hange. It started out with change. The yearning for something different is what drove this former UC Berkeley student to transfer out here to our dear college in the woods. Change was the theme of my personal transition to Dartmouth. And change has quickly become the special theme of the ‘13s.

My change was a personal change, the result of being uprooted and transplanted to a place far away from what I knew well. For some of you, home is much closer than mine is. For others, the move has been even more of a geographical displacement. No matter where you come from, however, what you’ll find here will be very different from what you knew before.

But even as you go through this inevitable disorientation, Dartmouth herself is in the midst of a great change. We have a new President of the College, who, as he proclaimed, is a ‘13 just like all of you. We are heading into the aftermath of a financial crisis that has left higher-education coffers drained. And in the midst of all this, our national culture—and our campus culture—is returning to its roots in public service and great aspirations. You can’t avoid it. The ‘13 class will be stuck with more change (of the non-monetary persuasion) than any other class year in recent memory.

As if figuring out where all the dorms and dining halls wasn’t enough already.

Yet, despite all of these changes, so many things at Dartmouth, good and bad, remain exactly the same.

In this special first-year issue for the ‘13s, we will have much to say about what you’ll find here, and both what you should, and should not be doing in your time at Dartmouth. We’ll attempt to share the hard-earned fruits of our wisdom—even while knowing that you’ll probably all ignore half of what we say anyway.

We’ll share with you our list of professors you shouldn’t leave Dartmouth without taking a course with. We’ll tell you all about the sights and sounds you should avail yourself to while you’re here. And we’ll even give you a bit of a primer into the time-honored rules of pong.

In the midst of this, however, we’ll also give you a more sobering look at the dark underbelly of Dartmouth’s special subculture—and its tragic results with one of our featured articles on sexual assault. It’s a topic you’ll find the Free Press will revisit again and again, even though we would prefer to have the issue disappear forever into the annals of Dartmouth’s stained history.

Sex at Dartmouth is not just about sexual assault, however. As anyone who has taken a cursory look at Frat Row knows, the hook up scene at Dartmouth is alive and very well. But take it from someone who has a point of comparison with another college/university—Dartmouth’s hook-up culture is far from average. Fortunately for our dear readers, we’ve also included an article to help you all know what to expect and make your own informed choices.

Our list of articles is far from all-inclusive. We could not have possibly included everything you need to know about making your way through these four years within these few pages. However, we hope that the articles that we have included will provide you with a decent starting point.

In my time here, I’ve encountered a spectrum of feelings about the College. Some have loved it as much as you thought everyone loved it after DOC trips. Some have hated it with a passion and never for a moment doubted that their lives would be far happier if they could only get away from this place. Many others fall somewhere in the middle.

No matter what each of our feelings are towards Dartmouth, one thing that we all have in common is that our Dartmouth Experience will change and has changed us all a great deal. In the end, I personally feel we will have become far better people as a result of the time that we have all spent here.

For me, this will be my last year at Dartmouth. My time walking these familiar steps, from Collis, the Hop, Dartmouth Hall, and heck, all the way to McLaughlin, will be coming to an end—just as your steps here are just beginning.

Despite all the times I’ve prattled on about change in this editorial (I didn’t care to count), I won’t actually be around to see what changes all of you will undergo, and what changes you will bring to this campus by the end of your four years.

Although this is something I regret I won’t be able to see, I nonetheless take heart in one thing: I believe the change in the end will be a change for the better.

I believe in the gradual betterment of Dartmouth as we leave our most sullied traditions behind. I believe in what I’ve seen from President Kim, and his determination to turn Dartmouth back towards the public good. And even though I hardly know all of you, I believe in you, the class of 2013. And so, I’ll end with this one request. Leave your mark, and make those of us who have come and gone even prouder to have come.