Letters

QUOTE/UNQUOTE "Why does Dartmouth. need 'brand identity'? It isn'selling soap. It's offering education," LAWRENCE B. GOODMAN

Trying to Be Green

I.disagree with Professor Perrin's conclusion that Dartmouth is environmentally aware "How Green is Dartmouth?" Sept/Oct].

When I walk around campus, I see our failures. Dining halls such as the Collis Cafe and the Courtyard Cafe provide only disposable paper ware and plastic ware, thanks to a lack of dishwashing facilities. All other dining facilities offer disposable ware for take-out utility. A small contingent of Dartmouth students brings cups, plates and silverware to these eating facilities, but the majority of students will not be bothered by this inconvenience.

Another incongruity with being "green" is the overheating of buildings in the winter. My freshman year I lived in Wheeler Hall, and although I turned off my heat for the entirety of the season, my room remained so warm I had to open the window. Dartmouth could easily improve its "green" reputation, and save money, by turning down its thermostats in the winter. Myriad other practices contribute to my opinion, including the use of pesticides and fertilizers all over campus, not to mention the golf course in its degradation of acres of land into an ecological monoculture of grass.

I haven't seen the sustainable efforts of other listed "green" universities and colleges, but I certainly would not include Dartmouth in this list.

Hanover, New Hampshire

Brand Loyalty

Kabir Sehgal's Student Opinion ["Let The Hype Begin!" Sept/Oct] demands my retort. Why does Dartmouth need "brand identity"? It isn't selling soap. It's offering education.

Dartmouth is a jewel among privately endowed liberal arts colleges, phenomenons unique to America. Each in its own way pursues the liberal arts traditions. Part of Dartmouth's greatness is that it is a work in progress. Its identity will depend on its continued success in retaining its relevance to the challenges facing its students and in offering an education that will provide students with the tools to live a life of intellectual curiosity and one dedicated to the acquisition of new knowledge.

Dartmouth has and will continue to attract plenty of highly qualified applicants who choose the Dartmouth experience based on reputation and how the College presents itself. A student seeking a school of hotel management or a school of human ecology has other roads to follow. What was important to me was choosing the place with the traditions and mission most likely to support me and make me feel at home.

Please let's not seek "spin" and PR and cheapen the Dartmouth I have loved for almost 60 years. The truth speaks for itself.

Greenwich, Connecticut

I read with interest Kabir Sehgal's insightful comments on The Yale/Dartmouth Club of New York City. I have visited this fine facility. Its squash courts, renovated guest rooms and turnof-the-century lobby are most impressive. Still, for Dartmouth alumni to have to share a club with our Eli brethren somehow rankles. If we are to maintain this unnatural alliance, I respectfully vote to rename it the Dartmouth/Yale Club!

Atlanta, Georgia

While reading Kabir Sehgal's article, I was reminded of several students I met during my recently completed law school orientation. These students, having no personality or accomplishments to speak of, tried to impress others by announcing, chest out and chin up, that they had attended one of those schools that Mr. Sehgal apparently wishes he attended as well.

Dartmouth is one of the finest institutions in the country and is widely recognized as such. The quality of the education received and experiences enjoyed by its students and alumni should be observable in the accomplishments and personalities of its students and alumni. Praising the school when it is brought up in conversation is one thing; going out of your way to brag about it only serves to give the College an undeserved reputation for producing students with an inferiority complex.

Gibsonia, Pennsylvania

Class Spirit

AMONG THE OUTSTANDING FELLOW alumni I have had the privilege to know are Henry Nachman Jr. '51 and Donald C. Goss '53. Hank is president of my class and Don is a past president of his. If these two Hanoverians had met, I doubt Hank would have interpreted Don's statement about '53 being "the greatest" ["Newsmakers," Sept/Oct] as anything other than expression of class loyalty and joie de vivre. Many of us say, "Dartmouth is the greatest!" without intending to put down other fine colleges and universities.

Chicago, Illinois

On the occasion of your magazine's coverage of reunions this past June, including the 50th reunion celebration of the class of 1953, which has distinguished itself in many ways over the years, it seemed very inappropriate and regrettable that DAM chose to run a quote from Henry Nachman Jr. that appeared in the Valley News.

Mr. Nachman takes Don Goss too seriously if he truly believes Don meant any disrespect to other classes, or that anyone else, besides his fellow classmates, would take the comment to heart. My issue is not with Mr. Nachman who is, of course, entitled to disagree with Don, just as many others may do, but with the editorial judgment in using the quote in the first place.

We're all part of the Dartmouth family and few people, if any, care more about the College and its alumni than Don Goss does. He would also be the first to acknowledge that there are a number of great classes including, I am sure, the class of '51.

Short Hills, New Jersey

All due respectto Mark Smoller and the great class of 1953 ["Dinner at Dartmouth," July/Aug], but their efforts did not close Commons for freshman class eating. The greater class of 1954 ate there. Ms. Wheat checked us in. She knew all 750 faces and names in about a week. I believe our breakfast attendance was much better than he portrays—sometimes the best meal of the day. I also recall at least one major disaster using food as weapons rather than for nourishment.

Rochester, New York

Take It On Faith

I found the negative comments of Robert Meyer '51 assessing professor Marcelo Gleiser's intellect and pride ["Letters," Sept/Oct] to reflect a shallowness of belief in our secular democracy and a disturbing depth of religious bigotry.

North Creek, New York

Age of Reason

I WAS ASTOUNDED TO LEARN THAT Walter Lilienthal '19 ["Continuing Ed," March/April] resides one block from my house. Naturally I had to go talk with him. I was accompanied by Gus Schneider '31 and Charles Schneider '57, also of Santa Barbara.

It was a very nice outing. Walter was sentient and interesting. To the question, "Is it possible to live too long?" he promptly replied, "Yes! My own children have died of old age."

Bravo to Dartmouth Alumni Magazine for your biographical renderings.

Santa Barbara, California

Who's Talking?

The interview with Professor Langford ["A Diversity of Ideas," July/Aug] was an eye-opener. For decades the College has been obsessed with race, gender and homosexuality. Affirmative action in admissions has been a national controversy that culminated in headline news with a Supreme Court decision. Thus, it's surprising that the same efforts to promote diversity in the student body have not been applied to the faculty.

The reason given for failure to recruit minorities for faculty positions was that too few minority candidates apply (because of Dartmouth's image as a conservative institution). Hasn't this same factor been confronted in student admissions? Shouldn't the same remedies apply?

The article raises another question: What about the rest of the College? How diverse is the administration? (just how many transgendered deans are there anyway?)

Those running the College advocate and implement controversial measures to increase diversity in the student body. The points raised in the interview imply hypocrisy. Are the faculty, and perhaps the administration, unwilling to make the sacrifices they impose on others in the name of their own ideals?

Needham, Massachusetts

A Matter of Degree

Many of your readers may not know that in addition to faculty members and the senior class president, as noted in your piece ["The Big Day," July/Aug], the honorary degrees committee of the Council of Alumni solicits the names of potential alumni candidates directly from the alumni body. The committee then recommends candidates for honorary degrees to the College Council on Honorary Degrees.

In general, alumni honorary degree candidates should have made contributions to society of genuine significance, demonstrated intellectual distinction and public service, and should possess character and attainment worthy of emulation and admiration.

Alumni are encouraged to put forward alumni candidates for consideration to the Alumni Council secretary: Suzanne Wiley Young '77. Director Class Activities, 6068 Blunt Alumni Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover NH 03755-3590. (Faxes maybe sent to 603-646-1600.)

Grantham, New Hampshire

Closed Minds?

So in possiblythe least criminal town in what the FBI certifies as the "safest state in the nation," College President Jim Wright and the Parkhurst wizards have deployed half a million hard-earned dollars to create the worlds most expensive minimum-security prison ["Lock Up," July/Aug],

In loco parentis is the official explanation What's next—a broccoli requirement? How about bringing back parietals? And, by the way, do your socks match?

Is there no indignity left that can get student blood to boil? At least this may help end the long search for a new mascot-how about The Sheep?

Closed—hell, locked—doors are a perfect emblem for where things seem to be headed intellectually. Presumably there's some duct tape left over from another recent security mania; excellent for door latches as well.

Salisbury, Connecticut

Self Determination

Tom Grey is perfe ctly entitled to opine on the evils of legalized gambling ["No Dice," July/Aug], but need DAM grant him the soapbox to do so, so unconvincingly?

Where does one draw the line? Lotteries, which fill a number of state coffers and often fund education initiatives? Bingo? (I suppose the church that sponsors Mr. Grey will countenance these transgressors?)

Absent cogent economic or other em- pirical analysis, which we never see in Mr. Wheelan's piece, Grey's crusade seems to distill to Americas tired paternalistic routine of sin restriction,which is arguably more injurious from the standpoint of eroding civil liberties relative to the purported boon of morally upstanding communities and their denizens that spend, in his mind, more appropriately. (I imagine this spending to be on oversized autos, self-indulgent consumer goods, nutritionless foodstuffs, mind-numbing electronic gadgets—enlightened alternatives to gambling all.)

One would have hoped that Grey's Dartmouth education had honed forensic skills more impressive than an ad hominem attack. The slandered Arthur Anderson study seems more compelling than dubious generalizations tossed about in boilerplate polemics.

After several years in Asia, where admittedly unfettered libertarianism has had less-than-palatable manifestations in a hyper-developed sex trade, I nevertheless have come to appreciate the approach of personal responsibility. I daresay that is the virtue Grey should be preaching from his bully pulpit.

Hong Kong

Liberty Yes; ACLU No

The ACLU ad [Sept/Oct] contains some of the duplicity for which the group has gained notoriety. The elderly gentleman pictured, of modest means, couture and coiffure, is saying he "knows the importance of being able to read and express any thought without fear," presumably with ACLU backing. Of course, what thoughts are not specified—some are acceptable, others are not. Conspicuous exceptions are reflected in vigorous legal assaults on anything smacking of religion, despite explicit language in the Constitution's First Amendment.

Where is the ACLU when Alabama Justice Moore needs defending? I must decline the invitation to join the ACLU, and its dedication to the desire "to keep us all safe and free."

Downey, California

Editor's Note: The elderly gentleman picturedin the ad is writer Kurt Vonnegut.

Ode to Hunger

"Dinner at Dartmouth" [July/ Aug] brought back fond memories of a short-lived, but well-loved DDS facility to those of us with big appetites: Westside Buffet, which operated from 1996 to 2000.1 wanted to share with DAM a parody of Philip Larkins "MCMXTV" that I wrote to commemorate Westside's closing feast in June 2000, titled "MM":

Those long uneven lines Standing as patiently As if they were stretched outside AD or the registrars The crowns of visors, the sun On clean-shaven archaic faces Grinning as if it were all A Reading Period Holiday strawberry festival;

And the shut classrooms, the bleached Established names on the buildings, The depleted DBA accounts, And dark-clothed children at play Called after capitalists and consumers, The digital advertisements For dot-coms and airlines, and the books Wide open all day;

And the campus not caring: The rusty "Westside Buffet" sign all hazed over With grilling frankfurters, and fields Shadowing Domesday lines Next to the cemetery's restless silence; The differently dressed food-servers Tossing lobsters to an instant death, The dust behind the salad bar;

Never before such indulgence, Never before or since, As changed itself to past Without a word, the hungry Leaving with appetites satisfied, The hundreds of Friends reruns, Lasting a little while longer: Never such indulgence again.

Concord, New Hampshire

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