Dartmouth is considered one of the finest educational institutions on the planet. But the education it offers is clearly biased and one-sided towards supporting capitalist hegemony and exploitation. Despite its rhetoric about helping working-class students attend the College, its financial aid policy clearly discriminates against poor and working-class students, serving the interests of the institution not financially needy students. More, the academic atmosphere at Dartmouth indoctrinates its students with bourgeois ideology and prepares them for lives as servants to and protectors of the capitalist system.

Case One: Financial Aid

Despite having one of the largest endowments of any college or university in the country and despite embarking on a new capital campaign to invest in new academic, residence and research buildings, Dartmouth refuses to rectify its unjust and discriminatory financial aid system. While Dartmouth preaches providing equal opportunity to all students, it does not do so itself. Despite having adequate finances to do so, Dartmouth refuses to fulfill the needs of its financial aid applicants outright through grants and scholarships. Instead, the institution insists on strapping many students with huge loans to repay upon graduation. This often discourages graduates from taking low-paying public interest jobs, encouraging them to enter high-paying jobs in the corporate sector.

Similarly, the college maintains a $2,000 leave-term earnings requirement for financial aid students. This policy makes accepting low-paying or unpaid internships, or internships outside of a studentís hometown practically impossible. The current leave-term funding from sources other than college financial aid frequently does not cover any of a studentís expected basic living expenses. Thus, a student must either take a high-paying corporate job, stay at home to work at a decent paying job in the private sector, or dig into his or her savings account to fund leave term opportunities.

But the most egregious type of financial aid Dartmouth chooses to use is the federal work-study program. This program should really be called the federal slave-labor program. Instead of giving a financially needy student the money that the College knows he or she does not have, the policy is to have students work for Dartmouth instead. So, a work-study student spends 10 or more hours per week working for Dartmouth, while receiving no pay for it, and leaving him or her less time for studying and other activities. The work-study program is a convenient way for Dartmouth to maintain a constant supply of cheap labor to fulfill its campus job needs. On the other hand, Dartmouth does now require its wealthy students to work 10 hours a week or more for no pay.

The worst part about the system is that many financial aid students end up donating thousands and thousands of dollars to the College after graduation. In this way, the College can easily win back its investment in the student. I am asking all financial aid students right now, out of respect for yourself and understanding of how you are being exploited, to pledge never to donate a dime to Dartmouth after graduation.

If Dartmouth were serious about providing educational opportunities for poor and working-class students equal to the opportunities it provides to wealthier students, it would cover all financial need with grants and scholarships, get rid of leave-term earning requirements, and stop engaging in the slave-labor program known as federal work-study.

Case Two: Academics

Dartmouth provides an education that is grounded in status quo, neo-liberal ideology, largely avoiding discussion of any ideologies or major academic works that challenge the neo-liberal paradigm. It is not just the Tuck Business School; it is the supposed "liberal" undergraduate education that is equally to blame. Academic departments most grounded in neo-liberal thought (i.e. Economics and Government) are often the largest and best funded on this campus. These departments teach neo-liberal doctrine as though it is the only theoretical paradigm that exists.

The Government Department rarely mentions the activities or arguments of politicians or political parties other than Democrats or Republicans, and the Economics Department dismisses the work of Marx and Marxists without analyzing them or presenting them to students. Other social science disciplines, such as Sociology, African American Studies, Womenís Studies, and Anthropology, that often challenge traditional neo-liberal and pro-capitalist views are tiny in comparison.

In a college supposedly grounded in a liberal tradition, Leftist scholarship is ignored by most professors and many departments. At Dartmouth, students are taught everything they need to know to enter society as leaders of the capitalist world, except for what is most important: the flaws of and alternatives to the capitalist system.

Dartmouthís rhetoric does not match its practice. Dartmouth continues to serve bourgeois society and the capitalist system by maintaining class boundaries at the college through an unfair financial aid system and by maintaining an academic program that discourages the teaching of Marxist and other Leftist thought. In reality, it provides neither equal opportunity nor a true liberal education. While Dartmouth has the potential to be so much more, for now it remains a tool of bourgeois society.