Second Thoughts

Last month we reported that the Dartmouth Board of Trustees at its October meeting had approved in principle a revision of its committee structure to include for the first time faculty, students, and members of the Alumni Council on some of its standing committees. That this might not be the best way to improve the governance of the College and establish closer working relationships among all parts of the College was the consensus of last month's meeting of the Dartmouth Campus Conference, a gathering of Trustees, faculty, students, and administrative officers held periodically throughout the year as a forum to examine matters of common concern.

Acting Dean of the Faculty Frank Smallwood '51 said a better system of student-faculty interaction is a more pressing need than representation on Trustee committees, and Prof. Donald L. Kreider stated the view that the faculty would favor more decisions being made at the academic level rather than at the Trustee level, as the proposed committee plan might bring about. Charles L. Johnson '70, Interdormitory Council president and a student member of the Conference, expressed preference for some system that would give students a chance to share in making the policies that affect them and to be heard more broadly than would be possible through limited Trustee committee membership. Much Trustee work, he felt, is unrelated to the students and there would be little interest in it.

The Conference was arguing, in effect, for specialized involvement and for broader and more productive interaction than the Trustee committee restructuring would be likely to achieve.

We are pleased to announce that with this issue the "Dartmouth Authors" section of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE is in the charge of Frederick L. Hier '44, who succeeds Prof. John Hurd '21 as Literary Editor. Mr. Hurd, now sojourning in France, continues as a Contributing Editor. Mr. Hier, former U. S. information officer and bureau chief of Radio Free Europe in Salzburg, Stockholm and Berlin, is Director of Dartmouth's Office of Public Programs.