Letters
QUOTE/UNQUOTE "The new president must have a reputation for working out compromises that brought together factions, mollified archenemies and ended institutional strife." PEIRCE MCKÈ '51
Bring Us Together
A SEARCH COMMITTEE BEING Organized to find Jim Wright's successor Campus," May/June] reminds me of a long-ago experience in my Episcopal church.
We held an open meeting of all parishioners for the purpose of giving guidance to a search committee charged with finding a new rector for our 200-family parish, which was sharply divided into two camps: "high church" and "not-sohigh church."
The facilitator suggested we list the attributes a candidate should possess. Everyone thought that was a good idea, and soon the blackboard was filled with a description of the ideal man. Finally, someone started to laugh and very quickly the room was engulfed with laughter. We realized that there wasn't a man alive (at least not in the last 2,000 years) to fill the bill.
A voice from the back of the room reminded us that what we really needed was a rector who would be sensitive to the spiritual needs of both factions in our church and subordinated to the needs for a united parish—in other words, a rector who would bring us together.
That is what Dartmouth alumni, faculty, administration, trustees and student body need in a president to replace Jim Wright. The new president must have a reputation for working out compromises that brought together factions, mollified archenemies and ended institutional strife. Forget about fundraising skills, being able to please the faculty or manipulating the governance of the College; we need a leader who can design a bandwagon that will have on board the "dissident" alumni (who have been the majority in our last several elections) and those loyal to the charter trustees and current administrators. What we don't want or need is another decade of debilitating discord at Dartmouth.
Orinda, California
Bad News
IF EVER THERE WAS AN EXAMPLE of why there is concern among some alumni that Dartmouth has lost its moral compass and needs to zero-base its value system, the inclusion of the blurb on Spiros Zorbalas '85, the "slumlord of Minneapolis," in DAM ["Seen & Heard," May/June] is a vivid and sad demonstration. And the administration wonders why alumni are so upset.
I have no idea who Zorbalas is. I do know that there are countless Dartmouth alums who are teachers, public servants, researchers, doctors, etc., who have and are dedicating their professional lives to public service who are imminently more deserving of mention in our alumni magazine. It would appear that the only reason Zorbalas was included is because he appears to have made some money. Is that what it's all about?
I will continue to throw my support to the Rockefeller Center, where I have some confidence that the concepts of service, contribution to the public good and other positive values are being taught and mentored.
I strongly suggest that DAM review its policy about what constitutes a true "newsmaker."
San Francisco
Magic vs. Science
The Rev. Scott Sloan's Explanation to Mike Doonesbury (in the May 4 edition of the comic strip) that the homeopathic remedy, Head On, "is basically a placebo...it only works through magical thinking," is a truer description of the supernatural than the statement by William Landmesser '74 that "the encoding of behavior is spiritual, happening in the soul" [Letters," May/June], If Landmesser's conclusion about behavior is not "magical thinking," I will be interested in knowing how he determined the "soul" is the site for "spiritual" encoding of human behavior. Saying something is true does not make it so. Can he measure it and reproduce that?
I trust that scientists, especially Dartmouth's science faculty and science students, will ignore Landmesser's exhortation for magical thinking and continue researching the molecular basis of human behavior to facilitate one day the deprogramming of suicide-bombing, religious zealots. In the meantime I recommend the Dalai Lama's observation in Time: "Without relying on religion, we look to common sense, common experience and the findings of science for understanding."
Denver, Colorado
Character Above All Else
I READ WITH INTEREST ABOUT Michele Hernandez '89, "America's best-paid college consultant" ["Continuing Education," Mar/Apr]. Her record proves Hernandez is good at what she does. What concerns me are the points she made about some of the qualifications colleges are looking for in an applicant: "a kid with passion, who is unusual, who will make an impact." A person, it would seem, very much like Hernandez—with "no obvious weaknesses."
She may be right, but she neglects the No. i quality I look for in people before I befriend them or hire them: character. That's a quality that cannot be taught; you either have it or you don't. It is the one quality I hope Dartmouth will always require for admission.
Atlantic, Iowa
Spooky Old Habits
The Ted Briggs '56 Letter following the "Cold Warrior" article in the Jan/Feb issue ["Letters," Mar/Apr] has a personal resonance. Ted suggests that the CIA knew about the impending construction of the Berlin Wall. What I know is that I was driving through the Flensburg Pocket, on leave from my Army counterintelligence unit, when I saw hundreds of U.S. tanks and other vehicles pass on their way toward Berlin. I was on the autobahn, they alongside, and I assumed that if the "balloon had gone up," as we used to call a war starting, at best I would have been alongside the road and the U.S. Army on the autobahn. That I was on leave suggests that the Army had no advance knowledge of a crisis in Berlin, which either argues the Army didn't have that intelligence or the CIA didn't think it necessary or appropriate to share it—or both.
In my two years at a post where the CIA and the FBI also had agents, those two organizations had a fine track record of not sharing. Recent events argue that some habits haven't changed much.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
On the Ball
Reading the description by Bill "Greek" Tragakis '62 of Dartmouth's historic victory over Yale in 1961 ["Letters," Mar/Apr] reminded me of an encounter with Mike Pyle, the captain of that Yale team who went on to become the captain of the Chicago Bears. I told him how much "we" enjoyed whipping Yale. When Mike asked what position I played, I told him I was in the stands with a date. He's still laughing.
Northfield, Illinois
To correct Bill Tragaks, Yale's 1961 football team was neither undefeated feated nor ranked when it met Dartmouth. Yale already had lost to Columbia and Colgate.
In 1959 Yale was undefeated, un-scored-on and ranked 13th and 15th in the two major polls. Dartmouth broke the shutout streak in the third quarter and won 12-8 in a pouring rain.
Farmington, Connecticut
The Debate Goes On
The weakening of Dartmouth's century-old democratic tradition mimics the likes of Russia's Putin and Thailand's coup-selected prime minister, General Chulanont.
I submit that the College cannot have the true diversity it alleges to seek without risking division. It is the increased executive power created by the governance change that is the real threat to the College. As Daniel Webster, class of 1801, once opined: "The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power" (May 27,1834).
Portland, Oregon
President Wridght, board chairman Ed Haldeman '70 and every trustee who voted to pack the house and disen-franchise the alumni should resign. This is an example of unprecedented institutional arrogance that we have not seen since the days of Richard Nixon.
Richardson, Texas
It is my understanding that boards of nonprofit corporations are free to select their own board members without outside input. In the case of institutions such as Dartmouth, alumni may regret the actions of their alma mater's board of trustees and can express their displeasure by withholding donations. Suing seems to me to be without merit.
I suspect that the motivation for this suit stems from a desire to take the "liberal" out of a liberal arts education. Perhaps it would sit better with all alumni of liberal arts institutions to re-label these schools "human arts" institutions, thereby signifying that all views, both conservative and liberal, are welcomed and examined for relevance and validity.
North Creek, New York
Me Too?
Letters regarding "Divided We Stand" ["Letters," Sept/Oct 2007] contained hyperbole on both sides. I doubt most alums are against progress and Dartmouth rolling with the times, nor do I think most alums want to cancel football.
For me the largest bone of contention is the idea of trying to change Dartmouth into a "Cambridge on the Connecticut" to compete with Harvard. First, given that their endowment dwarfs ours, we could never do it in terms of hiring the big names. More importantly, the essence of Dartmouth was and still is its teaching faculty. The absolute critical difference between Dartmouth and Harvard (or Yale or Penn) is that we did not get just John Kemeny's or John Rassias' books—we got Rassias and Kemeny in the flesh. This makes all the difference in the world and is Dartmouth's salient characteristic. We simply have a different value proposition than big names and big endowments and we attract a different segment.
In pure business terms why would we ever want to become a "me too" Harvard when we can remain the best teaching faculty in the world?
Copenhagen, Denmark
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