VOL. CLXXIV NO.105
SUNNY
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Mark Bray at center of Antifa violence dispute
FUN IN THE SUN
HIGH 81 LOW 49
By ALEX FREDMAN The Dartmouth Staff
TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Students mingled on the Green during the Student Involvement Fair on Sunday.
OPINION
HUEBNER: MAKING TRIPS BETTER PAGE 4
SIMINERI: BURST THE BUBBLE PAGE 4
ARTS
FILM REVIEW: “IT” PAGE 7
Allison Lyng O’Connell appointed as Title IX coordinator By ZACHARY BENJAMIN The Dartmouth Senior Staff
The College has appointed Allison Lyng O’Connell as the new Title IX coordinator and Clery Act compliance officer, replacing outgoing coordinator Heather Lindkvist. Appointed Aug. 16, she is responsible for ensuring
Dartmouth’s compliance with gender equity and campus safety laws. O’Connell began working at the College in September 2016, assisting Lindkvist in her role, and since April she has served as interim coordinator with Lindkvist away on medical leave. Title IX is a federal law
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SEE O’CONNELL PAGE 3
SEE ANTIFA PAGE 2
Q&A with Rockefeller deputy director Sadhana Hall By JULIAN NATHAN The Dartmouth Staff
TV REVIEW: “TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN”
that prohibits educational institutions that discriminate based on sex from receiving federal funding. The Clery Act requires colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs to collect and disclose certain types of information, such as
When it comes to understanding the recent surge of radical political organizations in the U.S., Mark Bray, a visiting lecturer in history at the College, may know more than any scholar today on the far-left “Antifa” or anti-fascist movement. But knowledge can be a burden, as the saying goes. Following a series of recent public comments regarding the use of violence to counter neo-fascism, Bray has landed in the middle of a dispute involving a statement of condemnation from the College, national media coverage and death threats. Following the outbreak of violence on Aug. 12 in Charlottesville, Virginia, Bray published an analysis piece in The Washington Post on Aug. 16 describing a group of counter-protestors called “Antifa,” who were present in Charlottesville to challenge a rally organized by right-wing extremist groups to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. In the article, Bray described Antifa as a movement with “radical pan-leftist politics of social revolution applied to fighting the far right” whose members “reject turning to the police or the state to halt the advance of white supremacy.” Having just completed his Ph.D. dissertation on modern political extremism last year, Bray authored a new book this year, “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” which addresses the history of the Antifa movement as well as the ideologies and tactics behind it. This, along with his piece in The Washington Post,
As the deputy director of the Rockefeller Center, Sadhana Hall has developed initiatives for fostering student leaders such as the Management and Leadership Development Program and the Rockefeller Global Leadership Prog ram. Prior to coming Dartmouth in 2004, Hall spent 20 year s working on health, agriculture and water resources around the world in places like Tuvalu, Bhutan and the Caucasus.
Domestically, she has worked on expanding healthcare services to underprivileged communities in New Hampshire.
What made you decide to work at Dartmouth? SH: It was a combination of things. When I came to my interview, I was very, very impressed and sensed that working here would be an extremely enriching experience for me. I don’t come from an academic background — I came in from a non-profit in Thailand. The experience of talking to the students and the staff of the
Rockefeller Center is an absolutely delightful experience and continues to be that way.
What is the biggest change that you have noticed during your time at Dartmouth? SH: Good question. I think that the campus is starting to support more and more co-cur ricular offerings and more intentional efforts to collaborate across different organizations and departments. I also think that faculty and staff have also tried to make students’ four years on campus as rich of an experience
as possible.
What made you decide to work in gover nment and public policy? SH: Well, I have a master’s in public health and a background in community development. I have worked nationally and internationally and on public policy issues. I think it is about how you can address need on a community level, on an institutional level and on an organizational level. SEE Q&A PAGE 5
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
College releases statement in response to Antifa dispute views of Dartmouth” and that “the and mischaracterize Mark Bray’s endorsement of violence in any form scholarship,” Coffey said. placed Bray in high demand for is contrary to Dartmouth values.” In a letter responding to the comments in the media following Bray said that he was not faculty letter on Aug. 31, Hanlon the violence in Charlottesville that contacted by the College before the and Smith explained that following resulted in the death of a counter- statement was issued, and that he Bray’s appearance on “Meet the protester. first heard of the statement through Press,” the College received a “It’s been exciting to have my work an Internet search. “tremendous surge” of phone calls, relevant to contemporary politics,” “Even Campus Reform reached emails and social media inquiries Bray said in an interview with The out to me,” Bray said. “I did from students, families, alumni and Dartmouth. “At not respond for others questioning Bray’s viewpoints. the same time, it’s comment, but even However, Coffey said that the College been tragic that “It’s been exciting they reached out to should avoid responding unilaterally part of the reason to have my me. You’d think that to partisan media narratives at the why it is relevant [College President expense of its own faculty. is someone was work relevant to Phil Hanlon] – he “The long-run perception is that murdered.” would do the same Dartmouth as an institution does not contemporary On Aug. 20, thing.” support its faculty’s research and that politics. At the Bray appeared History professor it will disavow that research if it gets on “Meet the same time, it’s Udi Greenberg said a write-in campaign,” Coffey said. Press” with the been tragic that he was concerned Bray began at the College as Southern Poverty with the College’s a visiting scholar at the Gender Law Center’s part of the reason decision not to Research Institute at Dartmouth and P r e s i d e n t why it is relevant contact Bray. then became a lecturer in the history Richard Cohen “[The College] department last spring. He is listed is someone was to debate whether should not make a as an “associated visiting scholar” on radical left-wing murdered.” statement about one the GRID website. movements of its members — A historian of human rights, like Antifa may whether a student, terrorism and political radicalism, be justified in -MARK BRAY, faculty or staff — Bray has himself engaged in political using violence LECTURER without the member activism, including the Occupy to counter rightof the community Wall Street movement and protests wing extremist having a chance against President Donald Trump’s groups. During to articulate their administration. Bray said his new the segment, ideas and to clarify book covers the history of antifascism Bray appeared their positions,” from a “transnational” perspective, to defend Antifa’s Greenberg said. adding that he interviewed 61 tactics, arguing that non-violent Greenberg is one of over 100 antifascists from 17 different countries resistance to fascism in the past has Dartmouth faculty members who to write the book. not been effective. signed a letter addressed to Hanlon Bray said that while he does “A lot of people are under attack, and dean of faculty support the and sometimes they need to be able Elizabeth Smith A n t i f a to defend themselves,” Bray said on c r i t i c i z i n g t h e “[The College] movement the show. “It’s not, you know, it’s a College’s statement should not make a collectively, the privileged position to be able to say on Bray. The letter, group’s wide that you never have to defend yourself dated Aug. 22, statement about one range of ideas from these kinds of monsters.” praised Bray’s recent of its members ... and individuals After his appearance on “Meet the scholarship and ake it without the member m Press,” Bray said he started receiving public appearances impossible for death threats via email and Twitter. and claimed that his of the community him to endorse Bray added that he has been in remarks have been having a chance to the actions of contact with police regarding these misconstrued. The each of its threats. faculty also wrote articulate their ideas members. The next day, an article on that Dartmouth’s and to clarify their “ M y the conservative website Campus reputation has been support for positions.” Reform titled “Dartmouth scholar damaged because the movement endorses Antifa violence” quoted of the statement, as a whole Bray as arguing on “Meet the and they urged the -UDI GREENBERG, should not be Press” that violence is a “legitimate College to remove interpreted response” to extremist groups, the statement and HISTORY PROFESSOR as necessarily though Bray used that phrase apologize to Bray. support for referring to “self-defense.” Sandor A r t h i s t o r y everything Farkas ’17, the author of the Campus professor Mar y that every Reform article, attributed a passage Coffey, another individual in Bray’s Washington Post article s i g n e e o f t h e in the group which read “physical violence against faculty letter, said does,” Bray white supremacists is both ethically she took issue with said. justifiable and strategically effective” the fact that the Bray as Bray’s own opinion although in the College responded noted that he article the quote is preceded by the directly to Campus does believe phrase “Antifascists argue…” Farkas Reform, which she self-defense declined to comment for this story. said created an illegitimate narrative in the face of antifascism can The College issued a statement regarding Bray’s comments. be justified, conceding that selfon Aug. 21 saying that “recent “The longer [the statement] defense can sometimes involve statements made by Lecturer in sits on our website, speaking to the violence. He added, however, History Mark Bray supporting world, the longer we are complicit that broadly characterizing his violent protest do not represent the in an alt-right campaign to discredit remarks as endorsing violence is an FROM ANTIFA PAGE 1
COURTESY OF MARK BRAY
Lecturer Mark Bray released a book titled “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook” this year, which examines the history of the Antifa movement.
oversimplification. “Suddenly, we have a young scholar “I think that there is evidence to in the national spotlight who is doing support the claim that on a number the work of a public intellectual — he of important occasions, [Antifa’s] is putting forth history and ideas that organizing efforts have stopped allow us to debate, allow us to form the advance of our own views on fascist and white these questions s u p r e m a c i s t “Suddenly, we have of Antifa and the g roups,” Bray a young scholar proper response said. and so on,” Sharlet E n g l i s h in the national said. “This is to be professor Jeffrey spotlight who is applauded. This is Sharlet, another that we need doing the work of a work signee of the as a nation right f a c u l t y l e t t e r, public intellectual now.” e m p h a s i z e d ... This is to be Bray told The Bray’s academic Dartmouth that f r e e d o m . H e applauded. This is he has not been added that he is work that we need in direct contact currently reading with the College’s as a nation right Bray’s new book. a d m i n i s t r at i o n “I don’t know now.” throughout the if I agree with controversy, yet everything that he said the last Bray has said,” -JEFFREY SHARLET, few weeks have Sharlet said. “But ENGLISH PROFESSOR provided some I know I do believe moments of that he has the comfort. right to say it.” “It’s been Sharlet added disheartening that he found to see how the Hanlon’s second administration has statement more responded to my troubling than the first, because work, but it’s been heartening to of its admission that the College’s see how so many of my Dartmouth rationale for the first statement was colleagues have supported me,” Bray to respond to phone calls and emails. said. “And in that way I feel more a He said that this kind of action by part of the Dartmouth community the College may make its scholars in than before this.” the future more reluctant to address Re p re s e n t at i ve s f ro m t h e College declined further comment. controversial topics.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Allison Lyng O’Connell will serve as new Title IX coordinator
any student group who reached out investigation opened, it was for consultation. one of only 14 universities in annual security reports and daily While O’Connell does not the country with three or more crime logs. In her position as currently have any particular active investigations. In all, 227 coordinator, O’Connell will make policy changes in mind, she said universities had a total of 311 cases sure that the College’s policies are she thinks it is important to reflect under investigation in March. on how policies can be improved O’Connell said she could consistent with these laws. The Title IX coordinator is also and plans to keep an open mind not comment on any active in charge of ensuring the College going forward. She will also work investigations, but that in her complies with other relevant laws to increase feedback mechanisms experience working with other for how policies offices and student groups on ag ainst sexual are working for campus, there are many people m i s c o n d u c t , “I’m really focused people on campus. on campus who are passionate as sexual “I have a goal about making Dartmouth safe for h a r a s s m e n t i s on providing of making sure its members. one of the forms compassionate that people know In recent years, the role of Title of discrimination and empathetic that this of fice IX offices and sexual violence barred under is a resource for policies on college campuses Title I X . responses to all them,” she said. have c ome under inc rea s ed More broadly, members of the “ T h e T i t l e I X scrutiny. Some have suggested that O’Connell of fice and role current investigation processes w i l l w o r k t o community.” exist because all are too obscure and do not prevent sexual members of our adequately protect the rights of harassment, -ALLISON LYNG community have the accused. On the other hand, o v e r s e e the right to be some survivors of sexual assault investigations of O’CONNELL, TITLE safe and secure have criticized their schools for alleged sexual IX COORDINATOR here and access not doing enough to protect them misconduct their education from their assailants. Betsy DeVos, a n d t r a c k t h e AND CLERY ACT a n d w o r k i n g the U.S. Secretary of Education, campus climate COMPLIANCE OFFICER o p p o r t u n i t i e s , recently announced plans to roll surrounding a n d I h o p e t o back Obama-era “dear colleague” sexual issues. “I’m really focused on providing communicate that really broadly letters, which are sent to schools compassionate and empathetic across campus so that people know accused of Title IX violations to responses to all members of the this is a resource for them and that remind them of their obligations they can come to it.” to their students. community,” she said. Before coming to Dartmouth, K a t h a r i n e S t r o n g, d e a n O’Connell said she thinks O’Connell worked as an assistant of judicial affairs, works with the independent investigator process used by district attorney for Suffolk County O ’ C o n n e l l Judicial Affairs in Massachusetts. O’Connell, t o i nv e s t i g a t e “It is so important is responsive to who attended law school at a l l e g a t i o n s s e x u a l that Dartmouth student feedback Northeastern University, said she o f about how to was drawn to prosecution during misconduct. She continue to reaffirm improve and her time as a law student. She said O’Connell our commitment provide a fair chose to come to Dartmouth in is capable and p ro c e s s t o a l l order to be with her partner, who strongly focused to doing all that we parties. She said is attending medical school at the on collaboration. can to end sexual “A l s o, s h e ’s it is important Geisel School of Medicine. to monitor the When she first arrived at the just fun to work misconduct here process and College, O’Connell worked as w i t h , ” S t ro n g on our campus make changes as the Title IX program coordinator. said. and to continue to necessary, both Though similar in name to her new K r i s t i by soliciting position, the Title IX program C l e m e n s , make our campus a feedback and by coordinator is more similar a s s i s t a n t d e a n safe and equitable student simply listening to an administrative assistant, o f and paying O’Connell said, helping the Title a f f a i r s a n d environment for attention to IX coordinator with logistical director of case everyone. And I management, students. tasks. expect that we will “ I t is so Since taking over as acting s a i d s h e h a s important that coordinator in April, O’Connell enjoyed working continue to do that. Dartmouth has worked with multiple offices with O’Connell. continue to and student organizations on S h e d e s c r i b e d reaffir m our campus. She currently serves her as engaged -ALLISON LYNG commitment to as advisor for the Student and with her work and O’CONNELL, TITLE doing all that we Presidential Committee on Sexual very accessible, IX COORDINATOR can to end sexual Assault, worked with Movement as well as very misconduct here Against Violence over the summer intelligent, “but AND CLERY ACT on our campus to aid the group in selecting not in an off- COMPLIANCE OFFICER and to continue new members and helped the putting way.” to make our Sexual Assault Peer Advisors plan The College campus a safe overhauls to their sexual respect c u r r e n t l y h a s website to identify active peer three active Title IX sexual and equitable environment for advisors on campus. She said she violence investigations open. everyone,” she said. “And I expect would provide similar guidance to As of March, when the third that we will continue to do that.” FROM O’CONNELL PAGE 1
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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
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STAFF COLUMNIST JULIA HUEBNER ’20
GUEST COLUMNIST NICOLE SIMINERI ’17
Making Trips Better
Burst the Bubble
First-Year Trips has seen positive changes, but more improvement is needed. As a volunteer for Dartmouth’s First-Year Trips program, I would often joke with co-volunteers that Trips runs like a well-oiled machine. A million logistical nightmares are averted by tightly adhering to daily schedules and deferring to time-honored protocol. Many upperclassmen look fondly on the traditions that the ’21s have just been indoctrinated into: Being greeted in Hanover by students in bewildering outfits, dancing to “Everytime We Touch,” enjoying Annie’s macaroni and cheese and laughing at the antics of Dr. Schlitz in “Schlitz on Mount Washington” after a warm meal at the “Lodj.” These rituals can make Trips feel like a cultish institution that functions on a tradition-infused autopilot with little room for forward-thinking changes. But the reality is Trips changes regularly, and 2017’s program leadership invested a huge amount of time in recognizing and taking the appropriate steps to better Trips for first-year students. The most obvious change to this year’s Trips program was the relocation of the culmination of Trips from the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge to the Dartmouth Ski Lodge while the former was under construction. Trips coordinators had to rewrite travel itineraries for each trip, reorganize all programming for the new space and write a new dinner menu for “trippees” to enjoy. Despite the constant rethinking of lodge protocol, volunteers appeared as delighted as ever as they danced and sang their way while serving corn and clearing bowls. Subtler improvements were enacted to make Trips a more welcoming, diverse, and genuine experience for trippees. Directorate members took steps to combat two major criticisms: that Trips lacks diversity of race and experience, making the program unrepresentative of the incoming class, and that Trips does not prepare students for the post-Trips culture of Dartmouth, making the post-Trips transition to Dartmouth all the lonelier. Trips director Doug Phipps ’17 wrote in an email that the diversification of the Trips volunteer body was one of the “biggest goals” of the Trips leadership team this year. Racial and class diversity, Phipps wrote, “has been one of the DOC’s and Trips’ most obvious failings in previous years.” Outreach coordinators helped recruit a diverse group of leaders without tokenizing people of color. Racial breakdown of this year’s Trips volunteers ran closer to that of the larger Dartmouth student
body and was substantially more diverse (57 percent of trip leaders identified as white) than Trips’ 2016 volunteer pool (in which at least 70 percent identified as white). The directorate also strove to overcome class barriers by reducing out-of-pocket costs for trip leaders. This year, a meal support program of one breakfast or lunch DDS swipe per day was available for volunteers between the end of their volunteer obligations and the first day of campus meal plans. In the future, Trips should completely meet the needs of volunteers so that no one needs to financially support their work. In addition to the meal assistance program, smaller out-of-pocket costs, like free bandanas, were also subsidized this year. This, too, was a good start; however, money to fund trip leader-inspired pranks were still selffunded by leaders. Ideally, trip leaders should be able to take advantage of a small, $5-$10 stipend so that surprises are available for all trippees. The directorate also questioned and broke the assumed gender binary of trip leader pairings, arranging eight trips with two female leaders. The change both rejected the idea of a gender binary, Phipps said, and in the past Trips has seen “more female applicants and higher scoring female applicants, and it’s unfair to put those people at a disadvantage.” Implementation of female-female parings required careful consideration. Co-ed specialty croos, such as the rock climbing and mountain biking-focused croos, were scheduled to interact with female-led trips, Phipps said. The program took steps to lessen the veneer of perfection and constant bliss that volunteers, particularly “croo” members, can exude. H-croo, the croo on which I worked, replaced a Dr. Seuss bedtime story with individual “Lev Talks”: three five-minute speeches per night by individual croo members reflecting on their apprehensions when starting college. Trips partnered with Dartmouth’s Student Wellness Center, providing trippees journals in which students can reflect, though some questioned the usefulness of the journals. In future years, the Wellness Center might create a verbal group reflection activity or redesigned journal for trippees. Not all ideas for improvement were enacted this year. In future years, Trips could take meaningful steps to make introverted trippees feel more comfortable during their first days at Dartmouth while exuding the warm welcome that the preorientation is so well-known for.
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PHILIP RASANSKY, Publisher ERIN LEE, Executive Editor NOAH GOLDSTEIN, Managing Editor BUSINESS DIRECTORS ALFREDO GURMENDI, Finance & Strategy Director ROSHNI CHANDWANI, Finance & Strategy Director SHINAR JAIN, Advertising Director KELLY CHEN, Product Development Director EMMA MARSANO, Marketing & Communications Director HENRY WILSON, Technology Director PHOTOGRAPHY EDITORS ELIZA MCDONOUGH HOLLYE SWINEHART TIFFANY ZHAI
ISSUE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
NEWS EDITOR: Mika Jehoon Lee, Julian Nathan
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.
Living in a bubble of complacency is first and foremost a choice. Welcome to the Dartmouth bubble! Or smarter or tougher or more cosmopolitan. that’s what they call it, anyway. For you It just means that you have had more first-years here, if you haven’t heard this opportunities to leave — or, fail to leave — expression yet, you will very soon. You the cozy complacencies that so many of us are, after all, in the middle of nowhere fall into. Bubbles happen everywhere, and New Hampshire, population you. Despite Dartmouth is not the exception — it is the the fact that I am now an alumna who rule. graduated this past spring, the expression Even as I jumped from place to place continues to follow me even now. I finally over the years, I was still living in a bubble “escaped the Dartmouth bubble,” one entirely independent of my location. I just person congratulates me, while another did not realize it until much later, when 2016 chimes, “Welcome to the real world.” hit me with wave after wave of unwelcome But I never liked the term “the Dartmouth surprises that made me question the world I bubble.” It seemed belittling, as if the thought I knew. Clearly, no place and no one excitement I felt about is immune, and bubbles going to campus for my can form anywhere and first term, the nerves “The world around you anytime you let them. that tingled throughout stops growing when Bubbles are cozy and my body upon arriving comfortable. But if you that first day and the you decide it has — as are not at least a little crying, the laughing, the a consequence, you uncomfortable some of memories I made and the time, then you are in stop growing, too.” the relationships I built a bubble all of the time. during my four years And that is why perhaps there were not real. All the most meaningful were just some fleeting lesson I gained from artificial byproduct of being a Dartmouth my time abroad has been learning how to student. But it all felt very real. It all was burst my own bubble — learning how to very real. be comfortable with being uncomfortable. More than that, the Dartmouth bubble is During the last four years, I have learned an arrant misnomer. If you take it to mean that the world ends with you. It ends at your four years of easier access to resources than horizons. It ends when you decide you have usually can be found in the outside world already seen and learned as much about it as combined with relentlessly high levels of you need or care to. The world around you stress and pressure to succeed, then, yes, stops growing when you decide it has — and the Dartmouth bubble as a term has some as a consequence, you stop growing, too. accuracy, but no more than it would have Whether you are in rural New Hampshire on any other college campus. If it means or in the heart of New York City, if you are living in blissful ignorance of the world, not seeking out opportunities to learn and do however, then that can — and does — different things, meet different people and happen everywhere. engage in different conversations, you are During my time at Dartmouth, I tried almost certainly living in a bubble, shielding to take advantage of every opportunity yourself from your own self-development. to study or volunteer abroad, and I loved Of course, this is easier said than done, being able to explore the world with groups and not everyone has the time or resources of my peers. Yet each time I traveled I also to find such opportunities. Of course, during witnessed how easy it can be to limit yourself finals the only thing on your mind will be how to familiar faces and familiar talking points to cram 10 weeks worth of materials into a and to attempt to transplant Dartmouth single frantic night in the stacks. But at the culture — old concepts like pong or tails end of the day, your finals will be over and — into new countries and environments. In you will still be Dartmouth students, blessed the process, you can construct a Dartmouth with the opportunities that the name provides. bubble around yourself, thousands of miles If anyone has the time, the resources and, I away from the Dartmouth campus. Living hope, the motivation to see beyond the bubble in a bubble is not a lifestyle that Dartmouth — wherever and whatever it may be — it forces upon its students. It is a choice, and should be you. It should be us. when you decide to be content with being I never liked the term, “the Dartmouth content, you have made that choice. The bubble,” but I hope it will serve as a reminder Dartmouth bubble serves only to justify that to you, as it does for me, to keep expanding choice — to justify complacency. your world, both on campus and off, both That is not to say that the infamous while a student and after. As I start my life Dartmouth bubble is the only one of its kind; as an alumna, I am beginning to look back it is simply the one that we as Dartmouth at my time at Dartmouth as a time when students hear about most often. I have I gained not just perspective academically studied in London and Tokyo and worked but also perspective on the world beyond my in Washington, D.C. and New York City, own bubble. I am taking that lesson — that and each of these sprawling metropolises attitude — with me in my post-graduate had their own bubbles. The only difference life, and I hope you can one day, too. is that few ever talk about or even recognize them. Being from such places, as I myself Simineri is a former member of The Dartmouth am, does not automatically make you Senior Staff and is a member of the Class of 2017.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
Sadhana Hall reflects on her experience at the Rockefeller Center What is your favorite part about working at Dartmouth? Did you notice any increase in SH: I love working with students, student interest in government and I also love working with the and public policy in response Rockefeller Center team. I believe to the 2016 election? that an innovative and exciting SH: Well, yes and no. We have workplace environment brings out always had a large cohort of the best in people, and I think that students interested in politics Rockefeller Center directors and and participating faculty really in organizations do that for me. “Something like like the Dartmouth College Democrats integrity might seem A n d w h a t and the Dartmouth like a nebulous advice do C o l l e g e you give R e p u b l i c a n s . concept, but if you to your A l o t o f o t h e r don’t keep your students students work on most often? word, then people campaigns and SH: If you things like that on won’t trust you and asked my their off terms. So, you lose credibility students, students who were t h ey w o u l d engaged continue ... For me, I consider p r o b a b l y to be engaged. I’d authenticity tell you that also say that we I talk a lot and integrity have seen more about being and more students building blocks for authentic and becoming involved leadership.” keeping your recently just as i n t e g r i t y. I a result of their think that’s observation about -SADHANA HALL, so important what’s going on in b e c a u s e DEPUTY DIRECTOR the country. something OF THE ROCKEFELLER like integrity W hat are you CENTER might seem most excited like a nebulous about at the concept, but if Rockefeller you don’t keep Center this yo u r w o r d , year? then people S H : I ’ m re a l l y w o n’ t t r u s t honored to work you and you at the center with people who really lose credibility. Authentic people understand the mission of the can recognize an inauthentic Rockefeller Center and work very p e r s o n . Fo r m e, I c o n s i d e r hard to develop the best classes and authenticity and integrity building programs. I’m also co-authoring a blocks for leadership. I also talk a book on teaching leadership. And lot about why it’s important to be I’m excited to see the culmination introspective and comfortable with of that, hopefully by next year. the work that you do, constantly We’ve also scheduled new speakers evaluating how it affects others in this term, and our programming the process. at Rocky changes all the time depending on availability, so that This interview has been edited and is always interesting to see too. condensed for clarity and length. FROM Q&A PAGE 1
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
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THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Student Employment Job Fair, Collis Lobby Table
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Play: “If It Isn’t You” by Tess McGuinness ’18, Bentley Theater, Hopkins Center for the Arts
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Dartmouth Men’s Soccer vs. the University of Massachusetts, Burnham Fields
TOMORROW
3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Hanover Farmers Market, Dartmouth Green
4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Lecture: “The Challenge of Cybersecurity Today,” with Tel Aviv University head of security studies Isaac Ben-Israel, Haldeman 41 (Kreindler Conference Hall)
7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, performing Bach, Brazillian music and a Hopkins Center commission by Pat Metheny, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
For better or worse, “Twin Peaks: The Return” is pure Lynch By SEBASTIAN WURZRAINER The Dartmouth Staff
When the original “Twin Peaks” aired over 25 years ago, it was a TV show about a mystery. With its revival this year in the form of “Twin Peaks: The Return,” the show itself has become a mystery. Fulfilling a cryptic promise made years ago by murdered homecoming queen Laura Palmer, “The Return” picks up 25 years after the conclusion of the original. While the show attempts to juggle approximately three million storylines, the plot revolves around two central narrative threads. The first chronicles FBI agent Dale Cooper’s escape from the demonic netherworld known as the Black Lodge and his subsequent journey back to the town of Twin Peaks. The other thread follows Cooper’s evil doppelganger as he does everything in his power to avoid returning to the Lodge, from whence he escaped in the Season Two finale. However, to reduce “The Return” to a mere plot synopsis is to rob it of every quality that makes it so unique. As is typical for co-creator David Lynch, this show could care less about the narrative it is ostensibly trying to tell. Episodes frequently unravel into sequences of pure surrealism, focus excessively on utterly banal moments
or feature random scenes that don’t ever connect to the bigger picture. But if you possess even a passing knowledge of Lynch’s oeuvre, then this should come as no surprise. He is not so much a filmmaker as a magician who transports his audience into his dreams, and that is exactly why it can be almost impossible to critique his work. The man has made art that I love and art that I hate, but I find it extremely difficult to explain why, for instance, I love the original “Twin Peaks” in spite of its flaws, but “Lost Highway” leaves me feeling utterly cold. As a viewer, you either connect with any given project of his or you don’t; some people have labeled “The Return” revolutionary while others have expressed utter disdain. Frankly, I understand both reactions. I found myself somewhere in the middle while watching, perpetually fascinated yet deeply frustrated. The greatest source of my frustration was the show’s overall lack of humanity. In the original series, and especially in the prequel film “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me,” the surreal and supernatural elements in the story are used as metaphors. The demon BOB, for example, is a manifestation of mankind’s capacity for evil. This character is used to great effect to explore themes of grief, rape, incest, self-loathing and hatred. To
some extent, “The Return” reinforces this idea when it depicts BOB’s birth from the atomic bomb. But the show never goes any further than that; it never explores what precisely makes the atomic bomb mankind’s greatest evil or how that evil has real-world implications. Instead, Lynch and cocreator Mark Frost often appear to be interested in the surrealism of their supernatural mythology purely for the sake of surrealism. Thus, the entire show feels largely stripped of humanity, barring a few nostalgic callbacks and tributes to deceased actors. And this might not be such a problem if it weren’t for the fact that Cooper is practically catatonic and mistaken for an insurance agent named Dougie Jones during the majority of the runtime. I understand that Lynch and Frost are trying to subvert fan expectations, but in the process, they have removed an essential element that made the original series work. Cooper once famously said, “I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.” He was always excited by the mysterious and unknown, and as a result, encouraged the audience to embrace the show’s unusual vision rather than shy away from it. Without Cooper’s presence, “The Return” lacks that necessary
anchor. All of this is not to say that I didn’t appreciate anything about “The Return.” As frustrating as I found the aforementioned “Dougie” subplot, I also admired it. It’s designed to make die-hard fans scream in frustration, and I respect Lynch and Frost for that. There is some irony here because “The Return” may be mostly devoid of humanity and emotions, but it is extremely effective at manipulating the viewer’s emotional state. It refuses to be experienced passively, forcing you to run the gamut from frustration to boredom to glee to fear to nostalgia to anger to bewilderment. No show in recent memory has made me yell and laugh and cry and gasp at my computer screen as often as “The Return.” I mean that as a compliment. Moreover, the show certainly has plenty of superb individual elements, even if they don’t always add up to a satisfying whole. Kyle MacLachlan deserves an Emmy for three incredibly nuanced performances as Cooper, “Dougie” and the doppelganger. Lynch’s direction is undeniably captivating, and what little we hear of Angelo Badalamenti’s music is stunning. Moreover, some of the additions to the Twin Peaks mythology are genuinely intriguing, and I love the way the ending reinforces the show’s
central theme: The forces of evil may be destined to win, but that’s only more reason for the forces of good to fight back. Undoubtedly some Lynch fans will accuse me of being too “mainstream” and “not getting” the director’s genius. But, in the case of Lynch, I don’t think you ever necessarily “get it.” Sometimes his hallucinatory visions connect with you on a subconscious level, and sometimes they don’t. I may not have connected with “Twin Peaks: The Return,” but does that mean I wish it were any different? Of course not! Because then I’d also have to wish that Lynch himself was somehow different. Yes, occasionally his work makes me want to slam my head against a wall, but I forgive him because I respect his refusal to play by any rules other than his own. His stubbornness as an artist has led to projects like “Eraserhead” and “Mulholland Drive;” they’re weird and indescribable, and that’s precisely why I love them. If not loving a project like “The Return” is the price I have to pay, then so be it. With all that in mind, this review will go without a traditional numerical rating. In the case of Lynch, such an evaluation feels useless and nonsensical. Never change, you beautiful lunatic. The world would be a lesser place for it.
Childhood nostalgia makes “It” a satisfying end-of-summer flick By HALEY GORDON
The Dartmouth Senior Staff
A jam-packed movie theater at an evening showing of a horror movie on its opening weekend is not an atypical sight in a suburban Pennsylvania town. Total silence in that theater, however, is an atypical sound. This incongruity illustrated the success of the latest film adaptation of Stephen King’s “It.” The film and book both revolve around seven kids who must take on a battle against a being that emerges every 27 years to feast on the local population of a small town in Maine. While the book takes place in the fifties, though, the film is set in 1988. The adjustment in setting frees the movie from an exact replication of the novel, with necessary and simple pop cultural changes as well as significant but ultimately helpful plot adjustments. The most obvious diversion from the novel is the choice to forgo the interspersed narratives occurring 27
years apart and to instead only tell the half of the story with the characters in their early teens. This key simplification allows director Andy Muschietti to narrow in on human interpersonal and personal experiences. Character interactions without dialogue or with only carefully chosen lines touch upon the book’s major themes of bullying, abuse and grief, providing a substitute for the book’s authorial narrations. In contrast to a B-movie style horror flick flooded with archetypes, “It” is studded with fleshed-out characters that the audience can immediately identify with, especially after introductions that focus on their place in their town as victims and follow their emotional trek toward transforming into heroes. It often chooses to take the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown but can transform to reflect its prey’s deepest fears. Picture a more malevolent boggart from the Harry Potter series. The various forms match elements
of the characters perfectly, and the divergence from the book in some specifics — like Mike’s fear of the burning hands of his deceased parents rather than a giant bird — work to increase that synergy. However, the magnified look into the lives of the characters as youths mean that the look and feel of the movie also swings into youthful territory, with certain grittier moments — like the orgy in the sewers — completely eliminated, language somewhat cleaned up and implications leaned on more frequently to tell the story. So is it scary? Jump scares, suspenseful moments that catch your breath, violence depicted and implied, gore and shots filled with shock value populate much of this movie. And yet, those scenes are often undercut by moments with the children peacefully experiencing a “normal” summer: swimming, flirting and above all, biking. These sections feel reminiscent of the TV series “Stranger Things,” not
coincidentally because the two share the same eighties feel and idyllic small town setting. Except, Muschietti found a way to include even fewer adults in “It.” Thanks to the elimination of the “future” plot points, the only adults in the film become obstacles, large and small. If the parents are not the actual perpetrators of abuse, ridicule and violence, then they are guaranteed to form the roots of insecurities in the main characters. Adults in passing cars fail to act against bullies. Grownups don’t — or can’t — even see It in any form in this film. Thus, the Loser Club — as the seven kids name their confederacy — becomes empowered to fight back against the monster, and by doing so finally fight back against the injustices its members have faced in their adolescence. More than anything else, “It” feels like an exploration of grief. After the loss of his little brother Georgie, Bill feels a burden of shame, responsibility and
despair. His parents are not shown in the movie, except one scene in which his father demands Bill accept Georgie’s death full-stop, without offering any solace or sympathy. By taking on It, the cause of missing children — when so often in real life an explanation is never found — Bill confronts not just a physical manifestation of his fear but also his grief. As someone who does not often turn to a horror movie for recreational purposes, I felt scared but not out of control. I suspect more hardened horror aficionados might have found this update verging on tame in sections. Looking forward to the upcoming chapter two, one can probably expect even more harrowing situations with fewer moments of childlike serenity, if a similar dosage of comic relief. TL;DR: Clowns are scary. Paper boats are replaceable. Don’t go near sewers, as rule. Welcome to the Loser Club. Rating: 4/5