Despite President James Wright's repeated assurances that no speech codes exist at Dartmouth, a number of students expressed concern over the weekend that they were unable to exercise their freedom of expression at College sporting events.
The concerns stem from several incidents at Dartmouth baseball games this Saturday and Sunday against Brown. Safety and Security officers approached several students in attendance who were heckling members of the Brown baseball team from the bleachers.
Although College Proctor Harry Kinne confirmed that no students were ultimately removed from the game or asked to provide identification, several hecklers claim that they were threatened with ejection if they continued to yell at the players.
"It got so bad that someone jokingly made fun of the kid sitting next to him and the S&S officer came over and told him it wasn't nice to make fun of your friends," Eduardo Bertran '06 said. "If he continued in this fashion, he would have been ejected immediately."
According to Kinne, the game was "routine" and Safety and Security did not face any unusual problems with the hecklers. Two hecklers even apologized to officers after the game.
"If a person was repeatedly disruptive then an officer might tell someone to stay within athletic department guidelines or face having to leave, but only after repeated conversations with that person," Kinne said. "Someone would have to be disruptive to be ejected, not for just normal baseball rooting and heckling."
Although Senior Associate Athletic Director Brian Austin was initially unaware of the events that transpired at the Dartmouth baseball games, he offered assurances that vociferous support for teams would be tolerated at athletic events. However, profanity and directed personal attacks are not permitted, and the heckling must be limited to events taking place in the game.
"Our general policy [toward heckling] is for any spectators at the game to be able to enjoy the experience," Austin said, noting that families with small children are often present at such events and are in close proximity to students.
However, Austin did not completely discourage heckling at games, so long as the comments were kept positive and relevant to the game.
"I think our students come up with some pretty clever things about incidents on the field," Austin said.
Brian Edmonson '05, one of the hecklers present at the baseball games over the weekend, maintained that the behavior of the students was positive and did not justify the attention that it received from Safety and Security.
"Compared to recent years, this year's heckling is a lot cleaner," Edmonson said. "We have taken the time to abolish swearing and anything that can be construed as plain-out offensive."
Hecklers have been a fixture at a number of Dartmouth sporting events for years, and the baseball hecklers have not been immune from controversy in the past.
An article that appeared in The Harvard Crimson in May 2003 termed the hecklers the "Loudmouth Brigade," and had the Harvard's coach quoted as calling a game in which the hecklers were present a "fiasco."
Austin also pointed out an incident from several years ago in which Dartmouth baseball hecklers found out that a player on an opposing team had a drug problem and made a number of references to his substance abuse over the course of the game.
"That's mean and it's targeted and it has nothing to do with the game," Austin said. Although that particular example is a clear-cut case of behavior that would not be tolerated, there are many times when there is a greater deal of ambiguity with regard to the appropriateness of the hecklers' material.
Some of the hecklers said they are worried that their days are numbered, particularly since at least one Safety and Security officer patrols in close proximity to their section during games, despite hecklers' assurances of cleaning up their act. The hecklers said they also feel their situation is of concern since Wright has made many recent comments about his commitment to free speech on the Dartmouth campus.
"It's frustrating, because we have done everything requested to us by S&S and we've come up with new material that is in jest and isn't personally derogatory, yet we are still silenced," Edmonson said.
"I know it's not S&S' fault. They are doing their job," Edmonson added. "I had several conversations with officers this weekend, and they said that they were following the instructions of the athletic department."
Many of the hecklers also said they fear Dartmouth will lose home-field advantage without their support, and point to Dartmouth baseball's four losses this weekend against Brown as an example of how the team can lose that advantage.
"I've even had members of the team come up to me after this weekend and ask why we weren't out there yelling," Edmonson said. "I had to tell them the answer, we were stifled by the administration in fear of getting kicked out of the game."
"I really can't begin to comprehend why the school's administration would use Safety and Security to stifle and suppress the voices of fans during baseball games," Bertran said. "Red Rolfe Field is the hardest place for opposing teams to play at because of the dedication of our fans."
