THEY'RE OFF!

And new records are expected when the 1956 Alumni Fund reaches the wire on June 30

THE Dartmouth Alumni Fund, which has set dollar records for the past five years in a row and participation records for a longer period of nine consecutive years, formally launches its 1956 campaign on April 1. Fund Chairman William G. Morton '28 and some 1800 class workers are confident that the string of records will not stop this year.

The objectives set for the 1956 Fund are a dollar total of $775,000 and a participation record that will crack 70% for the first time. Last year the Fund produced $774,859 and had an alumni participation of 69.4%. The 1956 goal is the largest in the 42-year history of the Alumni Fund and is $75,000 higher than last year's. The phenomenal growth of the Fund from $416,000 to $775,000 in the last five years is a solid basis for the expectation that the 1956 objective will be reached.

The uses to which the 1956 Fund will be put are set forth in the opening statement just sent to all alumni by the Alumni Council's Alumni Fund Committee. To help meet the operating expenses of the College for the current year, the Fund will provide the $660,000 which the Trustees have asked for. This sum represents 12% of the 1955-56 operating budget. After this basic purpose of the Alumni Fund is fulfilled, $35,000 will be earmarked for faculty salary increases beginning July 1. This will match the 1956-57 income from the first half of the Ford Founda- tion's grant for faculty raises and will serve to make the Foundation gift fully effective one year earlier than would otherwise be the case.

The Fund also will be used again to strengthen Dartmouth's scholarship program. During the past five years the Alumni Fund has allocated $423,500 for this purpose, $180,000 as endowment for four Alumni Fund Scholarships and two National Scholarships, and the balance of $243,500 as an Alumni Fund Scholarship Reserve on which the College is drawing each year to bolster the number of men receiving financial aid. This help from the Fund is one big reason why Dartmouth is now able to extend scholarship aid to 25% of the student body, the highest level in the College's history.

Toward this year's $775,000 objective the Fund Committee is counting on $50,000 to be raised by the Parents Committee, $75,000 from Memorial Fund income and memorial gifts, and the balance of $650,000 from the alumni. The alumni objective has been raised $50,000 and would exceed the $640,654 contributed by 17,201 Dartmouth men last year.

The Parents Committee of forty members is headed this year by Michael L. Adley of New Haven, Conn., president of the Adley Express Company and a member of the Parents Committee for the past two years. He is the father of Donald A. Adley '57. Last year, under the chairmanship of Joel S. Mitchell of New York City, a record $50,596 was raised in this phase of the campaign.

To set the stage for the 1956 Fund, class agents dinners late in March were held in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago. The principal speakers at all four dinners were Prof. Donald H. Morrison, Provost of the College, and Fund Chairman William G. Morton '28.

Chairman Morton's personal appeal to all the alumni was made in a letter accompanying the Fund Committee's opening mailing piece. In it he emphasized "This Year's Need" - the money for current operating expenses - and "Next Year's Opportunity" - the funds to be earmarked for faculty salary increases and scholarship aid. The printed folder giving the details of this triple objective was designed for the Fund Committee by John R. Scotford Jr. '38 and art work was contributed by Prof. Richard E. Wagner of Dartmouth's Art Department.

As the 1956 Fund drive gets under way, fifteen new class agents are taking over top direction of the campaigns in their classes. These leaders are: Horace G. Hedges '11, James L. Lafferty '15, John D. Dodd '22, Phillips M. Van Huyck '24, Frederick K. Watson 'go, Harold H. Drake '32, Harry B. Gilmore Jr. '34, Theodore H. Harbaugh '35, C. Kirk Liggett '36, Eliot S. Mover '45, Robert H. Snedaker Jr. '47, Theodore E. Bamberger '50, George C. Hibben '52, John W. Corcoran '53 and Roy B. Hill '55.

General direction of the campaign is in the hands of the Alumni Council's Fund Committee (see photograph), with active management at the Hanover end handled by Nichol M. Sandoe Jr. '45, executive secretary, and Clifford L. Jordan '45, Associate in the Office of Development.

The Dartmouth Alumni Fund Committee with College officers at a New York meeting last fall. Left to right: Charles G. Bolte '41; Clifford L. Jordan '45, Development Office associate; J. Ross Gamble, director of the Office of Development; William G. Morton '28, Fund chairman; Nichol M. Sandoe Jr. '45, executive secretary; Carleton G. Broer '27; Ellsworth B. Buck '14; and Roger C. Wilde '21, Fund chairman in 1954 and 1955.