Dartmouth ignores sex abuse claims

Associated Press (ap.org via mail.com); Crystal Q., Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

(Back row) Annemarie Brown, Andrea Courtney, Marissa Evansin, (front row) Sasha Brietzke, Vassiki Chauhan, and Kristina Rapuano pose in NY, women who filed lawsuit against Dartmouth College for allegedly allowing three professors to create a culture in their department that encouraged drunken parties and subjected female graduate students to harassment, groping, and sexual assault. A growing number of former students are demanding answers from the administration and questioning how such an atmosphere apparently flourished for at least 15 years at the Ivy League school in Hanover, N.H.

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The Ivy League school is rich and famous.

Dartmouth College alumni have heard the allegations of misconduct in one department where professors are accused of hosting drunken parties, groping, and sexually harassing their students and, in two cases, sexually assaulting them.

Now a growing number of former students are demanding answers from the administration and questioning how such an atmosphere apparently flourished for at least 15 years at the Ivy League school in Hanover, New Hampshire.

 

Gathering in Facebook groups and other networks, alumni led by several women are pushing for withholding donations until they see changes at the school — or the ouster of President Philip Hanlon. Others want department chairs and other administrators responsible for handling the sexual misconduct allegations held accountable.

In October 2017, Dartmouth launched an investigation into the three professors. It never released the findings. But Todd Heatherton retired this summer after being told he would be fired and denied tenure. Paul Whalen and William Kelley resigned soon thereafter.

The growing anger comes in the wake of a federal lawsuit filed this month by seven female graduate and undergraduate students who were in the Department of Psychological and Brain Science, where the professors worked. They accused the three of sexual misconduct and said the college ignored their complaints.

"There is a whole of lot of alums, women in particular, out there who have had experiences that are similar enough to what these students have experienced and are horrified to know this is still going on," said Giavanna Munafo, a lecturer in the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies program who has counseled two of the seven women who made abuse claims.

"It's like a wake-up call to them," she said. "Our college is still as bad as it was or worse." More