Dartmouth College alumni’s Dartblog recently fisked the following statement:

Sexual assault and racist, sexist and homophobic hate speech have become disturbingly normal — not only at Dartmouth but at colleges and universities around the country.

In light of hate crime hoaxes that College Insurrection as covered, the following portion of the analysis was intriguing:

I would like to bring your attention to three specific, reported LGBTQ hate crimes that happened this term:

1) Around May 6th, a Dimensions show protester was in her dorm room in the Gender Neutral Housing floor (LGBTQ housing) when three men threw a glass bottle at her window and screamed “Fuck you, motherfucker!” She was visible through the window and identifies as LGBTQ. She reported this crime to S&S and Hanover Police. When I checked the daily crime log on May 20th at 2:45PM, this incident was not recorded, neither as a hate crime or as vandalism or even as harassment.

2) On May 6th, my partner and I were leaving the LGBTQ Resource Room in Robinson Hall when we found the resource room sign torn off and placed next to a VHS tape titled “Jerry Springer’s Wild Relationships”. We reported it to S&S and Hanover Police. We received no follow-up on the incident, and when I checked the crime log on May 20th, the incident was nowhere to be found. We told The Dartmouth about the incident, and they took pictures, but did not report the story.

3) On June 4th, one of the residents of the Gender Neutral Housing floor found torn up posters strewn across the hallway at 3:45AM. These posters had been hanging up all year and defined several terms for residents, such as “gender vs. sex”, “sexuality”, “ally”, and “bias incident”. They also described the principles of community of the floor. No other signs in the hall were vandalized. The resident reported the incident to S&S and Hanover Police. We have not checked the crime log yet to see if this incident has been included.

The fact that these first two incidents are not in the crime log is part of the problem that RealTalk Dartmouth describes. ….

The Department of Education’s “Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting” (http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/handbook.pdf) is the reference that universities must use for compliance for the Clery Act. It states:

“Any institution, regardless of whether it’s public or private, that has a campus police or security department, must create, maintain and make available a daily crime log.” (89)
“You must disclose reported offenses, not the findings of a court, coroner or jury or the decision of a prosecutor. Classify and count crimes from the records of calls for service, complaints and investigations.” (34) [Emphasis added]

“Crime log entries include all crimes reported to the campus police or security department for the required geographic locations ” (91)

What is happening at Dartmouth College is in violation of federal law.