Shanty town "What's the story?"
(above) A bedsheet banner assigns blamefor the wrecked shanties on January 21- the day after.
Kim Porteus '88 (right) speaks at the college-wide moratorium in Webster Hall onJanuary 24. She and another student wereasleep in one of the shanties the night theother three were attacked.
The "shantytown" erected on the College Green in mid-November attracted national and international media attention. While initially built to serve as a focus for debate on Dartmouth's South African investment policies, the shanties became catalysts for larger discussions of diversity on campus.
Students returning to Hanover for the winter term found the scrap-wood structures still dominating the center of the Green, although the group that built the shanties-the Dartmouth Community for Divestment (DCD)- had been ordered to remove them by Dean Edward J. Shanahan on November 17. The College moderated its position later that week, allowing the shanties to stand "as long as they are serving an educational purpose," and began plans for a forum on divestment for January 31 and February 1.
However, tensions escalated the afternoon of January 9, when students supporting divestment staged a 60s-style sit-in in President McLaughlin's office. The President, who was having a lunch meeting with a New York Times reporter, left immediately as about 30 students settled down for a stay of 234 minutes, or, as they described their occupation, "one for each meager dollar allocated by Pretoria to the education of black South Africans per capita per annum." Although there were no arrests, Dean Shanahan called the student action "clearly disruptive" and said it undermined negotiations over divestment and the planned two-day forum. He indicated during a press conference that the students-most of them members of the DCD-would be subject to disciplinary action.
The arts and sciences faculty stepped into the matter four days later, voting unanimously to ask the Trustees to begin divesting of South African holdings at once and to step up their review of South Africa-related investments, which was slated for spring term. Eighty faculty members-barely enough for a quorum-passed a resolution citing "continued deterioration of the social and political situation in South Africa."
Then, in the early morning hours of Tuesday, January 21, twelve Dartmouth students attacked three of the four shanties with sledgehammers. The fourth structure was occupied by two members of the DCD, who were awakened by the commotion and notified campus police as well as other students in their organization. The attackers, calling themselves the "Dartmouth Committee to Beautify the Green Before Winter Carnival," brought along a rented flatbed truck to cart away the wood "for local charities." Ten of the 12 were staff members of The Dartmouth Review. In a signed statement, they said they were "merely picking trash up off the Green and restoring pride and sparkle to the College we love so much." (Ironically, the campus learned after the attack that the DCD planned to take the shanties down the following week in a bit of guerrilla'theater-a mock attack by white students playing South African soldiers on black students in the shanties playing black South Africans.)
Many students, faculty, and administrators expressed shock when they heard about the attack, especially since it came only hours after the first national celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. President McLaughlin and Dean Shanahan referred the matter to the Committee on Standards, stating that the students involved did not pose an imminent danger to the College community. Said McLaughlin: "I absolutely abhor any destruction of property, but it would be inappropriate for me ... to condemn that act until due process has occurred."
President McLaughlin, who returned home from an alumni speaking tour on the evening of January 22, found Parkhurst once again occupied - this time by more than 200 students and faculty. Calling themselves the "Dartmouth Alliance Against Racism and Oppression," who demanded, among other things, that the President immediately suspend the students responsible for attacking the shanties. The protestors ended their sit-in on the afternoon of January 23, after 30 hours in Parkhurst and a series of emotional meetings with the President, Dean Shanahan, and other administrators.
One of the group's demands was met by the faculty executive committee in an emergency meeting early on the morning of the 23rd. The committee voted unanimously to cancel classes on Friday, January 24, for a college-wide forum "to discuss racism, violence, and disrespect for diversity of opinion." The crowds that packed Webster Hall (as well as Alumni Hall and several classrooms where the forum was broadcast live) exceeded the most optimistic expectations. Attendance was estimated at 2,300-including about half of the student body.
Though moderated by faculty members, the forums focused on the concerns of Dartmouth students-many of whom addressed President McLaughlin directly. There were moments when black students, homosexuals, and other minorities commented on the tension they had felt at Dartmouth in the past several weeks and over longer periods. One senior who identified himself as a "white Anglo-Saxon Protestant male" remarked: "I never had to feel the sting of words like spic, nigger. They never applied to me. Until Tuesday, I was content to be passive, but no more."
There was widespread agreement that the forums were a positive step in clearing the air on campus. One student who had participated in the shanty attack spoke up on Friday afternoon. "Before," he said, "I never had to address the fact that the actions I was taking might hurt people. When you're on a roll, you keep going. But I've learned something." The sessions were extended to Saturday to give time for students to offer constructive suggestions. Among them were making Martin Luther King Day a college holiday; planting a tree at the site of the shanties to commemorate them when they were taken down; amending the Honor Code to include a statement about community conduct; taking legal action to remove the word "Dartmouth" from the title of The Dartmouth Review; devoting an entire issue of the DartmouthAlumni Magazine to racism and bigotry at Dartmouth (the issue to be edited entirely by students and/or faculty); and making the Winter Carnival sculpture on the Green a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. instead of the planned storybook character "wild thing."
As Carnival neared, a sense of healing became at least temporarily apparent. A January 30 letter to TheDartmouth written jointly by representatives of the Carnival Council, the Afro-American Society, and the DCD said there had been a mutual deision to slightly alter the original sculpture idea to represent "all of us, in need of others to make our Dartmouth experience complete. . . While the highly successful moratorium focused on diversity, we dedicate this year's Winter Carnival weekend to unity." The writers went on, "Instead of tearing things down, let's build something. Through an event such as Winter Carnival, we can make our campus a place where all members of our family feel at home."
The events since the end of January have been equally trying. On February 4, the President wrote a letter to the Dartmouth community, summarizing his main contentions about the impact of the shanties. He said, "The shanties are now deflecting our energies from the substantive issues that demand our full attention. The shanties are, for many, contributing to a feeling of divisiveness at a time when we should be coming together for the purposes of healing and building a better College. It is time to concentrate on the important issues before us-including those raised in the Moratorium and during last weekend's South Africa Forum- and to engage in constructive discussion among all members of our community."
The President concluded: "I have asked the Dean to work with appropriate faculty, administrators, students and staff to review what the policy of the College should be regarding the placing of structures of any kind on the Green or elsewhere on the campus. . . Until that review is completed and a policy adopted, nd unauthorized structures will be permitted."
On the Sunday CBS Evening News, the network aired footage of members of the DCD and the Afro-American Society moving one of the shanties to the front lawn of Parkhurst. A second shanty was moved to Parkhurst, only to be carted away the following day to the Hood Museum, where DCD members negotiated to have it put on display. The town of Hanover, meanwhile, issued a warning to the College that the Parkhurst shanty was in violation of local zoning ordinance and that it was to be removed within seven days or the College would face a court injunction and a fine of $100 per day. The DCD and AAS groups also demanded that one of the existing shanties be mounted on a flatbed truck and made available for local schools to use in history classes discussing South Africa.
On February 11, two days after Carnival weekend, the President ordered that the remaining shanties be removed from the Green. Some 18 students, protesting that decision, were arrested on the Green by Hanover police. Seventeen of them were charged with criminal trespass (a misdemeanor) and one with simple assault (also a misdemeanor). On Feb. 24th, the day before their arraignment, the College dropped charges against the 17 and decided to hand the case over to the Committee on Standards. But the President noted, "in order to avoid the excesses we have recently experienced on campus, this College will need to be less generous in how much latitude it will give to protesters who exceed the limits of the policy of freedom of expression and dissent ..."
Unfortunately, it appears that we haven't heard the last unpleasant news from Hanover. All twelve students who attacked the shanties were given terms of suspension ranging from one semester to "indefinite" by the COS. They have appealed to the President to have their suspensions overturned and have threatened to sue the College. Coincidentallv, there is widespread dissatisfaction among many parties about the punishments meted out by COS since the students involved in the first sit-in were found guilty of violating College rules but were given no punishment. (Those involved in the second sit-in had not had their cases resolved as of press-time.)
In addition, some faculty members were upset that the President ordered the shanties removed without consulting with them, and this on the heels of a meeting a day earlier in which he reiterated his pledge to see to it that faculty were more fully brought in oh the decision-making processes of the College. Stay tuned.
President McLaughlin looks out over a sea ofsecond of two January sit-ins. The first, onment. By the time the second sit-in occurred
students. More than 200 people-students and faculty-occupied Parkhurst Hall in this, theJanuary 9, focused on their demands that the College divest of its South African-related endownearly two weeks later, the focus had shifted to questions of racism and intolerance at the College.
