The Undergraduate Chair

THE College Committee on Standing and Conduct (CCSC) last month tussled with its own conscience and the thorny issue of dissent. By any yardstick, it appeared to have won and lost on both counts. The new judiciary's conscience was hardest to assess. Noting widespread student dissatisfaction with its methods, the committee began to loosen up somewhat on the secrecy that has characterized the CCSC since its formation. In a controversial case involving four SDS members who blocked entrance of an Army recruiter to a college building, the committee accepted student demands for a public hearing and later disclosed its own voting on the case, meeting for the first time The Dartmouth's vocal requests that the committee divulge its votes and reasoning.

But the CCSC made clear that this was an exceptional case, and declined to promise that disclosure would become the rule. Strong sentiment against divulging votes still exists among the committee members, and the issue appeared by the middle of January to be still in the forefront of the CCSC's deliberations.

The case that prompted the extraordinary measures of an open hearing and access to the votes involved four undergraduates charged with obstructing the Army recruiter late last term. For their actions Stephen J. Stoll '68, Neville K. Mody '69 and David H. Green '71 received College Discipline (social probation) for a term. The fourth protester, John D. Rea '69, had been charged with physically restraining the military recruiter when he attempted to enter Fairbanks Hall and received two terms of College Discipline.

Taking note of the somewhat ambiguous language in the College Guidelines on Dissent, the rules under which the four were tried, the College Committee indicated the punishment would be more severe in the case of future violations. "The [decision] affirms College policy relative to the Guidelines and to the orderly operation of the Placement Office. .. . The committee is clear that all students are subject to these policies and that suspension or separation are appropriate penalties for future violations," the CCSC opined in its official statement.

The committee also urged haste in establishing a student-faculty committee to further study the Guidelines, presumably to clear up any remaining ambiguity about their applicability in recruitment cases, a reaction to a charge by the defendants that military recruiting at Dartmouth cannot be construed as "an orderly process of the College" referred to in the Guidelines.

One of the key issues in the case involved levying charges against only four of the nearly 50 students who joined hands on the porch of Fairbanks Hall to block the recruiter. The CCSC based its decision to try the four on the fact that a statement signed by the others said they had only "intended" to violate the Guidelines, despite the desire of the 40-odd others to be tried with their fellow demonstrators. In the single dissenting opinion, Steven B. Harris '69, one of four undergraduate members of the CCSC, argued he was "not in accordance with the distinction between Green, Mody, Stoll and those others on the porch acting in the same way and locking arms.... We should have made a greater effort to treat them all equally."

Harris, however, vehemently denied that the CCSC was trying to persecute the SDS, as charged by the four on trial. In this, at least, it was clear that the student body generally agreed with the College Committee, despite SDS claims that the CCSC was attempting to disband its leadership.

The Man Who

At a time when almost every administrator is fair game for bitter and continuous student attacks, it is the rare College official who escapes unscathed. But the announced retirement of Warner Bentley at the end of the year was met with such effusive praise for the Hop-kins Center's chain-smoking director that only the obvious sincerity of the praisemakers saved everyone from acute em- barrassment. Said The Dartmouth, whose editorial columns have rarely been graced with praise for anyone, "To fully appreciate either the Hop or Bentley, it is necessary to tour the center under his guidance. In a very real sense, the Hop-kins Center is Warner Bentley: every brick and tile comes alive as he recalls each detail of how it was built. And it becomes much more meaningful as he reflects back on the cramped, insufficient facilities of the old Little Theater and Webster Hall."

In a later issue Arthur F. Fergenson '69. the newspaper's acidulous and controversial Wednesday columnist, continued the monologue. "It is not an exaggeration to say that Warner Bentley has done more for Dartmouth and her sons than anyone else in at least this century," Fergenson wrote. "To say that a man has devoted his life to one cause is not enough. One must take, also, a measure of what was in the life that was offered. For Mr. Bentley has more than an overabundance of talent. He is a warm and sensitive man; he is a teacher." The nature of the praise made some question whether Fergenson, who in his year of writing for The Dartmouth has bitterly attacked almost everything connected with the College, was indulging in his usual heavy-handed irony. He wasn't.

A Young Man's Fancy

With the onset of another frozen Hanover Winter Term, students' fancy lightly turned in January to thoughts of coeducation. While the real thing seemed out of reach, College undergraduates took the lead from Yale in devising the next best thing. Scheduled for late in January was a week of coeducation, involving 650 voluntary enrollees from Wellesley, Mt. Holyoke, Vassar, Boston University, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Manhattanville and Skidmore Colleges. The girls were to be housed in dormitory rooms voluntarily vacated for the week from almost every dorm on campus.

"The major emphasis will be on co-education," according to Donald B. Elitzer '69, chairman of the Coed Week Committee, "but we have other events. The coeds will pay ski rec rates at the Skiway, and they can join ski classes at no cost other than a dollar lift ticket. Each girl will receive an hour-by-hour schedule of classes in addition to a condensed syllabus so that they'll be able to prepare for classes."

Long active in various special programs, Elitzer, who earned the nickname "Bake-Sale" after an earlier venture, looked toward a success this time. "The coed week here will be more extensive than Yale's," he hopefully expounded, "due to the national publicity Yale received, and the advance publicity we've put out for the week at Dartmouth."

Elsewhere on the coeducation front, five Skidmore sophomores and juniors joined the undergraduate body for a month to take advantage of the College's unique electronic music studio. The girls are enrolled in an experimental one-month course in electronic music as part of Skidmore's 4-1-4 term setup. They join seven other female "special students" studying here this term.

The girls haven't been fully integrated into Dartmouth life, however, as the result of a decision by the Dean's office to keep the provocative influences out of Thayer Dining Hall. "While Dean Seymour may think that a ratio of 2300 to five is 'unhealthy'," muttered The Dartmouth, "we believe a ratio of 2300 to nothing is sick."

Scholar

Dartmouth senior William McCurine Jr., president of the Afro-American Society, will spend the next two years at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. McCurine, who has also served as a tutor and administrator of Dartmouth's Project ABC, was one of 32 American recipients of the award. A history major, he plans to follow his education in an exploration of new educational possibilities for American blacks.

McCurine's contributions to the College have been noted before. In 1967 he received the Ray W. Smith Palaeopitus Award as "the undergraduate who contributed significantly to the stature of the College" and the same year was the recipient of The Dartmouth's Milton Sims Kramer Award, presented annually to an outstanding underclassman.

Student Power

Several academic departments have admitted undergraduates to the departmental decision-making process, and informal progress reports early in January indicated this new burst of student power has been pretty well received all around. Undergraduate majors in philosophy, mathematics, government, and music have joined with faculty members to give students a greater voice in their education.

The most ambitious attempt so far has occurred in philosophy, where a Philosophy Student Union set up last fall has been given seats in departmental meetings not to exceed one-third of the number of faculty members attending a given meeting. Organized to permit philosophy majors to "show interest and concern" in the affairs of the department, a PSU spokesman said that, so far, the faculty response has been "very favorable and encouraging."

The College Committee on Standing and Conduct listening to student testimony.