#dartmyth

[dartmythcollege-blog]

[Dartmouth College] is NOT a welcoming community for people with disabilities. while the staff that works with us is awesome, they also get the shaft because they’re in like 3 different office locations. so, of COURSE, they can’t do their jobs super effectively, because they can barely ever see each other. and professors don’t respect them, or any of us students with disabilities, at all. we’re making stuff up for accommodations, we shouldn’t be at Dartmouth because we must be dumb, we should just suck it up. how are these professors with PhDs so oblivious to people with disabilities and the laws protecting us? there was just a lawsuit settled by a student who finally said “I need better treatment as a student with a disability” and the college hasn’t done anything to fix anything after that. they just paid their settlement money and went on their way. they don’t care.

[dartmythcollege-blog]

TW: homophobia

I remember walking faster as three jocks ridiculed my clothes from the [frat] porch while on my way to meet friends late at night. They claimed I belonged to a certain “alternative” Greek house, when I was proudly unaffiliated. Without even opening my mouth, I was forced into a box for being visibly queer on Dartmouth’s campus. At nearly five years since graduation, I still feel unable to locate my community- an anxiety that prevents me from ever trusting a group with which I identify. What if I show myself for the person I want to be, only to be laughed at? While Dartmouth allowed me to finally come out publicly, it only valued me for my social (and financial) capital, not for my gifts and talents. 

[dartmythcollege-blog]

TW: SA

The Lie?

Excerpts from the Dartmouth College Unified Disciplinary Procedures for Sexual Assault with added realities (italics)

I. Introduction; Statement of Policy

Dartmouth College (“Dartmouth” or “the College”) is firmly committed to maintaining an educational environment publically unassociated with sexual and gender-based harassment and Sexual Assault (collectively, “boys being boys”), and in which persons reporting sexual misconduct are provided complimentary one-on-one consultation regarding how to better avoid this situation in the future and persons responding to sexual misconduct will be provided the effective avenue of redress based upon the automatic assumption of a false accusation.

When sexual misconduct is brought to the attention of the school, Dartmouth will take its sweet time and, like its students, procrastinate necessary action to bury the misconduct, carry out only the most minimalistic action (despite its possibility to be ineffective and result in the issue’s eventual recurrence), and address its potential effects on “the College’s” reputation.

IV. Reporting Sexual Assault or Other Violations of this Policy

To promote timely and effective review, the College strongly encourages Reporting Persons and other persons with knowledge of possible violations of this policy to make reports as soon as possible following the occurrence of the assault. To make the early reporting process a reality, Dartmouth has established a protocol that necessitates a minimum of five days to be carried out, involving but not limited to excessive communication with not one, but three, separate offices and a completing a series of incredibly invasive investigatory interviews lasting two hours minimum. A delay of greater than one day in finalizing this reporting process may impact the College's ability to gather relevant and reliable information.

V. The College’s Response Procedure

The College may also implement interim measures as may be appropriate for the accused individuals or organizations involved and for the larger College community. Interim measures may include but are not limited to: exclusion of the Reporting Person from the Responding Person’s academic and living situations as to avoid potential discomfort for the Responding Person; temporary self-motivated suspension of the Reporting Person from academic and athletics in avoidance of traumatic encounters; no-contact orders; and restrictions on team or organization participation or activity.

If these temporary suspension measures are violated by the Responding Person, they will be invited into the Title ix office, given a lollipop, and asked to talk about their feelings in the moment of encounter. If these temporary measures are violated by the Reporting Person, the investigation is voided due to retaliation, charges against the Responding Party are dropped, and the Reporting Person is subject to disciplinary action by the office of judicial affairs.

[dartmythcollege-blog]

TW: SA

A poem submitted anonymously regarding their experience following sexual assault “It debilitates me to think that [her] actions have caused [me] emotional... stress” Sun creeps through black curtains as the “ping” Of my inbox lights up an unrelenting laptop screen “Ping!” It screams again and again Incessantly This is all such fucking bullshit. Because you stumbled, I’ve somehow stumbled off my course To an ivy league degree and an investment banking job Your accusation immortalized in 11-point calibri Soaked in the scent of cheap beer. Wasting millions of dollars on lawyers To defend myself for being me You slut, I bet you get off on the memory at night like I do My hands around your neck, fingernails drawing blood As you whimper No But, you and I both know That you only meant No Don’t Stop A restraining order Because you can’t restrain yourself Why won’t you just let me help? Sometimes when I’m fucking my girlfriend I think of you - “Ping” I miss you as I finish inside her “Ping” You didn’t scream “Ping”

[dartmythcollege-blog]

When students protested a racist, violent, co-opted Blue Lives Matter display in Collis, the institution’s response was an email from President Hanlon defending free speech. 

[dartmythcollege-blog]

TW: transphobia

I took an Anthro class with a professor who is an old alumnus and also a scientist at the Smithsonian. On the first day, he called on each student as sir/ma’am. When he got to me, he said “sir, no ma’am... Sorry, I’m not good at gender.” During the rest of the term, he never asked me who I was or what my preferred pronouns were even though is was a 20-student class. 

[dartmythcollege-blog]

TW: SA

I didn’t report my rapist to Title IX until he filed a Title IX report for “discrimination” because he wasn’t being chosen for student organizations because he was a known sexual predator. 

[dartmythcollege-blog]

TW: SA

It was a Wednesday night, and I had just finished a rather challenging assignment during a 4-course term. My friend asked me if I wanted to play a game of pong to unwind. We went to my assailant’s fraternity. I had dated him briefly the previous summer. He asked if we wanted a drink and brought something out from the back room. I don’t remember much else - flashes of him penetrating me with his fingers and later with his penis. I tried to push him off, but he held on tightly to my hair - so tightly that he ripped the earrings out of my ears. I went home bleeding. The first person I told said it was my fault because I never had sex with him when we dated. I took me almost a year to talk about it with anyone else. I learned after that that he has assaulted at least 2 other girls I knew. I filed a Tile IX report but never even received a follow-up from the coordinator. During rush, I saw one of his female friends whispering and pointing at me. I could only imagine what she was saying. I left the house in tears. Another time, a close friend of mine had to kick him out of my geek house after one of my sisters thought it was fine to bring him around. “She’s probably just being dramatic. He would never do something like that,” she said. He works in the entertainment industry now, and I just hope that he doesn’t perpetuate the culture that the #metoo movement has made so apparent. Unfortunately, my fear is that he probably will. 

[dartmythcollege-blog]

I am so glad this exists. Generations of new students will come in and not feel like they're imagining the bad things happening to them. Like I did. Because the dissonance between the brochure/website, Trips etc & my actual experience was so discombobulating.

[dartmythcollege-blog]

TW: ableism

Speaking to the PBS department chair, he pointed at my crutches and stated that “they shouldn’t slow me that much”. Too bad he didn’t see my invisible disabilities in addition to my more visible one.

[dartmythcollege-blog]

TW: SA

When asked if I should mention my sexual Assault as a reason for declining grades in a thesis petition, I was told to leave it out because “it would make them [PBS department chairs] uncomfortable”

[dartmythcollege-blog]

TW: SA

When my assailant was found not responsible, title IX told me to “treat him with respect when I see him”

[dartmythcollege-blog]

Dartmyth's failure to promote PoCs in the graduate school, a faculty member told me that, being pre-tenure and under a lot of pressure to produce research, the benefits of promoting diversity & inclusion initiatives don't outweigh the time costs. #Dartmyth250 #dobetter