The Smorgasbord
During the regular school year, the 100-room Hanover Inn, owned and operated by Dartmouth, is the focus of conference activity. Its six meeting rooms range in size from the Overseers Suite, with a reception capacity of 30 people, to the Wheelock Room, which can accommodate up to 100 people. Connected by a covered walkway to the 200-year-old inn is the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts, which contains the Drake Room, with an 80-person capacity, and Alumni Hall, which can handle a 600-person reception or a 350-person banquet. Extra classroom space is sometimes available at the Tuck School's Murdough Center, which contains a tiered-row auditorium that seats 350 people, three 75-seat classrooms, and a 40-seat seminar room, as well as an assortment of smaller rooms for discussion groups of 10 to 15 people.
During the summer, approximately 15 dormitories and the College dining halls are available for conferences. Three of the dorms have threequarter bathrooms connected to each room, and all offer blankets, linens, telephones, ice, mail/message delivery, and cleaning service. "It's like a hotel service on a smaller scale," said Linda Hathorn. Most people, she said, enjoy staying in the dorms: "They want to feel like they're in an educational atmosphere. And they are students. I haven't heard about people hating the dorms. It's like being back in the rah-rah college days. I think they really enjoy it."
One of Dartmouth's more unusual offerings is the Minary Conference Center on Squam Lake in Holderness, New Hampshire, about an hour from Hanover. This manor house on 25 waterfront and wooded acres was donated to the College and has eating, sleeping, and meeting accommodations for groups of 10 to 30 people. A resident couple, John Lowell '75 and his wife Carrie, cook meals and take care of all the details of a meeting. And after business, conference participants can play tennis or golf, or boat, ski, or skate.
The Conference Center office does what it can to fulfill special requests, such as picnics at the Dartmouth Outing Club or Storrs Pond or the Tom Dent Cabin. Groups in the past have requested everything from greased watermelon contests to elegant soirees in the Jaffe-Friede Art Gallery. The Kiewit Computation Center is also available to assist with computer hookups, and Dartmouth s Office of Instructional Services and Educational Research provides assistance with audio-visual equipment.
