To the Editor:
Wednesday night (Oct. 18, 1995), I went to the widely attended program in the Topliff lounge, where Professor Luxon presented an interrupted "Hell Night" documentation and left before leading a discussion about the material and the Greek system at Dartmouth as he had been advertised to do. This letter is in response to Professor Luxon walking out after his refusal to "have to take this shit." I have two points.
First, the atmosphere at the presentation was hardly hostile. It was certainly tense, but even to say that it was disrespectful is a bit too much.
Certainly had the presentation been completed and discussion ensued, emotions on both sides may have flared. However, it is important to note that Professor Luxon was keen on this from the outset, requesting the audience to save any polemic for the later part of the program. Despite his own condition, he immediately went into an introduction where he included many subtle digs against fraternity brothers, thus setting himself for confrontation. I believe that the detailed description of what followed is accurately reported in Thursday's article, "'Hell Night' video interrupted" (Oct. 19, 1995).
Second, and most important, whether or not Professor Luxon perceived the atmosphere to be as hostile as he purports, his reaction, nonetheless, was incredible. I cannot imagine what type of setting Professor Luxon anticipated. Did he expect a large crowd of silent observers nodding their blank agreements? From the beginning the program was sensationally built up as a sort of Greek system lynching and especially of the particular houses which were the subject of the video and tape.
Professor Luxon certainly did have the right to leave when he pleased despite the pleas of numerous attendees for him to stay and to allow the audience to view the material and thus be able to follow with informed discussion. However, he also had a moral obligation to stay and to face this "hostility." I can hardly believe that Professor Luxon, as a member of academia, as a professor at Dartmouth, where the free exchange of ideas is encouraged and essential, chose to simply walkout because one person asked that he not provide commentary on the video and because another questioned whether the first was truly being antagonistic. In your article, you reported that Professor Luxon objected that the fraternity brothers "acted like small children." That is precisely how I would assess his own behavior last night.
I must say, however, that just as I do not believe that any house's "Hell Night" is indicative of its day to day affairs or its concept of brotherhood, do I not believe, or, I do not want to believe, that Professor Luxon's attitude last night is in any way indicative of his attitude in the classroom. That would be a tragedy.
In closing, I do wish to make the following points clear. I neither endorse the Greek system here, for I am an independent, nor do I reject it, because I feel that it is an important social alternative to many Dartmouth students. However, as a Dartmouth student, it disappoints me that an individual who can demonstrate such low resolve and immaturity in the face of even minute adversity teaches here.
