1941

You read me in the "merrie month" (or perhaps in June if your DAM is late arriving), but the news, alas, is not all of that character. In a note from Chuck Bolte I learned that the curtain has fallen for the last time in the life of Jim Andrews. The unkindest of strokes brought his run to an end, and Jim's final curtain call will be his obituary in this or a subsequent issue of the Magazine.

Also in the category of news that's not so great I'd have to classify some of the happenings on the Hanover Plain. Since my previous column went to press, the Dartmouth Alumni Association of Long Island has had none other than Dartmouth's president, David McLaughlin '54, as a guest for dinner. He helped put things in perspective with a brief talk followed by his answering of questions in the format of a press conference. He hadn't brought along any whitewash; mistakes were admitted, and I had a sense that he left his audience of more than 100 with the conviction that the College is more than ever a place to be admired for the quality of the undergraduate educational experience. In this regard alumni will have read with interest the McLaughlin statement of January 28 in "The Bulletin" and the statement of the Board of Trustees of February 15.

Still, it is troubling to contemplate the implications of the foul-up with football coach Joe Yukica (whose remarks to a group of us at the 40th I warmly remember), the attack on the shanties, the sitins, and faculty/student protests aimed at the President. Mark Smoller '53, secretary of our DAALI, reports a drop in applications from Long Island for admission to the class of 1990. And Joel Portugal '58, Alumni Fund chair, writes class officers that "I'd be foolish to say I am not worried about the impact (events at the College) could have on this year's Alumni Fund." In the wake of these two items, under date of March 4 comes a little packet from the "Alumni Committee for a Strong Dartmouth," whose listed early supporters include 19 of my classmates. Charging that "Dartmouth College is suffering because its supreme authority, the Board of Trustees, has not been providing strong, incisive leadership," ACSD seeks to beef up the Board by the nomination of two men to run against the nominees of the Alumni Council. One of them, as you know, is our own class president, DanielE. Provost III.

I hope this action serves Dartmouth's best interests, and I believe it does. It certainly strengthens the democratic process to have petition nominees as opposed to controlled succession on any board. More importantly, this particular insurgency affords alumni the opportunity to express themselves on "Dartmouth issues" through the processes of nomination and voting. So I'm all for the proposed nominations, but how I decide to vote is another question entirely. For one thing, I was among the nay-sayers in Dan's issues survey preceding our 45th. Also, I disagree with ACSD in saluting the alumni as "the most important members of the Dartmouth family." The faculty members are the most important in my view, and the students are next in line. Moreover, it's simplistic to refer to the Board as the "supreme authority." That's the corporate model, but the academic one is quite different. Looking ahead, at least we'll know there's an election, and I'd be interested in hearing from, among others, SallyFrechette, present Board member, and Dick Hill, former member.

Looking ahead at something else, Dickie and I have signed up for this summer's Alumni College: "The Machine in the Garden: Science, Technology, and Culture." I've gone this route four times before, and I recommend it unreservedly. The combination of pleasurable activities is hard to beat, including as it does readings, lectures, seminar discussion, sports, concerts, plays, parties, etc. Anyone for tennis?

A note from Don Stillman covered a piece from Forbes, January 27, on the thriving farms of northern Illinois and the First National Bank of Dwight, chaired by Dick Oughton. (Not so, of course, for a lot of farms and farm banks elsewhere.) Florida news, via Bob Harvey, includes his meeting up with Bill Banford and Phil Hall, whose wife, Shirley, is on the mend from a stroke. Bob missed connections with Don Taber and John Kelley, but he found George Herman staring at him when he opened a paper in Sarasota. Now I see I've hit my limit; Peace and Joy.

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