Protests reaffirm worth of a Dartmouth education
By Laura M. Rodriguez
Published on Wednesday, May 3, 2006
To the editor,
Upon reading Daniel Linsalata '07's "The Economics of Protest" (May 1), I could not help but notice a few economic miscalculations. Linsalata fails to incorporate the future into his economic equation. There are many students, bright ones, who are unable to even attend college because of their legal status. Throughout my life, I have met many of them with both the desire and the intelligence to attend an institution as excellent as Dartmouth and it is truly a shame that some are unable to do so because of a piece of paper.
By supporting a protest that advocates the rights of immigrants, Dartmouth will one day be able to welcome students who might have not been able to attend it otherwise. And College support of such a rally is not antithetical to the College's mission; promoting an immigrant-friendly image could help the school foster diversity, indisputably an integral part of its agenda.
Furthermore, Linsalata's suggestion that the time of the rally be changed would invalidate its purpose -- to make others realize that immigrants are a part of their everyday lives by disrupting them a little. In a town as small as Hanover, what else could this protest have disrupted but classes and the economy?
Alumni contributions were not made worthless by supporting yesterday's protest. They helped support a part of a future Dartmouth, one that will include all students with the ability and desire to learn, not merely those qualified by their birth and opportunities.