Vanity of the Bonfires

THE HOMECOMING FIRE ON the Green is not what it used to be: it's cleaner, smaller, and comes with a town permit. But that hasn't stopped critics from throwing some cold water on the century-old tradition.

Worried about liability, officials have restricted the size of the fire to 80 tiers down from the soaring 115-story towers of the 19605. Freshmen are given just two days to build the thing in order to reduce the chance of rabble-rousing by upperclassmen. The changes in construction and scheduling accommodated the requests of a committee of students, administrators, and the Alumni Affairs office. Nonetheless, some students have raised more objections to the bonfire this year.

First, there's the price. The bonfire started out as a thrillingly toxic blend of old barns and scavenged junk. When railroads went belly up, the ties were stacked in a structure devised by engineering students. But now the state requires "clean wood" without creosote or other unhealthful preservatives. As a result, the College now buys landscaping ties and other untreated softwood lumber. Cost: more than $3,000.

Then there's the "waste" of wood. Last fall, students sent a flurry of letters to the Daily Dartmouth decrying the sacrifice of trees for such a purpose. "The dilemma: to weigh our haughty attitude of wasting resources against the momentum of a fan tradition," wrote Jonathan Kohl '92, founder of a paperless environmental magazine. For its part, the class of 1994 has begun funding a tree-planting program at the College Grant to compensate for wood burned in the fire.

Perhaps most damning of all, the bonfire seems in some campus circles to be symbolically incorrect. As early as 1981, the coed house Phi Sigma Psi accused the bonfire of being "a reminder of traditions and values that exclude much of the Dartmouth community."

The prognosis: while the bonfire will burn again this year, its future isn't certain. "With all of the concerns expressed in recent years, the bottom line is that some day there will probably be no bonfire," says Associate Director of Athletics Ken Jones.