Student life

Student life                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       In 2006, The Princeton Review ranked Dartmouth third in its "Quality of Life" category, and sixth for having the "Happiest Students." Athletics and participation in the Greek system are the most popular campus activities. In all, Dartmouth offers more than 350 organizations, teams, and sports. The school is also home to a variety of longstanding traditions and celebrations and has a loyal alumni network; Dartmouth ranked #2 in "The Princeton Review" in 2006 for Best Alumni Network.                                                                                              Robinson Hall houses many of the College's student-run organizations, including the Dartmouth Outing Club. The building is a designated stop along the Appalachian Trail.Dartmouth's more than 200 student organizations and clubs cover a wide range of interests. In 2007, the college hosted eight academic groups, 17 cultural groups, two honor societies, 30 "issue-oriented" groups, 25 performing groups, 12 pre-professional groups, 20 publications, and 11 recreational groups. Notable student groups include the nation's largest and oldest collegiate outdoors club, the Dartmouth Outing Club,which includes the nationally recognized[136] Big Green Bus; the campus's oldest a cappella group, The Dartmouth Aires; the controversial conservative newspaper. The Dartmouth Review and The Dartmouth, arguably the nation's oldest university newspaper The Dartmouth describes itself as "America's Oldest College Newspaper, Founded 1799.Partially because of Dartmouth's rural, isolated location, the Greek system dating from the 1840s is one of the most popular social outlets for students. Dartmouth is home to 32 recognized Greek houses: 17 fraternities, 12 sororities, and three coeducational organizations. In 2007, roughly 70% of eligible students belonged to a Greek organization; since 1987, students have not been permitted to join Greek organizations until their sophomore year. Dartmouth College was among the first institutions of higher education to desegregate fraternity houses in the 1950s, and was involved in the movement to create coeducational Greek houses in the 1970s.In the early first decade of the 21st century, campus-wide debate focused on a Board of Trustees recommendation that Greek organizations become "substantially coeducational" this attempt to change the Greek system eventually failed. The fraternities have an extensive history of hazing and alcohol abuse, leading to police raids and accusations of sexual harassment.Dartmouth also has a number of secret societies, which are student- and alumni-led organizations often focused on preserving the history of the college and initiating service projects. Most prominent among them is the Sphinx society, housed in a prominent Egyptian tomb-like building near the center of campus. The Sphinx has been the subject of numerous rumors as to its facilities, practices, and membership.The college has an additional classification of social/residential organizations known as undergraduate societies.149A Dartmouth varsity hockey game against Princeton at Thompson AreApproximately 20% of students participate in a varsity sport, and nearly 80% participate in some form of club, varsity, intramural, or other athletics. In 2007, Dartmouth College fielded 34 intercollegiate varsity teams: 16 for men, 16 for women, and coeducational sailing and equestrian programs. Dartmouth's athletic teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I eight-memberIvy League conference; some teams also participate in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).As is mandatory for the members of the Ivy League, Dartmouth College does not offer athletic scholarships. In addition to the traditional American team sports (football, basketball, baseball, and ice hockey), Dartmouth competes at the varsity level in many other sports including track and field, softball, squash, sailing, tennis, rowing, soccer, skiing, and lacrosse.The college also offers 26 club and intramural sports such as fencing, rugby, water polo, figure skating, boxing, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, and cricket, leading to a 75% participation rate in athletics among the undergraduate student body. The Dartmouth Fencing Team, despite being entirely self-coached, won the USACFC club national championship in 2014. The Dartmouth Men's Rugby Team, founded in 1951, has been ranked among the best collegiate teams in that sport, winning for example the Ivy Rugby Conference every year between 2008 and 2015.The figure skating team won the national championship five straight times from 2004 through 2008. In addition to the academic requirements for graduation, Dartmouth requires every undergraduate to complete a 50-yard (46 m) swim and three terms of physical education.It is often pointed out that the charter of Dartmouth College, granted to Eleazar Wheelock in 1769, proclaims that the institution was created "for the education and instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land in reading, writing and all parts of Learning... as well as in all liberal Arts and Sciences; and also of English Youth and any others.However, Wheelock primarily intended the college to educate White youth, and the few Native students that attended Dartmouth experienced much difficulty in an institution ostensibly dedicated to their education. The funds for the Charity School for Native Americans that preceded Dartmouth College were raised primarily by the efforts of a Native American named Samson Occom, and at least some of those funds were used to help found the college.The college graduated only 19 Native Americans during its first two hundred years. In 1970, the college established Native American academic and social programs as part of a "new dedication to increasing Native American enrollment. Since then, Dartmouth has graduated over 1,000 Native American students from over 200 different tribes, more than the other seven Ivy League universities combined.