YEAR'S BEGINNING
PROVIDING THAT sharp September days and falling leaves bring memories of Hanover to mind, you are willing to grant that this is "the beginning of a new year." Have January 1st inventories got you to the point where the year begins with the new calendar? Too bad. For this is the season when a harvest moon and the tang of autumn in the air makes one say to the family: "It was just years ago that I was starting college in Hanover. Days just like this one .... I'd like to do it all again." Innumerable questions by the children about "when Dad was in college" will bring out the old stories. And at this point the feminine head of the house may be pardoned if she leaves, muttering something about "having heard all of those Dartmouth stories before!"
Like Commencement, the first chapel exercises of the year in Webster Hall, with the pageantry and formality of the occasion, make an inspiring setting for anyone prone to philosophize on the never ending, but always changing, line of entering and graduating students that forms the life of a college. It must have been doubly inspiring, and gratifying, to the President and faculty this year to see the hall crowded to capacity. Gratifying, certainly, to all Dartmouth men in this year of uncertainty, that a record throng of students still asks for what Dartmouth has to give.
In more ways than one this promises to be a significant college year. Administration and faculty will watch the new plan of "combined majors," allowing a degree of coordination between departments not hitherto approached; alumni will speculate on the "new spirit" said to be pervading the atmosphere on Hanover Plain; the football squad is tackling the stiffest schedule ever given a Big Green team; Dean Bill is taking up administrative duties new to the College; in view of rather drastic curtailment of expenditures, including the faculty salary cut, will general conditions react favorably enough to present stimuli to allow the College to take up again, and soon, its program of growth and improvement? And will The Dartmouth succeed in its campaigning to quiet audiences at the Nugget during especially tender and dramatic moments? This is a momentous question.
The announcement of Dean Laycock's approaching retirement isn't a pleasant one at the year's beginning. No matter how excellent a choice may have been made for his successor, and it is an excellent choice, we regret the process of passing years that brings on Craven's resignation. All of us have a warm spot in our hearts for the Dean.
