The Undergraduate Chair
College and Town Skip Usual Between-Terms Breather As Preparations Are Rushed for Record Student Influx
As THE LEAVES begin to turn once again, as the early-morning therm ometer readings sink lower and lower and the summer session draws rapidly to a close, it is conceivable, as the town is emptied, that most of the Hanover community will be settling down for a well-deserved breather—with the exception possibly of Tuss MacLaughry and his football squad. It is not only conceivable, but perhaps very sound advice, particularly for those college employees and townspeople who have been steadily on the job for the last three or four years.
However, no such breather is likely to be realized. With approximately two weeks remaining before the start of the fall semester, there is a feverish air of preparation for the tremendous influx of undergraduates and their wives who will be coming to Hanover this fall.
Since V-J Day, over a year ago, the emphasis which has been placed upon education in this country is nothing short of phenomenal. To hundreds of thousands of returned veterans, the G.I. Bill, with its opportunity to go back to school or start afresh, is the most important piece of legislation that has ever been passed by Congress. But unfortunately, this "importance," translated into terms of immediacy, has caught most of our schools, colleges and universities woefully unprepared in matters of housing, feeding and teaching swollen student bodies.
Dartmouth and Hanover are no different from the rest. But a great deal of effort has been expended to try and alleviate the crowded conditions which will confront the student body in October.
A special committee appointed by President Dickey last spring found that by doubling up in some of the larger dormitory rooms, by increasing the fraternity residence maximum to nineteen men, and by utilizing the willingness of many residents of the village to take in student roomers, a maximum of three thousand men could be accommodated for the new college year. Granted, this is no small item. But the headaches just begin there. There are problems of food, clothing, laundry facilities, furniture for rooms and apartments, recreation and a hundred other items which have to be met. "My God, what's it going to be like?" is a question that both residents and summer stu- dents have asked themselves repeatedly.
Nobody can tell definitely what it will be like. But rather than sit around to wait and see, a Joint College and Community Board has been set up, with Sidney C. Hayward as chairman. This board will serve to integrate the efforts of both the College and the town to meet the acute overpopulation crisis. A letter has been sent to each individual student expected to enroll at Dartmouth this fall, explaining in detail just what the local situation is. With an estimated student body of 2900, the picture is far from rosy. The supply of such necessities as mattresses, desks, bookcases, rugs and lamps cannot possibly meet the demand, and the letter strongly advises all who can to bring these items from home. Commercial laundry facilities in the White River area can, at best, handle fifty per cent of the estimated demand and here again the letter advised that men make arrangements to send their laundry home and even bring their own mailing boxes since they cannot be purchased in Hanover.
The gigantic task of feeding these people will fall largely upon the Dartmouth Dining Association and the seven or eight restaurants and drug stores in town, which, even during the summer months, had increasing difficulty obtaining food stocks to adequately take care of the diminished student body. Recreation, lodgings for visitors, student employment and even the facilities for shoe repairs all present problems of either scarcity or congestion.
No, the picture isn't very rosy. But it is far from hopeless.
VETERANS NOT DETERRED
Eighty-five per cent of the undergraduate and associated school enrollment will be made up of former servicemen. There have been no withdrawals from these ranks because of overcrowded conditions. In fact, thousands of applicants have been turned away. Men attending classes here during the July and August session invariably admit that, although the going has" been a little tough, where they were twelve or eighteen months ago was probably a lot tougher. The strength of the postwar desire to obtain an education as thoroughly and as quickly as possible is too great to be temporarily deterred by chow queues, cl-othing privations and a limited supply of roast beef.
This is especially true of the returning married men, whose scholastic averages have been consistently at the top of the entire student body. A special effort has been made to accommodate them with the newly constructed "Wigwam Circle," near the Thayer School, and "Sachem Village" on Lebanon Street.
To those of you who knew Dartmouth and Hanover as the peaceful little New England college community of prewar years, there will unquestionably be some striking changes noticeable when you return to take in the home games this fall. The pink lingerie drifting lazily back and forth on newly hung clotheslines behind the Fayerweathers is bound to receive a quizzical eyebrow at first. But it is said that even such ancient campus disciplinarians as Wormwood and his staff are reconciled to this and there is no possibility of arresting some wayward student. In place of the rows of pinball machines that were once the main attraction in Fletcher's basement, one now stumbles over parked perambulators lined up neatly like half-tons at a surplus war material market. Fletcher always had a paternal nature. Even the bookshelves at the Co-op and the Dartmouth Bookstore sag under the weight of the ever-increasing volumes which will be needed for the crowded classrooms scheduled to open on October 4 and the meal lines at Thayer will bring back memories of meat and sugar queues.
Yes, the little town will be jammed, but the prevailing spirit among the undergraduates who are leaving and will be back shortly is that, above everything else, education comes first.
A CARNIVAL QUEEN WHO CAN COOK TOO. Faye Chase, 1946 Queen of the Snows, holds a domestic pose in Fayerweather Hall before the compact electrical unit containing stove, ice box, sink and cabinet.
TWO COMMUNITIES WHERE MARRIED VETERANS WILL LIVE THIS FALL. Above, one row of the 48 prefabricated units of Sachem Village, now fully and happily occupied, and complete to the grass on the tiny lawns. Below, part of FPHA-constructed Wigwam Circle near Thayer School (undergoing expansion in background). Containing 200 units in all, Wigwam Circle has recently been enlarged by two-story buildings as shown in the rear.
With this issue, Charles Clucas '44 of Stockbridge, Mass., tackle on the varsity football team and former Navy air gunner, assumes the post of Undergraduate Editor of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. After starring on the freshman eleven in 1940 and the Big Green varsity in 1941, Clucas left college in January 1942 to enlist in the Navy. As an aviation radioman and gunner he saw action in North Africa and the Pacific, winning the Air Medal and a Presidential Unit Citation. He returned to Dartmouth last November as a junior and was captain of the crew this spring. Clucas is a member of Psi Upsilon and is majoring in English in preparation for a journalistic career after graduation. He entered Dartmouth from Cheshire Academy, where he was active in football, track and publications.
