The President on Campus Life

In his first radio address to the undergraduates this fall, given over Station WDBS on thenight of December 15, President Dickey discussed student social life and announced theestablishment of a Commission on CampusLife and Its Regulation which "will study andmake recommendations on any aspect of campus social life which directly or indirectly influences the quality of the social experience ofDartmouth undergraduates." Because of theimportance of this subject and the great interest Dartmouth alumni have in it, we takethe space of this month's opening section toprint the full text of President Dickey's informal address, which follows:

GENTLEMEN : First, I want to thank the officials of WDBS for once again extending the courtesy of these facilities to me to speak informally to the Dartmouth community in Hanover.

We are coming close to the end of a fine fall term. It has been a period of vigorous activity on all campus fronts. On the strenuous front of intercollegiate football, which is always to the fore during this phase of the college year, we have had the healthy experience of learning to stand both adversity and great victories. May I simply say that I have been very proud of the way you have borne yourselves both in bad and good fortune, and I should like also to record for the long record of 'he future that no group of Dartmouth sportsmen has ever been more worthy of their college than were the men who represented us in the work and play of the gridiron this past fall.

This fall has been a good one on the principal front of academic affairs. Life on the Dartmouth campus is so crowded with events and moves at such a pace that it is very easy for any of us to lose sight of the fact that Dartmouth is a foremost institution of higher learning and that all else on the campus is given meaning and significance because men are here as students and teachers for that central purpose.

We have not had a year, I think, since the veterans were among us when there was a better spirit in the daily work of the institution. It is the fate and the business of education to work with imperfection and in that kind of a business nothing is more important than the spirit which each man brings to the job. There is no harm or shame in acknowledging that the measure of imperfection varies among us and from day to day but, taken as a whole, I have never seen the campus with a more reassuring sense of purpose and confidence than has been evident in our work so far this year.

We are still, I think, in one of the most acute periods of aftermath that our nation, and perhaps western society, has ever known. Certainly our country has never known a more turbulent period since the evil of slavery entangled us in troubles and passions and misunderstandings which came very close to cutting short the life of the nation. It may well be that in the perspective of history the evils of conspiracy, reaction, and unprincipled force are merely modern forms of the most ancient form of slavery from which men seek liberation. If that should prove to be the case, we can have the satisfaction now of knowing that we have worked together at the task of making each of us a little more competent and a little more willing to share the burden of this battle as he bears the burden of work and joy and sadness of his own small life.

One of the things which gives you a lift in any enterprise is the spirit and the quality of the fresh recruits who join up with you. I am prepared to believe that we never have had a more promising group of recruits than those who joined us here this fall in the ranks of both teachers and undergraduates. The Class of 1957 seems to be living up to its high statistical promise. Many of my colleagues on the faculty have spoken with warm enthusiasm about the new men who have come to the faculty this year and many of those men, including the new teaching interns, have told me about the very real lift which they are getting out of the daily work and associations of Dartmouth. If we can hold the pace and outmatch our troubles with our triumphs, this could be a fine vintage year in Dartmouth's life.

TONIGHT I should like to speak in particular about an aspect of the College where many of us feel there is room for a little better balance between the triumphs and the troubles of life and where perhaps occasionally, to continue the figure for a moment, the quality of our vintage years might be improved with a little less vintage. The quality of the social life of any group is a product of many things and it is not something which you can achieve overnight. Particularly on a college campus it is something which just does not happen without a lot of sustained work on the part of both you who go and we whose job it is to stay to welcome those who come each year.

It would be hard to overstate the importance to you as an individual of the quality of the social experience which you have during your four years as an undergraduate. It is trite but true that we all find it very hard to turn right-angle corners in our personal affairs and there is, I suppose, no aspect of life in which this is more true than that which is governed by our social tastes and habits. It is going to determine in considerable measure the kind of job you get, the kind of wife you marry, the kind of family you raise, and these things tend to make up a pretty large slice of life for the average fellow. There will still hopefully, of course, be a little room left in your life for a few nights at the club, a little golf, some fishing and hunting, and maybe a stretch in the solitary company of men either in the army or, perchance, in jail; but gentlemen, I suggest to you that even these experiences not all of which, incidentally, are essential to the good life - are going to be immensely better if you are rated well as a social companion. Few things are going to bear more directly on your capacity for high social competence than the quality of the social experience which you have as a young buck on „the campus.

By and large, that experience gets its basic set for most of you in your dormitory rooms. At least during the first few years of campus life the dormitory is home for most of our men, whether they have joined a fraternity or not, and I think the evidence is reasonably clear that the impact of dormitory life here is greater on the fraternities than the other way around. In any event, during these critical four years when you are passing across the last great threshold of your life from boyhood to manhood, your room is your home, if not your castle, and as your home what goes on in it and, in turn, in the homes of your neighbors down the hall will largely bespeak and fashion your social capacities and character.

We all know that we all outgrow a lot of things. For this form of biologic redemption, let the good Lord be thanked. But we also know that some of the deepest ruts of life are cut in our homes and that very few things learned in the home are ever later wholly outgrown. When you and I left home or the paternalism of a boarding school to come to college, for better or for worse we started, gentlemen, on the endless business of making our own homes and this is not any the less so because there is still a parental home to go back to on the occasions of holidays and, perchance, crushing trouble. What I am trying to say to you here is that your dormitory is probably your first home of your own making and that, as such, you will inevitably be fashioned by it as it in turn is created by you.

BY ITS VERY NATURE, dormitory life in any institution is always going to fall short of being ideal. The diversities of taste and background represented in any dormitory group will always prevent such a group from being "one big happy family" and yet those very diversities contribute greatly to the quality of a man's education in a college such as Dartmouth. Indeed, we here at Dartmouth have attempted to follow a policy of seeing to it that our dormitories contain men with differing economic resources in order to avoid the socalled "Gold Coast" problems which have arisen in some other institutions in the past.

Up to now, Dartmouth has also followed a policy of mixing freshmen with upperclassmen in all dormitories. As you probably know, many other institutions house freshmen in separate dormitories during their first year of college life. There are substantial reasons behind both approaches and there are enough disadvantages in either approach to make you doubtful about whichever one you happen to be following at the moment. We all recognize the advantage which comes from having freshmen housed in a well-run dormitory where they can profit by contact with and help from more experienced and mature upperclassmen. At the same time, we know that every year situations develop in particular dormitories which give some freshmen totally erroneous ideas of what college and dormitory life should be. Once a dorm gets started in the wrong direction, it is a very difficult thing to bring it back, and under such circumstances it is at least doubtful whether freshmen ought to be introduced to college life in that dormitory.

Aside from problems of that sort, those who favor the use of freshman dormitories claim that they contribute to the development of an early sense of cohesion in a class and help in that way to build a strong, healthy college spirit. It is also suggested that the freshmen in a dormitory of that sort have more in common with each other, get to know each other more quickly and better, and are thereby able better to share the burdens and deprivations of the freshman year together. In short, it is claimed by some who have had experience with this approach that it makes for a better and happier freshman year on any campus. For example, it is said in this connection that freshmen are better able to plan their own class affairs, parties, et cetera, under such social circumstances.

The question of whether freshman dormitories are, on balance, a good thing may be simply one aspect of the larger question which is whether unsupervised dormitories provide a better social experience than dormitories operated with some form of resident advisers selected from graduate students or young faculty and staff. Here again there are proponents of both systems and I think it is entirely possible that either system has enough drawbacks to make the other look attractive. We know that the increased sense of independence which is claimed for life in unsupervised dormitories is often achieved only at the expense of making dormitory life well-nigh intolerable at times for a substantial number of men.

Aside from the theoretical advantages which may go with unsupervised dormitories, Dartmouth has been influenced in this direction by the very practical factors of cost and the physical setup of most of our dorms. A system of resident graduate or staff advisers can be expensive and a considerable amount of redesigning and renovation would be necessary to introduce such a system into most of our dormitories. This question is not, however, a new one at Dartmouth. The Special Committee on Rules, composed of faculty, students, and staff officials, which studied these and other related questions in 1946 under the chairmanship of Professor John Stearns, recommended that Dartmouth should adopt a system of dormitory proctors who would have advisory status but no disciplinary responsibilities. It was suggested at that time that the system might be introduced on an experimental basis in selected dormitories but, largely because of the practical difficulties involved, that recommendation has not been carried out up to this time.

In general, it has been my view that if such experiments are to be undertaken here, they should be tried out in dormitories where we could at the same time experiment with the possibility of providing more social facilities for the undergraduates living in those dormitories. For example, it might be possible to establish in such dormitories attractively furnished lounges with facilities for music and informal dancing. Long experience, at least up to now, has indicated that these things cannot be provided unless there is some individual on the premises who will assume real responsibility for their proper use and care.

During the coming year the College will be opening new dormitory facilities in certain of the former Clark School properties and it may be that these properties will provide us with an opportunity to undertake significant experiments along these lines. No decision has been reached as yet on this question, but it will receive thorough consideration during the coming months.

THIS brings me to a matter which bears on all phases of campus social life which I want to tell you about tonight. On the basis of consultations I have been carrying on this fall with Trustees, faculty, and the administrative and undergraduate officers of the College, I am announcing tonight the establishment of a Commission on Campus Life and Its Regulation. This commission will serve under the chairmanship of Professor Frank Ryder and will be composed of nine members and eleven associate members. The members of the commission are: Messrs. Francis Childs, Albert Hastorf, Martin Lindahl, and Leonard Rieser Jr. from the faculty; Arthur Kiendl, Director of the Office of Student Counseling; and Judge Amos N. Blandin, Dr. David J. Bradley, and Dr. Ralph W. Hunter, Dartmouth alumni and members of the Hanover community. In addition, the following administrative and undergraduate officers of the College will serve on the commission as associate members: Dean McDonald, Dean Morse, Mr. Richard Olmsted, Business Manager for Plant and Operations, and Mr. John Rand, Executive Director of the Dartmouth Outing Club; David McLaughlin, President of the Undergraduate Council; Milton Kramer, Chairman of Palaeopitus; John Callahan, President of Green Key; Donald Swanson, President of the Interfraternity Council; Kevin Sullivan, President of the Interdormitory Council; Peter Geithner, President of the Senior Class; and Joseph Mathewson, President of the Junior Class.

The undergraduate officers are serving in their ex officio capacities in order that the commission may have at all times the broadest and most responsible representation of undergraduate interests. Mr. Kiendl will serve as the executive secretary of the commission.

I might say a few words about the organization and assignment of the commission. Aside from its size and breadth of background, I think you may be interested in a word as to why the commission is set up as it is with nine members and eleven associate members. The primary reason for this was to make it possible to have all interested points of view fully represented in the deliberations of the commission without becoming bogged down in the problems of balanced voting power as between the disciplinary officers of the College and the student representatives on a body of this sort. Experience in the past has shown that there is the greatest need in any undertaking of this sort for the full and frank presentation and discussion of student interests and points of view on these questions, but the same experience has also shown that the Trustees and faculty cannot escape responsibility for the determination of the basic policies and regulations of the College in these matters. I have explored this question carefully with all of the interested parties and all of them agree that some such division of responsibilities in the organization of the commission would both meet the basic needs of all interests and at the same time be in accord with the realities of responsibility. In general, the commission will function without distinction as between the members and the associate members. The responsibility for the final recommendations of the commission, however, will rest with the nine members of the commission as distinguished from the eleven administrative and undergraduate officers of the College serving as associate members.

It is contemplated that the commission will study and make recommendations on any aspect of campus social life which directly or indirectly influences the quality of the social experience of Dartmouth undergraduates. For example, I am asking the commission to give its immediate attention to the type of basic questions concerning dormitory life which I have touched on earlier.

The commission will concern itself with both the positive and regulatory aspects of campus life. On the regulatory side, it will review and appraise the entire body of College rules and regulations governing the social life of the campus. This has not been done since 1946 when a far-reaching study was made by the Stearns committee at the end of the war when the large Navy V-12 Unit left the campus and we became once again primarily a civilian liberal arts institution. I think it is generally agreed that the time has come when we should review, and where necessary revise, our rules and regulations in the light of our experience during the past eight years. During this period the student body has changed from one dominated by older veterans to a normal group of undergraduates who come to college from secondary school at about eighteen years of age. During this period there has been a very marked growth in student government at Dartmouth. Taken together, all of these circumstances make this a good time to take stock of our social life and its government both with a view to improving what can be improved and better understanding those problems for which there seems no better answer than better understanding.

I HAVE not tonight attempted to speak about the place of the fraternities in the social life of the campus. There is not time for it and during the past few years I have been attempting to discuss this particular aspect of campus life face to face with the men in their own chapter houses. I might say to you that nothing has been more heartening to me than the warmth and genuine responsiveness I have found in all of the houses as we get together to talk about these things. In general, I think we can take great satisfaction in the solid and steady progress which the great majority of houses on this campus are making toward the kind of social life which serves and honors both the individual fraternity man, his house, and above all, his College. I am sure we will always have an occasional bad "break through" on this front, but can we not say, "Honest Injun," that as a whole Dartmouth fraternities are increasingly measuring up to their opportunities to provide our men with the kind of social experience which permits them to know the fun of college while growing in social competence and grace. To put it bluntly, I know of no house on the campus today where the "mutt" element is respected even where it is present.

One of the most important questions which I think the Commission on Campus Life must face is whether we are warranted in continuing to equate certain types of social privileges in the dormitories with the privileges accorded to fraternities. I have in mind particularly the privileges relating to the entertainment of women guests and the use of alcoholic beverages. Our experience and the experience of other comparable institutions during the postwar period raise real questions in this area. Unquestionably, we have gone very far here in an effort to keep these social privileges of non-fraternity men in something approaching rough balance with the privileges of men in the fraternities and yet there is no escape, I think, from the fact that the physical facilities and the possibilities for responsible selfgovernment are so markedly different as between the dormitories and the fraternities as to raise serious misgivings about the validity of any effort to equate social privileges in the two situations.

As you know, in recent years a good bit has been done to strengthen the social facilities available to all undergraduates in Dartmouth House, and it may well be that the answer to this problem rests in that direction rather than in an effort to provide the same privileges in the dormitories that we permit in the fraternities and can in some measure provide in Dartmouth House. I hope that before many years have passed we can get forward with our plans to establish the more adequate student union facilities contemplated for the Hopkins Center, in recent years the Trustees have had to postpone that large plant project in order to focus our fund-raising efforts on the pressing needs for scholarships and more adequate compensation for teachers and staff, but we are already better than half way toward our financial objectives for the erection and maintenance of the Center, and in the relatively near future I am hopeful the funds necessary for the realization of this primary plant need will be forthcoming. In the meantime, within the acute limitations of our existing resources I can promise you we will do our utmost to be responsive to the possibilities for improving and expanding the common social facilities of the College, whether in Dartmouth House or elsewhere, including the possibility of further experimentation in this direction in certain dormitories.

MAY I close tonight on the note that we ought all be mainly interested in the social life of the College, not as a problem, but as an opportunity for that kind of joy which is one of the truly distinctive qualities of human life. In 1946 Professor John Stearns introduced his committee's discussion of an equitable disciplinary system with the following quotation from The Inscription Set upon the Great Gateof Theleme, by Rabelais:

"Grace, honour, praise, delight, Here sojourn day and night, Sound bodies lined With a good mind, Do here pursue with might Grace, honour, praise, delight."

Professor Stearns and his associates then remarked:

"If the College fully achieved its ideals of education and all the students fully realized their obligations to the College, the problem of undergraduate conduct would be a simple one. But since the College is not yet an Abbey of Theleme, the sole rule of that institution - DO WHAT THOU WILT —is, unfortunately, not sufficient."

Gentlemen, our aim in this institution is to help you enter through the even greater gate beyond which the qualities praised by Rabelais may be yours for all the years to come, not because you may "do what thou wilt," but rather because these things thou wilt do and be.

Thank you and good night.

PRESIDENT DICKEY AWAITING THE START OF HIS RADIO ADDRESS OVER STATION WDBS