Letters to the Editor

Vox: Provocative and Provoked

The best feature of your April issue is the "Vox" essay on page 88, "Conversation with a Son." Larry Conley's provocative account of his personal experiences with racism at Dartmouth (as recently as 1975) is a timely reminder of the fact that this is an imperfect world.

But I loved the optimistic note on which Conley closed his "speech" with a message for Dartmouth people of all racial distinctions, everywhere. God bless him.

La Jolla, Calif.

After reading "Conversation with a Son," my reaction was sort of like the alumni club Mr. Conley attended. I was both shocked and dismayed. My son is a black Dartmouth graduate, '69. And when he went to Dartmouth I don't think he felt like Mr. Conley did.

I went to Dartmouth to see my son graduate, and I wasn't even aware I was black. We arrived at White River Junction and my son and some of his fraternity brothers came to meet us and take us to campus. They were white. Before we left the station we all had coffee - our treat. They accepted our treat with the grace and love it was given to them.

I was invited to open house where my son introduced me to President and Mrs. Kemeny. They were both charming people. Then we went to meet the rest of the moms and dads and brothers at my son's fraternity house. I sat and watched colored TV and then toured the house from top to bottom. And though I was the only one I still wasn't aware I was black. The brothers cooked us (the parents) the nicest steak dinner and served us, and though I was the only black there it just never entered my mind.

We had breakfast and dinner in town every day we weren't invited out, and we were treated the same. The faculty invited us to dinner at the football stadium where we had fried chicken and all the trimmings.

I think Mr. Conley brought his "C" label with him and wore it around his neck and still hasn't taken it off. Though you took a lot from Dartmouth, Mr. Conley, you gave and left very little in return. We went to Dartmouth expecting love, friendship, understanding - we got it, we gave it. You went expecting "C" label, bringing "C" label, and you left with "C" label. Along with your honors, personal growth, your good memories, you still missed a lot. This is what Dartmouth tried to get you to do - look at them without the "C" label.

My advice to Mr. Conley's son is leave your "C" label at home if dad lets you go to Dartmouth.

Chicago, III.

I was appalled and infuriated at Larry G. Conley's letter on the "Vox" page, which gives the appearance of approved editorial status. (Yes, I know the meaning of "Vox," having studied Latin.)

This young black, not three years out of college, uses this forum to demonstrate that even a black can use all the subtle tricks, supposedly the exclusive property of white racists.

Item: "... still has faculty members who automatically label blacks as "C" students the moment they walk through the door of the classroom."

Item: "... continues to maintain a College disciplinary committee that views the almost criminal [sic] activities occasionally perpetrated by the 'brothers' of Fraternity Row as nothing more than youthful excesses, while often judging similar or lesser [sic] offenses by 'brothers' of a different type (namely, blacks) as cause for suspension or dismissal."

Item: "... [the College] went through considerable anguish before deciding that Indian students had the simple right not to see their heritage and tradition paraded around at football games amidst the drunkenness, raucous laughter, and crude parodies...."

Item: "... that you are different from your white counterparts will be made painfully clear to you by all [sic] those around you - teachers, administrators, students, even the townspeople of Hanover."

Item: "... [speaking of racism] Dartmouth is as flawed as any other institution in America."

Mr. Conley, in trying to get by with these inaccuracies and sweeping generalizations by using the literary style of advice to his son, simply does not cut it. Mr. Conley might do well to pay attention to his own words: "...this is an imperfect world." Blacks have made progress in the last ten or 15 years at Dartmouth. But because it is an "imperfect world" with imperfect people it will take more time. Black racism is just as insidious as white racism, but the chip that Mr. Conley carries on his shoulder doesn't help progress, and the editors have behaved irresponsibly by lending such an attractive forum for these verbal excesses.

Sudbury, Mass.

After reading too much from all of the petty alumni who think that coeducation, the Indian symbol, etc. are still meaningful issues, it was refreshing to read Larry Conley's "Vox" article. Dartmouth has many endearing features and offers much opportunity. But Dartmouth College and its associated schools are not Utopia.

The school and its students are often insensitive to those who are out of the mainstream. It sometimes channels people away from the intellectualism which I would have expected it to encourage. And not least among its problems is its alumni body, which seems to have such trouble dealing with the long overdue, inevitable, and compelling changes which Dartmouth is lurching towards.

The only caveat I would like to suggest for Larry Conley's well-written article is that I hope he gives his daughter the same advice about the advantages and disadvantages of a Dartmouth education.

Seattle, Wash.

The Cover

Horrible! Horrible! Never in my memory has the cover [April issue] of our alumni magazine been devoted to one person not even our much beloved Ernest Martin Hopkins.

The purpose of the magazine used to be to renew the memory and nostalgia of Dartmouth in the minds of the alumni. Are the beautiful green scenes of the College in the spring going to be blacked out along with the old College cheer, the ideal of the Indian physique and outdoor knowledge, the cheery and obviously absurd song of Eleazar Wheelock, and the college for men with "granite in their muscles and their brains?"

Wellesley Hills, Mass.

(Of course, the ALUMNI MAGAZINE will continue to take fond looks at Dartmouth past, aswell as realistic and appraising looks at Dartmouth present and future. Also, the cover onmany occasions has depicted individuals,probably most frequently the late PresidentHopkins. As with the editorial contents, thecovers will continue to show the old College,the beautiful College (see, for example, theJanuary/February issue) and, from time totime, the vigorous, questing College. Ed.]

I am truly appalled at the lack of judgment shown in the selection of the cover of the April issue. A more flagrant decision in the realm of public relations would be hard to imagine.

After all, the magazine is aimed at the alumni. Secondly, it reaches the alumni body in the midst of the annual Alumni Fund campaign.

Do you think that the average alumnus is encouraged to increase or even maintain his support of the Fund in view of the cover picture?

I have no objection whatever to recognition properly accorded to any member of the Dartmouth faculty, but on this occasion the timing could not be more damaging.

Long Valley, N.J.

So There

Either I've become less critical as years go by or you have added some very talented writers to your staff because the April issue was one of the most interesting, educational, entertaining, and provocative magazines I have read. From letters-to-the-editor to Larry Conley's poignant reflections I read every word. Keep up the good work.

Palo Alto, Calif.

Sense of Thrill

On the afternoon of May 14, I watched the Dartmouth lightweight freshmen crew win the Eastern Sprint Championships in Worcester, Massachusetts. Five years ago to the day the Dartmouth heavyweight freshmen crew also won its event at that championship. I was the coxswain of that 1973 crew, and I have some sense of what an honor and thrill it is for this year's lightweight frosh to be EARC Sprint champions. Their race was the culmination of hundreds of hours of training for one six-and-a-half-minute race, competing against oarsmen who had trained just as hard at other rowing colleges.

I hope that your magazine will acknowledge the accomplishment of this fine crew. The win is most likely beyond their understanding for a few days; but I can promise that it will be one of the things they will remember beyond all else in their Dartmouth experience.

New York, N. Y.

High Esteem

As a graduate who owes his career to Hopkins Center, I want to thank you for the attention you have paid to the Hop in recent issues of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE and The Bulletin. I would also like to add a couple of postscripts.

In the December ALUMNI MAGAZINE, Henry Williams artfully traced the impact which the Hop has had on the campus community; and in the January/February issue, Mark Hansen caught the essence of Peter Smith and the philosophy which guides his guidance of the center. What neither of these articles indicated is the esteem in which Peter Smith and Hopkins Center are held by the national arts community.

Peter Smith has. been an influential member of the executive board of the Association of College, University and Community Arts Administrators, a national organization of performing arts presenters. His philosophy that a major performing arts center has a responsibility which extends beyond the bounds of the campus has had an impact on ACUCAA and on more than one member of that group. That same philosophy has gained Hopkins Center and Dartmouth College a national reputation for innovative and responsible programming.

When I was working on my master's thesis in arts administration (the title of which was "The Performing Arts Center as a Community Resource: Case Studies in Community-oriented Programming"), I approached a representative of the National Endowment for the Arts, the federal arts funding agency, for a list of centers which had implemented effective programs in their communities. He could list no more than half a dozen for me, and only one was associated with a college or university; it was Hopkins Center.

In addition to its national reputation, Hopkins Center and Dartmouth College have produced a number of young people who are having a substantial impact on the world of the arts. Robert Montgomery, David Birney, David-James Carroll, and others have been mentioned in recent ALUMNI MAGAZINE articles and class columns. However, I have yet to see an actor receive "a rouse" for landing a plum role or an arts administrator outside of the film industry for a responsible appointment. It seems to me that some mechanism should be established for those outside of the traditional corporate and academic structure to gain recognition for their accomplishments.

A recent example of the type of accomplishments I mean is the recent NBC series "Holocaust" in which two Dartmouth products played pivotal roles. I am sure that many alumni recognized Michael Moriarty as a fellow alumnus. I am equally sure that very few recognized Meryl Streep, who was an exchange student at Dartmouth during 1970-71.

Perhaps if the mechanism through which "rouses" are awarded depended less upon corporate and organizational press releases, the Dartmouth community could be made more aware of the very real accomplishments of some of its most outstanding members.

In any case, I feel that the recent coverage of the Hop is an important step in letting the entire Dartmouth community know of an important resource of which it should take advantage and be justly proud.

Des Moines, lowa

Urging Protest,Urging Thought

Upon receipt of the April issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, we phoned the editor, Mr. Dennis Dinan '61, to protest the publication of a viciously anti-homosexual letter from a Mr. Hartley Caldwell. Mr. Dinan's response was that he prints virtually all letters-to-the-editor. After discussion of the subject, he indicated that he was willing to listen to alumni feelings regarding the publication of such letters.

Therefore, we ask that all alumni who share our pride in the integrity of Dartmouth protest the publication of blatantly racist or sexist letters which expound dangerous and inflammatory views. We do not advocate censorship of controversial alumni opinions, only an editorial awareness of the dangers of printing opinions which are libelous of a group of people. Opinions which could incite either physical or psychological violence do not deserve the imprimatur of the DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE.

Jamacia Plain, Mass.

[Yes, the letter in question gave pause to the ALUMNI MAGAZINE staff. But it was publishedin the hope that its effect would be the reverseof what worries the Richards - that instead itwould encourage readers to think about thematter of homosexuality, at Dartmouth andelsewhere, as the following letter urges. Wasthat hope misguided? Ed.]

Hartley M. Caldwell's letter regarding the homosexual student support group at Dartmouth serves two purposes: to perpetuate lies about homosexuals, to illustrate the great need for such a group.

The statement of the danger of homosexuals is appalling. Mr. Caldwell should clean up his own house first - police reports, criminal records, and sociological studies show that nine of ten cases of child molestation are heterosexual males against female children.

The purpose of a support group must be to educate the misinformed, to combat the lies, and to fight the discrimination and persecution of members of our community.

Homosexuals are everywhere. We are your mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, teachers, students, sons and daughters. We are as varied as the community - male, female, all colors, shapes, sizes, religions, conservative to radical, factory worker to corporate president.

Find out the facts. Think about them. If you are still upset, perhaps you are simply frightened that you have the capacity to love someone of your own sex. Think about it.

New York, N.Y.

I am so very glad to see that the vocal heterosexual silent majority has finally come out of the closet and spoken on the crucial issue of the day: Should the Gays be Outlawed? Indeed, we do not want the "funny, funny faculty" and the dogs of the Hanover Plain to be corrupted in the future. And my 84-year-old mother and my wife will feel much safer walking on the streets of Hanover in the future.

But one word of caution: As the Hechinger article [on campus homosexuality] in the New York Times Magazine a few weeks back implies, heterosexuals should take great caution in coming out of the closet lest some firms may not employ them in the future.

Toronto, Ontario

Pleasure Marred

Whenever I receive an ALUMNI MAGAZINE, my first reaction is one of pleasure. The memories which it serves to bring back are among my most treasured ones.

Unfortunately, this pleasure is too often marred or destroyed for female readers. We cannot help seeing, again and again, the letters from alumni who are still opposed to coeducation. These letters are an insult to female alumnae, who are in every respect full-fledged members of the alumni group.

Every woman who has attended or is attending Dartmouth knows that she need not justify her enrollment there to the opponents of coeducation. No one can say that women have failed to produce fine intellectual and other types of achievements both during and after their college years. Women know that they belong at Dartmouth, and are secure in that knowledge.

It should be obvious to everyone that Dartmouth is and always will be a coeducational institution. What is much needed now is a gracious acceptance of this fact by some members of the alumni group. No gain can result from holding grudges. On the other hand, both spiritual and practical benefits can come from a friendly, unified feeling among all students and graduates of the College. What reason can there possibly be for perpetuating an animosity that is only destructive?

Cambridge, Mass.

I have been an alumnus only one year now and already I suffer from battle fatigue - over a battle supposedly concluded more than a halfdozen years ago. I am very tired of seeing polite, chauvinist insults exchanged in what is otherwise a bridge-building magazine.

William Walls and John Smillie (and the rest of your ilk), how would you like to open the alumni magazine of the college you love and find monthly challenges to your legitimacy as Dartmouth persons? Or requests for "positive impact studies" to make absolutely certain you can measure up? Subject to animadversion, would you feel like serving the alumni organizations? Would you, rejected as bastards, feel like contributing support to your "mother Dartmouth?" I think not.

Regrettably, only the slow march of demographic change is going to eliminate your intolerance from the alumni body. In the meantime, it would be most helpful if you kept your dyspeptic opinions to yourselves. Women some with considerably greater potential than you have shown "for making a significant positive impact on society" - are here to stay at Dartmouth. No "positive impact studies" or other flaming hoops will be justified or influential, and you know it. So why not face the fact? Stop rubbing salt in old wounds. The war is over.

Cambridge, Mass.

Thanks Due

As most of the Dartmouth family knows, alumni have provided invaluable voluntary service to the Admissions Office starting long before the formal advent of the Selective Process in 1922; as well as ever since. The contributors add up to literally thousands of individuals. Their help has been recognized and appreciation expressed individually and collectively by admissions officers, but never adequately. In fact, the names of all members of interviewing or enrollment teams are not always known to the Admissions Office.

It seems timely and appropriate, therefore, to make the alumni body as a whole aware that our newest cohorts, that is to say our alumnae - small in number though they yet may be and few there are who are yet free from graduate study or employment demands on their time have joined the "long green line" of interviewers and enrollment workers. A welcome to the club and thanks for their help and that of their recently graduated brothers is due from all concerned.

The continuing interest and dedication of these young alumnae/i bode well for the future of this activity.

Hanover. N.H.

Ponderously Aggressive Blocks

In the interest of historical accuracy - and before rumors of my football prowess get too out of hand - I should report that at a time when a national magazine could run a feature story on the Crimson's marching band that was all-too-accurately titled "Harvard Fields its Best Team at Halftime," I considered myself lucky to make the no-cut JV. If I made any contributions to the program at all, they came in those daily scrimmages with the varsity where I alone had the kind of slow-moving bulk needed to provide a suitable target for the ponderously aggressive blocks of the end who faced me, Edward M. Kennedy.

Hanover, N.H.

Wondering

In the April issue I saw Dave Camerer's letter wondering if it should cost $30,000 to $40,000 to educate properly a Dartmouth student.

I wonder, too, because a few pages later I see that faculty member Charlie Wood has a recent publication: "Menstruation in the Middle Ages." Is this necessary to produce the excellence, the liberating influence, and the social conscience that students and alumni are paying for?

Westport, Mass.

[Professor Wood replies: Since none of us would be here without menstruation, the subject is of fundamental importance. Moreover, changes in the ages of menarche and menopause shed considerable light on such related topics as fertility rates, the nutritional value of the typical diet, and changing patterns of family formation. All funding for this project came from the Johns Hopkins Medical School, and Dartmouth will benefit from it financially next fall when the honorarium received will become part of the tuition payment for two of my children whose Dartmouth education would be impossible on a purely Dartmouth salary.]

No Thank You

In a recent issue of Time magazine, President John Kemeny was quoted as foreseeing the ultimate relation between man and computer as "a symbiotic union of two living species, each completely dependent on the other for survival."

The computer is already dependent upon man. Let's not mince words. Despite the pretty quid-pro-quo appearance of Mr. Kemeny's statement, the change he really advocates is that man become totally dependent upon the computer. Perhaps Mr. Kemeny, as does the Time article, would claim that man would be compensated by being "wiser, healthier, and even happier." Offhand, I can't think of any sort of thing that might even be used as evidence that people with greater technological capabilities are happier people. Happiness is something individuals must find for themselves.

I'm more concerned about human freedom. In each generation there are a few who attempt to break away from the mainstream to create a life which more closely approximates that of the true independent. Those who fought the adversity of nature to establish their wilderness homes in the early days of this country are now universally admired for their individuality and courage. But those who today fight against the adversity of our homogeneo-megalocultural pressures to conform are commonly despised as escapists and malcontents. They should instead be thanked for preserving the existence of those alternatives which, though we may not choose them, make the lives we do create truly our own.

Unless the independent man is eternally vigilant in the modern world, he finds his free will stripped by the coercive powers of government, the professional persuaders, and the "communications" media. How long will it be before these forces are controlled by mere machines, whose programmers we will never know, whose values we can never question controlled by programs which no one living can any longer explain, yielding results which no one can double check without using computers. Will "dependence" on this other "living species" justify killing people to save machines?

No thank you. Let me be coerced by selfwilled human, beings, with whose motives I can sympathize. Computers have great potential, but so did television. No technological device can elevate man; only the individual can do that for himself. And to him alone should be left the decision of whether he wants to be "elevated." Dependence is the opposite of independence.

Washington, D C.

Refuge

My compliments to you on what appears to be a new and, I hope, permanent section of the Alumni Magazine - "The Hanover Vignettes" ["Our Captivating Compendium"] beginning on page 37 of the April issue.

To many of us old or older alumni, our focal point of interest has been the letters-to-the-editor. This new section provides an excellent half-way refuge on our way to the obits.

Orinda, Calif.

Teaching the Alumni

I received my April issue and was pleased to see the pictures of Bill Daniel '78, gymnast, and the weights man on the track team.

I wrote you before suggesting that you adopt the policy of the Stanford Observer, which I receive in my brother's name. I remember the article they printed long ago about Emerson, Thoreau, and radical politics. It was a very good article because it applied knowledge of the history of philosophy to modern culture. The DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, in keeping with the effort to make Dartmouth a college which teaches its alumni after graduation through the Alumni College, should print articles by Dartmouth and guest professors and lecturers dealing with the application of the liberal arts to present culture and society. You should do this!

Thanks for a good issue.

Great Falls, Mont.

Long Green

It was with much interest that I read in the April issue a feature entitled "Circling the Green." Therein I found a statistic that really upset me.

Thanks should go to Curtis Conroy '78 for determining that Dartmouth students spend "a cool million on textbooks and college supplies."

One of my few dissatisfactions with my four years in Hanover was lining up to buy textbooks at the Dartmouth Bookstore at the start of each term. It is totally unfair for the College to allow such a monopoly on required text books.

Students are given a choice of amazing variety in Thayer; they can choose from dozens of dorms or houses; they can choose from a multitude of courses; hundreds of professors; scores of activities; more terms of variety than any other academic institution I have ever heard of.

But when it comes time to purchase the tools of their academic endeavors, thousands upon thousands of Dartmouth students must troop dutifully down to the Bookstore.

Some professors tried to ease the burden by maximizing the number of textbooks available in Baker. Others only ordered paperbacks. A few tried to lend their own copies of texts. And, of course, students could purchase used books, from friends.

But all these are stopgap measures. A little competition is needed desperately. Either the College should sell books at cost to the students, or look into the possibility of setting up a book co-op; something must be done.

In closing, let me make it clear that I hold no grudge against the Dartmouth Bookstore. It was always a good place to buy supplies and books; and was always very efficient.

What I do object to, and strenuously, is that in earning that "cool million," there has been no competition, no alternative.

New Roche lie, N.Y.

The Kind of Dean

As I read the account of Dean Neidlinger's death in Sunday's Herald, my thoughts raced back to a spring day in 1947. There was a softball game on the Green between the Friends of the Library and another team - I can't remember the name. Pudge got aholt of one real good and whacked it clean up on the lawn of Baker Library. One of the guys remarked reverently: "In future, gentlemen, when we are asked, 'What kind of a dean did you have?' we will answer with pride, 'He hit the long ball!' "

E. Bridgewater, Mass.

[Lloyd K. Neidlinger '23, dean of the Collegefrom 1934 to 1952, died in April. His obituaryappears in this issue. Ed.]

The Sullivan Principles

In your March issue, I noticed the approval of the Trustees of the "Sullivan Principles," supposedly to ameliorate conditions of the blacks in South Africa.

The hypocrisy of this type of thing amazes me.

Did the Trustees send a similar set of principles to ameliorate the conditions in Cuba when a lot of American businessmen went to Cuba to try to get some Cuban business, all of which would have had to be financed by this country?

Are the Trustees upset about conditions in South Vietnam or Cambodia where thousands of people are being starved to death or murdered?

Do the Trustees say anything about doing business with Russia where we are lending billions of dollars and send our technology to people who say they will bury us?

Selective moral standards, to me, are the height of hypocrisy, and this is a perfect example of it.

Dallas, Texas

A Loyal Opposition

I have long thought that Dartmouth's two most crying needs are money and a more effective loyal opposition. The two are not necessarily antagonistic. They are necessarily interrelated.

Mr. Robert H. Zeiser '49, in his reply to Don Meals '72 in the January/February letters column, has done much more than suggest the latter not knock what he is too young to understand. He has made the trenchant observation, "It is not important that my views are accepted by him, but it is important that my views, with the others, be evaluated by the College."

The importance of this observation is not only in its obvious truth, but in the prevalent observation (right or wrong) among mature alumni that not only is such not the case but that such evaluation as there is is heavily weighted toward the values and opinions of youth and Coed State and Behemoth University and a faculty hostile to Dartmouth's honored values and cherished traditions.

Hence the uneasiness .among the mature alumni who remain loyal but less than enthusiastic. Hence the need for an entity more effective than letters-to-the-editor, the President, or individual Trustees to have their views more representatively evaluated and effectively received than current means afford. Perhaps something along the lines of an alumni-elected ombudsman to the Trustees and the Alumni Council with Ort Hicksian qualities and abilities.

Whatever the hows or whos, unless the full potential of alumni giving is unimportant at this time of the Campaign for Dartmouth and the growing importance of the Alumni Fund not to mention the importance of "unimpor- tant" alumni until their wills are probated - I suggest that 1) there is a need at this time for an entity effectively representative of the loyal opposition in the highest councils of the College, 2) that this needs interrelation to and close connection with its fellow money-raising need, and 3) that the keys to effectiveness are independence, easy access to power, and mutual respect. If they are not achievable, leave bad enough alone. The need will still be there, and so will the full potential, but it won't be exacerbated.

Last May, I wrote a dialogue for your "Vox" column in reply to an earlier essay that characterized older alumni as "spiritual dinosaurs." My true ending, which was cut for space reasons, but which applies now more than ever, went like this:

Alumnus (to the Dartmouth Spirit): If the Trustee - administrative - academic - un-dergraduate consensus decrees you have to go and take the essence of old Dartmouth with you, will they let you take the name Dartmouth with you?

Spirit: I hope so. It would be fitting.

Alumnus: Despite the cacophony of their self-esteem, anyone would think rude, pampered academicians, loud militant minorities, even ignorant callow youth would understand that Dartmouth without the essence of old Dartmouth and your spirit would no longer be Dartmouth.

(They sit in silence. Finally the Spirit breaks it.)

So long, Spiritual Dinosaur. Be talking to you again, spirit inimical to coeds.

(They both laugh. The Spirit leaves. The conversation ends.)

Darien, Conn.

No Questions Asked

Several years ago, following a Harvard-Dartmouth football game, a particularly rousing party was held at the Shakespeare Society House on the Wellesley College campus. Long after it was all over we, the Alumnae Board, were informed that a crescent-shaped silver hunting horn belonging to the society was last seen on a bus heading back to Hanover in the possession of an anonymous Dartmouth student.

The horn was a gift to the society some years ago from a group of Wellesley College faculty, and we would like very much to have it returned. It may possibly still ornament a dormitory room or hang with the trophy collection in a fraternity house. On the other hand it may be a treasured possession of some alumnus who recalls only dimly the circumstances of its acquisition.

I am writing to ask your assistance in recovering this horn for the society. I would appreciate it if you could either print this letter in a publication which reaches all alumni and undergraduates or tell me what is the best way to reach these groups.

Unfortunately, I know of no extant photographs of our horn. Since it was custom-made and engraved with presentation data, I doubt that the possessor will find it difficult to identify.

The horn may be returned by sending it to me at the firm whose address is printed below. If the sender wishes to preserve his anonymity, that's fine - but please insure the package.

Boston, Mass.

The ALUMNI MAGAZINE welcomes comment from its readers. For publication, letters should be signed and addressed specifically to the Magazine (not copies of communications to other organizations or individuals). Letters exceeding 400 words in length will be condensed by the editors.

[The bracketed phrases and words weresupplied by the letter-writer, P. Jeremy Smith. Ed.]

[Edward Chamberlain has been director of ad-missions since 1955. Ed.]

[Professor Wood, described in the April issueas an animated former Harvard football playerwith a gift for gab, is chairman of the HistoryDepartment. Ed.]

[ln fairness, it should be pointed out that thesurvey indicated students spend in all about $1million a year on books and supplies, 80 percent of it locally. Our hunch is that "books andsupplies" might include magazines and records,for which there are several outlets in town, aswell as texts. As Stephen Bell points out,however, new textbooks are available only atthe Dartmouth Bookstore, its chief competitor,the Dartmouth Co-op, having given up its bookline several years ago. Ed.]

[Jean Farrington may be contacted at the firmof Gaston Snow & Ely Barton, I FederalStreet, Boston, Massachusetts 02110. Ed.]