The Undergraduate Chair
WHILE off-year elections swept the country with varying amounts of intensity, the Dartmouth student body was included in the fever for political activity and ballots.
The biggest manifestation of this spirit is the three-page survey prepared for the students, the faculty, the administration, and perhaps even a good number of alumni. The survey covers aspects of the social, financial, and academic life of the undergraduate.
It has a rather tortuous history that leads back to the formation last spring of a faculty and student Committee on the College Community, an eight-man body. As the committee came closer to preparing its survey, which was presented to the students on November 16, the Interclass Council (ICC) took an increased interest in its work. After many hours of debate, the undergraduate governing body decided to accept the results of the poll as "a mandate for action," although what type of action the group will take is uncertain at present.
It has been stressed at many points in the debates that whatever action the ICC takes will be completely independent of the committee which drew up the poll. The work of the original body is, in the words of a spokesman, simply "a re-evaluation of College life." The ICC, however, attached an extra sheet to the survey which posed the question: "Do you feel that student government should have the power to legislate changes on the basis of a referendum regardless of the position of the administration should cooperation with the administration fail?" Rather a strong question from a normally docile student body.
At any rate, sample questions from the survey include:
• Parietal restrictions should be abolished. (There shall be no general rules restricting the presence of women in living units.)
• Campus policemen and room inspectors may enter dormitory and fraternity rooms only after having received permission from the occupant, except in cases in which the safety of the occupant is concerned (e.g., in cases of fire, injury, etc.).
• Students receiving financial aid shall have the same rights and privileges as all other students with regard to owning and maintaining a motor vehicle in Hanover and vicinity. (At present financial aid students may not own or maintain a motor vehicle.)
• Student representatives shall be members of the Curriculum Committees of each department.
• Any academic calendar shall exclude Saturday classes.
• Classes at Dartmouth shall be co-educational.
The issues are, of course, old, but the approach promises to be new and, hopefully, more effective than previous attempts to change conditions. Judging from the speeches given at numerous meetings of the ICC, it appears that this body is ready to have a full test of its powers and prestige by pressing for the implementation of the results of this survey. If, however, the poll runs against rejecting the status quo, the only result will be a lot of surprised people.
IN the meantime, Hanover had its first real taste of the political action which surrounds the New Hampshire primary elections every four years. Although New Hampshire has been proven to be relatively unimportant in the final analysis and although Dartmouth College is also unimportant to a man's chances of taking the state, still the candidates come.
The first visitor of the season was Michigan Governor George Romney who spoke before a packed house in Spaulding Auditorium. He was ably assisted by a well-organized campaign which brought well over a hundred girls to the campus as an added attraction. The girls were there mainly for a short mixer in the governor's honor, but 22 (eleven from Smith, eleven from Holyoke) staged a touch football match on the Green preceding Romney's arrival.
This, in turn, produced a large crowd of students (about 900) who were then on hand to greet the governor as he arrived (conveniently) at half-time. Romney addressed the generally unenthusiastic crowd for a few minutes and then went to the Green to toss out the football for the second half.
The speech he gave later the same evening was under the auspices of Senior Symposia, a series of lectures which replaced the outmoded Great Issues course. Most students appeared more impressed by the governor's warmth and sincerity than by his speech. The Dartmouth, in an editorial, characterized it as a speech which "said nothing, solved nothing, and left nothing for the imagination." Together with the girls, it went on, the whole thing was a neat piece of "political pop-art." To be fair, a student who worked with the Romney committee found the speech to be of great merit and, in a letter to the editor, charged the newspaper with prejudice and rumor fabrication.
And after that, both the issue and Romney were generally forgotten.
On the more active side of politics, about 100 students from Hanover trekked down to Washington late last month to protest the increased United States involvement in Vietnam. The protest, as most know, was not as pleasant or smooth as its predecessor in New York City last spring. Who started the violence and who was at fault is not a matter for these pages, but the fact remains that three students and one instructor were taken into custody for their actions or lack of action during the proceedings. The three students paid nominal fines and were released in a short time. The faculty member, Instructor David C. Kubrin, refused to pay the fine and accepted a short term in jail. Within the week, however, he returned to the campus (after The D had reported him missing) full of indignation about both the conditions of the jail and the conduct of the authorities during the march.
The trek to Washington was preceded by a two-day series of forums and discussions about the war. The attendance at the events was generally disappointing. Perhaps it can be attributed to both the pressure of classes and the fact that many people are, by now, set in their thinking and do not feel that further discussion would either change or enforce their stand. Exactly where the students stand may be found out by a poll (ah yes! another one) held toward the end of November.
OCTOBER was a great month for publications as well as polls and politics. During its span, The DartmouthCourse Guide, Paroles, and Eranos hit the streets with their first issues of the year. In addition, the Afro-American Society began work on its own magazine.
The Course Guide, to begin with, is the first attempt in four years to sort out good courses (not guts - good courses) from the bombs and to give students some idea of what they are getting into. Over fifty courses, mostly lower level and very popular courses, were explained and criticized at some length. Perhaps it would be best to cite examples from the text and so, a typical portion of praise ran:
"Govy 5 should not be missed in four years at Dartmouth. The readings are among the most vital to fulfilling a well-rounded education and will always be relevant to any thinking person. With this material the lecturers do an understandably excellent job and keep the class informed and interested."
and a typical portion of condemnation for a different course:
"[The presentation is] weak. Many students feel that the approach was oversimplified to the point of being childish, yet grading had little to do with the ideas being presented in the lectures. To make matters even worse, quite a few students complained that they received very little attention. Even when a student could get hold of an instructor, comments tended to be erratic and unhelpful."
The Guide was, it should be noted, reluctant to really unleash its wrath upon anyone in particular and it generally did not go as deeply in criticism as it soared high in praise. This is to be expected from a first effort, but nonetheless it dims the guide's effectiveness. A new voice is being raised all over campus the voice that says "I want what I paid for and I will not stand for bad professors or poorly laid out courses." The guide must (and probably will) fulfill the demands of that voice if it is to become an effective part of the informal student revolt.
Eranos, in comparison, was disappointing because it slipped from the high place it had held since its conception a few years ago. Started originally as a periodic re-evaluation of various aspects of the College, it has become entangled in the anti-war movement and in addition it reprinted a by-now-very-familiar position paper of the Afro-American Society that was issued six months ago.
However, if the articles themselves were not very good, they did reflect one rather surprising trend. The best way of presenting this is through a quote from a piece written by David Hough who graduated last year after a term with Palaeopitus and an unsuccessful bid for the Barrett Cup. "Any analysis," he wrote, "of the Dartmouth power structure must begin with the Trustees. These few men, led by the President, take their job seriously. They conscientiously desire what is best for the College. Yet it is significant to point out that these men appear neither to be concerned with the students nor to include them in their definition of the College."
Whether or not the accusation is true is not at issue here; the important thing is that it has been made and one can assume that there are plenty of other students thinking, at least vaguely, along the same lines.
The point of this column, and of the preceding one, is that there is a new awareness sweeping much of the campus. An awareness that is provoking students to ask embarrassing questions and to raise issues that formerly were reserved for the powers-that-be. And students are very serious when they say they want power, or at least very strong (be it informal) influence in the decision-making that creates new courses and revamps or sacks old ones.
But through all the changes, Dartmouth students still remain very much the same. The parties stay the same, the Rollins bells ring as insistently, and the crushing defeat at New Haven hurt just as much. It's just that more and more are learning to separate these things from the real purpose of their four years here.
Governor George Romney, visiting Hanover on October 30, ran into Dartmouth'sfavorite-son sentiment for Nelson Rockefeller '30, as shown on a student placard.
Governor and Mrs. Romney on the campus and what they were watching: a touch football game between Smith and Mt. Holyoke.
Governor and Mrs. Romney on the campus and what they were watching: a touch football game between Smith and Mt. Holyoke.
Cadet Colonel Allan G. Johnson '68 (r)and the Army ROTC Commandant, Col.William L. Nungesser, with the Warriorof the Pacific Trophy won by Dartmouth's 47-man group which had the topfiring score in riflery at Fort Devensduring the summer training session.
