LETTERS

Speechifying

Finally I am beginning to feel a little better about Dartmouth. The article by Larry Martz ["When Dialogue Turns to Diatribe," May 1989] suggests to me that you are getting serious about finding out where the smoke is coming from. Like a tiny cut on the head which can bleed a lot and look much worse than it is, so a small fire can produce a lot of smoke. But one thing is sure. When there is smoke, there is sure to be some heat somewhere!

It was very disturbing to me that the administration was trying to deny everything and that the magazine was staying away from the subject for so long. I guess it was not so surprising that the administration was chicken and trying to play politics—sort of making believe everything was rosy and fooling nobody. A quicker, more forthright approach might have diffused the situation long ago and given us alumni the reassurance that management was on top of the situation and getting it straightened out.

The Hovey Grill murals are a similar situation. If they are bad they ought to go, but not be covered up to placate activist students and then uncovered to please alumni when it's time for them to kick in some bucks to the Alumni Fund.

Congratulations on a good start (finally). Keep up that good objective reporting. It will make a difference but it's going to take some time to restore our confidence. Personally, "I'm from Missouri" and will have to be shown. Inertia kept alumni contributions coming for a long time after alumni should have taken issue with the management. Inertia may keep those contributions away for along time after they become warranted again. Good luck and don't lose faith—if you earn it, you'll get our support back in spades.

Dallas, Texas

I regret your eagle eye and admirable sensitivity to accuracy and objectivity were on vacation re the Martz article. Especially disturbing are his irresponsible and blatantly erroneous charges about the Hopkins Institute. For example:

• "The alumni of the Hopkins Institute don't quite say outright that they want to capture control of Dartmouth College and install their own faculty and curriculum." Were I equally irresponsible and vicious, I could write, "Larry Martz didn't quite say outright that he was on a combination cocaineJack Daniels binge when he wrote his free speech article in the Alumni Magazine." If he would enjoy that, I'll be pleased to insert it in the next Hopkins Bulletin.

• "The Hopkins Alumni, with money from the Olin Foundation and other sources, have funded the Review's adventures for years and are now backing a sweeping legal assault against Dartmouth." I cannot speak for "the Olin Foundation and other sources" but I can speak authoritatively and completely accurately for the Hopkins Institute on this completely inaccurate, unsupportable charge.

The ONLY money that has ever moved from the Institute to the Review was on what I believe were three occasions when the Review was reimbursed by the Institute for very modest out-of-pocket expenses for performing a specific service for the Institute. The Institute does not and cannot under its non-profit charter contribute funds to any organization or individual.

• "For the Hopkins Institute busily promoting strife, that is an actual triumph." Why not go further and add other obviously related charges such as, "The alumni of the Hopkins Institute don't quite admit it but they actually hate Dartmouth and pray for its demise"; and "The alumni of the Hopkins Institute cheered lustily when Dean Lahr announced his 'minorities first faculty recruiting and hiring program' because they knew it would irreparably hurt Dartmouth"? And Mr. Martz says he was asked to write an article "without bias"!!!!!

Yes, it is a fact that, as many current Hanoverians sagaciously remind us, "Times have changed." And they will continue to change. But the moral, ethical and administrative fundamentals like those that President Hopkins stood for and lived by have not changed. And they are not likely to change.

Thus, it is those unchanging fundamentals that the Hopkins Institute is committed to revive at Dartmouth. True, anyone can take issue with those fundamentals but most are smart enough to realize that they do this at the eventual peril of their own reputations. That is why the cheap-shot artists avoid the fundamentals and take off and soar out of control on manufactured items.

S. Avery Raube '30 Secretary Ernest Martin Hopkins Institute Florham Park, New Jersey

Wonderful articles!!! I need all the help I can get and IF our class of 1940 will read the May issue I could raise the $1 million gift for the class of 1940 next year.

Greenwich, Connecticut

Things are looking up your May issue was very boring.

Fairfield, Connecticut

You hit the jackpot with your May issue. I'm sure a lot of us have been hoping for thorough, unbiased coverage of recent College controversy, and you certainly delivered with your own piece and those of Martz, Munroe and Apgar. Perhaps this will lead to more reasoned rhetoric.

Essex, Connecticut

"Can We Talk?" Not if discussion consists of efforts to label the other guy instead of talking about issues. Not if you won't publish letters in reasonable proportion to alumni concerns expressed in your mail, even if many are received on some topic.

I don't know whether the current issue of the Alumni Magazine reflects input from the College's new highpriced PR firm, but it seems to me in some respects a significant change in a negative direction from past issues.

I have in mind the apparent attempt to define on the one hand those espousing mainstream Jeffersonian-Madisonian views regarding democracy and the dignity of the individual as "right-wing" (and implicitly extreme), on the other to concede minimally that there is a left at Dartmouth (confined to one or two graffiti writers), and thereby portray Freedman as an "embattled moderate."

Unfortunately for this project, there is the record. Freedman's Review speech pretty well lined him up and can't really be explained away as merely an effort to "keep peace on campus." So too, his remarks on the quality of scholarship as a function of gender quotas, and his odd idea that the study of Western civilization will "block access" to other cultures. So too, the steady processing of Collegesponsored leftist speakers.

The ideological clashes of our time are tending to empty language of meaning. There has been too much disingenuity all around, although I believe that which emanates from the College is more extensive and of greater concern. After all, the institution is supposedly dedicated to the search for truth, not the establishment of some point of view.

I recently telephoned a number of fellow alumni concerning the Trustee election. To my surprise, every one of them, including several liberals, indicated they now simply throw out everything received from the College. In the aftermath of the Cole defense, the proceedings against Review staff, and the Davis matter, the College is perceived as having little regard for truth. To rebuild credibility, the College will have to make greater effort to open itself to other opinion.

The Alumni Magazine can help by tackling tough controversial subjects like democracy in the Alumni Council, credibility of College officials who often seem to be speaking out of both sides of their mouth, etc. President Hopkins intended the magazine to serve as an alumni forum and a source of College news, not a promotional house organ. The Alumni Magazine needs more content addressing the issues of concern to the majority of alumni, including both the thousands of Dartmouth Review subscribers and those who don't support the Review, but who are fed up with the present administration's disingenuity and contempt for the views of alumni.

Lexington, Massachusetts

Indian in Vane

A notable step toward candid discussion of issues that trouble the Dartmouth community [May] struck a reef, when you illustrated the Trustee chairman's appeal with a censored weathervane, in which Dr. Wheelock talks to himself, rather than to the Indian he came to teach. (The real weathervane is in the Campion's ad eight pages later . . . lest we forget.) Do we really need to rewrite history to face the future? This is so reminiscent of the Hovey murals and the Rollins windows that in despair I must say, "There you go again."

Hillsborough, California

Seepage 34 of the October issue, wherewe reversed Wheelock and the Indian.What may appear to be "censorship" wasto us a good, cheap graphic. George Munroehad nothing to do with it. —Ed.

Dartmouth's Niche

The 1988 survey of American colleges and universities by U.S. News and World Report ranks Dartmouth sixth among "national universities" just below Berkeley but above such well-established universities as Duke, University of Chicago, Brown and Cornell.

This ought to settle the debate on whether Dartmouth should be a university or not. Not only is it a university, but is one of the very best in the country: At least, that's how the College is perceived in the academic world.

For better or worse, the Dartmouth Daniel Webster has outgrown his vision and the fond memories of its alumni! To argue, at this point, the pros and cons of a university for Dartmouth is rather like arguing about the motherhood of a woman who has given birth to a healthy 11-pound baby.

Valley Cottage, New York

Mahlon Apgar has articulated what I have come to believe was special about my educational experience at Dartmouth ["Dartmouth's Competitive Niche," May]. He has proposed a workable strategy for preserving and strengthening the College's position in this academic niche. His tone is positive and far from reactionary. If there is any chance that President Freedman will change his tack, Mr. Apgar's approach deserves our hearty support.

Brunswick, Maine

When I first came to Hanover in 1943, I was shocked to find, that the then present administration worked on the premise that teaching and research were mutually exclusive, That administration was very firm in that viewpoint. If you wanted to do research you joined the Harvard faculty. If you wanted to teach you stayed at Dartmouth.

Nevertheless, there were manymoles in the Dartmouth faculty who persisted in doing research in spite of the edict from on high. I would name Arthur Wilson, Bill Ballard, Roy Forster and many more.

As a student I had to search hard to find teachers who were exciting and stimulating. Almost universally I found that these were scholars who were engaged in active research in their fields.

When I returned to Dartmouth, I was pleased to find that President Dickey had developed the concept of the teacher-scholar.

It has been my experience as a student and a teacher that a faculty member who is not also a researcher quickly dies. The inquisitiveness of the active mind is paramount to effective teaching.

We of Dartmouth should thank Presidents Dickey and Kemeny for the development of the teacherscholar. I should hope that President Freedman can continue this growth with the active help of concerned alumni.

Etna, New Hampshire

Mail Call

In response to Don Goss's letter in May, this loyal reader is very interested in alumni thought regarding the many issues involving the College. I would not like to see this feature dropped by the editor. Obviously there are those who feel that the Indian symbol, for example, is still an issue. Over the years the large number of letters printed about this matter demonstrates clearly that the issue is still alive in the hearts of many alumni. I have no quarrel with the concept of writing private letters to the Board members, if that is the wish of the writer. However, I feel that those who write to the alumni journal are primarily sharing their thoughts and feelings to their fellow Dartmouth men and women. Such thoughts should be expressed regularly, "lest the old traditions fail."

Fern .Park, Florida

Please don't discontinue publishing alumni letters, as Mr. Goss has so cogently urged you (May 1989 issue).

One of the few intellectual delights afforded the aging alumnus (who was never intellectually strong to begin with) is that, not infrequently, one finds evidence in the letters that among the younger graduates there are some who are dumber than oneself.

Chevy Chase, Maryland

Debate Debated

Although I admit to being flattered by Dinesh D'Souza's comment about me in the April issue, I must say that it was very unpleasant for me to be reminded of the early days of the Review. Since he mentioned me as being the Review's first publisher, I feel I must respond to set the record straight.

While it is true that I was the founding publisher, it is also true that my tenure at the Review lasted only through the first few issues. Unlike Dinesh, whose liberal orientation gave way to a conservative calling, I was very uncomfortable with the direction the paper was taking. I was out-numbered on the staff by people whose viewpoints differed from mine, and I resigned in the fall of 1980. At the time I asked that my name be removed from the masthead, but I was told that to have it there was simply a statement of fact I had been one of the paper's founders, whatever my current feelings. Nevertheless, I continue to feel I had very little to do with the founding of the paper in the form it finally took.

My short involvement with the Review was certainly a learning experience. It was exciting to be starting something new, and the initial opposition to the paper was a challenge that encouraged us. Nevertheless, the role I played there is the single biggest regret I have about my time at Dartmouth. During the nine years since its founding, I believe that the well-written and informative pieces the Review has carried have been vastly overshadowed by articles that have been vindictive and irresponsible. On many occasions over the years, I have felt ashamed to open the paper, see my name on the masthead, and remember my involvement in the Review's beginnings.

If I had anything at all to do with Dinesh's coming to the Review and if he now feels that was a good decision then I am glad to have helped him begin what so far has been an impressive career. Today, however, if anyone were to ask me if they should become involved, my answer would certainly be "no."

Bethesda, Maryland

Each of us has his biases and is entitled to them. The Dartmouth Review is neither good nor bad for Dartmouth. It is the reactionary voice of one segment of the student body which probably has been present at the College since its founding. I have never subscribed to the Review and have no desire to if the logic of the apologia by Mr. D'Souza is an example of one of its mature products. He pejoratively states, "Nearly every publication at Dartmouth is either owned or subsidized by the administration. No wonder that they all genuflect before the views of the administration" and then declares, "The Review is the only realistic check on abuses and excesses by Dartmouth professors and administrators, who should be responsive to students and alumni whose tuition and contributions pay their salaries." I am appalled at the suggestion that the publications do and that the faculty should prostitute their views for payment.

In his fifth year of life, Gargantua concludes, "I affirm and maintain that the paragon arsecloth is the neck of a plump downy goose, provided you hold her head between your legs." In my fifty-seventh year of life, I can do him one better. The best arsecloth is The Dartmouth Review.

St. Petersburg, Florida

Both Ingraham and D'Souza raise the matter of "Safer Sex Kits," distributed free by the College Health Service from January 1987, as a source of embarrassment for the College. Nonsense. It's time to stop chastising Dick's House for indiscretion and start crediting it and Beverlie Conant Sloan in taking on a serious issue with courage and candor, and for recognizing that to discuss AIDS transmission in "polite" terms would inevitably cause fatal misunderstandings. It may have escaped notice in Hanover, but Dartmouth is recognized elsewhere as a leader in, among other fields, health education. In my first week at Cambridge University this fall, I received an almost identical "safer sex kit" in my college mailbox distributed everywhere at the universities of Oxford, Sussex, and London as well and no one so much as raised an eyebrow.

Second, I want to take issue with a rhetorical question posed by Dinesh D'Souza in his defense of the Review. "Is this" i.e., the conduct and policy of the College as it exists today what alumni and parents get for their money?" I thought he was questing for "truth and beauty." Could it be that such transcendent ideals, ensconced in ivy and encapsulated in a few Great Books, are themselves vulnerable to market forces? Could it be that truth and beauty are determined in relation to consumer preference? I suggest that Mr. D'Souza here unwittingly reveals the inherent problem in questing after truth and beauty anywhere.

Third, Edward Ingraham characterizes the Review as a "subsidized alien presence," "poisoning" the College community. Cut off from "the bottomless pockets of . . . outside handlers," Mr. Ingraham reckons, the Review would simply atrophy out of existence. I find this view disturbing in its tacit promotion of the alreadyrampant fantasy of Dartmouth as pastoral playground, where everyone ought to (and used to) get along all the time and never disagree. (Ironically, it is precisely in agitating for the return of those halcyon, playground days that the Review exposes the very notion as a fiction.) This nostalgia finds overt expression "polarization": just try to count how often the word crops up in Dartmouth publications. The message, simply put, is that if it weren't for those twin evils, Left and Right, the College would be thriving as a sort of ivy-covered Boy Scout camp still.

At best, these "polarities" suggest fantastic revisionism; at worst, they subscribe to and support a simplistic model both of Dartmouth and of the world to which it belongs. The Review, I want to argue, is as much a part of the College as the College, admit it or not, is part of the world. Until we abandon the fantasy that Dartmouth isn't worldly and that ideas promoted by Dartmouth groups don't have tangible consequences for people in the world until we all acknowledge that harmony has never meant unison this exchange will continue interminably.

Cambridge, England

Conventional wisdom has it that Foreign Service officers exercise a cool objectivity in dealing with controversial issues. If the cool objectivity seen throughout Mr. Ingraham's evaluation of The Dartmouth Review ["ls the Dartmouth Review Good or Bad for Dartmouth?", May] is typical of his reports to the State Department, this nation will soon be embroiled in wars on every continent.

Witness these cool, objective words and phrases, culled from less than five columns of fevered denunciation: "paranoid sophomoria ... adolescent pretentiousness ... a pretty dismal product . . . touting . . . snarling . . . grousing... denouncing endlessly... unrelieved nastiness... drivel... [as if] scribbled on a lavatory wa11... adolescent resentment run wild . . . scatterbrained . . . sheer venom . . . bloody mindedness .. .the damned thing ... tasteless . . . unsavory . . . smart-ass undergraduates... journalistic terrorism ... young gunslingers... invective ... shouting matches ..."

Enough! Although there's still one more column to excerpt, I'm sure my point is clear.

If Mr. Ingraham is per chance a "Type A," it's certain the Review will long survive him.

Sonoma, California

Put succinctly: "The Review" is no more than the rash. The administration is the life-threatening illness. The Trustees are the F.D.A., afraid to use the available medication!

Stuart, Florida

Home Run

The "Dartmouth Aires" have sung before 6,188 baseball fans at an L.A. Dodgers spring-training game.

That's the best PR that our Alma Mater has ever had in Florida, and the young men seem to have arranged it all by themselves. A tip of the hat to manager Paul Cachion '89.

Vero Beach, Florida

What Students?

I write with an observation and a suggestion. The observation is that as a casual reader of the alumni magazines of five different colleges and universities, I can recall no issue as bad as April's. By my count the 32 pages of "news" in this issue consists of: news of the College (including the apparently required encomium to President Freedman and jibe at The Dartmouth Review) 6 percent; an election story by the vice-chairman of the Hanover Democratic Party 6 percent; an article about the history of the Alumni Fund 25 percent; an interesting piece on Governor John McKernan 6 percent; an exchange of views on The Dartmouth Review worthy of CNN's "Crossfire" program 19 percent; an article about real estate in the Upper Valley 19 percent; interviews with two candidates for Trustee which cover the same ground as mailings already sent to alumni 10 percent. Reading all of this, one wonders if Dartmouth has any students lonely, well-rounded, or otherwise. One also wonders if Dartmouth has a faculty. The impression is certainly not one of a great liberal arts college or university.

My suggestion is that your magazine devote its time and talents to reporting what Dartmouth's splendid students are doing in the classroom and in extracurricular activities, what its able faculty is doing in teaching and research, and what its loyal alumni are accomplishing in the world. I can assure you that this is what most of us would like to read.

Hamilton, New York

Happy Trails

Thanks for your perceptive and sensitive endorsement of freshman trips in the March Issue. I came here 11 years ago with the assumption that Dartmouth, above all others, was a place that successfully combined excellent academics with a healthy regard for the out-of-doors. I was proud to be part of the Dartmouth Outing Club, the first of its kind in the nation. I took my responsibilities as men's ski coach very seriously because I was painfully aware of the many giants who emerged from this program.

I have been distressed that the current direction of the College seems so often to be in conflict with what I believe makes Dartmouth unique: "a celebration of the outdoors."

Thanks for leading a trip, thanks for letting the alumni know about your freshman-trip experience, and thanks for being an advocate for what, in my mind, is a vital aspect of "the Dartmouth experience."

Director, Men's Skiing Dartmouth College

Father's Boy

It was most kind of Gil Tanis '38 to write an article recently for the alumni magazine about the Reverend Leslie Hodder. I am "one of his boys" and a dearer friend one could not have than Father Hodder.

Over the years I have always said that Father Hodder was much like the actor Barry Fitzgerald, the priest in "Going My Way." Father Hodder was a frail man with a ready wit and was a spiritual giant. Some of the brightest people on the campus recognized his wonderful pastoral and spiritual gifts and often poured out their hearts to him. He had a great capacity for love and understanding.

The Dartmouth community as well as the town were blessed to have such friends as Father Hodder and his wife, Phoebe. They were a superb team, and many of us who were around Hanover in the forties and fifties owe a great debt to them both.

New Hartford, Connecticut

Woodcraft Legend

I am working on a book about C. Ross McKenney, the legendary woodcraft advisor to the Dartmouth Outing Club from 1937 to 1961. Ross wrote a short autobiography, never published, which will be the centerpiece of the volume. I intend to augment this with material from his surviving relatives, fellow Maine guides, and from those who knew him and were influenced by him at Dartmouth.

While there is much information about Ross in the DOC files and Baker archives, I am seeking personal stories and reminiscences, hunting and fishing tales, anecdotes, and testimony as to his remarkable talents and personality. I would especially like to include letters people may have received from Ross which they are willing to share.

The project has the endorsement and encouragement of the administration of the Dartmouth Outing Club. Please send copies of documents, written or taped comments, and suggestions to me at RR3, Dexter, ME 04930.

Dexter, Maine

Safe Mops

When I recently received a communication from the Alumni Fund office in Blunt asking me when, and how much, I was going to send this year I was in no condition to adjust to the question. I had just read in the Augusta Chronicle: "Dartmouth College, which aspires to a certain Ivy League style, is actually putting on, under official auspices, condom races ..."

Is that any kind of thing to read just before being asked to help keep the place in existence?

I read the story, which I guess everybody has, and, although I have had a happy life of nearly 85 years I thought . . . "this is it, I want out."

If it were not for the appalling picture of bad management recently provided by Exxon in installing as captain of a huge ship a man with two convictions for excessive drinking, I would say the stupidity of management by the Trustees and executive office of Dartmouth has, in this situation, achieved the all-time record.

I have seized on one shred of hope in the form of the possibility the story is an aberration of a right-wing zealot.

I wrote on the contribution form . . . "No decision on gift until I learn what the Trustees are going to do about a "condom race."

Aiken, South Carolina

The condom race is part of a studentrun safer-sex "road show" held in thedorms. To get sexually active students touse the devices, the organizers sponsor acontest to see who can most speedily fit acondom on a mop handle. Similar eventshave been held at other institutions as ameans to combat the spread of AIDS. Atmany places, as at Dartmouth, the practice has been controversial. Ed.

That's Mr. Twain

A painful dilemma confronted me upon reading David Birney '61 's odierwise fine article [March] on his adaption of "Twain's" Adam and Eve Diaries. Professor James Cox was quite clear with us that any English 7 5 submission benighted enough to abuse the importance of the full "Mark Twain" in reference to Mr. Clemens would of course be shredded and disposed of on the spot. In the end, after a poignant vigil of rereading Genesis and watching "Bridget Loves Bernie" reruns; I stayed my scissors, since I do like to save my copy of the Magazine.

Walpole, New Hampshire

P.S. Lest Scott Kronick be buried with inquiries: Shakespeare used 'zounds' 27 times.

Star Crossed

Along with the rest of the May issue, I enjoyed Karen Endicott's biosummary of astronomer Gary Wegner [Syllabus]. But she spoke of the observatory on Kitt Peak, which is a neighbor of mine, as the MDM Observatory (for its co-owners, Michigan-Dartmouth-MIT). I think she shortchanged publisher McGraw-Hill, who, thanks to the efforts and skills of Dean Greg Prince, gave several hundred thousand dollars to the project for the privilege of having it named the McGraw-Hill Observatory.

Incidentally, I'm sorry to learn that Greg is leaving our campus to become president of Hampshire College. Greg was a welcome visitor during the period when he was wearing his observatory hat, and he was a great help to the Class of 1930 in its two major class projects, the 1930 Fellowship program and the 1930 Room in Rockefeller Center.

Green Valley, Arizona

Original Dartmouth

I was traveling in the west of England a couple summers ago, and made a point to visit the town of Dartmouth. Despite years of association with the College, I had never heard anyone mention that town. This did not bode well.

Dartmouth, England, turned out to be a wonderful, well-kept secret. Green hills rise out of the sea, with many old shops and homes hanging on. There's a castle, a great harbor, old pubs, cobblestones, the Royal Naval Academy, a church turned into a flea market, and few tourists.

Dartmouth remains beautiful because there is no easy way in: the sea, a winding road from a place even more remote, or ferry across the river Dart. A townsman said that during World War 11, the U.S. Army bridged the river somewhere upstream, making the town more accessible. When we had gone home, they dismantled the bridge. Perhaps it was only meant to be temporary. Or maybe they just had good sense.

Evanston, Illinois

Spry Coach

In the May issue Mr. Quentin Kopp '49 had a letter about Dartmouth basketball and Ozzie Cowles. He referred to him as the late Ozzie Cowles, and I thought all his former players and Dartmouth friends should know he is alive and well.

My uncle, Howard Hobson, former Oregon and Yale basketball coach, sees Ozzie each year at the Final Four games of the NCAA tournament. In April I had a note from him saying Ozzie is great and attended the games with his wife. Ozzie is now 90 and very spry.

I agree with Mr. Kopp that Ozzie coached Dartmouth basketball during its finest era.

Summit, New Jersey

Can we talk? The debate over debate is alive and freewheeling among alumni.