HANOVER, N.H. - JULY 24, 2020 - Dartmouth is deeply distressed that Maha Hasan Alshawi has announced that she remains on a hunger strike, despite Dartmouth’s offer to engage an external investigator to conduct an additional review of her concerns and make the findings public in the interests of transparency. We reiterate our hope that she accepts this offer and does not put her health and well-being at further risk. 

It is important for our community to know that Ms. Alshawi’s complaints were reviewed and assessed earlier this year, at her request and in accordance with established policies and procedures, by our Title IX office, the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, the Department of Safety and Security, the Office of the Dean of the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, and the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity.  

Members of our community have called on us to disclose details of our previous reviews of Ms. Alshawi’s complaints and explain our conclusion that no further action was warranted. While we understand this request, Ms. Alshawi’s legal privacy rights do not allow us to release these details unless she agrees to their disclosure, which she has so far declined. We believe we share a common interest with her in sharing the findings of any additional external investigation with our community. We sincerely hope that Ms. Alshawi will make it possible for us to us to make those findings public.  

Dartmouth stands behind the faculty members in the Department of Computer Science and the many administrators who have worked so hard on Ms. Alshawi’s behalf. We continue to try to reach out to Ms. Alshawi, her family members and advocates, as well as to local public safety officials, out of concern for her health and safety, and again ask her to end the hunger strike and seek medical attention.