VOL. CLXXIV NO.147
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2017
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Students and staff apply design thinking
MOSTLY SUNNY HIGH 47 LOW 24
By RACHEL PAKIANATHAN The Dartmouth
COURTESY OF MARY NYHAN
OPINION
CHENG: BEYOND CAMPUS PAGE 6
BARTLETT: FANTASY’S HARSH REALITY PAGE 6
MAGANN: SPEECH OF THE FREE PAGE 7
ARTS
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: KEVIN SORACI ’18 PAGE 8
Students and staff members participate in the “Designing Your Life” workshop at House Center B Monday.
DARTBEAT TWINNING EQUALS WINNING FOLLOW US ON
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SEE WORKSHOP PAGE 2
Researchers develop smart fabric to detect toxins
By GABRIEL ONATE The Dartmouth
Chemistry professor Katherine Mirica and Dartmouth for mer postdoctoral fellow and senior scientist at technology startup C2Sense Merry Smith have developed a conductive smart fabric capable of detecting and protecting users from toxic gases. The innovation, named “Self-Organized Framework on Textiles,” improves on a previous sensor technologyrelated project that Mirica and Smith
previously collaborated on, Mirica said. C2Sense is a startup based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that develops gas sensors. Smith said the she worked with Mirica during her two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the College. She initially focused on organic frameworks at the College, and Mirica worked closely with conductive nanomaterials. Smith later narrowed her interest to conductive frameworks and began working with Mirica on researching
framework crystals. The scientific climate and emphasis on wearable technology led Smith and Mirica to channel their work into developing a sensory material that could someday be worn be being incorporated into clothing and other wearable items, Smith said. Mirica said she and Smith collaborated on developing sensors for toxic gaseous molecules that also served essential biological functions. “[We] put functional materials onto fabric to actually enable
Q&A with Hanover public works director Peter Kulbacki By LEX KANG
READ US ON
About 40 students and staff members attended a “Designing Your Life” workshop at House Center B on Monday. The three-hour long interactive workshop included several experiments and activities that challenged students’ perceptions and encouraged open-mindedness. The workshop was organized by design thinking lecturer Eugene Korsunskiy and assistant director for health improvement at the Student Wellness Center Mary Nyhan and hosted by Allen House.
The Dartmouth
Town of Hanover director of public works Peter Kulbacki manages an array of public services for town residents. The public works department maintains local parks and infrastructure, treats waste, delivers safe drinking water and works with the planning and zoning departments on other projects. As winter approaches, the department must confront impending cold weather and its
technolog y that improved the available methods of detection of these molecules,” Mirica added. After growing metal-organic frameworks and combining them with electrodes to make devices, Smith said she and Mirica “discovered that [they] could make conductive material that had the capacity to sense and differentiate and effectively absorb gases.” Smith said the “most promising SEE FABRIC PAGE 3
SING ME A SONG
effects on road safety. This year, the town is planning to use liquid brine instead of salt to prevent icy road conditions. When did the town of Hanover choose to switch from salt to liquid brine? PK: We’ve actually been looking at making the switch for a number of years. Two years ago, we actually got around to purchasing equipment to implement TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
SEE Q&A PAGE 5
Student a cappella group Music in Color performs in One Wheelock.
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
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DAily debriefing Sean Runnals of White River Junction has pleaded not guilty to attempting to set the town’s Shady Lawn Motel on fire this past May, according to the Valley News. Runnals was arraigned for attempted firstdegree arson, a felony charge, in Windsor Superior Court on Tuesday and is being held on $10,000 bail. According to police, DNA evidence linked Runnals to latex gloves in a plastic bag near the site of the fire. Runnals tried to start the fire using latex gloves, gasoline and small tree branches, according to the affidavit. This was the second of two fires someone tried to start over a 48-hour period at the motel, although the perpetrator of the first fire has not been identified, police said. At the time he allegedly set the fire, Runnals had been living at Dismas House in Rutland, Vermont, a nonprofit focused on reintegrating formerly incarcerated people into society. On Tuesday night, voters in Virginia and New Jersey elected Democratic gubernatorial candidates Ralph Northam and Philip Murphy, respectively. Political analysts largely attributed the victories to suburban voters’ rejection of President Donald Trump, according to The New York Times. In Virginia, Northam prevailed over Republican nominee Ed Gillespie by 9 percentage points, the widest margin of victory for a Democratic candidate for Virginia’s governorship in decades. In the final weeks of his unsuccessful campaign, Gillespie — who once warned the public that anti-immigrant politics were dangerous — initiated a multimillion dollar media campaign focusing on wedge issues such as immigration and Confederate iconography. Addressing his supporters following his victory, Northam interpreted his victory as a signal that Virginia’s voters reject Trump’s platform. “Virginia has told us to end the divisiveness, that we will not condone hatred and bigotry — and to end the politics that have torn this country apart,” he said. In New Jersey, Murphy defeated Republican nominee Kim Guadagno by 13 percentage points, consistent with polling results indicating that Murphy established a strong lead early in his campaign. National Republicans reportedly paid little attention to Guadagno’s campaign because of her association with current New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is widely unpopular in the state following several high-profile scandals. Amid record-low approval ratings, Trump did not make appearances on behalf of candidates for governor in either state, the first time a president has not done so since 2001 when former President George W. Bush stayed off the campaign trail after the Sept. 11 attacks. The Justice Department has asked Time Warner to sell Turner Broadcasting, a group of cable channels that includes CNN, as a requirement for approving the company’s $85.4 billion merger with AT&T, as reported by The New York Times on Wednesday. Another option offered was for AT&T to sell DirecTV. Combining the two firms would create a company with DirecTV, wireless and broadband internet service, cable channels like HBO and CNN and the Warner Brothers movie studio. AT&T and Time Warner would likely challenge the government’s legal basis for blocking the transaction in court if the Justice Department makes either a formal requirement. President Donald Trump has criticized the proposed merger, when he said it was “an example of the power structure” he was fighting against. AT&T’s chief financial officer John Stephens said that the timing of the deal is uncertain, although the organizations are in active talks with the D.O.J. Both companies are confused by the block on the merger, because they believe they are not direct competitors. AT&T has hired lobbyists close to members of the Trump administration, such as Vice President Mike Pence, to get the deal approved. Antitrust experts said that regulators could have a difficult time fighting the deal, as the D.O.J. would have to prove that the effects would hurt consumers either through higher prices or fewer choices. BY CAROLINE BERENS, NOAH GOLDSTEIN AND JULIAN NATHAN
CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com for corrections. Correction Appended (Nov. 8, 2017): The Oct. 31, 2017 article “Dartmouth team visits tech symposium” was updated to remove a sentence incorrectly stating that the Dartmouth research team was the first group to publish four papers at once in UIST history. Another researcher group has accomplished the feat before.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2017
Workshop focuses on design thinking FROM WORKSHOP PAGE 1
In a joint interview, Korsunskiy and Nyhan emphasized the practical benefits of integrating the design principle of prototyping into students’ lives, suggesting methods include learning by doing, avoiding over-thinking, exposing and testing assumptions and failing early to succeed often. In the workshop, they also discussed the importance of reframing existing dysfunctional beliefs, such as, “I’m stuck,” which was reframed as “I’m never stuck because I can always generate a lot of ideas.” Attendees were challenged to generate three distinctly different potential timelines for their lives in the next three years and collaborate with each other to come up with ways to explore possible futures before committing to them. Nyhan said that there was value in bringing students together to discuss shared experiences. “It’s important to normalize or shed light on the fact that this is an inherently stressful time of life, and that you don’t have to hide that,” Nyhan said. “We can build community around this shared feeling. And then, as a bonus, we can think about how we can make it less stressful.” The “Designing Your Life” curriculum can also help students n av i g at e d i f f i c u l t d e c i s i o n s, according to Thayer School of Engineering professor Peter Robbie.
“The concept of prototyping and identifying lots of options basically changes the challenge from deciding to designing,” Robbie said. “You’re designing alternatives. You’re not deciding when you’re 20 what you’re going to do when you’re 50.” Korsunskiy said the workshop was adapted from a “Designing Your Life” course at Stanford University, which encouraged students to apply the principles of design thinking to their own lives. After Korsunskiy took the class as a design graduate student at Stanford, he said he was asked to help teach the class to undergraduates and develop a version of the class for freshmen and sophomores that was called “Designing your Stanford.” He taught the class for two years before serving as senior coordinator of design initiatives at the University of Vermont and then coming to Dartmouth. Nyhan said she and Robbie attended a “studio for higher education” at Stanford in June to learn about the methodology behind “Designing Your Life.” “[Design thinking] is a methodology that’s been a gold standard for innovation for a long time,” Robbie said. “But people hadn’t really thought about how could you rethink those tools to apply to one’s self.” Korsunskiy added that it was important to first “prototype” the model to determine the best way to incorporate the “Designing Your Life” curriculum at Dartmouth.
“One thing that designers try to pride themselves on being is context-sensitive,” he said. “And so, the idea of copying and pasting something from one context into another usually doesn’t sit well or go well. Maybe there’s one future in which [Designing your Life] is a full 10-week class, maybe there’s one future where it’s a [physical education class], maybe there’s one future in which it’s residential, maybe it’s a format that we haven’t even thought up or invented yet.” Nyhan said several other institutions are bringing a d a p t a t i o n s o f S t a n f o r d ’s “Designing Your Life” course to their own campus, such as Cornell University, Harvard University, Trinity College, the University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan and Yale University. “We’re building this effort among institutions where we can share prototypes to the benefit of everybody,” she said. “We’re all learning from what everybody’s trying on their own campuses.” Korsunskiy said the workshop received positive feedback from participants. Many students said they felt less anxious and more likely to prototype their new ideas after participating in the workshop, he added. “We’re super excited to see what else we can make happen [at Dartmouth],” Korsunskiy said. “It’s wonderfully affirming that this content seems to be something that people are actually curious to experience and interested in participating in.”
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2017
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Smart fabric could help protect users from toxic gases FROM FABRIC PAGE 1
application” of SOFT would be in places that require constant filtration and/or detection of toxic gases such as gas masks used for industrial purposes or in the military. She added that she imagines a modern gas mask incorporated with SOFT that connects wirelessly to a mobile device, which will be able to tell users what gases they are being exposed to and simultaneously filter
them out at a certain rate. “It would be very applicable to our servicemen and women,” she said. SOFT became more effective in its functions because Smith and Mirica combined two porous platforms, basic cotton and metalorganic framework, according to Mirica. The combination of the two porous materials enables the cotton to become a toxic gas sensor while the metal-organic framework absorbs the toxic gas. The use of
two platforms instead of one was a key difference between this project and their previous one, she added. The results of their recent project were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Mirica said she and Smith are still researching ways to fully incorporate SOFT into wearable items. She added that they are currently working with textile swatches and seeing how those can be integrated onto a larger item of clothing, like a patch on an article
WINTER IS COMING
CAROLYN SILVERSTEIN/THE DARTMOUTH
As fall draws to a close, students begin to migrate indoors seeking warmth and shelter.
of clothing. Their findings are an “exciting start,” because the research can guide them towards more findings on basic cotton and metal-organic framework platforms, according to Mirica. She said the team has already hired two interns from the Women in Science Project to help continue the research, which she says will be diverted into two main topics: fundamental science and practical use. Through this research, they will gain more insight
into how the basic technology works while newer and different methods of employing the textile are developed, she said. WIPS was established in 1991 to provide female students at the College with opportunities to participate in programs related to science, mathematics and engineering. Smith said she hopes the research could lead to new conversations about fabrics as a wearable technology and shift the paradigm in the world of nanotechnology.
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DARTMOUTHEVENTS
THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS
THE JOURNEY THUS FAR
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2017
NEELUFAR RAJA ’21
TODAY
1:15 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.
Lecture: “Macroscopic Consequences of the Higgs Field,” with physics and astronomy professor Roberto Onofrio, Wilder 202
7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Screening: student films from Film Studies 30, “Documentary Videomaking,” Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center
8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Performance: “Cabaret,” a fall MainStage production, Moore Theater, Hopkins Center for the Arts
TOMORROW
8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Exhibit: “East Meets West,” works by artists Bruce and Ann Peck, 7 Lebanon Street, Suite 107
8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Film: “Logan Lucky,” directed by Steven Soderbergh, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center
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THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2017
Peter Kulbacki discusses winter preparation FROM Q&A PAGE 1
the change. What was the problem with the previous method of using salt pellets? PK: Well, the previous method is still used in some situations. If you add salt to a road, salt will stay solid. The purpose of the salt is to try to prevent ice from bonding to roads so you can clear them. However, we’re looking to reduce the amount of salt on roads. In a typical storm, we use between 400 to 800 pounds per lane mile, but if we were to apply a brine solution we could put in 85 pounds of salt — a substantially smaller amount — for the same effect.
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PADDLES AWAY
actually a need for it.
W hat stopped Hanover from making this transition sooner? PK: There was a lot of misinformation about how brine doesn’t work based on some experiments done about 15 years ago, but the experimenters applied it incorrectly. If you don’t get the salinity right, it just forms salt. So there was a lot of experimenting that went badly because people didn’t understand the science behind it. A lot of testing has been done at this point establishing that brine is something that works. Now, the equipment is pretty well available and has become affordable. In the first year we used it, savings in our salt budget paid for our equipment.
What are some other benefits of switching to liquid brine? PK: You can put it wherever you What will the process of want it to go. One of the problems implementing this in the of putting salt entire town on roads is that look like? when you put “Making a change is PK: Well, we’re it on a truck to always a little bit scary going to apply it scatter it across the day before the roadways for people.” the storm. We you lose about have one truck a third of it to that we drive -PETER KULBACKI, the snowbank, around town. It so you’re losing HANOVER DIRECTOR OF takes around six a third right PUBLIC WORKS hours to drive away. And to around all the actually have roads in town in the desired both directions effect, the salt has to pull heat and come back to our shop to refill. out of the snow to form a liquid so it can create a brine. So you Are there any other additional take your salt and get liquid out costs you anticipate will of it. So the advantages of brine b e n e e d e d t o m a ke t h i s are that it’s quicker to form, you transition? don’t waste as much, you can put PK: At some point we’ll have to it exactly where you want it to be, look at how long our equipment and by adding less salt to the roads will last so we know when to we can reduce our impact on the start looking for replacements. environment. A large amount of So there’s some costs we have to salt we put down actually ends up consider. going back to the ocean, so it’s beneficial to use brine. Was there anyone that opposed the decision to switch from A r e t h e r e a n y p o s s i b l e salt to brine? negative consequences you’re PK: A lot of the people applying worried about? it were skeptical and really didn’t PK: I think the only negative aspect want to try it. Some people had might be damage to equipment — been using salt for 25 years, and there have been some reports that they thought putting more salt brine causes corrosion of metals would be better. Making a change is in cars. But brine actually causes always a little bit scary for people. the same sort of corrosion as salt. We have heard some things from One of the nice things about brine mechanics in Vermont about brine is that we could apply it before a being a problem with corrosion in snowstorm, giving it time to dry on vehicles, but they’re missing the the road. Then, as soon as it starts point. We’ve had brine all along snowing, the salt left behind from because we’ve been using salt evaporation would form a solution pellets on roads to create brine. with precipitation as enough snow falls on the ground. So it would This interview has been edited and stay there in solid form until there’s condensed for clarity and length.
TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Dartmouth’s rowing teams competed at the Green Monster, hosted in Hanover, this past weekend.
THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
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CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST CHRISTOPHER CHENG ’21
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST NICHOLAS BARTLETT ’21
Beyond Campus
Fantasy’s Harsh Reality
How much time do Dartmouth students have for community involvement? I’ve been getting these emails. They call for volunteers for construction projects for low-income families, applicants for social justice grants and mentors for children in the Upper Valley region. They tell stories about a world beyond Dartmouth College. It’s easy to stay busy on campus. The bulk of my weekdays go to my three classes, lift and practice; I barely have enough time leftover for completing assignments and studying for midterms. When I look around, I see over 4,000 of my peers going through similar experiences. I unconsciously start to believe that my experience is the norm. After all, where’s the evidence to suggest that anyone is going through anything different? I’ve been getting these e-mails. In Vox Daily, I see that nine first-year Geisel School of Medicine students were named Schweitzer Fellows this past May. Nationwide, the medical students who are enrolled in this fellowship engage with the social factors that impact health. Previous Geisel fellows have undertaken projects such as an investigation into local substance abuse recovery and a program supporting underserved, first-time mothers. Wait a minute. Medical school is supposed to be intensely time-consuming. If these people can find time to take on projects beyond the daily grind of campus, then what am I doing with my time? I suspect that maybe they are just superhuman — maybe they are exceptions to the rule. Yet a recent survey that was reported by Geisel’s admissions website reveals that 81 percent of the first- and second-year Geisel students who responded have been involved in at least one community service project during their time there, whether at DartmouthHitchcock Medical Center or the surrounding Upper Valley. Many of these programs are also available to undergraduates. By now, I get the idea. I start talking to some peers around campus; I consider the possibility that maybe nobody is actually responding to these emails. The peers I speak with are the same ones I see day after day, the same ones who I assumed were just as buried in work as I was. But after these conversations, I begin to run out of excuses. Meeting with them after class, at the Class
of 1953 Commons and anywhere in between, I learn that they’re all involved in a variety of service activities to varying degrees. Some of them are involved with activist groups on campus such as Movement Against Violence, Divest Dartmouth and the Sexual Violence Prevention Project. Others mentor children through programs such as SIBS and DREAM. Students interested in pre-med like to volunteer at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. These individuals talk to me about juggling their demanding course loads and athletic schedules. Yet despite the stress placed on them, the thought of withdrawing from community involvement doesn’t even cross their minds. Community involvement at Dartmouth is not only possible, it also enjoys incredible resources. The Residential Education Social Justice Award, which finished accepting applications for this year last week on Nov. 1, provides grants of up to $5,000 for projects. The Center for Service coordinates volunteer opportunities with programs such as America Reads, OLE and many others, including the Class of 1982 Upper Valley Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship, which provides a grant that covers one full-time leave term to implement an initiative serving underresourced individuals in the Upper Valley region. The Center for Service also organizes and provides generous stipends to fund domestic and international internships at nonprofit organizations. It would be wasteful to not, at least, take a look. Students and alumni speak extensively about the “Dartmouth bubble.” They refer in part to the phenomenon that I fell into — in my busy day-to-day life, I realized that I became unable to look beyond campus. Yet the use of the word “bubble” is misleading because this situation is in no danger of disappearing anytime soon. The challenges that Dartmouth students will face when engaging in community involvement are more like a fence: They are difficult, but not impossible, to overcome. And if Homecoming 2017 has shown us anything, it’s that Dartmouth students are all about hopping fences. I’ve been getting these emails. Maybe it’s time to start responding to them. Cheng is a member of the Sexual Violence Prevention Project.
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ISSUE
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2017
NEWS EDITOR: Mika Jehoon Lee
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.
Fantasy football is to blame for some of the NFL’s recent woes. The National Football League is a sports franchise, then NFL fans are the struggling. Ratings are dropping and public most dedicated to their teams. The NFL opinion of the sport has fallen. Why this far outpaces the MLB by this metric, is happening is not clear. Some, like John averaging 16.5 million viewers per game Schnatter, the chief executive officer of Papa during the 2016 reguar season. The 2016 John’s, point to recent protests during the National League Championship Series, national anthem in which football players one of the key playoff events for the MLB, have kneeled to express dissatisfaction averaged just seven million viewers per game. with police violence. Schnatter believes Even the 2016 World Series’ 23.4 million these athletes’ actions are “polarizing average pales in comparison to the Super the customer.” Others Bowl’s 111.3. The greater are quick to blame “Loyalty has long been dedication to the sport of recent discussion of football — to a team — concussions and the a staple of the league. is not merely incidental. health risks associated This derives as much Instead, football’s shorter with the sport that season and greater from scheduling as have driven a rapid accessibility produced decline in youth football anything else.” a commoditization of participation. While the professional realm b o t h f a c t o r s h av e which precipitated contributed to the dilapidation of the greater fervor amongst its fanbase. Since once-pristine cultural monolith that is the the opportunity to watch “their” team play NFL, one of the most injurious culprits occurs just 16 times a year, it is more likely behind football’s declining viewership is that fans will watch each game. not so much political or health-related as Convincing fans to avidly support a team recreational. I am talking, of course, about by offering fewer games was a simple yet fantasy football. astonishingly effective formula. However, At first glance, such a claim seems fantasy football has eschewed identity by preposterous. How could fantasy football, team in favor of identity by specific player. a tool designed to further the NFL’s Fans care less for the success of the Pittsbrgh popularity by placing the focus upon its Steelers, but they root for Antonio Brown biggest stars, be damaging to the very to dominate the contest and grace them game upon which it is based? The answer with “fantasy points,” the determinant in is simple: The same emphasis on individual weekly success. While some fantasy-league players degrades the value of the teams to participants are willing to watch every single which they belong. In putting the emphasis football game aired each week, that is not upon individual players, the NFL has always the case. Fantasy football has taken deteriorated the fabric of the sport: team that which popularized football in the first loyalty. place — its scarcity — and replaced it with Loyalty has long been a staple of a system that is far more demanding of the league. This derives as much from its customer base. Now fans must concern scheduling as anything else. Each team themselves not only with their team of choice plays just one game a week for 17 weeks, but also with the numerous games played by with the exception of a “bye week” for each member of their fantasy teams. each. The relative scarcity of contests — a In theory, more games to watch would weekly occurrence may equate to higher ratings. seem significant until In practice, more games “Convincing fans to it is juxtaposed with to watch equates to less the five-to-six game avidly support a team passion for the sport. per week schedule of by offering fewer Fans are burnt out. With Major League Baseball too many distinct games — permits fans to be games was a simple to focus on at once, more devoted to each yet astonishingly member s of fantasy of a particular team’s football leagues across the effective formula. 16 contests. The NFL nation are more inclined does not require fans However, fantasy to look at a stat sheet to find time in a busy football has eschewed than a television screen. schedule for five threeGiven that looking up a hour commitments per identity by team in box score on ESPN.com week, requiring instead favor of identity by does not count toward only one. In effect, the NFL’s ratings, this specific player.” this makes it easier is anything but a benefit for football aficionados to the league’s profit to watch every single margins. one of their favorite team’s games and In emphasizing individual players, fantasy constructs fan bases that watch a higher football has propagated a mindset in which proportion of a team’s games than those the fans are less incentivized to bother with a of baseball. specific team come Sunday afternoon. They If viewership on a per game basis is care about football as a concept, not football taken to be the most reflective measurement as a game, and the accompanying sense of of a fanbase’s loyalty and dedication to apathy is hurting the NFL’s bottom line.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2017
THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
PAGE 7
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST MATTHEW MAGANN ’21
STAFF COLUMNIST JULIA HUEBNER ’20
Speech of the Free
Dartmouth’s Best Kept Secret
People often think of free expression hinge on constant questioning. This process as a tradeoff, with hateful speech an minimizes superstition and personal bias, unfortunate corollary to the predominant allowing ideas to win out on their own good of free speech. The implicit assertion merits. Handing the mantle of truth to an is that, were freedom of expression authority is not just intellectually stifling — it curtailed and offensive groups banned, endangers the very people that censorship levels of hate would go down. Some on supposedly protects. We may agree with both the far left and the far right argue an administration when it bans speech we for just that: They demand censorship of see as unacceptable — but what can we do speakers, groups and ideas that they deem when a new administration bans speech we offensive or unacceptable. These beliefs are consider important? Calls from the far left critically flawed. While some may follow for bans on “hate speech” may work out for the kneejerk reaction that if an idea is them under a sympathetic administration, dangerous, we should ban it, a rigorously- but imagine what the current administration defended right to free expression is actually might define as hateful. At one time or the most effective means of preventing another, Donald Trump’s administration bigotry. has advocated for the revocation of You can’t truly ban an idea. You broadcasting licenses, criminal penalties can censor it, push for flag bur ning and i t u n d e r g ro u n d o r dangerously-expanded make its publication “Censorship, as with libel laws. In doing so, it illegal, but you can’t any threat, doesn’t has defined anti-Trump, legislate the underlying anti-nationalistic speech beliefs out of existence. change minds ... as unacceptable. Had Censorship, as with Banning, say, racist hate speech laws been any threat, doesn’t speech will do nothing enacted, might Trump change minds. T he use them to target those main problem with to combat racist who disagree with him? intolerant speech is not beliefs.” When we ban any form the offensiveness of the of speech, we undercut speech itself, but the the foundation of free bigotry that motivates expression. Considering that speech. Banning, the frequency with which say, racist speech will do nothing to power changes hands, even if censorship combat racist beliefs. With racist speech were effective, surrendering the mantle of censored, toxic ideas could still spread in truth to those in power is a short-sighted private conversation, free from the harsh and dangerous proposition for all. criticism they would have received had they Liberal values are radically democratic. been freely voiced in public. Censorship They assert that people can gover n serves as a kind of denial. Instead of themselves, determine for themselves what taking up the difficult work of tackling is true and challenge what they believe is a societal problem, censors effectively not. By any standard, these values have ban the view they dislike and pretend the been a tremendous success, countering problem doesn’t exist. Meanwhile, the irrational superstition and oppression to bigotry behind hateful speech continues to create modern society. spread in private, unchecked by criticism. Calls to censor offensive speech fly in A society that fails to the face of liberalism. protect the freedom of Restricting free expression will thus find “Liberal values are expression might shield itself more vulnerable radically democratic. people from views with to the very ideas it bans. which they disagree, but it But disregard that They assert that will do nothing to oppose fo r a m o m e n t a n d people can govern or change those views. imagine that censorship even if censorship themselves, determine And could counter could eliminate an h at e f u l i d e a s, t h at for themselves what idea, we should never outlawing supposedly is true and challenge empower a select few unacceptable speech to determine right and would cause the ideas what they believe is wrong. History shows behind that speech not.” that many authorities to vanish. I would have actually promoted still argue vehemently hate. Without the First against the imposition Amendment, might the of censorship, and not just on principle. segregated South have banned the Civil The notion of free expression, like Rights Movement as unacceptable speech, skepticism, empiricism and rationality, a threat to the public order? rests on the idea that no one entity Censorship may be the instinctual can monopolize the truth. Contrary to reaction to offensive speech. Upon closer some previous societies, where a king or examination, though, it proves both ethically religious leader declared one absolute, unjustifiable and grossly ineffective at inviolable truth, modern liberal values combatting intolerance.
When deciding where I’d go to college in Those courses’ uniqueness made them my senior year of high school, I did what most challenging, exciting and ultimately some of the Type A people do: I made a pro-con list. Good most rewarding academic experiences I’ve had at academics at Dartmouth and my contender? the College. Check. Good people? Definitely at Dartmouth, According to Doolittle, every faculty member or so I’d heard. Service opportunities? I wasn’t who taught a SIP course in the 2016-2017 so sure about Dartmouth’s offerings. I thought academic year wanted to teach another in the New Hampshire was a tiny, idyllic state, bordered 2017-2018 year. by Bernie Sanders and Ben & Jerry’s. I assumed Although initial feedback from the three that diversity was nonexistent because 90 percent primary stakeholders — community partners, of people in New Hampshire are white. faculty and students — was strong, creating the Since coming to Dartmouth, I’ve learned that SIP program within the constraints of these three while there is little racial diversity in the Upper groups was a challenge. Valley, there is a wide range of socioeconomic Rather than approach community partners diversity in the region. That reality, coupled with student-generated ideas, the Center for with the opioid crisis that continues to plague Service conducted a wide-ranging need-finding the region, has highlighted the need and survey of community organizations in the responsibility for community engagement at Upper Valley to gather content for social impact Dartmouth. practicums. The center compiled about 100 Center for Service associate director of defined needs for the previous school year, spanning academic and service engagement Ashley 40 organizations. Doolittle noted that students do not need “to “It was clear that there are about 10 community exoticize poverty for it to be something that you partners that are the ‘go-to’ for absolutely everyone are interested in participating in ameliorating.” on campus, and they are overwhelmed” said “You can walk out your door and there Doolittle. are about 500 nonprofits within an hour of The founders of the classroom-based Hanover,” she added. SIPs designed the classes S o m e o f t h o s e “The founders of the to reject the traditional n o n p ro f i t s p a r t n e r “heart and hands” model w i t h D a r t m o u t h classroom-based SIPs of service, which suggests through student-run designed the classes to that service work is either extracurricular clubs, like physical or emotional in the Outdoor Leadership reject the traditional nature, excluding a need for Experience and DREAM. ‘hearts and hands’ innovation, problem-solving While the Center for model of service, and strategy. Service’s extracurricular Students often lament and off-term opportunities which suggests that the “Dartmouth bubble” are strong, the Center’s service work is either of privilege and safety that new “Social Impact we seldom leave during our Practicum” initiative is physical or emotional four years here. SIP courses, trying to weave social in nature...” Doolittle said, force students impact into the classroom “beyond the Dartmouth in a program that could bubble to the whole of the quickly become a selling Upper Valley.” point for prospective and current students “The data show that it is a really important interested in making an impact in the Upper culminating experience for students who are Valley. interested in the social sector at large — and even Doolittle, who helped found the SIP program, those who are not — who are interested in the defined social impact practicums as “projects really big public issues of our time,” she added. connecting community-defined needs with Those issues will be explored in the eight SIP experiential learning in the classroom.” courses available this coming winter, including Doolittle works as “Match.com,” as she put courses in the history, environmental studies, it, with community organizations and faculty education and engineering departments. The to “find ways to mesh the two in a synergistic Center for Service advertised the names of the way that integrates [a capstone project] with the winter 2018 SIP courses in an all-campus email existing course.” Previous SIP courses include last week and students can contact Doolittle for Environmental Studies 7.04, “COVER Stories” an updated list of classes. and College Course 18, “Impact Design,” both As I take more classes, begrudgingly decide on of which I took last spring without knowing they a major and narrow my professional interests at were SIP-designated courses. “COVER Stories” Dartmouth, it can seem that the tradeoff between is a first-year seminar taught by environmental altruist public-sector work and private-sector, “soulstudies professor Terry Osborne that explores selling” work is inevitable. SIP classes question that the intersection of environmentalism, power assumption by melding local, community-centered and privilege by partnering with COVER, a experience into Dartmouth’s curricula that foster local nonprofit that re-roofs houses and builds continued contact (and even friendship) with accessibility ramps for patrons in the Upper people in our area that last far longer than 10 weeks. Valley. In “Impact Design,” students researched For any current and prospective students worried the physicolical effects of delight and were about balancing altruism with schoolwork — and divided into teams, each of which created a term- wondering if volunteer efforts actually benefit the long user experience for an elderly community people they are aimed toward — these classes member with dementia and their spouse. provide a clear answer.
Free expression is the best way to combat bigotry.
This add-drop period, keep Social Impact Practicum courses in mind.
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2017
Student Spotlight: Kevin Soraci ’18, painter and engineer By HOLLY SUNG The Dartmouth
There are many people who paint, but there are not many who use emoji as a source of inspiration — Kevin Soraci ’18 is both. A studio art and engineering double major, Soraci has been painting for about seven years. Although he can’t recall how he got started, he remembers instantly falling in love with the sense of calm that painting gives him. For Soraci, painting is a way to engage with our culture conceptually, he said. The topics that Soraci chooses to paint vary greatly depending on what catches his attention at any given time. He has done a series of night paintings, focusing on cars and cities and light; he has also done paintings of farmers and workers. More recently, his theme has been contemporary social media, social language and how he sees them both affecting our interaction and society. “I guess I observed a lot of distractions coming from cell phones and certainly some downsides and side effects of social media — how it can be used to disparage people and how a lot of bad things come from that,”
Soraci said. “There’s an overall superficiality coming from our dependency on it, especially now that it a big part of our lives.” Soraci said that rather than simply painting something that he sees, he strives to engage with the message under neath and keep social context in mind. Such passion and talent for art has been felt by those around him as well. Luke Brown ’18, one of Soraci’s close friends, said that he notices the strong sense of intension and meaning in Soraci’s artwork. “[Soraci] is someone who always loves being challenged,” Brown said. “I think his art is one of the ways that he pushes himself to grow as a person. He really wants to be able to communicate as effectively as possible what is in his mind to the people seeing his art. And he does this with a desire to challenge the observer to think or feel differently. He’s also always looking for feedback on his art, jokes, weird ideas and way of perceiving the world. He is also one of the most self-disciplined people I know.” Studio art professor Colleen Randall, who has taught Soraci in studio art classes, called him a talented and hard-working student.
“He showed exceptional talent and interest [in art] and worked it out so that he could do a double major, which made me very happy,” she said. “He is very mature in his conceptual grasp of art and his ambition for his work is very demanding of himself. He’s rigorous in his practice, and he contributes a lot to the caliber of work that goes on in the classroom.” Randall said that Soraci’s passion for and connection with his art makes him a unique student. “I think he loves what he does and you can see that he’s motivated by that passion and interest rather than it being a class or a job,” she said. “He connects to the work that way, which is what really makes him special.” Besides his unique personal connection with his art, Randall said that Soraci is an original thinker when it comes to the topics on which he wishes to focus. “He is interested in using contemporary ideas like emojis and images from animation or digital technology, but the challenge is to try to embody complex human emotions in his paintings using these imageries,” she said. “He usually has self-portraiture or some kind of figurative element
COURTESY OF KEVIN SORACI
One of Kevin Soraci ’18’s recent pieces is on display on the third floor of the Black Family Visual Arts Center.
that he composes with these emojis. [Soraci] uses interesting figure ground relationships and such to express the reality of contemporary life but also the humanity that is timeless for all of us.” One of his recent pieces, a painting of an emoji-inspired lamb, hangs in the third floor hallway of the Black Family Visual Arts Center. The artwork shows the lamb’s relationship with a human, who is holding a rope tied around the lamb’s neck. According to Soraci, it was inspired by the power of symbols he noticed while studying another painting. “I was studying a painting where there is a lamb on the table,” Soraci said. “The legs are tied with rope, and the background is completely black — it was a painting that symbolized the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I was just really struck by how much meaning could come out of a single symbol.” Soraci said the Guggenheim Museum’s recent decision to pull
an exhibition that featured videos of animal cruelty also influenced his piece, and he considered the question of acceptable boundaries of art during the piece’s creation. “So I decided to use the animal imagery to explore that question, and the painting resulted in two ideas coming together to express contemporary language — emoji and sheep,” Soraci said. Soraci only has a few terms left at Dartmouth, but he hopes to continue painting after he graduates. Although his postcollege career will most likely be in the engineering field, he plans to continue painting for the rest of his life. “One of the main things [Soraci] gets out of being creative besides being challenged is having a lot of fun,” Brown said. “He has a certain quirky sense of humor, and he loves entering that zone of beginning something creative not knowing what’s going to come out of it. He’s a risk taker with creativity.”
COURTESY OF KEVIN SORACI
Kevin Soraci ’18 is an engineering and studio art double major.