Letters

Women

Congratulations on your excellent article "Why Study Women?" in the October issue. I was pleased to hear about the Women's Studies Program at Dartmouth and delighted that you had the sense to print such a forceful article on the reasons for the program. After reading it I felt the proudest I have ever been to be both a Dartmouth wife (of Richard Hooke '53) and a Dartmouth mother (of David Hooke '84).

I hope that alumni/ae, students, administration, and faculty will take seriously Mary Ellen Donovan's suggestion that the answers to the question "Why Study Women?" bring us close to the heart of the broader question, namely the purpose of a liberal education. As Ms. Donovan puts it so well, "When you study women you are forced ultimately to re-examine all you have been taught and to recast in a fresh perspective age-old questions: What is truth? What is morality? What is progress? What is civilization? What does it mean to be human?" Readers who don't understand the force or meaning of this statement should re-read the article with care.

In an interesting way, I see that Ms. Donovan's bold statements about the importance of women's studies at Dartmouth provide a counterpoise to the question about Dartmouth s image, raised by Jean Hanff Korelitz on page 22 of the same issue. Perhaps if women's studies and all that they imply were taken more seriously, there would be no more image problem.

Wellesley '48

Amherst, Mass.

The China Connection

I was most interested in your September 1982 issue containing the article by Shelby Grantham entitled " 'Far Out and Daring': Dartmouth Abroad." Convinced that a period abroad as an undergraduate can help formulate and focus most students' academic interests and provide perspective for their own personalities and values, I am delighted to see the expansion of the program at Dartmouth.

Although one of my classmates, Norman McCulloch, may have been one of the early participants in such a program, there was at least one more in that class. I spent my junior year in 1948-49 as the first, and, I believe, until now the only exchange student from Dartmouth to China. I was fortunate to study philosophy and Chinese history at Lingnam University in Canton. I, too, found resistance from the administration in going, but thanks to that eminent Chinese philosopher professor at Dartmouth, Wing-tsit Chan, I was able to receive a scholarship. His encouragement and personal interest is an enduring example of the close bonds that may exist between faculty and students at Dartmouth.

I feel certain that the broadening of the educational experience centered at Dartmouth will enrich both the College and the individual.

Bethesda, Md.

{Actually, Dartmouth's connection with China is ofeven longer standing. For several years at the beginning of the century, Dartmouth students, alumni,andfaculty supported the missionary and educationalwork of H. W. Robinson '10, who built in 1920 aschool for boys, using Chinese teachers, in Paotingfuat Kao-1 in northern China, and at least one studentpostponed a senior year to go out and teach at theschool. David Steinberg was doubtless the first exchange student proper from Dartmouth to study inChina after World War II, and he seems to havebeen, indeed, the only one to have done so until 1980,when seven Dartmotith students went to the People'sRepublic. The College has, however) been sendingstudents to study in Taiwan since the late sixties andperhaps even longer. Ed.]

Dead End

During our visit to the College On September 17, my wife and I attempted to drive up what we used to know as Tuck Drive, running from the river up past Tuck School and into Fraternity Row. Having proceeded several hundred yards uphill, we came to a barricade consisting of several posts fixed in the ground.

Now, unless I was temporarily blind, there was no indication along the way that this had become a dead-end road. Cars parked at the side made it impossible for us to turn around, and we were forced to back down for a considerable distance very precarious going!

May I suggest that Buildings and Grounds be asked to place an appropriate dead-end sign at the bottom of the drive or, better still, have this lovely old drive restored to use?

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla

Sense of Place

We can understand, why Jeffrey Boffa is concerned about the Upper Valley turning into a New Jersey ("Home, Home on the Plain," October issue). Certainly, it would be difficult to transport all of New Jersey's sand and seashells to the shores of the Connecticut, not to mention the swell of the Atlantic waves. We would be loathe to change the words of our alma mater from "the lone pine above her" to "the pine barrens around her." Nor would we want to see Upper Valley farmers labor under the Herculean task of matching the yield of the farmers of south Jersey.

Equating all of New Jersey with shopping plazas is like equating all of New Hampshire with Manchester. Has Mr. Boffa, in his travels "round the girdled earth," ever really visited the Garden State?

Livingston, N.J.

Wayne, N.J.

Presidential Portraits

In the September 1982 edition of Dartmouthon Purpose, which I have just received, there are front page portraits of the last five presidents.

John Sloan Dickey is staring straight at the center of the camera lens. John Kemeny is looking somewhat left of center. David McLaughlin is gazing to the far right.

Is there any significance in this, or am I being paranoid?

London, England

The Review

I was surprised and somewhat pleased to see the magnitude and virtual unanimity of response of alumni from all walks of life to the outrages of the Dartmouth Review. From conversations that I have had with students on campus, the length of a quiet summer on the Hanover Plain has not dulled the emotions surrounding this publication. Since this debate is not likely soon to die a peaceful death, it might serve us well to consider the framework for this debate.

Perhaps most prominent among all the issues is that of freedom of speech. However loathsome the views .expressed in the Review, that publication has the absolute constitutional right to print them. The tables may be turned, but those calling for the banishment of the Review are latter-day McCarthys.

It behooves those involved with the Review to remember the lessons taught by the courts to the National Enquirer. The legal system of this country protects the constitutional rights of the press and private citizens with equal vigilance. Although uneducated in the law, it seems to me that the Review has stepped over the line of responsible journalism several times since its inception. The management and board of directors have avoided substantial financial penalty solely by dumb luck. I hope that they realize this and that this fear will guide more sensitive pens in the future.

The Dartmouth Review can serve a valuable role on campus as a voice of a legitimate portion of our society. The irresponsible journalistic methods of the Review, though, should not continue to be tolerated. If individual rights are violated by the Review, the College, as the official guardian of students on campus, should file legal suit of libel on behalf of those defamed. Let the laws of this country protect both the printed word and personal integrity!

Scarsdale, N. Y.

I have subscribed to the Dartmouth Review for the past couple of years and, like at least one other alumnus, have given more to the Review over this period of time than to the Alumni Fund. I am bemused and downright uneasy with some of the criticisms carried in letters to the ALUMNI MAGAZINE.

One doesn't have to scan a dictionary to determine that the word "review" hardly conveys the sense of depravity and menace suggested [letters, September issue] by the words "sodomist" and '-Communist," etc. hardly.

That the Dartmouth Review is obviously considered by some as parasitic, bigoted, and lacking in sensitivity and decency boggles my mind. I would almost suggest it is entrepreneurial doing the job of reporting and editorializing on subject matter that needs much more space and/or time in our media. Minorities, the work ethic, undue feminism, corruption in organized labor, compromising administrations (wherever) the tail is wagging the dog.

The harshness of the aforementioned disapproval is hardly moderate or conservative (?). Whether the Review survives in the long run or not (I hope it does), let's hope its voice has not been crying in a wilderness.

Albany, N. Y.

Invitation

I pray that you will find room for the following invitation in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, as I know of no other way to contact those who knew James Price III:

To the friends of the late James Legon Price III (whom I knew well in 1966 while he was attending Dartmouth College), I extend an invitation to share with me memories, observations, and so forth involving him. I hope soon to publish a collection of my own essays and illustrations and wish to dedicate the book to Jim's memory with a short piece devoted specifically to him'.

All correspondence will be warmly received and acknowledged. Please address it to me at Box 22 in Worthington, Massachusetts 01098.

Worthington, Mass.