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The Dartmouth
April 8, 2026
The Dartmouth

Dartmouth's identity reconciles the extremes

To the Editor:

Tim Dreisbach '71's interesting piece on the College's continuing quest for its sense of identity left this reader a little seasick with maritime metaphors ("Behind the Trustees' Words," March 27).

It should be clear enough that what sets us apart from the Amhersts on one side and Harvards on the other is our singular capacity to live within the creative tension between the extremes.

Of course tension can be disorienting, and our continuing temptation is to escape it by choosing one extreme or the other. But no one does synthesis better than Dartmouth.

And when you do a very rare thing very well, you have a vocation.