Editorial: On the Glory of Green Key

For a while now, Green Key has occupied a special place in my heart. Of the so-called Big Weekends, it has always been accompanied with the most hope and cheerfulness. It inspires the same sense of euphoria in the starry-eyed freshman as it does in the exhausted senior. Perhaps it has a natural advantage, because the spring weather draws us out of our winter term hibernations and calls upon us to take to the can-littered streets. After a grueling year of academic hardship, it’s certainly fair to give us a brief moment of escape before we head back to the Tower Room to study for finals. I’ve thought as much since I was a freshman, and my opinion hasn’t changed.

There is something profoundly unifying about a hoard of students commandeering Webster Avenue for the sole purpose of debauchery. Many people skip class, so it’s hard to feel guilty if you miss that 12-hour to instead quench your thirst with your pals. Many professors (who aren’t insecure about their own disappointing undergraduate days) understand this spirit and cancel class anyway. This is not to say that we give up on academics – what a preposterous proposition – but we scramble to get our papers done in the days leading up to Friday in order to join in the festivities. Work hard, play hard, as they say.

What differentiates Green Key from Homecoming and Winter Carnival is that its very purpose is to give students the excuse to participate in, shall we say, fun activities on such a large scale. Homecoming is meant to bring alumni back and to engage them with the current undergraduates. Winter Carnival is a celebration of snow-related sports and includes a number of family-friendly events. But Green Key? They set up a band, allow us to drink together in the open, and in theory give us free reign to be immature college students. As the late Joe Rago wrote, Green Key “has long been simply a holiday weekend at the College for no reason.” Therein lies its simple but majestic beauty.

Most of us are brilliant, incessantly-working students of promise; that’s why we’re here. But we’re also early twenty-year-olds still learning about the important things. One fact of life I happen to believe in is that we don’t need a particular reason to have a good time. Sometimes, a random weekend-long bender is in order. I’m not saying this because I want young people to be degenerate for its own sake, but because I think we learn so many things along the way. The memories we will make with our friends this weekend will mean so much more than the alternative session in the library.

Green Key is perhaps even more special because it acts as a final hurrah (except for senior week) for the graduating seniors. As a junior, this will be one of my last great moments with my friends before they head off to who-knows-where. It has also been, in my experience, a sort of informal homecoming with recent graduates who come back to satisfy their itch for pong. It is a bonding experience par excellence.

Green Key, to me, is one of Dartmouth’s most sacred traditions. It embodies our ethos well. Right on cue, as the last signs of cold weather recede, we all join together in enjoying libations and rhythmic vibrations. We’re never too ambitious to appreciate our glory days.

This will only remain so as long as the College understands the impeccable value of Green Key. Once they take away the important freedom underlying this weekend – the liberty to decompress and reset through joviality and fraternity – our green blood turns crimson.

Green Key must present quite the headache for administration and Safety and Security. There is a lot of risk involved when you consider the pure volume of alcohol consumed by students who are looking to run wild. But risk mustn’t preclude the realization of our freedom.

Some proposals, whether put into action or merely discussed, go overboard. In a move that would completely debilitate Greek houses from celebrating at all, the College has apparently entertained the idea of imposing draconian measures to ensure good behavior. No, we do not want monitors watching us play pong. No, we do not want students looking over their shoulders because they fear they’ve violated some arbitrary policy that makes no one safer.

In exchange for the extensive risk management policies fraternities and sororities implement at the College’s behest, we simply ask that we are trusted to have fun responsibly.On the eve of Green Key, I expect we’ll all have a grand old time. I’m optimistic that Big Brother won’t come knocking on our door to ruin the mood. Tradition tells us that these are Dartmouth’s happy days. Let the party begin!