LETTERS

On Dropping Out

As a dropout I enjoyed the profiles of the "Famous Non-Grads" [November] with some regret that I have never achieved the degree of success that would have included me in the chorus. But I have never regretted not returning for a degree. Four and a half years of domestic and international air travel with the Air Transport Command—in both the Pacific and European theaters taught as much as I might have learned during the ensuing two years in Hanover.

Providence, Rhode Island

It was a great disappointment to me to find that you didn't fit Evan S. Connell '45 in with "Dartmouth's Most Famous Non-Grads." Just as it's been a disappointment to see him ignored for so many commencements since his Son of the Morning Star, one of the best books I have ever read, was published, and, one would have thought, staked a claim for an honorary degree from the College he matriculated in and enjoyed before the Second World War interrupted everything.

New York, New York

Your story claims that Robert Frost was the first person ever to receive two honorary degrees from the College." Wrong! Robert Fletcher, first director of the Thayer School, was similarly honored by the College as follows: A.M. (1871), Ph.D. (1881), Sc.D. (1918).

Hanover, New Hampshire

I find it repulsive that you list a man who perpetrated genocide against the Native American population as one of "Dartmouth's Greatest Alumni who Never Graduated." I do not understand why going to war against the Seminoles is a "Notable Achievement" nor why fighting in the Indian Wars in 1835 is an act by which Benjamin K. Pierce (1812) "distinguished himself." Romanticizing brutality against a people on whose land the majority of us are guests only serves to further racism.

San Francisco, California

Listing Benjamin K. Pierce's notable achievement as having gone "to war against the Seminoles" is rather like saying Hitler led a "brilliant campaign against the European Jews."

London, England

Significant Others

President Freedman's "American Glasnost" [November] really hits the mark. Having worked for a Japanese company for several years, I can only attest to the importance and enjoyment of at least respecting the values and practices of other cultures.

Chappaqua, New York

The implication lurks in the background of President Freedman's essay that American students should absorb the spiritual and intellectual values of those cultures which can properly be called exotic—African, in particular. I have lived and worked in Africa, and I believe that I have an appreciation of the customs under which Africans live. But the giants on whose shoulders I am happy to stand are European, not African, or Islamic, or Indian.

Therefore, I feel that Professors Darrow, Swain, and Zantop deserved more space for their views on the European individualistic background of American culture than they were given in the magazine ["Syllabus," November] There is too much of value in European culture for the United States to abandon the way which has provided the basis of our thought for more than three and a half centuries.

Willits, California

The Radio Doctor

As an admirer of radio psychotherapist David Viscott '59 ["Shrink Rap," November], I had wondered a long time (from a marketing point of view) how I might introduce myself to him. Discovering him to be an alumnus put that possibility right in my lap!

Who says USC has a lock on "networking" in this town?

Beverly Hills, California

Feel Bad

All of the November issue's "feel good" talk seems out of place at a time when the alumni are being bombarded with negative publicity. Perhaps it is time for the Alumni Magazine to participate in a real debate about the Freedman presidency and the future of Dartmouth by inviting responsible articles that reflect opposing points of view. As a minimum it might provide balance in its coverage so sorely lacking in articles such as Dr. Wheelock's presentation of the horrendous "Mein Kampf " incident.

Washington, D.C.

Wheelock Rebutted

I address myself to the following sentences in the November "Dr. Wheelock's Journal."

1. Re the now-famous Hitler quotation which was inserted in The Dartmouth Review's masthead: "The issue appeared on Yom Kippur. This might have been a coincidence, except that some years ago, on Oxfam's World Hunger Day, the Review's editors ostentatiously treated themselves to a lobster and champagne dinner at the Inn."

Fact: This is true as far as it goes. The Review editors refused to participate in Oxfam pseudo-piety. The Review had published a serious analysis of Oxfam, showing that a very large slice of its budget went to administrative overhead. The editors, instead, donated money to Mother Teresa's charities. They enjoyed dinner. Oxfam is not a holy cause.

2. Their "headline 'Ein Reich, Ein Volk, Ein Freedman' (which strangely appeared on the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht) doesn't make it easy for us to grant their editors complete absolution."

This is an outright lie. The dates are all wrong. Kristallnacht, a Nazi riot against Jews, occurred on the night of November 9-10, 1938. The "Ein Freedman" satire appeared in the Review on October 14. Hardly the "anniversary."

3. On the shanty demolition. The students did not have Martin Luther King in mind at all. They were angered by the long-standing and ugly shanties on the Green, and by the aggressiveness of the anti-apartheid protestors.

4.1 do not know what "Dr. Eleazar" means by "the paper's Wall Street angels." The operating expenses of the Review are made up almost entirely by subscriptions. The Olin Foundation did contribute to a legal defense fund for students who were suspended by Dartmouth, and then reinstated by court order.

The Dartmouth administration and its bumbling News Service have attempted to document a pattern of behavior amounting to racism and bigotry. On examination, all components of this pattern are non-existent, and therefore the pattern is non-existent.

Hanover, New Hampshire

The last issue sets a new low, even using the standards of Freedman's Dartmouth. To make fan of an undergraduate student and publish a vote by his fraternity brothers is unconscionable. Can't you handle a black Review editor-in-chief?

Chelmsford, Massachusetts

Give Me More

I appreciated "Dr. Wheelock's" discussion of the unfortunate situation concerning the Yom Kippur issue of the Dartmouth Review. Nonetheless, I believe the College administration goofed in its handling of this matter as it relates to the alumni. Not all of us read The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal regularly. It would have been far better for the College to have been certain that we received a personal copy of both President Freedman's and Board Chairman Munroe's articles individually in my mail after their publication.

Lexington, Kentucky

Mail Poll

To judge by the most recent election to our Board of Trustees, approximately 59 percent of the alumni who voted approved of the administration's policies or were unwilling to vote against them. Yet, in reading the letters which you publish in your (our?) magazine, one would conclude that 95 percent of alumni approve of the administration's policies.

Does this mean that the 41 percent are inarticulate or that you employ a selective process? Whether this letter is published will perhaps afford me a clue.

Worcester, Massachusetts

Beware of using letters to the editor asstatistically reliable polls (not that trusteeelections are any more accurate; a majority of alumni don't vote). Letters swingwildly in number and opinion from issueto issue—as this month 's column testifies.We print virtually all letters addressed tothe editor—after editing them to a publish able length.

It's Muckley! It's Uckley!

To me, Dr. Seuss's limerick about Dartmouth-basher Bill Buckley resonates beyond its few well-chosen words ["Dr. Wheelock's Journal," October]. For there is a close relationship, I think, between the famous Yalie and Ted Geisel's infamous Grinch. First of all, there is a strong family resemblance, though the Grinch's mouth is a good deal more generous. Second, and most important, each unctuously tries to damage the good name of an institution with which he is unaffiliated. Of course, the Grinch gets rehabilitated by the last page. I don't suppose there's much chance that Buckley will.

Thetford, Vermont

Packing Town Meeting

Here's the real story about the time students packed town meeting ["Dartmouth Undying," November]. My dad, who graduated in 1910, was there.

At one time during Dad's Hanover career the locals decided to impose a poll tax. A smart young lawyer in town got many of the lads who were taxed to go to the next town meeting of which the students easily outnumbered the locals. The lawyer was elected head of the town council—students were elected to many high-paying jobs with benefits.

One of their projects: the town of Hanover was to build a walkway ten feet tall and ten feet wide, from Hanover to Smith College.

It took a special session of the New Hampshire legislature to undo this perfectly legal meeting.

Louisville, Kentucky

In a future issue, we'll look into thetruth and fiction behind Dartmouth'smost often-told stories.

ROTC's Retreat

The October "Dartmouth Undying" skips from the 1969 student protests against ROTC direcdy to this summer's army cancellation of the program, which is said to have been "met on campus with little fanfare." Why no mention of the battle in 1985 when David McLaughlin, against overwhelming student and faculty opposition, invited ROTC back to Dartmouth? Why no mention of the coundess hours spent by students in the late 1980s trying to kick ROTC out of Dartmouth for its blatantly anti-lesbian and -gay policies, which violate the College's own equal opportunity policies? Why no mention of the committee formed by President Freedman last year to "study" this contradiction, or the subsequent letter he sent to Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney, criticizing the military's discrimination?

Surely, these issues are as significant a part of the record of military presence at Dartmouth as is the description of the Dartmouth Air Corps' Native American-mocking insignia, which gets a full entry. But I suppose they wouldn't be good for the same amount of gleeful chumming among beer-buzzed alums, which I take to be the point of most similar Dartmouth "history."

Northampton, Massachusetts

President Freedman was asked at a recent gathering of the Dartmouth Club of Chicago whether Dartmouth could have an ROTC program so that middleclass students, whose parents either lack or choose not to expend the resources to send their children there, could attend. President Freedman stated that the faculty would not support such a program, and that the decision was theirs to make.

By depriving the middle-class student of serving his country while obtaining the best education available, the College is sending a message that it does not care to be part of the broader concerns of this country. It is content to be a faculty-run fiefdom serving primarily the interests of those anointed with lifetime tenure and a non-diminishable salary.

Chicago, Illinois

Before the faculty could bring backROTC, the Pentagon would have to changeits mind. The military closed down thatprogram this year to save money.

Return of the Dartmouth Many

I was happy to see "Return of the Secaucus Seven" listed among Professor Al La Valley's favorite films of the '80s ["Syllabus," October], There are now so many Dartmouth people in the professional theater and media worlds that it should come as no surprise that many of his favorites involve Dartmouth Drama and Film Studies graduates. "Secaucus Seven," for example, featured Drama graduates Jean Passanante '75 and Mark Arnott '72 (I had a role as well), and was shot by a production company which included several Dartmouth graduates. Hip, Hip!

lowa City, lowa

Curriculum Revealed

Thank you for your article "Dartmouth and the Media: Has the Press Been Fair?" [October]. It helped to clarify the issues for those of us who have not been active participants on these issues. However, as one of the issues is the curriculum, may I ask the magazine to print the curriculum so that we can make our own judgments? As one who has served on such curriculum committees for nine years, I think that I could understand it. It would help to further clarify the issues.

Kansas City, Missouri

We would like to comply with ProfessorBrazelton's request, but there would be noromn to name and describe all 1,000 courses.See last March's cover story.

Pure Goal

Your excellent article on the 1940 Cornell game ["The Forfeit," October] asks, "Could it happen today?" Apparently not. Cornell could easily have awarded us sole possession of the 1990 Ivy football crown on the basis that we beat them head-to-head. This time, we could have one-upped them by refusing to accept it.

Shrewsbury, New Jersey

The late General Ernest Harmon, who commanded in the World War II Battle of the Bulge, told the story of the identification of a German spy. He claimed to be a member of the Dartmouth class of 1942, but his failure to remember the score of the fifth-down game gave him away.

Hanover, New Hampshire

The essay by President Freedman ["Presidential Range," October] expressed justifiable pride in the wide range of athletic opportunities at Dartmouth. But buried within the article on "The Forfeit" is a point which needs to be addressed. The Ivies do not allow their football teams to participate in post-season play, perhaps because such participation is considered "Big Time Football," which is taken to be evil. Leaving aside such noteworthy academic institutions as Stanford and Notre Dame, which prove that sweat socks and libraries can co-exist, post-season play is no longer just for the football factories. There are playoff systems for Division I-AA (as Dartmouth is classified), and it is not without possibility that an Ivy team could be invited to one of the many bowls held each year (as Dartmouth was in 1962, 1969, and 1970). Perhaps we would have been in the I-AA playoffs in 1990, giving all of us associated with Dartmouth a jolt of pride.

Perhaps most importantly, to deny the athletes the opportunity to compete in playoffs and bowl games is unfair to them, and reflects a bias against football that is not expressed against hockey, basketball, skiing, swimming, or any other sport. Teams representing all these sports participate in post-season play.

President Freedman claims that "Dartmouth athletes at the intercollegiate level have every right to expect the opportunity to be fully competitive. Make that claim accurate rescind the ban on post-season play for football.

Wilmington, Delaware

Absolutely

As I gather from Dartmouth Review Editor Kevin Pritchett '91's comments in the October issue ["Dartmouth's Ideal Image"], he, and possibly the staunch supporters of the Review, believe that free thought is free to explore everything except those loosely defined "absolutes" which Kevin has determined to be the basis of our civilization. For those of us who believe academic freedom demands critical exploration of all propositions, Kevin's image of humanity is that of a prison. Kevin's "fundamentals" might well be my shackles.

Arlington, Virginia

Rightful Owners

Sherwood Burnett '40 ["Letters, Summer] states that the real ownership of Dartmouth is "to society as a whole and to a compact between the present, the past and the future." He is confusing ownership with obligation. Among its obligations, Dartmouth has an obligation to society, etc., but to state that this is ownership is to say that no one owns Dartmouth.

Of course the alumni own Dartmouth, not by virtue of attending there for four years, but because they have invested their money and time in Dartmouth, and built the plant and contribute to its annual operation through the Alumni Fund and endowments and raising funds from nonalumni.

Woodbury, Connecticut

International Hype

There is a lot of hype emanating from Dartmouth lately about the pursuit of diversity. I fully support this ambition. I wonder, though, whether a college simply consisting of more foreign students and "international" course content means diversity. I wonder, for example, how many of the foreign students representing the sought-for diversity stem from the intellectual, bourgeois, and bureaucratic elites of their home countries. How much can we really learn from the elites of these countries?

Sharon, Vermont

Silent Lady

Because my wife was working for Eleanor Roosevelt I was privileged to meet her shortly after I returned from overseas in 1945. This was when the First Lady was being constandy attacked by columnist Westbrook Pegler.

I asked Mrs. Roosevelt why she never answered the outrageous charges that were being made in Pegler's column. Her answer could well apply to charges constantly being made by The Review, the equally irresponsible Ernest Martin Hopkins Institute, and their supporters: "I do not feel it necessary to dignify such irresponsibility; an answer only repeats the slander."

Danbury, Connecticut

Speech's Causes

I think alumni should be asking what it is about the Dartmouth community that caused Mchael Lowenthal's Valedictory speech, rather than criticizing President Freedman for not having taken the easy way out (i.e., by censoring Lowenthal).

To be sure, Lowenthal made some mistakes. It isn't possible to remedy the problem by tearing down the fraternity system, even if all fraternities contribute to the problem (which they don't). And it certainly isn't possible to remedy the problem by implicitly criticizing alumni who gave their lives in World War 11. But I think Lowenthal has given us a pointed reminder of a fact that the elite (among them, graduates of Dartmouth College) tend to forget: there are people we are programmed to avoid. Such avoidance helps us continue our implicit or explicit denial of the differences between us, which fosters indifference towards most minorities, and frequently outright hostility towards gay people.

Boulder, Colorado

Past-Tense Loyalty

During an illuminating term on the Harvard Medical Alumni Council, I began to ask questions of myself. Why did I instinctively oppose change? It was then I realized that my years at Harvard Medical School were so happy and productive that I regarded them as my "golden years." I wanted today's students to have the same experience unchanged. In doing so, I was being foolishly loyal to the Medical School of the distant past rather than addressing its needs of the present and future.

Now I realize that, for most of my Dartmouth classmates, the Hanover years were their "golden years." They are loyal men, but loyal to their vision of the Dartmouth of the past. What is needed is loyalty to the College of the present and future.

This phenomenon of misplaced loyalty needs recognition. It can endanger good planning and do so in proportion to a school's dependence on the financial contribution of its alumni body.

Boston, Massachusetts

Good Job

The more campuses my wife and I have visited, the more we have come to appreciate the fine way Dartmouth's campus and buildings are groomed and maintained. The work of the men and women in Dartmouth's Buildings & Grounds Department is excelled by no other college we have seen and equaled by few.

One more important fact about these men and their crews is their loyalty to Dartmouth. I am sure their average term of service is longer than that of the faculty. They must enjoy the place and their work very much.

East Thetford, Vermont

Funding the Kids

I think it is terrible that 40,000 kids die every day from preventable causes such as starvation and disease, and in my own small way I have started to help. What I used to give to Dartmouth and Exeter is now going to help a kid in Central America.

What a big deal it would be if just half of the Dartmouth Alumni Fund were to be donated to help the children who are in such dire straits. Don't get me wrong, I know the College needs money, but certainly with its large endowment, it would seem to me to be in a position to offer substantial help to these poor kids.

And, just think: if Dartmouth started a program of sharing its alumni's largess to give some kids a chance to live, the idea might spread to other colleges, universities, and prep schools. Now, wouldn't that be great!

Ashtabula, Ohio

Curricular Clones

Jeffrey Hart's recent letter to the editor in the November 2 New York Times has some merit regarding core curriculum. He states that "The Review has argued for ten years that Dartmouth, and other colleges, should require a core curriculum containing books without which we are intellectually naked." The problem is that if the core curriculum is too extreme, minority groups will eschew Dartmouth. The question is, do we want a wellrounded, diverse group of Dartmouth applicants or a bunch of clones modeled after the editors of The Dartmouth Review?

Tallahassee, Florida

Two readers thought one of thedropouts didn't exactly make good.

CORRECTION: Yes, we do know our art history better than was evidenced in the credit for the illustration for Winter's "Presidential Range." The creditshould have read "Detail from 'Faust'; etching/ drypoint by Rembrant van Rijn, from the collection of Adolph Weil Jr. '35."