December 5, 2015 --

On November 20, the New York Post printed an editorial, "Coddling Campus Bullies" that discussed a demonstration at Dartmouth's Baker-Berry Library.
The demonstration apparently included use of rather foul language at the library. The editorial when on to quote comments of the university's vice provost Inge-Lise Ameer in sympathy with the protesters. The Post editorial added this comment from the vice provost: "'There's a whole conservative world out there that's not very nice.'"

On reading the Post editorial, LPR wen, on-line to Dartmouth sources and learned that Ms. Ameer made her comments at a November 16 meeting with students that brought up the November 12 protest, which apparently was organized by the Dartmouth chapter of the NAACP to a) respond to vandalism of a Black Lives Matter display at Dartmouth of t-shirts representing unarmed people killed by police and b) to express solidarity with campus protests at the University of Missouri and Yale. For an eyewitness account of the November 12 Dartmouth demonstration go to:
thetab.com/us/dartmouth/2015/11/14 and see the article by Charlie Lundquist, a Dartmouth student, "I was proud to be part of last night's protest -- until it turned ugly.

In a letter to the campus newspaper, The Dartmouth, November 19, Vice Provost Ameer wrote that she had been "completely off-base regarding Americans with conservative political views" and offered "an unequivocal apology" for having "suggested" that conservatives "are not nice people." Also on November 19, the Dartmouth College Republicans sent an open letter to Dartmouth president Philip Hanlon and the schools' trustees, stating, in part, "we often feel discriminated against by the administration and unwelcome on this campus." The letters from the Republicans noted that Vice Provost Ammer had told students, November 16, "'If you're feeling unsafe and you're not feeling like you are getting responded to then contact me directly and we will deal with it because that is not right.'"

The letter continued, "We feel unsafe. and we feel that we are not being responded to." The letter went on, "It is difficult enough to be a conservative on any college campus, and it is simply unacceptable that any administrator would reinforce such a hostile climate."

Dartmouth President Hanlon, November 23, sent a "Message to the Community," that, referring to reports of the the November 12 demonstration "in Baker Library, called "[s]uch behavior... antithetical to our values and goals as in institution." He added, "Abusive language aimed at community members--by any group, at any time, in any place, is not acceptable."

The president's message ended with a call "to making our community strong and unified in purpose--even when we disagree--and rededicate ourselves to take on academic challenges and continue to tackle the world's most vexing problems."

(LPR would have recommended to President Hanlon that he end his message after "rededicate ourselves to take on academic challenges.")

On November 25, a message of support for the Dartmouth demonstrations was issued from "100 staff members." It is not clear to LPR that the Dartmouth staff stands in solidarity with invasions of college libraries for purpose of intimidating students to stand in solidarity with the epithet-spewing demonstrators.

Charlie Lundquist, writing up the incident, noted: "Verbally harassing students, and disrupting people in the library is not an effective protest strategy and does not create a constructive dialogue." But are proponents of political unithought at all interested in "a constructive dialogue"?