American Dartmouth students must come together to advocate for international students and protect higher education
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
The Dartmouth
This week, two Dartmouth students abruptly had their visa statuses revoked.
Nearly every other Ivy League school has had funding rescinded or suspended for refusing to comply with the Trump administration’s demands.
Meanwhile, The Dartmouth has received a tsunami of takedown requests from students on visas in the past few days — those worried about everything from full-length editorial stories to quotes in the past coverage, sharing benign opinions. Students come to the newsroom, hands clasped, to plead with us to remove their names from our website.
But, looking out from the newsroom’s windows, you would not have a clue. The White Mountains frame a quiet Green. Dartmouth students seem engrossed in their daily routines.
The College carries on. The climate of campus lends itself to a belief that Dartmouth students do not possess the capacity to care, or to show it in a meaningful way.
We, The Dartmouth Editorial Board, reject such a notion. Dartmouth students are — and have always been — varied, passionate, thoughtful citizens of the world.
From participating in the civil rights movement, to protesting the Vietnam War, to speaking out on apartheid, Dartmouth students recognize when a moment is historic, which is why we consistently find ourselves on the right side of history.
We are in another historic moment now. We must uphold our legacy of impact. We all feel a profound connection to this place and to these people.
When one of us suffers, we all do, but our empathy must stretch far beyond Hanover.
As our 12th President John Sloane Dickey said in his 1946 Convocation Address, “The world’s troubles are your troubles.”
This spirited independence extends far back into the College’s history.
The College faced a similar moment in 1816 when the state of New Hampshire tried to transform the College into a public institution called Dartmouth University, to be overseen by the state legislature.
Despite these threats, the College did not give in — as Daniel Webster famously told the Supreme Court, “It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college, and yet there are those who love it.”
Let us not forget why Webster’s words were necessary.
He was protecting our institution from governmental overreach and ensuring the quality of our education was never adulterated.
Let us rise to the occasion to protect our fellow students and our institution once again. Lest the old traditions — moral gumption, action, change — fail.
We aren’t ones to sit aside and watch, to use the words “institutional neutrality” and forget our compatriots.
So we must act accordingly.
If you are a Dartmouth student with a U.S. passport, you must be a vocal advocate for your fellow student. As young people, it is our role to be optimistic, to look forward, to fight for a better world. We mustn’t give in to this swell of apathy.
Chime in, reach out, sit on the Green with a sign and a book — even if you’re only allowed to stay until dusk.
We know that this is a challenge. Regardless of one’s position on May 1, the memories of the 89 arrests do not escape us.
Our reporters were arrested while writing for this very paper. But if not us, then who? In the words of a more famous Dartmouth alumnus, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
If this really is the end, if Dartmouth is to settle into a quiet mediocrity as just another formerly-glorious university crumbling under duress, then let us rage against the dying of the light.
Let us greet the world from the hills: live free, or die!
The editorial board consists of opinion staff columnists, the opinion editors, the executive editors and the editor-in-chief.”