New York Times Examines Issues of Drinking and Sexual Harassment at Dartmouth

By Jessica Zischke, The Dartmouth Staff | 10/9/13 4:00am

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Courtesy of the NY Times

It is no secret that in the past couple of years Dartmouth has received a barrage of bad press in publications across the nation, whether related to Andrew Lohse ’12 and his controversial column or the events of this past summer. Seeing Dartmouth associated with binge drinking and reckless sexual harassment in newspaper headlines has, unfortunately, become somewhat commonplace during this time.

 

However, every once in a while an article would pop up that ventured to look more closely at Dartmouth and its social scene. New York Times’ education reporter Richard Pérez-Peña’s “Dartmouth in the Glare of Scrutiny on Drinking,” published in the Times website on Oct. 1, is one of these pieces that examined issues pertaining to Dartmouth more fairly, although it was not without its faults.

 

Pérez-Peña mentions important measures Dartmouth has taken to minimize incidents related to binge drinking and sexual assault on campus. In addition, he incorporates quotes from students and College President Phil Hanlon stating the widely-held view that in reality Dartmouth has no more of a problem with these incidents than many of its collegiate peers.

 

Two things that do separate the College from other places of higher education, as Pérez-Peña points out, are the proportion of students involved in Greek life and the extent to which Greek life controls on-campus social life. A lack of social spaces outside of fraternities and sororities made it hard to control binge drinking and many of its associated problems, he implies.

 

While this article is more balanced than many that have taken on Dartmouth as subject matter, Pérez-Peña begins to wander into less pertinent details. In discussing what is “undeniably different” about the College, he points out in particular the large numbers of students who attended private high schools — about 45 percent of undergraduates.

 

One can guess that Pérez-Peña here is suggesting that Dartmouth students belong to families who are wealthier and therefore more privileged than those of students at comparable schools — he picks Harvard University and University of Chicago specifically. The implication here is that more privilege leads to a lack of responsibility and higher rates of heavy drinking and sexual assault.

 

Through this point, Pérez-Peña makes assumptions about the students’ characteristics and upbringings, and they are poorly founded and irrelevant assumptions. The author also takes time to point out Dartmouth’s isolated location as a possible catalyst for an unsafe social environment, but this idea is far-fetched and remains unexamined in the remainder of the article.

 

The most important point to take away from Pérez-Peña’s article is that the College has not been inactive through these divisive events, and while Dartmouth does have room for improvement, the problems affecting this campus are also national and global issues.


Jessica Zischke, The Dartmouth Staff