The Ups and Downs of a Dartmouth President

In May, the outgoing president told Boston alumni that a reporter had recently asked him three questions: "What were your greatest disappointments? What would you wake up worrying about at five o'clock in the morning? What were those things that gave you tin greatest sense of fulfillment and joy at the College?" Here are some of his answers.

DOWNS

• Watching uncompromising advocates of academic freedom become apoplectic when I disagreed with their position on an issue.

• Being counseled that the return of the Indian symbol would solve all of Dartmouth's problems.

• Listening to a fraternity president trying to justify why the sprinkler system went off, four windows were smashed and six brothers ended up in Dick's House during a friendly and harmless initiation ceremony.

• Being awakened at four o'clock in the morning during Winter Carnival by a slightly disoriented Harvard student ringing my doorbell arid asking if Mary belle was Staying there.

• Suffering with 19 fine cross-country and track athletes who were quarantined because of an outbreak of measles on campus and were unable to give Dartmouth an almost certain victory in the Heptagonals.

• Being vilified by the far right for protecting the freedoms of all to enjoy the privileges of the campus and then being rejected by the far left for not banishing the conservatives.

• Watching liberally educated alumni believe everything they read in print.

• Having a major gift prospect waiting for me in Manhattan while I was cooling my heels in fog-bound Lebanon Municipal Airport.

• Presiding over my last commencement.

WORRIES

• That the official college song would become an issue that rivals the College symbol—though few alumni even know the words to the second verse.

• That someday the 1,442 cars with College parking stickers will arrive on campus at the same time and look for a place to park among the 891 spaces available.

• That the alumni will realize how important they are, that the faculty will decide that they actually want the authority they claim to have, and that the students, suddenly awakening to the fact that they will graduate within four years, will immediately start acting like alumni.

UPS

• Taking John Dickey to football practice and watching the team serenade him with "Men of Dartmouth."

• Listening to the consternation arising across the Charles River because record numbers of students from the Class of 1991 are choosing Dartmouth over Harvard.

• Knowing that my successor will have Ivy championships in six major men's and women's sports, including football and track, within three years.

• Greeting the incoming class at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge and sharing with them the special sense of place that Dartmouth.

• Seeing a multitude of fraternity and sorority members gather at the President's House and hearing them sing "Men of Dartmouth" after a particularly acrimonious faculty meeting.

• Climbing a trail to a DOC lodge and knowing that hundreds of others have walked into that same classroom before me.

• Seeing the neighborhood on Webster Avenue rehabilitated and restored by those who value the positive aspects of fraternal relationships.

• Throwing a fly into the Dead Diamond River in the College Grant and being bitten by a mosquito larger than the trout.

• Watching diehard alumni opponents of coeducation on their toes, cheering at Commencement as I hand Dartmouth diplomas to their granddaughters.