Professor Edsforth,
My friend and former roommate Jeff Kemnitz '03 left me a message yesterday telling me to look at The Dartmouth website to see that you will not be teaching at Dartmouth this coming year (The Dartmouth, Jan. 19). While you may not remember him or me, I want you to know that we are both sad to hear of the situation, confused as to how something like this could happen and a bit angry, to be honest.
While I never had a class with you, I want you to know that you were brought up multiple times throughout my years at Dartmouth as one professor who was incredibly charismatic and truly committed to teaching. It is true that as a history major I had more reason than some to hear about the "reps" of the different professors in the department, yet the positive comments I heard about you came not only from fellow history majors but from students representing a rather wide cross section of academic disciplines who just happened to have taken a course with you.
My only exposure to your dynamic personality came in the form of a lecture you gave during the fall of 2002 as a part of the teach-ins organized in reaction to the Bush administration's policies in Iraq. Your energy, enthusiasm and knowledge regarding your subject were truly inspiring. To this day I reference things I learned from you in that lecture, both in my thoughts about foreign policy and in conversations with those around me. That hour-long experience did more to influence and educate me about what is going on in the world around me than many of my term-long classes combined. In my eyes this is something that many educators could only hope to do.
I do not understand why Dartmouth, as an academic institution that trumpets, at seemingly any opportunity that presents itself, its "unique" focus on undergraduate education, could let one of its best professors depart so prematurely. While I do not fully grasp the situation surrounding this decision, the motivations are somewhat beside the point: this is a grave mistake, no matter what the reasoning behind it.
If there is anything I can do to help to right this situation, please let me know. Be assured that there are a good number of recent alums here in San Francisco that know about this decision, or will soon. You have our support. In the coming days we will try to brainstorm to see what we can do. I don't think the College as a whole, and perhaps even the history department specifically, has treated you fairly and I find that deplorable, especially given your years of service to Dartmouth.
But what concerns me more is the fact that there are hundreds of potential students who now will never get to experience you as a scholar, a teacher or as a mentor. This is not fair to them. Why should they not have the same access to greatness in the classroom as we had in our time in Hanover? This does not make sense.
I hope that you are well in spite of what has happened, and I hope that this situation will be resolved correctly in the coming days in the best interests of you, the College, the department and, most importantly, the students.
