On April 4, a story on the front page of The New York Times proclaimed: "It is not easy being an old lefty on campus in this war." Shelby Grantham, senior lecturer in English and faculty advisor to the student group Why War, believes this campus is an exception.
"The question that those of us who protested the war must ask is: 'What do we do now?'" Grantham said. She has begun to answer the question. At the May 19 meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, she plans to present a resolution condemning U.S. action in Iraq and any further occupation outside the jurisdiction of the United Nations while also acknowledging the horrors of Saddam Hussein's fallen regime.
"As educators of young minds, we as faculty have the responsibility to lead the way in speaking truth to power and standing publicly for our beliefs," Grantham said. An FAS resolution would require a majority vote of members of the faculty present at the May 19 meeting.
A statement from the faculty as a whole will no doubt be controversial. A similar effort by the Student Assembly was killed in committee before the war began. Members were divided on the issue and concerned that it was not their place to speak for the student body at large.
"It seemed to me that most students wanted more inspections, but there wasn't really a mandate," Student Body President Janos Marton '04 said.
"There will be a diversity of opinion among professors as well," Marton said. "I'd be surprised if the question of the FAS's place in releasing a resolution didn't come up." Marton added that if the necessary support was there, he "wouldn't have a problem with" the FAS passing such a declaration.
Frank Webb '03, former president of the College Republicans, expressed a different viewpoint. "It's not the faculty's role to pass a resolution on American foreign policy," he said. "They should be more interested in pedagogical issues," including student housing and the plight of the library system.
"I'm not so sure [the faculty's] job is to mold our minds so much as to expose us to all fronts of policy debates," Webb said.
The function of the FAS, included in its charter, specifies that the organization should deal with educational issues, the appointment of faculty and various aspects of student life. The only portion that could be understood to give jurisdiction for a resolution specifies that the FAS take "such actions as may be appropriate to further the educational objectives of Dartmouth College."
Grantham said the formation and continued action of Why War has been "exhilarating" and praised the group's student leaders for their energy and focus.
Grantham, who has worked for Dartmouth in a variety of functions since the early 1970s, believes that the College is fertile ground for activism.
"Dartmouth has an extraordinary history of protest," she said. In 1969, students occupied College President James Dickey's office for 12 hours to protest the Vietnam War. More recently Why War has held a series of "teach-ins" to promote opposition to U.S. military action in Iraq.
Grantham is a long-time veteran of the peace movement. Her left-wing credentials include several years working full-time against the Vietnam War and an article in the conservative campus publication The Dartmouth Review about her English 5 class called "Into the Heart of Darkness."
Her pacifist activism is based on Gandhi's precepts of non-violent protest as enumerated in Krishnalal Shridharani's 1939 work "War Without Violence."
"Non-violent protest is based in a fervent belief in the goodness of all peoples," Grantham said. "In-your-face doesn't work and is immoral."
She stressed that conviction and truth are a key part of protesting injustice. "It's not about tamping things down -- it's about couching what you have to say in a respectful way."
