Review Ejected from Freshman Media Fair

I figured our invitation to this evening’s freshman media fair had been lost in the mail. After all, it was for campus media, the sign had no qualifiers, and I thought that it’d be good to expose the new kids to the full breadth of Dartmouth students’ opinions and organizations. Since it was held in Collis–the STUDENT center–well…I thought they would like for us to show up. Not the case.

After about ten minutes of talking to freshmen and giving out Indian T-shirts, Linda Kennedy, head of COSO, approached and told me that I had to leave because the event was not for non-student groups. But oh, we are a student group. She countered: not for non-recognized student groups. After a civil ten minute back-and-forth, she issued her ultimatum: leave in five minutes, or Safety and Security will be called. Sure enough, ten minutes later, S&S showed up and explained that I had to leave the premises–or she would have “to take the next step.” They refused to answer whether or not my promotion of the Review as an individual was protected by Dartmouth’s committment to Freedom of Expression and Dissent. All were civil throughout, which makes the situation even more appalling.

And another year at the Review begins…