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The Dartmouth
July 9, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

The Last Straw

To The Editor:

I have recently resigned as President of the Dartmouth Alumni Club out here in Seattle. I served in that role for three years because I loved my school and wanted to help the alums here in the West maintain their love for Hanover. This debacle with Dean Furstenberg was the final straw that broke this camel's back and forced me to resign my position.

Between the attacks on fraternities that were labeled with the sweet-sounding name of "Student Life Initiative," the expansion of the physical campus, the growth of each incoming class and the sad, baseless, clueless comments by our Dean of Admissions, I have lost whatever flicker of love remained for my school. The saddest part of this whole episode is that most people believe that Furstenberg is only debasing football players with these despicable comments he made. What he actually says is that football and all other sports are somehow dragging down the standards of the classes he lords over, which is too erroneous to even comment upon.

Furstenberg has made sweeping comments about a huge sector of Dartmouth's community, and all he says is that he is "disappointed," but the question remains, does he regret what he said, or regret being caught in the act? What would happen if "athletes" were replaced by "public school applicants" or "Jewish male applicants" in his comments? He would be fired immediately, as he would be right now except that the "PC Police" have deemed in their all-knowing wisdom that slamming football players is somehow okay.

Unfortunately this man has sole discretion over who is and is not admitted, so we will never have much definitive proof about where his true feelings lie. Sadly, after seeing so many deserving high school athletes I have interviewed be denied admission in recent years, I have a pretty informed idea of where those true feelings do indeed lie.

I will miss my classmates and miss the campus, but considering how the current administration is destroying the Dartmouth that I and many like me came to love, I will not miss the actual school very much. It's hard to miss something that I cannot even begin to identify with. It is very sad what has happened to the (former) best overall college experience in the world.