Keeping the Faith
One of the pleasanter rites of passage - and newer traditions at the College - is the Senior Dinner, an occasion at which about-to-be graduates are welcomed into that preternaturally tenacious body known as Dartmouth alumni.
No secret handshakes here. Or anointing or heads or memorization of Latin incantations. The initiation consists of a good dinner at the Outing Club and informal discussion with administrators about the various avenues by which the faithful keep the faith.
The seniors seem to enjoy the affair. One - either extraordinarily enthusiastic or exceptionally hungry - is said to have contrived to attend on five separate occasions. The talk over pre-prandial beer or sherry tends to drift toward graduate-school applications and job interviews. Some of the guests seem wistful over leaving - especially if the weather lends itself to nostalgia about other, more carefree springs; some are impatient to get on with their lives.
After dinner the seniors and administrators gather in the main room under the portraits, the hunting trophies, and a telltale clean oval over the tall east hearth - the polar bear is out for refurbishing - to talk about the ways in which alumni contribute to the strength of the College. The Alumni Fund, of course - the seniors are surprised to hear that annual giving is enough to keep Dartmouth operating two months of the year, that student fees would be $1,OOO more per head were it not for the Fund. The clubs - 151 of them worldwide, so that few will ever be far from the support or companionship of other alumni. The communications links of class newsletters and The Bulletin and the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, which seniors now receive for part of their last year on campus. Recruiting and interviewing - the ways they can help to insure the quality of their successors in Hanover. Job placement - the opportunities other alumni may offer them or that they in time may offer undergraduates on leave or young alumni who come along later. Alumni Council - its role in the governance of the College. Alumni College and regional seminars - those periods of intellectual refreshment espoused by President Kemeny as an integral part of a Dartmouth education.
The groups are small enough for informal give-and-take, which occasionally ranges over current campus issues as well as alumni affairs. About 100 men and women are invited to each Senior Dinner, of which there were nine this year. They are usually clustered in the spring, although one is scheduled during fall term for those who expect to complete graduation requirements before Christmas, and two or three are held in the winter.
Students by tradition have looked at alumni variously as Santa Clauses, Beelzebubs, or pleasant, aging gentlemen hopelessly hooked on the past. At the Senior Dinner, they find that "they" is about to include "us," that in their turn they, too, may murmur "Now, in my day...."
X Delta's platform was a popular reading spot as warm spring sun put an end to mud-time.
