Recent discussion in the faculty of methods

by which the relationship between instructors and students could be made more intimate has had definite result, and action insures a systematic attempt to accomplish more 'effectively next year through organization what the best teachers have always tried to accomplish hitherto, but without the benefits of organization and therefore unquestionably without full efficiency. By the charter of Dartmouth College the president is elected specifically "to have the care of the education and government of the students"; and by a later clause in the charter the trustees are given authority to appoint the faculty "to assist the president in the education and government of the students." Thus at once, in the charter, clear definition is given to the conception of the College in the minds of the founders—not primarily the administration and not exclusively the faculty, but first of all the students.

The strength of the present day Dartmouth is largely due to leadership which always concerned itself first with the manifold and continuous responsibilities which have gathered under the phrase "the care of the education and government of the students." There can be no question that the new administration, likewise, has appreciation of the significance of the charter's requirements and that it accepts the full responsibility. The increasing size of the classes some time ago deprived the individual student, unless he was notably deficient in his college work, of the helpful guardianship of the class-officer. In the serious questions which present themselves at one time or another to every student, in the choice of elective courses,—a choice which makes or mars his college education and, possibly, his future career, —there has been for some time no one to whom he could go for counsel except the Dean; and the relation of the Dean to a large body of students must necessarily be to a great extent official rather than personal. For a long time it has been felt that some systematic method of supplying this need must be •devised, and such a method has been sought.

At its March meeting the faculty voted to establish a Board of Advisors. It will be the function of the individual members of this board to meet the students under their personal supervision at regular intervals and to inform themselves regarding their circumstances, character, interests, and college work. They will advise students especially in their choice of elective courses. The relation is intended to be friendly and intimate. Membership in the Board of Advisors will be voluntary and will be open to all officers of instruction. It is hoped that as many as fifty instructors will volunteer for this service, so that no advisor will have under his supervision more than twelve students, and never more than six new students (assuming an entering class of about three hundred). Students will remain under the supervision of their advisors until the end of their second year in College, and it is hoped that in many cases such relations will be established that in his junior and senior years the student will naturally seek the help of his former advisor.

The President of the College will be chairman of the board and also of an executive committee, consisting of the Dean and three members of the board, which will assign students to their advisors and make such other arrangements as may be necessary.

This system will, it is hoped, tend to establish more intimate and friendly relations between faculty and students, it will guide many students to a more reasonable, a better correlated choice of courses, and, finally, it will perhaps reduce, by encouragement as well as by constant supervision, that large proportion of each class which now disappears from College before graduation.

The secretary of the General Alumni Association is sending out the list of nominations submitted by the Committe on Alumni Trustees. Graduates should recall that by arrangement with the trustees of the College five of their number are elected to their office upon nomination by ballot of all.the alumni of the College of three-years' standing, one vacancy occurring in the board at each Commencement. The vacancy the present year is due to the expiration of the term of Mr. Hilton. The list of nominations is one of high grade and the men named are all men interested in the welfare of Dartmouth. The list is:

ROBERT MONROE FUNKHOUSER, 1871. Born in St. Louis, Dec. 10th, 1850. Entered Columbia Law School, graduating 1873 with degree of LL. B. Received A.M. from Dartmouth in 1874. Graduated in medicine from New York University with degree of M.D. (Admitted to bar in New York City and St. Louis.) Professor of surgery in Beaumont Hospital Medical College for six years. Has been president of Alumni Association of St. Louis, president of St. Louis Medical Society, vice president State Medical Association of Mo., coroner for two terms of St. Louis.

WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH of the class of 1888. is a graduate of the Union Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. of New York University. He has also been made a Litt. D. by Hanover College. He has been a leader of social work with boys and is often consulted by important educational and religious institutions. Seeking more wholesome ways to deal with boys in the Church, he founded a society which is now the largest boys' fraternity in the world. Among his books are "The Boy Problem," seventh edition, and "The Boys' Round Table," eighth edition. He is a pastor of the North Woodward Avenue Congregational Church, Detroit, one of the leading churches of the middle west.

FRANK EDWARD GOVE. Born in Andover, Massachusetts, October 29, 1865, Graduated Dartmouth College with degree of A.B. in 1888. Graduated at Columbia University Law School, LL.B., in 1892. Resided in Colorado since 1874. Engaged in the practice of law in Denver since 1892. Address: Suite 306, Ernest & Cranmer Building, Denver, Colorado.

CHARLES L. SAWYER, 1888. Born in New Hampshire, 1860; prepared for college at New Hampton Institution, N. H.; graduated from Dartmouth, classical course, in 1888; received degree of A.M. from Dartmouth in 1891; Principal Waukegan High School three years, and of South Minneapolis High School seven years; graduated from the Minnesota School of Law in 1897, since then engaged in the real estate business; served one term as a member of Minnesota Legislature.

HENRY H. HILTON, 1890. Retiring Trustee of Dartmouth College. Ex-President of Dartmouth Alumni Association of Chicago. Bank Director. Trustee of University Congregational Church, Chicago. Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Chicago Theological Seminary. Member of various charitable boards. Manager of Chicago branch of Ginn & Co., school book publishers.

Introspection is often advantageous, and the ALUMNI MAGAZINE hopes that it may use its own columns for a bit of this. It was founded as a part of the general movement of opening all lines of communication between the alumni and the College. The alumni have been appreciative and kind in their commendation, and loyal in their backing. The question now arises—how best can this publication be made of still greater service to Dartmouth and Dartmouth men?

The support tendered the MAGAZINE by its constituency is indicative, if anything, of the high value accorded by alumni to the services which such a publication may perform. That it may achieve an increasing degree of success is, of course, the constant aim and hope of the editors. A full measure of success in achievement, certainly, may best be attained through the assumption by the MAGAZINE of all the functions made desirable by the various points of view and fields of interest among its readers.

Primarily the MAGAZINE was inaugurated and will be maintained as an organ of the alumni. It has been conducted with a view to providing a clearing-house of information concerning the great body of graduates. As a medium for communicating the problems and policies of the College, administrative and educational, in their internal and external aspects, the publication has assumed its place among useful Dartmouth institutions. Experience has shown, moreover, that the alumni always welcome a chronicle of undergraduate activities and achievements in all their forms.

Additional to the functions named, may not the MAGAZINE serve even more usefully should alumni co-operate in making these columns the medium of a less one-sided communication; in other words, to assist in making the MAGAZINE more definitely a voice of, and not so exclusively a voice to, the Dartmouth family?

The question prompts the suggestion of several desirable results likely to be brought about.

In certain particulars, occasional circumstances give rise to the belief that there is need, sometimes, of correlating the points of view of those who participate from afar in the problems of the College, with the points of view of those who geographically, at least, stand more closely in touch with such problems. Dartmouth ventures far, secure in the strength of her standing army. But the essence of strength of any standing army is loyalty; and loyalty flourishes best when grounded upon faith in the wisdom of leadership; to have faith one must have clear understanding. Herein lurks a danger for all progressive institutions, the factors in whose progress work in any but the closest of relations, for a lack of understanding between the factors slows up, effectually, the machinery of necessary co-operation.

These generalities have a bearing upon the point in question, for the MAGAZINE, as a medium of communication, may convey to the alumni whole volumes of information, and yet may fail to convey the little that may be essential to an understanding, in the alumni mind, of the problems and policies of the College. Whatever, then, may be the means by which the MAGAZINE is enabled to broaden its usefulness in the direction suggested, is surely worth the attempt. To this end, it is hoped that the alumni will avail themselves of the opportunity, freely offered, of inviting in these columns discussions and explanations of matters whose bearing may not be clear, and which, in their more obvious aspects, may appear open to criticism.

In one particular, especially, it is hoped that the suggestion may be productive of wholesome results. Hanover seems to afford peculiar advantages for the attainment of proficiency in the art of critical observation and comment. The range of criticism is boundless. It germinates quickly and has perennial growth, is self-ripening, and its fruitage contributes generously to the common diet. No Burbank will ever attain the skill in plant culture with which the undergraduate of even a few month's standing grows figs of criticism from the thistle-down of grievance. Not that anyone doubts the value of criticism. Its absence would denote indifference, something infinitely more useless and obstructive. As it is, we can think of no more healthy stimulus for sustaining interest and encouraging achievement than the free exercise of the right and ability to pick flaws. The question that really presents itself is whether this critical growth may not, or does not, sometimes become a weed; becoming such, in truth, because the luxuriance of the crop defies the attempt or destroys the incentive to harvest it. At this juncture, recourse to a change of crop ordinarily is recommended as a source of relief. Even rotation of crops may be suggested as a salutary alternative.

The undergraduate has certain advantages over the alumnus in the matter of criticism. Being upon the ground, his clamor either brings about that which he desires or it is silenced by his being brought to see the matter in its more favorable aspects. At any rate, he is able more comfortably and quickly to work things off his mind to the satisfaction of himself and to the relief of his associates. By the nature of the case, the alumnus may not thus easily have his say and so expeditiously lead others, or be led by others, to see the light. It is believed, therefore, that the MAGAZINE may perform just such a service. If the perspective of College affairs presents certain doubtful aspects discernible only from afar, how clearly destructive it may, be to allow them continued life! Doubt and discontent thrive surprisingly in silence. Give them voice, and they disappear, either because the voice, charged with truth, shows the right way, or because the voice, proceeding from lack of understanding, is silenced by the show of facts which it invites.

The enrollment of its men who have gone into teaching was undertaken by the College through the Committee for the Registration of Teachers in 1906, on the theory that under conditions in which the schools were turning in such numbers to the College for qualified men it became the duty of the College to have close acquaintanceship with its men in this field, that its recommendations might be wise. Professor H. E. Burton was asked by the President to take charge of this work at the beginning, and accepted appointment as secretary of the committee. Through his efforts the movement was inaugurated and developed, until it became of its present importance, and it was with regret that his decision last fall that he must give up the work was accepted. It is most gratifying, however, that Professor R. W. Husband has accepted the President's invitation to take up and continue this essential work.

The committee wishes to make a complete file of the alumni who are teaching, Its aim is to ascertain how many of the alumni are teaching, their location in various states, and so far as possible their history since graduation. In addition to this, it has the very practical desire to place Dartmouth teachers in better positions, whenever it may be possible to do so. It is constantly receiving requests for recommendations of teachers for good positions. Such positions it would like to fill with successful Dartmouth men.

Dartmouth men who are in the profession of teaching, and class who have lists of teachers in their classes, can help greatly in the work by putting themselves in communication with Professor Husband.

A well-known graduate once said in a witty speech before the alumni, that Dartmouth was never founded at Hanover

because of its conspicuous accessibility to the great trans-continental transportation lines. But the isolation of the College is so great an advantage in most ways that all incidental disadvantages are accepted with a considerable degree of cheerfulness. The village has from early times made pleasant impression on visitors, and one thinks with gratification of the comments of various distinguished guests. The presence last spring in Hanover of Mr. G. Lowes Dickinson, the genial English philosopher, gave so much pleasure to those who heard him and those who met him that it is a satisfaction to ascribe to the College village his words in one of his letters recently published—"Letters from

America" - more pleasing, indeed, because in general he finds so much in America that does not attract him:

"I am staying at a pleasant place in New Hampshire. The country is hilly and wooded, and like a larger and wilder Surrey; and through it flows what, to an Englishman, seems a large river, the Connecticut. Charming villas are dotted about, well designed and secluded in pretty gardens. I mention this because, in my experience of America, it is unique. Almost everywhere the houses stare blankly at one another and at the public roads, ugly, unsheltered, and unashamed, as much as to say, ' Everyone is welcome to see what goes on here. We court publicity. See how we at, drink and sleep. Our private life is the property of the American people'."