Fresh frosh crop comes to town

From Neil Abramson to Wendy Zug, the 1,035 members of the class of 1989 have begun the process of forming themselves into a Dartmouth Class-with-a-capital- C. Aiding in that effort is, among other traditions, a booklet known officially as "The Freshman Book: 1989."

By the time Freshman Trips are over and classes have begun, readers of the much-thumbed little volume will have discovered that the class includes representatives from all but three of the 50 states. New York, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey are among those claiming the lion's share; Arkansas, Nevada, and West Virginia are those with no representative.

And there are 19 foreign countries ranging from Poland to Peru and England to Ethiopia - to which letters on life as a Dartmouth freshman will be winging their way this fall.

That information can be gleaned through the numerous indexes accompanying the alphabetical photoname-address listings. In addition to a geographical index by hometown, there's also a more localized geographical directory - by Dartmouth dorm.

And eminently handy in tracing the classmate met at the Moosilauke Lodge or in the checkout line at the Dartmouth Bookstore is a first-name index. The directory cautions, however, that not only must variant spellings (such as Sean or Shawn) be kept in mind but that "the name given the editors may not be the one you know (e.g., your friend 'Goonie' may have told us that she or he preferred Chris)." Replete with the expected Bills, Beths, Mikes, and Lisas, the first-name listing also yields one "Twerp" Scheeler (known to his parents as Wayne) and a "Juice" Jordan who might answer to Damien. And then there's William John Joyce Jr. who will allow his classmates to call him by the nickname of "Mr. Joyce." One wonders whether he'll extend the courtesy to his professors when classes begin.

Though Dartmouth is rife with traditions that span decades, the cost of an education is not oneof the things that has stayed the same through the ages. Just in the last twenty years, the College'stuition and its total budget have grown nearly six-fold. /Is the 1986 fiscal year gets under way,a look back at the figures of 1976 and 1966 is an exercise in rueful nostalgia.

The ornate capital of this massive column in front of Webster Hall is an attractive architecturalsetpiece-and an attractive nuisance to pigeons, only partially deterred by the crown of spikes.