The halls of the College reverberate with traditions, but not all of them are all that old. In particular, the traditions revolving around freshmen are in a constant state of flux.
Four "traditions" -- DOC Trips, the Homecoming bonfire, the freshman sweep and rushing the field -- run the gamut, from the old to the new to the prohibited.
DOC Trips
Before freshmen even matriculate, they engage in a 59 year old tradition -- Dartmouth Outing Club trips.
DOC trips began in 1937 as informal hiking trips before classes started, said this year's coordinator Heather Halstead '96.
But all traditions are modified over the years.
Originally called "Freshman Trips," these three-day excursions three years ago adopted thegender neutral moniker "DOC Trips."Building The Bonfire
Perhaps the most glorious Dartmouth tradition happens Homecoming weekend in the form of a towering inferno.
The annual building of the bonfire is the freshman class's greatest contribution to the weekend. But recently this tradition has come under attack from the administration.
Until 1993, freshmen began construction of the bonfire several days before the big weekend. The bonfire's height in tiers was equal to the freshmen class's year.
But after a near riot in 1992, the College and the Student Assembly created new guidelines curbing future constructions.
The tumult ensued after Wednesday night fraternity meetings the week before Homecoming.
Intoxicated students, many of them fraternity brothers and pledges, attacked the bonfire with baseball bats, bags of feces and lighter fluid.
The College suspended construction for days.
The following year, the Class of 1997's bonfire building was restricted to the Thursday and Friday before Homecoming weekend, no construction was allowed after dusk and the bonfire's height was limited to 61 tiers. (The Class, however, managed to sneak on an extra 36 tiers using popsicle sticks.)The Freshman Sweep
There were no confrontations surrounding the building of the 1993 bonfire, but the rowdy conduct of the Class of 1997 in the first ever freshmen sweep that year threatened to extinguish that ritual soon after its birth.
On Dartmouth Night, the Friday night of Homecoming, freshmen parade from dormitory to dormitory collecting fellow class members along the way. After a visit to every dormitory, the group joins the town parade down Main Street.
But in 1993, overzealous freshmen vandalized the town during the sweep, trampling cars and ripping up street signs.
This past year, Dean of the College Lee Pelton issued a letter to students warning "large numbers of students marauding around the town of Hanover presents a very real threat to the future of the entire Homecoming celebration."
The College limited the time allotted for the freshman sweep to 30 minutes, and the Class of 1998's Homecoming proved tamer than its predecessor.
"The future of these traditions is not threatened as long as there isn't behavior that is blatantly dangerous," Dean of Freshmen Peter Goldsmith said.Rushing the Field
Another freshman tradition surrounding this big weekend involves the upperclassmen's annual challenge to freshmen to "rush the field" during halftime of the Homecoming football game.
Upperclassmen encourage freshmen to sing the alma matter as they run down Dartmouth's side of the stands, across the football field and up to the top of the opposing side's stands.
But in 1986, the College prohibited this tradition.
The Committee on Standards ruled that "behaviors have resulted in threat and intimidation to spectators and band members and in actual physical harm to a number of people, including a 70 year-old woman, a wheelchair-bound teenager and several Dartmouth undergraduates."
At that time, it implemented an automatic $100 fine and the potential for College discipline, which becomes part of the student's permanent record, for first-time field rushers.
Rushing the field may also result in arrest by the Hanover police if they catch a student's face on one of the video camera's they have set up to identify offenders.
