Busy Days

THE two weeks between the end of Christmas vacation and the beginning of the final-exam period produced no major news to pass along to alumni readers. On the administrative front, these past weeks have been busy ones of further organizing for the capital gifts campaign and of preparing for the big New York dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria honoring President Emeritus Hopkins. Dartmouth officialdom will move en masse to New York for the Hopkins Dinner on February 5. An overwhelming response by Dartmouth men, coupled with special plans by the Board of Trustees and the Alumni Council to meet in New York at that time, indicates an attendance of at least 1500 persons and "the biggest Dartmouth event ever held outside of Hanover," as the New York planning committee has been claiming all along. Pre-dinner parties by Dartmouth alumni classes have exhausted the Waldorf's space and spilled over into other New York hotels.

If the pre-exam weeks in Hanover have produced no major news, they have nevertheless been crammed with all sorts of campus activity. The two printed calendars darsfor the period from January 6 to January 19 listed no less than 67 events, not counting exhibitions and meetings that doubtless got crowded out.

This was part of the bill of fare: three readings from The Tempest by Professor Booth of the English Department; community classes in Spanish and Russian, and a Vortrag, Sabbatical und AchteEuropaeische Studenten Theaterwoche, by Professor Schlossmacher of the German Department; a film on "Automation" from Edward R. Murrow's TV program, See It Now; a talk on satellites and rockets by Professor King of the Physics Department; a math lecture on "Finite Geometries" by Professor Hartley Rogers Jr. of M. I. T.; a physics colloquium on "Magnetohydrodynamics," with Eiichi Fukushima as speaker; a poetry reading by Robert Lowell; two public lectures, on "Islam" and "The Middle East," by Richard N. Nolte of the American Universities Field Staff; a talk on "The Utopia of Blindness in Gide's Symphonie Pastorale" by Professor Harvey of the Romance Languages Department; a talk on "The Myth of the Unicorn" by Professor Denis Johnston of Mt. Holyoke College; an illustrated lecture on "The South Pole Today" by Lt. John Tuck Jr. '54, USN, who has just returned from the Pole as military leader of the IGY scientific party stationed there; three performances of Waiting for Godot by the Dartmouth Players; another physics colloquium, on "Controlled Thermonuclear Power," led by Dr. Edward B. Meservey '39 from the Forrestal Research Center at Princeton University; a psychology colloquium on "Perception and Consciousness," with Dr. George Klein of New York University as speaker; a Dartmouth Band concert in Webster Hall; a Dartmouth Union Service, with the Rev. John R. Bodo of The First Presbyterian Church, Princeton, N. J., as guest preacher; a Social Science Club meeting to discuss "The Relationships Between Political Structure and Political Ethics"; a Ticknor Club meeting on "Poetry in Politics: A Discussion of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar"; a German film; films on rodeos and riding, with commentary by George Spurger; a Handel Society Orchestra concert in Webster Hall; several club meetings; Chapel and Sabbath services; and some sixteen athletic contests.

This abundance of scheduled events is not exactly typical, because it represents to some extent a rush to round out programs before the end of the semester; but the weekly fare set before students, faculty and townspeople is often just as plenteous and is always varied enough to suit a multitude of tastes. Those responsible for this side of Dartmouth life make an invaluable contribution to education in the broad and best sense.