Members of the Class of 2007 enjoyed Dartmouth careers marked by a mix of highs and lows. During their time at the College, the graduating seniors witnessed dramatic changes in the faculty, participated in surprising Student Assembly presidential elections and mourned the death of a classmate.
Freshman Year 2003-2004
The Class of 2007 stepped onto campus in the fall of 2003 amid frenzied preparations for the upcoming Democratic presidential primary. Numerous candidates visited campus, and Democratic hopefuls Howard Dean, Denis Kucinich and Joseph Lieberman held a debate on women's issues in Moore Theater.
In the Student Assembly, Julia Hildreth won the presidency by one vote, spurring a change in the voting system. Today's instant-runoff elections result from dissatisfaction over Hildreth's win without a majority of the vote.
In other electoral matters, the Board of Trustees voted to add six seats over the next 10 years. Four of those seats have since been filled by petition candidates.
The Assembly failed to decide on a mascot when a majority of voters rejected the idea of a moose. The Jack-O-Lantern, however, gave birth to Keggy, a walking, smiling, hand-shaking beer keg. He became an unofficial mascot, attended the Homecoming football game, and was featured in Playboy, Maxim and other media outlets in following years.
Also that year, three members of Theta Delta Chi fraternity were arrested on cocaine charges. Police conducted a stakeout of the house and arrested the students after witnessing a drug deal.
In the Greek world, a compromise between the Office of Residential Life and the Greek Leadership Council facilitated the return of Fall rush in exchange for a shortening of the length of the rush term.
Sophomore Year 2004-2005
When the Class of 2007 returned for their second year they found the College mired in a political uproar. With presidential elections quickly approaching, Dartmouth political organizations leafleted the campus and registered voters, attempting to recruit as many members as possible. Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry and incumbent President George W. Bush traveled throughout New Hampshire during the fall.
Widespread confusion emerged over the state's same-day registration laws due to unclear wording regarding a voter's "domicile."
New Hampshire was a swing state in the election, and many students were unsure which state to cast their votes, not to mention where they were allowed to do so.
Democrats urged student voters to register in New Hampshire, while Republicans pushed voters to vote in their home states. Ultimately, New Hampshire went blue, but its four electoral votes were not enough to affect the election, and Bush remained in office for a second term.
Around the same time, College President James Wright launched his first capital campaign, "Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience."
That fall, during the newly instated fall rush term, Theta Delta Chi fraternity and Delta Delta Delta sorority became implicated in a hazing scandal. Tri-Delt pledge members complained that they had felt pressured to perform sexually suggestive dances for Theta Delt members during a Tri-Delt pledge event at the fraternity house. Both houses were put on probation at the end of Winter term after a joint Committee on Standards and Organizational Adjudication Committee hearing.
In December, Dartmouth football coach John Lyons was fired after a 1-9 season. During Winter term, Buddy Teevens '79 was hired as his replacement. Teevens arrived on the scene in the midst of a controversy surrounding a letter written by Karl Furstenberg, dean of admissions. The private letter to Swarthmore President Alfred Bloom commended its recipient for cutting the football program at Swarthmore, which Furstenberg described as a "sacrifice to the academic quality and diversity of entering first-year classes." Teevens assured his players and recruits that he had spoken with Furstenberg and that the football program was entirely safe and supported.
Spring term, Sexual Abuse Awareness Coordinator Abby Tassel was the first of several Dartmouth officials to resign. Tassel claimed that both supervisors and co-workers had acted antagonistically towards her.
Jim Kuypers also resigned in April, marking the end of Dartmouth's speech study program. Kuyper had been the sole administrator of the program for 10 years.
Before leaving the College, Kuyper had written a letter criticizing College administrators for failing to adequately support the program. The tone of the letter was extremely harsh -- at one point equating Dean of the Faculty Carol Fault and Associate Dean of the Humanities Lenore Grenoble to two monsters from Greek mythology.
Also in the spring, administrators undertook several initiatives to improve Greek life. These included the launching of Student Activities Office Director Linda Kennedy's much loved "Party Pack" program, still in effect, which pays for pizza to be delivered to registered fraternity and sorority parties at midnight.
Additionally, Dean of the College James Larimore accepted the proposals of the Social Event Management Procedures Review Committee, which had recommended giving Greek houses more responsibility in managing their efforts. Larimore had organized the committee to examine the College's party-registration policy, long a source of conflict between administrators and students.
Both the Assembly election and that for the Board of Trustees featured races between insiders and outsiders.
In the Assembly elections, Assembly member Noah Riner '06 defeated outsider Paul Heintz '06 in a hotly contested race for student body president.
Also that spring, two petition candidates, Peter Robinson '79 and Todd Zywicki '88, were elected to the Board of Trustees, defeating four candidates nominated by the Alumni Council.
The support of the individuals endorsed by the Alumni Council and by Alumni for a Stronger Dartmouth heightened tensions between nominated and petition candidates. The election centered on the administration's treatment of issues regarding academics, athletics and free speech.
During summer term, Meleia Willis-Starbuck '07 was shot and killed at Berkeley, Calif.
Junior Year 2005-2006
Student Body President Noah Riner '06 began the year with controversy after giving a convocation speech during freshman orientation with an overtly religious message.
"Jesus is a good example of character, but He's also much more than that," Riner said to his audience in September. "He is the solution to flawed people like corrupt Dartmouth alums, looters and me."
In September, one of Dartmouth's most prestigious professors, Micahel Gazzaniga, considered the father of cognitive neuroscience, left the College to assume a post at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The administration was criticized for its inability to retain one of the Colleges most celebrated faculty members, despite Gazzaniga's claims that he did not resign because of conflict with the administration.
In March, students learned that the annual Tubestock celebration would be canceled if they were unable to secure a permit for the underage drinking event. Although students had never been required to obtain permits in the past, new legislation that forbids congregating on a New Hampshire waterway made such permits necessary for Tubestock to continue.
The Greek Leadership Council said that the $2 million permit pricetag was too much, marking the end of the tradition.
In March, Alpha Phi became the first new Greek organization to come to campus since the Board of Trustees ended the ban on new Greek organizations, fulfilling students' demands for a seventh sorority to help reduce the size of pledge classes and to help balance the number of fraternities relative to sororities on campus.
Conversely, Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity, was not allowed to form a chapter at the College. The president of the Interfraternity Council at the time said that Dartmouth's Greek system could not sustain a 14th campus fraternity, but some claimed that the IFC members actually voted to deny the fraternity recognition because they were afraid it would attract potential new members away from the already existing organizations.
Some students believed that the advent of a Jewish fraternity would make Dartmouth, which historically has had fewer Jewish students than other Ivy League institutions, a more welcoming campus for Jewish students.
In April, a new, more spacious, machine-filled fitness center opened, replacing the previous Kresge Fitness Center.
Dartmouth's first openly gay student body president Tim Andreadis '07 was elected by a high margin of 356 votes over David Zubricki in the spring as a write-in candidate. Andreadis ran on a platform of decreasing sexual assault and promoting diversity.
At the year's conclusion, Dean of the College James Larimore resigned after accepting the position of dean of students at Swarthmore College. During his tenure, which began in 1999, Larimore had attempted to improve Dartmouth's Greek organizations and enhance relations between the administration, alumni and the student body.
