The Great Embarrassment

Another skirmish in the contest between the generations seems to have been won by the kids. Battle was joined when a thundering herd of '85 s crashed through police lines to form their class numerals on the football field at half time during the Princeton game, causing grave concern in administrative circles and leading Dean Ralph Manuel '58 to speak of mobs and riots and to lament the jostling and bruising of some Princeton band members. It was a great embarrassment to the institution," he said. The administration was reported to be hard at work devising a plan to prevent similar occurrences in the future, and there were rumblings of disciplinary action.

The students took the administration's ball and ran with it, refusing, for the most part, to be properly penitent. The wags at the Jack O'Lantern printed up and distributed to freshmen several hundred copies of a fictitious letter from a "Dean of 'Shmen" alleging that the recipient had been identified from photographs as a participant in the great embarrassment and promising dire consequences. People wrote letters to The Dartmouth urging a more positive approach, and senior Roger Lanctot wrote for the"D" an irreverent version of the incident, a parody of Genesis that concluded prophetically: "And the great God Wheelock patted the great Ralph on the shoulder, handed him a mug of rum and said, 'Bag it, my son. You don't have a prayer.' "

There was a long huddle involving the dean of the College, the dean of freshmen, the College proctor, and the director of athletics, which was followed by a powwow with the president, which was followed by a rather tight-lipped concession of defeat. In the future, said Dean Manuel, freshmen will have four to five minutes to construct their class numerals on the field before the bands come out. "There is no way we can stop them," said he. "We don't want them to go out there, but if they choose to go, they'll go," he added. "After they're done, we'll move them off, he explained.

Give us a home where Phi Gams once roamed, where Camerons and Burleighs played.