The power that the Dartmouth Review has over this school is amazing. If one actually believed the whining that goes on, it would appear as though the Review is at the heart of every problem that exists on campus. From the publicity and attention it receives, one would think that the Review was some monster that lurks around every corner just waiting to get new blood.This scenario could not be further from the truth.
Let me fill you in on a little information about the Review that is constantly overlooked. It is an off-campus publication, put together by about ten people (about 1/500 of the Dartmouth community), who like to voice their concerns and opinions and get strong reactions. The Review never claims to speak for the Dartmouth community as a whole. In fact, it often speaks out against what it sees as wrong with Dartmouth. While everyone may not agree with the position the Review takes, that does not mean that the Review should be silenced. On the contrary, its writers should have every right to voice their opinions in their own publication and in the community.
In her letter to the editor about the community forum on homophobia, History Professor Annelise Orleck writes, "a small group representing the Dartmouth Review hijacked the meeting. They dominated the discussion, asking one hostile question after another, putting gay and lesbian students on the defensive."I'm not sure what Orleck means by Review members "hijacking" the discussion. If she means that they pulled out weapons and forced the other people in attendance, against their will, to sit and listen to their views, then I agree that the Review members were a problem. If, however, she simply means that the Review members spoke their minds while others refused to offer a counter-argument, then I disagree that the Review was the problem.
Instead, I see the real problem as the other people present at the forum. I have a hard time believing those four or five Review members present were such an overwhelming threat, that if anyone else had really wanted to talk they would be unable to do so.
Here lies the crucial problem. Four or five Review members were able to dominate a discussion in a room full of over forty people who were supposedly there because they wanted to seriously address the concerns of the gay community. Our concerns should lie, not in the fact that Review members posed these questions and launched these attacks, but in the fact that no-one came to the defense of those being attacked. Review members are our peers. If we cannot stand up to them and fight back, then the problem lies in us, not in them.
Orleck also states that Review members called gays and lesbians "immature and unable to take the heat," but then four sentences later, she states how some members of the Dartmouth Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Organization ran out of the meeting in tears. While I do not disagree that I too would be upset if I were the object of such an attack, by abandoning their cause and leaving the forum, it does appear that those members were unable to take the heat.
DaGLO members sponsored the forum to address what they and many others see as a problem with the acceptance of gays and lesbians at Dartmouth. Review members attended the forum because they did not see a problem -- or at least understand what the problem really was. This was DaGLO's opportunity to list the specific problems they had and put the Review on the defensive. Unfortunately, instead of taking control, they broke down and let the Review win.This being the case, I have to agree with the Review members that not only were the DaGLO members weak, but so was everyone else in attendance who heard the Review's attack and did not respond.
The solution is not to silence the Review -- I would be wary of a community where there is no dissention -- but rather to call on those people who are not Review members to be just as vocal with their opinions. Just as the gay and lesbian students had the right to hold the community forum and express their concerns, members of the Review had the right to attend that forum and question those concerns. What type of a forum is it where people are allowed to attend only if their views support the group sponsoring the event?
As much as Dartmouth likes to think that it is its own little community with its own rules, the fact remains that its students still have the rights granted to them by the Constitution of the United States of America -- specifically in this case, the right to free speech. Like it or not, the Review has the right to publish its opinions. Dartmouth may have thrown it off campus, but its voice is only getting louder. The reason? Because we let it. Every time we blame the Review, or even mention it in writing, we make it that much more visible and that much stronger. The Review isn't the joke. We are.
