Although the environment at Dartmouth has changed tremendously and boundaries have lessened between races, black students at Dartmouth still face difficult issues, according to associate history professor Judy Byfield '80 and three other panelists.
Byfield spoke on a panel of four Dartmouth alumni during this Thursday's community hour, dubbed "Black at Dartmouth."
Both Byfield and Special Assistant to the President for Institutional Diversity and Equity Ozzie Harris '81 had some negative memories of events on campus.
Byfield came to Dartmouth in 1976, the first year that women graduated from Dartmouth. Being at Dartmouth posed even more difficulties to her as a black woman because she was a minority in two respects.
She had initially decided to go to Northwestern, but "my father said, 'You are going to Dartmouth,' so I did. It was a real shock; I didn't want to be here and was determined to be unhappy, and to some extent was."
Harris compared the environment of Dartmouth to the movie "Dazed and Confused," saying that "students were not particularly conscious. It was not what I expected from an intellectual institution."
Byfield noted that talk in the black community focused on classes -- specifically, which ones to take and which ones not to take.
"We talked about ... which profs only thought black students could get a 'C,' so you stayed away from their classes," she recalled. She went on to recount the winter of '78, saying "it was the 'winter of discontent'. We formed a procession behind the Native Americans to the middle of the Green where we painted the [Winter Carnival] statue red, black and green, with women symbols."
Ruth Morgan '96 raised a different issue that prevailed during her time on campus and still exists today.
"There is the expectation that black students are here to educate their peers," she said, adding that some people think the College admits black students and other minorites in order to improve the experience of others. The faculty "would turn to us in class for a 'black perspective' instead of looking at it academically."
"There is a myth of homogeneity within the black community," Morgan said, "which is just not true. Blacks come from all over, but here at Dartmouth, we are all lumped together."
Despite the problems, panel members responded positively to the question of whether black student life at Dartmouth has changed. Atteeyah Hollie '02, the fourth panelist, said that students have "been making strides" but cited one specific problem.
"There is a huge disconnect between blacks today and the past classes," she said, glancing at Harris and Byfield, "We need to learn about this, and it will lead to us having more respect."
Harris thinks that although things have improved, students still face many of the same issues as he did.
"But don't just listen to me," he said, urging students. "It is your day. Demand that your experience is the best for you."
The panel concluded with the question of whether the panelists would encourage black students to attend Dartmouth.
The panel agreed that the environments in other institutions are not drastically different, and that Dartmouth has good resources for minority students.
"I would warn them, but I would encourage them to come, because I am not sure that it would be different in other places. It will only make people stronger if they come here," Hollie stated.
Hollie based her own decision to come to Dartmouth on the fact that the College invited her for a free visit and offered a good financial aid package, but after her arrival, her impression of the College turned bittersweet.
"I was happy until October of my freshman fall, when a frat decided to throw a ghetto party. Some people here feel that it is their right to make fun of other people's cultures -- it has definitely been hard," she said.
About 70 people, including Dartmouth students, faculty and community members, about half of them black, filed into Collis Commonground to hear the discussion.
