Letters to the Editor

In Support of ROTC

TO THE EDITOR:

May I offer the following comment in support of Ort Hicks's plea in the February issue for restoration of ROTC programs to the Dartmouth campus.

Just so long as our nation continues its present policy in pursuit of peace by the method of balance of power deals, just so long must we keep ourselves militarily strong in weaponry, personnel and leadership, and all of the latter cannot be turned out by West Point alone.

Both I (Yankee Div., WWI,) and my son John D'49, Th.'50 (3rd Inf. Div.,—Anzio, Southern France, crossing the Rhine, Nuremburg and Berchtesgaden and both of us Purple Heart) can testify to the importance of quality staff work and officer leadership, both commissioned and non-commissioned.

I repeat, only from a position of strength can we maintain our present policy for peace.

And the quality of the men and women whom Dartmouth will accept as prospective members of an ROTC unit will enhance that position of strength; and quite probably speed the day of international awakening to the downright silliness and stupidity of all war, and, I pray, will lead to a strengthening of the UN by amendment abolishing the Security Council and replacing it with what I have asked for, publicly and privately since St. Patrick's Day, 1945, namely, a Trusteeship Council, with the power to keep the peace under law and justice.

Rutland Vt.

TO THE EDITOR:

I call to your attention the ChicagoTribune editorial about the decision of the Princeton trustees to reverse their vote of June 1970 and to invite ROTC back to the campus, at least as an extracurricular activity. I agree with the editorial's statement that the action of the colleges and universities in dropping ROTC "will remain a shameful and costly blot on our academic history," and I think Dartmouth should do an about face and join up.

Lancaster, Pa.

TO THE EDITOR:

I have heretofore refrained from commenting on Dartmouth's abolition of ROTC because, in fact, I felt too involved to render an objective opinion. I was commissioned through Army ROTC in 1967 and served two years of active duty through 1969, the time of the campus debate. Now that I have had a chance to step back from my army experience, I feel somewhat better equipped to place it in the perspective of a liberal arts graduate bent on a civilian life. I have discovered that the large majority of those who, like myself, spent two or three years in the service as an officer and then reentered the civilian ranks consider their military years to have been highly rewarding in terms of challenge, maturity, responsibility, and the extension of the learning experience.

As I become more deeply involved in my business career, I realize increasingly that the lessons I learned as a military officer are invaluable in teaching me how to handle the management problems posed by customers, peers, subordinates, and superiors. Dartmouth helped me to learn the academic approach to problems. The army extended the College's efforts to teach me some of the pragmatic aspects of life before I had to become a full participant. The lessons of leadership and management that I learned in the army are not and cannot be taught in college courses—the lack of management ability that I sometimes observe in business heightens my appreciation of my two-year army "course."

Part of my fondness for Dartmouth stems from the opportunity it gave me to become a two-year military officer. Without ROTC, I would probably have avoided the military entirely or performed my obligation as an enlisted man. In either case, I could not have acquired the management experience that I consider to be a valuable asset in my civilian life. Unfortunately, I feel that as long as Dartmouth prohibits ROTC, it denies to its students the opportunity to avail themselves of an important element in their preparation for their future. I deeply hope that the administration will consider reinstating the voluntary ROTC program at Dartmouth in light of the unique role that the military, through ROTC, can play in assisting the College to achieve its goal of providing our young men with as complete an education as possible.

New York. N. Y.

A Tradition That Never Was

TO THE EDITOR:

I read with interest the letters concerning the Dartmouth "Indian." These letters were written sincerely, with intended sensitivity and in most instances referred or alluded to an Indian tradition at Dartmouth. They all focused on the Indian imagery or symbol used by Dartmouth since about 1920.

A recitation and analysis of facts relating to Indians at Dartmouth may be illuminating to these alumni and to others. The Charter of Dartmouth College states in part that the purpose of Dartmouth is "for the education and instruction of youth of the Indian Tribes of this Land... and also for English youth and any others."

A review of the Dartmouth College undergraduate enrollment shows that a total of 84 Native Americans attended Dartmouth during the 170-year period 1800 to 1970, with 22 of these graduating. Isolating the period 1900 to 1970 one finds that 24 Native Americans attended Dartmouth with six graduating. Dartmouth has little tangible evidence of indianness. There are no extensive resources of indian art, music, history, relics, etc. The College is presently reviewing the possibility of an indian studies program, but even this eventuality may be several years away. Of the 24 Native Americans presently on campus, 22 were actively recruited following President Kemeny's inaugural statement regarding the education of Indians at Dartmouth.

The letters in the March Alumni Magazine were from members of the Classes 1914, 1938. 1939, 1942, 1943, and 1945. Of these, the Classes of 1938 and 1943 each had one Native American, with the man from 1943 going on to graduate.

Conclusions as to the appropriateness of singling out the Indian for imagery at Dartmouth will be formed by each undergraduate and alumnus himself. I submit that such conclusions should not be formed on the basis of tradition. It is equally important to listen to what Native Americans themselves say and feel about the use of such imagery at Dartmouth.

By definition tradition implies a longestablished custom, indeed a commitment. The facts don't support hinging a decision regarding Indian imagery at Dartmouth on tradition. The question remains why does the College need to use an Indian as a symbol? Has nostalgia been allowed to grow into a real feeling for an Indian image which never was?

Hanover, N. H.

Welcome, Miss Adams

TO THE EDITOR:

Through your columns I would like to offer this open letter to our new Vice President.

DEAR MISS ADAMS:

I have no argument with the gentler sex per se; and I am not entirely opposed to coeducation; but definitely and finally I'd have liked to keep my Alma Mater solely for MEN Of DARTMOUTH.

But I am not so opinionated that I cannot recognize merit. I congratulate Dartmouth on your entrance into her administration and faculty. One of the finest Dartmouth men I ever knew once made the remark: "If you miss the finer things of life, you miss everything." I have a conviction that your presence may raise the morale of the Dartmouth campus and may help measurably to give a glance—at least now and then—at "the finer things of life."

Newport, N. H.

Velvet Rocks

TO THE EDITOR:

I recently saw an article in Woodsmoke, the Dartmouth Outing Club publication, concerning the College's use of the lower slopes of Velvet Rocks for sale to subdivides. Despite some student concern for this situation and a desire to limit the construction of homes (if there must be such construction) to the lower slopes, the College has apparently been unwilling to make any sort of commitment that the entire hill will not be subdivided and has failed to respond to a suggestion that no lots be sold above the 800 foot contour line, thus Preserving the top 400 feet of Velvet Rocks in its natural state.

To anyone who has sat through a fall football game at Memorial Stadium when the leaves were turning, Velvet Rocks must be a rather special memory in the Dartmouth experience. Anyone who has ever walked the trail to the top of Velvet Rocks must feel that one of the things which makes Dartmouth special is its close proximity to these natural beauties.

It seems inconceivable to me that Hanover's need for urban development or the College's need for money are such that this kind of a woodland extending into the campus (which has brought so much pleasure to so many in its natural state) must be sacrificed in the name of progress.

Colorado Springs, Colo.

Editor's Note: It is definitely the intent ofthe College to preserve the top area ofVelvet Rocks. Building lots on the lowerslope have been sold by the College itself, tofaculty and staff. This has been done in acontrolled way and is more fairly characterized as an effort to help meet the growingneed for acceptable housing for thoseworking for the College, not as an effort tomake money.

Why Not the Dodo?

TO THE EDITOR:

I'm somewhat embarrassed by the emotional reactions of the Dartmouth community to two issues which seem rather trivial when viewed in the perspective of the times:

(1) our decision to go coed, and (2) the pressure to make us drop the Indian logo.

If indeed the Indian must go, I respectfully suggest the dodo as a replacement. Each half of our shrilly divided camp can cooly embrace it as the other's very own:

"Yes, dammit, when they admitted females, my Dartmouth died forever."

"Those old fogies fighting coeducation are sure as hell living in the past."

Pomona, Calif.

Comfort for Some

TO THE EDITOR:

Perhaps Paul Nelson '56 (February letters) is a retired Army Sergeant Major who spent five tours in the Republic of Vietnam and liked it, but he should not criticize a program which leads to the comfort of others and harms none. The Controlled Environmental Corporation will provide recreational outlets for some who otherwise would not have the opportunity. Doesn't Mr. Nelson realize that it was not a small man who also said, "Necessity is the mother of invention"?

Hollywood, Calif.

Anticipation Stymied

TO THE EDITOR:

I have had no strong convictions one way or the other about Dartmouth's being coeducational, but now that it is an accomplished fact I look forward with greatest interest, anticipation, and puzzlement—in three equal degrees—to a play-by-play, on-the-scene report on those darling (or should I say daring) coeds running the gauntlet at Wet Down in late May 1973.

Columbus, Ohio

One-Way Women's Lib

TO THE EDITOR:

I think Dartmouth and other formerly allmale colleges that have admitted women as students have a case against Women's Lib. To the best of my knowledge, Vassar, Smith, etc. have not admitted any male students.

Gaithersburg, Md.

View from Bermuda

TO THE EDITOR:

Due to my location on the planet, I'm usually several months behind in my Alumni Magazines. This is of great benefit to these columns for the time lag with its built-in cooling-off period prevents me from becoming an irate letterman air-mailing endless diatribes northward as I read what is transpiring on the Hanover plain. What's the sense of complaining about thievery six months after the cow is stolen?

But gradually the turn of events at Dartmouth seems to be taking on a definite pattern, a form so disturbing that it finally pushed my righteous indignation button and away we go! So, following my philosophy of not closing an account without telling the store owner why, I'm sending you my first and final letter. Oddly enough, it was triggered by humor. I was reading the very clever musical parody on Eleazar called "Ele-a-nor" and the suggested "girdled, 'round the earth they roam" when another more ominous parody on a Dartmouth song came to mind.

When one recalls (1) the permissiveness and bowing to closed minds in the Wallace and Shockley (I agree with neither one) incidents, (2) the juvenile willingness of a new and very soft administration to shut down a great institution of thought at the precise time (Kent State) when calm, considered and informed thought was most needed in the country, (3) the Yale-like "think like we do or else" philosophy behind the students' and administration's put-down of the Strike Back Committee during and after the above-mentioned moratorium on common sense, (4) the permitting of a member of only one of many minority groups to make a hideous, misinformed and totally irrelevant secondary commencement speech about his personal adjudication of lower case america, (5) the permitting of a few unworldly professors and their naive student followers to pressure a constantly weakening administration into expelling the NROTC program (together with what must have been a very considerable and sorely needed financial subsidy to a school forever crying for funds), (6) the permitting of professors capable of creating a David Levy complete with a receptive audience of his peers to remain on the hard-pressed payroll, and finally (7) the ease with which the administration and trustees have emasculated the very foundation of Dartmouth's strength, tradition and existence as a private and "highly individualistic institution by turning it into a coeducational college even as hundreds of fine boys constantly apply to occupy the classroom seats so freely offered to the spreading newcomers... when one considers all of these events, even from a thousand miles away, one can almost imagine he hears the vox clamantis in deserto crying out a somber parody on a song so beautiful my tears at the hearing of it have spanned thirty-five years, "Dartmouth Isdying."

Warwick, Bermuda

Ski Coaches Skipped

TO THE EDITOR:

I join in congratulating Dartmouth on the appointment of Jim Page as varsity ski coach. (February issue, page 35). However, to label him as Dartmouth's fourth ski coach unfairly ignores Otto Schniebs' predecessors, Sig Steinwall in 1928 and Anthony Diettrich in 1927 and perhaps others equally deserving of mention to whom my memory runneth not. Steinwall, and more certainly Diettrich, probably served in more seasons than one. I have not checked the full record. Whether or not they served Dartmouth in other capacities too, they were most definitely Dartmouth ski coaches. My clearest recollection of "Colonel" Diettrich was his admonition to "lean more vorvard."

Hanover, N. H.

Clicking vs. Clinking

TO THE EDITOR:

There's old Dartmouth and Kemeny Dartmouth... and never the twain shall meet. But hang on, old timers. You have your memories. They can't take those away. And maybe, just maybe, amid the clicking of the computers there's still some clinking of ice and a splash of rum to keep men alive back there in the hills.

Union, Me.

"Mistaken Expediency"

TO THE EDITOR:

For these many years I have cherished fond memories of Dartmouth College—proud of its historic background, the robustness of its masculine tradition, its outstanding athletic achievements, its superb setting in the hills of New Hampshire. All seemed typified in that inspiring "Men of Dartmouth."

Well do I remember a dinner in New York, held to bid Godspeed to the second Unit of the Dartmouth Ambulance Corps on the eve of its departure for France. The inspiration of that night caused many of us to seek immediate service in Army, Navy or Air Force.

My high opinion of the Dartmouth student body was rudely shaken some years ago by events completely inconsistent with the proverbial attitude of Dartmouth undergraduates. It seemed shocking that a small group of radicals or pseudo-intellectuals could actually succeed in driving the ROTC program from the campus. These shameful events were later climaxed by a graduation address so surprisingly immoderate that it attracted resentful editorial comment nationwide.

To be sure the unpopularity of a losing war generated unrest and violence in many student communities. Violence in Hanover was no exception. Imitating the typical hippy-look both in sloppiness of dress and a super abundance of facial hair has become a collegiate fad.

Those events have been just a passing phase. Now comes news of a decision fundamental to the future of the College. Dartmouth has decided to abandon one of its strongest claims to individuality. All things considered, it appears to offer no promise either in the upgrading of scholastic excellence or maintenance of college spirit. The concept of coeducation at Dartmouth is just too contradictory to tradition to gracefully accept....

To those of the sixteen trustees who voted to scrap over 200 years of Dartmouth tradition, one wonders just what line of thinking leads to the belief that coeducation will solve any financial problems of the College, in the face of the fact that such action generates bitter resentment in the minds and hearts of a host of erstwhile loyal supporting Alumni.

The fine opportunity of becoming the Nation's outstanding College for Men, has now been lost—sacrificed to mistaken expediency.

Troy, Ohio

Mr. Bryant is Executive Officer of theTucker Foundation at Dartmouth College.

Editor's Note: Mr. Sater's vision of coedsrunning the gauntlet will have to remainonly that. Wet Down is no longer a springevent, and the gauntlet hasn't been run forsome years.