A New Reality
A New Reality
notebook
CAMPUS
notes from around the green
About 2,000 students were present for an unusual start to a term September 14: No roommates, no group dining, no large public gatherings. Students described the first several weeks as “uncomfortable,” “quiet,” and “confusing” as they arrived to undergo coronavirus testing. After a couple of weeks, a new normal set in. “I’ve actually enjoyed all the extra time that I’ve spent outside, since we weren’t allowed to enter any campus buildings,” said John Cho ’22. “The weather has been beautiful, and it’s a refreshing break from all the time that I’ve spent inside since the start of Covid in March.” As the library and Collis planned to reopen, Sanjana Dugar ’22 was optimistic. “It feels like we’re slowly returning to the community we were before the pandemic,” she said.
ISOLATION 23
Tuck students were quarantined after attending a dorm party in early September. Matthew Slaughter, dean of Tuck, called their actions “a serious offense and threat to the well-being of our community.”
The administration has banned pong on campus and “locally” off campus. “These games promote the spreading of Covid-19 through lack of wearing face coverings, lack of physical distancing, and the sharing of cups,” wrote Dean of the College Kathryn Lively.
Students are more anxious and depressed because of the pandemic, according to Dartmouth researchers using smartphone data and selfreported symptoms, raising concerns about their long-term mental health and potential increased substance abuse.
The College is spending $3 million to $4.5 million on Covid-19 testing, personal protective equipment, and other healthcare management.
Before the term began, more than 150 professors signed a letter urging President Phil Hanlon ’77 and Provost Joe Helble to reverse the decision to bring students back to campus. “We do not see rewards that would outweigh the ponderous risks,” they wrote. The Valley News also chimed in with an August 21 editorial headlined “Dartmouth’s reopening plan threatens Upper Valley’s calm amid the coronavirus.”
Students had 99 fewer classes to choose from this fall, and only 10 percent included on-campus components.
A decision on how the winter term will operate is due from the College task force in late October.
SO FAR, SO GOOD 7
Cases of Covid-19 among students and faculty, July through September
FROM THE ARCHIVES
“Homecoming festivities included an added fillip this year. At 4:48 am. on the morning after Dartmouth Night, alumni and friends foregathered outside the Hanover Inn. The gathering was colorful but subdued, and, according to eyewitnesses, the dress code was lax. ‘They looked like anyone who gets up at 4:30 in the morning,’said Hanover Fire Chief Stewart Corpieri, whose company responded to the alarm which turned the hotel—chock full of the most elderly and distinguished of alumni—inside out....Maliciousness, said Chief Corpieri, and no suspects yet available.” -FROM THE NOVEMBER 1982 ISSUE OF DAM
