Gradus Ad Parnassum
Dartmouth and Hanover welcomed back a record number of class and club secretaries early in May. Their annual pilgrimage is looked forward to as one of the particular joys and delights that lighten the sometimes tedious and always heavy burden they carry. But if it is enjoyed by them it is equally or more pleasant to Hanover residents to see the Inn, campus paths, baseball stands, and college buildings filled for a day or two with those rabid Dartmouth fans. Their white badges become known to undergraduates who are told by The Dartmouth that "The men who annually come back to Hanover are sacrificing their time and interest for an ideal as well as a business. . . . There is something peculiarly Dartmouthian in these secretarial reunions." Their badges entitle them to all privileges of the College. The only regret when the guests have departed is that there weren't more privileges to be given, more honors to be paid them, more doors to be thrown open that they, as among the most faithful and distinguished sons of Dartmouth, might enter.
Conversing with an undergraduate the subject swung to the meetings of the Secretaries Association, just ended. "What do they do, these class secretaries?" he asked. The list was given, not completely of course. No one could name everything that falls to the duty or privilege of these men in the way of activity. But we could all answer: monthly class notes in the MAGAZINE, obituary notices, maintaining class records, voluminous correspondence with the class, up-to-date address lists, publishing class reports, arranging periodic class dinners and reunions, keeping contact with the College for the class as a group, and many other things too numerous and personal to mention. "How much do they get paid for doing this?" "Nothing" was the answer. His "Holy Smokes!" in reply was a fairly expressive comment when one ponders on the work of these men.
College communities all over the country have wondered how their own institution was going to weather the gale of bad times. Prom many administrative offices cartfe announcements of reductions in faculty salaries, of curtailed teaching expense, of the necessity of decreasing the instruction corps at several points, of retrenchment all along the line. Certainly none would do this were it not most necessary. For the colleges and universities offer something of such enduring and eternal quality in the life of our time and in our hopes for the future that nothing should hinder or hamper their work. Dartmouth's situation is serious but a successful Alumni Fund campaign would leave the books on June 30 in such shape that the present position of the College might well be maintained next year. President Hopkins' admirable message to the alumni in the opening mailing piece of this year's drive has evidently created a great unanimity of feeling among Dartmouth men. He has been most heartily commended from many different sources for the enlightened and courageous stand he and the trustees are taking in this crisis.
The President's Message must take a place of great importance in the story of this administration of the Wheelock Succession. It is a call to arms. If there ever was one it is Dartmouth's own voice speaking straight to Dartmouth hearts. Read again the opening paragraphs of this glorious appeal to the alumni:
"DARTMOUTH KEEPS FAITH! She keeps faith with her undergraduates whose rapidity of approach to life's major obligations cannot be stayed because of the temporary mishap of unfortunate years. Upon them the deprivations ought not to be imposed of a college life of meager opportunities or of an educational process inferior to that available to more fortunate sons of the College of a time a little earlier or of years a little later.
"DARTMOUTH KEEPS FAITH WITH SOCIETY! She withholds from renouncing her portion of the obligations of higher education to the American public at the specific time when acceptance of this is most indispensable. Only by forbearance from taking the easier way can the repute be justified which has been ascribed to the College by a nation-wide constituency. Thus only can the full value of her prestige be maintained and the satisfaction be continued not alone of preservation but of enhancement of the present status.
"DARTMOUTH KEEPS FAITH WITH HER FACULTY! Many of these have accepted call to Dartmouth's service, remained loyal to her ideals and devoted to her interests, when in days of economic buoyancy major financial rewards have been available to them elsewhere. Capable men, hesitating between accepting careers in college teaching and the seemingly more brilliant prospects of industrial, commercial, or financial life, have made justified assumption that as against immediate financial advantage and the possibilities of immediate large material rewards, membership in a college instruction corps assured security of tenure and financial subsistence, regardless of fluctuations of the prosperity index in the outside world of material affairs. To renege at this point, before dire necessity compels it, would be a violation of all implications that attach to the mutual relationships of the College and its competent and loyal instruction staff.
"DARTMOUTH KEEPS FAITH WITH HER PAST, with her history and traditions, and with countless friends and supporters, who through nearly two centuries largely oblivious to self-interest have contributed careers and lives to the end that the life of the College might be stronger and richer. She keeps faith with benefactors and friends who from colonial days of John Phillips down have given financial support and, in many cases, have given to a point approaching selfimpoverishment that the College might go on from strength to strength and from achievement to achievement.
"DARTMOUTH KEEPS FAITH WITH HERALUMNI to justify the support they have given her, the confidence they bespeak concerning her, and the satisfaction they cherish in bearing her name. In fair representation of the alumni and of their faith, the College could not present itself to the scrutiny of time as having been timidly nervous in these days when optimism and aggressive selfconfidence are needed.
Organization of Dartmouth's work and consolidation of its affairs go on. There is no relinquishing what has been gained; there is no abdicating what has been held; there is no deleting the survival factor in the equation defining Dartmouth's strength."
By a wise decision the Alumni Fund committee mailed copies of the President's Message, of which a part is reprinted above, to the Dartmouth faculty. It should first of all be said that opinion had been informally expressed by many of the faculty that they would do anything within their power to help the College through the crisis. Should a salary cut be necessary it would be received, without question, in the spirit in which it would be given: as a last-ditch expedient, as an emergency measure, taken only to permit the College to continue in its high purposes. But the steady progress of many years has resulted in building up salaries to a fair, but still inadequate, point. Teaching loads are heavy now. Increasing these would work hardship as much as would decreasing salaries.
The spirit of the faculty truly appeared after the Message had been sent to its members. With no solicitation a generous response began to be made immediately in the form of contributions to the Fund. Letters accompanying these expressed appreciation for the way in which Dartmouth was "keeping faith," and stated a desire to "keep faith" as well and to seek participation in the Alumni Fund, joining the alumni in helping out. That these came from members of the faculty who are not Dartmouth alumni is most gratifying. Alumni should know about it. Some of the gifts were substantial, many were for smaller amounts, comparable to hundreds, thousands, of gifts made by Dartmouth men. They were entirely unsolicited.
Some of the notes accompanying Fund contributions from non-Dartmouth faculty men follow:
"If 'Dartmouth keeps faith with her faculty' I am sure that we want to keep faith with her. My check for the Alumni Fund is enclosed—I wish I could make it larger."
"Sorry I can't stretch my salary more to make my -subscription worth while. This little check symbolizes, at least, my good will."
"My admiration for the statement sent to me by the Dartmouth Alumni Fund and for the policy which President Hopkins announces must be translated into action, and as a small mark of my enthusiastic appreciation of that really great interpretation of the situation I enclose a check for twenty-five dollars as a contribution."
"Although a graduate of another institution and as such bound by equally as pressing commitments, I am glad to contribute Jo the Dartmouth Alumni Fund and shall be glad to do so in the future, through the present crisis, in order to aid the President in main- taining the status of the College which he so courageously advocates in his Message."
Statistics, figures and opinions from the Admissions Office at this time of year regarding the class to matriculate in September are of general interest. No decrease in numbers of applications for next fall has at any time been apparent. In fact the material for the class of 1936 has been somewhat larger in numbers and also of very much superior quality to that of any other year in which the Selective Process has been in operation. Dean Bill illustrates this latter conclusion by the following considerations. Usually by March 1 he has about 1400 completed cases to be judged for admission. At that time he runs through these credentials picking out only the top notchers of the applicants, boys about whom there can be no possible question. In past years at that time he has selected about 400, leaving 250 to 300, depending on the size of the class to be admitted, to be selected after greater deliberation on each case. This year when he went through for his first choices he found that he had selected 760 superior prospects. And he spent the next six weeks trying to discard 100 of these!
