To the Editor:
I am writing in response to Monday's article "Admissions tours are prospectives' window on College" [The Dartmouth, April 13]. The basis for the article seemed slight -- the reporter observed a couple of tours on Thursday and Saturday and skimmed through the manual before writing the piece on admissions tours. The fact that the tour guide corps welcomes visitors to our campus year-round after undergoing a rigorous selection process and training was never noted, since the reporter felt it more important to concentrate on the flaws in the observed tours instead of the good points.
As a veteran tour guide, I am well aware of the positives and negatives of the admissions office tour program, but it seems a neglectful piece of journalistic writing that does not examine all sides of an issue. In this case, the issues discussed by the reporter were the tours and how competent the guides are that lead them. While that is a fine subject for an article, concentrating on how well one or two guides stuck to the manual as well as extracting several remarks from their context and presenting them as representative of the overall program seems irresponsible.
Of course there are errors from time to time on tours. But they are made by a competent, well-spoken fleet of guides who are busy Dartmouth students taking time out of their day to welcome visitors to campus. Often, guides are the only people who visitors encounter while they are here. Consistently, evaluations come into the admissions office praising the guides and the program.
Before slamming it, perhaps the reporter should try leading a group of visitors around campus while walking backwards and being grilled with questions. Maybe then he would be in a fairer position to criticize the program.
