Commencement on the Green and a Campaign Victory Lap
Divers Notes and Observations
Dartmouth's 226 th was a typical Commencement-barriers on every street, tents on every available corner, no parking anywhere, reuners all over the place with looks of anticipation on their faces. (To next year's reunion chairs: go for the Greg Norman straw boaters with the white hat bands. Very sharp). But the occasion was lots easier and breezier than last year. For the first time, it was held right on the Green, amber waves of folding chairs bridging the campus between College and Main streets. No one in flak jackets with semiautomatics on the roofs; no Secret Service types lounging on the official platform trying to look like professors. Another first: the academic procession was led by a student, Joshua Marks '96, drum major of the marching band and its bagpiper. (You haven't lived until you've heard "Men of Dartmouth" —oops, the Alma Mater—played on the bagpipes.) And a most friendly keynote address by journalist David Halberstam, who admitted to having applied for admission in 1951.
Other honorary degree recipients were the Green's winningest football coach ever, Hall of Famer Bob Blackman '37A; 1989 Nobelist and molecular biologist Sidney Altman; Pulitzer winning dramatist David Mamet; sociologist Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot; environmentalist George Woodwell '50; and educator of the underprivileged Deborah Meier. President Freedman outdid himself in describing Dr. Meier's first school, in a Chicago slum, as one of "Dickensian stultification." He urged the graduates to add the word "perhaps" to their vocabularies; that a liberal education involved acquiring deeply held commitments, but also, in this era of mindless and often needless confrontation, an acknowledgement of the possibility that you might be wrong.
Valedictorian Marc Ginsburg '96 based his advice to his classmates on three favorite films: Caddy Shack, Star Wars, and the Disney version of Jungle Book. We did get the message of the first one-to succeed in either golf or life, be the ball, even though you get batted around and wind up lost in the woods. The other two evaded us. Well, we said it was a pretty relaxed Commencement.
A striking head of snow white hair in the academic procession belonged to former career diplomat Steve Bosworth '61,in his first public appearance as chairman of the Board ofTrustees. He succeedsjohn Rosenwald '52, who retires after ten years of extraordinary leadership and service to the College. The Trustees have elected Seattle attorney William H. Neukom '64, legal vice president for Microsoft (and a three-time Dartmouth parent) to take over Rosenwald's charter trusteeship.
On a related and most important matter, the Alumni Council is seeking nominations for a Trustee to replace Joe Mathewson '55, who retires next June.The Council will present a three person slate from your suggestions, one of whom you will select by vote next spring. Send your written nomination by November 1, 1996, to the Trustee Search Committee Chair, David Mandelbaum '54, at 6068 Blunt Alumni Center, Hanover, NH 03 755-3590.
Most surprising for rentiers who got that far from the center of town was the north campus, deserted by most of the old hospital and now awaiting its parking lot future amid a few not yet removed piles of debris. Second place, to those who used to take all nighters at the D, the Outing Club, the Jacko, WDCR, or a host of other student organizations, was Robinson Hall,its new elevator and refurbished meeting rooms quite a contrast to the same old wide stairways.
Next big project takes place diagonally opposite Aquinas House the new Roth Center for Jewish Life. Hardly a Dartmouth dignitary was missing for the dedication. A procession of about 200,led by Rabbi Daniel Siegel, sang the traditional "building a sacred space," around the perimeter of the property. The invocation was by the pastor of the Lutheran Church, Rev. Michael Fuller; Bruce Pacht '67, a principal in the project, delivered some warm introductions; and a happy Steve Roth '62 confessed that when he was approached on the subject of the site of the Center, said, "Like a true real-estate executive, I really coveted Webster Hall."
The spring's overflow crowd was the one at Cook Auditorium for author/astronomer Carl Sagan. At least a hundred standees had to be ushered into nearby closed-circuit rooms. Sagan said that it is wonder, not skepticism, that guides our culture, and in any contest between science and pseudo-science, the former is far more wondrous. Because of science's power to shape our society, he regretted that most politicans lack a scientific background. Two weeks earlier, Wall Street Journal columnist Al Hunt came to campus to make the point that another of politicians' short- comings is an overreliance on polls. Hunt added that the public's skepticism of news coverage by the media, particularly television, had descended to cynicism.
Anniversaries, past and future: Corporate executives from 29 countries attended the tenth anniversary of the Rassias Foundation, organized by Dartmouth's fabled professor of languages to enable foreign businessmen and women to improve their English using his unique method. President Freedman has appointed a committee to commemorate with exhibits, seminars, and programs the 25th anniversary of the arrival of coeducation in these parts. And September 24 will mark the opening of the bicentennial year of the Dartmouth Medical School, to culminate a year later in an international symposium, "Great Issues for Medicine in the Twenty-First Century." It has just been announced that the keynote speaker at the College's 227th Convocation this year will be Dr. Samuel O.Thier, former member of the Med School's Board of Overseers, former president of Brandeis University, and at present CEO of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston-a most fitting candidate to launch the Med School's bicentennial as well.
Sports performance last spring seemed to be the province of the women. Distance track star Kristin Mainwaring '96 was awarded the Archibald Prize as the year's top athlete; Christina Maybaum '98 pitched a perfect game for the Green softballers against Columbia; golfer Sara Vogler '96 shot 82-80 to win the Northeast Women's Intercollegiates. This just in Dana Chladek '85 won a silver medal in the women's kayak sprint at the Olympics. At the National Collegiate Sailing Competitions, Navy beat out the women for second place by a single point, and three Green sailors earned allAmerican honors. Overseas, three men's crews scored victories at the Henley Regatta last month, and both men and women track athletes combined with Brown to outclass a Cambridge Oxford team.
Celebrating a victory of another kind was the team over at Blunt in charge of the 1996 Alumni Fund, captained by Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Stan Colla '66. The Fund topped out at $13,895,179, which was 777,000 more dollars than last year. Participation was up a notch also, to 51%. The Will to Excel campaign, currently on its "Victory Lap," stands at $516.7 million, well past its goal with two months still to go before the deadline of October 7. Highlight is the funding for a project dear to Jim Freedman's heart: the conversion of Webster Hall to house a new Special Collections Library. Diana and Bruce Rauner '78 gave $5 million toward the effort, andjohn W. Berry and George F.Baker III-gentlemen who you may remember helped kick off the campaign with a $25 million gift added another $5 million.
Warning: lest you think this column is only supposed to relay good news, Spy magazine just listed "the 50 states in order of annoyance." New Hampshire placed 20th, with its most annoying characteristics 1) the presidential primary 2)refusal to recognize Martin Luther King Day and 3) Dartmouth.
