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The Dartmouth
November 23, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth
Charles Gardner
The Setonian
Opinion

Quota expansion is not the solution

To the Editor: Zak Moore '09 makes several good points about the need for better enforcement of our immigration laws with respect to illegal immigrants ("Chances For All, Safety From The Few," April 3), but I take issue with his contention that the United States must significantly expand quotas for legal immigration. The United States already maintains the most generous immigration policy of any country, admitting more than one million people annually in recent years, and few of these arrivals are admitted according to any standard set to benefit the nation (such as educational attainment). Remarkably, over two-thirds of immigrants are let in simply because they are immediate or sponsored relatives of U.S.

The Setonian
Opinion

Responsibility Rests on the College

To the Editor: The Hanover Police should be commended for apprehending the six illegal immigrant workers last week ("Officers Find Six Illegal Construction Workers," July 21), but the College's attempt to pin the blame for their presence solely on the subcontractor seems to me a flimsy excuse for poor oversight. If the College is truly against the hiring of illegals for work on its own construction projects, it should consider performing more rigorous checks of those construction firms that it contracts, rather than simply claiming ignorance and deflecting the blame once such workers are found. Ultimately it is the responsibility of the federal government to enforce labor laws, but if the College turns a blind eye to the hiring practices of those it contracts, there is little to prevent such a situation from occurring again.

The Setonian
News

Meyers, Skaggs stress need for voter participation

For two former members of Congress, declining participation in the American political process is a problem that threatens to undermine the very basis of republican government in the United States. Jan Meyers and David Skaggs, who represented districts in Kansas and Colorado respectively while in Congress, emphasized the importance of voter participation in sustaining American democracy during a joint lecture last night. At present, Skaggs said, America has "a minority government" in that well under half of those eligible choose to vote in a typical election year.

The Setonian
News

Clements '54 to fund new professorship

College President James Wright announced yesterday that Robert Clements '54 and the trustees of The Clements Foundation have pledged $2.5 million to the College for the creation of a professorship devoted to the study of problems facing democracies across the world. Clements, chairman of the board at Arch Capital Group Ltd., said that the new Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics will help foster discussion on challenges facing both American democracy and emerging democracies worldwide. "American democracy is a model for other countries to emulate, but that model faces challenges at home," Clements said.

The Setonian
News

Hogan '01 lambasts campus speech codes

America's colleges and universities are guilty of an "outrageous betrayal" of the principle of free speech through their establishment of restrictive and intellectually stifling speech codes, Emmett Hogan '01 said yesterday. Hogan argued that students of the '60s and '70s who had enjoyed power in guiding college policies across the nation are now, as administrators, loathe to heed the voices of today's students in what he called "a generational swindle of epic proportions." Instead, Hogan said, institutions enforce official doctrines of diversity and group identity in what amounts to an "assault on the sanctity of the individual." Hogan, who is currently the Program Coordinator for the Foundation of Individual Rights in Education, conceded that private institutions have the right to set their own policies in any way they choose, but said colleges risk destroying their essential role as forums for the free exchange of ideas when they set limits on what can and cannot be said. Among the worst offenders, Hogan said, are Harvard University and UCLA, which have established codes banning not only harassing and derogatory language, but in some instances "demeaning" or "abusive" speech, and even remarks that challenge statements made by certain campus groups.

The Setonian
News

Global warming may chill planet

The continued warming of earth's atmosphere threatens to trigger a dramatic change in ocean circulation that could paradoxically plunge much of Europe and North America into bitter cold within the next few decades, oceanic expert Robert Gagosian said to a packed crowd on Friday. Earth's oceans, which hold vastly more heat than the atmosphere, are responsible for transporting and redistributing this heat across the globe through a linked series of giant, slow-moving currents known as the "great ocean conveyor," according to Gagosian, who is President and Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The Gulf Stream, which carries warm equatorial waters north, moderating the climate in Europe and the North Atlantic, is one of the best known of these currents.

The Setonian
News

Panelists debate moral side of war on terror

Four speakers drawn from the Dartmouth faculty and the U.S. military and government wrestled with the ethical and moral implications of waging a war on terrorism at a panel discussion yesterday. Speaking before a full house in Filene Auditorium, the panelists discussed the ethical challenges posed to the United States by working with governments that often do not share a respect for human rights, as well as the infringement on civil liberties brought about by sweeping domestic security legislation. Robert Leicht, former Army Special Forces Colonel and liaison to the CIA, said the area of covert operations is one that often lays moral obstacles in the paths of U.S.

The Setonian
News

Author: U.S. action abroad has a price

A "genuinely humble approach" to American foreign policy should replace widespread U.S. intervention abroad, according to Doug Bandow, author and senior fellow at the Cato Institute. During a speech entitled "Republic or Empire: American Foreign Policy After September 11," Bandow emphasized that extensive U.S.

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