To the Dartmouth Board of Trustees, President Beilock and the Dartmouth Community:
Women of Dartmouth calls upon the College to remove child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s affiliates’ names from all buildings and programs for all the manifest reasons. Students, faculty, alumni and community members should not encounter daily reminders that wealthy sexual predators can act with impunity while being venerated in the halls and on the walls of prestigious institutions. Let’s begin with the Visual Arts Center.
As we wrote in our April 7 letter to Dartmouth Board of Trustees and President Beilock, removing the name is a critical step in eliminating harm to women and sexual assault survivors and in protecting the integrity of the College.
Leon Black ’73’s name adorned to the Visual Arts Center is a daily reminder that Dartmouth’s Honor Principle is selectively applied to our community members based upon their socioeconomic status: “All members of the Dartmouth community — faculty, staff and students — are responsible for maintaining a culture of integrity, honesty and respect in teaching, learning, scholarship and creative work.”
Dartmouth should not knowingly participate in a philanthropic public relations campaign of obfuscation; we should not remain complicit by hiding the harm of an Epstein alleged co-conspirator and accused sexual predator in the shadow of a monument that bears his name.
We ask you, the Dartmouth community, to join Women of Dartmouth, The Dartmouth Editorial Board, Dartmouth Student Government, the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault and the countless other students, alumni, faculty, staff and community members who have stood up for Dartmouth.
“Vox Clamantis in Deserto.” Be that voice. Your path to impact is threefold:
1. Write to the Trustees at Trustees.of.Dartmouth.College@dartmouth.edu.
2. Notify Alumni Council through the continuous survey which records data that is presented to the Office of the President and Trustees.
3. Sign the community-wide petition.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Honor the survivors, not the predators.
For Dartmouth,
The Leadership of Women of Dartmouth
Bernardine Wu ’90, Global Chair
Gina Lam ’92, Global Vice Chair
Elena Bazina TU’10, Global Chair Emerita
Elizabeth Lawrence Sobota ’83, Treasurer
Paula McLeod ’78, Alumni Council Representative
Erin Schallhorn Powers TU’11, Alumni Council Representative
Bernardine Wu ’90 is Global Chair of Women of Dartmouth, Gina Lam ’92 is Global Vice Chair of Women of Dartmouth, and Elena Bazina TU ’10 is Global Chair Emerita of Women of Dartmouth. Guest columns represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
Correction Appended (April 21, 8:21 a.m.): This guest column previously omitted the term “alleged” when describing Leon Black ’73 as Jeffrey Epstein’s “alleged co-conspirator.” The omission was a version history error by The Dartmouth, not one by the guest columnists. The column has been corrected.
