Whenthe news about Sarah Devens sent shock waves through the campus a couple of weeks ago, I was paralyzed, and for more than just a brief moment.
Although the flag was lowered to half-mast the next day, students went to their classes and met at Collis and saw movies just like any other day. I did not know Sarah Devens, yet I was frightened at how quickly the issue disappeared from the daily agenda. The shock waves were short-lived and left minimal signs of any devastation or anguish on our community.
The 'Dartmouth Community' is a term often associated with high ideals and principles. 'The Dartmouth community opposes violence,' or 'the Dartmouth community encourages involvement' are often-heard cliches, yet when it came down to the ultimate ideal -- people -- the Dartmouth community gasped briefly in horror and went about its daily routine.
Maybe the topic was too disturbing to deal with openly. After all, her suicide seemed somehow mysterious and inexplicable. Why would such a pleasant person, so successful on three varsity teams, so liked by her friends, take her own life? Not I, nor anyone else, knows the real answer, but the prospect is awfully alarming.
I believe that is part of the reason why the Dartmouth community chose to deal with the topic concisely and shelve the issue in some remote corner to be covered with dust.
Nobody likes to deal with the hard and painful topics, but unfortunately these are the areas we can learn most from.Such was the case with discrimination 40 years ago. And such is the case with Sarah's suicide.
However, the difficulty of the situation cannot alone explain the nonchalance of the community towards the suicide.
For me, this was a sign of how much people at Dartmouth really care about the Dartmouth community. It is in distressed circumstances such as this that the ideals and principles take secondary role to how much people really care. And it was a pitiful display. I heard students saying, "Of course that's horrible, but I didn't know her." A fellow member of our community, the Dartmouth community, killed herself, but people did not really care.
It was not just the students either. Besides College Health Services counselors and a candlelight vigil, nothing else was organized by the College. No public addresses, no moments of silence, and no attempt to learn some lessons and make some changes as a result of the suicide. Maybe the pressure of three varsity sports is so overwhelming that it should be forbidden? Maybe education about suicide and signs of distress is necessary for all students? What should be done to prevent another occurrences such as senior Dan Boyer's suicide two years ago and Devens' suicide? Many important lessons can be learned from this terrible experience, yet no one seems to care.
What is it about this Dartmouth community with all its high and mighty ideals that it seems to not care about its own members?
Nobody cares because everyone are closed within themselves or within their own little social circles. A brother in a fraternity may care a lot about other brothers in his house, but why should he care about an unaffiliated student from the other side of campus which he does not know? They have nothing in common, they have never met, and they belong to different social circles. Why should they care about one another?
Because they are both members of the Dartmouth community. This community includes all of us regardless of affiliation, gender, race, appearance, or age. We all belong to the group called the Dartmouth community. But currently we are hardly a real community.
We have little communities within us -- fraternities, sororities, undergraduate societies -- but we cannot have a sense of a Dartmouth community until we begin to care about other members of the community. And to care means to show that we care about the people around us: to cheer them when they are down or depressed; to try and prevent them from hurting themselves; and to support and listen when they need a friend.
We can say we care all we want, but when a member of the community commits suicide and the event evaporates without any noticeable effect on the community, that hardly qualifies us as a real community.
It is not until we will start to care about other Dartmouth people that we can call ourselves a real Dartmouth community.
