Trustee deliberations
The Trustees voted to raise room, board, and tuition by 8.9 percent, expanded their policy limiting investments in South Africa, and reviewed the progress of several building projects at their mid-February meeting. President McLaughlin discussed the Board's actions at a press conference the day after the Trustees' visit to Hanover.
The increase in student charges, to $14,860 in 1985-86, puts Dartmouth "about in the middle of the Ivy League," according to President McLaughlin, "somewhat behind Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, somewhat ahead of Brown, Penn, Columbia, and Cornell." The increases break down as follows: 8.6 per- cent for room, 5.0 percent for board, and 9.7 percent for tuition. McLaughlin explained that a major factor in the increases is to keep faculty compensation levels competitive with comparable institutions. However, he noted that while competing aggressively in the faculty marketplace is "compelling in the short term, in the long term, increases of this magnitude simply are not sustainable." And although cuts in federal aid programs are of "deep concern," Mc- Laughlin expects that Dartmouth can retain through 1985-86 its "practice of matriculating students on the basis of their personal and academic qualifications, not on their financial circumstances." While some other Ivy institutions have moved to an "admitdeny" system, in which applicants may be denied admission due to financial factors, McLaughlin said that "we think we can get through [next] year" without resorting to admit-deny.
The addition to the College's policy relating to South African investments reads: "The College shall make no in vestment in any financial institution which after February 23, 1985, makes loans to the Government of the Republic of South Africa or its agencies." The addition was proposed by the Trustee Committee on Investor Responsibility, headed by Trustee Robert Field '43, following recommendations by the Advisory Committee on Investor Re- sponsibility, chaired by Associate Professor Beatriz Pastor. McLaughlin explained that the College's policy on South African investments has been an "evolutionary" process, and that this addition is "an extension of the existing policy." He noted that the new policy "could result in the withdrawl of funds" from institutions not in compliance with the policy. He also said the new dean of the Tucker Foundation, James Breeden '56, made a presentation to the Board about other ways in which the College "could express itself on apartheid as a repugnant social system, on how we can respond in a positive manner using our academic strengths." Some of the proposals under consideration include "bringing South African students to this campus and then haying them return to South Africa to take leadership roles there," and also using the College's influence on decision-making at the federal level in Washington, D.C.
Other actions taken during the Trustees' meeting included the allocation of $920,000 to renovate the Hitchcock and Topliff-New Hampshire dormitories in the continuing residential life improvement program, the approval of the first named and endowed professorship at the Thayer School, and reaffirmation of support for the Native American programs on campus following presentations by Colleen Larimore '85, president of Native Americans at Dartmouth, and David Weber '65, a member of the Native American Visiting Committee.
The final major matter considered by the Trustees was progress on the athletic facility renovations. McLaughlin said that the Board reviewed preliminary plans for the new John M. Berry Sports Center and allocated funds "to move ahead with detailed architectural planning and cost estimates." He said that the decision of whether to proceed with actual construction will be made at the Trustees' April meeting and that the progress of fund-raising for the project "will be the determining factor on when we will begin construction." He said about $7 million of the total $16 or $17 million needed had been raised. In response to a question, McLaughlin noted that installing snow-making capability at the Dartmouth Skiway was "part of the priorities identified by the committees" that worked on the athletic renovation plans, but that the price tag would be in the $800,000 to $1-million range. He also responded to a question about the College's win-loss record in recent years, saying there is "no question that Dartmouth has suffered in intercollegiate competition in recent years." He expressed the feeling that at least part of the blame for that has been "due to facility deficiency," and he also noted that there is an increasing effort to get coaches to recruit by promoting not just the particular team in which the applicant is interested but "by selling the strengths of Dartmouth" as an entire institution.
Early spring sunshine is a powerful inducement to studying outside: this student is diligentlyhitting the books in one of the arches at the entrance of Rockefeller Center.
Anything worth serious thought often seems to involve complexities beyond the very bounds of human bothering and everything of any consequence is found fastened at one end to the past and at the other end to the future. John Sloan Dickey in 1953
