"I believe that's something that should be open, because it can be more useful than hurtful," Hitchins said.
Nor were most students offended by the letter.
"Everyone I know who got it laughed during the whole thing," said junior Nathan T. Cook.
"I don't know if any of my friends found it offensive as much as they found it humorous or strange," Hitchins said.
The exact number of letters received at Dartmouth is unclear, but appears to run into the hundreds.
Beyond gender, there was no clear pattern to who got a letter and who did not.
"Not a lot of my friends got it," said Edelman, who added that he thinks about 500 students received the letter.
"Every one of my friends that I talked to got one," Hitchins said.
Sophomore Benjamin M. Hill described looking around a classroom to find several other men holding the same letter.
Cook described the relief of discovering other students with the letter.
"[Students] felt kind of strange if they got it when they were alone, but when they realized other people got it, it was funny," he said.