1935

Those of you who have computers, and are linked with the Internet, must know about the College website (i.e. "home page" in cyberspace jargon). The site is packed with current information about the College, and for this news-starved scribe, it is a welcome source of column material.

From I learned this morning that for a kid to attend Dartmouth this fall his/her presence in Hanover will cost more than $30,000, give or take a few thousand, and that the price is so high the College finds it necessary to give $40 million in financial aid to more than half of the student body.

Which makes me think of the Great Depression, when a D-education could be had for around $1,000,, and even that was too much for many of us. Ten dollars a week was a lot of money in our day, enough, however, for three meals at an off- campus "eating club," occasional ticket to the Nugget, a frappe or two at Allen's, books, and so on. Nowadays, and again quoting from the website, room and board cost $6,495, tuition and -fees are $23,012, books are estimated at $585, and an incoming freshman is required to have a personal computer, cost around $1,600.

There are over 12,000 PCs and work stations on campus; all dorm rooms, classrooms, faculty offices, administration, and so on, are wired together in a huge information network. And think, when we were in College, there was one campus cop (Spud Bray), and among his duties was room searches looking for radios and jugs of cider. Radios were banned when we were freshmen.

Another interesting statistic, this from the office of student life, is that only 47 percent of male undergraduates join fraternities, versus 49 percent for women. Most recent student headcount (fall '96) had 2,039 male and 1,854 female students.

Not much in the category of news this month except for letters from LouBookheim in San Diego concerning the death of Rudy Pacht (reported last month); from Bob Carr's widow, Helen, about moving from Vermont to a motherin-law apartment with daughter Sally and family in Trumbull, Conn.; from DeroSaunders (before leaving for England), with an advance copy of his Tear Bag; and a couple of phone calls from Yank Price (he's also been to England) about the October mini-reunion (material for next month's column). See you later.

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