1948

Sadly, we've lost Ted Thornton, Fran Hummel and PaulLiscord. Death came to the first two rather suddenly, Ted on New Year's Day and Fran on January 26. Gertrude discovered Fran in the basement shop shortly after he'd come in from shoveling snow, dead from a heart attack. He had chaired our fabulous 50th Reunion. Paul had been treated for that elder male nemesis, prostate cancer, for quite a while. More details on all in their obits.

We've been watching the Daily Dartmouth and The Review and getting feedback from several of you on the student life initiative (SLI) proposals that seem to occupy campus life these days. More than 80 percent of the students would like to have more dorms and better meeting facilities but not at the expense of losing their freedom and the Greek system.

Dartmouth, they point out, is a unique place that they have chosen over other Ivies and highly rated universities. They resent the arguments for taking away their freedom based on polling of students who were accepted but did not come there. Their reasons for selecting the College are not any different than ours were. It is a unique place with a long history of independence, which attracted many of us for that very reason.

The SLI appears to be another attempt to make Dartmouth over in a very politically correct manner. Those who would change it drastically are a different breed. Unlike our day on campus, very few administrators or faculty have enjoyed being Dartmouth undergraduates. James Freedman wanted to make another Flarvard out of it and met with heavy resistance from alumni. But the administration has always heavily influenced the selection of most trustees and it appears that enough have been elected who believe that this change is the right thing to do. Their rules prevent us from knowing what goes on in trustee meetings other than the outcome.

Whether the College can indirectly confiscate the valuable real estate belonging to many of the Greek houses may well have to be decided in the courts. There is little doubt that those who have been marginal will probably be history. For the others, the regulations being suggested would put these private organizations under strict college control. Wesleyan professor emeritus JerryWensinger indicates that this is not a universal trend and observes that whether the students are treated like junior high students, they will probably act like college students.

Rest assured, Dear Readers, that these observations are hardly unanimous among class members. Several indicate that what the College is doing is just right. But as for those students who chose to go somewhere else, a strong trustee argument for these changes, this alumnus views them as having lost out on something really good. I've always believed that an independent Dartmouth is better than the rest.

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