Letters

In Support of Self-interest

What should a student gain from his four years at Dartmouth? According to Edward Shanahan, newly appointed dean, he should have learned to read and write and should have developed an ethics that emphasizes the importance of sacrificing his personal interests to those of society. He made no mention of more profound scholarship and gave no indication of who defines society's interests. Also, he and his interviewer, from the search committee that recommended him, were unanimous in proclaiming that there is no such thing as a "selfmade man." Thus, apparently, there is no individual excellence, no individual merit, and, in fact, no individuality.

The philosophy of the man whose professional function it is to define and uphold a system of morality for Dartmouth students is similar to that of Immanuel Kant. In epistemology, it declares that one knows through feelings or by reference to community standards and not through reason applied to the data of the senses. In ethics, it supports the precept that an action can be moral only to the extent that it serves to retard the personal interests of the man who performs it. The dean may feel that Dartmouth students are privileged, but I am. convinced that they are seriously disadvantaged in so far as they accept any of these doctrines. All men, good or bad, weak or strong, are self-made and all men need the incentive of personal self-interest to inspire the efforts that will bring happiness. Since the mind is man's primary tool of existence, the answer to the question is that a Dartmouth graduate should have learned to think.

Silver Spring, Md.

More About the Movie Issue

It goes without saying that after being involved with film study at Dartmouth for the past sixteen years, I was delighted with your November issue (Dartmouth at the Movies). I am grateful to Dennis Dinan for initiating the idea more than a year ago and overwhelmed with admiration for the extensive research and writing of Rob Eshman '82 who, when Dennis fell ill, returned from California to put the issue to bed. I thought I knew as much about the Dartmouth movie connection as anyone, but this handsome issue, to which assistant editor Shelby Grantham made a contribution, turned up names, facts and photos of which I was never even aware.

There is, however, one unique characteristic of Dartmouth people in film without whose mention the "connection story" would be incomplete. It can be found in Hoboken, N.J., a picturesque (and once low-rent) colony across the Hudson from Manhattan which was discovered by recent graduates of the College before its current chic status.

Eshman mentioned that four former directors of the Film Society have launched their careers in Hollywood. Two other former directors live in Hoboken and are making a go of it, too. Tom Ames '74 works in New York City as a director of photography and has won awards for design of models for three-dimensional animated commercials for the-Carrier Corporation. John Pruitt '74 teaches film aesthetics and criticism at Bard College and is a frequent contributor to avant-garde film journals.

Other alumni in the Hoboken film contingent include Nora Jacobson '74, Jean Passanante '75, Barry Braverman '76 and his wife Debra, MALS '8O. Nora is an independent filmmaker who teaches her craft at the New School for Social Research and Ramapo College. Actress Passanante has appeared in Returnof the Secaucus Seven (which also featured Mark Arnott '72) and Lianna, and has a full-time job as administrator of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights' Conference/ New Drama for TV projects.

Braverman, with his wife, recently completed a film for the National Geographic and his cinematography on a documentary about Leonardo da Vinci will be seen in April on PBS.

In nearby Jersey City live Anne Hallager '8l, who went straight from Dartmouth to a job with the now defunct CBS Cable System and now works for another New York producer; and Steve Oakes '8l, who is busy as a free-lance cinematographer and production manager on commercials and sponsored films.

There are undoubtedly many others who were overlooked (TV producer Howard Weinberg '62, documentarist Kent MacKenzie '56, and the late Lester Koenig '37 come to mind), but all of the above were and are my friends and former students and I would like their names added to the roll call.

Hanover, N.H

Last month, after reading the excellent issue on "Dartmouth at the Movies," I felt constrained to write to you and mention a few small (?) errors of commission, in which I was given credit for accomplishments achieved in Hollywood by others.

Now I feel I must mention two errors of omission, which of course may be excused by the distance involved, and the fact that, like myself, musicians are very derelict in keeping in touch with their classmates.

Mike Melvoin '59 is one of the best jazz pianists in Hollywood, a respected and very articulate member of the Record Academy, and also the musical scorer of many motion pictures - to name a few, Ashanti, The Main Event, and King of the Mountain. Add to this his scoring of many TV movies, and I'm sure you'll agree he belongs in any account of Dartmouth's presence in Hollywood.

I'd also like to mention Frank Marks '32, who played such great piano that he kept me out of the Barbary Coast my first three years. (Jack Gilbert destroyed me in senior year and forced me into leading the Green Serenaders.) Frank came to Hollywood and worked at the Disney Studios for many years as composer and arranger.

I realize that research is difficult without information, but I would like to call attention to the motion picture contributions of these two men. They should be given credit for their accomplishments.

Los Angeles, Calif.

I enjoyed your special issue on Dartmouth at the movies but was greatly disappointed that you gave only a brief name mention of Robert Ryan '32 (in Maury Rapfs piece). No word or picture of Bob Ryan in the section on "Starring" or elsewhere that I could find, although he made something like a hundred pictures and in my view far outshone Starrett and the others mentioned in such films as The Set-Up, HighNoon, and Tender Comrade.

New York, N. Y.

A Gap in the Movie Story

I must congratulate you on a very interesting and informative collection of items in your special issue. Your coverage of the movie industry was almost but not quite complete. I was sorry to see that although you covered all aspects of film production, your story did not touch on the two phases .of the film industry that keep the pictures rolling and produce the profits and the dividends . . . namely, advertising (which includes publicity) and, most importantly, distribution. Without the sales forces in its worldwide operations, there would be no film industry.

I do not know how many, if any, other Dartmouth men were in film distribution, but I started with M.G.M.'s foreign department in 1931. My first assignment after preliminary training was in Brazil. I was then sent to Port- of-Spain, Trinidad, where I opened the first distribution office for any American company. The territory stretched from the Guianas to St. Kitts in the British West Indies. After two years there I was recalled to New York to serve as Assistant to the Foreign Manager.

During World War II, in 1943 I was given leave of absence to join the Office of War Information as Chief of Distribution for the Overseas Branch of the Motion Picture Bureau. In September 1945 I returned to M.G.M. when they reorganized their foreign operations into four zones. I was then made the Coordinator of Affairs for the British Empire countries which covered the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

In 1952 I was sent to England to take over from our man there. I was appointed Chairman and Managing Director. Naturally, I moved my family there and my two sons had the benefit of a British education. They eventually went to Dartmouth and were classes of '62 and '65.

I must say that the ten years in England were great, for in those years living in England was very gracious and relaxed. Besides having the great pleasure of meeting all members of the Royal Family on various film occasions, one of the highlights during my tenure in England was the visit in 1959, I believe, of the Dartmouth rugby team. They made a most impressive showing by winning five out of seven games and caused one newspaper to scream "THE YANKS CAN PLAY RUGBY!"Another paper declared, "This is the worst thing that has happened to the British since the Boston Tea-party." Amongst other things, I arranged a cocktail party for them and the distinguished guest was the Earl of Dartmouth.

West Palm Beach, Fla.

In Praise of Dennis Dinan

According to The New York Times, Dennis A. Dinan '61 is leaving his position as Editor of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. Basically, he is resigning, says the article, because he refuses to change his editorial policies, policies which President McLaughlin argues result in the Magazine's not reporting enough "positive" news about Dartmouth.

Don't Dartmouth alumni tire of reading about bonfires and the 5-5 football team winning a one-third share of the Ivy League crown? Wouldn't it be more representative, and even more interesting, to hear also about the way women and minority students do or do not feel at home in the Dartmouth community? Or how The Dartmouth Review and the alcohol information campaign have affected the student body?

Despite the eternal hope of some alumni, Dartmouth remains a dynamic community which changes with the times and, yes, undergoes growing pains, dealing with changes in the student body and the changing demands of offering a liberal arts education. What is so wrong with being proud of how Dartmouth has dealt with its problems? Why should the ALUMNI MAGAZINE merely be a tool for spewing out boring propaganda about an enchanted kingdom where we pretend that no problems exist?

It seems to us that the Magazine should not merely be a means of telling Dartmouth alumni how great they are, or how much the Dartmouth of today is like the Dartmouth they may have known a generation ago. The Magazine should be a means of communicating the changes Dartmouth has experienced and a forum for the open discussion of ideas about problems which concern us all. There is no reason such a vision of the Magazine need exclude the reporting of the positive aspects of the College; but there is also no reason that such a vision should be restricted by such reporting.

Maybe President McLaughlin should read the small print under the masthead of the Magazine where every month the statement of purpose is reprinted. Dennis Dinan has done a first-rate job of fulfilling that purpose. It is a loss for us all that he has been forced to resign. STEVEN CAMERINO '80

New York, N. Y.

Congratulations to a good friend and classmate, Dennis Dinan, for the outstanding job he's done as editor of the Magazine. For several years now, his leadership and ability have rendered steady improvements in the Magazine's format and the quality of communication with the alumni.

I say "Give a Rouse for" Dennis Dinan and his good work.

Irvine, Calif.

As the wife of a Dartmouth alumnus and mother of two currently enrolled Dartmouth students I am an admiring watcher of the College and reader of its lively ALUMNI MAGAZINE. Dr. JfCemeny's decade as president brought great distinction to the school; the Magazine, under Dennis Dinan's editorship, recorded the events of those years with fidelity and grace. Thanks are owed to Mr. Dinan for his good work and also to the secretary of the class of 61 for making public in the December issue's classnotes some of the distressing circumstances of Mr. Dinan's departure. Evidently academic freedom is not to be extended to the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. I hope that the new editor will be able to maintain the Magazine's standards and that we will not be subjected to the kind of lifeless puffery that makes many other alumni magazines unreadable.

Princeton, III.

When I left Hanover Town 33 years ago I took with me memories of conflicts, deep frustrations, and disappointments along with the joys of modest success and survivorship. We graduating seniors predicted to ourselves that 20 years hence we would be vastly more fond of the College than we were at the time of departure.

In the last ten years I have fulfilled that expectation and have become ever more fond of the College. That has been in large part because of my monthly experience of the College through the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, and that in large measure because it refuses to disabuse me of the memories of pain and conflict of the undergraduate years.

From time to time I read some "house organs" which are flat to the taste and offensive to the mind because they are dishonest. While the ALUMNI MAGAZINE has done its share of puff pieces, I have never sensed it to be dishonest.

Intellectual integrity and the sense of grace are virtually the only two things that I treasure from my Dartmouth experience and I perceive those characteristics in the editorship of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. It saddens me to think that those qualities are dispensable in favor of "positive images." It will be a shame if the editorial policies of the Magazine are allowed to change to the diminishment of its integrity or to the impairment of its ability to reflect the soul of the institution rather than tout for it.

Lansing, Mich.

For the past few years I have been pleasantly amazed at the transformation of the DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE from a very parochial publication into a journal that also includes interesting articles regarding the contributions of Dartmouth alumni to the many facets of our nation's growth.

The ultimate growth of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE was the recent issue regarding the role of our alumni in the film industry. This issue, as regards its breadth and depth, is absolutely the best issue of the Magazine I have ever read.

I find it immensely disturbing that, at the time Dennis Dinan has raised the Dartmouth's magazine to something comparable to those of Harvard, Yale and Princeton, he is asked to resign.

Hanover, N.H

Orozco

In prepar0ation for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jose Clemente Orozco in 1983, I am interested in recollections of alumni and others who witnessed the artist working on the murals in Baker Library 1932 to 1934. Particularly helpful would be any correspondence and photographs or films made during that period. I would very much appreciate your bringing this request to the attention of the readership.

Hanover, N.H.

(Richard Teitz is director of the College's HoodMuseum of Art. Ed.]

Neurons and Liberal Education

Because your magazine has had references to liberal education that bother me, may I tell of a clue to its nature that I got from a course in the philosophy of art. Wondering what "values" (a term Professor Artemas Packard stressed) meant, I concluded it meant distortion. Artists, like all of us, see not photographic images but composite images. This is not a fault. It is the inevitable result of our neural anatomy.

A nerve is not a continuous filament like a wire. It is a chain of cells (neurons) which are not connected. An impulse headed from eye to brain has to make jumps (synapses) as it goes. But neurons have multiple discharge points and multiple receptors so we develop multiple messages along different paths. Some messages go by way of the memory. Some trigger emotions. All end up registering together on the consciousness forming a composite. This is what allows you to see a plate as a plate instead of simply a shape.

Strong stimuli open new synapses. Once a synapse has occurred, a weaker stimulus can go through. An artist, with his own synapses, sees his special image and reproduces it. His work can be the strong stimulus that will open our synapses. A professor, too, is an artist sensitive to his field. His lecture, article or text is his work of art. If his course is effective, it will open new synapses in his student.

My philosophy of art course didn't specify which synapses will allow a student to live an effective life. But surely attitudes and emotions, including intellectual curiosity, the way we handle new data and our attitude toward change, are more important than a memory crammed with facts.

This approach also suggests a way of looking at teachers. Forget dull articles that demonstrate scholarly research. Everyone's nervous system has a fantastic potential. Most operate at a pathetically low level. Ask what the professor did to open up the synapses of his students so their nervous systems work closer to their potential.

New York, N. Y.

Capitalism Centralized?

The thrust of the Alumni-College relationship is toward continuing adult education. I have just read in the December issue that Dr. Donella Meadows, of our faculty, "dislikes big centralized systems, including modern capitalism and communism." I'll buy the idea that communism is centralized. My Polish friends seem to think it is. I wonder if she would expand on the centralization of capitalism in the United States. There are about 2,000 corporations listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a few less on the Amex, and many more on the OTC. The Lord knows how many unlisted companies there are, plus a great ferment of individual entrepreneurs ranging from one like John W. Galbreath down to the Moms and Pops.

Now on to Dr. Garyjohnson, who says "that millions of people (around the world) are utterly indifferent to the very existence of any country, any culture, any way of life other than those they and their ancestors have known; and that from their point of view it makes not the slightest difference what anyone in Washington thinks or does." When we can get many millions of people in this country to be so indifferent, I and President Reagan will jump for joy because that is exactly what he is trying to do: reduce the benign (?) weight, cost, and influence of government on every facet of our lives.

Uniontown, Pa.

St. Paul's Usage

Your December 1982 issue, which has just arrived, includes a piece titled "A Kind of Leaven Foreign Students at Dartmouth." The author states that those foreign students "who are most active would certainly welcome the opportunity to do whatever they can to make their particular piece of leaven somewhat larger, so that they may have a better chance of 'leavening the whole lump,' as that famous traveler, St. Paul/Sao Paulo/San Pablo, so straightforwardly put it."

While the author presumably intended to say something commendable about our foreign students, the meaning of the quoted phrase is quite different in the Apostle Paul's usage, in which leaven signifies evil, corruption, and false teaching by which a whole society may be infected by one member and must be purged.

Surely our foreign students are not evil, but as long as nobody in Hanover understands Paul's meaning, probably no offense has been given. However, as A. Pope observed, "A little learning is a dangerous thing." Better we go with P. Syrus who cautioned, "Better be ignorant of a matter than half know it."

New Smyrna Beach, Via

The Review (Cont.)

Few can question the right of The DartmouthReview, so-called, to publish. However, I for one seriously do question the right of its publishers to use the designation "Dartmouth" in its name without official college authority or sanction.

There is something here that smacks not simply of propriety, but rather of an overt, if subtle, subterfuge. For here is a vehicle presenting by its own admission a partisan, narrow and parochial philosophy while masking itself behind the name of an institution that has always stood for all that is unbiased, tolerant and humanitarian in our country's 207-year history.

Honesty and honor are attributes of the vast majority of Dartmouth men and women. To use "Dartmouth" in the name of a publication, printed in Hanover, implies, at the least, some college connection and approval, which I understand the " Review" does not hold.

Innumerable cases have gone to court over the demeaning of a name, and often with favorable results. If the " Review" cannot be prevailed upon to change its name (to Harvard or Yale, for example), I believe legal action should be undertaken and would like to hear from others who would favor such a course.

New Haven, Conn.

I would like to correct the mistaken impression that Stephen P. Storfer '8O evidently has that there is virtual unanimity among the alumni in being outraged over The DartmouthReview.

There are those of us out here in Alumniland who think the Review is "telling it like it is" and applaud whenever they take a shot at something we consider deserving.

I do not know what loathsome views (sic) he is referring to. Perhaps it is the advocacy of the Dartmouth Indian, or the opposition to lower admission standards, or fraud and waste in the dining-room operations, or incompetence in various places, or outrage over their staffer being bitten by a college official (how uncivilized!), all of which seem eminently defensible to me.

I certainly deplore the excesses and occasional bad taste in the Review, which I would attribute to youthful exuberance and irreverence toward authority. I would certainly urge that they temper these excesses, and in doing so they will serve their cause better.

Mr. Storfer deserves thanks for stating in his well-written letter that the Review has an absolute constitutional right to print its views. As Voltaire said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it!" Unfortunately, this principle has not always been followed at Dartmouth.

Mr. Storfer closed by suggesting that the College sue the Review for libel. Let me remind him that the classic defense for a libel suit is to prove the statement is true.

Pensacola, Fla.

I recently received aft Alumni Issue of TheDartmouth Review, which I regard as useless paraphernalia. Having heard the great debate concerning this publication, I am miffed at the attention it has received.

None of the articles I read was information. The writers chose to present only those issues and opinions which they felt had a potential to shock the reader.

For instance, to have made a rather stereotypical statement about black students rioting against a white professor teaching a course on racism, placed back-to-back with what the editors thought was a humorous "confession" by Williams (the murderer of blacks in Atlanta) is not only silly, but plainly done for pure shock value. The same would be true of the Ted Kennedy quip, which someone dredged up, concerning his whereabouts during Natalie Wood's drowning. Frankly, who cares?

If topics were chosen with some end in mind, it would seem that the criterion was to conclude each argument by showing strong disfavor for the Dartmouth administration and its beliefs and for the institution itself. I would have to ask these students why they remain at Dartmouth if they find it so miserably corrupt? Many views, such as those presented in the Tucker article and the quick note on "GLAD," simply naive and bigoted.

My overall feeling about this publication is that it should not be taken seriously. The writers seem to be shallow, immature, discontent- ed, spoiled students, whose infantile anger should be better directed.

It is truly sad that Dartmouth alumni are supportive of such narrow-mindedness in these students. It seems that these few have missed their opportunity to expand and grow. It is not only their loss, but the College's as well, unless some effort is made to re-stimulate their minds toward a more productive end.

Los Angeles, Calif.

Not Welcome

I recently received a copy of The DartmouthReview. I can understand that, in the name of academic freedom, you or the College had to make the names of alumni available. However, I would like to make it clear that that type of unpleasant, misinformed "journalism" is not welcome in our home. Having lived in Hanover for many years, I remember that undergraduates need to rebel in order to differentiate, but I do not like being on their mailing list! Along with the money advantage of living in Hanover, I feel you guys also have to put up with their growing pains. So please help me get our name off their list.

Grot on, N. Y.

{The Review has compiled its own mailing list.Names and addresses of alumni are restricted by theCollege to its own official use. Ed.}

Commemoration Overdue

Few latter-day poets have expressed the spirit of Dartmouth more beautifully than Franklin McDuffee, 1921, who wrote the words of Dartmouth Undying.

McDuffee was a most talented man. He won the Newdigate poetry prize at Oxford, before he ever graduated from Dartmouth. This is a prize that was won by Matthew Arnold, Oscar Wilde, and other leading English poets. McDufFee had 27 poems published in the Bema, and undoubtedly produced other works. But to this day, neither an anthology of his poems nor even a brief biography has ever been published.

I would be glad to serve as a collection agency for such anecdotes as may be obtainable from his classmates and students. He died in February 1940 and is probably the least honored major Dartmouth talent. Aside from the publication of an anthology of his work, I would like to see a bust of McDuffee placed in a suitable location, possibly in the Hood Museum.

As a student and as a teacher at Dartmouth, McDuffee was a lover of Dartmouth. He wrote Dartmouth Undying at the request of President Hopkins.

As a freshman, I knew McDuffee briefly. During Delta Alpha week in 1920, he wrote poems which freshmen had to recite before performing various functions. He lived at College Hall and on entering this building, then a dormitory, these sonorous words were recited by freshmen, on bended knee:

"Here before your lofty portals O Ye Gods of College Hall, I the lowliest of mortals Doff my baby bonnet small."

I trust Dartmouth can do something to commemorate McDuffee's life and work.

White Plains, N. Y.

Dissatisfied Reader

I think your sports coverage is lousy, especially the football. Down here with Dartmouth relegated to second class, along with Amherst and Williams, by the NCAA we have no way of knowing about the games, who scored what, who were the stars, etc. Try to get somebody with a little football background who knows the names Marsters, Oberlander, McLeod, Gates, and Earl Blaik before the athletic program was sunk by Dr. Kemeny. There are still those of us who believe that a college is run by other things than computers and robots. Frankly, if I had to pay for the Magazine, I wouldn't.

Palm Beach, Fla

"Buster" Fountain

I'm sure that the death, after more than 50 years of service, of "Buster" Fountain will awaken vivid and grateful memories in all who will recall his distinction as preparer of experiments in the freshman chemistry course in Steele laboratory. Buster was a perfectionist and his estimate of the time to detonation of the miscalled "hydrogen bomb" would drive the NASA to envy for its fascinating uncertainty. There must be doctors, engineers, and scientists all over the world who will realize the loss suffered in the death of Buster Fountain on January 5.

New Hampshire Professor of

Chemistry, Emeritus

Hanover, N.H

An Aesthetic Delight

Jane Holmes and I wish to express our earnest appreciation of the performance of the Dartmouth Chamber Singers, broadcast December 20 over CBS radio. Too often one must merely tolerate music on the air waves, especially during the season of the winter solstice either that or switch it off, which sometimes is preferable.

The program cited above was an aesthetic delight.

Winterport, Me.