Letters

About Class Notes

To THE EDITOR:

No doubt about it, the DARTMOUTH ALUMNIMAGAZINE is one of the best college alumni publications in the country, probably the best. It gives good news coverage of college activities, and its news of the graduate classes is more comprehensive than in other similar magazines. I was surprised to learn that the magazine reaches upwards of 24,000 people, and that production cost alone is about $70,000 a year. A circulation of that size means almost complete coverage of the alumni body. About half the book is devoted to class notes, meaning, of course, that half of the produc- tion cost goes for that section.

My purpose here is not to condemn class notes. I think they're fine, and being a class notes editor, as well as a class newsletter editor, I know how much time and effort is put into the job of news gathering. I know, also, that the MAGAZINE faces the problem of a growing demand for class-notes space, with production costs tending to increase, rather than decrease.

What's the answer? It may lie in "tersing up" the class notes, eliminating, much of the chit-chat contained therein, and concentrating on items that will be of general interest to alumni of all ages, as well as to the alumni in the individual classes. You don't have to know people personally to be interested in news stories about them, if the man who does the writing has a nose for news. Stories about individual accomplishments carry human interest. A pat quotation, or a short bit of verse is worth sharing with others.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not condemning chit-chat or personal items. It's just that a better place for them is the class newsletter, which has considerable latitude in amount of space available. The newsletters have expanded to the point where most of the classes get them out, many of them during the Alumni Fund campaign, and some regularly the year around. In these sheets the editors can chit-chat to their hearts' desires, and they can be made documents that eagerly will be looked forward to. The 1912 Billboard, edited by Lyme Armes, is one such. He gets an issue out almost once a month. A program of this kind would take the pressure off your class notes department.

Another thing that has been in my mind, if it can be worked out, is some kind of clearing house for news about Dartmouth men. Locally, an alumnus may hear something about men in classes other than his own. He might catch an item in a newspaper or magazine, or through correspondence with a Dartmouth man. If such news could be channeled to a central point, and then disseminated to the class-notes or newsletter editors, greater coverage of activities of Dartmouth men would be possible.

Aurora, Ohio

EDITOR'S NOTE: We agree with Jack Childs that it is both logical and desirable, now that many classes have year-round newsletter programs, to have the class columns in the Alumni Magazine avoid "chit-chat" and emphasize news that is o£ interest to other alumni as well as to members of the class. This is already the trend and we hope to accelerate it. Growing space demands and steadily higher costs are also strong arguments for this.

The ALUMNI MAGAZINE now serves as a clearing house for news items about Dartmouth men, and if readers will send in items, as suggested by Jack Childs, we shall be glad to see that they reach the class editors.