The Dartmouth Review
Wednesday – February 7, 2018
3
MASTHEAD & EDITORIAL EST. 1980 EDITORIAL BOARD Editor-in-Chief Jack F. Mourouzis
Executive Editors Joshua D. Kotran Marcus J. Thompson
Managing Editors Devon M. Kurtz Daniel M. Bring
Associate Editors Rachel T. Gambee John S. Stahel
Senior Correspondent Michael J. Perkins
BUSINESS STAFF President
Robert Y. Sayegh
Vice Presidents Jason B. Ceto Noah J. Sofio
ADVISORY Founders Greg Fossedal, Gordon Haff, Benjamin Hart, Keeney Jones
Legal Counsel Mean-Spirited, Cruel, and Ugly
Board of Trustees Martin Anderson, Patrick Buchanan, Theodore Cooperstein, Dinesh D’Souza, Michael Ellis, Robert Flanigan, John Fund, Kevin Robbins, Gordon Haff, Jeffrey Hart, Laura Ingraham, Mildred Fay Jefferson, William Lind, Steven Menashi, James Panero, Hugo Restall, Roland Reynolds, William Rusher, Weston Sager, Emily Esfahani-Smith, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Sidney Zion
NOTES Special thanks to William F. Buckley, Jr. “Not a day goes by that I don’t wish I went to Princeton.” The Editors of The Dartmouth Review welcome correspondence from readers concerning any subject, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material published previously in The Review. We reserve the right to edit all letters for clarity and length. Please submit letters to the editor by mail or email: editor@dartreview.com Or by mail at:
The Dartmouth Review P.O. Box 343 Hanover, NH 03755 (603) 643-4370
Please direct all complaints to: editor@thedartmouth.com
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win great triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to takerank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” —Theodore Roosevelt
EDITORIAL
A Vote of No Confidence As Daniel Webster stated in the legendin the fall of 2015 and the controversy surary 1819 Supreme Court case of Dartmouth rounding the defacement of a National PoCollege vs. Wentworth, “It is, sir, as I have lice Week board in the Collis Center in the said, a small college. And yet there are those spring of 2016. Both incidents drew nationwho love it!” Since the College’s early days, al attention, resulting in condemnation of Webster’s words have defined the instituthe offending forces from all sides – except tion, resulting in its status as one of the most from the College’s administration. President tight-knit, effective, and reputable intuitions Hanlon’s emails – which have always been, of higher learning in the entire world. Howand continue to be, weak – neither mitigatever, nearly 250 years later, President Haned tensions nor heightened them. As such, lon stands to flout Webster’s words and tensions between the student body have only change the very core of the College for the increased since. The controversy over former worse. I have long held that Dartmouth is a professor Aimee Bahng’s tenure denial only failing institution. However, with the deciserved to cause even more dissatisfaction. sion to expand the size of the College and My junior year displayed this trend destroy its central mission of intieven further. Following the election mate undergraduate education, of President Trump in November Dartmouth will no longer be a of 2016, the administration’s refailing institution; it will be a sponse was both problematic failed institution. And that is and lackluster – while offering why I wholeheartedly believe emotional support to students that the faculty of Dartmouth who were upset at Donald College should launch a vote Trump’s victory, Hanlon’s adof no confidence against Presministration also failed to give ident Philip J. Hanlon. in to the demands of leftist President Hanlon’s failcalls for Dartmouth to beures began long before I macome a sanctuary campus. triculated at the College, but Though in this case, his the effects are still felt. He set response has been for the tone for his administrathe better, it still reveals tion – the tone being general a troubling fact: President Jack F. Mourouzis apathy towards undergraduHanlon does not, has not, ates – as early as the Parkhurst Freedom Budand never will care for the undergraduate get protests, where he neither gave in to the students of the College. In the spring of 2017, demands of the protestors, nor condemned he once again proved his inept nature with their misdeeds. His actions proved to be very the controversial appointment of Professor telling for the future of his administration and N. Bruce Duthu for the post of Dean of the the shape of things to come. Faculty. Duthu, who was widely seen as unIn my three and a half years at the Colqualified for the job, ultimately declined his lege, President Hanlon’s policies have done nomination, constituting yet another loss for nothing to effect any substantial change; the Hanlon administration. change which has occurred has, predomiNow, Hanlon’s plans to destroy College nantly, been negative. The majority of my Park in favor of new dorms, in addition to freshman year, the prevailing topic of the his plans to expand the size of the student times was the Greek system and the loombody, threaten to destroy the core of the ining Moving Dartmouth Forward initiative. stitution he has so ineptly led since 2013. While it seems like ancient history today, in These ideas are wildly unpopular and bene2014, it was the talk of the town; in the fall of fit absolutely no one. Why, then, would these my freshman year, it seemed like the Greek changes possibly be enacted? If there is an system was all but gone. When the initiative answer, it might benefit the administration made its recommendations in the winter of to spread the message. Or, perhaps, there 2015 – based off spotty data and skewed persimply is no answer, and the reason is simply spectives – the effects were ultimately not so because President Hanlon is a poor leader. significant. The Greek system still survives, In his four and a half years as a member of though in a state far inferior to what it used the Wheelock Succession, President Hanto be. Alas, we would never know; but anylon has accomplished nothing, and is now one would tell you that nobody rages anypoised to destroy the College we all know more. And reports suggest that the sons and and love. At the same time, he has proved daughters of Dartmouth – freshman, sophohimself ineffective, incompetent, and inept; more, junior, and senior – still consume hard he is simply unfit to continue serving as the alcohol on a regular basis. President of Dartmouth College. It is time The major events of my sophomore year for the damage to end. It is time for a vote of included the now-infamous library protests no confidence.