Two Colleges

By James S. Panero | Wednesday, October 2, 1996

The tension within Dartmouth College surprised me freshman fall. Like most students, I thought Dartmouth would be a shelter from latter-day progressivism. I had known a few Dartmouth alumni since I was a small boy, and they always told me stories of ski jumps, bonfires, and fraternities. They loved the traditions, and I wanted to become a part of it.

When I arrived, the realities of the current Dartmouth administration hit me broadside — I was completely unprepared. The Indian mascot was gone. Men Of Dartmouth had been changed. I felt like a criminal suspect just walking around campus. I thought political correctness was out of style five years ago, but it seemed to be all the rage up here. This was not progress. This was inane. Anyone in the real world would agree.

I surmised that some College decision-makers must not get out much. Moreover I discovered a college divided. Indeed I found two Dartmouths. This first college I read about in brochures. It was talked about by College administrators. This was a college where students would salty-dog rag from their Seinfeld study breaks on their way to Ben and Jerry's for a Vermonster. In this college, students wore t-shirts that read 'go big green' as they mainlined their blitzmail terminals. This was a college without a past, and presumably, then, one without a future.

What a horrible way to pervert and condemn Dartmouth's wonderful history. So, just as one can love this country without supporting its President, I learned to recognize a second Dartmouth. Buried below all the tired liberal ideology, beyond the destructive touch of the current administration, rests the real Dartmouth. I can see it in many students. I can see it most in alumni. It's the Dartmouth I came here for, and it's the one I still believe in, and it's the one I'm going to leave with.

The powers-that-be want to remake Dartmouth in their own image. They will stoop to the lowest levels of deception to get what they want. I think they treat most current students with a degree of scorn just for enrolling in the 'old Dartmouth.' Every year, these powers try harder and harder to remake Dartmouth's image, hoping that someday the mask will stick permanently.

Within this new college, many administrators have already outlined their ideal student — someone who is ethnically diverse, someone who spends time alone, essentially someone who looks different and acts different. In their Dartmouth, ideas matter little. People are evaluated on how they appear, and like a child gathering different colored marbles, the administration wants its own collection.

More than anything, these changes insult Dartmouth's long legacy of unparalleled education. Conventional scholarship gets deconstructed through gender and queer theory. The canon is ignored for the political whims of the day.

Truly there is a war out there, one over the future of this college. As students, we pick our sides daily. Our own decisions — whether we rush a Greek house, whether we read up on Dartmouth history, even whether we yell-out 'Lest the Old Traditions Fail' during Men of Dartmouth — greatly affect the future of this college, or more accurately these two colleges.

Two Colleges

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