Original Article: http://dartreview.com/archives/2006/04/21/you_are_cordially_invited.php
Friday, April 21, 2006
Following is a copy of the invitation which the Board of The Dartmouth Review, extended to President Wright both as a courtesy and as a recognition of his stewardship of the Cllege. Wright politely declined by means of a personal phone call, citing a previous committment.
6 April 2006
Dear President Wright,
I am writing to you at the suggestion of Professor Jeffrey Hart, who speaks highly of the work you are doing at Dartmouth, and of the good things Mrs. Wright has done for the Montgomery Endowment. Professor Hart tells me he is now engaged in a lively discussion with Mrs. Wright on Francis Fukayama’s latest book. This is great news.
On Friday, April 21, 2006, at 6:00 p.m., the editors and supporters of the The Dartmouth Review will gather at the Union League Club of New York to celebrate a milestone: twenty-five years of independent conservative journalism at Dartmouth College.
But this event will also mark another milestone—the strides Dartmouth has taken recently under your leadership to accommodate and even encourage a diversity of opinion on campus. Professor Hart believes that you recognize the added value a newspaper like The Dartmouth Review can bring to college life. I agree. I am now the Managing Editor of The New Criterion, America’s foremost journal of culture and the arts. I am in my position today thanks to the experience I received as an editor of The Dartmouth Review. But I am also here due to the superb education I received at Dartmouth, where I majored in Classics under the advisement of Edward Bradley, graduating in 1998. My associate editor, Stefan Beck, is also a Dartmouth graduate, class of 2004. The same goes for our best interns, who are Dartmouth students. I believe that as The Dartmouth Review celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary, it is not only the newspaper, but the best of Dartmouth itself that deserves praise.
As the chairman of the board of The Hanover Review, the volunteer governing organization of The Dartmouth Review, I would therefore like to invite you and Mrs. Wright as honored guests to our gala dinner, which will feature remarks by Review alumni, and a keynote address by Mark Steyn. Father George Rutler will emcee this evening that promises to be thrilling, joyful, memorable, and fun. Alex Donner and his Orchestra have also volunteered their services to lead us in Dartmouth songs.
The gala will also mark the publication of an anthology called The Dartmouth Review Pleads Innocent: Twenty-Five Years of Being Threatened, Impugned, Vandalized, Sued, Suspended, and Bitten at the Ivy League’s Most Controversial Conservative Newspaper (April 2006, ISI Books).
The title of the book is hyperbolic, but it nonetheless reflects the way many of the editors of The Dartmouth Review, in the past, have felt wronged by their college. If Dartmouth continues in the direction you are leading it today, I imagine the title of the next anthology, twenty-five years on, will have a very different tone.
Please see the enclosed invitation for more information about the dinner. You may contact me directly if you have any questions—and if you would like to attend this gala evening.
I know you are a busy man, and I doubt you will be able to join us, but I would be remiss if I failed to extend this invitation to you.
Sincerely,
James Panero ’98
Chairman
The Hanover Review, Inc. & The Dartmouth Review