<p>"A group of Dartmouth College students staged an overnight sit-in Tuesday at the office of the Ivy League university's president, demanding a point-by-point response to a list of action items the protesters say will address a variety of issues on the campus." …</p>
<p>They are fortunate that I am not the president. Guess what my response would have been. Winner gets a prize of my choice. </p>
<p>At Dartmouth, there are clearly students who do not have enough work to do. </p>
<p>^How so? The old-boys mentality is so deeply-engrained within each ivy. Perhaps it’s time for the incumbent generation to change that; to challenge the white, privileged, and patriarchal society that these institutions tacitly support… and this is coming from a guy who’s going to one.</p>
<p>There were 2 great opinion articles in the Dartmouth yesterday, explaining that other voices need to be heard and considered. These kids protesting are a very small minority, and they are going about this all wrong. Every single college out there could improve, but these kids sound crazy with demands without regards to budgets. Life just doesn’t work like that.</p>
<p><a href=“Oppressed by the Ivy League - WSJ”>Oppressed by the Ivy League - WSJ;
<p>I can’t say it any better than this from the Wall Street Journal. It seems that Dartmouth is letting itself be shamed when in reality it’s such an amazing place. Dartmouth is in desperate need of good leadership and a pro-active admissions office that knows how to answer all the slander they face in less than accurate media portrayals. </p>
<p>I think the Dartmouth prof handled it the right way. Scolding these kids publicly would have added fuel to the fire and created a spectacle that these protestors may actually covet.</p>
<p>collegealum, I think you could safely remove the word “may” from that sentence. :)</p>
<p>collegealum, I’m not sure what “Dartmouth prof” you’re talking about. I surely hope you are not referring to the idiot who is encouraging them. If you are referring to Hanlon, he is the president of the college, not a professor, and I wish he would follow the advice of the final paragraph in the WSJ article: </p>
<p>“Dartmouth and any other school in this position should tell the students they have an hour to leave the premises, and if they don’t they will be arrested for trespassing and expelled. Since Mr. Hanlon missed that chance, he and the school’s trustees should now tell the students that if they are so unhappy they should transfer. Surely the occupiers would be welcomed by at least one of the other 4,431 universities or colleges in the U.S. But they may discover the problem is their own sense of privilege, not Dartmouth’s.”</p>
<p>Drink a beer; get suspended. Invade the president’s office; get … a pat on the back? </p>
<p>I particularly liked the part where one of the occupying students said that she felt like a hostage because they only had access to one bathroom. Or words to that effect.</p>
<p>Seriously, I think that almost everyone would acknowledge that there is room for improvement in some respects at D–and everywhere else, for that matter–but this particular set of “activists” leave much to be desired. Remember when the Real Talk crew went to the confab organized by the students bringing the Title IX/Clery Act complaints against various schools, and they were asked to leave because the rest of the participants found them threatening and/or offensive? O, the irony.</p>
<p>Personally, I would be be perfectly content to see D abolish Greek organizations, or at least transform the houses into coed living spaces, and establish something approaching a residential college system. (The existing physical plant would obviously limit that.) But many, if not most, of the demands on the “Freedom Budget” are ludicrous. (Racial quotas? Really??)</p>
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<p>Yeah, I meant the president of Dartmouth, not the prof.</p>
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<p>The president could have given an ultimatum and would have been justified. However, the thing about this is that the protesters are extreme to the point of being a parody, and the Dartmouth president doesn’t lose anything by deftly sidestepping the whole matter while making it clear that the protestors’ tactics were immature. . </p>
<p>Wow, a lot of hate on here for what these students are doing. Perhaps they are going about it in the wrong way, but their complaints are ALL 100% warranted. Dartmouth is an incredible place, but it is, unfortunately, still controlled by the old elites (aka the frats/alumni of the frats). Therefore, regardless of how few students are actually to blame, an omnipresent culture of elitism and white, male privilege permeates all sectors of Dmouth’s society.</p>
<p>@AboutTheSame: I guess you’d been one of the construction helmeted guys at the '68 convention, eh? You’d have the college president wield a sledgehammer to this situation. Reactionary response to a reactionary protest. That’s a formula for lots of success, eh? </p>
<p>Nice slam, T26E4. I don’t believe I’ve engaged in any ad hominem attacks. I don’t believe I deserved that one. I probably would have taken a much stronger line than Hanlon. The comparison to Chicago '68 is nonsense.</p>
<p>Mike, I think that characterizing people’s statements on this thread as “hate” is hyperbolic and not constructive. (And I think it would have been a very bad move for Hanlon to expel, suspend, or throw the students out of his office.)</p>
<p>About The Same, interesting comment. After reading about the incident and viewing a video of the Hanlon meeting, my first thought was that they were modeling themselves after the old Vietnam protests. In their world, maybe they see this as their Vietnam. So I’m a little amused at their overall naiveté, quite a bit embarrassed by their Phil-shaming video but also recognize where they’re coming from.</p>
<p>As an alum from a very early class of women, I remember what it is like to be one of the minority. Rape occurred but no one talked about it. When I was there, a male student was doused with several gallons of paint by some frat guys. I now look back on that and realize he may have been gay. No one talked about that aspect of the attack. Those responsible were drunk, and I believe they got off the hook specifically because they were. </p>
<p>Events like these will continue to happen at Dartmouth and most other schools because you can’t screen out all the bad apples. I’d like to believe that they are the exceptions. I never felt unsafe on campus walking by myself at any time of the night, even though I lived in the River Cluster, at the time the most isolated student housing facility. </p>
<p>However, do I think that racism and sexism are systemic to the Dartmouth culture and community? No. I think that
Dartmouth is a great school with a troubling history of not responding decisively when women, gay and minority students are harassed or victimized by fellow students. It has been over forty years since women formally entered Dartmouth. Why does it take so long to institute a transparent policy of no tolerance? </p>
<p>It’s about leadership. Phil Hanlon just came on board a few months ago. We’ve got to give this guy a chance. </p>
<p>What distressed me most about the protest is the way this group of students as much as branded Phil Hanlon sexist and racist basically because he’s a white male alum. Posting a video of his meeting with them would be fine, except that it’s titled “hanlon ‘responds’ to sit in, cannot define white supremacy.” Huh? Midway through the video someone asks him if he opposes white supremacy. He appears to be stunned by the question and asks them to define it. Good response. As they repeat the question, several students who are entering the room make him move out of their way so they can carry in their pillows and bedding. I have to hand it to him, he kept his cool and did not let them escalate and politely ended the discussion a few minutes later. </p>
<p>Yes, they’re young, they want to be change agents, but it’s terribly disrespectful, embarrassing and serves to drive away very talented prospective students. And money that’s needed to implement change. </p>
<p>@abouttheSame
I agree. I sincerely apologize. I crossed a line I shouldn’t have.</p>
<p>@MikeNY5 said, “Wow, a lot of hate on here for what these students are doing.”</p>
<p>Oh, how far we have fallen. Intellectual disagreement is now characterized as hate if one does not support a group, no matter how looney their propositions. </p>
<p>Sorry, needing a queer physics class is looney. Anyone is free to describe to me what is queer and transgender physics and chemistry. I am at a loss; and I was a science major at a top undergrad school and in graduate school as well. </p>
<p>Talk about defining having a different opinion downwards.</p>
<p>Very thoughtful response, seahunt1102. Maybe I should give Phil more credit. If someone invaded my office and kept me from doing my job, I would not react as calmly. Of course, I have the benefit of the fact that the California Highway Patrol would not let them get that far. (No, T26E4, that does not mean that they would bring out their billy clubs: just that the protestors can’t even get to my floor.) </p>
<p>Psychology 101. These unhappy students do not feel good about themselves, so they project their self hate on others that they perceive to have power. Dartmouth has to do a better job of not admitting them in the first place. Let them be unhappy somewhere else. </p>