Next to Godliness

1810

Among the regulations posted in the dorms: "No paper, matches, apple cores, or solid matter of any kind should be put in a slop hopper."

18 7 5

Freshman Clifford Smith sends a laundry package home to his mother with a note explaining, "You will see that my wash isn't quite as large as we expected ... one shirt does quite well enough for a week."

1904

For an additional $15 per year residents of Thornton Hall have baths, indoor toilets, and janitorial service.

1938

Each semester Buildings & Grounds paints the bathrooms in Crosby Hall. Half a century later, John Scotford '38 recollects in his reunion book that "in the layer of new paint could be found the slow-of-foot roaches forever entombed in Sherwin-Williams Dusky Beige."

1942

The residents of Crosby Hall embark on a crusade to rid the dorm of rats. Hockey sticks and broadswords do not work, but traps do. The first two victims are nailed to the Doric columns on the front porch.

1952

Budget cutting prompts the College to discontinue dormitory bed-making and room-cleaning services. Unlike their Princeton peers, who stage a sitdown strike in response to a similar budget cut, Dartmouth students show no signs of concern.

197 6

Waterbeds larger than six by seven feet are prohibited.

1983

The College requires that carpets on fraternity floors be "intact, odorless, clean, without litter, dirt, stains, or beer residue."

1992

The student handbook states, "It is not the custodian's job to clean a student's room of excessive messes left in common areas." M

The unmade bed is notunique to this century.