To the Dartmouth community,

Sigma Delta Sorority stands in solidarity with the First-Year Trips director, assistant director, and general directorate. We do so in response to the recent guest columnist article bashing the legitimacy of the directorate application process. We, as a campus community and organization, believe the voices of successful women of color (WOC) should be uplifted; their success should be celebrated, especially considering the obstacles faced and additional labor required to succeed–to exist–at Dartmouth and in our society today. We wish to express our wholehearted support for the compassionate, resilient, and exceptionally qualified Trips directors.

Objections to affirmative action policies are by no means rare. Nor are disagreements on the best way to evaluate candidates for any competitive selection process. To be sure, there are constructive, respectful ways to analyze and discuss processes put in place for any organization; questions may be raised, discussions may be had, complexities should be acknowledged. It should be mentioned, however, that the op-ed published last week lacks the nuance, respect, and openness required for a productive conversation about bettering competitive selection processes. Its messaging was imbued with misogynistic and racist undertones in a way that implies diversity and a merit-based selection process are mutually exclusive--an affirmation of much of the marginalizing and oppressive rhetoric that unfortunately continues to be prevalent on campus. The op-ed demonstrates a clear desire to publicly undermine the leaders of the Trips program, and worse, in including the names and class years of the students attacked in the op-ed, endangers their safety and material well-being.

The article published last week causes the reader to experience a mixture of confusion and disbelief. Is the article supposed to improve Trips, the program that is so crucial to introducing students of all backgrounds to this campus? Or does it merely craft an anger-fuelled narrative, lambasting those who have compassionately, thoughtfully, and self-critically spent months (more accurately, their entire Dartmouth careers) trying to improve the program as a whole? Unfortunately, the impact of this article, no matter its intent, has been felt on this campus. Even more insidious is the fact that those impacted the worst by this narrative are those who expend the most labor to make this campus a more inclusive, more open place.

In writing this letter, Sigma Delta would like to achieve four goals:

1) We express our love, gratitude, and support for the Trips directorate members, and all others who have been negatively impacted and endangered by this article.

2) We reject the harmful messaging of this article.

3) We ask The Dartmouth to redact the names of students attacked in the article and apologize for endangering their well-being in publishing their names and class years along with this harmful rhetoric.

4) We ask that members of the Dartmouth community join us by doing the same.

Though unfortunate, we hope this instance will spur dialogue around how Dartmouth can foster a more inclusive community, where students of all multifaceted identities and lived experiences may feel safe, and, hopefully, thrive.

Dartmouth, we can do better.

In Solidarity,

Sigma Delta Sorority

**The opinions of this letter are a result of a house discussion and do not represent the views of every individual in our community**