Since the day I first walked into our basement office as a cautious and impressionable freshman, no organization on campus has instilled in me an authentic love and appreciation for our small College on the Hill quite like The Dartmouth Review has. Now almost three years later, those values that I read on our website after a quick Google search – free speech, students’ rights, liberal arts, and college tradition – remind me regularly why I’m glad I chose to enroll here. What makes Dartmouth feel like home to us all is constantly under assault, but having something valuable to defend makes our pursuit here all the more worthwhile.
I would like to thank my predecessors, Matt Skrod and Zoe Dominguez, as well as Lintaro Donovan and James Eiler, for their incredible mentorship and friendship over the past few years. As I assume the role of Editor-in-Chief this term, I will be reminded of the incredible example they set for what it takes to be a Reviewer. I have great shoes to fill, and I’m humbled by the opportunity to continue with the mission they taught me. The Review has never and will never sit idly by as rogue administrators and misguided students alter Dartmouth for the worse.
Now more than ever, Dartmouth rests in a peculiar place within the Ivy League. Even with the cacophony of nonsense we often complain about hearing from Parkhurst, Dartmouth stands out as a voice of reason in contrast to its peers. We can complain (with justification, of course) from our isolated perches in Hanover, but at the same time we ought to look southward to keep us grounded. Things here could be worse.
I am specifically referring to the Trump administration’s present war with a number of Ivy League institutions, particularly Harvard, Columbia, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania. Last month, the Education and Health and Human Services departments cancelled nearly $400 million in grant money to Columbia for failing to combat antisemitism and protect Jewish students during protests against the war in Gaza. The government made a number of demands as a precondition to unfreeze the funding. Columbia ultimately acceded to the threats by banning masks, giving stronger authority to campus police to make arrests, and reforming their Middle East department. Harvard and a number of other universities have also been targeted for their policies regarding pro-Palestinian protests.
The University of Pennsylvania lost out on $175 million in federal funding over its policies regarding transgender athletes. In addition to withholding funds, the Trump administration also initiated a Title IX investigation into the school for allowing transgender athletes on women’s sports teams. Trump has made good on his promise to exorcise “wokeness” from the nation’s elite universities.
The federal government’s intrusiveness into higher education represents the significant broadening of the DOE’s powers despite attempts to abolish the department altogether. Critics have called into question the legal basis on which federal funding has been denied. Princeton’s president has likened the administration’s actions to the Red Scare of the 1950s.
Whether you think the Education Department can wield such immense power or not – I tend to favor the long-needed reform of our elite institutions by cutting out the rot, although I’m hesitant to endorse such government overreach to do so – you have to agree that Columbia, Penn, and company have done this to themselves. They angered Trump, but this is not one of his petty personal feuds. The Ivy League’s failure to protect Jewish students this year, as well as its promotion of fringe social ideas, needed to be dealt with. Had they simply remained somewhat normal, their federal funding would not be at risk.
Dartmouth has largely avoided any feuds with Trump and the DOE. I would attribute this to President Sian Beilock’s actions to quell unrest, protect Jewish students, and foster actual intellectual diversity on campus. Princeton’s president is concerned about academic freedom – while ironically shunning conservative ideas – but it is Dartmouth which has actually done something to further it. If you disagree, just look at who Dartmouth hired as its general counsel.
As the rest of the Ivy League continues to expend funds, time, and personnel cleaning up its own mess, Dartmouth remains a voice of reason crying out in the wilderness of chaos, just as we were intended to be. Over the next year as Editor, I plan to call out the Beilock administration’s missteps, particularly as it threatens the liberal arts, Greek life, and inevitably lets some wokeness slip in, but I will not shy away from applauding it, either. We are distinct within the Ivy League; my goal is, above all else, to help keep it that way.
Hear, hear! This is a true reflection of who we are, or at least should be. Excellent manifesto.