Don't Lose the Extras That Make Dartmouth What It Is

OKAY, LET'S GET this straight: you're a high school senior with top grades and board scores, and you've gotten into Dartmouth and a state school. For $10,000 a year, you can enroll in an honors program and study with Nobel laureates. For more than double that amount, you can go to Dartmouth. What will sway your decision? Academics alone? Our alter ego above would say yes. But then, when has our alter ego ever been right?

What makes Dartmouth worth a whole lot more money than a state school is its promise to educate the whole person. Since its inception, the College's leaders have understood that the classroom isn't everything, that bodyand soul count too—that, in fact, body and soul aid the mind when all are healthy.

The fact is, many of what our counterpart calls "frills" are themselves educational. Dartmouth spends much more money on programs in the residence halls than most of its competition. The Ravine Lodge puts on concerts and lectures and encourages students to explore Mt. Moosilauke's unparalleled environment. And as for the Skiway and other programs devoted to body and soul, there's a reason why Dartmouth is filled with smart, happy students. They are healthy in every sense. Doesn't that rate a priority?

Dartmouth is not foundering financially. There still are places to be trimmed before the Skiway and other non-academic programs have to go. In fact, the College is still talking about adding programs. Does it really need dozens of overseas programs, many with weak enrollments? Does it really need a new center to teach teaching skills to professors? Until the "academic frills" get trimmed, let's not talk about the programs dearest to many hearts, such as the Skiway For when you cut the Skiway and other facets of the Northwoods, you're not cutting budgetary fat. You're cutting spiritual bone.