Recent controversies of the Colin Kaepernick Halloween costume and Dickinson’s drop from the top 50 schools in US News’ rankings did not appear to be major topics of discussions for families and prospective students during the fall Open House this past Saturday.

Triton and Liberty Cap member Brianna Geesaman ’21, said “no one personally asked me [about these], and I didn’t overhear anybody talking about it.”

Michael Murphy ’20, also a Liberty Cap member, experienced the same lack of questions regarding the two incidents, saying that “nobody has asked [him] about either.”

When prospective students were asked the two incidents, they reported that the Halloween costume was more concerning for them.

“I didn’t know about either of those things so they didn’t impact me, but they do sound concerning,” said prospective student Jackie Logsted. “Not really the U.S. News drop but more the racism incident,” she continued.

Logsted was troubled by the news, but not deterred from Dickinson. Hearing of the student body’s criticism and protest of this costume reassured her of the general mindset of students here.

Another prospective student, Saraly Gonzalez, also had not heard of the incidents. She said she was looking at Dickinson mainly because of  “it’s strong [environmental science] program, and it had track [and field] and everything I wanted.”  Gonzalez was significantly more concerned with the Halloween costume.  “I’m of color,” she said, “so I’m part of that minority, and having safe environments is important.”

She said that she wouldn’t respond strongly to the drop in rankings at all.  “I wouldn’t be like, ‘Oh no, two more drops down! Can’t apply now!” she explained.

Geesaman also mentioned a Liberty Caps meeting earlier in the week in which they “talked about what had happened and gave the Lib Caps a chance to express how they’re feeling.” Of the meeting, she said “most people had questions about handling the situation with prospective students,” to which they were advised to “not push it under the rug, since that’s not who we are as a school. Let them know it’s being talked about, that there’s an open conversation with all of the students.”

Libery Cap Ryan Murphy ’20 echoed this message saying that he was told to “be honest about the situation.”

On Tuesday, Nov. 2, the day of the silent protest of the faculty meeting in the HUB, a Lib Cap “rerouted [a] tour not to the hide the protest, but in respect for it, then told the tour what was happening and why,” Geesaman said.

Gonzalez also commented on the protests, saying that for a prospective student like herself, “protesting is actually really good because I feel [that shows] the student body feels against [this incident] but the administration of course, they should really enforce and let know those on the outside know that’s not what [Dickinson] stands for.”

The Open House took place on Saturday, Nov. 11.