Letters

Flattering News

To THE EDITOR: There's a Quonset hut on the shores of North Africa that is used as a mess hall for officers and passengers flying to and from and over this continent. And on the walls of this hut are pasted colorful photos and clippings and newspapers as decoration. Three cover pages of your DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE are in this decorative scheme and present a point of interest and a touch of home to an alumnus—a "Vox in deserto."

Thought you'd be interested in the extent of your circulation.

Fraternity Goals

To THE EDITOR: Your "edit" in the February issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE captioned "Fraternities Hereafter" and stating that the necessity of an answer must be faced, stimulates this effort to make your columns.

Your opening sentence "One definition of Man refers to him as the animal that forms clubs," states, in an amusing fashion, a rather profound social truth. The fact which the sentence re-announces seems important not only to us at Dartmouth but to the collegiate and university world.

If the definition is sound (and it seems to be too obviously so to require documentation) why do we not accept it and plan to go forward from there?

Since the origin of the college fraternities some hundred odd years ago, colleges and university administrative officers appear to have regarded those groups largely as "noises which go with the wagon," a not altogether pleasing, and sometimes annoying, accompaniment of the vehicle of collegiate progress. There have been exceptions to this attitude but, in the main, institutional educators have accepted these creations of the man animal more through a spirit of tolerance than of desire.

That attitude of the authorities respecting fraternities (and it has not been an altogether unwarranted attitude) is not unlike the state of mind numerous Hanoverians at one time probably had toward the New Hampshire snows: they were to be endured but hardly to be enjoyed. It wasn't until we discovered that skiing is as much fun in New Hampshire and Vermont as it is in Norway and Switzerland that Dartmouth made an asset out of our winters.

May there not be a lesson in our capitalization of the snow which applies to our fraternities? Suppose that instead of accepting them in a sort of concession to the animal instincts of man, we went after them with an "accent on the positive?"

There must be values in these enterprises. Institutions do not survive in their original forms unless they have inherent merits. The "considerable capital investment" which you ascribe to the fraternity Hanover property holdings is an indication of faith which rests on the belief of a rather large number of our alumni that the fraternities have values which are worth sustaining.

This belief in values can be rationalized. Paternally watchful as a college administration may be, there is an aspect of the "wholesale" in the handling of upwards of 2,000 boys. The fraternity chapter, on the other hand, deals with a group of something less than 60 boys. Or rather, something less than 60 boys deal, rather intimately, with each other. Their scale is necessarily "retail." The attention among them given to the average individual, his strengths, his weaknesses, his potentialities, his peculiarities, is greater. It is more intensive and, in terms of personalities, it works more closely and, sometimes, more deeply. Anyone who has been through that experience knows this.

The "whole man" is what we are trying to develop at Dartmouth, is he not? If that be true, the process of learning to live successfully in a close-rubbing group of less than 60 other boys would seem to be just as much an aspect of the education we are trying to impart, as is the process for taking a satisfactory place in a class room of 60 boys.

Who among us has been graduated in a fraternity chapter and has not come from that experience with an increased knowledge of men? Who has not taken wisdom from his close range observation of the accomplishments and mistakes of his companions? Who has not, through the responsibilities which his progress through the chapter s ranks have placed upon him, learned something of getting along with other men, influencing them and being influenced by them? Who has not, from his own errors in those years, learned lessons that have stood him in stead later?

The fraternity house is not the only place on the campus, thank Heaven, where these processes go on but it certainly is one of the places and one frequently important in its consequences for the individual concerned.

If there is anything in this experience aspect of fraternity life, isn't there something here which can be turned to good account in a lad's education? If there is a potentiality here, a try at capitalizing upon it would appear to be worth while.

Through many years those of us who have not lived in Hanover have let the "fratres in urbe" wear themselves out trying to keep the boys in "the house" out of trouble or getting them out when they get in. Annually carrying the load for 50 odd boys who sometimes display positive talent for getting into difficulties, even though the burden is a negative one in its implications, tires men out. Of course, we "outsiders" have contributed to buy a new house, to refurbish the old one, or help pay off "the mortgage." Few, indeed, of the former members of the chapters, however, have ever carried on a planned and continuing effort to improve upon the values which have kept these old "clubs" alive.

There is something odd in this situation. Among all American institutions of college rank, Dartmouth has been a leader in the practical application of alumni enthusiasm. We have our Alumni Trustees, Alumni Council, Secretaries Association, Alumni Fund, Class Agents Association, geographical alumni associations, alumni participation in the selective process, alumni on the Athletic Council. We have been the envy of, and the pattern for, graduates of other colleges.

And yet, seemingly, it has never occurred to us that in these fraternities we have a latent asset for the capitalizing of alumni interest which may have genuine worth at Dartmouth and, conceivably, in the educational world generally.

There must be many among us who would like to be more with boys and particularly with Dartmouth boys. There are always people who enjoy working with small groups, on a "retail" scale, if you please, more than they do with larger bodies. There must be a number of men who have run the gamut of active participation in our alumni organizations whose heart interest in the job the College is trying to do for the individual student is as keen as ever. There are probably many more who are not quite ready, or free, for the larger theatre of alumni activity. Why do we not try utilizing all of these groups?

If one is not aware of the techniques that alumni of other schools have been struggling to perfect in this field in recent years, he can be told of specific instances which will make his eyes shine. Surely there are men among our Dartmouth family of sufficient intelligence and stamina who, if the worth of the objectives can be made clear, can make contributions toward the development of our fraternities as a more useful agency for education.

Suppose there were to come together, some of the former members of the fraternities at Dartmouth who will survey the situation and be ready to go forward with definite plans when the time is ripe. Such a group could approach the possibilities with the objective of developing the fraternities as an affirmative asset in the whole college process, not merely from the view of the boys in the fraternities, or in any one fraternity.

Such an undertaking would explore not only the techniques feasible in the fraternities themselves but would encompass such questions as increasing the number of fraternities on the campus (In my judgment, the number and qualities of the boys who attend Dartmouth warrants a much greater number of fraternities on our campus), the relationships between the men in fraternities and those not in them, the relationships among the fraternities themselves.

There are many aspects of this project which could be developed here but the paper allotment of the MAGAZINE will be strained even with this effort. If any of your readers wishes to bare his views to me, good. If he wishes to bare them to you, better.

Washington, D. C.

"Unusual Job"

To THE EDITOR: In an article on the 23rd page of your Feb- ruary issue, you cite the outstanding accom- plishments of Dr. Roland R. Tileston in the field of physics and the exceptional award of the Oersted Medal given him in recognition thereof. The article also mentions his admin- istrative position in the training program of the Air Corps at Pomona College for the year February 1943 to February 1944.

J -J-tJ ..—J I would like to emphasize the unusual job done by Dr. Tileston in that position. As com^ officer of the training detachment, it was my good fortune to associate closely with Dr. Tileston. The distinguished results of the training of the young men in the Air Corps at Pomona was largely due to the unique abilities of Dr. Tileston, who was the academic director of the program. He showed the same capacity in developing able technicians for the Army as he has in developing able colleagues in the field of physics.

Of his achievements as a "Producer of Producers," his services to the armed forces are believed to be one of the most important and deserving of recognition in the record of Dr. Tileston's work.

Captain, Air Corps.

Lowry Field, Colo

Graduation?

To THE EDITOR: I would like to inquire whether or not any civilian students graduated at the end of the last winter semester.

The March issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE might lead one to believe that the persontiel of the Navy was well taken care of at their graduation exercises, but no mention was made of the Dartmouth Men who also graduated.

Evanston, III.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Graduation exercises for most of the 34 civilian undergraduates who completed the degree requirements last term and for the second-year class of the Medical School were held on April 2, with President Hopkins presenting the diplomas. In the past, students themselves have chosen to dispense with such exercises rather than wait for the completion of records and necessary Trustee action, but the number of civilians now in the Medical School and the holding over of a Navy medical group pending assignment made it possible to hold the brief commencement of April 2. The Navy V-12 convocation in late February was the first graduation program since the start of the Unit. It was arranged by the Navy and was entirely a Navy assembly except for the invited faculty guests.