The Case for Intellectual Freedom
Tenure Is Needed
Jennifer Reese's article on the tenure system was well written and carefully considerate of both sides of a tough issue. I am troubled, however, about Frank Newman's assertion that professors no longer need to worry about powerful people firing them for having the wrong ideas. I am currently a graduate student in the English Department at Boston University, where the faculty of the university have recently published a report detailing the myriad threats to their intellectual freedom that they feel are being made by the administration, most specifically former President Silber and Presidentelect Westling.
Reading President Freedman's defense of tenure and several Dartmouth faculty members' suggestions that tenure is no longer really necessary, I cherished anew the Dartmouth freedom that is so great that it can lead to blindness about the evils being perpetrated as close as Boston. May they never even come close to the Hanover plain.
LKEHOE@ACS.BU.EDU
The lexicon of business used in your tenure article is so completely antithetical to the goals and ideals of the academy that its words should be at once alien and inappropriate when deployed in the academy in an evaluative capacity.
All of this is not to deny that colleges and universities are businesses in the corporate sense-they are. And as businesses, colleges and universities are in trouble. However, what is unique about the academy is that the business end is not the end unto itself. Business is to support, nurture, and ensure the future of academic freedom, intellectualism, creativity, and the world of the mind.
The fact of the matter is that tenure does protect intellectual freedom, and the need for that protection is far from over. The real threat to intellectual freedom is (and probably always has been) money. Solutions do have to be found to rebuild and strengthen our colleges and universities. However, when we start to evaluate intellectual freedom and the life of the mind using the vocabulary of the corporate world, I can't help but wonder if true intellectual freedom will become an arcane luxury available only to those with trust funds large enough to purchase it.
There are some things that should remain protected from economic determinacy.
Hanover, New Hampshire
Outrageous Ageism
As a civil rights attorney specializing in age discrimination in employment law (my views are my own and not necessarily those of the United States government or any governmental agency), I must protest the outrageous attitude of Dartmouth's dean of faculty, James Wright ["Is Tenure Outdated," September]. He is quoted as saying: "Senior faculty, no matter how good they are, need to be replaced by younger people who provide energy and vitality to our institution."
The truth is that virtually every study of the intellectual abilities of older workers, including the brilliant 1991 study on tenured faculty done by the National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, has demonstrated that older workers perform as well as, if not better than, younger workers in all professions except those requiring significant physical effort (e.g., ditch digging). Any minor decline in mental agility is more than compensated for by the wisdom and maturity that comes with age.
Dean Wright would benefit from sitting in on a few classes taught by older Dartmouth faculty. I would hope that he would then understand that his stereotypical assumptions regarding "energy and vitality" bear no resemblance to reality.
Potomac, Maryland
Dean OF Faculty James Wright REPLIES: I fully agree that many of our most senior faculty have remarkable energy and vitality. The statement quoted by Mr. Boymel appeared in an article that was a brief summary of more detailed observations I have made on these matters and of faculty discussion of recruitment, retirement, and turnover at Dartmouth. I certainly apologize if others besides Mr. Boymel were offended by the statement.
It is important that Dartmouth, with a small, steady-state faculty size, have a regular process of retirement and recruitment so that the educational process continues to include a healthy mix of such important attributes as wisdom, maturity, new fields of knowledge, youthful exuberance, and varied experiences. It is also important that the continuity and cohesiveness of our faculty not be disrupted by the wholesale turnover that would periodically occur if most faculty were of comparable age.
My colleagues and I have been exploring a number of ways to encourage faculty to remain involved in the life of the institution following retirement so that Dartmouth can continue to have the benefit of their wisdom, counsel, and good company.
Car-Lot Sopkistry
Concerning the June "On The Hill" item that compared Dartmouth with a loaded Chevy: $28,000 a year for tuition for four years (assuming no increase) does not equate to a one-time purchase of a Chevy Impals at $25,000, likely to be held for at least three to four years. The argument is disingenuous at best if not sophistry.
Incidentally, where do you shop for cars? Your quote of $61,000 for a '96 Cadillac SLS is grossly out of line compared to the MSRP sticker price for the same vehicle here of $42,000. Perhaps in the interest of fiscal restraints, Dartmouth should buy in California.
Atherton, California
We priced the Caddy off the General Motorswebsite.
You shot yourself in both feet, both knees, and some other painful spots with your cost comparison of Dartmouth with a Chevy Impala. You compared Dartmouth with a mass produced, massmarketed, consumer product. Is that what Dartmouth has become? Just another product? If so, I'll take the Impala. Or, better, the equivalent in GM stock.
GETSTAFF@EOS.EOS.NET
Don't Forget the Studio
We believe that the May issue, "Wherefore Art?", may generate a few misconceptions. Prominent titles that ask "What is there to teach about art?" or "What faculty teach now that they no longer teach taste" mislead readers into thinking that the issue is about the teaching of art at Dartmouth, when in fact it is about the Hood Museum, its collectors, and Director Timothy Rub's wish to develop the Hood as a "teaching museum." The magazine addresses several aspects of art history instruction, but makes no mention at all of studio classes. Hopefully, an article that addresses the teaching of the arts at Dartmouth would make the Studio Art Department an important part of its discussion.
This department has the fastest- growing major in the humanities, with numbers of majors this year second only to English. Students in the department are working with intelligence and intensity in a variety of media in classrooms which focus on sculpture, painting; printmaking, drawing, design, architecture, and photography. Many students go on to top graduate schools. We hope that Dartmouth alumni who are interested in this aspect of art at Dartmouth will contact the Studio Art Department, visit our classrooms, attend our spring student exhibitions in the Jaffe Friede and Strauss Galleries of the Hopkins Center, and ask to be added to our mailing list for newsletters and exhibition announcements.
Among the Dartmouth student body are many fine young artists who deserve recognition and support. There would be no art in the museum were it not for the men and women who create it.
Studio Art Department
Lucifer Who?
I enjoyed the article by Brenda Gross '79, "Who the Hell is Lucifer?" in the June issue. I vividly remember my own freshman trip. Everyone on my trip had shoulder-length blond hair, which they expertly flipped out of their eyes as they showed off their perfect tans. They were ideally equipped for the trip. I was excluded, for I had never even heard of Gore Tex and Polypro. I was a red-headed female who hated running and never played on a championshiphigh school team. Although I did not consider myself a stranger to the outdoors, my experience was limited to car camping with my Sears backpack, the Tortorellis, and the Kaplans.
I agree with Brenda Gross that Jews often hesitate to defend themselves for fear of offending others, being too pushy, or reinforcing negative stereotypes. Instead, many Jews are eager to fight other groups' battles. This reaffirms that our needs are not important; our issues remain low priority.
When I matriculated at Dartmouth, I was part of a Jewish community in which a select few participated in Hillel, and an even smaller group were vocal about their Judaism, there was no kosher food, and there were no Jewish studies classes. As I graduated, the Jewish community was active at a welcoming Hillel, a kosher deli was popular, a new Hillel building was in the planning stage, and courses were available about Jewish studies. My involvement in the Dartmouth Jewish community has formed the foundation for my adult Jewish life.
Albany, New York
Who the hell, I wonder, is Brenda Gross? And what qualifies her as a spokesman for all Jewish girls at Dartmouth in the seventies? Although she refers often to "us" and "we," she didn't interview me, or, as far as I know, any of my Jewish friends and relatives. I had no trouble figuring out who Lucifer is in Paradise Lost, and I managed to "fit in" with a diverse set of friends. I do not believe I gave up one ounce of my Jewishness in order to appreciate my years at Dartmouth, and I resent Ms. Gross claiming that I did.
Actually, Ms. Gross seems to have confused personal appearance with religion. Every point she makes trying to support her argument that Dartmouth was not a friendly environment for a Jewish girl comes "down to the fact that she is short, dark, large breasted, and has a big nose. Oh, and that she'd rather be at the mall than climbing a mountain.
Please, Brenda! It's bad enough when gentiles stereotype Jews! I am five-foot-seven, I have light brown hair, greenish eyes, and when I was an undergraduate I was quite flat chested. I know how to pack for an overnight hike, I can cook, I spent the summer in France between my sophomore and junior years in high school, and I hate to shop. I knew many Jews at Dartmouth and not one can be pigeonholed into Ms. Gross's description. Wouldn't it be funny if that leggy blond who inspired so much inferiority in Ms. Gross was Jewish after all?
76252.450@COMPLUSERVE.COM
