No Need to be 'Green with Envy'

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I would just like to respond to Mike Knobler's article, "Green With Envy," not as an attack on him, but for the sake of the Harvard students who were given the wrong idea about Dartmouth. The picture of Hanover that Mr. Knobler points is that of "a miserable place to spend an afternoon, let alone four years." In fact, Dartmouth is located in beautiful Hanover, N.H., where the foliage is now breathtaking, the air is always fresh and clean, the mountains are great for hiking and camping, and soon for hiking, and serenity of a college "alone in the wilderness," (from our motto) makes for a utopian setting for an education. I cannot understand how Mr. Knobler got that image, for one thing about Dartmouth that cannot he disputed is that it is really beautiful.

Mr. Knobler addresses a variety of other extremely important issues in cutting down Dartmouth, for example that the "Big Green isn't even big." Nice observation, Mr. Knobler, but what's the big deal? There is a great deal to be said about a small college where one can walk from class to class in just a few minutes, without the problems of city traffic. Mr. Knobler said we have the "smallest enrollment in the Ivy League." I suppose that stands to reason since we have a limited number of spaces for all of our applicants. But does it really matter if Dartmouth has 4200 and Harvard has over 6000? It makes no difference to me.

I imagine that the point of the article is that we are so "Green With Envy" because we are not Harvard students. Apparently, we have "an inferiority complex bigger than the state of New Hampshire," and I guess the Harvard-Dartmouth game is our chance in all our "envy" to see a real school like Harvard. It is also supposed to give us an opportunity to have a "social event second only to the Winter Cornival on the Dartmouth social calendar," Hogwash!! If you've even been to Dartmouth, any weekend, you'll find that socially, we do just fine.

As far as the inferiority complex is concerned, I think that Mr. Knobler does not really understand the Dartmouth spirit, a misunderstanding for which I give him no fault, for one must be a Dartmouth student to appreciate this. We like to win, but as one of our songs says. "Whether in defeat or victory, we are loyal just the same." Loyalty and love for Dartmouth are really important to us. You see, many people attend universities for four years; we are part of Dartmouth for our whole life, and happily so.

When you see Dartmouth students at Harvard with their class shirts singing pro-Dartmouth and anti-Harvard songs, it is surely but done to offend Harvard students, and I'm sorry if we've done so. We just come to Harvard to have some fun and support our team, but we are sometimes a bit too zealous about it.

I'm glad I came this year because I really wanted to see of my friends have and what their school is like. I think you have a terrific school, but please let's not made comparisons. We both have good reasons to love our schools. Jeffrey Marcus Dartmouth '85