Just a suggestion, Mr. President: an agenda for the eighties

WHEN David Thomas McLaughlin became the 14th president of Dartmouth, we decided it would be a good idea to ask a lot of different people what sort of advice they would give him if they had the chance, what issues they thought he'd be likely to run up against in the decade of the eighties and what priority they would put on which ones (or, as our resident jargoneers might put it, how he should "prioritize" them). It may have smacked a little of the cliche, but we thought it was a good idea nonetheless. Dartmouth people have never been hesitant about advising their president (one of our respondents, no pushover when he played for the varsity, told us that "I have written to every D. president on the subject of [dropping] intercollegiate football without exception they took evasive action") so we thought we might give them a vehicle at what seemed an appropriate time. Channeling the natural forces, as it were. Something like using the tides in the Bay of Fundy to manufacture electricity.

So we wrote a lot of people with various links to the College, inviting them to share their concerns with David McLaughlin and with the rest of us. Some we didn't hear from Walter Cronkite was probably on assignment, Ella Fitzgerald doing a gig in Vegas, and former trustee-cum-New Hampshire Governor Meldrim Thomson testing the waters for his next political campaign but a lot of others a lot more directly concerned took the time to define a spectrum of problems they either foresaw or recommended as items on the presidential agenda. Others were quite candid in admitting they felt it more politic at this juncture to dig a deep trench and keep the head down.

So here they are: undergraduates, young alumni and older, current or former faculty members, administrative types, honorary degree recipients, and townspeople and what they think will be or ought to be issues for which David McLaughlin will need to find answers.

Direst Situation My subject is NUCLEAR WAR AVOIDANCE OF.

Can I persuade President McLaughlin that this is a proper topic for consideration at Dartmouth in the next few months, years? Or that we are in the direst situation the nation's ever been in? That we are certain to be in nuclear conflict the final war within very few years unless radically different policies are taken by the United States? That therefore NUCLEAR WAR

AVOIDANCE OF is of utmost topicality and importance? That Dartmouth, a liberal arts stronghold, is the proper venue for such a subject? That a new generation with fresh and courageous thinking is desperately needed?

We don't need experts; they've got us into the extremity we're in. We need sane, competent, humane-men and women willing to overcome the pyschic numbness that falls on almost everyone when the phrase "nuclear war" is uttered. We need them to analyze and explicate the horrible irrationality that is guiding our affairs, and to make their best effort to change it.

How to go about it? Ask your faculty, ask your students. The latter are the ones who have been fatally shortchanged by my generation. Don't ask the old and unimaginative and fearful.

W. H. FERRY' 32 peacemonger, former vice president of the Center for Democratic Institutions

Scholarships

How can we avoid an erosion of our other-than-rich students, if inflation continues high, and federal aid to higher education continues to shrink?

HARLANDW. HOISINGTONJR. '48 director of financial aid

Boundaries

I have never possessed, nor even longed to possess, any powers of prediction and certainly none that might extend over most of a decade. Let me, then, cite a couple of issues which I would like to see on the College's Agenda for the Eighties, rather than speculating upon what items this agenda might in fact contain. These issues are, first, the organization of the faculty and, second, the curriculum.

With regard to the former, I am not convinced that the organization of the faculty into the three traditional divisions of the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences makes any sense. Perhaps I may cite a personal example to illustrate my dissatisfaction with the present arrangement. Last summer, I was working on a lecture to be given in Seattle in August, a lecture on kinship relationships in the Bible. Much, if not most, of the research for this lecture came from advances in anthropology, where the study of kinship standardly resides, and in mathematics, where some of the most interesting recent work on kinship has occurred. What concerns me are problems and their solutions; the disciplinary origins of these solutions do not worry me. This sort of crossing of traditional boundaries obtains equally in my teaching; and the same is true, I know, in the teaching and research of my colleagues. So, I have no wish to issue again the conventional cry for more inter-disciplinary teaching and research. Of that there is at the College a healthy amount. I wish rather to ask if in the context of this we need to retain the traditional divisions as we have inherited them.

Secondly, the curriculum. That the eighties will witness proposals for a more tightly structured curriculum is already clear. Indeed, such proposals seem a recurrent and cyclical part of American academic life. And the very term "structure" has become something of a buzz word in the past 15 years. My concern is this: What is going to be allowed to fall between the cracks of the new curricular edifice? For example: many of the curricular reforms about which I have read or heard lately are profoundly Western in their direction; and I miss much orientation (forgive me) the other way. If a more tightly structured curriculum at Dartmouth means fewer confrontations with quite alien ways of seeing the world, then something of the life-giving heart of a liberal education will have been lost.

ROBERTA. O DEN JR. associate professor of religion, recipient of Dartmouth's distinguished teaching award

Steadying the State

My feeling is that, in view of the significant changes in the College in the last decade, President McLaughlin should initially concentrate on "consolidating" these changes e.g., make necessary refinements in the Dartmouth Plan, assure

non-discriminatory practices involving women and minorities, encourage further improvements in fraternity maintenance and conduct, find housing for minorities, and nurture improved alumni relations.

My main involvement with the College in recent years has been in the area of Alumni Council activities and alumni relations in general. I think the new president should work closely with the council and promote further cooperation between the council and the trustees. He should also devote as much time as possible to meeting with alumni groups throughout the country, listening to their concerns and dealing with them sympathetically. He should also, of course, do whatever he can to establish a personal rapport with the students.

John Kemeny did a remarkable job of making changes required by the changing times, and David McLaughlin has the opportunity to build upon those changes and smooth out the remaining rough spots.

STANLEY C. SMOYER '34 former Alumni Council president, co-chairman of the committee reviewing Alumni Council procedures

Not More, but Better

The term "elitist" sends shivers down many spines, but that is the nature of our institution, and there remains a difference between elitism and arrogance. Real arrogance consists in believing that we can be all things to all people. The challenge to Dartmouth in the eighties is to concentrate not on "more" but on "better," and this within a context that values as much what distinguishes us from, as what unites us to, other institutions.

MARY E. CLEARY '79 Rhodes Scholar, former admissions officer

Narcissus

The Connecticut Valley is so surely a joy, Hanover is so richly inviting, and Dartmouth is so self-assuredly prestigious, that President McLaughlin might well wonder, some day this fall, if he hadn't reached, heaven without dying. The temptations which attend having arrived as president of Dartmouth must, after all, only be magnifications of those which attend most newly matriculated freshmen or most newly tenured professors. Having arrived, one is naturally tempted to wonder if one's halo is on straight. Forgiveness is surely at hand if one kneels, of a morning, beside Occom Pond to check the halo, and happens to fall in love with a not unfamiliar view of the Dartmouth Image.

I knew, first hand, something of what the Dartmouth Image looked like in the thirties and the forties; I tumbled, gladly. But even as I'm now far from what the College is up to, I see good evidence that Dartmouth is a much better college thanks to President Dickey and President Kemeny than the Dartmouth I half grew up in. I hope it gets still better, not least by way of less narcissism.

My hope for President McLaughlin, in the eighties, is that, as he resists Hanover's more self-congratulatory aspects, he may face his shaving mirror without thought of a halo, and may breakfast beyond much concern for the College's "image." Only if he exiles Narcissus from the environs of Occom Pond can he rightfully attend to Dartmouth's prime business; to help students learn to value ideas, to think caringly, to be mindful of every surge of the human spirit, to do themselves honor by being, at heart, generous. Given a college that stretches her students toward such ideals, both college and student can have some chance to realize what a lovely struggle it is, lifelong, to try to relate one's self to the total world one belongs to.

PHILIP BOOTH '47 poet

Quaint

Since you ask me for my advice to the new president, here it is: Stop firing, or "letting go," some of your best teachers. During my 11 years teaching at Dartmouth, I watched a parade of excellent men and occasional women leave the plain by invitation. Eventually — and inevitably — my wife (in the Medical School) and I received our invitations, too.

I won't bother you with the many names of departees, but their students certainly remember them.

There is a slightly, well, insular atmosphere at Dartmouth. When I gave a series of lectures there two years ago, students asked me which I preferred: England or Dartmouth? It is a quaint comparison.

JONATHAN MIRSKY former faculty member,

now China correspondent for The Observer in London

Against the Tide

David McLaughlin's tenure as president of Dartmouth College coincides with the start of a new era in national affairs. The drive to strengthen the nation's economy has been accompanied by the elimination of many social programs of the government and the pruning of the budget of those agencies responsible for promoting public well-being (including education).

Life at Dartmouth will inevitably reflect many aspects of this current. As a private institution which is older than the nation itself, and with an average presidential tenure much longer than that of the nation's president, Dartmouth must chart its own course despite the new national tide. David McLaughlin, like each of his recent predecessors, is a president who enjoys a broad spectrum of support from faculty, alumni, and students. I would personally hope to see his capacity for leadership effected in the following areas:

To restore priority at Dartmouth to the time spent by students on campus over the ease with which they can come and go, sometimes in a seemingly random fashion; To continue the steps already taken to reduce the undue pressures on faculty, students, administrators, and staff by the year-round, short-term, three-course system;

To consider ways of improving on Dartouth's good record in administering tenure review, for example, by examining the proper function of pre-tenurial reviews, and by exploring the lagging issue of making early or partial retirement financially attractive to those senior professors interested in such an option;

To convey to all who might have forgotten it that our goal is a society that integrates persons of diverse backgrounds while encouraging enhanced respect for their unique cultural contributions;

To explore new and relevant ways of invigorating Dartmouth's special identity as an institution which promotes academic excellence, athletic achievement, and social commitment without sacrificing any of these to the others;

To keep smiling when he is being told things he already knows.

RICHARDJOSEPH '65 associate professor of government and African and Afro-American Studies

Growth

An unexpected gift to establish a school of architecture might reverse present resolves to maintain Dartmouth's present size. Even barring any such opportunity, a glance at the map reveals one area that would make an ideal addition to the campus. If Eleazar had had larger visions he would have incorporated it. This is the southwest quadrant of the village bounded on two sides by Main and West Wheelock streets.

If the commercial enterprises could be transferred to the Lebanon road, for example, several vital petals would be added to the central flower of the campus. No one could expect that to come about in the next decade. Had it been planned in 1920, it might be nearly completed now; if it were to be accomplished by 2030, the planning must be launched now and vigorously.

Innovative approaches should be examined. The skills of resident alumni could be enlisted without cost to evaluate the proposal and eventually to undertake its execution. Means might be found to buy up property as it comes on the market and then rent it for income, or in the case of residential property, some homes could be used for student clubs, etc. A fund could be established to offer present owners a free appraisal on condition that the College could buy from two to five per cent of the property at once. This would reduce the present owner's taxes and assure the College of eventual ownership. Other owners might be persuaded to write into the deed a first refusal for the College when they wished to sell. The local alumni experts would find other ways.

At the same time, the College would begin to acquire property in the area where the business district could eventually go. If the past is evidence, ownership of Hanover property is a handsome proposition. Of course, it will take money which is always urgently needed elsewhere. All we need do, however, is ask how such a plan would have paid off any time in the past 50, 30, 20, or 10 years.

ARTHUR KNEERIM '28 class newsletter editor

No Growth

Dartmouth's new president ought to; begin his first memo to himself with a stern injunction: "Resist Growth!" Not his own growth, of course, nor the intellectual growth of the College, but the physical growth of the College plant. The new president must avoid succumbing to the mania of our age, unchecked, thoughtless expansion, together with this particular madness' principal blight, sprawl. One of Dartmouth's greatest treasures is its campus, at once conveniently compact and agreeably spacious, its green and leafy prospects a delight to the eye, its comfortably short distances a pleasure for the feet (though the walk from the River Cluster to Dartmouth Hall on a cold winter morning can seem interminable).

Indeed, the River Cluster and abominations like it the medical center, for example, or Channing Cox are precisely what we may expect with more new construction at Dartmouth. In the bleak ugliness and raw, sterile chill of these edifices are to be found all those characteristics which make eyesores of great expanses of our modern cities. "Ah, but they are functional ..." runs the argument in favor of these excrescences. Speaking as a resident of the River Cluster for the duration of my freshman year, I can assure any doubters that the buildings that comprise the River Cluster are the reverse of functional. Those stark cubicles in French, Hinman, and McLane Halls are cold in winter, stuffy in summer and spring, noisy, cramped, isolated from the rest of the campus, and they present insuperable obstacles to comfortable living and peaceful study.

If we must have new buildings, Mr. President, let us construct them with care and forethought, so that they do not mar one of the loveliest sites in America. If you can, do not build at all. Renovate the old buildings, spend surplus monies on professors, books, scholarships, and the Hopkins Center. Above all, guard the beauty and charm of Dartmouth's still intimate campus. The College's students and alumni will be greatly the losers if the campus becomes an agglomeration of raw brick and asphalt parking lot, a fate that past administrations have been courting with far too much assiduity.

JOSHUA NOSSITER ' 79 Columbia graduate student

Third Down

The scoreboard shows that Dartmouth's excellence in academia still leads with a comfortable margin over "Other Factors." With such valuable players as Diligent Faculty, Generous Alumni, Concerned Faculty, and Bright Students, how could Dartmouth lose to such unfriendly opponents as Demographic Changes, Fiscal Constraints, and Governmental Intervention? Even though I see promising signs that excellence will continue to triumph at Dartmouth, I see also that the quality of student life will prove to be quite a challenge.

Affectionately comparing Dartmouth to a country club or a camp, we students love our school, like to socialize, and work hard when we can. And yet, can it be that what appears to be too good to be true may really be too much of a good thing and may detract from Dartmouth's academic mission?

Tantalized by the wonders of New Hampshire and Vermont, many students find it impossible to ignore the Green and the Connecticut River in favor of Baker's Tower Room or Murdough's all-night study rooms. Mother Nature is not the only one who can distract us from academe, however; the Dartmouth Plan and partying are both hearty competitors. Though we reap the "D-plan's" benefits during offcampus terms, once in Hanover we scramble each term to get reacquainted and make new friends. Finally, kegs of beer (not always at fraternities) and tall drinks downtown prove to be enough of a continuing attraction that the problem of drinking among such an all-American and healthy population should not be overlooked.

Unlike challenges that involve scoreboards, the challenges that face the Dartmouth community are often intangible, and therefore have neither easy nor permanent solutions. In short, they will demand continual attention and re-evaluation, and will represent a continuing challenge.

ANDREA R. PAPP '82 undergraduate

Solid Waste and Webster Avenue

From the viewpoint of a resident of Hanover, the Agenda for the Eighties will be challenging and exciting for the new president. On the nuts and bolts side of academic operations, the most glaring problem will be that of the automobile. Will the College become one paved parking lot, or will a peripheral parking plan come into being? Secondly, might a solid-waste treatment plan be conceived for solid waste that would in turn heat 'the Dartmouth buildings and lower fuel costs?

The eighties should bring calmness to student life, as the cost of education is now too high for students to become occupied with many outside issues. I might see the students asking for a tighter academic structure and closer counseling so that their liberal educations will have developed skills and knowledges attractive to the present job markets. Paralleling the academic structuring, I can envision the students working for a more varied and purposeful social life on campus. Alternatives to Webster Avenue Saturday-night parties will be found and implemented.

MARILYN W. BLACK

Hanover teacher, former national teacher-of-the-year, 1980 honorary degree recipient

Less Hedonism

My own agenda, aside from the perpetual financial one, would be to try somehow to induce more service and less hedonism in the whole Dartmouth community.

WALTER H. STOCKMAYER Albert W. Smith Professor of Chemistry Emeritus

Rude Awakening ?

The so-called "bargaining unit employee" at Dartmouth has the advantage of a voice through a union. The faculty has a voice by being faculty and having the benefit of tenure. To a degree, the administration has a voice by virtue of length of service.

This brings up the point of the lack of a strong voice and recognition of the value of staff members the thousand or so technical, secretarial, and clerical workers at Dartmouth College. I feel if more attention is not paid to this very important segment of what keeps us operating, one of these days we will wake up and ask, "What Happened?" We should think about it, as I find it surprising that some organization hasn't taken advantage of this void.

PAULR. MOORE JR. director,

Dartmouth Dining Association

Good Beer

Having served six Dartmouth presidents Tucker, Nichols, Hopkins, Dickey, Kemeny, and now McLaughlin I think I should know what they can do and what they will do: a good job.

Some alumni will kick anyway, so the best thing is for the new president to get going on his own plans. (As students, those same people, after hearing how bad our keg beer was some nights and then sampling same, later agreed it was okay.)

When I attended some Dartmouth club meetings in Florida, most of the alumni there were more concerned about the football team than how the College was going. And this was when building Hopkins Center and opening the College to women were the big issues.

One last thing: I saw old Dartmouth Hall burn to the ground in 1904 (the ruins are buried on our land), and I have witnessed all the building since then turn Dartmouth into a great college; but I hope this current construction surge will be the last. In fairness to all alumni, especially those coming back to reunions, I've never heard a word against how the College is being run. As long as they leave the campus and old Dartmouth Row alone, we won't have any kicks.

See you at the football game. Charles, John, and Harry Tanzi are ticket-takers.

HARRY T ANZI proprietor of Tanzi's store, honorary mayor of Hanover