Letters

The Editorial Board

Over the past several months I have read with some concern the various letters to the Editor regarding the Darthouth Alumni Magazine's editorial freedom, and the departure of Dennis Dinan. While I am not interested in providing yet another interpretation of what is now history, I am concerned that alumni know where the Magazine stands today.

What rose from the ashes of the firestorm surrounding Dennis' departure was a new charter for the Magazine. This charter was initially conceived by an ad hoc committee of concerned alumni appointed by the president of the Alumni Council. It was approved in its final form by President McLaughlin and the owners of the Magazine, the Board of Trustees.

The centerpiece of that charter is a new eleven member Editorial Board which will be responsible for establishing editorial guidelines and advising the Editor on sensitive editorial issues. Each member is elected by the Trustees. Through the President, who consults with the Board, the Trustees may hire and fire the Editor. While the Administration and the Trustees will have representatives on the Board, the majority of the members at all times will be alumni representing various class officers associations and the Alumni Council. Decisions will be by majority vote.

The charter endorses the editorial independence of the Magazine and, for the first time in its history, provides a formal mechanism through which sensitive editorial questions can be addressed and resolved.

Having been part of this process as a member of the aforementioned committee, my hope is that the Magazine will emerge as a stronger, more vibrant, and more independent entity as a result of this process.

Boston, Mass.

Images

The debate rages on over whether or not the does or should reflect

"the College image." Is there really only one? Dartmouth means many things to many people, as well it should. I, for one, am pleased to see a more varied collection of Dartmouth images appearing in your recent notes.

In particular, it was a pleasure to read Mary Ross's profile of Ray Clark ("Strict Constructionist") and the Tonkovich family's perspectives of Paul Binder's circus ("Ladieees & Gentlemen . . . ") in the September issue. While I respect and admire the various business people, lawyers, and scientists who are normally profiled in the Alumni Album, I have often wondered why those who took roads less travelled by weren't also represented.

I hope that the September issue is a hint of more diverse alumni profiles to come. Not only are they interesting to read, they also reinforce the fact that it's perfectly acceptable to be different. Many Dartmouth alumni restrict themselves to a lifestyle that perpetuates a perceived Dartmouth image when in fact their horizons could be much broader. What better way to tickle their imagination than by profiling fellow alumni who've taken a step in another direction?

Salem, Mass.

I'm not a "Letters to the Editor" writer but two items have stirred feelings of malaise within me that must be aired.

At the onset of the Cornell game, the very colorful Dartmouth Marching Band (the only game in town that day) paraded over and faced the Cornell stands and delivered a parody to a beautiful song: "Far Above Cayuga's Waters" that can only be characterized as hackneyed, boorish, and the epitome of bad taste.

I find it hard to believe that (if indeed a parody must be done) there is no one on the Hanover campus that could come up with something that would not resort to gutter doggerel.

Item number two was the abundant sporting of the Dartmouth painters-type caps at the Harvard game (some were present at the Cornell game too). These caps had a positive comment to make about Dartmouth on the front (in green) and lettered on the back (in red) "Harvard sucks."

Surely this, as the above, ranks as mindless drivel and with a little thought, I am sure that something of better taste can be created.

My limited contacts with the Dartmouth community are usually occasions of the purest pleasure, but things like these make me ask myself: "Is this really the image my alma mater wishes to present to the world?" I certainly hope not. It makes me embarrassed to tell people where I went to college.

Concord, Mass.

A New Symbol?

Since 1971 or thereabouts there has been a void at Dartmouth. As trivial as it may seem, Dartmouth needs a symbol. Let us bury the tomahawk and come up with a replacement for the deceased Indian.

The decision to terminate the Indian, not unlike the decision to become coeducational, has been made and is irreversible. Rather than long for a return to the past, which will not happen, let. us look to the future with renewed vigor.

One symbol which appeals to me is the "Tutor." I think of Dartmouth as a teaching institution with the kind of "hands on" involvement evoked by the word "tutor." Although the "Tutors" seems an appropriate symbol to me, maybe it doesn't fit the bill. However, one thing is certain; "Big Green" is all right once in a while, but it does not fit the bill either.

There are other issues such as ROTC and fraternities which are not dead and which, I hope, will be subjected to close scrutiny by discerning minds. I continue to believe that Dartmouth is a unique institution of higher learning blessed with a unique loyalty of alumni who can make a difference in the destiny of the school. Not unlike a board of directors, Dartmouth's alumni cannot effectively run the daily business of the College; however, by communicating with classmates and others, interviewing and promoting local scholar-athlete-leader types, raising money for Dartmouth and lending a helping hand to recent graduates, Dartmouth's alumni will continue to exert perceptible influence over matters that really count.

Montpelier, Vt.

On Fraternity Constituencies

So the chair of the Fraternity Board of Overseers says, "There are strong constituencies in the undergraduate, the administrative and alumni bodies that are very anti-fraternity. They're fed up." Well, OK. Maybe so. But what about anyone in any of those bodies who isn't fed up? The chair, Mr. Edward Scheu, is ready for such ilk. He says, "Don't get me wrong there is a hard-core group of Alumni just like the ones who back the Review who will back the fraternities to the end." What rhetoric.

Does Mr. Scheu mean that anyone not antifraternity is pro-Review? That pro-fraternity is anti-Review? Does he mean that there is a certain, identifiable type of alumnus who can be neatly labeled as "hard-core" then dismissed as some sort of poor, misguided boob? I am sure Mr. Scheu has met or communicated with many on the Hanover Plain including high administrative officials. Do his comments reflect a certain existent but unstated feeling about these so called "hardcore" alumni on the part of the administration?

There appears to be an implication in Mr.Scheu's comments that unless one agrees with a certain (official) point of view in a given situation, one is disloyal or even undesirable as a member of the Dartmouth Family.

I, for one, am not pro or anti-fraternity sorority at this point, but I am certainly concerned that a full, ongoing, enlightened presentation of the issues at hand be made, free of innuendo and with intellectual honesty.

When the chair of the FBO, a supposed leader of no small influence, seems to possess the communications skills of a James Watt and possibly a very unhealthy attitude about those who might reach a point of view different than his own, an explanation or clarification of his meaning would seem to be in order. Whatever controversy may be generated by the fraternity-sorority issue, there should be none concerning those leading the discustsion.

Sylvania, Ohio

Scholar-Athletes

About a year ago I wrote to my good friend "Ort" Hicks '21, and VP emeritus of the College, suggesting that something should be done to correct the inconsistency in football recruiting practices among the Ivy League schools my strong feeling being that too often Dartmouth, in its effort to abide by the Ivy League code gets the short end of the stick!

My suggestions were that provided a student athlete maintains a satisfactory scholastic grade, possibly not less than 2.4 he should be given every consideration possible for opportunities to get through four years of college with a minimum of expense to him and his family, depending upon need.

Comparisons between my day and the present are, of course, ridiculous, but the principle then was to provide jobs, both to earn one's meals and to earn funds for other expenses. While known only as a "walk-on" athlete, once I made the freshman football team, our coach, "Fat" Spears, and the director of athletics, "Jigger" Pender, soon gave me an opportunity to wash dishes in an eating club, and to earn up to $15.00 a week working part time in the Horace Partridge sporting goods store. That was nearly enough to get me through my freshman year, since the tuition then was $140.00 a year! To my knowledge there were no athletic scholarships available at that time.

With the enormous expansion of the College in recent years, there must be hundreds of jobs in Hanover for which the College is directly responsible, that could be made available to a qualified student/athlete to fill. Moreover, I see no reason why at least 20 or 30 scholarships a year should not be given to such qualified athletes.

I am not suggesting that Dartmouth should attempt to compete with the Division I schools which have become, in my opinion, merely farms for the professional leagues, and which openly award 90 full athletic school arships a year, but there must be a happy medium somewhere which would permit the College to regain the traditions established in the twenties and beyond of first rate football teams which could again become a dominant factor in eastern circles.

Nevertheless, as I received my first BigGreen Sports News, I was astonished at the progress Dartmouth has made in all the other sports, especially those for the girls. That picture of a winning girls crew reestablished my feeling of pride in "that small College and the many who will always love it"!

Delray Beach, Fla.

Every family, church, and College has an "Ort" Hicks!

Bless you, Orton H. Hicks, for your great contribution to all matters Dartmouth.

Quechee, Vt.

Freedom of Ideas

The June 1983 issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE was instructive, as always. On page 33, I was treated to the words of guru Kurt Vonnegut, declaring that he hopes "eventually to destroy the American army as an effective fighting force." Since Mr. Vonnegut is a writer, I must infer that he hopes to do so by nonviolent means. On the ot her hand, someone might explain to me whyhis words are ac ceptable in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, but the countervailing rhetoric (i.e., speech) of the Dartmouth Review is not. Mr. Vonnegut's words offend me as mightily as the conduct of the Review offends at least several other alumni and undergraduates. The point is: freedom of ideas. People ought to stop being so uptight about the Review. Like Vonnegut, it's another part of the Dartmouth landscape.

San Francisco, Calif.

On the Subject of Fences

In my opinion, and with due respect to my elders: Mr. Sleigh Jr. '25 (Alumni Magazine, June) has assumed at least two incorrect stands.

He criticized Mr. Drinan for criticizing the foreign policy of this nation. I have read intensely on this subject and have thus far failed to find that this country has any "foreign policy" as such. Trying in vain to stamp out brush fires all over the world, meanwhile pouring gasoline on them, does not constitute a policy. It does, however, equate with frantic, untutored, naive idiocy.

On the subject of fences: perhaps Robert Frost did indeed say (what was the rest of the context?) that "Strong fences make good neighbors." I have two reports on that. Fences can and do make alienated neighbors or none at all. Moreover, the original owner of my property put up a cyclone fence, against an end. Nobody has any trouble going around, over, under, and through it. So much for strong fences!!

Glen Head, N. Y.

What should we do with a Dartmouth man who, even though perhaps unintentionally, seriously distorts, and slightly misquotes, Robert Frost?

In the lead letter in the September Alumni Magazine, William B. Sleigh Jr. '25, in support of nuclear capability, wrote: "This is in line with Robert Frost's note that 'Strong fences make good neighbors.' "

The crucial point William Sleigh missed is that Frost had his neighbor quote the catchy cliche "Good fences make good neighbors" only so that Frost could spend the rest of the poem soliloquizing in devastating rebuttal.

Sanibel, Fla.

1957's String Quartet

Thirty years ago as a new faculty member and chairman of the Music Department, I helped welcome four musical students entering in the class of 1957. Beginning in 1953 these students stayed together for four years as players in the only student string quartet then in the Ivy League. During that time they played concerts of the classic literature at Dartmouth, at out of town places like Bethel and Randolph, Vt., and on one occasion presented a string quartet written by Benjamin Franklin (!) before the American Studies Association at Old Sturbridge, Mass.

Today these four men are distinguished in widely diverse careers but still play musical ensemble. Robin Saphir, first violinist and instigator of the undergraduate foursome, received his M.D. from Harvard and now heads cardiology at Herrick Hospital, Bereley, Calif. Second violinist Randolf Aires, following Tuck and Jaw school, now serves Sears, Roebuck as vice president of government affairs in Washington. Arthur Man they, the third violinist, became a Ph.D. in electro-physiology and presently holds a research post in Memphis. The cellist of the group, Gordon Bjork, after some years at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and then as president of Linfield College, Ore., is Lovelace Professor of Economics in the Claremont (Calif.) Colleges. High amateur standards are transferable to professional excellence.

Twenty years after the class of 1957 group began functioning, the Concord String Quartet brought its prestige and deepened insights to the College scene. The student quartet, it appears, was a herald of things to come in learning at Dartmouth.

Hanover, N.H.