Letters to the Editor

Un Salut

TO THE EDITOR:

Allow a meager French speaker but uncured if non-mandolin La Cinquantaine player to salute Fletcher Andrews '16 for the refreshing stand-up comedy of his 50-Year Address in June. Of course the apt and supposedly mislaid meaning of La Cinquantaine is 'the fiftieth' - whether anniversary of a wedding, the years of a class out in the wide, wide world, or of the degree of coolness with which a straightfaced speaker can bait the bleachers into such notes as this.

Greens Farms, Conn

A Pedal Vote

TO THE EDITOR:

A recent article in the DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE ("Dissension in the Medical School," May 1966) and news stories in The New York Times and elsewhere, deserve reply. I will not discuss the substantive issues (primary purpose, rate and direction of expansion, relative weight in recruiting new faculty to be given medical and graduate education and interaction of research interests within existing departments, educational and scientific goals in the creation of new department, etc.) but I want to suggest one factor that kept them from being resolved by compromise.

First let me dispose of the numbers game. In any hierarchical organization, an administrator gets a black eye for letting a controversy get out of hand, regardless of the merits of the case, so it is not surprising that the Dartmouth administration, in trying to minimize the extent of discontent and the number of faculty leaving, have fastened on the number, six, whose resignations have been accepted. The Dartmouth Medical School Bulletin for 1965-66 lists 21 members of professorial rank in the departments, Biochemistry, Cytology and Microbiology, whose chairmen resigned as chairmen last year: Thirteen have already accepted positions in other universities, and have so informed the administration. The less pessimistic started looking later, but if 18 out of 21 have not resigned by June 1967 I will be very surprised. There are 29 professors in Pathology, Pharmacology and Physiology (for now, let this be sufficient comment on the supposed expansiveness of the Molecular Biologists). I know that some disagree with their chairman's position, and at least one has left for reasons similar to ours. Of course, we are taking better jobs, but it was dissatisfaction with the policies and attitudes of the administration which led us to seek them. There are 8 professors in Psychiatry, which until recently had dual status, and 35 in the Hitchcock Clinic listed under the rubric Introduction to Clinical Medicine.

Second, Dean Tenney and others have been at great pains to suggest that the Molecular Biologists have promoted some unacceptable program which has been rejected "by a majority of the faculty." Perhaps a majority might, if one were presented, but if anything in this controversy is clear it is this: The Medical School faculty does not debate, much less decide, major issues.

Important issues, including for example, expansion to a four-year school, are discussed by committees appointed by the Dean, consisting largely of officers of the administration, or by the Dean's Advisory Board itself. What powers reside with the faculty is problematic: to my knowledge, even the question of a curriculum for a four-year school has not been considered by the faculty; it was deemed a major concession, several years ago, to permit the faculty to elect a minority of the members of a few of the standing and ad hoc committees of the school - our failure to appreciate this gesture was supposed to have been the immediate cause of the crisis of spring 1963, when our chairmen were asked to resign, but refused.

To sum up, neither the medical faculty nor its senior members have official knowledge of the issues that have been fought, nor have they had the opportunity to discuss them responsibly as equals; they have certainly not made a collective judgment on them. To some this is satisfactory, to others tolerable; the rest of us are voting by the only means left - with our feet.

Asst. Prof, of Biochemistry

Hanover, N. H.

Orton Havergal Hicks '21

TO THE EDITOR:

In my role of "steady reader," I look forward to each issue of DAM, which gets thoroughly read. Covers are included in this reading, and I commend you on the choice of subject in the June number. The sight of the tall Orton Hicks striding purposefully forth on a mission of conquest is awesome indeed, for one knows that, after the persuasive charmer moved out of camera range, he descended upon his prey, and conquered with his familiar non-violent technique, a daily accomplishment. One wonders if this gifted Minnesota boy had ever contemplated the career of an anesthetist. At the very least, he probably has the best bedside manner in the business.

In looking many times at the June cover, my thoughts embraced a number of historic figures who were adventurous, forthright, unswerving, pioneering - Père Marquette, Nathan Hale, Lewis and Clark, John Price Jones, and others who impinged on the public consciousness. The feeling has grown that Ort unknowingly has posed for what a Columbia admirer, who moves in where angels fear to tread, hopes will be a statue erected in gratitude to him by the Dartmouth family. I am quick to urge that this statue project be accomplished in his lifetime, and soon. He won't have to endure a series of sittings for the sculptor; you already have the "sitting" on the cover.

In front of the statue there should be a tastefully designed device to receive gifts and contributions to the Annual Fund, for, be he a Dartmouth man or a stranger, when he gazes upon the resolute Hicks, he will immediately be lost, and in one of the best of good causes.

And about that cover... if there is an alumni magazine cover contest this year, Dartmouth must surely win with its June issue.

Take it from here, Big Green.

Executive SecretaryAlumni Federation ofColumbia University

You Can't Stretch Steel

TO THE EDITOR:

Besides being heartily in accord with the suggestion offered by Richard P. White '18, concerning gavels from old "Inn" timbers, it would appear that the gavel has given the "going, going, gone" sound for "Ye Hanover Inn" as is.

Such being the case, I believe I can release a secret. To be sure it is a small secret, but there are "those who love it".

During my four years at Dartmouth, each summer I reported for work with a large construction company in Boston as soon as the yearly finals were finished. My last summer before my senior year, I was superintendent in charge of the job to which they sent me.

It was on this job that four 1" bolts were placed in the top of the foundation wall just 12" farther away than they should be. It was, therefore, on this job that I learned that it was very difficult to stretch a prefabricated steel truss twelve inches.

However, we were fortunate in that by cutting off the bolts, drilling four new holes and placing four new bolts, we would not have to stretch the truss.

I think it was about the year 1948 when I was in Hanover, our room at the Inn on the second floor rear looked out on some construction of an addition to the Inn.

This is my secret - the last steel beam had been attached to a lally column with a dreft pin and, as I watched, the iron worker was thumbing the crane operator to "lower away" so the other end of the beam could rest in a niche made for it when they poured the concrete wall.

The only trouble was - the niche was not there. It was two feet away.

The crane operator was quite confused when he got the "hold everything" signal, and then was told by another signal to take the beam back to the ground.

When we returned to the room after lunch, the beam was in place in a new niche, and the unused niche was filled in with a fresh pour of concrete, and all was well with the world.

However, I was pleased to note that even in my own college town, they could not bend steel any better than I could in Boston some twenty years before.

Roslindale, Mass.

Another Inn Proposal

TO THE EDITOR:

Although not a class officer, I submit the following for consideration in connection with the suggestion made by Robert P. White '17 in his letter published in the July issue.

An appropriate way of perpetuating the old Inn for alumni who have known it and giving the remodeled one meaning for future alumni would be to save some timbers as the Inn is wrecked and incorporate them in the new structure. My suggestion: Work them into the proposed Sid Hayward Lounge either as beams, panelling or a special background for the display of the Paul Sample painting given by 1926 as a memorial to Sid.

Bethesda, Md.

Professor Wishnia's letter was written inJune while he was still a member of theMedical School faculty. The ALUMNI MAGAZINE accepted it for publication buthas been unable until this issue to fulfill itscommitment.