THE UNDERGRADUATE CHAIR
RELATIONS between students and the administration promised a turn for the better after the Tucker Foundation "leadership forum" planned for May 23-24 on Lake Morey. Some 60 student leaders were to gather there for talks with Deans Seymour, Unsworth, and Rieser, and with some outgoing UGC officers. By holding the conclave away from Hanover, they hoped to open up discussion by both sides toward improved understanding on the part of the undergraduates of the real reasons for College actions. It was an extremely generous gesture, and hopes ran high for something more than the selling of current policy by one establishment to the other.
The first annual Fraternity Officers' Weekend on May 1 was a step in the same direction. Undergraduate house officers and officials of the various house corporations met with the Deans to discuss various aspects of fraternity management. Financial arrangements were announced for installation of the sprinkler systems which the College now requires in all houses. Observers felt that the decision to ask the fraternities to make this $5000 investment indicated confidence in their future on the Dartmouth campus. And again, the College was confirming
them in a primary role - the development of capable leadership. The Academic Committee of the Undergraduate Council persuaded the faculty Committee on Educational Policy to give serious consideration to a grading system based on a zero-to-100 point scale, even though the CEP had come out earlier in favor of a three-grade system based on "honors-pass-flunk." The grading system had caused by far the greatest controversy of all the proposed academic changes, reflecting the pressure for grades which most students feel. The idea behind the three-grade system had been to reduce "grade-grubbing," but students clearly felt that this would place Dartmouth at a disadvantage in the competition for graduate school admissions.
Prof. Louis Morton, chairman of the CEP, emphasized that the faculty's proposal only required his committee to suggest a system, and did not promise its adoption. But the very fact that organized student sentiment brought about the further study showed how effectively a student agency could deal with real issues. Speaking of issues, a special UGC committee formed to study the Great Issues course returned a devastating indictment of that famous experiment. The group's report is not yet complete, but it was learned that 73 per cent of the present seniors said they would not voluntarily enroll in the course as it now stands.
G.I. has changed slowly over the years, supposedly in response to the increased sophistication of the men coming into the course. But somehow the communications gap between the administrators of G.I. and its captive audience continued to widen. This year's Monday night course meetings were more of a circus than a farce, as seniors expressed their apathy and resentment in increasingly bizarre behavior.
Thayer Hall, another favorite whipping bay, this spring announced a new policy of unrestricted "seconds" without an immediate rise in board costs. The change came about after years of urging by Palaeopitus. Until now, Thayer diners were limited to single servings of meat and desserts.
The Trustees agreed to subsidize the experiment for two terms while a new rate schedule is worked out. But Miss Jeanette Gill, head of the Dartmouth Dining Association which runs Thayer Hall, immediately pointed out that ultimately "the costs of this new concept will have to be paid by the student. People who come back for more than one 'second' [did she mean thirds?] will be violating the honor code and, in fact, stealing from their fellow students."
The logic of that statement could have been faulted, but evidently her worst fears came true. Miss Gill's "guests" must have been going hungry before, because food consumption in Thayer skyrocketed in the first month, while the late-evening sandwich salesmen found their business dropping sharply.
Robert Reich '68, of South Salem, N. Y., showed for the first time this year what could be done with the presidency of the freshman class. The Freshman Council used to be known as the most useless organization on campus; they said it didn't have any power and might as well give up before it started. But Reich's aggressive leadership finally began to fulfill some of the annual campaign promises. A Class of '68 Newsletter carried the word of a greatly expanded social schedule, including busses to girls schools on ordinary weekends, more mixers, special events and dances on big weekends, and even a "first annual" party-weekend called Spring Fling.
Reich also made the Freshman Council available as errand boys on UGC projects, and the Class of '6B brought a record number of Freshman Fathers to Hanover in February. An extensive survey of attitudes among Ivy League freshmen, which Reich proposed, is now nearly complete in all eight schools. He is also a talented artist on the staff of the Jack-o-lantern and with the Hopkins Center Design Associates - definitely a man to watch!
This year in the Chair would not be complete without at least passing mention of the Kolossal Koeducation Kontroversy. The size of the fuss did not any more indicate a swing nearer to coeducation than did the furors of the past. But The Dartmouth polled students, faculty, alumni, and administration, came up with the expected results, and then itself came out strongly for a coordinate women's college.
In brief, the poll showed today's students exactly split 50-50 on the question. A small sampling of alumni showed 40 per cent "strongly" opposed to coeducation, while only 12 per cent were strongly in favor. On the other hand, 86 per cent of the faculty were more or less in favor of educating women here. A series of interviews gave background to these figures. Two sociology professors spoke out "for," making liberal use of such words as "unhealthy," "irrational," and "warped" in describing the present situation. But the reactions of Deans Seymour and Dickerson and Director of Admissions Chamberlain ran from ill-concealed boredom (Dickerson) to almost open hostility (Chamberlain).
As the argument ran from weeks into months, Dickerson was not the only one who was bored, because it had started nowhere, and probably didn't change anything. Of course few people here knew how serious the talk had been among the Trustees just a few years ago, when Skidmore College was considering a move to a new campus. (Why not Norwich?) But money had probably been the deciding factor and Skidmore relocated just north of Saratoga; the talk on campus was never more than academic.
The question raises itself about every four years, however, because this is so much more than an academic issue. It is something that each one of us has felt in his gut at some time during his life up here. It may have come around midnight on some late-May evening of senior year, as you crossed the Green, with the smell of spring hanging heavy in the air, Baker Tower aglow against the starry sky, and suddenly you realized that in one more month you would never again be a part of this. And in that moment you felt that nothing should ever come between you and that feeling, though an arduous path may have led you to it. Basically the traditionalist's fear is that women at Dartmouth would break that communion by coming between the Dartmouth Man and his College.
But for those who favor coeducation, there are simply higher values than this intense personal relation to the College, which is only an institution. They say that if the College is great as it is, wouldn't it be greater if there were women here. They ask: why the loneliness, why the frustration, why the long drives, why all that time and money spent merely in seeking out normal feminine companionship? And of course there are no answers; the two sides never really speak to the same points.
In particular, neither of them speaks to the one point that will be cited on the day we do go coed: that Dartmouth has the obligation to offer its resources equally to men and women. But for the moment "tradition" still holds us in its power; we'll doubtless continue on as we have for close to 200 years, figuring that Dartmouth stood well by our fathers, our grandfathers, and Daniel Webster. Which it did.
So the time of going out into the wide, wide world comes, even to us, the Class of '65. We took our awards at Wet Down and lined up in the gauntlet to give those little green and white men one to remember us by. We sat on the grass by the tennis courts on golden-green Wednesday afternoons, trying to savor the last moments of the life we couldn't have appreciated till now.
We would remember it all in pictures and sounds: happy couples wandering over the Bema and the pop of tennis balls, big cars full of proud families rolling into town and asking directions, the men horsing around at commencement rehearsal, the smoke from clay pipes rising through the trees, and belly laughs. We would recall those trumpets ordering the evening stillness from the library tower, the smell of barbecues and the glow of lanterns on the President's lawn, the clink of glasses and music floating on the night air.
Sunday morning everyone would speak in whispers, until the organ sounded through the cathedral of boughs over Baker's lawn. And when the ceremony, the kisses, the congratulations, and the flashing of cameras ended, we would have to flee, because for us it would be all over. We would pack four years' worth of memories and belongings in twenty minutes, and speed away down the hill, without looking back.
An established attraction of Green Key Weekend, the Tuck Bike Races provide spills, bizarre costumes and laughs.
Tell SchrTell Schreiber '63 in the lead role ofVal XavieVat in The Players' Green Keyproduction of "Orpheus Descending."
