To the Editor:
We are writing in response to an article ["Aam hosts discussion on grades," August 6, 1996, The Dartmouth] concerning a recent discussion of academics at Dartmouth. The very idea that a student's poor academic performance can be traced to a lack of acceptable social options on campus is simply preposterous. Unless the admissions office is masterminding some elaborate propagandistic crusade, each and every Dartmouth student is here primarily due to his or her intellectual and academic abilities.
Classes at Dartmouth are supposed to challenge us and push us as far as we can go rather than let us coast effortlessly through our four short years here. Success comes through personal industry and responsibility, not from a "comfortable" social environment (an ambiguous term with as many different definitions as there are people willing to supply them). If we find our academic returns to be unsatisfactory, perhaps we should increase our personal investments.
