VOL. CLXXI NO. 66
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Shonda Rhimes ’91, ‘Scandal’ producer, to address graduates
PARTLY CLOUDY HIGH 67 LOW 40
By ZAC HARDWICK The Dartmouth Staff
Courtesy of Shonda Rhimes
SPORTS
GOLF SEES SUCCESS IN FINAL TUNE-UP PAGE 8
OPINION
YANG: SPENDING WISELY PAGE 4
BIGLEY: ANTIAUTHORITY ACCUSATIONS PAGE 4
ARTS
Q&A WITH BURR ’80 PAGE 7 READ US ON
DARTBEAT ‘THE ROPES’ APP RELEASED ON ITUNES FOLLOW US ON
TWITTER @thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2014 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.
If she had been asked to speak at Commencement a few years ago, Shonda Rhimes ’91 said, she would have declined, not believing she had enough to say. When College President Phil Hanlon flew to Los Angeles to meet with her and then called a week later to ask her to address the Class of 2014, she said, time and perspective gave her the confidence to accept. “The difference between a couple of years ago and now,” Rhimes said in an interview Monday, “is that I have perspective on where I’ve been and what I am doing.” The College announced yesterday that Rhimes will deliver the
Golden Globe award winner Shonda Rhimes ’91 will speak at Commencement in June.
SEE RHIMES PAGE 3
Four students debate Pan-Asian community hosts talk ending Greek system By HEATHER SZILAGYI The Dartmouth Staff
By ANDREA NEASE
Dartmouth’s current Greek system enables offensive behavior, students both in favor of and against the system agreed at a debate Monday night. Though the participants, Mark Andriola ’14, Aaron Colston ’14, Becca Rothfeld ’14 and Holli Weed ’14, all said the
Greek system must change in the coming years, they disagreed on whether to fault the collective system or individuals within it for problems like sexual assault and binge drinking. In an event that filled Dartmouth Hall 105 to capacity, Andriola and Weed SEE DEBATE PAGE 5
Around 30 students discussed faculty diversity and sensitivity, class offerings and racial stereotypes at a Pan-Asian community discussion about the “Freedom Budget” Monday evening. With meetings between “Freedom Budget” contributors and administrators slated to begin this week, concerned students in the
Hanover Co-op may see $5.3 million renovation By ERICA BUONANNO The Dartmouth Staff
Pending approval by its members, the downtown Hanover location of the Co-op Food Store will begin renovations this October, adding 2,700 square feet and several new food options while improving its energy efficiency. The $5.3 million proposal requires majority approval among Co-op members who
Pan-Asian community are working to consolidate their recommendations, event coorganizer Moulshri Mohan ’15 said. After students staged a sitin in College President Phil Hanlon’s office earlier this month to demand a pointby-point response to the “Freedom Budget,” Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson arranged for the students to meet with appropriate College administrators to
address the document’s various points. Pan-Asian community members who participate in these meetings will draw on discussion points from Monday’s meeting and exit surveys from the event to inform their approach, event co-organizer Archana Ramanujam ’14 said. The Freedom Budget, Mohan said, contained SEE BUDGET PAGE 3
MEET AND GREET
choose to vote during the approval period, which will last through April. Regardless of the vote’s outcome, the Hanover Co-op Management and Board will proceed with structural renovations, and the store will remain open during construction, Hanover Co-op Management and Board communications director Allan Reetz said. KATE HERRINGTON/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
SEE CO-OP PAGE 2
Students participated in a “sorority-blind” pre-recruitment event on Monday.
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
PAGE 2
DAily debriefing April 18, 11:10 p.m., Amarna undergraduate society: Safety and Security officers and Dartmouth Emergency Medical Services transported a female student to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical center. The student’s face was bleeding after she fell on a walkway near Amarna. April 19, 1:15 a.m., Aquinas House: Safety and Security and Hanover Police officers took a report at Aquinas House about several stolen electronic items. Hanover Police is investigating the incident. April 19, 2:15 a.m., Collis Center: Safety and Security officers found students holding down a heavily intoxicated male student on the patio. Hanover Police took the student into protective custody and eventually turned him over to a friend. April 19, 3:47 a.m., McCulloch Hall: Safety and Security officers responded to a Good Samaritan call for an individual who was not responsive. The individual was transported by ambulance to DHMC and later returned to campus. April 19, 2:59 p.m., Kappa Delta Epsilon and Delta Delta Delta sororities: Hanover Police and Safety and Security officers took a report of a motor vehicle theft. The vehicle, which had been taken from behind KDE and abandoned in the parking lot behind Tri-Delt, had exterior and interior damage. Hanover Police is currently investigating. April 19, 8:47 p.m., Class of 1953 Commons: Safety and Security officers brought an individual, found running and swearing, to Dick’s House. A short time later, the subject left but was located in Thomas Hall and returned to Dick’s House. April 19, 11:19 p.m., Mid-Massachusetts Hall: Safety and Security officers and Hanover Ambulance personnel responded to Mid Mass, where an individual had fallen at least 20 feet after sliding down a banister. The individual sustained minor injuries and was transported by ambulance to DHMC. April 20, 2:38 a.m., McCulloch Hall: A custodian called Safety and Security about a mess in the building, but officers could not locate anyone in the immediate area when they responded. An undergraduate advisor provided the name of a student who may have become ill. Officers located the individual, who showed signs of intoxication, and he was transported to Dick’s House. — Compiled by Marie Plecha for Dartbeat
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
Co-optoremainopenduring renovations FROM CO-OP PAGE 1
Of the total cost, $1.5 million will come from the Co-op’s existing finances, while loans from local banks and the National Cooperative Bank will provide the remaining $3.8 million, Reetz said. Reetz said the renovations will not impact pricing, and the proposal states that prices are determined by “market costs and conditions.” Co-op management and board members identified the need for renovations five years ago but did not begin the planning process until 2012, Reetz said. If the proposal is approved, updates will include improvements to structure, insulation and efficiency, as well as the expansion. New offerings could include a sushi counter, smoked meat program and an expanded prepared food department, including a full-service kitchen and hot food buffet. The plan also calls for wider aisles, a simplified floor plan and a café with inside and outside seating.
Genie Braasch, the Hanover Coop’s board administrator, said that the renovation will boost customers’ in-store experience by adding natural light and a new entrance on South Park Street to increase its accessibility to students on campus. The proposal aims to reduce the store’s environmental footprint using LED lighting and a new heating and cooling system. The voting outcome will be announced May 1, Reetz said. If the proposal does not pass, structural renovations would happen over a two- to four- year period rather than a one-year period. If it does pass, renovations would begin with the addition of floor space, allowing the Co-op to rotate its offerings through the remaining space while new areas of the store are under construction. “In this way, even under construction, customers can buy what they want,” Reetz said. Voting for the proposal is being conducted by paper ballot and online and has not yet closed, but Braasch,
who frequently mans the information tables at the Hanover Co-op, said that many people have indicated interest. Of three students interviewed, all expressed worry that the cost of products may rise. Michael Baicker ’17 said the Co-op would benefit from a more modern feel. Mitchell Goff ’17, from Hanover, said that the store has always been smaller and less modern than the Co-op food store in Lebanon. The Hanover Co-op’s focus has always been on the health food market, and by making the space more open and spacious he feels that the store would better fit the quality of the product, he said. Local residents interviewed also expressed favorable opinions toward the renovation. Laurie Pollard, of West Lebanon, said the renovations will improve customer satisfaction by allowing people to shop more comfortably. The Hanover Co-op was founded by 17 members of Dartmouth’s faculty as the Hanover Consumers Club in 1936.
Fourteenth Annual Stonewall Lecture
Marriage as Blind Spot: What Same-Sex Marriage Advocacy Doesn’t Say about LGBT Parenting Nancy D. Polikoff is Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law. She is the author of Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families Under the Law (Beacon Press 2008). For 35 years, she has been writing about and litigating cases involving lesbian and gay families, helping develop the legal theories in support of second-parent adoption and visitation rights for legally unrecognized parents.
NEW LOCATION!
April 23rd • 4:15 PM • Rockefeller 3 Corrections We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com. “River Rumble race a highlight of weekend Ledyard event” (April 21, 2014): The initial version of this article mistakenly described participants of the Wells River Rumble race as braving the Connecticut River. It was the Wells River. The initial version of this article also misquoted Cathey. He said the event was a good way to contribute to the whitewater paddling community, not the white river paddling community.
Reception Follows • Free and Open to the Public Sponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies Program
TheDartmouth.com: A Two Way Street
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
PAGE 3
Students talk Pan-Asian Rhimes choice draws positive reaction community concerns FROM RHIMES PAGE 1
FROM BUDGET PAGE 1
several points pertaining to the Pan-Asian community before any members of that community had become involved in the drafting process, and the event was intended to gather broader perspectives. Ramanujam, who like many of Monday’s discussion organizers was not involved in the compilation of the “Freedom Budget,” said that she has become more involved this term. “I would like to see more Asians get involved in the ‘Freedom Budget’ and conversations about diversity broadly construed on campus,” Ramanujam said. T he majority of Monday night’s discussion focused on faculty and administrative diversity. Many students expressed concern that the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies department does not address their identities and called for a separate Asian studies department. The discussion also touched on the need for faculty mentors that can relate to all aspects of the student experience. “I think part of having a great mentor is you can see part of yourself in that person, and it’s also mirrored back,” said Eva Xiao ’14, an organizer. “That’s a strong connection.” Participants agreed that Dartmouth suffers from a lack of Asian faculty and classes that explore Asian and Asian-American identity. Discussion moderator Carla Yoon ’15 said in an interview that she believed discussion participants want to see a more accessible Pan-Asian community at Dartmouth, but factors including the community’s interior diversity and lack of shared social spaces
hinder its development. During the discussion, students also spoke about the Japanese, Korean and Hindi-Urdu language affinity housing recommended in the “Freedom Budget,” noting that the ultimate goal would be establishing an Asian-American affinity house. A portion of the discussion also focused on stereotypes, including the preconception that Asian students are inherently smarter, which some said pressures them to perform exceptionally well. Other students raised the issue of the “silent Asian” stereotype, which characterizes Asians as passive and reserved, both inside and outside the classroom. Some discussion participants also said that they had been in classes where professors made offhand racist remarks, agreeing that faculty should be made more sensitive and aware of their biases. Students, however, disagreed on the extent to which students should be expected to address instances of bias in the classroom, especially due to professors’ control over grades and recommendation letters. Ramanujam said the event elucidated a range of perspectives and clarified the community’s concerns. “Sometimes the people in the administration don’t have as good of an idea of what happens on the ground,” Ramanujam said. Students at the meeting emphasized the need to work with other minority communities to form a united front in mobilizing for change at Dartmouth. An Asian and Asian American activism group was formed at the College earlier this term to unite members of the Pan-Asian community, Mohan said.
JIN LEE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Much of Monday’s discussion centered on faculty diversity and sensitivity.
Commencement address this June from behind the Lone Pine. Rhimes, a Golden Globe winner and threetime Emmy nominee, will be the 11th woman to address a graduating class since the start of the 20th century. She is the creator, head writer and executive producer of the television shows “Scandal,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice.” In 2004, she formed her own production company, Shondaland, for which she oversees around 550 actors, writers, crew members and producers. The last time she visited the College, Rhimes said, she and her sister were on their way to a wedding in Vermont. They decided to make a quick stop — for nostalgia’s sake. It was her first time back at Dartmouth since graduating, and driving through town, Rhimes said, she noticed that a Gap had moved into a Main Street storefront. For some reason, she said, the idea of a chain store in Hanover made her feel apprehensive about other ways the College could have changed. She and her sister turned back toward the interstate. Twenty-three years after Rhimes’s own commencement, hesitation has transformed into excitement, she said. Back in 1991, leaving the College was a shock, Rhimes said, as it forced her leave what had been a comfortable
place, where she majored in English and film studies and directed the Black Underground Theater Association. When Hanlon extended the offer, she said, she was shocked. “I was speechless because I often feel the same way I did when I was 20 years old — that I can’t possible be the grown up in the room,” she said. “But apparently I am.” During a film off-campus program in Los Angeles this winter, a group of students met with Rhimes over dinner. Over Italian cuisine, said film professor and program coordinator Mark Williams, Rhimes spoke about her love of Dartmouth, her career and the process of writing for television. A question-and-answer session followed over dessert. Hannah O’Flynn ’15, a program participant, said that Rhimes was frank, funny and personable, taking time to meet each student personally. “We all left the dinner wanting to be her best friend,” O’Flynn said, adding that she and her classmates were ecstatic about Rhimes’s selection. Rhimes said she found the students she met that night to be more mature than she was at their age. The film studies department, she added, has grown exponentially since her time at the College. “The College has done a good job of crossing the hurdle from what happens in Hanover to what happens in Hollywood,” Rhimes said.
Fifteen students interviewed about Rhimes’s selection reacted positively to the announcement, with some noting that Rhimes brings much-needed diversity to the College’s roster of speakers. Jalil Bishop ’14 said that Rhimes’s voice and perspective as a black female speaker differs from the status quo, enabling her to share an experience he believes is not often heard. Rhimes was a good selection, student body president Adrian Ferrari ’14 said, because her expertise is different from the past two speakers, who both worked in education. “People are excited for someone who is going to be lighthearted, satirical and funny,” Ferrari said. Rhimes was also named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine and has served as a trustee for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2013. She has also been named to Fortune’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business,” Variety’s “Power of Women” and Glamour’s “Women of the Year. Rhimes attributes her success to dedication and hard work — not settling for “good enough” is what took her career to where it is today, she said. “I sort of have this attitude that something is not perfect until it’s actually perfect,” she said, “so we might as well keep working on it.”
New Sociology Course This Summer
Community: Analysis and Action SOCY 49.16 This course examines the idea of a safe, inclusive community and how to realize it on a college campus. We examine the sociological changes that society experiences as it moves from a social order based on personal interactions & obligations to one based on anonymous market forces, bureaucratic organizations & virtual relationships. We compare the practices that undermine & support community. We engage in actionoriented research concerned with community at Dartmouth. Dist: SOC. Goodman. 2 hour.
THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
PAGE 4
Senior Staff Columnist lorelei yang ’15
Staff columnist Kyle Bigley ’17
Spending Wisely
Anti-Authority Accusations
Diversity and inclusivity should factor into the spending of the recent gift. Like many students, I was stunned when I heard about the College’s receipt of a recordbreaking $100 million gift. It is, of course, a tremendous testament to Dartmouth’s impact on its alumni that someone would give the institution such support. However, I am disappointed by the gift’s narrow-minded focus on academic initiatives. To be fair, a college’s overarching mission is to provide its students with a quality education. But in light of the College’s recent and highly public struggles with student life issues and diversity, one might have expected that more of the gift would be allocated toward initiatives designed to improve quality of life and inclusivity at the most basic levels. What if, instead of bolstering an already top-ranked undergraduate program, this gift had been given to increase staff at Dick’s House, hire more Sexual Assault Awareness Program coordinators, provide 24/7 crisis counseling and guarantee survivor followthrough by College counselors? The College’s resources are currently stretched far too thin in these areas. Considering how much work must fall on the shoulders of the College’s two SAAP coordinators boggles the mind, and it is unconscionable that emergent care for students in need of medical assistance is too often held hostage to the irregularities of Dick’s House hours, especially on weekends and during sophomore summer. Or why not use the gift to create programs geared toward supporting diversity? While minority communities across campus hold events that celebrate their respective cultures through holidays and religious observations, it remains the case that much of Dartmouth’s diversity and cultural activities happens in isolation rather than across different segments of campus. Using part of the gift to fund a multi-use intercultural event space in a central part of campus could make a significant difference here, in the same way that the Rockefeller Center and Dickey Center are spaces for public policy-centric and international issues-related events. Such a space could serve as a site for
intercultural exchange, learning and dialogue. Of course the gift can benefit our academic initiatives. New additions to the faculty through block hires could do much for the College’s intellectual life. Supporting a vibrant academic program at a college that prides itself on the best undergraduate teaching in the U.S., after all, requires substantial capital. However, as the College sorts through the reported two dozen-plus cluster proposals it has received, perhaps new hiring decisions should also be made with an eye to increasing both intellectual and cultural diversity through additions to the College’s faculty. For example, a number of programs currently subsist on a shockingly small list of faculty, and many of those professors are primarily affiliated with other, larger programs. Increasing the size of these programs through hires would bolster their stability and increase their intellectual footprint on campus. Improving advising is a step Dartmouth could take to better both the College’s academics and student life. First-year advising is lacking for Dartmouth students. Fixing the pairing process between first-years and first-year advisors would start students on the right track, and guaranteeing dedicated major advising groups within major departments would do wonders for many students’ experiences. Having alumni who are able and wiling to give generously is a gift, and the wise use of this gift is an opportunity for the College to create and bolster impactful programs that will surely enrich academic life for generations of students to come. As far as this gift is concerned, it’s too late to change the terms of its use, and it also seems unlikely that the anonymous benefactors would be amenable to doing so. However, this is an opportunity for alumni old, young and future to consider the impact that their donations have on dear old Dartmouth. Personally, I encourage alumni who give in the future to think critically about what they want their dollars to identify as top priorities in Hanover.
212 Robinson Hall, Hanover N.H. 03755 • (603) 646-2600
Lindsay ellis, Editor-in-Chief stephanie mcfeeters, Executive Editor
carla larin, Publisher Michael riordan, Executive Editor
taylor malmsheimer, Day Managing Editor madison pauly, Evening Managing Editor PRODUCTION EDITORS katie mcKay, Opinion Editor brett drucker, Sports Editor BLAZE JOEL, Sports Editor Caela murphy, Arts & Entertainment Editor ashley ulrich, Arts & Entertainment Editor emma moley, Mirror Editor jasmine sachar, Mirror Editor aditi kirtikar, Dartbeat Editor jessica zischke, Dartbeat Editor tracy wang, Photography Editor
sasha dudding, Evening Managing Editor BUSINESS DIRECTORS piotr dormus, Finance & Strategy Director Ashneil Jain, Finance & Strategy Director erin o’neil, Design Director Alexander gerstein, Technology Director Dylan zabell, Advertising Director Alana Dickson, Operations & Marketing Director Oliver Schreiner, Operations & Marketing Director
jin lee, Assistant Photography Editor Alex Becker, Multimedia Editor
ISSUE
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
NEWS EDITOR: Amelia Rosch. LAYOUT EDITOR: Jin Shin. TEMPLATING EDITOR: Hallie Huffaker. COPY EDITOR: Maieda Janjua.
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.
Opposing authority for the sake of doing so should warrant skepticism. Two weeks ago, following the occupation of College President Phil Hanlon’s office, omniscient TV personality Bill O’Reilly weighed in on the purported crisis caused by the anti-authoritarian left. Tracing this movement back to the late 1960s and protests against the Vietnam War that created a nascent “culture based on anti-authority,” O’Reilly claimed that “we have a new anti-authority movement, and it has been created by the grievance industry which President Obama and the Democratic Party have used very effectively to assume and maintain power.” A 20-year old dispute made headlines last week. Cliven Bundy, who for two decades grazed his cattle on federal land, refused to pay the persistent fines — which now total $300,000 — or move his cattle because the cows threatened several species protected on federal land. After the Bureau of Land Management seized the cattle and held Bundy, armed militia rallied to the rancher’s side. Training their automatic weapons on the base camp of unarmed demonstrators supporting the enforcement of federal law, the militia members were enough to make the heart of any red-blooded American swell with pride. Thankfully, no one has died in the standoff between the law and the lawbreakers, but the glee with which some have welcomed armed militia staring down government officials has no place in Bunkerville, Nev. There is an anti-authority movement in this country, but it’s not coming from Obama and the Democratic Party, rather from figures like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, who have lauded Bundy. With some exceptions, the anti-authority movement that O’Reilly claims to loathe emanates from the right-wing media that O’Reilly embodies. Such anti-government rhetoric has dangerous consequences. Suggesting that conservatives or the Republican Party had a hand in the Oklahoma City bombings or in the Tucson shooting would be inane. But their rhetoric does have other ramifications. In one sense, it legitimizes fears in delusional minds. For instance, the 1995 Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh had a pathological hatred for the federal government. In its analysis of 2011 Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughery, the
Anti-Defamation League found “a generic distrust of government and a vague interest in conspiracy theories.” The antipathy for government is similar to that of Grover Norquist, who infamously said he wanted to shrink government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub,” and who created a pledge to never raise taxes that received overwhelming support from the Republican party. It is not just anti-government rhetoric that has become pervasive in the right-wing anti-authority handbook. Some on the right have repeatedly questioned other forms of authority, like that of scientists or doctors. How else to explain the shockingly widespread beliefs that scientists lie about climate change and evolution or that doctors hide the truth about vaccinations? Such superstition belongs in the same era as witchcraft trials, but conservative talking heads have legitimized those fears. On the other side of the spectrum, certain demonstrators at Dartmouth have also taken issue with power structures. Although the goal of an inclusive community is worthwhile, attacking Hanlon and other members of the student body creates schisms and destabilizes any hope of overcoming pre-existing divisions, whether they’re racial, sexual, ethnic or socioeconomic. If by virtue of being white I can never support calls for justice and equality, how can I ever be part of a community without racial divides? This strain of politics — because of postmodernist convictions that everything under the sun is socially constructed and everything is individual — threatens community. Not every institution contributes to an oppressive cultural hegemony. But unlike the anti-authoritarians on the right, these demonstrators do not coax violence. On both sides of the political spectrum, but more so in what now suffices as the mainstream right, anti-authority bombast has seized the political discourse. Authority is never self-justified, so we should have legitimate debates about the role and place of authority, but without the dramatic hyperbole that now passes as rhetoric. If we are to come together as a nation, and, more locally, as a community, we need to ignore those who spew ill-founded anti-authority messages.
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
PAGE 5
Greek system debate draws packed crowd to Dartmouth 105 FROM DEBATE PAGE 1
argued in support of the Greek system, citing its institutional power to create change and heralding individual responsibility, while Colston and Rothfeld were in opposition, noting the Greek system’s exclusivity and perpetuation of binge drinking and sexual assault. The Greek system, Colston said, is not inclusive. And its exclusivity, Rothfeld said, differs from that of other extracurricular options at the College. Being excluded from an a capella group due to of a lack of singing ability, she said, is different than being excluded from a sorority for artificial reasons. Though the Greek system is not perfect, Andriola said, it offers students a support system and allows them to connect with alumni. Despite existing stereotypes, he said, the College’s Greek system is much more inclusive than those at other colleges, citing its open-door policy for parties. Abolishing the Greek system would not necessarily end sexual assault and binge drinking on campus, Colston said, but it would ensure that the problems are not further perpetuated. Weed said that institutional mechanisms within the Greek system can help improve student accountability when it comes to sexual assault, harassment and hazing at Dartmouth. Dartmouth Bystander Initiative and Movement Against Violence training occurs within the Greek community, she said, and as a result its members can be powerful tools for change. Education efforts and standards of accountability within the Greek system should be raised, she said. Andriola said that while the Greek system is not perfect, he does not see a reason for its abolishment. Instead,
he said, individuals should raise their personal standards of behavior. Potential ways to improve the current system, he said, could include allowing more sororities to throw parties and providing other social outlets for students. He said that students should not feel pressured to enter the Greek system. “Sororities: change the way you do rush,” Andriola said. “Frats: stop hazing, get DBI training, stop sexual assault and stop being offensive.” Colston said that the collective system, not its individual members, is the problem. There is room, he said, for a new version of the College that does include a Greek system. “Dartmouth is not yet the College on the Hill,” he said. “But we can be.” Before the debaters spoke, math professor Alex Barnett and economics and public policy professor Charles Wheelan ’88 delivered opening statements. Barnett said he opposed the Greek system due to its culture of binge drinking, hazing and sexual assault. “Violence against women is cultural, not biological,” he said. “Frats provide an ideal training ground for that kind of behavior.” The process of rushing a Greek house, he said, creates social anxiety and ostracizes students who choose not to join. Wheelan, who joined Alpha Delta fraternity at the College, said students should remember that they can improve the current system rather than simply abolish it, adding that he believes Greek leaders have the potential to make positive changes. “There is clearly a reason why some 50 percent of students join Greek organizations, and this should not be lost,” Wheelan said. Rothfeld is a former member of The Dartmouth opinion staff.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014 • 4:00 PM • Loew Theater
CRISIS THINKING: JOHN BERGER AND NOAM CHOMSKY IN DIALOGUE Exclusive Material from John Berger & A Virtual Conversation with Noam Chomsky http://www.dartmouth.edu/~grid
TREVELYAN WING/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Mark Andriola ’14 and Holli Weed ’14 supported the Greek system, while Aaron Colston ’14 and Becca Rothfeld ’14 criticized it.
PAGE 6
DARTMOUTH EVENTS
THE DARTMOUTH COMICS
Footle
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
Anna Miller ’16
TODAY 12:00 p.m. “Campus Conversations: Addressing Sexual Assault at Dartmouth,” Hood Auditorium
12:30 p.m. Lunchtime gallery talk, “From Minimalist to Contemporary Sculpture in the 1970s,” Hood Museum of Art
2:30 p.m. Ilead lecture event, “An(other) Inconvenient Truth,” Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center, Oopik Auditorium
TOMORROW 4:15 p.m. “Marriage as Blind Spot: What Same-Sex Marriage Advocacy Doesn’t Say about LGBT Parenting,” Rockefeller Center 003
4:15 p.m.
Pink Tights
Coralie Phanord ’16
Computer science colloquium, “Bear — Embracing Nondeterminism,” with Dr. Stephen Taylor of Thayer School of Engineering, Steele 006
6:00 p.m. “Dealing with Distractions,” Rockefeller Center, Class of 1930 Room
ADVERTISING For advertising information, please call (603) 646-2600 or email info@thedartmouth. com. The advertising deadline is noon, two days before publication. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement. Opinions expressed in advertisements do not necessarily reflect those of The Dartmouth, Inc. or its officers, employees and agents. The Dartmouth, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation chartered in the state of New Hampshire. USPS 148-540 ISSN 01999931
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
PAGE 7
White River Junction Center teaches aspiring cartoon artists B y Marley Marius The Dartmouth Staff
Researchers have found that doodling can boost concentration in the lecture hall or a meeting, but the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction argues that cartooning is an academic discipline in its own right. Since 2005, the White River Junction-based center has been at the forefront of establishing an academic niche for studying comics and graphic novels. Aiming to offer “the highest quality of education to students interested in creating visual stories,” the school educates over a hundred students not only in art, graphic design and literature, but also in marketing and self-publishing. “At the time, graphic novels and cartoonists were certainly becoming more widespread and known for their work — there was a lot of interest and celebration around [them],” Center for Cartoon Studies president Michelle Ollie said. “So I think the timing certainly was good for the school. The awareness and interest and appreciation was just starting to build.” Since then, cartooning has continued to develop into a respected artistic field.
At the Center, students choose to pursue either a two-year master of fine arts program, a two-year certificate program or a one-year certificate program. The Center also hosts workshops for artists of all skill levels over the summer. The Center attracts visiting instructors every semester as well as its full-year thesis advisors and faculty. Last year’s guest instructors included the author of “The Way Things Work” and MacArthur Fellowship-recipient David Macaulay and distinguished painter and illustrator Marshall Arisman. Noting the makeup of the faculty and drive of the students, Ollie called the school unique in the nation. “People like to be around that,” she said. “It’s a very rewarding experience to be in a classroom full of cartoonists that are equally serious about their professions. [For] all the people we’ve brought to our school here, there is a sense of comfort that you’re among peers.” Current student John Carvajal said that the school’s rural location helps cartoonists who are passionate about their work “feed off of each other.” The main course in the master’s program is cartooning studio, during
which cartoonists can experiment with “different forms of storytelling,” he said. In one particular project, he said, students formed a story drawn from three random pages out of a random book. Works by students and alumni have been featured in the Top 10 Graphic Novels lists of both the Booklist American Library Association and The A.V. Club. The center’s proximity to the College has presented an opportunity to enrich its programming and curricula, Ollie said. “Dartmouth is a world-class institution, and it’s in our backyard here, so it certainly makes a lot of sense to find some common ground in both our students and our programs,” Ollie said. Over the past few years, crossover between the College and the Center for Cartoon Studies has taken various forms. This past winter, 12 of the center’s students, alumni and associates presented or sold their works at Dartmouth’s second annual Illustration, Comics and Animation Conference. On his blog, The Funny Book Project, Brian Cremins ’95, a presenter at last year’s conference, wrote about Dartmouth’s links to the graphic arts, saying Dartmouth has a “small but
significant” place in comics scholarship’s recent history. Cremins pointed to Dartmouth’s importance in illuminating the artistic and academic merits of comics studies, citing the popularity of Dartmouth’s film and media studies department, which incorporates elements of the history and practice of animation, as well as the myriad contributions of figures like English professor Michael Chaney and Marianne Hirsch, now a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. While teaching at the College in the 1990s, Cremins wrote, Hirsch’s teachings and research on postmemory in Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel “Maus” influenced comic academics such as Hillary Chute, author of the criticallyacclaimed “Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics.” Each spring, the center works with the Leslie Center for the Humanities to present its Will Eisner Lecture, given by selected scholars and visionaries of the cartooning world. This year’s lecture was given by cartoonist Alison Bechdel. In 2011, students from the College and the Center collaborated to paint an
80-foot mural on the temporary wall erected as the Class of 1953 Commons underwent renovations. Moreover, Dartmouth graduates were some of the Center’s earliest MFA recipients, and both faculty and students of the College have enrolled in its workshops. Moving forward, Ollie said she hopes that the two schools will continue to “build awareness and expand cross [their] programming.” Andrew Feather MALS’15 expressed similar sentiments. “The availability of resources such as the Center for Cartoon Studies allows for an educational experience with animation that is unique and [sets] Dartmouth apart from many institutions of higher learning,” Feather said. In his notes on the “rationale” behind the Illustration Conference, Chaney shed further light on the disparate audiences that can be reached in the promotion and exploration of still and animated images. “A true congress of scholars interested in the drawn, illustrated image promises to change our understanding of the image and the long train of rhetorical cognates that it brings with it, such as depiction, visuality, illustration [and] the pictorial,” Chaney wrote.
Ty Burr ’80 talks Boston Globe career, start at Dartmouth
B y Maya Poddar
The Dartmouth Staff
Ty Burr ’80 is a film critic for the Boston Globe, a member of both the National Society of Film Critics and the Boston Society of Film Critics and a regular guest on various radio programs. Burr studied theater in high school before coming to Dartmouth and getting involved with the film community on campus, which honed his interest in movie critiquing. Why did you decide to come to Dartmouth? TB: I decided to come to Dartmouth because of the theater, believe it or not. I went to a school in Massachusetts, where my theater teacher had just graduated from Dartmouth, and he brought our whole class up see a production of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull.” I just was floored by the Hopkins Center and the whole arts community here. I loved New Hampshire and the countryside, and I just really, really was impressed with the arts community. How were you involved in the arts at Dartmouth? TB: I was a theater kid in high school. Like a lot of theater kids once they get to college, about a couple of months in you look around and go, “Oh, so those other guys are really good actors. Those are the ones who are actually going to be successful and, okay, I had fun in high school, but I’m going to do something else.” I actually did theater on and off throughout college, and I got
very involved in the [Dartmouth] Film Society early on. I ended up actually taking a year off from my studies — what would have been my junior year — and running it. I was basically a College employee running the film society, which is the same as it ever was: 20-odd films in a series per semester. That was my primary involvement with the arts, but it was pretty major. I also wrote movie reviews for The D and editorials and think pieces. What drew you to film and movie reviews? TB: I was already into old movies in high school. [Film studies] was a small department, but it was really good. We had a professor named David Thomson, who is a well-known critic and writer. He was like a mentor to me. He taught me how to write about movies and think about movies. I was lucky to get to be among one of the last classes to take a class with a guy named Arthur Mayer, who’d actually been in the film business since the earliest days of the silent. He was teaching a film class, and I mean the guy had lived it. He was telling stories about stuff that he’d been there to see. It wasn’t a big department, but the people who were there were really impressive, and we had this really serious film society that allowed us to program big movies, little movies, foreign movies, American movies, anything. It really deepened my interest in movies and wanting to write about them, and I had the ability in The D to write about them. Why do you think people
should care about film critiques? TB: I serve a bunch of different functions as movie critic for the Boston Globe. Part of it is just a service play: “Is this movie worth my money? Is it worth taking my kids and dropping 40 bucks on popcorn and all that?” Another large part of what I do is talk about movies within the popular culture and within the greater culture and talk about the work that the director or actors have done before or how it works in the context of the movie world. I give people who’ve already seen the movie something to think about, talk about some of the themes. The basic thing about movies is that everybody has an opinion, and my job is to provide a subjective opinion but do it within an objective context of: what is it about, who did it, what are some of the ideas going on, does it work, does it live up to its best idea of what it wants to do? I try not to grade a cheap horror movie on the same scale as I do “12 Years a Slave” [(2013)]. They’re each trying to do different things. I’m also trying to write an entertaining read so that people picking up the paper will have a good read. Maybe learn something, maybe be prompted to go see a movie they wouldn’t have otherwise done. At the end of the day, kind of the reason I do the job is to get people to go see stuff they might not have wanted to see, because I think a movie can change your life. What do you think makes a successful movie? TB: It realizes what it wants to do
and marshals as much craft and technique and artistry as it can to achieve what it sets out to do. If it’s a junky horror movie, is it the best junky horror movie it could possibly be? What I don’t have a lot of patience for is laziness, when I
feel like the writers or directors or actors are just going through the motions because there is an audience for it or it is just product. This interview has been edited and condensed.
Courtesy of portersquarebooks.com
Ty Burr ’80 was involved in the film studies department at Dartmouth.
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS
PAGE 8
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
SPORTS
TUESDAY LINEUP
No athletic events scheduled
Golf teams see success in final tuneups B y jake bayer
The Dartmouth Staff
In its final regular season rounds this past weekend, the women’s golf team faced off against Hartford University in a dual match and defeated the Hawks by three strokes, 323-326. The men traveled to Connecticut as well for Yale University’s spring invitational, where the team finished fourth of 11 schools. In the women’s head-to-head competition, Sarah Knapp ’14 and Jane Lee ’15 continued to lead the charge, carding a 79 and an 80, respectively. Knapp, who finished +7, and Hartford freshman Shannon Clark were the only golfers to break 80. The next best golfers from the Big Green women were Savannah Grice ’15 and Tara Simmons ’17 — both shot an 82 (+10), good enough to tie for fifth. “I really like the dual match format — we played two matches over spring break that were match play,” Knapp said. “There’s a much different vibe because you’re competing against the team rather than competing against the course. Whether or not that will help us going into Ivies, I’m not sure, but the fact that we were able to compete this past weekend is going to be helpful.” Seven of eight scoring golfers between the two teams were within three strokes. Both teams sent seven women onto the links on Sunday, but only the top four rounds counted toward the team score. Kathryn Kennedy ’14, Evan Sterneck ’14 and Lily Morrison
’16 returned to the clubhouse with scores of 85, 86 and 92, respectively. The match, women’s head coach Alex Kirk said, was a great way to end the season. He noted that the team’s performance was particularly impressive since it had never seen the course. Both teams entered the match looking to prepare for their respective conference championships this weekend. The Hawks are set to travel to Florida for the MAAC Championship, while Dartmouth has been ramping up for the Ivy League Championship, where they hope to improve upon last year’s disappointing last place result. Knapp, Lee, Grice, Simmons and Kennedy will comprise the women’s team for the Ivy League Championship. “I definitely think we have the skill to play really well at Ivies,” Knapp said. “Out of any year I’ve been on the team, I think that this is our year to compete.” While the men’s team nabbed a fourth-place result in New Haven, it entered the clubhouse as the third Ancient Eight team, 37 shots behind winners Harvard University and 24 back of second-place Yale. Jeffrey Lang ’17 was the low man on the team for the second straight weekend. After the two rounds of 74 and 76, Lang carded a 150 (+10), earning him a share of 17th place, 11 shots behind the leader. Hot on his heels, Sean Fahey ’17 started off the competition on fire, hitting one-over 71 in the first round,
two strokes off the leader. However, Fahey faded on day two, carding a +10 80 to fall to a tie for 21st, just one stroke behind Lang. Dylan Rusk ’16 and Charlie Edler ’15 were close behind, tying for 28th and 30th, respectively. Charles Cai ’16 said the second-day scores were higher because the team was tired. The team used the tournament to help determine the contingent that will travel to the New Jersey for next weekend’s Ivy League Championship, he said. Both teams could play in relatively good conditions for the first time this season. In general, playing in the spring means preparing for cold and wind, Kirk said, and this weather was a welcome change. “We’re ready for springtime where you’re just playing normal golf and look forward to seeing how we’ll do that,” he said. Both teams head to historic Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., for the Ivy League Championships. The Big Green men will play on the Lower Course, which has hosted the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship, most recently in 2005. The women tee off on the Upper Course, which has hosted the 1936 U.S. Open and the 1985 U.S. Women’s Open. “Personally, I’m super excited,” Knapp said. “I love playing new courses, I love playing challenging courses and I love playing courses with history.”
MARIETTA SMITH/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
The women’s golf team won its dual match against Hartford University and is heading this weekend to the Ivy Championships.
B y sarah caughey Being a member of a team is not just about competing, it’s about the community. We play, practice and eat together, but one of the biggest ways that we bond is through travel. For the squash teams, the first, and potentially most divisive, bonding arena is the bus. Our men’s and women’s team compete separately, but travel together to all of our regular season matches. While we eat, sleep and compete together during our trips, it’s the bus rides that set the stage and close the weekend. Since my first time traveling freshman year (and I’m sure much before that), the men have insisted on claiming the back of the bus while the women stick to the front. Our seating preferences generally match up with our “designated” team areas, so this is never really a point of contention. Entertainment, however, is a different story. Not surprisingly, our two teams often have very different ideas of what makes a good bus movie. On one trip, I distinctly remember waking up to the screaming of a soon-to-be beheaded gladiator. Groggy, I was trying to make sense of the noise when a head soared across the screen. I realized that the women had lost the long-fought battle to avoid watching “300” (2007) at all costs. Instead of gore and muscled men, we usually try to push films like “She’s the Man” (2006) or “Love and Basketball” (2000) with mixed results. A big success, however, was introducing them to “The O.C.” on our longest bus trip of the year. Traveling to Annapolis, Md., and back to Hanover in one weekend meant over 20 hours on the bus. Realizing that we had time to emotionally invest in a series, we popped in the first fateful disk. By the third episode, the men’s team was more invested than most of the women were, singing loudly to “Californication” and appropriately heckling the characters on screen. By the time we made it home, they begged to see the next season. The car games of my childhood and trail games from Dartmouth Outing Club first-year trips, too, have come in handy during our longer bus rides. This season, one of our favorites was “contact,” a trail game that often got a little too loud and competitive for the
small confines of the bus, but provided us with hours of entertainment and a break from the pressure of competition. Sometimes we get more creative in our quest to pass the time. This year we were away for the Super Bowl, a devastating blow to the team’s football fans and especially crushing to our lone diehard senior Seahawks fan. Through the wonders of technology and the ingenuity of determined fans, the men’s team figured out a way to stream the game online. While a tough five hours for individuals as apathetic about football as myself, it provided an interesting deviation from our usual sources of entertainment. While these distractions help us pass the often brutally long hours on the road, they also bring us closer. We bond during practices and at team dinners, but our time on the bus is a different type of bonding. We joke about it being “forced” bonding, which it in many ways is. If we’re trapped on a bus together, we might as well be friends, right? Though the bus ride home always seems shorter after a win, it provides an opportunity to decompress and bond as a team, regardless of the result. While a lot of good comes from traveling with the team, being away on the weekends also has its downsides. Cramped legs, bus-induced cabin fever and stiff backs are a few of the physical ailments we face while traveling. Being away from campus also has its drawbacks, from the inconvenience of rescheduling exams to the disappointment of missing birthday dinners. While I have missed a semi or two and stayed up late catching up on the work I should have been doing instead of playing “contact,” the experience with my team makes traveling more than worth it. Though we may not be jet setting across the country, Dartmouth athletes’ travel for competition offers both breathing room and a chance to explore the Northeast. While the main purpose of these trips is to compete, our team bonding cannot be understated. These trips give us a chance to get to know one another in a setting other than Hanover, revealing crucial preferences such as movie taste, sleeping habits and more. Inside the Locker Room is a weekly column, written alternately by Phoebe Hoffmann ’15 and Sarah Caughey ’15.