1962
The day has come when your Class Secretary sits at his desk with no letters, clippings, or gossip. Perhaps it is just as well, for we now have the opportunity of passing on to you a letter we received in March 1964 from Manuel Buchwald which may be of great interest to a number of you. We take the liberty of reproducing it. (Please keep in mind that factual references are as of a year ago.)
Perhaps I suffer from a compulsion to have things different from what they have been for decades, but it hurts to see our class column in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE become exactly the same inane, boring catalogue of the doings of certain members of the class who happen to have been seen here or there. I don't know if anyone has ever found out (by doing a survey) what alumni really would like to see in their class news, but if what they now get is what they want, I grieve for the mentality of the alumni. It certainly doesn't make sense the college educates us so we will become rah: rah" individuals wanting only to have "alumni spirit" in the guise of stupid class columns (and News Letters), cocktail parties here and there, golfing in Germany, and what not.
My first two years out of Dartmouth nave been two of the most overwhelming, depressing, and challenging of my life. I think that this might have happened to many other persons who have spent four secure years in Hanover. I have found out that for all the wonderful teaching, the parties, the atmosphere, etc., of Dartmouth, there are innumerable other things perhaps even more important) that have gone by without our even coming close to seeing them. Negroes have been beaten by police officers or can't get housing in Waltham, Mass., Puerto Ricans become dope addicts at the age of 14 in Harlem slums, miners in Kentucky starve, migrant workers get next to nothing for hard labor. Doesn't anyone else feel that the class news column is the place to air some of these feelings?
I think that it is about time that one class stop doing the same thing that classes have been doing in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE for I don't know how many years. I think that it we are to have a class column it should attempt not only to give everyone a chance to say where they have been and whom they have seen, but also what they are thinking about, what they would like to see done in government, social welfare, defense, education, etc.
I think that the U.S. policy towards Cuba is not only the most embarrassing that they could have chosen but also the one most likely to lose the rest of the Latin American continent. When will "Big Business interests in Latin America stop directing U.S. foreign policy? I think that it is everyone's duty to get off their behinds and do something to speed integration in their community, to prevent shameful trials like the one going on in North Carolina (where some Negroes are being unjustly accused of kidnapping whites), to write to their Congressmen and Senators whenever any issue becomes controversial or is up for a vote (like the Test Ban treaty). I think, mast of all, that if this kind of interaction does not happen through the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, then the fact that we all went to Dartmouth together means absolutely nothing, and we might as well can the whole idea of an Alumni Body. My friends in the Class of '62 are the ones I can talk to intelligently. From what I have seen in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE up to now, that kind of person doesn't exist. Gather up some guts and as secretary of our class do something!
Following is part of my reply.
... The fact that you and I (and although you might not agree, I would say most of our classmates) are so vitally aware of the type of problems you speak of in your letter, in itself speaks well of the Dartmouth experience. Even if it be true that our four years at Dartmouth were "secure years" (and there are those who would challenge that statement) nonetheless this has created perhaps a greater degree of sensitivity to the troubles that plague the human race. The personal letters I have received from some of the '62s in the Peace Corps, International Voluntary Services, Dartmouth Project Asia, and from those in one field or another here in the States certainly do not exhibit a lack of sensitivity or concern. And I think you will join me in expressing the hope and belief that these men are not in the minority.
So we come to grips with the problem you present - why doesn't the Alumni Body of the College in general, and the ALUMNI MAGAZINE in particular, contribute something toward the goal of a sounding board for ideas, a place for the exchange of thoughts in areas of vital interest to us all. Not meaning to skirt the issue I would point to the College's new Alumni College as an indication that the College is not unaware of a certain moral responsibility toward her alumni along these lines. Also, I expect that meetings of the various regional alumni clubs often act as a catalyst for a free interchange of thought. I had the very pleasant experience of attending a meeting of class officers and Alumni Fund agents from this area down at Cleveland. This was a kick-off for the 1964 Fund Drive. Almost the entire conversation at our section of the dinner table concerned the problems facing the school systems of the metropolitan cities in the North, particularly the issue of so-called "de facto" segregation. Certainly our experience in Cleveland was not unique.
Dartmouth men for the most part are not intellectually sterile. As concerns those few who are — if four years under the College's tutelage did not shake them out of their complacency, then I find it difficult to see how a monthly publication of any sort can succeed.
[Next followed an explanation of my very practical limitations of space and sources in writing our class column.]
... Although I cannot speak for the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, I question whether we might lose more than we would gain were we to adopt the program you suggest. The fact is that the alumni do want to know what their classmates are doing. Only too quickly do friends drift apart after graduation. I hope that we will continue to question, to search, and to speak out, but I am not convinced that it is the proper function of the Alumni Body as such to disseminate comment and controversy in matters of politics and morality. There are many avenues open to every one of us for such expression.
If the ALUMNI MAGAZINE ever does make such a change it had better go all the way as have some religious-intellectual magazines (America, Commentary, Commonweal) or else risk failure because of mediocrity. Perhaps we could become a highly intellectual magazine of great fame. But I fear that we would no longer have a DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE.
I don't know if I answered the argument for Manny or for those of you who may share his views. I would like to hear what you have to say. Perhaps we could carry this in the next issue of our Newsletter.
Secretary, 214 Anderson House, East Quad. Ann Arbor, Mich. 48104
Class Agent, BOQ-314 NAAS Chase, Beeville, Texas 78102
