LETTERS

Mater's Daughters

Thanks to Anne Bagamery for a helpful report on coeducation, "Daughters of Dartmouth" (November). The question "Is Dartmouth Still Dartmouth?" was an ever present backdrop for the scenario she developed.

Dartmouth is surely changing properly with the times and is certainly STILL Dartmouth.

Forest Ranch, California

While I have quickly learned not to expect unbiased journalism from the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, little did I expect such a one-sided, advocacy piece such as the November cover story. Rather than an article, we were treated to an eight-page advertisement for radical feminism at Dartmouth.

Greenville, South Carolina

How wonderful to see the article on the daughters of the College.; Anyone who remembers my undying love of Professor Sterling's only ( and exceptionally gifted and lovely) daughter can attest that "townies" really set the stage for women of Dartmouth. Mary Sterling went on to Vassar and is now contributing to excellence in education, which is her chosen field.

Bryan, Texas

My immediate visual association to Larry essin's wonderful photograph of Dartmouth athletes embracing one another is to Sandro Botticelli's fifteenth-century painting "Primavera."

If ever two images capture the evolution of the perception of women in society these are they.

Portland, Maine

Blunt Reminder

Jon Cowan's November article on "The Helplessness of a Bureaucrat" was a blunt reminder of our society's imperfections and the constant need to look at ourselves critically. I begin my next weeks of teaching with a renewed sense of purpose.

Littleton, New Hampshire

Scion Language

Nice story "Scions of the Times." Unfortunately it creates the impression that only the nine worked at the paper.DeaneMcGowen '40 had 40 years with the Times as a sports writer, earning his byline.

New Haven, Connecticut

Going Native

George Harris's October essay makes me wonder if I have missed something important. Has it been determined that the Indian symbol would not offend only if it could be shown that many native Americanshad been or are being educated at Dartmouth?

If so does this mean that our local Menomonee Falls High School Indians are risking offending someone, since the number of native Americans educated here may be near or at zero?

Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin

If we tricked, robbed and murdered the native Americans then theportrait of Uncle Sam as a tall kindlyold man with a flowing beard is the real caricature. It is to the credit of the native Americans that despite all the abuse there were no doubt some who at least came close to being the role models found in some pages of Cooper and Longfellow. It is these the symbol seeks to honor.

Sun City, Arizona

George Harris's essay supports the native American. All well and good and I approve of this, but let's get back to the main subject of the Indian symbol. How can this offend anyone? The Indians should be proud to be recognized as the reason for founding Dartmouth College.

New York, New York

Read All Over

While many of the changes at Dartmouth may leave alumni as cold as slush on the snow sculpture, the magazine's new graphics, styling, lay- out and color should warm every heart and eye.

Hillsborough, California

I have to say that I read of the upcoming changes with some skepticism. What I envisioned as a cosmeticface-lift, comprising at best a new typeface and at worst the removal of time-honored features, turned out to be a refreshing improvement on whatwas already a good product. "Welcoming the Loner" was a frank description of the admissions process and frankness has been an element missing from many past pieces on what goes on at the College.

Washington, D.C.

Your new format is easy to read, and I just plain had fun looking through it.

However, I wish you'd take the same responsibility on your shoulders as do many newspaper editors, and simply decline to publish letters that are repetitive, incoherent, or of interest to a minority of your readership. I've had enough.

Montpelier, Vermont

The magazine's new format looks classy, but what happened to the old idea that "form follows function"? With a larger typeface the letters may be easier for us old codgers to read, but now there's less space for them. The big, handsome numerals in Class Notes also reduce available space there. I think these two sections are of prime interest to alumni. Big, splashy headlines likewise diminish space for editorial matter.

Given a choice, I'd settlefor content over style.

Essex, Connecticut

The October Alumni Magazine is tops. Especially John Townsley's "Checking into the Inn . . ." It sure brings back memories.

Bedford Hills, New York

This is to congratulate you on the fine quality of the newest issue. The colored photos certainly help.

Oakland, California

I used to read one or two articles. In the October issue I read almost everything.

Norwich, Connecticut

The new format is stunning. You are on your way to "Beat Yale."

Bay Harbor Islands, Florida

African Withdrawal

There are many ways to invest money, socially acceptable ways. I for one will respect Dartmouth more for having taken its money out of the companies supporting apartheid. Hurray for the professors!

Portland, Oregon

Today I made a substantial financial pledge to the Dartmouth College Alumni Fund. My pledge, however, was contingent on Dartmouth College's divesting from American corporations doing business in SouthAfrica.

Bradford, Vermont

Mountain Topped

October's cover picture, which is supposed to portray Echo Lake with Cannon Mountain in the back- ground, looks like a butte in South Dakota that is about to be overrun by Indians.

Duluth , Minnesota

Review Review

Daniel Tompkins' statement on the Dartmouth Review, sponsored by six classmates as an advertisement in your November issue, is rife with errors of fact. People are entitled to their own opinions about the Review,but they are not entided to their own facts.

1. Tompkins' six patrons point out that "Jack Kemp disassociated himself from the Review." Actually,Kemp has issued a public statementin connection with the Cole controversy: "As the father of a Dartmouth graduate, Jeff Kemp '79, and a friend of the College, I have followed the recent incident involving the Dartmouth Review and Professor Cole. Suspension of the Review students is punishment far in excess of the alleged misconduct. In and of itself, the punishment will tend to stifle the competition of ideas on campus."

2. Tompkins' description of the encounter with Cole bears no resemblance to the facts, which are tape recorded for anyone to verify. Thestudent reporters were polite withCole throughout, calling him "sir."Cole responded with epithets and invitations to violence. The only physical exchange was initiated andcarried out by Cole, who poked at a student and broke the photographer's camera flash.

3. "Dartmouth could use a responsible conservative journal." We thank Professor Tompkins for the permission, but who decides what is and is not conservative certainly not a liberal like Tompkins. William Buckley, Patrick Buchanan, William Rusher, George Gilder and Russel Kirk are recognized on all sides of the spectrum as responsible conservatives.They all serve on the Review's advisory board.

4. On one point the Review agrees with Tompkins: this is not a liberalconservative issue. Responsible liberals, from Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School to Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice to Mark Goodman of the Student Press Law Center to Morton Halperin of the ACLU have condemned Dartmouth's punishment of student journalists as a dan- gerous attack on free speech. They reject Tompkins' facile statement "the penalties were assessed because of the behavior of the students not because of anything they wrote or said."

In reply, Professor Dershowitz comments: "All censors say that. It is a familiar excuse for those of us who have fought these battles in the past."

5. Moreover, how can Tompkins maintain that the students were penalized for conduct, not speech, when the College's own verdict sheet cites "vexatious oral exchange" as the crime for which the students were found guilty?

6. Over 5,000 alumni receive the Review every week. They know that we love Dartmouth, love ideas, and that the administration and media caricature of the paper is totally false. The New Republic, hardly a rightwing magazine, comments: "The Dartmouth Review has succeeded where countless tenured professors have failed in stirring up animated debate on campus over issues such as academic standards, free speech, and affirmative action."

7. The Dartmouth Review is Dartmouth's only independent source of news (and perhaps even opinion all other campus publications toe the administration line). Propaganda from Tompkins and his ilk isn't fooling anyone, as our thousands of subscribers and supporters know.

Editor in Chief The Dartmouth Review

DANIEL P. TOMPKINS '62 REPLIES:

Harmeet Dhillon gives a textbook example of how the Review works.

1. In resigning from the Review's Advisory Board, Jack Kemp stated that he was "deeply distressed" by "racial stereotypes" and "support for racist viewpoints" in Review Chairman Keeney Jones' attack on minoritycruitment. Representative Kemp has not retracted this statement.

2. Describing the encounter with Cole, I quoted eyewitnesses, the Alumni Bulletin, and the College's Committee on Standards (COS). Faculty I know on this committee are scrupulous, fair, and highly respected.

Alumni can now judge Dhillon's appeal to "facts" against former Review Editor Christopher Baldwin's failure to persuade Morley Safer of "Sixty Minutes" that Baldwin didn't know the Review's tape recorder was turned on (in violation of College rules). Viewers will recall Safer's incedulous response: "Oh come on, Chris." Since Baldwin acknowledges turning off the recorder during the encounter, any recording must be incomplete and unreliable: perhaps a suitable source of "facts" for the Review, but not for anyone else.

3. "My emphasis fell not on "conservative" but on "responsible," the very adjective Kemp used.

4. Morton Halperin's off-the-cuff remark, used without permission by the Review for fund-raising purposes, was refuted by the deliberate investigation of the ACLU itself. I insistlike others on the Review's right to publish, but doubt that this right justifies invading a classroom. As journalists, the four Review staffers were (like other journalists who interferewith College business) legitimatelytold to leave; as students, they were clearly subject to the College's Code of Conduct.

5. The COS statement listed three charges against the Review staffers: disorderly conduct, harassment, and violation of right to privacy. Has Dhillon read this statement?

Dhillon's other items concern not facts but opinion, about which we'll continue to differ.

Alumni should know that Dhillon's letter is not the Review's only response to my statement. Professor Jeffrey Hart has threatened me with a libel suit and called in attorney Harvey Meyerson; two Review staffers, including Dhillon, have publicly accused me of libel. Fortunately I had consulted lawyers before writing anything, and know that I'm safe. But these threats and accusations neatly reveal the Review gang's contempt for "free speech" when it is employed against them.

In my original letter I charged, with ample documentation, that the Dartmouth Review has for eight years treated decent people indecently, and thus demeaned our alma mater. Dhillon's refusal to deny or even mention this charge makes my case more eloquently than anything I could say.

Congratulations to Daniel Tompkins for his wonderful memorandum on the Dartmouth Review. Thanks also to the six '62's who had it publish. Hopefully, it will have its desired effect among responsible conservatives.

West Springfield, Massachusetts

Tompkins' peon to fair play regarding the Dartmouth Review was excellent as far as it went, but like all political advertisements (and this is what always troubles when academia and politics consort) it scrupulously avoided just about 50 percent of the issues.

From what I read at a distance, the administration does regularly prevent right-wingers from peaking at the College, or fails to discipline students who do, and seems to welcome "left-of-center" (the current jargon) speakers with open arms. Why? And is this not a legitimate question for the Review to raise, no matter how obnoxiously? Is manners valued above free speech?

Concord, Massachusetts

Review Views

If the Dartmouth Review is the repository and inheritor of the Western intellectual tradition, as the editors would have us believe, I could not think of a better reason for the College curriculum to emphasize the values and ethics of other cultures.

Indianapolis, Indiana

Success is guaranteed when the Review is in the limelight. Solution? Ignore, Ignore, Ignore. No press releases, no speeches, no demeaning involvement. Journalistic starvation could be effective.

Carmel, California

Maybe when these kids graduate and learn about real-life journalistic standards (not to mention laws regarding assault and defamation of character) they'll realize what enormous freedom they've had at Dartmouth. Maybe also, when they don't have access to a group of wealthy alumni to pay the bills for fancy defense lawyers and public relations experts, they'll be a little more careful.

In the meantime, it is very sad that when I meet young people interested in Dartmouth, the first thing they usually say to me is "How could you have gone to such a racist school?" Unfortunately, this extremely negative image of our College may be the Review's most lasting legacy.

Boston, Massachusetts

Students, faculty and alumni are all being hurt by the Dartmouth Review. This paper should shut down and let Dartmouth go about its business of educating young people.

New York, New York

The editor of the Dartmouth Review claims that the ultraconservative student paper is becoming "more careful —more professional in our standards." This is welcome news, if true.

The last two issues of The Review plummeted to the bottom. Nowhere to go but up.

Hanover, New Hampshire

As students many, many of us smoked pot when we knew it to be a felony, we committed criminal trespass on forbidden college ground (administration buildings, etc.), we destroyed or damaged property and we used the foulest most vulgar language conceivable.

Can we now truly profess outrage when we find the next generation has learned so very well what we have taught them?

Elmira, New York

The punishment of the "Review Four" by the College has had a perverse effect upon that organ. The caliber of its journalism (always suspect) has declined dramatically under its new editors.

Was this end desired by the administration?

Westboro, Massachusetts

Sixty Minutes

After watching "60 Minutes," I realized I've gravely misjudged Professor Cole. He is much worse than I had imagined and he definitely invaded my aura.

Pittsford, New York

If the Review editor handled himself before Professor Cole with the same level of sensitivity, tact and intelligence he displayed on television, he surely got what he deserved.

Falmouth, Maine

Communist Speaker

A fugitive from justice; on the FBI most wanted list; winner of the Lenin Peace Prize; anti-American; a known communist, Angela Davis is chosen as principal speaker at the ceremony marking the fifteenth anniversary of women at Dartmouth!

Venice, Florida

Feminism has a way, says female scholar and critic Carol lannone, of "eating alive any natural affinity between men and women." Whether you believe this or not, the arrogance of the radicals at Dartmouth in having Angela Davis celebrate coeducation with us is breathtaking.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

To invite Angela Davis or any other exponent of some radical philosophy to speak on the Dartmouth campus is one thing that is freedom of speech. To have such a person invited to be an official participant in an important Dartmouth event is an entirely different matter, one that at best is a stupid move and at worst shows an arrogant disregard for all that Dartmouth stands for.

Dana Point, California

Brainy Brawn

During the Dartmouth-Harvard game as seen on ESPN I was much impressed by the knowledge shown by the broadcasters of the academic records of several of the Big Green players. A fine example of Brains coupled with Brawn.

Sarasota, Florida

Refusing Playboy

It appears the College has refused to accept a $5,000 gift to the general scholarship fund from Playboy and has denigrated the accomplishments of a scholar-athlete of whom Dartmouth should be proud. I simply cannot conceive of any adverse effect on recruiting quality students, men or women, by recognition of an outstanding scholar and athlete.

Seattle, Washington

Shrinking Legacies

September's article, "Welcoming the Loner," states a misleading statistic that should be clarified. Victor Zonana says the College admits 40 to 50 percent of the legacies who apply for admission. I, think many alumni may confuse an admission figure with the total student enrollment. The facts according to the Statistical Summaries of July 1988 mailed to the 4,500 volunteer alumni interviewers are that this year's freshmen class will have 134 legacies matriculating, which is 12 percent of the total class. That percentage is down from last year's freshman class which produced 16 percent legacies.

Boston, Massachusetts

The Dartmouth huddle versus Botticelli's 500 years before.