Reunion Week: Fun Plus Education

DARTMOUTH'S class reunions had a special quality this year. The traditional fun and frolic were not missing — in fact, they were enjoyed by the largest number of persons ever in Hanover for Reunion Week, June 17-23 — but the events most intensely engaged in, and perhaps to be longest remembered, were the organized panel discussions and give- and-take dialogues concerning the issues that are rocking the nation and college campuses.

Class Day and Commencement had produced their shocking interludes as students denounced the values of their elders and spoke out uncompromisingly on the social and international- problems of the day. Reunion Week to some extent took up where Commencement left off, and much of the alumni interest and concern focused on student anxiety and rebellion and on the relevance of Dartmouth liberal arts education to today's turbulent world.

Continuing the pattern of recent years, four classes— 1928, 1932, 1933, and 1934 — were back for the first half of Reunion Week; the 25-year Class of 1943 began its four-day program on Thursday; and four more classes — 1952, 1953, 1954, and 1958 — arrived on Friday. Counting the five older classes that had reunions during Commencement Weekend — 1898, 1903, 1908, 1913, and the fifty-year Class of 1918 — a grand total of 3,456 alumni, wives, and children were in attendance. The count on alumni alone was 1,392, and both this figure and the overall total were new records for the reunion period (see tabulation) .

With 60% of its living graduates back for their 50th, the Class of 1918 won the Class of 1894 Cup. The Class of 1930 Cup, for the largest number of class members back, went to 1958 which had 195 men present. New attendance marks were set for classes holding their 50th, 35th, and 15th reunions; and there was something notable also about the presence of two '98 men back for their 70th reunion, Ernest Seelman and Oscar Tabor.

The first of the reunion symposia took place on Tuesday morning for all four of the classes in town at that time. "Dartmouth Today and Tomorrow" was the theme of the program moderated by Evan R. Collins '33, president of the State University of New York at Albany. In the keynote address, Charles E. Adkins '32, until recently the president of Briarcliff College, described the pressures upon the liberal arts college from within and without, and as one of his major points he said, "There will be a growing conviction that colleges and universities must shape society as well as exist within it, and that there must be greater relevance in education. For a college to be strong it must provide the opportunity for greater involvement on the part of everyone, especially students who have seldom been involved before, in the decision-making process."

This question of the student's role in educational and administrative policy and the allied questions of student dissent and academic freedom were hotly pursued in the following discussion. Present as participating panelists were Provost Leonard M. Rieser '44, Dean Thaddeus Seymour, Prof. Alvin O. Converse of Thayer School, and Robert B. Reich '69, president of Palaeopitus and one of the past year's leading student activists. Everyone came out of the two-hour session stimulated and in agreement that it was an "educational" experience.

An innovation in reunion programming and a highlight of the second half of the week was the all-day program on "The City" and race relations put on by the Classes of 1952, 1953 and 1954 under the direction of Robert Binswanger '52, director of administrative career programs at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. More than 300 signed up for the seminar which took the form of one large meeting and then a dozen discussion groups which met morning and afternoon with representatives from the black community of Boston. For most of the participants it was the first face-to- face confrontation with Negroes who know the ghetto and speak for the black people who live there.

That same day the Class of 1943 gathered for a program on "Dartmouth Today: Challenge and Response in the Liberal Arts." Once again the question of the relevance of today's educational program was to the fore. Three faculty members and three '43 men who were panelists were Harold L. Bond '42, Professor of English; Paul T. Shannon, Professor of Engineering; Larry K. Smith, Instructor in History; Jeremy Blanchet '43, Assistant to the President, State University of New York at Stony Brook; lames R. Oppeqheimer '43, St. Paul lawyer; and Henry C. Keck '43, industrial designer from Pasadena, Calif.

On Saturday morning the Hopkins Center Theater was filled for two one- hour programs sponsored by the Class of 1958. At the first session, on "National Ferment and Undergraduate Response," alumni heard students explain why they are so intensely opposed to the Vietnam war, as well as testimony by two black students of the opportunities Dartmouth offers undergraduates to involve themselves in current problems. Charles F. Dey '52, Dean of the Tucker Foundation, moderated the session and two of the student participants were William McCurine Jr. '69 of Chicago, president of the Dartmouth Afro-American Society, and John M. Isaacson '68 of Auburn, Me., recently selected to be a Rhodes Scholar.

The second '58 session dealt with "National Ferment and Alumni Response in Government, Business, and Religion." Four members of the Class who led this discussion were R. Harcourt Dodds, Deputy Police Commissioner in New York City; the Rev. James W. Crawford, East Harlem Protestant Parish; the Rev. H. Carl McCall, Deputy Administrator of the Human Resources Administration of New York City; and A. Frederick Pitzner, Chicago banker.

Alumni and wives who participated in all these mind-stretching sessions took back to the reunion tents and bull-sessions a lot of things to think about and discuss further. College faculty members and administrators who have seen this side of Dartmouth reunions grow year by year were unanimous in thinking that this year's experience was the most stimulating and worthwhile yet. The state of national affairs helped to make it so, but the alumni themselves took the initiative and arranged the programs that gave Reunion Week 1968 its special quality.

Reunion Attendance ClassClass % of Grads Members Total 1898 50% 2 16 1903 27% 5 10 1908 42% 30 62 1913 38% 38 77 1918 60% 118 228* 1928 25% 100 183 1932 22% 93 202 1933 27% 111 233** 1934 18% 84 187 1943 33% 160 570 1952 31% 155 463 1953 27% 162 475† 1954 23% 139 374 1958 29% 195 375 1,392 3,456††

* Record for the most men ever to attend a 50th Reunion. The old mark of 102 was established by the Class of 1914 in 1964.

** Record for the most men and total attendance at a 35th Reunion. The Class of 1930 held both records with 100 men and 213 total attendance in 1965.

† Record for total attendance at a 15th Reunion. Previous highs were 145 and 356 set by the Class of .1950. The Class of 1952 also broke both records.

ft Record for the most men and largest attendance during the 10-day reunion period. The old record for total attendance was 3,156 set in 1967. The previous high for men was 1,376 set in 1966.

General session (left) and a group discussion which were part of the 1952-53-54 seminar on the city and race relations.

General session (left) and a group discussion which were part of the 1952-53-54 seminar on the city and race relations.

A striped horde of 195 men of '58 won attendance honors during Reunion Week.