1970

Congratulations of the highest magnitude are in order to Jack Pansegrau, as well as to you, dear classmates. The class of '70 results for the 1988 Alumni Fund campaign are, well, sensational. Jack's efforts resulted in contributions of $141,393, representing a 23 percent increase over last year. If any thing, even more impressive is the fact that 601 of you (or 83 percent) made donations, compared to an average of 65 percent for all classes combined. Assisting Jack with all this work have been Trip Dorkey in the East and BillKoenig here in the West, plus 42 others amongst us whose names Jack promises to make Known to all of us shortly.

We '70s continue to outdo ourselves not to mention other classes—even in the face of an unusual combination of obstacles. The past year has, after all, been a tough one for charitable fund-raising, what with changes in the tax law and the stock market crash. Adding even more to the challenge has been the fact that this year class agents have been forced to contend with an immeasurable yet no doubt real backlash to controversial events on campus.

In the face of the above, how does one begin to explain our ongoing and phenomenal support of the college? Are Jack and his team dynamos? Undoubtedly. Has the membership of our class figured out all the loopholes in the new tax law ... or did we all manage to profit on the stock market crash? Far less likely. Because of our unique undergraduate experiences, do we as a group perhaps possess heightened tolerance and understanding concerning controversial events on college campuses? That happens to be my personal theory.

As individuals we may or may not approve of the circumstances surrounding the various recent crises at Dartmouth. Nevertheless I would suggest that the turmoil we experienced in Hanover during the late 1960s may have left us with an enhanced awareness concerning the role of confrontation and conflict in education and selfdevelopment. By and large the College afforded us amazing latitude for self-expression, especially if we consider the options for protest readily available to most of us these days in the workaday world. Could it be that we are far richer for what we learned at Dartmouth about the usefulness (or uselessness ... or somewhere in between) of confrontation and conflict? Perhaps because of this we are not so easily offended or alienated by strongly expressed and diverging thoughts and actions, whether by today's students or anywhere in the pathway of our lives.

The actions of the College administration may not have always pleased us then, or even now, but it was because of what Dartmouth College was, and is, that a wonderful atmosphere for learning and growing exists. Your strong financial support proves, I believe, that we want the creative and open atmosphere in which we flourished to continue and be encouraged.

Classmates, I doubt any of you would want to follow Jack Pansegrau's act in this column, let alone the luxury of speculation concerning your motives which I have afforded myself as class secretary. Therefore I will save news of your individual activities and achievements for next month's column. For now you can all be appeased that at least once a year I limited my ramblings to matters exhibiting at least a rudimentary level of intelligence, as opposed to Modesto's monthly calendar of events.

Thanks again for supporting the Alumni Fund. We're really a great group, aren't we.

P.O. Box 3934, Modesto, CA 95352-3934