"Chop 'em!"?

The Indian symbol controversy rages on. Those who want the symbol back write letters to the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. Those who don't come up with ideas such as the Dartmouth Pine Trees, the Dartmouth Animals, the Dartmouth Dead Issues, and even the Dartmouth Anti-Intellectuals.

At the end of summer term, a group of about 20 students formed an ad hoc symbol committee. Feeling that the Indian symbol was no longer a viable choice, they met to exchange suggestions and to decide, as a group, on a symbol that could be presented to and accepted by the DCAC, the College administration, and the alumni and student bodies.

The result was the Dartmouth Woodsmen, supported by this group for its outdoorsy, North Woods character. The College provided funds for the creation of a Woodsman uniform and promotional material to generate student reaction.

On two successive Saturdays Woodsman joined the cheerleaders on Memorial Field. He was dressed in work boots, plaid wool shirt, jeans and stocking-cap, and equipped with a beard (his own) and a wooden axe.

For several days, there was great controversy. One girl found the new symbol highly sexist, and a letter signed by 36 students found its way into The Dartmouth, stating that the Woodsman as presented connoted a dumb lumberjack, and suggesting that a frontiersman, clever and intelligent, would be a far better choice. The reaction to this was another letter from a student who had worked in a lumber camp one summer. His letter proclaimed emphatically that lumberjacks are not dumb.

This was the extent of the criticism, but favorable reaction was equally limited. Indeed, by the last home football game, interest had so waned that the Woodsman failed to appear on the field. So, for the time being, it looks like Dartmuth, ? - ? - ? , ? 'em!

Russell Jamieson examines a white bougainvillea in the leafy kingdom of the greenhouse.