<p>Campus reaction has been an interesting mixture of anger, outrage and defensiveness, IMO. In particular, I found this comparison between Dartmouth's reaction and the reaction at Williams College (MA) to similar events, disturbingly emblematic:</p>
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What more is anyone going to say about it? Smoking is bad, drinking is bad, hating people is bad. I mean really. If you didnt do it and dont agree with it, what are you going to say or do about whoever did whatever that you didnt say or think before? This is a reflection only on whoever did it and it is unlikely that Dartmouth College or Williams College is harboring racists and bigots. But it is a good place to get noticed and use it to your advamtage if you are in or affiliated with one of the aggrieved groups written about. In other words it may be nothing more than a PR ploy.</p>
<p>^^Which attitude? The attitude of the quoted comment or the attitude of the school administration? And of course no matter which attitude you meant, the answer to your question is no. There is no such thing as an attitude that will be shared by everyone at a modern university, especially one that includes diversity as one of its factors for recruiting and admitting students. </p>
<p>My guess is that the differences in reaction between Williams and Dartmouth have more to do with nature of the offenses rather than differences between the schools. Blatant racism (Williams), especially involving the use of the n-word, has been socially and legally unacceptable for far longer than has blatant homophobia (Dartmouth). Not everyone in modern society has come to view them as equivalent offenses, despite laws and rules setting them as equally unacceptable.</p>
<p>This is a bit out of context. The article was written by Ashley Ulrich. It is not an official statement, and should not be treated as such because the exiting one is actually quite different.
In reference to the actual quote, I think that it displays both, arrogance and ignorance, but is simply a bad choice of words. If you’re looking at it to determine the atmosphere at Dartmouth: don’t takehave it seriously. Dartmouth has one of the most open campus environments out of any of the top schools. You can find a lot of articles from The Dartmouth that are clearly not coming from the school’s administration (things like drugs, underage drinking, ect.) I’m sure that 9/10 Dartmouth staff members would disagree with that attitude.</p>
<p>Let’s just say that if the perp gets caught – and somehow doesn’t get expelled – social pressure will force him/her to transfer. Campus was, and still is, outraged that this happened. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Dartmouth is a very tolerant place, but the one thing it won’t tolerate is intolerance.</p>
<p>The comment that johnwesley quoted (which was posted on the Dartmouth newspaper site anonymously, btw; most comments are not) is typical of the way Fox news, et al, try to make any reaction to hatefulness that wasn’t fostered by themselves seem overblown and manipulative. That some people are willing to say that kind of thing does not invalidate the truth of the majority reaction, which seems to have been outrage and concern that the official reaction was more muted than it should have been. From the article that was linked, it appears that students felt President Kim should have made a public statement earlier, both notifying the student body that the offense had occurred and making clear that it was being investigated and would be punished if possible.</p>
<p>As an active alum and parent of a '12, I was very disappointed that President Kim did not issue a statement of zero tolerance. I read about the Williams response to hate comments and was struck by the contrast. I was as excited for the Aires success as anyone and attended many alumni gatherings for the Sing Off. That said, I heard at least one gay Dartmouth student comment that if President Kim could urge alumni to vote for the Aires in a mass email, he could at least issue a statement to the D about the vandalism.</p>