<p>This has been an interesting series of posts on the recent goings on at Dartmouth. I just attended First Year Family Weekend, which, overall was quite impressive. More importantly, we were able to see our '16 relishing all that Dartmouth offers. SO many choices, and such great academics. He has formed great bonds with his professors and fellow students; it’s hard to believe it’s only been 9 months.</p>
<p>Re: Fraternities and Sororities. We attended a speech/presentation by Carol Folt, outgoing president. Many parents asked questions about the Dimensions protest and aftermath. While a lot of what she said about the protestors seemed to be a whitewash or an apologist’s overview, she did acknowledge several times how the student leaders of the fraternities and sororities were thoughtful, active participants in the programming that took place instead of classes. She also said that she and Charlotte Johnson are unfairly labelled as wanting to disband the greek system. She said they are both supporters of the system. The one question that threw her off was when a dad put forth the notion that the B@B postings were written by protestor supporters, i.e. to draw addtional attention to their cause. She said there was no proof of that and that they had determined that some of the postings happened while the Dimensions event/protest was going on…oops.</p>
<p>What impressed me was the broad student participation in the cancelled class day’s events, whether or not they disagreed with the protesters or their methods. Dartmouth has some work to do in all the areas of concern so we are pleased that at least good dialogue among the students has continued.</p>