To the Editor:
I found the headline "Students say supercluster heightens campus intellectualism" [Feb. 4, 1997, The Dartmouth] as unfounded in its claim as last month's New York Times headline proclaiming that a "shy scholar" has transformed Dartmouth into a "haven for intellectuals." What both articles demonstrate is that a performance report for a high level academic administrator should not be translated into assertions about broad institutional reform. Both President Freedman and Dean Pelton are successful in their careers at Dartmouth and many of the changes they have made are welcome. But just as ten years has not transformed Dartmouth into a haven for intellectuals, a term and a half has certainly not transformed the East Wheelock "Supercluster" into a pure marriage of intellectual and social life at Dartmouth, despite the new name, the expensive renovation of a new faculty advisors' residence, the scheduling of numerous lectures for students to sit through and the addition of a late-night snack bar to the dormitory common room.
While education can be bought, intelligence and talent cannot be, no matter how much money and programming are thrown at a student or at a group of students. Intellectualism cannot be delivered to a campus by some courier, not to mention that the word "intellectualism" itself is disgusting. Describing the East Wheelock Supercluster, Pelton is quoted in The Dartmouth article as saying, "They have wonderful programs, and they are doing exactly what we planned." That does not sound much like, "Your business here is learning, and that is up to you: we'll be with you all the way, and good luck," as John Dickey used to say -- even while presiding over a college that was in some ways inferior to the present College.
Certainly, bright kids can come from anywhere, and it does not matter too much where they go to school, and even less what dormitory they live in. It defies the spirit of independent learning to think that the most important changes to be made at Dartmouth should be made from on high, by career administrators who are simply trying to do their jobs well. Good administrators are necessary, perhaps, but are certainly not sufficient for generating a curiosity about ideas in the lives of young people.
I sincerely hope that the Supercluster will not be deemed an official administrative success and implemented everywhere on the Dartmouth campus. While their efforts are surely in the best of faith, proponents of "The Dartmouth Experience" plan and its Supercluster might consider more seriously the inherited notions that there is something to be said for self-sufficiency, and that students should be taught -- if they are taught anything at all -- to teach themselves. This will take caring as much as it will take time.
