DR. WHEELOCK'S JOURNAL
Dartmouth wins for its professors a pride of new faculty chairs.
A well-meaning proofreader threw us a curve last issue, in our account of the flap over what the successor to Dean Shanahan would be called. As you may remember, "Dean of the College" was no longer accurate, because he and the Dean of the Faculty were now co-equals, both reporting to the Provost.
Our original text said President Freedman "would not be reluctant to change the title to the more descriptive 'Dean of Students.'" But since there was a litde leeway before deadline, that helpful individual took the liberty unbeknownst to us, of altering that sentence to "the president chose to compromise, changing the title yet again to 'dean of student life'"—and that was the very title that caused the uproar in the first place. Anyway, as it stands now, he (or she) will be Dean of Students.
Still another curve thrown, by the late H.L. Mencken, in his just-opened unpublished papers. Special Collections Librarian Phil Cronenwett told us that the Library proudly owns one manuscript by Sinclair Lewis, the Nobel winner's last novel, Ann Vickers. Perusing Mencken's numerous comments on Lewis, Phil found one scathing review of a book that the great man thought should never have even been published. You guessed it—Ann Vickers. A nice touch at the uncrating ceremony—Daniel Webster's gargantuan Audubon Birds of America in the Treasure Room was open to what symbol of Mencken's home town? The Baltimore Oriole, natch.
An opulent new exhibit will shortly open at the Hood: "The Here and the Hereafter: Images of Paradise in Islamic Art." More than 50 exquisite objects,
manuscripts, paintings, silks, ceramics, rugs, lamps, borrowed from collections around the Islamic world, will illustrate Moslem concepts and visions of heaven, as depicted in the Koran and other sacred texts. The exhibit was mounted by the museum's multi-talented architect, Charles Moore, and its guest curator, U-Mass Art History Professor Walter Denny. The Hood's new curator of education, Lesley Wellman, is planning lectures, workshops, classroom outlines, and packets of slides relating to the exhibit, for the use of local and regional middle and high school teachers.
To cap the host of awards won during the Hood's brief existence, architect Charles Moore received the American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal, its highest honor, at a recent convention. Moore thus joins such immortals as Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, IM. Pei, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Not to be outdone, the AIAs New Hampshire chapter cited the local firm of Banwell Mudge for the "design excellence" of the splendid new Dartmouth boathouse. If you plan to visit the boathouse in the next few months, incidentally, drive from the Hanover side of the Connecticut rather than from Norwich otherwise keep the weight of your vehicle under 15 tons. Ledyard Bridge has been cited as one of the two bridges in the entire state most in need of repair, and interstate trucks are already being re-routed.
If there's such thing as a pride of lions, an exaltation of larks, how about a sitting of professorial chairs? Not one, but five have been announced in the past few weeks. First, the Sociology Department's chairman, Raymond Hall, will become the Allen ('47) and Joan Bildner Professor for the Study of Human and Intergroup Relations, to further understanding of the causes and effects of prejudice and bigotry in the global community. Next, English Professor Bill Cook will be the Israel Evans Professor of Oratory and Belles Lettres, as of July 1. This chair was established in 1838, in honor of an honorary degree recipient in the year 1792—no matter; in 1991 its description is still as fitting to the speaking and writing talents of its occupant as are his legendary handlebar mustachios (which, you undoubtedly have noticed already, are featured prominendy on the cover of this issue).
George Wolford, the Psychology Department's chairman, has been named Lincoln Filene Professor of Human Relations. His ten-year mission, he says, is to study the making of decisions in business and the professions (particularly in medicine), in the face of uncertainty, when there is no single best choice. And since 1987, the German parliament has endowed a professorship to bring from Germany to Dartmouth outstanding scholars in a variety of fields; the William P.('42) and DeWlda N. Harris German-Dartmouth Distinguished Visiting Professorship will continue this endowment when the government funding ends.
Most dramatic of all—in the parallels between the lives of the honored and the honoree—the appointment of George M. Langford, professor of physiology at the University of North Carolina's med school, will be the first Ernest Everett Just Professor in the Natural Sciences. You may recall the story in this magazine some years ago on the career of E.E. Just '07, a leading cell biologist and one of the top black scientists of modern times. Both Just and Langford were born in the Carolinas; both served on the Howard University faculty; and as Just did, langford specializes in cell research using marine invertebrates, and works at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. It seems to us providential that the career struggle of Just, in days of prejudice, has become the opportunity of Langford, in addition to his regular teaching responsibilities, to serve as a role model for black scientists of this and future decades.
In a related effort, the establishment of the Thurgood Marshall fellowships will give two African-American scholars each year the chance to complete their Ph.D. dissertations in any field taught in Dartmouth's curriculum. The fellowships' $20,000 stipend will also require teaching responsibilities, and it is hoped they will do their share to help increase the number of black faculty members in higher education.
Before we leave the land of academe, let us salute French Professor Lawrence D. Kritzman, depuis le 21 Fevrier, a Chevalier in L'Ordre deS Palmes Academique, the equivalent of the Legion of Honor. Napoleon established this award in 1808. Professor kritzman, a native New Yorker but a Francophile as far back as he can remember, wryly pointed out that the awards are announced on Bastille Day, "and that's also the day they announce pardons for those under sentence of death."
Still on the subject of honors, the Tucker Foundation's Associate deanjan Tarjan '74 and its Community Service Volunteer Coordinator Sue Shons '90 have just received national honors for leadership and service. COOL—that's not our comment, but the acronym for the donors of the awards, the 600-member Campus Outreach Opportunity League. (Watch next month's mag for a story on Tarjan's and Shons's "Book Buddies" program.).
As we noted in March, winter sports went through a somewhat victorystarved season, women's hockey and men's indoor track and field excepted. Judy Parish '9l made Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" for her eight assists and nine points, both Ivy women's records, in the Green's 18-0 rout of Yale on the way to their first Ivy title. The distance relay team's first place, and a 1-2-3 finish in the 800-meters at the Heps, helped Dartmouth to an unprecedented fourth straight win in the event.
Seems strange to be talking about football already, but two former Green stars have been drafted by the new World League of American Footballrunning back David Clark '90, by the Birmingham Fire, and wide receiver Craig Morton '89, by the Frankfurt Galaxy. That's Birmingham in the U.S., all right, but it's Frankfurt, Germany All-American Reggie Williams '76 has left his City Council membership in Cincinnati to be general manager of the New York team. The WLAF season will have already begun by the time you read this. There will be three other foreign teams in the league, Montreal, London, and Barcelona.
Recreationally, we saw in The Dartmouth that quarterback Matt Brzica '93 and one of his favorite targets, wide receiver (and barefoot punter) Mike Bobo '92, are members of a sevenman-and-woman team of dancers and lip-synchers who won the local SAMSMTV competition—that's Students Against Multiple Sclerosis. They raised $2,200 for SAMS, and have a chance to go to Daytona Beach for the national finals, in which a Green group placed third last year.
What's really the top controversial question on students' minds? The answer came out sort of tangentially last week when two of the more prominent figures on campus, Student Assembly head Brian Ellner '92 and the Review's editor Kevin Pritchett '91 met in debate. The topic was "The Future of Dartmouth." We didn't go, but learned that the evening's main topic was the fraternity system— and the two doughty opponents turned out to be in complete concurrence with what generations of their predecessors wisely (and tritely) used to observe: "YOU GET OUT OF IT JUST WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT." A bit like Bush and Saudi King Fahd agreeing that roast lamb would taste fine whether accompanied by broccoli or couscous, or both.
Applications for the class of 1995, 8,042, up slightly from last year. SAT scores, virtually unchanged. Even though the tuition increase is the low- est in years, 5.94 percent, more than 60 percent of the applicants have also filed for financial aid. Tuck, incidentally, has approximately 2,800 applications, for fewer than 200 places. W
The Baker bells will clang at 2 p.m. on the 13th of this month, as Dartmouth bids a last farewell to former President John Sloan Dickey in Rollins Chapel. (Gifts, we're told, may be sent to the College.) There will be brief eulogies by members of the family, by former President David McLaughlin, and by President Freedman. The service will be conducted by Rev. James P. Breeden '56, dean of the Tucker Foundationwhich, established by the Trustees in 1951, stands as just one of the campus's many lasting monuments to John Dickey's credo of "conscience and competence."
You have received the word, we hope, that the College has lately been redoubling its efforts to make it easier for the media, and especially for alumni, to get accurate and timely information on current news of the College. (How do you like the new Dartmouth Life, for example?) And if you have ever called (603) 646-1110, in an effort to find out when Joe McDonald was dean, or what year was the White Church fire, or just "what's going on up there?", you know that it can take a bit of what we used to call "telephone polo." The Dartmouth News Service has appointed Rick Adams, one of its veteran publicists, to man a new desk of public information. We can vouch for Rick's superhuman grasp of "what's going on," plus, if he doesn't know, his ability to tell you immediately what department does.
Which leads us to a paragraph in the Alumni Magazine that caught our eye recently when we were looking something up ourselves. It said: "The Annual Fall meeting of the Dartmouth Alumni Council, held at the Dartmouth Club in New York City, was devoted largely to a discussion of better alumni communications."
The date of the issue: October, 1932.
