GRADUS AD PARNASSUM

This is the annual Undergraduate Issue of our magazine. The editors would like to present between the covers of this May number each year much more material of student origin than there is space available. However, within our limits, we can publish pictures and writing representing a sampling of undergraduate work. We are grateful to our student contributors this month.

It is appropriate for at least one number of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE to be devoted in its feature section to the work of undergraduates. Actually no one of our ten issues during the year would have been complete without the excellent writing of Chuck Bolte in his Undergraduate Chair, and the monthly contributions of other student authors and photographers.

Actually, Dartmouth College would be a sorry spot without the life given it by the student body. It may be restful to the natives to have the boys go home at intervals for vacations but it is a zestful experience to have them come back. Hanover gets a rebirth of spirit and enterprise every time the cars and buses start disgorging' suitcase and package-laden students at the Inn corner. Lighted dormitory windows are a welcome and heart-warming sight after the TOWS of buildings have stood dark and somber through the vacation.

THEY SAY A DARTMOUTH MAN is a student for four years and an alumnus for 50; that the primary objective of the College is to produce alumni; that the institution is not judged by the handsomeness or abilities of a long line of black robed seniors at Commencement or by the quality and promise of an entering class. It is true that Dartmouth is judged, in the only evaluations that count, on the achievements of its alumni—on what kind of men they are, and on what they do and strive to do in every part and corner of the country in later life. And it is accepted that the strength of the College is in its alumni.

All this is true. But it is also true that the student body gives the College its life and vigor. Applicants for admission would rather go to an alumni meeting and meet one real, live Dartmouth student, in the flesh, than they would to meet any number of alumni or an equal number of College officers or teachers. The question most frequently asked by alumni is: "What are the students like?—what do they think about the war? Do you know a sophomore from X named X?"

The most absorbing subject of discussion for any group of Dartmouth alumni is that of policies of Admissions. One reason that Dean Strong is overworked in one of the toughest jobs we know of is the articulate interest of many thousands of people in the makeup of every entering class.

It is a moving experience to stand at the conclusion of an alumni dinner—in the Copley Plaza banquet hall or the University Club in scores of centers—and hear men from 20 to 80 join in singing Men ofDartmouth. But there is a lift and inspiration that can't be put in words when the glee club sings Dartmouth Undying in front of Dartmouth Hall, on a May evening, with students filling the lawn on the east side of the campus. It is youth, and they are the live, vital part of the College. We are proud of them and glad they are Dartmouth men.