Dartmouth heckling...Haaavaad "men" & "women" called sluts and fags
Gaylord Merryweather
uth_heckling_at_squash_meet_prompts_apologies/
About 300 fans packed into the narrow spectator gallery at Dartmouth
College�s squash courts, hoping to see their underdog team topple
fifth-ranked Harvard for the first time. But the cheering soon turned to
heckling - and then a full-fledged verbal assault.
For at least 90 minutes, about a dozen Dartmouth students pelted
Harvard�s men and women players with obscenity-laced insults that some
witnesses described as misogynistic, homophobic, and anti-Semitic. Women
on the Harvard team were called �whores�� and �sluts,�� witnesses said;
the men were taunted with crude comments about their masculinity.
The Dec. 2 incident, which shattered the genteel world of college
squash, has prompted a flurry of apologies this week from Dartmouth�s
president, athletic director, and students, including soccer players and
fraternity members involved in the incident.
The incident also has sparked soul-searching on the secluded Hanover
campus that has tried for decades to shed its �Animal House�� image, and
presented a challenge to a new Dartmouth president intent on fostering a
climate of tolerance and social responsibility.
�I am extremely disappointed and upset by this behavior,�� President Jim
Yong Kim said in an interview yesterday. �There is no question it was
inappropriate. Players and families shouldn�t feel threatened like
that.��
Kim said he apologized to Harvard�s president, Drew Gilpin Faust, during
a meeting Tuesday of Ivy League presidents at the Harvard Club in New
York City.
Dartmouth intends to use the incident as a �teachable moment,�� Kim
said, with campus-wide discussions on appropriate fan behavior planned
for January when school is back in session. Members of Dartmouth�s men�s
soccer team, some of whom were involved in the heckling, initiated the
discussions, he said. The shape has yet to be determined, but Kim vowed
to be personally involved.
�These kinds of apologies and discussions don�t mean anything unless
we�re going to change the behavior at these sports venues,�� Kim said.
�I am going to continue to pursue this aggressively.��
This is not the first time Kim has had to address offensive student
behavior on the campus. When his appointment was announced last spring,
a star rugby player sent out an e-mail over a satirical campus listserv
referring to Kim, the Ivy League�s first Asian-American president, as a
�Chinaman.��
In the 1980s, Dartmouth�s conservative student newspaper published a
list of alleged homosexuals on campus and a critique of affirmative
action written in what was intended to be �black dialect.�� In 2006,
fraternity pledges disrupted a Native American drumming circle on
Columbus Day.
�This is not just an issue of sportsmanship,�� said Frances Vernon,
student body president, referring to last week�s incident. �There�s
something we�re not digging deep enough into. What is happening here
that students feel it�s OK to say things like this?�� Several Dartmouth
students involved yesterday declined to be interviewed about the
incident.
One Dartmouth soccer player told the Valley News, which first reported
the insults, that he and his teammates were just trying to create an
intimidating atmosphere, something they routinely encounter on the road.
He said he and his teammates, and some Alpha Delta fraternity brothers,
did not realize how hostile their behavior would appear in the crowded
squash venue, in which spectators sit close to players behind a glass
partition.
�We don�t know the etiquette, so it came off much harsher than we
intended it to be,�� the student, Bryan Giudicelli, told the local
newspaper.
At one point, Franklin Cohen, a captain of the Harvard men�s squash
team, was asked by a Dartmouth student whether he likes bagels, a
comment his mother viewed as a slur on their Jewish last name. But
Giudicelli later said the comment referred to a zero on the scoreboard
and held no anti-Semitic intent.
Kim said he telephoned the Cohens yesterday to apologize for the
incident and assure them he would find out the details of what occurred
at the match.
The Valley News reported that Dartmouth fans repeatedly called Harvard
players by derogatory names, referring to male genitalia, sexual acts,
and sexual orientation. Cohen was also called a �coward�� and a
�despicable human being,�� the newspaper reported. Another witness told
the Globe that a Dartmouth student shouted, �Cohen, do you cheat in
business, Cohen?��
Dan Keat, a cocaptain of Dartmouth�s men�s soccer team, issued an
apology to the Dartmouth community Tuesday on behalf of the team for
behavior that �crossed the line of what is appropriate and acceptable.��
His e-mail was followed yesterday by an apology from Alpha Delta, the
fraternity that helped inspire the movie �Animal House.��
�Support for our fraternity brothers and for Dartmouth athletic teams
should never devolve into the type of behavior that occurred at this
recent match,�� David Shrubb, president of the fraternity, wrote in an
apology to the Dartmouth community.
Cohen and other squash players declined Globe requests for comment on
the Dartmouth fans� behavior. But his coach, Satinder Bajwa, downplayed
the severity of the incident.
Bajwa said he had warned his players of potential heckling. Last week�s
matches were unusual because a lot more fans attended than normal for
squash; squash meets at Dartmouth normally draw just 50 or 60
spectators, he said.
�We understand that sometimes supporters get overexcited and that
happens in every sport,�� Bajwa said.
Robert Ceplikas, Dartmouth�s athletic director, said the large turnout
caught the university by surprise and it was not prepared to deploy
staff and security to monitor the crowd. With six matches being played
simultaneously, the university should have had at least three staff
members to help control the crowd instead of one, he said.
�The one silver lining is it has indeed prompted an effort to raise
visibility on this issue and gotten members of our community thinking
much more carefully about the way people should behave at athletic
events,�� he said.
Harvard won the match - 6-3 for men and 9-0 for its women�s team.
Sarah The Quitter
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
juanjo
> gaylordmerryweat...@hushmail.com (Gaylord Merryweather) chiseled in stone
> for all posterity to see <0F19CE17D624CDB0CC128FE...@94.75.244.51>:
>
> >Dartmouth
>
> Say's it all really. Dartmouth? Please. I guess ther retarded children
> need someplace to go to college.
>
> --
Well GW Bush went to Yale didn't he?