The Honesty That Is Dartmouth
THE SENIORS' VALEDICTORY
THE Dartmouth experience is a special one." The Class of 1963 may remember as I do these words, directed at us from the stage of Webster Hall during Orientation Week, four years ago. They passed far above us at that time - and above everything perhaps but our cynicism at times since then. Now, after four years, they come to mind and are especially significant today. We have become accustomed and adjusted to Hanover, to the unique academic-undergraduate life that exists here; and what I have been thinking about as this Commencement Day has approached is the difference it is going to make in the lives of the graduating seniors - the things that we have enjoyed, or tolerated, or maybe written letters to The Dartmouth about - those things which have been part of this existence in which we have been immersed for four years, and which will now no longer be ours. It is this theme in general - and in particular, one of the most notable characteristics of our experience at Dartmouth - which I wish to consider with you this morning.
There exists, it is to be admitted, a social and academic tendency here at the College the results of which are not completely desirable. Part of this is somewhat anti-intellectual in nature; and part seems to center around a preoccupation with the "good man" attitude, the cult of the good fellow - not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but definitely so when it brings about the sacrifice, as it too often does, of superior potential for mediocrity.
After we have acknowledged the existence of this tendency - and we must in order to oppose it - we have to recognize another characteristic of the Dartmouth experience - this greatly to be admired and, hopefully, to be retained. I am speaking of what I will call this morning Honesty, though the term is imprecise. I would capitalize the H, to indicate a special kind of Honesty; I mean a personal genuineness, an openness between people which allows and moves a man to present himself to his fellows for what he is, and to accept his fellows for what they are.
That this Honesty really exists here, there is no doubt; though it can perhaps be seen best only by contrast with its opposite, a kind of dis-Honesty: a dissembling of the real person, the enforcing of an identity which is not the individual's own. This is unfortunately to some extent one of the necessary hallmarks of society in general, the society into which we move, where disregard for custom and conformity cannot as a rule be accepted. This dis-Honesty can also exist in an undergraduate situation if emphasis is placed on the social rather than the personal or the academic, if the individual is identified simply as a member of a certain social group - a fraternity or sorority — and is permitted little self-expression apart from that group's norms. This is a picture of what, to its great credit, Dartmouth is not.
Despite certain tendencies such as the "good man" attitude already noted, inevitable perhaps in an undergraduate environment, this foundation of personnal genuineness, which we are considering as Honesty, remains as a solid basis of life here at the College. It may even be, if we don't mind a little oversimplification, that the notorious loyalty of the Dartmouth alumnus is the product to a great extent of this openness and the remembrance of it.
These four years here at Hanover have been a preparation - this we have heard many times. Yet what we have to realize is that these are years of our lives, four years which we have lived - for their own sake as well as for the sake of that always-spoken-of "future" which is now to come. This fact it is that makes personal Honesty so important to us now, as we change environments: we have lived for four years in it and with it; and we are going to notice the change from it. What I want to urge today is that we do not submit to that change.
As undergraduates here, we have been able without much difficulty to talk freely with our fellows — to tell them, free from social pressures, exactly what we think: of them, of the College, of other people. It has been easy to complain, personally or in print, about what we don't like - new car displays on the Green, or indoor Commencement. It has been easy, fortunately, for us to be ourselves. It will not be so easy when we are no longer cradled here on the Hanover plain - when jobs and social positions depend to an extent on the face we put on and the social strategy we use. This pressure, antagonistic to complete Honesty, is going to be for most of us a fact; we will have to sacrifice, in the face of it, some of the individuality we are used to. Yet whether we willingly and totally submit to this pressure, or whether we exert our efforts in an attempt to preserve our Honesty and our identity in the face of it - this is important.
College students, it is said, are idealistic; idealism goes hand in hand with Honesty. For a man not to lose all his idealism is essential; important things are accomplished by those men who have not. It is equally essential that we not lose our Honesty. Exactly what we want from life is a personal matter; we must resolve, however, as we move from our present to the future, that we shall not be forced, in order to attain our objectives, into a social identity that is not really ours.
In talking about the College a friend told me recently that Dartmouth is in his opinion a severe place, one that breeds individuals; two words here - "severe" and "individual" - are key. At Dartmouth the individual stands basically on his own, away from dependence — on name or social group. He must prove himself as a person here and now. There is no reason in this isolated and unified community, away from ordinary social pressures, to evade complete personal Honesty. Some may try; but what is artificial and false in a man tends through personal relations soon to become exposed and weeded out; he tends - he is permitted, at least - to become what he is, what he really is. Individuals are bred; men are made - and I mean to give this last phrase more than the usual significance; for I firmly believe that with respect to the genuineness and openness that mark the Dartmouth experience, the all-male environment in which we have been placed is essential. The opportunity to relate to our fellows directly and honestly cannot be offered so fully in a coeducational environment. That there is a place, a function, for the all-male college to fulfill today, I am convinced; and I am equally convinced that Dartmouth's place lies in fulfilling that function.
It is, in summary, this Honesty, this openness which breeds real person-to-person relations, which, let us hope, we as graduating seniors recognize as having been present and fundamental to our experience here at-the college - that we remember - and that we now try to retain as our environment changes so radically.
Valedictorian Alan K. Palmer '63
