s I sign my last editorial in The Dartmouth Free Press, I have a few last sentiments I would like to express. So many senior men here do not yet have jobs next year, so I would propose an alternative: this place is swimming with high powered women, who need a good man with which to live. Men do not always consider the option of staying at home; this lack of imagination is what I’d like to bemoan. Stand by your woman, I would advocate. Or at least I would berate, those men who do not pause, to contemplate that gender roles are not laws. To those readers who are now sneering without caring, please at least consider sharing some of the child rearing. I disagree with those who have cried that things must be as they are because of tradition, a rather unjustified and unsophisticated erudition. While my “prose” here is disjointed, I hope my words are still pointed. Take seriously my sign-off letter; what I say is true, for worse or for better.
I have come full circle as I prepare to graduate. Though I grew up elsewhere, I was born in Hanover, in this state. Let me tell you my father was rather lax, to tell me that I may have been conceived in Baker’s stacks. The timing was about right, but this information gave me a fright. Why do I tell you this? Because I would be remiss to pretend that my reflections here at the end have nothing do with where I have come from.
Though my parents were both Dartmouth students, my father never completed his degree; he married my mom and took care of me. While my mom worked and went to graduate school, my dad stayed home, a so-called exception to the rule. I think this gave me a slightly different perspective, and taught me not to always follow society’s directives. I have never bought a certain line of conservative thought. I think it is rather deranged to assume that current gender roles are naturally arranged, that progress is doomed and we cannot change.
Reflecting on Dartmouth, my dad always told me he disliked the beer drinking corporate attitude here. So I never really thought of attending until my high school senior year. The Big Green of the late seventies was dominated by Greeks, and of hyper-masculinity the campus reeked. My dad was not too optimistic about present campus gender relations. But he said go to Dartmouth, Tim, because you will get a good education.
Please do not have the arrogance, to say I am not connected to the true Dartmouth experience. Though my time here has been somewhat different than most, few people have such connections to Dartmouth of which they can “boast.” Both my uncle and grandfather are alums who loved their time with their Dartmouth chums.
In addition, my sister Athena is a fellow member of the class of 2001. We are not twins if that is your question. She skipped two grades, so we will march together this June across the commencement stage. We both live together in the same undergraduate society, in the inclusive co-ed space of Panarchy, the identity of which has traditionally been in opposition, to the campus’ homogenizing forces, which generally conquer through attrition.
While student controlled space is a great virtue, I would like that argue, that though our lives should not be controlled by Parkhurst, the environment which we all share should in the end come first. Though it’s been almost three decades since co-education started, the legacy of a single-sex Dartmouth has not yet departed. Institutions structure our choices, and tradition can drown out newcomer’s voices. I have heard a lot of rhetoric and the freedom of association schtick, of which we are all quite sick. On one level, this has some truth to it, but I think that we can all intuit, that our tolerance eventually has a limit; where exactly that is, of course, a matter for debate and discourse, and should be argued with vigorous spirit.
For far too long student opinion on this campus has had a conservative bent, and a forum for intelligent liberal and alternative views has been absent. This is the problem I wanted to address when I worked to create The Dartmouth Free Press. In the tradition of free speech at its best, we have aimed to give new voices an outlet. Do not confused by this editorial; our paper’s tone is usually more witty, but professorial. We aimed to create a student political paper that will probe a wide range of issues on campus, in the nation, and around the globe.
This issue of The Free Press presents several different viewpoints on residential and social exclusion: when is it justified and when is ‘brotherhood’ an illusion? Printed on the opposite page are the complete texts of the speech that two faculty members each gave, when they spoke in mid-May, in favor of a resolution advocating the de-recognition without delay, of single-sex or otherwise exclusionary social organizations. In response, we have posed the question of whether an exclusive social house is ever a justified creation. We have welcomed in this issue several different writers’ reaction and participation. Each expresses his or her individual nuanced position about exclusion and the Greek system in transition. The authors of these articles often subtly disagree, but this issue cannot and does not express anywhere near the full range of views on this controversy.
Also in this issue are articles on the Bush Administration’s handing of national and international affairs, as well as political commentary on the back page in The Common Share.
This paper was founded last fall, and at times it seemed like an impossible task. But the dedication of this year’s staff convinces me that this paper will last. And now my words really turn to mush as, about others, I will gush. I pass on the stewardship of this paper in the firm belief, that Jeffrey Vardaro ‘02 will take this paper to new heights as next year’s Editor-in-Chief. Karsten Barde ‘04 will serve as Publisher and work to ensure this paper’s ideals are upheld in the eyes of the public. Kevin Mazur ’04 will move up to Executive Editor and hopefully his head will not be too swelled as he imitates The New Republic. Laura Dellatorre ‘03 will serve as Managing Editor, working as always to make the paper ever better. Praise to Abbye Meyer ‘02 and her wonderful layout, and to Philip Peisch ’04, whose distribution efforts we could not have done without. Thanks to seniors Adam Greenwald, who served as our first Publisher in the fall; Eric Bielke, the Business Manager who handled it all; Justin Sarma, the Webmaster I herald; our Photo Editor Andrew Fitzgerald; Randy Choiniere, who first talked of a campus paper on the left, and Lucy Goddard, whose copy editing was always so deft. Thanks to the many contributors and staff writers on the masthead that I cannot all name, and to our faculty advisor and my friend Dale Turner; in my thoughts he will always remain. Finally, to my dear friends and seniors Daniel Pollock and Michelle Chui: there is simply no way I could have worked to do this without you.
Where I am heading next, you may query. I am going to attend Columbia University’s graduate program in political theory. And while my academic experience will change quite a bit next year, I can honestly say that I have loved Dartmouth and will always treasure my time here.
Timothy Waligore
Editor-in-Chief (no more, I guess)
The Dartmouth Free Press
