Forecasting the Fund

IT IS SURELY not too early to say a word about the next Alumni Fund campaign, which is now being launched, introduced by a masterly outline of its needs and purposes from the pen of President Hopkins. These are abnormal times and the operation of the College is necessarily distorted from its normal course by the changes required to meet the exigencies of war. What may well be the principal concern of all Dartmouth Alumni in facing the matter of Fund contributions is the future, as well as the immediate present, particularly with reference to the provision to be made for the reconversion of the College operational system to the requirements of peace, when that need shall come—we all hope it may not be long postponed. The traditional functions of this Fund remain unchanged, of course, and relate to the spanning of the gap between income and expenditure, which one always has to face. Thanks to the generous aid which alumni have extended— and never more nobly than last year—it has been possible each year to close the books without any deficit, and to divert something, to other uses. This time the problem is complicated by the pendency of unusual needs arising from the impending return to normal conditions after the war.

A reserve fund for the meeting of those reconversion needs has already been set up, out of the record-breaking response of the alumni last June. If it is to be held intact for its intended purpose, this year's campaign will have to meet the requirements imposed by the inevitable lack of sufficient income to meet the year's operational expenditures —a condition that is always with us. Everything that ingenuity could suggest has been done to put a ceiling on expenditure without seriously impairing the efficiency of the machinery of the Liberal Arts college. What is needed most now is to put a floor under the resources designed to meet not only current needs, but also those which will arise when war is done and when peacetime requirements will substitute themselves for the very different ones now so pressing because of the war. What we are really doing, directly or indirectly, is insuring the readiness of Dartmouth to carry on adequately when the change comes.

A FAMILIAR FEBRUARY SCENE AT DARTMOUTH, THIS YEAR WITH A NAVY TOUCH