This is a Boston Globe story about a shameful incident at Dartmouth College in which some Dartmouth students harassed Harvard students at a squash match. Dartmouth’s new President, Dr. Kim, has his work cut out for him, as it is very difficult to change what is in people’s heart. Dartmouth’s only real long-term solution is to be more careful in whom they admit.
The President of the Alpha Delta fraternity has apologized and a Co-Captain of the men’s soccer team states the team “has taken full responsibility for our actions.” It will be interesting to see if this fraternity and soccer team removes at least the students who engaged in the most offensive behavior.
About 300 fans packed into the narrow spectator gallery at Dartmouth College’s squash courts, hoping to see their underdog team topple fifth-ranked Harvard for the first time. But the cheering soon turned to heckling – and then a full-fledged verbal assault.
For at least 90 minutes, about a dozen Dartmouth students pelted Harvard’s men and women players with obscenity-laced insults that some witnesses described as misogynistic, homophobic, and anti-Semitic. Women on the Harvard team were called “whores’’ and “sluts,’’ witnesses said; the men were taunted with crude comments about their masculinity.
The Dec. 2 incident, which shattered the genteel world of college squash, has prompted a flurry of apologies this week from Dartmouth’s president, athletic director, and students, including soccer players and fraternity members involved in the incident.
