Editorial: Introducing The Dartmouth Review

This editorial appeared in print in The Dartmouth Review’s “Freshman Issue” of September 13, 2023.

As the freshly minted Class of 2027 settles into campus life after having reemerged from the wilderness (I speak of “Trips”), it is only appropriate that we at The Dartmouth Review now foist upon all of the freshmen yet another installment in the pantheon of Dartmouth’s great traditions. To the ’27s: This unsolicited doormat at which you are now glancing is The Dartmouth Review’s yearly “Freshman Issue.” We have distributed it to students across campus and to our mail subscribers, as per custom, but we have written it uniquely for your benefit. 

We hope, and trust, that the articles found in these pages may serve to acquaint you with College history and campus trends. We hope as well that you take note of the spirit in which we write. For my part, I’d like to use this column to introduce the paper itself.

In recent years, there have been any number of depictions of The Dartmouth Review with which I have disagreed emphatically, not least because representations made of the paper have tended to be far more outlandish than the articles which actually grace its pages. However, the real error at play is far more fundamental. Specifically, those who do not read The Review often incorrectly conceive of it as some sort of a political publication or, worse yet, an advocate of that most repulsive of eight-letter words, “activism.” Such a characterization is a gross inaccuracy.

In point of fact, I can assure you that The Review practices something rather like the antithesis of activism: criticism. This is to say, we seek to exercise good judgment and discernment, sprinkled with a layer of common sense. Ours is not a political enterprise but one of independence and inquiry. To be sure, The Review’s staffers have a variety of backgrounds and represent a diversity of academic interests (we have a surprising number of electrical engineers). But staffers are unified in their commitment to distinguishing editorially the relevant from the extraneous, the consequential from the trivial, and the rational from the baseless. 

In so doing, we at The Review propound a definite editorial stance. In summary form, we advocate: the protection of Dartmouth’s unique identity across the landscape of Ivy League schools; the maintenance of those variegated traditions which have long defined the Dartmouth Experience; the involvement of alumni in Dartmouth’s governance; and the preservation of a classical, liberal arts education at the College. We also endorse the application of more stringent academic standards, subscribe to education by the great books of the Western canon, and steadfastly support the rights of students and faculty to free speech, expression, and association.

There are several entries on the other side of the ledger, too. We object to administrative overreach and to any intrusions into student life, including but not limited to the imposition of further restrictions on or alterations to Greek Life. We also oppose the anomalous superordination in recent years of Dartmouth’s graduate schools at the expense of its undergraduate College, reject the ever-expanding bureaucratization of the administration, and—quelle surprise—repugn activism.

But these principles are not invoked, much less expressly articulated, in every article we publish. Far from it. Rather, they are imbued, or ingrained, in the ethos of the paper. Above all, they inform our journalistic approach.

Perhaps most fundamentally, I should emphasize, The Dartmouth Review is a journal of student opinion. As you will come to see in our biweekly print issues, we publish incisive opinion pieces not merely about campus and administrative trends but about all manner of campus events: sports, performances, screenings, discussions, and lectures. 

We also publish articles that review local points of interest—sites and attractions in the Upper Valley. Moreover, we regularly conduct and publish trenchant interviews with persons of note. This past May, we published a transcription of our 45-minute, sit-down interview with New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu. We were also the first student group to speak at length with Sian Leah Beilock after she became president-elect, and a transcription of our interview with her appeared in print this past January.

As an independently funded paper with its own Alumni Board of Trustees, The Dartmouth Review is a singular presence on campus (or rather, slightly off campus). Now in its forty-third year, it has every intention of continuing to publish in perpetuity. So, I advise that you sit back, relax, and cultivate a habit of leafing through these pages to find a selection of invigorating commentary and criticism. You’ll be receiving the paper throughout your time at Dartmouth, and, if you heed my advice, you have some happy reading ahead of you. Alternatively, of course, you could decide to use the paper as a doormat. That’s another option.