Dartmouth’s disgrace

I’m a proud alumnus of Dartmouth College. Apart from my family, I attribute all the good things that have happened to me in my life to my four years on campus and in the classroom there. I remain grateful to the great teachers with whom I had the privilege of studying at Dartmouth. They opened my mind to the great tradition. I identified several by name in “Notes on Dartmouth commencement ’15.”

It is therefore for me a cause of shame and disgust that Dartmouth has been subject to the student rampage that we reported last week in “The spreading virus, part 4.” The rampage assaulted students studying in the college’s magnificent Baker-Berry Library. I understand that the rampage may even have gone beyond assault to battery in some cases.

Since I posted our report, Campus Reform has published an excerpt of the Dartmouth Review’s account of the proceedings here. David French has followed up at NR with “The college protest clown car is careening out of control.” The Dartmouth Review’s full account is “Eyes wide open at the protest.” The Dartmouth Review account is a first-rate piece of journalism.

Campus Reform has also posted the video below.

The behavior described in the articles and on display in the video is not even legal, let alone consistent with norms of civilized behavior on campus. Last week I wrote Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon to ask what consequences would ensue. Yesterday I followed up with this message:

Dear President Hanlon: There are many identifiable students who can be seen assaulting their peers in the library in the video accessible at [Campus Reform]. I have a very simple question. What consequence will the college impose to punish this behavior and enforce its own norms? Please let me know.
Very truly yours,
Scott W. Johnson ‘73

President Hanlon can be reached by email at [email protected]. If you are a Dartmouth alum, please let President Hanlon hear from you. Let him know we are watching and waiting to hear from him.

UPDATE: A reader points out the report that, according to official Dartmouth, all is well: “College sees no official reports of violence at protest, despite rumors.”

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses