VOL. CLXXVI NO. 57
CLOUDY HIGH 83 LOW 60
OPINION
WELD: PERPETUATING THE PROBLEM PAGE 4
PINCHUK: HORROR AND ESCAPISM PAGE 4
ARTS
Q&A WITH JEFF SHARLET, AUTHOR OF NETFLIXADAPTED ‘THE FAMILY’ PAGE 7
SPORTS
PREDICTIONS FOR THE NFL’S 100TH SEASON: GETTING OUR BEARINGS PAGE 8
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2019
College’s new sexual misconduct policy to take effect this fall B y LUCY TURNIPSEED The Dartmouth Staff
The College’s new Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct Policy will go into effect Sept. 1. While the SMP clarifies the College’s policies regarding sexual assault, it does not change much of the student experience, according to Title IX Office coordinator Kristi Clemens. Clemens said that the policy primarily streamlines procedures and resource infor mation, emphasizes
The Dartmouth Staff
T h i s We d n e s d ay, t h e newest Montgomery fellow Michael Denning ’76 arrived on campus to present at the two-day “Reflections on the Afterlives of 1969” Conference. Denning is a professor of English and American studies at Yale University and will be on
House communities to cluster by location for Class of 2023
affir mative consent and covers the distribution of sexually explicit photos and videos. “The new policy, which will provide clarity and c o n s i s t e n c y a c ro s s t h e institution, takes the place of separate policies that existed for faculty, students and staff,” provost Joseph Helble wrote in a campus-wide email on Aug. 12. “It clearly identifies conduct that is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in DIVYA KOPALLE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
SEE SMP PAGE 5
Michael Denning ’76 named new Montgomery Fellow B y charles chen
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
campus for the duration of the conference. He is the first of a group of prominent alumni the Montgomery prog ram is bringing to campus for the College’s 250th anniversary, music professor and director of the Montgomery Fellows Program Steve Swayne said. After being named the SEE MONTGOMERY PAGE 3
First-years in School and North Park house communties will live in the Choates.
B y elizabeth janowski The Dartmouth Staff
This fall, the Class of 2023 will be the first group of students to experience the latest development in the College’s four-year-old house community system. Each first-year residence hall will now correspond to a specific house community, according to associate dean of residential life and director of residential education Mike Wooten. All first-year members of Allen House will live in Wheeler and Richardson Halls; South House first-year will live in the Fayerweather dormitories; and West House first-years will live in the
River cluster. School House and North Park House will share the Choates cluster, with North Park first-years occupying Brown Hall and School House first-years residing in Bissell, Cohen and Little Halls. Freshman members of the East Wheelock house community will live in McCulloch, Morton and Zimmerman Halls — three dormitories within the East Wheelock cluster. For the past three years, freshmen have shared the same house community as other students on their floor. However, each first-year residence hall contained students from several different house communities across its floors. The only exception
was the East Wheelock house community, in which first-year students lived in the East Wheelock cluster and shared buildings with upperclassmen. Wooten stated that the idea to unify first-year residence halls each under a single house community had been a topic of conversation within the Office of Residential Life for several years. He added that assistant directors of residential education and house professors for each community encouraged the change throughout its planning. “Since the inception of the [house community] system, SEE HOUSING PAGE 3
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THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Seven teams finish The Fifty hike
to be strong enough to deal with get to the last five miles, you don’t that, to try to scare off the people realize just how long it’s taking you The Dartmouth Staff that are just doing it for the clout.” to complete those five miles because On Friday evening, seven groups Hager, Lue and Oster said all you can think about is finishing of either three or four hikers they started preparing to direct after that long.” trekked across six peaks from Mount the summer Fifty at the end Seeing volunteers at the support Moosilauke to Hanover — a total of the spring term. Oster was stations, especially at Jacobs Brook, of almost 54 miles over the course the hiker coordinator, Lue the was helpful in keeping up morale, of about 24 hours, according to logistics coordinator and Hager Zdasiuk added. Cara Ditmar directors Jaq Hager ’21, Derek Lue the volunteer coordinator. The ’21 , who hiked with Elijah Laird ’21 and Simon Oster ’21 . three hiked the Fifty together in ’21 , Ben Schelling ’21 and David E a c h t e a m h i k e s M o u n t the spring. One of the reasons they Vonderheide ’21 agreed that the Moosilauke, Mount Mist, Mount said they wanted to direct the Fifty support stations were a highlight Cube, Smarts Mountain, Holt’s was to address the obstacles they of the Fifty. Ledge, Moose Mountain, and Velvet faced themselves, including getting “Reaching that first station and Rocks before returning to campus. lost. Oster said they mitigated some seeing everyone in flair handing us Along the way, teams stop at five of the navigational challenges by water and snacks, it finally hit me support stations staffed with student rewriting hiking directions and that it’s actually real,” Ditmar said. volunteers. Teams could not stay putting flagging tape on some of “Each support station was a huge for longer than 30 minutes at each the tricky intersections involved in boost for our mentality.” station. the hike. Ditmar added This summer, 27 teams signed “It’s a that her team “Reaching that first up for the Fifty, and eight were ‘we got lost played games and chosen, according to Oster. One so you don’t station and seeing listened to music team and three individuals from have to’ sort everyine in flair, to pass the time the remaining seven teams dropped of mindset,” on the hike. When handing us water and out before completing the full 54 Oster said. they reached the miles. According to the directors, Ben Zdasiuk snacks, it finally hit me t o p o f M o o s e teams for the Fifty are selected on ’21 who hiked ountain, the that it’s actually real.” M a lottery basis, with priority given to t h e Fifty last mountain of those who have volunteered for, or with Kieran the hike, she said “supported,” the Fifty in the past. A h e r n ’ 2 1 , -CARA DITMAR ’21 they played a song Those who have previously directed Ted Northup and danced at the the Fifty are given an automatic ’21 and Will peak. team. Synnott ’21 , “It’s just a lot of Hager said that almost a hundred said his team time, I think that’s students volunteered to support was the first to make it back to what people don’t realize,” Ditmar the Fifty this summer. She added campus after about 20.5 hours. said. “Yeah, it’s physically hard, but that each support station had at “We intentionally wanted to go a you’re also out there for like 25-plus least one OEC, WFR, EMT and little bit at a faster pace, just so we hours and you have to fill the time. WEMT-certified safety lead. Hikers finished sooner and were off our feet So, we had a bunch of different themselves are not required to sooner,” Zdasiuk said. “We thought playlists based on our moods and have any safety certifications, Lue that would lead to a lot less low different games we wanted to play.” said, so the directors took extra morale, anxiety, discomfort — all Ditmar said that the activities precautions to ensure safety checks those things.” and support stations were helpful were being done at each support He said the last five miles were to boost morale, but there were still station. Hager added that they stress the most difficult part of the hike. low moments along the way. at the informational meeting that “At first, you lull yourself into “There were definitely times strong physical fitness is necessary this state where you’re just covering in the middle of the night when to complete the hike. distance and you’re not really we got on each other’s nerves “It’s going to be a lot of fun, but realizing how fast or how long and there was an hour or two of it’s also going to crush you,” Hager it’s taking you to cover distance,” silence,” she said. “But I definitely said. “So we tell them that you need Zdasiuk said. “But then when you couldn’t have finished it without [my team], especially towards the end. Their motivation and their CORRECTIONS words of encouragement — that was the only thing that got me up We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email those last couple of mountains.” editor@thedartmouth.com.
B y Rachel pakianathan
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2019
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2019
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THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
House professors hope Denning lectures on Gramsci to bring students closer FROM MONTGOMERY PAGE 1
specific programming opportunities during a student’s first year. He which is now in its fourth year, expressed hope that by deepening we’ve been asking how to integrate first-years’ connections to their first-years into the larger house,” house community, the programming Wooten said. “This year presented will decrease the disparity between a good opportunity to re-examine the upperclassmen and first-year experiences. this question.” The locations for each house House professor of West House Ryan Hickox expressed enthusiasm community’s first-year residence about the change, saying that there hall were determined primarily by the size of will be several the communities a d v a n t a g e s “I think this is an and where they to the new best fit, according s t r u c t u r e o f opportunity for the to Wooten. For f i r s t - y e a r whole house to get example, North housing over the closer together, and Park will only previous model. occupy one Specifically, he I hope students will dor mitory said that placing take advantage of because it has students of the the smallest s a m e h o u s e that.” p o p u l at i o n o f community in students out close proximity -RYAN HICKOX, HOUSE of the house with one communities. a n o t h e r w i l l PROFESSOR OF WEST Given the allow first-years HOUSE particular to forge bonds challenges they within their house community early on in their present, first-year Living Learning Communities will continue to be college career. “We often had the problem that organized into house communities it was difficult for our first-year by floor, Wooten noted. He said that students to really get to know who he does not anticipate this model was in their community with them changing in the near future. Hickox said that he is excited and who they would be living with for the next three years,” Hickox to see the changes implemented said. “Having freshmen from the upon the arrival of the incoming same house located in one place freshman class. He added that with the graduation of the Class of 2019, will really help with that.” H o u s e p ro f e s s o r o f A l l e n all current classes of Dartmouth House Janice McCabe echoed students have matriculated after these sentiments, emphasizing the the introduction of the house significance of house communities community system. As a result, he as another social network alongside hopes that the house community system will continue to become a student clubs and organizations. “I think this’ll be great for more widely embraced aspect of promoting more programming student life at the College. “What I hope that we’ll see is that and for communicating infrmation across the entire house community,” membership in a house community McCabe said. “I think this will be a w i l l b e c o m e a n i n c re a s i n g l y good step toward creating a more important part of a student’s full sense of community within Allen experience on campus,” Hickox said. “I think this is an opportunity House overall.” Wooten added that the change will for the whole house to get closer allow for more house community- together, and I hope students will FROM HOUSING PAGE 1
interim director of the Montgomery program in December of 2018, Swayne said he became the new program director July 1st this year. According to English professor Donald Pease, the conference will deal with how social movements of 1969 pertain to the modern day. Pease is one of the organizers of the conference and was also one of the nominators who submitted Denning as a potential Montgomery Fellow, he said. “The work that [Denning] did on the cultural front from the late 1930s to the beginnings of World War II has become a model for scholars across the planet,” Pease said in an interview with the Dartmouth. In his nominating letter for Denning, Pease wrote that Denning has published a number of books that significantly influenced the field of American Studies. He added that Denning simultaneously constructed a “center of critical interdisciplinary innovation” in his department at Yale University. Denning presented Thursday morning on the writings of Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxist philosopher, that were highly influential to the protests and movements of the late 1960s. “Gramsci’s work on the nature of the political party came to a tension around the world in the 1960s and ’70s,” Denning said in an interview before the conference began. “Social movements on the left have generally not taken the form of political parties, and Gramsci has some quite interesting issues to raise about how we think about organizing.” According to Denning, the conference was triggered by a rethinking of the student protests of the late sixties on campus at Dartmouth. “When I arrived on campus in 1972, this did not seem like the most radical campus,” Denning said. “Right now, with new forms of organizing and political figures emerging like [Alexandria Ocasio Cortez] coming out of New York
and the Bernie Sanders campaign, it seems like a moment to rethink what we mean by organizing.” Denning comes as a Montgomery Fellow after George Yancy, who arrived on campus in early July. While Yancy was on campus only about a month, Swayne said the fellows brought by the program can stay for any amount of time: “eight hours, eight days or eight weeks.” Denning, for example, will only be on campus for the conference, but according to Swayne, the program hopes to be able to secure his return for a longer period of time in the future. The list of alumni invited to return to campus under the auspices of the program includes former secretary of the treasury Hank Paulson ’68, who is scheduled to come in January, and author Louise Erdrich ’76, who is scheduled to come in May, according to Swayne. “One of the charges I was given was to see how the Montgomery program could interface with prominent alumni at Dartmouth,” Swayne said. In addition, this spring the program will welcome back former Kosovo president Atifete Jahjaga, who was in-residence during the
summer of 2016. After Denning’s departure, the next Montgomery Fellows will be the married couple Christine and Frido Mann . This fall, Frido Mann is the grandson of German novelist Thomas Mann, and Christine Mann is the daughter of German physicist and Nobel laureate Werner Heisenberg. Swayne said they will arrive on campus this fall and plan to speak about democracy and the crises facing governments today. According to Swayne, the Montgomery program is looking to bring in more individuals in conjunction with student input. He cited the comedian Trevor Noah as an example of the kind of person the program would consider seeking out. Another goal of the program is to increase the diversity within the group of fellows, Swayne said. “I’ve been here 20 years now and the student body has become increasingly diverse, and I feel that the Montgomery program needs to represent that as well,” he said. “My tenure as Montgomery Fellows program director will be a success if I bring in fellows who speak to all corners of this academic community.”
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2019
THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
STAFF COLUMNIST TEDDY HILL-WELD ‘21
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST LAUREN PINCHUK ‘21
Perpetuating the Problem
Employers go unchecked to maintain the “invasion” fantasy. On Aug. 7, federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents conducted raids in Mississippi targeting immigrants working in food-processing factories across the state. Around 680 immigrant workers were detained by the more than 600 ICE agents in the largest singlestate coordinated sting operation in U.S. history. My conspiracy-loving heart nearly exploded when I heard that one of the raided factories was owned by Koch Foods. Koch. I knew what that meant. David and Charles Koch, heads of the energy and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries, had gotten caught with their hands in the cookie jar. But I was wrong — the billionaire owner of Koch Foods, John Grendys, has no connections to the evil empire. It turned out that the truth was just as shocking: The Trump administration is targeting defenseless immigrants rather than the criminal corporate interests who exploit them to look like he is addressing the immigration crisis when he is only perpetuating the problem. Last year, Koch Foods settled an Equal Employment Opportunities Commission classaction suit for $3.75 million. Plaintiffs testified to a working environment characterized by sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation against Latino workers. After this month’s raids, labor activists are concerned that ICE may be targeting factories where immigrant workers have challenged unsafe conditions. These workers have little to no power under the law already, but when the threat of deportation looms over any desire to register an official complaint, workers are unlikely to even consider voicing their concerns. It means their employers can treat them however they want to because the threat of ICE outweighs the suffering they
endure as these companies profit from their labor. And it isn’t just Koch Foods getting away with shady business. Other companies employ undocumented workers without any consequences all the time. Unlawful residents make up half of all field workers, 24 percent of all workers in farming, fishing and forestry, and 15 percent of all construction workers. From all of Trump’s rhetoric on the need to push back against immigrant “invasion,” we could reasonably assume that immigration enforcement is working at an all-time high. From April 2018 to March 2019, ICE prosecuted 120,344 individuals for illegal entry and another 4,733 individuals for trafficking. But in that same 12-month period, there were only seven cases against groups hiring undocumented immigrants, and only three of the 11 individuals named in those cases were sentenced to serve prison time. It seems that corporations don’t face same risks their employees do. Admittedly, there are far more undocumented immigrants than employers, and ICE has only prosecuted one percent of the undocumented population in the United States. But it’s hard to imagine that the seven cases against employers made much of a dent. How are we supposed to blame and punish people for working while undocumented if companies are willing to hire them because they know they won’t face any consequences? Some might worry that if we were to enforce these laws to their full extent, well-intentioned employers who aren’t aware of their misconduct might be harmed. However, to pretend that companies like Koch Foods fall under that SEE HILL-WELD PAGE 6
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Horror and Escapism Millennials love a dystopian escape.
Why do we gravitate towards certain forms of entertainment at certain times? My millennial generation witnessed the rise of the dystopian novel and the rapid growth of the horror television genre. Is there a particular reason my generation identifies so strongly with these forms of leisure activities that shock and disturb us? My love for dystopian novels was sparked when I voraciously read “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, in seventh grade alongside millions of other preteens and teenagers around the world. I didn’t realize the significance at the time, but the novel came out in 2008. For decades, the idea that hard work would create success guided how people interacted with the workplace. However, when the housing market crashed, this ideal crumbled. Median incomes dropped by 3.6 percent, unemployment skyrocketed to 10.2 percent, home prices dropped by 18 percent and the stock market lost approximately 50 percent of its value as American households suffered severe financial strain. As many as 20 percent of American voters believed the American Dream was dead as they watched the traditional pillars of American life collapse. This was the environment that many millennials grew up in. But books like “The Hunger Games,” “Divergent,” “The Maze Runner” and many more after them pictured a world far different from the one we saw around us. Back then, I simply viewed these stories as interesting forms of entertainment; I didn’t look at the deeper meaning behind why these stories were so popular in general. Now, however, I can look back and see more reasons why novelists wrote in this style: readers needed a way to escape from the harsh reality of the world around them. I believe that burgeoning disillusionment with the world after 2008 has caused the massive popularity of these novels. Recent research into teenage psychology suggests some possible ways this link between the 2008 housing crash and escapism through horror could occur. Studies find that rates of depression generally increased after 2008, and binge-watching television, such as horror, has been linked to depression. Teenagers also suffer from poor regulation of their emotions when they grow up in chaotic or financially strained households; binge-watching is sometimes used to compensate. Through these factors, it can be inferred that interest in the horror genre, which creates a different world than the one in which depressed people
feel out of place, could easily be driven by the escapism and emotional damage that the 2008 housing crash left in its wake. But after a while, words were no longer enough to sweep many my age into these different worlds we craved: we needed the visual and auditory stimuli that the influx of technology we grew up with accustomed us to. The rise in horror and dystopian entertainment filled this need. Now, the top T.V. shows on Netflix include “Black Mirror,” “Dexter” and “American Horror Story.” These shows purposefully leave us disturbed and in an utterly different world for short amounts of time. This desire to escape echoes the rise in phenomena that many millennials feel are out of their control. Eighty-seven percent of millennials are personally concerned by climate change, only 33 percent of millennials supported Donald Trump in 2018, 40 percent of unemployed workers are millennials and nearly half of millennials say their education was not worth the crushing student-loan debt. These developments all hit close to home but can seem too out of reach to change. As a result of this helplessness, people watch horror as a means to absorb themselves in something so shocking that they forget about their problems with no easy solutions. Television and movies provide the full experience our brains work to create from books: The visual and auditory aspects are all laid out for us so we only need to point our eyes at the screen. This lack of effort is also key for gaining our attention — these deeper problems require a lot of brainpower to even think about, and T.V. requires the least amount of brainpower possible. But if entertainment changes with the times, how long will this infatuation with dystopia last? Will horror simply get more and more disturbing, addicting millennials more and more to think about something, anything, other than the world around them? Or will my generation actually build up enough resolve to attempt to solve these problems that horror allows us to forget about for a while? While “Black Mirror” may seem riveting in the moment, in the long run, watching another universe will not change our own. It is up to us to take action so our world does not become the dystopia that we see on the screen. Time will tell whether we actually internalize what we watch, but for the foreseeable future, horror is an enticing escape from the reality around us.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2019
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THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Students weigh in on sexual misconduct policies at the College FROM SMP PAGE 1
our learning community.” Helble’s message to the community came approximately a week after the settlement of the class action lawsuit against the College in which multiple women currently or formerly affiliated with the College’s psychological and brain sciences department alleged that Dartmouth had failed to protect its students from sexual misconduct by three former professors. While announcing the settlement, College President Phil Hanlon cited the mediation process as a step forward for the Campus Climate and Culture Initiative, a program that works in tandem with Moving Dartmouth Forward and Inclusive Excellence to create a more welcoming and equitable environment at the College. According to Clemens, cultural change, rather than policy change such as the SMP, will have the greatest impact on campus culture. She added that cultural change must come from
the students themselves. Olivia Fine ’20, who has been involved in both the Movement Against Violence and the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault, said that she believes sexual assault is an “epidemic” on Dartmouth’s campus. She added that she has decided to transfer from the College in part because of the nature of gender-based violence on campus. A College survey conducted in 2017 on sexual misconduct found that 34 percent of female undergraduates at Dartmouth report non-consensual penetration or sexual touching involving physical force or incapacitation since entering college. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, 11.2 percent of undergraduate and graduate students in the U.S. experience some form of sexual assault. Students who identify as female experience sexual assault at a rate of 23.1 percent, according to RAINN.
Fine said she believes that there is an effort by a dedicated group of students to combat sexual assault but that wider support on campus is necessary. She noted that while students and campus groups, such as MAV, SPCSA, and the Sexual Assault Peer Alliance, are able to make a difference on campus, it is unfair to require students to expend so much time and energy on the issue. “It’s not entirely fair that so much responsibility and labor falls on students who are unpaid and dedicate their own time,” Fine said. She added that making policies clearer is a step in the right direction, but said she does not know how effective SMP will be, since it does not introduce anything new to the College’s policies overall. SPCSA board member Maggie Flaherty ’21, who became involved with SPCSA and MAV because of the gender-based violence she has witnessed on campus, said that she believes effecting cultural change at
the College will take time. “Culture shift is a very long process,” Flaherty said. “There’s a heteronormative structure on campus. There’s a lot of entitlement, ownership of space and a culture that permits violence — this stay-out-allnight drinking culture.” In addition to the creation of SMP, MAV will also experience changes beginning in the fall. It will no longer function as an organization on campus; instead, the College will launch a comprehensive fouryear Sexual Violence Prevention Program, which has been in a pilot phase for the past three years. “The goal is to meet students where they are in their social and cognitive development and enact behavioral change,” said associate director of the Student Wellness Center Amanda Childress. SVPP will center on five tenets: resources, support and what sexual violence is, building healthy relationships and sexual
behavior, respectful communication across differences and bystander intervention, Childress said. Although MAV was an effective program, SVPP has been more specifically researched and crafted, according to Childress. She added that it will also place less of a burden on students to be in charge of educating their peers with essential information; however, she noted that many of those involved with MAV are helping out with SVPP. A singular first-year program will give way to a set of sessions that students will be able to self-select in their sophomore, junior and senior years. Childress, along with assistant director for violence prevention Benjamin Bradley, are still fine-tuning the upperclassman curriculum for the required programming. “The ’23s are not guinea pigs at all,” Childress said. “We’ve always had first-year education on this; it’s just tailored and revamped.”
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2019
THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS
DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Market: “Collis Farmstand” sponsored by Dartmouth Dining Services, Collis Cafe.
9:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. Viewing: “Public Astronomical Observing,” sponsored by the Department of Physics, Shattuck Observatory.
TOMORROW 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Theater: “NY Theatre Workshop 2019: A DA Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction,” sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Bentley Theater, Hopkins Center for the Arts.
6:30 p.m. - 7:15 p.m.
Seminar: “From Dartmouth to the Stages of NYC,” sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hopkins Center 200, Top of the Hop.
7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Theater: “NY Theatre Workshop 2019: The Seven Year Disappear,” sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Bentley Theater, Hopkins Center for the Arts. FROM HILL-WELD PAGE 4
category is an act of willful ignorance. According to a woman from the raided plant, the detained employees made up half of the workforce at the raided Koch Foods facility. These companies aren’t unaware of the status of their workers, they rely on the fear of undocumented employees to keep them in line and maximize their potential profits. It’s easy for Trump to crusade against innocent individuals because there are no voices defending them. On Monday, Trump announced a new “public charge rule,” making it harder for legal immigrants to apply for permanent residence status when they are deemed likely to someday need the assistance of public welfare programs. Attacking people who come to the United States without wealth, who seek an opportunity to provide for
themselves and their families, goes against the most fundamental values of American society that Trump pretends to cherish. That’s probably why his new Citizenship and Immigration Services Director tried to give his own revision of American ideals Tuesday morning on NPR, changing the famous “give me your tired, your poor” etched on the Statue of Liberty with the qualifier “ … who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge.” But the the promise of equal opportunity America pretends to make must be defended at some point. Trump’s nominees are in no moral position to determine who can make a worthy contribution to American society. Perhaps Trump doesn’t really want the problem to go away at all. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if the president chooses to continue going after the immigration players who have no economic or political
power. But to change a problem like this you must go at the power rather than appease it. If we keep falsely blaming immigrants for this problem, we can be sure that next year, and each year after that, will bring hundreds more raids and thousands of deportations without anything ever changing.
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2019
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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
Q&A with Jeff Sharlet, author of Netflix-adapted ‘The Family’ B y Lex Kang
The Dartmouth Senior Staff
In his two books “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power” and “C-Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy,” English and creative writing professor Jeff Sharlet takes deep dives into the political influence of the Christian organization known as “The Fellowship” or “The Family” both within and beyond the U.S. Recently adapted into a fiveepisode Netflix docuseries titled “The Family,” Sharlet’s shocking exploration of the entanglement of church and state focuses on highprofile politicians from all over the world who had personal connections to Doug Coe, the former head of the organization. In an interview with The Dartmouth, Sharlet discusses the Family, his experience investigating the organization, as well as the process of adapting his literary work into a new medium. Could you tell me a little bit about how the Family’s theology is different from a more orthodox reading of the Bible? JS: The main difference is that they’re radically reductionist. They’re not much interested in scripture and they don’t know it very well, except for a few of them ... They then developed this concentric rings theology. They came to the belief that there were sort of concentric rings of intimacy around Christ: that, for a few disciples, he gave them one message, the rest of the disciples got another message, and everybody else, the masses, got a third message. And again, this is at direct odds with most Christianity, which says that if you’re a believer, Christ is available to all of us. There’s no VIP in Christianity. But for them, it’s actually
a theological commitment. And then the third point was what they came to call biblical capitals. And in that, they’re not alone. That idea started with them and a few others but has grown into a big cohort, unfortunately.
conservative evangelical and friendly toward the Family, attempted to do a quantification of the Family’s power. He went and he surveyed 365, I think, Washington leaders and asked, “What are the influential religious organizations in Washington?” … You talked about how the And number one by far came out invisibility and privacy of to be the Fellowship. Of course, the the Family makes them more Catholic church is powerful, and powerful. How does it do that? APAC is powerful, and the NRA is JS: The beginning of the Family powerful and organized labor still was this idea that we need a space has a little bit of power, too. And a lot for political of organizations and business “You might not like the yo u ’ve n eve r leaders to come of are also NRA, but if you want to heard together, and p owe r f u l . B u t I quote, to know about the NRA, there’s a difference make decisions you can go and look at between those b eyo n d t h e organizations d i n o f t h e them. They’re public. and the Family. v o x p o p u l i That is the difference One is that — beyond registered between them and the they’re the voice of as lobbyists, and t h e p e o p l e. Family.” that way, they’re That is as accountable. You explicitly antimight not like democratic as -JEFF SHARLET, ENGLISH the NRA, but if it gets. The idea PROFESSOR you want to know is that there are about the NRA, discussions and you can go and there are deals that they want to have look at them. They’re public. That made, but it can’t be made if you’re is the difference between them and accountable to democracy. I think the Family. this idea is tempting for a lot of kids with the Dartmouth ethos. Get elites, Where’s the money to run the the best educated, the best and the Family coming from? brightest, and we’ll make decisions. JS: Tracking this down through the tax We know what’s good for everybody documents is a big job. The Fellowship else. That’s not democracy, but that’s Foundation have on its books a what that privacy gives them. relatively modest budget. It changes from year to year, usually around $20 How large would you say that million or something like that, which the Family’s political influence is not that much. A lot of that money in the U.S. is? comes from private donations. Oil JS: How large? I don’t know what terms and defense industries have really to define that with, I can tell you that been their bulwark for most of their a Rice University sociologist named history. But the other form of financing D. Michael Lindsay, who himself is a is what they call the “man method.”
The man method is otherwise known as “off-the-book,” and it is illegal. It’s a way of avoiding accountability. They have been held accountable before, in the 1970s. I went over years of tax records. Doug Coe, some years, would take a salary, always a very modest one. Other years, he apparently had no salary at all, and yet Coe lived very well and flew around the world in private jets. That’s the man method. The man method is: “I support you. You know what, I’m not gonna put this money through an organization. I think you’re doing great work. Would a gift of $50,000 help you do the great work you’re doing?” What was the most difficult part of getting your book adapted? JS: I didn’t even return Netflix’s phone calls for three months. I didn’t see how it was going to work. I could see how you could do a strict, straight-up, sort of frontline investigative documentary so that the art of it doesn’t matter, but I didn’t think that would actually get at the nature of the story. There are reasons why this story has been hiding in plain sight for a long time; it’s hard to tell. And it just wasn’t work I was interested in. But Netflix brought in this director, Jesse Moss, whose work I had seen in an earlier film called “The Overnighters,” which is a beautiful film. And that was important to me — that this was going to be a story. This was not going to be didactic. It was not going to be expository. And indeed, when you look at the series, one of the criticisms we’re receiving is, “This movie didn’t end with a clean takeaway.” And I say, “Right. Because that’s what documentary art really is.” Do you still continue your research on the family? Do you have any lasting connections to the Family?
JS: I’m done with the work I had to do about it. What’s been pleasing to me is to see a number of other scholars and journalists take up the inquiry, which is what I’d always hoped. I was not the first person to report on it; we see it in the Pulitzer prize-winning reporting for the LA Times, and there were a couple of other things over the years. Time Magazine did something back in the 1970s. I’m not the first, and thankfully, I’m not the last. What’s been encouraging to me is to see really solid scholars like Kevin Kruse — a historian at Princeton and his book “One Nation Under God” on the ties between big corporations and fundamentalism and the shaping of America during the Cold War — who are digging up the work I did and taking it further. That’s how it’s supposed to work. So my research is done. I do hear from a lot of Family people because the series gets a lot of attention. Who we’re really hearing from right now, more than ever, more than with the books, is former members like Doug Hampton. What do you think that the docuseries might be missing? JS: What’s not included as much as I would’ve liked in the docuseries is the deeper history … We didn’t go back in the early days of the Family. This thing begins as a sort of an attempt to crush organized labor, and it does — it shapes America. That’s a big part of the story that we didn’t do as much of. Plus, Netflix is based in the States, and it’s always tough getting American viewers to care about what happens overseas. So we briefly tell stories from Russia or Romania and Uganda, and those are nowhere near the most horrific stories. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2019
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Predictions for the NFL’s 100th season: Getting our Bearings B y Eric vaughn
The Dartmouth Staff
The National Football League Preseason began two weeks ago at the start of August, and in under a month from now, the Chicago Bears will kick off the regular season against the Green Bay Packers to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the NFL. Looking ahead, here are my predictions for each Conference’s Playoff Standings as well as picks for the Super Bowl. AFC 1. New England Patriots 2. Kansas City Chiefs 3. Cleveland Browns 4. Houston Texans 5. Los Angeles Chargers 6. Indianapolis Colts The Patriots have arguably the greatest player of all time at quarterback, the ageless wonder Tom Brady, and despite losing Rob Gronkowski to retirement, Bill Belichick always seems to adapt the passing game, no matter who his targets are. I expect Sony Michel to have a breakout second season, and the Patriots’ defense, led by Dont’a Hightower and Stephon Gilmore, should once again be tough to break. The Patriots are the best overall team in the American Football Conference and can beat opponents with both their offense and their defense. Knocking on the door are the Kansas City Chiefs, who have thirdyear phenom Patrick Mahomes. The offense should be even better in Mahomes’ second full season as a starter given the pairing of speedster rookie receiver Mecole Hardman with Travis Kelce and
Tyreek Hill. The predicament with the Chiefs, as it was last year, is the defense, and despite adding safety Tyrann Mathieu and defensive end Frank Clark in the offseason, they will likely suffer from the losses of safety Eric Berry and defensive ends Dee Ford and Justin Houston. The Chiefs were second to last in terms of yards allowed per game last year, and I don’t expect to see enough of an improvement for the unit above the disaster that it was last year. While it may seem odd to see the Browns in playoff contention — much less as the No. 3 seed in the AFC — buy in to the hype. Led by second-year quarterback Baker Mayfield, the Browns have a plethora of weapons on offense in David Njoku, Jarvis Landry, Kareem Hunt, Nick Chubb and Odell Beckham Jr. Their offense pairs with a defense that vastly improved over the offseason with the addition of Olivier Vernon to a unit that already had 2019 Pro Bowl players Denzel Ward and Myles Garrett, and the Browns are deep and poised to make a run. While I don’t buy the Texans as a Super Bowl contender, I see them winning the division with the help of a big third year from Deshuan Watson, throwing to superstar DeAndre Hopkins. The WatsonHopkins combo pairs with a sturdy defense — led by J.J. Watt — which tied for the fourth fewest points allowed per game last year. The last AFC team who could realistically make a run to the Super Bowl is the Los Angeles Chargers, who, in my opinion, have the deepest roster in football. While the team will likely ride or die based on Philip Rivers’ arm, the Chargers boast a multitude of offensive options
led by vastly underrated receiver Keenan Allen, and the team returns the eighth-best defensive team in terms of points allowed per game. The Chargers have struggled to stay healthy, but if Joey Bosa can play 16 games this season, they could be dangerous. While many pundits have picked the Colts as a Super Bowl contender, I see them finishing second in their division to the Texans and just barely sneaking into the playoffs as the No. 6 seed. Andrew Luck is a solid quarterback, but he throws too many interceptions, and besides T.Y. Hilton and Eric Ebron, the Colts lack additional talent in the passing game. While the Colts have a solid young core on defense, they are low on experience in the playoffs. I worry about their secondary behind Malik Hooker and their pass rush despite adding Justin Houston. NFC 1. Chicago Bears 2. Los Angeles Rams 3. Philadelphia Eagles 4. Atlanta Falcons 5. New Orleans Saints 6. Minnesota Vikings
While it may shock some people to see the Bears as the No. 1 overall seed in the National Football Conference, I believe that they are the best team in the NFL. The Bears had the best defense in the NFL last year in terms of points per game, rushing yards per game, interceptions and total takeaways. The defense had three first-team All-Pros last year in Eddie Jackson, Khalil Mack and Kyle Fuller, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see perennially underrated lineman Akiem Hicks and secondyear linebacker Roquan Smith earn
selections as well. I expect Mitchell Trubisky to take a leap forward under the guidance of Matt Nagy, similar to Jared Goff’s progression into an MVP candidate last year in his third year. Trubisky has a veteran offensive line and an embarrassment of elite players at his disposal, including a healthy Allen Robinson, second-year player Anthony Miller, rookie David Montgomery, speedster Tarik Cohen and tight end Trey Burton. The Rams are going to have another great season, and even if Todd Gurley isn’t completely healthy, I expect rookie running back Darrell Henderson to perform well. The Rams were still tied with the Patriots at the end of the third quarter of last year’s Super Bowl, and much of the same squad is back for another shot at the championship. Star quarterback Goff is aided by a trio of stud receivers in Brandin Cooks, Robert Woods and Goff’s favorite safety valve, Cooper Kupp, who is poised for a huge season. They also have reigning Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald, but I do worry about their back seven, as they have a hole at linebacker with the departure of Mark Barron, and they lost star safety Lamarcus Joyner to the Raiders in free agency. With the return of Carson Wentz, the Eagles are going to be tough to beat, and I expect the quarterback to seriously contend for MVP. The Eagles are solid in every area and have a creative play caller in Doug Pederson. Fletcher Cox anchors a seemingly impenetrable defensive line, and after barely making the playoffs last year under Nick Foles, I expect the Eagles to handily win a weak NFC East over a Cowboys team that isn’t as talented as many people think: The Cowboys still
have Dak Prescott at quarterback, and outside of Amari Cooper and Ezekiel Elliott, they lack playmakers in the passing game. While the Bears, Rams and Eagles are the three NFC teams I expect to compete for the title, there is a separation between them and the remaining three teams. In what may be surprising, I expect the Falcons to beat out the Saints. After the Saints’ devastating loss because of a blown pass interference no-call in the NFC Championship Game last year, I believe they are poised for a down year. Drew Brees had a dip in production late in the season last year and is now 40 years old. The team also lost Mark Ingram in the offseason and has holes at linebacker as well as cornerback opposite Marshon Lattimore, where maligned Eli Apple is poised to start. The Falcons, on the other hand, have one of the most stacked offenses in the league, led by Calvin Ridley, Devonta Freeman, Julio Jones, Matt Ryan and Mohamed Sanu. The Falcons have been scarred by injuries the last few seasons, and their defense will improve with the return of Deion Jones and Keanu Neal. The choice for the No. 6 seed came down to the Packers and the Vikings. While Aaron Rodgers is arguably still the most talented quarterback in the league, the Vikings have more talent, and I expect a bounce-back season from Kirk Cousins with promoted offensive coordinator in Kevin Stefanski and a healthy Dalvin Cook. The No. 4 defense in terms of yards allowed last season should continue stopping opposing offenses. Super Bowl Prediction: Chicago Bears 27, New England Patriots 24