REVIEW STUDENTS ARE BACK

A state judge orders Dartmouth to reinstate them.

Almost a year after they confronted Music Professor William Cole in the Faulkner Recital Hall, two former Dartmouth Review editors have been invited back to campus by a reluctant Dartmouth College administration. Last month a New Hampshire Superior Court judge found that the College had violated its own disciplinary rules when it suspended Christopher Baldwin '89 and John Sutter '88. In a temporary injunction, the judge ordered Dartmouth to reinstate the students.

The decision had both sides declaring victory. "It was all we hoped for," said Sutter. College officials, on the other hand, cited the judge's finding that Dartmouth's disciplinary process safeguarded the students' First Amendment rights.

In a decision handed down in early January, Judge Bruce Mohl declared the students' suspension "unfair" because one of the disciplinary committee's members had signed a statement critical of the Review. Three months before the disciplinary hearing , Film Studies Professor Albert LaValley had added his name to a letter written to President James O. Freedman by the Women's Studies Steering Committee accusing the paper of printing "slanderous articles.'' The judge decided LaValley had demonstrated "substantial bias and prejudice on his part against students who write for the Review," and that he should have removed himself from the committee before the hearing date

The decision came after a week of testimony at the Grafton County courthouse in tiny Woodsville, New Hampshire, a 45-minute drive up the Connecticut River from campus. Among the witnesses were President Freedman,Dean of the College Edward Shanahan, Trustee John Steel '54, and former Trustees Chairman Norman McCulloch '50, along with the two students.

In supplementary findings released after his initial ruling, Judge Mohl clarified disputes about the facts of the case. He denied the Review students' claim that left-wing students have gone unpunished for campus disruptions while the right has been disciplined disproportionately. And the judge ruled against the students'claim that President Freedman had influenced the disciplinary proceedings. On the other hand, the judge agreed with the plaintiffs that, during the incident in Faulkner Hall, Professor Cole "willingly engaged the Review students"; the administration had accused the pair of staying on in the class room despite Cole's demand that they leave. Judge Mohl did not rule whether the decision to punish the students was supported by the evidence, or whether the penalties were unduly harsh or discriminatory.

Even though Sutter and Baldwin are back on campus, the matter is far from settled. In issuing theinjunction, the judge had to find that the students would probably win their suit against the College. "The next step will be the trials," says Arthur Reugger, an attorney with the students' law firm of Myerson and Kuhn. Besides the state lawsuit, a second suit is pending in federal court.

The College, for its part, has several choices, according to its lawyers. It could appealJudge Mohl's ruling, retry the students in a new disciplinary hearing, or settle the matter out of court. As we went to press in midJanuary, the administration had not made a decision.

Whatever the outcome, the cost to the College is likely to be high. As of mid-January, its legal expenses on the Dartmouth Review lawsuit had already totaled more than $250,000 for outside legal help alone. Dartmouth has also added a lawyer with trial experience to its internal legal staff.

In his ruling, Judge Mohl called the case "a massive legal battleground." He said the courtroom clash might have been avoided had both Professor Cole and the students shown "greater civility and less discourtesy" when they encountered each other last February.

College officials say the finding could also affect Dartmouth's disciplinary body, the Committee On Standards. One College dean warned a group of College administrators: "You'll never get another faculty member to serve on the COS."

Below are excerpts from the court ruling:

• "Plaintiffs Baldwin and Sutter have been removed from the college by a process the Court has concluded would likely be determined unfair."

• "Even under a due process analysis, the Court cannot conclude that the hearing procedures were lacking in fundamental fairness."

• "The Court finds no persuasive evidence that Dartmouth College has retaliated against or otherwise pursued disciplinary action against the plaintiffs on account of their association with The Dartmouth Review."

• "The Court's order itself may unleash only another wave of legal attacks and counterattacks."

Millions Engineered

By the time the last pledge is tabu lated, Thayer School fund-raisers think they will have surpassed their goal of garnering $25 million in a capital campaign that closed in December. The money, which includes a $15 million federal grant, allows for a doubling in the size of Cummings Hall and an increase in the number of faculty from 35 to 45 and graduate students from 125 to 200. Acelebration is slated for May 4 at the Boston Museum of science, where the campaign was launched in 1985.

In Brief

• Errol G. Hill, actor, playwright, director and Willard Professor of Drama and Oratory, will deliver the second annual Presidential Lecture this month.

• Russian language students can now watch Soviet TV. A 20-foot receiving dish installed on a hill near the hospital captures the signal.

• Dartmouth undergraduates are expected to receive almost $2O million in financial aid this academic year, including $4.1 million in endowed Dartmouth scholarships and $8.2 million from the College's general funds.

• Funding of a new chair in Asian studies will allow Dartmouth to begin teaching Japanese next year. The chair,named for Richard M. Bressler '52, CEO of Burnington Northern, is fundedwith a $1.5 million gift from the Burlington Northern Foundation of Seattle.

• Dartmouth Medical School Professor of Psychiatry Michael S. Gazzaniga '6l iseditor of the "Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience," the first devoted to research on the brain and mental processes.

• Correction: In 1988 the Trustees approved a masters program in electro-acoustic music, not a doctoral program as previously reported.

A state court decided that Chris Baldwin had an unfair hearing, but his rights were protected.