Fire Alarm

Fire Alarm

CAMPUS

TRADITIONS

Dartmouth Night may never be the same. In June, Hanover town officials informed the College that they won’t allow the Homecoming bonfire in its present form on the Green due to safety concerns. Sophomores on campus this summer expressed annoyance with the decision, while a team led by engineering professor Douglas Van Citters’99, Th’03, set out to make recommendations for a smaller, safer bonfire. A new plan is expected soon. “We respect the very reasonable concern,” says interim provost David Kotz ’86.

Hanover fire chief Martin McMillan pulls no punches when he describes the danger posed by the bonfire structure. Standing about 35 feet high, it is the equivalent of a blazing, two-anda-half-story vacant home. “We wouldn’t risk our personnel on a fire like that,” he says. “We don’t enter those structures. We control those fires.” Despite a fence and a 60-foot collapse zone, students still try to touch the fire, one of the College’s more dubious traditions. “These absolutely brilliant people are somehow manipulated to make them think they have to touch the fire,” says McMillan. “I don’t like it. Some of them are in Speedos, bare skin. We wear [flame-resistant] Nomex and goggles. It puts people in a risky situation needlessly.”

The N.H. Department of Environmental Services also insists the College stop dumping fuel on the fire. According to town officials, the practice is illegal—natural sources and flammable material must be used for kindling. Additionally, town manager Julia Griffin says a permit won’t be issued unless the bonfire height is reduced and its shape altered to prevent the structure from collapsing outward. This year’s festivities are scheduled for October 26. The permitting process usually begins in September. “Traditions evolve, and Homecoming may look a little different in the future,” says alumni relations VP Cheryl Bascomb ’82, who is a member of Van Citters’ team, “but the enthusiasm for Dartmouth will be the same.”

CLASS OF 2018 47% Senior class gift participation rate, down by 4 percent

WINNING 9 Club teams that advanced to national championships in the spring