Dartmouth faculty and administrators teaching students how to tolerate people who think differently from themselves rightly strikes one as the blind leading the blind. Fortunately for them, different thoughts won't be encouraged in this course. Students will be taught to think exactly alike about students who are different. Every student will learn exactly what to say to particular minority groups to avoid offending them. When it's all over Dartmouth will have an entire freshman class without a single difference of opinion on racial, ethnic, and religious issues.
Generous students call the course idea misguided.
Those who have dealt with Dartmouth's ideological regime in the past call it thought control. Even if you could make people understanding and tolerant by forcing them to enroll in a class for a term, it wouldn't be educational. This class will not teach students about the rich cultural heritage of ethnic groups, or, if it did, it wouldn't accomplish that goal. The course will teach students not to mention Affirmative Action to their minority friends. It will teach them that no one can offer an opinion about poverty unless they've actually lived it.