Dartmouth Faculty Cancels All Classes To Relieve Mounting Racial Tensions

The Dartmouth College Executive Committee cancelled classes today because of growing racial tensions at the school.

The Afro-American Society and Alpha Phi Alpha, the only black fraternity at Dartmouth, requested that the Faculty Council cancel all classes after 10 a.m. today so that those organizations could sponsor a symposium on racial issues at the college.

The Afro-American Society and Alpha Phi Alpha, responding to two race-related incidents that sparked two rallies in under a week, submitted a set of fourteen demands to the college calling for across-the-board recognition of minority issues and concerns. The demands include:

Retention and expansion of the Black Studies Program:

An immediate increase in black faculty and staff:

An increase in black, native American (American Indians), and Latino students, with an emphasis on black women:

A permanent Afro-American representative on decision-making bodies, and.

Divestiture of all Dartmouth College investments in firms having extensive dealings with South Africa.

Thomas B. Roos '51, chairman of the sub-committee on agenda for the executive committee and a biology professor at Dartmouth, called the students' request for class cancellation "responsible," saying "it's an appropriate response. This way there's an opportunity to put things out in the open."

Two events in the past two weeks have caused the racial tension, Roos said. On February 23, the Dartmouth maintenance crew dismantled a three-week old "South Africa memorial graveyard" snow sculpture, Roos said. He explained that the snow sculpture lay on a main road through the campus and that there were others being dismantled at the same time.

James E. DeFrantz, president of the Afro-American Society, said, "There was some feeling that one of the trustees had ordered the graveyard destroyed." He said that the society had requested a formal apology from the maintenance crew, but had not received one.

Roos said that there was "no evidence of collusion" between trustees and the maintenance crew, adding that the faculty has "no knowledge that it was a political act."

Ice Follies

The other incident occurred at a Dartmouth hockey game in which two students skated across the ice dressed in garb recalling the former Dartmouth symbol, the Indian, which was banned in 1973 in response to student distaste with what were called racist connotations.

Both Roos and DeFrantz said that the students' actions were probably no more than a joke. "If one were looking for reasons to start a protest, the actions could be interpreted as racist," Roos said.

A disciplinary committee composed of administrators and faculty voted to suspend the two students for the remainder of the term after the Faculty voted to investigate the incident, Roos added.

Dartmouth president John G. Kemeny revoked the suspensions after the students appealed the decision of the disciplinary committee, but he did place the two on probation for a year.

"I was surprised at what Kemeny did," Roos said. "I think he imposed a much harsher penalty than was necessary," he added. Kemeny was unavailable for comment last night.

At the end of the second rally on March 2, black and native American students built another red and black snow sculpture to show their solidarity, Howard Kelly, a senior at Dartmouth and a member of the Afro-American Society, said yesterday. He added that minorities have been threatened with "violence" since that time, but there have been no actual incidents.

"I think there's a lot of polarization here," DeFrantz said, commenting on the racial situation at Dartmouth. "There is very little--almost no--interaction between races here," he added, calling Hanover "a hostile environment for minorities."

Activities planned for tomorrow include lectures by Kemeny, faculty members and representatives of various minority groups