1941

In a moment of mad, midsummer magic, it's the end of April and you're heading for Class Officers Weekend in Hanover. COW runs Fri-Sat, but you're coming early and staying late to make the most of another Dartmouth experience. You check in, stash your gear, and head for the Hop to see what's doing culturally and for entertainment. Then it's the Hood and maybe Baker, and a walk roundabout and across the Green, which is very brown as a result of drought and slow-coming spring. You hadn't heard about it beforehand, but Thursday kicks off a conference, "The Tremor That Became an Earthquake: Reflections on the Making and Meaning of the Civil Rights Movement." So it's back to Webster, still a grand auditorium, to hear Vincent Harding, veteran of the movement, speak of rights, equality, and freedom. Rollins follows to hear Dartmouth's Gospel Choir, 15 blacks and three whites, back up Hollis Watkins singing freedom songs to the accompaniment of a handclapping audience of all ages. Next day, before COW takes over, you consult your campus map to find Cutter Hall and join a bunch of students to hear Harding on "Malcolm X and the African-American Freedom Struggle." The students are stirred, and so, too, are you, recalling a similar moment some 50 years ago when Dorothy Thompson came to Dartmouth to challenge undergraduates regarding values and commitments. Your hopes for the future are freshened.

Friday is go-to-class day and you choose Greek & Roman Studies 11, in Carpenter, where Prof. Rutter talks about physical education in Athens and Sparta compared to what's going on at Dartmouth. There are about 40 students, largely unresponsive on this particular day (mid-term time), and Rutter asks: "Are you lumpin' out on me again?" You lunch on your own in good old Thayer, remembering it as upscale from the Commons, and soon you're in 105 Dartmouth, attending panels on College issues, and it's "41 Out" once again: Gus Broberg,Art Hills, Hugh Kenworthy, Monk Larson, Dan Provost, Bob Tepper, and SteveWinship. Art and Libby host a mini-mini at 26 Rip Road, Bill Hotaling and CharlieMcLane show up, and then,you all head over to Alumni Gym's west wing, where Gus made the set-shot famous, for a spread of Chinese catered by the Inn. The program features A Way of Learning, a film about Native Americans at Dartmouth, and President Freedman speaks of Dartmouth's determination to be "the strongest institution of undergraduate education in the U.S."

Now it's Saturday and you're meeting again, separately by associations of officers, and jointly for all to listen up to another panel, this one on "Student Press in Perspective," that includes the editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth and the former chief editor of The Review. The exchanges are sharp, including Q&A, but grace prevails. Luncheon follows back in the gym, the serving includes more upbeat Dartmouth talk, this time from a Trustee, and the '4l table gives a rouse when one of its own is announced as "1989 Class Secretary of the Year." Then you're free again: to watch the men whipping Army in baseball; to sample the woodsmen events on campus; to chomp on chicken cooked-out at Tom Dent Cabin by the River; and to applaud three student one-act plays performed in Warner Bentley Theater. Next morning, before heading out, you're at the Hotaling home for a breakfast meeting about the 50th in 1991. Shalom.

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