LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Replies to Mr. Spong

TO THE EDITOR:

Richard Spong's letter (July) insisting that "Dartmouth sons be given special consideration in the admissions practice, and that Dartmouth should clearly specify the details of the special consideration," demands a reply. Even though a personal interview in Hanover, as suggested by Mr. Spong, is harmless enough, it might well be intolerable if all applicants or turn-downs requested such interviews. However, if possible administratively, I would favor this practice.

More important is the fundamental thesis of Mr. Spong's letter that special consideration be given to Dartmouth sons because "the admissions policy is a considerable factor in alumni giving." I strongly urge the College never to fall prey to the correlation Mr. Spong suggests - money equals admission. Fund support for Dartmouth should be based on admiration and loyalty and high regard for what it has given to us, what it is doing now and what it can and will do in the future. Alumni support should be an expression of what we can do for the College, rather than what the College may eventually do for us by admitting a son who on paper "frankly doesn't have it." Our contributions to Dartmouth should be our tribute to the College and not a tribute exacted by Dartmouth as a means of buying our unqualified sons a place in the freshman class.

Certainly, if all other things were equal I would favor preference for the Dartmouth son. However, if the College is to keep up its standards of excellence it should not, no, it dare not, gamble on the man who according to both tests and interviews and other elements in the selection process, does not have it - be he Dartmouth son or not. The Dartmouth education and experience are too valuable and too much in demand to be wasted.

New York, N.Y.

TO THE EDITOR:

Mr. Spong's letter regarding the admissions policy and practice of the Office of Admissions pertaining to sons of loyal Dartmouth men prompts me to voice my views. It seems that Mr. Spong raises two issues: (1) Do sons of alumni merit special consideration? (2) The possible relationship between competitive aspects of elite colleges and psychiatric help for students.

I used to hear of the days when alumni would register their sons with their alma mater the day they are born and possibly these sons would enter without much fuss or bother. Up to fifteen or twenty years ago, students with better than average grades could probably enter any college of their wish. Those were the days when ten or fifteen percent of the graduating senior class would go off to college. Since the war, this ratio has doubled and the absolute number of students seeking college entrance, especially into the Ivy League schools, have grown a fantastic amount. I'm sure everyone is trying to seek some kind of preferences. For instance, nothing could be more devastating to a college professor than a rejection notice from some college of his son's choice. In some ways, possibly the college professor's son should have some preferential treatment. At the same time, a scrub woman's son, I would hope, would merit even more preferential treatment: in a democracy (cf. President Dickey's superb speech to Bucknell graduates) I would hope that we pay some special attention to those who have not had as much advantage as we did. In attempting to award some blanket special consideration to sons of alumni (whether or not "they have it") would do grave injustice to an equally deserving son of a non-Dartmouth man.

However, Mr. Spong did raise an interesting point of "gambling" on a candidate (not necessarily a Dartmouth son's candidacy) who may prove to be worthwhile - possibly, the admissions office does rely too heavily on CEEB scores (which, as far as I'm concerned, may be just as valid or invalid as the L.S./M.F.T. scores of the 1940's). Nevertheless, I'm sure that Mr. Spong has probably noticed that Harvard is taking a chance in accepting students whose high school records are mediocre or borderline. In some instances, these gambles have paid off handsomely. I'm sure Mr. Chamberlain is doing some of this also. ...

Mr. Spong also brings up his unhappiness in reading about the increase in psychiatric problems among students and feels that some of this is due to too much competitiveness. It's entirely possible that there is an increase in attempted suicides among students, but the U.S. is still very low as compared with Japan or some of the European countries. At the same time, we must remember the total number of students entering college has increased tremendously and the proportion of psychiatric problems (to the number of students) may not have increased too drastically. Also, in recent years, colleges have placed increasing emphasis in early detection and early treatment of potential psychiatric cases. Indeed, this is even filtering down to the high school and grade school levels. Colleges employ many professional persons in their mental health clinics (something unheard of in the 30's and 40's, I'm sure) to help students, but a large number of them are actively doing research in this area and may not have anything to do with direct service to students (hence, for instance, the seemingly large number employed by Yale and elsewhere). It is just not de rigeur these days not to have a mental health clinic on campus.

Psychiatric breakdowns probably have nothing to do with students having fun or not having fun. I think each college generation defines "fun" differently for themselves. But I do agree that undergraduates now are much more serious - the faculty may be at fault. I have mixed emotions when I hand out a reading list of ten pages to my undergraduate Sociology students and find that every student will have read them. The mixed feelings is derived from the fact that I must read them all also! There is now, of course, the emphasis of attaining a graduate degree or degrees. Students who want to pursue graduate education no longer can afford the gentleman's C. Then, again, possibly "fun" for the student now is achieved when he successfully enrolls a non-existent student at Princeton.

Pittsburgh, Pa.

TO THE EDITOR:

I would like to answer Richard Spong's request to open a discussion on admissions policy put forth in the July issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. Before telling of my own ideas on the admission policy, I would like to congratulate Ed Chamberlain on his fine admissions system. (We can sit and speculate on what could be done to improve the system all day, but whether these things actually would improve things is another question.)

I feel that those young men should be admitted to Dartmouth who can best benefit from the Dartmouth experience and who can contribute something to Dartmouth while they are at the college and after they have graduated. This general aim does not include giving any special consideration to sons of alumni unless they merit the consideration on the same basis as other applicants. Perhaps I may feel differently when I have a son of my own, but I certainly hope that I will not feel that he ought to attend Dartmouth if he has not earned the right.

One reason that I feel as strongly as I do on this subject is that I have seen several high school friends who could have done much for Dartmouth turned down. These boys had all lettered in three sports in Denver high schools, were involved in student government, and had good grades and good CEEB's. I knew them well enough to go on for an hour describing their well-rounded qualities, and the only reason that I could ever figure out why they did not make it was because they had no Dartmouth relatives and no people pushing for them.

The thing that hurts most to see boys of this kind turned down is that they wanted more than anything else to be Dartmouth men. They had been attracted to Dartmouth as many have been by the enthusiastic alums, by a respect for the out-of-doors, and by a rugged individualism that is lacking in other "Ivy-League" schools. A closer look at the individual and his qualifications and a little less emphasis on who is backing him is the only way I can see of improving the current admissions policy.

Denver, Colo.

"Nothing But a Surmise"

TO THE EDITOR!

In the June issue of the MAGAZINE, you published a letter from Mr. Richard H. Bohlke '37 in which the following statement appears: "The sands of patience of the Negro are running out."

I think it more than regrettable that space should have been given for such an assertion made unequivocally concerning the state of mind of 20 million American Negroes. Neither Mr. Bohlke nor any other individual whether Negro or white can possibly know whether a majority or even a substantial segment of the Negro population feel as charged by Mr. Bohlke. Of course, there are voluble so-called leaders among the Negroes and a greater number of busy white Citizens who have been admonishing the American public to give heed to the explosive emotions of frustration which endanger the very peace of the country if the leaders' demands are not satisfied quickly. Also these leaders have been successful in whipping up the appearance of turbulence and even danger of violence in various places throughout the country. However, none of these occurrences presents any evidence that this turbulence, bordering on violence, is welcome to the great body of the Negro population. Mr. Bohlke's assertion can be nothing but a surmise on his part and I believe is countered by contrary opinion among well-qualified members of both races.

Personally I believe that the great majority of the Negro Americans in their hearts have no desire for the turbulence and violence and are not living in the frustrated state of mind so vividly pictured by Mr. Bohlke. I am not suggesting that the Negro citizen, despite the fact that the material existence of the American Negro per capita is on a higher plane than that of the residents of the United Kingdom, is fully content and satisfied with present conditions. The intelligent Negro has made great progress in this century and I believe intends to make greater progress in the years to come. But taken as a whole, I do not believe that the intelligent Negro relishes the constant reiteration of rights and obligations based on racial distinctions. ...

I should think that Mr. Bohlke could perform a much greater service for the Negro if, before accepting the claims of the militant members of the Negro and white races as to the state of mind of the Negro citizens, he were to examine carefully into the qualifications of these self-appointed spokesmen and make some effort by contact with the less voluble members of the Negro race to ascertain the truth concerning their aspirations.

New York, N.Y.

Intramural Cornerstone

TO THE EDITOR:

Your June article on intramural sports must have been of great interest and satisfaction to my modest, tireless classmate Carl Walter Gehring Jr. '31. He was the cornerstone of "Sports for the Multitude" at Dartmouth.

Robert J. Delahanty came from Worcester Academy in 1926 to head a new program whereby every student at Dartmouth took some form of supervised recreation. Dorm basketball was tried, too. And every time there was a scheduled or pick-up game in 1927 or 1928 you'd see Walt refereeing. In my mind's eye I can hardly picture him without a whistle at his lips.

In 1928 they set up Dartmouth Intramural Organized Athletics and chose Walt to be Student Manager. In no time flat he had the fraternities competing in touch football and tennis, basketball, handball, hockey, track, swimming, baseball, and golf. The dormitories were matched in touch football, basketball, and Softball. He even had competitions for the college championship in drop kicking and foul shooting. On the side he stirred up a few handball leagues, freshman gym and swimming contests, and a five-weight-class wrestling competition.

Three other '31ers were of major help to Walt: Frank Quinn, Walt Hausman and "Red" Hanlon. The coaches backed him up, too - especially Pat Kaney, Tom Dent and Harry Sampson (one of this year's retiring faculty members). And I know Walt would want a credit passed to Herm Schneebeli '30 who was first front man for the intramural program but had a "previous commitment" as manager of football.

Tucson Green Valley, Ariz.

Lacrosse Record Set Straight

TO THE EDITOR:

Not wishing in any way to detract from the excellent record of this year's lacrosse team (as reported in your July issue), I would like to correct one statement in the writeup: "The Indians beat Princeton for the first time in lacrosse...

Not so, sirs! It has been a long while, granted, but it was done on a cold April day back in 1956 at (of all places) Cambridge. The game was to have been played at Hanover, but a late schlump season forced the game to be played at Harvard. No advance warning was given so the only spectators were the entire Harvard lacrosse team, which was to play Princeton the next day. It was a great game as far as Dartmouth was concerned, as the Green came out on top 7-5. Princeton whomped Harvard the next day, was later beaten by Yale, but then put together five years of unbeaten Ivy League play.

The Dartmouth-Princeton lacrosse game of 1956 will long be remembered by some of us (much to our wives' disgust), and the ball from the game is still residing in a certain basement trunk to be shown to a son at some future date. His comment will undoubtedly be distressing. Sic transit gloria.

Paris, France

Reunion Exhibitions

TO THE EDITOR:

I would like to see the College exhibit paintings, sketches, and sculpture done by professional alumni artists during reunion. It would, of course, be more interesting to the classes attending reunion to have their classmates exhibiting but then, too, most Dartmouth men would thrill to the Hanover and New England scenes by Dartmouth's most famous artist, Paul Sample, and others of note.

I fail to see the alumni drawing power of such things as "Brass Rubbings" and the tic-tac-toe abstracts of Franz Klein as were shown in Hopkins Center during the last reunion.

Palm Beach, Florida

Mr. New is Assistant Professor of Sociology in Public Health at the University ofPittsburgh.