Dartmouth Expels White Student For Wearing Sombrero
Dartmouth College has expelled a white student for wearing a sombrero to a Cinco de Mayo party. According to a statement released today by the university, sophomore Ashley Ryan, 20, was thrown out of the Ivy League school for âracial aggressionâ after a student of Mexican heritage complained that her use of Mexicoâs traditional wide-brimmed hat was culturally insensitive. âIt was just a normal sombrero,â Ryan says. âIt wasn't even mine.Â Some guy gave to me and said I looked cute in it. I was wearing it for maybe like two or threeÂ hours max. âI was called into the deanâs office this morning. I didnât know what to expect. I thought it maybe had something to do with the amount of alcohol I drank that night. âThe dean said I was trying to make fun of Mexican culture or something. But I wasnât doing that at all. I was just trying to have a good time. I donât know what Iâm going to do now. I guess Iâll have to transfer. This really sucks. It was just a party. â Dartmouth College is one of America's most prestigious universities, with notable alumni including Daniel Webster, Robert Reich, Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner, Nelson A. Rockefeller and Aisha Tyler. In recent months, however, it has become more well known for the poor quality of its administration than the high quality of its academics. In April, for example, the administrationÂ bannedÂ a sorority from using the word "fiesta" at charity fundraiser, the latest in a long line ofÂ decisionsÂ that manyÂ criticize asÂ  political correctness run amok. The attention Dartmouth gives to policing its students' speech for racial sensitivityÂ seems especially odd given theÂ university'sÂ poor track record in policing sexual assaults on campus. Several recent high-profile sexual assaults led to a 14 percent drop in applications last year. And the collegeÂ is also one of dozens of schools under federal investigation for its handling of sex crimes cases. Yet in an exclusive interview the school's dean defends it decision to expel Ryan and says the college's priorities are in the right place. âHere at Dartmouth we try to foster an environment of diversity and tolerance,â says Vernon Warner. "And thatâs why we simply couldn't tolerate the sort of ethnic intimidation that Ms. Ryan was engaged in. "Wearing a sombrero on Cinco de Mayo is no different than what Hitler did to the Jews. It's wildly inappropriate, and frankly I don't know why this idiotÂ thought she could get away with it. "Not only are we expelling Ms. Ryan, we're referring this case to the local prosecutor's office as a potential hate crime. This womanÂ raped a nation's cultural heritage. Is there any worse kind of rape? Frankly I hope she spends a few years behind bars."