VOL. CLXXIV NO.89
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2017
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Trips will end at Skiway lodge, not Moosilauke
RAIN HIGH 63 LOW 50
By MIKA JEHOON LEE The Dartmouth Staff
PAULA MENDOZA/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
OPINION
MALBREAUX: THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS PAGE 7
SZUHAJ: IN APPRECIATION OF DARTMOUTH PAGE 6
REGAN: ON TERROR FROM ABROAD PAGE 6
ARTS
ALUMNUS Q&A: SCREENWRITER KAMRAN PASHA ’93 PAGE 8 READ US ON
DARTBEAT OVERHEARDS GREEN KEY EDITION FOLLOW US ON
TWITTER @thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2017 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.
This year, Dartmouth Outing Club’s First-Year Trips will culminate in an overnight stay at the McLane Family Lodge at the Dartmouth Skiway because the construction of the new Moosilauke Ravine Lodge will not be completed in time. Construction at Moosilauke Ravine Lodge began last fall after the 2016 Trips program. In a Feb. 16 article in The Dartmouth, DOC director of outdoor programs Dan Nelson ’75 said construction
The new Moosilauke Ravine Lodge will not be completed in time to host First-Year Trips in the fall.
SEE LODJ PAGE 2
Mitchel Davis to be next chief information officer
By ALEX FREDMAN
The Dartmouth Staff
Mitchel Davis has been selected as Dartmouth’s next vice president for information technology and chief infor mation officer, the College announced last week. Davis, who has been the chief information officer and senior vice president at Bowdoin College since 2003, will begin his new position on July 1. Davis was selected following a nationwide search conducted
after the College’s previous chief information officer, Ellen WaiteFranzen, retired last June. A search committee of 16 faculty, staff and administrators chose Davis out of a pool of around 100 potential candidates, according to executive vice president Rick Mills. Davis will report to Mills and Provost Carolyn Dever. “[Dartmouth] felt like a comfortable place, and it felt like somewhere where I could make a difference,” Davis said.
S i n c e Wa i t e - Fr a n z e n ’s r e t i r e m e n t , Jo e D o u c e t , t h e Information Technology Services chief technology officer and deputy information officer, has served as interim vice president for ITS and will continue to do so until Davis arrives in July. As chief information officer, Davis will oversee the ITS department, which has 160 employees. Mills said that the ITS department works in three distinct areas: supporting students’ and faculty members’
Q&A with smartwatch designer Jun Gong By DEBORA HYEMIN HAN The Dartmouth Staff
To overcome problems originating from stationary smartwatches, researchers at Dartmouth College and the University of Waterloo created a smartwatch that is able to move on its own. Jun Gong, a computer science postdoctoral candidate in the human computer interaction field at Dartmouth, collaborated with Dartmouth computer science professor Xing Dong
academic goals through classroom technology and research computing, supporting administrative systems, such as ones used for enrollment and accounting, and maintaining t h e C o l l e g e ’s t e c h n o l o g i c a l infrastructure. In an email statement, Doucet wrote that Davis will likely have to start his new job by evaluating the current status of the ITS department and listening to various groups SEE CIO PAGE 2
SOCIAL RESISTANCE THROUGH ART
Yang, graduate student at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Lan Li and University of Waterloo professor Daniel Vogel to create Cito, an actuated, moveable smartwatch. Gong recently presented Cito at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, called CHI, in Denver, Colorado. Is this an idea you had before you came to Dartmouth or something NICK SAMEL/THE DARTMOUTH
SEE SMARTWATCH PAGE 5
Students performed at an open mic during the 2017 Lifted event.
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
PAGE 2
Mitchel Davis will join College as CIO
After completing his education, Davis said he originally wanted to around campus regarding their be a tech writer but soon began doing IT consulting for various technological needs. “During the coming year, I organizations. E v e n t u a l l y, D av i s b e g a n plan to support ... Davis in any way possible to help implement creating management software his vision and related initiatives,” for law firms, at which point he Doucet wrote. “The [ITS] team attracted the attention of the is excited to have someone with University of Oregon School of ... Davis’ energy and enthusiasm Law. While working there, Davis said he helped change the structure and cannot wait to begin.” of the school to D a v i s focus on integrating s a i d t h at h e “It felt like [Davis] technology and law. views higherhad the chops for After this, Davis was education IT hired by Stanford d e p a r t m e n t s [a large school] University and l i k e c l i e n t - background, but he eventually became s e r v i c e also understood the associate dean and organizations, humanities, the arts chief information in w h i c h and sciences.” officer at Stanford students and Law School. faculty can When he was be viewed as -RICK MILLS, EXECUTIVE offered a position c u s t o m e r s VICE PRESIDENT at Bowdoin, Davis whose input said he had other is valuable in offers at the time, making key including one decisions. At from A pple, but B ow d o i n , h e he saw Bowdoin created an as an opportunity undergraduate to experiment with s t u d e n t incorporating higha d v i s o r y committee to advise the IT performance computing into a department, and he hopes to liberal arts college. Davis said establish a similar committee at he chose to come to Dartmouth because he felt that the College has a Dartmouth. “The client perception of our greater focus on entrepreneurship, services is actually more important and that IT can be a catalyst for than the type of technology we are these efforts. Davis will arrive at Dartmouth at deploying,” Davis said. He added that considering the a time during which cybersecurity viewpoints of students, faculty has become an increasing threat for and alumni is essential for an IT institutions worldwide. Last week, department to function effectively. a major ransomware attack struck Mills said that Davis’ client- thousands of computers around oriented philosophy was one of the world, affecting organizations the things he liked most about him, such as the United Kingdom’s noting that he stood out during the National Health Service. Davis said that the challenge for selection process for this reason. Mills added that Davis’ résumé, IT specialists is creating networks consisting of experience in both that are open and accessible but large and small universities and also secure from cyberattacks. Mills noted that Dartmouth has colleges, was another asset. “It felt like he had the chops for tried to stay ahead of cybersecurity [a large school] background, but and has avoided major incidents he also understood the humanities, thus far. He said that the work of the arts and sciences,” Mills said. chief information security officer Davis said that his interest in IT Steve Nyman, a for mer FBI began when he was a kid growing agent and naval officer, has kept up in Silicon Valley, as his father Dartmouth safe from these attacks. “One of the strengths we’ve was the head of research and development for Hewlett-Packard had at Dartmouth is [that] we got at the time, and from a young age on the cybersecurity bandwagon he was familiar with the field of earlier than some of our peers,” Mills said. technology services. FROM CIO PAGE 1
CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com.
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2017
Moosilauke will not host Trips in fall
Lodj Croo co-captain Sarah either [Moosilauke Ravine Lodge] Sa l zman ’ 1 8 s ai d th e l arge or the [McLane Family Lodge], was scheduled to finish in time capacity of the dining area at has always been to reunite sections for this year’s Trips program. the McLane Family and allow people Nelson said in an interview that Lodge will allow for “Having real to meet people those involved in the construction one combined dinner conversations beyond their trips project were notified of its delay instead of two, which and getting to now that they have in mid-May. has been the norm in know people a comfortable base “We knew from the ver y past years. According to reach out from,” who are ready to beginning that it was a very to the Dartmouth Phipps said. “That ambitious construction schedule, S k i w ay ’s we b s i t e, welcome you — is going to stay the and all the progress reports about the dining hall of that has always same.” the [Moosilauke Ravine] Lodge the McLane Family happened at Chuttani echoed stated that,” Nelson said. L o d g e c a n h o u s e the [Moosilauke Phipps’ sentiments, Nelson added that the Outdoor nearly 200 people, Ravine Lodge], emphasizing Programs Office, DOC and other compared to only 84 but now we t h at t h e Tr i p s offices are planning activities that at Moosilauke. program this year are going to would take place at the newlyServing one dinner be equally will be “equally constructed Lodge during fall term can also create more committed” to so that first-year students can be time for events in the committed to that m a k i n g s u r e introduced to evening, such at the [McLane trippees feel Family Lodge].” it during their as a scavenger prepared for “We knew first term at hunt or arts Dartmouth. from the very the College. a n d c r a f t s -MILAN CHUTTANI “The welcoming In a joint beginning that a c t i v i t i e s , ’18, LODJ CROO COalways comes i n t e r v i e w it was a very Lodj Croo co- CAPTAIN from the people,” w i t h Tr i p s ambitious captain Milan Chuttani said. d i r e c t o r construction Chuttani ’18 “Having real Doug Phipps schedule, and said. conversations and getting to know ’17 , associate all the progress Chuttani added that the people who are ready to welcome d i r e c t o r reports about evening programs could you — that has always happened Apoorva a little earlier and at the [Moosilauke Ravine Lodge], the [Moosilauke end Dixit ’17 make the Trips schedule but now we are going to be equally said s h e Ravine] Lodge less exhausting. committed to that at the [McLane was initially stated that.” “This way, trippees can Family Lodge].” disappointed participate in all of the The shift will also present an w h e n s h e -DAN NELSON ’75, DOC evening programs and not opportunity to question one of the f o u n d o u t DIRECTOR OF feel like they are missing out oldest traditions of Trips, according a b o u t t h e OUTDOOR if they go to bed,” Chuttani to Dixit. construction PROGRAMS added. “In many ways, it is a cool d e l a y . Despite the new location, opportunity to really think about H o w e v e r, the purpose of the reunion what makes Trips unique and what Dixit said the directorate was will not be different, Phipps said. we really want to pass on,” Dixit not “taken aback” by this news “The purpose of the Lodge, said. because it has been preparing and discussing a contingency plan for several months. Karampreet Kaur ’15 created the contingency plan as an Outdoor Prog rams Of fice emergency p r e p a r e d n e s s c o o r d i n a t o r, according to Phipps. Kaur was the First-Year Trips director in 2015. The McLane Family Lodge presents both logistic advantages and challenges, Phipps said. Its proximity to campus and relatively large size compared to the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge make the coordination of the Trips program much easier, he noted. Additionally, the Wi-Fi at the McLane Family Lodge is more accessible, facilitating better communication between Croo captains. However, the directorate will need to draw new bus and hiking routes to and from the McClane Family Lodge, Phipps said. “But all things considered, it’s really nice that Trips will end at a place that is less than half the distance away from Hanover than the [Moosilauke Ravine Lodge] is,” Phipps said. FROM LODJ PAGE 1
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2017
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
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THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS
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THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2017
DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY
4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Lecture: “The Many Deaths of Jew Suss,” with Princeton University history professor Yair Mintzker, Carson Hall L01
5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Lecture: “The Clothes in Your Closet Tell a Story...” with Kalpona Akter, executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, Filene Auditorium, Moore Hall
5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Swipes for Hunger, donate a meal swipe or DBA equivalent to help Willing Hands, Class of 1953 Commons
TOMORROW
11:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Swipes for Hunger, donate a meal swipe or DBA equivalent to help Willing Hands, Collis Café
7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Event Cinema: “Obsession,” directed by Ivo van Hove, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center
8:00 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Play: “What Every Girl Should Know,” by Monica Byrne, directed by Virginia Ogden ’18, Bentley Theater, Hopkins Center for the Arts
RELEASE DATE– Thursday, May 25, 2017
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Reggae relative 4 Amount before deductions 9 Unpleasant 14 “U R funny!” 15 Vital supply line 16 Throat dangler 17 Bran source 18 Virginia politician for whom a university is named 20 Ride on runners 22 __ Testamento 23 Custard base 24 Magical literary orphan 27 Meeting vote 28 Falls phenomena 33 “Close to You” singer 39 Old World Style sauce 40 Formal orders 41 Pet peeve? 42 “Westworld” actress (who complements 33-Across?) 45 Analyze, in a way 46 __ Lingus 47 1960 Olympic boxing gold medalist (who complements 24-Across?) 55 Like the name “Will,” for an estate lawyer 58 Get behind 59 If-then-__: programmer’s flow 60 “Basic Instinct” star (who complements 18-Across?) 64 Letters between names 65 Where “Ratatouille” was cooked up 66 Refuge 67 Came together 68 Not at all trustworthy 69 Glacial ridge 70 Agency creations DOWN 1 Walk through puddles
2 It isn’t really a bear 3 Make different 4 __ order 5 Sushi topper 6 Home of Stephen King’s alma mater 7 Structural support 8 “Full House” star Bob 9 “Think of it as an indulgence” 10 Oscar-nominated director DuVernay 11 Subterfuge 12 Uphill climb 13 Pal around (with) 19 Big night 21 Dress rehearsals 25 “__-haw!” 26 It is really a bear 29 Effective, as a rule 30 D-Day city 31 Set up for a drive 32 Mrs., in Madrid 33 Polynesian intoxicant 34 Seaweed product 35 Pres. title 36 Günther’s gripe
37 Hwy., e.g. 38 Micronesian republic 39 Weightlifter’s unit 43 Parish house 44 Director Anderson 48 Prince Valiant’s son 49 Beyoncé’s “I Am... __ Fierce” 50 Lute kin 51 “How do __ thee?”
52 Camel relative 53 Sought answers 54 “I Am of Ireland” poet 55 Nile hazards 56 Knight who co-founded Nike 57 One in an airport line 61 Bash 62 Amount after deductions 63 Chemical suffix
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THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2017
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Postdoc Jun Gong discusses his moveable smartwatch design FROM SMARTWATCH PAGE 1
that you developed while you were here? JG: I came up with this idea at Dartmouth because right now, as you can see, I’m wearing a smartwatch. So I’m trying to think about the shortcomings and the disadvantages of the current smartwatches and thinking about how I can improve the interactions between the smartwatches. What do you think are some of the biggest issues with smartwatches now? JG: I put forward seven issues in my paper, and all of these issues motivated me to design Cito. For example, when your watch is covered by your sleeve and you are cooking or your hands are dirty, you don’t want to use your hands to touch your sleeve. What if the watch could move out from under the sleeve automatically to show the incoming message, and you didn’t have to do anything and then you could use a pinching gesture to send it back [into the sleeve]? Another example is when you’re carrying a big box and the watch face is facing downward. What if, during the carrying process, there is an incoming message? You wouldn’t be able to see the incoming message unless you put down the box. But what if the watch could crawl around the wristband and show the incoming message? These are some of the
issues that made me think, “Okay, there must be some way to solve these problems.” So this is where the idea to actuate the smartwatch, to make the smartwatch move, came from.
Can you talk more about the actuation process? JG: In my paper, I proposed five movements: linear translation, rotating, orbiting around the wristband, lifting and tilting. So we used these five movements to create some new interactions and to provide more outputs to our user. How long did this take you? JG: It took about five months. I spent two months thinking about why I needed an actuated watch and what the issues are for current smartwatches. I generated ideas, and I wanted to find more and more scenarios [to use this watch in] because one scenario is not enough to make a crazy watch, right? I spent two months thinking about the scenarios, the issues and why this is helpful. Then I spent two months to implement it — to design the mechanical structure, design the whole module and figure out how to make it move. I spent two months using 3-D printed cases and designed the whole mechanical structure and chose the motors and circuits. Then I spent one month to write the paper and to video tape the prototype.
Do you have any interest in programming the operating system for the watch? JG: Right now, no. From my area, I’m interested in interaction, this kind of human computer interaction. So I’m more interested in how to design these interactions and how these interactions can help people, can allow people, maybe with no knowledge of device technology, to easily use this kind of device. I’m interested in that — providing more interactions, making people think this product is cool and useful. I’m not a security guy, I’m not an operating system guy, so basically we don’t focus on the implementation of the real system, the real circuit design — I’m just showing the concept and building a proof-of-concept prototype.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome to make the smartwatch work? JG: I think the hardest part is the implementation — to make this idea real. Although I don’t think my implementation is professional, because I’m a computer science Ph.D. student, not a mechanical engineering student, and I didn’t know how to design this stuff before this project. I have no experience with mechanical engineering or gears or motors. I spent some time learning how to build this stuff — I’m trying to learn those mechanical structures and how to apply these mechanical
structures into my prototype and how to use which kinds of motors. I spent tons of time in the implementation. And in the beginning, we didn’t just come up with five movements — we tried to add more and more. I kept adding and adding, so I had to change the whole functionalities, change the whole structures to combine more movements. So it’s kind of like an iteration of several products. What’s the future for Cito? Are you going to try and engineer your own smartwatch and sell it, are you going to sell the technology to companies, or what do you hope comes out of it? JG: Right now I think this idea is still a little bit radical. But we’re just showing this concept to get other people to think, what are the issues of the current smartwatches, the fixed smartwatches? Right now, we’re not thinking about pushing this into the market or making it into a real product. We’re just showing a good concept to our users and to other companies in the industry. If they want to solve the issues, actuating the smartwatch may or may not be a good idea, but we’re using this paper and the studies to prove this idea is feasible. And many of our users like this idea; they think, “Wow, this idea is so cool.” Maybe one day other companies will implement this idea and make
it a real product, but we’re not sure about that. Do you personally have any aspirations to present this idea to smartwatch companies? What if Apple, for example, looks at your paper and agrees that current smartwatches do have this issue, and it remakes its watch to have things like lift and tilt? JG: This could happen, but I’m more than happy to see this kind of prototype, actually. It’s kind of like seeing my idea in a real product: That’s good for me. Of course, I can’t get any money if I don’t have a patent or I don’t sell this idea, but I’d still be happy to see my idea come to reality and be a real product for our users. I think that’s pretty good for me, because for most research papers, they can’t really make their ideas into a real product. Many ideas just stop at the research stage, but all of my research projects are more realistic, to solve real problems. Some papers may not deal with real problems. Right now I’m kind of working on the research part; I’m not trying to sell the products, sell the idea, but we will apply for patents for most of our projects to make sure the rights are preserved. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
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CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST JOSEPH REGAN ’19
STAFF COLUMNIST BEN SZUHAJ ’19
On Terror from Abroad
In Appreciation of Dartmouth
We must see terrorism’s broader context.
Two weeks ago my heart beat louder and more painfully than the screeches of the U-Bahn metro as it came to a halt. Eight weeks ago I arrived in Berlin, Germany for my language study abroad program. Three days ago an explosion at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England claimed innocent lives. Two weeks ago my U-Bahn stopped, and a man five seats away started screaming in Arabic. First, there was confusion. I don’t understand German well enough all the time, and frenetic speech slows comprehension further still. I can’t be completely certain that it was Arabic, for it could have been Turkish or another language from the Middle East or elsewhere that I’m not familiar with. The man was Middle Eastern, that is all I know for certain because I could see him, and he was not speaking German, because the language’s sound is by now familiar to me. The man stopped screaming when the train started again and I, along with every other passenger, disembarked at the next stop more hurriedly than usual. Ten seconds of terror ruled me before all the other seconds that I hoped, and then experienced as loud and scary, but not lethally so. Thinking on it later I wondered what I would have done if bullets had started flying or knives flashing. If I’d had a gun, would I have shot him? Then, and this is where I left it until the most recent terrorist attack, I decided the point was moot because I was alive and so was the man, and it probably wasn’t Arabic anyway. Yet, terrorism is futile. Put a different way, killing innocent people doesn’t win your argument, it just reduces the audience. Today’s media lusts after sensationalist content, and what’s more sensational than people sacrificing themselves for what they believe in? What is more sensational than cleaving families through with the many-colored corpse of tragedy? Understanding the violence we and terrorists take in response to one another is crucial to removing tragedy from our regular intake of media. Three days ago, a bomb went off in Manchester. A man named Salman Abedi is the alleged perpetrator. Beyond shady ties to the Islamic state, we do not know the why of his actions, although we do know his how: He released an explosion that ripped through space with total disregard for individual integrity. This happens when the
shrapnel is nuts and bolts like it was in Manchester, or when it is the product of precision engineering like it often is in the Middle East. Killing someone before they kill innocent people, if they are set on doing so, seems the only way of justifying murder. Yet you wouldn’t go kill their friends or civilians from their hometown. Bombing the location in England that was the terrorist’s most recent home is as pointless as spraying death interminably from the heavens in the Middle East. We gain the illusion of control, that is all. I would have shot that man on the U-Bahn if I’d had the means, but only if he meant to kill me or others. However, our foreign policy should not be predicated on such simple thinking. Sensationalist President Donald Trump appears to favor a policy of aggression in the Middle East. I support an aggressive diplomacy that teases apart the complexities of our international relationships so that Wahhabi Islam is no longer funded by America. We don’t give money to the Islamic State, yet we are more than funders of Wahhabist Saudi Arabia: We are their allies. I am in my ninth week of life in Berlin; a foreign culture confronts me daily. Sometimes it feels abrasive rather than an opportunity. I am certain that if Germans had killed my family members, my friend who I was with on the U-Bahn, or any other friend, discomfort would easily harden into hate. I think the United States would do well to alter the current proportion of handshakes to hellfire missiles and the receivers of both circumstances. Terrorism and tragedy cannot be beaten. Both may be overcome or prevented. The problem is not the Middle East, nor is it a religion; the problem is we attack the symptoms and ignore the disease. Our response as a nation should not be akin to mine on the U-Bahn. We must do better than terror and the reactionist thinking followed by forgetfulness that treats every attack like an isolated incident. Occasionally, terrorism may be perpetrated by those whose madness originates in the cerebrum. I believe that the vast majority of the perpetrators of terror are mad but reasonably so. The best policy of prevention would be diplomatic aggression and military forbearance. Our anger at our dead is not so different from theirs. Corpses mount and engender outrage. Let us channel that into action that seeks to prevent tragedy not create more of it.
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ISSUE
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2017
NEWS LAYOUT: Debora Hyemin Han
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.
Despite its flaws, Dartmouth has much to love.
At this point in the year — between post- criticizing — but not only is it something I will midterms fatigue and pre-finals stress — it never forget, it is also fun, strange, discomforting isn’t uncommon to become disenchanted and thrilling all at the same time. That does not with the notions of hard work and success mean that we should never question the status so often emphasized at Dartmouth. With an quo at Dartmouth. It simply means that while administration in turmoil, a monopolistic we can level critique at our harmful traditions, dining system, a flawed housing system and we should also be able to admit that some of an undeniable pattern of elitism and racial them do effectively bring our community — discrimination in faculty hiring and retention, it our entire community — together, if only for can be incredibly easy to focus on Dartmouth’s a weekend at a time. problems. Let’s speed it up a bit: Hanover is a small, Even my classes teach me to think critically faraway, white, upper-crust town. Check. But about the College. It isn’t hard to see why — the rural area we live in also allows us to hike after spending two hours in class deconstructing Gile Mountain in the fall, ski in the winter a text, I can walk into Collis, read an and kayak in the Connecticut River in the administration-sponsored flyer encouraging me spring and the summer. The King Arthur to relax more and immediately find fault with Flour line is long, but so are lines for anything it. The flyer in question good. Does that mean it s e e m s d i s i n g e nu o u s couldn’t be improved? No. “In other words — coming from an institution But rather than write the that also tells us we are not and this is partly article “Why the KAF line working hard enough and change” (which I’m because Dartmouth is must thus need more academic sure will be written in the rigor. It raises suspicion run like a corporation next six months anyway), precisely because of what I’d rather devote my words — here, there is no I am learning in school; to recognizing the perfect namely, of a vague idea of free lunch.” mix of deliciousness and neoliberalism, a paradigm caffeine buzz that is a of privatization in which chocolate milk with a shot. life is a zero-sum game. I am taught to question Even Dartmouth Dining Services, as much anything whose value claims to exceed the as I like to complain, does an adequate job amount of effort required to experience it. of making sure we don’t starve. I absolutely In other words — and this is partly because think it could do better, but I also think it’s Dartmouth is run like a corporation — here, unrealistic to expect Foco’s lasagna to taste there is no free lunch. like my mother’s. It is a college dining service I want to push back against this idea. after all. While there are many things at Dartmouth The housing system and the ballooning that warrant long hours of work, and while administration are harder to defend, in Dartmouth has many fundamental problems particular because I find very little about them that are all too easy to complain about, the redemptive, but at the end of the day let’s College also has many positive aspects that look at what we still have. The Greek system do not get their fair share of the spotlight. hasn’t been abolished. Green Key goes on. Whether or not the tenure process is biased in The rules of the game are changing — read: favor of white professors mandatory walk-throughs and whether or not we “Perhaps part of the and Green Key wristbands do a poor job at retaining — but the change we faculty of color, the reason the College so often predict in our professors we have are seemed better during critical conversations has still brilliant. We are lucky yet to take place. The to have the chance to learn your freshman fall administration isn’t the from and alongside them, has more to do with Empire. Students aren’t many of whom go out of the Rebel Alliance. We your bright-eyed their way to meet with us aren’t locked in a fight for outside of class to field our enthusiasm than the fate of our school. questions and foster our At the end of the day, we it does with the intellectual curiosity and are incredibly privileged — perhaps this is the most derecognition of to go to Dartmouth. Even “Dartmouth professorial” feel like the school Sigma Alpha Epsilon.” ifis we trait of all — who are going in the wrong all-around cool people. direction, we must be I’ve had professors who I admire not just for aware that we as people change alongside it. the grace of their teaching but also for their Perhaps part of the reason the College seemed charisma and ability to shade the gray area better during your freshman fall has more to do of the student-teacher relationship into one with your bright-eyed enthusiasm than it does of intellectual peers. with the derecognition of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. It’s not just professors that make Dartmouth This does not mean that we should discount special. Our traditions, flawed as some of them the problems Dartmouth has. It simply means may be, are at the very least our traditions. that we, as students, friends, daughters, sons, Homecoming is a cultish experience replete people, should be able to hold two seemingly with flames and primal chanting, yes — and for disparate ideas in our head at the same time. some, that might make it something worthy of Dartmouth has flaws, but it is beautiful too.
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2017
THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
PAGE 7
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST TYLER MALBREAUX ’20
STAFF COLUMNIST IOANA SOLOMON ’19
The Pursuit of Happiness
Dismantling Consistency
We lose ourselves when we attempt to find a success prescribed to us. Earlier this year, I published my first toward outperforming other students in high column in The Dartmouth, “Consumerist school and eventually applying to exclusive Masturbation,” in which I identified colleges. It may be the case that the student consumerism as seen in Kevin Spacey’s hit excels at the subject and might quite possibly movie, “American Beauty.” Though it was enjoy it. But pushing students primarily to get released in 1999, the film’s satirical take on good grades in a subject takes the emphasis consumerism remains a relevant criticism of off true education and intellectual curiosity. American society. Lester Burnham (Spacey) The pressure to succeed becomes a numbers leads a miserable life: He has a strained game as students strive for perfectionism in relationship with his wife and daughter, a the classroom. Their innate interest for history monotonous job that offers no corporate or science dies, and the classroom becomes a advancement and an unquantifiable amount breeding ground for fierce competition instead of regret and unrealized potential. But the of a learning environment. screenwriter’s focus is on the material that, by This pressure has been shown to have conventional measures, show his social rank: many adverse effects on students’ integrity. his two-story house surrounded by a literal The Stanford Report in 2005 reported that white picket fence and a Mercedes SUV. professors identified a relationship between While none of these possessions are social pressures to achieve and plagiarism. inherently bad, Lester’s attempt to replace According to the panel, students who felt the his unfilled desires with material objects was need to outperform others or maintain a high dangerous — Lester dies at the movie’s end. GPA were also more likely to cheat on tests But as the voice-over narration revealed from and copy material for homework assignments. the very beginning, Lester was, in a sense, The darker side of the pressure to succeed already dead. can lead to substance abuse and subsequent Talking about death is thought to be taboo dependency. New York University researchers in the Western world. Asking someone about followed a group of students from a selective a dead relative or friend’s private school while they mode of death is deemed were preparing to apply inconsiderate. Suggesting “The pressure to to colleges. Forty-nine the possibility of someone succeed becomes a percent stated that they dying after being admitted felt a great deal of stress to the hospital for a serious numbers game as on a daily basis. Many also illness is always untimely. students strive for responded to stress with It is so unspeakable marijuana and alcohol that euphemisms are perfectionism in the consumption; nearly employed just so that the classroom.” 40 percent of students word “death” never has reported getting drunk to be uttered. No one ever or high in the 30-day dies; they “pass away” or period before. While their “move on” to whatever realm is next. low-achieving counterparts are also likely to Different age groups also tend to view use drugs or alcohol at some point under the death differently. Younger people of today age of 18, high-achieving students may do so tend to look toward the future. The youngest because of a link to their motivation to achieve in the college elite plan meticulously for success. their futures. It is not uncommon to meet an As a first-generation college student, it is ambitious freshman who has the next decade hard to imagine a life path directed so closely of his life scheduled. On the other hand, older by my parents. I was given much leeway in people often think less of the future because terms of where I went to college and what they have less of a long-term future ahead of I wanted to study. Although I knew that the them. Enjoying the present and looking back stories of parental pressure were real, I did on the past is more important to those who are not know just how bad it could get until a seventy-plus than it is for twenty-somethings. recent conversation with a friend questioning Of course, this thinking of death concerns whether he really wants to be a doctor. Like the literal conception of death, when the body so many others, he was pressured by a family is placed six feet into the ground and physical of surgeons and physicians. While listening to remains begin decomposing. But young people his story, I could not help but be reminded of should question as Lester did whether there Lester. A sense of family tradition may play a is only one type of death, a death marked by role in this pressure for a career path. But it is cessation of bodily functions like the ability to obvious that these professions are also forced eat, talk, think or move. Death involves more onto students because of their prestige and than just the physical object of the human salary. body. Death is also the end of an identity, and Lester died in pursuit of those two hollow these identities can die a long time before a goods, but he was dead way before his body body rests inside of a grave. lay in a casket. His sense of self was defined by Consider the case of a Dartmouth freshman the unattainable. The parent-pressured student who is pressured relentlessly by his parents to finds himself in a situation similar to Lester. follow a particular career path, be it medicine, It is my hope that at a place like Dartmouth, law or some other field. Parents all too often students who have let their true selves die begin pressuring their children into choosing out can once again reclaim the freedom to a certain career when the children are young. be passionately interested in the pursuit of This priming at a younger age gears them happiness.
Our lives are fuller if we accept that our personalities are malleable. Stanford University researcher Walter Mischel’s “Marshmallow Experiment” has become a classic child psychology test. A group of 3- to 5-year-old children were given a choice between eating a marshmallow immediately upon receiving it or waiting 15 minutes and being rewarded with a second one. About 30 percent of children succeeded in delaying gratification, and years later, those children were found to be more socially and academically successful. The low-delayers were more likely to have higher body mass indices, addiction problems and an overall lower rate of success. Mischel conducted his experiment after he authored a book which challenged one of the most basic assumptions about personality, that people had static personalities. At the time, researchers argued about which traits were more important, but they did not tackle the other major assumption about personality: That it is stable over time and across different situations. When Mischel sat down to do his literature review, he realized that he had a problem. None of the studies he examined actually found the consistency he had presumed was inherent to human personality. Some children in these studies cheated in certain classes but were naturally talented in others. Some lied in certain situations but were honest in others. This myth of a fixed, singular personality may have been debunked in psychology literature, but it is unfortunately just as prevalent in our current conventional mindsets. That is understandable. Believing that human personality is entrenched makes our perceptions, judgments and expectations much more cogent. In the criminal justice system, this framework is especially practical. Believing that criminals are inherently rotten human beings whose moral rectitude is beyond salvation makes it far easier to brush systematic inequities under the rug and blame high recidivism rates on the felons instead of questioning the larger and weightier institutional flaws. It is much easier to pin the entire development of a person on a marshmallow than think of the complexities intrinsic to their evolution. It is also much easier to commit to a long-term relationship with a person while firmly believing that the qualities you love about them will not deviate, instead of dealing with the stressful probability that they might fundamentally change. Reframing our perspective around personality is key to living fuller, more engaging and more meaningful lives. Our minds are filters between our experiences and our reactions. Our temperament and perceived traits vary in different situations — we are only predictable to those around us because we are constrained by familiar contexts, the roles we occupy and the relationships we have with others. Many of us believe in destiny, which is a fine mindset, but it is also an easy and comfortable one. It takes far less vulnerability to believe that things were meant to happen a certain way and that we
were meant to become who we are than to start a challenging introspection to really decode our own development and adjust our expectations. In reality, one of the most rudimentary human qualities is our malleability. We are far more flexible than we realize. We also have far more control over our outcomes than we think we do. We change, both intentionally and unpredictably. So do the people in our lives. On one hand, those changes have probably caused a fair number of divorces and mid-life crises. On the other, accepting our innate psychological elasticity can make us stronger, more trusting and more audacious. At Dartmouth, adjusting our mental framework can take place several ways. Far too many of us chain ourselves into categories that are cruelly inhibitive. We may perceive ourselves to be the “analytical type” or the “creative, artsy type” but are afraid to step outside of those self-imposed boundaries. There is nothing inherent about our personalities that should force what majors we choose or what careers we embark upon. There is also nothing that should stop us from realizing junior or senior year that we are completely different people than who we thought we were and that we want completely different things from life. Creating a better, more productive, more empathetic environment can happen by following our inner voices regardless of how far along we have come. If we realize junior or senior year that we want to change majors, that should be met with encouragement not skepticism. If we fall into the conventional recruiting path sophomore year, go into a finance or consulting internship and realize we absolutely despised it, we should not come back and feel like we no longer have a choice or that it is too late to change course. That environment, however, mostly depends on our individual reframing. There will always be points in our lives when we feel stuck, when it will seem too hard, too risky or too late to switch direction. There will also be points where we will surprise ourselves, where we will have undergone monumental internal transformations without even realizing it. What we need to keep in mind is that change is okay, whether that change happens within ourselves or within those close to us. Accepting that fundamental reality means taking more risks, starting relationships with people being aware that they may not be the same 20 years from now and maybe even having more moments where we question ourselves. But that is the key to being more in-tune with ourselves, to trusting that no matter what happens and who we become, everything will be okay. We can take the comfortable path. We can believe in predestined outcomes, premature and artificial labels or fixed personality traits. Or we can go deeper than that and face life on a far riskier, far less predictable and far more nebulous path. The latter will almost certainly be more ingenuous, more satisfying and far more rewarding.
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
PAGE 8
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2017
Alumnus Q&A: screenwriter and novelist Kamran Pasha ’93 By MADELINE KILLEN
The Dartmouth Senior Staff
Screenwriter and novelist Kamran Pasha ’93 Tu’00 majored in religion at Dartmouth before working as a financial journalist on Wall Street, attending Cornell Law School and graduating from Tuck School of Business. After briefly working as an attorney, Pasha moved to Los Angeles in 2007 to pursue a career in screenwriting. Since then, he has worked as a screenwriter and producer on Showtime’s “Sleeper Cell” and NBC’s “Kings” and “Bionic Woman.” He has also published two novels, “Shadow of the Swords: An Epic Novel of the Crusades” and “Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam.” Did you have a finance background before beginning to work as a financial journalist? KP: No, I didn’t. When I was looking for journalism jobs, there weren’t a lot of mainstream jobs — you know, Newsday or whatever. But, at the time, there were so many Wall Street publisher types, and I didn’t have any background. I was a religion major. So when I saw that those were the only journalism jobs available, I started scrambling. I bought all these books on finance and self-taught so that I could go into these interviews and know what I was talking about. I had no interest in it, but I thought it was what I had to do to survive. But then I got my first job, and I discovered that it was actually a lot of fun. And then you went to Tuck? KP: Yes. I was in this accounting class that was way over my head, so I started writing this screenplay, and then I sold that screenplay. Then I graduated, I went to work for this law firm in New York, and I was bored, I was like “What am I doing here?” So I finished the screenplay, but I didn’t know what to do with it, so I just mailed it out to people. Then one of them actually liked it and ended up representing me and mailing my first script to Paramount. I was like, “I can do this?” So at the age of 29, I quit my job at that law firm, I moved out to Los Angeles and that’s where I’ve been for the past 16 years. What’s your favorite project that you’ve worked on? KP: I think the most important project that I’ve worked on was a TV show
called “Sleeper Cell.” It was on for two seasons about 10 years ago, and it was sort of a “Homeland” before “Homeland.” It was really ahead of its time. Remember, this was right after 9/11, this was the height of the Iraq War, George Bush was president. “24” was the big show that everyone was watching, and that portrayed a lot of negative Muslim stereotypes. So “Sleeper Cell” was meant to be the first accurate representation of the War on Terror. It was about a Muslim FBI agent who infiltrates an Al-Qaeda terror cell. Being Muslim myself and having studied religion in college, this was a chance for me to talk about things that were important to me. So the show went on for two seasons, and we got Golden Globe nominations and Emmy nominations because it was the first time that Muslims weren’t just portrayed as a bunch of comic-book crazies. We’d never seen anything like that on TV before. We jostled a lot of people because we challenged a lot of the traditional narrative just by showing things as they were. And, you know, Hollywood has agendas just like Washington and everybody else. We went around that. The greatest compliment was that FBI agents would call us and say, “This is the most accurate show on television.” How did you make “Sleeper Cell” so accurate to real life? KP: On the religion side, I’m a real practicing Muslim, so I was able to accurately represent that side of it. We had advisors from the FBI and the intelligence community, and we actually had access to the Al-Qaeda training manual. There’s a training manual that the United States found and translated during the first attack on Afghanistan in 2001. They translated it, and the Pentagon held it, and we were able to get access to a copy of it so we knew the entire methodology. It’s interesting because it showed — people don’t like to talk about this, but it’s historically true — that the Al-Qaeda guys were all CIA trained. And the first rule of the training manual was to stay away from Muslims. That’s why the September 11 guys were hanging out in strip clubs. They said if they went and hung out at the mosque, somebody like me would turn them in. So we portrayed that on our show as well. After that show, there was a period when Hollywood changed
their representation of Muslims to show them more accurately. But that only lasted a little bit. Hollywood’s journey of portrayal of Islam has been very specific. First, it started out in the early 1900s with the “Arabian Nights” movies and things like that, where everything’s very magical. Muslims aren’t bad guys, but they’re not normal people. They have genies, they have flying carpets. So that’s just magical, “Harry Potter” stuff, but they’re not normal people. Then the next stage was the terrorist stuff, so they’re not normal people either because they’re terrorists. Then, our show came, which showed the reality of the situation and the humanity of everyone. All those other portrayals just came out of ignorance, but then our show presented real information. But right after that, a lot of people in Hollywood decided, “Yeah, I don’t actually want to tell that story,” because they do have political agendas. They didn’t even realize they had political agendas, and then our show hit. After that, Hollywood has gone through a period of about a decade where before that, people were ignorant, but now they know what they’re doing is inaccurate, and they’re doing it anyway, on purpose. I’ve experienced it directly. My rise in the industry has led to a lot of pushback because people don’t want to face their bigotry. People always talk about how liberal Hollywood is, but it’s all fake liberal. They’re liberal to make money, but they don’t believe in any of it. The people in Hollywood like to think that they’re the purveyors of culture, which they are, pretty much. The one export that the United States still has is culture. So these people in Hollywood know they are controlling culture and as long as it benefits them, that’s great. In Hollywood, I’ve met a lot of people who talk a lot about diversity when the truth is that they hate black people. They just do. But they can make money off of them, and that’s the thing. And so they put that tolerant face on. It’s amazing. How has that conservatism affected your career as an artist? KP: The more important the art is, the more it pushes humanity forward, the more resistance there is. That’s the challenge of being an artist. People in power love staying in power, and change means they’re going to lose that power. So, on the commercial side of art, the decision makers are — I
like to imagine them as people sitting on a horse backwards. They just see everything the horse has passed by, but they don’t see where it’s going. You can’t change their position, they’re just positioned that way. They only see what’s just happened, and that’s all they want more of. How have you tied your major to your current work? KP: All of my work has succeeded when I’ve tied in religion. One thing that I’ve learned in life is that when you’re doing what you love, success will come. Even though I did fine as a journalist and got into a good law school and business school, I wasn’t really happy. Now, being able to talk about the topics that I talk about in film — namely, religion — makes me really happy. The religion major was pivotal to the development of the person that I’ve become. Did you always have an interest in screenwriting? KP: One thing that I’ve discovered is whatever you admire is whatever
you’re capable of doing. I never would’ve said I wanted to be a screenwriter. I didn’t think it was possible. But I do remember this: When I was 5 years old, and we had just arrived from Pakistan, just learning English, I was watching this show “Three’s Company” that you may have vaguely heard of. It was like a classic comedy about this guy living with two women and all the sexual encounters — very risqué in the ’70s. Being a kid, I didn’t understand any of the risqué stuff, but I was watching this show with my sister. She must have been 6, I was 5, and I remember this vividly. I turned to my sister after watching the show and said “I’m going to do that someday.” My sister said to me, “Oh, that’s not possible for people like us.” Now I tease her all the time for that. She doesn’t even remember saying it. But that means I was born to do this. Whatever you wanted to do as a child is what you were born to do. This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. Pasha is a former editor for The Dartmouth.
COURTESY OF KAMRAN PASHA
Screenwriter Kamran Pasha ’93 Tu’00 has also published two novels.