Dr. Wheelock's Journal
Divers Notes & Observations
THE FOLIAGE THIS YEAR, beautiful as always, acted like an old vaudevillian overfond of the spotlight. Everything, especially our favorite College Street maple on the SAE lawn, seemed to hang around for at least a week past peak. A cold front finally came through and gave it all the hook. The Inn got a few extra busloads of leaf-watchers out of it—to the accompaniment of jackhammers tearing up one end of the patio in order to widen the Inn's lobby by an extra 24 feet.
Tradition got a good workout on Dartmouth Night, the next-to-last weekend in October.It was the centenary of the festive event, first held in 1895 in the administration of President William Jewett Tucker. Dr. Tucker's purpose, in the words of historian Leon B. "Cheerless" Richardson, "was to have a meeting at which graduates and others connected with the College should tell its story and endeavor to impress its significance upon those just entering its doors." But we cannot resist quoting Richardson further: "In its earlier days, this exercise was an occasion of much enthusiasm and fully served its purpose, although, perhaps, in the hands of the various orators, the reputation and worth of the College did not suffer from underemphasis."
Nor did it in this later day. Among those who addressed the massed celebrants, who crowded the campus from the steps of Dartmouth Hall to all edges of the Green, was Brooks Clark '78, great-grandson of the very same Dr. Tucker (and, we proudly add, chair of the Editorial Board of this magazine). Prominent in the traditional program of pep talks by coaches and team captains was Dartmouth grandfather Bob Blackman '37A, supported by a couple of platoons of his undefeated performers of 1970, winners in that year of the Lambert trophy, emblem of Eastern football supremacy.
President Freedman and Alumni Council President Otho Kerr '79 rounded out the oratory, before the 62 tier bonfire was ignited. Pyro aficionados judge the blaze to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing ever, perhaps because a forecast of rain inspired a generous soaking of flammable liquids.
Brooks Clark got a proper round of applause for his dramatic talk about his eminent forebear, but we think he would have brought the house down had he ventured to give his side-splitting rendition of the lecture style of the English department's professor Don Pease. Next morning, however, the real Don Pease did appear, with his cohort Bill Cook. Their talk, "The Life and Humor of Ted Geisel," sponsored by the class of '5l, commemorated the 70th year since the graduation of a continuing and inter-generational Dartmouth tradition. We won, dered if any of the incomparable Dr. Seuss's millions of readers, tykes and tycoons alike, would have understood "how Geisel's work resonates in the ideological struggles of the 1960s," but that's what the CookPease team attempted to demonstrate. The team that showed up in Memorial Stadium in the afternoon, a hapless Colgate, was much I more easily coped with, 35-14, amid a Shakespearean gale of wind and rain.
ON THE SUBJECT OF anniversaries, next year will mark 80 years since the accession of Dr. Tucker's distinguished protege to the presidency, Ernest Martin Hopkins '01. This was brought to our attention by a Boston alumnus who wrings his hands over the intrusion into Dartmouth life, some years ago, of the Institute bearing
Dr. Hopkins's name—an organization which, in many opinions, represented exactly the reverse of what "Prexy" Hopkins's image held for thousands of Dartmouth students and alumni. We mention all this because of the death recently of Stephen Avery Raube '30, one of the Institute's founders and ringleaders who nonetheless continued to protest his undying loyalty to the College. To Ave: Ave atque vale.
IN MANCHESTER LAST MONTH, to greet a meeting of ten Republican presidential aspirants, was a signboard, "Running for President? Welcome to New Hampshire!...now, how are you going to balance the budget?" A more positive contribution to the campaign season has been a new public-opinion survey, sparked by Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences and its upbeat new director Linda Fowler. The survey—with the co-sponsorship of ABC affiliate WMUR in Manchester—is sampling 500 to 600 residents a week six times between now and the primary. The ebullient Fowler has had to turn away students eager to participate, and the 50 history and government majors who are manning the phones now report that they find New Hampshirites belying their taciturn reputation. Not surprisingly, the second WMUR/ Dartmouth College poll had Senator Dole well in the lead with 37 percent of the vote. But in poll #2, asked of Republicans would they switch from their preferred candidate if General Powell were to seek the nomination, 33 percent said "yes".
Rock Center was also the setting for a talk by John McKernan Jr. '70. The former governor of Maine stressed the need to change the nation's education system away from its basis in agrarian life. The governor's wife, U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe, spoke to another Dartmouth audience of another necessary readjustmentthat of our legislative bodies, state and national, to the increasing involvement of women in American political life. That is expected to be a topic of the sojourn of Wilma Mankiller, Native American leader, as the winter term's coming Montgomery Fellow. A more specific approach to feminism was the subject of a lecture in Collis by CUNY English professor and cultural critic bell hooks. (The lowercase spelling is her preference.)
The past few weeks seem to have been one continuous feast of appearances of distinguished speakers. We confess right now that although we do our level best to attend most of the lectures, we simply just can't, don't, and probably shouldn't. We did join the audience of "Religious Belief, Intellectual Responsibility, and Romance," by U-Virginia humanities professor Richard Rorty. It reminded us of when the late New York restaurateur Toots Shor was roped into going to a performance of Carmen at the Met. At the half he stood up and said, "I'll bet I'm the only [expletive] slob in this place who doesn't know how this thing is going to torn out." Prof. Rorty's talk was similarly way out of our depth; we seemed to be alone in our ignorance of William James's The Will to Believe. We did come away with a quotation about Freud, who "wanted to replace unusual organic misery with ordinary human unhappiness."
THE CLASS OF '99 HAS ITS share of standouts, such as the world's leading female disabled skier; a 27-year-old former marine and Desert Storm veteran; and the junior Canadian decathlon champion. But the freshperson we have personally waited for has finally arrived—the first dual legacy. She is Emily Csatari, daughter of attorney (and former all-Ivy defensive end) Tom '74 and the former Judy Burrows '76. Before the family moved to Texas, Judy worked in both the Dean's office and Admissions. For the moment, at least, legacies run to daughters—in '99, the score is 43 to 28.
There is a new senior society on campus, Griffin, which like Yale's famed Skull & Bones proposes to be anonymous as well as eclectic in membership. In this exclusivity, however, the group also says its purpose is to "integrate the various corners of the campus." On one of those corners, sort of northeast, the new Dragon tomb is rising, and, when completed, will have an excellent view of the "north campus" expected to take the place of the old hospital. Dragon's proximity to Delta Gamma sorority on that wooded hillside suggests that there may eventually be a few Dragonettes. The senior society's old building will eventually be replaced by the longawaited addition to Baker Library. That, in turn, must await the funds for remodeling Webster to accommodate the extensive archives which must first be removed from Baker before construction begins.
Having just mentioned Yale, may we quickly add here—for those readers west of the Mississippi where Ivy League football is covered only when there is no local high school soccer news to report—that the Green footballers subdued the Blue 22-7. While we are at it, Dartmouth also humbled Harvard by a rain-spattered 23-7. Harvard's quarterback, who achieved 16 straight passes in routing Dartmouth last year, didn't have a completion until the fourth quarter
Notable on the athletic front recently were the twin triumphs of both men's and women's cross-country in the Heptagonals, the women with a one-two-three finish and the near perfect score of 23.
The New York Times picked up the announcement we make in this same issue, of the $4 million National Science Foundation grant to Dartmouth to teach the interdisciplinary qualities of mathematics. But the good gray journal gave it the dateline: "Hanover, Calif."
Traditiongets a workout,and Dartmouthgets a pollster.
