Original Article: http://dartreview.com/archives/1997/11/02/overboiling_freedman.php
Sunday, November 2, 1997
All of those people who failed to get the facts in The Review fiasco of 1990 are walking around with egg on their face. Some of them are more easily excused than others. For instance, there are those students in the Student Assembly and on The Daily Dartmouth — they are juvenile and irresponsible and have reflected such behavior in the past. We expect this of them. But there is an unholy trinity of ineptitude in the Dartmouth administration that is primarily responsible.
At the apex of the tribunal is President Freedman. Although he certainly has justification for his anger and concern over this incident, he has no exuse for his extreme, uninformed reaction.
He is in the primary position of power at the College, and it is his responsibility as a campus leader to keep a cool head. President Freedman should have collected all the facts, launched a full-scale investigation of the incident, and at least talked to Review representatives, before coming out with any statement, never mind such a strong condemnation of the Review.
He issued a statement criticizing this journal, attempting to discredit it by saying, 'The Review has consistently attacked blacks because they are black, women because they are women, homosexuals because they are homosexuals, and Jews because they are Jews.' Mr. Freedman offered no examples to back up his claim, assuming that many in the Dartmouth Community would take his statement at its face value.
This assumption is an insult to all those students and alumni who have a mind of their own. Only the most ignorant of pundits would be willing to listen to such a ridiculous charge.
At the Hate Rally on the Green Thursday, Freedman asked, 'What kind of people did they think they were?' Well, sir, not the kind to listen to the propaganda of an overblown bureaucrat.
Reasonable members of the Dartmouth Community seek the truth. President Freedman took a calculated risk when faced with this event.
He saw a potential opportunity to finally destroy The Review, most likely resulting in a 'promotion' to the Harvard presidency. The risk came when he had to convince everyone else to ignore the facts, too.
Look at The Forward, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the National Review, and even student letters to the Daily Dartmouth. It is obvious that he failed.
We here at the Review hope, nay, pray that Freedman will move to Harvard. In fact, we pledge $50 to the Harvard fund drive if they do accept Mr. Freedman at their University's highest post. But we are afraid that even the limousine liberals of Harvard University could not possibly accept such irresponsibility and lack of integrity in their university's presidential mansion.
Dartmouth has had a serious image problem over the past several years, mostly beacuse of the administration's unfortunate lack of aptitude. Even if one would like to blame this journal in part for the unrest on campus, it is clear that thepot has overboiled since President Freedman took over as the chef.
The only solution to this problem is to exorcise the unholy trinity and return responsible leadership to the Dartmouth administration.
If Freedman and all of his cronies amongst the Parkhurst administrative bunch do not voluntarily step down, then it is the duty of the Board of Trustees, for the good of the College, to request their resignations.