading of the spectacularly blossoming trees flanking the west door of Baker library; the latter of infinitely greater durability.
Green Key Weekend took on a sort of beery nostalgia, celebrating the "Old Dartmouth" and bidding the fondest of farewells to the man who most symbolizes it to many undergraduates, Dean of the College Carroll Brewster, who departs this month to become president of Hollins College in Virginia.
The festivities commenced officially Friday afternoon with the annual Fraternity Hums Competition, with Dean Brewster judging for the last time. It was hard to estimate which of the entries was the bawdiest, but Theta Delta Chi took the cup and, as The Dartmouth put it, "Phi Tau brought up the rear, indomitable as always." Alpha Delt's one-man act played the William Tell Overture by popping his teeth together, and was the only one recalled for an encore.
Following the Hums, a "Brew Deanster," sponsored by the Interfraternity Council with refreshments free for all, was held in the backyards of Zeta Psi, Bones Gate, and Sigma Nu.
Friday evening the Dean, as he has for several years, emceed the annual Spring Sing in Spaulding Auditorium, where the Aires, the Distractions, and two imported ensembles, the Smithenpoofs and the Harvard Krokadiloes, offered more genteel and melodious fare to a packed house.
(Earlier in the spring two students who had Dean Brewster in mind "borrowed" the sign of Littleton veterinarian Richard Hill ["Dick's House for Small Animals"], posed with the sign for a proud photograph in front of the original Dick's House, and presented the photograph to the Dean with the inscription, "In fond memory of Dean Carroll Brewster and all that he stood for - John Lowell '75 and Helena Sias '77." Veterinarian Hill, who has five Dartmouth brothers, also got his sign back.)
Chariot Races on the Green started at 9:30 Saturday morning, with infinite tumult, ingenious rigs, apparent peril to life and limb of all involved, and the ultimate victory of no one.
The Green Key Society, in a move to promote class spirit and restore their weekend to earlier eminence as the spring collegiate bash, sponsored Saturday's first annual Inter-Class Competition for a cup donated by the Class of 1963. For accumulated scores in bladderball, a tug-of-war, softball, and volleyball, the freshman took the Green Key Cup hands down, managing even to defeat the combined muscle of all three upper classes in the revival of the tug-of-war.
A few indefatigable revellers, along with Dean Brewster and a brassy segment of the Marching Band, were on hand at 5:30 Sunday morning to wish bon voyage to 41 intrepid souls in a flotilla of 14 canoes and two kayaks as they set off on a five-day paddle-to-the-sea, commemorating John Ledyard's 1773 departure from the College.
The 220-mile Connecticut River trip, revived by the Ledyard Canoe Club in 1921, this year included undergraduates, exchange students, local canoe enthusiasts, several recent graduates, and Ben Drew '32, at 65 making the long paddle for the second consecutive year. The voyageurs portaged around several dams and dangerous rapids and made overnight stops at the Bellows Falls fire station, the Northfield-Mount Hermon School, the Holyoke jail, the Loomis School, and Connecticut's Hurd State Park, arriving May 16 at the mouth of the river at Old Saybrook, to be entertained by members of the Southeastern Connecticut Dartmouth Club.
The Ledyard flotilla of canoes and kayakswas photographed in front of the SaybrookLight at the end of the 220-mile voyage.
Big Green troikas and latter-day Ben Hursexecute a splashy turn at May Chariot Race.
ROTC: Trustees Say Yes Steps to restore an on-campus ROTC program "compatible with the values and standards of the College" were endorsed by the Board of Trustees at its Commencement weekend meeting. The Board delegated three of its own members - F. William Andres '29, William H. Morton '32, and Berl Bernhard '51 - to negotiate with the Defense Department and, pending the outcome of those talks, study a possible "cross enrollment program" with the Army ROTC at nearby Norwich University. Earlier in the year, the Dartmouth faculty voted overwhelmingly against reestablishing an ROTC program.
