The Alumni Council's Winter Session
ONE of the many areas of College and alumni affairs brought before the Alumni Council at its January meeting in Hanover was the dollar objective for the 1963 Alumni Fund. Upon the recommendation of Chairman Charles F. Moore Jr. '25, in behalf of the Alumni Fund Committee, the Council voted that the goal for this year's Fund be set at $1,250,000.
Mr. Moore reported to the Council that by means of an advance gifts program organized in fourteen cities by re- gional alumni agents and a year-end letter to major givers, the gifts and pledges for the 1963 drive as of January 17 totaled $300,000, more than $83,500 ahead of 1962 on the same date. The 1962 Fund, with a similar objective of $1,250,000, raised a record of $1,215,740.
Forty-three of the fifty members of the Alumni Council and 37 past Councilors were on hand for the 105th meeting. They heard reports from committee chairmen on enrollment, bequest and estate planning, class gifts, public relations, regional alumni programs, and placement, and also from officials of the College. Alumni Council President M. Carter Strickland '29 presided.
One of the highlights of every Alumni Council program is President Dickey's regular conference with the Council, held on this occasion in the Faulkner Rehearsal Hall of the Hopkins Center. The President spoke about the Hopkins Center as a response to the need for an emphasis, in the humanities and in the creative and performing arts, that will achieve a better balance in the College's educational program.
He emphasized his constant concern that there shall be balance in Dartmouth's development so that no one sector dominates. Understandably, he said, scientific activity has become more intensive in recent years, and scholarly activity in science readily receives more support from Government and outside agencies than do the social sciences or humanities. He expressed his conviction that the College must strive extra hard to keep in balance all these areas that are of importance to the liberal arts program, and he cited the Faculty Fellowship Program at Dartmouth which permits a number of the College's best younger teachers, drawn primarily from non-science departments, to have a full year of study away from the campus.
The President also described to the Council the program for comparative teaching of non-western studies which the recent grant of $675,000 from the Ford Foundation is making possible. The College has been selected for this grant, the largest given for this purpose, to prepare a strong program to show the way for greater attention to the cultures and life of Africa, Asia, and the Orient.
The Council also met with Dr. Waldo Chamberlin, Dean of Summer Programs, for a report on the College's first Summer Term, scheduled for July 1 through August 24. Dean Chamberlin stated that the co-educational term would have a curriculum of 59 courses and would include summer programs for Dartmouth's ROTC units. A special program of studies in drama, music, and art will be built around the Hopkins Center, featuring a Repertory Theater Company which will produce plays by Shakespeare, Wycherly, and George Bernard Shaw; an 80-piece Summer Symphony Orchestra with many young musicians drawn from the Juilliard School of Music; three well-known composer in residence; and a visiting artist and sculptor. The faculty for the Summer Term has been drawn primarily from Dartmouth's own instructional staff, the dean noted.
Other officers of the College reporting to the Council were Vice President and Treasurer John F. Meek '33, on the College's current financial position and organization of business affairs; Vice President Orton H. Hicks '21, on public and alumni affairs; Dean Thaddeus Seymour, on student life and activities; Dean of the Faculty Arthur E. Jensen, on the academic work of the College and the recruiting of new faculty; Thayer School Dean Myron Tribus, on new policies and procedures in engineering education and the Thayer School's new program leading to a Ph.D. in engineering; Business Manager Richard W. Olmsted '32, on the progress of the College's building program; Hopkins Center Director Warner Bentley, on the Center and its activities; and Andrew B. Foster '25, executive secretary of the Trustees Planning Committee, on the sub-committees' studies and their implementation.
The Alumni Council's continuing concern for strengthening the Dartmouth student body by seeking out exceptional candidates was evidenced in the report by N. Page Worthington '33, chairman of the National Enrollment Committee and the Council's Committee on Enrollment and Admissions. He reported that the country is now divided into 75 districts with the management of each area under a member of the National Enrollment Committee. Assisting these National Enrollment Committeemen are a corps of district and local alumni workers. Director of Admissions Edward T. Cham- berlain '36 noted that about 3700 candidates have completed applications for the Class of 1967 from some 6,000 advance inquiries. Early decisions have been given to 150 applicants this year out of 300 seeking this advance assurance. Mr. Chamberlain told the Council he felt the early decision plan was working well for the top candidates whose first choice is Dartmouth.
Charles E. Brundage '16, chairman of the Bequest and Estate Planning Committee, reported to the Council that bequests and estate plans for the last fiscal year totaled $1,859,509 and that the average over the past six years is more than $1,000,000 annually. He noted that class chairmen are directing the efforts in their classes to bring this program to the attention of classmates in sound and productive ways, with no pressure.
Reports were also given by Jerry A. Danzig '34, chairman of the Committee on Public Relations, on the importance of the communications between the College and the alumni, the public, the schools, prospective applicants, and others, and the methods, by which the communications objectives are being carried out; and by Forrest C. Billings '28, chairman of the Committee on Regional Organization, on the successful full-day program in Boston that brought Provost John Masland, and Professors Walter Stockmayer, John Stewart and Charles B. McLane '41 in contact with alumni, secondary school educators and students, and Boston journalists. Mr. Billings also reported official recognition of the 131 st Dartmouth alumni club, now functioning in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Secretary of the College Sidney C. Hay ward '26 announced that the annual spring meeting of the Alumni Council will be held June 19-21 in Hanover.
A special event during the Alumni Council weekend was the dedication of Strasenburgh Hall, the new Medical School dormitory housing eighty men. Shown at theceremony are (l to r) Alumni Councilor Robert J. Strasenburgh II '42, his wife Ruth,Mr. and Mrs. Edwin J. Strasenburgh of Rochester, N.Y., and President Dickey.
