James O. Freedman - Criticism

Criticism

Some critics believed that Freedman was uninterested in maintaining Dartmouth as an undergraduate college first, a research and graduate university second.

The one event in Freedman's presidency that garnered the most press was the so-called "Hitler Quote" scandal of The Dartmouth Review in 1990. A member of the staff of the controversial conservative weekly paper inserted a quote from Mein Kampf into the masthead of one edition of the paper. This edition of the Review was dated on Yom Kippor, the holiest day in the Jewish year. In the same edition, the paper also printed a drawing of Freedman as Hitler. The paper's editor discovered the quote three days after the paper was distributed, pulled available copies, and issued a campus-wide apology, but the quotation was seen as the latest in a series of attention-getting stunts that were either provocative or offensive depending on the reader's point of view.

In response to the Review's activities, including its publication of the quotation, students and members of Freedman's administration organized a "Rally Against Hate." The rally became a focal point for national conservative criticism of Freedman and of what was seen as "political correctness" generally.

Freedman's administration also engaged in the building of the "second Green" greatly expanding Dartmouth's campus and further diminishing the school's small college nature.

George Mason law professor Todd Zywicki, a Dartmouth alum (and trustee) later referred to Freedman as a "truly evil man . . . who basically, simply put, his agenda was to turn Dartmouth into Harvard."