A Temple to Fitness
The biggest challenge of doing something new to Dartmouth is to do honor to the old. The College has done that in the ongoing expansion of its athletic facilities: it has built an ultramodern fitness center while playing up the strengths of lovely old Alumni Gym. All of the College's institutions—this magazine included— would do well do follow that example.
The John W. Berry Sports Center has some attributes that would have been unthinkable in a gym in the days before athletes worked out in front of mirrors. A dance studio, for instance. A see- through squash court with a port for video cameras. Even a lightfilled "center vault," shown at right, which lends a cathedral effect to this fitness temple.
As shown in this issue, which is devoted to sports, competitiveness has never been more complicated. Athletes now undergo mental workouts with a sports psychologist, stress tests that measure maximum oxygen uptake, and strength sessions on machines that isolate muscle groups. Dartmouth's athletic officials insist that the Berry center, with its state-ofthe-art fitness and testing facilities, helps put the College at the forefront of this revolution in sports science.
It will be years, however, before Berry acquires the hoary patina of Alumni Gym. Blindfold any lettered alum and lead him into the gym, and more often than not he will know where he is from the smells of sweat and polish that have been passed on by generations. While it undergoes needed renovation, Alumni Gym must never lose that special Old Ivy essence. A good gym isn't built in a day.
Neither is a good alumni magazine, of course. Readers may notice some changes in issues of late. The "Dartmouth Authors" column, for example, now excerpts books rather than reviewing them. This month we introduce a revised "Class Notes" department with shorter class columns along with highlighted material that we hope will be of interest to every reader, regardless of class.
More changes will follow. Throughout them we will attempt to retain the sweat and polish of generations that are the essence of this magazine and of every self-respecting Dartmouth institution.
