April 22, 2024
Dartmouth College Board of Trustees
6001 Parkhurst Hall
Hanover, New Hampshire 03755
To the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees:
On behalf of the Board of Directors of DGALA, I write to express our great dismay that the College has announced plans to award an Honorary Doctorate Degree in June to an individual who is an employee of Uganda Christian University (“UCU”), an aggressive denier of LGBTQIA+ rights.
UCU is chartered by and closely affiliated with the government of Uganda. Uganda is the nation with the severest laws on Earth against LGBTQIA persons. Its “Anti-Homosexuality Act” provides for the death penalty or life imprisonment for sexual relations between persons of the same sex, and imprisonment for up to twenty years for “promotion or recognition of sexual relations between persons of the same sex.” UCU likewise expects all staff members and students to conform to their [Statement of Faith] rule and “shun all sexual immorality polygamy, adultery, fornication and homosexual practice.” UCU has publicized the June honorary degree in conjunction with fundraising efforts.
We do not know the individual who is to receive the honorary degree. Our concern is that Dartmouth appears to signal its support of Uganda’s horrific laws by honoring anyone potentially complicit with them. Without diminishing the honoree’s contributions to the College, we call upon the College to issue a statement condemning Uganda’s violations of human rights so as to make clear that the College does not support them.
Sincerely,
Erik Ochsner ‘93
President
cc: Members of the Council on Honorary Degrees
Ann Root Keith
Bob Lasher
Jomysha Delgado Stephen
