Although it will play only a minimal role in the upcoming weekend, current Green Key Society members will attempt to reunite the organization and the weekend, while simultaneously expanding the group's reach on campus.
"We want to expand the Green Key Society to not just be a service for the College, but to be more proactive and be more visible on campus," Green Key Society President JeanCarlos Bonilla '08 said. "I myself did not know much about it before joining."
The society, the leaders in the junior class, seeks to attract membership from every corner of campus to create a diverse body of leaders.
During the spring, the sophomore class elects twenty of the society's members, while campus organizations nominate the remaining forty through an application process.
"We are trying to draw on the very great leaders that we have at Dartmouth," Green Key Society Vice President Meghan Feely '08 said.
Football team member Orton Hicks '21 conceived of the idea for the society in 1920, after the team received a hospitable welcome at the University of Washington.
A service organization at UW greeted the team at the train station, provided transportation, and introduced the players to the area's attractions and its women.
Hicks worked with the Palaeopitus senior society to create such a service organization at Dartmouth.
From the 1920s to the 1960s, the society monopolized the prom scene with exclusive permission from the administration to have one. The prom followed a tradition started in 1899 called House-parties weekend, which brought women to campus for back-to-back fraternity parties, a junior promenade, and other events. The House-parties weekend tradition was cancelled in 1924 after years of debauchery and misconduct.
"The continuity in our history is that we still serve as a hospitality committee to visitors who come to Dartmouth," Feely said.
Currently, as self-identified "ambassadors of the College," members welcome new students through the orientation program, one of their many on-campus engagements. Other activities include leading the freshman sweep during homecoming, working for the Commencement celebration, and directing Baker Bell Tower tours.
"Traditionally, we are just eager to help out where we are needed," Feely said. "Our purpose is to serve the college and make people feel welcome."
Members frequently attend alumni reunions on campus to serve the organization's hospitality mission, representing the College at such events.
Although members are selected as the leaders of the junior class, Bonilla said that membership is not a status symbol.
For this year's weekend, the society planned the Humanitarian Engineering Leadership Projects fundraising event in conjunction with Phi Delta Alpha fraternity and other Greek organizations, as part of the society's big-picture plan to take a greater role during the Green Key Weekend.
