Kim’s First Day
A different kind of College tour took place on July 1, one that did not feature an undergrad walking backward while talking to prospectives. Instead President Jim Kim started his new job by venturing around campus to meet and greet staff, faculty and students and to check out his new domain. His first official address as Dartmouth’s 17th president came before a crowd of staffers at the Top of the Hop. “What we’re doing here on a day-to-day basis is going to change the world,” he declared. During the next two days Kim shared a similar vision with faculty, students, athletics and development staff as he toured the professional schools and hospital. “I’m thrilled to see how great it all is up close,” he said. Kim also joined a community gathering on the Green, where free ice cream took the edge off threatening skies.

Happy Returns
More than 2,400 alumni returned to campus for reunions in June, helping to establish a new record for alums in attendance. New attendance marks were also set for the fifth, 20th and 30th reunion by, respectively, the classes of 2004, 1988 and 1979. “We feel lucky to be from such a great class where so many people couldn’t wait to get back to Hanover,” says reunion co-chair Rowan Smith ’04.

Take a Hike!
The ongoing celebration of the Outing Club’s 100th anniversary hits a high point October 10, when the club sponsors the first ever single-day hike of the Appalachian Trail by a college. The 2,175-mile trail will be divided into sections, and participants will be given banners to photograph for a digital essay. To volunteer for a section or to shuttle and board hikers, send an e-mail to atinaday@dartmouth.edu. No Governor Sanford jokes, please.

New Alums Hit the Streets
Fittingly enough, much of the class of 2009 started and ended their College careers at the same building: Robinson Hall. Degrees were not presented during the rainy June 14 Commencement ceremony so as “to preserve the calligraphy,” according to Provost Barry Scherr. Instead graduates later returned to the scene where their first-year trips got under way to pick up the paper proof of their four years here. That was after the pomp and circumstance concluded on the Green, where speaker Louise Erdrich ’76 said, “We have to act together to heal and love this world.” The number of honorary degree recipients dropped from eight to seven when New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast couldn’t attend. President James Wright, presiding over his final commencement, hesitated only briefly when he realized a page was missing from what he was reading; staffers quickly rectified the problem with barely a notice from the audience of 11,000.

Another Bear Takes Charge
Jim Kim isn’t the only Brown alum assuming a leadership role at Dartmouth. New men’s lacrosse coach Andy Towers, a Big Green assistant since 2005 and former head coach at Hartford, was Brown’s first two-time First Team All-American and the 1993 Ivy Player of the Year for the nationally ranked Bears. He’s long wanted to be a head coach in the Ivy League, which he calls “the best lacrosse league in the country.” That means he’s got his work cut out for him, since Dartmouth finished 4-11 in an injury-plagued season last year. Towers seems pumped to get a turnaround in the works. “The season starts right now,” he says, adding that Dartmouth has one of the more unique programs in Division I. “Our freshmen get a chance to play a lot in the fall because the juniors aren’t here,” he says. “Our administration is behind us. We can do a lot of good things here.”

Profs Retire
During the past year four undergrad professors—with a combined 153 years of service at Dartmouth—announced their retirement. They are: Bernard Gert, Daniel P. Stone Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy and professor of philosophy (50 years); Nelson M. Kasfir, professor of government (39); Joseph Bruce Nelson, professor of history (24); and James Tatum, Aaron Lawrence Professor of Classics (40).

No Place Like Home
Hanover was the only Ivy League town that made Money’s most recent list of “best places to live.” Ranked No. 50, “the town is remarkably diverse for New England: 20 percent of residents are nonwhite, and they hail from more than two dozen nations,” noted the magazine. “However, homes here are pricey.” Louisville, Colorado, was ranked No. 1.

A Winning Attitude
“I didn’t expect that we would fall short that many times in a row,” says football co-captain and wide receiver Tim McManus ’11 of last year’s lost season. “Going 0-10 wears on you mentally.” While he says the team would appreciate more fans in the stands, he realizes the team “must hold up our end of the bargain.” To prepare for the coming season, which opens at home September 19, the entire squad has ramped up its off-season conditioning. “I want to be part of bringing the program back,” says McManus, a hot prospect who came out of a winning program in St. Paul, Minnesota, as a scrambling quarterback. “I believe we’re through the worst of it.”

Into the Wild
Each summer, incoming students choose from a menu of first-year trips. As of mid-July a record 92 percent of students had enrolled as follows (the number of sections offered for each option is in parentheses):

• Hiking (4)595
• Climbing (9)100
• Canoeing (9)98
• Whitewater Kayaking (6)60
• Biking and Hiking (2)48
• Flatwater Kayaking (6)40
• Nature Writing & Painting (5)38
• Fishing (3)26
• Nature Photography (4)25
• Organic Farming (3)21
• Trailwork (2)16
• Horseback Riding (2)10