Class Note 1981
Issue
May-June 2020
The U.S. presidential primary touched down on the Hanover Plain yet again this year, just like when we were undergrads. Remember the stump speeches on fraternity row and throughout the campus in 1980? From all accounts, the present students were in the thick of things, getting that upfront view of democracy in action. As we all reflect on our time on campus, this was a special subplot.
In terms of giving long-lasting and wise advice to others, several of our classmates responded to one of our “Big Questions,” this one relating to recommendations one might give to graduating seniors. Rahn Fleming highlighted compassion, the concept of team, and inclusivity. “Who is included when you use the pronoun ‘we’?” he queried. In his role of head football coach at Champlain Valley Union High School in Vermont, he emphasizes personal accountability and communal trust to optimize team effectiveness. In his role as a co-advisor of the gender sexuality alliance group, he says students are allowed to explore “self-discovery and self-expression, a place where they get to try on new identities (literally!) until they find their own. Names change. Preferred pronouns change. Gender identities change—or don’t.” He has had some heartwarming results. “One highlight moment came at a recent alliance meeting, when one of our members said, ‘Thank you. The football players this year are so friendly, so respectful. I actually really like hanging out with them.’ ” He sums it up with, “It makes my heart smile and gives my spirit hope that these are the young humans we’re sending out into the wide, wide world to be the agents of acceptance and change in the coming years. As you can see, although the question might be mine (Who is included when you use the pronoun, ‘we’?), the answer—as you might have guessed—is all of ours.” We are our brother’s keeper—with influences of President Kemeny, circa 1981. Jody Awad Evans replied, “Learn to tolerate and embrace ambiguity—how else do we grow?” And Greg Clow gave his own admittedly biased opinion, “I live in Boise, Idaho, these days. A wonderful, beautiful place which some know principally because our Top 25 football team plays on a blue turf field. During the season signs shout out, ‘We bleed blue!’ This always brings a smile to my face, because I bleed green, and almost every football field in America just happens to be green! What every graduate this year needs to know is that before their first day at Dartmouth they may have thought of themselves as being from a state, a country, a religion, a race, a socio-economic group. But once they chose Dartmouth, and Dartmouth chose them, they would, and will, forever bleed green.” Come express your green genes and join your kindred spirits in the classes of 1979, ’80, and ’81 June 18-21!
—Emil Miskovsky, 520 Seneca St., Suite 312, Utica, NY 13502; (802) 345-9861; emilmiskovsky@gmail.com; Veronica Wessels, 224 Buena Vista Road, Rockcliffe, ON K1M0V7, Canada; (613) 864-4491; vcwessels@rogers.com
In terms of giving long-lasting and wise advice to others, several of our classmates responded to one of our “Big Questions,” this one relating to recommendations one might give to graduating seniors. Rahn Fleming highlighted compassion, the concept of team, and inclusivity. “Who is included when you use the pronoun ‘we’?” he queried. In his role of head football coach at Champlain Valley Union High School in Vermont, he emphasizes personal accountability and communal trust to optimize team effectiveness. In his role as a co-advisor of the gender sexuality alliance group, he says students are allowed to explore “self-discovery and self-expression, a place where they get to try on new identities (literally!) until they find their own. Names change. Preferred pronouns change. Gender identities change—or don’t.” He has had some heartwarming results. “One highlight moment came at a recent alliance meeting, when one of our members said, ‘Thank you. The football players this year are so friendly, so respectful. I actually really like hanging out with them.’ ” He sums it up with, “It makes my heart smile and gives my spirit hope that these are the young humans we’re sending out into the wide, wide world to be the agents of acceptance and change in the coming years. As you can see, although the question might be mine (Who is included when you use the pronoun, ‘we’?), the answer—as you might have guessed—is all of ours.” We are our brother’s keeper—with influences of President Kemeny, circa 1981. Jody Awad Evans replied, “Learn to tolerate and embrace ambiguity—how else do we grow?” And Greg Clow gave his own admittedly biased opinion, “I live in Boise, Idaho, these days. A wonderful, beautiful place which some know principally because our Top 25 football team plays on a blue turf field. During the season signs shout out, ‘We bleed blue!’ This always brings a smile to my face, because I bleed green, and almost every football field in America just happens to be green! What every graduate this year needs to know is that before their first day at Dartmouth they may have thought of themselves as being from a state, a country, a religion, a race, a socio-economic group. But once they chose Dartmouth, and Dartmouth chose them, they would, and will, forever bleed green.” Come express your green genes and join your kindred spirits in the classes of 1979, ’80, and ’81 June 18-21!
—Emil Miskovsky, 520 Seneca St., Suite 312, Utica, NY 13502; (802) 345-9861; emilmiskovsky@gmail.com; Veronica Wessels, 224 Buena Vista Road, Rockcliffe, ON K1M0V7, Canada; (613) 864-4491; vcwessels@rogers.com