ALUMNI SESSIONS HELD
Council and General Association in Annual Meetings
THE Dartmouth Alumni Council held its annual meeting in Hanover on June 8-9, gathering with the Board of Trustees and officers of the College at an informal opening session on Friday evening, and conducting a full slate of alumni business at the Saturday morning session in the Sanborn House Library. Despite wartime difficulties, attendance was excellent, with 26 of the Council's 35 members present and with 19 new and former members also participating. To this group of prominent and active Dartmouth alumni were added nine members of the Board of Trustees, whose annual June meeting was held the same week end, and twenty College officers who spoke or were otherwise guests of the Council.
At its annual business session the Council elected Thomas P. Campbell '18 of Denver to be its president for the coming year. Dr. Robert M. Stecher '19 of Cleveland was named vice-president and Sidney C. Hayward '36 of Hanover was reelected secretary. As members-at-large for threeyear terms ending June 30, 1948, the Councilelected Parker Trowbridge '13 of Worcester, Mass., and Windsor C. Batchelder '19 of New, York City. John W. Hubbell '21 of New York City was named to serve as an alumni member of the Athletic Council for the next three years.
Parents' Committee, John S. Everett '08, Augusta, Me.; Alumni Club Activities, Clark Weymouth '26, Rochester, N. Y. The Council's executive committee for 1945-46 includes Messrs. Campbell, Stecher and Hayward and Hubert A. DesMarais '26 of San Francisco and Clifford A. Randall '27 of Milwaukee. Joshua A. Davis '27 of New York City was reelected to" the important post of Alumni Fund chairman for the coming year, and other committee chairmanships were voted as follows: Nominating Committee, Dr. Stecher; Alumni Projects, James F. Woods '33, Boston; Admissions and Schools, Mr. Randall; Vocational Committee, Edwin R. Keeler '11, Chicago; Class Organization, Doane Arnold '27, Boston; Class Gifts to the College, Mr. Batchelder;
Both sessions of the Alumni Council this June were presided over by Henry E. Atwood '13 of Minneapolis, who relinquished the presidency to Mr. Campbell at the close of the Saturday morning business meeting. Mr. Atwood deftly conducted an informal question-and-answer meeting of Council members, Trustees and College officers in Sanborn House on the first night of the week end. The questions ranged far and wide over Dartmouth's wartime and postwar plans and problems, including such topics as the international outlook in college studies, reversion to the normal two-semester year, the new NROTC program, special academic adjustments for returned veterans, the postwar curriculum, restriction or liberalization of course electives, the use of tests, admissions standards, housing for married veterans, compulsory military training and its effect on the College, the Student Workshop, the Dartmouth Vocational Plan, the status of fraternities, intercollegiate athletics, and refresher courses for business men.
At the conclusion of this unusually interesting and comprehensive discussion, Mr. Atwood called upon President Hopkins for any comments which he wished to make in addition to his answers during the question period. Mr. Hopkins' remarks, in part, were as follows:
Some of the men here this evening have asked me to state my opinion of the greatest need of the College in the future. We are aware that Dartmouth and all colleges have been accelerated beyond anything previously known. One thing is clear—that the fundamental principle of the liberal arts college is more essential in the world as time goes on, rather than less. Perhaps Dartmouth's greatest need is to hold to its basic objectives in future years.
In tribute to the faculty I would like to say that what Dartmouth has accomplished during the war would have been impossible without the devoted service, far beyond the call of duty, of the teaching corps. Beginning even before the war, members of the faculty were preparing themselves to teach subjects outside their regular fields. The Navy was impressed with our ability to promise skilled instructors in the natural sciences far in excess of our normal personnel in mathematics, physics, and graphics.
A man who knows how to teach achieves results with his students that are beyond comparison with the effectiveness of men who know the subject but who are not skilled in instruction. I am confident that the standard and spirit of teaching at Dartmouth during the war has been, and continues to be, better than anyone could have anticipated.
In brief summary of this evening's discussion, I would like to express my keen interest in the questions raised and to state my conviction that no very great differences exist among us. It is interesting to me to hear the opinions of some of the younger men favoring greater prescription of courses for undergraduates. There is something about growing older that makes one a little soft. Younger men tell us to get "hard boiled." When you reach my age, you feel that no one knows enough to tell anyone else what he should do. I lean toward Professor Richardson's attitude (of wide freedom in selection of courses for the student) although I am fully conscious that I hold opinions about education less positively as time goes on.
After his retirement I frequently enjoyed discussing educational policy with President Eliot of Harvard who told me that if he was to live his life over again he would do all within his power to base education on training of the eye, ear, and hand. Without such development a man would not be educated no matter what he had in the way of intellect. Perhaps my agreement with this policy explains much of my interest in the extra-curricular life of the College. Men who participate in student activities do so very largely on the basis of their own preferences—a process of free election. I personally count the educational advantages to be very great of intercollegiate athletics, intramurals, the Outing Club, and other activities, beyond the recognition that has been given to them. I value the opportunity at Dartmouth for men to -sit in seminars with Robert Frost and to associate with the men whom we have brought to Hanover to teach students, outside of class, to cultivate use and appreciation of those things involved in President Eliot's educational prin- ciple of "the eye, ear, and hand."
Not all members of our faculty would agree with me that the teacher is more important than the subject. I would prefer to have a son of mine come under a great teacher no matter what he taught than to study any specific subject. We have sought, in strengthening our faculty, to bring in men who are capable of winning the respect of undergraduates. This policy has been proven sound in the appreciation that we receive from alumni all over the world for what the College has done for them.
Dartmouth is a family institution, and its strength lies therein. In a group like this, expression of opinion and interest in the intellectual life of the College is an unusual thing in alumni groups. I prize it above rubies. Let us cherish this deep interest and concern. The Alumni Council has led the alumni body through the years in its devotion to the basic educational objectives of the College. In conclusion I would like to express my confidence in Dartmouth's future. We are in a remarkably satisfactory situation which is due to men like yourselves.
Among the items of business on its Saturday morning docket the Council heard reports from Philip H. Chase '07, chairman of the Committee on Admissions and Schools; Prof. Francis L. Childs '06, chairman of the Committee on Alumni Projects; Clifford A. Randall '27, chairman of the Committee on Alumni Clubs; Fred C. Shaneman '24, chairman of the Vocational Committee; Percy O. Dorr '02, chairman of the Dartmouth Parents' Committee; Edward E. Martin '19, chairman of the Committee on Class Gifts to the College; and Joshua A. Davis '27, chairman of the Alumni Fund Committee.
The Alumni Council voted that the 1945 Alumni Fund shall be used to meet any current deficit in the College operations and that the balance of the Fund shall be deposited with the College in the postwar reconversion account. Members of the Alumni Council, together with the Trustees, were guests of President and Mrs. Hopkins at a reception at their home Saturday evening.
The president and secretary of the Council, were asked to set the date of the fall meeting in New York, and it was later announced that the meeting will be held at the Dartmouth Club on Thursday and Friday, November 8 and 9. The Dartmouth-Princeton football game will be played at Princeton the following day, November to.
