The Dartmouth 3/30/17

VOL. CLXXIV NO.49

MOSTLY SUNNY HIGH 46 LOW 27

THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2017

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Geisel rises in U.S. News rankings

South Africa trip unearths fossil

By PETER CHARALAMBOUS The Dartmouth Staff

COURTESY OF ELI BURAKIAN

The students in the Anthropology 70 course excavated a site in the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa.

OPINION

GOLDSTEIN: LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR SOME PAGE 7

SIEREDZINSKI: STANDING UP FOR CHANGE PAGE 6

SOLOMON: DARTMOUTH IN PERSPECTIVE PAGE 7

ARTS

ALUMNA Q&A: SCREENWRITER IVY PRUSS ’07 PAGE 8

DRAKE’S ‘MORE LIFE’ BOASTS NEW SOUND, LACKS ORIGINALITY PAGE 8 FOLLOW US ON

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By SUNPREET SINGH The Dartmouth Staff

As a child, Keira Byno ’19 always had an eye for finding shark teeth on the beach.

However, she had not expected to find a two million-year-old fossil while excavating in the Malapa Fossil Site within the Cradle of Humankind, a UNESCO World Heritage Site northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Byno, along with Julia Cohen ’18 and Kathleen Li ’17, made the discovery as part of the 15-person 2016 fall term class Anthropology 70, “Experiencing Human Origins and Evolution,” taught by

anthropology professors Jeremy DeSilva and Nathaniel Dominy.

The class was designed as an experiential learning course, with the first 10 weeks spent discussing South Africa’s political history, indigenous groups such as the San and role in human evolution and biological anthropology.

The students then spent three weeks over winter interim in South Africa where they traveled to their Malapa campsite and excavated the site for three days, participated in safari trips to see native species of lions and leopards and listened to lectures from various explorers and professors.

Tuck study looks at rating systems

By ALEX FREDMAN

The Dartmouth Staff

When products in the United States are given a numeric rating, most ranking systems use a “bigger-is-better” method in which a higher score reflects better quality. According to a new report co-authored

by Ellie Kyung, a professor of business administration

at the Tuck School of Business, when this method is used, scores are likely to affect U.S. consumer buying patterns because biggeris-better rating systems are the cultural nor m.

Yet if a product is rated by a “smaller-is-better” structure, consumers are less likely to perceive changes in SEE TUCK PAGE 2

The class was excavating a site that was created in 2008

by Lee Berger, a renowned paleoanthropologist who traveled with the students on the trip.

According to DeSilva, Berger’s 9-year-old son discovered the first fossils of the original species known to live in the area, Australopithecus sediba.

Byno made the fossil discovery on the second day of excavations when Cohen and Li dug up and dusted two rocks that they gave to her to sift. She did not know that the rocks contained two separate pieces of the fossil but soon realized

The Geisel School of Medicine improved its ranking in the recently released 2018 U.S. News and World Report’s list of the “Best Medical Schools.” The rankings, which were released on March 14, placed Geisel as 27th in primary care and 35th in research, an increase from last year’s rankings of 45th and 40th, respectively.

In an email, interim dean of Geisel Duane Compton called this year’s rankings “gratifying.”

The 2018 rankings mark an improvement for Geisel, which has dipped in rankings since 2013, when it peaked at 31st in research. Since then, Geisel ranked 38th in 2014, 34th in 2015 and 37th and 45th in the last two years.

These past drops in rankings were contemporaneous with the abandonment of the Geisel 2020 Strategic Plan for Excellence in September 2015. The 2020 Plan, announced by former Geisel dean Wiley Souba in 2011, aimed to place Geisel in U.S. News’ top 20 U.S. medical schools by 2020.

Compton announced in 2015 that Geisel would no longer pursue the plan due to a budgetary overhaul. This past fiscal year, the College reported that the reorganization of Geisel cost about $53.5 million.

The U.S. News rankings are based on a variety of factors, including MCAT scores and GPAs of accepted students, acceptance rates and faculty-to-student ratios. Primary care rankings are also based on the number of recent graduates who practice primary care in residency, and research rankings depend partly on total research dollars received from the National Institutes of Health.

SEE SOUTH AFRICA PAGE 3

SEE GEISEL PAGE 3

Lab develops toxic gas sensor

By PAULOMI RAO

The Dartmouth Staff

Using objects such as yellow wooden pencils and Shrinky Dinks, a child’s plastic toy that shrinks in size after being baked in an oven, chemistry professor Katherine Mirica and her team are developing a unique approach to build a portable and efficient electronic “nose,” a device to help detect toxic gases and environmental pollutants in the air and human bodies.

An expert on nanomaterials,

Mirica found in previous work that there was no single technology available to detect and monitor the chemical identity of gases harmful to the environment or humans. Unlike other experiments, Mirica’s lab is unique in the unconventional materials her team uses.

According to Mirica, the creation of a simple device that uses a sophisticated nanomaterial, such as this electronic nose, will allow researchers the capability to capture and detect gases.

Mirica noted that the initial

design and paper published in July 2016 were just a start and that she expects the team to continue new research to further develop and enhance the product, potentially for commercial use.

“We are still too close to the fundamental science and there are many interesting questions that remain,” Mirica said. “Typically the path to commercialization works when the product is targeting a very SEE NOSE PAGE 2

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2017

Chemistry professor Study reviews product rating systems creates electronic “nose” FROM TUCK PAGE 1

FROM NOSE PAGE 1

specific goal. We are still in the stage where there [are] too many unknowns.”

Chemistry postdoctoral scholar Merry Smith, who works in Mirica’s lab, noted that the development of the “nose” provided solutions for two challenges the team had faced. The first challenge was difficulty transitioning insoluble materials from a lab setting to a functional device, necessitating the creation of a direct assembly method and the device’s simple shrinkable architecture. The second was designing a device that could be used with their metal organic frameworks and also had some capability to detect gases and pollutants.

Two potential solutions for the team were to either buy the electrodes from a company or create them in a lab, but the team wanted something that was inexpensive and fast. They found that the cheapest way was to take a graphite pencil, which conducts electricity and serves as a source of electrodes, to draw the sensors directly on to Shrinky Dinks.

The team hopes to create a portable device, similar to a breathalyzer, that can detect gases that thus far have not been easily detectable, such as ammonia, nitrogen oxide and hydrogen sulfide.

The ability to detect and differentiate between these gases in a breath-based system would allow for breath-based diagnostics of disease recognition and monitoring in humans, Smith said.

Kennedy Jensen ’18, an author of the paper who was involved with the project, said she hopes to apply the technology in a medical setting.

“My work has been refocused on tuning and controlling the nanoscale morphology of the metal organic framework itself,” Jensen said. “Those different morphologies will have different applications [that] are really interesting because they are gasotransmitters, which means the body uses them in very small amounts for cardiac and neuro functioning and indicators for various illnesses like Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Parkinson’s disease.”

Kennedy said that she originally got involved in the research as a participant in the Women in Science Project, which shifted her perspective about the typical trajectory of research.

“I think overall there is a grand misconception of people outside the research world that research is linear,” Jensen said. “But the story you end up writing about in the end can be completely different than the question you set out to answer in the beginning.

But that’s okay.”

Jensen added that she’s also learned to appreciate the journey of research, rather than the outcome.

“It’s not just about the end result, but the process of getting there,” Jensen said. “It’s not something I knew three years ago, but something I’m reminded of everyday in the lab.”

Chemistry graduate student Aylin Aykanat Med’19 expressed a similar sentiment about the process of research.

Aykanat started at the lab approximately at the same time as Mirica, which she said was particularly promising because of the fresh cooperative dynamic and the ability to grow a project from ground up.

“Being a part of the collaborative lab environment not only allowed me to meet incredible people but helped me push the limits for myself as well,” Aykanat said. “Putting the work into it and seeing it come to fruition was incredible.”

Aykanat said the process taught her a lot about applied research and described the experience as motivating.

“Seeing something you make in a lab serve as a functional device to make lives better is incredible,” she said.

Since the paper was published last summer, Aykanat has continued developing new conductive materials to be made into gas sensors.

“We have to keep developing these new materials and see what they can do, what they can sense and how they will react with these different gaseous analytes,” Aykanat said.

Lebanon High School senior Polina Pivak joined the project back in summer 2015 as part of a program for high school students sponsored by the American Chemical Society. Pivak was initially unsure of the potential outcome of the project, but the moment when the device was exposed to vapors and responded, she felt that they had “come upon something important.”

“In chemistry labs in high school, you already know what the outcome or conclusion is going to be,” Pivak said.

“The lab is actually just for learning the steps and seeing it for yourself, but working at the lab at Dartmouth, you don’t actually know what the answer is going to be or where your research is necessarily going to go.”

The lab also gave Mirica the opportunity to present her findings at the American Chemical Society National Conference.

Pivak said it was the creative aspect of the lab and the team’s ability to try anything new and different that allowed for interesting discussions with the team.

“It’s fascinating to feel as if you are on the brink of something,” Pivak said.

CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com.

scores.

The report, titled “When Bigger is Better (and When it is Not): Implicit Bias in Numeric Judgments,” tested whether the rating of products on a scale opposite of the normative would impact consumers’ attitudes toward those products.

“One of the things we wanted to test was whether [different rating systems] could affect people’s willingness to pay for actual objects,” Kyung said.

Research for the study consisted of several experiments involving consumers’ attitudes toward products based on a given quality rating. In each test, half of the participants were shown a product with a rating on a bigger-is-better scale, while the other half were shown the same product with an equivalent rating translated into a smaller-is-better scale.

Some of the experiments for the study were conducted using Dartmouth undergraduate students as test subjects. In one of the experiments, 72 students were instructed to make auction-style bids on a stainless-steel coffee mug. Half of the students had been told the mug scored 6.1 on a scale where 1 is unsatisfactory and 7 is very good.

The other half had been told the mug scored 1.9 on a scale where 1 is very good and 7 is unsatisfactory.

The experiment found that the students who were told the biggeris-better rating were willing to pay on average over 1.5 times more for the mug than the students who were given the same rating on a smalleris-better scale.

In the report, the authors find that the results of this and other similar experiments are explained by a cognitive bias of consumers toward the rating system with which they are most familiar.

“If you’re using kind of a rating scale where people have to make some kind of translation, it essentially wipes out the difference in perceived quality,” Kyung said.

As a result of the study, Kyung said that companies might want to consider adjusting their rating scales based on the rating system familiar to their target audience.

Associate dean of the faculty and Tuck professor Richard Sansing said that the report’s conclusions align with a number of psychological tests measuring human response patterns.

“There’s this whole literature on cognitive interference and how that affects the judgments that people make,” Sansing said.

As an analogy, Sansing described a study in which individuals are told to hit a buzzer when they see the word “green.” But when some individuals are shown the word “green” colored in red letters, they are thrown for a loop, he said, which affects their ability to respond.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if that kind of bias or interference carries over into when you’re making an actual purchasing decision,” Sansing said.

Kyung co-authored the report with Aradhna Krishna, a marketing professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, and Manoj Thomas, a marketing professor at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.

Thomas said that although the results of the study may be surprising to readers, they were consistent with the authors’ expectations. He said he enjoyed the “brilliant experience” of discussing and debating the topic with Kyung and Krishna.

“We had a lot of fun doing that, and I think we are all kind of proud of the outcome,” Thomas said.

The report was published on the website of the Journal of Consumer Research in December 2016 and is expected to be published in the journal’s print edition in June.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2017

PAGE 3

Anthropology trip to South Africa excavates hominid fossil FROM SOUTH AFRICA PAGE 1

after sifting through the first rock. Byno told an experienced staff member about her discovery, who immediately took it to Berger and DeSilva. DeSilva said that Berger originally thought that the bone was part of the scapula, but he thought the bone was part of the pelvis.

Moments later, Byno sifted through the second rock and found another fossil. The two fossils fit together to form a bone, which Berger and DeSilva concluded that the bone was from the pelvis of a female.

The bone was not a large discovery considering the millions of fossils found to date, but it does help further understanding about the locomotion and process of childbirth in female species of A. sediba, DeSilva said. The discovery will be analyzed for about a year in a high-technology lab to confirm that the bone is part of a pelvis.

DeSilva said that he was not expecting his students to find anything on the trip, as he intended for them to experience the sometimes difficult process of finding fossils.

“Fossils are difficult to find, but I got a jolt of excitement when Keira found the bone,” DeSilva said. “I think the students learned a nice lesson about how science works — you make a claim, test it and revise it when new information becomes available.”

Cohen said that there is a one in 250,000 chance of finding a hominid fossil, and that she was very happy to have seen the class’s hard work pay off.

“Everyone was really excited about it,” Cohen said. “We all gathered around the fossil and passed it around while Professor DeSilva was contagious with enthusiasm.”

Li added that she did not expect anyone to find a fossil because the group had been working for eight hours a day

to no avail.

“It was a lot of hard manual labor that was exciting at first, but got boring quickly. I couldn’t believe what was happening when we had found a fossil because it felt like history was sitting in our hands,” she said.

Abby Reynolds ’17, another student on the trip, noted that the discovery was a group effort and that everyone was involved in the fossil finding.

“The discovery was collective, because it could have been anyone who found the fossil,” said Reynolds about the excavation process.

While the discovery was helpful, DeSilva said that it is not unlikely to find a fossil in the Cradle of Humankind because the area has been a productive site for fossil finds.

In addition to the excavations, the students conducted individual projects that they planned during the fall and carried out in South Africa. The projects

were about various subjects related to anthropology in South Africa, such as indigenous groups and political history.

Byno based her project on the indigenous San, asking them questions related to their ethnography and experience in South Africa.

Another project focused on the lack of education involving anthropology in South Africa, a hotbed for fossil discoveries.

Kalei Akau ’18 said that the trip confirmed her interest in anthropology and that she appreciated the real-life experience.

Reynolds added that her childhood dream of becoming a paleontologist came true when she got to dig at Malapa. Although she is a biomedical engineering major, she said that the trip reaffirmed her interests in paleontology and anthropology.

Byno had already been set on an anthropology major because of two

previous classes with DeSilva, but finding the fossil made her think about going to field school to work more with paleoanthropology.

She added that one of the highlights of the trip was when the group’s car broke down from a flat tire and their lights went out during the safari trip.

She explained that DeSilva and Berger had to exit the car carefully to avoid surrounding lions, one of whom was five feet away munching on an impala.

DeSilva said that he thought that experience was scary but powerful in that it became a teachable moment, in making the class think about what humans lived like two million years ago.

“Everyone was thinking about how early humans might have survived with ideas like they climbed trees to avoid the lions,” he said. “It made me excited to hear their conversations about how to not be eaten by lions and the experiences of early humans.”

Geisel’s ranking in U.S. News list improves from last year FROM GEISEL PAGE 1

Despitetheimprovementinrankings, Geisel faculty members realize that they are always susceptible to change. In fact, a single point change of Geisel’s ranking on a hundred-point scale can change its rank by five to seven positions, said

Rand Swenson, the Geisel department chair of medical education who also sits on the admissions committee.

“I don’t think you can read into change from one year to the next,” Swenson said. “I don’t think you can compute a very great significance to a change of five or seven spots even.”

Because of the increased value of other aspects of Geisel’s education and the capricious nature of rankings, Swenson noted that he does not expect to see an immediate change in application numbers based on the year’s rankings.

This rise in rankings also comes at

a time when professionals and students are placing more scrutiny on medical school rankings. Last year, the Hébert School of Medicine at The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences decided not to participate in the U.S. News medical school rankings.

For some Geisel students, the school’s rankings played only a small role in convincing them to continue their education in Hanover. Students noted that factors like Geisel’s location, passfail grading in the first two years and community played a major factor in their decision in addition to the rankings.

“I wouldn’t say that rankings affected my decision to apply to medical schools or eventually attend as much as other factors did,” Marietta Smith ’12 Med’17 said.

When Kimberly Betts ’12 Med’17 decided to apply to Geisel, she prioritized Geisel’s supportive environment, location and work-life balance.

“It offered the most wonderful opportunities, a great community, the opportunity to stay within the Dartmouth community but [also] understand and serve on a different level than as an undergrad,” she said.

PAGE 4

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2017

DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY

4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Meet the Artist Reception: “Still Seeing Green: Paintings,” with Meg McLean, 7 Lebanon Street, Suite 107

4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Mathematics Colloquium: “Two or infinity,” with Harvard University postdoctoral fellow Dan Cristofaro-Gardiner, Kemeny Hall 007

5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Lecture: “The Monk’s Haggadah,” with Harvard University professor David Stern, Rockefeller 001

TOMORROW

7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Film: “La La Land,” directed by Damien Chazelle, Visual Arts Center 104, Loew Auditorium

8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Performance by violinist Hillary Hahn and pianist Robert Levin, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts

8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Puppet troupe performance: “Made in China,” presented by Wakka Wakka Productions, Moore Theater, Hopkins Center for the Arts

RELEASE DATE– Thursday, March 30, 2017

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 “Yeah, sure!”

6 Some CPAs and MBAs 10 __ bean 14 What choir members have to carry 15 Lined up, with “in” 16 2001 Winslet/Dench title role 17 Hero makers 18 Window shopper’s buy 19 Bottle part 20 Double-helix molecules 21 Stat for which Babe Ruth’s 457 is the singleseason record 23 Site of many Ansel Adams works 25 Online chortle 26 Wide awake 28 Joan __ 32 Aplenty 36 Carmelite, perhaps 38 Muffin topper 39 What the groups of circled letters graphically represent 42 Labyrinth 43 Plop down 44 Legal scholar 45 “Obsessable series” movie channel 47 What “two” meant to Paul Revere 49 Bow __ 51 Billboard charts 56 Tart vodka cocktails 60 Petunia part 61 Greenish blue 62 Use the escalator, about half the time 63 Plant swelling 64 What a stet cancels 65 Alternatively 66 Cheap mags 67 Old jet-set jets 68 Bob or dog attachment 69 Canines, e.g.

DOWN 1 Irrigated grain field

2 Courtroom figure 3 Hippy dances?

4 Italian cookie flavoring 5 Filmmaker Craven 6 Holly Golightly’s creator 7 Place for annual pledging 8 Chaplin of “Game of Thrones” 9 Balloon 10 Elite Eight survivors 11 War god 12 Target of many a New Year’s resolution 13 Poses 21 Floor installers 22 Savior of Scout and Jem, in “To Kill a Mockingbird” 24 Filly, eventually 27 Mild rebuke 29 End of a ball game?

30 Great American Ball Park team 31 COLA component 32 69-Across holders

33 Vet school subj.

34 Joel’s “Cabaret” co-star 35 Hinted-at hidden meanings 37 AFC East team 40 Sis or bro 41 Grade of excellence: Abbr.

46 Cab alternative 48 Opposite of guzzled 50 Cube’s dozen

52 Expectant mom’s words 53 Inscribed pillar 54 Lead on 55 Blockbuster 56 Some TV screens 57 They work better when they focus 58 Dairy Queen order 59 Lucky streak 63 Skillful, facetiously

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THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 5

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

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GUEST COLUMNIST MARY SIEREDZINSKI ’17

STAFF COLUMNIST DOROTHY QU ’19

Standing Up for Change

Ms. Clichéd Asian Woman

Teaching is an often underestimated path to activism.

If your Facebook feed is anything like mine these days, it’s filled with Huffington Post op-eds, pictures of friends posing with their newest protest sign and, scattered in between, the occasional animal gif. But underneath the surface of this social media chaos, I see my friends trying to grapple with the big question of our time: how will our generation create the future we dream of ?

As a soon-to-be graduate, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about my role in shaping our nation’s future — beyond logging into social media or donating a few bucks to the causes that matter to me. Like all of us, I want to enter a field about which I am passionate. After my internships in other fields, I couldn’t kick the feeling that a desk job just wasn’t enough for me. It was that lingering feeling that brought me to education and Teach For America.

It isn’t always obvious how someone like me, a government major, decides to step into a classroom after graduation. I often hear from well-meaning friends, “I didn’t know you wanted to become a teacher.”

If you had asked me a year ago if I would be teaching special education in New York City, I would have said you were crazy.

But from where I sit today, the decision to bring my passion, leadership and energy to a classroom is a no-brainer.

After reflecting on all of my leadership experiences on campus, I realized the thing that makes me tick is people. When trying to match my strengths, experiences and passions to different career fields, I didn’t consider teaching until I met with Anthony, my TFA advisor. After all, we’re not always raised to aspire to be teachers.

Through conversations with my mentors, professors and friends, I realized that it was the best fit for me.

As a Rockefeller Leadership Fellow, member of the track and field team and an executive board member of Alpha Phi sorority, I’ve had the opportunities to make a direct impact in our Dartmouth community. Whether it was organizing charity events or creating inclusivity and diversity panels, I loved knowing that I

was leaving my mark on the campus we call home. Even in the moments when I had dozens of emails to draft, I could be certain that I was living out my values and investing my time in pursuits that mattered. Looking back, it was exactly these experiences that defined my time in college and prepared me to take on the most important leadership position of my life thus far: shaping the next generation from the head of a classroom.

When I think about teaching, I know that the work will not be easy, but leaders are shaped by the challenges they face.

Not only will I be planning lessons and hosting parent-teacher conferences, I’ll be on the front lines of change, tackling the issues impacting our country right now — immigration, voting rights, women’s rights, civil rights.

New York, my soon-to-be home, brings together people of every nationality, race, ethnicity, religion and socioeconomic background imaginable. In many ways, New York is a microcosm of the challenges and opportunities we face as a nation. By giving my students the tools to succeed academically, I’ll also be giving them the tools they need to advocate for their communities and solve the complex problems of our future.

As Dartmouth students, we’re privileged to attend one of the top universities in the country. We’ve achieved something that far too many young people today can only dream of — and that is why teaching is my path to activism.

Today, I’m a soon-to-be Dartmouth alumna. Tomorrow, I’ll be joining the fight for justice. Tomorrow, I’ll become a teacher.

Sieredzinski is a senior and a 2017 Teach For America-New York corps member.

The Dartmouth welcomes guest columns. We request that guest columns be the original work of the submitter.

Submissions may be sent to both opinion@ thedartmouth.com and editor@thedartmouth.com.

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The arts must ditch overplayed tropes in its roles for Asian women.

My spring breaks are notoriously she discovers that he had returned to his uneventful, mainly due to my own lack “real” life. of energy and creativity when it comes And what about the bargirls introduced to planning cheap, fun and short outings. in the first few scenes? They are jealous However, after many days of laying in bed, that the heroine, preferred because of her I was lucky enough to have friends that got purity and docility, is “rescued,” and never tickets for the recently revived Broadway receive the credit they deserve for enduring show, “Miss Saigon.” their own tragedies. The message is simple: I am not well-versed in the art of musicals. only when an Asian woman is submissive is The closest experience I’ve had involving she a hero, “rewarded” with the ability to them is playing for my high school’s pit gallantly sacrifice herself for her son and orchestra and craning my neck to see his father to thrive. what was going on onstage during the final Beyond the play’s obvious Orientalism, rehearsals. Although its misogyny is disturbing I s q u i n t e d t h ro u g h “...you see exaggerated as well. In addition Dartmouth’s production to the tropes about of “Urinetown,” because depictions of the virtues in innocence and my eyesight is poor, I two types of Asian femininity, the heroine thoroughly enjoyed the is overshadowed in the women in popular show. second act by a comical However, nor am I culture: exotic and side-character, her pimp. familiar with women’s, sexual versus shy and His name is the first to be gender and sexuality listed in the playbill, and studies, because I have innocent.” he is the last to enter the yet to take a women’s, stage — to tremendous gender and sexuality studies course. The applause. His relative popularity just shows analysis of this musical may be very how little the writers thought of Asian amateur, but it is truthful and purely women, for the heroine is so poorly written contingent on my honest experiences as that she is essentially a conglomeration of an Asian-American woman. overused stereotypes.

“Miss Saigon,” which is based on the When I discussed this musical with other infamous opera “Madame Butterfly,” left Asian-American women, many had even me feeling uncomfortable, alarmed and stronger reactions. They cited high school confused. If you are not familiar with the productions of “Miss Saigon” with all-white plotline of “Miss Saigon” or “Madame casts, complete with fake tans — to look Butterfly,” I must warn you that I will more “Asian” — and offensive accents. essentially spoil both stories in this piece.

One American friend’s camp produced The first scene of “Miss Saigon” is a “Miss Saigon” because there were enough spectacular number, set in a Saigon brothel Asian campers; these campers were elated during the Vietnam War, with bikini-clad to perform an Asian-centric musical, only bargirls seducing American soldiers. A to realize that the story itself was racist and 17-year-old virgin stands out as the heroine, sexist. and the obvious hero of the story — he is As I watched “Miss Saigon,” I found the tall and white and somewhat denounces actors amazing, the set spectacular and the the aggressive bargirls, so it could not be music fantastic. I watched with wonder as clearer that he is the love interest — falls performers who looked like me, an Asian for her purity and meekness. Immediately, woman, rocked the stage. I felt proud to see you see exaggerated that, but a nasty feeling depictions of the two “It’s time for current still remained after the types of Asian women in curtain fell; there is no popular culture: exotic popular culture to shame in being a sexual and sexual versus shy ditch these racist, bargirl or a timid virgin, and innocent. I initially but neither typecast was outdated tropes and hoped this musical would further developed in shatter these stereotypes create more wellthe story. Bargirls were or at least present the rounded and realistic only ever sexual and women in a realistic and jealous; the heroine was fair way. Instead, both characters — not obsessively dedicated to hopes were shattered. her lover. I cannot recall stereotypes — of The heroine of the one Asian character, story remains subservient Asian women.”

Mulan and Cho Chang and ends her life to give included, who was her son a better life — that is, a life with independent of these stereotypes. It’s time the hero and his new American wife. Her for current popular culture to ditch these independence and bravery in sacrificing racist, outdated tropes and create more herself for her son are, in actuality, poorly well-rounded and realistic characters — not veiled properties of subservience. She is stereotypes — of Asian women. We should never independent, for she lives for the not simply feel grateful that we finally have hero and her son, and, while she is brave, roles to fill in Broadway and beyond or think she is not brave enough to live without the that it is acceptable to be pigeonholed and hero and chooses to commit suicide when rescued by white men. Because it is not.

THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 7

STAFF COLUMNIST IOANA SOLOMON ’19

STAFF COLUMNIST MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN ’18

Dartmouth in Perspective

Liberty and Justice for Some

To catalyze meaningful global change, we first need to expand our frontiers.

The first in the “Liberty Abridged” series on America’s false freedoms.

Before spending the winter term in Paris, spark in any field, is to actually understand everyone I had spoken to who had gone on the world we are trying to change. And that a study abroad program had sworn by the will not happen if we remain complacent life-changing wisdom and experience they with our ignorance and our lack of genuine had gained. I did not believe them. I knew diversity, and if, when confronted with the that, just like most statements by Dartmouth boundaries of our isolated community, we students, those opinions were hyperbolized, do not even try to explore within it. omitting the negatives while exaggerating the Going to a different country, or partaking positives, creating the illusion of satisfaction in Dartmouth-sponsored programs that or happiness despite what exists beneath the often only maintain the socioeconomic and surface. I would not say that I was right, but ethnic stratification of our community, will I was not wrong either. not suffice. Shedding a layer of exclusivity No one who had passionately encouraged or ignorance isn’t like taking off a coat. It me to go abroad ever mentioned the fact that needs to come from within. It needs to involve the first week is a seemingly unending series us making a significant effort to reach out of emotional breakdowns. They didn’t talk to those who are different from us, to try to about the loneliness and fear of being so far stop ourselves from making assumptions or from comfort and familiarity. Neither did they feeding stereotypes and to start having more speak about the moments of embarrassment, genuine conversations with one another. frustration or shock of finding oneself in an Dartmouth often claims that it is trying entirely different society and culture and to diversify its student body and, while that being forced to learn how to belong. is laudable, simply admitting students from Being back on campus, and often more diverse backgrounds isn’t enough. bombarded with We also need to change the same “How was our culture, the space Pa r i s ? ” q u e s t i o n , I “In spite of the those students come to now understand why administration’s inhabit and the way we all those were never the interact with one another. comments I heard from continuing diversity Sure, we can keep patting others about studying initiatives, we are ourselves on the back for abroad. It is because having students from those elements were still a predominantly practically every corner entirely overshadowed white and wealthy of the world, but we by t h e mu ch m o re also need to change the community, where powerful, profound and way we tend to place transformative result of minority students can those students under the experience. the same “minority” easily feel trapped.”

Being forced out of my umbrella despite all comfort zone was not an of their different and inhibition; it was an opportunity. It was a fascinating backgrounds. perfect means to mature, explore and learn. In spite of the administration’s It gave me the ability to better place myself continuing diversity initiatives, we are in a more global context and understand my still a predominantly white and wealthy privilege and the responsibility that comes community, where minority students can with it. And perhaps as an unintended benefit, easily feel trapped. Because of their unique it allowed me to understand more about backgrounds, they often have to bear the what makes our community so exclusive, so burden of representing the experiences and isolated and often so toxic to diversity. struggles of an entire group of people we, Spending 10 weeks in a different country in the majority, assume they are linked to. can hardly be classified as an immersion, And, to avoid isolation or being labeled as but in that short time, I learned several key an “other,” they might hide their cultural lessons. There is an undeniable reciprocal beliefs and practices, their authenticity or relationship between the physical, artistic, their identity, to find a sense of belonging cultural, economic and geopolitical structure in our community. Dartmouth can claim to of a society and the values, beliefs, aesthetics celebrate diversity, but it can also attack it, but most importantly, the communication and we need to keep our eyes open. and interactional mechanisms of the people Participating in one study abroad program in that society. And if there is a striking cannot allow me to claim that I have difference between the United States and completely snapped out of my ignorance another socioeconomically developed, or that I am so much more enlightened western, democratic country such as France, than my peers. But it did force me to realize there is surely an even more drastic gap that I need to keep seeking experiences that between the occidental shell that bounds take me away from comfort, familiarity and most of us and the rest of the world. That complacency. And, as an entire campus, we I could gain so much from communicating need to wake up and start being less fearful with people who are, in the global scheme, of rejection, of admitting how little we know only slightly different from me makes it even and of sacrificing our ignorant bliss for a more necessary to reach further. little more maturity and wisdom. We need to The first thing we all need to do if we want keep widening the cracks in the Dartmouth to use our education to innovate effectively, bubble so that we can see and reach beyond leave our mark somewhere or start a global it.

People in America care — or profess to These missing freedoms are lacking not care — about freedom and personal liberty, because someone said that should be so, perhaps more than any other group of people but because in America, we often think in recorded history. The Declaration of of freedom in ways that lead to logical Independence speaks of “Life, Liberty and conclusions that are at best, perverse, and at the pursuit of Happiness.” The Constitution, worst, dangerous. In her book “The Nordic the fundamental document from which each Theory of Everything,” the Finnish journalist statute and protection in American law Anu Partanen describes the Nordic theory stems and whose tenets it must not violate, of love, which entails a philosophical belief putatively exists to “secure the Blessings of in government’s duty to actively ensure its Liberty.” Political and patriotic rhetoric, citizens’ equal abilities to freely operate in generally purporting to speak for “true” the world. In contrast, much of the American Americans and “true” America, centers on spirit of freedom manifests as, and can trace the freedoms that Make Us Special. United its roots to, a belief in small government and States foreign policy from George F. Kennan bureaucratic non-interference. In a complex to Donald Rumsfeld has held the liberation and ever-changing world, there is ample of oppressed places and people from the evidence that the kinds of freedom intended chains of tyranny into the warm embrace to be enshrined in the Constitution and of capitalism and democracy as its guiding American law are those that the Nordic theory ideal. achieves in comparison to the American one.

We, the People of the United States, are Consider higher education. In the late 18th freedom-obsessed. We live and die by the century, at the drafting of the Declaration of doctrines of opportunity, Independence, education level playing fields and “The language of at an institution of the American dream. higher lear ning was freedom abounds in We see ourselves as the not necessary for the “shining city on the hill,” America, but there is pursuit of a successful exhorting leaders with far less discussion of career. Apprenticeships funny-looking names in abounded. Only faraway lands to “tear what that freedom the wealthy went to down this wall.” We actually means.” u n i ve r s i t y. B e c a u s e use the language of college attendance was markets and competition not common, the absence to defend the free practice of business and of a degree on one’s list of qualifications flow of money. When we stand at a baseball was not a barrier to entry to the job market. game, hands on our hearts, watching the Therefore, the poor could, in those American Marine band on the field and the starred and turns of phrase, “lift themselves up by their striped flags cracking in the wind overhead, bootstraps” and change their station in life. it is not — heaven forbid — propaganda, This is often no longer true. Today, higher but patriotism. education is not only a necessity for any career One might reasonably expect, then, that that could improve one’s socioeconomic consistent American efforts are undertaken standing but also a prohibitively expensive to ensure the freedoms that pervade our one. American answers to this dilemma — rhetoric — and further, that those measures barely answers at all — frequently emphasize are effective. But in many ways, surprisingly, the importance of a free market for education the United States is not free. No, America despite that education’s enormous costs. The does not jail political dissenters. Nor do its Nordic answers, variations on free universal politicians hang on to power indefinitely, public higher education, take root in the idea winning even the sparse, rigged elections that in a society for which a college degree that some leaders around the globe tout as means so much, one is not truly free if by their mandate to govern. We are not Russia, accident of her birth, she cannot afford to China, Turkey or Sudan. But the United attend college.

States does rank 23rd on the Cato Institute’s The language of freedom abounds in 2016 Human Freedom Index. Any freedom America, but there is far less discussion of lacking in this country is lacking only relative what that freedom actually means. We must to the standards for liberty we purport to hold. know, as writer Raymond Carver might Still, our national pride throughout much of say, what we talk about when we talk about the last century was defeating tyranny and liberty. It is not just opportunities to walk toppling dictators — yet we only rank 23rd? and talk or to breathe and eat as we wish Neither are the absent freedoms those that comprise that high-minded American of personal autonomy. Our leaders do not ideal. It is a capacity to flourish; to find set out to overtly restrict our rights. We may opportunity to prosper no matter where or still speak our minds, practice our religions into what circumstances one is born. And the and run our presses. The kinds of freedom lessons of today’s world may well teach us missing in the country once called liberty’s that we’ve been going about securing those “last best hope” are far subtler, and because capacities all wrong. of their subtlety, more pervasive and harder to fix. Their presence is instrumental to the This is the first in “Liberty Abridged,” a series of just operation of nearly every major subset columns by the author about American conceptions of of American sociopolitical life. Where they freedoms and the laws that are purported to advance are absent, that justice suffers. those ideals.

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

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THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2017

Alumna Q&A: television screenwriter Ivy Pruss ’07

By EMMA GUO

The Dartmouth Staff

Ivy Pruss ’07 graduated from Dartmouth with a major in English and completed a creative writing thesis. During her time at the College, Pruss was the editor-in-chief of “Stonefence,” Dartmouth’s literary magazine. After receiving an MFA in writing for screen and television from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, Pruss went on to become a Universal Pictures Emerging Writers Fellow. Most recently, Pruss wrote an episode for the series “Greenleaf,” which will air on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

How did you first get involved in screenwriting, and when did you know that it was something you wanted to pursue?

IP: I took two screenwriting classes at Dartmouth, so I had written one screenplay, and there were some screenwriting contests that I had won when I was at Dartmouth, so I thought maybe I was good at it. But that was

more of a delusion at that point.

I graduated and moved to New York because I needed to get a job, and I worked as a paralegal, and I hated it. I remember one day I accidentally dropped my Blackberry 17 floors down an elevator shaft, thinking “Did I do that on purpose?” And I thought subconsciously I probably did. I just didn’t want to be a lawyer or anything like that.

I still didn’t know what to do, and I moved back home to Las Vegas and was a cocktail waitress. I was really depressed, and I just thought maybe I should apply to grad schools, and then thought maybe I should apply to USC film school for screenwriting. It was sort of a whim, and I remember it was Dec. 10, and I looked on the website and the application was due that day. And I wrote all these essays that you had to write and submitted them an hour before the deadline. Then I saw that you had to have taken the GRE and sent in your transcript, so I thought I would just apply next year. Then I got lucky because the department was moving offices, and they thought they just lost

half of my application. They really liked my writing samples, so I ended up getting into USC screenwriting program anyways by crazy luck. So I moved out to Los Angeles and did my MFA in screenwriting, then took an extra year of production classes.

After that, you don’t really get to start writing right away unless you’re really lucky, so I knew I had to work, which turned out to be a good thing.

I got some writers’ assistant jobs on a pilot that didn’t go anywhere, and I got a director’s assistant job on a show called “Wilfred,” which has Elijah Wood and a talking dog. I would get up at four in the morning and write, then go to work at six until seven or eight at night. Every day I would write for an hour or two each morning. I just thought that if I really wanted to be a writer, I’ll get up and do that. While I was working that job, I was applying for writing fellowships because the show was in the last season. I sent NBC a feature piece that I wrote for their fellowship for feature writing. They told me I would have to submit another feature if I made it to the second round.

I thought I didn’t have a chance, but I

ended up getting into the next round, and they told me I would need a second one in three weeks, which I didn’t have.

I was house-sitting for the director of “Wilfred,” and it was Christmas, and my family came to visit me while I was frantically working on my screenplay, but I got it in and won the fellowship.

So I got an office at Universal, and I got paid, and I got to write a movie for them. They auctioned some of my scripts, and it was really great because I got an agent. It was really how I got a start in the business.

How do you feel that your time at Dartmouth has shaped your experiences in the world, whether it be the entertainment business or everyday life?

IP: One thing about Dartmouth that I think is special is that I feel like, compared to other schools, Dartmouth is more about being social and having a community. I think that’s good ground coming into the film industry, where everything you do is about who your friends are and what relationships you build. And that you’re not only good

at what you do, but you’re good to work with. Having relationships in life outside of work is something I feel like I learned to value and cultivate and balance, too. I think I have a happier life now because I know that people are important.

What advice do you have for those trying to break into the entertainment business as writers?

IP: It depends on who the person is because no two people’s paths are going to be the same. That’s something to know if you want to do it — you have to make your own way, and your path is going to be unique to you. It’s also good if you’re willing to work and not just as a writer. You should be willing to be an assistant and make time for writing. Don’t think anything is beneath you because it’s not. Everyone can be a writer eventually. They just have to work for it. Be humble, and be willing to work really hard.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Drake’s ‘More Life’ boasts new sound, lacks originality

By JACOB MEISTER The Dartmouth

“More Life. More time with family and friends. More Life. I’ve still got vibrations to send. More Life.”

So begins the editor’s note of international singer and rapper Drake’s fifth studio project, “More Life.” The cryptic phrase that titles the project originates from Jamaican slang, reflecting Drake’s recent turn toward international sounds, such as Afro-rhythm and dancehall music.

“More Life” means, at its most basic level, to wish someone well.

The message, like much of Drake’s music, may strike listeners as vaguely pretentious and soft in comparison with other hip-hop artists, but nevertheless overwhelmingly positive and palatable. Drake has always been a master of maneuvering the thin, shaky tightrope between the sounds of soulful R&B, frat-house pop and traditional hip-hop. “More Life” is no exception, and it is undeniably more eclectic than any of Drake’s other projects to date.

But the wide range of sounds, focuses and featured artists should come as no surprise. The project,

released March 18, was marketed not as an album or mixtape but rather as a playlist. This semantic adjustment served the purpose of justifying the project’s unconventional format.

Clocking in at over 80 minutes and 22 songs in length, “More Life” is too long and rambling to maintain the constant theme, tone or narrative characteristic of a traditional album.

The tracks vary significantly in focus and sound, with some songs completely void of Drake’s presence on the artist’s own project. By calling “More Life” a playlist, Drake attempts to forego the music industry’s norms surrounding what a project should be and what a project should not be. In my mind, this move can be seen as a reflection of Chance the Rapper’s recent success in eschewing industry rules, specifically his recent Grammy wins in the aftermath of his campaign to legitimize free music and avoid music labels.

There is nothing wrong with attempting to alter the format or structure of a medium. However, such attempts to dramatically change a norm prompt questions of purpose.

In the case of Chance, the motivation and intention was clear. The young

artist wanted to make his music more easily available, and he wanted to avoid the bureaucracy and middlemen that come with being signed to a label. Chance’s decision to release music for free online in the form of mixtapes makes sense within the context of these motivations.

Critics must ask the same questions for Drake. What is he trying to do when he disregards the format of a normal album? Why does this project need to be 22 songs long? Why not make it more concise and thematically constant?

The most apparent reason for Drake’s decision appears to be his desire to showcase the talents of other artists through his mainstream platform. The playlist is saturated with artists who are not Drake, and this approach is not without drawbacks.

Often, these new artists seem to outshine Drake on his own project, which provides a reason for him to call the project a playlist, because it implies collaboration rather than creative sovereignty. These artists, who include singers and rappers like Skepta, Sampha and Jorja Smith, are lyrical, musical and clearly deserving of the mainstream exposure they

will undoubtedly receive from a solo interlude on a Drake project.

The playlist also introduces American listeners to international producers and DJs who effortlessly mix dreamy dancehall beats with the samples ranging from ’70s Motown to ’90s pop to epic video game soundtracks. One such example is Nana Rogues from the U.K. He produced two tracks on “More Life,” the surreal “Passionfruit” as well as the self-titled trap interlude for fellow U.K. grime artist, Skepta.

Rogues and Skepta represent a burgeoning U.K. rap scene that is mixing internationally with many popular American artists. The trend toward internationality in musicians can also be seen in the work of South African DJ Black Coffee on the song “Get It Together,” which features the beat from his song, “Superman.”

The beat is descendant from the sounds of ska, calypso and reggae, like much of Drake’s recent work, which occasionally seems to attempt to find new sounds by reimagining the techniques of previous generations.

The trends toward the Caribbean and African roots of hip-hop in Drake’s music parallel a similar

development occurring for other modern hip-hop artists. Much of Kendrick Lamar’s recent music has relied heavily on jazz and funk artists to provide complex instrumental beats. Chance and Kanye West returned to the roots of soul music for each of their latest albums, “Coloring Book” and “The Life of Pablo,” respectively.

My major problem with Drake in this regard is his return to the musical roots of a genre without providing the lyrical ability to match the originality of the instrumentals and the beats.

“More Life” is just the same old moody Drake. He’s whining about some ex-girlfriend, either Rihanna or Nicki Minaj. He’s taking shots at some rapper for no apparent reason, either Meek Mill or Tory Lanez. He’s reflecting on being sad and alone and growing older, but with none of the storytelling ability of Lamar, J. Cole or other, more talented artists. For this reason, I think “More Life” is a cop out. It’s nice to listen to, nice to dance to, but I find myself doubting whether I would call it art. It’s not coherent, it’s not concise and it’s hard to call it Drake’s own project. It’s just a playlist.