In Brief . . .
DARTMOUTH'S Admissions Office is on the last lap of processing the deluge of applications for the Class of 1962, and letters of notification are scheduled to go out early next month, probably by May 3. At last count there were about 3,400 completed applications, a drop from the record figure of 3,674 last year. Davis Jackson '36, assistant director of admissions, commenting on this decline in a Dartmouth interview, gave it as his interpretation that the nation-wide publicity about the difficulty of getting into college has induced some men, knowing their chances are slim, to drop their applications after preliminary inquiries. Students are realizing the stiff competition for places in the top eastern colleges and are "aiming for something more realistic," he said. Among the men applying for Dartmouth's next entering class, the quality seems to be slightly higher than average, he stated.
Dartmouth class officers will hold their annual spring meetings in Hanover on the weekend of May 2-3. Those attending will be class chairmen or presidents, class secretaries and treasurers, class agents, Memorial Fund chairmen, bequest chairmen, newsletter editors, and reunion chairmen of classes having reunions in June. The program opens Friday, May 2, with a reception and dinner for all officers and their wives, at which President Dickey will be the main speaker. A joint business session on Saturday morning will be followed by separate meetings of the various class officer associations. Athletic events Saturday afternoon and College movies and the traditional Ski Hut gathering Saturday night are also on the program. Last year there was a record attendance of over 275 alumni and wives for the spring gathering, and another large turnout is expected next month.
Dartmouth debaters, who have compiled an outstanding record in recent years under Coach Herbert L. James, scored one of their top victories last month when a two-man Dartmouth team finished second in a national debate tourney at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, and moved on to another tourney at Holy Cross in which the; hoped to advance to the national inter collegiate competition at West Point this month, April 24-26.
Ronald L. Snow '58 of Laconia, N. H., and Anthony Z. Roisman '60 of Oklahoma city were Dartmouth's team, one of 32 with national ranking chosen to participate in the Kansas tournament. They lost to the University of Oklahoma in the finals after defeating the University of Kansas, the University of Southern California, Augustana, the University of Florida, West Point, Southwest Missouri, Northwestern, and Harvard. Augustana won the national debate title at West Point last year.
A Language Laboratory, designed to facilitate practice in speaking foreign languages, will be constructed this summer on the second floor of Dartmouth Hall and will be ready next fall for use by the Departments of German and Romance Languages. Recognizing the limitations of the classroom for developing ability to speak a language, an interdepartmental committee, headed by George E. Diller, Professor of French, planned the laboratory after studying similar systems in other colleges and universities. Thirty-five little booths, each with a tape recorder, will be available to Dartmouth students next fall. Taped exercises will require the student to make responses and will then offer the correct versions for comparison and study. Students in the elementary language courses will be required to attend a certain number of half-hour periods in the laboratory every week.
One of the highlights' of the year for freshmen, the Freshman Fathers' Weekend, took place on February 28 and March 1, with 320 fathers of '61 men in attendance. In addition to duplicating their sons' daily program, including classes and sleeping in the dorms, the fathers attended a Friday night smoker, at which Dean Albert I. Dickerson spoke; a Saturday afternoon meeting in 105 Dartmouth, with Provost Donald H. Morrison as one of the speakers; and a Saturday night gathering, featuring Ross McKenney, woodcraft adviser of the Outing Club.
The '61 fathers had a full bill of athletic events, including the Dartmouth-Penn basketball game that clinched the Ivy League title for Dartmouth. There was also on tap a marathon "Hootenanny" (a wild gathering of folk singers) in College Hall from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m., which drew folk singers and instrumentalists from several eastern colleges. One freshMan father found this the best part of the weekend and, with an improvised drum, stayed for hours.
