Dartmouth vs Cornell

wisconsinguy
Fri, 07 Jul 2006 22:20:34 +0000

Sigh…

I’m hoping that this will be my only post on this thread.

First, SorGirl, while you are certainly entitled to your opinion, I do have to question both your motives and a few of the things you say. Your persistence is admirable, even a bit disturbing. You appear “out to get” Dartmouth–something that will win you few points on the Dartmouth forum. Your last post gives credence to these claims–taking the word of someone who admitted he only visited Dartmouth for a few hours at a time, and only interacted with a very, very small subset of the Dartmouth population as “making [your] case.” I’m not condemning you for it, but you have to understand how it looks to most people.

As for your denunciation of the Review, that’s simply closed-minded. It’s akin to me saying I’m not going to listen to anyone from Cornell because Cornell produced Ann Coulter. Or saying that I’m not going to listen to anyone from Yale because Yale produced John Kerry. Or the New York Times because they hired Jayson Blair. One person, though you may dislike him or her, does not merit an indictment of an entire organization. To do so is intellectually facile.

The Review has produced an exceeding bright array of conservative intellectuals, including James Panero and Stefan Beck of the New Criterion, Hugo Restall of the Far Eastern Economic Review and the Wall Street Journal, Greg Fossedal, at the time the youngest person to write editorials for the Wall Street Journal, Alston Ramsay of National Review, Steven Menashi of the New York Sun, and Joe Rago of the Wall Street Journal–to name but a few. None of them should be dismissed lightly.

Continuing down the list, we have accusations of racism and discrimination from Sangel and SorGirl. Those are very hefty charges, and ones that I believe are entirely without merit. The student body president this year is gay. The senior class president last year was black. There’s a level of integration that I haven’t seen on any other campus I’ve visited. Nor is Cornell free of such accusations, though apparently those claims have some support in fact (Home | Cornell Chronicle). Nobody has stabbed a minority while yelling “racial slurs” on Dartmouth’s campus in my memory.

I’d also say that I’m very sorry for you, SorGirl, because you obviously didn’t see (or didn’t want to see) Dartmouth Undying. Instead, you choose to get caught up in your perceptions of campus drinking, which you seem to declare runs rampant among the student body. I’ve been a student for several years now, and I have been to all of two fraternity parties. This has hardly isolated me from Dartmouth social activities; I’ve never lacked things to do nor amazing people to do them with. About half of my friends are in fraternities; half are not.

Your statement that fraternities are mostly reserved for the rich white students is an utter falsehood. Dartmouth’s minorities are only slightly underrepresented in fraternity membership, and Dartmouth’s fraternities and sororities are more ethnically and economically diverse than most other schools I’ve visited and attended.

Cornell is a fine school for many people; and, Ithaca is indeed gorges. It certainly does have opportunities that Dartmouth does not; but Dartmouth also has many, many advantages that Cornell does not.

Now, I’m putting this thread behind me. I suggest that several other people do the same.