Minority and international students have experiences at Dartmouth that are unique in many ways, and sometimes more difficult. However, several international and cultural organizations exist to both promote this uniqueness and to ease some of the difficulties that minority students experience.
The Afro-American Society brings lecturers, professors, entertainers and political figures to Dartmouth and hosts other activities to meet the cultural and social needs of black students.
The Shabazz Center offers programming to promote awareness of issues regarding the African Diaspora. Up to twenty-six students may live in the Shabazz house each term.
The Dartmouth Asian Organization has as its goal to present Asian and Asian-American culture to the Dartmouth community and provide social and intellectual interaction among Asian and Asian-American students. DAO also hosts an increasingly popular culture night each term.
The Korean-American Student Association conducts a Korean film festival, an Intramural Sports program, an annual Korean culture night and a Big Sibling/Little Sibling Program. KASA functions both as a social organization and a medium to further increase the understanding of Korean culture at Dartmouth.
Milan, an organization working to unite students from the Indian subcontinent, sponsors events related to South Asia, such as a poetry reading and a Hood Museum Art Exhibit and hosts an annual cultural night.
Shamis is a new group founded this year to promote Arab culture. The founders of Shamis wanted to form a group that would include both Arab students who are both Muslims and non-Muslims.
An umbrella organization for campus Latino groups, La Alianza Latina works to unite people interested in Latino cultures and lends its support toward American Latino students at Dartmouth. Guest speakers, movie nights and panels have been just a few of this group's many activities.
International students have their own student organizations.
Brewster, the International House, houses over 30 students and holds a variety of programming events, including weekly dinners, international movie nights, and informational or intellectual lectures.
In particular, the International Students Association has been increasingly active lately, notably in events co-sponsored with other organizations.
Last year, the ISA sponsored a series of lectures on international politics entitled "Axis of Evil?," brought a news reporter who had worked in Chechnya to campus and sponsored a dinner to premiere a documentary on international students at Dartmouth, "Aliens."
Iga Czarnawska '04, the director of the film, added that because there were sometimes too few students from the same cultural background among international students, there were often too few to make a minority that was visible to the Dartmouth campus.
