I find myself in full agreement with this editorial. Dartmouth is clearly violating numerous Constitutional rights under highly suspect pretense. Administrators seek to gain a housing monopoly at Dartmouth and obtain fraternity property at significantly below market rates. Faculty seek to eliminate Greek organizations as a means to gain control of student ideology and assert a philosophy that reflects the 1960s ideology (when most of the faculty were probably in college)of faculty. While I would gather that most of the Dartmouth faculty find the civil disobedience of 1960s students perfectly acceptable, the meer existence of fraternities and sororities are objectionable. They view the consumption of alcohol by students today as completely unacceptable, yet I wonder how many used marajuana and LSD in the 1960s. It is pure and simple hypocrisy that betrays any ideal these faculty may have once held. It makes me question the caliber of academic integrity at Dartmouth. I pray that the courts will rule against the unconstitutional actions of Dartmouth's administration and faculty, and uphold the right of all students to free association regardless of attendance at a private institution. How do you think these same faculty would have felt 30 years ago if the issue were not fraternities and sororities, but an organization to protest the war in Vietnam? I wonder if they remember Kent State, and the fact that those killed there were martyrs to the rights of all students, not just those that agree with them.
If the courts do not provide a just and legal solution to this situation, I sincerely hope that the students at Dartmouth behave in the most responsible and effective action they could possibly take. They should leave Dartmouth College and transfer to other institutions that guarantee the rights of students to free association. If 85% of the students at Dartmouth disagree with the university's actions so far, they should leave Dartmouth high and dry. There would be no more meaningful resolution in this case than for Dartmouth to be closed forever a symbol to all. I truly doubt that the value of a Dartmouth education could be that superior to other institutions. I also tend to believe that the Board of Trustees would begin firing administrators and faculty in order to bring students back.
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