Dartmouth College - Aegis Yearbook (Hanover, NH)

Page 13 text:

s A ' o, ' ' e nt the C„lg, e Game

Page 12 text:

munisni in all New Hampshire schools. Dartmouth drummed strongly against the measure, held radio and newspaper forums to deliver broadsides against it, and finally arraigned Hart himself, in 105 Dartmouth, to more and less politely laugh and curse in his face. Profs. Robert Carr and Alexander Laing were the leading spokesmen against Hart. 100% Americanism for that night was regarded as idolatry in Hanover. 100% humanism was more unportant. The stand was not so clear, however, when lawyer-Representative Richard Nixon of the House Un-American Com- mittee completely buffaloed the Great Issues course with his slick, tough-guy tactics. Five hun- dred seniors sat like dumb lumps as the Congressman went through his renowned cloak-and- dagger histrionics and claimed that anj- measure serving state security was justified. It was well observed that Great Issues would fare better by building onto a first rate course in the history, theory and United States practices of government, instead of the flimsy plug that now exists. The second year of the Great Issues experiment emphasized two of its characteristics. For the first time since President Tucker the senior class sat together and saw their identity in the light of a common duty and purpose. But President Tucker taught church history to 1890 seniors, while fifty different speakers touched on a myriad of subjects before 1949 seniors. The meeting of information and the individual was God to Great Issues. The two term projects were devoted to lifting up stones, to discovering what newspapers do to news and how pressure groups knead and mold Congress and public opinion. An important spirit had been set loose by President Dickey ' s course and the campus scratched its head and soul to evaluate it. It was graciously and needfully monotheistic in form but woefully polytheisti? in content. It was a collection of colorful and dull speakers . . . scholars, public figures and laymen with important points of view. Individuals paraded themselves and their convictions before the senior class for its instruction, delectation,

Page 14 text:

J„h.. Sioon Dicker and inspiration. Could the President and the faculty lead and mold these students in this college and this coun- try into pursuing the democratic, humanistic ideal that was the Great Issues course ? It ill-behooved anyone to childishly whine at or make fun of the course. Like the United Nations, Great Issues was firmly established from urgent necessity. But it rested on an uncertain ideological sea . . . All Dartmouth seniors should meet for at least a year ' s time to face a common task and meet a common opportunity . . . but should Homer and Shakespeare be read, should one man teach the course, should its sub- ject be the history and destiny of man rather than his present situation, should more be said of the senior ' s hands, heart, and genitals, and less about his individual mind? Colonel Robert McCormick at- tacked the College, the President, and Great Issues in the news and editorial columns of his great Chicago ton Hermann,