Title: Alumni Community

General Information about Item:

• Customary Lore, ritual
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: Russell Beckerman
• Date Collected: 11/8/19

Informant Data:

• Russell Beckerman is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2019.  He was born and raised in Mendham, New Jersey.  During his time at Dartmouth, Russell studied engineering. He is currently in his fifth year completing a Bachelor’s of Engineering degree. Russell joined ski patrol in the winter of 2016, during his freshman year at Dartmouth.

Contextual Data:

• Alumni, especially recent alumni, often come back to Dartmouth to visit friends and relive the good times they had as students. Dartmouth has a “big weekend” each term that has more events than normal, and tends to draw a large number of alumni back to visit. Also, ski patrollers can return to the Dartmouth Skiway to renew their patroller certification.

Item:

• Ski patrol alumni always have an open invitation to come back to the Skiway. They often come during Winter Carnival, the big weekend of winter term, and will renew their patroller certifications and/or pick up shifts while they’re back.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript:

• “Alumni are always welcome. Plenty of alumni come back and renew their certification. I am  doing my fifth year BE on campus… and I decided to redo my certification, and I will probably pick up a few extra shifts here and there. Alumni are definitely a very present role and love to come back and sit in Topshack and patrol the mountain for a day or so just to kind of relive the experience as an undergrad, and so there’s definitely a lot of involvement.”

Informant’s Comments:

• The alumni are always welcome and happily greeted when they come back. It is very common for alumni to work shifts when they are back visiting. It is also a great way to get your certification renewed back where you first got it with all your patroller friends.

Collector’s Comments:

• This ritual of alumni returning to campus signifies the continuation of the close bonds developed on Dartmouth ski patrol post graduation. Despite no longer being students at Dartmouth, or official members of the ski patrol group, alumni are welcomed back any time with open arms. They want to come back and they do. This is especially seen as the alumni do not just visit, but continue to participate as they pick up shifts and go through the certification process with current members of the ski patrol group. This is a rite of incorporation as the alumni transition into the post-Dartmouth world, they are incorporated into the larger Dartmouth ski patrol family.

Collector’s Name: Lindsay Pitt

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Lore
• Rituals
• Graduation/Alumni

Title: Senior Farewell Dinner

General Information about Item:

• Customary Lore, ritual
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: Russell Beckerman
• Date Collected: 11/8/19

Informant Data:

• Russell Beckerman is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2019.  He was born and raised in Mendham, New Jersey.  During his time at Dartmouth, Russell studied engineering. He is currently in his fifth year completing a Bachelor’s of Engineering degree. Russell joined ski patrol in the winter of 2016, during his freshman year at Dartmouth.

Contextual Data:

• Seniors from Dartmouth move to various places all over the world after graduating. Therefore, the senior spring term is a time for final events. For teams and groups on campus, this often includes a final dinner. This is one of the yearly traditions for the seniors on ski patrol.

Item:

• Following the bequest ceremony, the seniors on ski patrol have a group dinner. This is a final time the seniors get together as current members of ski patrol. It is often held at one of the seniors’ off-campus houses, and people will bake food. 
  

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript:

• “We do a dinner as well, and it’s bittersweet feelings of having to leave [ski] patrol but also knowing that we’ve had so many good memories with everyone.”

Informant’s Comments:

• Informant had no other comments.

Collector’s Comments:

• The senior dinner is a last chance for the seniors to get together and spend time as a class before they all graduate and go their separate ways. Having a home-cooked meal at someone’s house is a very intimate and comfortable setting for such an event. This speaks to how close members of ski patrol get to one another. They often spend a lot of time both on and off the mountain together. Thus, they feel comfortable inviting each other into their homes. The informant’s comment about the bittersweet nature of the dinner also speaks the the fondness with which members of the group generally feel about their time on it. The dinner serves as a transition from being current members in the group and students at Dartmouth to graduating and becoming alumni.

Collector’s Name: Lindsay Pitt

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Lore
• Rituals
• Seniors/graduation
• Meals

Title: Bequest/Chip Ceremony

General Information about Item:

• Customary Lore, ritual
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: Russell Beckerman
• Date Collected: 11/8/19

Informant Data:

• Russell Beckerman is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2019.  He was born and raised in Mendham, New Jersey.  During his time at Dartmouth, Russell studied engineering. He is currently in his fifth year completing a Bachelor’s of Engineering degree. Russell joined ski patrol in the winter of 2016, during his freshman year at Dartmouth.

Contextual Data:

• Many groups and teams at Dartmouth have a tradition of seniors “bequesting” or handing down objects and items of clothing to underclassmen before graduation. Ski Patrol participates in this tradition with the unique aspect of telling funny stories or doing small skits to introduce or explain the bequest. Also, many of the items passed down are skiing-related.

Item:

• The bequest ceremony is a ceremony that takes place toward the end of every spring term before the seniors graduate. They pass down fun ski gear and costumes to underclassmen, accompanied with a funny story or skit to explain the choice of item and recipient. During this ceremony, seniors also receive chips that they are supposed to keep with them at all times post graduation to symbolize their continued membership of ski patrol. Very soon after the ceremony, the new board of executives are elected from the junior class for the following year.
  

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file): 

Transcript:

• “One big ceremony comes to mind when you talk about tradition and graduating out of ski patrol, and that’s our bequest ceremony, or we also call it our chip ceremony… The seniors that have been on ski patrol for four years have the opportunity to hand down funky gear and costumes that they’ve collected over the years throughout ski patrol to the younger members. This includes some short mini skis and funky goggles and different things that people wear on the hill throughout the year. It’s pretty entertaining to see who gets what items from the upperclassmen, and in addition to this, this is where the seniors then receive their ski patrol tokens or chips which are basically certify that we are ongoing members of the ski patrol community and its something that we are supposed to have on our person at all times… and essentially just signifies within the ski patrol community who is a patroller… its a nationwide ski patrol tradition, but something we also do at Dartmouth.”

Informant’s Comments:

• “Its very lively, a celebration… It’s also is like a passing of the torch down to the younger class and… they’ll elect their leaders.”

Collector’s Comments:

• This ceremony represents a rite of passage within the group and the seniors go on to graduate from Dartmouth. It is a separation ritual in the sense that the seniors give away many  of the items they’ve collected as members of ski patrol and separate themselves from the current group to become alumni. They also give up their power and control of the group when the board effectively steps down in preparation of the next class’s elections that will take place within a few days of this ceremony. It also provides a space for this transition of power to happen, and for members of the team to spend one last time together as that year’s group. The chips on the other hand are a form of incorporating the seniors into the group even as alumni. These chips signify that a member of ski patrol retains that community for life, even once they have left Dartmouth. They are a symbol of pride, as patrollers will bring them out to connect with and relate to other ski patrollers on mountains, and one of community and their continual open invitation to return to campus to pick up a shift and see the group.

Collector’s Name: Lindsay Pitt

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Lore
• Rituals
• Bequests/tokens