Campus News and Notes
Pity the poor valedictorian. With only days to prepare a speech to deliver before a crowd of thousands at Commencement, it's no wonder words of wisdom don't always come easily. On the other, hand, there seems to be no shortage of unusual , euphemisms, strained metaphors and other oratorial oddities. Here, a sampling of excerpts front valedictorian speeches of the past 100 years.
The College on the Hill, AlsoKnown As...
"...a cohesive community of shared values like the Amish Church."
-Michael Lowenthal '90
"A 'country club,' yet one with a definite function, both academic and social."
-Douglas Wildes '78
".. .an isolated spot of peace, happiness and culture..."
-Albeit J.Colton '47
"...four perfect years."
-Charles M.Pearson '42
"...more than a multicolored fall morning, more than a cold winter afternoon or a wonderful, sentimental spring evening."
-Richard Babcock '40
"...the stage for the drama of our lives."
-Robert Lewis Kaiser '39
A Fountain of Metaphors
"The Berlin Walls of tomorrow will fall only if we, with intellectual and ideological bulldozers, take it upon ourselves to raze them to the ground."
-Aly S.Jeddy '93
".. .but the shadows we have cast here are waxing as the sun of our college days sinks now beneath the horizon which is our graduation."
-W.Brian Barnes '85
"These are, however, but the labor pains preceding the birth of a richer Dartmouth' experience."
-Michael David Danzig '66
"This day, which.. .has seemed at times a mirage on a desert of difficulties, has come at last."
-Michael Jay Landay '64
"After four years, we are here to acknowledge that 550 horses have been brought to the trough."
-Milton S.Kramer '54
"[Here at Dartmouth] we could, as a body, take off our protective armor—the armor that makes our generation appear cold, hard and crueland become our true selves."
-Charles M. Pearson '42
"Should not the world be glad that yearly there flows into it a stream of young men... [who have learned] to be decent, to love their work, to be loyal?"
-Eugene Parker Chase '16
Proof That the ValedictorianDoesn't Always CompareNotes with theCommencement Speaker
"[It is] bizarre [that] anyone 22 or 23 years old should be going around consulting and giving advice about anything to anyone else....It seems to connect them to something from which I and most of my generation were luckily spared, the dreaded fast track."
-author David Halberstam1996 Commencementspeaker
"At first I thought, 'Who am I to give advice to all these people?' Then I remembered, 'Next year I'm going to be a consultant. People are going to pay me to give them advice.' "
-Marc Ginsburg1996 valedictorian
What? Me? Give Advice?
"I don't believe that I have the right to give you advice about life—after all, I'm just a guy who studied hard."
-Lazar Dimitrov '98
"I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you exactly how to live your lives. I'm not really going to do that. But what I am going to do is explain to you my philosophy of life, and.. .you're welcome to try it for yourself."
-Marc Ginsburg '96
"If what you're looking for is some earth-shattering insight about the 'meaning of life,' sorry to disappoint, but I don't have the answers, at least no more than any one of you."
-Kamala Devi Dansinghani'94
"There always seems to be something presumptuous in the spectacle of the young college graduate standing before his classmates and elders and telling them his views on certain aspects of life."
-George Loring Frost '21
Need Inspiration? TryChannel Surfing
"Glued for the last two evenings to C-SPAN's commencement speech marathons, I desperately awaited the right theme to jump out at me."
-Lazar Dimitrov '98
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
"In a sense, life has been made much easier for us. We do not have to worry about graduate studies. We do not have to worry about finding a job. Jobs are waiting for us tankers and cruisers are sliding down the ways—P47s are nervously waiting at the ready line—Pensacola beckons—the battalions are calling us."
-Charles M. Pearson '42
"I urge you to refuse to fight in Vietnam when that call comes to you. Take the path that seems appropriate to you. It may be conscientious objection, draft resistance or escape to a country of greater freedom in the north."
-James W. Newton '68
Number of campus locations used for the ceremony: 12 Sites include Dartmouth Hall, the Great Lawn of Baker Library, Webster Hall, the Bema, Leverone Field House and the Green.
Size of the class of 1771:4Size of the class of 2000: 1,067
Number of chairs that will be set up for this year's ceremony: 8,500 Expected audience for this year's ceremony: 10,000
