To the Editor:
Although Dartmouth women long ago achieved parity in admissions, they have certainly not yet attained equality on campus. The Dartmouth experience is significantly less safe and secure for women than it is for men. During rehearsals for the Dartmouth Dance/Theater production of Undue Influence, we came across some disturbing facts: The website American School Search rates Dartmouth sixth among the most dangerous college campuses in the United States. Based on 2010 US Department of Education data from the last three years, ASS gave Dartmouth a safety and security grade of "F," stating that "the campus has dramatic problems with forcible sex offenses." The most recent Cleary Report indicates that in the combined years of 2008 and 2009, Dartmouth, the smallest of the Ivies, led the Ivy League in reported incidences of sexual assault. This may imply that Dartmouth's system for reporting these offences is working, i.e. more victims are coming forward. However, the U.S. Justice Department reports that 95 percent of sexual assaults on college campuses go unreported. Taken in this context, the problem is clearly even more acute.
What can the College do to effectively address this issue? The administration should unequivocally embrace the advice offered by Dr. Jackson Katz, one of the nation's leading authorities in gender-violence prevention: immediately adopt a strong institutional policy against sexual assault that includes comprehensive and mandatory education. Student "bystander" and intervention programs alone are simply not enough. According to Dr. Katz, all athletes, coaches and athletic administrators as well as all officers, advisors and members of the Greek system should be required to complete sexual assault awareness and intervention training. Athletics and the Greek system are two of the largest social structures on campus and therefore the natural places where real cultural change can begin.
The College should also immediately form a commission to study Dartmouth's history as an all- male institution, its traditions and its current social and institutional structures to determine how these factors may be contributing to these alarming conditions.
Now is the time for immediate and decisive action. To quote from the recent production of Undue Influence, "We have been watching for way too long."
Peter Hackett '75Theater Department Chair
