ALUMNI OPINION

Alumni of the Great Divide Act on the Alumni Council Plans

It is with great pleasure that THE MAGAZINE publishes the following communication from David J. Main '06. secretary of the Dartmouth Association of the Great Divide. This association is one of the most active organizations among the alumni of the College and keeps up a never ceasing interest in the welfare of Dartmouth. Its formal action in the matter of the proposed Alumni Council is but one indication of its well-informed and intelligent attitude toward all that concerns the progress of the institution.

EDITOR OF THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE: DEAR SIR:

At the regular monthly meeting held in Denver April 18, 1911, at the University Club, the Dartmouth Association of the Great Divide was fortunate in having with . them Ex-Secretary Hopkins, who was called upon to state the general plan of the proposed Alumni Council.

A motion was made and unanimously carried, endorsing the report, verbatim of the Committee on Alumni Council as outlined in the April issue of the ALUMNI-MAGAZINE, and the secretary was instructed to immediately notify the secretary-treasurer of the Secretaries Association, A. Karl Skinner, and the magazine editor of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, Homer Eaton Keyes, of such action as taken by the. Great Divide Association, with the request that it be published in the next issue of THE MAGAZINE, with the sincere hope that the various associations will take similar action in approving the council plan.

It was the consensus of opinion that not only an urgent but an immediate need for such an organization is essential to express alumni sentiment from this section of the country, to an official body that would pass on important questions bearing on the welfare of the College, which would take definite form in receiving approval or rejection.

It is our belief'that such an-organization with scattered, instead of congested representation, is as necessary to a tangible College supervision as representation in Congress of all states is to a well-balanced, centralized government. It is hard for the Eastern communities to realize that Dartmouth in the far West takes a place in the collegiate world second to none in activities that call for progressive and up-to-date ideas, and it appears to us that the clearing-house plan is the only solution in which to receive some recognition in the College machinery.

In our judgment, the formation of the Alumni Council will not usurp just authority from other alumni organizations formed for altogether different purposes, but will fill a long-felt want for such a body to interchange alumni ideas, in view of the fact that we appear to be too far remote for participation in trustee representation.

THE DARTMOUTH ASSOCIATION OF THE GREAT DIVIDE,

Denver, Colo., April 19, 1911