Dartmouth Students Suspended For Confrontation With Professor

A Dartmouth College student-faculty panel yesterday found four Dartmouth students guilty of harrassing a Black music professor last month.

The nine-member panel suspended three of the students and placed the fourth on probation.

Three of the students, who are editors of The Dartmouth Review, a conservative journal which is not affiliated with the college, were found guilty of disorderly conduct, harassment and invasion of privacy. The panel--composed of three students, three faculty members, two administrators and a non-voting chairman--found the fourth student, a contributor to the Review, guilty of disorderly conduct.

The investigation stemmed from an incident last month in which the four students confronted Professor William S. Cole, who is Black, at the end of his class, "American Music in the Oral Tradition."

The hearing came to no conclusion as to whether the incident was racially motivated, but at least one student testified that she heard Christopher S. Baldwin make racist remarks during the classroom confrontation, according to The Dartmouth, a campus newspaper.

According to The Dartmouth, the hearing concluded that the four students entered Cole's classroom on February 25 with cameras and a tape recorder and one of them, Baldwin, the editor-in-chief of the Review, asked Cole to read aloud a letter. The letter responded to an earlier Review article which criticized Cole's class.

Cole refused to read the letter and began shouting at the students to leave, according to The Dartmouth. When Review Photography Editor John W. Quilhot began to photograph Cole, the professor broke the student's camera flash. More shouting followed, and physical contact occurred between Cole and Review Executive Editor John H. Sutter, in part because Sutter was taping the incident.

The panel suspended Baldwin and Sutter for six terms, making them eligible to return to the College in 1989, Baldwin said. He said Quilhot received a two-term suspension and may return this fall. The fourth student, Sean P. Nolan, has been placed on probation for one year, Baldwin said.

Baldwin charged that the hearing was not conducted fairly. He claimed the hearing took place in an atmosphere of "lynch-mob hysteria." He also said the panel's non-voting chairman, Dean of the College Edward Shanahan could not be impartial because Shanahan's direct superior, Dartmouth President James O. Freedman, last week issued a statement condemning the incident.

As a result, Baldwin said that the outcome ofthe hearing did not surprise him. "I was resignedto the fact that I was going to be suspended as Iwalked into that hearing, and my feelings wereborne out," he said.

Jon H. Appleton, a professor of music and acolleague of Cole, said he was pleased with thedecision. He called Cole "a brilliant scholar" andadded, "I have no doubt that they were raciallymotivated."

"Students that invade a professor's classroomand prevent him from excercising his duty as aninstructor deserve to be suspended," he said.

In response to the verdict, Freedman issued astatement saying, "It is now time to put thisspecific incident behind us and broaden the campusdiscussion to the larger issues of the quality oflife among all Dartmouth students."

But Baldwin said that the incident is far fromover. He said he plans to appeal the decision,and, if necessary, file suit against the college.He said that he had already contacted the AmericanCivil Liberties Union for advice and theorganization had expressed an interest in thecase.

In addition, Baldwin said he will remain amember of the Review and become its chairman.Baldwin said Sutter will become the paper's senioreditor