In an open discussion Wednesday night nearly 40 students met to discuss how race affects students' performances and experiences at Dartmouth.
Several students felt that minority students at Dartmouth often do not academically perform as well as their white counterparts and the discussion focused on the causes and ramifications of this disparity.
Tikia Hamilton '98 moderated the discussion, titled, "Is Dartmouth Our Place?" which took place in the lounge of Cutter-Shabazz Hall. Sponsored by the Afro-American Society, the open forum focused mainly on the academics of black students. Hamilton said the average grade point average for black students is less than 3.0.
She said the main reason for the difference between black and white students' performance is minority students do not feel as comfortable at Dartmouth.
The audience seemed to agree there is a lack of social options on campus for students not interested in the mainstream fraternity scene, contributing to blacks' lack of success.
"Remember what you did in high school after a long night of studying?" one participant said. "The next night you went out and to a place you felt comfortable and partied. Then you went back to studying."
"That place just doesn't exist here" for many students, he said.
Other audience members said minorities were often given lower expectations, once they reached the College -- and that those expectations evolved into self-fulfilling prophesies.
"There is a lot of pre-grading that goes on," Taheerah El-Amin '98 said. She suggested professors sometimes seem to expect less of her because of her educational background or socioeconomic status.
The discussion became heated when one recent black graduate of the College proposed that one reason minorities do not do as well as they could is that some of them do not work as hard as they should.
