Dartblog

COLLEGE SHUTS DOWN MARTIN REDMAN

Updated: 2:00 p.m.
Published on Thursday, February 11, 2010

Earlier this afternoon, the College announced its official derecognition of Dean Martin Redman, effective very soon.

“Martin Redman as a Dean at Dartmouth will soon no longer exist,” President of the College Jim Yong Kim told The Dartmouth.

The decision to shut down Martin Redman follows the re-recognition of Zeta Psi, whom Redman had derecognized for expressing their right to free speech.

In a press statement released soon after the shut down decision, Zeta Psi called the decision justified.

“This action was justified on the merits. The penalty imposed was not overly harsh or grossly disproportionate to the offenses charged,” the statement said.

The ultimate responsibility to determine the fate of Redman rested on Zeta Psi’s re-recognition. Redman’s decision to re-recognize Zeta Psi came after a six and a half year war of attrition - a war that proved Redman ineffectual in defeating the fraternity.

“[The decision to shut down Redman] primarily had to do with issues surrounding the harassment of Zeta Psi and allegations of the violation of several of [the College’s] faculty minimum standards,” the College said.

The College said a Dean’s recognition, “is a privilege, not a right.” By completely failing to rid Dartmouth of Zete, Redman violated a principle of trust existing between himself and Dartmouth and is no longer deserving of this right, he said.

“There was a plan to eliminate Greek organizations on this campus either wholesale or one by one,” Redman said. “It didn’t work.”

According to a statement, Redman “will consider my appeal rights and whether further legal action is merited.”

The College would not comment on the likelihood of Redman attaining a successful repeal of the sanctions, although he did say that he believed that the judicial proceedings were conducted without error.

Barring any success on the part of Redman to reverse his derecognition through an appeal, the College will allow Redman’s family currently living in his house to continue to reside there until June 10.

UPDATE: The web of irony too thick now to trace, our friend T. Weymouth ‘79, President of the Zeta Psi Alumni Association, sends us a letter avowing that Zeta Psi did not, in fact, author the parodic news item about the gentleman who kicked them off campus for authoring an earlier parodic news item.

Mr. Weymouth’s entire letter is below.

Joe and Joe -

Just a quick note in response to your Dartblog post about Marty Redman’s and Deb Carney’s announced departures. I consider myself a staunch advocate of free speech and therefore support your and others’ rights to express your views on any and all subjects. In fact, I find many of your posts entertaining, informative, and sometimes both.

At the same time, with such freedom comes responsibility. To your credit, you generally “own” the views that you express. In this case, though, you attributed the parodied report of Dean Redman’s departure to “the gentlemen of Zeta Psi”, suggesting that the organization as a whole was responsible for circulating the report. [Dartblog wrote that the parody was in circulation among Zetes—we didn’t say it was authored by them.] As the President of the Zeta Psi Alumni Association, I object to this characterization because it’s factually inaccurate: neither the Zete alumni association nor the undergraduate chapter drafted or disseminated the report. Moreover, to my knowledge the parodied report had not been widely circulated, among Zetes or otherwise, before its publication on Dartblog.

For what it’s worth, I don’t know who wrote the parody and, while I appreciate the intended irony and humor, find it unnecessarily cruel under the circumstances. Over the past several years, other Zete alumni and I have worked with Marty, Deb and the ORL staff on Zete’s successful return to campus. While we’ve had our differences, I believe that Marty and his team have had the College’s best interest at heart, even when I disagreed with them. Moreover, without their support Zete likely would still be de-recognized and not the vibrant member of the Greek community that it is today. And it goes without saying that these two individuals who dedicated several decades to Dartmouth are losing their jobs, in a terrible job market no less.

I would appreciate it if you could publish this note to clarify the (non)-provenance of the parody. I tried to post it as a comment on the article, but couldn’t figure out how to do so.

Thanks.

T. Weymouth ‘79

We’ve emended this item to make plain that we don’t really know the pen behind the joke.