The Dean & the Graduate Student

dean ( P ) Pronunciation Key (dn)n.
An administrative officer in charge of a college, faculty, or division in a university.
An officer of a college or high school who counsels students and supervises the enforcement of rules.
Ecclesiastical. The head of the chapter of canons governing a cathedral or collegiate church.
Roman Catholic Church. A priest appointed to oversee a group of parishes within a diocese.
The senior member of a body or group: the dean of the Washington diplomatic corps.
[Middle English deen, from Old French deien, from Late Latin decnus, chief of ten, from decem, ten, or from Greek deknos, chief of ten (from deka, ten). See dek in Indo-European Roots.]
deanship n.


coun·sel·or also coun·sel·lor ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kouns-lr, -slr)n.
A person who gives counsel; an adviser.
An attorney, especially a trial lawyer.
A person who supervises young people at a summer camp. See Usage Note at council.

************************************************************************************

The Tale of Two Cities involves a clarification of what the general assembly of those who are reading these posts considers a standard. A reasonable standard concerning these two terms & these two responsiblities on a college campus. One which is an Ivy League college campus.

Presumably, they are high. Presumably they involve the Honor Code, because I, as a graduate student matriculated at both Harvard & Dartmouth, was required to swear to uphold one. An Honor Code.

So I am going to toss out a general question here to my readership; do you think it would be honorable or fair to lock a student out of her home while she was away on a trip to help a patient out; far from home, 3000 miles away actually, at the calling of a very ill friend?

I took an Ethics class at Harvard Divinity where we spent time considering, what is ethical, what is fair, what is moral. I think it is worthwhile taking time to consider issues like this. Myself. That is why I was there.

When I came to Dartmouth later, to study the use of many of the amazing technologies available as a student, to APPLY them to my chosen field of nursing, I was faced with just such a moral & ethical challenge. I was in point of fact, locked out of my own home, by my own spouse, who, at the time WAS a dean. In fact a Dean of the Tucker Foundation.

I learned dutifully about both the Tucker Foundation & William Jewett Tucker, the man for whom the Tucker Foundation is named after. I understood, as many students like myself did, in fact we celebrated a significant celebration concerning the founding of this Foundation within a college setting at the time of my on campus residency as the Dean's wife, that Dr. Tucker was concerned about the importance of providing in a balanced liberal arts education a MORAL aspect of that education.

The visionary Dr. Tucker saw that it was as important to educate the mind with a concern for the callings of the heart. Dr. Tucker wanted the student body to leave as well rounded students understanding that the training of the mind alone, without considering issues of CONCIENCE was a hazardous affair.


con·science ( P ) Pronunciation Key (knshns)n.
The awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one's conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong: Let your conscience be your guide.
A source of moral or ethical judgment or pronouncement: a document that serves as the nation's conscience.
Conformity to one's own sense of right conduct: a person of unflagging conscience.
The part of the superego in psychoanalysis that judges the ethical nature of one's actions and thoughts and then transmits such determinations to the ego for consideration.
Obsolete. Consciousness. Idiom:in (all good) conscience
In all truth or fairness.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin cnscientia, from cnscins, cnscient- present participle of cnscre, to be conscious of : com-, intensive pref.; see com- + scre, to know; see skei- in Indo-European Roots.]
conscience·less adj.

Honor, nobility, moral development; giving opportunities for students to learn about right-minded, rightly guided behavior.

It would seem obvious by the time a student gets to college.

It is actually to my mind fairly simple to understand the basic precept by the time someone finishes kindergarten. Like the popular pastor who wrote the book, Everything Important I Learned in Kindegarten, something like that:

Pick up after yourself. Don't lie. Don't steal. Don't bully people.
Naps are good after lunch. Warm chocolate chip cookies taste good with ice cold milk.

The BASICS.

So, I hope the reader can understand my frustration & perplexity when I discovered that the man I was married to at the time, did this act. Called Safety & Security & asked them to change the locks on our shared home, containing my own office & files for nursing & INEDA, video production equipment, my family photo albums, cold weather clothing, all the things a wife usually thinks they can leave SAFELY in the care of a spouse at an Ivy League while traveling to minister to another.

Walk a mile in my shoes friends.

What would YOU think about that?

Would it make you HAPPY or SAD? PEACEFUL, TRANQUIL, or ANGRY?

This really did happen.

In the middle of February. Of 1995.

Your fearless leaders in Administration do NOT want you to know about this.

Usually that indicates to me as a mother they are not PROUD of what they did. That they had to hide it. But I am a nurse & one of the MOST important things we do is write; date & time records of care. Thank you Simmons College for teaching me this vital discipline. Nurses are inherently journalists. We write logs of our patients progress. We are counted on by our patients, their family members, the doctors we work with & the general public to do so. Or else we do not stay in nursing.

Nurses in every State & in every nation are required by law to function within the law.

A law which is in every one of those states & nations is a law called the Nurse Practice Act.

OUR Honor Code. Look it up. There is one in New Hampshire. I still comply with it.

Have I got your attention now?

There is no saving grown men from the ACCOUNTABILTY the law requires of us ALL.

Even if they live in fancy houses. And have done so for a very long time.

No, a fair & just judge weighs the merits of every case presented before that justice.

As an exercise of continuing education online, to build upon the incredible gains the Dartmouth community as a whole has made in integrating the offerings within the undergraduate school, the schools of Engineering, Medicine, Business, & last but most definitely NOT least, the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program, let me throw this moral & ethical challenge out to you NOW.

What would YOU have done in this situation? How would YOU have felt, to return to the campus in midwinter, with one suitcase filled with a few light summery bits of clothing, no car, to find you had been locked out?

Ponder this moral dilemna.

Then begin your search in Grafton Superior Court.
Look up docket # 94-M-495, James P. Breeden v Monica W. King
By the way, I have no middle initial W., but it WAS me, the defendant.

Then look up Rockingham County Superior Court docket #97-E-84
This is called a Writ of Certiori, a special & extraordinary writ.

Proceed from there to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, & ask the Clerk of Court to show you yet another Writ of Certiorai
King v. Breeden & Freedman as officers of Dartmouth College.

Finally go to the U.S. Supreme Court, same case name: King & INEDA v. the Jameses; Freedman & Breeden. INEDA v. Dartmouth.

Because truly, this is an extraordinary tale.

It has been truthfully documented in a civilized manner, walking, driving from one court to the next.

STILL I FAILED. I failed to get my degree granted that I had started.

I failed to get justice, in my humble opinion, which would minimally have been to have my M.A.L.S. degree granted, & my family's home restored to us.

Because, correct me if I am wrong here, it DID NOT SEEM FAIR.

Now it's your turn. You decide.

Oh, & as you go, please investigate you Chief of Police who remains sitting at his desk in Hanover. With an Italian last name. I am truly perplexed & wondering WHY he is still at his job. Isn't he supposed to PROTECT & SERVE?

Or am I the one confused.

I thought that police were supposed to read those they take into custody their Miranda Rights.

I also thought that when the police have video cameras in their cruisers, they were supposed to have a consistent POLICY for their use.

Because I was told by two of them "we turn them whenever we FEEL like it."

I don't know about you, but I do not believe that is clear policy. But I am glad they are encouraged to get in touch with their feelings since being a cop IS so stressful.

Yes, any & all interested journalists, students, & members of the Dartmouth community may PRINT OUT this BLANKET PERMISSION from ME, Monica King.

You have MY permission to examine ANY video, computer record, transcript or other source of data with MY NAME ON IT, in any department of law enforcement & any court in the land.

In fact, I urge you to do so.

It just mught be enlightening. You clinicians may see some of the root stressors contributing to an "emotionally troubled" woman. The Social Security Administration also may gain some insight as to why I continue to appeal my claim for disability.

Peace. Monica King