Gradus Ad Parnassum
NOT ALL of the discussion, written and spoken, about the student publications controversy in the past year and a half has been of the same high standard. Opinions have been aired, sometimes with more heat than light. Red herrings have been dragged across the trail, whether intentionally or not. Interests have been defended, not always objectively. But the important thing is that the efforts of the two committees that have studied and reported to President Hopkins have resulted in clearly defining the problem, in proposing numerous constructive measures that must not be lost sight of in the future, and finally the adoption of a most promising solution. The work and reports of the two committees have been of a very high standard indeed.
In respect to defining the problem the Committee on Student Publications, in its report to the President of last May, expressed its desire to avoid censorship but clearly stated its conviction that the responsibility of editorial and business boards to the cooperative enterprise that is Dartmouth College must be recognized and respected. It has been our observation that everyone connected with the College —students, faculty, officers, alumni, and friends of the institution—want to see full emphasis given to undergraduate initiative and activity. But in all student affairs there is an obligation for responsibility, and it is an important obligation in the case of student publications.
Months of study and discussiop went into the work of the Publications Committee, ably directed by the chairman, Francis H. Horan '22. The Report should be required reading of every heeler for a publication. At least certain sections of the Report, carrying recommendations for guiding and helping the publications to- ward effective results, might well be abstracted and, with other pertinent material, printed as a manual for board members and heelers. The Horan Committee Report is too valuable a document to be lost.
No better choice for chairman of the Arbitration Committee could have been made by the other members, Dean Strong and Editor Boldt '39, than the experienced and wise journalist who drafted the report published in this issue of the MAGAZINE— Maurice S. Sherman '94. Mr. Sherman is the very capable editor of the Hartford Courant and he served on the Alumni Council for two terms.
The report of the Arbitration Committee carries its own evidence that the solution agreed upon is thoroughly sound. It merits careful reading by all those who have become interested in the controversy. In wording and wisdom it is all that one could possibly have hoped it might be. In its preamble the report states:
"This board, is happy to report that itwas able to devise a plan which it believeswill preserve the freedom and independence of the undergraduate publicationschiefly concerned, while at the same timeserving, to remind them of their properobligations to the College of which theyare an inseparable part."
The specific proposals for setting up boards of proprietors for The Dartmouth and J ack-O-Lantern, and an advisory arrangement for The Pictorial, promise to make progress toward achieveing the two objectives quoted above. The plan is distinctive. It has been created to meet a particular situation compounded of agreement, disagreement, and indifference—but with a common desire to reach a solution beneficial to the welfare both of the College and of certain undergraduate institutions. The reorganization plan has been proposed and adopted. It is now up to men, working together, to make it work.
IN THE PAST three issues, including this one, the editors have had the great pleasure of presenting articles describing the inner working, objectives, achievements to date, hopes, and fears of the three divisions of the faculty—the humanities, social sciences, and the sciences. Fortunately the past-chairmen of the divisions agreed to write the descriptions and they have been passed on to the alumni without dotting an i or crossing a t. We have lost none of our old-time respect for the omniscience of the faculty.
No one would tackle the assignment of preparing an article on the sciences with the idea that more than a microscopic amount of humor could be gleaned from the subject. That is no one, probably, except Bancroft Brown who teaches one of the very snappiest courses in mathematics ever given. Even for this poor student, sweating under the deficiences of his natural scientific equipment, there were no dull moments in Mr. Brown's classes in trigonometry and the calculus. His article in this issue is good reading. Its method of treatment of such a deep and serious subject will be familiar to many students who trod the squeaking floors of his classrooms in old Chandler Hall.
WHAT ARE the humanities? Wherein, if at all, do their ultimate objectives in the college of liberal arts differ from those of the social sciences, of the sciences? To the layman whose lot for life has not been cast with one or another department of teaching these questions and others occur. The humanities include the classics but also the latest in novels, the drama, and now motion picture script writing. History has been a subject of great interest to scholars beginning in ancient times but is grouped (paradoxically?) with the social sciences, which are among the more recent additions to the college curriculum.
Let us be thankful that we do not face the problem of where to place a school for nursing or a department of veterinary medicine, or as one school is reported to include in its curriculum: "going on excursions, giving a party, setting a hen, caring for a garden, taking part in a parade."
For the layman, and perhaps for the teacher too, it is a marriage of convenience that has wedded many of the departments of instruction together. In general, it may be said (but only in general) that the objectives of the several departments within each of the three divisions are similar; they have subject matter in common in some cases; within one division the teaching may be concerned with the ends as well as the ways and means of man's life; in another the effects are of less concern than the causes, the ends of less interest than the means. Yet in all, and for every teacher having daily contact with maturing students, the constant challenge is to achieve the high purposes of his work in the liberal arts tradition; that is, the "humanistic" method or approach. President Dodds of Princeton has said that he believes the social sciences most valuable when most nearly humanistic in their point of view.
SPECIALIZATION, which has been demanded increasingly in the past few decades, in almost every field and career, and certainly in teaching, has caused the more rigid departmentalization of the faculties as they, and their range of subjects, have grown. Humanism, originally identified with the Renaissance, grew out of a demand for intellectual interests and activity among the people, and not only among the scholars or aesthetes of the time. Through the centuries that followed, which eventually saw the founding of America's colonial colleges of liberal arts, there was the gradual progress in the scope of learning, and teaching. Specialization brought the sciences and the social sciences into positions of increasing importance. It has been a helpful and necessary development.
The ideal interrelation of all subjects of the curriculum is expressed by Ralph Barton Perry, professor of philosophy at Harvard: "In an institution expressly devoted to liberal education, there should be no studies which do not in some measure contribute to the students' liberalizing experience All studies are humanities, when, as they may be, their humanistic possibilities are realized in intercourse between the seasoned humanity of the teacher and the innocent humanity of the student."
THE TWENTY-NINTH Carnival of the Outing Club, which creates just about as bad traffic in Hanover as does a football game in New Haven (to give you an idea of the traffic) was a good Carnival, a very good one. In respect to weather and handling of every detail by hundreds of D. O. C. workers, it was perfect. Following a vigorous letter from Dean Neidlinger and the administration committee, the Dormitory Council and Interfraternity Council really got busy on the question of drinking. All efforts combined, including the essential backing of the student body, to preserve the liberal attitude of the administration toward student self-control, and to result in a well-ordered week-end.
Carnival is a labor of love for comparatively few men in the College. Out of the whole student body it is only the leaders in the Outing Club who give great amounts of time and energy to the task of preparing plans weeks and months ahead, and carrying them through. In additioirthere are some 200 Carnival workers who freeze their toes getting the skating pond and outdoor evening and campus sculpture ready. All of these men give their time without stint. It is a model of efficiency. It is a marvel of organization and execution of a huge project by amateurs. Carnival is very much to their credit. But is it too much work? Is it too big?
James O. Sampson '39, of Mt. Vernon, N. Y., chairman of the Carnival Committee, has thoughtfully proposed that a survey committee be appointed right away to investigate all phases of Carnival if it "is not to reach the saturation point." There are many problems connected with the rapid growth of Carnival in recent years, questions that have bothered the D. O. C. and that have been hotly debated. With the 1939 Carnival a complete success this is a good time to study it thoroughly. And at the top of the list of queries might be placed the question of how much time students who are supposed to be going to college can spend working on the program.
QUOTED FROM a recent inquiry received on a penny post-card is the question: "Why don't you * run an article on the interest of students in religion?" At a conference of the editors this subject was discussed. Providing the subject could be thoroughly treated, without the bias in one direction or another to which the author might easily fall victim, because of the emotional reactions that rise to the surface when religion is discussed, the editors would like to follow the recommendation.
A suggestion of increased interest in religion in the student body is observed in a few different ways. On some Sundays there are no seats in the White Church. The Rev. Chester B. Fiske, who began his pastorate there early last spring, with his vigorous sermons and his keen interest in parishoners of student age, may be entirely the reason. Reports are that some 700 men in College give their church preference to be Episcopalian (although it is said a few are not sure how to spell the word!). The popular St. Thomas rector, Mr. John U. Harris, recently announced that he has never seen so much interest in attending services and in doing social welfare work in Beaver Meadow, and other back-country places, as there is among students this year. Father Sliney, who is as much a tradition in the College now as he is affectionately regarded in the town and community, continues with his work for a large group of Catholic boys.
It is our opinion that there is nothing dead about the religious interest of some considerable number of undergraduates; and for many more, as ever, the interest is latent, only waiting for a bull league or a famous visiting preacher or a hotly debated classrom discussion to set it off. If here and there one senses, and sees, evidence of increased religious impulses on the campus, as now seems to be true, a thorough study of the situation would be enlightening.
Another well-authenticated report is that more undergraduates are considering religion as a career than in many years past. Without compulsion but to meet fully the needs and desires of the student body, the College should provide adequately for occasions of worship and other religious activity, in collaboration with the local churches. No one could question the effectiveness of what the three Hanover churches are now doing. The question seems to be: Is the present program of the College adequate and just what is the degree and kind of religious interest of the student body?
THERE ARE many men among the alumni who have achieved distinction in religion. Many of them have been honored with the Doctorate of Divinity from their Alma Mater, and from other colleges and universities. One of these, and in the very front rank, is Dr. Donald B. Aldrich '17, rector of the Church of the Ascension in New York City. We are happy to present him in this issue as the author of an article which tells something of his faith in the essential spiritual aspects of life in a Democracy.
We recall some years ago going to his study with a group o£ classmates to join a gathering of young men from several colleges. It was a fascinating evening. In common with those too infrequent occasions in most men's lives that particular gathering had the quality of an inspiring experience. It was not a religious service. It was a gathering of young men who were struggling to find their places in a great and madly busy city. It began with a prayer. And then we began to talk about the place of religion in life, and the work of that church.
To that group of men the young rector was "Don" Aldrich. Did his influence help to mold their characters? Do they recognize that the impact of his mind and spirit is a valuable and irreplaceable factor in their lives? Does he continue to inspire men to live noble lives that are free from stagnation and triviality? To those ques- tions there is one answer. The world needs more men like Don Aldrich. Dartmouth has her share of such men among the alumni and the College should see to it that many more are given to the world in the generations of students to come.
