Letters to the Editor

Affirmative Action

Now that coeducation has been a fait accompli for seven years, would it not be appropriate for the Board of Trustees to include some women in its membership?

The struggle for women to achieve equality with males has been going on longer, I think, than is generally recognized. Christine de Pisan, born in 1364, was the only medieval woman, as far as is known, to have earned a living by her pen. She wrote, "Why should women be worse than men since we were also created by God?"

What more can one say?

Proctorsville, Vt.

[As reported in the May issue, PriscillaFrechette, Smith '42, has been .elected to theDartmouth Board of Trustees. Mr. Emerson'sletter preceded that action by a few days. Ed.]

Some Cheers, Some Sighs

At certain times in Dartmouth's history, the Trustees show uncommon courage. The most recent example was the decision that "men and women will not be treated differently in the admission process."

As an alumnus and a member of the faculty for 26 years, I applaud this decision. As a token of my esteem, 1 have made a significant increase in my monthly payroll deduction to the Alumni Fund.

Dartmouth has finally made her commitment to equality.

Hanover, N.H.

[The College's new admissions policy, effectivewith next year's freshman class, was discussedlast issue. Additional comment by TrusteeRobert Kilmarx '50 appears on page 42. Ed.]

I cannot understand the action taken by the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College on this date as reported by the Valley News with regard to the admissions process involving women applicants entering the College this fall.

I know that I don't like what I read for many reasons, and so I make this request as a letterto-the-editor. Please devote as much space as needed to inform the alumni body how each of the Trustees voted and their reasons for doing so. They represent the interests of all associated with the College, and it is time they stood up and be counted individually.

Barnard, Vt.

[The decision by the Trustees was reported tohave been unanimous. Ed.]

The final step of the original plan to make Dartmouth half-men, half-women has now been taken.

Each time the number of women was enlarged, it was with the impression that this was to be the final solution (sic).

May we have the firm promises of the Alumni Council and the Trustees that 50-50 will satisfy our past guilt and that Dartmouth will not become 100 per cent lady?

Kansas City, Mo.

[The incoming freshman class, selected under aspecified quota system, will probably haveabout 720 men and 330-340 women. No one ispredicting the figures for the year following, butit seems safe to say that the Class of 1984 willhave more women. How many more? No one ispredicting. In any case, "50-50" appears someyears away: Ed.]

My father, Pat Uhlmann, and I have a fine working relationship. While I respect his ideas, I sometimes find myself in disagreement with him.

I read the letter he wrote you in opposition to the policy toward women. Actually, I feel Dartmouth has not done enough to make up for its past sins toward both women and minorities. Therefore, I do not believe that going to 50 per cent women in any way makes up for the past sins of Dartmouth in ignoring affirmative action. Since Dartmouth College has been in noncompliance in regard to both women and minorities since 1964, I believe they must have at least 75 per cent women or more and at least 40 per cent ethnic minorities until they have remedied their past sins.

The half-hearted measures being proposed in no way will relieve the guilt or shame for our past sins. We must initiate bold new programs which will balance out the sins of our past if we wish, in the future, to hold our heads up high among honorable people.

Kansas City, Mo.

Women are not equal to men. Men are not equal to women. They stick out in different places. They think differently. I hope this continues.

Chebeague Island, Me.

Professor Navarro

I want to thank my friend Shelby Grantham for her vivacious portrait of Marysa Navarro in the March ALUMNI MAGAZINE and add a postscript, from the perspective of a woman faculty member.

"Nine to Midnight (or two if hot)." Why such long hours? Well, partly - as Shelby points out - because Marysa is a dynamo. But also because she serves on the seven committees Shelby enumerated, plus co-chairing the Women's Studies Program with Brenda Silver, plus convening meetings of the unofficial but influential organization called Concerned Women Faculty. On top of teaching and writing.

That is a "service overload" few of Marysa's male colleagues are burdened with. An anecdote may make my point. Yesterday, a list was posted on my department's bulletin board, naming the members of an important departmental committee which decides on such things as which courses a student may count towards her or his major. There were six names, all male. By this morning, an unidentified student had scrawled on the bottom of the list, "Why are there no women on this committee?" A good question. When one-fourth of the student population is female, females should be represented on important departmental and College committees.

But there are so few of us to serve! Marysa is one of six tenured women on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. There are rather more junior (untenured) women, but we have been en- couraged by the dean of faculty to put most of our energy (outside the classroom) into the research and scholarship which will get us tenure. So that leaves the burden of representing the female constituency of this college in the capable but by no means asbestos hands of Marysa, Blanche Gelfant, Colette Gaudin, Dana Meadows, Elise Boulding, and Sara Castro-Klaren.

The point of this letter is to draw attention to the special burdens these women bear and, not incidentally, to register my appreciation — as a junior woman — for their efforts. Because they are willing to work until 2:00 a.m., women at Dartmouth — faculty and students — are finding our place and our voice in this community.

Hanover, N.H.

While your recent article recognizing Marysa Navarro was at times oppressively if uninten- tionally unflattering, it was fully appreciated and considered long-overdue by this reader.

Given the current fad for quotas and debate over the number of female students and tenured professors at Dartmouth and elsewhere, I find it somewhat curious that I never once thought of this fine teacher as a woman professor. While this could perhaps be explained by lack of observation or intelligence on my part, or even by the unawareness of pre-coeducation and affirmative-action Dartmouth attitudes, I would prefer to attribute it to her unique qualities as a person and an educator.

In any event, others and I previously schooled on T. Roosevelt's and United Fruit's ideas of realism in Latin American affairs and diplomacy happened on Professor Navarro's first course at Dartmouth probably more by accident than anything else. I frankly do not recall why I selected it. I do, however, remember scrambling the next term to enroll in her senior seminar.

I also remember her unraveling before us the fallacies and misconceptions about Latin America which we had heard so many times. We at first found it hard to believe that someone doubted them, let alone that they might in fact not be true.

Our initial response to Navarro's disquieting questions and lectures was, of course, indignant denial — who was she at this late date in our educational careers as history majors to undermine our entire frame of reference by even suggesting that Castro might be George Washington or that the CIA was toppling governments with tacit approval. A student today would find none of this remarkable after Chile, Watergate, et al., but as our skepticism turned to appreciation of her teaching and our learning, those of us who returned to Reed Ha" for each class despite the Cambodia moratorium/vacation knew we were in on something very special.

Navarro's warmth and friendship for students comes through well in the article. This letter is intended merely as footnote confirmation that she is carrying on Dartmouth's finest tradition. Would that her abilities in the classroom could be presented in Baker along, side the equally impressive murals.

Bow, N.H.

Discontent: The Reaction

Although highly disenchanted with the policies of the present Dartmouth College administration — so much so that in protest I have withheld contributing to the College for some years — I still value many of the friendships I made while I was a student from 1934 to 1935. For that reason, I had planned to attend the 45th reunion of my class this year to see some of the fellows I may never have a chance to see again.

But after reading "A winter of discontent, a day of perceiving differences" in the April issue of this magazine, I am completely disgusted with the lily-livered pandering to the several vociferous minority student groups on the part of the administration.

In our time, we had red-blooded administrators who would have made short work of this sort of thing. What is wrong with the majority? The College should be run for the benefit of the majority, and not be deterred in its purpose by the shrieking of every crackpot. This soft-headed, appeasing administration is allowing a few dissidents to ruin the College. If the few dissidents don't like the proper operation of the College, let them go elsewhere.

How is it that dissidents can demonstrate freely and uncensored but that the "Indian" skaters at the Brown hockey game were disciplined for demonstrating in their way? The administration should learn that, by trying to please everybody, it winds up pleasing nobody. Instead of a "winter of discontent" they will achieve perpetual discontent.

I have just cancelled my reservation for the reunion. I just can't stomach even appearing in the environment where this sickening, gutless type of leadership is allowed to prevail.

Delray Beach, Fla.

[Is the message here that it is perfectly proper for alumni - but not students — to criticize theoperation of the College? Ed.]

My thanks to you and Shelby Grantham for her excellent article, "A winter of discontent. ..."

Living quite far from Hanover, the news of Dartmouth usually trickles to me very slowly. After hearing some frightening stories this winter about campus activities, I was getting mad that Dartmouth always managed to track me down to ask for contributions, but seemed to fall silent in keeping me up-to-date on developments at the College. I am pleased this has been rectified for now.

Anchorage, Alaska

Not having received as yet the ALUMNIMAGAZINE'S report on the midwinter protest by Dartmouth's minority students, I am reacting to coverage of that event in Time magazine's April 16th issue.

Time's story was headlined: "Looking Out For No. I. For blacks on campus, separatism yields to careerism." This trend was documented by a survey of the status of black students at a number of other educational institutions. Time concluded that in view of this development, "The activism of Dartmouth's blacks seems a bit anachronistic."

That's too mild a word. Dartmouth was a leader in opening her doors to blacks and other minorities and in trying in every way to achieve true integration. The College's enrollment of minorities is well ahead of most of the other institutions reported on by Time. From what I have observed in attending Alumni College in Hanover and talking to many students there at the time, the "isolation" complained of by Dartmouth's minority students is largely of their own choosing.

For those of us who were students in the depression-ridden thirties, attending Dartmouth was first and foremost a deeply felt privilege — even if everything wasn't just as we might like it. I suggest that students who don't feel that way about Dartmouth today leave it.

Washington, D.C.

As any reactionary alumnus would, I yearn for orthodoxy on the Dartmouth scene.

Enough I've had of federally induced, experimentally inspired, and furtively contrived administrative and academic policies. Policies which are neither conceived in the pragmatism of ample tradition nor comprising the orthodoxy for which I yearn.

Whether or not modern undergraduates realize it or wish for it, their destiny in formative adulthood has been vouchsafed by sacrificial parents or sponsors and entrusted to administrators and faculty of the College.

It's about time for those two allegedly responsible educational entities to guarantee and to deliver a dollar's worth of education value for every dollar of genuine investment toward a baccalaureate degree. Degrees, that is, for only such candidates as fully realize the value and the necessity of cooperation with and from those entities.

Ruefully, I reflect upon the manifest obsession by both students and teachers with extraneous and distractive issues that are awash over the campus.

Hampton Falls, N.H.

Recently, within the space of one week, I first heard an unofficial report that Dartmouth had dropped its male-female admissions quotas policy (correctly or incorrectly, I seem to remember an official assurance some years ago that this would not happen) and, second, I received a telephone solicitation for my support of the Alumni Fund. For a change of such import to be adopted (if indeed the report was accurate) in the midst of a fund drive, without its official announcement to the alumni severally and individually, is both dishonest and an insult to every alumnus whether or not he happens to approve the change.

For some years, I have chosen not to contribute to the Alumni Fund because of my profound distaste for the administration's policies and methods, and I see no basis at present for any change on my part. The ROTC matter and the minority studies programs may be ancient history, but the admission of women (let alone open admission) is a present festering sore. The continuing toleration of the degenerate or puerile (take your choice) fraternities, whether reflective of or causative of wider abandonment of civilized and acceptable behavior standards, is astounding. In these and other issues in recent years, the administration has displayed an avoidance of any leadership of note except that based upon fad and mob. Gone is any forum of ideas and the application of the liberating arts to problems and opportunities and "in" is the espousal of what is demanded

The Indian symbol is a case in point. (As an undergraduate I recall the near-absence of Indians in the student body, and I recall that the symbol seemed largely encouraged by sports publicists and business entrepreneurs; it was a caricature apparently based upon Hovey's "Eleazar Wheelock" in which he, the Protestant missionary enterprise he represented, and his first students were equally and outrageously caricatured. Nevertheless, I became aware of the strengths the symbol at its best represented, and I was proud of my family story that included an Indian among my ancestors.) The administration's expected leadership has been either negative or missing. In contrast, light and hope that perhaps Dartmouth may still have a future are shown by Tim Taylor '79 and Professor Dorris in the April ALUMNI MAGAZINE'S "Undergraduate Chair" and "Vox," respectively.

Bellows Falls, Vt.

Amidst all of the biased criticism that has been heaped on the College in recent months it is comforting to hear the voice of one of Hanover's most respected leaders, Father William Nolan.

In the spring issue of the Aquinas Bulletin. commenting on the sensationally unfair newspaper and magazine reports, Father Bill wrote: "As one who loves Dartmouth, my first reaction to the articles was one of anger. Why did the authors of the news reports have to zero in on a negative aspect of college life ... an aspect that affects comparatively few of the students ... and an aspect that can be found on just about any college campus? As I asked these questions, I realized that these news reports were somewhat like the proverbial 'tip of the iceberg!' Underneath the words and sentences there seems to be a need to tear down ... to destroy ... to ridicule. That 'need to destroy' is not only found in College groups ... but we also see it today in our national life, yes, and even in our Church life. I am sure that we were all shocked with the 'media' ... that forgot many of the tremendous contributions that former Vice President Rockefeller gave to America and, on the occasion of his death, sought to tarnish this good man's image."

One group that has never lost respect for itself or for the College is the Dartmouth alumni body. Now is the time for this most loyal and patient of Dartmouth's many constituencies to renew its faith in the alma mater. And recognizing that all of life is traveled along a two-way street, it is also time for the Trustees to heed more than ever before the hopes and aspirations of these 37,000 dedicated sons and daughters.

Hanover, N.H.

For one drawn to the College originally by respected family friends like Guy Wallick and Johnny Cunningham and interviewed by Ed Healey, it meant men who were leaders and fun to be with, even for a youngster. It meant symbols like Indians, who were deemed to be brave, intelligent, and wise in the ways of nature. It sought, in that day, the "well-rounded" student whose education was felt to include much more than books. It implied that rough-and-tumble for those emerging from their teens was okay. It was a men's college without feeling guilty about it.

It is difficult, therefore, to identify with all the protests against the symbols we enjoyed; the coeducation; the proposed abolition of the fraternity houses where we blew off steam; and, most of all, the feeling that in trying to reform everything, the camaraderie of the Dartmouth we knew is crumbling to small pieces.

One should not deny the inevitability of change. It is a healthy thing. Fortunately for some of us, most institutions move rather slowly and give us time to get our thinking adjusted to these moves. Nor are we unaware that a militant minority can cause waves far in excess of its size, which may appear to the fardistant observer to be much bigger than they really are. The silent majority is generally getting on with its daily work (much as the majority of the faculty was absent when fraternities were condemned).

The silent majority seems to .be reacting at Dartmouth by not accepting all the changes with open arms or all the proposed changes enthusiastically. We see no great difference between this reaction and Proposition 13 here in California. Action invites reaction, militant or passive. Even as astute a politician as Jerry Brown did not dream that the electorate would quietly but forcefully make its case in the way it did.

While it is inherent in youth that change should be made frequently and rapidly, if even for its own sake, the elements that make up Dartmouth have stood the test of over 200 years. The fellowship that is Dartmouth is too precious to sacrifice in the good name of any cause.

La Jolla, Calif.

In the disintegrating and frightening stress which our nation and college is in at the present time, it is gratifying and reassuring to have the letters-to-the-editor appearing in every issue. As long as we, as citizens or Dartmouth alum- ni, realize that there is a host of participants that really care, then intelligent and creative solutions must evolve and take a positive place to justify the hopes and aspirations of our fantastic forefathers who established this great nation and our potent and creative university, Dartmouth.

The writer was an undergraduate during the terrible, frightening days of the Great Depression. Bank closings, business at a standstill, executives jumping out office buildings, unemployment rampant, and citizens starving — to mention only a few elements of this gruesome debacle.

Today's national situation is far worse, for, as the ancient Greeks might say, it is a prime example of moral, personal, and political decay climaxing with former "President" Nixon and continuing with the countless public officials currently being brought to court to answer for their misdeeds and corruption.

This total picture is being mirrored within every family in our national population as well as within the large family which is our own Dartmouth community!

Alumni, let's start putting our own and our college house in order!

St. Petersburg, Fla.

May I compliment you on your perceptive reporting in the April ALUMNI MAGAZINE of the recent surfacing of the prevalent national attitude triggered by the "Sioux on skates" incident during our most satisfying hockey season.

Having relocated from the Boston area to the U.S. Virgin Islands for health reasons for some 12 years and as a current member of the white minority community of that U.S. territory, my family and 1 have been subjected to "Amintype violence" and attitudes toward whites that by comparison readily focus the ridiculousness and fortunate futility of the present far-out activist crop of Hanover dissidents and "scruffies."

One of the best kept secrets of our time is the existence of the primarily black College of the Virgin Islands. The tuition is a federally subsidized pittance. The true V.I. budget reaches limits of $415 million for 100,000 residents. Federal grants dangle from every "palm." Sixty miles west are the law, medical, and dental schools of the University of Puerto Rico, also with tuition of $600 per annum and 80-degree temperatures all year round.

I strongly recommend and suggest that the "superfluous scruffies" investigate CVI and UPR (only certified letters are answered from stateside addresses) and thus prematurely reach majority status and their ultimate goal of assisting in subverting the traditional WASPAC majority which developed this nation. No passports required; typhoid immunization please!

My compliments to the 1,000 or so Dartmouth women who have remained aloof from this particular spring "melting pot,"

"Divest 'scruffies' not stock!" Leave the Hovey murals where they are!

St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.

Based on the report in the April ALUMNI MAGAZINE, some leaders of Dartmouth minority groups are engaging in a form of verbal terrorism that obscures their arguments and brings shame to their cause.

President Kemeny, we are told, perpetrated "the most heinous and racist act any president of Dartmouth College has ever committed." (He altered the punishment of the three "Indian incident" students.) One wonders what other acts of presidential transgression were considered before this distinction was awarded. A black student says that Dartmouth College is "a living hell" — a conception of the underworld that even Dante didn't mention.

But these examples of overkill seem mild compared to the creative efforts of Judith Aronson, the anointed spokesperson for Women at Dartmouth. She deserves credit for devising the most catchy slogan of the day (assuming she didn't borrow it): "Pornography is the theory to which rape is the practice." It has a nice rhythm to it, a symmetrical form, and an easy, lilting quality that lends it credence. Never mind that most authorities pointedly refuse to link pornography with the commission of sexual crimes — after all, it's tiresome to impose considerations like facts and logic once you've got your bombast going.

Furthermore, Aronson instructs us, "It does not matter if you do not understand why we are offended. It should be enough that we are offended." Ironically, she is telling us to unquestioningly submit our minds, just as women for years were expected to unquestioningly submit their bodies. This is rhetorical rape, an ingenious strategy that says we must surrender our consent under the pressure of societal demand and moral obligation. Don't try to reason with me, lie down. Stamp out sexism, say yes.

Under these circumstances, no incident, regardless of how trivial, mindless or unrelated it might be, is lacking for symbolism. The episode of the bumbling B & G man — which sounds like something out of a Buster Keaton movie — can be blown into a cold-blooded racist crime barely short of genocide. The Big Lie still works.

There are elements of Dartmouth College that make it insensitive, bureaucratic, crass and dehumanizing - in short, a whole lot like the society that surrounds it. So, surprise! Dartmouth isn't an island of racial harmony, human justice, and moral equity. Dartmouth does provide, however, a remarkably fine shelter of education and intellectual resource to the majority of those who enter it. To render Dartmouth apart with bombast and verbal terrorism is wrong.

Mercerville, N.J.

The reports dealing with Moratorium Day in the April issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE made fascinating reading. The position taken by my daughter Judith Aronson '82 as spokesperson for Women at Dartmouth deserves the support of all alumni. The continuation of attitudes showing hostility toward women reveals a student body that is immature, insensitive, and frequently rude. The administration has shown a surprising lack of responsibility in dealing with the problem. Hopefully, the changes brought about by Moratorium Day will aid in promoting greater cohesion, trust, and understanding in the College community.

I was somewhat amused while reading "Big Green Teams" that there was not one article about women's sports. Among the articles was a three-paragraph apology for a losing men's squash team — not one mention about a winning women's squash team. Perhaps a women's ski team placing third in the national championships deserves a write-up as much as the 4-7 men's swimming team. I think the ALUMNI MAGAZINE should report completely on women's athletics.

Miami, Fla.

No Wonder

Women have had sports teams at Dartmouth for seven years. The publicity for these teams has been noticeably lacking. There are two responses that reporters tell us: One is that no one wants to read about women's teams, and two, no one wants to read about losing teams.

Everyone who has been able to read the results column, and those who care, can see that the women's teams win more than they lose, but no one knows the story behind the win. Why can't we have better coverage in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE? Some people do want to read about us. I see no excuse for the total absence of any story on women's teams reported in the April issue. We play the same number of contests in all sports, so it was not for lack of material.

In the future, please send my issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE in a plain brown wrapper so that no one will know that I receive magazines that have no room for women's athletics.

Hanover, N.H.

After reading "A winter of discontent," I noted in the athletic section of the magazine an article about Dartmouth squash "going downhill." And yet the records of all teams indicate that the women's squash team had the best record of all teams listed (9-3).

It sounds like women don't count. No wonder they're discontent.

Larchmont, N. Y.

Prior to my matriculation at Dartmouth, I wrote a letter to the ALUMNI MAGAZINE expressing concern and dismay over the highly inadequate coverage of women's sports at that time. The letter was published, so naturally I considered the matter closed. Five years later, however, the same topic has been called to my attention. No longer a genteel high school senior, I now express anger and outrage. Insult is added to the injury with your reporting of the "slide" of squash at Dartmouth. Had anyone cared to notice, the Dartmouth women's squash team posted the finest record of any sport this past winter. You seem to be confused and misguided in your editorializing. For your informa- tion, it is the sport which requires the balls, not the players.

Hanover, N.H.

Detroit Strikes Back

The reference to Detroit's Olympia Stadium as "seedy" served absolutely no purpose in your article outlining Dartmouth's hockey fortunes this year ["Big Green Teams," April issue].

Aside from giving some insight into the values of the writer, such purposeless negativity seems to represent little more than just another "cheap shot" at an already much maligned city.

Rochester, Mich.

The "Indian" Skaters

I hope Bill Buckley is wrong (being a Yalie, this is entirely possible), but in this case I have a sinking feeling that he is not. Reference is made to his recent column in the Brazil Herald, our English language newspaper in Sao Paulo, in which he described the horrendous act of three obviously deranged students (possibly Yalies in disguise?) who brought probably irreparable harm to the liberal, tolerant reputation of Dartmouth by actually running across the ice at a hockey game wearing Indian regalia. Our sensibilities have difficulty coming to grips the enormity of their intolerance. Of course, the disciplinary committee recommended instant suspension for a full term — after all, if like this are tolerated, some Indians might throw paint on next year's Winter Carnival ice sculpture.

There was a wild rumor that one of the students was humming "Eleazar Wheelock" but this couldn't be true; otherwise, President Kemeny never would have tolerantly reduced the sentence from banishment to one of preaching Indian tolerance and taking Indians to lunch.

Alumni everywhere can sleep a little better at night in the knowledge that the guardians of tolerance at Dartmouth will not tolerate students who aren't tolerant.

Sao Paulo, Brazil

I must assume that the facts set forth in William F. Buckley, Jr.'s column which appeared in the Louisville Times on April 20 are substantially correct. I had come to believe that things couldn't get any worse at Dartmouth, but I am afraid I was wrong.

The time has come, in my opinion, for a new administration with some common sense.

Louisville, Ky.

[In his column Buckley wrote, in part: "PresidentKemeny commuted the death sentences,but the three students have been ordered — brace yourself — to conduct public seminarswherever they can convene students to listen tothem, on the theme of Indian toleration.Moreover - get this piece of disciplinarian ingenuity:Each of the three'students is requiredto invite one Indian to lunch once a week. Adifferent Indian to lunch once a week. This isonly barely possible statistically, there being, aswe noted, only 40 Indians to go around."

Well, Mr. Buckley's notion of "Take an Indianto Lunch" has a comic ring, but as a supposedpart of any disciplinary action at Dartmouth it lacks the ring of truth. Ed.]

A number of years ago, Capitol Records released an album entitled "Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America," with words and music by Stan Freberg. In this satirical revue, the concept of the first Thanksgiving is promoted harmoniously in "Take an Indian to Lunch this Week."

I am confident that Mr. Freberg was as surprised as I was to read in William F. Buckley, Jr.'s column that this song has been revived in Hanover. The article leaves no doubt as to which "turkey" will be served.

Kansas City, Mo.

The recent incident in which two students skated before an audience at a hockey game dressed as Indians, the resulting furor and attention in the April issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, prompts me to venture into unchartered waters and write my first letter-to-the-editor. I think that a very important issue has been overlooked.

We should not be naive enough to think the students were punished, albeit rather leniently, for a simple trespass. Suppose they had dressed as clowns or suppose they had carried signs reading, "No More Nukes!" Most of the Dartmouth community would see the first as simple collegiate buffoonery and the second as a legitimate" political statement. In either case probable punishment, if any, would be a mere slap on the wrist for the incident's trespass.

I am relatively indifferent to the controversy over the Indian symbol, at least to the extent of emotional involvement. But I think Tim Taylor is correct when he writes [in the April "Undergraduate Chair"], "One portion of the student body has stated, 'The symbol is offensive and degrading'; another portion has answered 'We don't give a damn.' " Isn't the latter message what the two students were saying as they skated about the rink to the applause of at least a portion of the audience. It was a rather clear example of symbolic speech in favor of a symbol which many of the Dartmouth community still cherish. To the extent the two students were punished at all, or at least more severely than for simple trespass, they were punished for the content of their message.

That the message was tasteless, even odious, is beside the point. Free speech means very little when we agree with its content or even that it represents a "legitimate" message. It is only when it annoys and moves us to anger that its protection is critical. President Kemeny touched on this matter when he called in his prefatory remarks at the convocation for tolerance of differing points of view. Why could not these same standards have been applied toward the two students who rather forcefully expressed a view in favor of the symbol? Why was it necessary for the two students to recant, suspiciously in the manner of Galileo in front of the Inquisition, before President Kemeny tempered the harsh punishment initially imposed? Was this posture required to assuage the militancy of intemperate minority spokesper- sons who, judging by their remarks, appear far more interested in promoting their own at- titudes than in themselves listening to differing viewpoints?

Finally, as an alumnus far more concerned with freedom of expression than any symbol or any particular viewpoint, I would like to raise one last question. Does an institution which proclaims the noble ideals of the liberating arts and claims for itself the sanctuary of free intellectual inquiry, undercut its own legitimacy by punishing two members of its community for the content of their expression?

Detroit, Mich.

[The issue of freedom of expression in connectionwith this event has been debated inHanover, too. Some observers argue that byfleeing in a getaway car the skaters did not offermuch opportunity for "free intellectual in-quiry." Ed.]

I suppose you are fed up to the saturation point on the subject of pros and cons vis-a-vis the Indian symbol question. Nevertheless, I'd like a word on the matter, even though you may think we've had enough and not print it.

As far as I know, there has been no pejorative connotation in the use of the American Indian as the College symbol. Certainly no "mascot" intent as Modoc Michael Dorris charges in his closing editorial in the latest ALUMNI MAGAZINE. On the contrary, I have always thought that the symbol reflected pride in the origins of the College. In my opinion, justice would be served by tromping on that small, vocal, inferiority-complex ridden minority that stirred up this controversy in the first place.

I have not heard that graduates or undergraduates of the College of William and Mary resent the association of their school with the Indian symbol. The same applies to Stanford University. Why Dartmouth?

Has anyone asked Chief Sundown what he thinks?

Bernardsville, N.J.

[Stanford teams now go by the name of Cardinals. Ed.]

I realize that everyone (including me) is tired of hearing about the Indian symbol, but Professor Dorris' column (April issue) touched on a point that interests me.

He noted (with deliberate exaggeration) that the battle is thought of as being between conservatives (who loved the old all-male school) and the young radicals (who like the changes that have taken place), which puts me in odd company.

Mind you, I'm not planning a march on Hanover to reinstate the symbol. Dartmouth Hall can be replaced tomorrow without me losing much sleep over it. But as an old radical (by Dartmouth standards), I've always likened this battle to the attempts in the forties to ban TheMerchant of Venice, while granting that Shakespeare has certain values not readily discernible in the Indian symbol.

It's also like attempts to turn chairmen into chairpersons. An Indian as a symbol of Dartmouth is not intrinsically any more deplorable than is a picture of a Chinese on a box of chop suey (manufactured in Omaha). Or the Trojan warrior that kids here in Weston selected as their school symbol a few years ago. Does anyone think they were making fun of the Trojans and, therefore, themselves, when they picked that symbol?

And, so far as I know, few Trojans ever attended Weston High School. Dartmouth was an Indian school (why else would it be way out in the woods?). Dartmouth now runs a number of (admittedly belated) programs to help Indians. Why? Because a tie of sort exists.

A symbol acknowledges that tie, makes more sense than a bulldog or tiger, and is no more insulting than the typical John Harvard drawings of a misfit with thick spectacles and cap and gown.

Why not weed out the dumber stuff, use the symbol with some respect, and send the royalties to some reservation where 1) they need the money and 2) they have more important things to worry about than cartoons and 3) nobody (as I found when I lived in Detroit) ever heard of Dartmouth anyway?

"The whole issue has been inflated way beyond its importance, but the notion that we can't combine warmth and humor around some historically correct symbols (be they Jewish mothers or absent-minded professors or fighting Irish) seems dumb.

Weston, Conn.

The Fraternities

Just a short, belated letter about fraternities. Perhaps Professor Epperson could rehabilitate Webster Avenue into an Oneida Community like our brother alumnus, John Humphrey Noyes, did at Oneida, New York.

Actually, percentage-wise we had as many wild fraternity men years ago as they do now. Some of our biggest party boys were most successful for themselves and in helping the College.

In our years there was as much drinking, etc. in the dorms as at the fraternities. Last Friday on the 6:00 p.m. news was a five-minute report on sex at Princeton — whether a woman should lose virginity on first, second, or third date. Perhaps Dartmouth's computer center could solve the problem. The problem at Princeton and all schools is campus-wide, not just at fraternities.

In closing, did not our illustrious alumnus, Black Dan, spend many hours drinking with Indian maidens at the log cabin tavern while he was in Hanover? Also, is not his picture on all Old Crow ads since Repeal in 1933? And, did he not save the College? Here's to the future Black Dans on Webster Avenue.

Rice Lake, Wisc.

I cannot phrase the subject as eloquently as Dr. Hopkins did, but it seems to me that he used to tell us that the values of a liberal arts education lie in using the accumulated wisdom of the past, learning to think for ourselves, and respecting the opinions of others.

It is usually amusing to thumb through the letters in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE and note how often this last commandment seems to have been forgotten since the authors left Hanover. But in the April issue I found the letter from William Divine '65 beyond the pale.

The notion of equating the possible loss of fraternities at Dartmouth to the excesses of Hitler and Amin is simply obscene. It would appear that four years of a Dartmouth education were completely wasted on the writer of that letter.

Mission Viejo, Calif.

When in Baker

Guided by their great good sense, many alumni and alumnae include self-directed tours of Baker Library in their visits to Hanover. A perceptive lot, a considerable proportion of them tarry in the main west corridor to enjoy the windowed vertical displays along the north wall and in the smaller corridor leading to the Treasure Room. Those who don't should. Created by artist-calligrapher-designer Evelyn S. Marcus, the exhibitions are both topical and harmonious, and at appropriate times dramatic. They are pleasing, informative, enthralling. They should not be missed.

Wilder, Vt.

Solution to AH Problems

For the past several months I have been debating whether to laugh or cry as I observe the shock waves registered in your letters column following the decision of the Dartmouth faculty to blow fraternities off the face of the earth. It seems that every misty-eyed old grad from here to San Luis Obispo has taken quill in hand to say what a great educational experience it was to roll stone-drunk down the inclined lawn of dear old Wuss Nu.

It's a dilemma, all right. Who wants to step on the fingers that count out the cash? But now, in the best traditions of journalism — that is to say, inadvertently — you have discovered the answer to all of the College's problems. In commenting upon another letter, which suggested that the school have wood instead of oil, you point out that there might be a storage problem: "One estimate says that a year's supply of wood would cover the entire campus to a depth of 30 feet."

Well, by Eleazar's cask, sir, there's your solution. Cover it, by all means. Think of the problems solved:

1) The fraternities. How much immorality can go on inside a building no one can find or, having found, enter? And after a day spent up at the Grant swinging an ax, who would have strength enough left for any kind of handkerchief-pandkerchief? 2) The College symbol and nickname. Not an Indian, but a beaver. Not the Big Green, but the Wide Brown. 3) Senior canes. They would be very similar to a peavey. 4) Student health, equality of the sexes, trouble falling asleep. In order to keep the whole place evenly covered, the entire student body — every person-jack of them, without regard to race, creed, or chromosomal alignment — would have to hack away together. Think of it: Three thousand young men and women marching forth, shoulder to shoulder, doing their double-bitted bit for old Eleazar Hemlock, eyes shining and biceps rippling like beagles under an astrakhan. The very thought brings a lump to the duodenum.

I look forward to the roars of approval that are bound to greet this plan. The Trustees have never yet rejected the chance to create a logjam. Knock on wood.

Brooklyn, N. Y.

Farewell

To D.O.C. alumni: Through the years I heard Ross McKenney say many times that "trails don't end." Today, as I start on the

"retirement trail," I realize what Ross meant that the trail blazes of memories last forever. It is the thousands of you over the past 40- plus years who have left your indelible blaze on me as we shared common experiences in hurricanes, blizzards, forest fires, searches, Carnivals, ski meets, ski patrols, freshman trips, Moosilauke Summit Camp, and hundreds of canoeing, trail, and mountain trips.

For this I thank you and hope our paths will cross again.

The latch string is always out whenever you are in my area: South Chatham, N.H. (Conway, N.H., and Fryeburg, Maine, phone books) or in Flanover in the cold months.

To quote Ross again, I say, hang on!

Hanover, N.H.

Q & A

Two questions: 1) Why is it that in the reporting of necrology the deceased's birth date is omitted? As the Class of 1929 gets closer to the front of the Class Notes, I believe it would be of interest to see how old a deceased classmate was. 2) Why was there no distinctive achievement recognition in the April 1979 issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE? First, wah-hoowahs were given up because they were supposedly demeaning to a minority group — a group who had had free tuition since 1769. Second, this category was supplanted by the "Give a Rouse For" outstanding achievement. Thirdly, in the preceding month, of all the living Dartmouth alumni didn't at least one deserve some kind of recognition for a promotion or achievement?

In the words of the late King of "Is a puzzlement."

Dallas, Texas

[The Class Secretaries, who write most of theobituaries, have "local option" when it comesto providing such information as dates of birth.In truth, there were too few achievers to give arouse to in April. The ones we had were savedup to make a socko column in May. As for freetuition for Indians, now or in the past, that fallsinto the category of myth. Ed.]

The Speech Department

I am completing my last year of residency in otolaryngology at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, in June 1979.

Recently, I have learned that Dartmouth is considering abolishing the Department of Speech.

During my four years at Dartmouth, I participated in several speech courses, all of which I enjoyed very much and in all of which I learned a great deal. These courses followed several others in both debating and public speaking which I took in high school.

From these courses and from my recent experiences in medicine, I cannot overemphasize the importance of formal training in public speaking both for daily conversational and more formal professional use.

During my medical training since graduating from Dartmouth in 1970, I have presented formal medical papers twice to the Cleveland Surgical Society (one of which won an award), twice to the Northeastern Ohio Otolaryngology Society (both of which won awards), innumerable occasions to local medical and hospital groups, and am looking forward to presenting a paper next fall in Dallas, Texas, to the American Academy of Opthalmology and Otolaryngology, our largest national meeting of the year.

These papers, I admit, are selected for their content, not for their style of presentation.

Nevertheless, to present a paper or address a group publicly in any profession is to present oneself. To present oneself is to have something to say and to say it well. And to know how to say it well requires at least some formal instruction in public speaking in addition to innate ability and motivation.

To this end, I feel the abolition of the Speech Department at Dartmouth would deprive many students of this initial but critical introduction to the art of public speaking. I support the continuation and even the expansion of the Department of Speech at Dartmouth wholeheartedly and without the least reservation.

I hope this letter will in some small way contribute to preserving the department.

Cleveland, Ohio

[See report in "The College" in this issue. Ed.]

Memorable Meals

I read with interest the article by Mary Bishop Ross on our Chinese alumni ["Wearers of the Green," April issue]. I knew Quentin Pan '24 very well when he was a student in my chemistry class. On Thanksgiving of his junior year, my wife invited him and two Chinese student friends to dinner. My wife was an excellent cook and did herself proud with the typical New England dinner, including turkey, squash, mashed potato, and a salad. This last she prepared against my advice. When we passed the dishes to the two friends their comment was "What is this?" and "No thank you." Pan claimed he was accustomed to Western food and ate everything. If it hadn't been for the salad, the other two would've gone without. I think it had Chinese cabbage in it and grapes that were full of big seeds. One of the boys ate these grapes and carefully spit out the seeds. My daughter, then two years old, was impressed and asked for some grapes. Then, to our consternation, she also spit out the seeds, not so neatly as did our guest.

A much more successful dinner was held during the war when we invited three Navy students to eat what I called indigenous food, grown in my own garden. They were Roy Chenderlin '47, another '47 named Howard, and a boy from northern Maine, who was killed in an auto accident the next year. I remember that we had corn on the cob and were amused by Howard, who had lost several teeth in football. He said, "I missed some kernels on the way down the cob, but picked them up on the way back." for dessert we had a big canteloupe. Roy remarked that that was not indigenous. I assured him it was and that I was one of the few gardeners who could grow canteloupe in Hanover.

I disliked the Tobias article on President Bartlett [January/February issue]. It was not fair to his descendants. I didn't know then that there was a Dr. Agnes Bartlett in Hanover, didn't know President Bartlett, but started instructing in chemistry under his nephew. Professor Bartlett, in 1911. My classing Harry Mitchell and I started together. became known as the Bartlett pair (pear). For years E. J. was a prominent member of the Dartmouth faculty.

South Windham, Maine

[Ellen Cronan Rose is assistant professor ofEnglish. Ed.]

Recent issues of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE and the Time article of March 12 offer much to ruminate about for someone removed from the campus by both distance and years.

[An article on Agnes Kurtz, who is relin quishingher duties as assistant director ofathletics in favor of full-time coaching at Dartmouth, appeared in the May issue. Ed.]

[John Rand is retiring from his long associationwith the Outing Club in June. Ed.]