You're a member of the Class of 2010, and after four years, you think you know this campus like the back of your hand. You're an alumnus who prides yourself in still knowing what's going on at the College (because you read The Dartmouth every day, obviously). Heck, you're one of those overzealous members of the Class of 2013 who puts themself on every organization's blitz list, so you basically already know everything there is to know about Dartmouth ... or do you?
All of you self-proclaimed Dartmouth experts out there, meet your challengers: Maxine Cameron, Kathleen Decato, Carl Thum, Shirley Baker and Ellie Smith.
These Dartmouth employees have spent a combined 167 years working at the College. After their lengthy time on campus, they have seen it all: the protests in Parkhurst, the evolution of First-Year Trips, and even the pornography section of Baker Library.
Above all, they know that the Dartmouth you know today was not always like it is now, and these dedicated employees have experienced the many changes the College has undergone while maintaining an awareness of the challenges it has yet to overcome.
The 1970s were a time of great upheaval for Dartmouth. John Kemeny had just been named the new president, women began attending the College, and Dartmouth adopted its famous Plan. But for employees such as Maxine Cameron and Ellie Smith, the 70s marked the beginning of their now very established presence on campus.
Maxine Cameron, a preservation specialist at Berry Library, said her decision to come to the College was influenced by her visits as a child.
"I had come [to Dartmouth] as a little kid with my grandmother when she did research, and so I knew the library," Cameron said. "I thought it might be a nice place to work, so I came up, got a job, and I've been here ever since."
Ellie Smith, assistant to the vice president for Alumni Relations, said her husband's job brought her to Hanover, but the charm of Dartmouth kept her around. "This is a good area to live in and raise a family," she said. "And I've had some excellent bosses."
The 70s were not just a time of change for Dartmouth; they were a time where broader upheaval was occurring in society. And, despite its seclusion, Dartmouth was not immune to these changes.
In 1972, Dartmouth began admitting women to the College, leading to a strong backlash from alumni and current students alike.
Shirley Baker, who has worked with Dartmouth Dining Services for 35 years, witnessed this negative reaction in day-to-day, dining hall life.
"[The men] would say that girls aren't going to amount to anything, and that they were just here to snag themselves a rich husband," Baker said.
Even worse, Baker recalled that Thayer dining hall used to be rigidly divided into cliques.
"Lines one and two were the people who didn't do anything and didn't care about being rated, line three was the geeks, and line four was for the athletes and beautiful girls," she said. "The guys would stand there with placards with one through 10 on them [they] would stand on tables and rate the girls."
However, according to Baker, in some ways Dartmouth was ahead of its time. She remembered the College being very accepting of minorities at a time where they were not fully accepted in many aspects of American society.
Carl Thum, director of the Academic Skills Center and a Dartmouth employee for 25 years, added that this diversity is now one of the College's biggest strengths.
"The diversity and the intellectual caliber of the students here is very impressive," Thum said. "Any place that gets the quality of students that this place gets and the range and diversity a bunch of neat things can happen."
Still, Smith remembered the climate of fear on campus during the 1969 occupation of Parkhurst Hall to protest the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program.
"It was frightening for the people in Parkhurst," she said. "I wasn't in that building, so it didn't affect me the way it affected them."
While these worldly changes certainly have had an effect on Dartmouth, the College's own traditions are constantly evolving as well.
As an active part of the Dartmouth outdoors program, Decato has witnessed the transformation of a tradition that has become one of the most important events in many Dartmouth students' careers: First-Year Trips.
"It used to be just hiking trips," she said. "Now, there is something for everybody. They've had to expand the number of trips they do because of the dramatic increase in participants."
Decato said that every year, she always sees an obvious change in students' outlook once they return from their trips.
"What's fun is to see [freshmen] come the first day and then see [them] four days later come back and get off the bus," she said. "[Their] whole facade has changed from the scared, timid person that got dropped off to [someone who's] got friends and feels comfortable, and that's what I really enjoy seeing."
Thum, who led a few Dartmouth Outing Club trips himself, said this strong emphasis on the outdoors is part of the reason he has stayed at Dartmouth for so long.
"I'm an outdoors guy, and one of the reasons I was so attracted to [Dartmouth] is because not only was it in the Northeast, but it was so close to the wilderness," he said. "You walk two steps off campus and you are in a remarkable world. I'm always surprised that students don't take greater advantage of it."
Another internal change that many of the employees have noticed is one in the pace of life at the College.
"It was more relaxed back then," Cameron said. "Even the work schedule was a little more relaxed. The first summer I came here, becuase there were no students on campus, every day somebody would bring a big thing of Kool Aid [into the library] and put it in the corner."
Decato attributed the change to the increasing number of activities students choose to take on while at Dartmouth.
"Students just do more activities," Decato said. "They use to just focus on one either you were in Cabin and Trail or Ledyard now students have a broad range of activities that they participate in and [they] just don't have enough time to get things done that [they] want to do. Life was slower paced 26 years ago."
Cameron said that technology is also a big factor in this evolution.
"I don't like the rushed way that technology makes people," Decato said. "It's sad not to have a chance to get to know students. You have to really work at it now."
Of course, being an employee at Dartmouth is much more than simply shelving books or serving food.
Cameron, for example, still remembers her "initiation" into the library (aspiring librarians, consider this a warning).
"When I first came here, there was a hazing for new employees," she said. "[The old employees] started a rumor that there was a pornography collection in the library that someone had given and it couldn't be discarded, so it was kept in some room locked away, and the older employees baited the new people, and we spent our breaks trying to find out where that collection was."
Baker said that working in Dartmouth Dining Services helped her cultivate life-long relationships with students.
"Over the years I've brought [students] home for Thanksgiving and Christmas," she said. "They even went to my wedding ... [Students] have told me they've gotten engaged even before they tell their mothers."
Thum, who has had a similar experience with students, said they have become an important part of his family's life.
"Every year, we have students over at our house, and they get to know us at home, and they get to know our kids," he said. "Our roots run very deep into this place."
Even these faithful employees, however, admit that certain aspects of Dartmouth are not perfect.
"The College used to be more of a family, and now it's more of a corporation," Baker said. "I think [it used to be that] when you came to work, people were concerned about other people and now I think everybody's concerned about the dollar and how many people they can get in here to make enough money."
Cameron lamented the rising student ignorance of the libraries.
"[Students] seem to be oblivious," she said. "I've had students here that are sophomores ... that don't know how to use the stacks, and that's pretty sad ... we've got real treasures here."
Still, through all the pranks, protests and supposedly hidden porn, these five employees and certainly more have found a home at the College, and have a deep appreciation for the impact it has had on their lives.
"Everyday you learn something new," Baker said. "Good or bad, you are learning something new. The College has made me adapt to different things that I would have never been involved with if I hadn't come to Dartmouth. It's made me a better person, and I have compassion for everybody here."
