A Green President

Today was a good day for Dartmouth College. Why? Well, today, of course, was the inauguration of Dartmouth's seventeenth president and the first Asian-American to hold that title, our beloved Jim Yong Kim. As indicated in the speeches by the delegates from Brown and Harvard, President Kim used to think he was a Brown Bear, and then was deluded into thinking he rooted for the Crimson. But as we saw today, President Kim bleeds green. And we're very proud to have him as one of us. Student Body President Frances Vernon, at one point, offered up the same advice to President Kim as to the freshman class... and in many ways he is part of the Class of 2013. We are all in a new environment, awed at the amazingness that is Dartmouth, and determined to beat Harvard in football.

The esteemed delegate from Harvard went so far as to say he was suffering from "separation anxiety" at the fact that he would lose President Kim to Dartmouth, and that it caused him pain to think that Dartmouth was taking President Kim away from Harvard. The president of Brown seemed to attempt to take credit for President Kim's success by blaming it all on his undergraduate years at her university. In short, it was an interesting example of the unique power dynamic and rivalry between the schools of the Ivy League (of which we all know that Dartmouth is the best... -cough- undergrad ed).

At some point one of the speakers mentioned the fact that though the Ivy League schools are rivals, they are sibling rivals, and siblings most of all. In other words, the members of the Ivy League are more unified than they are in opposition to each other. Perhaps this is true; perhaps not.

However, regardless of exactly how many almost-biting comments the Ivy administrators make in their speeches ("If you're a musician, you can perform music that inspires people. If you're a football player, you can beat Harvard. This year.") I'm sure of two things: One, that Dartmouth is the greatest school on Earth; and two, that we're very, very glad to have President Jim Yong Kim with us.

So, President Kim, let me be among the first to officially welcome you into my freshman class; and let me assure you that despite the fact that you've been an Ivy Leaguer all of your life, now you are something even better- part of Dartmouth.

Welcome, my fellow green freshman...