VOL. CLXXIV NO.52
RAIN/SNOW HIGH 37 LOW 36
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2017
College sees 10.4 percent admission rate despite decrease in applications
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Joshua Monette ’19 reported missing By THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
OPINION
SOLOMON: SELLING OUT SHOPPING PERIOD? PAGE 4
GHAVRI: AN AMERICAN LABOR PARTY PAGE 4
ARTS
ALUMNI Q&A: WRITER SETH SWIRSKY ’82 PAGE 7
READ US ON
DARTBEAT 50 WINTER TERMS DISGRACEFUL: CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC FOLLOW US ON
TWITTER @thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2017 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.
LAUREN KIM/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
This year, the College saw its lowest admissions rate since 2013 at 10.4 percent.
By JOYCE LEE The Dartmouth Staff
Out of a pool of 20,034 applications, 2,092 students were offered admission to the Class of 2021 last week. The acceptance rate was 10.4 percent, the lowest since 2013. Director of admissions Paul Sunde said that academically, the class’ ability is demonstrated in
the numbers, but there are other parts of their candidacy that cannot be easily summarized in statistics. These accepted students in the regular decision round will comprise about 53 percent of the Class of 2021, with the 555 accepted students from the early decision round comprising 47 percent. This high percentage of
the class comprised of early decision students could raise yield rates, which reached a record high for the Class of 2018 at 54.5 percent and was 50.4 percent for the Class of 2019 and 53.1 percent for the Class of 2020. Of acce pted students attending high schools that rank GPA, 96 percent are expected to graduate in the top 10 percent of their SEE ADMISSIONS PAGE 3
Joshua Monette ’19 was reported missing on Sunday from Cape Flattery in Washington, senior associate dean of student affairs Liz Agosto confirmed. The U.S. Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound and the Neah Bay Fire Department both began searches for him on Sunday. The Coast Guard suspended its search shortly before 10 a.m. PST on Monday, according to U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson Jonathan Klingenberg. He noted that many factors go into the decision to suspend a search and the “survivability window” varies based on time, weather and temperature. The Neah Bay Fire Department’s search is still ongoing as of 9 p.m. Monday evening, according to dispatcher Neil Braven. According to a U.S. Coast Guard press release, the Neah Bay Fire Department received a call that a man had been swept from the rocks near the Hole in Wall cove in Cape Flattery on Sunday and reported the incident to the Coast Guard. Agosto said a family member of Monette notified the College that Monette was missing and that an open search had begun. In a statement provided to The Dartmouth, Dean of the College Rebecca Biron wrote that the College is awaiting additional news and is reaching out to friends of Monette to provide support. Monette is a member of the Native American community at the College. Interim director of the Native American Program Kianna Burke said that the program is offering its lounge in Robinson Hall 204 as a support space for its students. Students, faculty and staff can contact Safety and Security at (603) 646-4000 if they would like to speak to a counselor. Counseling staff at Dick’s House are available during regular business hours at (603) 646-9442, and the counselor on-call can be contacted in the evening at (603) 626-9440 or through Safety and Security. Individuals can also reach out to undergraduate deans, residential staff and house professors, undergraduate advisors and Tucker Center staff and religious leaders for support and counsel.
Science Day brings CPD hosts spring career fair students to campus By FRANCIS COHEN
The Dartmouth Staff
By MIKA JEHOON LEE The Dartmouth Staff
Students from local schools with an interest in science read weather maps, planted seedlings and examined sheep brain specimens at the fifth annual Science Day held this past Saturday, April 1 at various labs on campus. According to fourth-
year biochemistry graduate student and Science Day coorganizer Jessica DeSimone, this year’s attendance was the highest since its launch in 2013. A total of 171 adults accompanied 231 students at the event this year. DeSimone said that close to 200 adults and 300 students RSVP’d for the event, but inclement SEE SCIENCE PAGE 3
With students starting to think about their career paths for this coming summer and the ter ms to follow, the Center for Professional Development will host its first spring employer connections fair today from noon to 4 p.m. at the Hopkins Center for the arts. Although the event occurs every fall, this is the first time the
CPD will also host the fair in the spring. The event will feature 44 companies and organizations offering both entry-level job and internship opportunities. A wide variety of companies are represented at the fair, including consulting firm Oliver Wyman , software d eve l o p e r B l ack Du ck , finance company Goldman Sachs and non-for-profit org anization Teach for America. Ju n e K i m ’ 2 0 s a i d
that although he is glad to see a wide range of finance and consulting firms, he would like to see more technology-focused companies in attendance. Leo Lei ’20 expressed a similar sentiment, saying that there seemed to be a disproportionally large number of financial services companies. The fair is open to undergraduate and graduate SEE CPD PAGE 5
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
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Swipes for Hunger donates meal swipes
executive director Gabe Zoerheide said that the drive supports foodThe Dartmouth Staff insecure and low-income residents Last term, Dartmouth student of the Upper Valley. group Growing Change raised $4,350 “It’s a great way for students to give in conjunction with the Upper Valley back to the community,” Zoerheide community service organization added. Willing Hands during its termly Sidder said that Swipes for Hunger donation drive. During lunch and originally started back in 2012 after dinner hours on March 1, students an organization named Students could donate meal swipes and DBA Fighting Hunger joined with Willing to contribute towards the drive and Hands and Dartmouth Dining assist Upper Valley residents in need. Services to create the program. After Growing Change will be holding the members of this organization another drive toward the end of the graduated, however, the program spring term. remained inactive Growing for several terms C h a n g e “At the end of [the] before Growing s t u d e n t term, if students Change joined director with DDS to restart M a d d i e do have this extra the project during Koehler ’17 money or just want spring of 2016. stressed the Before Growing to contribute to the importance Change took over and impact cause, it’s so important t h e p r o g r a m , of s u c h to do so. It really does students usually donations, raised an average even minimal impact people.” of around $1,000 ones. per term, with the “At the end lowest donation -MADDIE KOEHLER ’17 of [the] term, total of $340 if students do occurring during have this extra spring 2014 money or just and the highest want to contribute to the cause, it’s so donation total of $2,500 in important to do so,” Koehler said. “It winter 2014, according to Sidder. really does impact people. Even just Growing Change’s first ter m a dollar goes a long way.” spearheading the project in spring The amount of money raised 2016 saw students donating around surpassed the highest termly total $2,300, while fall 2016 also saw that Growing Change has recorded donations in excess of $2,000. since the program’s inception in 2012, Growing Change member Jin according to Dartmouth Center for Shin ’17, who originally joined the Service program coordinator Daniel organization during her freshman Sidder. Since the beginning of the year because she wanted to be academic school year, Growing involved in community service, Change has raised over $6,500, Sidder said it was a very satisfying feeling said. to have raised nearly double the Sidder attributed this rise in amount of the highest termly total donations to increased awareness of to date. She said she is excited that the program among students, as well students are becoming more aware as more frequent opportunities for of the program and its goals. students to donate throughout the day. “It helps raise awareness for the “I think the students really did Upper Valley communities,” Shin a great job getting the word out, said. “I love that it’s caught on and collaborating with a couple of that it’s our most successful term different student organizations and yet because that means that our getting some of the posters and signs message is getting out there.” up earlier,” Sidder said. “I think that In addition to organizing a having the multiple time slots where Swipes for Hunger campaign once people could donate really helped a term, Growing Change also out.” assists in mentoring fourth-grade Koehler said that Willing Hands students on the environmental uses the donations to purchase and impacts of scientific processes, deliver fresh produce to non-profit which covers a wide breadth of organizations, food pantries and topics that includes the water cycle subsidized housing communities, and its impact on farming, among among other places. Willing Hands others.
By ANTHONY ROBLES
CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com.
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2017
Q&A with professor Brett Gamboa that there wasn’t formally a theatre department there, but there were many interesting theatre artists. And so I was able to go there and write Shakespeare performance and do the things I am interested in as a director and scholar.
assignments where students study and appropriate playwrights The Dartmouth Staff tactics. In “Moder n British In both his teaching and his Drama,” students study things they research, English and theatre especially like and what is effective professor Brett Gamboa focuses for given playwrights. They take mainly on the perfor mance five or six of these techniques and aspect of Shakespeare’s plays, put them in their play of their encouraging students to act out the W hat have you taught at own desire. I try to take some of plays and even write their own. He Dartmouth? the stress off the need to create or studied English at the University of BG: I teach drama on the long originate, to be a good playwright California, Berkeley and has been continuum, some modern drama, or a good actor. I am more focused a freelance theatre director since Shakespeare, other plays and other on the tools they can seize to make 2001. He came to Dartmouth in c o u r s e s i n a i t les s ab o u t 2010 after finishing his Ph.D. at collective range a particular “My favorite of the Harvard University. His essays of courses. I talent or and reviews on Shakespeare and t a u g h t a plays is called ‘The experience with other dramatists appear in several writing seminar Winter’s Tale’ because something like journals and books, including about art and this. S h a k e s p e a r e B u l l e t i n a n d l i t e r a t u r e , I think it is the bravest SHAW: The Journal of Bernard w h e r e w e writing Shakespeare W h a t Shaw Studies, and he recently w r o t e a b o u t Shakespeare or anyone I know has published performance-oriented performances, p l a y s ke e p introductions and commentaries m u s i c , ever done.” you surprised for the 40 plays collected in “The paintings in the and engaged? Norton Shakespeare.” His first Hood museum, Which do you book, “Shakespeare’s Double poems, plays. I -BRETT GAMBOA, find the most Plays,” is expected to be published taught a course ENGLISH AND THEATRE fascinating? in 2017. on “The Wire,” BG: “Hamlet” PROFESSOR the HBO series, still fascinates Tell me about your background a n d some me. My favorite — what got you into the contemporary of the plays is subject of Shakespeare? film and TV. called “The BG: I grew up in Los Angeles. I Right now I have Winter’s Tale” wasn’t particularly academically a Shakespeare because I inclined, meaning I was not the a d a p t a t i o n s think it is the type of student that arrived at class with films bravest writing Dartmouth as an undergraduate. of Shakespeare. More often than Shakespeare or anyone I know But after high school I got interested anything else I teach modern drama has ever done. He is willing to in school again, and I got into and Shakespeare. My background deprive the audience of what they music performance and plays and in splitting between the English came for. He is willing to spend surrounded a n d t h e a t r e 2.5 hours leading up to something m y s e l f “The nice thing d e p a r t m e n t s and then bring three people that around a lot means m y you never met on stage to say, of artists. I about Shakespeare courses tend to “Did you see what happens?” got more into to me is that he involve creative Shakespeare is willing to take those lyricism and endeavor s with kinds of chances and encourage had a performative poetry and performing scenes, or facilitate disappointment in went back to dimension.” m e m o r i z i n g order to raise the stakes of when college on a a n d d e l i ve r i n g he does deliver something that lark to study s p e e c h e s a n d was unexpected and even better lyricism. This -BRETT GAMBOA, w r i t i n g s c e n e s, than what we missed in a play led to studying ENGLISH AND THEATRE acts, plays. I taught like that. The great tragedies poetry more a course called are also great for a reason, and PROFESSOR formally and “ S h a k e s p e a r e not always the tragedy on stage, eventually in the Theatre” but the sense of tragedy that is m o d e r n where we did not initiated in within us. That is the p o e t r y one, but two plays, writing I do about in both tragedies and then I “The Merchant and what we call “problem gravitated of Venice” and comedies,” like “All’s Well That back into the “Pericles.” The Ends Well” and “The Merchant of Renaissance s t u d e n t s b ro k e Venice.” While I have my favorites, a n d up into two casts, everybody does, I did something Shakespeare. and it was more that is rare in Shakespeare studies The nice thing about Shakespeare popular and far more work than and scholarship, which is to to me is that he had a performative I expected because of the decision write about all 40 plays. The dimension. Making music, plays to stage two plays. I was trying to “Norton Shakespeare” recently and participating in collaboratives privilege students’ experiences, published 40 plays they attribute with other artists allowed me to making sure they had good to Shakespeare, and I wrote put on some of Shakespeare’s roles rather than marginalizing performance-oriented intros for plays. When I went to graduate some students participating. In all 40 of these. They gave me a school it was a tough choice my classes students are thinking chance to hold forth on what I because I considered theatre about language, poetry, critical think is most interesting for a group conservatories, film programs and history and performance history, of actors and directors when they English departments. Part of the learning on their feet with speeches reason that I went to Harvard is and interacting. I assign creative
By SUNPREET SINGH
SEE GAMBOA PAGE 5
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2017
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For Class of 2021, 255 international Students play games and students offered admission learn on Science Day FROM ADMISSIONS PAGE 1
class. Five hundred and forty-seven accepted students are valedictorian or salutatorian of their high school class, a record for the College and a 25 percent increase from the Class of 2020. Accepted students’ mean SAT score of 1495 increased 19 points over the Class of 2020, another record. “[The class is] extraordinarily t a l e n t e d a c a d e m i c a l l y, a n d also extraordinarily diverse, particularly in geographic diversity, socioeconomic diversity and cultural diversity, which is often linked with geography, of course,” Sunde said. “[There are] a lot of international students, which shows a big strength and diversity.” The Class of 2021 will also have an all-time high percentage of international students, with 255 students from 63 foreign countries, a 38 percent increase from the accepted students in the Class of 2020. This is the second year that i n ter n ati o n al s tu d ents were considered under a “need aware” policy, meaning that the financial need of international applicants was also taken into account. The admissions office had been needblind for international students from the Class of 2012 through the Class of 2019. The College is need-blind for U.S. students. “[International student numbers a re ] s o m e t h i n g we ’ve b e e n thinking about from a recruitment standpoint,” Sunde said. “We have been increasing our recruitment activities of students abroad, have seen that in the pool, and then with the selection process, and now with the admitted students.” Sunde said that there is a robust representation of students who are getting scholarship aid, with almost half of the accepted foreign students being offered need-based financial aid.
Students of color from the U.S. represent 51 percent of accepted students, compared to 51.6 of accepted students from the Class of 2020, which was the most racially diverse class in the College’s history. Of the accepted students, nine percent have one or more parents who were an undergraduate at Dartmouth while 15 percent are first-generation college students. Ten percent are recruited athletes, which is equivalent to last year’s percentage of recruited athletes in the Class of 2020. The average need-based grant for this year’s accepted students is $46,237, with 63 percent of accepted students applying for need-based financial aid. The College expects to offer more than $27 million in scholarships for the Class of 2021. The College’s application changed this year with the addition of new supplemental essay prompts that included, “‘Oh, The Places You’ll Go’ is one of the most popular books by ‘Dr. Seuss,’ Dartmouth Class of 1925. Where do you hope to go? What aspects of Dartmouth’s curriculum or community might help you get there?” and “‘It’s not easy being green’ was a frequent lament of Kermit the Frog. Discuss.” Sunde said that the essays invite more reflection on the part of the applicant and gives them the opportunity to share more with admissions, providing insights into candidates that they might not have gotten otherwise. “When I applied to undergrad, I did have fun with the essay questions, but when I applied to graduate school, I thought, ‘They’re really making me think,’” he said. “I enjoyed that process of introspection that it led me to, and I feel like our essay questions are doing something similar with our applicants. They’re really making you think about Dartmouth, and what you value, why and what you’re going to do
BREWS CREWS
TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Students line up for Microbrew Monday in One Wheelock.
about that or what you have done about that.” Claire Campbell, an accepted student from New Canaan, Connecticut, said that she thought that the supplements were fun to answer. She said that she answered the “Oh, The Places You’ll Go” and “Kermit the Frog” supplements by discussing her hope to get a psychology degree and go out into the world to help others. She also discussed how it is not easy to be different, but those differences make you an all-around better person. Campbell said that compared to her high school, she hopes her experience at Dartmouth will be less stressful and she will be able to enjoy learning instead of considering it a chore. Madison Hwang, an accepted student from Dallas, Texas, said that she was especially excited to be accepted because, as a studentathlete, she had an incident with another college that did not provide an offer in writing and switched their position on her acceptance. “Having it in writing and signed by the dean gave me security and made me feel that I was going to college, and they couldn’t revoke anything,” Hwang said. “I had an emotional reaction of relief and happiness and felt like a weight was off my shoulders.” Hwang hopes to study medicine and said that she was struck by the traditions at the College and the balance of academics and athletics. She was also interested in the flexible study plans and how there is not one road for students to pursue their academic interests. “The biggest appeal was the people,” Hwang said. “I visited Columbia [University] before Dartmouth, and I knew how prestigious [Columbia] was and I had a high bar before visiting, but at Dartmouth, the people were so amazing and supportive, and had a genuine passion for the school and for each other.” Hwang said she felt that she connected with the essay questions in the application because they meant a lot to her, were personal and seemed to help the admission officers see who she was through the prompts. Sunde said this year’s candidates did well with the supplemental questions and that the change will continue next year, with future classes building on the qualities of the ’21s. “We’re going to enroll this incredible class that will have a great introduction to Dartmouth when they get here, and they will tell their friends,” Sunde said.
this year than in years past. Adam Cooper spoke highly of the weather may have accounted for the benefit of such an event for students in gap between expected and actual exposing them to subjects they might study or pursue in the future. attendance. Science Day is a free, drop- “The exposure for our kids to see in event that features 15-minute what interests they may or may not long scientific demonstrations and have, to be able to see what they might hands-on activities geared toward want to do when they grow up and students in sixth to ninth grade. what they might not want to do when According to DeSimone, Science they grow up, [is] just a lot of good Day was created to educate local exposure to what their future might community members about science be,” Adam Cooper said. and foster students’ passion for Meanwhile, in the “soil and the the subject. DeSimone said that world beneath our feet” station, Science Day was hosted by the group volunteers including ecology, Graduate Women in Science and evolution, ecosystems and society Engineering over the past few years, graduate student Ashley Lang Gr’20 but this year it was independently helped kids learn about mycorrhizal organized by DeSimone, sixth-year fungi and fossils. Lang said she wanted biochemistry student Kelly Salmon to introduce students to mycorrhizae, and second-year biochemistry student which grow in symbiotic relationships with plants, Sarah Valles due to because it leadership changes is poorly in the group. They “[Science Day] is understood received funding something for the a n d m a ny for this year’s event kids fo enlighten people are from the School unaware of of Graduate and their minds, learn its existence. Advanced Studies. In something new and Local addition to the three elementary organizers, around not play video games.” school student 60 graduate students Nicholas from eight different -JAG OLMSTEAD, FATHER Champine departments said that including biology, OF A SCIENCE DAY he enjoyed c h e m i s t r y a n d PARTICIPANT participating psychology i n L a n g ’s prepared 11 total station and activity stations for appreciated the event this year. In the “under the microscope” learning about fungi’s influence on station, students watched worms plant growth. and flies glow under microscopes. Local elementary school student According to third-year cellular and Charleigh Olmstead said that he molecular biology graduate student specifically enjoyed playing the game Timothy Gauvin, a volunteer at the Jet Stream Racer in the “flowing station, worms and flies provide a rivers of air” station. According simple system for studying various to earth science graduate student human diseases, because the three Huanping Huang, the game allows species share a lot of similarities. students to become pilots and learn Gauvin added that his love for more about jet streams and gas. Jag microscopes got him interested in Olmstead, Charleigh’s father, said that science and that he hoped students’ Science Day provided an opportunity exposure to the activity would inspire of intellectual engagement for his children, as opposed to more typical their passion for science. “I thought it was cool to look at recreational activities. human cells under [microscopes] and “[Science Day] is something for as I investigated further, there was a the kids to enlighten their minds, learn lot of cool stuff you could do with something new and not play video this,” Gauvin said. “I’m hoping kids games,” Jag Olmstead said. of various ages can see that we have Rong Ding, whose elementary school-aged son participated in the a lot of cool tricks.” Local middle school student Hope flowing rivers of air station, said that Cooper, who visited the “under the the event provided his son with a microscope” station, said that she unique opportunity to witness and enjoyed looking at worms under participate in scientific experiments, the microscope and learning about which is not an everyday occurrence. how worms hatch. Both Cooper and Science Day attendees were also her father Adam Cooper attended given tours of the Thayer School Science Day two years ago and said of Engineering, where they visited that there were more microscopes and the school’s laboratories and made opportunities for students to use them “flubber,” a rubbery polymer. FROM SCIENCE PAGE 1
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2017
THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
PAGE 4
STAFF COLUMNIST IOANA SOLOMON ’19
STAFF COLUMNIST ANMOL GHAVRI ’18
Selling out Shopping Period?
An American Labor Party
A shopping period does not fit with Dartmouth’s liberal arts mission. Believe it or not, it is already week two. We trudged through a snowstorm for April Fools’ Day, forced our livers back into full gear over the weekend and wound up again with dark circles underneath our eyes again. Things are starting to get serious – as we finally settle into our classes, we now have to catch up on our readings, pay attention to our professors and start working for the midterms and assignments coming up. This stressful consciousness of our impending workload could not be more different from the cushy, carefree first week most of us experienced as we “shopped” for classes but didn’t necessarily do work for them. The concept of trying out a class before deciding to permanently enroll in it is fairly widespread, especially at Ivy League universities. It allows students to get an inside perspective into the ambience of a certain class and the pedagogic style of the professor, both important elements of the academic experience that cannot be inferred simply from online ratings and course descriptions. However, at Dartmouth in particular, a “shopping period” at the beginning of each term poses unique challenges. As a quarter system school, our terms only last 10 weeks, not four to five months. We also take an average of three classes each term instead of the five or six classes that students at semester system schools take. Thus, while students at most universities with one-week shopping periods sacrifice two weeks a year, we sacrifice four. Students who decide to change classes at the end of the first week are therefore losing 10 percent of each term and must enter the class after the professor has already covered a fair amount of material. Whereas a term at most universities is a marathon, our terms are sprints; instead of warming up for the race, the average Dartmouth student spends the minutes leading up to it slowly picking up gear. Adding on to this is the fact that shopping period is not officially endorsed by the College, which leads to a disorienting lack of uniform policy or agreement for students and professors. Without a consistent set of guidelines, different professors teaching the same course accelerate through the curriculum at different speeds during the first week. With unexpected changes in enrollment, it is difficult both for professors to plan out their course schedule and for students switching classes to gauge exactly how they will be impacted.
On an even more fundamental level, shopping period is a symptom of the commodification of higher education, an increasingly pervasive trend that clashes directly with the liberal arts model and agenda. In addition to the Dartmouth-specific pitfalls of a shopping period, the concept itself has problematic implications. By shopping for classes, we are treating them as products we are buying and potentially returning or exchanging. Admittedly, our education’s exorbitant price tag pushes us to seek only the courses we perceive as giving us the best deal for our money. However, whether we see a class as an easy GPA booster or one that is taught by a renowned professor or seems interesting at first as “a good deal,” we are bound to make those judgments prematurely. And when we fall prey to herd mentality by choosing courses with high enrollment numbers instead of those that are a better fit to our personal interests or when we drop courses that seem to have too heavy of a workload for only the first week, we contribute to a culture that moves away from individualism and self-imposed challenge and moves toward an overtly capitalistic pragmatism. These decisions, all based on superficial and impulsive judgments we make during shopping period, go against the values and objectives of a liberal arts education. Consequently, by thinking of the education we receive as a series of products, we are also more likely to apply this mentality to other aspects of our education, such as the worth of our degrees or the practical value of the skills gained from each class or subject matter. Training ourselves to make spur-of-the-moment decisions based on limited information instead of taking time to judge everything thoughtfully can be a detrimental practice for the rest of our educational experience. Allowing students to try out classes can sometimes help them make better decisions and perhaps even perform better as a result of those decisions, but in the grand scheme of things, the notion of a shopping period is problematic and incompatible with Dartmouth’s long-established principles of a well-rounded liberal arts education. Whether the solution is shortening shopping period to mitigate its impact or having the administration set up actual guidelines to standardize it, our first step is to acknowledge its drawbacks.
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ISSUE
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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.
The United States needs a democratic socialist movement.
Last year’s Presidential election brought out the fundamental flaws in America’s two-party system. Establishment Democrats and Republicans alike were seen as being status-quo and in bed with big business, Wall Street and the military-industrial complex. The success and popularity of populist insurgent presidential candidates, including now-President Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), was largely an effect of their loud antagonism toward the Washington establishment, corruption and big money. A draining of new wealth by American high-finance and the effects of globalization and outsourcing have led to economic decline and stagnancy in suburban and rural locales and former manufacturing centers. This, coupled with perpetual military involvement overseas, makes last year’s anger directed toward candidates seen as establishment, inauthentic, elitist, status-quo and corporatist sensible in hindsight. Moving forward, the United States needs a labor movement — whether from within or without the current twoparty system — to lead the country. Trump voters, the ailing middle class, labor unions, marginalized ethnic, racial and religious minorities, believers in tradition and those who fight for social change should all unite behind a unifying bottom-up message of economic and social justice rather than only engaging politically every four years during presidential elections. To be clear, I am not advocating running candidates for office on third party tickets — at least not for a very long time. I am calling for a labor-oriented social democratic movement to contest primary elections at the local, state and national levels and change the American political conversation. Any organization, party or caucus that would emerge out of this movement must guarantee that its candidates will not accept corporate money and be member-controlled without “super delegates” and party insiders. This could appeal to conservatives in the vein of President Dwight D. Eisenhower while capturing the new social democrats inspired by Sanders. These candidates should at first focus on local, state and congressional primaries and elections in midterms rather than solely presidential elections. Americans cannot have atrocious voter turnout levels in midterm elections and then be outraged at the results. We saw the success of Sanders’ campaign, and enough conservatives were angry with the status quo as well to vote for a chauvinistic reality television star. If change-seeking, pro-labor candidates can be united with fed-up Trump voters in a productive way to defeat establishment candidates, it could be a victory for the “everyvoter.” While Trump may not be genuinely antiestablishment, much of his rhetoric is, and a labor movement would serve his voters effectively. Trump’s proposed budget would do much to hurt Americans, but that may not be what his voters wanted. The Trump administration proposes to slash about 31 percent of the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget, 21 percent from the Labor Department, 21 percent from the Agriculture Department, 16 percent from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and 14 and 13 from the departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development, respectively. Moreover, Trump’s budget eliminates or vastly reduces funding for research, education, development and infrastructure programs, which heavily benefit struggling communities. Programs that will be completely federally defunded or cut by
the elitist-packed Trump administration include the Corporation for National Community Service, NeighborWorks America, the National Endowments for the Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund shows such as NPR. While all of these cuts are being planned — many of them are relatively small when compared to the budget as a whole, the White House is planning to increase military spending by $54 billion — a 10 percent rise. The United States is still the only industrialized country in the world not to guarantee universal healthcare to every citizen, yet it spends more on its military and forward deployed neocolonial military bases than the next seven countries combined. This comes at a time where we plan to build a symbolic $22 billion border wall with Mexico while the vast majority of our immigration problems do not arise from the Mexican border. This comes at a time when our roads and bridges are in disrepair while we spend millions of dollars on security for Mar-a-Lago retreats. Trump campaigned on putting “America First,” but his budget proposal priorities clearly show he has other priorities. “America First” does not have to be a fascist-esque slogan for the alt-right or white nationalists. Trump’s populist insurgency can be co-opted by an inclusive, social democratic message and bottom-up labor movement, but it is not in his hands. Eisenhower, in his Chance for Peace speech in 1953, declared that, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” He added, “The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.” He went on, listing innumerable examples. Eisenhower’s message rings true to this day, and his premonitions about the military-industrial complex proved to be correct. It is laughable that any party that seeks to continue to deny universal health care for all citizens and wishes to spend more on the country’s military than the next seven countries combined can claim to be for the “little man,” working people, immigrants or minority groups. It is laughable that any party that redraws congressional districts to ensure their own victories or supports the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling can claim to have any moral high ground or be pro-American. Progressivism and liberalism are not the property of the Democratic Party, just as conservatism and tradition are not owned by the Republican Party. Successful social movements come from the bottom-up. I would wager that the majority of Trump voters and the majority of Democratic voters share similar concerns about the financialization and oligarchization of our economy, gerrymandering and career politicians. As a first-generation American and a person of color, I feel incredibly let down by both parties at all levels. Real change is not benevolently granted by those in power, it is always the result of agitation and bottom-up movements consisting of coalitions of labor unions and working people, women, immigrants, racial, ethnic and religious minorities. In one form or another, the U.S. needs a corporate-free political movement organized by the masses working from both within and without the two-party system. It is time for the U.S. to have a real, inclusive democratic socialist and labor movement devoid of the fear of spoiling elections.
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2017
CPD hosts first spring career fair
just come to your table and say, ‘so what do you do?’” students, and all are encouraged Manager of university relations to attend. For the freshmen and and partnerships at investment sophomores, it is an opportunity management company Vanguard to gain exposure to employers and Group Karen Fox also said she is companies that historically hire most impressed by students who Dartmouth students. For juniors demonstrate a familiarity with and seniors, the fair is a means of the company and have done some connecting directly with employers preliminary research. offering summer internships and Lei said he sees the fair as a chance to generally network and entry-level job opportunities. Senior associate director of learn about the opportunities that employer relations Monica Wilson exist. Yi Fei Yan ’20 agreed that said she expects a higher turnout of he does not expect to find concrete freshmen and sophomore students job opportunities as a freshman bu t i n s t e a d at the spring fair hopes the fair compared to the “I like to hear from a will be a good tur nout from networking the fall fair but student what they are event. f e w e r j u n i o r s studying, maybe what F o x a n d s e n i o r s they are interested said she sees since many have the spring already secured in and then kind of fair as an j o b s . T h o u g h just have a nice back opportunity typically 800 to to start 1,000 students and forth that is more e s t a bl i s h i n g attend the fall informal.” relationships fair, Wilson said w i t h the spring fair freshmen and is comparatively -MELISSA GONTARZ, sophomores, smaller. CAMPUS RECRUITER AT as well as Wilson said she foster an decided a fair in WAYFAIR on-campus the spring would presence for be beneficial her company. when she noticed “The many employers spring is great recruiting in that we get sophomores to do what I in advance call ‘advance for summer prospecting,’” internships between their junior and senior Fox said. “We recognize that we years. A spring fair can thus serve are going to talk to the freshmen as a starting point for sophomores and sophomores and start building looking for future internships as relationships with them for the well as seniors who are still looking future.” for entry-level job openings, Although students are welcome to bring resumes to the fair, many Wilson said. Managing director at consulting employers expressed a preference firm CBPartners Monica Martin for more casual conversations. de Bustamante ’08 Th’09 agreed Campus recruiter at e-commerce that a spring fair helps address the home goods company Wayfair fact that many larger companies Melissa Gontarz said she likes have been establishing their own to get a background on students’ hiring timelines ahead of on- academic interests and have campus recruitment. A spring fair relaxed exchanges with them. connects students with employers “I like to hear from a student earlier so that rising juniors and what they are studying, maybe seniors can get a head start on the what they are interested in and then kind of just have a nice back process, she said. Martin de Bustamante added and forth that is more informal,” that despite the spring fair’s Gontarz said. ostensibly more casual nature, Wilson echoed this sentiment, students should still do their explaining that the point of the research on companies in which fair is to provide a space for they might be interested before students to explore opportunities in a relatively informal and lowthe fair. “Ideally, [the students] come pressure setting. prepared with a little bit of “Our goal is to have students background on us,” Martin de figure out who they want to keep Bustamante said. “It is a little bit the conversations going with,” she telling of the individual when they said. FROM CPD PAGE 1
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
PAGE 5
English and theatre professor Brett Gamboa discusses Shakespeare he seeks out ways to destabilize the illusion being transacted, the performance things like the dead bodies and the dover cliff and the rest. Then it moves into how
very crime she is being accused of. Because tragedy works on this put these plays up, the challenges knife’s edge between innocence and and problems they present and guilt, doubt and certainty, things like what’s at stake for the audience. this play into the experience of the This gave me a chance to doubt that shrouds Othello, and freelance and publish on we see someone who is innocent “Every single one of the plays and guilty. The play becomes every play. T h i s m a d e p o s s i b l e can be played by no more better at being “Othello” and is and infor med my book better when those two roles are than 12 people speaking all “Shakespeare’s Double inhabited by one actor. I talk Plays,” which addresses of the lines.” about the instability and what plays across the canon, and is in it for the audience when it is very rare. It goes into six these roles are worked by the plays deeply, “The Winter’s -BRETT GAMBOA, ENGLISH AND minimal requirements of the Tale” being one of these. THEATER PROFESSOR play. Beyond the aesthetics of It is thinking about how performance, the third part is Shakespeare fit his actors more historical and thinks about into his cast, he knew who the reasons critics have supposed was going to play the parts, that he played with larger casts knew how many people that I supposed he might have. would be available, had a group doubling of actors and roles is a way Ultimately, I do not say this is what of sharers that work together on of doing this, constantly advertising happened in 1595 at The Globe, the plays. The plays are structured its fictionality and artifice as a because nobody can say that, but the to a greater degree than has been way to shake us and remind us structures of the plays consistently commonly supposed, and not only that this is fake, yet involve us in tells us that they were engineered to are the plays playable by just 12 drawing parallels and see someone be playable by between nine and 12 people, they are more thematically who is innocent also be guilty of people. Every single one of the plays interesting when put on by 12 the crime of which the innocent can be played by no more than 12 rather than 20. character is accused. A character people speaking all of the lines. I like Desdemona in “Othello” is tell the historical story of this and How do you see your book accused of being in an adulterous move into the critical objections “Shakespeare’s Double Plays” relationship with Cassio. Everyone with the ages of actor, who played impacting academia and what knows Desdemona is innocent, and women’s roles and trouble some of is it all about? even when the actor doubles as these ideas and gradually suggest a BG: The book does three discrete Bianca, the whore who is sleeping different historical narrative for how things. One is it moves into how with Cassio, we know Desdemona the company was likely to have cast much Shakespeare encouraged is innocent. But when they both and perform their plays. the breakdown of theatre through are played by the same actor they illusion marring experiments to are still in the dimension of the This interview has been edited and pursue instability. I explain how fiction that she is guilty of the condensed for clarity and length. FROM GAMBOA PAGE 2
TOO COOL FOR POOL
TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Students take a break from their studies to hang out and play pool in 8 Ball Hall.
THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS
PAGE 6
DARTMOUTHEVENTS
“O COALY NIGHT”
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2017
Rachel Lincoln ’20
TODAY
8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
“Breakfast with the Arts,” with painter Tom Ferrara, Nearburg Gallery & Arts Forum, Black Family Visual Arts Center
5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Lecture: “Mega Trends Impacting Africa,” with former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson, Haldeman 41, Kreindler Conference Hall
7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Performance by jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts
TOMORROW
12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Presentation and Discussion: “Reinventing Our Homes and Communities for Aging Independence,” with architect Sarah Susanka, Haldeman 41, Kreindler Conference Center
4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Dance Performance: “Performance as Activism,” with Michelle Dorrance and Toshi Reagon, Faulkner Recital Hall, Hopkins Center for the Art
7:00 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
National Theatre Live in HD: “Hedda Gabler,” Loew Auditorium, Visual Arts Center 104 RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Complain and complain 5 Frolic in the field 9 Searched for shells in the shallows 14 Where to find Java 15 Governor Kasich’s state 16 Be a ham 17 Verizon invoice, e.g. 19 Way to get there 20 Saint at a gate 21 Melt frost from, as a windshield 23 Self-serve salad site 24 Old World Style sauce brand 26 The “c” in a+b=c 28 Govt. agency that lends to start-ups 30 Second wife of Henry VIII 34 “It’s __-brainer!” 35 Humerus neighbor 36 “__, black sheep ... ” 37 Pierced ear parts 39 Gives approval to 41 Horse’s harrumph 42 Consider carefully 44 Coup d’__ 46 Opposite of SSW 47 Country divider that allows unrestricted travel 49 Free app annoyances 50 __ Manor: “Batman” mansion 51 Mani go-with 53 Sound of disdain 55 Tot’s reply to a taunt 57 Shady retreat 61 Appliance maker 63 Sensitive elbow area, and a literal hint to the circled letters 65 Flat hat 66 Spring blossom 67 Moniker 68 Perfumer Lauder 69 Pinup Hayworth 70 Raised, as cattle
DOWN 1 “Li’l Abner” creator Al 2 Arthur with three Grand Slam singles titles 3 Civil mayhem 4 Bakery-café bread company 5 Steal from 6 “Hmm, gotta think about that ... ” 7 Eight furlongs 8 Well-mannered 9 “Mom’s gonna kill us!” 10 Latin “I love” 11 Molecular link with two pairs of electrons shared by two atoms 12 Sundance’s sweetie 13 Bambi, for one 18 Hurler’s stat 22 __ salad 25 Guy’s partner 27 Actor Alda 28 Nosy one 29 “Button-Down Mind” comedian 31 Not wearing a thing 32 Tall tales
33 “Big” comics kid 34 Dog food brand 35 Milk-souring warning number 38 Novelist Ferber 40 “Hit the gas!” 43 Rice-A-__ 45 “__ we alone?” 48 Colorful timber tree 49 Online rent-aroom option 52 Week segment
53 Yankee Ruth 54 Iowa college town 56 TomKat’s daughter 58 Wild hog 59 “I’ll pick up the tab” 60 Oboe or bassoon 62 Marriage announcement word 64 CIA cousin
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
ADVERTISING
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04/04/17
For advertising information, please call (603) 646-2600 or email info@thedartmouth. com. The advertising deadline is noon, two days before publication. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement. Opinions expressed in advertisements do not necessarily reflect those of The Dartmouth, Inc. or its officers, employees and agents. The Dartmouth, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation chartered in the state of New Hampshire. USPS 148-540 ISSN 0199-9931
By Agnes Davidson and C.C. Burnikel ©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
04/04/17
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2017
PAGE 7
Alumnus Q&A: Seth Swirsky ’82, author and artist By KRIPA SHRESTHA The Dartmouth
Seth Swirsky ’82 has exhibited a tremendous love and need for creative expression through his eclectic artistic career. As a 20-year-old junior at Dartmouth, Swirsky, an English major, wrote a jingle that was picked up by Thomas’ English Muffins before he decided to pursue songwriting upon graduating from the College. Swirsky’s songwriting career includes hits such as “Tell It to My Heart,” recorded by Taylor Dayne in the late ’80s, and work with several large labels. In 1996, Swirsky rediscovered his childhood love for baseball and wrote “Baseball Letters: A Fan’s Correspondence with His Heroes,” which consists of letters he wrote to baseball players, such as Cal Ripken Jr. and Ted Williams, and their handwritten responses back. Swirsky then experimented with yet another form of storytelling and combined it with his love for music — he took a handheld camera and interviewed people who had stories to tell about his favorite rock band, The Beatles, which he put together into his award-winning documentar y “Beatles Stories.” Swirsky also has a Beatles-inspired band, The Red Button, and started his own recording career in the early 2000s. In 2013, Swirsky received a master’s degree in clinical psychology. He currently practices in Los Angeles. His clinical practice has inspired two artistic productions: his latest record “Circles and Squares,” released in 2016, and his fourth book “21 Ways to a Happier Depression: A Creative Guide to Getting Unstuck from Anxiety, Setbacks and Stress,” filled with watercolor images and techniques for alleviating anxiety and depression, released this week. Swirsky, who is also a visual artist, is currently putting together paintings for a show next year. W hat inspired you to switch from your artistic c a re e r i n t o t h e f i e l d o f clinical psycholog y? SS: I love asking questions. And I love people’s stories. This manifested itself when I took a handheld camera and interviewed all these people that had stories about The Beatles, when I wrote letters to baseball players and loved hearing their stories back. So it felt very natural to me to get a degree in psychology and to listen to people’s stories. And what’s interesting is that with whatever I am doing in my life, it seems to go then through an artistic blender and somehow manifest itself into a work of art, whether it’s a book
or a CD or a painting. Getting my master’s degree manifested itself in this book “21 Ways to a Happier Depression.” I’m not just a therapist. I need to put something out there that expresses my views on things, and I love that. One of my favorite artists, Salvador Dalí, had a great quote that I live by. He once said, every day I wake up, and I ask myself: what is Salvador Dalí going to do today? And I love that because every day is a new chapter, a new page. Every day presents to me some creative opportunity.
Can you elaborate on your newest book, “21 Ways to a Happi er Dep ressi on” ? What inspired you to write it and for what purpose? SS: The reason I decided to write “21 Ways to a Happier Depression” was not to cure depression or anxiety, but because I wanted to help people in a very simple way. You can turn to any page in my book, and there’s a new idea. Let’s take a student at Dartmouth for instance. If they have anxieties, like most students around the world in their age group, they’ve also got a million things going on and a lot of assignments, and it’s a stressful life. It can be very fun, but it also has a lot of stresses to it. I want my book to feel like it’s your friend, that you could actually put it on your night table, and you could open it to any page at any time when you’re feeling stressed, and you could say, “Oh, I like that idea!” If you buy a small watercolor set and just some drawing paper, if you’re very stressed out and you just take your paintbrush and a little water, and you start painting circles and squares, and you just fill up the page, you take your mind off your mind. You’re not thinking anymore about the issues that seem to crop up all the time and are causing you worry. And as a bonus, you get a nice little picture with you! You don’t even have to be an artist. You can make a circle. And you can make a square. It’s the act of painting itself that takes your mind off your mind. So that’s one idea. I want to give people very simple, doable ideas. And that was the point of doing the book, that we could alleviate people’s fears, anxieties and depression and can actually help them. Is this painting technique t h a t yo u j u s t d e s c r i b e d what inspired your album “ C i rc l e s a n d S q u a re s ” ? SS: Yes, it is. I was going along thinking that I’m going to name my album something different. So as a recording artist, I asked myself, “Where am I actually at in my life right now? What do I want to describe in my record to people?”
And I thought my life really is at circles and squares, meaning it’s at a place of wanting to keep things simple. It’s not complicated. I try to simplify things and break them down to the most elemental pieces, which I discovered in that kind of painting, which really helps my own anxiety. Everything in “21 Ways to a Happier Depression,” I use myself, and I’ve used for 30 years. I’ve helped many patients with these strategies. These are really tried-and-true things that really do help. One might help someone differently than it might help another person. But before I put out my album, and I made the cover for it, I thought, “What do I really want to say? Where am I at?” I thought, “I’m at circles and squares;” that’s why I named it “Circles and Squares.”
Can you tell us about your experience at Dartmouth? H o w d o yo u t h i n k yo u r experience here shaped your interest in your future career or prepared you for it? SS: My dad is a ’63 graduate from Dartmouth. I was born in his freshman year. So I really grew up with the “granite of New Hampshire” in my muscles and my brains. Dartmouth was in my blood. I just had to go to Dartmouth. It was a different experience at 18 than it was when I was much, much younger obviously. And although going to Dartmouth was very comfortable and natural to me, coming from Long Island and having spent a lot of time in New York City, I wasn’t used to the isolation as much as an adult. So it was a departure for me, and my first winter here, it was really, really difficult. How this helped me was that it was my first real test in my life. Up until Dartmouth, everything was pretty easy, and I thought that’s the way life is. And when I went to Dartmouth, of course, the classes were very difficult for me. I did well. But it was a lot more of an effort, and it was very cold. I remember walking across the Green with the snow up to my knees and thinking to myself, “How am I going to make it through here? This is only the second term! How am I going to make it through four years?” That’s what I’m really trying to express to you, that I really wanted to make it. I wanted to succeed there. I didn’t want to give in to it and transfer. I wanted to say, this is a challenge — find a way. And that’s helped me tremendously. I made honors in my senior year. I learned how to succeed at things that weren’t just handed to me. That’s helped me because I went into the music business, and
that’s an extremely difficult and competitive business. But I had such a strong base of having made it through one of the most difficult schools in the world that nothing could get to me. Because I knew what it was like to face adversity. And that’s what I felt I really got out of Dartmouth. There was a tremendous education in just that alone. Not just the classes. Do you have any comments on the state of mental health at Dartmouth and the services available to students? SS: When I was at Dartmouth, you could always go to Dick’s House. They were very, very open about students seeing any psychologist at Dick’s; nobody was turned away. I went a few times myself during a period in my junior year when I was trying to figure a bunch of things out. Nothing too heavy or dark, but it doesn’t matter. Just the fact that it was available — I truly believe that students should take full advantage of it. Even if they think it’s the smallest issue. In my day, it was available, and I can only imagine that it’s much more available right now. I just think that students should take full advantage of anything available to them when it comes to their well-being because it’s very hard — there’s still a stigma to seeing a therapist. I have three kids — 22, 14 and 12 — and I’m always saying to them, “You want me to hook you up with a therapist?”
And they say, “Really? You think I should?” But it’s not about should you or shouldn’t you, it’s about do you want to. It doesn’t hurt to. It’s just another voice; it’s like a diary. Except a therapist can offer some good insights and good advice. It’s only helpful if it’s a good person, if you believe that they can be good for you. I’m really on board with that. People should really take advantage of this, especially students. What is the one piece of advice you would give to Dartmouth students to be happy? SS: To be happy in life is to remember that there’s one key word that you should really live by, and that’s the word “yes.” You should try to say “yes.” As many times as you can. Not to drugs obviously, but let’s put that aside. Say, you’re invited to a party, and you’re thinking, “Oh, I’m tired. And I’m a little bit down. I don’t know if I want to, and I’m already in my dorm room.” All the reasons to say, “no!” It’s so easy to say “no” to things. Find a way to say “yes.” “Hey, we’re doing a road trip. What are you doing this weekend?” “Well, I really should do this, and I really should do that, and I really should do this…” Say “yes!” Find ways to say “yes” in life. It’s so easy to say “no.” But every time you say “yes,” good things happen. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
COURTESY OF SETH SWIRSKY
Seth Swirsky ’82 released his fourth book, “21 Ways to a Happier Depression” today.
PAGE 8
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2017
Student Spotlight: Julie Solomon ’17, set designer and musician By ELISE HIGGINS
The Dartmouth Staff
Julie Solomon ’17 is an integral member of Dartmouth’s theater department — she is its go-to person for set design, a passion she discovered in high school almost by accident. After not getting a part in her school play, she was invited to work on the set crew instead. It was then that she fell in love with set design and chose to continue pursuing it, excited to build props and even use power tools. Solomon knew that she wanted to pursue theater and set design in college. For that reason, she debated looking into conservatory p ro g r a m s, bu t h e r p a r e n t s convinced her that a liberal arts education would be beneficial, reminding her that graduate school was always an option. Reflecting on her time here so far, Solomon is glad she decided to come to Dartmouth because of the variety of opportunities available. “Dartmouth has been great for me,” Solomon said. “People don’t really come here for theater, but it’s a great department ... all the professors are so great, and there are so many opportunities for designers especially.” Solomon began designing sets at Dartmouth when she took Theater 40, “Technical Production,” a requirement for the theater major. Because the class involved spending many hours in the scene shop, Solomon was introduced to the department as well as fellow students and professors. While continuing to take theater production classes, Solomon also worked as a set designer on many shows. Kyla Mermejo-Varga ’17, a fellow theater major and friend of Solomon’s, said that the two met while Solomon was taking Theater 40 and Mermejo-Varga was working in the scene shop. After their first term together, they continued to work on many of the same shows produced by the department, with Solomon as a set designer and Mermejo-Varga as a stage manager and prop designer. “I’ve worked with her in a lot of different capacities,” MermejoVarga said. “[Solomon] is a great communicator, and people are lucky to have her around and work with her.”
T h ro u g h o u t h e r t i m e a t sits. Immersive theater disrupts Solomon said she will be production she has to actually think Dartmouth, Solomon has worked that construction and allows the c o m b i n i n g t h r e e w o rk s o f through,” Kotlowitz said. with both students and professionals audience to move throughout the Shakespeare — “As You Like For example, Solomon is still and noted that she appreciates the space, Solomon explained. It,” “Twelfth Night” and “The deciding on the best way to move opportunities available to her at Because of her interest in this Merchant of Venice” — and the audience throughout the show. Dartmouth, particularly when concept, Solomon decided to exploring the possible motivations “It has changed quite a bit from she is able to work on mainstage explore immersive theater in her of the women who crossdress what it was originally, but I think shows with upcoming senior within these shows. She felt as if the core of it is what it’s always professors and thesis. she needed to create a somewhat been,” Kotlowitz said. “I think now what professionals. O r i g i n a l l y , new product and interweave these While Solomon is focusing on In addition draws me to [set S o l o m o n stories have the conversations she her thesis now, she is also thinking to set design, to use wanted to have. There will be one about plans for after graduation. design] is the ability wanted Solomon also her work on the scene from each show to separate She wants to continue working in tried directing to create a world winter musical, monologues of the three different theater after graduation, although a t o n e p o i n t and really transport “Urinetown,” as women that will weave the stories she is still figuring out exactly how. but felt slightly her thesis and together. “I go back and forth between d i s c o u r a g e d an audience to a f o c u s o n h e r “Each scene explores a different wanting to pursue a safer career by the process. totally different technical skills, re l at i o n s h i p o f g e n d e r a n d in theater ... in a more office and Despite this, but her professors space and identity and how that salaried capacity or wanting to environment.” professors a n d a d v i s o r s influences the way you interact go try follow my passion and be encouraged encouraged her with the world,” Solomon said. a freelance artist and work in set Solomon to try -JULIE SOLOMON ’17 to do a more There will be a space for each design,” Solomon said. directing again, creative thesis. section: the forest of Arden, a living Through conversations, her and she will be Inspired by the room inside of a giant birdcage and friends and other artists have doing so in her idea of gender a courtroom. The audience will encouraged her to at least try set upcoming senior thesis. and how gender affects how one be onstage and move throughout design for a while. Beyond the theater department, acts in a certain space, she decided the space during the show so “Take the leap and try the scary Solomon also participates in to explore this relationship in her they can be fully immersed in the thing, and if it doesn’t work out, other student organizations at the thesis. experience. there’s always a safer option,” College. She recently served as the “[Solomon] is interested in how Kotlowitz said that Solomon’s said Solomon, paraphrasing their musical director of the a cappella space and gender interact, how you thesis is a very experimental advice. group the Dartmouth Sing Dynasty. own a space as a woman, how you project. Currently, she is planning Danielle Piacentile ’17, a own a space as a man,” said Daniel “There are a lot of things that on moving to New York after fellow member of the Sings who Kotlowitz, theater professor and we take for granted that we don’t graduation and trying to make it was president while Solomon was one of Solomon’s advisors. normally worry about that on this in the world of theater. musical director, said that both of them took on leadership positions early on. “We’ve worked in tandem for three years, and by the end, I think we really got the hang of it,” Piacentile said. Piacentile added that Solomon has had a significant influence on the group. “She has really done so much to make us a better group musically in a way that other musical directors haven’t,” Piacentile said. Despite her love for music and singing, Solomon said she prefers being backstage as opposed to performing, which is why she is so interested in set design. Solomon is specifically interested in the idea of immersive theater, where the whole design of the space is taken into account. “I think now what draws me to [set design] is the ability to create a world and really transport an audience to a totally different environment,” Solomon said. In traditional shows, there is COURTESY OF ROB STRONG the stage, the proscenium arch and the house, where the audience Julie Solomon ’17 designed the set of the theater department’s production of Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls” in spring 2016.