To Fix Up Webster Hall, Take a Cue from Plato

Our contest winner would make the old building a new academe.

LAST APRIL we asked alumni, "What Should We Do With Webster Hall?" More than 200 readers replied with proposals that ranged from aweinspiring to, well, awful. The majority of entries echoed ideas already on the table that is, to turn Webster into a library or an auditorium. Following some distance behind were plans for an alumni shrine and a debate hall. Only six people wanted the building razed.

Many readers would make Webster a center for a special activity. Geoff McGean '84 wants it to become "a world-renowned environmental studies center. Ours is a small planet," he wrote, "and to survive there must be those who love it."

"Webster should be a center for peace and goodwill," offered H. Russell Davis '34 of Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Alfred Cotton Jr. '64 of Worcester, Massachusetts, said the hall should be made a "Center for the Future" that would serve as "the focal point for research and study in support of President Freedman's 'new' Dartmouth."

Lance Bertelsen '69 of Austin, Texas, would transform Webster into an allnight study center. The building would have quiet spaces, a food concession, an exercise room (with cold showers), and a "crash" room for cat naps.

And then there were the truly original entries:

Jim Conway '72 of Hollis, New Hampshire, suggested that the hall become a station for a new monorail system designed to solve Hanover's traffic problems. "Webster always reminded me of a train station," he wrote.

Marc Capobianco '78 of San Francisco, who clearly doesn't pine for the chill North, wanted Webster "turned into California House" a gathering place for Golden State residents. The reason? "College is hard enough and shouldn't require sacrificing such cultural staples as redwood hot tubs, volleyball on the beach and fresh cilantro."

He should meet fellow sun-seekers Linda Beane '84 and Chris Collimore '85. Beane, of Stoneham, Massachusetts, wanted the place renamed "Club Web" and retrofitted into "a tropical health club/disco retreat for the winter months." Collimore, from Fort Collins, Colorado, suggested converting Webster into a solarium"a tropical getaway to cure students' winter blahs and pale skin."

After much loud debate, the editors decided to award the prize to Brad Denny '63, whose proposal to "recreate the academe" seemed best to reflect the liberal-arts spirit. Mr. Denny receives a $100 gift certificate from the Dartmouth Bookstore.

In the Academe of Plato's time, thought crossed all bounds in the search for wisdom. Our own times are much more complex. The class of "citizens" is more encompassing. Scrolls, the abacus, storytelling and the solitary human mind have been supplanted as the primary repositories of knowledge and understanding.

Still, the possibility for recreating the Academe exists in Webster Hall. Its proximity to Baker suggests digital links to the library and conversion into a small lecture hall combined with individual and small group spaces for study, discussion and reflection. Webster's position near the center of campus suggests the central position which the intellect should play at any institution of higher learning. The building's classic architecture lends a timeless symbolism to the enterprise.

It is an honor that Dartmouth challenged me again to use my intellect. I wish to throw that challenge right back to the College. Use Webster Hall to create a new Academe.

What would that loverof classics, DanielWebster '01, sayif his namesake wereto serve the intellect?

Proposal: Use Webster For A New Academe