Freshman Traditions
“Sense of Belonging”

R.H. Chicago, IL Fall 2018

Informant Data:

RH was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 28th, 2000. He attended high school in Chicago, Illinois, where he lives today. At Dartmouth, he is currently studying government and computer science. RH is a member of the Class of 2022. Outside of academics, M.P. enjoys weightlifting at the gym and going kayaking on the Connecticut River.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context:

Dartmouth College was founded in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock and is the ninth-oldest institution in the United States. Dartmouth currently has 4,310 undergraduates. It is located in Hanover, New Hampshire. Dartmouth is known to be a small, research university that emphasizes a liberal arts curriculum to its students.

Social Context:

As a college that is over two centuries old, Dartmouth offers a distinct series of events that provide every new student with an iconic freshman year experience. Freshmen go through first-year outdoor trips, a matriculation ceremony, and more. The College on the Hill has unique traditions and rites of passage that welcome freshman into the Big Green community. 

Item:

Dartmouth has always had a reputation for being a “cult” and placing a strong value in tradition. RH mentioned how he was really looking forward toward running around the bonfire. Dartmouth’s bonfire tradition is nearly 123 years old. He had mixed feelings about how the college wanted to change the tradition year. This was significant because the most attractive component of the bonfire to RH was how thousands of students had done the same exact thing  before him and RH wanted to be a part of that. Ultimately, he did not mind the change too much (the changes involving walking instead of running, and only one lap instead of # of class year) because component of the tremendous bonfire structure is still there. 

*(RH preferred not to be filmed or recorded)

Transcript:

What does Dartmouth Homecoming mean to you?
The “need” of a sense of belonging

My freshman fall was really tough but homecoming weekend was really nice, weird and culty. But it was really nice and a cool magic to it

The school likes the modified shorter event because less alcohol related arrests this year

Adding outdoorsy traditions would be cool like Northeastern. All the freshman have to run a long path in Boston in underwear. Does not need to be that graphic but could still be fun. But because the bonfire goes around for so long, it should stay

But if no more running, focus more on alma mater

Everybody could sign the bonfire 

Dartmouth should just succeed from Hanover

Collectors Comments: 

Rites of passage seem to have secondary qualities about them too. It was interesting to notice how a modification of an existing tradition influences expectations and impressions from members who undergo that very ritual. Still, since core three stages of the rite of passage are there, it ultimately is successful in initiating freshman into the Dartmouth community.

Aneeq Chaudhry Dartmouth College Russian 13 Spring 2019