Dartmouth may be headed down a slippery slope. In a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Swarthmore College junior Danielle Charette described the illiberal atmosphere that has overtaken Swarthmore, allowing for a group of students to take over a meeting of their board and monopolize the supposed "dialogue" to further their own goals. In the following days, administrators did not utter a single condemning word.
To quote Charette directly, "The day after disrupting the open board meeting, the protesters insisted on mandatory campus teach-ins' for all students. Though it was the day before exams at a school that prides itself on its academic rigor, the administration acquiesced and endorsed the teach-ins to heal our fractured community.'"
The parallels between recent events at Swarthmore and Dartmouth are startling. Here, we saw a small group of students forcibly grab command of an event, with utter disregard for their peers who had put countless hours into preparing for it. Despite the vast majority of the student body's disagreement with the actions of the protesters, administrators did not issue a single reprimanding word. Instead, there was a laudatory email from Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson thanking the protesters for their actions.
We also had a day of perhaps not mandatory "teach-ins," but canceled classes and events meant to heal our own "fractured community." Ostensibly, the day was called to address threats against the protesters, but its true purpose seemed somewhat more nebulous. I was personally disappointed to find that the small group facilitation questions were more related to the recent protest rather than the problems that the protesters highlighted. Like Swarthmore, Dartmouth also saw the administration acquiescing to demands of a small group of students.
Many have expressed frustration with the College administration's handling of the protest's aftermath, from the suspension of academic activity that Wednesday to the initial lack of a clearly stated purpose for this move. But I would like to call into question a more disconcerting trend. If this campus can be commandeered by such a small group of students, then I worry that it won't be tolerance, but intolerance that reigns. I have already observed this in subtle ways around campus, even from a group that exhorts to break down such barriers.
In the days following the student protest, I too "protested" and expressed my grievances over how the situation had been handled. How was I received by members of Real Talk Dartmouth? They took my signs, which mentioned their violent entry into the Class of 1953 Commons and proudly posed with them among giggling friends. Weeks later, I planned to attend some Real Talk meetings but was told by a friend that if I attended, some of the students, aware of my past and current affiliation with The Dartmouth, would simply walk out of the room. I didn't have any malicious intent and I had hoped to learn more about the issues at hand. Instead, I was discreetly told that I was not welcome.
When Cornel West, a prominent speaker on social justice issues, came to campus last month, he gave a passionate speech that highlighted the idea of maintaining a "moral consistency." Yet for all the affirmative head shakes, snaps of fingers, riotous clapping and not-so-humble smiles upon the lips of the protesters during West's lecture, I wonder if there was any real reflection occurring. In a room packed with like-minded people, was any sort of dialogue really occurring? Where is the effort to genuinely engage rather than isolate?
The engagement that we are missing is a sustainable model for outreach, community event planning and not being afraid to have those who disagree with you attend your meetings. I hope that the protesters and administrators reflect on whether they are upholding a form of moral consistency and tolerance, or vastly failing when they allow for a small group to commandeer the campus at the expense of all other academic pursuits.
If what we have seen at Dartmouth and Swarthmore is a trend across the United States on college campuses, where the most querulous and disrespectful groups can shout down their classmates and impose their own agenda, then I worry about further problems that may invade our learning environment. Learning is not based on being the noisiest or loudest, but rather upon mutual respect and the desire to understand one another.
