Freedman Is a Credit to Academia

To the Editors of The Crimson:

The desire to dismiss the absurd and spurious charges against James O. Freedman '57, president of Dartmouth College, without retort is compelling. The fear that a single uninformed reader may believe what was quoted necessitates this response.

Your story of December 10 on leading candidates for the presidency of Harvard fails to grasp the remarkable achievements of James Freedman at Dartmouth College. Quite simply, during his short term of office he has reaffirmed that institution's intellectual vigor and its faith in itself after 10 years of consistently vituperative battering at the hands of the Dartmouth Review.

What outsiders are only now beginning to understand is that, at any one time, the Review represents the views of no more than 20-odd undergraduates. Moreover, its continued existence and national impact are made possible only by generous subsidies from outside sources whose own agenda has little to so with Dartmouth per se.

It is unfortunate that your only quotations came from the father of a founder of the Review, who has a tendency to see through glasses darkly.

While vigorously defending everyone's First Amendment right to free speech, Freedman exercised his own duty to condemn racism, sexism, homophobia and anti-Semitism. He is a formidable leader; a man of integrity, of moral and ethical courage. He continues to serve with distinction: responding to our needs, drawing teacher-scholars from eminent universities, articulating the goals and values of education, and setting our agenda for the future.

Freedman is compassionate and fairminded; he makes the bold decision; he is a man of his word, unfailing, responsible, reliable, honest. His selection as the 1990 recipient of the American Book Award's Educator of the Year is evidence that we are not alone in our opinion.

Harvard honors itself by considering James O. Freedman as its president, but our fondest hope is that he will choose to remain at Dartmouth College. William W. Cook   Gene M. Lyons   John A. Rassias   Charles T. Wood '55

Editor's Note: The authors are professors at Dartmouth Colloge. This letter was also signed by 21 other Dartmouth College professors.