LETTERS

College or University?

President Freedman claims that his October 31 speech ("Is the College a College?", winter issue) was intended merely to "open debate" about Dartmouth's future. This claim is disingenuous. You do not open a debate by announcing a fait accompli.

I believe President Freedman is simply wrong in this characterization. Yes, Dartmouth has extraordinary facilities, an outstanding faculty, and a broad curriculum. But Dartmouth is a college because until now it has made all of its programmatic decisions with reference to our undergraduate educational mission.

To go down the path laid before us by President Freedman would have some benefits. By orienting ourselves as a university, we would perhaps attract some more big-name professors actively engaged in research. Dartmouth would get better press and our administrators would carry more clout in their professional associations. But do we really want Dartmouth undergraduates taught by professors who were attracted to Dartmouth by a university "image" and not by our traditional liberal-arts orientation?

Cambridge, Massachusetts

President Freedman has presented a clear and compelling plan for achieving true distinction, distinctiveness and greatness for Dartmouth in a short and long term. After due discussion and modification as necessary, if implemented sensitively and carefully, it can bring about an even better undergraduate education and experience than heretofore.

Further, by careful examination and selectivity in graduate and professional programs and making sure that Dartmouth does not try to be everything to everyone and indeed strives to be a "liberal arts university" and not a traditional research university, Dartmouth should be able to achieve the same quality in its graduate programs as it will in its undergraduate program. To do this, it must never forget its twin foundations the liberal arts and undergraduate education.

New York, New York

The Tuck School was recently named third in the nation by Business Week, behind Northwestern and Harvard and ahead of Wharton. Acording to the Dartmouth Bulletin, the magazine valued Tuck for its small classes and emphasis on teamwork: "Tuck professors were praised for keeping the right balance between teaching and research."

"Right balance" reminded me of President Freedman's speech on the College-University, in which he seemed to be talking about such balance, not only between teaching and research but also between undergraduate and graduate work, and implicitly between bigness and littleness. Perhaps the most important question alumni can address as the president calls upon us to think "university" is that of assessing the College's choice of criteria for determining the right balance.

We alumni show in many ways that we are concerned both "lest the old traditions fail" and that the College continue to make a place for itself in a changing world. What assumptions about right balance undergird President Freedman's position? Are they truly explicit, and how do they relate to alumni concerns? How should the College,choose the right balance?

Albany, New York

Anyone who needs to puzzle over the question "Is Dartmouth a college or a university?" doesn't know much about Dartmouth.

A president who dares to declare that Dartmouth College is no longer Dartmouth College is a malevolent despot. I say set this man free. Get him to a university, any university. Get him to Boston, New York, anywhere. Get him the hell out.

Baraboo, Wisconsin

It is my hope that out of all the discussions and debate on this issue there will develop a united support among trustees, faculty and alumni for President Freedman's position and eventual acceptance of a Dartmouth University.

Bay Harbor Islands, Florida

Gifted students should first be good undergraduates, to learn, to study, to think, to be totally enveloped in education before going to graduate studies. Should Dartmouth seek research support? No. Why not seek undergraduate and faculty support for improving undergraduate teaching? Is a bigger faculty better? Not usually.

I feel that the Trustees have chosen a university president and not a Dartmouth president. As an assistant class agent, I find that a large majority of the alumni agree with my comments.

New York, New York

If Dartmouth becomes a university, my loyalty will remain, but my contributions will shift to my daughter's college, Carleton. Carleton is a small college, but there are those who love it. That is more than we will be able to say of Dartmouth University.

Washington, D.C.

From a superior college, Dartmouth is en route to becoming a mediocre university.

Tucson, Arizona

O.K., O.K, we are a university, but we're called a College. If your winter issue article is the opening gun in a campaign to change the name, forget it.

Durham, North Carolina

Compete as Dartmouth

Freedman has chosen to define the quality of the student body in terms of how other schools choose their students. The way to make students prefer Dartmouth is to develop the strengths that Dartmouth has. If students are choosing other schools for academic reasons (which I would not be willing to concede without farther study), why are we concentrating on changing the student body?

Los Altos, California

Ill-Bred Daughters

The "Daughters of Dartmouth" article in your November issue not only presents interesting studentbody ratio statistics, but hits a nail on the head. Dartmouth is indeed "displaying signs of deep ambivalence" and, I must add, it is being fostered by those in charge.

In her article, Anne Bagamery '78 mentions the "inertia inherent to any 200-plus-year-old institution that thrives on tradition" and some of the Dartmouth family's feelings that "women are fine, it's change we don't want." I have to say that there are many career-successful Dartmouth alums (of my vintage) out there who have had to cope with an ample helping of change. I think it's safe to say that some of it is good-and some of it not so good. A lot of us put Dartmouth in the latter category.

Sorry, I liked the rough-and-tumble, tradition-bound Dartmouth better and have no use for those who are "questioning everything about the Dartmouth experience, including some of the College's most hallowed traditions." I will continue to write them off as ill-bred.

Albany, New York

Starve the Lawyers

Referencing the recent savaging of Dartmouth's reputation in the Wall Street Journal and other places: Was the behavior of the Review Staffers unacceptable? Yes. Was the response by Professor Cole to the Review Staffers unacceptable? Yes. Should the College have taken sides? Obviously not. Are the Ivies laughing because we need a New Hampshire Superior Court judge to settle our differences? You'd better believe it.

Rather than going to pay for lawyer fees, my check this year will go to the Ivy League champion men's soccer team.

Webster, New York

Double the Money

I want to express my anger and resentment against the recent scurrilous attacks directed towards President Freedman by the (socalled) Dartmouth Review. President Freedma and his administration have my complete support in their efforts to bring tolerance, understanding diversity, and excellence to Dartmouth, and in the way they have vigorously affirmed the true meaning of a liberal arts education.

My support for Dartmouth remains strong. My answer to those who threaten to stop their contributions to the College will be to double mine.

Shavertown, Pennsylvania

Hardening Minds

Of late, as I read on the pages of the DAM letters from alumni threatening to drop their support to their College, I cannot help but wondering whether those zestftd self-deprecatory words in the "Men of Dartmouth" were not meant to be taken literally, as a warning against the hardening of our minds.

How else comprehend one segment of the Dartmouth community, yes Dartmouth, pointing an angry finger at another and this, before the national media for the entire world to see?

Valley Cottage, New York

Mater Is Growing

It seems to me that my debt and gratitude to Dartmouth call for more from me now that she is under fire from rude, ungrateful children who abuse their great privilege of free speech; and now that she is being deserted by alumni who wish everything could stay the same forever. I am sad that they cannot rejoice in their mother's growth and maturity.

Wilmington, Delaware

Review Hoax

As a fiftieth-year alumnus, and as a heretofore badly misled and almost converted victim, I am shocked and shattered by the hoax perpetrated by the Dartmouth Review, as fairly and fully outlined by Daniel P. Tompkins '62 in the November issue of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine.

As a result I will never subscribe to the Dartmouth Review and help perpetuate this hoax, as many of our alumni are now so sadly, mistakenly, and destructively doing, and are only adding to the irreparable, if not fatal, damage already caused our revered Dartmouth.

Soquel, California

Strange Love

I was surprised to read that a former Dartmouth Review editor, the recently reinstated John Sutter, says: "I love Dartmouth." Every time I read the Review's vitriolic attacks on the Dartmouth faculty and administration, I wonder, "Isn't this their college, too?" If you love a place, why would you repeatedly try to trash it?

Hanover, New Hampshire

Getting Stuck

It is lamentable that the president should have gotten himself into a melee with the Dartmouth Review and even more lamentable that the faculty and Trustees should have to bail him out.

Br'er Fox Freedman, in trying to squeeze the Review, sure has gotten stuck to the tarbaby. How tacky!

Miami, Florida

Smells Fishy

Down here we had planned to use the Dartmouth Review to wrap our smoked mullet. However, the mullet objected. We are now searching for an alternative, ecologically sound disposal method for the Review.

Bradenton, Florida

Alumni Unrest

I hope President Freedman and the Trustees will be sensitive and responsive to the concerns and wishes of both undergraduates and graduates and begin to question themselves when there is resistance from a significant segment of the Dartmouth family. We do not want to become "the Harvard of the North." I had never heard a President of Dartmouth booed on Dartmouth Night until this year. I urge the Alumni Council to play a more active role by voicing opinion instead of sitting through administration-directed presentations. After all, that is their intended purpose.

Medina, Washington

Important Ad

"Think on it," said Daniel P. Tompkins '62. I have. A lot, and for many years. It seems extraordinary that any advertisement can be unique, much less so profoundly important.

Essex, Connecticut

The letter from Daniel Tompkins '62 is precisely in point: cruel faculty baiting and taunting have no place at an institution of learning; they are the very antithesis of the Dartmouth spirit. I only regret that none of my classmates has responded to the Cole media event as has Professor Tompkins.

Santa Barbara, California

Why the Rush?

I am puzzled by the strident and, to me, unreasonable objections of students to the trustees' decision to postpone the joining of fraternities and sororities to their sophomore year. Back in my undergraduate days at Dartmouth, that was the policy. The purpose, in my opinion a sound one for Dartmouth, was to promote primary alumni loyalty to the College rather than to a fraternity.

Kingston, Rhode Island

Female Faculty

In the November issue you list Hannah Croasdale as the first woman to be granted faculty status. I am not certain what "faculty status" means, but I believe that it includes teaching fellow, and if this is true then the list should be headed by my wife, Marion Glover Fitkin, who became a teaching fellow in the Chemistry Department in the fall of 1952.

Toledo, Ohio

De-Dartmouth the Review

Dartmouth is a small college, but there are those who love it ... and those who love it should demand our college's name be removed from the (Dartmouth) Review.

New York, New York

I suggest that the College use all its legal resources to deny the use of the name "Dartmouth" to this hatemonger sheet. Freedom of the press is one thing. Freedom to libel is something entirely different. Support of outright bigotry is just plain stupid, and we've had enough stupidity for a long time.

Englewood, Florida

Crying Out Loud

Occasionally, I read some of the letters. Wish I didn't; too many weepers around.

Mooresville, North Carolina

"Ein Volk"

Having never read the Dartmouth Review and having had only a passing interest in the Review controversy, I was shocked by the Review's article which accompanied the copy of George Munroe's letter to President Freedman.

Satire is a form of commentary designed to ridicule and the Review is entitled to ridicule whomever it chooses. But why is the Holocaust used in this instance? Can we conceive of anyone other than an antisemite choosing this theme and applying it in such a farfetched manner? The author of this article is probably unaware that his choice of symbols reveals more about himself than the symbols per se communicate about his subject.

Mahopac, New York

I've recently received a letter from Mr. George Munroe expressing the Board of Trustees' "resentment and anger" and "shock and outrage" at recent articles and caricatures in the Dartmouth Review. If this letter really reflects the Board's reaction, then they are making Dartmouth a laughingstock, and it seems probable that many prospective students will decide to go to a different college. After all, who would choose an unsophisticated college nowadays?

Everybody knows that the Holocaust was one of the worst crimes in history and that the Germans won't be allowed to forget it or to repeat it, so there is no need for overreaction on anybody's part at this time.

What I do know for sure is that Mr. Garrett has written a minor literary classic that ought to be widely published for the pleasure of those who enjoy good satire and caricature.

Chicago, Illinois

The Trustees' November 5 letter to the president of the College is one of the most significant events in the history of Dartmouth.

Long ago in another event of great significance, it was determined that the Trustees are the College. I am more proud of Dartmouth today than I ever have been.

Great Neck, New York

That the article was satire was apparently missed by Mr. Munroe. The article's point is that it is perceived that the administration is attempting to silence, if not destroy, the witness of conservatives on the campus.

Whether justified or not that perception exists, and rather than blustering about the Review's "unfair distortions, ignorance, and moral blindness" (which often seem more descriptive of the administration than of the Review), he and the administration would do well to examine seriously the basis of the perception and then act to heal rather than to exacerbate the illness that besets Dartmouth.

Charlestown, New Hampshire

"Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

Joseph Welch, a brilliant and eloquent lawyer from Boston, addressed those words to Joseph McCarthy in 1954 when the junior senator from Wisconsin attempted to smear Fred Fisher, Mr. Welch's aide, during the Army-McCarthy hearings.

An outraged and not-so-eloquent tax attorney in San Francisco now directs those same words to the Dartmouth Review's James Garrett in reaction to his grotesque, obscene comparison of President Freedman to Adolf Hitler.

Like Joseph McCarthy 34 years ago, by its own words, the Review in my opinion stands exposed, finally and completely, as a vicious, reckless hatemonger which is utterly undeserving of the support of any member of the Dartmouth family.

San Francisco, California

I am dismayed that my classmate, Ave Raube, is so confused and limited that he withdrew as 1930 head class agent over President Freedman's administration. Ave Raube apparently did a good job, but he leaves a muddied name behind him with such sorrowful behavior.

Congratulations to President Freedman on his courageous stand about the Dartmouth Review editors and its lunatic-fringe disgraces. Once Raube reads the fine letter from Trustee Chairman George B. Munroe, to the Dartmouth Community and others about this offensive voice on our campus, he should feel properly ashamed of himself that he gave his support and sympathy to the men sent packing by the College.

Bloomington Indiana

I add my own sentiments of disgust and abhorrence to Chairman Munroe's feelings of "resentment and anger" over the Review. However, it is not enough that we reject that which we find despicable; we must join together in supporting Dartmouth's leadership, its espousal of human values and its pursuit of advancement in thought and learning. I pledge myself to that support.

Chevy Chase, Maryland

Lighten Up

Doesn't anybody remember the sixties? I do. After graduation in 1966, I attended graduate school at the University of Wisconsin Madison, a hotbed of the burgeoning radical press. Back then anything remotely associated with authority and "the establishment" was branded Fascist ipso facto.

The best response to the Review's ravings is not hysterical apologies to the community about Fascist references. But rather the College should continue to produce quality education programs such as the Native American Studies Program, and graduates, such as one of the most celebrated recent Dartmouth graduates, Louise Erdrich '76.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Why did the College publish its strident, illogical and humorless response? Why escalate a battle no one can win?

The time has come to diffuse this confrontation. It needs to be done with intelligence, humor and dignity. If neither the Trustees nor the president can dp so, we all have a problem.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Viewing the Review

My daughter is a member of the Class of '92. When my wife and I visited her over the Dartmouth-Harvard weekend, under each student's door was a printed piece, distributed by the Dartmouth Review with the original "Men of Dartmouth" lyrics to the Alma Mater.

For what purpose was this delivered? To remind the undergraduates that women do not really belong to the Dartmouth Fellowship?

I think the alumni who financially contribute to the Review are helping polarize the Dartmouth community when unity and support are what it needs.

Arlington, Massachusetts Honestly held and sincerely set forth, conservative and liberal views both serve the interests of our country and all its institutions. But the Review's way is the wrong way. Isn't it time for Dartmouth alumni who have defended or supported the Review in the past to disassociate themselves from its infantile grasp of serious matters?

Shavertown, Pennsylvania

Dartmouth College has in place an official procedure, described in the student handbook, for those students who wish to complain about a professor. That procedure involves going through the office of the dean of the faculty or the dean of students, or both.

One has to ask why the editors of the Dartmouth Review chose to ignore the established process in favor of a classroom confrontation with the professor they had singled out for disdain. I can think of several answers to that question, none of them favorable to the Review.

Hanover, New Hampshire

Paper as Toddler

The Dartmouth Review will fade away when people choose to ignore it—that is, when advertisers stop advertising in it and when people stop buying it. The Review begs the question: if a spoiled child shrieks in the wilderness and no one listens, will the child get tired and eventually grow UP?

Laramie, Wyoming

When my two-year-old wants nothing other than attention, and seeks it by screaming and yelling, I ignore her until she decides to make a more reasoned appeal. This she invariably does after a minute or two.

From what little I have seen of the Dartmouth Review, expressing dismay in print through mass mailings is just the kind of thing that the magazine craves. Instead, why not adopt the approach that I take with my young daughter? If it works with an intelligent toddler, it ought surely to succeed with the College undergraduates and alumni. Or, in the case of those who print, write, and support the Review, do I presume too much?

San Francisco, California

Ancestral Racism

The self-described "black woman" Taryn L. Gude '87 writes in the October Letters, "But, as we are still suffering from our foreparents' enslavement, so must some of you suffer for your foreparents' slave ownership."

This is arrogant racism. It is asking for punishment of one group for the actions of another.

Racism for or against white or black is evil and it will not stop until preferences one way or another are eliminated.

Kansas City, Missouri

While there surely are descendants of slave owners in America today, most of this countiy is made up of descendants of immigrants who came here because they themselves were persecuted. I am descended on both sides from Jews who left Eastern Europe less than 100 years ago. Not only were my ancestors not slave owners, they were not even here before the Civil War. They, too, were not "furnished boots" and

bootstraps. The way to correct the injustices of the past is not by turning the persecuted into the persecutor. The fact that Ms. Gude's ancestors were abused by whites will never be changed by attacking (verbally or otherwise) all whites alive today. This, too, is racism.

New Canaan, Connecticut

I am not a slave owner's descendant, nor am I inherently privileged or prejudiced, by virtue of having been born white and male. Prejudice is individual, suffering is individual, and achievement is individual; Ms. Gude's apparent ignorance of this is in itself an indictment of the College, for its failure to graduate men and women with the capacity for deliberative reasoning.

Brooklyn, New York

Administrative Coverup

The satire presented by the Review is indeed overdone and for this the Review has publicly apologized.

However, in my opinion, the College administration is far more culpable than the Review in its presentation of College affairs. The administration is guilty of deceit by omission. In no letter or statement released by the administration is there any reference to the vile, profane, gutter language employed by Professor Cole; nowhere is it stated that the Review interviewers were polite in their questioning of Professor Cole; nowhere is there a reference to the conservative black student who was harassed by his black peers; nowhere has there been a statement referring to the occupation of Baker Tower; nowhere is there a statement pertaining to the dirty tampon throwing incident; nowhere is it stated that prominent apolitical Americans were denied a platform to speak at Dartmouth College because they had been presented by The Dartmouth Review.

We do know however that Ms. Angela Davis, a subversive ex-communist and at one time on the F.B.I.'s "most wanted" list, was paid handsomely to speak at the College.

I have doubts that this letter will be published as written. On a previous occasion I submitted a letter to the Alumni Magazine. That letter was censored and severely diluted. There were no literary notations that portions of the letter had been omitted.

I feel that the administration is bent on trying to destroy the Review, its conservative stance, and its

forthrightness, Robert W. Unangst '4O North Stratford, New Hampshire

We edit letters for length and sense. Any faithful reader of this column should know that ive don't shrink from publishing opinion critical of the administration.-Ed.

Save the Trips

"Looking Inward" (winter issue) stated that two recent studies have criticized the DOC's freshman-trips program. One committee has gone so far as to recommend that Boston museums be included as a destination for the trips. Perhaps this committee should look back on what has made the program so unique, so endearing, and the envy of other colleges and universities: an introduction to Dartmouth's rich outdoor heritage.

Save the excursions to the Boston museums for that date when it serves as a necessary and important complement to the academic realm. During those precious early weeks of September, let the freshman discover what there is to learn outside of the classroom, in the woods, mountains, lakes, and rivers of New England. It is during this experience that the freshman first begins to learn wherein lies the balance between the mind and the soul.

Mill Valley, California

The committees' recommendations disregard the purpose of the trips. First is an introduction to the Dartmouth family. A museum is unquestionably a worthwhile educational experience, but it does not help to form the bonds that make Dartmouth so strong.

The second purpose, which is more important on a global scale, is the introduction to the out-of-doors. It is critical that we all have an appreciation for the environment so that we can work to protect it. No museum can ever recreate the emotions invoked by the cry of the loon drifting across the lake, or the starry sky of a cold winter's night.

The committees should realize, as has been noted before, that to call God from Cambridge is a toll call. It is a local call from Hanover.

Lebanon, New Hampshire

So here we go again. In the winter issue of the Mag is a picture of men and women singing, possibly at the Ravine Lodge, over the caption, "Serenading Dartmouth's past, the DOC croons at Moosilauke. Two recent studies criticized freshman trips." Ignoring the jab implying that the DOC is only interested in the past, let's see what this criticism of freshman trip amounts to: that they should also include Boston museums as well as the New England wilderness! The caption is an all too-familiar. subtle slur on the DOC.

For 45 years I have been somewhere between marvel and dismay at the low esteem the College media has for the DOC, yet if you ask the man on the street in Omaha what he has ever heard of Dartmouth he is likely to say something that has to do with the outdoors and the DOC.

Dexter, Maine

The caption was written by Editor Jay Heinrichs, who led a freshman trip last fall. Criticising the trips was the last thing on his mind. Ed.

Hop to It

Congratulations on the establishment of the College's three on-campus committees studying the intellectual environment, graduate programs and diversity!

The suggestions listed in the winter issue, including alternatives to the freshman orientation, independent student research, and an activity fee allowing all students to attend events at the Hopkins Center free of charge, are certainly welcome from the viewpoint not only of an alumnus, but also of the parent of a son admitted to the class of 1993.I will encourage Andrew to take advantage of the fine programs available at the Hopkins Center. If the College makes it easier financially, more students will be able to attend.

Brockton, Massachusetts

Despicable Speaker

The president of Dartmouth and the chairman of Dartmouth's Board of Trustees have not been bashful when it comes to criticizing persons or institutions whom they believe have abused academic freedom. Why have they remained silent when confronted with the choice of Ms. Davis as a Dartmouth honoree?

Even if considerations of academic freedom prevented the Dartmouth administration from countermanding the choice of Ms. Davis, it could and should have issued a statement of disassociation and condemnation.

Maplewood, New Jersey

After reading the "letter advertisement" on page 10 of the winter issue, I wonder how many readers are aware of the fact that cosponsor Dwight Lahr is the person who introduced the despicable Angela Davis at the coeducation conference on September 24.

Franklin Lakes, New Jersey

The Big Picture

Notes from the real world: the Japanese are kicking our tails; dictators rule most of the world's nations; the majority of marriages end in divorce; and one can walk the streets safely at night in only a few major cities.

Yet, at Dartmouth, attention is locked on an incident where students angered a professor in his classroom; on the selection of a representative college symbol and the propriety of certain dining hall art; on changing the words of the school song; and, most recently, on the acceptability of a metaphor used in an off-campus newspaper to dramatize criticism of the college administration.

Or so things seem from afar. I recall that during my days in Hanover an exaggerated concern for proper form and manners also dominated public debate; then, as now, the overriding goal of the community was the protection of all and sundry from possible offense.

Fortunately, at that time, as I hope is still true, real education went on behind this unattractive spectacle the serious student of life ignoring the noise and leaving the bickering about symbolism and "who's offending whom" to those so inclined.

Paris, France

When national critics with dubious motives nick away at Dartmouth College, I am reminded of the old Chinese proverb: "The dogs bark, but the caravan passes on."

The caravan of Dartmouth College has been moving ahead for more than 200 years. It will continue to move ahead hopefully with loyal alumni support.

Vero Beach, Florida

President Freedman, the faculty and the student body would do better to address some of the real problems that plague us these days: overpopulation, the prevention of nuclear and conventional war, waste disposal, the diminishing ozone layer, the global warming trend, pollution, homelessness, crime and the abuse of drugs and alcohol, and others. In comparison with these problems, the incident in Professor Cole's class is trivial.

Chicago, Illinois

Death of a Cowboy

My husband, Gail Irwin Gardner '14, died on November 23. Imagine my surprise when I opened my mail on the next day and found the copy of the winter issue with your article about Gail and the visiting cowboysinger-musicians who had performed at Hopkins Center earlier in the fall!

It is my deep regret that Gail could not have lived to hear your article read to him. It would have meant more to him than any honors he has received. I am convinced that his four years at "The college on the hill" were the greatest influence in shaping his outlook on life. His loyalty and devotion never wavered. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi, The Dragon Society, and captain of the gym team. Our only son, James Gail Gardner, is Dartmouth '52.

Prescott, Arizona

Flawed Education

Higher education in the free world is flawed and this should be the concern of Dartmouth's trustees and administrators and faculty, not the May 1988 Alumni Magazine on "great books."

Allan Bloom attacks this problem in classic and specific terms: the universities have corrupted the conception of science, borrowing the credibility that the physical sciences have established in their open pursuit of knowledge and using this credibility to compose social sciences which only pretend to seek universal truth and which accept obvious conflict between their disciplines and with the integrated physical sciences.

The social sciences deal with man, an indivisible identity that cannot be treated independently as psychological and economic and political and social, separated from physiological man and sealed off in privileged sanctuaries by university authority. The hierarchy of disciplines within the university has to be related, and when this relatedness fails, the university loses its credibility. Then, loss of respect and influence will not be far behind.

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Poller Opposites

I have a survey of my own about the recent Hopkins Institute "Opinion Survey" which may be of interest to your readers.

1. The Hopkins Institute's "Opinion Survey of Dartmouth Alumni," from its December Bulletin, reaches a new low in the science of opinion polling. (Agree Disagree)

2. Questions of the "When did you stop beating your wife?" variety, clumsily worded and obviously phrased so as to elicit a particular response, are apparently permissible in such a "survey." (Agree Disagree)

3. One of the Institute's directors, formerly a leading economic market research executive, would have been laughed out of the industry if he had ever produced a "survey" of this kind for any of his distinguished clients. (AgreeDisagree)

4. Any Dartmouth alumnus or alumna who is taken in by this crude attempt to farther unravel, rather than strengthen, the ties that hold the Dartmouth community together should be required to turn in his or her diploma. (Agree Disagree)

5. All but heavily committed Institute-Review supporters will throw the "survey" in the wastebasket. Therefore, the results of the "survey" will be publicized to show that anywhere from 90 to 100 percent of Dartmouth alumni agreed with what the Institute wanted them to agree with. (Agree Disagree)

6. Spurious "surveys" of this kind-and maybe even letters to the editor of this kind, as well do little or nothing to encourage a civil, reasoned, truly collegial approach to the educational and social problems that beset Dartmouth, as they do so many other colleges and universities in today's unsettled society. (Agree Disagree)

Hanover, New Hampshire

The "First Opinion Survey" is a disgrace to the Ernest Martin Hopkins Institute. It has succeeded in undermining what little sense of credibility I had accorded the Institute in the past.

Honolulu, Hawaii

It's probably too late, but I would encourage alumni to send their own opinions to members of the Board rather than the Hopkins Institute. Let the Board decide what we alumni are thinking.

Putney, Vermont

I wonder if you would be kind enough to publish the mailing address of Bill Buckley of Connecticut, if you know it. Then perhaps a few old grads who have been receiving unwanted issues, as I have, of something called the Hopkins Bulletin would be willing to change, temporarily, their addresses to Bill Buckley's. They could do this in a contemplative sort of way, and then rescind the move almost immediately if they wanted to-after they had sent the change of address to the Bulletin.

This would be beneficial on two accounts. The grads would no longer be getting unwanted mail. Mr. Buckley would enjoy getting additional Bulletins. And he could then deliver the copies to like thinkers-known mainly to himself—who would spread the bull faster, and on receptive lawns.

Bronx, New York

Sotry, we don't know it. Ed

Good Stance

I note in the winter issue that Richard N. Campen '34 wishes the Hopkins Institute people would get off President Freedman's back.

The Hopkins Institute has just reasons for its stance. It recognizes freedom of speech and the full expression of other points of view, something which President Freedman does not seem to espouse 100 percent.

Fort Myers, Florida

What's the Mater

I am having trouble digesting the inspired compromise worked out with regard to a noble song which so gloriously captures the spirit of the College's first 200 years of existence.

I would like to propose an alternative solution. Could not one of our musically inclined undergrads compose a song apropos of the experiences of the fairer members of the Dartmouth community which would both stand on its own and blend harmoniously when sung in unison with "Men of Dartmouth"? Would this not be a musical tour de force likely to draw the envy of certain pretentious crimson, canine, and feline warblers to the south?

Reston, Virginia

The new lyrics are self contradictory. Therefore I would like to suggest a change: in the line "Lest the old traditions fail," change the word "lest" to "while."

Montclair Heights, New Jersey

Clean It Up

Shanties on the Green publicity about the Professor Poor Affair Angela Davis-support for gays and lesbianism.

Dartmouth alumni have had enough. It's time for our president to clean up his act.

Naples, Florida

Mainstream I1k

Dan Tompkins hardly needs my assistance to defend himself against the Review but Harmeet Dhillon's February-issue letter compels a response.

I am not Dan's "patron" though I may have bought him a drink on occasion. I am proud to be of his "ilk." The "thousands of subscribers and supporters" Ms. Dhillon ,so easily claims might want to know the "ilk" of the '62s involved.

Dan Tompkins '62 has been an active and loyal alumnus and is largely responsible for conceiving and nurturing the Class of 1962 Faculty Fellowship. The six '62 sponsors ("patrons") include a former Alumni Council president, two Dartmouth Alumni Award recipients, three former '62 head agents. Four are attorneys, one is a physician. If mainstream alumni of a prominent Dartmouth class are "ilk," I suggest the Review lacks any understanding whatever of what Dartmouth is and means.

I support the Review's right to print whatever it chooses but this magazine in no way represents the Dartmouth I know.

Ridgewood, New Jersey

Indian Saved

On December 2, 1988, the San Francisco Examiner reported that the students at Lowell High School in San Francisco had voted overwhelmingly to keep as their mascot an image of an Indian warrior despite contentions by other students and some members of the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education that it is a "racist stereotype." The final vote was 2,098 to 357.

San Francisco is generally reputed to be the most liberal large city in the nation; Lowell is the city's only academic public high school, to which enrollment is based upon a written examination and middle-school grade-point average. Its students are probably more liberal-minded than the general electorate in San Francisco. Like Dartmouth College, the school football pennants, book covers, etc., bear the legend "Lowell Indians." Also like Dartmouth, although the students voted to retain the mascot, the final decision will be made by the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools, some of whom already have expressed the desire to terminate use of the symbol.

San Francisco, California

Women's Contributions

Perhaps the tragedy of Native American Stacy Coverdale's death on the day of her graduation from Dartmouth last June best symbolizes the new Dartmouth.

I truly hope that the older alumni particularly appreciate the tremendous contributions that the women of Dartmouth have made to the College. It is definitely a better place now.

East Aurora, New York

Conservative Arts

President Freedman's speech contained the word Liberal 20 times and was followed by Arts 17 times, twice by learning and once by studies. You added Liberal three times in your large-type headings. If the word conservative was used in the speech I could not find it.

Perhaps this is indicative of the whole cloud of controversy which hangs over the campus at Hanover. The few of us left who profess to being conservative seem to be nearing the status of planned and determined extinction.

Maybe the installation of two or three conservative arts courses might help to restore the balance.

What formula determines whether a school is a college or a university?