A group of students that describe themselves as a grassroots coalition dedicated to changing the culture and institutions of Dartmouth will rally this morning at 8:00, a protest intended to grab the attention of the Trustees gathered on campus for their quarterly meeting.
Standing at the threshold of Parkhurst Hall, the group will ask for a list of demands, including the aggressive hiring and retention of minority professors, a Korean language study program; a new centrally located Women's Resource Center; harsher punishment for sexual assault; incentives for coed houses to secede from the Coed Fraternity and Sorority Council; disclosure about Dartmouth's endowment; affirmation of the education department; and campus-wide environmental efficiency.
"Two years ago when they put out the Student Life Initiative, a lot of people were willing to rally about the Greeks, and basically for the status quo," said organizer Christina Hoe '02. "And now people are willing to stand up and ask for change, and it doesn't necessarily have to be about the Greek system."
Organizers of the protest, which they are calling a "forum for dialogue," have kept secret the planning of the event, saying it is irrelevant to their message. But some have said that the idea for a rally began last term among seven students, and slowly gained steam within the past couple of weeks. The organizers, which numbered 14 at one point but dropped to 12 by the end, said their work is unaffiliated with student organizations.
"The reason is it was kept fairly quiet was because if it was going to be a grassroots thing, we wanted to keep it away from the administration, so it was really coming from students," said Hoe.
But the effort to keep the protest secret from the administration failed. Yesterday, administrators reportedly discussed the event at a Committee on Student Activities meeting, sources said last night. That discussion was reported to the organizers, who say they don't know who would have alerted College officials.
That the administration found out about the protest may or may not be related to some of the disagreements that arose among organizers towards the end of the planning. Explained one student who was involved with the rally but registered reservations about it: "I don't think there was agreement on what approach to take."
"I think protest and student movement is a good thing, but I also believe in working with the system, through College committees, what the SLI can do. I believe in (Dean of the College) James Larimore as a big advocate in these issues," the student, Yuval Ortiz-Quiroga '02, said.
Still, organizers are optimistic that their ideas will be taken seriously.
"We want to send the message to the Trustees. And also really to the country, because that was in The New York Times. We want people to know that they can rally around bigger issues than a keg and a basement," said Hoe.
While the organizers are distinguishing themselves from the students who gathered on the lawn of Psi Upsilon fraternity two winters ago to rally against the Initiative, they share the Greeks anti-paternalist emphasis.
"We're not just people trying to complain. What we're trying to do is make a point. A lot of students think they're alone when they're unhappy here. There are a lot of people who want change. Right now change is coming from the top down. It's coming from committees and the administration. And we want it to be grassroots, it should come from the individuals," said Hoe.
Plans for the event were finalized at a meeting last night, according to organizers. But the campus wasn't alerted until late into the night, when organizers sent out mass BlitzMail messages about the rally. The blitz was signed by 12 "concerned students."
One organizer said the rally protest was originally planned to coincide with the administrators' morning arrival at Parkhurst. But they also wanted students to see the rally as they walked to classes throughout the day.
