Dartmouth alumni from three different decades demand responsible leadership from College President Sian Leah Beilock.
The article "College allocates campus space" [The Dartmouth, May 22] frustrated me tremendously. This article discussed the Facilities Advisory Committee, described the plight of the Women's Resource Center to move to a larger more central location, talked about Alpha Xi Delta's recent occupation of the Beta Theta Pi house and even managed to mention newly recognized Lambda Upsilon Lambda fraternity's desire to one day attain a permanent space for their organization.
I am a very prejudiced person. Far be it from me to pretend as if I do not emit racism, sexism, homophobia, ethnocentrism and classism into the Dartmouth environment on a regular basis; and while I blame a society that does not care for its children for most of my acculturated bigotry, I do not absolve myself of the responsibility of perpetuating jingoist attitudes, nor do I deny my greater obligation to attempt to prevent the transmission of my narrow-mindedness to my children. Recently a friend of mine called me a "hypocrite" because she perceived that I had a very harsh attitude towards whites which was incongruous with the highly-tolerant/anti-discriminatory image that I projected as a "campus-activist." To say the least I was very shocked and quite hurt to be accused of the greatest sin in the hierarchy of Dante's inferno (the two obvious hypocrites from the tradition of the Western canon--Judas the two-faced betrayer of Christ and Brutus his counterpart in Caesar's kingdom--are forever being consumed in Dis' mouth in the ninth circle of hell). My immediate reaction was of course to deny the charge as well as to try and contextualize any and all statements I may have made in my Dartmouth career alluding to individuals or groupings of them in which I used the word "white" as a qualifier or an indicative of a behavior, pre-disposition, temperament, et cetera.
Censhorship has never resolved any problem of human miscommunication or misunderstanding. Language and ideas only truly belong to those who put them upon printed pages, or utter them into the audible air, when both the transmission of the message and the manner in which it is received can be controlled; otherwise, words and concepts are subject to multiple meanings, implications, interpretations and project disparate moral and ethical intentions.
Like many Dartmouth students and Upper Valley residents I recently attended the viewing of Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life and was instantly reminded of the controversy incited by this author's life and works.
My first year at this school I anxiously attended graduation and said good-bye to a few good friends, but knew very well that life would go on without the Class of 1995.
To the Editor: I am deeply disturbed by the make-up of the executives selected by president-elect of the Student Assembly Frode Eilertsen '99. The power of the President to essentially pick anyone on this campus to fill the roles of chairs of vital committees such as Administration and Faculty Relations, Academic Affairs and Student Life, is very exiting and yet dangerous. The Student Assembly's executive board ought to be as diverse as the SA itself and the student body.
While visiting the Pow-wow on Sunday I felt tremendous pride and honor, but as I was walking home I was overcome with tremendous sadness. It is incontestable, this country would be nothing without its indigenous history and peoples.
To the Editor: While I realize that deadlines must be met, and time constraints can seriously affect final product, is it necessary to mention that an Assembly meeting is reminiscent of past Assemblies and then to specifically name Danielle Moore '95 and Rukmini Sichitiu '95? In your article yesterday ["Assembly endorses ethnic studies courses," May 7, 1997, The Dartmouth], it seemed repetitive and unfair to twice mention the past.
Last year Jon Heavey won the Student Assembly presidential election on the following platform: open up the Dartmouth telephone market; establish an Economics Department assessment of DDS; reform the service offices in McNutt Hall, especially the registrar; stagger the lunch hours of Dartmouth employees; keep Baker open; unlock all dorm doors; have Dartmouth Pride Dinners to build community. Do these issues sound familiar?