Winter Carnival, it seems, is on life support. The keg jump was canned some years ago because of insurance, or lack of it. Now, the Dartmouth Outing Club is having a go at the snow sculpture after the Winter Carnival Council gave up. How did one of Dartmouth's most celebrated weekends end up in this sorry state?
History suggests some answers. The heyday of Winter Carnival was before the college went coed. Fraternities competed for the best-looking snow sculptures. The centerpieces on the Green were literally works of art, with hundreds of man-hours put in to perfect every last curve. There was still a popular ski jump, and races at the Skiway were attended by hundreds of spectators.
There was, in other words, a strong undercurrent of testosterone flowing. With good reason too, since Winter Carnivals in those days saw busloads of women visiting from other colleges. Winter Carnival was in fact a weekend long display of masculine achievement. Just as the women competed for Snow Queen titles, the men of Dartmouth were similarly involved in an elaborate and competitive mating ritual.
After the college went coed, this element of Winter Carnival faded into the background. Not only did the College begin to take in women, the student body also became more diverse. While this has brought many benefits, it also means that there is very little that can rally the entire student body together. The snow sculpture became someone else's business. And that someone else was usually a small but dedicated crew of people working to achieve the impossible. The rest of the student body got involved to the extent of making snide remarks about how ugly the sculpture was going to be.
The demographic change in the student body has other effects. The Winter Carnival became less of a celebration of the great outdoors. Though no statistics exist, it is probable that membership in the DOC has similarly fallen over the years. An increasing portion of students come to Dartmouth not for the surrounding countryside, but for the attraction of an Ivy League school. Many probably don't know, or are not keen to learn how to ski. The high cost of ski classes certainly puts people off.
Academics also stand in the way of Winter Carnival. The week preceding Winter Carnival is also the week when many professors schedule midterms. While a gentlemanly "C" would be acceptable 20 years before, Dartmouth students of this generation would rather not sacrifice a single hour of study time to build the snow sculpture. Also, Carnival weekend itself is a good time to catch up on reading and other class projects in the warmth of Berry Library.
Much of the blame must also fall on the Winter Carnival Council. While I cannot comment on the current council, the previous councils have suffered from poor leadership. The councils seem to operate in a naive and isolated world. Choice of Carnival themes appear arbitrary and subject to some unknown personal whim. There is a grand effort to stuff every student's Hinman Box with a "definitive" weekend guide that glaringly excludes any Greek activities. Instead, we have lovely pictures of every council member accompanied by personal quotes of how they all love winter. The self-aggrandizing doesn't stop there: during carnival weekend itself, council members appear all decked out in custom Winter Carnival Council apparel, proudly identifying themselves with the successes (or more likely, failures) of that year.
What is the road ahead? Chances are, the DOC is going to succeed this year and we might just have a snow sculpture on the Green. However, saving a tradition is always easier than sustaining one. The danger is for the campus to settle back into a mood of apathy. It is impossible for the DOC to repeat the same call of saving the snow sculpture year after year and expect the same enthusiastic response.
A fundamental change is thus needed. The College needs to reconsider how the Winter Carnival Council operates and whether some performance standard should be adopted. The separation between the College-approved carnival and Greek-sponsored carnival should be erased. The Greek system is not a bogeyman -- closing your eyes isn't going to make it go away. More needs to be done to attract students to the Skiway. Free shuttles can be provided. The DOC can combine its resources with the council and move its own "winter weekend fun" to the same day to help generate crowds. A capella groups can move their concerts over to the ski lodge as well. Faculty could be advised to avoid scheduling midterms during Carnival week if possible.
A competitive spirit must be reintroduced. The freshman class is already in charge of Homecoming and the juniors Green Key. The senior or sophomore class could be given responsibility for Winter Carnival. Only then would the snow sculpture become someone's business. Class spirit can replace testosterone as the driving force behind Winter Carnival.
There is of course one last option: pull the plug. If the Winter Carnival tradition is truly dead, then the right thing to do is end it.
