To the Editor:
The Dartmouth community is committed to equality. We have all received this message, whether through our Hinman Box or freshman orientation. This idea of equality has been stressed and re-stressed to us, so let's take a look and see if it applies to the Dartmouth community.
An easy example is an illegally parked car. You would think that all double parked cars would be treated the same, whether it belongs to a student, staff or faculty member. Wrong. The current policy states that a student must pay a $50 fine upon his first violation, while anyone else gets away with a "warning." Not quite equal, huh?
Perhaps this is an instance of affirmative action or some method of helping disadvantaged drivers. Who could more easily afford to give $50 to the College, a student or a paid employee of the College?
But that doesn't make sense. Perhaps it is a special perk for employees. That sounds fair, only if it the College believes that some people should be able to block traffic, illegally park in a crowded area or double park me in for fun.
The only plausible reason that I can think of is that the employees' union fought for this privilege while the Student Assembly has been fighting each other. Perhaps now with a new constitution and new leadership, students' voices can be organized and used to lobby to create equality out of clear inequality. Perhaps this small example will go even further to begin to show students that student government can change something besides their own titles.
Finally, what's with the open door policy? I thought that we live under the Community Principles of Dartmouth and because of that we do not lock the doors to the dorms. However, I have noticed that some doors are locked at random times, especially to dorms that have back doors, like the Fayerweathers and Ripley-Woodward-Smith. What's the point of locking the back door and not the front? All it creates is an annoyance for those who live there and or are visiting there. If we truly live under the "open door policy," please leave the doors open! If not, tell us why this is changing. I think that the open door policy is a great tribute to the community that we have established at Dartmouth and it's loss would be very symbolic of deeper problems. If this is all a misunderstanding, please keep the doors open, and make our lives less confusing.
