Re: College decision to deny hiring of UIC professor stirs controversy
It seems obvious to me that Dartmouth’s decision to reject the hiring with tenure of University of Illinois Chicago professor Nicole Nguyen was motivated, in large part, by her solidarity with pro-Palestinian student protesters. What else could it have been? Why else would the administration override the unanimous support of the geography department for her hiring? Why else would the College deny Nguyen again after the department’s appeal, with no public explanation?
If it wasn’t to suppress pro-Palestinian organizing, I would certainly like to hear the reason.
Here’s what I believe this is: another instance of discrimination from an administration that, after the events of last spring — when 89 individuals were arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest — is growing increasingly desperate to silence dissenting voices. Yet again, I find the administration is covering up persecution of students and faculty under the guise of formal review processes and College policy, which are — as usual — being applied toward a political end. The precedent established in denying Nguyen’s tenure poses a significant danger to academic freedom and signals a suffocating priority of business interests and administrative politics over our education at Dartmouth.
Ramsey Alsheikh ’26 is a staff columnist at The Dartmouth. Letters to the editor represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
