Letters to the Editor
The Coed Decision
TO THE EDITOR:
I am delighted with the enlightened decision of dear old Dartmouth to go coeducational at last. Now I can contemplate in good conscience sending my son—repeat son—to Dartmouth, should he be admissible and wish to go.
Ann Arbor, Mich.
TO THE EDITOR:
In the issue of December 6 Time magazine reports that the Trustees voted to admit coeds at a 4 to 1 ratio of men to women.
Those who are interested in this question may remember that in my letter which you published in the October issue one of my main complaints referred to the accusation that by keeping Dartmouth an all-male college the Trustees were guilty of discrimina tion against women. It was my contention that the accusation could not be supported.
The issue is now clarified. The Trustees have earned that accusation. The secondclass citizens are to be allowed in, but as a protective measure, they will comprise no more than 20% of the student body.
Andover, England
Editor's Note: The correct ratio is 3 to 1.The Trustees voted that when enrollmentreaches 4000 undergraduates four years fromnow, 1000 or more will be women.
TO THE EDITOR:
How fortunate we are! Now we can look forward to seeing pictures in your magazine of Dartmouth students, complete with flowing chiffon and daisy chains, holding folk dance festivals in the Bema.
Westwood, Mass.
TO THE EDITOR:
The Board of Trustees choked on the gutless decision of Dartmouth coeds.
Des Moines, lowa
TO THE EDITOR:
I believe that this is the first time that I have written to the Alumni Magazine; however, I feel compelled to comment about the decision for coeducation.
I read very carefully Mr. Dudley Orr's justifications for coeducation and was appalled that the Trustees would even consider a case on the basis of such shallow reasoning and arguments which are impossible to substantiate factually. I would have responded at that time, however, it appeared to me that Mr. Orr's arguments were so transparently bad that they could not possibly be given serious consideration. I believe that I made a serious mistake remaining silent and I suspect that most other alumni have made the same mistake
I notice that in your November isse page 29, you show a picture of three ladies newly hired as admission aides. I also not' that you felt compelled in the caption under the picture to note "appointed not riecessarily in anticipation of coeducation." Inasmuch as one of these women is to be Assistant Director of Admissions, it is quite apparent that the administration was aware of What the decision would be....
The whole thing smacks to me of a rerur of the ROTC situation. Once again the sole justification for action seems to be that the students and faculty seem to think it is a good idea. While it appears that the -students are getting an excellent lesson in effective ways to apply pressure, it does not appear that the faculty or the administration is learning much of anything.
La Grange, Ill.
Removing the Strain
The cover picture for January shows a male and female student each oblivious of the other, studying intently on the opposite sides of a Baker Library table. As the photographer and the editor intended, the picture must have wakened memories for many alumni, as they contrasted the campus of their years with that of today.
In the early '40s if a girl walked into the 1902 Room of Baker Library, studying stopped just as though a kangeroo had inexplicably hopped into the study hall. Going for weeks at a time without a long look at a female, males were capable of fantasies which they doubtless now have forgotten.
It is easy for those who have long since left the campus and long since resumed regular company with women, to cry "tradition!"
Can they honestly raise the cry, in the face of vivid recollection of the artificiality and strains of the all-male campus?
Amherst, Mass
Praise for Professor James
TO THE EDITOR:
The November 1971 issue of the AlumniMagazine contained the very happy report that Herbert L. James has been appointed to the Israel Evans Professorship of Oratory and Belles Lettres. As a former Dartmouth debater who daily utilizes the skills which Herb James taught, I am particularly pleased that he has finally received this well-deserved recognition in the academic community. Despite the numerous important educational contributions that I received at Dartmouth, none was nearly as important as the debating experience. Herb James was responsible for that contribution. Not only did his personality, wit and knowledge attract students to debate but his long hours of work set an example for all of us to follow.
But this occasion of great pleasure for all of Herb's debaters is also art occasion for sober reflection on a sad fact of life. As we all know, Herb's full status in the academic community has been slow in coming. If it were not for the generosity and commitment debate of former trustee Sig Larmon, Herb James and debate might never have survived at Dartmouth. To some this may sun to be no worse than the loss of any extracurricular activity. But it is precisely this attitude which has in my view infected the thinking of the College hierarchy for years—that is so disturbing.
All of our knowledge, all of the skills we learn all of the years of training are worthless if we cannot communicate. Yet communication skills—writing, speaking, art, are very much secondary parts of the Dartmouth and all other educational processes Few of us have the basic talent to communicate through art but we all can and must learn to communicate orally and in writing. It is time to bring these important skills into the forefront of our educational process. Debate was for me the perfect "course" for learning the skills of oral communication and basic argumentation and analysis. It is unfortunate that these critical skills are available only to the limited number of students who have the time for an extracurricular activity—an activity which is grossly underfunded. Now that the College has finally solved the "problem" of coeducation, perhaps it can turn its full attention to the more important task of providing a first-rate education for men and women students. The first step is to modify the present curriculum to put greater emphasis on debate and other courses which teach communication.
Washington, D. C.
Tents, Not Condominiums
TO THE EDITOR:
I oppose the Controlled Environmental Corporation and Dartmouth for sponsoring it. Who needs another resort for the wealthy, at the expense of nature, our only real heritage? Why another exploitation of the forest to provide a playground to which soft alumni and friends can drive their Town and Country station wagons and unload their condominium and cocktail mentalities?
I talked with the N. H. Society for the Preservation of Forests. They said that the EASTMAN development has already bulldozed a deer yard, that is, a cedar area where deer winter and feed. They also said that development has started before EASTMAN planners have solved the sewerage problem.
I am again wondering how "rugged" Dartmouth men really are, and how moral. Why not:
tents instead of condominiums paths instead of roads (long ones) outhouses instead of septic fields sailboats over motorboats snowshoes over downhill skis animals for our children.
The poet W. S. Merwin wrote: "May I bow to Necessity, not to her hirelings."
plainfield, Vt.
Editor's Note: In a letter from WallerDodge '23, printed in the December issue, aMisprint gave the size of the EastmanProject as 350 acres instead of 3500 acres,which is correct.
Wants ROTC Restored
TO THE EDITOR:
Probably no issues in this century have divided the Dartmouth community more deeply than the decision in 1969 to eliminate ROTC and the recent adoption of CYRO-coeducation. Now it is most important to go forward from that latter decision with a sense of unity and loyalty to the College. I suggest that our chance to do so could be enhanced by a deliberate reexamination of the earlier decision about ROTC.
This proposal comes in response to some of the considerations which led the College to adopt year-round operation and coeducation. As debated in these last months, the gist of these considerations was that Dartmouth must realistically face current needs in American education and society. How does this approach apply to the question of ROTC?
First, a wider range of individual options in the pattern of undergraduate education was an important justification for adopting CYRO. A crucial option for the male Dartmouth student should be the chance to complete his college education without interruption for military service. Yet, with ROTC phased out and the new draft lottery, many Dartmouth students have lost that option.
Second, the assumption by Dartmouth of a leadership role was an important justification for adopting coeducation. It seems strange that the College should assume a new leadership commitment on the female front and at the same time discard a portion of its commitment on the male front. Consider the prospect of all-volunteer military services. Here a leadership obligation is apparent. For the risk of all-volunteer services is not simply that both enlisted and officer volunteers may be hard to come by. It is also a risk that all-volunteer services may never approximate a fair cross-section of American society. They may well become another ghetto for the alienated and underprivileged. ROTC programs at Dartmouth and similar institutions should help avoid those risks.
Third, the dollars and cents cost of higher education was another important factor in the move to CYRO. And that cost for the student is now close to appalling. Internal programs of financial aid still leave a great many students (and parents) of middle class background in a tight squeeze to manage the cost of a college education. Restored ROTC programs would help meet a very real need through the outside financial support which they would afford those who choose to enter them.
Finally, the careful, cool deliberation which preceded adoption of CYRO-coeducation helps make that decision acceptable to many who wished a different result. It was not only a model of how an important decision should be made. It is also a model which contrasts starkly with the atmosphere of duress, anger and irrationality which surrounded the 1969 ROTC decision. All of these considerations which stand in support of the new directions in which the College is moving also suggest that now is the time to begin careful, cool deliberation about restoring ROTC programs in some form to the Dartmouth campus.
Hanover, N. H.
