Letters

Drinan's Unfounded Criticism

In the ALUMNI MAGAZINE for June, Fr. Robert Drinan is quoted as saying: "there is something wrong with our foreign policy ... a nation cannot have a foreign policy based on the threat of annihilation of 200 million people." I have neither read nor heard any statement by any U.S. president or secretary of state at any time which suggested that our government has any such policy.

As I understand our national policy with respect to nuclear capability, it is rather a policy which dictates that if we are attacked, we will defend ourselves by every appropriate means at our disposal, including, if necessary, nuclear reprisal. This is in line with Robert Frost's note that "Strong fences make good neighbors."

Unfounded criticism of the flamboyant type used by Fr. Drinan serves no useful purpose and obscures the real issues in the debate.

Marblebead, Mass.

Racism at Dartmouth

As I read the May issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, I was quite disturbed that Jean Korelitz was the victim of such misguided abuse. I was also surprised to learn that other less than cordial letters had been sent to Korelitz concerning her article in the March "Undergraduate Chair."

Korelitz's article does not begin to tell of the many problems facing a black student at Dartmouth College. One might say that racism happens everywhere and therefore Dartmouth is just like everywhere else. But I can not settle for that explanation. Never has Dartmouth settled for mediocracy. As a leading liberal arts institution, we should strive to do better than other schools in every aspect. We search for the best students, faculty, student government, deans, and curriculum. We spend money on alcohol concerns, nuclear war issues, and reunions. We build museums, alumni centers, and social science buildings. Why can't we search for mutual understanding, spend money on race relations and attempt to build a sense of community?

Too many times white students and alumni assume that black students have a chip on their shoulders and do not want to be considered a part of the Dartmouth, this is not always the case. More often than not black students are constantly reminded that they are not necessar- ily accepted as a legitimate part of the Dart- mouth community. Being called a nigger on several occasions in my Dartmouth career has reminded me that even I am not accepted by many of my peers as part of the Dartmouth family.

As one who graduated in June I can only be thankful that Jean Korelietz took the time to write about a problem that many students do not realize and/or are not willing to discuss. Many of those who bothered to argue about the particulars of Korelitez's article are really missing the point or trying to escape the issue. The problem that we all must face is that racism is alive, well, and living at Dartmouth and will continue to thrive until we all decide to do something constructive about it.

I am not looking for pity. I am looking for a greater sense of awareness.

Hanover, N.H.

One paragraph in the article on racial diversity at Dartmouth by Steve Farnsworth '83 deserves comment.

Referring to the "racist antics" of the Dartmouth Review, Mr. Farnsworth produces the following substantiation:

"The conservative weekly which has featured a cover photo of a burning cross, published an interview with a leader of the Ku Klux Klan, and printed a staged picture of a black being lynched has created an unpleasant environment for blacks" at Dartmouth.

Period. One would never guess from this treatment that the issue of the Review in question condemned the Klan editorially, or that the pictures of the burning cross and the victim of lynching were meant to illustrate an article (unmentioned by Farnsworth) about the Klan's long history of violence. The interview with the Klan leader was conducted by a black Dartmouth senior, and it exhibited the Klansman in all of his absurdity. Since the Klan at the time this issue of the Review appeared had been trying to cause trouble in northern New England, the paper's coverage was timely, and entirely contrary to the impression Farnsworth labors to convey it certainly was not recommending fiery crosses and lynchings.

If, indeed, the general public, including potential minority applicants to Dartmouth, believes that a "racist" newspaper is being published by undergraduates here, well, that is entirely understandable. After all, official College publications are constantly telling the just that.

The Dartmouth Review in its brief career has certainly taken sides on many controversial issues. I can think of supply-side economics, abortion, the MX, reverse discrimination, feminism, the Dartmouth calendar, the curriculum, and the Indian symbol. Most recently, it has attacked the censorship of the Hovey Grill murals. It has printed a factual analysis of the absurdly one-sided presentation of the "nuclear freeze issue last year, in which we had about a ten-to-one ratio of speakers in favor of the freeze.

Not at all surprisingly, it is easier to lie about the paper and its student staff by calling them racists" than it is to argue with them on the issues.

Isn't it about time, in view of the Jean Kore_lietz fiasco, and now the Farnsworth absurdity, that the ALUMNI MAGAZINE cut it out?

Hanover, N.H.

College Legends

Please refer to Ted Winterer's article "Whitewater Racing" in the April issue in which he states, "Evans more than deserves to be enshrined alongside such College legends as Myles Lane 28, the Hall of Fame hockey player, and Rudy LaRusso '59, the NBA star." Mr. Winterer should get his facts straight. Myles Lane is not only enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but also in the Football Hail of Fame. He and Hobey Baker are the only two who share this distinction. With, all due respect to Eric Evans accomplishments, he's not in the same league with Myles Lane! Neither is LaRusso.

Frank Lakes, N.J.

The Wheelock Murals

I thought we went through this a couple of years ago. So the College is "thwarted by the presence of the Eleazar Wheelock murals." Now isn't that just too bad! I have decided that this action is just one step too many in the College's attempt to please everyone who protests, complains, demurs, etc., about something which is "objectionable."

You just cannot please all the people all the time. My contribution to the Alumni Fund will not be mailed to Hanover this year. It will go into a savings account, to be added to each year, until such time as it seems to me that reasonable policy prevails. It saddens me to do this, breaking a string of 28 consecutive years of contributing to the Alumni Fund.

Tarrytown, N. Y.

Defining "Liberal" in the Liberal Arts

When I applied to Dartmouth in 1937 I was under the impression that it was a superior liberal arts college. While I was there I had a superior liberal arts experience for which I continue to be grateful. I am under the impression that Dartmouth still is, or claims to be, a good liberal arts college. Unfortunately it appears from the letters to the editor of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE that many people graduate from the College without an appreciation for what their education was supposed to be and without having experienced the liberation that such an education is supposed to provide.

It is my understanding that one of the fundamental outcomes of a college such as Dartmouth was, and I hope still is, is the learning to be open to new ideas. The "liberal" of liberal arts or liberal education meant freeing from the shackles of the preconceived notions and the prejudices we had acquired in the process of growing up (to the exalted age of eighteen or thereabouts).

In the minds of some of my fellow alumni, it would appear, to be liberal is to be some kind of a nut, if not actually something more reprehensible. than that. To be open to new ideas, even in a rapidly changing world, is seen by some of those who write letters to the editor, at least, as dangerous to the future of our country. Over the years it has been asserted that it is subversive of all that is good for Dartmouth to become a coeducational institution, to give up the Indian symbol (which I am a bit sorry about), and more recently to raise questions about the opinions expressed in the Dartmouth Review.

Perhaps it can be asserted more convincingly that in a changing world, it is more subversive of the ideals of our society to refuse to face the changing environment. American industry has been going through a difficult period in part because it refused to face new conditions openly. Take the American automobile industry as an example, which still can't seem to see its way clear to developing the safe, functional, efficient vehicle that Americans need and want.

American productivity will be severely inhibited if society's leaders continue to take as negative a view of change in organization and technique as many do, including some Dartmouth alumni, to suggested changes in social organization. Indeed what America needs is more graduates of good liberal arts colleges who can think creatively and openly about the present and future. We do not need more graduates who refuse to question things and who assume that as we did it a century ago we should do it now and forever.

The Dartmouth Review poses a special problem for "the liberal," of whom I hope I can count myself one. It involves freedom of speech, which most of us want for ourselves but some of us do not want for those who disagree with us. Personally as a "liberal" I am revolted by the overt contempt for minorities and women (and "liberals"?) which appears in its pages. But as a liberal (or is it as a conservative in this case?) I must defend the Constitution and its guarantee of the right of the publication to pour out its poison, counting, as many of our great leaders of the past and present have done, on the ability of the good and the true to win out over pettiness and falsehood in the marketplace of ideas.

Westminster, Md.

The Dinan Affair (cont.)

I held no brief for Mr. Dinan's editorship. I preferred the Widmayer era. I agree, though, with C.S. Wren's comment in the May issue that the president owes the alumni a fuller explanation for his role in Dinan's departure.

Bethesda. Md.

My wife and I greatly enjoyed being in Hanover for my 50th. Things at Dartmouth are certainly much better than the former editor of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE had sometimes implied. It was very impressive to see William J. Dent '13 "lead the parade," although I am sorry that the late John J. Remsen '13 couldn't be there, as I know he had wished.

Wading River, N. Y.

Please count me among those who believe that the College and its new president acted in an authoritarian, illogical, anti-intellectual, counter-productive, and shameful manner in the sacking of Editor Dennis Dinan. When Dinan was editor, I trusted the MAGAZINE and, by extension, the College. Now, neither.

Washington, D.C.

As a member of the former Advisory Board to the DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, I wanted to send in my resignation as soon as I heard of the outrageous treatment of Dennis Dinan by my classmate, David McLaughlin. Unlike some of my colleages, I didn't think of it as a freedom of the press issue. The ALUMNI MAGAZINE must always walk a fine line between reporting on the college administration and representing its interests; it is accountable both to the administration and to us, the alumni, and we must believe in its honesty and judgment if we are to remain part of the Dartmouth community. As far as I was concerned, both as a journalist and an alumnus, Dennis performed this delicate task admirably. My fellow members of the advisory board, all of them professional journalists and alumni, agreed. None of us was told by President McLaughlin that there was any problem with the MAGAZINE, and he did not consult us in any way before Dennis was given his ultimatum. It was really a power grab: the president wants to control the information that goes to the alumni, and with his ultimatum to Dennis, he has served notice to Dennis's successor how the job should be done. There will be no more controversy in the MAGAZINE, nothing that could be construed as bad news. The alumni should be fat and happy and in a mood to sign checks. It is both sad and ironic that this great College should have picked as its president a man who doesn't trust its graduates to deal with uncensored facts.

The members of the Advisory Board protest- ed Dennis's treatment, wrote flurries of letters and consulted by telephone. Should we resign in a body? No, said the voice that prevailed; not now. What has happened is awful, it's a terrible blow to the College, but McLaughlin didn't mean it the way it looks, and there is to be a search for a new editor, and before that happens we'll have a new charter for the MAGAZINE, and that will make it clear that the president doesn't run the MAGAZINE. If you resign now, you'll only be rocking the boat and making it harder to come up with a good solution.

So I waited. The search committee found two candidates for editor, and long before there was any new charter for the MAGAZINE, Presi- dent McLaughlin picked the one he preferred. Then the new charter was produced. It sets up an editorial board so big and representing so many constituencies that it might be able to agree that the sun is shining; and it gives this panel only a consulting role in the choice or dismissal of an editor, with absolute power of hiring and firing vested in the president. After what happened to Dennis, who was in effect fired without even a listing of his offenses, any new editor would have to be a fool not to know what is expected of him: simply to toe the line.

As the new charter puts it. (italics mine): "1. The Editor shall be appointed or dismissed in the following manner:

"(a) when there is a vacancy or anticipated vacancy in the position the Editorial Board, after consulting with the President, shall act as the search committee for a new editor.

"(b) The search committee shall recommend to the President candidates that it feels are well qualified until the President agrees on one and appoints him or her Editor.

"(c) After full consultation with the Editorial Board, or upon the direction of the College Board of Trustees, the President may dismiss the Editor for violation, or serious or repeated misinterpretation, of the MAGAZINE'S editorial policies.

"(d) For any of the following the President may dismiss the Editor after first discussing thematter with the Editorial Board's chairman: (1) violation of any law involving moral turpitude. (2) a continuing and incapacitating illness, (3) mismanagement that endangers the financial viability of the MAGAZINE or seriously weakens its operations or (4) any other like cause not involving editorial policy."

In sum, the President can fire the editor for any reason at all, provided he mentions it in advance not to the full editorial board, but to the chairman alone.

All this being clear, I was ready to resign. But my temporizing colleague pointed out, with an admirable touch of regret, that of course there was nothing to resign from any more; our advisory board was defunct. I had been a fool: in a position where the only service I could do the college was to resign, I had let myself be tricked. I apologize to all the readers of this MAGAZINE. I hope sincerely that Douglas Greenwood will prove to be a fine editor, and that all the protestations from him and from President McLaughlin about the MAGAZINE's "independent voice" will prove to be more than lip service. But the MAGAZINE will have to prove that, and the proof will be difficult.

New York, N. Y.

As a member of the former Alumni Advisory Board of the DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE and as a professional journalist, I have watched the past year's developments at the magazine with considerable despair.

I very much regret the conditions under which Dennis Dinan, who edited this magazine with imagination, style, skill, and integrity, left his position. For the record, President McLaughlin chose not to consult with the alumni Advisory Board at any time during the Dinan affair and then declined even to inform members of the board that any action had been taken with regard to Mr. Dinan.

Since then, some members of the advisory board have tried, apparently without success, to persuade the College administration that a vibrant, independent alumni magazine is vital to the College and to its alumni. It has become increasingly clear to me, in fact, that the College administration does not believe that the free exchange of ideas and information the ideal that animates the life of the College applies to this magazine. I am troubled, moreover, by increased talk of "the College's image" and of the distinction, made by officials at the highest levels of the College administration between "good news" and "bad news."

This spring I was invited to join the newly constituted editorial board. I declined to do so. The new charter offers no assurances that the president of the College could not again take unjustified and unilateral action and fire the editor of this magazine if he failed to present the College in a sufficiently positive light.

I still believe there was no basis for complaint with the way Mr. Dinan edited the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. The College has lost a great editor, but the current College administration has lost a great deal more the trust of a number of Dartmouth's alumni.

Chevy Chase, Md.

In regard to the Dennis Dinan resignation as editor of the DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, I believe my husband Millard (Newc) Warner Newcomb '21, T '22, Delta Tau Delta, would endorse President David McLaughlin's right and privilege to insist that those in his administration carry out the aims and purposes that he and others in his administration have determined to be in the best interests of the college.

(MRS. MILLARD W. NEWCOMB '21)

Bay City, Mich.

I am amazed to read on page 26 of your magazine for May 1983 the note about Professor Cole where your author observed that the reporter had attended his course "without his knowledge." I had assumed that a professor at Dartmouth College would be perfectly willing to have his lecture videotaped for general distribution. Are we to believe that Professor Cole gives one lecture if he thinks there is an outsider present and another if not?

I thought this sort of thing left with Dinan. The extra copy of this letter is for Charles Widmayer, my very old friend.

Burlington, Vt.

The groves of Academe grow curiouser and curiouser. Dartmouth invites the Russian Ambassador to the U.N. to speak. The College opens its arms and the number one gown in town makes the introduction. Smith College uninvites our Ambassador to the U.N., telling her she wouldn't be safe. I suppose it is this new thing about breaking kneecaps.

Mr. Troyanovsky said the Russians are a peace-loving people. If they are so peace loving, why do they put up with those crazy parades their rulers stage on each May Day and each November 7? According to the"new" ALUMNI MAGAZINE, he also said that we are the villains

"in the arms race." Did he report on the Russian successes in chemical warfare and other advanced techniques being tested in Afghanistan? It get curiouser and curiouser.

Uniontown, Pa.

I was appalled to learn of the firing of the MAGAZINE'S editor earlier this year. I now read my copy in a new and cynical light, knowing that the news between those glossy car ads is carefully managed to project the right image.

There's one positive note, though. It does raise a fundamental issue, the difference between business and education. In business, the end of profit justifies almost any means. In education, profit is non-existent; the end is often vague (a "liberal education"), but the means are all-important. One of those means is absolute freedom of verbal expression. That freedom is present in no other area of society; so the university is a sanctuary for free discourse, and its executives have to be the custodians of that sanctuary.

The ALUMNI MAGAZINE is an extension of the Dartmouth education; For most of us, the only one we have. I'd like to see it represent the editorial freedom we expect from a free press. I continue to await corrective action in this matter. .

Stockton Springs, Me.

{ln response to letters from a number of alumni,President McLaughlin wrote, in part, earlier thisspring:

"Essentially, the differences between Dennis and the administration stemmed from our respective perceptions of guidelines that were established for the ALUMNI MAGAZINE in. 1980 under John Kemeny's presidency. Those guidelines called for the Editor to work closely with the senior officers of the College in order to have the MAGAZINE reflect fully the nature of the College. It was the feeling of a number of administrators and deans and one that I shared that Dennis' performance in that respect had room for improvement and that he needed to recognize the fact that the College is the publisher of the MAGAZINE. Dennis apparently believed that his independence would be compromised by acknowledging this historic relationship even though the editorial independence of the publication was fully recognized and preserved. In view of that, Dennis was even unwilling to try to work within that framework for a period of time to determine if it was acceptable. In all of this there was never any intent to limit his editorial independence or impose pressures on him regarding the content of the journal."

To another correspondent, the President wrote:

"With reference to your letter I should clarify for you that Dennis Dinan was not fired as Editor of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, but that he did resign voluntarily that position. The issue of editorial independence was not a determining factor in this matter since the right of the editor to print what he or she felt was appropriate was never in question. If there was disagreement, it related to whether or not the editor should have access to and have an obligation to understand the views, opinions, and rationale for policy decisions on the part of our senior administrative officers. Dennis felt that to have knowledge of the views of the senior administrators would compromise his ability to write objectively, whereas many of us took the opposite view and felt that such knowledge was essential to the proper functioning of the MAGAZINE. Dennis was given an opportunity to work within this redefined system for a period of time and I regret that he elected not to do so, for I believe that he would have found it to be totally satisfactory." Ed.}

Dartmouth Ruggers No Apologies Needed

The Dartmouth Rugby Football Club recently completed a five match tour of southern England. As an alumnus and ex-rugger myself, I was, of course, proud to see a Dartmouth team competing here in England and surprised, I might add, at the unexpectedly high standard of their play as compared with other American touring sides. It is no doubt a bit silly, but still it really is a marvelous thing to see a.Dartmouth man with the ball, be it English rugby or American football, underneath his opponent's goal posts.

I was proudest, however, of the way in which the men of the Club represented the College both On and off the field. Like many expatriate Americans, I often find myself cast in the role of an apologist for my own countrymen. There were no apologies needed for this group. They met their opponents fairly both on and off the field in the best traditions of the game, leaving an impression of friendly intelligence, reserved self-assurance, and good manners that is a credit to the College and their country. As a longterm resident of Britain, I know the value of the quiet "well done" which followed the team on its tour this spring.

London, England

Dartmouth on Everest

That's a great article "Dartmouth on Mt. Everest" and long overdue. Read it with great interest, as do all old Outing Clubbers. Those were thrilling days which need not be ended! My own interest started with a first solo climb inadvertantly of Mt. Disappointment in the Tetons, and then Brad Washburn's Mt. Crillon expeditions. But I'm no mountaineer.

Being a geologist, now retired, but very active, I have to object to your paragraph at the bottom of page 31, lower left: "geology department, something Dartmouth was just developing in those days." Dartmouth had the leading department in the 1920s and 1930s for New England. It may have had only 4 to 6 member professors and 2 or 3 instructors, but on a perthousand-student basis it was bigger and stronger than any others in the east. Each prof had an appropriate specialty, but there were no graduate students.

Geology has many specialties proliferated since 1950. Dartmouth and Yale were the places to go if you wanted to specialize in glacial geology and glaciology which wrap around all very high mountains. But with the death of my dad, and of Dick Flint at Yale later, both chose to drop that specialty they were preeminant in. By choice they both dropped the ball! So did Cincinnati after John Rich died! And CRREL finds Engineering (Thayer School) its closest ally at Dartmouth!

W olfeboro, N.H,

I read your article by Fritz Hier {"Dartmouth on Mt. Everest," May] with anticipation that soon turned to disappointment. It tackled a lofty subject, and soon brought it down to the plain ordinary.

I didn't think there was much reason. for writing the piece in the first place. The ascent was covered very well in Tom Hornbein's TheWest Ridge, and most of your article's mountaineering sections sounded like a limp paraphrase of the book. If you use original material as a springboard, you have to add a new slant, or write the story better. The article did neither..

I also had the vague feeling that Hier started his research by writing the "eventual-Everesters," as he calls them, and got the kind of pointless biographies usually wished on our long-suffering class secretaries. Barry Corbet said "[Everest] led to divorce, then re-marriage, and re-divorce [same woman]. It also led a life in film work." My God, there's a novel right there! But did Hier push on? He did not. He ends the sentence by writing "... he says, somewhat cryptically." You're damned right, that's cryptic! So get on the phone, and find out some more!

Finally, the article admits, "Dartmouth itself was a 'non-item' on the Everest expedition, according to all the participants." Doesn't this tend to make your article something of a "nonitem" as well?

I am a mountaineer and a journalist, and am writing for the UC-Berkeley alumni magazine, CALIFORNIA MONTHLY." UC'S magazine is more lively, more literate, has better body type, and much better photography. I have fond memories of the DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, having contributed many photographs to it when I was in Hanover. But reading the Hier article doesn't give me much hope for its improvement.

Oakland, Calif.

NROTC (cont.)

I hope that College authorities will take a more magisterial view of the matter of NROTC than those appearing in your columns so far. There are larger issues involved than the compatibility of NROTC requirements and the Dartmouth curriculum.

It must be clear that the nation is daily becoming more militarized. Our preparations for war are carried on in every state. The map of the world is peppered more heavily each year with U.S. military installations. We add three nuclear bombs a day to the many thousands already stockpiled. The war budget is moving into the trillions, impoverishing the humane programs that would be the first priority of a self-respecting nation. Our high schools are becoming infested with military propaganda.

Militarization is not the true and proper destiny of the United States. Our institutions must not one and all become instruments of this fateful, and probably fatal, development. The institution that most of all should stand by its civilizing role is higher education.

Avoiding nuclear war is the first business of society today. The second is equally important if not so apparent: organizing a world in which non-violence is the presiding political canon. This is what Einstein meant, when he said of the new presence of the atomic bomb: "Everything has changed except the way we think." The theory and practice of non-violence is a practical not a Utopian aim, since violence between major powers today means nuclear conflict, which means universal death.

Studies of these subjects are essential to the continuation of the human enterprise, and these are fit studies for college and university. Let there be no mistake about it: However dressed up and cosmeticized, military programs in the nuclear age are finally devoted to the wholesale annihilation of human beings. Such programs have no place among the liberal arts.

Going into partnership with the Pentagon compromises the responsibility for taking a clear-eyed view of the essential questions of war and peace. let the military schools teach beginning and advanced methods of killing. Dartmouth is now moving seripusly into intellectual consideration of the issues surrounding the Bomb, following the injunction of the Trustees and the president of the College to that end. This is proper business for Dartmouth, and not to be diluted and made suspect by the introduction of NROTC.

Scarsdale, N. Y.

Some perspective is needed regarding the current controversy about the return of the

NROTC to Dartmouth.

As Gertrude Stein said, "Let me tell you what History teaches. History teaches."

In the late, tumultous sixties, I was a member of a faculty committee charged with negotiating a reduction in the required military courses for the various ROTCs. We found the Air Force very amenable to the reconciliation of their requirements for the education of their officers with the aims of a liberal arts education. This was understandable in line with the educational philosophy of the Air Force Academy.

The Army proved to be more difficult. Yet we were able to reach an accommodation with them which led to an agreement compatible with the views of the faculty committee.

The representatives of the Naval ROTC were intractible. Their requirements were such that few Dartmouth students enrolled in the NROTC had options for a liberal arts education.

Then, the Vietnam fervor swept aside all of these negotiations.

But history repeats itself. In the mid-seventies, under the direction of President Kemeny, Dartmouth again engaged in exploratory discussions with the various armed services. The responses were largely as outlined above.

My question is this: Why has the present administration initiated and promoted discussions with the most conservative and intransigent of the various armed services? The present NROTC requirement for readmission to the Dartmouth curriculum is even more demanding than that put forward in the late sixties. Perhaps the present administration is looking at the various ROTC programs through the wrong end of the telescope.

Hanover, N.H.

Puff Piece on WDCR

As a recent alumnus and a veteran of Dartmouth radio, I read with great interest your puff piece on WDCR and WFRD-FM. The undergraduates who work hard to keep the stations fiscally sound and technically operational and who strive for professional program quality certainly deserve credit and respect.

But if a "sense of unity" has replaced the factional squabbling among the directorate, AM staffers, FM "jocks," newsies and techies, you should have reported the remarkable, rapid turnaround. I ask not for a scorching expose, but for more penetrating and balanced analysis.

Acknowledge some of the intriguing problems that have plagued Dartmouth radio. How does an advertising salesman attract customers when he lacks accurate ratings data? What have FM program directors done to achieve a more consistent, professional sound than the haphazard, spaced-out, every-jock-for-himself programming of four years ago? Is it really the FM Program Director who divides the day into rock, classical and jazz shifts, or is that lineup a profitless compromise between students favoring an all-rock format and the stations' Board of Overseers, which insists on "serving the public" with classical music?

Dartmouth Radio has come a long way in 25 years; its staff has solved many serious difficulties. To deny that problems and challenges persist as WDCR begins its second quarter-century is to ignore reality and mislead the alumni you are supposed to inform. Moreover, your article will provide ammunition for those who charge that with Dennis Dinan's forced departure, the ALUMNI MAGAZINE is becoming a package of puffery and Parkhurst propaganda.

New York, N. Y.

Tuition and the CPI

The other day I asked a Dartmouth classmate how he thought tuition increases at Ivy League schools compared with increases in the Consumer Price Index. "Less than," he surmised.

It does seem logical that if any group could cope with problems of the economy it would be the administrators of the country's most prestigious colleges.

So why has the cost of tuition at Harvard, for courses only, gone up 2,159% since 1946 while the CPI went up "only" 438% ? (The figures are similar for other Ivy League schools, including Dartmouth.)

Wouldn't you think that Harvard administrators would have asked the cost control experts at Harvard Business School how to keep costs from running amok? Maybe they did, but ignored the advice. Worse still (a. harrowing thought!) maybe they did take the advice of Harvard Business School.

When students at MIT protested a 10.2% increase in tuition (to $13,480) some of the faculty and administration "urged them to direct their wrath at the education and financial aid policies of Ronald Reagan" _ who had the audacity to suggest cutting federal (that is, tax payer) student-aid from $6.8 billion in 1981 to $6.4 billion in 1983. A 5.8% reduction.

Perhaps Dartmouth's Tuck School has some solution to this dilemma that Harvard Business School hasn't thought of. If neither one has the answer it corroborates Robert Townsend's counsel {Up the Organization) on whether or not to hire a business school graduate. His advice: "Don't."

Virginia Beach, Va.

Acid Clouds and Dying Pines

It was interesting to read the article entitled "Acid Clouds" in your March issue. The past five years the company I am associated with has spent a great deal of our resources to develop a partial solution to the probTem. We have managed to invent a chemical process for desulfurizing petroleum coke, a major ingredient in the manufacturing of aluminum. By reducing the sulfur content of petroleum coke we will reduce the sulfur emissions of the aluminum smelter thereby contributing to a reduction of air pollution.

In April of this year we were granted a patent on the desulfurization process and are now working with a leading manufacturer of calcining equipment (calcining equipment is used in the manufacture of certain types of petroleum coke). We hope to apply the knowledge we have gained in desulfurizing petroleum coke to coal and high sulfur mineral ores. This research could have a major impact on air quality and in particular your dying pines.

Salt Lake City, Utah

Carted Art

The following was clipped from a daily newspaper with no embellishment: "Several artists in Guelph, Ontario are seeking compensation from the city after a works department crew carted an art exhibit to the dump thinking it was junk."

Too bad the same crew couldn't have passed in front of magnificent Baker Library.

What better place to have a meaningful sculpture of Daniel Webster, Eleazar Wheelock, or a noble Indian? The roots of Dartmouth are very real and sacred to a lot of Dartmouth alumni although the College chooses to ignore them.

Palm Beach, Fla

From Homer to Home-Rule

Dartmouth's curriculum should include a compulsory course in the history of Western Civilization according to a gratis copy of the Dartmouth Review I received this past winter. Addition of such a course presumably would fill an existing gap in the curriculum and provide at the same time an element of intellectual underpinning for the new movement on campus.

The only compulsory addition to the curriculum I am familiar with is Great Issues, the course initiated during President Dickey's tenure, which was designed to bridge a perceived gap in the student transition between academia and the "real" world. Great Issues as you know was overrun by heavy seas and was scuttled

during the great unrest of the sixties. Good course too, as I recall.

As an asset for the new movement, however, the present proposal may not be all that it appears. "From Homer to the Present" has a fine ring to it, especially when it brings to mind the heroic names of Achilles, Odysseus, Phormio, Alexander, Caesar. But what, it may be asked, do the names of Plato and Aristotle contribute? There is the sting. This troublesome duo, with all their questions, doubts, truth mongering, and intellectual hair-splitting, are hardly more than a couple of ancient liberals. Even today I remember the fit they caused us in "Humanities I." Among many other attributes, their writings were the reputed inspiration for the Renaissance as if our technologically advanced society were in need of anything similar today. Plato as the world's leading idealist is probably the worse of the two.

Even Julius Caesar, if facts are known, may not be a wholly acceptable model for new movement adherents either. It is said that Caesar maintained an elite guard of soldiers who marched nearby in all parades, thoroughly trained in ignoble words, antics, and gestures including the digitus infamosas. This expertise, unbelievable as it seems, was directed against the general himself and was carried out at his personal request, the intention being to help him Caesar, winner without par keep from taking himself too seriously. (The Latin reference of course is to the world's oldest known hand sign, more widely recognized than Churchill's victory "V.")

Is it possible this proposed addition to the curriculum is ironic by design as a subtle kind of hazing of the newcomers? Not likely. But what should be apparent is the non-factional nature of the content of a course in Western Civilization's history. Hopefully it has not been seen as a partisan scoring point but will be judged on merit in its usefulness to the Dartmouth undergraduates.

Saint Louis, Mo

Of Arms and the Mind

It was with great pleasure that I read the first paragraph of Stephen Nelson's piece entitled "The Arms Race and the Life of the Mind" (April 1983). In his first few sentences he introduced a worthy and lively topic of debate concerning the arms race and the fear of a nuclear exchange; "[The fear of a nuclear exchange} stems from the perception that the potential for their use is escalating and is generated by thinking which affirms the necessity for their development." Unfortunately, I mistook this as the topic sentence for the essay. Even more unfortunately, I continued to read the article only to discover that Mr. Nelson had abandoned this as a topic of contention, simply assuming that the correlation of the arms race with the potential for nuclear war was positive. This underlying assumption I find faulty.

Most historians of international relations attribute the relatively high level of stability since the Second World War to the rough parity in the distribution of power between the two superpowers. To seek and base international stability on any other platform is foolish, and ignores the role that weapons play in the distribution of power. To quote Richard Langhorne, Professor of International Relations and Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, "Nations aren't powerful because they possess nuclear weapons, nations possess nuclear weapons because they are powerful." The intrinsic power of the USA is unefFected by our possession or loss of nuclear weapons but because we are powerful, we can and must choose to maintain a nuclear force as an absolute deterent to aggression.

Please forgive my diatribe, but I find it inexcusable for Mr. Nelson to assume as fact a relationship that is far from certain.

Cambridge, England

I was impressed with Stephen Nelson's opinion piece in the April issue. The College is certainly to be applauded for opening its doors to a considerable amount of debate on the issues of nuclear war and the arms race. I was particularly encouraged by Mr. Nelson's conclusion that "colleges and universities should stimulate and initiate dialogue about issues of nuclear armaments and world peace," for "we ought to be involved where a threat is posed to truth, beauty, music, art, and the totality of human experience." Exactly.

But there is a risk of losing perspective here. While we certainly ought to approve of the College's involvement in such a vital issue, and its encouragement of the articulation of diverse positions, we must not forget the unfortunate truth that the College has indeed chosen its position, and acts on it through its investment of millions of dollars in the arms industry. Mr. Nelson writes that, "without taking sides," the Board of Trustees agreed last spring "that a college is indeed a place for discussion of such a pressing issue of the day." The statement reveals to what degree we unconsciously alienate public expressions of officials from their acts as trustees of an endowment fund. For of course the trustees have taken sides, and a glance at their Financial Report will indicate which.

Thetford Center, Vt.

Alive and Well in Munich

This letter was prompted by the article in the September 'B2 issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, [" 'Far Out and Daring': Dartmouth Students Abroad"] dealing with Dartmouth's studies

abroad. During my years in Munich I have had the pleasant experience to meet and to house almost 700 Language Students Abroad (LSAs) plus random wayfarers and graduates. An incredible number and an impressive one, if you think of the size of the College. I haven't met nearly as many from any other American college.

My experience with these students has been excellent and (although I have to admit being sometimes weary of having sots waking up the whole house at any time at night or just "booting" all over the place) very instructive; I have learned more about the US this way then by touring it. Inevitably the lore was spread out at good pace encouraging the formation of what many call "a legend."

Many times I ran across the "Aha-experience" when students thought that I had just been made up by others who had been to Munich and then finally saw me well and alive; (others imagined me to be well above forty some rich old alum).

Many of the chords which were touched in the article are real experiences which make a person grow more and more aware of the uniqueness of each individual and the cultural backgrounds they are embedded in. I have grown to appreciate the US and to love the small College in the Upper Valley. I value the task which has been undertaken by the College very highly and out of personal experience I can say that the values of teaching life by its own rules are those one cherishes most once everything else doesn't matter anymore. . . .

It is a must for anyone who wants to be educated academically and who later wants to claim this heritage, to learn another language. It is necessary to be able to converse in other languages; you don't have to be perfect, but the rewards are so much greater. People's sympathy and undivided attention are yours. By learning any foreign language you become able to think in different patterns, you become more aware of your own language and of many things you took for granted for too long.

My best wishes to all foreign language students and their professors and my undivided attention to your development. "where ignorance is bliss, Tis folly to be wise." (Gray)

FERDINAND J. BARON SYPNIEWSKI CH-1753

Matran, Switzerland.