Statement of Support
December 6th, 2018
To President Hanlon and the Dartmouth Board of Trustees: We are writing to express our strong support for the seven women who sued Dartmouth College on November 15th, 2018 as a result of the College’s persistent failure to protect its students from sexual assault and harassment. As members of the Dartmouth community spanning several generations, we are acutely aware that these were not isolated incidents, but rather part of an institutional culture that minimizes and disregards sexual violence and gender harassment.
Dartmouth College allegedly enabled the “Predators’ Club” in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences by failing to appropriately address reports of sexual assault. The College’s reported refusal to act emboldened the perpetrators and damaged the emotional, physical, and mental health of their victims. Furthermore, the department and Dartmouth College allegedly retaliated — academically and professionally — against the students who filed the Title IX complaints and this lawsuit, reinforcing the implicit institutional policy that outspoken survivors will be neither protected nor tolerated. We call upon Dartmouth leadership to uphold the College’s stated principles and core values, acknowledge their glaring breach of responsibility, issue a public apology, and begin a transparent overhaul of regressive practices. We are organizing further action and will release a letter outlining our specific demands in early January.
We stand, outraged, in solidarity with the courageous individuals who filed this lawsuit, and with the countless students, staff, and faculty who have endured sexual violence and gender harassment throughout Dartmouth’s history. It should not have taken legal action and a tarnished reputation to finally draw the College’s attention. Now that we have it, we will not accept anything less than full accountability and a commitment to uprooting the deeply entrenched patriarchal culture that enables predators and silences victims. We are strong, passionate, and many — and we refuse to be silenced.
Sincerely,
Dartmouth Community against Gender Harassment and Sexual Violence