As I sit down to write this month’s column, I can’t help wondering why a college that has the best academic reputation in its history, the strongest applicant pool ever and the #1 ranking nationally in student satisfaction feels that it is necessary to embark on another "social experiment" that will most likely bring an end to single sex fraternities and sororities on the campus. As I recall, during the past decade, the College has spent millions to upgrade the dormitories and to create an social alternatives to meet the needs of students who did not feel comfortable in, or want to be a part of, the existing campus community. Obviously, these expenditures did not solve the problem to the satisfaction of the social planners, so they have decided to effectively eliminate the one social outlet that they cannot control and push their agenda forward (so much for "social spaces controlled by students"). I also wonder what is the driving force behind this latest decision by the College. Is it a gender issue, concern over student alcohol abuse or have the alumni been happy with the College for too long? I certainly hope that we can get the president and our three classmates who are members of the board of trustees to enlighten us at the 35th reunion in October.

With that off of my chest, I want to turn to the real reason that you all open your latest Alumni Magazine to this column as soon as it arrives. My report on more of those guys who lived in Hitchcock Hall almost forty years ago. As promised, I begin this month’s column (which was submitted too late to be last month’s column) with information about the whereabouts of JIM HALL, BRAD EVANS and ALFRED HOROWITZ. Jim resides in Silver Spring, Maryland and has spent most of his career as a physician at a Christian health center (which he founded) located in a low-income neighborhood in Washington, D.C. He also taught part-time at the George Washington Medical School. However, healing the human community has not been Jim’s only interest. During the past 10 years he has he has continued his education in ecology and plant science in preparation for his role in caring for the woodlands, ponds, meadows and creeks on a 200-acre church retreat in suburban Maryland. He anticipates that in the years ahead he will continue to serve both the human and natural community since in his words, "Ultimately, there is only one health care system and it’s planetary." Alfred is a diagnostic radiologist at a hospital in Chicago. However, he said that he may relocate to Northern California to be near to his children in the not-to-distant future. (I expect that the weather this past winter in the "windy city" may have moved up his timetable.) Brad lives in New York City and is managing director of the mergers and acquisitions department of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. He reports that he and his wife, Barbara, have already signed up for the 35th reunion in October and look forward to seeing as many classmates as possible while they are there.

--Tom Parkinson, 8240 Peach Lane, Fogelsville, PA 18051 <Thomas.L.Parkinson.64@alum.dartmouth.org>