Stephen Wellman

Students at Dartmouth College are questioning if their school’s support for "diversity" and academic freedom are genuine after it blocked a student group from sending Christmas gifts through the mail, stating that the act could be deemed "offensive."

The Dartmouth administration banned the campus chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ from distributing copies of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity—just days after the 100th anniversary of the author’s birth—to the college’s freshmen class prior to the holiday break. The group sent over 1,000 copies of the book to freshmen last Christmas, but was stopped when they tried to do so this month. Only after the books were bought, wrapped, and ready to mail did the school bar sending the Christmas presents through the mail system that is supposed to be open to all student groups and is even used by outside advertisers.

The decision to block the use of Dartmouth’s mail system to distribute the gifts was made by Tucker Foundation Dean Scott Brown. The Tucker Foundation is a group on campus responsible for handling many student issues, including those of religious life. The decision was made because of complaints that had been registered from six students and several of the college chaplains. Brown contended that the school expected "that a large number of students will take offense at" allowing the Christmas gifts to be sent. He did not say if the school believed it would also be offending large numbers of students by forbidding them from receiving a gift.

Chris West, the director of the Dartmouth chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ, delivered the books to the college mailroom for distribution on Wednesday morning of finals week. He then received a call from Brown informing him that the books were being "held" until they could have a discussion about the affair with other college chaplains.

Members of Campus Crusade for Christ were stunned by Brown’s action. "What it boils down to is that Dartmouth College is restricting the dissemination of this information," said West. "This is not welcoming religious diversity; this is suppressing it."

The group did everything in its power to ensure that anyone who might not want the book was screened from their distribution list. West met with Brown and the other college chaplains the night before asking if they had any objections. The chaplains put forward some criticism but refused West’s offer to have them personally remove any students from the list that they felt should not receive the book. The Campus Crusade for Christ members even sent an e-mail to all Dartmouth freshmen, informing them that they would receive the book. If they did not want it, they were given the option to e-mail back with a message stating, simply, "no thanks." "Since I’ve last checked, we’ve not gotten a single response from any student asking us not to send it to them," West pointed out.

The decision to block the distribution of the Christmas gifts also confused Kent Dahlberg, director of the faculty and graduate student ministry of the Campus Crusade for Christ chapter. Scott Brown "restricted our ability to distribute information in ways that would normally be acceptable." In an interview with Campus Report, Dahlberg expressed shock at the administration’s action. "Only 6 [complaints] out of 1,069 [number of freshmen who received the gift last year]. That is pretty good. Especially considering the nature of this project." With so little criticism of the effort, he was unable to explain why the administration had acted this way.

Brown, however, now denies that he ever blocked distribution of the gifts.

In a letter printed in the local newspaper, the Valley News, Brown wrote, "The Campus Crusade for Christ is free to distribute copies of any material it chooses to whomever it chooses on the Dartmouth campus. Under college policy, any recognized student organization may distribute materials through the campus mail system and by any other means. The free exchange of ideas is, after all, at the very heart of the academy." He later explained, "With another such distribution being recently planned, the leadership of the Campus Crusade for Christ agreed to a meeting to discuss with those interested parties the issues such action might raise, and I put a hold on the distribution of the mailing pending that discussion."

According to West and Dahlberg, this is a misrepresentation of what actually occurred. In a response that Dahlberg sent to Campus Report, he refutes these points made by Brown. "Once again, never acknowledged or stated by Scott is the fact that only six students out of the 1,069 freshmen who received C.S. Lewis’ book complained to the college—and that well over 100 students expressed appreciation to us in writing."

Dahlberg maintains, "In a desire to be sensitive to this handful of objections, we went to considerable lengths to accommodate for and minimize negative responses, following the mutually agreed-upon adjustments we worked out with Dartmouth’s Chaplain Gwen King’s input last January. However, those adjustments we worked out with Rev. King in no way included putting our distribution of Lewis’ books before our fellow chaplains for a ‘vote’ as to whether or not we could proceed, or a discussion of which students would be ‘allowed’ by various chaplains to receive a copy of the book."

On the group’s access to the college’s mail system, Dahlberg refuted Brown’s claim that they were free to use the mail system at any time they chose. "Campus Crusade was clearly being restricted from—or even denied—the use of campus mail to send the Lewis books, as well as restricted to whom we would be allowed to send a C.S. Lewis book gift." Dean Brown refused to comment.

Dartmouth was founded by the Reverend Eleazor Wheelock to spread Christianity to American Indians. Nine of the school’s first ten presidents were ministers. The school’s current guidelines on religion profess: "we believe that all persons are worthy of hearing the message of our particular beliefs. We equally affirm the right of every person…to survey other belief options to make his or her own decision." Dartmouth is being criticized for violating its own guidelines.

The decision to block the distribution of the text came just days after the 100th anniversary of the birth of Clive Staples Lewis, one of the best selling and most acclaimed authors this century. Lewis wrote more than 30 books on subjects ranging from Christian apologetics and philosophy to fantasy and children’s literature. His writings on Christianity are known for their ecumenical approach to the faith and are written in a style that is accessible to all. Lewis is considered by many to be one of the foremost Christian apologists. Columnist George Will has placed Lewis "among the century’s most influential writers." He has also been the subject of numerous artistic treatments and biographies including the successful film Shadowlands, which starred Anthony Hopkins.

This is not the first time Dartmouth has banned Christmas festivities.

In 1996, the administration stopped a performance of religious carols at the school’s tree lighting ceremony. Despite a longstanding tradition behind the glee club concert, the group was banned from the event. Administrators objected to such Christmas favorites as "Silent Night," "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," and "O Come all Ye Faithful," and demanded that the group stick to secular songs such as "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." The group held a non-sanctioned, widely-attended sing-along in spite of the ruling.

Christian songs at a Christmas tree lighting were "inconsistent with having the event be one at which persons of all faiths—and non-religious persons—would feel welcome," sniffed administrator Olivia Chapman.