Dartmouth College

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Dartmouth College

Motto	Vox clamantis in deserto (The voice of one crying in the wilderness.)
Established	December 13, 1769
Type	Private
Endowment	$3.0 billion[1]
President	James E. Wright A.M. Ph.D. M.S. B.S.
Faculty	940
Undergraduates	4,078
Postgraduates	1,666
Location	Hanover, NH, USA
Campus	Rural town, 269 acres (1.1 km²) — almost 50,000 acres total
Athletics	34 varsity teams
Nickname	Big Green (unofficial)
Mascot	Dartmoose, Keggy the Keg, Indian (all unofficial)
Website	www.dartmouth.edu

Dartmouth College is  a private academic institution in Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States. it  is a member of the Ivy League and  is one of the nine colonial colleges founded before the American Revolution.

Founded in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, with funds partially raised by the efforts of a Native American preacher named Samson Occom, it  is the ninth-oldest college in the United States and  the seventh-wealthiest in terms of funds per student. In addition to its liberal arts undergraduate program, Dartmouth has medical, engineering, and  business schools, as well as 21 graduate programs in the arts and  sciences; hence it  would tend to be called a university in standard American usage. For the sake of tradition—in part stemming from the legacy of the landmark Dartmouth College Case—and in order to emphasize the central importance it  gives to undergraduate education, however, it  refers to itself as a college. With a total enrollment of 5,744 (4,078 of whom are  undergraduates), Dartmouth is  the smallest school in the Ivy League. it  is incorporated as Trustees of Dartmouth College.

In 2005 Booz Allen Hamilton selected Dartmouth College as one of the "World's Ten Most Enduring Institutions," recognizing its ability to overcome crises that threatened its survival (most famously Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward).[1] Dartmouth alumni are  famously involved in their college, from Daniel Webster to the many donors in the 19th and  20th centuries. Over many generations, Dartmouth has had one of the highest alumni donor participation rates.

[edit] History

Baker Memorial Library at Dartmouth College

Dartmouth was made the final colonial college given a royal charter when King George III granted its charter in 1769, mostly as a result of the efforts of Eleazar Wheelock, a Puritan minister, and  his patron, Royal Governor John Wentworth. (Queen's College, now Rutgers University, was granted a charter slightly earlier but did not begin operation until after Dartmouth.)

Dartmouth's original purpose was to provide for the Christianization, instruction, and  education of "Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land...and also of English Youth and  any others." Ministers Nathaniel Whittaker and  Samson Occom (an early Native American clergyman) raised funds for the college in England through an  English trust among whose benefactors and  trustees were prominent English statemen, including King George III's Secretary of State for the Colonies in North America, William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, for whom Dartmouth College is  named. The fundraising was meant to support Wheelock's ongoing Connecticut institution of the 1740s, Moor's Indian Charity School (chartered 1754), but Wheelock instead applied the funds to the establishment of Dartmouth College. Classes began in 1770 and  the College granted its first degrees in 1771, obtaining a seal to affix on them in 1773. Dejected and  betrayed, Samson Occom went on to form his own community of New England Indians called Brothertown Indians in Oneida country in upstate New York.

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Painting by Robert Clayton Burns (1962) depicting Daniel Webster and  the Dartmouth College Case

In 1819, Dartmouth College was the subject of the historic Dartmouth College case, in which the State of New Hampshire's 1816 attempt to amend the College's royal charter to make the school a public university was challenged. an  institution called Dartmouth University occupied the college buildings and  began operating in Hanover in 1817, though the College continued teaching classes in rented rooms nearby. Daniel Webster, an  alumnus of the class of 1801, presented the College's case to the United States Supreme Court, which found the amendment of Dartmouth's charter to be an  illegal impairment of a contract by the state and  reversed New Hampshire's takeover of the College. Webster concluded his peroration with the famous and  frequently-quoted words,

It is, Sir, as I have  said, a small college. and  yet there are  those who love it.

Dartmouth was a men's college until 1972, when women were first admitted as full-time students and  undergraduate degree candidates. At about the same time, Dartmouth adopted its unique "D-Plan", a schedule of year-round operation that allowed an  increase in the enrollment (with the addition of females) without enlarging campus accommodations. The year is  divided into four terms corresponding with the seasons; students are  required to be in residence during their freshman year, sophomore year summer term, and  senior year. One wag described it  as a way to put 4,000 students into 3,000 beds. Although new dormitories have  been built since, the number of students has also increased and  the D-Plan remains in effect.

Dartmouth's motto is  "Vox Clamantis in Deserto". The Latin motto is  literally translated as "The voice of one crying in the wilderness", but the College administration often translates the phrase as "A voice crying in the wilderness", which, while not technically correct in Latin grammar, attempts to translate the synecdoche of the phrase. The motto is  a reference to the Christian Bible's John the Baptist as well as to the college's location on what was once the frontier of European settlement. Richard Hovey's Men of Dartmouth was elected as the best of all the songs of the College in 1896, and  today it  serves as the school's alma mater, although the lyrics and  title have  since been changed to be gender-neutral.

Dartmouth Hall, as of 2005.

The screenplay for the film Animal House was cowritten by Chris Miller (A.B. 1963) and  is based loosely on a series of fictional stories he wrote in 1974 about his fraternity days at Dartmouth, including "The Night of the Seven Fires." In a CNN interview, John Landis said the movie was "based on Chris Miller's real fraternity at Dartmouth," Alpha Delta. In an  interview with The Dartmouth, Miller said that at least one incident in the film—one in which a Delta Tau Chi brother skis down the stairs as the band plays "Shout"—occurred at an  Alpha Delta party at Dartmouth. The names "Otter" and  "Pinto" may be found in the Alpha Delta section of the yearbooks of the period, such as the 1963 Aegis. The movie was filmed at the University of Oregon.

[edit] Presidents of Dartmouth College (the Wheelock Succession)

[edit] Academics

 and  Thornton Hall, circa 1834."> and  Thornton Hall, circa 1834." width="350" height="212" longdesc="../../../d/a/r/Image%7EDartmouth_College_-_Dartmouth_Hall_circa_1834.jpg_80f9.html" />

Lithograph of Wentworth Hall, Dartmouth Hall, and  Thornton Hall, circa 1834.

The centerpiece of today's Dartmouth College is  its undergraduate college of 4,078 students, constituting one of the most selective undergraduate institutions in the world. For the Class of 2010, 13,933 students applied for a little over 1,000 places in the class, and  only 15.4% of applicants were admitted. Median SAT scores lie within the low 700s for each subject, and  93% of the members of the Class of 2010 graduated in the top ten percent of their high school class. 30% of the members of the Class of 2010 graduated as valedictorian, and  10% as salutatorian.

Alongside the undergraduate college lie small graduate schools, the Dartmouth Medical School (1797), the Thayer School of Engineering (1867), and  the Tuck School of Business (1900). With these graduate programs, conventional American usage would accord Dartmouth the label of "Dartmouth University"; but because of the focus on the undergraduate body, as well as historical and  nostalgic reasons (such as Dartmouth College v. Woodward), the school uses the name "Dartmouth College" for the entire institution.

[edit] Board of Trustees

Dartmouth is  governed by a Board of Trustees. The board includes the College president and  the state governor (both ex officio), eight trustees appointed by the board itself (Charter Trustees), and  eight trustees (Alumni Trustees) nominated for board appointment by members of the Association of Alumni of Dartmouth College, a body created in 1854 that represents over 60,000 alumni. (Specifically, trustee candidates may be nominated by an  alumni council or  by alumni petition, then an  election is  held, and  finally the winner is, by longstanding agreement, appointed to the board by all Trustees. Three recent petition candidates have  become Trustees in this manner.)

[edit] Academic reputation

In 2007, Dartmouth College was ranked 9th (tied with Columbia University and  the University of Chicago) among undergraduate programs at national universities, according to  and  World Report">U.S. News and  World Report.^[2]

[edit] Facilities

[ and  Performing Arts">edit] Hopkins Center for the Creative and  Performing Arts

Main article: Hopkins Center for the Arts

The Hopkins Center ("the Hop") houses the College's drama, music, film, and  studio arts departments, as well as a woodshop, pottery studio, and  jewelry studio which are  open for use by students and  faculty. The building was designed by the famed architect Wallace Harrison, who later modeled Manhattan’s Lincoln Center front façade after the Hopkins Center. Facilities include two recital halls and  one large auditorium. it  is also the location of all student mailboxes ("Hinman boxes") and  the Courtyard Café dining facility. The Hop is  connected to the Hood Museum of Art and  the Loew Auditorium, where films are  shown. The Hopkins Center is  an important New Hampshire performance venue.

[ and  the Social Sciences">edit] Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and  the Social Sciences

The Nelson A. Rockefeller Center is  a center for interaction and  discussion on public policy. Dedicated in 1983, the center stands in tribute to Nelson A. Rockefeller (Class of 1930). Known on campus as Rocky, the Center provides students, faculty and  community-members opportunities to discuss and  learn about public policy, law, and  politics. Sponsoring lunch and  dinner discussions with prominent faculty and  visitors, the Center aides provides close interaction and  discussion.

The Rockefeller Center has established a Public-Policy Minor at Dartmouth College and  an exchange program on political economy with Oxford University (Keble College). In addition, the Center provides grants to students engaged in public-policy research and/or activities.

The Rockefeller Center's Policy Research Shop is  an innovative program that provides research upon the request of elected policy makers and  their legislative staff throughout the year. The Center hires students to work under the direction of faculty members, who then produce reports that are  typically between 5-15 pages long. The intent is  to produce useful information in a timely fashion so that the information can be used in legislative deliberations.

[edit] The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding

The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding was established in 1982 to honor Dartmouth's twelfth president (1945-70), John Sloan Dickey. The purpose of the Dickey Center is  to "coordinate, sustain, and  enrich the international dimension of liberal arts education at Dartmouth." To this end, the Dickey Center is  committed to helping Dartmouth students prepare for a world in which local, national and  global concerns are  more strongly linked than ever. it  strives to promote quality scholarly research at Dartmouth concerning international problems and  issues, with an  emphasis on work that is  innovative and  cross-disciplinary. and  it seeks to heighten public awareness and  to stimulate debate on pressing international issues. The Dickey Center also hosts several student-run organizations, such as the Dartmouth World Affairs Council (WAC) or  the War & Peace Fellows, which foster undergraduates' awareness of international affairs. Several grants and  awards are  also administered by the Dickey Center, including the prestigious Chase Peace Prize, conferred annually to the senior thesis that contributes most significantly to an  understanding of the causes of peace and  war.

[edit] Aquatic facilities

Alumni Gym hosts two pools, the Karl Michael Competition Pool and  the Spaulding Pool. Together they comprise a total of fifteen 25-yard lanes and  two 50-meter lanes. The Karl Michael Pool, constructed in 1962, was designed by former Dartmouth College Men's Varsity Swim Team captain R. Jackson Smith, class of 1936. In 1970, it  was formally named the Karl Michael Pool, after the coach of the men's varsity swim team from 1939-1970. The pool features eleven 25-yard lanes, with a special bulkhead that can be lowered to create two 50 meter lanes. The pool area has a seating area for 1,200 spectators. The Michael Pool hosted the 1968 Men's NCAA Championships, in which several American records were set. The pool also features one and  three meter diving boards, with a water well 12 to 14 feet deep.

Adjacent is  the Spaulding Pool. Spaulding Pool is  a 10 by 25 yard pool constructed during 1919 and  1920 and  designed by Rich & Mathesius, Architects. The Spaulding Pool is  one of the oldest continuously operating pools in the United States. The pool's interior walls feature original encaustic tiles designed by noted ceramist Leon Victor Solon, although a later mezzanine housing locker rooms has obscured some of the designs. The pool has seating for several hundred spectators. Both pools are  currently used by the Men's and  Women's Varsity Swim Teams, as well as a host of other programs within the college.

[edit] Housing clusters

Main article: Dartmouth College residential communities

As opposed to ungrouped dormitories or  residential colleges as employed at such institutions as The University of Chicago and  Yale, Dartmouth has several housing clusters located throughout campus. The College experienced a slight housing crunch due to the unusually high yield of the class of 2005. Partially as a result, the College erected temporary housing, and  two new dormitory clusters were completed in the fall of 2006. Also starting in 2006, the College will guarantee housing for students during their freshman and  sophomore years.

[edit] Athletics

As of 2004, Dartmouth College hosts 34 varsity sports: sixteen for men, sixteen for women, and  coeducational sailing and  equestrian programs. This places it  among the top United States colleges and  universities in this regard. In addition, there are  twenty-three club sports and  twenty-four intramural sports.

[ and  mascot">edit] Nickname, symbol, and  mascot

Since the 1920s, the Dartmouth College athletic teams have  been known by their unofficial nickname "The Big Green." The nickname is  based on students' adoption of a shade of forest green ("Dartmouth Green") as the school's official color in 1866, leading to the nickname "The Green" soon after. Until the early 1970s, teams were also known as the "Indians," and  athletic uniforms bore a representation of an  Indian warrior's head. That representation and  similar images, called collectively "the Indian Symbol," as well as the practice of a cheerleader dressing in Indian costume to serve as a mascot during games, came under criticism. During the early 1970s the Trustees declared the "use of the [Indian] symbol in any form to be inconsistent with present institutional and  academic objectives of the College in advancing Native American education." Some alumni and  a minority of students, as well as the conservative student newspaper, The Dartmouth Review, have  sought to return the Indian symbol to prominence, but no team has worn the symbol on its uniform in decades. (Representations of Native Americans do remain on the Dartmouth College Seal, the Dartmouth Coat of Arms (see above), and  the weather vane of Baker Library.)

Various student initiatives have  been undertaken to adopt a new mascot, but none has garnered sufficient support from students or  alumni to become "official." One proposal devised by the college humor magazine, the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, was Keggy the Keg, an  anthropomorphic beer keg who makes occasional appearances at college sporting events, but Keggy has only received approval from the student government. In November 2006, after an  absence of several years, there was a student-led revival of the movement to make the Moose (or Dartmoose) the official mascot of Dartmouth.^{[citation needed]} This occurred following renewed controversy surrounding the former Indian mascot.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Varsity teams

Main article: Dartmouth College athletic teams

Dartmouth's varsity athletic teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, in the eight-member Ivy League conference, which includes Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Cornell and  the University of Pennsylvania. Some teams also participate in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Dartmouth athletes compete in 34 varsity sports. In addition to the traditional American team sports (football, basketball, baseball and  ice hockey), Dartmouth competes in many others including  and  field">track and  field, sailing, rowing, soccer, skiing, and  lacrosse. Many are  highly competitive at the national level, earning berths into NCAA championships and  tournaments.

As is  mandatory amongst all Ivy League schools, Dartmouth College does not offer athletic scholarships. Despite this restriction, it  is home to many student athletes. As many as three-quarters of Dartmouth undergraduates participate in some form of athletics, and  one-quarter of Dartmouth students play a varsity sport at some point during their undergraduate years. The percentage of varsity athletes and  varsity sports are  thus disproportionately greater than at many much larger colleges in the country.

In addition to varsity sports, Dartmouth students may also participate in several club sports, such as rugby, water polo, figure skating, men's volleyball and  ultimate frisbee. These teams generally perform well in their respective regional and  national competitions. The figure skating team has performed particularly well in recent years, winning the national championship in each of the past three consecutive seasons.

[edit] Venues

Dartmouth hosts many athletic venues. Alumni Gymnasium, the center of athletic life at Dartmouth, is  home of the Dartmouth College aquatic facilities, basketball courts, squash and  racketball courts, indoor track, fencing lanes as well as a rowing training center. The College also maintains the Memorial Field football stadium, Edward Leede Arena (basketball), and  Rupert C. Thompson Arena (hockey), as well as a rowing boat house and  a tennis complex.

Dartmouth's original sports field was the Green, where students played cricket during the late eighteenth century and  Old Division Football during the 1800s; some intramural games still take place there.

[edit] Student life

[edit] Student groups

Main article: Dartmouth College student groups

Dartmouth hosts a large number of student groups, covering a wide range of interests. Students are  commonly involved in more  than one group on campus. As of 2006, the College hosted at least 11 literary publications, 8 a-capella groups, 10 other musical groups, and  over 200 organizations recognized by the "Council of Student Organizations". Notable student groups include The Dartmouth, one of America's oldest college newspapers (established in 1799), The Dartmouth Review, an  independent conservative newspaper, The Dartmouth Film Society, the nation's oldest college film society, and  award-winning a-cappella groups like The Dartmouth Aires and  The Dartmouth Cords.

[edit] Greek life

Main article: Dartmouth College Greek organizations

Dartmouth College is  host to many Greek organizations and  a large percentage of the undergraduate student body is  active in Greek life. In 2000, nearly half of the undergraduate student body belonged to a  and  sororities">fraternity, sorority, or  coeducational Greek house. First year students are  not allowed to join Greek organizations, however, so the actual fraction of Dartmouth students that become active in Greek life during their studies at the College exceeds half of the student body. Dartmouth College was among the first institutions of higher education to desegregate fraternity houses in the 1950s, and  was involved in the movement to create coeducational Greek houses in the 1970s. In the early 2000s, campus-wide debate focused on whether or  not the Greek system at Dartmouth should become "substantially coeducational," but most houses retain single-sex membership policies. The college has an  additional classification of social/residential orginazations known as undergraduate societies. These organizations are  not part of the official Greek system, but serve a similar role on campus.

[edit] Technology

Technology plays an  important role in student life, as Dartmouth is  perennially ranked as one of the most technologically-advanced colleges in the world (as in Newsweek's ranking of "Hottest for the Tech-Savvy"). BlitzMail, the campus e-mail network, plays a tremendous role in social life, as students tend to use it  for communication in lieu of cellular phones or  instant messaging programs.

Student reliance on BlitzMail (known colloquially as "Blitz," which functions as both noun and  verb) has led to computer terminals being installed all around campus, so that students can check their "blitz" in between classes or  while away from their rooms. Dartmouth has more  than 12,000 computers available for use on campus. [2]

Dartmouth was also notable as the first college campus to offer entirely ubiquitous wireless internet access by 2001. The wireless network is  available throughout all college buildings as well as in most public outdoor spaces. Other technologies being pioneered include college-wide Video-on-Demand and  VoIP rollouts.

[edit] Native Americans at Dartmouth

The charter of Dartmouth College, granted to Eleazar Wheelock in 1769, proclaims that the institution was created "for the education and  instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land in reading, writing and  all parts of Learning ... as well as in all liberal Arts and  Sciences; and  also of English Youth and  any others." The funds for Dartmouth College were raised primarily by the efforts of a Native American named Samson Occom.

While Dartmouth's students since have  mainly been white, the college still claims to have  a long history of involvement with Indian education. In 1970 the school established Native American academic and  social program as part of a "new dedication to increasing Native American enrollment."

Wheelock, a Congregationalist dedicated to converting Indians to Christianity, was head of Moor's Indian Charity School (1753) prior to establishing Dartmouth. it  was this institution that Mohegan preacher Samson Occom raised money for; Occom was bitterly disappointed to see Wheelock transform it  into an  English college.

[edit] Traditions

Snow Sculpture at the 2004 Dartmouth Winter Carnival.

Main article: Dartmouth College traditions

Dartmouth is  home to a variety of traditions and  celebrations:

• Homecoming and  Dartmouth Night: Each fall term, a bonfire is  constructed by the freshman class, a tradition stemming from the late 1800s. Freshman run around the bonfire in accordance with their class year (e.g. the class of 2009 ran 109 laps).
• Winter Carnival: Founded in 1909 by the Dartmouth Outing Club to promote winter sports, this celebration includes a snow sculpture on the Green and  a variety of outdoor events. Winter Carnival was the subject of the 1939 motion picture comedy Winter Carnival, starring Ann Sheridan.
• Green Key Weekend: The spring Green Key Weekend began in the 1920s with a formal function related to the Green Key Society, but the importance of the Society in the weekend is  largely diminished. Green Key is  today a weekend devoted to campus parties and  celebration.
• Tubestock: Tubestock was an  unofficial summer tradition in which the sophomore class used wooden rafts and  inner tubes to float on the Connecticut River. Begun in 1986, Tubestock met its demise in 2006 when Hanover town ordinances and  a lack of coherent student protest conspired to defeat the popular tradition.
• Fieldstock: The class of 2008, during their summer term on campus in 2006, attempted to replace the now-defunct Tubestock with Fieldstock. The student government coordinated with the college to organize a day of events in the BEMA (Big Empty Meeting Area) and  on the Green, including a free barbecue, live music, and  the revival of the 1970s and  1980s tradition of racing homemade chariots around the Green. Unlike Tubestock, Fieldstock was college funded and  supported, though whether or  not it  becomes a true college tradition will depend on whether the class of 2009 chooses to hold it  again in the summer of 2007.
• Freshman trips: Prior to matriculation, the Dartmouth Outing Club sponsors four-day freshman outing trips for incoming freshman. Each trip concludes at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge.
• Dartmouth Pow-Wow: A two-day ceremony is  marked by traditional dancing, crafts, music and  art, held every spring since 1973. The Pow-Wow is  organized by the student group Native Americans at Dartmouth.

[edit] Alumni

Main article: List of Dartmouth College alumni

Notable graduates and  students at Dartmouth include:

• Salmon P. Chase – Chief Justice of the United States
• Robert Frost – poet who won four Pulitzer Prizes
• Henry Paulson, Jr. – current U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
• Nelson Rockefeller – Vice President of the U.S.
• Theodor Seuss Geisel – the children's author better known as Dr. Seuss
• Daniel Webster – U.S. Senator from New Hampshire and  Secretary of State.

[edit] See also

• Ivy League
• Dartmouth Medical School
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business
• Dartmouth College athletic teams
• Dartmouth College Greek organizations
• Dartmouth College residential communities
• Dartmouth College Seal
• Dartmouth College student groups
• Dartmouth College traditions
• List of Dartmouth College alumni

[edit] References

1. ^ Dartmouth College Facts
2. ^ America's Best Colleges. US News and  World Report (2007). Retrieved on 2006-08-16.

• Glabe, Scott L. (2005). Dartmouth College:Off the Record. College Prowler. ISBN 1-59658-038-0.
• Molly K. Hughes, Susan Berry (2000). Forever Green: The Dartmouth College Campus—An arboretum of Northern Trees. Enfield Books. ISBN 1-893598-01-2.
• Richardson, Leon B. (1932). History of Dartmouth College. Dartmouth College Publications. ASIN B00086U61Y.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Dartmouth College

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dartmouth College

• Dartmouth College website
• Dartmouth's Alumni Association
• Dartmouth webcams
• Books — Faculty book publication list
• "The Mardi Gras of the North" – History of the Winter Carnival
• UGResearch.org an  electronic library of undergraduate research
• Dartmouth College News
• Winter Carnival Celebration homepage
• Winter Carnival at the Internet Movie Database
• Dartmo.: The Buildings of Dartmouth College
• Chris Miller Bio of Chris Miller, Dartmouth '63, cowriter of Animal House
• Alpha Delta Lawn Party, cites Chris Miller
• CNN John Landis interview – quoting Animal House being based on Dartmouth
• "All about the Dartmouth Murders (Half and  Suzanne Zantop)"
• Video on the Construction of the Ravine Lodge at Google Video
• Dartmouth Wireless Network Press Coverage
• The History of Dartmouth College by Baxter Perry Smith
• A Dartmouth History for Freshmen, 1957

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