Dartmouth's Alumni Relations

From the committee named to make a special study the Alumni Council gets 51 proposals for improving...

PROPOSALS that would add new dimensions and fresh vitality to Dartmouth's alumni relations, especially so as to attract the active interest of the younger classes, were put before the Dartmouth Alumni Council at its winter meeting. These recommendations, made by a special committee after a year's study, are now serving as guidelines for the College's expanding alumni program.

The 14-man committee that presented its printed report to the Alumni Council in January was headed by N. Page Worthington '33 of Baltimore, former Council president. Two subcommittees were responsible for major parts of the study. One, under the chairmanship of John K. Benson '31 of Needham, Mass., dealt with the Alumni Council itself - its purpose, functions, and organization. The other, under the chairmanship of H. Reginald Bankart '35 of Scarsdale, N. Y., had the job of reviewing the 1958 report of the Committee on Alumni Relations (CAR), evaluating the progress that has been made in carrying out its recommendations, and suggesting new ideas and activities in keeping with the changing nature of the two-way relationship between the College and its alumni.

In addition to the detailed sections of its printed report, SCAR provided an overall summary of its deliberations, selecting those aspects of alumni activities that the committee considered particularly important and therefore deserving of emphasis. This three-part summary, dealing with the 1958 CAR review, the Alumni Council review, and the activities of the Dartmouth clubs, follows in full:

Summary of 1958 CAR Review

The purpose of this study was to review the recommendations that the Committee on Alumni Relations presented in 1958, and to suggest new ideas and activities falling within the scope of alumni relations.

The major directions for action involve two basic programs: one, getting the College out to alumni, and two, getting alumni back to the College. More specifically, our recommendations lie in the following areas:

(1) There is a need for a broaderscope of alumni programs.

Over the past few years, alumni activities have moved rather steadily from the athletically oriented toward more intellectually oriented activities. The move in this direction must not only continue but a wider variety of intellectually oriented programs is called for in order to interest and stimulate a broader group of alumni. By increasing the breadth and variety of alumni programs, there will arise an opportunity to spread these activities to all parts of the country. There are many alumni who seldom have an opportunity to return to the College but whose interest and help can be developed and maintained through increased College and Club sponsored regional programs.

(2) There is a need to develop moreprograms designed to attract youngeralumni.

The mid-point of the alumni body is now the Class of 1946. Classes of the 1950's and 1960's have different points of view, different attitudes, and react to different stimuli than classes out of college for 25 years or more. Since the younger classes of today will furnish the alumni leadership in behalf of the College twenty years from now, it is important that the point of view of the younger man be constantly kept in mind as the alumni program of the future is developed. Many of the recommendations of this Committee relate directly to this problem.

(3) There is an increasing demand forcontinuing education on the part of ouralumni and we propose development ofnew and varied programs to meet thisdemand.

The success of the Alumni College for the past four summers in Hanover, together with the extremely enthusiastic response to the Seattle program last fall, the one-day computer seminar, and others, is a good indication of the response that educational programs, aimed at the alumni body, can evoke.

(4) There is a need for the College toacquire, on a continuing and broad basis,comprehensive data on the attitudes andopinions of its alumni toward the Collegeand College programs.

Recognizing that attitudes and opinions vary considerably by age, it is important that this data cover a range of age groups. We have recommended professionally prepared surveys on a yearly basis among the classes 10 years, 25 years, and 40 years out of College as a starting point. We believe the College has an opportunity to pioneer in this field, taking advantage of modern research techniques and the College's new computer set-up which can store and translate a tremendous amount of data.

Through a continuing research program within the alumni body, the College can he kept aware of alumni reaction to important College policies and plans in such fields as coeducation, graduate studies, undergraduate behavioral patterns, fund raising, etc. Thorough knowledge of alumni opinion and attitudes can help guide the administration in its decision-making and indicate where favorable or unfavorable alumni reaction may be anticipated.

(5) There is a need for the College tocontinually ensure that its alumni areclearly and completely up to date on itsplans and programs.

Only a thoroughly informed alumni body can act intelligently and beneficially in behalf of the College, and several of our recommendations are directed to this end.

Summary of Alumni Council Review

The charge of the subcommittee was to review the purpose, organization, and range of activities of the Dartmouth Alumni Council and to make recommendations to strengthen its work. The Committee noted that the basic aim of the Council is to:

(a) Give organization and aid for the highest efficiency to all efforts of the alumni of Dartmouth College for the benefit of the College.

(b) To act as a clearing house for alumni sentiment and the interchange of alumni ideas.

(c) To approve or disapprove projects put forth in the alumni name and to be the seat of authority in all such matters.

(d) To act as the official spokesman of alumni sentiment to the administration and as the avenue of approach by which the administration should have access to the alumni collectively.

(e) To initiate and carry on such undertakings, or to provide for their being carried on, as are reasonably within the province of alumni activity.

These objectives are taken from the original Alumni Council Constitution adopted at the time the Council was organized in Philadelphia, November 7, 1913. The earlier CAR Committee found no reason to alter these organizational objectives nor have we.

The Committee reached it most important conclusions in two areas: the first involves additional representation of organized alumni groups on the Council, and the second suggests some revisions in the functions of the Council and its committees.

(1) There is a need for greater representationof the expanding proportion ofyounger classes (in the total alumni group)and the widening potential of alumnifrom Dartmouth's professional schools.

To this end we recommend that the Council include in its membership at least ten members from classes graduatimg within the most recent twenty years, and that the separate alumni associations for each of the professional schools at Dartmouth should eventually have representation on the Council. The Committees recommendations also include participation of non-Dartmouth alumni in certain areas.

(2) There is a need for further Council attention to the spectrum of classes,and a more formalized evaluation oftheir activities and contribution to alumniaffairs.

We recommend a new Committee on Class Organization. We believe that this committee could and should develop measures of class performance and suggestions for broadening the activities of all classes, and especially those which for one reason or another seem to have lost vitality.

(3) There is a need to strengthen therelationship of the Alumni Council'sPublic Relations Committee so that consultantsnow serving on this committeecan work more directly with various Collegeoffices and officers.

We would have the College's Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations responsible for public contacts and available to the committee at its meetings.

(4) There is a need for closer workingrelationships between certain Councilcommittees as well as in the conduct ofmajor alumni programs.

For example, we recommend that the Committees on Regional Organization and Enrollment and Admissions might occasionally meet in joint sessions, and that the Alumni Council Committee on Enrollment and Admissions should be responsible for the appointment of a Club-Enrollment Liaison Officer in each of the regional Dartmouth clubs.

Summary of Club Recommendations

During the course of the Committee's work it became clear that the greatest potential for strengthening alumni relations rests with the 138 Dartmouth Alumni Clubs.

(a) We see opportunities to expand continuing education programming in the clubs. Excellent new examples are the Dartmouth Computer Conferences, the Northwest Alumni Seminar, and "Dartmouth Today" programs which involve club visits by teachers and students.

(b) There is no suitable substitute for an excellent motion picture about the College in terms of strengthening enrollment as well as alumni club activities.

(c) Intra-club communications can be improved through newsletters, a formalized system of reporting back on Hanover events attended by club members, and improved record and addressing functions.

(d) Dartmouth Club facilities and programs in New York need revaluation. Dartmouth plant facilities in cities other than New York may well be needed in the future.

(e) The liaison between club and enrollment officers can be strengthened through joint meetings and a clear understanding of enrollment organization. Members and former members of the Alumni Council can be helpful in this regard and should participate fully in local club activities.

(f) Dartmouth clubs abroad have unique communications and program problems deserving special attention from Hanover.

THE Special Committee on Alumni Relations- found that the recommendations of the 1958 CAR report had been carried out to a substantial degree, but it also found that developments during the ensuing ten years called for a refinement of some of the earlier proposals as well as for some entirely new activities and programs. The Committee made 51 recommendations in all. And in doing so it recognized that not everything could be realized without additional manpower and funds - the main stumbling blocks to a fuller implementation of the 1958 report.

Among its general recommendations, supplementing the points made in its three-part summary, the Committee endorsed the continuation of the traditional alumni events such as formal and informal reunions that have been successful over the years, but warned that these events must not become sterotyped and must be buttressed with new alumni activities. The Committee recommended that methods be developed to give advance notice of campus events, such as the Computer Conference, which alumni might wish to attend.

The Committee stated that it would like to see a new publication of a scholarly nature, to be distributed among the alumni and others, and it also urged an extension of the practice by some academic departments of sending regular communications to their former majors. The publication Dartmouth AnthropologyNotes was commended as the sort of communication that might be more widely adopted. The possibility that alumni might sit in on undergraduate classes or, in special cases, make intellectual contributions in and out of class was also put forward by SCAR.

The increasing number of non-Dartmouth students at the three associated schools, and the planned growth of graduate programs in the College, led the Committee to suggest the future need of Dartmouth graduate alumni organizations. It urged the Hanover staff to continue studies of graduate-school alumni activities at other institutions.

As the final point of its report, the Committee cautioned the College not to underestimate the increase in the number of Dartmouth men who would be coming back to Hanover in the years ahead. On this subject the report stated:

"Twenty-one thousand Dartmouth men (approximately two-thirds of the entire living alumni body) live in twelve states which are within a day's drive of Hanover. We think it is important to keep this fact in mind whenever major campus events, which could involve alumni, are being planned. Interstate routes from the Boston and New York metropolitan areas to Hanover will be completed this year and new overnight facilities are being constructed rapidly. The Hanover Inn and Motor Lodge now contain 139 units. A new 72-unit Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge in White River Junction will open this spring. There are other good hotels and motels in Hanover and Norwich as well as in towns along the New Hampshire and Vermont Interstate Routes 89 and 91.

"As College plant additions are undertaken within the next few years the Committee cautions against underestimating the number of men and women who will be returning to the campus and using facilities such as the football stadium, ice arena, dining halls, lecture halls, and dormitories."

As a concluding note, the Committee also said: "The evidence we have gathered suggests there is a continuing and serious interest on the part of alumni in the welfare of the College. Many of our recommendations would add to the already wide variety of campus programs and activities - all designed to sustain and broaden this interest. Then we see Dartmouth embarking on her third century at the highest plateau of alumni concern, involvement, and support in her long history."

In addition to Chairman Worthington and Subcommittee Chairmen Bankart and Benson, the members of the Special Committee on Alumni Relations were George I. Davis '2B, A. Marvin Braverman '29, M. Carter Strickland '29, William H. Scherman '34, David D. Williams '35, Donald C. McKinlay '37, F. Warren Miller Jr. '40, Fred F. Stockwell '43, William H. McElnea Jr. '44, J. Michael McGean '49, and John W. Barto '52. Three associate members, representing the views of the younger alumni, were Robert M. Buchanan '54, Josiah Stevenson IV '57, and Joel J. Einhorn '58.

N. Page Worthington '33, chairman ofthe Council's alumni relations study.

John K. Benson '31 (I) and H. ReginaldBankart '35, subcommittee chairmen.