Trustees Reenact 1770 Board Meeting

ON the 200th anniversary, to the day, of the first meeting of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees, held at the Wyman Tavern, Keene, N. H., on October 22, 1770, the Trustees of the College gathered there again for a meeting that was mainly ceremonial. The event was the concluding one in the long series of observances that has marked the Bicentennial of the College.

Following the brief meeting of the Board at "Ye Tavern of Capt. Wyman in Keene," which was built in 1762 and operated as a public house, the commemoration was continued with a reception and dinner at the Keene Country Club, given by the Trustees and the Cheshire County Dartmouth Alumni Association. Russell G. Putney '22, club secretary, presided at the dinner and the principal speakers were New Hampshire Governor Walter R. Peterson Jr. '47 and President Kemeny.

At the Wyman Tavern meeting, the Dartmouth Trustees were welcomed by C. Wellington Clark '37, president of the Cheshire County Alumni Association, and by Robert Clark Jr. '43, Mayor of Keene. David Putnam '37, trustee of the Foundation for the Preservation of Historic Keene, spoke briefly on the history of the tavern where Eleazar Wheelock and six other Trustees held the first Board meeting after the founding of the College.

The minutes of that first meeting were read by Dudley W. Orr '29 and a framed facsimile of the minutes, as written by the Rev. William Patten and attested by Bezaleel Woodward, was presented to Mr. Putnam for the Foundation for the Preservation of Historic Keene. The Trustees also passed a resolution of appreciation to Keene and presented a copy to Mayor Clark. As a final piece of business, President Kemeny received from Librarian Edward C. Lathem '51 the one-millionth volume to be added to the Dartmouth Library. A gift from The Friends of the Dartmouth Library, the 1650 volume is one of the great rareties in American belles-lettres and is described in another story in this issue.

Hanover Meeting

In Hanover the next day the Dartmouth Trustees met for their regular fall session and took action revising their rules for election and tenure, to provide a greater turnover of members and to lower the average age of the 16-man governing board. The Board voted that no Trustee may serve more than 15 years and that at least two of its members, at the time of election, shall have been graduated from college no more than 20 years. The designation Life Trustee was changed to Charter Trustee. The so-called Alumni Trustee, nominated by the Alumni Council, will continue to be limited to two five-year terms, unless elected to serve an additional five years as a Charter Trustee.

Four Charter Trustees on the present Board have already served the 15-year limit, but in order to have a smooth transition to the new system, they will end their service one a year over the next four years and the tenure provision will then become fully effective in June 1974.

In another action affecting its membership, the Board elected William E. Buchanan '24 of Appleton, Wis., an Alumni Trustee since 1961, to be a Charter Trustee. Mr. Buchanan fills the vacancy left by the death of Rupert C. Thompson Jr. '28.

More frequent turnover in the chairmanship of the Board also was proposed by Lloyd D. Brace '25, who has been chairman for the past three years. He resigned his post and to replace him as chairman the Board elected Charles J. Zimmerman '23 of Hartford, Conn., one of the country's leading insurance executives. Mr. Zimmerman was first elected a Trustee of the College in 1952 and has been a Charter Trustee since 1960.

Of major importance on the Board's fall agenda was a progress report from the Trustee Committee studying the feasibility of some form of coeducation at Dartmouth. The study committee, which in June had recommended that "a significant number" of women be educated at Dartmouth and which was then asked for a feasibility report, presented the Trustees with rough cost projections for two models, each representing a different mix of men and women.

Rejected as too expensive and impractical was one model posing a mix of 3000 men and 1000 women for a total undergraduate enrollment of 4000 or an increase of 800 persons over Dartmouth's present enrollment of about 3200 men.

The Trustees, however, asked the study committee to continue its feasibility inquiry by developing detailed and accurate cost figures on a second model postulating a possible undergraduate enrollment of 3600. That model involves a combination of increased utilization of the summer term, off-campus study programs, and exchange programs so that there would be neither an appreciable increase in the number of students on campus at a given time nor any significant reduction in the number of men necessary to achieve a three-to-one ratio of men to women that has been posited as a desirable minimum in the event coeducation were approved.

That ratio could be obtained, President Kemeny explained, with an enrollment at Dartmouth of 2900 men and 700 women, provided that during each year 200 men were away from Hanover under the exchange programs currently in force among 12 eastern colleges including Dartmouth and 200 women were studying temporarily at Dartmouth under the same exchange program. Thus, the mix of men and women actually at Dartmouth during an academic year, including the summer term, would be 2700 men and 900 women, or three to one. It was pointed out that all of those would not be on campus at the same time, however, since some would be away on off-campus term projects or would be electing a summer term in lieu of one of the three terms of the traditional academic year.

In this connection, the Trustees approved at their October session the recommendation of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences that the residency requirement for a Dartmouth degree, heretofore calling for a minimum of two years study at Dartmouth, one of which had to be the senior year, be revised to permit off-campus study for seniors provided each obtains permission from the department chairman in his major and his faculty adviser.

President Kemeny explained after the Trustees' meeting that, if most students enrolled in at least one off-campus term project and a significant number also utilized the summer term, it would be possible to increase the total enrollment at Dartmouth by as much as 400 persons without requiring major additions to facilities. Thus, he said, while a sizable sum of money would have to be generated to implement the model now under study, the amount would not be "astronomical." While declining to cite actual dollar projections because the estimates were still too rough, he said the capital cost to Dartmouth to implement the model would prove to be "a very much lower figure" than the $25-million in capital expenditures Princeton expects coeducation there will require.

President Kemeny added that both proposals — for increased off-campus study and use of summer term — have emerged as academically attractive possibilities without regard to the question of coeducation and deserve to be studied carefully simply on their merits.

Implicit in the deliberation of the several facets of the plan are major changes in the educational mix at Dartmouth, with off-campus programs, such as the Tucker Foundation internships and the growing foreign study and foreign language programs, adding new dimensions to the regular Dartmouth experience, and a strengthened summer program adding a new element of flexibility.

The study committee was asked to present its more detailed feasibility report on the one model to the board by its January or April meeting, making the academic year of 1972-73 the earliest possible date for the admission of women to the freshman class at Dartmouth, should coeducation be voted by the Trustees after all the evidence is in. President Kemeny also stressed that the Trustees wanted to withhold final decision until after the Alumni Council considers the issue at its January meeting and submits its report.

In one further action in October, the Trustees agreed it was the sense of the Board that planning for the summer arts program of 1972 should go forward on the basis of an overall budget level of 1969, when the Seventh Congregation of the Arts was held. Implementation of a major arts program in the summer of 1972 was made contingent on expansion of Dartmouth's summer term to include "a significant number" of Dartmouth students and on the generation of "significant" funds from foundation and local sources to support the program. No figures were specified in either stipulation.

"When we suspended the Congregation of the Arts," President Kemeny said, referring to the requirement for financial support, "many people and groups protested the suspension saying that they hadn't known we really needed funds to cover deficits and that we should have stated our case more forcefully. Now here's their chance to help."

Actually, the Board refrained from being more specific about the character of the arts program for 1972, since a College study committee is considering the future directions of the summer programs in the arts, and has not yet reported on its deliberations. It is estimated that it will require 15 to 18 months' lead time for the College to reinstitute a major program in the arts.

Meanwhile, the Trustees authorized a budget for the 1971 summer arts program at the same level as this past summer. Since a sizable portion of this year's funds had to be used to write off contractual obligations, the amount actually available for next summer will be larger.

Part of the members of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees who met at the WymanTavern in Keene, N. H., on October 22. Clockwise at table, Dr. Ralph W. Hunter'31, William E. Buchanan '24, Thomas B. Curtis '32, Harrison F. Dunning '30,Dudley W. Orr '29, and John D. Dodd '22. John Sloan Dickey '29, PresidentEmeritus of the College, is shown in the background.

Charles J. Zimmerman '23 (r), newlyelected chairman of the Board of Trustees, with Lloyd D. Brace '25, whom hehas succeeded in that position.

Presidential Profile: President Kemenysilhouetted against the campus bonfirethe night before the Princeton game.(Photo by Prof. Robert E. Nye Jr.)