They Make Dartmouth Dartmouth

Choices, voices, and lost on a mountain

Top Dogs

I was both pleased and surprised to see Booter mentioned as a favorite pooch in the "Dartmouth Dogs" section of "They Make Dartmouth Dartmouth" [October]. Booter presently resides with my mother in Toronto while I attend University of Alberta's Faculty of Law. Unfortunately, U of A does not share Dartmouth's progressive policies regarding dogs on campus.

Booter has continued to follow the interests she developed at Dartmouth, such as her fondness for tennis balls and squirrel chasing. She has gained a few pounds, but still remains active. Which is more than I can say for myself. Judging from her warm reception of alums who have visited since her move to Toronto, I am sure she has fond memories of Dartmouth and Sigma Phi Epsilon.

EDMONTON, ALBERTA JDUNDA@GPU.SRV.UALBERTA.CA

It seems to me that you have failed to include one very large, but very important group of people who also help make Dartmouth what it is on a daily basis: the staff of Dartmouth College. If you observe the average staffer, you'll often find someone who has a strong desire to serve others, a good education, a long Dartmouth employ, and a strong sense of belonging and loyalty. I believe that staffers feel as much a part of Dartmouth as many of the individuals you have mentioned.

And yet, the Dartmouth dogs are described in your article as "...adding to the ambiance, helping make Dartmouth Dartmouth " While I will not comment on the inclusion of our canine friends, it does seem to me there will be many folks who will feel left out after reading your article.

MANUSCRIPTS SPECIALIST SPECIAL COLLECTIONS DARTMOUTH COLLEGE LIBRARY

Too often I had become too wrapped up with my own classes and activities to consciously recognize those "individuals who continue traditions, who create character, who have fixed Dartmouth's place on the world's map." The article had a moving effect on me. Yet, with all due respect, we should also remember that being a senior fellow, an integral part of a championship team, and a leader of the Panhellic Council was not significantly easier or less demanding one year ago, or even ten or 20 years ago. The accomplishments and aspirations of former fellows, athletes, and leaders, like their current counterparts, are also those who make Dartmouth Dartmouth.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

The "College's essential ethos" does come partly from its place and its history. Dartmouth's motto, routinely trumpeted as a tribute to the non-conformist, is a sturdy example.

"The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness" is, in fact, a mistranslation (in the King James Bible) of kol koreibamidbar in Isaiah 40:3. It fails to acknowledge the verse's parallel structure, in which the same idea is restated in slightly different language.

What the voice wants, and the context makes unambiguous, is not to boom out a public announcement somewhere in the woods, or even the outer suburbs, but that a highway be the wilderness to the city (identified in the preceding verse), which is the place everyone remembers, dreams about, and longs to get back to.

Fellow alumni of the undergraduate Posture-of-the-Month Club may share my current sense of the motto's lack of qualifications. Still, the basic idea seems sound—to cry out, connect, if you happen to find yourself in the wilderness.

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA KINGSBRY@ELECTRO-NET.COM

Diversity

Regretfully, Senator Quentin Kopp '49 [September "Letters"] chose to argue the illegitimacy of Dartmouth's diversity and by extension the illegitimacy of some of her children. Arguing that diversity does not equal excellence is irrelevant unless one presumes diversity is antithetical to excellence. Arguing that constitutional guarantees to equality are sufficient protection denies centuries of constitutionally allowed slavery, selective suffrage, and exclusion, even from Dartmouda. Attacking the fairness of considering ethnicity and gender in admissions begs equal scrutiny of the G.I. bill, legacies, geographic origin, and privilege.

Before affirmative action, Dartmouth matured to embrace eastern and southern Europeans, Jews and other non- Christians, and working class and less privileged white men. Since 1968 Dartmouth has welcomed more non- Europeans, women, and others. The achievements of this newer Dartmouth match or exceed the achievements of the past. What "excellence," then, is threatened by diversity?

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

Lost on Mt. Washinglon

It appears that Tyler Stableford's compass [November] needs adjustment—and the editor needs to be oriented. Portsmouth harbor is nearly due south of Mt. Washington (not east) and Pinkham Notch is on the east side of the mountain.

WEST HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT

The canoe portage over Mt. Washington must have been quite a challenge. However it must have paled in comparison to the effort required to move Joe Dodge's AMC base camp, not to mention the whole of Pinkham Notch, from their location "on the mountain's western slope" to the east side, where I first encountered them in 1963 on my first Mt. Washington climb.

BETHESDA, MARYLAND JIM.ROOKS@ATLAHQ.ORG

We stand guilty, and ashamedly so.—Ed.

Can you advise as to how I can secure a copy of Schlitz on Mount Washington (preferably on videotape) as mentioned in your November issue?

SADDLE RIVER, NEW JERSEY BEDDIGES@BELLATLANTIC.NET

Schlitz on Mount Washington has recentlybeen made available on videotape by the NewEngland Ski Museum in Franconia, N.H.Copies of the tape are $25 postpaid, and can beordered by calling (800) 639-4181.—Ed.

Premeds (Continued)

"Worries of a Premed" [Tune] did little to convince me that the physicians who will be caring for me in my old age will differ from those produced in the '70s and '80s. The archetypal specialists of my generation are the products of an extremely competitive premedical and medical school process.

Having gone through the process myself and practiced as a surgical specialist for almost 20 years, I have a good feeling for the type of physician such a system produces. The boring, cutthroat, front-row, tape-recording premed of yesterday will more likely become that physician who is less capable of empathizing with a suffering patient or family than tuning up his bottom line or stock portfolio. I attribute the kind of physician I am more to the Robert McGraths, the John Paolettis, the Thomas Scott-Craigs, and the John Rassiases of Dartmouth than to any science course.

SALISBURY, MARYLAND

Competition is a stark reality, not only in medicine, but in every sector of our society. It's no surprise that students try to engage in "superhuman feats" to separate themselves from the pack, even if it, precludes "getting a life." Although I do not have Dr. Simonds's credentials, I feel that his singular assessment of Dartmouth's premed curriculum [October "Letters"] is unjustified. At Dartmouth I found "unhealthy competition" to be virtually nonexistent. His comment that "Dartmouth's premed curriculum hardly seems to test or promote such skills [as] good memory, street smarts, common sense, affability, humanity, critical thinking, and above all, patience [required] for the practice of good medicine," is absurd. If Dartmouth does not provide such an experience, then where are you going to find it? Harvard? A community college?

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA

As one of the subjects of the critique on "ruthless" premedical students at Dartmouth, I would like to make a brief comment. Perhaps in my attempt to conduct "superhuman feats in Third World countries," an experience that has both enriched me and inspired me to pursue medicine, I have lost sight of what medicine is all about, as you suggest. In the humble opinion of one student, I believe that all budding physicians should be fortunate enough to have had such an impacting experience.

Students are not pursuing medicine if they don't already have compassion and an interest in the well-being of people. I think your prescription is a dangerous one; young people at an institution such as Dartmouth should be advised against accepting the status quo. No matriculating Dartmouth student arrived in Hanover by doing so.

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Are campuscanines a bone ofcontention?