Verbum Ultimum: Moving Conversations Forward
By The Dartmouth Editorial Board
Published on Friday, February 1, 2013
The first month of Winter term has seen a storm of controversy wash across these pages. From incidents of racism to related columns that have provoked fiery reactions in our community at large, it has been a busy and tumultuous few weeks. In a visible departure from its typical apathy, the student body has inundated The Dartmouth with an impressive volume of guest column submissions and letters to the editor — vastly more than we can ever hope to publish. On this note, we would like to take the opportunity to remind campus of two key points.
First, we are always happy to serve as a forum for discussion in which students can express their opinions and understandings of campus dynamics. Second, there are plenty of ways for you to make your voice heard through The Dartmouth without sharing your thoughts in an op-ed.
The Dartmouth is proud to be the source to which students turn when they are seeking to publicize important problems or demand change. As part of our journalistic mission, we are constantly seeking to publish content that sparks dialogue and reflection. We commend the many individuals who have recently chosen to speak out about race relations on campus through the opinion page. While we strive to be an impartial arbiter, we are equally eager to help these conversations move forward.
At the same time, the student body can help us represent varied opinions within the news section. It is your willingness to do something as simple as speak to a reporter that enables us to cover immediate campus issues. Going on the record is an important way to articulate your views and we encourage students to both be more open with reporters and speak their minds. The greater the number of individuals who speak with The Dartmouth on the record, the greater the diversity of perspectives that we will be able to present in our news section.
We concede that students may worry about how their views are being represented. This is why our interview policy indicates that anyone who speaks to our reporters on the record reserves the right to have his or her quotes read back before they are published. Additionally, individuals who believe that they have been misquoted or that The Dartmouth has made a factual error are encouraged to submit corrections to the Editor-in-Chief. Corrections are published online and those articles with inaccuracies are clearly indicated.
In short, we appreciate the efforts of those who have submitted guest content to our opinion page. However, we encourage all members of the Dartmouth community to also contribute to our news section’s coverage of important issues and events, and to submit corrections when appropriate.
The D has said that it wants to foster a dialogue, but why does it try to censor the out pouring of letters demanding that Dean Johnson resign over the racially motivated “free pass” she gave to Alpha Phi Alpha!
By Let The Truth Out! on Feb 1 | 10:34 am
If people want to move forward with these kinds of discussions, do something to interact with the various communities on campus. Even having dinner with folks can make all the difference. And while I understand that sometimes there are people you won’t want to give a second thought because of what they said, focus on reaching out to people who do care. This is more conducive to showing people that (1) There are issues we need to address and (2) It gets the word out fast.
I liked the submission by Alice Liou and Huan He. It reached out to me because I have been asked ignorant questions or mocked because of who I am. I used to get tomahawk chopped in class, with people justifying their actions because they were “part Cherokee,” which is an even bigger insult to those folks I know who actually know their heritage and stay in touch with their communities. I experienced that less and less as I went through my higher ed. years, but I know that’s influenced by the people with whom I hung out and stay in touch.
The solution I see to all of this is two-fold: Focus on educating others about who you are, and interact with other communities on campus, whether it’s going to an event or sharing a meal. Part of building a community and educating others is taking the initiative to engage others and be vocal about your concerns; make it known to others that there’s more to campus life than the bubble that Dartmouth is. I love my alma mater, but it’s about time that people understand what goes on at a more local level on campus; whether or not something happened to directly attack someone, that act represents someone’s sentiments about what they think of others, or perhaps what they are willing to sacrifice for the sake of acceptance into a group of people.
So how do we educate? Discussions are great for people getting their feet wet, but do something to really get people on the ground running. I, for example, hold language classes, movie nights, and weaving demos. It’s certainly a small start for the group I run similar to NAD at RIT, but I see it as a way of putting ourselves on the map and showing people that there are pockets of the community that provide a meaningful contribution to the larger student body. We also need to see the nitty-gritty of what happens, such as the article by He and Liou. Why? Because it shows that even in the microcosm of society Dartmouth is, we need to find constructive ways of addressing the treatment that our students receive from their peers.
By bqp on Feb 4 | 11:34 am