Letters

QUOTE/UNQUOTE "I'm more thankful than ever that I decided to "stray" from the beaten path and focus on something I knew I would never get the chance to study again. It has made my life more colorful." —JUAN-CARLOS MARTINEZ '97

Major Matters

I ENJOYED YOUR ARTICLE "DOES Your Major Matter?" by Lisa Furlong in the May/June issue. When the time came to choose a major, I had three possibilities: English, mathematics and French. I was determined to pursue a teaching career no matter what. Math was always my first love, English a distant second. I had to forego math when advanced courses became too theoretical. English was shunned because of all that writing. I had had enough French courses to choose that as a last resort. I found the French major interesting enough to elect honors with two other students for my senior year. There were two "major" set-backs, however. First, [professor] Ramon Guthrie took his sabbatical after notifying us he would be teaching honors. Second, the oral exam was torture being conducted in French. My advice for what it's worth: 1) Beware of absent-minded professors who don't know when their sabbatical is coming up, and 2) hope that orals can be conducted in English.

Fortunately I was able to teach math along with English and a few other subjects for my early career. Finally in 1952 I found the ideal situation, where I became head of the math department of Westfield (Massachusetts) High School, continuing to teach four classes daily until retirement in 1979. All's well that ends well.

Kennebunk,Maine

IT'S A SHAME SO MANY STUDENTS feel they "have" to choose a certain major, especially students headed for careers in medicine. I was pre-med at Dartmouth, and I knew that I would be surrounded by science for the rest of my professional life, so I chose to major in art history. I've never regretted it. I took classes regarding some of the most beautiful things man has created, took drawing and basic design, and studied foreign and ancient cultures (I was able to T.A. Dartmouth's art history FSP in Florence, Italy, for three months in the year following my graduation before starting medical school). Now, as I prepare to graduate from medical school and head into residency, I'm more thankful than ever that I decided to "stray" from the beaten path of physics, biology and chemistiy majors and focus on something I knew I would never get the chance to study again. It has made my life more colorful.

Ann Arbor, Michigan

HUH? WHEN DID DARTMOUTH GET interested again in "well-rounded" students? I thought Dartmouth scrapped that plan during the Freedman years.

Arlington, Virginia

I SELECTED DARTMOUTH SPECIFI- caIIy because it was a liberal arts college with strong science departments. Science, or in older terminology, natural philosophy, is as much a part of a liberal education as English, art, economics, etc. By the end of my sophomore year I'd concluded that I wanted to be a geologist and so took a lot of science courses. But I also was interested in other things. During my senior year I took a term of Shakespeare with the English majors, and an English major was in my paleontology class. I then went to the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) for a masters degree. CSM is not a liberal arts school; it's at the other end of the scale from Dartmouth. My Dartmouth courses enabled me to compete equally with those with CSM and similar schools' undergraduate degrees. Since school I've noticed that the Dartmouth grads often were and continue to be the ones hiring the.CSM grads. I also notice that some of the best CSM professors come from liberal arts undergraduate institutions (three of the current geology professors, including the department head, are from Dartmouth). The fact that we had to write well and analyze and apply what we learned is, I believe, a good part of the reason for the success of those with a liberal arts background.

Denver, Colorado

Phil's Treasures

I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED READING the descriptions of the 13 items chosen by Philip Cronenwett from Special Collections at Dartmouth ["Phil's Favorites," May/June]—and not just because he selected the Wordsworth Sonnets that my father John W. Little '40, gave to the library. As a former research assistant with rare book dealer Lucien Goldschmidt in New York, I found myself seriously waxing nostalgic for the days of beautifully printed volumes and out-of-the-ordinary manu-scripts. I was disappointed to read in the byline that Mr. Cronenwett has been lured away by the Colleges office of leadership giving—is that a sign of the times? I hope he'll still have occasion to acquire and admire objects in Special Collections.

Mount Desert, Maine

A Matter of Taste

ONE MUST TAKE ISSUE WITH THE otherwise delightful "Continuing Education" article about Walter Lilienfield '19 [May/June]: He says, "Ketchup tastes good on almost everything." In fact, ketchup is an admission that the chef has failed.

Providence, Rhode Island

Legend of the Duke

AS AN AVID JAZZ AND BIG BAND enthusiast, rarely have I enjoyed more an article on the subject than "Reminiscing In Tempo" [May/June] by Cliff Ennico'75. He truly captures a precious and intimate moment in time with one who was then a living legend, Duke Ellington. I am sending on this wonderful revelation of Duke to a number of my "legendary" personal friends—Marian McPartland, Ramsey Lewis and Dick Hyman. They will love it!

Chicago, Illinois

Top of the List

I WAS NOT SURPRISED TO FIND One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez topping the list of the 10 most checked-out books in the Dartmouth library system ["Check It Out,"

May/June]. I was surprised that you did not mention its translator, a Dartmouth graduate, an honorary degree holder and my father, Gregory Rabassa '44. I suggest that the book is "highly readable" as you quote Professor Crewe, due in no small part to my father's efforts so many years ago. Not only is this book highly acclaimed worldwide, but the translation into English is as well.

Linwood, New Jersey

Remembering Orr

EXACTLY SEVENTEEN-AND-ONE-HALF lines of miniscule type ["Obituaries," May/fune] to mark the passing of the one man, aside from John Kemeny, who did more to chart the course for the College in the past 30-plus years is unforgivable, never mind insulting. While the top nine slots on the editorial masthead might not have the slightest idea who Dudley Orr ['29] once was to the College, is nobody in Blunt sensitive to the importance of certain few alumni? Obviously not. And how very sad.

Branford, Connecticut

Lords of the Dance

TWO DELIGHTFUL MEDIA NOTES ARE worth bringing to the fore; they're linked almost invisibly. The first is DAM's own beautiful photograph of a group of dancers whose foreground features the pioneer dancers Moses Pendleton '71, Michael Tracy '73 and Robby Barnett '72 ["Modern Movement," Mar/Apr]. I love recalling, as a former dancer myself and a currently competitive athlete, that these dance-company founders were injured football players at Dartmouth who took dance class for physical rehabilitation (at least I'm sure Pendleton was). The second is The New York Times' March 8 listing of the Ivy Leagues football (and basketball) rankings. Historically Dartmouth holds the crown, with 17 Ivy championships. Yale, at second, has only 13. Good on ya, Dartmouth!

New York City, New York

Canon Fodder

AFTER A SERIES OF POTSHOTS against know-nothing students, Stanford leftists with political agendas and "bogus multiculturalism," Dinesh D'Souza ("Loaded Canon," Mar/Apr) ends with a non-sequitur wherein lies, perhaps, the heart of his piece: "My hope, of course, is that after a year of Socrates and Confucius and Tolstoy and Tagore, most students will have lost interest in Bob Dylan and Maya Angelou."

Excuse me? Talk about a political agenda! Is this "authentic multiculturalism" —or the barb of a provocateur? His insensitivity does not inspire confidence in the educational experience he wants to impose on others.

I wonder why the perspective of Angelou has been deemed unworthy by our new czar of multiculturalism. Too female? Too African-American? Too openhearted? Not dead enough? Like the emperor's new clothes, criteria for membership among "the best that has been thought and said" may not be obvious to everyone.

In the end, it appears that D'Souzas passion is not for multiculturalism— which promotes open-mindedness about cultural identities that tear us from one another—but rather for fending off voices he can't bear to hear and would rather the rest of us were never exposed to.

New Rochelle, New York

Korea, Remembered

I ENJOYED READING CLASSMATE Bob Shnayerson's well-written piece about "Americas Forgotten War," a conflict participated in by many of our class ["Remembering Americas Forgotten War," Mar/Apr], However, I disagree that the motivation for most of us to join the ROTC programs was to avoid the draft. I truly believe that in 1946 we anticipated that military service would be in our future and those of us who affiliated with the NROTC felt we would best be prepared for it with a college degree and a commission. Most of my closest friends at Dartmouth graduated in the NROTC program and many of us went on to see action in Korea. I kept in touch with quite a few of these following our return and discharge, and the prevailing opinion was that the NROTC (and subsequent active duty) experience had been extremely positive and valuable without mentioning the financial perks that made it even possible for some of us to attend Dartmouth.

Des Moines, lowa

YOUR STORY ON DARTMOUTH AND

the Korean War was really excellent. As one of hundreds of Dartmouth men pulled into uniform for that "forgotten war" I have always been grateful that the number of those we lost—13—was not greater. They were Rollo W. Hutchinson '13, Paul W. Carrigan '19, John B. Clark '36, Bradford E. Tyndall '38, Charles Weller Jr. '38, Lester T. Chase '39, Robert N. Wallis Jr. 47, William J. Cook '49, Richard O. Parsons '49, Roger C.Wilde Jr. '49, Alan M. Tarr '50, Wilfrid Wheeler '50 and Leon P. LaPointe '52. They died in the cause of freedom for all men and women. We should always remember their names.

West Lebanon, New Hampshire

A Diverse Faculty?

REGARDING THE STATEMENT BY Chien Wen Kung '04—"This racial diversity, which has been an obsession of the Darmouth administration, has been misguided" as quoted in The New YorkTimes 'last November ["Campus," Jan/ Feb]: With so much emphasis on diversity on campuses everywhere, including Hanover, may I ask what the diversity in the Dartmouth faculty is? Diversity is important on campuses, and faculty is an important area as well. Professors are the ones who help students see the big picture, not just one political side.

Los Angeles, California

Editor's Note: Please see the interview onpage28 of this issue.

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