News
Dartmouth administrators didn't make a public statement when they learned that a sign instructing worshippers to remove their shoes before entering Rollins Chapel's Muslim prayer room had disappeared the day after the terrorist attacks.
The sign removal -- which could have been done in retaliation or in preparation for a non-Muslim event in the same space -- bothered some Muslim students, but administrators brushed over the incident.
There was no sure way of determining whether the sign's disappearance was "an act of violence" against Muslims, said Stuart Lord, dean of the Tucker Foundation, who handled the incident internally.
Lord added that the Tucker Foundation, which is responsible for the upkeep of Rollins Chapel, saw the sign's disappearance as a good opportunity to replace the old paper reminder with a permanent sign.
The fact that reports of discrimination at Dartmouth in the wake of the terrorist attacks have been limited to an ambiguous disappearance of a piece of paper seems to be a positive indication of Dartmouth's levels of tolerance.
Cooperation makes it happen
According to campus religious leaders and advisers, the relative tolerance among members of the Dartmouth community throughout Fall term this year has been helped along by a concerted effort on the part of the religious community.
Al-Nur, Dartmouth's Muslim organization, has been working to educate both the Dartmouth and Upper Valley communities about Islam, especially by sharing their personal reactions to the events of Sept.
