In Brief ...

PRESIDENT DICKEY met with the Alumni Council on January 16 and spoke briefly that evening at the football dinner, which marked his first public appearance since his operation for phlebitis a month earlier. Although still lame, he has been recovering satisfactorily from his operation and has gradually been resuming work, occasionally at the office but mostly at home. Unfortunately, he faces another operation, probably this month, for a bad knee that troubled him some years ago and has flared up as a result of the phlebitis condition.

The Tucker Foundation will sponsor a Dartmouth conference, February 27 and 28, on the subject of "The Individual and the Organization." Dr. Margaret Mead, distinguished anthropologist, and Irwin Miller, industrial leader who previously lectured in the Great Issues Course, will be guest participants in the discussions.

In connection with the conference, the Tucker Foundation is conducting a student essay contest on the subject, "Individuality in the College Community." A prize of $50 will be awarded for the best essay in each of the four undergraduate classes, and an additional $50 will go to the grand winner, who will be asked to present his essay for discussion at the February conference.

First-term grades of the freshman class are higher than the first-semester averages of the three preceding freshman classes, it was announced last month by Dean Albert I. Dickerson '30. The mean average for '62 men was 3.0, compared with 2.8 for '61 and 2.85 for '59. Thirteen freshmen scored a perfect 5.0, compared with only one '61 man who did so last year; and 114. freshmen had better than 4.0 for the fall term, whereas 74 men did that well last year, and 79 three years ago. Only 13 freshmen in a class of 770 were placed on academic probation at the end of the first term, while 20 members of the Class of 1961, 38 '60s, and 29 '59s were put on probation at the end of their first semesters.

Dean Dickerson pointed out that the better scholastic performance by 1962 may be due to the new three-course plan rather than to any real academic superiority over these other recent entering classes. For example, the probability of getting three A's and a 5.0 average is much higher than for getting five A's, and this applies to B's and C's as well. Just the same, the present freshman class is doing all right scholastically.

The January report of Mrs. Charlotte Ford Morrison, alumni recorder, gives the grand total of living Dartmouth alumni as 29,078. For the College proper the figures are 20,618 living graduates and 7,314 living non-graduates, for a total of 27,932. The central point of the alumni body falls in the Class of 1938.