The "Dr. Seuss" Medical School

On Wednesday, Dartmouth announced that the Dartmouth Medical School had been renamed "The Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine." Theodor Geisel, better known by his nom de plume Dr. Seuss, is arguably Dartmouth's most famous real-life alumnus (if fictional characters were introduced, Michael Corleone would give him a run for his money). The announcement, which was circulated in an email from Board of Trustees Chairman Stephen Mandel '78, noted that Dr. Seuss and his wife were the most munificent philanthropists in Dartmouth's history.

This change was received with a predictable mixture of responses, with alumni and students expressing reactions along a spectrum from benevolence to wariness to ridicule. There was some grumbling that the name change reflected a continuation of the iconoclasm that began when stadium and arena naming rights were granted to the highest bidder (Qualcomm Stadium, anyone?). This, at least, seems like a fairly toothless argument; there is a rich tradition of naming buildings and schools after distinguished alumni who have made considerable contributions to the institution in the decades following their graduation. That Dr. Seuss was not a real doctor is just an unfortunate coincidence.

One slightly more legitimate reservation was that graduating from the Dr. Seuss Medical School would not confer the same gravitas as would a degree from Dartmouth Medical School. It is, frankly, hard to disagree. But as one close friend, a current medical student and ever an optimist, put it, "At least I don't go to the Pepsi Medical School."

Hear, hear.

Happy Easter!

"Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, 'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!'

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, 'Woman, why are you crying?'

'They have taken my Lord away,' she said, 'and I don’t know where they have put him.' At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, 'Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?' Thinking he was the gardener, she said, 'Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.'

Jesus said to her, 'Mary.' She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, 'Rabboni!' (which means 'Teacher'). Jesus said, 'Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."'

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: 'I have seen the Lord!' And she told them that he had said these things to her" (John 20: 1-18).