December 2003 - January 2004
60th Birthday
Party Registration Continues
Please note hyperlinks from the bottom of this newsletter to the sign-up sheet for the Class’ 60th Birthday Party in San Francisco from April
30 to May 2, 2004. Over 60 classmates, spouses, friends, kids, etc. have
already sent in their attendance plans. A complete outline of activities is
available in last month�s �Along Route �66� or on the Class of 1966 website at
www.alum.dartmouth.org/classes/66. We will start posting attendees on the
website shortly.
News from Classmates
Stan Colla sent in the following news of classmates, following trips he had taken on behalf of the College: "First, while leading an Alumni College trip to Cuba, I had the chance to see Jim Casin who is the Head of the United States Interest Section in Havana. Jim has been a career diplomat and had been assigned to Cuba about a year earlier. As part of our trip, we were scheduled to get a briefing at the United States Interest Section anyway, but when I learned of Jim's role, I wrote and asked him if he would be willing to make an appearance at the briefing and greet this group of Dartmouth travelers. Jim did me one better by inviting us all to his official residence for an evening, and he greeted us at the front door wearing a Dartmouth jacket, tie, and hat. The official residence is a spectacular place. Built in 1941 with accommodations to allow President Roosevelt easy access, it has a wonderful garden in the backyard that contains a fountain
with a remarkably large brass eagle in the center that was once a part of the
USS Maine. Jim treated us all to mojitos, a favorite Cuban libation, and then gave us a terrific briefing on the state of Cuba and Cuba-United States relations. After a thorough question-and-answer session, we went back out to the garden for more conversation, hors d'oeuvres, and conversation. Our group was comprised of about
fifty-five travelers, two-thirds of whom had a Dartmouth connection and the
rest from Cornell. Jim's candor, poise, and gracious hospitality were
appreciated by all, and it was a particularly proud night to be from the Class
of 1966 at Dartmouth.
Second, on a later trip to London
while accompanying President Wright, I met David Hightower at an alumni gathering at Dartmouth House, once the home of the family of the Earl of Dartmouth. David was one of my roommates during our freshman year, and I had not seen him in forty years. He has had a business career that has largely been outside of the United States, and it seems to have suited him well. David looked exactly as I would have imagined him to look, which means he had not changed physically that much in the intervening four decades, and I have to congratulate him heartily on that. It was very nice to see him again." Thanks, Stan, for the updates on Jim and David…and stay tuned, gang, for more from Stan.
One classmate who will not be able
to make the 60th is David Johnston, who writes, “Wish we could come, but we’re headed to New Orleans about that time for our daughter’s graduation from Tulane, so have to suffer through a week there. The San Fran plans sound terrific!! Missed mini-reunion this year. I was facilitating at a conference of 300 teens that day.” David can be contacted at David.Johnston1@Comcast.net.
Another �66er who will be missing
the reunion is Larry Simms, who was most disappointed that the
planners did not realize that May 1 is the running of the Kentucky Derby!!
Larry will be at Churchill Downs, presumably gulfing down mint juleps to forget
about his 60th year on the planet!
Since the US Postal Service had
done a job of destroying most of his Green Info card, I had a chance to chat by
phone with Parker Smith at his law offices in Destin, FL. Destin, for those
geographically-challenged classmates, is in the Florida panhandle, from which
Parker handles trials statewide. He and wife Gayle spent Thanksgiving in
Hanover, starting their search for a second home in New Hampshire or Vermont,
specifically looking at Lake Winnipesaukee and Lake Sunapee. When home, Parker
enjoys boating on the Gulf of Mexico.
Jim Tent writes, “Sorry for not being a regular contributor to the ’66 Newsletter. However, I have something that may be worthy of note. I published my sixth monograph this past March entitled ‘In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Nazi Persecution of Jewish-Christian Germans’ and published by the University press of Kansas. It deals with the fates of half and quarter-Jewish German citizens under Hitler. Alas, it appeared on the same day that war broke out with Iraq, so no reviews appeared in ‘The New York Times’, etc. However, on November 5, Germany’s leading newspaper, ‘The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’, published an article in praise of it in the paper’s front section under the title, ‘To Be or Not to Be’. Furthermore, American journals are beginning to issue strongly positive reviews, e.g. the professional librarian’s ‘Choice’ from November 2003. Otherwise, not much happening with my tawdry little life.” Jim is Chair of the Department of History at the University of Alabama – Birmingham and can be contacted at jtent@uab.edu.
Jack Stebe is gearing up his RV for the trip to San Francisco! “Nan and I are about to sign up for most of the event and plan on having a good time in San Francisco with all of you. We will be driving up in the RV and staying in the local area so we can commute to ‘tails and dinner and possibly brunch on Sunday. We have retired here in Tucson (for the moment, but staying flexible). We have our youngest son and daughter-in-law living near us and expect an addition in March to add to the grandchildren count. Our other boys are in Albuquerque, DC, and Boston with their families. The current thinking is to travel extensively in North America and spend summers sailing in the Boston area (Scituate). From there we will tour the Northeast and then snowbird to the house in Tucson when the going gets tough up North- - -golf, hiking, and, believe it or not, square dancing (seems to suit engineers) are some of our activities here. I’ll include my contact information in case someone would like to get together at the Birthday Party or volunteer to let us hook up on part of their estate grounds during our travels. Of course, rooms are available here in Tucson…with reservations”. Jack’s phone number is 520-818-1808 and email Stebej@aol.com.
Along with a copy of his very
readable new book, Geof Greenleaf wrote, "I don’t know if this is of interest, but enclosed is a copy of my new book, 'My Dog Ate My Retirement Plan'. It’s especially timely for our children’s and grandchildren’s Roth IRA's. I got back from my 35th Stanford Business School Reunion last
month and saw Skip Battle there, but none of the twenty other '66ers in our Stanford MBA class made it." For those interested in buying Geoff’s book, you can order on-line at www.greenleafbookgroup.com or call toll-free 800-932-5420.
Mailing and Timing of �Along
Route �66�
I recently received a phone call
from Jim Edson, annoyed that he had only received the October-November issue
of the Newsletter just before New Year�s. He was particularly aggravated
because there was a relatively short period to take advantage of the early
sign-up discount for the 60th Birthday Party. So, I thought it
might be useful to explain how the Newsletter is processed.
I send an initial draft to most of the Class Officers for comments, additions, and edits about a week before ‘Along Route ‘66’ is sent to Hanover in camera-ready form. Alumni Relations has assigned one very hard-working staff liaison, Helen Farwell-Delfino, to coordinate the receipt of newsletters, distribution to the Dartmouth Printing Office, and labeling and mailing. In spite of requests by the Newsletter editors to add staff help for Helen (who for some of the older classes has to actually decipher and word-process handwritten newsletters), budget constraints have prevented this from happening, so Helen is responsible for about 70 classes, each putting out anywhere from 2 to 12 issues per year. So, once the Newsletter arrives in Hanover, it falls into a queue ... and there is no way of telling how long or short it will be. In addition, there is also a queue at Dartmouth Printing, which may be long or short. Finally, for cost reasons, the Class sends out ‘Along Route ‘66’ by Third Class Mail, since it goes to all 750+ of us.
In the case of the October-November
issue, it was sent to Hanover on December 1. So, the total process,
undoubtedly affected by Christmas in both Hanover and the USPS, took four
weeks. My experience over the last two years has been a time span of generally
two to three weeks.
Because of this delay, we post the
Newsletter on the Class Website, with an email to everyone for which we have an
address alerting them to the posting. In the case of the October-November
Newsletter, it was posted on December 5, virtually a month before hard copies
were received. So, please insure that we have an updated address for you
(check the class directory at www.alum.dartmouth.org/classes/66)...and you will get 'Along Route '66' well in advance of any deadlines ... and with
color photos!
Alumni Council Meeting
On December 5 and 6, Noel Fidel, Tim Urban, and I attended
the 187th Meeting of the Dartmouth Alumni Council. As past
President, Noel serves as Chairman of the College Relations Group, the primary
liaison between the Council and the College. Tim is a new appointee, an
at-large member representing the mid-West.
The College Relations Group report
focused on two areas, mentoring to recent graduates (mentoring pilot programs
have been established at the Minneapolis and Phoenix clubs) and financial
issues facing the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. It was noted that as a result of
the necessity (??) to increase the cost of per issue subscriptions by over 100%
over the last three years, twenty-eight classes are now operating in the red.
Ann Duffy, who serves as head of the Editorial Committee of the magazine, is
investigating alternative funding opportunities and strategic options with the
Board of Trustees.
Dean of the College Jim Larimore
presented a comprehensive review of College initiatives. Budget constraints
are still a major hurdle, but new programs have been established to promote
student/faculty interaction (e.g. buffet lunches in the Drake Room of the Inn),
academic resources for the athletic teams, low interest loans for fraternities
and sororities to bring buildings up to code, an office of Pluralism and
Leadership, and greater emphasis on outdoor programs (first year trips now
engage 95% of matriculating students). Key challenges facing the College
include adequate space, changing student post-graduate interests (e.g.
non-profit work), and student health. Areas of focus include facilities, town-gown
relations, NCAA recertification, drinking, the prevention, response and
recovery programs for sexual abuse, student-admin relations, and pre-major
advising.
The report from Alumni Relations focused on improved participation in this year’s College Fund and the fact that while percentages have declined over the last ten years, Dartmouth is still #2 or #3 in alumni fund participation among the Ivies and first in alumni trustee balloting. An email newsletter to all alumni ("Speaking of Dartmouth") was launched in November.
Director of Athletics Josie Harper led an extremely interesting panel discussion on athletics and the recruiting of student athletes. Dartmouth continues to rank in the Top Ten of NCAA Division I schools in the number of varsity sports offered (currently 34) and is virtually tied with Princeton for the highest percentage of highly recruited athletes (16% of the Class of 2007) in the Ivy League. An example from the highly successful women’s basketball team demonstrates the extent of recruiting: of 2706 athletes for the class of 2007 originally contacted, 307 met the Ivy League minimum academic index, 135 were actively recruited, 14 applied, 5 were admitted and 4 matriculated. Interestingly, the Ivy League permits its members to send out a "likely to be admitted" early acceptance letter on October 15 of the student’s senior year, which is only revoked at the “normal” December 15 early decision date for disciplinary matters or poor academic performance.
The Council�s Nominating Committee
selected three alumni for the 2004 Alumni Trustee election: Bruce Duthu �80,
Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor at Vermont Law School, Daniel Papp
�69, Senior Vice-Chancellor for Academic and Fiscal Affairs in the Georgia
state system, and Laura Stein �83, General Counsel for Heinz.
Trustee Peter Fahey '68 provided an overview of building projects on campus, including the Engineering Science Center, Kemeny Hall (mathematics), the Academic Centers Building, a new 300 bed residence hall, a new dining hall north of the library, a rugby club house and an addition to the Computer Sciences Center.
After the Council meeting adjourned, most representatives attended the Association of Alumni Meeting to vote on proposed amendments that would reunite the Council and the Association, while expanding the Council to include primarily more class representatives, but also additional seats for "affiliated" groups (Native Americans, Black Alumni, Asia Pacific Alumni, and Gays & Lesbians). Both Dick Blacklow and Robin
Carpenter joined Noel, Tim and I at the meeting. An opposition group felt the constitutional change put too much power in the hands of a Council that, in their opinion, is heavily influenced by the Administration and that the additional numbers of "affiliated" reps promoted pluralism to the detriment of overall alumni unity. Surprisingly, the new constitution did not get the majority required, failing by 10 votes. Further evaluation will be discussed at the 2004 meeting of the Association.pan>
During the meeting, Vice-President
of Alumni Relations Stan Colla gave an excellent speech on the lack of
civility in many areas of American life, including relations between some
alumni and the College. With Stan�s permission, it is reproduced below:
The notation on
your program indicates that I am to make "remarks" to you this
evening, and I'd like to take this opportunity to make some observations on
recent events that I have seen unfold. In the past, I have used this
opportunity to provide you with a preview of the upcoming weekend's events, including specific celebrations of alumni achievements such as we will have tomorrow evening when we present the Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award to Jeanhee Kim '90. At other moments, I
have reviewed the events on campus from the prior term, and there have been
many this past fall worth noting, or to honor the memory of a particular
alumnus who has recently passed away. Because this is the official kickoff of
the meeting, I would routinely try to be upbeat. Tonight, however, I have a
concern to share with you.
I would go on to
say that I had considered asking Nels Armstrong '71 to use this time in memory
of Professor Errol Hill who did pass away this fall. Errol Hill was an
accomplished actor, author, director, and playwright. Moreover, he was a
courageous scholar who came to this campus in 1968 and proceeded to develop a
reputation as an extraordinary historian and an excellent teacher. A colleague
of his, Don Wilmet, wrote in memoriam that Professor Hill was a gentleman of
tremendous dignity, and to me he was the on-campus manifestation of civility.
The topic of
civility is what I want to discuss with you tonight, and I think that choice of
subject is one with which Professor Hill would have concurred.
This fall had its
share of disconcerting surprises for us in Alumni Relations. In late October,
MBNA, Dartmouth's affinity credit card partner, with whom we are in our second
year of operation, used e-mail for the first time to solicit applications from
our alumni body. While new applications for the credit card exceeded
complaints from alumni about the process, we did receive some negative
feedback. It seems, we learned, that alumni treat their e-mail accounts more
personally than they do their home address and, possibly, phone numbers.
The feedback we
received was very direct, which is fine in most instances, but some of it was
quite personal and even over-the-top. A few alumni wrote to me about their
feelings, and one, who received an auto-reply from my e-mail account that said
that I was off campus on Dartmouth business, wrote to another member of my
staff, "Colla conveniently skipped town." That suggests, perhaps,
that I was running from a fight, which was not true; I have always been willing
to engage in conversations with alumni, some of which have become quite heated.
The truth is that I prefer to see my relationship to fellow alumni as a
partnership rather than as adversarial.
Lynne Gaudet, who
as part of her responsibilities for Alumni Relations, serves this Alumni
Council so well, also oversees our affinity credit card program, and she
personally responded to most of the complaints we received. In so doing, she
complied with each request we received to take specific action with regard to
individual accounts, and she advised the alumnus in question of these steps.
Her responses to these alumni carried her own professional contact information,
including her office telephone number, and one alumnus took that information and
fraudulently applied, on Lynne's behalf, for a new home mortgage in her name.
Presumably this was done so that Lynne would be bombarded with offers of
financial support.
Lynne's electronic
signature clearly identifies her as an alumna of Dartmouth, so here was a
fellow alum, doing her job as professionally as she could, with no evidence
that she was responsible for the decision to solicit alumni by e-mail, and who
was singled out for retaliation by someone in the alumni body. Clearly, that
alumnus felt that Dartmouth had treated his contact information cavalierly, and
he was going to make somebody pay for that. It wasn't good enough for that
alumnus to know that we had spoken to MBNA and received their agreement that we
would no longer solicit these applications by e-mail, instead choosing now to
market them more passively as occasional items in our new electronic newsletter
from the College. When I speak of certain alumni reactions being over-the-top,
this is one example.
More recently, we
received feedback from alumni about buses that were chartered by certain alumni
groups to subsidize their members and others who might want to return to campus
on Saturday for the annual meeting of the Alumni Association. In a practice
that is not uncommon for alumni with particular group interests, the Black
Alumni of Dartmouth Association and the Dartmouth Gay and Lesbian Association
were trying to leverage multiple opportunities for their members who might have
an interest in more than one event on campus. We knew that the new Episcopal
Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, was scheduled to be in the Upper Valley
this weekend, and a student group had invited him to campus on Saturday
afternoon to meet with them. Both BADA and DGALA wished to offer this additional
opportunity to their members and encourage young alumni, for whom such a day
trip might seem unaffordable, to come.
Upon learning of these chartered buses, a few alumni, and I want to stress that the numbers are small, began to communicate with one another in a troubling manner. In one instance, an alumnus wrote,
"Well, we know what those people are up to, don't we?" In another
message, an alumnus posed the following rhetorical question: "How can I
get a seat on the bus to see Johnny Cochran on December 6? Oh, the
"welcome home" picture is not Johnny; it's the guy who runs Alumni
Relations."
These comments
represent something rather ominous to my way of thinking, and I don't think you
have to stretch your imagination very far to see the darker elements of our
humanity in them. There is the clear suggestion of homophobia and racism
present. I don't know how you feel, but this is not the Dartmouth College that
I know or want. Somehow, the rhetoric of exclusion has crept into the
conversations about current events, and that's simply not right.
Our very own poet,
Robert Frost, once wrote, "Home is where when you get there they have to
let you in." We often like to describe the Dartmouth alumni body as
either family or community. Back in Frost's time, I think we tended to use
family more comfortably because it said something to us about the depth of the
relationship. Now we tend to talk in terms of community because, I think, it
says more about the breadth, the richness and diversity, of our alumni.
Regardless of the word we use to describe ourselves, let's be clear about one
thing: we are not talking about anyone's qualifications for membership. We
all, including "those people," belong. If anything, we should be
discussing being welcomed.
During this Alumni
Council meeting and over the weekend we will be dealing with many substantive
issues. To be sure, all of them will have nuances, but most are rather
straight-forward. You may hear the notion this weekend from some alumni, who
like to indulge in conspiracy theories, that the Alumni Council is simply a
handmaiden of the administration. To those who would make this claim, I ask
how they would explain the actions of the Alumni Council a year ago in regard
to the swimming-and-diving decision. You may also hear the claim that the
Alumni Council is not, in fact, a representative body; instead, it is populated
with "insiders" who simply do the bidding of the College. This is a
direct challenge to your integrity in terms of serving the interests of all
alumni.
Some of these
challenges to the Alumni Council come as a result of the work of the Joint
Committee on Alumni Governance and Trustee Nomination, and I'd like to take a
moment to offer my personal opinion about the work of that committee. With
that caveat in place, I have to say that I cannot imagine an alumni team who
could have done a better job than this committee, nor can I imagine a more
unimpeachable group than they represent. They were asked to take a
comprehensive look at two particular matters: how to optimize the governance of
the alumni structure and how to enhance the alumni trustee nomination process.
They provided many opportunities, both in person and in writing, for alumni to
offer input, and they were open and receptive to that feedback. Additionally,
they were sensitive to the ideas of groups who took exception to their work and
creative in adapting their own recommendations to incorporate that feedback. I
recommend the results of their work to you without reservation.
During the course
of this weekend, as we debate the relative merits of the recommendations of
this committee, we will hear many voices that represent strongly held beliefs.
We will hear about "alumni rights," which I would contrast to the
privileges we receive for being Dartmouth alumni. We will also hear about
alumni governance, which I would also contrast to the governance of Dartmouth
College. Finally, it is possible that we will hear about the fracturing of the
alumni body and the end of the Alumni Association. It is possible, if not
likely, that there will be plenty of opportunities for us to disagree with one
another.
As we proceed
through this discussion, I encourage you to get the facts that you need to make
an informed, constructive decision. Do not be motivated by fear. As President
Wright likes to say about the College, "Dartmouth is always in a state of
becoming," and so are we as an alumni body. Further, as one Alumni
Councilor suggests, let's not make what we are about this weekend more than it
is; on Saturday, we will be voting about streamlining the bureaucracy of alumni
governance and not about the direction of Dartmouth College.
Our ultimate
purpose as alumni, I propose, is to make Dartmouth College ever stronger. As
another member of this Council said to me last year at this time, if that's not
our purpose, why are we here? In the end this is about a partnership.
Better Dartmouth
College speakers than I have reminded us of the fundamental nature of this
partnership over many years with phrases like, "In the Dartmouth
fellowship there is no parting" and "You are your brother's
keeper." During our work together this weekend with fellow alumni it
will behoove us all to remember that we are in this together. I urge us all to
respect that fact and one another.
Dartmouth Sponsors Program
At the suggestion of Roger Brett, Webmaster Chuck
Sherman added a link on the Class of 1966 website to the Dartmouth Athletic
Council�s Sports Newsletter. This will give us a chance to track how our
class� donation to the Athletic Sponsor�s Program is impacting the success of
Dartmouth athletics.
Financial Report
In an update, Treasurer Jim
Weiskopf reports that 299 classmates have now paid their 2003-2004 dues. For those of you who have not received the last two issues of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, it reflects not paying your dues last year. If you’re not sure if you’ve paid, contact Jim at jweiskop@aol.com. If you know you haven’t paid, a dues form is now available on the Class of 1966 website (see Newsletter masthead for address).
Want a 1966 Aegis?
Noel Fidel noticed that one can still order copies of the 1966 Aegis on-line, for any classmates who have lost or misplaced their originals (or never bought one in the first place!). You can direct your order requests to the.aegis@Dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2427.
Fall 2003 Mini-Reunion Photos
Thanks to Jack Bennett, some photos
of our mini-reunion activities this past Fall in Hanover:
