Letters

No Nukes

Congratulations for the article by George Kennan in the March issue. This article, "The Naivete of Nuclear Rivalry," should be a must for every member of the U.S. Congress as well as for every Dartmouth alumnus.

We have always tended to ascribe to our real or fancied enemies greater intellectual and material powers than they possessed, and we have thus blinded ourselves to the very human failings that they as well as we possess; and it is by recognizing these human failings that we can find the grounds for mutual concern that could develop into trust.

The U.S. as a world power should not commit the folly of over-simplification. Rather, as Kennan suggests, it should exhibit a health of spirit — a sufficient affirmation of life — to turn our attention to the real challenges and possibilities that loom ahead of us.

Clearwater Beach, Fla.

So Much at Stake

I read with great interest Shelby Grantham's article in the March issue about Dartmouth's recent conference on alcohol. With superlative style and great clarity, she wrote a courageous article about courageous people.

The concept of alcoholism as a disease — both a physiological and emotional problem — needs this sort of clarification so that those who feel scared to come forward for help need not feel the social stigma usually attached to alcoholism.

It is not often that people with so much at stake would freely and willingly speak with such conviction about their disease outside an A. A. meeting or a counselor's office. I' herald the courage and honesty of those so aptly quoted in the article, and I am sure that their willingness to come forward and speak will help many people who suffer from the disease and are still looking at it as a moral issue or an issue of weak will.

I congratulate Dartmouth, Shelby Grantham, those who organized the conference, and those who spoke out.

Boston, Mass.

What exciting news that Dartmouth College has finally looked at the problem of alcohol abuse!

When I was privileged to visit Dartmouth College as a student date in the early 1950s, it was well-known among the Ivy Leaguers that the Big Green was noted for more drunks on campus than any other school. The attitude of the students was that "macho" men drink — and drink heavily. How many fine young men began their wayward course into the tragedy of alcoholism during college years?

When my husband Dan Hall and I returned to Dartmouth for the class of '52's 25th reunion, we heard sad stories. One alumnus who had phoned another classmate to urge him to attend the reunion said the reply was "Sorry I wouldn't dare go back there with all that drinking. I am a recovering alcoholic."

Another classmate was reported to be too ill with cirrhosis to attend — sad statistics!

Let's help Dartmouth become a leader in turning students away from alcohol and other drugs. What better place than the finest educational institution of all!

Leucadia, Calif.

Cliffs of Fall

Like R. Hugh Uhlmann's son John, I, too. was in uniform serving my country when Jamie Newton delivered his anti-war address; and like R. Hugh Uhlmann (and perhaps his son as well), I felt the indignation of the just and obedient at this rebellious voice from the relatively safe undergraduate wilderness of Hanover.

Yet even then I had begun to understand that the courage involved in following the orders of a military commander and moving with the unit is not, after all, so great as the courage it takes to follow the conscience.

the mind, mind has mountains,cliffs of fallFrightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed.Hold them cheapMay who ne'er hung.there.

These lines (of Gerard Manley Hopkins) I offer in response to Mr. Uhlmann's verses (as well, for that matter, as Rob Eshman's callow article). It is these spiritual "cliffs of fall" that Dartmouth must, finally, teach its products to negotiate. A man who can write such lines as Mr. Uhlmann has written of Mr. Newton — Immune from pain and yellow rainConfusing thought with licenseSafe in his bed, he never saw RedHe teaches "Social Science. " — such a man disappoints those of us who believe in that educational ideal no less by the innocence of his sentiment than by the badness of his verse.

Davis, Calif.

An Old Tradition

My favorite piece of "Kiewit computer-room equipment came from K-Mart in West Lebanon. [See "The Conquest of Kiewit (sort of), January-February issue.] The Mousetrap game I bought to amuse myself and the other sysprogs in the basement somehow found its way into- the glass-walled machine room where it was on display for all to see.

Now as any movie maker will tell you, computers are tough to film because even though they may be doing millions of things every second, they just sit there without moving

Not so, Mousetrap. This working Ruby. Goldberg-style contraption employs, among other things, a stop sign, an old boot, a bowling ball, a bathtub, and a circus high-diver in, order to capture the mouse.

Well, to make a long story short, the game became the hit of the campus tour. Visitors spurned the multi-million-dollar computer from Honeywell in favor of the $9-95 board game from Ideal, often making hysterically inaccurate analogies regarding the operation of the two machines. At first, they were content with tracing the sequence of events verbally but once their appetites were whetted they would always clamor for an actual demonstration.

Yielding to the (seemingly) thrill-starved crowds in the hallway, the machine-room personnel began admitting the tour guide actually to operate the Mousetrap. "Oohs" and "aahs" of anticipation would arise from the gawking onlookers, their noses pressed against the glass.

"Ohs" and "aws" of disappointment would result from the Mousetrap's usual false start or two. But this ruckus was nothing compared to the cheers and applause, the unbridled glee that followed a successful Mousetrap run.

Now, the tales of a betting pool on the number of false starts per week (you could hear them from anywhere in the building) are probably untrue, but Kiewit staffers did begin setting their watches by the daily pilgrimage.

Apparently not enough watches were set for, alas, the old tradition did indeed fail. 1 no longer know the exact whereabouts of that original Mousetrap game, but I feel secure in the belief that it is tucked safely away somewhere in the hidden recesses of the Kiewit basement.

San Diego, Calif.

Whither the Ivy?

Cliff Jordan's article "The 'real world': Ivies in the cold, cold ground" in the January-February issue clarifies the situation very well in clear, no-nonsense prose. Well done, Cliff!

Can you tell us what percentage of football players actually graduate in conferences like the A.C.C., Big Ten, Big Eight — or Penn State, for that matter?

Greensboro, N.C

I enjoyed reading Cliff Jordan's excellent article on why the Ivy League was re-classified from 1-A to 1-AA.

If our athletic directors can prove, even partially, that the N.C.A.A. was influenced by some threat from the College Football Association then the Ivies should resign from Walter Byers' organization.

I agree with Seaver Peters when he says should not get involved with direct grants-inaid for footballers at the expense of other athletes. While other conferences may feel they 216 strengthened by letters of intent, there is plenty of evidence out there that a free financial ride for a chosen few does no particular good especially when, after graduation, these athletes have to compete in the real world without any preferential treatment.

We should not make freshmen eligible for varsity football. Even the great John Wooden with all his coaching success, now says it is more important for them to adjust socially and academically in their first year. Improve recruiting? Yes, with just over 4,000 undergraduates Dartmouth has a big problem in this regard. Only about 4,000, with a hefty percentage of females, makes it tough in recruiting for good male student-athletes. Difficult, but it can be done if coaches, admission officials, and alumni (no promises of cars, apartments, or girl friends here) really work together. Expand the league to ten teams? Okay, but we should try to confine these team choices to New England, New York, and New Jersey. Entrants like Holy Cross and Colgate sound reasonable, if they'll have us, but not the Middleburys, Bowdoins, or Amhersts, albeit they are excellent institutions. Let's get serious about spring practice. Make it permissible and long enough so that come fall our teams won't look like they have just been issued uniforms. As for fretting about bowl and TV coverage, forget it!

Surprisingly, amid all the gloom and doom, the Ivies have done quite well in the pros. Some players from last year — Williams, Lowery, Kemp, and Shula (Dartmouth); Fencik, Spagnola, Hill, Jauron (Yale); Mclnally (Harvard). Two were in the super bowl, Williams and Mclnally, and three made all-pro, Lowery, Mclnally, and Fencik.

Concluding, if all else fails, we could turn our attention to improving other varsity sports. A good example, basketball. Certainly there is not much overhead in fielding a team. that needs five-plus men and requires shorts, jerseys, sneakers, and jockstraps. Maybe we could afford a good enough coach so that he stays on board for more than a year or two. With time, we might even improve enough to gain a bid within our division (like Penn recently) to the N.C.A.A. play-offs. This, of course, is contingent upon whether we can withstand another threat of further re-classification.

Redondo Beach, Calif.

I found Cliff Jordan's article concerning the N.C.A.A.'s demotion of Ivy League football interesting, though Richard Burke's letter in the same issue summed it all up best. For, as my wife said when I mentioned that demotion to her, "Who cares?"

First, we aren't ever again seriously going to be able to challenge the major powers, which means we aren't going to get national attention or ratings or TV coverage. Lately, we've been trying to find some middle ground by playing semi-serious football schools. This doesn't impress the media, it doesn't particularly interest us (most of us would rather see Dartmouth plaIvy rivals) and, these days, we lose. So why do it?

Ivy League football is reasonably interesting thanks to bright coaches and players, a growing equality etween the teams, and occasional stars who wander in, such as Williams orMcInally or Hill. They provide sufficient salt for our diet, and we'll always get some of them. Why not settle for that?

I gather the real problem is financial. Why count on football, to pay for much of the overall athletic program? [lt doesn't at Dartmouth Ed.]

I've never figured out why one sport should be so burdened, but then, I've never figured out why if, for example, collegiate wrestling bores the daylights out of everyone we must field a wrestling team. Let those who want to wrestle wrestle among themselves, thus eliminating travel costs. If nobody goes to college golf matches, have a golf course (which we do) and a part-time instructor and, again, let the golfers of Dartmouth play against the golfers of Dartmouth. Seaver Peters mentions the Ivy's "commitment to intercollegiate athletics" as though that were an obvious desideratum. Somewhere along the line everybody quit asking just why we have, or need, athletic programs in the first place.

I like the concept of "a sound mind in a sound body" and so I recommend picking students who have sound minds (and there go a lot of athletic recruits) and getting them out there playing, through intramurals, thus producing a lot more sound bodies.

As for intercollegiate teams, if a team of Dartmouth's best athletes playing Yale at football or basketball interests enough spectators to pay the bills for running that particular circus, why not? But there's surely no reason for subsidizing a team operating at a loss whose only apparent purpose is to prove that our gang can lick your gang. I keep reading that such teams develop "excellence" in that particular area, which is true — but why not similar intercollegiate competitions to perfect the skills of our potential Clyde Beatty or Flying Wallenda? Is a Joe Namath or an Arnold Palmer somehow more educationally valid as a subject for our serious concern?

This is entertainment. If it entertains so few folk it loses money, follow Major Bowes' rule and give it the gong.

The ALUMNI MAGAZINE reports that only 4 freshman turned out for that football team. If' nobody watches them play and now nobody even wants to be on the team, just what is that team's purpose? Games in the middle of campus between the dorms always benefitted far more Dartmouth students. Worry about those programs.

Weston, Conn.

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