When I saw that Dartmouth president Philip J. Hanlon was addressing extreme problems on campus in the Washington Post, I thought he would finally reprimand the protesters who took over his office. No such luck.

Instead, he sounds like one of the protesters himself. Nick Anderson writes.

Dartmouth president calls for end to ‘extreme behavior’ that mars image of elite college

Dartmouth College’s president lamented Wednesday that the Ivy League school’s promising future “is being hijacked by extreme behavior,” including sex assaults, parties with “racist and sexist undertones,” and a campus culture in which “dangerous drinking has become the rule and not the exception.”

Philip J. Hanlon, a Dartmouth alumnus who took office in June, said such problems were taking a toll on the image of the 245-year-old college in Hanover, N.H. Applications to Dartmouth fell 14 percent this year, the sharpest drop in two decades, and the federal government has launched an investigation of issues related to sexual harassment and sexual violence there.

“The actions I have detailed are antithetical to everything that we stand for and hope for our students to be,” Hanlon said in an advance copy of a speech he was planning to give Wednesday night. “There is a grave disconnect between our culture in the classroom and the behaviors outside of it — behaviors which too often seek not to elevate the human spirit, but debase it. It is time for Dartmouth to change.”

Hanlon’s unusually stark assessment of the challenges facing the prestigious college came as many faculty, students and alumni have been agitating for action to prevent sex assaults and improve the campus climate. But the speech also reflected a larger national debate about campus safety. President Obama this year formed a task force to develop policies to stop assaults, and Hanlon said he and other college presidents met recently with Vice President Biden to discuss the topic.