It's a dilemma that rolls around once a century, less frequently than a visit by Halley's comet or a Boston Red Sox victory in the World Series.
And at one of the nation's most prestigious institutions of higher learning, the question has left administrators, faculty and students scratching their respective heads.
For years, it has been easy, maybe too easy. The " '73s," the " '88s," the " '99s." The names just roll off the tongue.
But what to do about the Class of 2000? Does Dartmouth call them the "zeroes?" How about the "aughts?" What about the altogether unfortunate moniker the "nothings?"
Will these unlucky people really have to run around the bonfire 100 times at Homecoming? Or will they have to run around it all of ... zero times? Will they really have to wear class t-shirts bearing two large zeroes? What could this do to a fragile freshman's self-esteem?
Without the help of an "Ad Hoc Committee to Evaluate the Proper and Sympathetic Name for the Incoming Freshman Class," the College has been trying to settle an issue it has confronted only twice in its 226-year history.
Dean of Freshmen Peter Goldsmith said all colleges around the nation are stumped by this question.
The College currently plans to call next year's incoming freshman class the "Class of 2000" and students' names will be followed by two zeroes, College spokesman Roland Adams said.
But Adams added, "No one has officially named the class."
"I don't think there is going to be any official proclamation about how to name the Class of 2000," Goldsmith said. "If a name emerges, it's going to emerge through campus folklore."
A random survey of 20 students by The Dartmouth last fall placed the "zeroes," with eight votes, as students' first choice.
It was closely followed by the "2000s," which had seven votes.
The "aughts" and the "nothings" had two votes each, and the "double zeroes" received only a single vote.
Goldsmith said he thinks the Class of 1900 was nicknamed the "aughty aughts," but said he thinks that name is "a little archaic" for this century's class.
According to past issues of The Dartmouth and College correspondence to the Class of 1900, the class was referred to simply as the "1900s."
Their class song states: "three cheers for nineteen hundred Hooray, Hooray! We'll turn this town upside down before we go away."
An apostrophe and two zeros followed students' names to designate the year 1900.
