Dartmouth Shantybusters Granted Second Appeal

The President of Dartmouth College yesterday granted a request for a second appeal to 10 students suspended last week for their sledgehammer raid on an antiapartheid shantytown.

President David McLaughlin announced that former New Hampshire Governor and Dartmouth alumnus Walter Peterson will review the suspensions. Peterson is currently President of Franklin Pierce College.

"President Peterson will conduct a review of the record and then provide a recommendation to President McLaughlin on whether the appeal should be approved," Dartmouth spokesman Laura H. Dicovitsky said.

Under school regulations, only Mclaughlin can make the final decision on the appeal, she said.

Nine of the students are members of the controversial conservative journal, The Dartmouth Review. They filed for an appeal one day after Dartmouth's Committee of Standards decided to suspend them last Thursday.

Gerald J. Hughes, a Review spokesman, was unaware of the President's decision to grant the request for an appeal but reacted favorably to the new development. "Hopefully, he [Peterson] can make an objective decision because his job isn't on the line. He doesn't have to worry about political dealings with the faculty."

The students were suspended for their January attack on a shantytown built on the university's green by antiapartheid protesters.

The suspensions do not take effect until McLaughlin approves the findings of the Committee of Standards. If he does, the suspensions will take effect immediately, even though Peterson's review is still in progress, Dicovitsky said. "The students must leave the campus within 48 hours of the decision and cannot approach the campus or take classes towards their degrees," she said.

Dartmouth also decided yesterday to permit three of the 10 students suspended last Thursday by the Committee on Standards to attend classes and live on campus while their appeal is being reviewed. But "they will not be allowed to register or count any course credits towards graduation unless the appeal goes their way," Dicovitsky said.

"We all could have done that," Hughes said. "It was their own personal decision. I personally don't want to risk losing $5000 in tuition and fees."

But Dicovitsky denied that the three students would have to pay tuition or risked any loss of money if the appeal didn't go their way.

Hughes said that the other seven suspended students have decided to take the term off, since six of them will be able to graduate on time anyway. All nine members of the Review will continue to work for the weekly. "This thing has cemented their dedication to the paper," Hughes said.