The Dartmouth 2/20/18

VOL. CLXXIV NO.185

RAINY

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Faculty sign letter calling for College action on DACA

THE SUN SETS ON THE COLLEGE ON THE HILL

HIGH 54 LOW 45

By THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Over 65 faculty members have signed a letter in support of Unai Montes-Irueste ’98, who publicly resigned from his positions on multiple alumni associations over his dissatisfaction with the College’s protections of

ALEXA GREEN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The sun sets over Hanover, lighting up campus buildings with a warm glow.

ARTS

FILM REVIEW: ‘BLACK PANTHER’ PAGE 8

ALUMNA Q&A: AUDIO JOURNALIST LAURA SIM ’16 PAGE 8

OPINION

MAGANN: QUESTION OF HUMANITY PAGE 4

FREEMAN: BEYOND PROFESSING SOLIDARITY PAGE 4

READ US ON

DARTBEAT FOLLOW US ON

TWITTER @thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2018 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.

undocumented students.

The letter, dated Feb. 13, reiterates MontesIrueste’s frustrations and urges the College to support students affected

by President Donald Trump’s rescission of the Defer red Action for Childhood Arrivals

Hanlon updates misconduct Sig Ep suspended investigation timeline

By THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

In a campus-wide email today, College President Phil Hanlon wrote that the investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct by three professors in the psychological and brain sciences department are ongoing and that the external investigator is “close to concluding her work.”

After the investigative stage is completed, Hanlon wrote that the next step will include

“consideration of any disciplinary action, where appropriate.” Any disciplinary process will follow the procedures in the Organization of the Faculty of Dartmouth College.

The College confirmed on Oct. 25, 2017 that professors Todd Heatherton, Bill Kelley and Paul Whalen were under “ongoing investigations into allegations of serious misconduct.” On Oct. 31, 2017, the New Hampshire Attorney General announced

Town considers church proposal

By GABRIEL ONATE

The Dartmouth Staff

Christ Redeemer Church, a Hanover-based Baptist congregation led by Pastor Don Willeman, recently introduced updated plans to the Hanover Planning Board over a proposed church that the congregation wishes to build on a plot of land it purchased in 2017. The plans for this new church were originally submitted

to the board in 2016 and have since been updated to address residents’ and board members’ concerns about building a church in a residential area. Ultimately, the Hanover Zoning Board of Adjustment will have the final say.

Since the congregation’s founding in 2000, weekly Sunday sermons have been SEE CHURCH PAGE 3

that the three professors are under investigation by law enforcement for sexual misconduct allegations.

Hanlon’s email reiterated that the College is cooperating with the Attorney General’s investigation.

All three professors have their access to campus restricted and are on paid leave.

Hanlon added that “sexual misconduct and harassment have no place” at the College and that Dartmouth remains “committed to comprehensive and fair reviews.”

SEE LETTER PAGE 5

for winter term

By THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity was suspended for one term this winter for violations of the College’s alcohol policy while already on College probation. The suspension will be followed by two terms of alcohol probation, which will conclude at the end of the

summer 2018 term, according to College spokesperson Diana Lawrence.

According to the College’s disciplinary procedures, alcohol probation “typically prevents” student organizations from hosting or sponsoring events where alcohol is served.

Sig Ep extended four bids this winter and 36 last fall.

College suspends Tri-Kap for three terms over violations

By AMANDA ZHOU

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity was suspended for three terms, dating back to last fall, after admitting to a series of violations of the College’s hazing and alcohol policy. The suspension, which ends on June 21, will be followed by four terms of alcohol probation and then two terms of College

probation, according to a Feb. 18 statement from college spokesperson Diana Lawrence.

The alcohol probation will end on June 20, 2019 and the following College probation will end on Jan. 6, 2020.

According to the C o l l e g e ’s d i s c i p l i n a r y p ro c e d u re s, s u s p e n s i o n of a student organization mandates the cessation of all

activities. Alcohol probation “typically prevents” student organizations from sponsoring or co-hosting events where alcohol is served, according to organizational adjudication processes. College probation may include prevention of participation in activities such as intramural athletics and other College programs.

Tri-Kap extended 21 bids this fall and none this winter.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

DAily debriefing The Valley News reported that two Upper Valley men have received prison sentences, each for attempting to solicit minors. The two men were sentenced last Thursday in Grafton County Superior Court. Erik Polson, 73, of Chelsea, received a two- to four-year sentence in New Hampshire State Prison for conspiracy to commit felonious assault, in addition to a suspended sentence of 3 1/2 to seven years for trafficking. James Taylor, 26, of Quechee, received a one- to two-year sentence in state prison for “certain uses of computer services prohibited” and a suspended 12-month sentence in Grafton County Jail for child endangerment. Both men were caught by police for attempting to solicit sex with a 15-year-old girl, Polson last August and Taylor last November.

The Associated Press reported that President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking to cut funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program in his proposed 2019 budget, which provides financial aid to low-income families to pay for heating and cooling bills during the cold and hot months, respectively. Trump previously tried to cut the program in his proposed budget last year; a “budget blueprint” from the Office of Budget and Management claimed that it was “a lower-impact program and unable to demonstrate strong performance outcomes” compared to other income-assistance programs targeting similar populations. Facing resistance from Congress, Trump ultimately approved around $3 billion in funding, or about 90 percent of Congress’ recommended allocation. Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire has spoken out against cutting the program’s funding.

The Vermont State Senate passed a bill last Friday that would raise the minimum wage from $10.50 an hour to $15 an hour by 2024, the Valley News reported. However, Republican Gov. Phil Scott has indicated that he will not sign the bill in its current form. While the bill’s advocates have stressed the need to raise wages in the state, critics, like Scott, have expressed fears that the increases in wages will be offset by layoffs and increased costs. The bill will next proceed to the State House, where its most likely destination is the house general, housing and military affairs committee, according to Democratic Rep. Helen Head, who chairs the committee. Head said that the committee is not likely to begin work on the bill earlier than March.

-COMPILED BY ZACHARY BENJAMIN

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

Correction Appended (Feb. 19, 2018): The original version of this article incorrectly stated that Tanguy Nef skis for the Swedish national team, when in fact he is a member of the Swiss national team. The article has been updated to correct this error.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

Laura Bordewieck Rippy ’89 to take the lead of Green D Ventures led companies, creating “a virtuous cycle of Dartmouth folks helping Dartmouth folks be successful,” On Feb. 8, venture capital firm Rippy wrote in her email.

Green D Ventures announced “Part of the secret of successful that Laura Bordewieck Rippy venture investing is finding opportunities ’89 would be others miss,” Rippy taking the lead wrote. “As an allas managing “I think it always female investment partner on the comes down to team, we believe g roup’s fifth that we have the i n v e s t m e n t performance, but ability to find some fund, Green D I think it is always in the 5. The move is a great to have diverse diamonds rough that others, departure from in the mostly male venture capital teams and investors venture capital norms, in which from different world, will miss.” only 8 percent Rippy also wrote of employees backgrounds.” that according to at top firms are venture capital female.

-COLIN CARPENTER firm First Round A c c o rd i n g Capital, companies to an email A&S’09 TH’09, SIRIS with a woman on statement from MEDICAL FOUNDER the founding team Rippy, Green outperform their D Ve n t u r e s all-male peers by started in 2014 with the vision that “more people 63 percent. should invest in venture-backed Being a woman has been startups and that it was best beneficial in her career, Rippy wrote. done as a community.” Since the “When I was a CEO, it was group’s initial funding in 2015, it so much easier to stand out as a now includes over 15,000 alumni female,” she wrote. “I was pitching investors, the statement said. Rippy [to venture capitalists] who heard joined the firm as a managing dozens of teams present every week.

But at that time, only 4 percent of partner in October 2017.

Dartmouth was the “test bed” venture capital went to femalefor this model of investment firm, led startups. I was memorable, if according to Rippy’s statement, but nothing else.” once Green D Ventures proved that As part of its most recent the model of “alumni investing in funding round, Green D Ventures alumni” worked, founder Michael invested in Siris Medical, founded Collins ’86 spread the concept by Colin Carpenter A&S’09 Th’09 to other institutions like Harvard and Nicholas Mourlas ’92 Th’93.

University, the Massachusetts According to the company’s website, Institute of Technology and Yale the firm aims to optimize treatment University. These investment groups delivery and outcomes for cancer all currently fall under the managing patients. company of Alumni Ventures Carpenter said he appreciated the relevance of Green D Ventures’ Group.

Green D Ventures is funded expertise in health and technology solely by Dartmouth alumni and and the locations of the firm’s invests only in Dartmouth alumni- investors.

By CAMERON ROLLER The Dartmouth

“Our investment strategy was to find investors [who] have the mix of a wide range of expertise, but especially expertise in technology and medicine … also, there’s a strong Dartmouth connection to the team,” he said.

Carpenter said that diversity is important for investment teams, supporting Green D Ventures’ decision to form an all-female investment team.

“I think it always comes down to performance, but I think it is always great to have diverse teams and investors from different backgrounds,” Carpenter said.

One of the original investors that Siris Medical worked with, a San Francisco-based firm called Broadway Angels, is also comprised of an all-female group of investors and business executives.

General partner of Cloud Apps Capital Partners Matt Holleran ’89 has worked with Green D Ventures on several joint investments. “[Rippy] seminally brings [her] operating experience at Microsoft and [experiences from] having been a CEO of a company at scale and having raised capital and been an investor,” Holleran said. “That combination is one we believe in. Having that lens and having someone like [Green D Venture’s principal Lacey Johnson Tu’13], who we’ve interacted with … we think it is the right combination of operating and investing experience.”

According to Rippy, Green D 5 plans to focus on “high-growth companies, typically in technology or life science sectors that are venture capital-backed,” meaning companies that have already found a lead investor.

“Green D is a perfect role for me,” Rippy wrote. “I get to talk with Dartmouth entrepreneurs, Dartmouth venture capitalists and Dartmouth alums about innovation all day long.”

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

Baptist congregation looks to build church

decided to go forth with their proposal and introduced it to the hosted at Hanover High School, planning board.

Willeman said. However, he added, The proposed church property there has always been a desire and is located on Greensboro Road and initiative in looking for a building in is zoned as a residential area. CRC town that they could call their own. then bought the land in June 2017.

The Valley News reported that the Esmay said that building a church there is possible congregation but requires a numbers about “You can build special exception 400, and that due to other the proposed something on the codes. church would property only if the The planning cost around $5 zoning ordinance b o a rd h e l d a million. meeting with the Previously, allows it. It doesn’t CRC’s efforts tell you what you can’t town in January 2017 to discuss to build a the possibility church were do; it tells you what of building a s t y m i e d i n you can do, and you’re new church at 2006 when t h e p r o p e r t y, the planning limited to that.”

Willeman said. a n d zo n i n g b o a r d s d i d -JUDITH ESMAY, HANOVER Local residents expressed concern not approve a in that meeting proposal due PLANNING BOARD CHAIR over the size of the to zoning laws, building, possible Willeman increase in traffic said. The lot was considered commercial and and the size of the proposed parking churches are preferred to be built lot as well, which would have held about 100 cars. in residential areas.

CRC also holds worship in Esmay said these concerns did New London and Quechee, not mean that local residents were Vermont; however, the New London against building a church or against congregation does not have its own practice of religion in town. church either. Instead, sermons are Willeman said he and the held at the Ivey Science Center at congregation took back their proposal in order to refine it in Colby-Sawyer College.

Judith Esmay, chair of the accordance with many of the town’s planning board, said the town is concerns, adding that the updated divided into different zones, which proposal’s most noticeable difference was the size of the are classified church, which is f o r d i f f e r e n t “We’re a part of the now approximately p u r p o s e s 40 percent smaller based on the community. We’re in size from the town’s zoning doing everything plan. ordinance, such we can to be a good original Another town as residential, hall meeting was business, office neighbor.” held on Jan. 30, or rural.

2017 to discuss She added the updated that this lets -DON WILLEMAN, proposal that was owners living in CHRIST REDEEMER resubmitted to the different zones CHURCH PASTOR planning board, but know what the same concerns structures could kept coming up be built on their among residents who attended the respective properties.

“You can build something on meeting. the property only if the zoning Esmay added that because of the ordinance allows it,” Esmay said. geography of the property, building “It doesn’t tell you what you can’t a large church with the parking lot do; it tells you what you can do, and could possibly worsen floods in the region, which already floods many you’re limited to that.”

Willeman said the congregation residents’ basements during stormy came across a property over a year seasons. ago that seemed like a suitable Despite this, Willeman said he location to build a new church, and the congregation was listening to but he still conducted research on and taking the neighbors’ concerns the location and met with town into much considerations. members to discuss if they were “We’re a part of the community,” fine with a church in that location. he added. “We’re doing everything Eventually, he said, the congregation we can to be a good neighbor.”

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 3

D-LAB: A COMMON GROUND CONVENTION

FROM CHURCH PAGE 1

MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Dartmouth Leadership Attitudes and Behaviors program participants convene in Collis Common Ground for a session.

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 4

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST MATTHEW MAGANN ’21

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST JILLIAN FREEMAN ’21

A Question of Humanity

Beyond Professing Solidarity

America must support refugees.

I met a man named Abu Nabil in Jordan. He used to live in Amman, the country’s capital.

Before moving there, he lived in Daraa, a city about 47 miles north of Amman. In Daraa, he studied at the university, obtained a law degree, married and started a family. But just under a century before, the victors of World War I had gathered together and drawn up new borders for the Middle East. One of those lines, the one demarcating Jordan and Syria, passed through the fields four miles west of Daraa. That put Daraa in Syrian territory.

In 2011, the people of Daraa had enough.

The Arab Spring protests swept through the Middle East and brought down dictators. Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad was on edge. And when a few children from Daraa wrote antiregime graffiti on a wall, Assad’s forces captured and tortured them. The people of Daraa took to the streets in protest — they were met with gunfire.

The violence in Daraa sparked outrage across Syria. Fed up with the regime and burdened by drought and poverty, people around the country soon rose up in mass demonstrations against Assad. The government responded with brutal crackdowns, and the situation quickly devolved into civil war.

In the midst of this lived Abu Nabil and his family. They were no lovers of the regime, but they lived a relatively well-off life in Daraa.

Then government forces started bombing their neighborhood. Fearing for their lives, one of Abu Nabil’s sons fled to Lebanon, another to Turkey and then to Germany. Then Abu Nabil’s young daughter fell gravely ill. Daraa was a war zone, and adequate medical care wasn’t available.

So one night, Abu Nabil, his wife and his sick daughter packed up what they could and ran for four miles through the battlefield across the border into Jordan.

In Amman, Abu Nabil found a place to stay.

His daughter received medical treatment, and his family no longer lived in fear of the bombings — though that experience never truly goes away. The limited availability of work permits in Jordan and other legal restrictions have prevented Syrian refugees from working anything more than menial jobs. Abu Nabil therefore spent his days volunteering at a community center run by a non-governmental organization that helps

refugees adapt to life in Jordan. I met dozens of Syrians in Amman, people who had fled war carrying memories of horrific loss and violence.

To survive would be enough. The audacity of people like Abu Nabil, who give back to others even in times of dire need, is both scarcely believable and intensely admirable.

Just a few weeks ago, Abu Nabil, his wife and his daughter left Jordan for the United Kingdom.

They had received an offer of resettlement and a chance to rebuild their lives.

In debates about Syrian refugees in America, we don’t hear enough about families and courage.

We hear that Syrians present such a threat that we need to shut them out entirely. That is the policy of our current administration, and it is a detestable one. People like Abu Nabil, by international law and by moral right, deserve a place in our nation. To deny that is inhuman. But when popular rhetoric dehumanizes refugees, we start to imagine them as terrorists and security threats. That’s why I chose to tell Abu Nabil’s story. I hope it humanizes the issue. Accepting refugees is not a question of security but a question of humanity.

I’m a descendant of refugees. Many of my ancestors fled starvation in British-occupied Ireland, moving to America out of desperation and necessity. And just like the narrative we see today, some Americans refused to recognize those refugees’ humanity. The Know-Nothing Party tried to bar entry to the mostly-Catholic victims of the Great Famine; after all, they argued, Catholics’ allegiance to the Pope threatened American democracy. Swap out Syrian Muslims for Irish Catholics and terrorism for Catholic conspiracies, and that 19th-century xenophobia sounds shockingly modern.

Of course, the Irish did not destroy the United States. They integrated into the national fabric and enriched the American nation. I see no reason why Syrian refugees won’t do the same.

The same misguided nativism that drove the Know-Nothings motivates today’s supporters of the “travel ban.” Of course, we need to protect national security. But turning away refugees does not accomplish that. Far from threatening our security, people like Abu Nabil provide exactly what this country needs. If our nation closes its doors to refugees, we do not only betray American values. We betray our human decency.

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RAY LU, Editor-in-Chief KOURTNEY KAWANO, Executive Editor ZACHARY BENJAMIN, Managing Editor SONIA QIN, Managing Editor PRODUCTION EDITORS PARKER RICHARDS, IOANA SOLOMON & ZIQIN YUAN, Opinion Editors MARIE-CAPUCINE PINEAU-VALENCIENNE & CAROLYN ZHOU, Mirror Editors NATHAN ALBRINCK, SAMANTHA HUSSEY, EVAN MORGAN & CHRIS SHIM, Sports Editors HALEY GORDON & MADELINE KILLEN, Arts Editors MELANIE KOS & YADIRA TORRES, Dartbeat Editor SAMANTHA BURACK & JEE SEOB JUNG, Design Editors ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN, Survey Editor

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ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Elise Higgins, Divya Kopalle, Joyce Lee, Michael Lin, Tyler Malbreaux

ISSUE NEWS LAYOUT: Autumn Dinh 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.

Fighting oppressive views requires dialogue, not censorship.

A guest column under the title “You’re Not democratic. This is the last thing we, as a Tripping” was published in The Dartmouth community, should be advocating for during on Feb. 2, criticizing the hiring process of the a time when false portrayal of and within the First-Year Trips directorate. Many campus media is extremely prevalent, not only in our groups have since responded with campus- society but worldwide. In the United States, wide emails proclaiming their support for President Donald Trump frequently attacks the Trips directorate, which the column’s supposed “fake news,” and it is becoming author Ryan Spector ’19 accused of gender more and more difficult to find objective or bias in its selection procedures. Several of the unbiased news sources in mainstream media. groups responded in a way that supported the In France and Brazil, governments have been manipulation of free speech. One can only given new powers of control and censorship hope these were premature declarations and in response to perceived fake news threats. not serious calls for censorship.

Elsewhere, the media is already thoroughly As a community, Dartmouth’s students censored. In China, authorities are able to must stand in solidarity with what they deem manipulate news stories by declaring that is good — for example, the Trips directorate they jeopardize state secrets. Due to the vague — when they are publicly misrepresented. definition of what state secrets might entail, But should students support the silencing or the state is able to censor any media reports manipulation of open debate? No matter it believes to be harmful to its economic or how distasteful, we cannot. Many of the political interests. We are lucky, in the United campus-wide emails, I believe, inadvertently States, to have our freedom of speech. It is not proclaimed that the College and its students a right to be taken for granted. Heightened should support the restriction of free speech. media censorship is not the answer to our Concer ning statements within the problems, nor do I believe it is something “solidarity” emails sent out to the Dartmouth that most students on this campus genuinely community included a call on The Dartmouth want. to “apologize for providing” a platform for In an email distributed to the Dartmouth the article. Other emails condemned The community on Feb. 4, the Dartmouth Open Dartmouth for its “decision to publish this Campus Coalition expressed its support of article.” the Trips directorate without denigrating the Did this article’s author imply that well- idea of free speech. The group’s email read deserving students at Dartmouth should feel in part, “We do not support any position on like they weren’t fit for any argument, but we the leadership roles they “The publication of support the rights of all earned? Yes. For this, arguments to be expressed ‘You’re Not Tripping’ should he apologize? Sure. openly.” It also responded But, as a community, must be looked upon to previous reactions there is a way to respond as an opportunity to toward The Dartmouth to this incident that will by re-establishing the have stronger, longer- spread awareness and importance of an “open lasting effects than any promote real change, dialogue, rather than proclamation of solidarity h u t t i n g e a ch o t h e r not to condemn media sdown.” could. This op-ed should In its email, the be looked upon as a greater sources for opting DOCC cited official narrative surrounding against censorship.”

College policy, which Dartmouth’s campus as states that “the College a whole. Let it show those both fosters and protects who are naïve, who live in a safe bubble with the rights of individuals to express dissent.” their friends and have never faced prejudice, Therefore, although Spector’s rhetoric may that arrogant prejudice is in fact active around not have been agreeable, it does have a right them. Let it show others — those students who not to be restricted or controlled. Freedom of might have read that article and felt that it speech, wrote the DOCC, “is a constitutionally validated their opinion — that if they want to protected human right that allows us to bring flaunt their obliviousness, they will be called about change;” further, “this freedom cannot out. Let it remind them that their views are take sides.” not inherent truths so that they can begin The publication of “You’re Not Tripping” to understand the respect that any person, must be looked upon as an opportunity to female or male, deserves. Finally, let it remind spread awareness and promote real change, every single one of us, however cognizant not to condemn media sources for opting or incognizant of social issues surrounding against censorship. Sending emails supporting marginalization, to look to and understand the manipulation of free speech will not make not only those around us but ourselves. Let any gender or race feel less isolated. We all us search for any and every illogical view need to look inside ourselves to reveal our that we might not even know we have, and truest values and beliefs, while continuing to let us realize, work through and subsequently consider objective information. Let us leave disregard them. the aggressive rhetoric in public places so that It is one thing to proclaim support for a it can show everyone in our community the person or group you believe to have been thoughts that remarkably do occur amongst wrongly attacked, but it is another to denounce our own. Let these angry words bring our a media platform for letting an opposing campus together. Despite our different opinion be heard. Denouncing a newspaper identities, united by renewed faith in our and its staff is not only unreasoned but anti- mutual respect, we can stand together.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 5

Faculty sign letter calling for College to expand DACA response FROM LETTER PAGE 1

program in September 2017.

Montes-Irueste publicly resigned from his positions on Jan. 30 and published an open letter on Facebook announcing his withdrawal of support from the College. In his letter, he recounted his and others’ multiple requests for action to protect undocumented students and what he considered inadequate responses from the College.

Dartmouth has received multiple letters expressing concern over protections for undocumented students. On Nov. 16, 2016, the Coalition for Immigration Reform, Equality and DREAMers petitioned the College to declare Dartmouth a sanctuary campus. On Nov. 18, 2016, several alumni organizations wrote a letter calling on the College to protect vulnerable students. On Sept. 5, 2017, the day DACA was rescinded, CoFIRED again wrote to the College with a list of demands, including a declaration that the College will not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and will provide full financial aid for undocumented students.

The Feb. 13 faculty letter referenced these requests and urged the College to take action to support and communicate

with affected students. The letter was addressed to nine administrators, including College President Phil Hanlon, interim provost David Kotz ’86, executive vice president Rick Mills, dean of the faculty Elizabeth Smith and Dean of the College Rebecca Biron.

“We appeal to you to join the many dedicated students and alumni courageously confronting a critical civil rights imperative of our time,” the letter stated.

History professor Pamela Voekel, who co-drafted the letter, said MontesIrueste’s resignation was a “wake-up call,” particularly because he had been very involved with the College even after graduation. She added that she wants the administration to be more transparent about its actions to support DREAM Act-eligible students.

“We felt strongly that we wanted to put a thumb on the scale,” she said. “Let’s actually take this seriously and take a series of steps to meet those demands, and if some of those demands can’t be met, let’s be as transparent about that as possible.”

Art history professor Mary Coffey, who signed the letter, said the College should uphold its commitments to undocumented students.

“We need to do a whole lot more than affirm our community values, talk about the power of diversity for students or even write amicus briefs for

the Supreme Court to support DACA and legislation,” Coffey said. “We need to go beyond that. Our students are in need, and we’ve made a commitment to them.”

The nine administrators addressed in the faculty letter responded on Feb. 18. The response detailed “concrete steps” the College has taken to protect undocumented students, including providing “financial assistance for DACA-related issues” to those affected, connecting students to legal resources and advocating for undocumented students with Congressional members.

One specific issue brought up in the letters is the designation of Dartmouth as a sanctuary campus. In a Nov. 18, 2016 campus-wide email in response to the CoFIRED petition, Hanlon affirmed his support for undocumented students but stopped short of declaring the College a sanctuary campus. In the administrators’ Feb. 18 response, they stated that the term “has no real meaning under the law … [so it] would afford students no additional protections beyond those that are already in place.” The response went on to state that the College will not disclose information or grant access to non-public campus property to third parties in the absence of a legal authorization.

“Dartmouth is providing the highest level of protection it can legally provide

BOOK SMARTS

DIVYA KOPALLE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Baker-Berry Library displays children’s books in indigenous North American languages.

for undocumented students,” the response states.

Another point of concern is the possibility of ICE agents boarding and searching Dartmouth Coach buses. In August 2017, U.S. Border Patrol agents set up a checkpoint on Interstate 93 in Lincoln, New Hampshire and detained 25 undocumented immigrants, according to New Hampshire Public Radio.

The administrators’ response states that because the Dartmouth Coach is operated independently from the College, Dartmouth cannot declare it a safe zone, though the College has been consulting with the American Civil Liberties Union to relay timely information to students.

Voekel said she wants the College to put pressure on Dartmouth Coach to block ICE agents from boarding buses.

While the College may not have the legal capacity to do so, Voekel said the College can informally ask about the Dartmouth Coach’s policies, especially in cases when there might be parents traveling to campus for graduation.

Similarly, there have also been concerns among students about protection by Safety and Security if ICE agents were to come to campus.

“The College is saying that ‘We will not engage in any civil disobedience over this issue.’ That’s their prerogative, but that’s a problem,” Coffey said.

“We’re hitting a point in our country where civil disobedience is going to be necessary unless people just want to stand by and watch others get deported, and some people who face deportation face certain death as a consequence of it. Any person with a real conscience can’t sit by and watch that happen.”

In the last year, Voekel said she has had to help, in one way or another, about 10 students with immigration issues, either because they themselves were undocumented or they came from families of mixed backgrounds.

Voekel said she would like to see an office, such as the University of California, Berkeley’s Undocumented Student Program, which offers services specifically to help students navigate legal issues, established at Dartmouth. She also hopes to see a centralized fund for affected students and a list of immigration lawyers. While Voekel is happy to help, students should not have to depend on the goodwill of a few professors, she said.

Coffey further echoed the need for administrative advances, citing the pressing importance of civil rights in the country today.

“Pragmatism is a sort of complicity — you can’t just get people to just stay quiet to avoid rocking the boat and hope that everything just passes,” she said.

PAGE 6

DARTMOUTHEVENTS

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

CAROLINE COOK ’21

TODAY

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Talk: U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen will discuss Russian interference in U.S. politics, Alumni Hall, Hopkins Center for the Arts

4:45 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Talk: “Sexagon: Muslims, France, and the Sexualization of National Culture,” with Smith College assistant professor of French studies Mehammed Amadeus Mack, Haldeman 41

6:00 p.m. - 7:15 p.m.

Debate: “Making U.S. Health Care Cheaper and Better,” with Manhattan Institute senior fellow Chris Pope and senior associate dean for academic affairs and Harvard professor Meredith Rosenthal, Carson L01

TOMORROW

8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Art Exhibit: “The Zen of Watercolor,” with art teachers Rosalie desGroseilliers and Patti Warren, 7 Lebanon Street, Suite 107

12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Talk: “Social Science and the FDA Regulatory Process,” with Kathryn Aikin, senior social science analyst and team lead in the office of prescription drug promotion at FDA, Silsby Hall 119

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

FICKLE PROMISES

DAVID VELONA ’21

Performance: “Vagina Monologues,” based on V-Day founder and playwright Eve Ensler’s interviews with more than 200 women, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts

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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 7

‘The Vagina Monologues’ to feature theatrical activism

By SAVANNAH MILLER The Dartmouth Staff

This Wednesday, students will take one of the stages at the Hopkins Center for the Arts to perform “The Vagina Monologues,” an evolution of theatrical activism. “The Vagina Monologues,” written by Eve Ensler, debuted in 1996 and created a national dialogue surrounding gender in America. Through a series of episodic monologues and speeches told by women of all races, ages and sexualities, Ensler’s original work brought attention to the issue of gender-based violence and healthy modern sexuality.

Pe r fo r m i n g “ T h e Va g i n a Monologues” has been a tradition at Dartmouth for years, and Wednesday will mark its 20th production. The performance is part of V-February at the College, an event and movement to end gender-based violence while promoting gender equality on campus and off.

This year, Sara Cho ’20 and Madeline Levangie ’21 are the co-directors of “The Vagina Monologues.” Despite the monologues being written over 20

years ago, Levangie believes that their content is just as relevant to today.

“Sexism is something that we are still struggling with as a society, and especially at Dartmouth,” Levangie wrote in an email statement.

“The Vagina Monologues” was cast back in early January and is comprised of 11 students, eight of whom are underclassmen, Levangie wrote. The show had a formal rehearsal once a week, but the actors also do a lot of work on their own.

Gricelda Ramos ’18, who acted in “The Vagina Monologues” her sophomore year and is currently the director of V-February, is excited to see what Cho and Levangie do with the piece.

“When you get them to talk about what they’re passionate about or what they’re doing, you see this fire inside of them,” Ramos said.

“I wanted to give new students at Dartmouth a way to dip their feet into theatrical activism.”

Those involved with the project feel it is important for students to see how relevant the content of “The Vagina Monologues” is to society and Dartmouth in particular.

“It’s bringing in the importance

of gender equity and ending gender- written by students in response based violence to campus,” Ramos to “The Vagina Monologues” said. “I believe we’re sometimes in addressing how the piece does not a little snow globe and forget what’s represent all members of the female happening in the real world.” community, a common critique Levangie noted existence of of the piece that Ensler has even sexual violence on campus as a acknowledged and addressed herself. primary reason for why “The Vagina Ramos believes it is important to Monologues” needs to be produced acknowledgethebarriers“TheVagina and perfor med at Monologues” broke Dartmouth every year. while recognizing its “Sexual violence “We come to shortcomings. is still a problem all college to learn, “ Pe o p l e wh o around the world, and aren’t necessarily but we also college campuses have seen as woman by some of the worst come to expand society can also e nv i ro n m e n t s fo r on ideas that identify as woman,” sexual violence,” she she said. “I think it’s wrote. “I hope that we already important to have we get a lot of people know.” a piece like ‘Vagina to come see the show Monologues’ in order and that we bring to remember where awareness to the issues -GRICELDA RAMOS our thought process that women face like ’18 started. [‘Voices’] sexism, discrimination is students writing and violence.” back to [‘The Vagina In addition to “The Monologues’] Vagina Monologues,” about their own V-February will be also include experiences.” student performances of “Voices” “ U p s t a g i n g S t e r e o t y p e s ” and “Upstaging Stereotypes.” addresses similar ideas to “Voices” “Voices” is an original production and “The Vagina Monologues” but

highlights masculinity and identity.

Despite its shortcomings, “The Vagina Monologues” remains a staple of V-February and one of the most anticipated events of the month-long program. Ramos chalks this up to the piece’s ability to open minds and introduce students to new ideas or perspectives they did not previously understand.

“We come to college to learn, but we also come to expand on ideas that we already know,” she said. “When you see performances like this and you see your peers and how they grow on that stage, you partake in that and you grow into a better citizen.”

Levangie is hopeful that the performance will successfully open a conversation on campus.

“I think Dartmouth students can get a new perspective on feminism and sexual violence [from seeing ‘The Vagina Monologues’],” she said. “I think it will help students think about their everyday actions and how sexism is perpetuated by certain aspects of Dartmouth culture.”

“The Vagina Monologues” will be performed at Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. in Spaulding Auditorium.

Review: ‘Pragmatists’ experiments with music and virtual reality

By BETTY KIM

The Dartmouth Staff

At the Hopkins Center for the Arts Garage this past Saturday, digital musics graduate student Andrew Maillet and filmmaker Zbigniew Bzymek gave two workin-progress performances of their multimedia adaptation of Polish artist and philosopher Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz’s play “Pragmatists.”

According to Maillet, the selfdescribed “performer-technician” pair chose to work with the text because they were interested in the themes that Witkiewicz, who wrote during the interwar period between World War I and II, brings up. The play which debuted in 1919, asks questions about what it means to be an artist, to be bought and sold as an artist and to be exoticized, Maillet said. The play also includes characters described as genderless or androgynous, a rather unusual characterization for a work of its time and place.

Artist characters in the play build imaginary virtual worlds and escape to them, a concept that, around a hundred years later in a world that has achieved forms of virtual reality technology, still seems somewhat like uncharted territory, Maillet said.

The play also raises themes that are missing in today’s engagement with emerging technologies acknowledging that human impulse toward the virtual have been with us for a very long time, even without the actual presence of

virtual reality technology.

Byzmek, who works with film, experimental theater, music videos and virtual reality/AR, noted “backlash against technology” that sone people experience. “[Maillet]’s totally obsessed with treating technology like religion, the spirituality [of sorts] that people put on their devices … he’s one of the tech-literate Luddites I know,” Byzmek said. “He just refuses to have an iPhone, but he can code the whole show in Python, so it’s interesting …

I kind of joined up in exploring that kind of attitude.”

Both Bzymek and Maillet directed the play and worked together on the translation and adaptation of the original text. Maillet was responsible for the sound design, and Bzymek did the video design.

The multimedia aspect of their play served to accentuate such themes regarding technology and the virtual.

In their own description of the performance, the artists said they used “sound and projections as mutualmutable ‘costumes’ in a proto-VR mixed reality environment.” Bzymek said the virtual reality used in their performances played a concrete role in that the characters are still played by people, but by projecting videos and moving images onto the characters, “polygonal characters” are created.

Many engaging sonic and visual elements were used, with additional projections and lighting done by digital musics graduate student

Camilla Tassi. The show was sound- with the formist movement, which based, and the videos queuing and was formerly known as Polish programming were related to the expressionism. Artistic movements sound, Maillet said. also prominent at the time include The performance began with surrealism and dadaism, avant-garde the character Mammalia Mimecker, movements that resisted the more played by Bzymek, in an inflated conservative realist and impressionist white “costume” on which moving movements of the time. images were projected. Later in the “From what I understand, performance, moving images were [“Pragmatists”] is the work in also projected onto which Witkiewicz both a large static “We’re able to feel achieved his idea wall and moving of theater of out themes about walls. Toward the pure for m … end, Bzymek and [virtual reality] and Witkiewicz was Maillet knelt in issues from VR but really interested front of a screen in making a on which a virtual still on some sort formal world on reality-like video of of edge between the stage that he a man was projected ‘the Dada of VR and multimedia calls and interacted with real life,’” Maillet them. Throughout theater.” said. “He didn’t the performance, want the theater robotic voices to have a kind were played, either -ZBIGNIEW BYZMEK, of lesser status becoming the voice FILMMAKER of reality than of the parts played by everything else, the two performerand he wanted technicians or to accent the pure speaking to them. aspects of human “We’re able to feel interaction … he out themes about wanted to control VR and issues from VR but still on all of the elements of theater and some sort of edge between VR and create this kind of life-environment multimedia theater,” Bzymek said. that’s possible to live in.”

The multimedia adaptation Byzmek and Maillet found also plays with the idea of form it exciting to pull such formalist and the way that it renders reality, gestures into today’s world through which is a concept that interested their adaptations. Technological Witkiewicz. Witkiewicz was associated developments have made it possible

to extend the elements of theater with sound, color and projections, Maillet said.

“There [was] always something visually entertaining going on,” computer science postdoctoral student Josh Davis said. “I think I sort of fell inside the internet, and I’m meeting the humans that actually live inside the internet.”

Davis was credited as “Props Genie” and placed a mass of entangled cords on the floor to create a “mad scientist lair” effect for the show.

The artists spoke about another important aspect of their adaptation of the performance, a gesture they called “requeerifying.” Bzymek and Maillet met at the Wooster Group, a theater company in New York, where they began dating. They spoke about their personal relationship and the way that it translated to the relationship that they convey as Plasfodor Mimecker and Mammalia Mimecker onstage.

“Because there is tension between the creator figure and the muse, a mute woman that Plasfodor Mimecker is trying to form in his artistic project, the sexual politics of that are of a certain time, we’re working on ways to stage that relationship in a way that registers in our real relationship,” Maillet said.

Byzmek noted the stagings of “Pragmatists” in Poland were heteronor mative, so his and Maillet’s adaptation is an attempt to “requeerify” the work.

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

PAGE 8

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

Review: ‘Black Panther’ departs from superhero cliches

By SEBASTIAN WURZRAINER The Dartmouth Staff

There is an old truism that posits that the best superhero films are those that first and foremost aim to be different.

For instance, it is often argued that a film like “The Dark Knight” is a cut above other Batman movies because it is constructed as a gritty crime drama, not a superhero adventure flick. While statements like this occasionally rankle die-hard comic book fans, I think it really just speaks to the utterly arbitrary nature of the superhero genre label.

Consider that both “The Punisher” and “The Incredibles” are both typically classified as superhero films even though they have next to nothing in common.

My point is this: “Black Panther” is, perhaps more than any other mainstream comic book film, a story about a superhero that manages to evade the structural trappings of that genre as much as possible. To be clear, that is intended as a compliment.

Writer and director Ryan Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole have crafted a script which doesn’t eschew all of the old tropes found in other superhero

movies but rather reincorporates them into a new framework. This isn’t the story about a man learning how best to use his exceptional gifts to help mankind. Instead, it is a deeply personal family drama about loyalty, fraternity, isolationism and honor wrapped up in potent political commentary.

In an article for The Atlantic, journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, the current writer for the Marvel “Black Panther” comic book series, mentions that one of the central question he aims to tackle with his take on the series is: “Can a good man be a king?” It’s clear that the filmmakers have taken this question to heart. Around it, they have constructed a narrative which examines the responsibilities of an African monarch in a world built on colonialism and exploitation of African peoples and nations. More importantly, they don’t make these sociopolitical ideas esoteric or distant; rather, they are visceral, embodied by characters with genuine motivations and backstory.

Shortly after the death of his father, T’Challa returns to his homeland of Wakanda for his coronation so he can take up the mantle of the Black Panther.

Wakanda is a thriving Afrofuturist-

inflected country hidden from the rest of the world and disguised as an impoverished third world nation. Its success and subsequent ability to evade the horrors of colonialism are due in large part to its access to vibranium, the fictional world’s most versatile metal.

T’Challa has an opportunity to intercept and capture South African arms dealter Ulysses Klaue in Busan, South Korea. Klaue has some unpleasant history with Wakanda, and his scheme eventually leads T’Challa to face Erik “Killmonger” Stevens, a U.S. black-ops soldier with a mysterious grudge against T’Challa.

It would be irresponsible of me to review “Black Panther” without first mentioning its continued importance for black representation in mainstream media. As Coates noted, “Black Panther’s” comic debut in 1966 made him “the first black superhero in mainstream American comics.” No, it’s not the first superhero film with a black lead, but it is the first one to thoroughly foreground black identity.

It doesn’t just pay lip-service to a host of pertinent sociopolitical concerns. It makes its examination of colonialism and its many nasty reverberations

central to the main conflict.

Indeed, much of the film is so compelling because the disagreement between T’Challa and Killmonger is so engaging. Both are admirable yet flawed and the distinction between them is vividly realized: Killmonger’s myopic desire for revenge has transformed him into the sort of colonialist he hates whereas T’Challa understands that one must be willing to move beyond the past and pay attention to the future.

Of course, it helps that both of these characters are so well-acted.

Michael B. Jordan brings real humanity to Killmonger, making him possibly the most compelling villain in any Marvel Studios film to date. Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa is less showy and more understated, becoming the bedrock for this intricate plot. Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett also make the most of small parts while Martin Freeman is perfectly cast as the fish-out-of-water Central Intelligence Agency Agent Everett Ross. The real scene stealers, though, are the powerful, intelligent, witty, complex and fullyrounded trio of female characters who advise T’Challa and keep him in check: his wisecracking sister Shuri (Letitia

Wright), his loyal bodyguard Okoye (Danai Gurira) and his ex-girlfriend and spy Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o). To determine which one steals the show most is a genuinely impossible task.

The film is also gorgeous to watch.

Rachel Morrison’s cinematography is “epic” in the best sense of that word, capturing sweeping vistas and stunning landscapes. Likewise, some of the action scenes are filmed with a real sense of visceral brutality. Other action scenes, particularly parts of the final showdown, are a little pedestrian.

That said, I can’t complain too much given that these moments aren’t ever really the focus of the film.

“Black Panther” isn’t perfect.

The first half-hour or so feels like an extended yet entertaining prologue and some of the character arcs feel more developed than others. That said, there’s an approximately hour-long stretch in the middle of the film where the titular superhero never appears in costume. The fact that I was never bored during this section is a good sign.

The fact that I thought it was the best stretch of the film speaks volumes as to why “Black Panther” is one of the best superhero films in the genre.

Alumna Q&A: audio journalist and producer Laura Sim ’16

By JORDAN MCDONALD The Dartmouth Staff

Independent radio and podcast producer, Laura Sim ’16 majored in English at Dartmouth and completed a thesis on race in radio and podcasts.

In 2016, her podcast “This Dartmouth Life” helped Sim receive the John D. Bryant award for Creative Production.

After graduating, she worked at Slate, Gimlet Media, Radiotopia and now, the Wall Street Journal. Sim helped produce “The United States of Debt” at Slate and worked as an associate producer on Radiotopia’s “Millennial” and Gimlet Media’s “Crimetown,” a criticallyacclaimed podcast about politics and organized crime in Providence, Rhode Island.

Did you know that you wanted to workinpodcastingorjournalism?

LS: I tried a lot with the D-Plan. I did marketing consulting, a conservation for art, and I was listening to podcasts with my headphones whenever I was at these different internships. I realized that I love talking to people at work about podcasts, and the point was that

at Dartmouth I finally got a little bit of time to make my own podcast. It really made me think that I can do it.

[The Peabody Award-winning podcast] “Serial” came out in 2014, and that’s when everyone finally understood what a podcast was. So many people loved it, and there was so much money there. I think that was really what encouraged me to see a whole swath of people who love this medium, but there just wasn’t enough people doing it.

amazing lab that combines its social work school along with the artificial intelligence department, and together they think about race, ethnicity, age, access, all of this stuff. The reason why I bring this up as an example of the work that I did with my senior thesis where we talked about bias and how you think about bias when you can’t look at person’s face or be given visual cues. I really am thankful that my thesis was a starting point.

Your senior thesis, “Intimate Publics,” focuses on race and podcasting. How has that research informed your work?

LS: We’re doing an upcoming episode on bias in artificial intelligence, like how they’re using body cameras in police departments. Well, this upcoming story that we’re doing is — this is not for sure yet — but we’re talking to different police departments across the country and asking them how they have automated their work, and if it’s automated, someone has to build that right, so we should figure out what the red flags are. We went to the University of Southern California, which has this

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on or learned the most from?

LS: I would say this project that I’m working on. The podcast is being called “The Future of Everything.”

It’s so fun to go from an episode about music production to the next episode about quantum to the next episode on artificial intelligence bias. So, this is the project that I’ve learned the most from just because it’s such a wide variety of topics that you need to be an expert on every two weeks, and that’s why I think that this work teaches you so much about what your goals are and needing to be able to identify what is the important

stuff, what is the juicy stuff? I love getting excited and learning about things.

How did your time at Dartmouth influenced your work?

LS: I took some random classes like a linguistics class, which was super, super helpful because because I got to learn how people talk based on where they are from in the country and how your mouth moves. I was doing an internship remotely on a podcast called “Millennial.” I was freelancing, and that’s how I got my first job after college after a summer internship. So, freelancing was really, really helpful to get people to know my name, and it was some pocket money too and that was helpful. I marvel at the fact that in college what I loved doing was just writing papers. Now, I basically write papers, but they’re a slow build.

What was the most important lesson you learned at Dartmouth?

LS: Do what you want to do. I know that there are limitations, and I’m a privileged person for being able to pursue what I want to do in the way that I have. I know that. But the way

that it works is you have to know what really gets you excited. The dream is that you can carry that joy into the real world. It’d be during that time that I started to think about how you can get really excited so that when you do what you want, you’re doing it in a way that not only makes you love your life but hopefully it’s something that helps other people too.

Is there a part of your career that you’re still looking forward to?

LS: I’m really looking forward to continuing to grow relationships with mentors that I’ve developed over the years, especially at the Journal. What I’m looking forward to, eventually, I would love to like to repay that back and be a mentor to people who are younger than me because when I have heard some people say that the number one thing in your career, is to have mentors who will be there for you, I never really believed that until I got mentors who were so great that I can’t imagine my work without them.

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