THE COLLEGE

By means of a series of "fireside chats" over Dartmouth's student radio station WDBS, President Dickey during the past two years has endeavored "to get around the fact that there is no occasion, indeed there is no place, where the fellow on my job can talk with the entire student body or such part of it as is interested about the life and affairs of the College in a fairly intimate, direct way." The latest talk in this series was broadcast on the night of January 15, at the customary late hour so it could be heard by students after they had returned to the dorms and fraternity houses from Baker and the second show at the Nugget.

President Dickey in past radio talks has discussed college finances, mobilization, student government, intercollegiate athletics, and student conduct, among other topics. Last month he elected to review for the students some of the excellent advisory services available at Dartmouth and to express the opinion that it is common sense to make use of them. He also dwelt on the richness that many men have added to their Dartmouth experience by not being afraid to welcome and even seek out informal, friendly relationships with members of the teaching staff "a phase of the total experience which men fondly call Dartmouth, a phase of a college education which is beyond the classroom and which paradoxically offers you the opportunity of intimate and lifetime friendship with the teacher and his aides while aiming at the ultimate goal of all organized education the development of a man who can and will discard the professor as a crutch and go on learning alone."

Concerning the general philosophy of Dartmouth's program of student counseling, which has been expanded during the past year, President Dickey said:

"I doubt very much whether there is another major men's college in the country which provides more opportunities for personal help of this sort than Dartmouth does and yet every year we discover quite a few undergraduates who seemingly know nothing about these opportunities or are simply indifferent about them.

"Before mentioning some of these opportunities specifically, it might be helpful if I said a word or two about the basic philosophy of the College with respect to advisory and counseling services. As you might imagine, this is a subject on which men differ: on the one hand, there are those who pretty much take the view that an institution such as this can never provide too much counseling and that every student would be better off with a large prescribed daily dose of it; on the other hand, there are those who regard organized counseling with a jaundiced eye and these people favor the 'throw 'em in and let 'em swim or sink' approach to the higher learning. I suppose one might use a sharp tongue on the subject by borrowing the expression that there is some truth on each side, but not very much. In any event, our approach to the matter here at Dartmouth is not to find some meaningless middle course, but rather to work in the direction of providing a balanced program of personal and professional services in ways and at times that will best fit both the generally foreseeable changing guidance needs of your college career and those acute crises which no man can foretell in either his own or another man's life.

"It is our view that the needs of a man for guidance change, or ought to change, as he moves through his college career here."

President Dickey took up the three main student reasons for not seeking faculty help "the profs aren't really interested" "I don't want to be an apple-polisher" "the place is too big" and pointed out why he considered none of them valid. On the third point, he said, "I happened recently to run onto some interesting figures which bear on this. In Webster's day four men constituted the entire teaching and administrative staff for a college of 141 students. Today the comparable figures would probably be about 400 men for 2800 students. Even assuming we're not all the sturdy oaks of John Wheelock's college, it would not seem that the place has really changed for the worse in this respect since Dan'l's student days. The hunting is still pretty good if you're interested."

As a final word on the opportunity for a fuller college experience, President Dickey told his student audience (which had lots of faculty and community listeners-in): "And that, I guess like almost everything else in this business of learning, is really up to you. I can only tell you that if you're not interested in building relationships of this kind as a student, Hanover and Dartmouth will always be less in your life than they have been and are in the lives of legions of Dartmouth men. I think that is about all one man can usefully say to another about the opportunities here for finding friendly help and counsel among the natives. I do hope it may spark your interest if you are one of those who have not yet bothered to seek out that side of a Dartmouth education."

DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE PUBLISHED FOR THE ALUMNI OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE