Here are a few reasons why you should #DontDoDartmouth.
1. Racist History
Image: Eleazor Wheelock, the founder of the college
Well…pretty much all Predominately White Institutions have a dark, racist history, but Dartmouth’s requires special attention. The college’s founder, Eleazor Wheelock, and one of his students, a member of the Mohegan nation Samson Occom, partner up to start a university with the goal of educating Native Americans. Wheelock sends Occom to Europe to raise funds to start this university and raised 12,000 pounds for the university, which he sent back to Wheelock. Upon his return, Samson Occom found Wheelock had left Connecticut for New Hampshire to start a university for Englishmen, stealing the money Occom had raised. In addition to that, Wheelock built this university on Abenaki land, stealing money from Occom to build a university on stolen land to educate Englishmen.
This history aligns itself with present day racism towards people of color on campus, particularly indigenous and black communities. Last Fall a native student and the Native American House were egged by members of the Dartmouth community after Indigenous People’s Day, where flyers were posted around campus advertising gear depicting the racist Indian mascot. Dartmouth was founded on racist ideals that continue to exist now.
2. Treatment of Faculty of Color
Image: #Fight4FacultyOfColor protest in the Spring
Since 2002, thirty-six faculty of color have left this institution. Many of these faculty members cited denial of tenure, hostile working environments, and lack of resources for faculty of color as reasons for departure. It is well documented that faculty of color bear a disproportionate amount of mentorship and service responsibilities which takes away from their time for research, and they are poorly compensated for these activities as it affects them detrimentally for tenure decisions. This phenomenon has even been voiced by Dean of Faculty, Mike Mastanduno, at last terms faculty meeting. Yet, faculty of color continue to be cycled in and dispensed with, clearly showing this institution does not place a value on them.
3. Lack of support for students of color on campus
Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, support for students of color is similarly lacking. In my three years at Dartmouth, numerous friends of mine, all activist women of color (mostly black women), have received threats of death and rape from members of our community. The response of the college when brought up at a community forum this past spring? “Unfortunately, not much can be done about this terrible issue." Hmm thanks Dartmouth....
4. Rape culture
Nobody should have to live in fear of getting raped. Enough said.
5. Casual racism/queerphobia/misogyny
Marginalization can be seen on every part of Dartmouth’s experience, ranging from online, social spaces, administrative spaces, to the classroom. To see some of the ridiculous things said by members of administration and faculty to minority students, see this page. Or take a casual stroll through Yik Yak and see the true colors of our community.
6. The Dartmouth Review
The Review is a conservative newspaper unaffiliated with the college, but is made up of Dartmouth students, that reports on Dartmouth’s campus. Now, I agree that a plurality of opinions and views is important on college campuses, and I don’t have a problem with a conservative newspaper at Dartmouth. However, the Review has engaged in some abhorrent journalism in the past and present. In the past, the Review published a secret list of gay individuals on their website, intentionally outing over 100 people on the internet, putting many of these people in danger, with many being in the closet for a plethora of reasons: family disapproval, safety, discomfort, etc. They are allegedly responsible for several instances of using the Indian mascot, and the distribution of racist flyers in the fall has been linked back to the Review. Much of their journalism attacks women of color on campus, mainly black women, and relies on faulty integrity, as evidenced in their article covering the Black Lives Matter protest in the fall with unsubstantiated sources.
7. President Phil Hanlon
Earlier this year, it took Donald Trump two days to denounce white supremacy and the KKK, and was subject to massive criticism. It took Phil Hanlon more than two years to denounce white supremacy. Enough said.
