Cape Cod Seminar

With the Cape Cod National Seashore as their classroom, 130 alumni and wives attended Dartmouth's second annual New England Alumni Seminar, October 1-3, at the Governor Prence Motor Hotel in North Truro, Mass. Response was so great that the number of alumni "students" had to be limited.

The seminar's theme was "The Nature of New England II," with a sub-theme "A Retreat to Cape Cod." Last year the inaugural New England Alumni Seminar was held in Hanover, with a side trip to Mt. Moosilauke.

Advance reading for the seminar consisted of three books: The Variorum Waldenand the Variorum Civil Disobedience, edited by Walter Harding, secretary of the Thoreau Society; The Outermost House, AYear of Life on the Great Beach of CapeCod by Henry Beston, and The ImmenseJourney by Loren Eiseley. Fittingly, North Truro was not too distant from the spot near Nauset Light, in Eastham, where Mr. Beston spent his year in the late 1920's in a tiny two-room cottage perched on the dunes.

Alan T. Gaylord, Professor of English and academic director of Dartmouth's Alumni College, and Prof. Robert C. Reynolds Jr., a geologist and lecturer in Dartmouth's new Environmental Studies Program, served as the seminar faculty. Professor Gaylord discussed the three assigned books. Professor Reynolds conducted field trips to illustrate processes that are working to modify the landscape, and lectured on the geology of Cape Cod. Other Dartmouth faculty members from the sciences and humanities acted as moderators for the small-group discussions.

New England Alumni Seminar students enjoy Cape Cod's October weather.