Job Hunt Concerns
I remember so well what it felt like to be pushed out into the world on my own after graduation in 2004. It took at least five years, all sorts of jobs, and one mistake of a master’s for me to discover where my gifts met a need in the world. All the missteps were part of my learning and led me toward a life I’m grateful for. Regarding “The Job Market Survival Toolkit” [May/June], I wonder whether some recent Dartmouth grads might reframe their thinking from “How will I be successful?” or “How will I build a career?” to “How might my gifts meet a need in the world?” I’ve found that a career emerges most beautifully out of that last question. Our world is full of needs, and there are thousands of creative ways to meet them—while building a career, meaningful relationships, and a joyful life. Some of those ways might be less prestigious (I’m a middle school teacher), but it’s OK not to have everything sorted out as soon as you graduate. I suspect it might even open your life to greater gifts.
ANNABEL BARGER ’04
Kensington, Maryland
Sorry to read about my fellow alums’ job troubles. I would love to help students get work. To Dartmouth I say: You need to start helping students with job search skills in their freshman year and offer journeyman skills in the trades. (My son started a painting company and made $250,000 in his first year.) To my fellow alums I say: love the personal video idea! Don’t depend on anything on the computer to get you offers. Practice what you are going to say—and be prepared to make 25 calls a day to start creating relationships with prospective employers until you get the job. Follow-up is crucial with handwritten notes, which is a lost art—use it to set yourself apart. Don’t be afraid to physically walk into companies, as real company leaders respect bold tenacity. Finally, remember the whole world is open to you. Life is a grand adventure. As the first Spider-Man for Marvel Comics in New York City, I have been crushing villains most of my life. I would be happy to share my strategies with any alums who reach out.
TOM SCHENCK, MALS’89
LeMoyne, Pennsylvania
It can pay to seek jobs where your peers won’t and to take jobs your peers don’t. That can require playing down Dartmouth, let alone accomplishments there, and looking in labor markets where Dartmouth is little known, let alone valued. Remember that it’s almost always easier to get a recruiter’s attention when you’re already employed.
STU MAHLIN ’63
Cincinnati
It’s OK not to have everything sorted out as soon as you graduate.”
—ANNABEL BARGER ’04
A Mountain of Questions
As a profile writer, I was unsated by “Mountain Man” [May/June]. I wanted more than just a heroic octogenarian adventurist in his bright red, puffy expedition “penguin” parka. Why was one of the peaks on the Sentinel Range named after him? What is the status of other climbers? How about a few personal tidbits about his family and details on his image with medical students and colleagues? How does he spend his time now? I just wanted more.
PETER DORSEN ’66
Eagan, Minnesota
Sink or Swim
Everyone needs basic life skills, such as playing sports and riding a bike. Learning to swim is another basic life skill [“Sinking Trend,” Campus Confidential, May/June]. The recent decision to remove this often fun and occasionally lifesaving part of the Dartmouth experience because some segment of society has less opportunity to learn to swim is as prejudicial an action as one can imagine. And if you don’t know how to swim when you matriculate, then the College will teach you. It will also teach you how to ride a bike, for goodness’ sake! The genius in the administration who championed this idea should be given early retirement—and free swimming lessons as part of the separation package.
JEFF BROWN ’66
Menlo Park, California
Jewish Life
Thank you for providing information about Jewish enrollment at Dartmouth [“Finding Community,” May/June]. I am a Tuck graduate, and I am a Jewish American. I did not notice any antisemitism at Tuck while I was a student there from 1960 until 1962. I thought that the article was very informative and well written.
RICHARD KLEIN, TU’62
Raleigh, North Carolina
Most members of the class of ’57 knew the Jewish student quota was not to exceed 20 percent. To my knowledge, there were no quotas for other groups—Christians, Muslims, etc. The medical school class of ’58 had the same 20-percent quota. The class size was 24: There were five Jewish students. We all felt that there were Jewish students in the class of ’57 who were more qualified than some of the members of our medical school class. Why should there be any quotas? The most qualified person should get the position.
PAUL N. TSCHETTER ’57, MED’58
Greenwood Village, Colorado
I was premed at the time Dartmouth had a two-year preclinical medical school. It was assumed only two of the class of 24 could be Jews. Probably half of the approximately 70 premed students were Jewish. Dr. Savage, the admissions director, worked hard to get many of the Jewish premeds, including me, into other medical schools. I was grateful, not bitter. The Korean War was on, and many Dartmouth classmates died there. Students in college and medical schools were deferred from the draft.
RICHARD ROSEN ’52
Greensboro, North Carolina
As an undergrad I was not Jewish. I converted in 1969 and have been proudly Jewish since. My best Dartmouth friends, Stuart Lieber ’65 and Sam Abram ’66, were both Jewish. In my first two years I was a math nerd and got to know Dr. Kemeny well. I later switched to biology and went on to medical school. While I am slightly pleased that Dartmouth now has a Jewish president, her qualities as a leader are far more important than her religion. I will be sure to visit the Roth Center when I return in June for my 60th reunion. I hope that Dartmouth continues to accept everyone based on merit and to concentrate on education rather than social turmoil.
WILLIAM RAMOS ’66
Montgomery, Texas
Wonderful article! Well written and researched. Excited for, and proud of, the program and the student-athletes.”
—EMIL MISKOVSKY ’81 (Facebook)
Executive Orders
I read with interest that prominent litigator Neel Chatterjee ’91 founded a legal activism group, Law Firm Partners United, to oppose President Trump’s use of executive orders to bypass the legislative branch [“Legal Eagle,” May/June]. The principle of separation of powers is vitally important. So, it is perplexing that President Obama’s 2012 executive order establishing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)—implemented only after the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act failed in the U.S. Congress—did not draw a similar response.
PETER J. LOGAN ’70
San Francisco
Black and Epstein
Several groups have urged Dartmouth to remove the name of Leon Black ’73 from the Black Family Visual Arts Center because of his dealings with Jeffrey Epstein [“Top Donor’s Ties to Epstein,” May/June]. Several questions and facts come to mind. First, the name is the Black Family Visual Arts Center: Do the sins of the father taint the family? Also, Black was a philanderer, but no evidence shows he supported or participated in any of Epstein’s pedophilia. He paid Epstein a lot of money for tax advice and perhaps to funnel money to women suing him. Much of this information was known or knowable when Dartmouth accepted Black’s contribution. Was the Black gift contingent on naming the building for the Black family? If his connections to Epstein warrant removing Black’s name from the structure, should Dartmouth return all financial contributions from him? Has Dartmouth vetted its current trustees and major donors to see if there are other Epstein collaborators or associates in our midst? Should Dartmouth reconsider all named structures and honors it has given to ensure those actions did not honor undeserving people? For example, the Hopkins Center for the Arts is named for former President Ernest Martin Hopkins, who, as another article [“Finding Community,” May/June] highlights in a quote, opposed increasing the proportion of Jewish students to avoid arousing “widespread resentment” and developing “widespread prejudice within our own family.” It will be interesting to see how the committee established by the trustees to address the Leon Black situation deals with these issues.
ANTHONY Z. ROISMAN ’60
Weathersfield, Vermont
Adjust the Focus
It’s 2026! It’s long past time to change the photos used to illustrate Class Notes [May/June]. Dartmouth has been coed for more than 50 years. Approximately 40 percent of the living alumni are female. Please stop using these nostalgic photos from a long-gone era.
NANCY WASSERMAN ’77
Ottawa, Canada
Nuances Matter
“Finding Community” [May/June] was an interesting article. My personal background: I was raised in a secular Jewish home in a town that was roughly 40-percent Roman Catholic, 40-percent Jewish, 20-percent Protestant or atheist. Dartmouth was my first experience as a “minority.” From 1965 to 1969 my ethnic identity was a non-issue, except for a single ugly antisemitic insult from a fellow ’69, name withheld to protect the guilty.
I take strong exception to this statement from the article: “Part of being a Jewish group involves fostering a stronger connection between the Dartmouth campus and the Jewish state.” Had it read “residents of Israel” rather than “the Jewish state,” I would agree comfortably. As written, it implies carte blanche acceptance, if not approval, of a genocidal thug regime.
I support a Jewish state that lives in peace in secure borders. I equally support a Palestinian state enjoying identical conditions. These are not antithetical.
Much of the current increase in antisemitism derives from the conflation of Israeli identity and that of Jews elsewhere. One need not be a Zionist or a Netanyahu supporter to be Jewish or a friend to Jews.
I hope the group will ponder these nuances. Monolithic thinking is dangerous.
BRIAN D. FLESSER ’69
Newcastle, Maine
A Risky Decision
I read with sadness the report that the faculty voted in 2022 to eliminate the 50-yard swim test as a graduation requirement [“Sinking Trend,” “Campus Confidential,” May/June]. Although knowing how to swim does not guarantee protection from drowning, not knowing how to swim unquestionably increases the risk of death by drowning.
At some point, a Dartmouth undergraduate or graduate who cannot swim may drown. If that tragic event occurs, the faculty will have to ask whether it might have been prevented had all undergraduates still been required to learn this basic life skill.
ANDREW GUTOW ’86
Palo Alto, California
Date Data
Only 13 years after the Dartmouth workshop [“The Birth of Artificial Intelligence,” May/June], the participants might have been surprised to see signs on campus directing students and their dates to Kiewit Computer Center to take the “Date Compatibility Program.” An inversion of the workshop’s template, the program was made by humans pretending to be an intelligent computer.
Most people went along with it—that is, until their dates had been instructed to put in all sorts of personal information as well as how they felt about their current date. This took far longer than the Dartmouth students’ entries (height, weight, sports, dorm).
Yes, here was one of the earliest examples of digital abuse, as the girls with wimpy, non-jock dates started getting calls at their colleges. Jocks’ dates did not get called, as no one wanted to upset anyone.
We didn’t need 60 years to get to the point where we should be watching over all that is digital. This is just technology mirroring its creators.
KEN JACOBS ’72
Santa Rosa, California
Kudos
All hail, President Beilock [“Ubiquitous President,” “Campus Confidential,” May/June]. We are all lucky to have such a wonderful person heading the College.
TED TAPPER ’61, MED’62
Merion Station, Pennsylvania
This piece is just pure joy!”
—JIM ZIMPRITCH ’70
“Admissions Decisions” [Online, April]
Definitely Worth It
Regarding “Was It Worth It?” [March/April], on arrival in Hanover in the mid-1960s I found a vibrant art community anchored in the newly opened Hopkins Center and Carpenter Hall. The studio arts, theater, and art history were flourishing. Those teaching these various endeavors were remarkable, knowledgeable, inspiring, and scholarly. The attraction to these disciplines was electrifying and many of us became enthralled with the making and the understanding of the creative arts. Bob McGrath, John Wilmerding, John Paoletti, and Hugh Morrison studied and taught art and architectural history and Varajuan Boghosian and Matthew Wysocki held up the studio arts.
I recall moments in these directly related fields. At John Wilmerding’s last lecture in modern art history, the class roared with approval, not unlike at a sporting event. Professor Boghosian took a student’s abstract 18-foot wood python and ran up and down the basement halls of the Hop hollering and whooping with glee. Hugh Morrison, America’s premier scholar of the architect Louis Sullivan, would dryly show images of detailed architectural ornament that slowly emerged before us.
These teachers knew art and the merits of a broader understanding of these disciplines to an American public often uncomfortable with the creative process. They conveyed this knowledge to an eager group of young students. I was one of those students. Although not fully appreciating what they were teaching, I’ve carried their lessons with me throughout my visual life. Was it worth it? Absolutely! Modest career prospects? My goodness, no.
ROLF KIELMAN ’70
Hinesburg, Vermont
I’m grateful to C.J. Hughes ’92 for the excellent article and alumni stories in “Was It Worth It?” Fifty-eight years ago, I was an art history major. I have not regretted it. Rather, I have treasured the richer life I have had as a result.
Back then, if you wanted to study architecture, you had to major in art history. That meant architecture design studio, life and still drawing, and color in addition to the art history requirements. After graduation, I started at Harvard for a master’s in architecture, was drafted, served as a U.S. Army first lieutenant in Vietnam, then returned and finished Harvard. By then I could see there were too many architects, so instead for my first 10 years out of school I focused on saving energy in buildings. In that area, I wrote a book, started, ran, and sold a company. I reconsidered architecture, again found too many architects, and used my business experience to become a management consultant for the next 35 years. After decades serving auto manufacturers, banks, and high-technology companies, my final two significant strategy clients—Sotheby’s art auction business and Gensler, the largest U.S. architecture firm—felt far more like home.
Looking back, the study of art and design always helped me value and practice storytelling, composition, and coherence in products and experiences, the creative process, and especially the emotion that imagery and beauty can inspire. I’ve never regretted majoring in art history as well as studying the other liberal arts that taught context and critical thinking.
ALLAN ACKERMAN ’68
Chicago
Reading the cover story about art history majors 20 years later, I was struck by the fact that there were only six majors last year, along with six in religion and French.
I was a religious studies major in 1968-72. I intended to major in math or physics, subjects I had done well in in high school, but for a distributive requirement took a survey course in religious studies during my first winter term and was hooked.
Several professors—lecturing on fields from Hindu dualism to Vatican II, from the quest for the historical Jesus to St. Augustine’s theory of just wars—were mind expanding and exciting. I read deeply Spinoza and Sartre.
Though I graduated into an economy dominated by Watergate and America’s first Middle East oil crisis and must admit some difficulties finding my first job, I was fortunate to be hired by a San Francisco-based international publishing company that valued native intelligence and critical thinking.
I ended up spending 40-plus years in business-to-business publishing, ultimately publishing trade magazines that served segments of the restaurant industry. Many of the clients I did business with were M.B.A.s, but I never regretted my religious studies major. I had learned to read and write, think creatively, and communicate effectively—precious commodities.
It’s true college didn’t cost $90,000 a year back then. It’s understandable students and their families today consider the return on investment.
Perhaps I was lucky, but I still believe the liberal arts provide immeasurable benefit and value—to careers and to life.
STEVEN MAYER ’72
Chicago
I was fortunate to have had no pressure to major in something “practical,” as my dad, Richard F. Ledyard ’50, was an English major. He strongly felt that his ability to form thoughts and effectively communicate them were central to his success in business.
The example of our ancestor, John Ledyard, class of 1776—the black sheep of the family back in his day—inspired me as well. I always felt his example gave me “permission” to step off the beaten path.
After a 50-year career training in and teaching aikido, the Japanese martial art, I can say I got my start at Dartmouth. I majored in religion with a focus on Asian religions and my first martial arts exposure was via the karate club and Tabata Sensei coming from Boston twice a week.
Although my choice of career never provided much income, I traveled all over the United States and Canada and even to England, the Netherlands, and Switzerland teaching. I wouldn’t do anything differently, but chapter one of my book on how to be a professional martial instructor will be how to marry someone with a “real job.”
Dartmouth provided an environment in which it was assumed one would be a leader in whatever one chose to do. The emphasis on excellence stood me in good stead, and I owe my success in large part to my years at Dartmouth.
GEORGE LEDYARD ’74
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Fifty-eight years ago, I was an art history major. I have not regretted it. Rather, I have treasured the richer life I have had as a result.”
—ALLAN ACKERMAN ’68
“Was It Worth It?” [March/April]
The alumni mag is getting better and better. I love the March/April story “Was It Worth It?”
Since my parents were movie stars (my father Dartmouth ’29 starred in 62 movies and won the box office award in 1936 under stage name Robert Allen and then starred on Broadway from after WW II until 1986), I have been in the entertainment industry all my abundant life.
I was head of a department at the City University of New York and University of California, Berkeley, and have published Movieguide since 1985. In the “golden age” of Hollywood and the second golden age, studios preferred liberal arts majors. My friend Barry Reardon, the incredible executive vice president Warner Bros. distribution, said he preferred liberal arts graduates since he did not have to break them of a non-Warner approach to filmmaking that they learned in university. (I should not say this since I was the head of two departments and teach filmmaking). Liberal arts help you understand how to think and not what to think, as someone in your excellent article said. Thank you so much!
TED BAEHR ’69
Camarillo, California
Was it worth it to be an art history major? I was one of those. It was my childhood ambition to become an architect. There were several five-year programs available that culminated in a degree allowing direct entry into the professional ranks, but the instant affinity I felt for Dartmouth and the chance to encounter a variety of other subjects along the way were too appealing to allow any consideration of this more direct route.
My four years at the College remain a strong candidate for the best of my life; then a three-and-a-half-year master’s program at U Penn—another strong candidate.
My architectural career spanned more than 40 years. The first decade exposed me to a variety of assignments and building types in public and private sectors and gradually my concentration came to focus on public education facilities. In this market, there is little opportunity for spectacle; the challenge is to create environments that promote and enrich the learning experience for teachers and students while carefully husbanding taxpayer dollars. Along the way there are a lot of late-night building committee meetings, town meeting and city council presentations, and the bureaucracy of the public bidding and construction process. Hardly glamorous but greatly satisfying when the desired goals are realized.
For the past 12 years, I’ve been building commissioner in the town I grew up in—a good way to stay involved, have a part in shaping a bit of the future, and give a little back.
So yes, definitely worth it.
BOB VOGEL ’66
Scituate, Massachusetts
CORRECTION: A photo of mountains in Antarctica [“Mountain Man,” May/June] incorrectly identified Silverstein Peak. It is to the right of Mount Vinson in the picture, not the left. The online version has been updated.
