As the College Turns
In August, President McLaughlin wrote to Dinesh D'Souza '83, editor-in-chief of the Dartmouth Review. The letter, which has been made public, was laced with hope: "I was favorably impressed by your expressed intention to improve the standards of responsibility of the publication. ... We will make every effort to be evenhanded in the dissemination of releases and information to all media sources and will not consciously discriminate against the Review in this regard if in fact this has been a problem up to now. ... I personally welcome within the community the expression of different viewpoints - including even those critical of this administration. ... I am anxious to help you in any way that I can as long as your publication sets and adheres to reasonable standards of responsibility and integrity in the conduct of its business. Based on our discussions, I am optimistic that this will be the case."
On September 21, the next issue of the Review came out, carrying, among other things, a full-page photograph of a man seated on a toilet with his trousers around his ankles and a long article entitled "Keeney's Course Guide. Guts, Yawners and Backbreakers." The article contained a number of eye-openers, this one among them: "[In the 1970s] faculties across the nation allowed all sorts of bozo courses to creep into the curriculum. Dartmouth has its share. For the most part these courses can be spotted by department name. By pure happenstance they all end in the word 'studies.' There are Black Studies, Native American Studies, Women's Studies, Policy Studies and some lesser-known breeds." Nor did the article shrink from specificity: "Only take Jere Daniell's courses if you are blind. He's very good but his wardrobe is appalling. . . . Sadly [Music 2] is taught by a bigot white people beware. . . . Diane Pinderhughes is a professor whose astonishing ineptitude is illustrated by the fact that the department created a course for her called 'The Politics of Housing.' "
The next missive from the administration, dated September 21 and widely publicized, came to D'Souza from Dean Ralph Manuel '58: "I wish to convey to you - and, through you, to your colleagues the considerable disappointment I felt upon seeing your most recent edition of the Review. First, you continue to use the College's name without authority and over our repeated objections. Equally distressing is the fact that despite your pledge ... to improve the standards of responsibility of your publication, you have gone out of your way to attack personally and to embarrass several members of the faculty and to print racist, sexist, and ethnic slurs and other matters of obvious bad taste with no apparent legitimate editorial purpose." Manuel's letter went on to explain that the College would no longer cooperate in the preparation and distribution of the Review.
Cary Clark '62, College legal counsel, seconded Manuel's decision by instructing officers and through them staff of the College as follows: "The College has during the past few months provided the Review with . . . photographs, press releases and officer interviews, the catering of events, and the purchasing of advertisements. Dean Manuel has asked me to confirm to you that, for the reasons reflected in his attached letter, such College support of and cooperation with the Review and its staffers should cease."
Under a lead of "New attempts to censor the other side," the Review on October 5 took issue with this decision: "Come on. The administration knows, as well as we do that a) a newspaper has first amendment rights to name itself whatever it wants, b) in any case there are 25 commercial establishments in Hanover which use the name 'Dartmouth,' and c) as a paper published by Dartmouth students about Dartmouth College for the Dartmouth community and alumni, the Review has every right to use the name 'Dartmouth' if it wants. . . . What the administration really objects to is the Dartmouth Review's editorial policies. ... The new college policy is an attempt to stymy the investigative journalism and editorial commentary of the DartmouthReview, to keep the paper from bringing Dartmouth students and alumni the real story about Dartmouth."
So far as we know, the administration responded to that issue with a dignified silence.
The Review kept up the pressure, however. Its October 12 issue was both threatening "because of the restrictive effects of the new policy, Review editors said they would contact the American Civil Liberties Union and ask them to press charges against the administration" - and goading - "English professor Jeffrey Hart has challenged Dean of the College Ralph Manuel to a public debate on the issue of the Dartmouth Review. . . . Manuel has not yet replied to the invitation, but he is expected to decline. Hart is widely known for his debating prowess, and the dean will have to justify what is virtual censorship by the College of the Dartmouth Review."
We contacted the Dartmouth Review in hopes of finding out what the next episode of this stirring story would bring. "The ALUMNI MAGAZINE has in the past unfairly and viciously represented the DartmouthReview, and in view of that we have no comment," said the editor-in-chief, nipping that idea in the bud.
While freshmen built the Dartmouth Night bonfire, other students and alumni cut fuel for woodstoves of the local needy.
" A MOST abject apology was required from the offending staff [of TheDartmouth], including an acknowledgement of the right of the faculty to exercise the most complete censorship over the columns of the college press. Under the threat of loss of their degrees, the editors signed the dictated document, but in the next issue of the paper they countered rather neatly and showed their real frame of mind. ..." The student press, 1876; from Richardson, History of Dartmouth College
