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PAGE 2-THE CLUSTER, APRIL 1, 1M»
Dartmouth didn’t discriminate
against white students, judge rules
(CPS)—A federal judge ruled
March 23 that Dartmouth did not
discriminate againu three white
students.
The students — Christopher
Baldwin, John Sutter and John
Quilhot — had charged Dartmouth
President James Freedman was
biased against them as white peo
ple. and thus favored suspending
them for their role in a February.
1988. confrontation with music
Prof; William Cole.
U S. District Court Judge Shane
Devine dismissed their accusation,
saying they were “not entitled to
relief under any set of facts they
(CPS) — While some campuses
debate driving joke boards off their
computer systems, a list of racist
jokes illicitly stored in Southern Il
linois University’s computer
system ended up in a local
kindergarten class.
“Although the university per se
did not have any direct involve
ment. the individuals represent the
university and we cannot condone
this matter.” SIU President John
Guyou said upon releasing a report
of the incident.
The problem began in
November, when an unnamed
SIUM student slipped a huge.
30-pege-long joke file into the cam
pus's computer system.
could prove.'*
The three students were staffers
of the Dartmouth Review, the first
and most flamboyant of the conser
vative newspapers set up by a
Washington. D.C.. foundation on
at least 34 campuses since 1980.
After publishing several articles
critical of Cole, a black man whom
the Review had called '‘incompe
tent” and a “Brillo-head,” the
dure got in a fight with Cole out
side his classroom. A campus
disciplinary board found the three
guilty of "harassing” Cole, and
Dartmouth suspended them.
In response, the students filed
While purging it, someone at
SIU’s central computer facility
primed the file, and then discard
ed the used computer paper, the
report said. But SIU regularly
donates materials of ail kids to area
schools, and the used computer
paper was plucked from the Car-
bondaie, Ql.. campus trash and
given to Glendale School.
There a 5-year-old
kindergartener used the back side
of the paper for a drawing, took it
home to show his mother who. in
turn, angrily rend the “racial, de
meaning” jokes. She contacted the
local chapter of the National
Association for the Advancement
of Colored People, which then ask-
three suits.
In the first one. decided in
January, state Judge Bruce Mohl
ruled a member of the disciplinary
board had in fact been biased
against the Review, and ordered the
three students reinstated.
Mohl. however, added he had
found “no persuasive evidence”
the school was discriminating
against them because they were
politically conservative.
Devine settled the second suit —
which charged Dartmouth jfihd
singled them out because they are
white males and which campus at
torney Sean Gorman derided as “a
ed SIU to investigate. Guyon
explained.
Guyon said the undergrad who
entered the joke file into the system
may face campus disciplinary
charges, but declined to release the
student’s name.
Computer joke files also have
been a problem at Stanford Univer
sity and the University of
Washington. Stanford officials
purged a joke file, which contain
ed references, that some people
thought offensive, Feb. 1. At
Washington, a separate computer
“room” was created for those who
like the jokes.
publicity stunt” — by dismissing it
March 23.
The third suit — which claims
Freedman violated the
Reviewers Tint Amendment rights
— is pending in stale court.
(CPS) — About 100 students at
Col by-Sawyer College in New
Hampshire protested March 16 the
possibility of having to share their
campus with men.
The school’s Board of Trustees
is considering admitting men for
the first time in the school's history
to stave off expected enrollment
declines. The board is set to vote
on the matter April 1.
Students at many of the women's
colleges around the country that
have gone co-ed during the eighties
have reacted with anger and resent
ment. In recent years, such protests
marked the conversion of
Randolph—Macon Women's Col
lege, Mississippi University for
Women and. in 1988. Wheaton
College in Massachusetts.
Colby-Sawyer is one of 95 all
women's colleges left in the United
States, down from 140 in 1970,
said Peter Marijanian of the
Womens College Coalition in
“The focus o four effortssaid
Art Ruegger, the students' at-
to racy, “has always been the First
Amendment claim. We’re looking
forward to a trial in front of a jury
on those claims.”
Washington. D.C.
At Colby-Sawyer, about a fourth
of the population at the 450-student
school sang “I Am Woman” at a
sit-in, and then met for four hours
with campus President Peggy Stock
and board Chairman Peter Dan-
forth, claiming they had shut them
out of the decision-making process.
“A lot of people are against co
ed.” said student Janice Johnson,
“and a lot more need to be more
vocal about it.”
While the trustees consider open
ing the school to men, Mirijanun
reported enrollment at women's
colleges nationwide has increased
15 percent since 1970.
He said Colby-Sawyer’s pro
blems are more typical of those fac
ing small, private colleges, not
women's colleges.
“Women’s colleges arc doing
quite well, and we’re encouraged
about the future.” he said.
Racist jokes end up in kindergarten class
Colby-Sawyer students
fight against men
SGA
SPRING
ELECTIONS
THURSDAY, APRIL 13
9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
N Lobby Connell Student Center
