The Undergraduate Chair

WHENEVER I prepare one of these columns, time and the weather seem to dominate. Since this is the last column, written in the wake of the year's first really warm weekend, they will with some justice continue to receive a great deal of attention.

As I write, Green Key Weekend has melted into fatigue, a suntan, roses rotting in the icebox and a blurry photo stuck in my collection of souvenirs. All but the most determined dates have departed and the tux is back in the closet while I dig out my notes to study for comps.

The past week has been full of the College events that usually round out the non-academic year. The first was a newcomer — an honors convocation. A collection of fellowship winners, Phi Betes and Rufus Choate scholars were rounded up to hear a fine little speech by Prof. Edward C. Kirklarul '16 and to be honored in a printed program and in frontrow seats.

To be optimistic about the affair, several among the honored seniors who tend to scoff at academic awards were forced to admit it was impressive and worthwhile. However, one veteran observer claims that only 75 non-honored students bothered to show up. Many undergraduates were unaware that they could attend, but unfortunately it seems that absence was due generally to the fact that there is not yet a strong desire to recognize academic achievement. The convocation was a good first step and as students learn that it is something of value, it will grow to assume a major role at the College.

We once made a distinction between the real traditions that express something essential to the College and have deep roots through time and validity and those that are the products of a recent College generation and lack a firm basis. Having seen Alpha Theta win its sixth consecutive Interfraternity, Hum and retire the second trophy in a row, we are beginning to wonder how to classify this particular tradition for it seems that the rule of Alpha Theta has been established unto doomsday. Their victory came on a chill Tuesday night with the winds scaring away not only the spectators but apparently the rivals. The finalists all looked and sounded topnotch and all this pleasurable spring event needed was spring weather.

Wet Down was another matter, for the dark solemn weather harmonized with the occasion. From the new Undergraduate Council's inaudible acceptance of its oath of office to running the gauntlet, Wet Down was Wet Down. There is just no other way of describing it and I can add little to the feeling for it that you already possess.

Then came Green Key Weekend. The Players put on a delightful show, the Band gave a splendid concert, and Green Key put on a splendid prom. What is more, the weather was perfect. The sky was blue and calm (my roommate claims it was Italian Renaissance on Saturday and Winslow Homer on Sunday). By day people took to the picnic grounds where they could get tans, eat, and play games. In this era of the flying saucer game (played by flipping a hard rubber or plastic disc back and forth) it was interesting to note that old favorites like dodgeball still retained support.

Bermuda shorts were the order of the day for both sexes, although we ran into one man nattily attired in shorts, kneesocks and blazer who claimed his date took one look and headed back on the train. At least two males were brave enough to wear Bermuda-short formals to the dance. This only goes to prove that some people (female as well as male) have no idea of the hairiness of a leg or the knobbiness of a knee.

Another Green Key event that cannot be neglected was the bike race in front of Tuck School. To those who associate fulltime determination with the life of men in graduate schools, it is incongruous at first to see the uninhibited forms of fun that the Tuckmen purvey. Attired in helmets, pajamas, Mickey Mouse ears, and even diapers, the teams raced around the track in hope of annexing a keg. Chains broke, knees were bruised, and finally a team from Tuck-Thayer came home the winner.

HOWEVER, the fun is over, the remaining weeks are study time, and soon after this reaches you, I become an ALUMNI MAGAZINE subscriber. It would be hardly fair to ask whether I am sad about the completion of my undergraduate career. I prefer to express it in other terms. To regret any step forward would be to despair in life. Rather I would say that these past four years have been wonderful years and that a real education has been offered me. I use this word in both the formal and the broad sense, for Dartmouth offers a first-rate classroom education together with many opportunities for development of the self.

I feel limited in my ability to express this latter experience. It is a matter of meeting new challenges and different types of people. It is a threshold from adolescence to adulthood (which, although it may not make you a man, does do a great deal to push you in the right direction). When we talk about the functions of a college, we justly look at what it does in the classroom. However, this is not enough and much of the second type of learning comes from just living with other people, working with them in organizations, and in that great and often underrated art of good thoughtful conversation (as opposed to the repartee all too often employed to avoid real talking).

Yet, we can never neglect a man's formal education, which is the distinct function of a college. An institution such as Dartmouth can do a great deal along these lines, and even though its work in that area is superior, it is not a function that cannot be performed elsewhere. A college is by definition the only place where you acquire insight into the cultural traditions of our world. It is here that we meet the great men, books and ideas of civilization and through them learn something of why we are.

To borrow from Professor Kirkland, this is a process of developing the tools to find knowledge by ourselves rather than cramming a set of "essential facts" into our heads. Despite the fact that man knows so little of what is to be known, what he does know is far beyond the power of any one man to grasp. Any curriculum can be but a sampling of a few of the richer wares at the marketplace of ideas; there is no such thing as a set of the 100 most important books that can form the basis of the perfect education for every man. Within certain bounds a good education should have a good deal of freedom in it. For a Dartmouth upperclassman, the present curriculum meets the demand fully, but many feel that the first two years are much too confining. While such was not my personal experience, far too many people react that way for it to be other than a serious problem.

So I have in the last three years been a passionate devotee of the curriculum reform movement. I had hoped that before I graduated I would learn of the new educational program that would revitalize the College. However, as hard as people have worked, the plans have not yet reached a final stage. A good reform would benefit the College considerably. While our present curriculum is more than adequate, it has been in effect for a generation without major changes. Experience shows that educational institutions should be continually reevaluating their work and seeking ways to move forward.

I would like to outline here a few desirable principles. The first is the emphasis of tools over facts. The second would be the suggestion that the student be encouraged to do independent work. Perhaps through a personal prejudice against examination pressure, I have become convinced that the paper is often a much more effective means of testing a student and would like to see it elevated above the exam in every way possible.

Finally, freedom is not a license to anarchy. One must accept as valid the desire of the College to enforce a certain amount of organization in a man's education. Provided there is a wide choice of courses, all of which meet the overall goals, distribution requirements are necessary. Similarly, skill in writing is so important that some literacy requirement is essential. Finally, because scattered knowledge is meaningless, a major is indispensable. Here I must add the qualification that presently we can organize only in departmental terms. We study many problems in one way but equally valid and meaningful majors can be developed by studying one or two problems in many ways. For example, a major in the Middle Ages involving courses in history, philosophy, art, music, economics, and religion.

I am confident that these things will eventually happen. But for those of us who missed them it is now time to pack up and move on. I cannot leave without words of gratitude to the many people who have made my stay at Dartmouth pleasant. All too often we fail to express our true feelings, and there is a time when it becomes too late to do anything. I must thank: the teachers and other faculty members who inspired me and gave me help when it was really needed; the many undergraduates with and from whom I learned, particularly those few whom I can truly call my friends; and of course, those wonderful people whom I just have begun to appreciate and who made this education possible, my parents. I hope these few words will convey something of my feelings as I (like Omar Khayyam's moving hand), having writ, move on.

Undergraduates marching to the Honors Convocation in Webster Hall

With this issue Mr. Gordon ends hisoccupancy of "The Undergraduate Chair."At the Honors Convocation last month hewas one of the seniors honored for electionto Phi Beta Kappa. An economics major,he will go on to graduate school.