Letters

One of the Great Learning Experiences

Please accept my congratulations on Warren Allmon's article, "Why Study Evolution?" in the. March issue

I came from a small town (population 900) in central Pennsylvania, but I had somehow picked up a strong interest in science. Professor Patten's course in evolution was one of the great learning experiences of my life. It opened up enormous vistas that I never dreamed had even existed and is probably the reason why I became a doctor instead of a lawyer, a decision I have never regretted, incidentally.

I had the unusual pleasure of knowing Professor Patten personally. He helped teach me figure skating on Occom Pond. I still remember feeling his hands on my shoulders as he guided me in front of him while teaching me to do a figure eight.

The unassuming nature of this great man in his willingness to help a lowly freshman became a profound lesson in personal humanity.

East Hampton, N.Y.

Missiles on the Green?

As I sit here and read The New York Times I notice the demonstrations taking place at Columbia and Berkeley protesting their schools' involvement in South Africa. As a leader in the education field, Dartmouth has proven its mettle once more - it has reinstituted ROTC. Good work. I'm surprised President McLaughlin has not asked the Trustees if it is possible to put MX missiles on the Green. From now on I'm wearing my Dartmouth sweatshirt inside out.

New York, NY.

ROTC: A Bad Decision

I read with sympathetic interest the letter by S.M. Pooler Jr. '79 about ROTC in the April issue of the Magazine. I agree with him that "the very nature of military training is antithetical to the values of a liberal arts education institution."

Next, I read with dismay President McLaughlin's statement that ROTC is returning to Dartmouth. I had written him a year or two ago in opposition to such a move, but apparently that letter was not persuasive enough! It would seem that the elimination of military training from the campus by an earlier generation of college executives and trustees, after having had personal experience with such training, would have indicated to the present generation that such training does not belong at Dartmouth. Alas! The lesson was lost.

President McLaughlin says in "From the desk of the President" that ROTC should be accommodated on campus if that can be done "without compromising the central liberalarts mission of the college." There is the rub! It cannot be! The ROTC classes will displace regular classes to some extent. Training exercises will take time and energy away from educational pursuits. The military will insist that some of its programs must take precedence over some of the regular college programs. At the end of four years, Dartmouth will give the ROTC students a diploma, which will not represent a full Dartmouth education, but only a diluted one (but the diploma will not say that).

I predict that future presidents and Trustees will find that this has been a bad decision. Relatively weak institutions (Dartmouth) just cannot hold their own with inordinately more powerful institutions (the Army). To find out what happens in such a situation, read Goethe's Faust.

Logansport, Ind.

Some Deal

Dartmouth should be fighting the Reagan administration's attack on liberal arts education instead of buying into the administration's warped sense of priorities.

Secretary Weinberger gets billions more for the military, while Secretary Bennett asks for a $2.8 billion cut in student aid (about onetenth the cost of the MX missile program), a cut that will shut out thousands of poor and middle-class youth from college. Meanwhile back in Hanover, President McLaughlin's ROTC statement argues that accepting government-sponsored military training is the only solution to government cuts in student loans. Reagan taketh away and Reagan giveth back - a fraction - and we of Dartmouth should all feel grateful.

McLaughlin states, "[ROTC] provides the means for qualified students to attend Dartmouth without incurring prohibitive debt obligations ..." I think years of required duty in the U.S. Army defending some Cold War politician's notion of the national honor is a pretty stiff "debt obligation." Some deal.

Dartmouth severely compromises its independence and integrity as a liberal arts institution by jumping in bed with the Pentagon. McLaughlin never addresses this concern, but instead dusts off an old Fourth of July speech and proclaims that liberal education only exists "because this nation is sufficiently able to defend itself from challenge or dominance by those who do not share a respect for the rights of the individual." I doubt there would be much of a controversy over ROTC at Dartmouth if the U.S. military confined itself to actually defending the nation. Unfortunately, the actual record of U.S. military policy since WWII has little to do with defending the rights of individuals or defending our borders, and a lot to do with playing our self-appointed role as global policeman, meddling in the affairs of sovereign Third World countries, and bumping up against the Soviet Union any chance we get. Our belligerent posturing in Central America is only the most recent example. By accepting military training on campus, Dartmouth takes a small step toward legitimating the curious belief - shared by the Soviet leaders, I might add - in the divine right of superpowers to wield the. big stick with impunity.

Lest the delusion persist that college educated officers make war-making more enlightened or humane: remember, it was "the best and the brightest" (to use McLaughlin's own words) from elite institutions such as Dartmouth who engineered the disaster in Vietnam. When told of former CIA Director William Colby's role in supervising the Phoenix program, where tens of thousands of suspected Vietcong were tortured and assassinated, an associate of Colby remarked in surprise, "Not Bill Colby . . . He's a Princeton man."

San Francisco, Calif.

A Wise Move

Mr. Pooler, in the April issue of the Magazine, has a right to his opinion re: ROTC, but he has set forth premises which are totally incorrect and quite farfetched.

A liberal arts education must show the student all facets of life. The military is just one of such facets. It is also one way to earn a living and serve one's country at the same time. But what Mr. Pooler has failed to take into consideration is that ROTC is a voluntary elective course with, certainly, certain emoluments tied to it. Analogically a liberal arts education would not omit some study of Marxism although it is foreign to the national way of thinking.

Furthermore, Mr. Pooler seems to believe that military officers are all one-sided in their approach to intellectual development, which indicates that he has had very little contact with the defense aspect of this nation.

I will not belabor the point any farther. Suffice it to say that the president made a wise move to reinstitute ROTC at Dartmouth, the faculty failed to see very far into their students' future and the students now have an opportunity to compare a little of the military with a lot of civilian life. That is a liberal arts education or a good part of it.

Virginia Beach, Va

Welcome News

The news in the April issue that Dartmouth is reinstating ROTC is welcome. I especially appreciated your printing the full text of President McLaughlin's reasoned statement supporting his decision. Our son participated in army ROTC and is now on active duty with the 101st AirBorne Division. I know firsthand that the army's program is sound for participants, their institutions, and, ultimately, for our country.

Bravo, President McLaughlin!

Pittsford, N.Y.

Fort Dartmouth

When I read in the April issue of the Magazine that the decision had been made to put the ROTC on the Dartmouth campus, my first reaction was shock and outrage.

But then I began to wonder. Perhaps - behind all the specious reasoning put forth in the effort to justify turning Dartmouth College into Fort Dartmouth - there was a diabolically clever ruse.

With one shot of the cannon, the College administration ended the ongoing bitter brouhaha over the Indian symbol and all the concomitant revisions of Dartmouth "traditions."

No longer will teams of green-clad Dartmouth Indians run out on the field. From now on, olive-drab-clad Dartmouth Generals will march smartly out and peel off into positions.

No more "Wah-Hoo-Wahs." From now on, our cheering sections can come forth with a mighty "Sound Off!" - in cadence. "Dartmouth s in Town Again," which embarrassed all but the most prurient among us, can finally be put to rest and replaced by "As the Caissons Go Rolling Along."

And finally, if Harvard, Yale, Princeton - or even William and Mary - stacks us up at the goal line, we can first try moving them back with bayonets, then call for artillery support. On fourth-and-inches, we might even detonate a small H-bomb, if it's clean.

One bitterly ironic note. The addition of the ROTC to the Dartmouth scene should be more of an affront to the Indians - who suffered so grievously at the hands of the military in the last century - than the continued or renewed use of the Indian symbol.

Of course, if I am wrong in my supposition that this is all a ruse to settle the Indian symbol question once and for all, then I must ask, "What's next?" A new undergraduate program leading to a degree in CIA Subversion Management? Training courses for the Nicaraguan Contras? An atomic reactor in Dartmouth Hall? Think of how much government money those additions to our liberal arts curriculum and College will bring in!

White Plains, N.Y.

Frat Row: A Changefor the Better

I thoroughly enjoyed Gayle Gilman's article, "Minimum Standards: Where Things Stand Today with Dartmouth's Fraternities and Sororities" (April issue). I was especially sensitive to the quote from Rich Lindahl '85 on fraternity programming, in which he said he "only wish[ed], there hadn't been the feeling we were working for the administration rather than with them."

As one who has been working with the new programming committee for almost a year, I think the Dartmouth community should know that the feeling of resentment Rich was describing is fast being replaced by a genuine excitement about an amazing array of cultural and educational programs. If you think Dartmouth's fraternity system is still inherently anti-intellectual, take a look at a sampling of the past year's programs:

•Six houses united in the summer of '84 to hold an outdoor comedy workshop and act in conjunction with a non-alcoholic party.

•Sigma Phi Epsilon holds a weekly "Speaker's Forum" featuring faculty members.

•Alpha Chi Omega held a panel discussion on change at Dartmouth featuring two professors, two deans, Vice Provost Marilyn Baldwin, and Senior Class President Elise Miller.

•Delta Phi Epsilon organized a roadshow to educate fraternity and sorority members about the Holocaust.

•Beta Theta Pi featured a workshop and performance by 15 break-dancers from the South Bronx.

•The Hopkins Center has served as a liaison between local artists and musicians and fraternities and sororities to organize workshops, performances, and art displays.

These examples represent only a fraction of the diverse cultural and educational activities organized by fraternities and sororities in the last year.

The College appropriates a set sum each term to aid in funding these events. A committee of all programming chairs meets weekly to evaluate and promote upcoming programs. Those which are deemed sufficiently cultural or educational and well-advertised receive 50 percent funding from the College, with the individual house paying the rest.

The most exciting thing about this new "requirement" is that it is finally being viewed by fraternity members as something more fulfilling than a box to be checked off on the Minimum Standards evaluation sheet. We are finally realizing that the College is giving us money to fund great events. At last there is an opportunity to clean up our livingrooms and display the work of rising area artists or entertain faculty with tea and the Dartmouth Aires. Clearly, the foreboding term "Minimum Standards" should be changed to something which better describes the renaissance the fraternity system is now enjoying.

I will end on the same note Ms. Gilman did, with reference to colleges which have recently abolished their fraternity systems. My father, Douglas Archibald '55, was president, of Delta Tau Delta (now Bones Gate) when he was here. He is now dean of the faculty at Colby College, where he was a strong supporter of the movement to abolish fraternities on the grounds that they were "inherently anti-intellectual and not in keeping with the spirit of a liberal arts education."

I wonder if they tried programming in the Dartmouth fraternities back in '55? Perhaps if they had, Colby College also would have implemented it in the 80s, and my dad would feel differently about fraternity systems today.

Pittsfield, Me.[Ms. Archibald, a French, major from Pittsfield,Maine, is Programming Chair for Alpha Chi Omega Sorority. Ed.]

Ruminations on X-Delta

As a local alumnus, I would like to report to alumni in outlying areas that I have some good news and bad news about the so-called sculpture, X-Delta. For those who do not know what the X-Delta is, it is a group of rusting steel beams welded together and a wooden platform swing attached by wires. The good news about it is that it was moved from in front of Baker Libary and Sanborn House where it was very conspicuous and received much criticism over several years. The bad news is that they did not move it far enough. It is now on the lawn near the Sphinx, where, I have to admit, it is a little less conspicuous.

I believe this was a gift to the College as a sculpture or work of art. I am not an expert on art, but with apologies to the donor, these rusting welded beams are to me a grim reminder of the hundreds of similar objects I saw on the beaches during the invasion of Normandy. There was a slight difference. The Nazis did not hang swings' on their "sculptures." They hung lethal mines. As a matter of fact, the X-Delta may be dangerous. When the swing swings, a counter-balance loose-beam attached by wires swings in unison. I have observed children climbing on the stationary beams almost pinned by the swinging beam. I trust the College will look into this.

Hanover, N.H.

On Apartheid

So much has been said about apartheid that little can be added. Everyone is raising his fists and shouting, resolutions are passed, Sullivan Principles are adhered to, Randall Robinson produces his daily passion play in the capital, and in general, America goes to sleep each night with the feeling that events are moving in the right direction in South Africa. But are they? What are the facts?

The facts suggest that America is dreaming as usual. Full black electoral rights will not come willingly for generations or until they become educated and politically and economically wise enough to sensibly use their power. White South Africa will never turn over their country to blacks before this for if they do everyone sees clearly that a black Marxist dictatorship will emerge in a year, and in five years the country will be a wasteland. One only has to look at their two neighbors - Botswana and Mozambique - to see examples of basket cases. There are only two success stories in all of black Africa - Ivory Coast and Senegal, both of which are heavily influenced by resident French.

So what is accomplished by all the resolutions, disinvestments, parades, and charades. Absolutely nothing. The Dartmouth have voted to curtail any placement of funds in U.S. banks that lend to South Africa. This is totally meaningless as at least two of our Trustees should know instantly. To mention only one other source among many, South Africa can borrow all their needs or wants from Japan, a very friendly country with a 25-billion-dollar cash surplus in U.S. trade annually that is left in U.S. loan instruments. America's lending means nothing. Far better the Trustees buy a small doll, mark it South Africa, and stick pins in it.

Absolutely nothing will force white South Africa to turn over meaningful political power to all blacks short of violence - from within or without. These can be dismissed quickly. A mob cannot stand up against a well-organized military force with a will - and South Africa has that. From without? Not the U.S., of course. Since we are unwilling to defend ourselves against an enemy a few hundred miles south of Texas, America will not send 600,000 troops across and down the Atlantic 5,000 miles to attack a friend. England had a difficult enough time doing that 85 years ago.

So what is there left? Nothing less than goodwill towards South Africa, urging them to make small'first steps to slowly enfranchise the blacks. This will be heavily opposed by the U.S. black leadership who seem bent on injuring their own constituency. It is the blacks here and in South Africa who will be the losers. American blacks who know about South Africa are told daily by their leaders that steps now being taken will end apartheid within a few years. Then blacks will be as despondent ten years from now as they were in 1984 after four years of hearing that Ronald Reagan with all his sins would be swept out by that shining knight Walter Mondale or another liberal supported by his black army.

Finally, if neither force nor pin-sticking will accomplish anything, what about total economic isolation by the U.S. (The rest of the west and Japan will not follow.) South Africa will be dismayed, for they have the closest feelings for the U.S., but they will not give up their country to avoid this.

Gettysburg, Pa

Provocations

The recent action of the College administration and the Trustees relating to South African investments strikes this constant reader as more of that same muddle-headed thinking that has characterized too much related to the College for the past 20 years or so. Anyone who has visited and read about subSaharan Africa could well come to a couple of strong conclusions: (1) there isn't a democratic (in our sense) or competent government in all of black Africa. Since so-called freedom, in actuality what has happened has been nearly universally one man, one vote, one election, one dictator; (2) much of black Africa has voted with its feet to go to South Africa, where by an order of magnitude, blacks are better fed, better housed, better educated, better employed - and massively more cheerful and good-humored. Personally, while not necessarily endorsing apartheid per se, I have a great deal of sympathy with the white South Africans, who have put together a truly modern and viable state, and who do not wish to surrender their land to a great mass of folk who basically are still in the Stone Age.

After making this statement, which may provoke a certain amount of feather-ruffling, I must say that this action of the College, taken in concert with other actions, has finally made me realize that the Dartmouth College I like to remember is gone, probably irrevocably. Coeducation, attitude toward fraternities, passive acceptance and/or encouragement of what are called "gays" (which has completely ruined what used to be a fine and descriptive English word), loss of many of our traditions such as the Indian symbol and the Wah-Hoo-Wah - these must, at least in my case, affect my attitude toward what remains of the institution.

I rather like Russ Hartranft '42's note in the April issue of the Magazine, where he says in effect: if you don't like the College, don't go there. I believe that trying (and even worse succeeding) to re-model the College to fit one's own taste is somewhat perfidious. Majority opinion in the student body, the Trustees, and the administration really has little to do with this thesis, except to make me wish that they had followed Mr. Hartranft's advice.

In sum, then, I shall do just exactly what President McLaughlin has done in the case of South Africa: vote with my pocketbook. Until some such time as the College returns considerably toward what it used to be, my future financial contributions are going to zero.

Stillwater, Minn

Editor's Delight

Nancy Wasserman's November 1984 cover of the west entrance of Baker Library is a treasure. Chromes of this quality seem to be rare, maybe an editor's delight.

Middlebury, Vt.

[You bet. And Nancy Wasserman '77's Octobercover of the Geer sisters (belozo left) elicited manysimilar notes of praise. We'll be sure to pass alongyour comments. Ed.]

Dèjà vu

Why are all class reunions pretty much the same old thing - funny hats or jackets, kegs of beer, smoking and drinking, and a loud band in tents, happy hours, presidential cocktail party, routine class business never touching the important issues like the symbol, lowering the qualifications for minorities, draft evasion panels, funding the gay association, the decline and shame of the athletic program, etc.? Why is there always so much emphasis on the drinking, the tent, and the happy hours? Does the College encourage the drinking to get the alumni in the festive and bemuddled atmosphere so that the real issues are never mentioned? Why is there no concern for the non-drinker, the alcoholic who has to teetotal or die, the alumnus who would love to see the Vermont and New Hampshire countryside in an open air bus or see the beauty of Quechee Gorge, Smugglers Notch, or Wilson Castle? Why couldn't the College furnish a building on campus to house the creative works of the alumni of the reunion classes - writings, paintings, drawings, ceramics, and photography? Why can't the College have a room covering the life and writings of Dartmouth immortals like Hopkins, Webster, Wheelock, and Hovey or a comprehensive review of Dartmouth football from the 113-0 Yale massacre down through the Glaze, Cunningham, Oberlander, Morton, McCall, MacLeod, Marsters, Dooley glorious years?

Why must it always be kegs of beer in smoke-filled tents?

Palm Beach, Fla

One Down, Three to Go

Dartmouth seems to wallow in controversy - ROTC, the Indian symbol, homosexual rights, and lately I read that officials have been considering withdrawal from some Ivy athletic competition. ROTC has been returned to campus. That's one down and three to go.

I suggest this disposition of the other three issues:

a. Homosexuals should have the same rights as all the other College citizens - no more, no less. Their organization should not, of course, receive any financial support from the College.

b. Dartmouth girls ("women," if you prefer) should continue to compete athletically in the Ivy League and should be called the "Dartmouth Squaws." An appropriate and dignified symbol or insignia of a Native American woman with papoose should be prepared and adopted.

c. Dartmouth boys should compete athletically with the likes of Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan, Bates, Colby, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Norwich, and Vermont (but not in skiing with the last three).

Westborough, Mass

Rank and Wile

In its issue of May 1,1985, The Review stated that the College ranks 19th in endowment among American institutions of higher education. Endowment is surely one - though not the only - measure of financial distinction; and if The Review's figures are accurate, 19th is a pretty good standing for an institution of our size.

Another article in the same issue noted that Dartmouth stood 34th in the number of Na- tional Merit Scholars in a recent freshman class. The presence of such scholars is surely one - though not the only - measure of intellectual distinction; and 34th is not a bad standing for an institution of our size. It is also distinctly less good.

Of late there has been abundant chatter about priorities. The gap between 19 and 34 prompts me to suggest at least one set of priorities to the larger Dartmouth community. Let our leaders, Trustees and administrators alike, pledge themselves to maintain a financial standing, measured by endowment, not less impressive than our present one, and at the same time to attain an intellectual standing, measured by entering scholars, fully as impressive as our financial one. The effort alone will have salutary and pervasive consequences.

Hanover, N.H.[Dr. Radway is a government professor at the Col-lege. Ed.]

Character and Conviction

Here's an "Aye, aye, Cap'n" to J. Berman's "Worth His Salt" story on Arthur E. Allen Jr. '32 (Magazine, April).

Having been a member of the Dartmouth sailing team between '78 and '82, I can heartily second a "hip hip hooray" for Mr. Allen, whose relentless dedication to the team never ceased to amaze. He was always there to shuttle us out to Mascoma for practice, coordinate weekly meetings and regatta schedules, and, as Joe stated, "survey his team from a Boston Whaler" - come rain or shine!

Mr. Allen's strength of character and conviction in the worth of the team was infectious: He was always able to recruit new sailors, coaches, and donors for our un-College funded team. He prevailed upon the administration more than once to maintain official recognition as a team. Probably his most incredulous feat, in my eyes, was in the spring of '82, when fellow teammates Sue Elliott '82, Beth Haffenreffer '82, Anne Davidson '83, and I qualified from the New England region for the National Inter-Collegiate Women's Sailing Championship, which was to be held that year at the University of Washington in Seattle. We were thrilled and honored to have qualified (much to Mr. Allen's credit); after all, never before had the

wornen's team qualified for the Nationals. But the possibility of our traveling to distant Seattle to compete seemed remote. Our hopes of being nationally ranked waned . . . that is until Mr. Allen miraculously came up with the funds necessary to send us on our way. It was clear sailing, and we steamed full speed ahead to a respectable 11th place finish. It was a fabulous experience for us, and a great boost for the team - and it was Arthur Allen who made it possible. So here's a sincere, albeit belated, thanks to a one-of-a-kind sailor who gives young people a lot more than rides to regattas and coaching drills during practice on Lake Mascoma; he gives them an unfailing support and honest belief in sailing and themselves.

Toledo, Ohio

Dynamite

Great to read the article on Juanita Sanders '85 in the March issue. She is truly "dynamite."

Cambridge, Mass.[Juanita never stopped amazing us, either. Ed.]

Diversity ThroughQuotas?

The classic example of an oxymoron used to be: "The house is pretty ugly and a little big for the lot." A better example has now presented itself through the courtesy of Affirmative Action Officer Ngina Lythcott who complacently brags that her goals and timetables (heaven forfend that they should be known as "quotas") are a stride toward "diversity." In other words, if the predetermined, rigid mix according to sex, color, and ethnic descent is achieved, that is diversity. Bureaucratic Caesarism to provide Procrustean Egalitarianism - rigid quotas for diversity and racial and sexual discrimination in the name of anti-discrimination.

Diversity in a university should be diversity of mind. Why not hire a few conservative administrators and faculty members?

Kansas City, Mo.

An Ivy League First?

Congratulations! Never thought I'd live to see the day when a lovely young lady would grace the cover of the Alumni Magazine! Isn't this an Ivy League first?

To Louise Erdrich I would say, "Us old codgers are mighty, mighty proud to claim such a talented young granddaughter in the Dartmouth family of distinguished graduates."

Los Altos, Calif.

[No, we weren't first by a long shot. In fact, asrecently as October 'B4, we ran a cover of Judyand Carlie Geer ('BO and '75 respectively - seep. 12) rowing on the Connecticut. The honors forwriter Louise Erdrich '76, incidentally, have kepther book Love Medicine in the public eye formany months now. Ed.]

Splendid

I thank you for the splendid March issue of the Magazine - the most interesting in a long time. Of course, you had a great subject in Louise Erdrich, but you made the most of it.

Oakland, Calif.

Potpourri

I confess that I am getting more than tired of the continuing "controversy" concerning the Indian symbol. I think that Holly Davidson Hoel's letter in the March issue succinctly sums up the issue when she states, "Whether or not Native Americans should feel degraded by the symbol, from a distant and cooly secure majority perspective, is not the question. Clearly, they do. How we respond to that feeling is what's important, and that may reflect a lot of what we really learned at Dartmouth." I would like to see that statement be the final obituary to the discussion and let's get on with the really important things.

And, before closing, I have to tell you how much I enjoyed the "Wearers of the Green" story about Juanita Sanders. What a delight she must be and what an asset to the College and to all the areas she serves.

Springfield, Ill.

Heiritage

My writing this letter was generated by Elinor Gooding Detlefsen and her interest in the Class of 1887. Charles D. Milliken, a cousin of mine was a member of that class. He used to write to me of his class and particularly of Charles A. Eastman, a very proud chief of the Santee Sioux Indians.

It should be pointed out that the father of Charles D. Milliken was Charles E. Milliken Class of 1857, also a minister. Thus we have the Classes of 1857, 1887, and 1927 all with related Millikens! Charles D. came on from California to his 40th reunion in 1927 but I had left to study dentistry and thus missed seeing him.

This Milliken tradition at Dartmouth is now broken because I leave no heirs. It would be interesting to establish a family history of other names that cover such a span of years.

The class of 1927 also was proud of an Indian by the name of Frell M. Owl. I visited Frell at his ancestral home in Cherokee, N.C., several times and he showed me the site where they held family camp fires.

As I write this I wonder what 1857 and 1887 would think of the Native American controversy that is going on today! I know what Frell thought of it, and what Charles Eastman felt.

Who ever got excited cheering for a dog.

Sykesville, Md.

Let it Be

I fully respect anyone's right to an opinion which differs from mine. But that doesn't oblige me to agree. Otherwise we wouldn't have horse races. In America we traditionally enjoy freedom of choice. If we aren't happy with the shoes we have on, we try a different brand. So let it be at Dartmouth. The few faculty members who cannot abide the Indian symbol certainly should feel free to pack up and move to a college which doesn't have an Indian symbol. In their absence most of the Indian teenagers would probably be like the two who were in college when I was - one played in the band and the other proudly marched in front of it wearing his feathered headdress, all setting "a watch lest the old traditions fail."

If the administration would simply get rid of the troublemakers left over from the '6os the vast majority of undergraduates and alumni could again enjoy the Dartmouth Indian we have proudly revered for genera- tions.

Bronxville, N.Y.

No Comprendo

I do not understand what the Native Americans were upset about in the first place. After all, they are the "Native Americans."

The term "Indian" actually applies to the population of the country of India and was tagged on the Native Americans because Columbus didn't know where he was.

I don't hear the Native Americans complaining!

Wellesley Hills, Mass

The Indian Impasse

Over 30 years since graduation! How nice it would be to return to the Hanover Plain to feel the crispness of autumn and rekindle warm memories. But the thought of a football game shatters the image; shouting Wah-HooWhoops and cheering for the Dartmouth Artichokes would not seem quite right.

I think about the Indian-impasse quite a lot, perhaps because my only grandchild is part Osage. I find her to be an intelligent, resourceful young lady who manages her affairs very nicely. In this instance, please be assured, the symbol poses no threat.

That is the lesson our college used to teach. Whimpering is all I hear now. Goodbye, Old Dartmouth, and thanks.

Las Cruces, N.M

The Tip of the Iceberg

First, let me congratulate the"new" editor of the Alumni Magazine for stepping into a situation that most publishers can merely dream about, inheriting a never-ending stream of letters from irate readers, something Sports Illustrated only gets once a year after their revealing swimming suit issue.

Now to set the record straight insofar as the Indian symbol is concerned. The NAD in their December issue ad point out that the symbol was not used on football uniforms until 1965. This may be true, but the "official" programs, the sports coverage of the '30s and '40s in The Daily D, Aegis, etc., continually referred to the Indian line offering tight resistance, an Indian victory, etc. And, even though football teams didn't sport the symbol at that time, the hockey and baseball teams definitely did as any protege of Jeremiah and Tesreau will be more than willing to testify! The NAD say the Indian first appeared on team uniforms in 1928, "some 159 years after the founding of the College." Their mathematics are correct, but also very misleading. Dartmouth didn't participate in intercollegiate football until the 1880s - well over a hundred years after the relocation of Moor's Charity School!

The Indian symbol is just the tip of the iceberg. More easily forgotten and overlooked is the veiling of the colorful murals in the Hovey Grill. If an uphappy majority over the years could stomach Orozco's murals depicting, among other things, "the inhuman goals of modern society," I think an unhappy minority can tolerate the less renowned, but far more appealing Eleazar/Indian wall covering.

Then there is the matter of songs. President Kemeny's liberal wrecking crew also presided over the removal of "Eleazar Wheelock" from the Glee Club's repertoire. Once again Richard Hovey, class of '85, was wiped out by the "big chief." Early in this century the late and much-loved Harry Wellman published Songs of Dartmouth College. "The Dartmouth Song," "Dear Old Dartmouth," "Here's To The Team," and "Dartmouth Touchdown Song" all contain the words "Wah-Hoo-Wah." First Wah-Hoo-Wah went and then the touchdowns!

The book Athletics at Dartmouth published by the DCAC in 1923 has this to say about the Cheers. "Dartmouth's Wah-Hoo-Wah, one of the most distinctive college cheers in use today, was written by D.A. Rollins '79," so it had just been around for about a century. DCAC goes on: "The cheer has enough of the Indian sound to remind its hearers of the romantic origin of the College, and it has a distinctive cadence." Later this: "Indian Yell," a comparatively new addition to the list, was composed by an Indian student, Walkingstick '18." Ay-oh-ay!!

Traditions, according to Noah, are "the oral delivery of practices, rites and customs from father to son and from ancestors to posterity." They should not be tampered with, i.e. to make changes without right. Traditions cannot be re-created in a test tube or by some mathematical wizard's formula. The administration may have kept peace on the Plains of Hanover, but they are losing the war in the field. Bending over backward to please a very vocal but minute minority is paying too high a price for "peace in our time." As Daniel might remark today, "It is, sir, as I have said, a small college," there are many alumni who love it; let's not, therefore, scuttle it for a few!

Do I think an Indian symbol would help? A resounding yes!

Hamburg, N.Y

Taking Offense

I wish the last word on the subject of the Indian symbol had been said, but I'm afraid it hasn't, so may I raise a point that I haven't seen mentioned.

Certain members of the Dartmouth family were offended by the Indian symbol, and cither members of the family find it hard to understand how anyone can be callous enough to keep dragging this sad subject up year after year, and, thus, continue to pour salt in the wounds of the offended.

An explanation which I haven't seen made is that those who appear to be so unfeeling simply don't believe that anyone was offended. They believe that they and their college have simply been "had." People who feel that way can brood a long time.

What prompts this letter is a typically funny and insightful column by Russell Baker in this morning's New York Times. It's entitled "Truly Awful Things" and it handles beautifully the business of taking offense. I wish there was space to quote it all but this sentence sums it up:

"Spending a life in quest of offense in order to enjoy a righteous outrage is a Truly Awful Thing which did not exist, except among hopeless neurotics, until the late 19605."

Essex, Conn

An Open Letter toRobert Barry '56

Re: your remarks in the Jan/Feb Magazine'. ("A rich experience in Hanover"): The return of the Indian Symbol a "trivial matter?" "Do we or do we not have an Indian as the College symbol?" a Mickey Mouse issue?

What are your guidelines? Where do you draw the line as to what is trivial? Do you think the preservation of the American Flag is a Mickey Mouse issue and the flag itself a trivial symbol? Is that your opinion of the Cross, the Crescent and the Star of David?

And now to your "serious issue": Your stated goal is "to make people understand something of the nature of the Soviet Union and the problem of our communication." Most Americans clearly understand the nature of the Soviet Union and the Soviet's absolute lack of communication with the people of other lands - except of course through the muzzle of a gun.

Most Americans clearly understand the nature of the Soviet Union in the disappearance of more than 16 million of its own citizens, which far exceeds the annihilation of Jews and Catholics in Hitler's Germany.

Most Americans also understand well the nature of the Soviet Union in its role in financing international terrorism particularly in connection with the attempted assassination of the Pope; as well as its political and military support of Khoemeni, Khadaffi, Castro, and Central American communist governments.

Why not be frank and open, Mr. Barry, and tell us what concessions you think we should make to the Soviet Union so that we can understand them better - unilateral disarmament of the U.S.?

Your goal is 180 degrees off course. It should be "to make the people of the Soviet Union understand the nature of the U.S."

I don't know the make up, guidelines, and procedures of the committee that selected you as a fellow of the John Sloan Dickey Endowment for International Understanding - but they are also off course - and just as far.

Rolling Hills, Calif.

Mr. Barry replies:

I find it difficult to take someone seriously who compares the Indian symbol to the Cross, but I feel I do owe it to the readers of this magazine to point out that I am far from a unilateral disarmer - as anyone who has heard me speak on campus will testify. It has also been my goal while in the Soviet Union to make the people of the Soviet Union understand the U.S.I am deeply skeptical of the Soviet system but I certainly believe any educated person should try to understand it.

Mr. Fuld's letter has not unfortunately, changed my mind about the Indian symbol or Mickey Mouse.

The Dartmouth Alumni Magazine welcomes comment about College affairs and the editorial content of this Magazine. The Editor reserves the right to determine the suitability of letters for publication, using as standards accuracy, relevance, and good taste. Letters should not exceed 400 words and may be edited at the discretion of the Editor. Letters must be signed, with address and telephone included for verification.