Liberal education cannot exist in “an atmosphere of inhibition and intimidation,” as Dartmouth President James O. Freedman told a group of “concerned faculty and students” at a rally in front of Parkhurst Hall, the college administration building, on February 29. He added that the principles of “civility, tolerance, and respect for others” must be the guideposts of an educational institution. That is certainly true, and well worth asserting in the present atmosphere of campus intolerance. Mr. Freedman concluded, however, by attacking the conservative, student-run Dartmouth Review on the grounds that it had violated those principles, and associated himself “with the concerned people of the Dartmouth community,” who had presented him with a list of “demands” that something be done about the Review.
In other words, President Freedman set forth an admirable body of principles and then proceeded to turn it on its head. For the victims of intolerance and intimidation at Dartmouth today are students like those who work on the Review; and the college authorities, instead of defending them, are accomplices in their intimidation.
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