A prayer for Dartmouth College

In honor of Dartmouth's Homecoming, I share Rev. Dr. Lucias Waterman's (1851-1923) prayer for Dartmouth College.

"O Lord God Almighty, well-spring of wisdom, master of power, guide of all growth, giver of all gain. We make our prayer to thee, this day, for Dartmouth College. Earnestly entreating thy favour for its people. For its work, and for all its life. Let thy hand be upon its officers of administration to make them strong and wise, and let thy word make known to them the hiding-place of power. Give to its teachers the gift of teaching, and make them to be men right-minded and high-hearted. Give to its students the spirit of vision, and fill them with a just ambition to be strong and well-furnished, and to have understanding of the times in which they live. Save the men of Dartmouth from the allurements of self-indulgence, from the assaults of evil foes, from pride of success, from false ambitions, from hardness, from shallowness, from laziness, from heedlessness, from carelessness of opportunity, and from ingratitude for sacrifices out of which their opportunity has grown. Make, we beseech thee, this society of scholars to be a fountain of true knowledge, a temple of sacred service, a fortress for the defense of things just and right, and fill the Dartmouth spirit with thy spirit, to make it a name and a praise that shall not fail, but stand before thee forever. We ask in the name in which alone is salvation, even through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen."

'Tis the season

Maybe I just paid closer attention when I was a child, but Halloween doesn't seem to be receiving much attention this year. Stores have forsaken Halloween accoutrement in favor of early Christmas displays. The onslaught of Christmas carols on the radio has not yet begun, but it's coming. I have nothing against Christmas carols (quite the opposite, in fact), but mid-November is just too soon to start playing them 24/7. Anything that causes Christmas carol burnout long before Christmas Day needs to be rethought.

Speaking of new seasons, the NBA season began Tuesday night with the much-anticipated debut of LeBron James and Chris Bosh, the Miami Heat's prize free-agent acquisitions. Alongside Dwayne Wade, the three stars have been the focus of a hurricane of media attention. Their performance Tuesday, an 88-80 loss to the reigning Eastern Conference Champion Boston Celtics, showed that there is still some room for growth. And my Knicks defeated the Toronto Raptors 98-93 last night, giving them a winning record for the first time since November 22, 2008. Progress!

The U.S. Chess League postseason begins on Monday with the Eastern Division playoffs. New England will take on New York while Boston squares off against Baltimore, with the first-named team having draw odds in both cases. The action will continue on Wednesday when Arizona and Chicago are paired with Seattle and Miami, respectively. (Why is Miami in the Western Division? I do not know.)

In other news, Dartmouth's Homecoming is this weekend. Let me know if you're going to be in the area!

New York on the brink

With thirteen days remaining until Election Day, two New York races are coming down to the wire ... the American League Championship Series and the stretch run of the U.S. Chess League. (This is not to say that the current political campaigns are unimportant, merely that they will be resolved later in time than the above contests.) The Yankees find themselves in a 3-1 hole against the Texas Rangers while the New York Knights have lost three of their last four matches, dropping them into a tie for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Division. With their backs against the wall, here's hoping they step it up!

Speaking of stepping it up, Dartmouth football defeated Holy Cross 27-19 on Saturday to move to 3-2 on the season (0-2 Ivy League). Their two losses, to Penn and Yale, were both by the slimmest of margins, including a 35-28 overtime defeat at Penn. Not a bad start to a rebuilding year (the memory of 2008's 0-10 campaign is still a fresh memory). This weekend sees the Big Green travel to Columbia to seek their first Ivy win of 2010 against the Lions (3-2, 1-1 Ivy).

The chess Olympiad may have concluded, but the World Youth Championship has just gotten underway in Halkidiki, Greece. The United States sent a forty-player delegation and is represented in every age group on both the boys' and girls' side, save boys U16. Good luck to all the participants! And staying in the sporting world, The New York Times recently reported on a new trend in international sport: women's sumo. Who knew?

The dangers of entitlement

Last Wednesday, Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity was charged with one count of providing alcohol to a minor. Under New Hampshire law, this is a felony charge and carries with it a maximum fine of $100,000 if the fraternity (a corporation in the eyes of the state) is convicted. This prompted a predictable yet disappointing outcry from the student body.

Some background: Dartmouth has something known as the "Good Samaritan" policy, whereby individuals or organizations can contact the Department of Safety and Security for help when a student is dangerously intoxicated. Both the calling party and the student on whose behalf the call is placed will not face College discipline for violations of the College's alcohol policy. The purpose of the program is to encourage students to seek help for those who need it without being hindered by fear of administrative reprisal, especially if those calling are not entirely sober (or of age) themselves. One thing the policy does NOT promise to do is inure students from the legal consequences of violating New Hampshire state liquor laws (how could it?).

Two weeks ago, a Good Sam call was placed to SAE fraternity for an intoxicated nineteen-year old female, according to a report by The Dartmouth. Responding personnel determined that ambulance transport was necessary, and per Town of Hanover policy, police officers were dispatched to the scene along with the ambulance. The article states that a subsequent investigation revealed that she had been playing beer pong at SAE (with SAE brothers) prior to her incapacitation. Hence, the filing of charges.

The student body was up in arms as soon as the news of the charges broke. In a series of impassioned and increasingly irrational editorials, various members of the Dartmouth community voiced their outrage at the Hanover Police Department's actions. The perceived violation of the sanctity of the Good Sam call was especially vilified. One consistent refrain went something along the lines of, "If this is what happens when we call for help, then we're going to stop calling for help."

The above position, idiotic as it may be, reveals a startling truth about the dangers of entitlement thinking and its accompanying lack of personal accountability. There seems to be a widespread sentiment that the act of calling for help should absolve those complicit from their involvement in the situation. I cannot think of any rational basis for holding that view. One editorial, entitled "D is for Drinking," offered this explanation: "The 'D' in Dartmouth stands for drinking, and that's something that will never leave our campus culture. But it's becoming more and more crucial that we become smarter drinkers ... for the sake of protecting other students' right to drink."

Right to drink? The legal drinking age in New Hampshire is twenty one, and it's illegal to consume alcohol underage or to provide alcohol to individuals who are underage. Where else do you hear vociferous defense of the right of criminals to break the law without penalty? I reject the assumption that Dartmouth students are entitled to drink illegally simply because they're at college. There is no such thing as a "right to drink" and those who choose to ignore that reality must be aware that unpleasant consequences may attend that choice.

National Chess Day

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution last Wednesday that established October 9 as National Chess Day. As a concept, National Chess Day has been around since the time of President Ford, but it evidently had never been an "official" occasion until now. There are a number of events being organized around the country to commemorate the day, though I'm not aware of anything like that currently scheduled in New Hampshire.

On the literary front, I'm embarking on a 735-page journey through, "The life and times of Benjamin Franklin," as laid out in H.W. Brands's The First American. Though history is an interest of mine, I've never been a big one for biographies. All the same, I'm enjoying this volume so far. Through the prologue and into the first chapter, Brands is showing himself a lucid and engaging writer. I especially appreciate that he does not skimp on detail for the sake of readability but instead skillfully weaves the two together. I have high hopes for the remaining 722 or so pages.

The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded today to Dr. Robert G. Edwards of England, who along with Dr. Patrick Steptoe developed the procedure of in vitro fertilization. It is estimated that more than four million people have been conceived using this method, which debuted with the birth of the first "test tube baby," Louise Brown, on July 25, 1978.

Any mention of the Nobel Prize, in any discipline, usually elicits a diatribe from me against the subjectivity and poor qualifications of the Literature committee, but this year I am going to hold off until the prize is actually announced on Thursday. I've heard rumors that Cormac McCarthy may be under consideration, and as an American author hasn't won since 1993 (when Toni Morrison was the recipient), I would be excited if he did in fact receive the prize.