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Oxon. v. Dartmo.

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In the wake of Britain’s education fees controversy, The Guardian has seized on the similarities between the endowments and enrollments of Dartmouth and Oxford to compare Dartmouth favorably to the English institution.

Dartmouth’s stadium, tiny in Ivy terms, comes out as peculiarly impressive in the article because it has enough seats for everyone…

Somehow it is hard to picture American football as seen from an English football terrace (see an image of Arsenal’s new stadium in the UAE, proof that terraces are not a result of budget constraints; terrace stories; terrace songs and chants).

The author of the Guardian piece might be shocked to learn that “enrollment” in the U.S. means total students, not just the entering class. That means that the comparison is even less valid: Dartmouth is less than one-quarter the size of Oxford’s 17,000 “enrollment.” There are dormitory clusters at Dartmouth that are larger than Oxford colleges.

[Update 12.12.2006: Enrollment information added.]

Some Web archeology: The Harold Parmington Foundation

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The Harold Parmington Foundation, a fraternity that existed from 1972 to 1984 and had the most unusual fraternal symbol ever, lives on in a touching website that Dave Halpert has set up.

The site has several photos of the house (now owned by the College and occupied by Epsilon Kappa Theta) including photos of the meeting room, the basement and the pool room) as well as Carnival sculptures (for example, 1976) and composite photos (1976).

Thayer Hall demolition proposal

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The D, talking to Dean Redman, has put a date on the Thayer Dining Hall demolition: it will come down by 2010. The article states that the school has not selected an architect for the replacement.

One might offer a thumbnail preservation plan for the school to undertake before demolishing the building:

  1. hire a Cultural Resource Management consultant to document the building to HABS standards. This is a widespread practice that has been conventional for decades in government;
  2. remove and preserve the painted leather wallcoverings from the Tyndall Lounge, the Robert Burns painting The Dartmouth College Case (1962) from the main dining room, and the murals Eleazar Wheelock (1937-1939) by noted American illustrator Walter Beach Humphrey from the Hovey Grill. This is a chance to get the controversial murals out of an everyday setting and into a gallery or storage (although it might be used as a reason to demolish them — it probably depends on how they were created);
  3. remove and preserve some notable architectural element, such as one of the roof trusses from the main dining hall. People have been suggesting for a hundred years that the school systematically collect architectural artifacts from the buildings it demolishes, and if there is no room for a permanent collection, some things from Thayer might at least go in the future dining hall.

View of future Tuck building available

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The Tuck School’s website now has a rendering of the Living-Learning Complex designed by Goody Clancy to occupy the site of Hinman Hall, the River Cluster dormitory.

The building’s style appears to be a departure from that of the adjacent Whittemore Hall, also designed by Good Clancy; it will feature a small courtyard enclosed on two sides by colonnades, a new architectural form for the Tuck School.

Choates demolition plan confirmed; other changes

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The Darmtouth passes along the information from Dean Redman that the school plans to tear down and replace each of the Choates, one building at a time. The school’s current interest in replacing the buildings, a departure from its mid-1990s plans to add to them, is no secret; the specifics of the method of destruction seem new.

Other information:

  • Not only new students but all students will be housed by class.
  • The two River Cluster dorms that will remain standing after the Tuck School’s expansion will be renovated as apartments.
  • Hitchcock Hall will be renovated.
  • Richardson Hall might be renovated as the new International House.
  • The Lodge and North Hall might be closed during the fall of 2006.
  • Dartmouth will demolish Brewster for the Hood Museum of Art expansion, as predicted by some of the Rogers Marvel master plans.

Sphinx is first on the National Register

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The Sphinx Tomb (William Butterfield, 1903) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places last March. It is the first building related to Dartmouth College or located in central Hanover to be listed. The only other building in Hanover Township to be listed so far is the Great Hollow Road Stone Arch Bridge over Mink Brook, which was listed in 1997.