To the Editor:
I am responding to the May 9 article, "Tucker's Lord Alienates Some Student Leaders." While everyone has some faults, I am glad that the leadership of the Tucker Foundation rests in caring and passionate hands that are willing to put programs into action.
I believe that I would not have been involved in community service had Dean of the Tucker Foundation Stuart Lord not reached out to me my sophomore summer on campus.
I commend Stuart for his attempt to recruit from places on campus that might be represented in Tucker. The Dartmouth said that "According to some student leaders, Lord's recruitment efforts have attracted predominately male athletes and fraternity brothers, and that these new members have not had an entirely positive effect on the foundation." One female student said, "It's great that he's bringing in new people, but he does so by making them feel like they can do 'service' within their comfort zone." This statement sounds elitist; any organization that possesses diversity of thought, race, gender, class, religious affiliation, etc., has a much wealthier pool of talent and ideas to work with than in an organization that is filled with a homogenous group. And to address the issue of a comfort zone, is it such a bad thing if new students enjoy the project in which they're participating because they see the relevance of community to their own life? Perhaps they will be more inclined to tackle other projects that might bring them out of their "comfort zone."
I applaud Stuart Lord for introducing more types of service projects to the Dartmouth community. With more and varied opportunities for service, Tucker is reaching out to a greater portion of the Dartmouth community and following its mission to "challenge students to explore places in the heart, spirit and mind that will help them serve as humane, thoughtful and just leaders."
