DARTMOUTH ALUMNI COUNCIL MEETING REPORT
Sol Rockenmacher, M.D., DC’60, DMS‘61
Dartmouth Medical School Representative
I attended the Spring meeting of the Dartmouth College Alumni Council in Hanover,
from May 17-19, 2007. This was my second meeting as the Dartmouth Medical School
representative on the Council.
A summary article regarding the weekend activities can be found at:
http://alumni.dartmouth.edu/news/draft2.html
I once again found the Alumni Council meeting experience to be very rewarding. I
continue to be impressed with the devotion and involvement of Council members, who have set
aside the time and paid their own travel expenses to come to Hanover to be updated first-hand on
the state of the College.
Built into our schedules was the opportunity to interact more with the undergraduates, in
the classroom, in discussion groups, and at dinner. We had the opportunity to attend two classes.
My first class was The Culture of Latin America and the Caribbean. The topic of the day was
Religion and half the class time involved a PowerPoint presentation by three students. There
followed a discussion led by the professor The second class was Native American Lives. The
presenter was a Native American graduate student whose mother was from a tribe in Iowa and
whose father was Sioux and originally from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The
students were reading the biography of Russell Means, one of the leaders of the Wounded Knee
uprising at Pine Ridge. The presenter, whose grandfather had been on the Native Council at the
time of the conflict, presented a balanced review of the dispute between the “traditionalists”
(Means and his activist followers) and the “progressives”(Native Council) as to how best to deal
with the Federal government regarding the settlement of grievances. I found the session very
informative and enlightening, as I had been unaware that there was another side to the story.
Both were small classes of about twelve students and both sessions were in Carpenter
Hall.
The student-alumni discussion group was held in the Haldeman Center, part of a new
building complex which includes Kemeny Hall. (These are two of the new buildings on campus.
Some are academic buildings, others dormitories. If one hasn’t been on campus for a while you
really need a map to get your bearings.) As a member of the Student Life Committee, I had the
opportunity to moderate a panel on: BALANCE IN STUDENTS’ LIVES: How my time is
spent: Challenges, Strategies & Highlights of Today’s Dartmouth Experience. There were
eleven students in attendance, and the same number of alumni. Not surprisingly, we heard from
a very busy, multi-tasking, group of young people. Students expressed a willingness by many
professors to allow them to do programs that were not part of a regular classroom schedule, even
supervising them. One student said that most of her teachers were very flexible in allowing her
to do a recent sea canoeing adventure, which she described as a “self-release” project. Another
undergraduate described the “triangle” of academic time, social time, and personal time. One
student found the services of the Academic Skills Center very helpful in teaching him better
study habits and time management techniques. However, another student, with ADHD and
learning disabilities, was very critical of the Center. He did say, however, that he was able to
discuss his problems with some of his professors, who were very accommodating. He suggested
the creation of a Life Skills Program. Several students stated that they had taken advantage of
the mental health counseling services and found the support helpful, although there could be
delays in getting appointments. We heard about the availability of relaxation techniques such as
massage and the positive benefit of increased hours at Collis during exam time. Two students
praised the benefits of fraternity-sorority membership in providing a supportive community
outside of the classroom.
Some of us went to dinner one evening at the Native American House, formerly Occum
Inn in “the old days”. I sat across from a lineman on the football team and we discussed some of
the troubling events of the Fall and Winter, including the very disturbing T-shirt controversy
surrounding the Holy Cross football game. None of the students that I talked to spoke of leaving
Dartmouth and matriculating elsewhere.
One of our gatherings included a poster session highlighting student projects. I was most
impressed with a presentation entitled “The College Mental Health Crisis: Chronic Mental
Illness or Developmental Stage?” There are national college-related data suggesting that in 2004:
45% of students felt too depressed to function, 63% felt hopeless, 10% seriously considered
suicide, and 94% felt overwhelmed. From 1988-2001, in college students, risk for depression
rose from 21% to 41%, and use of psychiatric medications rose from 9% to 22%. Although the
data are not specific for Dartmouth College, my feeling is that the issue of mental health of
Dartmouth students is one that should be looked at by the Alumni Council, specifically the
support system, including the role and effectiveness of the Academic Skills Center and the
counseling services.
When considering the stress on today’s Dartmouth undergraduates, for a little perspective
for those of us who were part of the all-Dartmouth classes of many moons ago, bear in mind that
applications (from schools from all over the country and many parts of the globe) for next fall’s
incoming Dartmouth Medical School class totaled 5300 (up from 4700 the previous year). Five
hundred (500) were interviewed and 180 accepted for a class of 75. "And, as an interesting
historic comparative statistic, a very reliable source indicated that there were 250 applications for
an entry class of 24 students for DMS’61--my class."
I am always interested in your input. Please feel free to e-mail me with your comments.
Constructive criticism is graciously accepted.
Sol Rockenmacher, MD, DC ’60, DMS ‘61
Rockenmacher@comcast.net