REGARDING CLASS FUNDS

The following correspondence between George M. Morris '11 and President Hopkins is printed here on account of its general interest for the classes.

October 15, 1925

Dr. Ernest Martin Hopkins, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.

Dear Dr. Hopkins: The class of 1911 is considering the question whether a gift to the College of the value of approximately $25,000, to be made at the celebration of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the graduation of the class, should be undertaken. We would very much appreciate an expression of your ideas as to the advisability from the viewpoint of the College, of such a project.

It is suggested, if not objectionable to you, that your ideas be given in such form that they can be referred to by future inquiring classes when such a plan is under consideration.

With my very great compliments, I am Cordially yours,

October 20, 1925.

My dear George:

It is mighty kind of you to give me the privilege of stating my opinion in regard to the matter of a class gift.

My assumption would be that the policy adopted by the class of 1911 would be influential in determining the policies of other classes, and in this matter of class gifts I have come to such positive convictions as to the form in which they are most applicable that I am glad to be given the opportunity of stating these.

I have one conviction in regard to college administration which is fundamental to all other convictions. The first responsibility of a college is to consider how it may do its work most thoroughly, and then dis- cuss ways and means by which this can be done.

The analogy to business at this point becomes somewhat hazy, if it exists at all, for the college which wishes to live up to its possibilities must, many times and, perhaos, invariably, take steps in anticipation of receiving the financial backing to justify these. Insofar as I know, the colleges which are out in front, doing the world's work in education, are those institutions which have gone along on faith that they would be backed in progressive policies, and have consequently adopted these policies and put them in operation, regardless of whether funds were in sight for justifying this or not.

I state these premises to lead up to the further statement that the most vital period in the life of Dartmouth College, so far as financial support goes, is right now, a statement which will continue to be true of any period within the next decade or two.

As has been said in another connection, "the past at least is secure." On the basis of certain knowledge which I have, I feel justified, likewise, in saying that the future is measureably secure; that is to say, the amount now written into wills, together with the fixed intentions of men now in middle life, will, in all probability, care for the future of the College after an interval of from ten to twenty years. This statement, however, presupposes that we prove capable not only of holding the position which the College has won, but prove capable, likewise, of enhancing this by showing ourselves sensitive to the needs of each successive year.

If the affairs of the College should begin to sag, and if it should begin to drop behind the leaders in the fast educational pace which is being set at the present day, we not only would suffer at the particular time, but we would likewise suffer in the dulled enthusiasm and the lessened support for years to come. Much of that support, of which we are now assured, is based upon the belief that Dartmouth is meeting her responsibilities, and that other support is likely to accrue to the College to make more effective that already in sight.

Some years ago, the Trustees decided wisely, I believe, not to go into the business of endowment drives and not to undertake a major attack upon the pockets of the alumni for a single occasion, but to ask instead for

a continuing support, year by year. Hence came the rapid development and increase in the Alumni Fund.

In other words, it was felt that we did not wish to capitalize and to exploit stories in regard to the poverty of members of the faculty nor did we want to adopt a policy which must essentially be distasteful to many men upon the faculty, in which their hardships and self-sacrifices for the good of the College should be made the subject of a lot of sob stuff designed to wring hardearned dollars from the pockets of the somewhat reluctant alumni.

On the other hand, it was felt that, all in all, the building up and the strengthening of that intangible factor which we call the Dartmouth spirit, would be insured if a large proportion of the alumni could be got to assume the burden of an annual contribution. I think it to be an undoubted fact that a man's interest follows somewhat closely after his financial contributions. In other words, we were perfectly willing to forego the attempt to extract the whole principal of what a man might be induced to contribute, and to leave this in his pocket provided he would give us the income from it.

It, has, then, since that date, been the official desire of the College that money to be given from the classes should be given through the agency of the Alumni Fund and for the purposes for which the Fund stands, namely, the strengthening of our instruction. Certain classes had, before the establishment of this policy, set up class funds, the contributions to which were designed to focus up at some given date, say twenty or twenty-five years. Obviously, in these cases it would have been gratuitous to ask them to accept a set of principles which had not been enunciated during the period of some years in which their funds had been developing. Otherwise, however, the effort of the Trustees and myself has been, whenever the question has arisen, to ask the class to consider these facts of which I have spoken and to recognize the fact that a dollar now may be worth a number of dollars to be given at some future date.

It was said in the panic of 1907 that if a man should show up in New York with a real gold dollar, he could buy the whole of Manhattan Island. Sometimes a college administrator gets to feel the same way in regard to gifts. One man comes in with a pet idea of what would make the plant more imposing, the grounds more beautiful, or the general atmosphere more perfect, and generously provides for the accomplishment of this. Facilities, accessories and memorials of one sort or another flow into the College with reasonable frequency. Meanwhile, however, practically every one of these things means increased expense in upkeep and increased personnel to whom salaries have to be paid. The work of the College goes on day by day, and its bills have to be met.

Rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repenteth is almost equalled by the joy in a college administration at one dollar, the specific use for which is not designated. It has been by the Alumni Fund, and the Alumni Fund alone, that the College has been able to keep the pace and to assume the position which it has assumed in recent years, for this amount of free cash available year by year to balance the college accounts has given us a freedom of action in administrative policies that could not otherwise have been considered for a minute.

As a single illustration, ten years ago, the instruction costs of the College were $245,000 a year. This academic year, they will rtin to about $750,000 or, in other words, an increase equal to the incom,e from $10,000,000 of endowment. Meanwhile, our endowment has not increased by more than half of that.

If the College had an ample endowment, and if it were possible for it to go on increasing its expenses year by year, as it must do, and meeting the bills thereby incurred, it would be an interesting and desirable thing, perchance, for the classes to set up a series of class funds, and year by year to devote these to some specific objects, such as concerned the interests of the respective groups.

This policy, however, cannot be admitted as desirable for one class without admitting it as desirable for all classes, and if admitted as desirable for all classes, and adopted, the Alumni Fund disappears, the College immediately has to restrict its expenditures at all points, and the effectiveness of its work is thereupon impaired.

Perhaps I do not need to say more as to why I believe the Alumni Fund not only to be all-essential to the College, but contribution to it to be essential as a measure of cooperation on the part of all the classes. I will not stop to discuss the theory that a fund can be raised and contributions to the Alumni Fund meanwhile be kept at their desirable standard within the class. Neither at Dartmouth nor at any other college having an alumni fund, has this theory ever proved out.

One final word, however, viewing the matter purely from the standpoint of class interest. I happen to have known of three different classes in three different institutions in the east which, this year, have found great difficulty and suffered each some internal dissension in the efforts to agree upon a common purpose for which a class fund should be used.

The unity of a class, in its loyalty to the College, increases, I think, as times goes on, but the lives of different men lived in different environments and under different conditions, become so diversified that it grows increasingly difficult for agreement to be reached as to a really desirable application for a fund, when raised. Pretty obviously, a purpose defined in the early years of a fund would likely prove infelicitous for carrying out at the culmination of the fund. Just as definitely, I think it is inevitable that the attempt to determine upon an objective, when the fund is finally raised, becomes a hazard for any class.

My conclusions in this matter have not been formed without long thought. Meanwhile, in the years which have elapsed since first I took it under consideration, I have talked with many men connected with many other colleges and universities. All comment, however, which I have ever heard, and all information which I have ever learned, alike lead me more and more definitely to the conclusion that a class fund, whatever its advantages may be, nevertheless, is not based on so altruistic a purpose, and cannot be made so effective an influence for the good of the College, as can an an nual contribution by the class to the purposes of a general fund.

I am

Most sincerely yours,

815 Fifteenth Street, Washington, D. C.