Letters

Quote/Unquote "The anxiety and reactive stance of those in the petition bloc compromise their ability to have a reality-based relationship with the College." CHARLES COLLIER '71

Guts and Glory

THE 1970 DARTMOUTH FOOTBALL team ["That Championship Season," Sept/Oct] was a great team. It was undefeated and untied and ranked 14th in the country. But with all due respect, it was not the "greatest football symphony ever played at Dartmouth College."

The greatest symphony was played by the undefeated, untied, National Championship Dartmouth football team of 1925. That team produced three firstteam Ail-Americans: Andrew "Swede " Oberlander '26, George Tully '26 and Carl "Dutch" Diehl '26.

The only thing the 1970 team has that the 1925 team does not is quotability and numbers. The solid 11 played both ways in 1925.

I spoke with Oberlander about the 1925 season when he visited his son Jim '53, my fraternity brother. I also talked with the captain of that 1925 team, Nate Parker Sr. '26, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when I worked there in the 1950s.

Their stories included an amazing victory against Cornell at Memorial Stadium two years after the 1923 game you pictured ["Rites of Autumn"], and they should be told and remembered.

Port Chester, New York

Bien There, Done That

WHAT A TERRIFIC TRIBUTE TO PETER Bien by Robert Bell ["A Novel Approach," Sept/Oct]! The profile perfectly highlights the connection that can be made between student and professor—at Dartmouth and beyond.

My one distinct memory of Professor Bien is something of an embarrassment. If memory serves, he and Brenda Silver co-taught an introduction to British literature, and students had to prepare a topic for a final in-person oral presentation. I remember entering Bien's office in the basement of Sanborn House in dread, fueled by extra coffee. My chosen subject was stream of consciousness and all I remember of the three-way conversation was practicing my own stream of, well, gibberish. I stumbled out of that room thinking I had just made a total fool of myself, yet neither Bien nor Silver acted as if there was anything out of the ordinary. At least, I didn't hear howls of laughter follow me out of the building!

Mount Desert, Maine

"COMP LIT 24" WAS AN UNFORGETTABLE experience, illuminating not only the great writers but also their cultural milieu. I still remember Bien's lecture on Henri Bergson and subjective time in Proust and on Mann's use of leitmotif and other musical techniques in The MagicMountain.

Three of the best teachers I've had were at Dartmouth. The other two were Alan Gaylord and T.S.K. Scott-Craig. I hope current faculty realize they are standing on the shoulders of giants like these.

Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

WHATANOBLE TRIBUTE TO A NOBLE teacher. Author Robert Bell '67 says it all: Bien exhorts us to examine mundane experience in quest of meaning.

Lebanon, New Hampshire

Yet Another Controversy?

I WAS DISAPPOINTED TO SEE YOUR Allende award story ["Social Justice, Salud!" Sept/Oct]. Do we really need to stoke the fire?

As a Latin American by birth I feel the need to condemn such a polarizing award. Writer C.J. Hughes '92 left out that Allende was a known Marxist and pro-Soviet Union player during the Cold War. The nuclear menace to the United States during that period was real though perhaps overblown. To have such an award is akin to having a Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro or Mussolini award. They were all enemies of the United States. Indeed, it is rumored the CIA participated in the coup d'etat that ended Allende's presidency.

This unnecessary exaltation of a controversial character does not contribute to academia. I recall Professor Navarro as undeniably passionate and knowledgeable yet she presented historical periods in a skewed social-revisionist form.

Such extreme bias can in no way contribute to academia or to Latin-American people. The world will never know how many thousands were killed and are still being killed in Latin America in the name of socialism or against it.

The real need in Latin America is for economic growth and the development of a middle class. We can all imagine how easy it is to be a lounge-chair socialist, to sip wine and wave your hands in the air. One would expect more intellectual thoroughness and impartiality from graduates of Dartmouth—and a professor enjoying the fruits of a capitalist system.

Miami, Florida

I NEVER REALIZED THE COLLEGE had a prize named after Chiles former president. It was striking to me because of the clearly destructive path laid out by Allende's policies. My father heard firsthand about the effect Allende's regime had on common Chileans when he took a fishing trip there in the late 19705. His host, a local farm owner, told of the time after Allende's rise to power when a group of Cuban soldiers entered their valley and started forcibly evicting people from their farms. He saved his farm only by driving his jeep through the door of the house where the soldiers were sleeping. Then, with a shotgun to reinforce his point, he informed them of the reception that awaited if they appeared at his gate.

We find Allende's parallel today in Robert Mugabe and his forced collectivization policies, which have transformed his country from breadbasket to beggar. If the College wishes to lionize such leaders, perhaps it should consider an African studies award in honor of Zimbabwe's dictator.

Portland, Oregon

FREEDOM OF SPEECH CERTAINLY exists in the pages of DAM, but sometimes the other side of the story needs telling. Thirty-four of us from the class of '55 visited Chile last spring on a mini-reunion and were told innumerable times how Chile had improved since the overthrow of Allende, largely due to a group of Chilean Friedmanite economists from the University of Chicago who emphasized freedom of choice—not social engineeringg-individual initiative and entrepreneurship.

For a country of about 16 million people Chile has the soundest economy in Latin America, a growing middle class, world-class wines and other attractions that make it the envy of many other nations. No country is perfect, and Pinochets human rights record was terrible but Chile is definitely better off without Allende.

I wonder what the political and economic background is of those bestowed the Allende award and of those making the award. Maybe Dartmouth needs to add a few University of Chicago economists to its faculty to obtain some balance in its social science departments.

Portland, Oregon

Righting Wrongs

BRAVO FOR THE STIMULATING COMMENTS of Pamela Metzger '87 ["Continuing Ed," Sept/Oct]. I feel pride in Dartmouth when I read of an alumna applying her education with such dedication to improve our criminal justice system, an unpolular cause with crying needs and off the daily radar for too many of us.

State College, Pennsylvania

Divided, We Still Write

THE 15 COLUMNS-WORTH OF Letters [Sept/Oct] responding to the Matthew Mosk '92 story ["Divided We Stand," July/Aug] show how incapable the Dartmouth powers-that-be are of tolerating opposition.

That the College has been in the pockets of ACLU left-wing liberals for decades is beyond dispute. That some of us think that's a damn shame is also beyond dispute. Wah hoo wah!

Cincinnati, Ohio

I BELIEVE THAT THE POLARIZATION surrounding trustee elections at Dartmouth instigated by the reform-minded libertarians (as they describe themselves) is driven, in part, by societal regression, which occurs when there is sustained anxiety rooted in either perceived or real threats. The results of societal regression include, among other things, greater polarization among groups, a focus on rights over responsibilities, and individuals and groups making decisions based more on emotion than on thinking and facts. A pattern of regression began in America in World War II and continues today with 9/11, diminishing resources and global warming.

The anxiety and emotionally reactive stance of those in the petition bloc compromise their ability to maintain a broad perspective, observe appropriate boundaries and have a reality-based relationship with the College.

Wellesley, Massachusetts

SINCE WE LIVE IN A TIME OF Significant social change, there will be situations in which honest differences of opinion over institutional policy will arise. In any case, their operations will not conform to the structure of pure democracy. Students, alumni and faculties of educational institutions have interests and available financial resources. Legally and traditionally an institutions administration has the responsibility of balancing these factors.

Among questions raised by critics of Dartmouth's policies—class size, enrollment caps, etc.—there may have been some unfortunate decisions. As teacher and department head at various institutions I know that student demand for courses is not always predictable, and additional qualified teachers are not always immediately available. Appropriate class room space may not exist. Topnotch scholars may not be superb lecturers or vice versa: excellent lecturers may not be major contributors to a particular field of knowledge. Graduate students are sometimes excellent teachers. Optimal arrangements between the thousands of student choices for courses and class assignments is a relatively complex process, creditable judgment of which requires knowledge of extenuating factors.

Evidence from alumni and current student opinions, applications for admission and public reputation enjoyed by Dartmouth College leads one to believe that its current administration is doing an excellent job in balancing the constituent interests of the College.

Hanover

RATHER THAN THINKING THAT there is some conspiracy hell-bent on a "hostile takeover" of the board of trustees, couldn't it be that simply a lot of alums are upset with more or less the same issues?

If a house is on fire and all the neighbors rush to the site and begin helping each other put it out that doesn't mean that the neighbors are all members of some organized neighborhood fire brigade. It doesn't even mean that they know one another or even necessarily agree with one another. All it means is that a bunch of different people all saw the same thing—a house on fire—and all agreed that something had to be done about the situation. The issue of whether or not they discussed the problem among themselves is immaterial.

Furthermore, even if there is a "conspiracy" of like-minded alums who want Dartmouth to go in a different direction, and therefore organize themselves so as to make it happen, I don't see how that is a bad thing. No one complains that the like-minded administration is marching in lockstep and using hard-earned tuition and endowment dollars to proselytize their policies.

Santiago, Chile

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