Sunday, June 12, 2005

TDR at 25: Interview with John Steel

Dr. John Steel '54 was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1980 as a petition candidate, the first in the College's history to do so. His election also spurred a number of disaffected Daily Dartmouth staffers to found a new newspaper, The Dartmouth Review. The Review's interview with him, from Volume 1, Issue 1, is honor of the Review's 25th anniversary, excerpts from the interview with Steel in Volume 1, Issue 1 are printed below.

Lessons from Jeffrey Hart

How did so many twenty-somethings from an upstart student newspaper at a small college find ourselves working for the leader of the free world? Each of us would answer in the same two words: Jeffrey Hart.

The Lone Pine Revolution

The election of Hoover Institution fellow Peter Robinson '79 and George Mason University law professor Todd Zywicki '88 to Dartmouth College's Board of Trustees, announced May 13, is perhaps the most significant event in the institution's recent history.

Red Light, Green Light*

In what the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has called "a remarkable development for liberty on campus," Dartmouth has cleared up the mystery surrounding the College's speech code.

Interrogating the SLI

At the end of November 2004, The Dartmouth Review obtained hundreds of internal, confidential documents from the Trustee Committee on the Student Life Initiative.

The Fortunes of Dartmouth Football: Furstenberg's Faux Pas

Such statements immediately aroused the ire of many alumni, and caused the Dartmouth Public Affairs Office to shift into overdrive, issuing frantic apologies from Furstenberg, Athletic Director Josie Harper, President Wright, and others. Immediately the question of blame arose—was Furstenberg to blame for Dartmouth's athletic woes?

So Many Democrats, So Little Time

Of the 341 professors registered to vote in Hanover, NH, Lebanon, NH, and Norwich, VT, 225 (66 percent) are Democrats and eighteen (5 percent) are Republicans. Ninety-eight (29 percent) did not register a party. Put another way, there are 12.5 registered Democrats for every registered Republican.

Drape Yourself with Sackcloth & Ashes

"He's a very real guy, a straight-talker," Ms. Kerry said. "It's shocking to me how hip he is. He's so hip, it scares me. He knows pop culture; he windsurfs, skis, snowboards, plays the guitar—he's got the hip style down."

David McLaughlin Reconsidered: A True Lover of Dartmouth

What was important, McLaughlin was saying, was not what had changed, but what had remained, and what remained were the qualities that made the College unique and so special to so many people.

Ross Douthat Explores Harvard: The Iviest of the Ivy League

Didn't my grandparents immigrate, surmount xenophobia, accrue debt, join the military, climb out of poverty, and work hard precisely so I could comfortably sit here and write self-indulgent sentences like this one?

The Last Word

Q. Do you think anybody back then was thinking this guy would become a cult figure, that he might be more trouble dead than alive?
A. No, nobody had the foresight for that. What I thought was great foresight was that the Bolivian colonel had Che's hands cut off.
—E. Howard Hunt, on Che Guevara

Barrett's Mixology

Rob Roy:
3 oz. single malt Scotch whiskey
1 oz. dry vermouth