Dr. Wheelock's Journal
Divers Notes & Observations
THE GREAT BLIZZARD IS now a tradition-respecting Sea of Mud, even at the Skiway, which managed to stay open through the first week of April, the secondlongest ski season on record. The College's Trustees were also still thinking snow last month; they approved purchase of a chairlift to replace the aging one on the Skiway's Winslow side. Funds will come from an internal loan to be paid back from skiing revenues. So while the future of the Skiway is no easy schuss, reports that it was to close have proven premature. N
Not so for the 70-year-old ski jump at the Vale of Tempe. The NCAA had discontinued jumping as an intercollegiate sport in 1980. Salvage crews moved in to begin carting the iron off for scrap, but not before one last hurrah: a final jumping meet held in late March for alums and friends who, over the years, added to the legend and lore of the nation's first (and, at the time of its demolition, last) collegiate ski jump. We're not sure what became of the old boards on the jump's inrun, but the Outdoor Programs office may have missed out on an entrepreneurial opportunity if it didn't sell some remainders as mementos.
IN THIS SPACE RECENTLY WE'VE lamented the apparent snail's pace of construction on the new steam tunnel connector across campus. Friends at Buildings & Grounds have chided us, pointing out that the project is now fully six months ahead of schedule and nearly a half-million dollars under budget. We've been assured that North College Street will be repaved and reopened in time for Commencement in June, and that the installation
of steam pipe, power lines, fiber-optic communications cable, and sundry other arteries and veins could be completed by September. The tunnel will also accommodate the recently announced NYNEX shuttle, which, for the cybernetically challenged among us, is not a solution to Hanover's fabled parking woes but an electronic device that allows huge amounts of data to be transmitted over telephone lines. A cooperative project of Dartmouth, NYNEX, and New England Telephone, the system will make the College's library and other educational resources available to students at several New Hampshire and Vermont schools.
IN TUNE WITH THE SEASON, last month more than 8,500 envelopes went out from Admissions, 2,090 of the fat variety. As the number of applicants continues to increase, so does the academic impressiveness of those admitted: the median and mean SAT scores are the highest ever, and 30 percent were valedictorians of their secondaryschool classes.
Another rite of spring is The Dartmouth's annual hunt to discover the identity of the year's Commencement speaker. (We're not sure exactly why this is kept a dark secret in the first place, except to provide a stimulating challenge to student reporters.) This year the student journalists finally scooped the College with an announcement that Presidential press secretary-turned investigator of myth and legend Bill Moyers will address the class of 1993. The paper also reports that honorary degrees are going to author Carlos Fuentes and poet Seamus Heaney, Carnegie Institute Director Maxine Singer, and former Trustee Chair George Munroe '43.
One other spring rite worthy of note is the annual Senior Symposium, the graduating class's Great Issuesstyle "intellectual gift to the College." This year's theme, on ethics in the workplace, was notable not only for its scope but for the marquee quality of its participants. Speakers included consumer advocate Ralph Nader, tabloid journalist Maury Povich (who spoke oxymoronically to some on ethics in the popular media), and former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett "Chick" Koop '37.
One more sign of spring: the election among three alumni candidates of a new member of the Board of Trustees. The just-announced winner is Susan Dentzer '77, senior editor at U.S. News & World Report and a former chairman of this magazine's Editorial Board.
The Skiway gets a new prognosis, while the ski jump gets a k death warrant.
