Breakfast with the president
The scrambled eggs were light and fluffy but the conversation somewhat more weighty at the most recent of President McLaughlin's regular "question and answer" breakfasts for alumni. Held during the first football weekend of the fall, on September 21, the event was attended by about a hundred early risers.
The president began by briefly summarizing the current state of the campus. He noted that 23 new tenured professors had just joined the faculty. This "particularly large number" is due to the fact that a high percentage of the faculty is moving towards retirement, he said, "but Dartmouth is fortunate that in almost every instance where we were recruiting faculty we got our first choice." On the student side of the ledger, he noted that in one afternoon recently he'd shaken over a thousand freshman hands upon the Class of 1989's matriculation and greeted some prospective members of the Class of '90 on a campus tour. Preliminary indications are that this will be another year of increase in the applicant pool, he said. McLaughlin also touched on the number of current construction projects and on a year-long process of formal institutional planning and reassessment just underway as signs of "the College's renewal in full flower."
When he opened the floor to questions, the first query concerned the construction project behind Topliff and New Hampshire dormitories. The president explained that it was part of the ongoing effort to add faculty master offices, study rooms, and social spaces to all the dorm clusters to fully implement the College's residential life program.
The next questioner wondered what kind of activity the president expected this fall on the South African issue. "My best view is that it probably will not be a "major event on campus this fall," McLaughlin responded. He paused and added wryly, "That's the worst thing I probably could say, but let me give you the rationale." He said that last spring Dartmouth had had "a very open set of discussions on the South African issue . . . not just on divestiture [but] on the entire role of a college like this to debate, to discuss." He noted that there were "some demonstrations, but they were certainly obedient; we had as many as 60 students in the office at various times talking about [the issue], but at no time was it a threatening experience." Now, he feels, the focus of the South African issue "is moving away from most colleges; the scene is moving to Washington, to the government, maybe to shareholder meetings." Explaining that the Trustees feel strongly that "a corporate presence in South Africa may be the most progressive factor of change one could have in that country," he said that "divestiture is not a part of what we intend to be doing." However, he said he doesn't see South Africa as "a Vitenam issue" on campuses at this time.
The focus of discussion shifted from South Africa to Hollywood with the next query why the film Dartmouth in Hollywood!, a survey of alumni in the film industry, couldn't make the rounds of alumni clubs as has The Wearers of the Green, a film history of Dartmouth athletics. The president noted that it had to do with movie studios' restrictions on rights to the film clips used in the show. Mike Choukas '51, director of alumni affairs, confirmed the president's answer and agreed that "it's a shame that it can't be seen by more people."
The final issue raised by the breakfasters concerned ROTC's return to campus. McLaughlin said ROTC "is not an active issue" this fall, that the program has established itself without fanfare and signed up about 20 students. "Last year we had four," he said, "and [the commandant] feels we may go as high as 30 or 35. The Army had felt that if they got 15 the first year it would be a good year, so it is solidly in place." He went on to explain, however, that "the issues that go beyond ROTC, that were ignited by that event, will be with us for some time. The faculty really do want definition of their role in the governance system and in how decisions are made." But, he concluded, "there is very good dialogue going on as to the future of the faculty [that] will fit in with the overarching discussion on the College and where it is going."
