The College

DARTMOUTH opened its 199th academic year with the traditional Convocation on Monday morning, September 23. Surprise was contributed to the opening exercises by President Dickey's announcement that he planned to retire as Dartmouth's leader sometime during the Bicentennial Year 1969-70 (see adjoining box).

Although an exact count was not possible on opening day, undergraduate enrollment this fall will not vary greatly from the 3146 of a year ago. Director of Admissions Edward T. Chamberlain Jr. '36, aiming at a freshman class of 820, could take a bow for using his trusty abacus and coming up with a class of 819.

Graduate enrollment, expected to suffer from recent Selective Service rulings, apparently will not be down as much as predicted, at least not for the fall term. Tuck School, which admitted a first-year class somewhat larger than usual in order to offset the draft, has about the same enrollment as last year. Thayer School, however, is down from the expected 85 graduate students to about 60, due mainly to the refusal of many draft boards to grant deferment for the full five-year engineering course to men who received the four-year A.B. degree in June.