The Dartmouth 4/27/17

VOL. CLXXIV NO.69

CLOUDY

THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Student sues College over accommodations

‘RBEL’ WITH A CAUSE

HIGH 66 LOW 54

By JULIAN NATHAN

The Dartmouth Staff

property at 9 Rennie Road was assessed in 2015 at a value of $282,000.

Had a settlement not been reached, the family was prepared to file suit against the College in federal court, Vitt said. He added, however, that lawsuits are expensive, time-consuming and emotionally taxing for the participants, who, in the case of the Higginses, have been through a lot already.

“For most people, spending 15, 18, 20 months in court is not a lot of fun — and then there

Staci Mannella ’18, who suffers from achromatopsia and is legally blind, recently filed a lawsuit against the College claiming that she did not receive accommodations to which she is entitled under the Americans with Disabilities Act. She said that she did not expect her condition to adversely affect her academic performance at Dartmouth because, prior to her matriculation to the College, she was assured by director of Student Accessibility Services Ward Newmeyer that his office would provide her with appropriate accommodations.

Mannella and her attorney, Rosemarie Arnold, who is Mannella’s aunt, claim SAS has not followed through on Newmeyer’s assurances. In her complaint, Mannella alleges that on several occasions, the College delayed or failed to provide her with note-takers, test readers, lab assistants and other visual aids like Echo360. Echo360 is a recording system that allows visually impaired students to record video, audio and computer display inputs during lectures in real-time.

In an interview, Mannella recounted several occasions when she did not receive course materials in an accessible format until after the academic term had already begun.

She also recalled multiple occasions when she had to analyze images during exams without the assistance of a test reader. She added that her instructors would sometimes place her into groups with other students during lab classes in lieu of providing her with a lab assistant.

On the occasions when the College did provide her with

SEE RENNIE PAGE 2

SEE LAWSUIT PAGE 2

PAULA KUTSCHERA/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Rockefeller Business and Entrepreneurial Leaders hosted a meeting yesterday evening.

FEATURE A SURVEY OF DARTMOUTH’S POLITICAL CLIMATE PAGE 4-5

OPINION

CHUN: WE’VE NEVER LEFT THE TRIBE PAGE 7

SOLOMON: BUILDING A BETTER HOME PAGE 6

GHAVRI: WHAT IS ISLAM, ANYWAY? PAGE 7

College purchases property contaminated by Rennie Farm

By ALEX FREDMAN

The Dartmouth Staff

Over 18 months after contamination from Rennie Farm was discovered on the nearby property of Richard and Deb Higgins, the College has reached a settlement with the couple, who had threatened to bring a federal lawsuit against the school in October 2016. Rennie Farm, a property in northern Hanover, was used as a waste disposal site by the College in the 1960s and 1970s to dispose of animal carcasses amassed during medical research.

Under the terms of the settlement, which was completed on April 5, the College will purchase the Higginses’ property, provide a compensatory payment for emotional impacts to the family and set up a trust fund to cover future medical expenses incurred by the Higginses, according to Ellen Arnold, associate general counsel for campus services and director of real estate.

Neither Arnold nor Geoffrey Vitt, the family’s attorney, would specify the amount of money the College agreed to pay the Higginses. According to the Valley News, the Higginses’

Sandhya Subramanian named general counsel

By EMMA DEMERS The Dartmouth

ARTS

Q&A: MUSIC PROFESSOR ASHLEY FURE PAGE 8 FOLLOW US ON

TWITTER @thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2017 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.

This July, Sandhya Subramanian will become Dartmouth’s new general counsel, taking on the role of the College’s chief legal officer. She is currently vice president, general counsel and secretary at Oberlin College.

Her hiring concludes a search process that began last year when current general counsel Robert Donin announced in August that he would be retiring this June.

The general counsel serves on the College president’s senior leadership

team and advises the president, Board of Trustees, faculty and administration on a variety of legal and strategic matters.

Subramanian will also be overseeing the Office of the General Counsel and the Office of Visa and Immigration Services.

Subramanian’s past experience includes serving as chief attorney for the U.S. Department of Education’s Cleveland Office for Civil Rights and as Oberlin’s general counsel since 2008.

“My arrival at Oberlin was really serendipitous,” she said, adding that she had become more interested in the intersection of higher education law and federal anti-discrimination laws.

Working as Oberlin’s general counsel gave her the opportunity to apply passion to her occupation, Subramanian said.

“Throughout my career I’ve really sought to put my experience at the service of institutions seeking to transform the world,” she said.

Subramanian said she also looks forward to working at Dartmouth because of its high-quality facilities and research opportunities.

“I see this unique juxtaposition of liberal arts education and commitment to research and innovation,” she said.

“Dartmouth has three professional schools and graduate education, so

I think the scope of the enterprise is remarkable. Those are areas I’m excited to plunge into.”

Government professor Sonu Bedi, a member of the search committee, cited Subramanian’s work as Oberlin’s general counsel as providing her with the pragmatism required to work within the legal arena of higher education.

“What impressed me was that she made it clear that she realizes there are various constituents — students, faculty, alums, administrators — that may have different needs or may be viewing issues from different perspectives,” he said, SEE COUNSEL PAGE 2

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017

College buys property affected by Rennie Farm contamination FROM RENNIE PAGE 1

could have been an appeal,” Vitt said.

“Basically [the Higginses] would still be sitting in that house. That’s not a good situation.”

In 2015, 1,4-dioxane, a chemical used as a purifying agent in the production of pharmaceuticals, was detected in the Higginses’ water well.

The chemical is labeled as “likely to be carcinogenic to humans” by the Environmental Protection Agency, and exposure can lead to health effects such as dizziness, eye irritation, headaches and increased risk of liver cancer. The Higginses suffered from dizziness, skin peeling in their mouths and sores, according to the Valley News.

According to the Valley News, state officials are considering placing stricter rules on New Hampshire’s specification of the amount of 1,4-dioxane permissible for safe drinking water.

The EPA has recently strengthened its regulation of the chemical as well.

Since 1,4-dioxane was initially

discovered on the Higginses’ property in September 2015, the College has provided the family with bottled water and a new water filtration system. But Vitt said that family still was not satisfied and did not drink the new water even with the filter.

“Trying to live on bottled water is not a great situation,” Vitt said. “If you think about how often you use water, every time you turn around … you expect the water to be clean. You don’t expect a carcinogen to be in your drink.”

The College initially tried to mediate with the family in May 2016, but the negotiations soon broke down.

“It didn’t go well,” Vitt said. “It just got nowhere. It was one of those mediations where it was clear that the parties were far, far apart.”

Vitt insisted that the family’s position has not changed between then and now, and that the College had made significant modifications to their position for the agreement this month.

When asked what changed between the failed mediation last May and the

recent settlement, Arnold said, “If I could answer that question, I would be in a different position than the position I’m in.”

She noted that there are usually a variety of circumstances that lead parties in a potential lawsuit to reach a settlement.

“Sometimes it just takes time, and sometimes a better understanding of factual situations or circumstances,” Arnold said. “It’s more an art than a science.”

Nonetheless, Arnold said that the College was prepared to challenge the lawsuit in court, and that she felt they had a strong position in the case.

The College had sent a 36-page letter of reply to the Higginses’ legal counsel earlier this year in response to their threat to sue, Vitt said. The letter argued that the family’s position was not meritorious and would not stand in court.

The settlement comes roughly two months after the College started its Value Assurance Program, which was

created to compensate residents affected by potential changes in property value since the spread of contamination from Rennie Farm.

Under the program, the College identified 48 eligible properties near Rennie Farm whose owners can voluntarily request the assistance of College-approved assessors and realtors in selling their properties. The College can exercise a right of first refusal to purchase any property in the program, which will last until 2022.

Tom Csatari, an attorney from the law firm Downs Rachlin Martin and a facilitator of the VAP, said that the College is close to purchasing four different properties in the area. He said it is too soon to say whether the College will continue to purchase additional land through the program or if independent buyers will enter the market.

“The goal of the program really is to … help the market, so that there will be people who will come in and offer prices that are at the fair market

value,” Csatari said.

Csatari said it is also too soon to say whether property values in the area have been affected by the VAP, but he thinks the College’s clean-up efforts at Rennie Farm will have a beneficial impact. He added that the reaction among residents to the program was positive.

“One of the goals here was to come up with a program that was going to be fair,” Csatari said. “So I’m pleased with the reaction so far from the property owners.”

For the Higgins family, meanwhile, challenges remain even after the settlement. While they want to remain in the area, Vitt said, the couple must purchase or build a house that is handicap accessible, because Deb Higgins requires a wheelchair.

Either way, Vitt said, the Higginses are ready to move on as soon as possible.

“As quickly as they can reasonably move, I think they want to be out of there,” Vitt said. “I think there’s enormous relief that they’re in a position to do that.”

General counsel selected Student files suit against College FROM COUNSEL PAGE 1

adding that Subramanian knows how to think clearly about legal issues while also moving Dartmouth in a direction that the institution wants.

Donin said he first met Subramanian through their mutual participation in the National Association of College and University Attorneys.

He said Subramanian’s past work at Oberlin and for the Department of Education makes her a good fit for the College. “[Subramanian]’s experience includes working in private practice, in public interest law, as well as in education, and that experience will have prepared her well to serve Dartmouth,” he said.

Vice president for communications Justin Anderson, who chaired the general counsel search committee, characterized both Donin and Subramanian as qualified general counsels.

“I think [Subramanian] will be able to build on the excellent work that [Donin] has done and continue a tradition of excellence within Dartmouth’s office

of the general counsel,” he said.

The search for the new general counsel involved a committee comprised of administrators and faculty members.

According to Anderson, the search committee was tasked with developing a pool of candidates, identifying semifinalists to interview and presenting a group of finalists to College President Phil Hanlon. Hanlon and several other administrators interviewed the finalists, and Hanlon made the final decision.

“The committee was gratified that the opportunity to work at Dartmouth was so compelling — we say that because of the depth and talent of the pool that we were able to attract,” Anderson said.

Bedi also emphasized the depth and richness of the candidate pool, adding that Subramanian brought something unique to campus.

“The general counsel has to have good judgment, and in addition to good judgment you want them to be not just reactive, but also proactive,” he said.

“The way [Subramanian] talked about her experience at Oberlin [College], she would be able to anticipate and not just be reactive.”

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

Correction Appended (April 25, 2017): The original version of the article “Alpha Delta will not be re-recognized” did not mention that the OAC did not find AD responsible for hazing at the time of AD’s derecognition. The article has been updated to clarify this point.

Correction Appended (April 26, 2017): The original version of the article “Turning Point USA launches campus chapter” stated that Turning Point USA was denied recognition at Santa Clara University.

This article has been updated to reflect that Santa Clara’s TPUSA chapter was later officially registered after an appeal.

FROM LAWSUIT PAGE 1

laboratory assistants, Mannella said that these assistants often did not have appropriate training to assist her as she completed her coursework.

In a biology class, Mannella said her instructor gave the class a lengthy practice test to prepare for an upcoming exam. Mannella said she did not receive the answer key to the practice test in an accessible format until after she had taken the graded exam, rendering the practice test useless. She added that she had asked for the practice test answer key multiple times prior to the administration of the graded exam.

Mannella said she believes that these circumstances have put her at a considerable disadvantage compared to other students at the College.

Arnold said that in this case, the College violated the ADA from the moment her niece enrolled at Dartmouth. Arnold explained that upon Mannella’s arrival on campus, SAS did not provide Mannella with a map of the campus that she could use. She added that SAS also did not arrange for Mannella to be escorted to her dormitory, classrooms or dining halls.

Mannella said that instead of providing her with accommodations in all of her classes, Newmeyer instituted unnecessary changes in an attempt to help her acclimate to campus life. As an example, upon her arrival at Dartmouth, Newmeyer offered to remove a stove from her dormitory. Mannella told him that despite her visual impairments, she is able to operate a stove and that removing it would have been

unnecessary.

Arnold said that Newmeyer “fell woefully short of his responsibilities [as director of SAS].”

When Mannella complained to administrators that she believed her grades in five courses had suffered as a result of the lack of accommodations, officials told her that she could retake these classes for a higher grade, Arnold said.

Mannella is asking that the College change her grades in these five courses, Arnold said. She added that the proposed changes would only improve each grade by one-third of a letter grade, namely from a B+ to an A- or from an A- to an A. Arnold explained that since the College is insisting Mannella retake these classes in order to improve her grades, she and Mannella are seeking damages to cover the cost of tuition for these classes.

Arnold explained that it is unusual for a student to sue an institution that does not provide them with accommodations because such lawsuits typically require students to pay expensive attorneys’ fees. Arnold said because she is Mannella’s aunt, she is not charging her niece, which will afford Mannella a unique opportunity to challenge the College in court.

Mannella filed her case against the College on Oct. 27, 2016, in the U.S. District Court in New Jersey, Mannella’s home state. After several months of back-and-forth between the parties, the case was dismissed in February so the parties could enter mediation outside of court. Mannella and the College could not reach a settlement, so the case was reopened on April 5.

In the court filing, attorneys representing the College asked that the court dismiss Mannella’s lawsuit because Arnold filed it in New Jersey instead of in New Hampshire, Arnold said. Arnold explained that should the College succeed in this motion, Mannella would have to re-file her lawsuit in New Hampshire.

She said she believes the College filed this motion only to make it more expensive and complicated for Mannella to continue with her lawsuit.

She noted that since the ADA is a federal law, Dartmouth is no more likely to obtain a favorable ruling in one state versus the other. She also said that New Jersey is an appropriate location for the suit because the College made promises to provide Mannella with accommodations while she was in the state and because Dartmouth has a significant recruiting presence in the state.

Both Mannella and Arnold said College officials vastly improved the accommodations they provided to Mannella after she filed her lawsuit, indicating that they recognize their liability. Mannella said that since she filed her lawsuit, College officials have ensured that Echo360 is available to her in all of her classes.

Newmeyer referred requests for comment to College spokesperson Diana Lawrence.

“We believe that the claims in the lawsuit have no merit and that we have met all of our legal obligations to Staci,” Lawrence wrote in an email statement, adding that she is a valuable member of the community.

Lawrence declined to comment further, citing pending litigation.

RELEASE DATE– Thursday, April 27, 2017

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

ACROSS 1 Letter from school 6 Tabloid fodder 12 Pop singer Spektor 14 Safari guide’s weapon 16 Saws with wisdom 17 Auburn University’s avian battle cry 18 Jewish ceremony for a newborn son 19 Photographer’s buy 21 Elastic wood 22 __ fide 23 Four-time discus gold medalist 24 “The Gold-Bug” author 25 Admin. aides 27 Bentley of “Ghost Rider” 28 1930s N.Y. Giants star Lefty 30 Earn 31 Pay attention to 33 Land mentioned in the spiritual “Go Down, Moses” 34 1959 Gidget player 36 Classic V-8 38 What the nose knows 39 “That’s amazing!”

42 Blow one’s top 43 Chum 44 Alarm 46 Remote button 47 Ohio aviation city 50 Literary alter ego 51 Comic strip outburst 52 Matures 53 Treated with a pack 54 Nabisco chocolate treat 56 Extra number 58 Hose connections 59 Tottenham tint 60 John of “Fuller House” 61 Gives a hand

DOWN 1 Source of party gifts 2 *One of a romantic dozen 3 Versus 4 Tries to unearth 5 Storm’s dir.

6 Learns new technology, say 7 __ Islands: Danish archipelago 8 *Neighborhood TV host?

9 __ crossroads 10 The Stooges frontman 11 Remove from consideration 13 Regarding 15 Banister post 17 *Computer network component 20 Took another plunge?

26 *Many a dorm accommodation 29 Vat filler 32 Last part 33 Istanbul : Constantinople :: Tokyo : __

PAGE 3

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017

34 Nurse 35 Extra purchase 36 Boot reinforcements 37 Like some e-readers 39 “Outstanding!”

40 Diner call ... and what the answer to each starred clue literally contains

41 Gardening tools 42 Lab units 43 Way around the city 45 Chewing gum ingredient 48 “We __ please” 49 Tiny bit of time: Abbr.

55 Airport near Citi Field: Abbr.

57 Masked drama

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

TODAY

DARTMOUTHEVENTS

3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Lecture: “Trump, Twitter, Circulation: American Politics as Global Entertainment,” with Northwestern University professor Brian Edwards, Carpenter Hall 013

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

Scratch Art Workshop with visiting professor and graphic novelist Line Hoven, Occom Commons, Goldstein Hall

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

Lecture: “Intellectual Vocation and Political Struggle in the Trump Moment,” with Harvard Divinity School professor Cornel West, Filene Auditorium, Moore Building

TOMORROW

3:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Conference: “Mind and Emptiness: Perspectives on the Nature of Consciousness,” Filene Auditorium, Moore Building xwordeditor@aol.com

04/27/17

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

Lecture: “Do Non-Linguistic Creatures Have a Fodorian Language,” with Harvard University professor Susan E. Carey, Moore Hall B03

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

Film: “Tickling Giants,” directed by Sara Taksler, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center

ADVERTISING 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 Neville Fogarty ©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

04/27/17

PAGE 4

THE DARTMOUTH FEATURE

THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017

A survey of Dartmouth

The Dartmouth examines student political th With intense political discourse persisting well beyond this past election, The Dartmouth set out to examine the contours of Dartmouth student public opinion regarding current events.

In a campus-wide survey fielded from April 9 to April 13, 432 students answered questions about several issues, such as tolerance for and relations with opposing political viewpoints, views toward President Donald Trump and recent government actions like the Syrian missile strike earlier this month. The findings speak to contemporary debates and provide an understanding of where students stand on current political issues.

Among all respondents, 63 percent identified as Democrat, 23 percent as Republican and 14 percent as independent.

Interpersonalpoliticalrelationshaveincreasingly gained attention on college campuses. One way to get a sense of this dynamic is to assess comfort levels among college students when interacting with others of opposing ideologies. When students at the College were asked how comfortable they would be having a roommate with opposing political views to their own, 49 percent said they would be very or somewhat comfortable, whereas 34 percent said they were very or somewhat uncomfortable.

This sentiment of openness to politically divergent roommates was not equally distributed across students of different political stripes. While 61 percent of independents and 69 percent of Republicans said they would be comfortable with a roommate of opposing political views, only 39 percent of Democrats said so. Few independents (16 percent) and Republicans (12 percent) said they would be uncomfortable, while statistically Democrats were as likely to say they would be comfortable as they would be uncomfortable.

President of Dartmouth College Democrats Charlie Blatt ’18 said she was not surprised that most Republicans reported they were comfortable with having a Democratic roommate, given that a majority of students at the College are Democrats.

“It’s unfortunate — I wish we had more political diversity,” she said. “I think the dialogue is good.”

Vice president of the Dartmouth College Republicans Abraham Herrera ’18 echoed Blatt’s sentiment, saying that since Republicans are a minority on campus, they will end up with a roommate of opposing political views the majority of the time.

Herrera said he was surprised by the large number of Republicans and the lack of Democrats that were comfortable with an out-party roommate.

If anything, managing editor of the Dartmouth Political Times Sydney Walter ’18 said she would have expected a greater divide in the potential discomfort between Republicans and Democrats.

Many of the claims about political intolerance on college campuses have stemmed from student reactions to invited speakers who tend to espouse conservative ideology and rhetoric. To speak to this issue, Dartmouth students were asked whether, regardless of their own political views, they thought certain figures from the political right should be allowed to hold a talk or event at Dartmouth. The set of figures was chosen to create a mainstream-extreme right-wing spectrum: former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, conservative author Charles Murray, Trump, alt-right personality Milo Yiannopoulos and white nationalist Richard Spencer.

For almost every speaker, a majority of students said they should be allowed to speak at the College: 94 percent said yes for Romney, 75 percent for Trump, 65 percent for Murray, 54 percent for Yiannopoulos and 50 percent for Spencer. The greatest opposition came for Yiannopoulos, with 38 percent saying he should not be able to speak at the College, but nonetheless many more students said he should be allowed.

Breaking up the same results by party revealed Democrats as being more reluctant to say some of these speakers should be allowed to give a talk.

Namely, more Democrats said no to Yiannopoulos — 38 percent yes, 52 percent no — and Democrats were about equally divided on Spencer — 35 percent each saying yes and no, while 30 percent were unsure or unfamiliar. For Murray, 54 percent

of Democrats were okay with him holding an event at Dartmouth while 10 percent were not okay. On the other end, Republicans were overwhelmingly okay with allowing every speaker listed — Spencer was the lowest on the list, but even then, 83 percent of Republicans said he should be allowed to speak at Dartmouth.

Different students emphasized the importance of hearing dissenting opinions and commented on the nature of political tolerance at the College.

Walter said she expected more people to have been against Yiannopoulos as a speaker.

Blatt said that she was surprised there was not more “uproar” when Yiannopoulos visited campus this last November. She also said she “falls under the school of thought that more speech is good speech,” and response to speech with which one disagrees is still more speech.

“I vehemently disagree with everything Milo Yiannopoulos stands for, but that does not mean I [think] we shouldn’t have him on this campus because I think we should have him here to challenge his views,” she said.

Based on the protests over Emily Yoffe, a speaker from October 2015 who held controversial views regarding campus sexual assault, Herrera said that he does not think that all Dartmouth students have the same opinion that all discourse is good.

He added that he does not consider Charles Murray to be “that problematic” as a speaker since he brings discourse based on research.

“I think some of the points that he makes may seem [uncomfortable] at first, but he does research and he’s a scholar on these issues so he doesn’t bring a biased perspective in my opinion,” Herrera said.

The publicity surrounding Charles Murray at Middlebury College, where students violently protested his talk, may have convinced Dartmouth students that such speakers should not be brought to campus because it was “so rough” on Middlebury, Blatt said. She added that the term “controversial” at the College is now often

B y Alexander Agadjan

The Dartm

thought of as “probably right-leaning” since the balance of political opinions is left-leaning.

Walter added that students in the middle of the political spectrum are not as politically engaged and visible, which is reflective of the rest of the country.

“We only really tend to hear from people from either ends of the spectrum,” Walter said.

When she works with conservative students in writing for the Dartmouth Political Times, Walter said they feel uncomfortable voicing their opinion in fear that they will

Overall, 49 percent of students said they would be comfo

ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Eighty-five percent of students strongly or somewhat disapprove of the job President Donald Trump is doing in office.

Seventy-five percent of students surveyed think that President Dona

THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017

h’s political landscape

hought after the recent presidential election.

nian and Amanda Zhou

mouth Staff

experience backlash.

“I think they feel that if they voice something that’s even a well-educated and well-founded opinion, just because it might come from a conservative stint, people will refuse to hear it,” she said.

Blatt said she would be curious to see how Republicans at the College would feel about a controversial liberal speaker such as Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood.

Popular political accounts of the College’s student

ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

ortable with a roommate with opposing political views.

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THE DARTMOUTH FEATURE

body often portray a staunchly left-leaning campus.

Public opinion data backs this up well, and so it is no surprise that a Republican like Trump receives poor approval ratings from students on campus. When asked whether they approved or disapproved of the way Trump is handling his job as president, 11 percent of students said they strongly or somewhat approved, while 85 percent said they strongly or somewhat disapproved. Interestingly, the disapproval percentage exactly matches the percentage of students who intended to vote for former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton when The Dartmouth polled about voting choice in the run-up to the 2016 general election.

This might imply that students initially against Trump continue to be so, unchanged by the election result, inauguration or the first few months of the Trump presidency.

Gauging student opinion on Trump among different partisanship identities adds another layer of understanding. Democrats are resolutely against the president, as just under 100 percent of them say they disapprove.

Independents who do not lean toward any party hold similar levels of distaste: only 3 percent approve of Trump, compared to 92 percent who disapprove. Republicans, on the other hand, are much more split: 47 percent approve of Trump and 40 percent disapprove. Because of a small sample size, that different is not significant, but the result does imply that roughly equal numbers of Republicans on campus approve and disapprove of the president from their own party.

Blatt said people usually have a strong instinct to defend the political candidate or party that lines up with their ideology, even when confronted with contradictory information.

Given the relatively high level of education of the student body, Blatt said it is interesting that students at the College align with what political research says about party affiliation and loyalty.

“You’d think that if anyone was going to change their opinion about a president, it would be this group of people,” Blatt said.

ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

ald Trump should be allowed to hold a talk or event at Dartmouth.

Methodology Notes: From Sunday, April 9 to Thursday, April 13, The Dartmouth fielded an online survey of Dartmouth students on community-related topics. The survey was sent out to 4,200 students through their school email addresses. 432 responses were recorded, making for a 10.3 percent response rate. An opt-in survey such as this one does not produce a random or entirely representative sample. Using administrative data from the College’s Office of Institutional Research, responses were first weighted by Greek affiliation for all non-freshmen, and then weighted by class year, gender, race/ethnicity and international student status for all students. Iterative post-stratification (raking) was the method used for weighting. Survey results for all respondents have a credibility interval of +/- 4.8.

Note: Only differences within a demographic that were statistically significant are reported.

Walter said the results play into the narrative that Trump supporters have a low bar for support given the style of his presidential campaign.

“I think he demonstrated the full gambit of who he is from the election, and if they were still willing to vote for him, I’d be shocked now if they decided to turn away,” she said.

At the time of the survey’s administration, a topical issue was the recent chemical attack in Syria and Trump’s response in the form of a missile strike. Students were asked whether or not the U.S. should have responded to the chemical attack and how appropriate a response was a missile strike.

Only 11 percent of Dartmouth students said the U.S. should not have responded at all, while 70 percent said it should have responded in some way.

Within this 70 percent who thought a response was necessitated, 34 percent said the U.S. should have responded but it went too far, and 30 percent said that the U.S. should have responded and the missile strike was the right level of response. Only 6 percent said they approved of a response but did not think the missile strike went far enough.

Democratic, Republican and independent students were about equally likely to say that the U.S. should have responded in some way. However, 42 percent of Democrats said that the missile strikes went too far, while 59 percent of Republicans viewed the strikes as the right level of response.

Blatt said that even as a staunch Democrat and someone who studies international relations, she has a difficult time figuring out what is the best course of action. Thus, she was not surprised by the wide range of responses to the question.

Under the foreign policy of former President Barack Obama’s administration, the United States refused to use military retaliation with Syria but reserved chemical weapons as a “red line.”

However, when evidence of chemical weapons was found, the Obama administration opted to negotiate a deal with Russia and Syria with the promise that Russia would supervise the removal of all chemical weapons.

Walter said there was a lot of conservative

frustration over these policies and said this was a clear example of Obama not following through on his own policy. The rationale was that there would be no way to prevent becoming further involved with Syria, Blatt said.

Walter pointed out that there could be a knowledge gap on the conflict. In other words, if a student is interested they will know a lot about the issue, but otherwise it is more of a “headline thing.” “[The results] are close enough, in my opinion, that people are just like, ‘He responded and what would my ideological leaning tell me about this,’” she said.

The “yes-side” indicates the excusability of chemical weapons, while the “no-side” represents an unwillingness to become further involved with Syria in a slippery slope, Blatt said. Herrera agreed that Syria has become a contentious issue with both Democrats and Republicans opposing and supporting the strikes.

Democrats, in general, likely responded more positively to the strikes since it seemed to be the first “presidential” action Trump had taken without any scandal or mishap, Walter said.

“It was a strong step that showed leadership,” Walter said.

Now while there is conservative support of Trump taking action in Syria, many more Americans are “war-weary” or not interventionists, Walter said.

“The United States is going through a little bit more isolationist nationalist rise that we’re seeing across Europe as well and led to the Trump presidency,” she said.

Herrera said he considers himself a “neoconservative” when it comes to foreign policy in that he thought the response was at the right level and that the U.S ought to become more involved with Syria.

He also added there may be an element of “political expediency” or that public opinion has shifted on how aggressive U.S foreign policy should be.

ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Seventy percent of students thought that the United States should have responded to the chemical attack in Syria.

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 6

THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017

STAFF COLUMNIST SOFIA STANESCU-BELLU ’20

STAFF COLUMNIST IOANA SOLOMON ’19

Au Revoir, Établissement

Building a Better Home

The French presidential election is a death knell for establishment politics.

You probably haven’t paid attention to the French presidential election. I wouldn’t blame you. We have enough political turmoil here without worrying about issues across the Atlantic. Yet the effects of the election in France will have a substantial impact on the politics worldwide and already the election has changed the way Europeans approach and view politics.

The French have many electorally viable political parties. The first round of the presidential election is a free-for-all, with the two candidates with the most votes advancing to a runoff if there is no first-round majority.

This year, following Sunday’s first round, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the Front National party, and Emmanuel Macron, who leads En Marche!, a progressive, centrist coalition, remain in the race for president.

Le Pen is a right-wing populist who, while trying to shed the Front National’s far-right image, has maintained controversial positions on important issues. She has condemned hijabs, yarmulkes and Sikh turbans as well as the construction of mosques, threatened to withdraw France from the Eurozone and has close ties to Russia and President Vladimir Putin. Le Pen tweeted congratulations to then president-elect Donald Trump before any other major foreign political candidate — in the early hours of Nov. 9, 2016.

Macron worked as an investment banker for Rothschild & Cie Banque early in his career, joined current President François Hollande’s cabinet as economy minister then broke away to found his own party in 2016. Macron is a staunch supporter of the European Union and has proposed transformative economic policies. He has promised to block a ban on hijabs in French schools, enforce gender equality and cut corporate income taxes. However, he has struggled to present himself as a candidate of substance rather than just a palatable centrist alternative to Le Pen. Although most of the other candidates have endorsed Macron as he heads into the second round, recent history shows that an establishment-endorsed candidate can turn out on the losing side.

So why does this matter? First, both

candidates are very unconventional. This shouldn’t be a shock after numerous countries have elected — or nearly elected — populist leaders, and British voters opted to exit the European Union. Yet while the unconventional nature of the candidates isn’t surprising, ignoring it is a mistake.

The French election is another sign of the changing nature of politics. The status quo candidates with years of experience in government and views on the safer side, very much in line with conventional party platforms, is disappearing. We now see the entry of radical politicians and newcomers that are shaking up politics.

These new leaders are appealing to parts of the population that were previously ignored and forgotten but have a great deal of electoral sway. These segments of the population can act as the force to swing the election in a candidate’s favor, and the tide so far has been flowing in the direction of nationalism and populism.

In the Dartmouth bubble, foreign affairs sometimes don’t seem real — they feel like events happening worlds away that don’t impact us. However, our time at Dartmouth is limited. As adults who will be living in this new world with its volatile and mercurial political landscape, it is important to remain aware of these changes and the impact they can have on our lives. Sure, France is in Europe, and the Franco-American relationship is — at least culturally — not always warm, but regardless of which candidate wins, the results of the French election will have a huge economic and social impact on everyday life around the globe. What the election represents — an overthrowing of the old guard and the embracing of new, extreme viewpoints — will shape the world for decades to come.

So rather than scrolling past that New York Times or Wall Street Journal article about the French election in your Facebook newsfeed, take a few minutes to read it.

Remain informed and engaged, because ignorance is no longer bliss; ignorance leads to violence. Ignorance leads to a destruction of the world as you know it.

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ISSUE

NEWS EDITOR: Sonia Qin, NEWS LAYOUT: Jasmine Mai

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.

We can better cope with stress by utilizing Dartmouth’s unique resources.

An admitted student and his father walked — until we wake up the next morning, through the admissions office door during hungover, sinking deeper into the quicksand one of my shifts last week. The father asked of problems that always blow up just when me, “Is Dartmouth a really big party school? we think they’ll go away. The next weekend, Because if so, it probably isn’t the right we turn again to alcohol and hookups until place for my son.” I had no time to share we form a cycle that is almost impossible to with him everything I had on my mind. My break. brief answer to them was that Dartmouth is Most of us are aware that our coping known for far more important things than mechanisms are ineffective. But we have its Greek culture and that while no campus entrenched them so deeply into our culture will ever be perfect, the that trying to break issues that plague us away means accepting also plague every other “The peak of my outsider status. We are elite institution in the pride in Dartmouth afraid of facing our country. I then passed problems sober. We are them on to an admissions was when I opened afraid of doing anything officer, who sat down my acceptance without someone by our with them for a lengthier side. We are afraid of not letter. Gradually, the conversation. belonging.

I thought about the disappointment, While no one is immune answer I gave to that frustration and from the issues we face kid’s father, and the and there are plenty hundreds of similar isolation I have o f camp u s es acro s s answers I had given experienced here has the nation that have it to visitors, prospective we are uniquely left a bitter taste in my worse, students and admitted equipped to be far students. Those answers mouth.” better than we are. The were never enough. common excuse for our They never felt satisfying heavy drinking culture — not to me, and likely and pervasive Greek not to them. Worst of all, system is isolation. But they never felt honest. that’s counterintuitive.

Whenever I am asked what I dislike about City schools where peace and quiet are Dartmouth, I feel an inherent obligation, rare if nonexistent are just as “ragey.” as someone who works in admissions, Their level of stress is not comparable with to sugarcoat the negatives. My job is to ours. We live in a small, peaceful town, present Dartmouth in a good light, to attest surrounded by beautiful nature. When we as enthusiastically as possible to it being a resort to drinking for entertainment and college worth attending, and part of that stress relief, we ignore everything around job involves a level of deception. us that makes Dartmouth remarkable. We The peak of my pride in Dartmouth have no excuse to be called a “party school” was when I opened when we have open my acceptance rivers and hiking trails l e t t e r. G r a d u a l l y, “I want the enthusiasm that students around the the disappointment, with which I speak country can only dream frustration and isolation of — natural, healthy I have experienced here about Dartmouth to outlets to relieve our has left a bitter taste in be more than a mask I stress. my mouth.

I want the enthusiasm take off after my shift Some of that is with which I speak about particular to me or is is over. I want us to be Dartmouth to be more to be expected with a place where students than a mask I take off any institution or after my shift is over. I environment. But we come for a healthy want us to be a place hide behind that excuse. education, not liver where students come We are not perfect, and it for a healthy education, damage.” seems like we have given not liver damage. We up any attempt to be. We can take advantage of have gained a harmful what we have around reputation as a “party us, we can find more school,” and instead sustainable ways to cope of trying to correct it, with pressure and we can we have embraced it and turned it into an be stronger, individually and communally. object of perverse pride.

Making Dartmouth more attractive to In a complicated mesh of misinterpreted future generations is not something we can traditions, stereotypes we think are far too leave to the surface-level solutions of the ingrained to correct and a problematic “work administration. Students need to take the hard, play hard” mantra lies an inability to initiative. We do not only need to be better. cope with our stress. For most of us, binge We owe it to those who made Dartmouth drinking and meaningless hookups give home for us and to those for whom it will our overloaded selves a temporary escape be home once we leave.

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017

PAGE 7

STAFF COLUMNIST ANMOL GHAVRI ’18

STAFF COLUMNIST STEVEN CHUN ’19

What is Islam, Anyway?

We’ve Never Left the Tribe

A self-proclaimed “angry brown man” rants about Islam.

Islam is whatever a practicing Muslim says it is for them. Period.

If you are a religious layman and your journalism diet consists of CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, then your only interaction with Muslims is when an anchor is narrating coverage of a terrorist attack in Paris or London. Panic, brown bodies and explosions are the only thoughts a majority of Americans associate with Islam. As far as they are concerned, there is no difference between a “radical moose-lamb” terrorist and any other Muslim. Islam is Islam; Christianity is Christianity. Done deal. No-go zones in British cities and the oppression of women! “They” are incompatible with “us.”

“They” hate democracy and are jealous of how wealthy and powerful “we” are. And that is that.

Unfortunately, this is not a fringe belief.

Powerful people in Western governments hold these views. The religious and cultural illiteracy around the world and especially in halls of power is shocking. Politicians like Rep. Steve King, R-IA, President Donald Trump and his chief strategist Stephen Bannon view the world in black and white. Good and evil. Christianity and Islam.

Religions are first and foremost social and cultural phenomena. They are not top-down monolithic entities but are inseparable from class, race and gender. In Muslim majority countries, socioeconomic status and the urban-rural divide are far more predictive of social and cultural views than simply “being” a Muslim. Indeed, there exists no singular form of Islam, just as there exists no singular form of Christianity.

The issue of the veil? Cosmopolitan or uppermiddle class female Muslims often do not wear a hijab, and if they do, many choose to do so under their own volition.

I do not mean to say that many cosmopolitan women in Muslim majority cities are not forced or culturally coerced to “cover-up,” just that we should examine who has agency in the choice.

Last year’s attempts to enforce a “burkini” ban on French beaches essentially swapped religious patriarchy with state paternalism. If someone continues to wear religious attire after a white feminist tells her that it has historically been a tool of male-led oppression and she no longer has to, is it not just as patronizing and orientalist to tell her how “backward” she is for continuing to do so? Give Muslims, especially Muslim women, agency in representing themselves to the world. Whether it is the state-mandated hijab in Iran or the ban of religious attire in France, please stop using women’s bodies as cultural battlefields. For a Muslim woman’s perspective on this issue, I highly recommend the blog “The Brown Hijabi,” run by a student at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

Another issue that gets under my skin is the issue of Sharia law. Alabama passed an amendment to its State Constitution in 2014 to ban Sharia. Phew! Our brave legislators stopped that creeping Sharia from taking hold in the great patriotic state of Alabama. Yet, all religious texts govern how people interact and live. The key issue is how these texts are acted upon or followed in practice, if at all. There is text within the Bible governing the lives of Christians, just as the Quran and hadiths have

stuffy diatribes about how to act or how early Muslims acted. To actually understand how this all manifests itself, we must ask: who is doing the reading, interpreting and enforcing? Where is the form of religion being practiced? Christianity in 14th-century England was different from Christianity during the Byzantine period. Sufi Islam in rural Punjab, India is different from cosmopolitan Islam in Istanbul, Turkey, which is different from Wahhabi Islam in Saudi Arabia or dialectical Shiism in Shiraz, Iran.

Moreover, Islamic law, like Christian law, is a loose and uncodified collection of texts and beliefs. It is debated continuously and selectively enforced, if at all, in many countries. The Islamic State is attempting to enforce some purified and mythological form of Islamic law which never existed. Just like in Western countries, legal codes in many Muslim majority countries are usually a reconciliation between English civil codes and local traditions. Because religions are also social phenomena, Islam often finds a way into such codes. But is that any different from America’s supposedly “secular” legal system in which “Christian values” are influential? Still, there exists no singular and menacing Sharia law coming to enslave us supposed infidels.

I do not mean to downplay the issues within Islamic communities and countries but to emphasize the need for some nuance and sophistry. The problem of the alienation and radicalization of young Muslim men in the postcolonial West is real. Fundamentalist groups in East London, Germany and France, along with the quasi-state formed by Daesh in the Levant, are pressing issues that are not going away. Sweeping policies, claims and “kill them all” language are not real solutions — although they will certainly get you votes in U.S. elections.

If the United States was really serious about “radical Islam,” it would confront Saudi Arabia over its promotion of Wahhabi ideology and conformist-puritanical vision of Islam. Largescale attacks such as 9/11 and the emergence of groups such as ISIS can be traced back to Saudi Arabian Wahhabism and its spread. Yet, with its power over oil and security alliance with the West, Saudi Arabia may be the only Muslim majority country the United States will never challenge.

When pseudo-intellectual political commentators like Bill Maher or Sam Harris speak about the problems of a single “Islam,” what they are really doing is glossing over the hundreds of dialectical, localized and cultural forms of Islam and the socioeconomic diversity within the Islamicate world to present one version to Western audiences — not too different from the “clash of civilizations” approach taken

by Steve Bannon or Wahhabis.

Travel to Muslim majority countries. Eat Middle Eastern cuisines. Listen to some Arabic or Turkish music. Look at Islamic art. Get to know your Muslim neighbors. They did not migrate across the world with some ulterior motive to impose Islamic law on the unsuspecting Americans of Alabama. They are here to stay, they adhere to secular ideals, they are good people and they do not want to “change” us.

As if cultures were ever static and unchanging ideas to begin with.

An anthropological look at tribalism helps explain campus social life.

We once used tribalism to describe the Exclusivity, a tenet of collegiate tribes, is a way circumstances of ethnic conflict or to explain of forming strong social identity. Yet inclusivity warring factions in failed states, but now the has become a rallying cry for campus reform. My word is just as commonly thrown around in the fear is that those fighting hard for inclusivity don’t political op-ed pages of the New York Times fully recognize the 200,000 years of evolution as it is in academic papers on foreign policy. It’s that they’re up against. Furthermore, strength a useful term — a succinct way of explaining of social identity and exclusivity may be very humans’ proclivity to group, categorize and close to a zero-sum game. This is not to say that create social identity. And it’s been remarkably inclusivity is not a worthy goal. It is simply to say apt at describing the worst parts of our political that we are not built for it. climate: hostility toward immigrants, anti- We shouldn’t abolish tribalism, and we globalization, “America First” policies, bans on couldn’t if we tried. While its ramifications have Muslim immigration and left the European Union the increasingly visible “As we discover more on thin ice and flown in white supremacy of the the face of good sense, alt-right. All these issues about the human tribalism is a fundamental clearly demarcate an in- psyche, we gaze into part of our identity. The group, such as whites best we can do is to be a window to our own or Americans, showing vigilant about the moments hostility to an out-group, reasoning. Through when our tribalistic such as Muslims. instincts lead us down this, we’ve found odd The effect of tribalism the wrong road. National on these matters is hard structures such as pride is good for building to understate. This confirmation bias and unity and patriotism within fundamental human a country, but not when tribalism. No other instinct renders common that pride convinces us sense ir relevant — organism that we know to shoot ourselves in our research showing the of is privy to its own collective feet just to “win” overwhelmingly positive against an out-group. We e c o n o m i c i m p a c t s machinations.” have to realize that, in all of immigration and likelihood, conservatives globalization holds no sway over our DNA. But and liberals aren’t the demonized straw men I don’t want to talk about policy so much as I do each side likes to imagine — Tajfel’s research about human nature, and there are few better led to the finding that people tend to greatly microcosms to look at the peculiar phenomena exaggerate differences between groups and of tribalism than Dartmouth. similarities inside groups.

College is a never-ending series of No amount of administrative action can outlaw categorization. We join clubs, rush Greek houses, tribalism. To quote Jeff Goldblum’s character in organize into dor ms “Jurassic Park,” “Life, uh and floors, get tapped “Our ability to form … finds a way.” We must for societies, form friend therefore be cautious not groups and even get sorted complex, purposeful to waste resources on into housing communities. groups very well may fruitless assaults on human These become our tribes. nature. For the current be one of our species’ Tribalism itself isn’t evolutionary horizon, fundamentally bad. defining characteristics. we are stuck with the Indeed, the social identities It’s a potent substance way we are. But I think and communities we we can all gain from an form provide us with the we crave without fully increased awareness of networks of support and recognizing the side our tribes and how they guidance that we need affect our reasoning. They effects.” as social creatures. Our simultaneously provide us ability to form complex, with community, safety, purposeful groups very well may be one of our identity and validation while at times clouding species’ defining characteristics. It’s a potent our better judgement. substance we crave without fully recognizing As we discover more about the human psyche, the side effects. we gaze into a window to our own reasoning.

In the 1970s, Henri Tajfel pioneered the idea Through this, we’ve found odd structures of social identity theory, which uses a person’s such as confirmation bias and tribalism. No social identity to explain how in-groups treat other organism that we know of is privy to its out-groups, especially in situations of perceived own machinations. Maybe if dogs knew their unequal social standing. His experiments showed anatomy better, they would realize the futility that even in arbitrarily formed groups that would of chasing their tails. Probably not, they’re never meet again, tribes formed. These tribes dogs. But let’s not chase our proverbial tails in would then allocate resources to maximize their pointless attempts at changing human nature. gain relative to other groups, even sacrificing Rather, we should work creatively within the absolute gain for a better relative result. This constraints we know exist to accomplish those is both the failing and triumph of tribalism; we goals of modernity and inclusion that natural feel better about ourselves when we can elevate selection failed to acknowledge. We can accept our social group above others — even if it is at our natural inclinations without falling victim to our own expense. them.

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

PAGE 8

THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017

Q&A with Rome Prize-winning music professor Ashley Fure

By ANNIE PHIFER The Dartmouth

Music professor Ashley Fure, a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music, recently added the Rome Prize to her list of impressive accolades in this year alone. Recently, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and her composition “Bound to the Bow” was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Fure, who holds a Ph.D. in music composition from Harvard University, joined Dartmouth’s faculty in 2015.

How did you first realize your talent in music?

AF: It’s actually one of my earliest memories. I was 4 years old, and my parents bought this old, beatup piano from a neighborhood church that was getting rid of it, and we were moving from the town I was born in to the town where I eventually grew up. I was the youngest in a big family, and there was lots of chaos around me and the house was being emptied.

I was just kind of forlornly sitting at the piano and my dad came down the stairs and — I have this very vivid memory of it — he said, “Honey, when we get to Marquette, [Michigan,] we’re going to get you piano lessons.” And I was four, so I think he thought — he was just trying to pacify me — and he thought I would forget about it.

But I didn’t, I would just not let it go when I got there. They thought I was too young, and they couldn’t really afford it, but my grandfather ended up jumping in. So I started taking piano lessons really early, and I actually just always composed. At that age, it meant improvising and memorizing and performing them at my little piano recitals. It was just always a thing I did. I never thought it was weird, I never even thought I sat down with it and was like, “Hmm, maybe I’ll be a composer.”

I always did it, and I kept doing it.

At some point, somebody else kind of named it for me, and they were like, “Wow, it’s really weird that you do that — maybe you should start doing that consciously,” but that was much, much later, like when I was a teenager.

It was a pattern I was in. I did it consciously in the sense that I kept wanting to do it, and I kept

working at it. I was taking piano lessons and my piano teachers, as I got older, started encouraging me to write down the notation and not just memorize it myself and perform it. At some point, I ended up applying to go to [Interlochen Arts Academy,] a fine arts boarding high school. I applied as a composer. That was the first time that I consciously studied it and that was my junior and senior year of high school.

and being a full-time professor.

Dartmouth is great in the sense that we have a term structure — they’re intense, those terms — but our term is really helpful for doing your own work. Obviously, there is a lot of research support built in and sabbatical support, so it makes it more manageable than some other places, but I’m not going to lie — it is exhausting!

Your work “The Force of Things” premiered last year Yo u j o i n e d t h e m u s i c in Germany in an immersive department at Dartmouth in environment for the audience.

2015. How has this affected How do you envision music as your artistic career? multidisciplinary?

AF: There are two parts of this AF: Well, sound is just actually story. I actually was in Europe movement — it’s just things for six years, and bumping up against I moved back to other things. So if America in 2014 “In a way, sound you slow a speaker t o t a k e a p o s t - is inherently down enough, the doc at Columbia synesthetic and faster they bump [ U n i v e r s i t y, ] up against them, the then I came up to inherently deals higher the pitches Dartmouth for this with physical sound; the slower job. So the job here they bump up against kind of coincided movement each other, whether with me mov ing and auditory it’s air molecules back to America and or sound passing phenomena actually coincided through different with quite an upsurge and visual media, then the of opportunities for phenomena.” lower that perceived me here, in addition tone will sound. So, to the professional actually, if you take a career I had built -ASHLEY FURE, speaker and you just up in Europe. So MUSIC PROFESSOR put a tone through the teaching job it that’s too low for coincided with quite humans to hear, you a wealth of opportunities which actually can see the movement of have kept feeling like they’re too the speaker, like sound becomes good to miss, which means that I sight at this threshold of audibility. just don’t sleep very much! It’s a In a way, sound is inherently lot to manage, to be present for my synesthetic and inherently deals students and also be present for with physical movement and my work. The problem with my auditory phenomena and visual work is that, unlike the traditional phenomena. So this project, humanities disciplines where you “The Force of Things” — there can write a couple of great books aren’t any motors in it, things are before tenure, there are two things kinetically moving around you, but that make it different. One is that it’s sound that’s moving everything.

I need to be physically present for It’s subwoofer speaker cones rehearsals and for premieres, and that are causing all of the visual the second is that I’m not actually inflection and all of the auditory as in control of the timing of these inflection. And just about all of projects as my colleagues in other the big interdisciplinary projects disciplines might be, so they call me I’ve built are looking for that — up, and they want a string quartet, this synesthetic mapping, where and the concert’s May 15, and one modality is somehow read that doesn’t matter if that’s in the into another modality, whether middle of my term — a lot of those it’s sight into sound or light into details are outside of my hands, physical movement. I’m looking so that makes it harder, I think, to for these kind of intuitive tangled manage being a practicing artist gesture relationships between all

those different layers.

marshal these forces, so you can make what you want to make and That sounds like quite an have a chance to do so. experience!

Like I said, I was in Europe AF: Well, you should all come! for those six years, and it’s such a “The Force of Things” premiered different artistic infrastructure. I in Germany last summer, but the moved there at the end of graduate big scaled-up version is happening school, so all of my adult work had just outside of New York — a been really made in Europe. And five-minute train ride from the the arts funding structure is wildly city — in October, the sixth and different than ours in the sense that seventh I think. it exists. And also in the sense that, in America, a lot of our arts funding You’ve recently received is really filtered through the r e c o g n i t i o n f r o m t h e university system, in a way. “The Guggenheim and Pulitzer Force of Things” is the first project c o m m i t t e e s , a n d , m o s t that I’ve really had to source here recently, a Rome Prize. Going in America, and we got funding — forward, how do you think the ensemble I was working with these fellowships will help in New York — the International you realize your career goals? Contemporary Ensemble, who is AF: I would say a couple things. coming up for a concert on Tuesday.

One is that it’s just an incredible They’re playing a piece of mine, gift of time and support to just playing three pieces of Dartmouth focus on your work — there’s just students, they’re playing some an invaluable luxury in that, and to iconic works. So ICE — it’s an just have a breath away from all of incredible ensemble, but it’s also the responsibilities that come with incredible at the business side of teaching. But it’s not just about the making works, so they know how ego, it’s not about winning these to to hustle funds. And it was really win them. What fascinating to do they do is that “The résumé stuff, this ambitious they create an project here in i n f r a s t r u c t u re. you know, it’s never the states for the Prizes that have the end goal — it first time with recognition like them. So we got can’t be. It’s not that — they help a big grant from y o u a d v o c a t e how you ultimately Dartmouth, for your work. value your own work, a n d i t ’ s a P a r t i c u l a r l y, collaboration t h e s e w i l d e r but what it helps with my brother, interdisciplinary to facilitate is the who teaches at p ro j e c t s, t h ey the University opportunity for you actually require o f M i ch i g a n . quite a bit of to make more work, So we got a lot i n v e s t m e n t . for you to go forth of funding from They require them, we got a the investment and marshal these lot of funding o f t i m e a n d forces, so you can from Siemens, re s o u rc e s a n d which is a big space, a n d make what you want German cultural p u l l i n g t h a t to make and have a funding body, we off, you have to chance to do so.” got all sorts. You marshal a lot of kind of have to people to believe piece together in your work and -ASHLEY FURE, MUSIC a l l t h i s s t u f f, a lot of people all of which is t o o f f e r t h e s e PROFESSOR a longwinded different kinds way of saying of support. The that this type of résumé stuff, you know, it’s never recognition helps that process and the end goal — it can’t be. It’s not pulls together resources to help how you ultimately value your own advocate for your work. work, but what it helps to facilitate is the opportunity for you to make This interview has been edited and more work, for you to go forth and condensed for clarity and length.