Column: It’s a small college, but the recent botches are big
Steve Nelson
Modified: 3/2/2021 9:31:53 AM
At the risk of being a back-seat driver or a Monday morning quarterback, what the heck is going on at Dartmouth College?
The good news, just to start on a positive note, is that applications are way up for admission to the Class of ’26. That seems to be a result of circumstances outside the college’s control. The temporary suspension of SAT requirements has led to a huge rise in applications to all the Ivies and other schools previously thought of as out of reach by wonderful students who are not strong standardized test takers. SAT scores track closely with wealth, so maybe this bodes well for a more economically diverse applicant pool.
Column: Dartmouth must remove Leon Black’s name
Modified: 2/23/2021 10:30:11 PM
The last two weeks of January were not good for the Dartmouth College brand. The good news for the college is that the debacle in athletics pushed the more virulent headline off the front page. What was that headline about? It was about changing the name of the Black Family Visual Arts Center, a very public and broadly used space.
That’s Leon Black, the billionaire CEO of Apollo Global Management and former Dartmouth trustee. The same Leon Black who maintained a long personal and business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender and alleged sex trafficker who died in August 2019 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York while awaiting trial. A relationship that continued well after Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea in Florida for soliciting a teenage girl for prostitution, which Black was well aware of.
HANFORD â The Hanford City Council is scheduled to meet Tuesday and is set to reject a claim that Community Development Director Darlene Mata made against the city.
Mata was seeking a settlement payment of $1.25 million from the city, as well as conflicts of interest and council member roles/responsibilities training for all council members, after alleging former council member Art Brieno subjected her to a hostile work environment and unlawful workplace conduct, including gender harassment.
Brieno resigned from his position on the council during a Jan. 26 closed session meeting about the claim.
According to the agenda, city staff recommends council reject Mataâs claim and direct the City Attorney s office and staff to send a notice of rejection of the claim.