The Dartmouth Image

Committees are what a college has the most of; the creation of another one is usually taken in stride. Now and then, however, a newly appointed committee is outstanding for the vital need it meets and for the chance it has to make a major contribution to the College. Such a group is the new Committee on Public Relations, established last month with the blessing of the Alumni Council.

The Committee of alumni, faculty, administrative and undergraduate members is headed by Francis Brown '25, editor of The New York Times Book Review, one of four members named by the president of the Alumni Council. Other alumni representatives are Kenneth M. Henderson '16 of Chicago, Alumni Fund chairman; Sidney J. Flanigan '23 of New York, past president of the Alumni Council; and Charles F. Moore '25, of New York, partner in the public relations firm of Earl Newsom & Co. Administration members are Sidney C. Hayward '26, Secretary and chief public relations officer of the College, and Edward T. Chamberlain '36, Executive Officer of the College. Two undergraduate members, named by the Undergraduate Council, are F. Lee Coulter Jr. '52, Council president, and Kenneth J. Roman Jr. '52, editor of TheDartmouth. The faculty member of the Committee has not yet been announced.

The Committee on Public Relations has responsibility for the overall, long-range public relations program of the College, with authority to determine institutional policy, review methods and media used, coordinate College and alumni activity in public relations, and advise College officers and departments and alumni organizations.

The Committee held its first meetings in Hanover the weekend of January 11-12. A central point on which there was unanimous agreement was the need to root the public "image" of Dartmouth in the educational work of the College. Even as the Committee was meeting, a freshly arrived, advance copy of the February issue of Holiday magazine succinctly stated the prevailing image: "Dartmouth—The freshair college for men at Hanover, N. H., is noted for virility and skill in winter sports —but most of all for the fierce and imperishable loyalty of its alumni."

There are positive public relations values in Dartmouth's unique and colorful qualities outside the classroom, but every Dartmouth man knows that these qualities are not the heart of Dartmouth as a great educational institution. The job is to get editors and the public to feel the same way. The problem is well epitomized in the Holiday spread. Budd Schulberg '36 as a Dartmouth man wrote an article that tried earnestly to give an honest, balanced picture of the College. The editorial and pictorial supplements to his article were simply a restatement of the old popular image. ,

There is a big public relations job to be done. And it does not belong only to the new Committee, which can supply direction and coordination but cannot get very far without the interest and active help of every part of the Dartmouth family.