Dartmouth photographers Eli Burakian '00 and Robert Gill capture the joy on campus as Dartmouth celebrates the end of a very different academic year and holds its annual commencement, this year on June 13 at Memorial Field, as well as a host of other ceremonies honoring seniors in the undergraduate program and students graduating from the professional and graduate schools.

See a complete set of all our photos on Dartmouth Flickr.

It seems that every spring, April throws Hanover a final winter's farewell with a few late-season snowfalls. Don't be surprised if your lacrosse practice is canceled due to snowstorms, complete with thunder! Yet with blooming flowers and budding trees, spring planting at the Organic Farm, the return of sports, outdoor socializing, a Pride celebration with cupcakes, and the nearing completion of their undergraduate years for many '21s, the new season is an exciting time on campus.

With the theme "Level Up: Carnival Rebooted," this year's winter carnival is making the most of the idea of the virtual world of gaming: From arcade nights and scavenger hunts to multiplayer online video games and virtual conversations, community members can participate wherever they are.

For students on campus this term, there are plenty of outdoor activities to embrace the winter weather, including ice skating on the Green, ice sculpting, snow sculpting, snowshoe races, sledding, and skiing. 

This year's carnival will run for three full weekends, from Feb. 5-21. Check Engage.Dartmouth.edu and the winter carnival website for upcoming events and activities.

A new opportunity for winter fun—despite COVID-19—has been constructed on the Green by a crew from Dartmouth's Facilities Operations & Management. When the anticipated drop in temperature finally arrived on Jan. 26, two skating rinks were ready for students, faculty, and staff to glide on.

The rinks are open only to students, faculty, and staff currently approved to be on campus, and all COVID-19 guidelines, such as wearing masks and physical distancing, must be followed, including completing a TSA form beforehand.

Construction of the 120-by-60 foot rinks began over two weeks ago on Jan. 11. The crew put a dense 2-foot wood-chip base on top of a swath of landscape fabric, and then the chips were compacted with steamrollers by an outside contractor. The 5-foot plastic sideboards click together and are held in place with a bracket-and-anti-stretch-strap-system that criss-crosses the rinks in two directions. The system eliminates the need for any tools or other bracing. After the crew covered the rinks with a liner and clipped the liner to the sideboards, the rinks were ready to fill with up to 6" of water. The pressure from the water and ice is transferred to the boards, then to the brackets, and then to the straps and resists the weight of the water on the opposite side—the engineering principle of tension.

Hockey and figure skates, stored in a trailer near the rinks, are available, so it's a perfect time for the experienced or the inexperienced to bunny-hop, or carefully wobble, onto the ice for a spin.

Move-in for winter term took place on a slushy, snowy Saturday and chilly Sunday, with undergraduate students arriving during pre-assigned timeslots throughout the weekend. Their first stop was Leverone Field House, for COVID-19 testing and to pick up their dorm keys and colored wrist bands indicating which day they had arrived. Then, they stopped at dining stations in their residence halls for grab-and-go meals and made their way to their rooms, toting suitcases, duffel bags, and cardboard boxes. In the process, they connected with friends and classmates. (Photos by Eli Burakian '00)

This year began like any other year on the Dartmouth campus, where students gathered to study, compete, perform, play. And then, of course, many things changed as the pandemic took hold.

Dartmouth News takes a look back on an academic year that included a snowy winter carnival and a presidential campaign, and by June an introduction to COVID-related changes: physical distancing, mandatory maskwearing, and online and remote teaching and learning, among many other things.

While we may not know exactly what lies ahead, we can appreciate the beauty of the Upper Valley and the success and resilience of the Dartmouth community during a unique year through the lenses of College Photographer Eli Burakian '00, Multimedia Manager Robert Gill, and photo intern Keoni Ocalvey '20, Thayer '21, who talk about some of the details and inspiration behind their favorite photos, in calendar order, from this past year.

To promote a new Employee Resource Network for the veteran community at Dartmouth, Jason Mosel, a Marine veteran and a network engineer for Information, Technology and Consulting, ran 100 miles around campus to honor the Marine Corps birthday and Veterans Day.

Mosel started running at 8 a.m. Tuesday, following a 5-mile loop around campus. Throughout the day Tuesday, Mosel ran with the Marine Corps flag, and on Wednesday he carried the American flag. Mosel ran through the night, paused to raise the American flag on the Green at dawn today, and completed his 100-mile run at noon.

Sponsored by the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity, Employee Resource Networks was established to advance recruitment efforts and increase retention of diverse employees at Dartmouth.