The Dorm Access Fracas Continues …
The College, at the start of Fall term on Sep 16, 2019, restricted access to buildings outside of a student’s house community. Previously, students were able to use their ID card to access all other student dorms on campus. Following a series of protest letters and a petition heralded by Student Assembly [SA], SA, in conjunction with the Office of Residential Life [ORL], sent out the following e-mail to the entire student body earlier today:
This is one of those “Working Group”s that funnel students through the House Communities system to rubber-stamp decisions made by the administration. The working group here promises to finish its deliberations and submit a report within two weeks — but until then, students will be locked out of dorms throughout campus. A lot of things seem fishy here. According to ORL, the SA requested restrictions on dorm access due to a spate of hate crimes committed across campus, a statement that the SA denies in its entirety. The cat-and-mouse game here reaches another level. An SA e-mail quoted an e-mail sent by Mike Wooten to all the UGAs — “Given that the College’s security argument is unfounded, the only other reason given for this change is to “deepen our commitments to the housing system,” as it was put in an email to all UGAs.” This seems to be a brazen attempt to push the house system down the throats of an unconsenting student body.
If ORL was responsible for the change, why does it need the house communities to sign off on the reversion to the old paradigm? It seems like there is going to be no change from the new order of things — and students and the campus are both going to be less secure. Dartmouth prides itself on openness, and this Administration has found itself at war against Dartmouth’s culture. The Administration’s war on the frats has made Webster Avenue dramatically more accessible based on who one knows instead of merely open access, a change that has accentuated during my time here. Is it going to do that for dorms as well? Moving Dartmouth Forward seems to move Dartmouth further away from its core cultural values.
Addendum: Do you know what’s going on? Write to us at dartblog.news@gmail.com.
