Reunions, 1970 Style
THE New Federalism and the Metropolis."
Even if you say it quickly that phrase is not likely to evoke, suddenly and subliminally, as a companion phrase, "college alumni reunions."
Yet it was the subject of a panel discussion put on this June by the 25-year Class of 1945 at Dartmouth College. And it was typical of several such discussions, seminars, lectures, and films scheduled by more than a dozen Dartmouth classes during three separate reunion periods this year.
Reunions used to be synonymous with beer barrels and bombed-out alumni. Funny hats and fuzzy memories. Al fresco outings and forgotten names. They were a compound of nostalgia, heartburn and, if not lost, at least misplaced weekends.
Some of the Babbittry and booze that traditionally surrounded alumni reunion weekends of the '30s and '40s remains, to be sure. No one is about to get rich on the strawberry shrub concession at an alumni reunion tent or is likely to replenish his store of graceful bon mots at a class banquet.
But, in the last decade or so, a not- so-subtle change has taken place in these annual rites of late spring, if recent Dartmouth College reunions are accurate barometers. It's a trend that may have gotten its original impetus from the College's alumni relations panjandrums, but is now pretty well burbling along on steam furnished by the alumni themselves.
It's a trend that Dartmouth is by no means discouraging. The College's alumni chieftain, Secretary of the College J. Michael McGean '49, is happy the trend is under way and hopes it will continue.
"Let's face it," he is wont to say in his best get-down-to-brass-tacks manner, "reunions cost money, both to the individual and the College. It has long seemed to me that, for the money, both the College and the individual should get something of value in return."
The cost to the alumni runs to a bare-bones $250 per couple for a two- and-a-half-day stay in Hanover, and probably comes a lot nearer to $300 for most (with variations for travel). It tots up to $500 or more for an alumni couple returning with children, as a great many do.
For the College the outlay is neither public nor easily arrived at. But it is a sure bet that it runs into a good stout five figures for each annual reunion cycle.
The "something of value" in return that Secretary McGean talks about has nothing to do with unbreakable, polyethylene, deep-dyed replicas of the Old Pine as mementos for the alumni; nor with unbreakable, open-ended, no- strings trusts devised to the College. Rather, what Secretary McGean has in mind is similar to a concept repeatedly voiced by his boss, John G. Kemeny, since he took over as Dartmouth's 13 th President in March of this year. President Kemeny feels that part of a College's essential function should be that of continuing education and, to that end, hopes to see the day when sabbaticals are granted to those in business, industry, and the professions so that they may return to refresh themselves at the founts of academe.
To slake this thirst - or even to excite it - is what Secretary McGean would like to see reunions do. A glance at the most recent in-gatherings on the Hanover Plain will show to what degree this aim has been realized.
"The New Federalism and the Metropolis" was the title for a panel discussion put on by the 25-year class, 1945, this June. One of its participants, Prof. Franklin Smallwood '51, an expert on municipal government, said in his opening remarks that the Class of 1940 had inaugurated the panel idea five years previously at its 25th reunion. But 1930 at its 25th had perhaps the first reunion panel, on "Toward a Better Democracy," and other classes soon followed suit.
Since 1940, Professor Smallwood pointed out, each succeeding 25-year panel had dealt with some problem of the cities. Further, he had been a panelist on every one.
This is not to say that Dartmouth reunions have become hung up on either urbanology or Smallwoodology. It does perhaps indicate that Dartmouth alumni are, as the rest of us are, becoming more and more concerned with cities.
This panel had as members, in addition to Professor Smallwood, two members of the sponsoring class, Lisle C. Carter Jr., vice president for social and environmental studies, Cornell University; and Maurice E. Frye Jr., a real estate executive and the only Republican representative from Suffolk County in Massachusetts's General Court (now in his third term from Boston's Wards 3 and 5). The panel threw around such terms as "the psychological crisis of the cities," "fragmentation of welfare legislation," and "core cities" quite briskly and fielded several probing questions from the floor.
Other classes had other looks at other things. The Class of 1930, for instance, tried to set some sort of "course" record by studying two subjects, seriatim, in one evening.
It started out - indeed, the succeeding panel said "warmed up" - by taking a look at communications. Tour guides, all class members, were Collier H. Young, television and movie producer; William E. Steers, retired adver- tising executive; George W. Long, playwright; Francis H. Horn, education official; George W. Stone Jr., university dean; Llewellyn L. Callaway Jr., Newsweek official; and Dartmouth's Dean of Freshmen Albert I. Dickerson.
Marshall McLuhan, the life cycle of the printed word, the wasteland of television, the art of listening, advertising media, and over-permissiveness on the stage were bandied about with verve and wit before a sizable and appreciative audience that must have cut short its cocktail and dinner hour (or omitted the latter entirely).
Then came a panel on politics - its predecessor body said that this should have been billed as one on "the performing arts." Its members were also exclusively 1930-ites and, perhaps as a clue to the class, top-heavily Republican.
They were H. Meade Alcorn Jr., former Republican national chairman, moderator; Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York; Rep. Herman T. Schneebeli (R-Pa.); Rep. Robert McClory (R-Ill); and, the only Democratic sheep in this GOP den, Leon H. Sturman, a Rochester, N.Y., lawyer.
The how and why the panelists got interested in politics were given explanations and non-explanations. An example of the latter came from Governor Rockefeller: "I like people and I like to solve problems; I ran against an incumbent who didn't like people and didn't solve problems."
The differences between the Republican and Democratic Parties were then examined and the consensus was that the differences were not so great. After a brief examination of the 18-year-old vote question (both House members correctly forecast the passage of such legislation and all panelists were in favor of it), there came a series of pointed but fair questions from the floor.
Expropriation of oil, the committee system in the House of Representatives, Latin American policy, deficit federal financing, and federal aid to education were some of the bases touched quite solidly in a wide-ranging discussion. After about an hour-and-a-half Moderator Alcorn tried to wind things up only to be faced with requests that the session go on another hour or two or three or, in extremis, "all night."
Moderator Alcorn, being a shipshape Nutmegger from Suffield, Conn., battened it down and secured for the night.
This interest in spiritual as well as spirituous things was not confined to the middle-aged (1945) and delicately beyond middle-aged (1930) classes. Both older and younger classes also tried to "blow" their minds on mental trips.
For instance, on the very morning following the twin barrels of 1930 intellectual crossfire, the Class of 1924 held a panel discussion at the decorous hour of 11. It was moderated by Richard W. Morin, librarian emeritus of the College, and his panelists were two specimens of the trustee fauna, Alumni Trustee William E. Buchanan and Life Trustee Frank L. Harrington. All three are 1924 class members.
After a scholarly disquisition on the history of Dartmouth's Board of Trustees by Mr. Morin ("competence and dedication are the two requirements for membership"), a lively question-and- answer session followed with Messrs. Harrington and Buchanan answering with trustee-like wit and candor. The panel topic was "A View of the College - 1970" and thus the questions were necessarily about Dartmouth, but they were not of the usual alumni cast: "What's wrong with the beanbag team?" or, "Why wasn't Marmaduke admitted?"
A thorough examination of the thought-processes and labor content that goes into the selection of a new president for Dartmouth was held. College policy on admission of blacks, on phasing out ROTC, on coeducation, on expanded graduate studies and on the Tucker Foundation were other topics upon which queries were posed.
Then, the following weekend (June 18-21), after President Kemeny's address to the alumni on Friday evening (he did this with each alumni segment), the Class of 1960 had a panel dscussion on "A View of Dartmouth Ten Years Later." Despite the fact that the event was inadvertently both poorly and wrongly advertised, some 75 to 100 persons gathered in Hopkins' Faculty Lounge and picked the minds of five of their classmates who are resident upon the Hanover scene.
They are Asst. Prof. John W. Sommer; John J. Crouthamel, assistant football coach; S. Lawrence Dingman, visiting lecturer in earth sciences; Gordon V. DeWitt, assistant business man- ager of the College, and John Goyette, business manager of Hopkins Center.
Each reviewed changes in the area of his competence and again there was a long and lively question session. The self-segregation of blacks, student drug use, the place of student government and, inevitably, coeducation were some of the topics discussed. The session, despite a tent and a groovy rock-and- roll band beckoning, lasted a goodly two hours.
While reunions may never quite rival the Institute for Advanced Study, it may be that their planners are attempting to lengthen out the adjuration of Robert Frost - himself a Dartmouth alumnus - in Build Soil:
"Join the United States and join the family - "But not much in between unless a college."
Republican Huddle: Before the 1930 reunion panel on- politics the rules are setby (l to r) Congressman Herman T. Schneebeli, former National Chairman MeadeAlcorn, Congressman Robert McClory, and Governor Nelson Rockefeller.
Dartmouth in 1970 is discussed by three '24 men: (l to r) Trustee William E.Buchanan, Librarian Emeritus Richard Morin, and Trustee Frank L. Harrington.
Reunion Attendance Class TotalClass % of Grads Members People 1905 21% 5 14 1910 34% 24 37 1915 27% 31 68 1920 55% 81 167 1924 25% 80 153 1925 30% 92 175 1926 28% 90 175 1930 40% 157* 316t 1945 26% 138 456 1949 16% 84 284 1950 19% 122 376 1951 17% 96 295 1960 21% 143 272 1,143 2,788
* A new record for the most men at a 40th Reunion. Old record was 134 set by the Class of 1924 in 1964.
† A new record for total attendance at a 40th Reunion. Old record was 267 set by the Class of 1924 in 1964.
