Re: One year since May 1 protests and arrests
A remarkable president, John Sloan Dickey, welcomed Dartmouth’s Class of 1973, urging us to be “undismayed when we face change we neither made nor foresaw – the impossibilities, unreasonable, imperfections of the other.”
Dickey’s successor, John Kemeny, warned that by seeking change ourselves we will “hear those who have lost faith in man’s ability to improve institutions [and] be told that the road to change is through confusion, confrontation, and coercion.” He noted that the “great capacity for human beings to deceive themselves, [see] the world as we want to see it, form friendships with others whose beliefs are identical with [ours] so we may tell [ourselves] how right we are and how wrong everyone else is.”
Under responsible leadership, Dartmouth and the country changed: Kemeny suspended classes as we protested the Vietnam War; Dartmouth’s Board of Trustees voted to admit women, 37 of whom graduated with the Class of 1973, half Phi Beta Kappa; outreach helped attract 90 African Americans to our class, tripling those enrolled before; Dartmouth committed to Native American education, admitting four students with our class, compared to 19 since 1769; Classmate Joost Van Nispen won best student citizen for founding a gay rights club; Earth Day 1970 drew 20 million people at Dartmouth and elsewhere.
Today, I’m distressed by Dartmouth’s timid response to threats to 60 years of changes like these and more, longing for the wisdom and courage of presidents like Dickey, Kemeny, Hanlon — who spoke out recently — and Wright — who would have.
It’s time to sign up and continue Dartmouth’s tradition of change, President Beilock.
Allen Kraus ’73
Allen Kraus is a member of the Class of 1973. Letters to the Editor represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
