Re: Pan-Asian Community Room found in ‘disarray’ between summer and fall term
In response to the linked article, I want to provide a detailed description of First-Year Trips’ use of the room and my understanding of the situation as the 2023 First-Year Trips Director.
Over the summer, I asked Jimmy Huynh, the Program Coordinator for Pan-Asian Student Advising, if we could continue our use of the Pan-Asian Community Room during Trips — which ran from Aug. 22 through Sept. 10 — as we have in past years, to which he was amenable as long as we took care of and respected the space. However, Trips’ actual use of the PAC Room did not start until the night of Aug. 29.
The night of Aug. 27, before the incident was reported, I did not see or hear anyone in the PAC Room from my office across the hall. On Aug. 28, Jimmy informed me that the room was in disarray. I checked and saw food waste and wrappers that were not purchased by Trips scattered around the room. We cleaned up and did our best to reorder the room.
We then used the room from the night of Aug. 29 to the morning of Sept. 2 for overnight storage of a few Trip Leaders’ belongings. Although we acknowledge and appreciate that the room is dedicated to the Pan-Asian Community, we were granted the ability to use the room for the duration of Trips as necessary.
Given my knowledge and our usage of the room, I don’t believe that First-Year Trips had any hand in the damage to the room or its contents, but I am personally sorry that it happened while the room was partially under our care. To be especially clear, First-Year Trips condemns all violence towards Dartmouth’s Pan-Asian Community.
Miles Harris is the director of First-Year Trips 2023. Letters to the Editor represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
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