The basement of Theta Delta Chi fraternity may not seem like a very romantic place, but for Emily Csatari '99, it was where her parents first met.
Over the past two years, students have become familiar with Emily's name, not only because of her status as Dartmouth's first double legacy, but also for her parents' story.
Rose Murphy, an administrative assistant in the Admissions Office, said it is a "technical question" whether Csatari is the very first double legacy.
"There were earlier graduates whose parents were also graduates of the College but they may have been transfer students," she said.
Love at Theta Delt
Tom Csatari '74, Emily's father, served as the captain of the football team during his time at Dartmouth and was a brother at Theta Delt.
Judy Csatari '76, her mother, was a member of the first Dartmouth class to have women admitted.
The Class of 1976, which was the College's first coed class, was also the first to result in the possibility of a double legacy.
It all began in the fall of 1972, when the football team hosted a party at Theta Delt to celebrate the end of preseason training, Tom said.
Judy said she was in Hanover waiting for freshman orientation to begin and decided to check out a "social gathering" at Theta Delt with some friends from her Dartmouth Outing Club freshman trip.
"I knew nothing about Theta Delt at the time," she said.
"My dad was playing pong," Emily said.
Tom was helping out a freshman with whom he was playing, she said. Her mother, Judy, said she thought the gesture was nice and decided to find out more about the handsome fraternity boy.
Although the couple met early in the fall of 1972, they did not start to date until a term later -- during the Winter Carnival weekend of Judy's freshman year.
Childhood at the College
What makes Emily's Dartmouth experience unique, besides her double legacy status, is the time she spent in the Hanover area when she was young.
Born in Connecticut, Emily moved to Hanover when she was 18 months old and stayed until she moved to Texas when she was seven. Her parents both had jobs at the College during their time in Hanover.
Emily said she thinks her parents thought of their stay in Hanover as "just kind of an extension of their being in college."
"My mom worked in McNutt, and dad worked in Parkhurst," she said. "While my mom was doing interviews, I would color in my coloring book at Blunt."
"Dartmouth was just always a big part of our family," she said. "And a neat part at that."
Emily said her parents often joke around, saying that she took her first steps in the Theta Delt basement.
Her father said that might be a slight exaggeration but that Emily "did spend an awful lot of time at Theta Delt" during her father's time as the faculty advisor.
Tom said bringing his family to the fraternity house was an extremely important part of the way he felt he should interact with the students he advised.
"We really felt that the students needed to have some sort of relationship with our family," he said.
Judy added that both she and her husband in their advising positions at the College felt they should introduce their family to their students.
Having been in the Hanover area so long, the Csatari family developed a large circle of friends, Judy said, and they are still in contact with many of them.
Judy said it is nice to know that there are people for Emily to turn to in a pinch.
Admissions
Emily said her parents did not encourage her to attend Dartmouth in any way, and her parents agreed.
"I always wanted to come back," she said. "My parents didn't ever pressure me -- they didn't encourage me to come here at all."
Emily said her parents "really wanted me to look at other places because they thought I was brainwashed."
"When it came right down to it," she said. "The other places weren't Dartmouth and that is where I wanted to be."
Tom said that because of his and his wife's heavy involvement at the College they "did not push her going there at all."
"We tried to show her as many schools as we could," he said.
Emily got to know Dartmouth very well as a child, Judy said, and because of that she compared every other college to Dartmouth, and no other college measured up.
The Csatari family knew early on that Emily would be the first double legacy student if she chose to attend Dartmouth.
Judy said she contacted the admissions office when Emily was born to ask them put Emily's name on a mailing list, and they responded that if Emily were to attend the College, she would be the first double legacy.
Emily said her parents did not share that piece of information with her until after she had already been accepted at Dartmouth and decided to attend.
Emily's time at the College has been just as busy as her parents' college careers. After playing rugby for a year-and-a-half, Emily had to stop due to an injury.
She has also been active in the 1999 Class Council -- chairing the communications council last year and co-chairing this year's Sophomore Parent's Weekend Committee.
She is currently vice-president of the Delta Pi Omega sorority. She said her parents are particularly interested in this activity, and she compares it to her mother's experiences as one of the female pioneers at the College.
Emily has also worked at WFRD, one of the College's radio stations.
