Title: Freshman Dorm Meme
General Information about item:
- English
- Material and Verbal: Joke
- United States
Informant data:
- Shawn Gayner is a Biology major in the Dartmouth 2020 class. She is 25 and originally from Meridian, Idaho. She is USMC veteran after serving for 5 years. She originally started making memes relating to the military while serving, and now solely makes Dartmouth memes.
Contextual Data:
- Social Context:
- This meme and its information were collected during a one on one interview on the first floor of Berry Library at Dartmouth College. Shawn described how she made the meme on her computer and how it has spread through the Dartmouth community largely due to the Dartmouth Meme page on Facebook. This meme was intended for the Dartmouth community.
- Cultural Context:
- The context of this particular meme reflects the fact that the informant and many people in the Dartmouth community don’t always agree with the administration on how money is spent. It does this by showing a large extravagant party held by the Board of Trustees, while also discussing the lack of dormitory options for freshman and issues of financial aid.
Item:
Informant’s Comments:
- The informant discussed how she made this meme with the intention of bringing attention to these issues. She commented on how she feels powerless in changing the way that the administration spends money, but that by creating the meme, she could at least bring it to the attention of more people. She was not criticizing the school for no reason, she was doing it to try and make the school even better.
Collector’s Comments:
- This meme is less funny than some of the other memes we collected, but it is very relevant. It brings issues to light, but does so in a playful way that is easily spread through campus. Shawn was a perfect informant, she was able to very easily explain her idea for the meme as well as explain why it is important.
Collector’s Name: Michael Thurston
Keywords: Dartmouth. Financial Aid. Freshman.