The College

TERMED by President Kemeny as "one of the longest in its history" and "a physically exhausting experience," the January meeting of the Board of Trustees coped with the perplexing problems of finances and ROTC.

The financial problems were dealt with by a cutback of $725,000 from the preliminary budget for 1975-76 and an average increase of $495 in tuition, room, and board charges. The increase, representing a 9.5 per cent hike over current charges, will bring the annual bill for a Dartmouth education to approximately $5,300, exclusive of clothes, books and other "incidentals." Increases in student charges announced recently by other members of the Ivy group range from a low of $480 to a high of $625.

Following the Trustee meeting, President Kemeny said that the budget cuts would probably involve the elimination of about 40 administrative officer and staff positions, reduced library purchases, economies in the student health service, reductions in athletic spending, and a cheaper computer for data processing. He indicated that most of the staff positions would be eliminated through normal attrition and that employees whose jobs were affected would be given priority in filling vacancies.

In another economy move, related to the sluggishness of the stock market, the Trustees voted to reduce the rate of growth in utilization of endowment appreciation from six per cent of a base figure of $8.9 million to four per cent of that amount. At the same time the Board reaffirmed the requirement that the College operate at a zero deficit. In arriving at the dollar amount to be pared from next year's budget, the Trustees were guided by recommendations from the college-wide Council on Budgets and Priorities, whose membership includes faculty, ad- ministrative officers, students, and one alumnus.

After reviewing the committee report on the feasibility of ROTC at Dartmouth, the Trustees refused to endorse any of several options but did request the faculty to explore the feasibility of a program described as a "modified Princeton plan." That plan, based on Princeton's experience with installing an Army ROTC unit three years ago, would involve reestablishing ROTC at Dartmouth — but without course credits for military taught courses and with faculty recognition (but not necessarily faculty status) accorded only the unit commanding officer.

The Trustees also asked that, following the faculty study, the College open discussions with the Department of Defense on the Princeton plan or another possible option "based on regular courses offered by the Dartmouth faculty coupled with off- campus military service." The Board expressed the hope that the feasibility studies would be completed in time for it to consider the ROTC question again at its June meeting. The ROTC presentation at last month's meeting was made by Professor Gene Lyons, chairman of the study committee, and committee members J. Clarence Davies Jr. '34 and Robert B. Reich '68.

The campus reaction to the Trustee's announcement ranged from pleasure to polite boredom to annoyance. "All things considered, it's horrible," one faculty member was quoted as saying in The Dartmouth. While viewing the procedure as "reasonable," a history professor said he considered ROTC "sort of a non-issue."

In other action the Trustees put off construction of a new dormitory for 140 students, but approved in principle a plan to improve and renovate existing student housing; approved a $6 million "selective fund drive," explained as not involving widespread solicitation of alumni, for the arts; reelected David R. Weber '65 for a second five-year term as Charter Trustee; and voiced "strong sentiment" in favor of retaining freshman athletic teams where possible and "strong sentiment" against freshman eligibility in hockey and basketball.

classroom, from surgical amphitheater, laboratory, and computer center, from seven decades of Dartmouth men, answers have come from 203 former debaters.

Business careers prove to have attracted the greatest number (65), including 17 presidents or board chairmen and nine entrepreneurs. Law, predictably, was a favorite, ranking second with 47 in practice. Another 31 entered educational fields, with 20 faculty members from Harvard to the University of California, six at secondary schools, and five in educational administration. Government service is the fourth most persuasive calling with 14, and medicine ranks fifth with 12 physicians and surgeons. Others replying were architects, engineers, journalists and publishers, radio and television executives, actors, theatrical producers, ministers, chemists, biologists, a geologist, an anthropologist, and a demographer.

For the most part, they were able students: 40 per cent reported academic honors, 30 per cent earned distinction or higher in 22 different majors. But more than one acknowledged that their preoccupation with debate had depressed their grades, and one'— now chief information officer for the Governor of California - said debate was the worthy cause of his downfall at Dartmouth, later repaired at Stanford.

The span of classes ranged from Robert C. Falconer 'O5 of Tryon, North Carolina, whose 45 years in the ministry included five at the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College just before World War I, to a Yale graduate student of the Class of 1974. The Class of 1958 took top honors with ten respondents.

Yet, in the face of this diversity, two messages came through loud and clear in the "comments" section of the questionnaire. Repeatedly, they paid tribute to their coaches, from Craven Laycock and George Brooks to John Neale and James. And, except for a handful of dissenters, they all wanted to argue the affirmative about debate as, in the words of one, "invaluable" in synthesizing their educations and adding dimensions to their varied careers in a world increasingly geared to verbal communication.

ON A RECENT crisp evening we were preparing to have dinner at the Inn, and parked the car nearby on Main Street, Whereupon, a skunk ambled across the sidewalk and took refuge under our car, seemingly to wait for a break in the flow of traffic. Then he or she disappeared into the night, in the direction of the Book Store. This is not a fable, but it may suggest that as long as there are skunks on Main Street, the place can't be all bad.