VOL. CLXXI NO. 36
PARLTY CLOUDY HIGH 24 LOW 6
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Faculty talk grade inflation Students collaborate
in ‘Freedom Budget’ to demand change
By PRIYA RAMAIAH The Dartmouth Staff
SPORTS
WOMEN’S SQUASH TAKES EIGHTH PAGE 8
OPINION
A CARING COMMUNITY PAGE 4
SELF-CARE FOR SUCCESS PAGE 4
ARTS
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: HANNAH WILLIAMS ’14 PAGE 7
KELSEY KITTELSEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Hanlon said grade inflation is an issue to be tackled by faculty, not administrators.
By HANNAH HYE MIN CHUNG The Dartmouth Staff
At a meeting of the faculty of arts and sciences Monday afternoon, attendees discussed grade inflation, suggesting potential motivations behind the trend and solutions moving forward. College President Phil Hanlon addressed the 14 percent decline in the number of
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indicates that since the early 1970s, the average Dartmouth GPA has risen from around 3.05, or a B, to above 3.4, or a B+. At the meeting, professors interpreted the trend in many different ways. Some speculated that the increasingly competitive job market and students’ desire to attend SEE MEETING PAGE 2
SEE FREEDOM BUDGET PAGE 3
Office to standardize Prof. nabs award for space research electronic pay sheets B y JOSH SCHIEFELBEIN The Dartmouth Staff
B y Rebecca rowland The Dartmouth Staff
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applicants to the Class of 2018, presented the annual budget and touched on sexual assault prevention and new residential projects. During the meeting, the Committee on Instruction presented a report documenting a steady increase in students’ average GPAs and examining grading policies at the College. The report
Creators of the Freedom Budget said they intended to initiate constructive discussion and social change. The document, which was emailed to campus early Monday morning, outlines a plan for “transformative justice” at Dartmouth, comprising over 70 bulleted demands addressed to 13 administrators. The document demands that the College increase enrollment of black, Latino and Latina and Native American students to at least 10 percent each and increase the number of faculty and staff of color across departments. Other proposals include banning the Indian mascot, providing probono legal and financial assistance to undocumented students and expanding gender-neutral housing and bathrooms on campus. The document also demands that residential life spaces on campus be accessible to all students.
The proposal set March 24 as the deadline to respond. College President Phil Hanlon said in an interview that it is too early to say what form an administrative response will take. “The most important thing to recognize is that we share their aspirations and their passion to create a more diverse and inclusive campus,” Hanlon said. Oscar Cornejo ’17, who helped create the proposal, said that although administrators’ first step should be acknowledging the proposal, they must then provide a plan of action. Enacting change will require input from both administrators and community members, Cornejo said. “This is just a stepping stone,” he said. “The conversation will continue, and we want it to continue. Don’t take this
Between tutoring five students and babysitting at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Courtney Hargreaves ’16 juggles not only six jobs but also six time sheets. Starting this summer, however, Hargreaves and other students employed on campus will have to worry about one fewer thing, as all student hourly employees will have
transitioned from using paper to a digital form. The payroll office and the campus finance centers are implementing the employee time management system, which transfers all hourly paid campus staff and students to an electronic platform. By digitizing time sheets, students will no longer have to physically hand in printed time sheets every SEE TIMESHEETS PAGE 5
In the constellation Virgo, 2.5 billion light years away from Earth, a galaxy with little-understood properties generates massive amounts of energy and light. Such deep space objects intrigue astronomy professor Ryan Hickox, who recently received a $50,000 Sloan Research Fellowship to search for quasars. With the grant, Hickox will aim to better understand the supermassive black holes that lie at the center of galaxies and the evolution of the uni-
verse. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation selected Hickox as one of 126 U.S. and Canadian researchers with potential to contribute significant scholarship. Typically young academics, Sloan fellows are nominated by their colleagues and selected based on research, creativity and potential for scientific leadership. Hickox, an observational astrophysicist, has researched black holes since joining Dartmouth’s department of physics and astronomy in December 2011.
Q u a s a r s a re a m o n g the brightest, oldest, most distant and most powerful objects in the universe. At their center, quasars, like other galaxies, host supermassive black holes that attract gas and other material and release intense radiation. Observing quasars gives researchers an idea of how galaxies assemble themselves over time, as it takes time for light to travel, astronomy professor John Thorstensen said. Hickox is interested in quaSEE SPACE PAGE 5
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
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DAily debriefing Feb. 22, 1:28 a.m., Tabard coed fraternity: Safety and Security officers responded to a report of a disorderly male refusing to leave the fraternity. An officer identified the individual as well as two other individuals there as high school students. Safety and Security requested that Hanover Police come to take the high school students into custody. Feb. 22, 10:46 p.m., Rauner Hall: Safety and Security responded to a Good Samaritan call for a female student in need of medical care. An ambulance was called, and she was transported to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and then to Dick’s House. Feb. 22, 11:06 p.m., Gamma Delta Chi fraternity: A female reported that three students were throwing ice at people from the roof of GDX. When Safety and Security responded, officers saw several people run from the house’s fire escape and disappear. The officers spoke with house members and secured the private rooms with access to the fire escape. Residents said that they would monitor access to the fire escape. No one was injured. Feb. 23, 12:06 a.m., Novack Café: Safety and Security received a call for a welfare check on an undergraduate female student who appeared to be disoriented. The officers located the female in Novack Café, where she was evaluated by Safety and Security and Dartmouth Emergency Medical Services. The female student was then admitted to Dick’s House. Feb. 23, 1:06 a.m., Alpha Delta fraternity: Safety and Security received a Good Samaritan call for two undergraduate female students in need of medical assistance. One of the students was transported by ambulance to DHMC. The other student was admitted to Dick’s House. She later left Dick’s House without permission, and Hanover Police took her into protective custody. She was then transported to Grafton County Jail for medical observation. – Compiled by Katie M cConnell
Corrections We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
Hanlon traces application drop in talk FROM MEETING PAGE 1
selective graduate schools causes them to be more concerned about grades. Psychology and brain sciences professor Jay Hull said changes in grading policy could have a considerable impact on student applications to graduate schools and jobs. Other faculty members said that students tend to elect courses with high median grades, leading some departments to grade more lightly to attract students. Religion professor Ronald Green said the problem does not affect all departments equally, pointing out that students who must take prerequisites or other required courses for their major continue to take courses with low median grades. The same students, he said, would not risk their grades to merely explore areas of academic interest. “If we were to give B-minuses in our introductory course,” Green said, “I would say no students would take religion courses at Dartmouth.” Biology professor Mark McPeek, however, said he thinks grade inflation affects all departments. Hanlon, who taught a math course in the fall, said the median was a B+, higher than he was used to. “I view this as a faculty matter, so I can speak as a faculty member,” Hanlon said. “But I don’t view this as a presidential matter. I think you
all need to wrestle with this.” Hull disagreed, saying that any change to grading policy should be made with presidential input. Religion professor Kevin Reinhart said grade inflation is not confined to the College. The solution, he said, requires collaboration with presidents from different institutions. Hanlon opened the meeting with a presentation on the College’s finances, including a proposal of the 2014-2015 budget, which will be submitted to the Board of Trustees for approval next month. The College will offer a five-part class on the College’s budget in the spring, he said, which will be open to all students, faculty and staff. He spoke about the need for the College to slow cost increases and prepare for market fluctuations, noting plans to launch a capital campaign. He then expressed concern about the drop in applicants to the Class of 2018, releasing the results of an admissions office survey for non-applicants who had initially expressed interest in the College. The survey sought to discover why students chose not to apply. Survey results indicated that the top five deterrents were fear that applications would be rejected, the College’s cost and location, concerns about student life and uncertainty about Dartmouth being a good fit. Twelve percent of non-applicants indicated that the
elimination of Advanced Placement credit recognition was a factor in their decision. Attendees also discussed strategies for preventing sexual assault on campus. Hanlon emphasized the importance of mobilizing the community and developing preventive measures to combat sexual assault, and faculty members suggested that the College invite outside experts to analyze issues related to sexual assault on campus. Spanish professor José Manuel del Pino said sexual assault is not an issue that should be addressed hastily. “After identifying the problem, if we need to take action, we need to take action after thinking, after pause, after reflection,” he said. “The College needs to act in an informed way and not just rush to assuage this sense of crisis when it’s not completely accepted by the whole Dartmouth community.” Art history professor Allen Hockley said that it is important for the College to respond proactively when students raise issues regarding sexual assault. The participants at the meeting urged the College to incorporate student and faculty input in sexual assault reports. Hanlon also touched upon new residential life initiatives, including the neighborhoods proposal, which would create a system of residential colleges.
ALL AROUND THE WORLD
“Alumni vote on new policy for uncontested elections” (Feb. 25, 2014): The original version did not correctly state the number of signatures that a petition candidate must attain before running in the trustee election. This figure is 500, not 50, which is the figure for Association of Alumni officer petition candidates.
JOSH RENAUD/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Students discussed global perspectives on feminism at a V-February panel held yesterday in Fahey Hall.
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
PAGE 3
Document creators plan event to continue campus discussion FROM FREEDOM BUDGET PAGE 1
Freedom Budget as the central focus point. It’s just the beginning.” Afro-American Society academic chair Celeste Winston ’14 said that administrators must respond to the demands publicly. This recognition will open participation to all who are interested, she said. “This plan is neither perfect nor comprehensive, and we don’t expect their response to be,” she said. Cornejo said he believed that the funds needed to enact the proposal’s demands exist, but the College will need to reallocate this money. If administrators fail to respond by the deadline, the document states that “physical action” will be taken. Student creators clarified that they are not threatening to enact violence. Instead, this refers to protesting, Winston said. “We’re going to keep talking,” said Christina Goodson ’14, who helped create the plan. “We’re going to get louder.” Gavin Huang ’14, who was involved in creating the document, said that if any of the demands are implemented, all students would benefit. Winston emphasized that the plan’s criticisms of the College are not malicious.
“Because we care so much about this place, we want to see Dartmouth literally be the College on the Hill, as a place people can look up to,” she said. Students drafted the document for nearly a month. They began after a protest at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day keynote speech on Jan. 20, which garnered new support for minority communities at the College, Winston said. Afro-American Society members drafted the first version of the proposal, Cornejo said. Cornejo, a member of Dartmouth coalition for immigration reform, equality and dreamers, said that AfroAmerican Society members decided to then restructure the proposal to encompass a range of communities at Dartmouth — including Asian, black, differently abled, Latina, Latino, Native American, LGBTQ and undocumented students. The proposal does not, however, purport to represent the views of all members of these communities, Huang said. Students interviewed declined to identify individual authors of the proposal, stressing that it was a collaborative effort. Huang, an intern in the office of Pan Asian student advising, said input from the Asian community came in part from the Pan Asian Council,
which is comprised of representatives from various other Pan-Asian student groups. “We did the best we could to reach out,” he said. Huang is a former member of The Dartmouth senior staff. Dartmouth Asian Organization secretary Clara Wang ’17 said a representative presented the proposal’s points relating to Asian-American affairs in an DAO executive meeting, adding that during the discussion of demands she did not know that they would be released alongside many others. After reading the proposal, Wang said she is not sure if she fully supports or opposes it, in part because of its “aggressive” wording. “I would have preferred to understand the entirety of the document before having to voice my opinion on different demands being made in the Freedom Budget,” Wang said. Cornejo said identifying desires of the undocumented student community was difficult due to the absence of a united network. As a result, the Dartmouth coalition for immigration reform contributed the demands related to undocumented student needs. Goodson said she reached out to Native American students to learn about changes they wanted to see at the College.
The proposal’s organization, which divided demands into eight categories of campus life — undergraduate admissions, undergraduate curriculum, faculty and staff, financial aid, residential life, campus climate, advising and support and miscellaneous — aimed to highlight the demands’ intersectional nature, Huang said. “Not all needs are specifically for a minority community,” he said. Students who helped create the proposal stressed that each demand is important. “I can’t necessarily make this a hierarchy and say this or this is the most pressing issue, because all of them are pressing,” Cornejo said. “The administration can’t just say, ‘Give me your top three demands,’ because these are all demands that need to be met.” Hanlon said he was pleased the proposal suggested concrete actions for administrators to evaluate, adding that he looks forward to talking about the demands. The document’s release follows continued efforts by student groups to enact social change on campus through administrators, Winston
said, adding that numerous panels and task forces have published recommendations regarding student issues that she believes administrators have not taken into account. Campus response to the proposal has been mixed. Several students interviewed said the March 24 deadline seems too soon given the extensive list of demands. Others said they worried that the plan could divide campus. “We cannot split our community into war camps,” said Jake Greenberg ’17, who criticized the way the proposal was framed. “If we are to face our problems with rational and diverse solutions then it will be as a community.” History professor Russell Rickford, however, called the plan “brilliant.” “These activists have transcended our platitudes about ‘diversity’ and our elaborate preservation of the status quo, and are actively engaged in a struggle for transformation and justice,” he said. Students involved in the Freedom Budget’s creation will hold a meeting in Collis Common Ground at 6 p.m. on Wednesday to answer questions.
BRINGING HOME THE BRONZE
Annual Brownstone Lecture
ILLUSIONS AND SOLUTIONS: REAL AND IMAGINED OBSTACLES IN ISRELI-PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATIONS
Lev Grinberg
Ben Gurion University
Lecture TODAY
Tuesday, Feb. 25 Rockefeller Center II 4:15pm
reception following
ANNIE MA/THE DARTMOUTH
Hannah Kearney ’15, who earned the Olympic bronze medal in mogels at the Sochi games, visited Hanover on Monday.
Presented by the Jewish Studies Program & Sponsored by the Brownstone Family Visiting Professorship Fund in Judaic Studies
THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
PAGE 4
Contributing Columnist Victor Muchatuta ’16
Contributing Columnist Florence GoNsalves ’15
A Caring Community
Self-Care for Success
As a community, we must change the way we treat each other. On July 2, 2006, my brother told me that our dad had died. In a rare move for anyone who knows him, my brother held me and told me he loved me. Since that day, almost eight years ago, my mother has been my lone light in the darkness, my anchor in the storm. I was terrified all the time, preoccupied with thoughts of death, but through all that, my mother made me feel safe. That feeling of safety is difficult to replicate, let alone create. My mother did this for my brothers and me, because when you care about others, you take it on yourself to protect them, to help them grow. And at a time when a huge hole had appeared in our lives and hearts, the most important thing my mother did was help us heal. A number that I’ve heard people throw around a lot lately is 14, the percentage by which applications fell for admission to Dartmouth’s Class of 2018. The obvious question is why. Well, we’ve had a tumultuous year here in Hanover. Protests, administrative upheavals, scandal: it’s all felt a little too much like a Shonda Rhimes television show. We’re naturally too willing to wait for an Olivia Pope or some other godsend to solve our problems. Many ignore these issues because they don’t personally affect us all. For instance, I am a heterosexual male fraternity member. Even though I may have a little more melanin in my skin than the prototypical image of societal privilege on this campus, I’m far from being the worst off. I feel welcome on this campus. I feel safe. But what about the people who don’t? My first day back at high school after my dad passed away was weird as hell. I was “that” kid. People either handled me with profound delicacy or figured that would be the last thing I needed. The latter group resolved to treat me roughly, so I could rest assured that I was still just another one of the boys. It was all pretty funny — until the first joke. After a brawl in a rugby game, a senior told me that I would be better off running
to tell my dead dad than complaining to the referee. My sense of place and sense of safety evaporated in an instant. I went home to my mother and cried. She told me that I must always remember how I felt in that moment. She urged me to remember that feeling of fear and make sure that I never let anyone or anything I care about feel the same way. After the conversation finished, she held me as I wept. Dartmouth is sold to a lot of students on the basis of its community. This is our small college on the hill, and we are the ones who love it. Yet among us are people who are victimized, othered and attacked for reasons ranging from where they were born to the box they tick under “gender” (if any). The administration has done what it genuinely believes are possible solutions, creating programs and centers to address student concerns. You could never ask a Dartmouth student whether or not they care about these issues and hear a flat “no” — on or off the record, that just won’t happen. We just don’t really know what else to do. The protests groups have formed. We’ve invited Cornel West to speak to us. Hell, there even was a community gathering in front of a throne made of ice. We clearly care, and we’re clearly trying. After all, when you care about something, you protect it and help it grow. Dartmouth is nothing without us: we are the SAT scores, the diversity percentages and the financial aid numbers. If we care about this school, we must care about its people. It’s time we started protecting them, healing them and helping them grow. All of them. It’s time we changed how we see who is a part of our community. To paraphrase Tupac Shakur, we need to start making changes: let’s change the way we live and the way we treat each other. For the sake of our school.
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ISSUE
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
NEWS EDITOR: Nancy Wu, LAYOUT EDITOR: Shane Burke, TEMPLATING EDITOR: Katherine Healy, COPY EDITOR: Bridget Melvin.
SUBMISSIONS: We welcome letters and guest columns. All submissions must include the author’s name and affiliation with Dartmouth College, and should not exceed 250 words for letters or 700 words for columns. The Dartmouth reserves the right to edit all material before publication. All material submitted becomes property of The Dartmouth. Please email submissions to editor@thedartmouth.com.
Resist the temptation to fall into destructive procrastination habits. By this point in the term, all anyone I surveyed some of my friends the other wants is to go home. Winter Carnival is a day, and a few of them admitted to suffering distant memory, finals loom ahead and it’s the same twisted psychology. If they wait five still bitterly cold without a hint of sunshine. I hours before the deadline to write a paper, know my stress levels have been exorbitantly they are proud to have completed it at all high — and judging by the tired faces I’ve and happily take their grades, good or bad. seen around the library and groans I’ve But if they gave their full effort and didn’t heard in the KAF line, I am not alone. do as well as they wanted, what would that When I get overwhelmed, an irrational say about the grades? It might reveal some but persuasive part of me suggests that I intellectual inadequacy — a big fat F for indulge in less than ideal behavior. I turn to failure. marathon HBO Go sessions, binge-shopping I’m concerned about this fear of failure. online at Free People and grabbing that extra I’m concerned about my (and others’) large bottle of Barefoot Wine at CVS. What- harmful “coping” strategies. I’m envious ever I have to do — of the people on study for an exam, “Take a look at how you cope campus who can write an op-ed or with stress and ask yourself if go to the gym to simply finish my these things actually help. Have relieve stress and readings — seems the confidence to put your best allot their time so so insurmountable effort into your work instead of that an all-nighter that I feel I might isn’t necessary. I just scraping by.” as well just throw in wonder if they are the towel and go out confident enough with a bang: well dressed, well educated (on in their abilities to give their work an “Girls”) and, well, drunk. I might as well do honest effort instead of delaying it until something enjoyable since the ship is sinking the last minute just to bang out something anyway. underwhelming. I would like to believe that I’m not the only In the last few weeks of winter, take care person on campus who has these strategies of yourself. Choose sleep over Netflix, studyfor coping with stress. What’s worse is that ing over drinking and coffee with a friend I don’t actually feel any better afterward. I over Facebook. Look ahead at your assignmight have passed a few hours happily, but ments now so you’re not blindsided when then I’m only more stressed, as I realize those finals come. Take a look at how you cope were hours that I could have spent chipping with stress and ask yourself if these things away at work. I’m so overtired, hungover or actually help. Have the confidence to put plain sleep-deprived that I do a subpar job your best effort into your work instead of when I finish my work. I actually could have just scraping by. If stress is really getting to done all my work if I’d just tackled even a you, make a to-do list and tackle one thing small portion of it (which didn’t disappear at a time instead of falling into any selfdespite my mini-vacation). destructive behavior. It’s easy to forget about But I almost feel like that is my goal. If I taking care of ourselves when everyone else can get even a little bit of work done after seems to prioritize other things, but it really not having slept, that’s an accomplishment. is crucial to look out for our own well-being. On the other hand, if I sit down to study I know this isn’t any new or revolutionand don’t get everything done, I feel like a ary information, but it’s a reminder that I failure. I wonder if my destructive behavior really could have used last week and will really shows a fear of inadequacy. most certainly need as the term finally ends.
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
PAGE 5
Mobile devices may ease Hickox to use two telescopes in research student employee payroll FROM SPACE PAGE 1
FROM TIMESHEETS PAGE 1
other Friday, student employment consultant Kari Jo Grant said. Instead, students can submit them electronically, saving time and energy. “It’s one point, one portal, one entry, one way of recording it and then it’s done,” Grant said. “I like the consistency, and I like that it’s straightforward.” One frustration with the current system is the frequency of late or incomplete time sheets, which delay processing and stall paycheck delivery, Grant said. Students will be the last group of campus employees to shift to the digitized system and are expected to transition during the second pay cycle of the 2014 summer term, Grant said. She estimated that in one year, anywhere between 2,300 and 2,500 students work at least one hourly paid job on campus. The system has been implemented in five phases, corresponding to the different finance centers on campus. While some divisions within the already converted finance centers have yet to cross over, for the most part, staff members have successfully made the shift, Grant said. Planning for the initiative began in fall 2012, Grant said. As a photo editor for the Aegis, a photographer for the Rockefeller Center and a teaching assistant for an engineering class, Malika Khurana ’15 submits her time sheets in three different locations. She said the inefficiency has hindered her ability to hand them in on time, and submitted a suggestion to digitize time sheets on Improve Dartmouth, a recently launched website for community suggestions. “On the student side, it’s one less thing you have to print and
keep track of,” she said. “I was also thinking of it from the administrative perspective. Rocky and Collis each needs a person to process the time sheets, and I see the big piles.” Alice Wang ’16, who works at Paddock Music Library, said handing in time sheets is an easy task to forget, and the unreliability of Green Print contributes to her frustration. Hargreaves said she is very happy with the transition to electronic time sheets. The new system will be more convenient because she will no longer have to make a separate trip just to obtain a supervisor’s signature every other week. “Last term I submitted all of them at once at the end of the term because it wasn’t worth it to walk there and hand them in every other week,” she said. In the future, the employee time management team may introduce a method through which students can complete time sheets on their mobile devices. Collis Café employee Tom Slater has submitted electronic time sheets since he started working there a year and half ago. He said he has not seen any serious problems with the electronic system, especially because employees can submit a form with their correct hours if the system does not accurately record their punch-in time. “It seems to work out because even if there’s a mis-punch, there’s a sheet you fill in and in a few days you get your paycheck,” he said. Grant said she does not foresee any significant obstacles for the student transition. The student employment office will notify students of the new system by email as the time of their transition nears and link to training available on the website.
sars that are obstructed from view. In many cases, gas and dust block the typical ultraviolet and optical light signatures that are normally used to identify quasars. Until recently, the observational tools to find such hidden quasars did not exist, Hickox said. Hickox’s proposal focused on using two new telescopes, the Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, an infrared telescope that launched in 2009, and the Nuclear Stereoscopic Telescope Array, or NuStar, which observes high-energy X-rays. Quasars, which possess unique signatures in the infrared spectrum, can be observed using WISE because dust does not block infrared light. NuStar measures high energy Xrays, which are typically emitted next to black holes and can be observed through gas and dust. Hickox collaborates with NuStar’s science team, giving him priority use of data. Unlike WISE, NuStar must be pointed at specific regions of the sky and is best used to observe areas a few times larger than the moon, Hickox said. “If you’re interested in how things came to be and what happened to the world to make it the way it is,”
Thorstensen said, “this is the kind of thing you want to know.” Since the Sloan fellowship program’s inception in 1955, 42 fellows have earned a Nobel Prize, 16 have won the Fields Medal in mathematics, 13 have won the John Bates Clark Medal in economics and 63 have received the National Medal
“I was excited, very honored and, frankly, a little surprised because the level of competition is really high.” - RYAN HICKOX, ASTRONOMY PROFESSOR of Science. Hickox is the 20th Dartmouth professor to receive a Sloan grant. “I was excited, very honored and, frankly, a little surprised because the level of competition is really high,” Hickox said. At Dartmouth, Hickox has taught courses on galaxies, cosmology, stars and the Milky Way, in addition to introductory astronomy classes. In summer 2012, Hickox organized a five-day international workshop about black holes.
Thorstensen said although the award is smaller than some other scientific research grants, Sloan grants provide great prestige and improved financial flexibility. “He’s really become known among his peers as a go-to guy,” Thorstensen said. Tyler Stoff ’15 said that Hickox was especially enthusiastic about black holes during a course last spring. “Whenever the class focused on black holes, he was probably the most excited person in the room and had the most to say, which is great in a teacher,” Stoff said. Hickox’s research team includes two undergraduates, four graduate students and one post-doctoral student. All seven students will be involved in the project in varying degrees, depending on their experience. One of these students, Alexandros Zervos ’16, said in an email that he has found Hickox to be both a great teacher and colleague. “You’ve got these amazingly interesting exotic objects with extreme gravity that have all these cool energy phenomena,” Hickox said. “To understand where they come from, you have to understand the quasars.” Stoff is a member of The Dartmouth business staff.
Charlotte Johnson Dean of the College
Tuesday, February 25th, 2014 PA R K H U R S T 1 1 1
PAGE 6
DARTMOUTH EVENTS
THE DARTMOUTH COMICS
What We’re All Thinking
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
Sonia Robiner ’16
TODAY 12:30 p.m. Artist-in-residence series talk, “Abstract Painting and the Legacy of the New York School,” Hood Museum of Art
4:15 p.m. Brownstone lecture, “Illusions and Solutions: Real and Imagined Obstacles in Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations,” with Lev Grinberg, Rockefeller 002
4:30 p.m. “Putin’s Russia,” with Eugene Rumer, Haldeman 041
TOMORROW 4:00 p.m. Physiology and neurobiology seminar, “Understanding the Neurophysiological Basis of Autism Using Pten as a Genetic Model” with Bryan W. Luikart, DHMC Auditorium E
4:30 p.m. “The New Republican” with Alex Castellanos, Silsby 028
7:30 p.m. “The Vagina Monologues,” Spaulding Auditorium
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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
Hannah Williams ’14
The Davidson CeramicsStudio B y AIMEE SUNG The Dartmouth Staff
Courtesy of Hannah Williams
Hannah Williams ’14 has pursued a digital arts minor at the College.
B y caela murphy The Dartmouth Staff
As Hannah Williams ’14 sees it, computer programs open up endless creative possibilities for digital artists. What else can make you feel like a god, capable of creating anything from nothing? “The first time that we rigged an animated character we built was such a weird experience, because it’s like you’re bringing life to something that was just an object,” Williams said. “I think there’s a lot of beauty and intrigue in that.” Williams said she has been involved in art “forever,” working with collages and textiles and even started her own crocheted hat business before college. At Dartmouth, she channeled her creative energy into a new field: the digital arts. “Coming here, it tied together all of those entrepreneurial and creative things with a software that can do anything that you want,” Williams said. Williams’s friend and freshman floormate Chase Klein ’14 encouraged her to try the computer science department’s digital arts progression, a sequence of three classes that includes 3-D digital modeling, computer animation and a special projects course. Some of her favorite classes have included projects like making an original short film, which allowed students to familiarize themselves with Autodesk Maya, an animation software. Klein, who created his own digital media major, said he could only take partial credit for introducing Williams to the subject, calling her a “superstar” well-suited for the work. “She’s a brilliant artist but also possesses organizational skills and working skills that are rare to capture in one person,” Klein said. Williams, a government major with a minor in digital arts, serves as Student Assembly secretary and vice president of Sigma Delta sorority. She is also a teaching assistant for computer science
professor Lorie Loeb’s computer animation course. Loeb, who taught Williams in several classes, said she was a standout student. The Digital Arts Leadership and Innovation Lab’s founder, Loeb organized the first Digital Arts Exposition, an exhibition of original digital artwork and music by undergraduates. Williams assisted her as project manager, collaborating with students, faculty and staff to ensure the event ran smoothly. “I’ve worked with a lot of students, producers, project managers and production managers,” Loeb said. “She was as good as it gets.” Williams also works as a modeler, animator and associate producer for an independent study project managed by Klein. The team is making a short film about a broken clarinet in an antique store, which Williams said will likely be screened by the end of the spring. Williams said that the project was exciting for being completely “groundup” student work, including original music composition to storyboards. Williams plans to return to Dartmouth in the fall to pursue a master’s degree in computer science and digital arts. She is most interested in learning more about animated film, although she is also interested in graphic design and web design, she said. “I just love [animated film] so much, I’ve loved it my whole life,” Williams said. “But I also really like my government major. So who knows, it’ll be animated filmmaking or war planning, one of the two.”
the final word with Hannah Williams ’14
The most played song on my iPod: “Unforgettable” by Nat King Cole. It’s been a top played song since I was, like, 16. If I could have any super power, it would be: flying, without a doubt. I feel like it’s a cop-out, but definitely flying.
PAGE 7
For the brave souls that make the trek down West Wheelock Street and across the Ledyard Bridge, Davidson Ceramics Studio is worth the trip. Located right off the Connecticut River in Norwich, the studio allows students and faculty to throw, fire and glaze their own pots, whether they have experience working on a potter’s wheel or are getting their hands dirty for the first time. Studio director Jenny Swanson said that most visitors to the studio are beginners. “People are on a discovery mode when they come here,” she said. Equipped with potter’s wheels and kilns, the studio has resources that let guests work with clay in various ways, including a room where students can explore hand-building, or molding clay with their hands. An adjacent room holds a row of potter’s wheels for learning how to throw. Across the hallway, kilns of different sizes bake students’ works to completion. It takes at least three visits to complete a pottery piece, Swanson said. On the first visit, a potter will mold the piece into shape, either by hand or on a wheel. The
piece dries until the second visit, when the potter returns to “trim” the pot and prepare it for firing. After a day of firing and another day of cooling, the piece is ready for glazing and a second round of firing. Instructors remain available at the studio to offer support, instructor Sarah Heimann said. “That’s the fun of the job — most people want to start throwing, and it’s an interesting challenge to teach the technique to a student who’s never worked with clay before in a hour and a half,” Heimann said. Although the number of people who frequent the studio varies by term, a mix of undergraduates, graduates and faculty use the space. Thayer School of Engineering student Harrison Hall said he heard about the studio from a lab partner, who frequented the studio in his free time. Now, Hall spends at least 10 hours per week making ceramics. “Ceramics is all about the relaxation of throwing,” he said. “If I’m tense and try to throw, terrible things happen. I have to relax and remember to breathe. That’s what I really enjoy about it.” Jimena Diaz ’14 first visited the studio her freshman fall. She became
a student worker her sophomore year and has been teaching ever since. Diaz said that teaching new potters basic techniques has helped her to relearn and hone these skills. “It’s a very relaxing activity, and it’s nice for people to come down here and get away from school work,” she said. Diaz is currently designing and creating her own ceramic dining set, which she plans to use after graduation. The studio also supplements coursework, like an English course on Dave the Potter, in which students learn about the poetry and pottery of Dave, a slave who taught himself to read, write and create art on a South Carolina plantation in the 1800s. For about three weeks in the term, students visit the studio and try to replicate his pottery style. This term, students in an introductory classics class had the option to use the studio for an extra credit assignment. Jessica Frieder ’15, a student in the classics class, said that though the project took many hours, it gave her a better appreciation for the ancient pottery. “Working with my hands, rather than just reading about the Greek pottery, made me understand the extent of the precision and detail that went into the pottery making,” she said.
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS
PAGE 8
SPORTS
Women’s squash grabs eighth place
B y jake bayer
The Dartmouth Staff
The women’s squash team finished eighth out of 43 teams in its final tournament of the season, coming in last in the topeight bracket at the Collegiate Squash Association’s national championship. The No. 8 Big Green (5-10,2-5 Ivy) dropped its three matches against Harvard University, Princeton University and Stanford University. Dartmouth maintained its national ranking, finishing eighth in the top-eight bracket that competed for the Howe Cup. Last season, the Big Green won the B division title, the Kurtz Cup, to claim the No. 9 spot. “I feel like the team had a solid performance in each match throughout the weekend despite being put up against hard opponents,” Jackie Barnes ’17 said. “We went into each match with a positive attitude and came out thinking that we all played well and gave it our best shot.” The Big Green first played the top-seeded Crimson (14-1, 7-0 Ivy) , the 9-0 loss mirrored the defeat it suffered against Harvard in December. Harvard was on its march to the finals, where it would suffer its only loss of the season to Trinity College.
In the Dec. 3 match, Tori Dewey ’16 was one of three Big Green players to win a game against the Crimson , and again she fought hard. Dewey and her opponent traded games, each decided by three points or fewer, but Dewey lost the final game 11-9. Dewey’s match was the only one that lasted more than 24 minutes and game where the Big Green won a set. The sophomore’s five-set marathon lasted 41 minutes. “They gave tough opponents a real fight,” head coach Hansi Wiens said. The second match pitted Dartmouth against the No. 5 Tigers (115, 4-3 Ivy) . The Big Green looked to avenge its 9-0 home defeat to Princeton from early January. Dewey and Lydie McKenzie ’16 were the only Dartmouth women to win sets in the matchup, but both fell 3-1. “ E ve r yo n e s e e m e d p re t t y pumped up for the Stanford match on Sunday because we were all hoping to win that one, or at least prove that we deserve to be in the A division, which is exactly what we did,” Barnes said. In the final match of the tournament, Dartmouth lost 6-3 to the No. 7 Cardinals (7-8). Each matchup was decided in either three games or five. Dewey continued her impres-
sive form with a 3-0 sweep. The victory took her weekend record in sets to 6-6, the best on the team. Helena Darling ’15 also emerged with a 3-0 win. The match was ultimately decided by a series of close 3-2 matches, where the Big Green was 1-2. Both co-captain Kate Nimmo ’14 and McKenzie needed to win their matches to pull off the victory. In her final match, Nimmo, down 2-1, won her fourth game 11-4, but then lost the final game in a 12-10 heartbreaker. McKenzie looked to be in control of her match with a commanding 2-0 lead, but she dropped the next two by a combined five points and fell in the rubber game 11-4. “We had a good chance,” Wiens said. “It came down to Kate Nimmo and Lydie McKenzie, down to the last three minutes to decide everything.” The final 3-2 match, played by Nina Scott ’16, had three 9-11 games in a row and emerged down 2-1. Scott pulled out a win with the next two games going 22-10 in her favor. Scott’s match was the highlight of the tournament, Barnes said. “Not only did she come back from being 2-1 down in games,” she said, “but she also absolutely dominated in the last game, which was great to watch.”
JOSH RENAUD/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
The Big Green lost all three matches at the tournament after moving up to the A division this season.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
TUESDAY LINEUP
MEN’S LACROSSE AT VERMONT 3 PM
MORE THAN A GAME B y maddie garcia and abby cohen The Dartmouth Staff
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, costing a steep $7.99 for a printed copy, sells over a million copies at newsstands each year. This is more than 10 times what a traditional weekly edition of Sports Illustrated sells — the kind that actually features athletes, statistics and sports news. What started as a five-page insert 50 years ago has since made Time Inc. over $1 billion in revenue. This year’s copy was released on Feb. 18. The 50th anniversary of the special edition has prompted more controversy than usual, given the company’s decision to include Barbies in swimsuits among the pages. Critics typically scorn the magazine for depicting unrealistic ideals given the slender, scantily-clad models that span the edition. Barbie takes these unhealthy expectations to a whole new level. This year, non-subscribing consumers can also purchase the magazine for their iPhones for $7.99, earning the capability to flip through all of the images and play with the view, zoom and background. For an additional $2, customers can also buy access to the last two years’ photos. Economically, running this edition every year makes sense. But the magazine’s purpose is to cover sports. Women wearing bikinis is a stretch. It bothers us that nearly-naked women are being sold as the only content in a sports magazine and that almost every other week of the year the cover depicts exclusively male athletes. Looking back at the past three years of covers, we were only able to find three covers that featured a female athlete, not fan or cheerleader, on the cover. While Hope Solo, women’s soccer goalie, and Serena Williams, American tennis star, certainly earned this front-page honor, there are plenty of other female athletes that deserved this recognition as well in the past
three years. Beach volleyball duo Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings, golfer Michelle Wie, NASCAR Racer Danica Patrick, tennis player Maria Sharapova and alpine skier Lindsey Vonn are recognizable names in the sports world. Their athletic accomplishments fitted with their athletic physique make them perfect candidates to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The majority of cover stories portray football and basketball players, either professional or collegiate, as these are sports that broadly appeal to the male-dominated readership. There is no excuse for the fact that, aside from the Swimsuit Edition, female athletes are rarely featured on the cover. From women who reject the portrayal of unrealistic Barbie doll figures, or in this case literally the doll herself, to the men who can’t wait to get home to peruse the pages, this issue generates a lot of conversation about women. But not about female athletes. Jimmy Kimmel recently had the three cover models on his show. Kimmel should instead celebrate the accomplishments of female athletes instead of asking the trio about their part in making this anxiously awaited issue. For Sports Illustrated subscribers, the edition will land in their mailboxes this week just the same as every other week. But this may be the only issue for the other hundreds of thousands of people who buy this special edition “read” all year. Women’s sports are on the rise, and this should be better reflected in sports media. As one of the topselling sports magazines, Sports Illustrated can increase awareness of women’s sports by better balancing its coverage. By the time most of you read this today, thousands and thousands of swimsuit editions have already been torn through. Sure, there are women on the cover, but the reason they got there has nothing to do with their athletic prowess. Their thin bodies could never withstand the wear and tear of true athletes.