Re: Njaa: End Unnecessary Financial Barriers to Student Life
As president, vice president and business manager of Ledyard Canoe Club, we want to clarify and respond to points made in yesterday’s article.
Although the article is premised on a few misconceptions of the Ledyard budget — the College could not, for example, “increase funding of the club” because we receive no funding directly from Dartmouth — it taps into a very real reckoning. At the beginning of the term, a member of the Class of 2023 urged us on the Ledyard directorate to make boat rentals free for all Dartmouth students. As we do not receive funding from the college, this proposal is not as simple as it may sound. We are open to the idea of making rentals free for all students at some point in the future. However, we are starting this process by working through the possibility of making boat rentals free for all first-year students beginning this spring, with the goal of working towards free rentals for all classes as time goes on. This will allow us to assess the financial and logistical impacts of changing our rental policy.
For now, we want to take this as an opportunity to publicize Ledyard’s robust financial aid program. The student membership, which secures unlimited boating access for a year, can be brought down from $50 to $15 for students receiving financial aid. All Ledyard activities are also free on our almost-daily local paddles that students can sign up for on Dartmouth Outing Club’s Trailhead website. We encourage students to come to our council meetings on Monday nights at 9 p.m. in the basement of Robinson Hall to learn about trips.
Alongside generous alumni support, all rental profits help pay student dockworkers and fund break trips, which are open to all students.
Ledyard is working to become a more inclusive space, as we try to understand our place on Dartmouth’s greater campus and in the Upper Valley. We thank Nate Njaa ’27 for pointing out deficiencies in our current business plan, and we hope to correct them soon.
Richard Lytle is a member of the Class of 2024 and president of Ledyard Canoe Club. Valeria Pereira Quintero is a member of the Class of 2024, vice president of Ledyard Canoe Club and a former Mirror writer for The Dartmouth. Owen Duncan is a member of the Class of 2026 and business manager of Ledyard Canoe Club. Letters to the Editor represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
