1942

Before I get into any class business, I'd like to talk about some college business, which by now is old news. As I write this (February 1) the college trustees have made their decision concerning class composition. As you know they have decreed that the male population of the Class of 1981 should not fall below 750, that the number of women in the Class of 1981 should be increased by 25 to 300, that the number of women in future classes may be increased by up to 15 in any given year, depending on the quality of the applicant pool, and that the number of students on campus in any one term should not exceed the present peak of 3200. Those points, in essence, were at the core of the debate that had been raging for the past year on campus, and, far off campus among the hundreds of alumni clubs throughout the world. OK, now the decision is made. I happen to think it's a great one. I believe it is a decision that for the immediate future is in the very best interests of Dartmouth. Whether you agree with me or not is not the point of my discussion here in this column. (Although, certainly, if you agree or disagree I'd be grateful if you wrote me and expressed your sentiments.) What I want to do here is to give credit to the one man who, as a member of the Alumni Council, drafted the report which the council supported and presented to the trustees as its stand on the question of class composition, i.e. the male-female ratio at Dartmouth. I am referring to Art Allen '32 who is retired and living in Hanover. The time and effort he put into the research and documentation of his statistics have resulted in a highly professional and articulate exposition of the alumni point of view ... and, there is no doubt in my mind that his work had more than a little bit to do with the final decision of the trustees. Thank you, Art!

Maybe by the time you read this, you will have received the fifth edition of the Class of '42 Directory. We have been publishing class directories ever since our 15th reunion in 1957. As in the past (except for the biggie we put out in 1967 for our 25th) its format will be pocket-size. It will be distributed to all of you with the class newsletter. We hope it will help motivate you to come back to Hanover to attend our 35th reu- nion, June 13-15... just 3 months from now. The directory will have an alphabetical listing of our 581 classmates (95 have died since we became a class in September 1938 - 33 in World War if . . . and 14 in the five years since the last directory was printed). There will also be a geographical listing and a page for a list of those deceased members of the Class. There's more than a little work involved, especially in light of the 30-35 per cent address changes we've had within the Class. This seems to be a normal statistic for middle-class America, but it takes time to tabulate them all. So, keep your eyes peeled for your class newsletter because one of them will soon have your copy of the 35th reunion edition of your class directory. I know that until you receive it the suspense and anticipation will be excrutiatingly unbearable... All I can say is try to cope and survive.

Sorry to end on a sad note, but I must report the recent death of a classmate. Lloyd J."Chick" Emslie passed away on January 22, 1977. His obituary will appear in this or a forthcoming issue of the magazine.

Having written the class newsletter for 11 years I know how important it is to the editor, Dick Smith, to get mail from you. The last thing I want to do is to cut in on Dick's source of material. But, in the meantime, this column has to survive, too! So, maybe a few letters? A postcard? Something! Look how short this column is!

Secretary, 1001 Livezey Lane Philadelphia, Pa. 19119

Treasurer, 100 Springbrook Drive Silver Spring, Md. 20904