President Wright and Josie Harper’s letters both convey what many of us at Dartmouth feel. There is no place for this sort of intolerance here or anywhere.

Vicki, at 9:45 am EST on November 27, 2006

Brrrr...It appears that some Ivy League students need to take a chill pill to warm up their cold-blooded hearts and attitudes towards minorities. Time to turn up the heat on the ol’ “Bonfires of Respect For All Peoples".

Perhaps Dartmouth and other excellent institutions of higher learning should add a required course titled “Class- How to Fake It Even When You Ain’t Feeling It” or better yet “When Animal Houses Attack". (That might be well suited to accompany the current and well-intentioned “Alcohol Is Not Always Your Friend” course)

My minority kid attends Dartmouth and has had any number of observations on bad behavior by all races, colors and creeds that attend the school.

But guess what??? It’s everywhere. It’s in our homes, workplaces, and religious institutions. Intolerance, ignorance and just plain youthful idiocy are not just a part of the total college experience. It’s part of the American experience.

To President Wright and all other leaders of privileged schools across this nation — Handle your business SWIFTLY and courageously. Dartmouth is a wonderful college and too great to have its reputation sullied by a few irresponsible and outrageously narrow-minded students.

gigi, When the Frost is On the Ivy, at 12:15 pm EST on November 27, 2006

Two things: 1. When I was a student at Dartmouth, one of the fraternities sold the very same t-shirt that the article mentioned with an Indian receiving oral sex from the Homecoming team’s mascot. My freshman year, it was a bulldog (for Yale) performing the act. So this isn’t something new. 2. As an alumnae of Dartmouth, I’m not sure why the school hasn’t done more to educate their students in a holistic way about our rapidly changing multicultural society. When I was a student, there were many incidents similar to the ones described in the article — towards Black students, Jewish students, Latino students, and Native students. Dartmouth prides itself on educating future leaders, but they have no class or “experience” where students learn and discuss issues of racism and prejudice in a safe space. It’s left to the students to navigate the waters on their own, inevitably leading to these incidents which happen over and over again. And since the student body is constantly changing, the students don’t remember when it happened before. Swarthmore College, Haverford College, and Bryn Mawr College have an event for students of color prior to orientation at the start of students’ freshman year where they get together and discuss issues of racism, classism, sexism, and all the hateful -isms. Yet, white students are left out of this conversation, with no guidance. Perhaps something like this should be implemented at schools like Dartmouth that seem to constantly suffer from these incidents.

Kendra, at 2:31 pm EST on November 27, 2006

Racial Incidents and Harassment Against Students

I have a question. Had these symbolisms and mocking of a minority culture been against African Americans, such as depicting stereotypes or slavery as a humorous event, would the response by the school administration have been so slow, and the consequences so minor? My guess is that it would not have been tolerated to the extent these incidents were. There absolutely should be policies against racism, and expressions of same. As a society we are finally learning the public use of the “N” word and other expressions of racism are wrong. Not until laws came into place during the civil rights era did American society as a whole begin to shift its perspective and realize the deviance of such behavior and the detriment to society caused by blatant (even subtle) racism and prejudice. Sadly we remain oblivious to these laws and hide behind the freedom of speech clause. We still have a long way to go. Why do we still tolerate such actions against our native friends? I agree with Mr. Eagle-Sonier above. Until real consequences are imposed, important lessons won’t be learned. Higher education has a responsibility to educate. What does the college president mean that if it isn’t illegal it can’t be punished? Even high schools have policies that spell out expected behavior, dress, and manner of speech. Companies and other organizations have policies around appropriate behavior, and laws DO EXIST protecting people from hostile environments. If an employee in a company makes racial slurs or inappropriate race-related remarks and offends a person of that race or culture, then you bet the offending employee is permanently escorted off the premises. Creating a hostile work environment is illegal, and a violation of the another person’s civil rights.

Guess what? The same standard applies for educational institutions receiving federal funds. I believe the school is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Racial Incidents and Harassment Against Students at Educational Institutions Investigative Guidance states: “A violation of title VI may also be found if a recipient [of Federal Funds] has created or is responsible for a racially hostile environment- i.e., harassing conduct (e.g., physical, verbal, graphic, or written) that is sufficiently severe, pervasive or persistent so as to interfere with or limit the ability of an individual to participate in or benefit from the services, activities or privileges provided by a recipient. A recipient has subjected an individual to different treatment on the basis of race if it has effectively caused, encouraged, accepted, tolerated or failed to correct a racially hostile environment of which it has actual or constructive notice. Look it up:

http://www.maec.org/laws/raceh.html ORhttp://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/race394.html

This school is NOT preparing the offending students for the real world. Not only should the offending students be expelled, the president should step down. Maybe the school is afraid of losing the tuition of the offending students. But they have lost much more than that. If these offenders go out into the world and continue their ignorant ways because they have not had serious consequences at Dartmouth (not to mention how Dartmouth is perpetuating — how will people perceive these graduatw od Dartmouth has potentially lost the patronage of future students, and they have lost respect in the higher education realm.

It’s no wonder the Indians mourn the anniversaru of Christopher Colmbus’s arrival, especially if these ignorant students resemble his legacy.

T, Case Western Reserve University, at 1:50 am EST on November 29, 2006