COMMENCEMENT 1971
Under clear blue skies on a sun-soaked Baker Library lawn Sunday, June 13, Dartmouth College conferred 940 baccalaureate and advanced degrees at its 201st Commencement.
Although the size of the graduating class has remained relatively stable over the years, the number of Commencement Weekend activities has continued to grow.
Within a 72-hour span of time, many of the 5000 parents, alumni, and friends of the College converging on Hanover witnessed, among other things, the ROTC commissioning ceremonies, Class Day exercises, two Senior Symposiums, the 50-Year Class Reunion and Address, Phi Beta Kappa awards, and last but not least, a colorful and music-filled Commencement.
The College, mindful of what happened two years ago, hired an airplane pilot to scout the skies for rain clouds after the weather bureau had forecast a 50-50 chance of moisture on Sunday, but Mother Nature produced a clear day with temperatures so warm it made many wonder whether they were in the southern rather than northern zone.
Among the 720 who received A.B. degrees from President Kemeny, 665 were members of the Class of 1971, with the remainder being men from older classes who graduated on a deferred basis for a variety of reasons.
Commencement was especially memorable for the Webster family of Old Saybrook, Conn. Following his 22-year-old son, Peter, to the platform was William, 55, a member of the Class of 1939 who had failed to receive his degree three decades ago because he had not completed his comprehensive examinations in his major subject, English. Three years ago, William Webster decided to do something about his delinquent compre- hensives and wrote to the English Department to see if he could take the exams. His request was handled with dispatch; the senior Webster was given a reading list of English novels and Shakespearean plays based on requirements in effect 30 years ago. He passed his comprehensives with flying colors and was certified, along with his son, for graduation.
Dartmouth's growth in graduate programs was reflected again this year when 220 advanced degrees were conferred. The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration led the list with 114 recipients of the coveted MBA. Fifty-one Bachelor of Medical Science degrees were awarded, and the Thayer School of Engineering granted 35 advanced degrees. Twenty men and women received Ph.D.'s in the arts and sciences.
Eight distinguished men were recognized by Dartmouth with honorary degrees. They were Dr. Gunnar Myrdal, the noted Swedish economist and author who delivered the commencement address; John L. Turkevich '28, Eugene Higgins Professor of Chemistry at Princeton, and his brother, Anthony '37, James Franck Professor of Chemistry at the University of Chicago and the Enrico Fermi Institute; Matthew W. Bullock '04, a retired Boston lawyer and a star football player at Dartmouth; Ramon Guthrie '38, poet, painter, writer, translator, and Professor of French Emeritus, who recently published the widely-acclaimed book-length epic poem, Maximum Security Ward; Henry W. Bragdon. history teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy; J. Irwin Miller, philanthropist and chairman of the Cummins Engine Co.; and Burt Bacharach, the popular composer.
Novelist Budd Schulberg '36, who returned to Hanover for his 35th reunion, also captured a modicum of glory which, as an undergraluate, had eluded him. Schulberg was inducted into the Dartmouth chapter of phi Beta Kappa as an honorary member. As a senior, he had missed by two-tenths of a point the grade average required for admission to the scholastic society as a result of a tightening of regulations. Although standards were again made more stringent last year, a total of 104 seniors were admitted to Phi Beta Kappa. Other honorary members elected with Schulberg were Professor Guthrie and Arthur McCandless Wilson '40h, Daniel Webster Professor of Government, Emeritus.
In his commencement address, Dr. Myrdal said, "It is not a revolution America needs but large-scale, indeed radical, reforms." He said the first reforms should be the withdrawal of American military forces from Vietnam in addition to an intellectual and moral catharsis by as many Americans as possible so that they can "recognize that the war has been illegal, cruel and immoral."
Following these changes, he said, the nation should then turn its full energy and resources toward a rebuilding of cities, changes in transportation policies, improvement of health services, and an all-out attack on poverty and discrimination.
Stressing that such reform will not take place overnight, he urged the Class of 1971 not to take a defeatist attitude but rather seize upon the opportunity of bringing about change through peaceful and rational means.
Class Day exercises this year were remarkably casual. Gone for the first time in more than a century were the caps and gowns as the seniors filed into the Bema dressed in slacks and shirts.
Willie C. Bogan, Rhodes Scholar and all-East safety on Dartmouth's Ivy League championship and Lambert Trophy football team, delivered a dignified and poignant class oration that stilled his classmates and their parents and friends.
Bogan, one of 16 blacks in the graduating class, recounted the problems which, at times, had kept blacks and whites at Dartmouth from living as a single community. He said the inefficiency of love and the inability to extend love fully had created a void.
"Our love too often is conditioned love, bound by "me. It is love of institution, love of race, love of nation. There is an absence of a more universal love." Until all men can learn to love universally, he said, "we can never fully turn outward."
John L. Sullivan '21, former Secretary of the Navy, took a stand against instituting coeducation at Dartmouth at the present time in his 50-Year Address. He urged the Board of Trustees to spend another year or two studying the issues before making a final decision.
Sullivan also said he opposed the decision to phase out ROTC programs at Dartmouth, but hoped that once the Vietnam war has been terminated, "the administration of this College will address itself to the restoration of ROTC units on this campus."
Only a few hours before Sullivan's address, 42 men received reserve officer commissions in the armed forces in the next-to-last ROTC commissioning ceremony. Next June the Navy will close its program, following the end of the Army and Air Force programs in 1970 and 1971.
Two Senior Symposiums drew large audiences as five of the eight honorary degree recipients explored, in two panel discussions, "The Role of the Sciences in the '70s" and "Can We Afford the Future?"
The Turkevich brothers, sitting on the science panel, said great scientific advancements will be made this decade, but they will require private financial support and international teamwork.
The second panel, which included Dr. Myrdal, warned that unless Americans are willing either to lower their living standards or to pay the price for a technologically improved society, the future may be nothing more than a continuation of the present.
Noting that solutions to the energy crisis, environmental pollution, and major, new discoveries in medicine could become realities in the '70s, John Turkevich stressed that work on these problems, if international in scope and undertaking, can be achieved much faster.
His brother, meanwhile, argued that government, industry, and educational institutions do not have the necessary financial resources available to support the type of research it will take to solve many of man's problems. Instead, he called for private support for research in which the scientists working on solutions can later offer their results to government and industry for implementation. Anthony Turkevich also said scientists need a larger, more independent voice in order to make their positions known to the public.
On graduation morning, seniors marched up Wheelock Street before crossing the campus to Baker Library.
In a rare Commencement event, William O. Webster '39 (r),who passed his deferred comprehensive examinations, received his Dartmouth A.B. degree with his son Peter (c).
