Dr. Wheelock's Journal
Divers Notes & Observations
AS WE ABSORB THE ALREADY interminable repetition of each candidate's one-sentence description of each plank in his campaign platform—we have sworn off ever again using the term "sound bite"—we are reminded of the weekly onslaught of redundancies that we regularly reap from the pages of the Review. And slow on the uptake as we usually are, it has finally occurred to us that this is not because the paper's editors have trouble thinking up new ideas to fill the space. Rather, like that of the candidates, it is a con- centrated effort to achieve just one objective: to oust President Freedman and his administration. Their technique consists of endless repetitions of a set number of rumors, half-truths, and even falsehoods—the same sort of thing that passes for competitive advantage in a political campaign. During his brief hour in the New Hampshire snows, ex-candidate Kerrey, in response to criticism that his continued attacks on President Bush were too harsh, replied: "This isn't the Dartmouth debating team. This is the rough and tumble of the campaign."
The Review has now unburdened itself of an entire issue, "Freedman's Ouster," which has been distributed to all alumni. Purporting to be a pitch for subscriptions, it is merely one more diatribe against the president and the administration, reciting the same preposterous allegations. These have been disproven again and again, but with zero effect on the Review's editors and the trained seals in the right- wing press, who continue to reiterate them as though no one had ever said a word. It's like those trick birthday candles. Blow as hard as you can to put them out, and they come right back on. WELL, FORGIVE THE OUT burst. Assuming that the College will continue to exist for a foreseeable few centuries, let's get on to sports. As we languish here, in Robert Frost's words, "two months back in the middle of March," the baseball team is participating in Hawaii's Rainbow Classic, in preparation for an assault on the EIBL title. Though the experts pick them for no better than fifth, you heard it here first that Coach Whalen's solid pitching staff, headed by right-hander Bob Bennett '94, can help the Green do lots better than that, particularly when those successive double-header days come along in late April. Bennett, a sure-fire draftee, would be to our knowledge the first Dartmouth Native American to make it to the big leagues since "Chief' Meyers '09.
We have rarely seen such enthusiasm at the end of a disappointing season as that shown by the 3-21-2 men hockey team. Indeed, in its last eight games, a mere .4 of a point was the difference between goalsscored and goals-against. And but one obstacle stood in the way of still another Ivy tide for women's hockey—an impervious Princeton goalie. The Greens twice outshot the Tigresses by wide margins, only to lose each time by a single goal.
One of the more dramatic halfhours we have ever spent in Leverone came in the closing moments of the Heptagonals. Well behind a strong Navy team, the Dartmouth trackmen needed outright victories—and poor showings for the Midshipmen—in the final three relays to gain their fifth straight Heps title. The Green quartets powered to all three wins, but with two seconds and one fourth, Navy took the meet by five slender points. In the IC4A championships, Dartmouth's seventh-place 44 points exceeded all the other Ivies' put together. In the NCAAs, the 4x800 relay team finished fourth by a few hundredths of a second but set a New England record
And lest you think we've been talking about sports at some college you're not familiar with, the skiers finished fourth in the NCAAs, at nearby Waterville Valley, to the Vermont powerhouse, New Mexico (New Mexico??), and Utah.
PRESIDENT FREEDMAN AND Tufts President Jean Mayer have announced a new, threeyear joint degree program in business and international affairs, to be offered by Tuck and Tufts' Fletcher School of Diplomacy, starting this Fall. Tuck Dean Ed Fox pointed out the need for "government leaders who understand the global marketplace and business leaders who understand world government." (We overheard that getting this degree will be like playing "Risk" and "Monopoly" at the same time). Another new program has been facilitated by a $300,000 award from the Department of Education, aimed at encouraging minority students, considerably under-represented in the field, to pursue careers in the sciences. It will be led by Biology Professor George Langford, holder of the E.E. Just '07 Professorship of Natural Sciences. Just, of whom you read here last year, was one of the most influential black scientists in U.S. historyand his inspiring life, we have heard, may soon become a film, backed by a European producer.
AFTER 17 YEARS, DR. ROSS McIntyre '53 has retired as head of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, to devote his energies to Cancer and Leukemia Group B, a national research program whose offices are now in Hanover. He will be replaced as acting director by Edward Bresnick, a specialist in environmental and nutritional causes of cancer, who has been the NCCC's deputy director since 1989. The NCCC itself continues, several lead-clad floors down, as the lone occupant of the "old" hospital, and is not scheduled to move to the new med center for two or three years.
AS THIS COLUMN'S DEVOTED practitioner of the second person plural, we recall—as we see the candidates continually referring to themselves as "we"—Mark Twain's remark that the only persons properly entitled thus to refer to themselves are kings and queens, editorial writers, and people with a tapeworm.
Once again, the Reviewunburdens itself aboutthe College andits president.
