Dimensions crew members declined to comment about the meeting with protesters held last night.
The Admissions Office, responsible for organizing Dimensions, has not yet determined its response to the protest, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Maria Laskaris said. The only public administrative response has been a campus email from Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson on Saturday, which called for tolerance of the protesters' actions and views.
Before the discussion with the protesters, Dimensions crew members sought to better understand the protesters' goals and motivations.
"Right now there is not a lot of anger, just mainly confusion," Arora said.
Real Talk Dartmouth, which organized the protests, aims to change campus climate and alter what members consider to be the College's status quo, including inaction on sexual assault and racism, according to its website. The purpose of the demonstrations, including chalk messages and flyers around campus and the protest, was not to scare away prospective students, but rather to offset what the group considers to be the flawed advertising that occurs during Dimensions.
The chalk messages were "professionally scrubbed away" and posters were removed early Thursday morning.
In a public letter addressed to prospective Dartmouth students published on the group's website, Karolina Krelinova '14 said the administration silenced efforts by the group, who wished to voice their concerns regarding sexism, racism and homophobia on campus.
"We were forced to seek alternative means of speaking truth about issues of structural oppression and anonymous bullying at Dartmouth," Krelinova said in the letter. "None of these issues were given space during the official programming of the Dimensions weekend."
Several protesters declined requests for comment.
Laskaris said the group addressed important topics, but that Dimensions programming included multiple venues conducive to conversations surrounding these issues.
"We included new events specifically this year, such as the event that [the Office of Pluralism and Leadership] sponsored, which had a large number of student facilitators and was designed to address a lot of these really tough questions," Laskaris said. "We also had a program organized by students called 'Real Talk' that was on our schedule, as well as a panel for parents, all of which featured high participation by both current and prospective students."
The Admissions Office communicated with student groups and encouraged students to submit program ideas that would be placed on the Dimensions schedule, Laskaris said.
Arora said he heard rumors that a protest might happen, and was disappointed that the show was interrupted.
"The general opinion is that what happened was uncalled for, and that they deserve some form of punishment not because they expressed their opinions but because they barged in," Arora said. "There was nothing we could do and we weren't going to resort to violence."
Students involved with the show became aware of the possibility of a protest on Friday afternoon.
"[A friend] told me that they were planning on crashing the show, but he said it was unlikely they had obtained wristbands," Jessica Ma '16, a Dimensions crew member, said in an email. "I don't think any of us really expected it to happen."
Seven protesters were turned away when they attempted to enter the Class of 1953 Commons with a wave of prospective students because they did not have wristbands, Ma said in the email.
Laskaris said she became aware that a group of students wished to voice concerns surrounding the campus climate at Dimensions approximately a week before the protest, when an email from the Dickey Center for International Understanding sparked controversy over what some students believed to be unfair assumptions about women and minorities. Students protested at last year's Dimensions, and Laskaris said she thought it might happen again.
"Last year, we did have a group of students protest at a Dimensions event, so we discussed in general terms that if there were students wanting to protest that we should be respectful of their right to share their perspective," Laskaris said. "We also needed to make sure we were ensuring the safety of our visitors, students and staff."
This year, a group of students passed out flyers about the underreporting of campus sexual assault and had individual conversations with prospective students and parents after the Introduction to Dimensions event and performing arts showcase.
"They weren't doing anything but passing out information and engaging in meaningful conversations," Laskaris said.
Since the protest, students involved have faced threats and felt unsafe.
"People I know have left this campus because they did not feel safe because of comments on Bored at Baker, The Dartmouth's website and Facebook," said a student who participated in the "Dartmouth Supports" video but wished to remain anonymous. "People do not feel safe in Hanover."
Students featured in the "Dartmouth Supports" video, released last week, have also experienced negative responses as a result of their involvement. Some students who chose to participate were misled about the intent and purpose of the video, the anonymous student said.
"I was told the video would be shown to current students as a response to the Dickey Center blitz a few weeks ago, not that it would be used during Dimensions," the student said. "The tone and message of the video were much more negative than I was led to believe, [and those of us] who were lied to are very upset that our involvement was used as support for the protest, which we did not support."
The video, originally posted on the YouTube channel of the group Savage Media, has since been removed from their channel and reposted by Dartmouth Real Talk. Savage Media was not involved with the protest.
Native Americans at Dartmouth president Phoebe Racine '14 said that NAD is an umbrella group for all Native American groups at the College, but Savage Media is not affiliated and is not recognized by the Committee on Student Organizations.
NAD is an apolitical group that does not take an official stance on campus issues, but many individuals in the community are uncomfortable with Dartmouth's former Indian mascot, which the protesters complained about in their demonstration, Racine said.
Laskaris said she believes students are eager to have a conversation about these issues.
"It seems like many students recognize that this community is not perfect and there are a lot of voices that want to be heard," Laskaris said. "I think the way some students chose to approach it created a very tense situation for everyone, but I am grateful for how my student interns, Dimensions leaders and staff handled a very tough and tense situation."
OPAL director Alysson Satterlund could not be reached for comment by press time.
