The Dartmouth 08/19/14

VOL. CLXXI NO. 110

SUNNY HIGH 78 LOW 51

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2014

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Coed Council members endorse new constitution By charlie rafkin The Dartmouth Staff

Membership of the College’s coed houses endorsed a new constitution on August 13 that would implement a robust nondiscrimination policy among member institutions and ensure full financial aid is available for all members of Coed Council bodies, in addition to establishing Amarna Undergraduate Society as an affiliate member of the Council. Debate over the constitution will resume this fall when full membership returns to campus.

Greek Leadership Council and Coed Council summer leadership expressed optimism that fall membership would officially apJULIETTA GERVASE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

SEE COED PAGE 3

SPORTS

HENDRICKS ’12 BRINGS LOW ERA TO CUBS PAGE 8

OPINION

MCKAY: BLIND LEADING THE BLIND PAGE 5

ARTS

‘BOYHOOD’ HITS RIGHT NOTES

Humanities 1-2 overflows with apps B y JASMINE SACHAR

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

Applications for the Humanities 1-2 class sequence, a program offered to incoming freshmen to fulfill the writing and first-year seminar requirement, soared this year among members of the Class of 2018. The

program received 135 applications for 48 spots, while applicant pools have been closer to 75 students in past years, program administrator Wadeane Kunz wrote in an email.

The directors had not increased the number of SEE HUMANITIES PAGE 2

The new Coed Constitution would include a robust nondiscrimination provision.

2012 first-year survey released

B y ANNIE SMITH

More than 95 percent of students in the Class of 2016 identified getting good grades as “very important” to them upon arriving at the College, according to the 2012 New Student survey, released last week by the Office of Institutional Research.

The New Student survey was emailed to incoming freshmen for the first time in 2012

and posed questions ranging from high school social and academic experiences to new students’ expectations and goals for college. More than 82 percent of students in the class completed the survey, with a slightly higher response rate from women.

Associate provost for institutional research Alicia Betsinger did not respond to multiple requests for comment by press time.

Academic Skills Center director Carl Thum said that students’ emphasis on grades was not surprising due to the competitive nature of the college application process.

“To do well is really important if you want to apply and have a fighting chance to be accepted to a school like this,” Thum said.

Dartmouth has conducted similar surveys since at least SEE SURVEY PAGE 5

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READ US ON

Developers talk College support for software

GET SAUSSY

DARTBEAT FOCO JOE SHOWS LATEST CREATION

By CHRIS LEECH AND LUKE MCCANN

GILLIBRAND COMBATS SEXUAL ASSAULT

The Dartmouth Staff

FOLLOW US ON

TWITTER @thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2014 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.

JULIETTA GERVASE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Members of SAUSSY brave the cold to perform for student crowds.

As letters swirl around a black hole sucking bubble after bubble into an abyss, a player’s thumbs dart across the screen to form words, attempting to save as many letters as possible from what must surely be a dreadful fate.

“Word Blastoff,” an iPhone game produced this June by Michelle Khare

’14 and Nook Harquail ’14 for a senior thesis, marks just one among several iPhone apps developed by Dartmouth students while at the College. Students have found success in developing smartphone applications in Hanover, though some noted a lack of institutional support for their projects.

Several students emphasized that SEE APP PAGE 3

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

DAily debriefing Gov. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., has announced a state of emergency in the wake of a string of overdoses from synthetic drugs, The Boston Globe reported Friday. The move will allow the state to work with the Department of Health and Human Services to halt the distribution of the drugs. The announcement comes after a version of synthetic marijuana — referred to as “spice” — caused medical issues for a minimum of 41 people in the Manchester area, as well as overdoses in the city and Concord.

Other products targeted by the declaration include bath salts, incense and other items that while purchased legally, can be smoked or ingested. The New Hampshire state of emergency follows an announcement by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in May that it would suppress those involved with distributing synthetic drugs.

The Hanover Fire Department will buy a rescue boat to patrol the area of the Connecticut River near Hanover, which will be available in several weeks, the Valley News reported. The boat will be based out of Wilson’s Landing, near the site where the brother of a graduating Dartmouth student drowned during 2013’s senior week, and will be a rigid inflatable boat, more appropriate for water rescues and working with other vessels than the College’s pontoon. With an underwater camera and sonar system, the boat’s features would have proved useful for recovering the victim’s body after the June 2013 drowning, Town Manager Julia Griffin told the Valley News. The purchase, along with the necessary equipment to run the boat, was approved after a $50,000 donation by the College and the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation. The boat and equipment cost approximately $62,000, but last year’s remaining fire department funding covered the difference.

After a recent ruling from Medicare auditors, eight small Vermont hospitals, three of which are located in the Upper Valley, may need to repay up to $12 million total to the federal government, the Valley News reported. The ruling states that these hospitals received larger reimbursements from Medicare than they were entitled to and that they must return the funds over the next three years. The ruling affects only small hospitals as the reimbursement is determined differently at larger ones. Affected hospitals could face significant financial concerns due to the ruling. Because of differing reimbursement procedures between the states, hospitals in New Hampshire were not charged.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2014

Rise in interest leads to class waitlist FROM HUMANITIES PAGE 1

available spots this year because the infrastructure for doing so was not in place, but program director Andrea Tarnowski said in the future they might offer the class to more students.

The class is advertised as a discussion- and reading-intensive class focused on literature spanning many genres, nationalities and traditions which have influenced Western culture. Applicants are asked to write a short essay about a memorable book they read recently.

Tarnowski said she could not explain the dramatic upswing in applications. Efforts and methods to advertise the class to incoming freshmen remained largely the same as in previous years. Program administrators sent a letter home to members of the Class of 2018, inviting them to apply, sent two emails and created a website for this year’s program.

“Some of these questions can depend on intangibles,” Tarnowski said. “Perhaps our subject headings were a little different. Maybe people were more attuned to emails coming in from different departments. Was it something about the timing about our reminder? Did people respond well to the graphics?”

Though the process was inevitably more competitive due to the application increase, Tarnowski said the applicant evaluation method, in which professors assessed essays, remained the same. This year, most students wrote about a work of fiction, she said.

Professors created a substantial waitlist last week and sent out acceptances Tuesday, Tarnowski said.

Classics professor Pramit Chaudhuri, one of the professors leading the class this year, helped evaluate applications.

“We were looking for an ability to express yourself, an interest in the material, though the ways that interest could manifest itself could vary … and that they saw the humanities course playing an important part in their curriculum regardless of major,” Chaudhuri said.

The class, which Tarnowski said has been offered for around 25 years, used to be very popular in its early years, but enrollment waned about a decade ago.

“I have a feeling that maybe people initially or at one time came to turn away from it because they wondered how humanities would be useful to them, useful in a professional sense,” she said. “People were so focused on courses having a direct professional connection that even as freshmen they might have shied away from a course whose title was humanities.”

The number of degrees awarded in the humanities field has slowly and steadily declined since 2004, when 24 percent of majors completed were in humanities departments. In 2013, 17 percent of degrees awarded were in humanities subjects.

Retaining enrollment in humanities departments is not a goal of the Humanities 1-2 sequence, Tarnowski said, but it could certainly be a byproduct.

Gisele Phalo ’17 decided to apply for the program when the reading list — which included works like Dante’s “Inferno” — sparked her interest. She said she liked the small class size and its

emphasis on free-flowing discussion.

Phalo, however, decided not to take Humanities 2 in the winter, instead taking a film class for her writing seminar. Although she said she had considered majoring in Arabic or classics, she realized in conversations with her first-year advisor that this meant she would probably need to go to graduate school.

Jake Greenberg ’17 said he was drawn to the class by his desire to read and contextualize important literature, and because it seemed like a good “Dartmouth College experience.”

The class’s application process and competitive entry might add to the allure for incoming freshmen, he noted.

“It makes it more prestigious,” Greenberg said. “I would have taken the class even if there wasn’t an application. I was kind of worried I wouldn’t get in.”

The popularity of this year’s program might end up bolstering the humanities division, Chaudhuri said, helping develop a “critical mass of students” with a sophisticated understanding of the humanities.

Humanities subjects in general must be more aggressive in recruiting talented and interested students from across the nation and globe, Chaudhuri added.

The classics department has been running sessions and inviting classics graduates from all professions to come to the College and talk about their career successes, he said.

“The more we do that, the more we can correct misapprehensions they’re laboring under,” he said.

— COMPILED BY CHRIS LEECH

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

“College 10th in Forbes entrepreneurship ranking” (8/15/14): Due to an editing error, a characterization of the list and the attribution of one quotation were misstated. Forbes released a top-50 list of most entrepreneurial schools, not a top-20 list. Director of Dartmouth’s new Innovation Center and New Venture Incubator programs Jamie Coughlin, not College President Phil Hanlon, noted that he saw excitement around the “growing entrepreneurial awareness” at Dartmouth.

JULIETTA GERVASE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Applications for the two-term humanities program soared for fall term.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2014

PAGE 3

Amarna could become affiliate pending Council approval FROM COED PAGE 1

prove the constitution. The document requires approval from a majority of the members of all three coed Greek houses — Alpha Theta coed fraternity, Phi Tau coed fraternity and The Tabard coed fraternity — as well as Amarna for ratification.

Coed Council summer treasurer Tyler Stoff ’15, who wrote the original draft of the new constitution, said he does not anticipate major changes as fall membership reviews the plan.

Coed Council president Evelyn Weinstein ’16 said the new document would provide superior guidelines for running the Council, noting that many of its changes simply codify existing practices. Weinstein, who doubles as Phi Tau treasurer, noted for example that the fraternity already provides full financial aid to some members. Still, institutionalizing these practices was crucial, she said.

Stoff emphasized that drafting the constitution was a “hugely collaborative process.” He said that the constitution seeks to establish “who we are,” with the nondiscrimination clause central to the Council’s identity.

The Council supports inclusive spaces for people of all genders, and

“we’d also like to reinforce the notion that we’re welcoming to all social classes as well,” Phi Tau summer president Justin Halloran ’16 said.

Because the nondiscrimination clause is located under the constitution’s section defining certain terms, members could be asked to leave the Council if they violate that clause, Weinstein said.

GLC summer chair Elizabeth Wilkins ’16 said this vigorous nondiscrimination policy is unique among GLC sub-bodies.

Under the new document, Amarna, whose president already attends Council meetings, would assume the role of an affiliate member of the Council with voting power only on issues that do not pertain to GLC funding, while Alpha Theta, Phi Tau and Tabard retain full membership. Amarna members would also not be permitted to run for Council leadership positions, and Amarna would remain outside the GLC’s purview.

“They’re not a member of the Greek community, but they are a member of the coed community via this affiliate type of action,” Weinstein said.

Amarna summer president Samantha Smith ’16 said that the society

originally wanted full member status without becoming a GLC member. She noted that the changes would not affect the daily life of Amarna members, but that the changes symbolize the society’s commitment to the coed community while preserving Amarna’s non-Greek identity.

With the new constitution, Amarna would receive further institutional support from the College: for example, Amarna’s president is not currently copied on emails sent to Greek presidents. Under the new constitution, the GLC could also sponsor events held by Amarna, Wilkins said.

The drafting process encountered a hiccup when some members said they wanted to enact provisions that would permit prohibiting some nonmembers, often because they were deemed threatening, from attending Council events. Alpha Theta summer president Noah Cramer ’16, who said some Alpha Theta members would have supported such a ban, said that the house decided to table the discussion until after the constitution is passed.

“I think that this is something that needs to be looked at very carefully by both student leadership as well as the College,” Wilkins said, noting that such a ban remains in its early stages.

Tabard summer president Luke McCann ’16 said he believes such an amendment would have helped members of coed spaces feel comfortable, noting that Tabard has banned people from events and the space in the past. He said he was frustrated that the debate within Coed Council felt overly theoretical.

“If anyone was making any coed space on campus uncomfortable, they should therefore not be allowed in any coed space,” he said. “I think there should be that sort of sense of community in all of us.”

Weinstein said she thinks the discussion was “valuable” but said the Council decided to proceed because the issue merited a longer, deeper conversation. She characterized the topic as “tangential” to overall discussions about the constitution but noted that many people were passionate about a ban.

The new document also mandates community service from all voting members of member organizations, in addition to establishing the new position of Council secretary tasked with documenting Council business and providing continuity to Council structures. The current constitution does not include an independent ser-

vice provision and instead names the vice president responsible for service.

The proposed constitution also more clearly delineates how organizations can join the Council.

This change coincides with Moving Dartmouth Forward’s review of student life at the College, with the steering committee receiving more than 50 online suggestions recommending that the Greek system go coed.

Halloran said the Council would like to see more members join. He speculated that the College could possibly mandate that Greek life become coeducational.

“If they are incentivizing coeds, it’s very important that we have a way for people to join our Council,” he said.

Halloran said the new constitution would help establish the Council’s distinctiveness in the College’s institutional framework.

“People are always talking about the negative aspects of frats,” he said.

“I think being able to say, ‘Hey, if you look at the Coeds, they have this, this and this’ — that’s a nice thing to be able to say.”

McCann is a member of the Dartmouth staff. Smith is a member of The Dartmouth’s copy editing staff.

DALI aided software development, iPhone app developers said FROM APP PAGE 1

the Neukom Digital Arts Leadership and Innovation Lab funded and supported app development. Khare noted that computer science professor Lori Loeb, who runs the lab, was the pair’s thesis advisor. Khare said project funding helped them purchase software licenses and iPhones used for testing. The DALI Lab also offered technical support for “Word Blastoff ” as well as an appropriate environment for the work, she said.

“The DALI Lab is a hub of knowledge,” Khare said. “The best part is that it brings together the art people and the CS people.”

Harquail, who coded the project, said the DALI Lab was instrumental in supporting his learning process, noting that “Blastoff ” was the first project he worked on for iOS. The lab’s technical director, Tim Tregubov ’11, helped him find resources and start app development, Harquail said.

But Khare added that the “Word Blastoff ” team had almost no Dartmouth support for the business side of their project, noting that the process of forming a company around the product — called Nebulous Games, LLC — involved filling out an online form.

Director of Dartmouth’s new Innovation Center and New Venture Incubator programs Jamie Coughlin

said he has seen a growing interest in app development at the College, which he attributed to the increased use of mobile devices, along with the relatively low cost of developing new apps. The interest in app development, he said, is found in both traditional ventures, like social networking or gaming, as well as social ventures, amidst the growing reality that many people in communities across the world have access to mobile devices.

Coughlin said the College’s new effort in entrepreneurship will provide more opportunities for students developing apps. Dartmouth was ranked 10th for entrepreneurship

by Forbes last month.

The new Innovation Center will provide resources to expose students to the software development process and the entrepreneurial new venture process, Coughlin said, teaching them how to create and implement ideas. The center will also offer technical resources and seed capital, he said, aiding students who do have software or other ideas to receive small amounts of funding to build prototypes or products.

Gaby Javitt ’16 had the idea for her own app, “The Ropes,” during winter term of her freshman year. The app collects information about dining at Dartmouth, including menus, meal swipe and DBA information and food ratings.

Javitt said that the most significant help she received from the College came from DALI, noting that she formed a three-week partnership with the lab at the end of last winter to push the app through the iTunes App Store.

“There are plenty of resources in the form of professors for how to validate an idea and create a business model for it.”

- Gurkaran Singh ’15 She said that Dartmouth provided almost no initial support for her idea, especially on the programming side.

She could not find a developer to code the app for iOS, and she said Dartmouth Dining Services also declined to aid app development.

Two developers outside of the College helped Javitt program the app, which launched at the beginning of spring term. One of the developers, Gabe Boning ’18, took two gap years to work as a software engineer.

Javitt pointed to the absence of a course teaching iOS development as one of the reasons for her trouble

finding app developers in Hanover.

The single smartphone development course that Dartmouth offers, Javitt said, focuses on development for Android applications.

She said that such a course might be helpful but could also prove inconsistent with the College’s mission in liberal arts.

“A lot of the CS courses offered are fundamental to computer science, and this is an area that is an offshoot of those fundamental subjects,” Javitt said. “It’s useful and practical, but I’m not sure that it’s a goal for the College.”

She said that if the College does not offer a course on iOS development, it would be helpful to have a workshop or provide a resource where students could get help from an experienced developer.

Javitt said she also found little in terms of advice or assistance in forming her own company, Square Knot Industries, to produce the app.

“I had no support on the business side — I wasn’t sure who to ask,” Javitt said. “I paid out of pocket to form the company.”

Gurkaran Singh ’15 came up with the idea for his “HIVE” app while stranded in the Boston Logan Airport with several other Dartmouth students during a snowstorm. He wanted to create an app through which people with a shared network could communicate based on their

locations, he said, calling the app an “impromptu event coordination app.”

He said he pitched the idea at a pitch night hosted by the DALI lab last winter, where students could suggest ideas for web, software or app development and the lab would provide the resources to help realize selected ideas.

Singh said that both professors and students helped him with the development process.

“There are plenty of resources in the form of professors for how to validate an idea and create a business model for it,” he said. “There’s also an incredible group of students who are willing to talk and have experience in developing.”

Singh, like Javitt, said that iOS development was a rare skill for Dartmouth students.

“It’s been hard to find developers, but there’s been a lot more interest as of late,” he said. “It’s a growing community, but until now it’s been a little hard on the iOS side.”

Singh said the computer science department can help students obtain Apple’s licensing. With a license, students can submit their prototypes to Apple and if approved, can place apps on the market for purchase through the App Store.

Harquail is a former member of The Dartmouth senior staff.

Laura Weiss contributed reporting.

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 4

Senior Staff Columnist Katie mckay ’16

Staff Columnist carson Hele ’16

Blind Leading the Blind

Pulling the Plug

The myth of a post-racial America is dangerous yet pervasive.

The popular rhetoric surrounding race suggests that we live in an America that Martin Luther King, Jr. only dreamed of: a colorblind nation with a black president to prove it. Yet the recent shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, illustrates how pervasive structural racial inequality truly is. This shooting has led to police violence, riots and a state of emergency in Ferguson, Missouri. Further, it has incited nationwide debate surrounding race, excessive use of police force and inequality. While the rhetoric of such debates has been largely sanitized of overtly racist language as a result of post-racial ideology, the turmoil in Ferguson reveals that American “colorblindness” is only an illusion.

The divergent narratives that have emerged from the shooting evoke two entirely different understandings of the event. Those calling for justice for Brown do so with a clear understanding that what occurred was racially motivated, or at least reflects a pervasive racial bias. Those defending Wilson have largely done so without any explicit racism. These supporters instead cite the fact that Brown was allegedly seen on video committing a “strong-arm” robbery of a convenience store earlier that night. This footage — released by the Ferguson police department coincidentally on the same day that they revealed Wilson’s identity — allows those defending Wilson to claim that what matters was not the color of Brown’s skin so much as the fact that he was dangerous, a criminal.

This language, despite being sanitized of overtly racial connotations, bears undertones of an all-too-familiar dialogue surrounding race and crime. Since President Ronald Reagan declared a “War on Drugs,” the rhetoric of “law and order” has successfully masked lingering racial anxiety.

Casting blacks as criminals has created an America in which the unwritten police policy of racial profiling, which should be seen as outrageous or deplorable, is considered rational and efficent.

Supporters say Wilson was simply doing his job as Brown was a criminal who posed a threat — no racial profiling, no crime. But the few undisputed facts of the case directly contradict this line of reasoning. First, Wilson initially stopped Brown

for jaywalking, not for connection to the robbery.

Second, Brown was unarmed. Third, Wilson shot Brown multiple times, none of which were at close range. Regardless of Brown’s connection to the robbery — which was unarmed and only resulted in the loss of about $48 worth of cigars — the shooting was beyond excessive punishment.

Beyond the facts of the shooting, its significance is clear. The incident raises decades-old questions about the role that racial profiling plays in law enforcement and, in turn, the role that law enforcement plays in the reinforcement of racial inequality. The police and local government of Ferguson may claim that the city has no history of racial profiling, but the numbers tell a different story. According to the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, Ferguson’s population is 63 percent black. However, an overwhelming 86 percent of police stops, 92 percent of police searches and 93 percent of arrests are of black citizens.

As Charles Blow noted in The New York Times, Mike Brown’s death justifies blacks’ beliefs that they are treated unfairly by the criminal justice system. He cites a poll that indicates 70 percent of blacks believe that police treated black people unfairly, compared to only 37 percent of whites who believed the same. Coverage of the shooting, then, has tapped into a broader — and conflicted — history of racial discrimination and injustice.

White citizens, for whom racial profiling is not an immediate concern, are more easily swayed by colorblind ideology than blacks, who suffer from the immediate consequences of racial bias.

At the end of the day, both condemning Brown and defending Wilson fail to change the fact that a young, unarmed man was shot and killed.

Brown did not deserve to die. His death calls for an examination of the systems that characterize African-Americans as criminals. But knee-jerk reactions to any coverage that discusses racial inequality in American law enforcement represents a reversion to the myth of colorblindness. We, as a nation, have failed to appropriately respond to Mike Brown’s shooting, and we are unlikely to do so until we stop relying on the illusive language of post-racialism. It’s time to call a spade a spade and dismiss the myth of colorblindness altogether.

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ISSUE

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2014

NEWS EDITORS: Laura Weiss, LAYOUT EDITOR: Jessica Zischke, TEMPLATING EDITOR: Kate Healy. COPY EDITOR: Leslie Fink.

SUBMISSIONS: We welcome letters and guest columns. All submissions must include the author’s name and affiliation with Dartmouth College, and should not exceed 250 words for letters or 700 words for columns. The Dartmouth reserves the right to edit all material before publication. All material submitted becomes property of The Dartmouth. Please email submissions to editor@thedartmouth.com.

We should think twice about the price we pay for the D-Plan.

The Class of 2016’s sophomore summer is drawing to a close, which means we are finally equipped to decide whether this term lived up to its mythical expectations. It is, after all, the D-Plan’s most distinctive feature. I recognize the positive aspects of sophomore summer, yet beyond the lamentable reductions in nearly every service imaginable, I wonder whether sophomore summer is really worth it. More than anything, sophomore summer has left me confused by why we insist on the greatness of the quarter-based D-Plan. To be blunt, this is a delusion of grandeur, and the College should seriously examine a switch to a semester calendar.

The College’s narrative to prospective students — one that many here seem to buy — portrays the D-Plan as a wonderful way to customize your college career according to your own goals. Less talked about is the fact that the D-Plan was not created to help students. Faced with the demand that the enrollment of men remain constant, the College implemented the D-Plan to enable coeducation. It was, in the words of the late College President David McLaughlin, “a matter of expediency.” Yet McLaughlin himself stated that “the Dartmouth Plan was one of the most unfortunate decisions the College ever made,” and he criticized the College for failing to phase it out. The idea that the D-Plan exists to give us more opportunities is tenuous, and it ignores the very real downsides that it has for campus life.

Not to speak of the problems wrought by its fast-paced 10-week terms, the D-Plan is highly disruptive to Dartmouth’s social fabric. It facilitates the transient nature of residential life, which, when combined with segregated freshmen and upperclassmen housing, makes the development of dorm-based communities which that other schools have impossible. The D-Plan, then, could hold back the success of the College’s new “house system,” modeled off the residential colleges of its peers. In addition, the D-Plan’s off-terms strain friendships and relationships. Some argue that this aspect of the D-Plan forces you to branch out and build new connections. But from what I have observed, most friendships are hardly immune to some form of deterioration caused by

the D-Plan’s haphazard discontinuity. This does a disservice to the entire Dartmouth community. As philosophy professor Carey Heckman ’76 argued at the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” event on the D-Plan, the D-Plan creates an ultimately selfish system that prizes individual desires and plans and over the well-being of our school as a whole.

One potential improvement to consider is a return to the semester system. Some might gawk at this suggestion — what of our off-terms, study abroad opportunities and sophomore summer, then? Claiming that these all are advantages that only the D-Plan can provide is misleading. The College could keep these features with just minor alterations in a semester calendar, assuming we all agree that they are integral to a Dartmouth education. Sophomore summer could be a required term in residence with possible waiver options, as is the case now, yet it would be shorter than a regular semester and therefore would require fewer credits. This semester could be offset by a semester off sophomore or junior year during which the College could offer credits for internships or research completed. In this system, we would keep all the touted benefits of having the majority of a class together on campus for one summer, while still giving students the opportunity to design an off-campus experience tailored to their own interests. Study abroad programs of a slightly longer duration should be made available to students from sophomore through senior year.

This changed plan, of course, has its own set of trade-offs. A degree of social discontinuity is unavoidable as semesters off or abroad entail lengthier absences. Students would not have the same freedom that they have now to come and go as they please. Yet this new set of obstacles is preferable to the one we have now. Longer academic terms and a more constant student body would bring the College closer to its full potential as an institution. The “Dartmouth Experience” would not be as marred by hectic schedules that prioritize speed over quality and stop-and-go relationships that are stressful to all parties. We deserve Dartmouth at its best. The D-Plan should not stand in the way of that.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2014

PAGE 5

Survey finds grades, graduate school important to freshmen FROM SURVEY PAGE 1

2006, but the 2012 survey was the first conducted electronically. Seventyseven percent of the incoming Class of 2014 participated in the 2010 survey.

Although the report is the first in several years not labeled a Cooperative Institutional Research Program survey — a long-running survey created in 1966 by the Higher Education Research Institute — the 2012 questionnaire featured similar questions.

“Some students are poised and ready for this and [it] comes to them naturally, and for others it’s a complete and utter disaster. For some it takes a couple of months, and for some it takes a couple of years.”

- CARL THUM, ACADEMIC SKILLS PROGRAM DIRECTOR In 2010, just over 60 percent of respondents said financial security was essential or very important to their life and future, while in 2012, 81 percent reported the same, and that response rose from the fourth most important to second most important life goal for the average student. In 2012 around 50 percent said they revised papers two or more times, while in 2010 about 65 percent of respondents often or very often revised a paper to improve writing.

About 90 percent of the respondents in both surveys planned on getting an advanced degree after college.

Around 75 percent of respondents in both surveys said that raising a family is very important or essential to their life and future.

In 2012, 62 percent said they wanted a doctorate or master’s degree, 27 percent of students said they were planning to study for an MBA degree, 26 percent said they

wanted to obtain a medical degree and 16 percent said they wanted to go to law school.

In the 2012 survey, three-quarters of respondents said that they were prepared to balance multiple commitments in college.

Time management is the most difficult part of adjusting to college life, Thum said, explaining that college students no longer have the external structure of their high school and home life.

“Some students are poised and ready for this and [it] comes to them naturally, and for others it’s a complete and utter disaster. Those are the polar extremes, and then there’s everybody in between,” he said. “For some it takes a couple of months, and for some it takes a couple of years.”

The commitments students juggle in college are different than in high school, Tiantian Zhang ’16 said, considering adjusting to time management at the College.

“In college you have a lot more control over your schedule, while as in high school this was set for you,” she said. “Here, since you have so much flexibility, it’s your responsibility to manage all of your time really well. It’s an advantage and a disadvantage.”

Toni Aguiar ’16 said she sees students’ responsibilities to take care of themselves as important as they transition to college life.

Time management and sleep are integrally connected, Thum said, and healthy sleeping habits often collapse in college.

Trey Rebman ’16 said that learn-

“I know freshman year I had trouble managing everything, but you kind of learn how to balance with the extra freedom to do whatever you want.”

- TREY REBMAN ’16 ing time management can be difficult for incoming freshmen.

“Time management skills in high

school were easier because you had your parents to manage your time,” Rebman said. “I know freshman year I had trouble managing everything, but you kind of learn how to balance with the extra freedom to do whatever you want.”

More than 70 percent of survey participants said they planned to study abroad. While she feels that the College makes it easy for students to study abroad, unforeseen inflexibility in one’s schedule can cause students not to study abroad, Zhang said.

“I think people realize later after coming here how rigid their schedules can be,” she said. “Coming in as a freshman you don’t realize that, even though the D-Plan is very flexible, there are things that prevent you from taking advantage of the flexibility.”

Three-quarters of students surveyed said they were prepared to live away from home.

same in 2012.

At both Dartmouth and Cornell University, which conducted a similar new student survey in 2012, similar percentages — almost 100 percent — responded that getting the best grades possible is very important. About 95 percent at both schools also said they prefer interesting courses even

if difficult, and around 80 percent at both institutions said they would work hard in a course to learn the material even if the work would not translate into better grades.

Around 70 percent of Dartmouth respondents preferred classes that featured discussion while only 60 percent of Cornell respondents did.

“Coming in as a freshman, you don’t realize that, even though the D-Plan is very flexible, there are things that prevent you from taking advantage of the flexibility.”

- TIANTIAN ZHANG ’16 Living away from home can lead to necessary adjustments, Joe Wang ’16 said.

The University of Pennsylvania conducts a comparable freshman survey, where 53 percent of Penn respondents reported in 2010 that they frequently or occasionally drank wine or liquor in high school, and 48 percent said they frequently or occasionally drank beer. By contrast, only 10 percent of Dartmouth respondents reported that they often drank beer, wine or liquor in high school in the 2012 report. In 2010, 37 percent of incoming Penn students said they often failed to complete homework on time in high school, while only 5 percent of incoming Dartmouth students reported the

ANNA DAVIES/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Three-quarters of respondents said they were ready to balance commitments.

PAGE 6

THE DARTMOUTH COMICS

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2014

DARTMOUTH EVENTS TODAY 12:15 p.m.

“Medical Education and Practice in an Era of Lifestyle Illnesses,” lecture, Kellogg Auditorium

All Day “Student Library Service Bookplate Program,” Berry Library Main Street

TOMORROW 9:00 a.m.

“American Policy and a Middle East in Crisis,” with Nicholas Burns, Spaulding Auditorium

5:00 p.m.

“Summer Performance Laboratory in Chamber Music Culminating Concert ,” Faulkner Recital Hall

6:00 p.m.

“Ethics Summer Film Series: ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ (1962),” Haldeman 41

ADVERTISING For advertising information, please call (603) 646-2600 or email info@thedartmouth. com. The advertising deadline is noon, two days before publication. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement. Opinions expressed in advertisements do not necessarily reflect those of The Dartmouth, Inc. or its officers, employees and agents.

The Dartmouth, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation chartered in the state of New Hampshire. USPS 148-540 ISSN 01999931

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

TUESDAY, AUGUST, 19, 2014

PAGE 7

‘Boyhood’ (2014) an honest homage to growing up, youth

B y Andrew kingsley The Dartmouth Staff

Watching Richard Linklater’s watershed film “Boyhood” (2014) feels like opening a long-forgotten, cobwebbed trunk full of old photos, Pokémon cards and Nintendo games you discovered in your attic.

Following the growth of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) from ages 6 to 18, the film captures the midnight Harry Potter book releases, the Britney Spears songs and the Razr phones vital to the childhoods of Generation Y. On the way, the film wins viewers over with its honest, moving depiction of the trials and tribulations of growing up.

A remarkable experiment in film production, “Boyhood” chronicles the development of the same actor over the course of 12 years (200213), creating a fictional life for him to inhabit and enact. I’ll repeat this because it’s so impressive: Linklater filmed scenes with Coltrane for 12 years. As a result, the film captures him aging before our eyes, his voice dropping, his facial hair sprouting

and his baby fat disappearing. With this bold choice, Linklater blurs the distinction between documentary and fiction, situating the film liminally to create an immediately accessible and interactive epic. The film begs viewers to wax nostalgic and root for Mason through the trials of childhood.

And there are many trials. Like James Joyce’s Ulysses lofts the ordinary life of Leopold Bloom to mythological grandeur, so too does “Boyhood” give adolescence an epic impressiveness. Mason’s mother (Patricia Arquette) lives with two consecutive abusive, alcoholic husbands and Mason sees his father (Ethan Hawke) remarry. He learns about sex, has his first beer, moves homes repeatedly and finally attends college. In a parallel to the tale of Hercules, Mason’s 12 years match the Greek hero’s 12 trials, with beer serving as his Nemean Lion and sex his Hydra. We are shocked at how our little Mason, a cheeky, cloud-watching 6-year-old, achieves these milestones quickly throughout the film.

In short, the film invites us to be parents — and to care for Mason. We despise his violent first stepfather, his hyper-conservative, critical second stepfather and the belligerent middle school bullies he faces. As we laugh after moments of suspense pass without calamity,

“As we laugh after moments of suspense pass without calamity, like Mason’s decisions to text while driving and throw a saw blade like a ninja star, we realize how invested we are in his life.” like Mason’s decisions to text while driving and throw a saw blade like a ninja star, we realize how invested we are in his life. If his youth is a high school football game, then we have become the rowdy parents in

the stands, proud of every catch and wanting to run down to the field when someone tackles our son.

There is little direct sensationalism or saccharine sentimentalism in the film. Instead of presenting a tear-jerking scrapbook, Linklater manages to create more of a candid camera, presenting Mason’s life without many trappings. Like Gus van Sant’s “Elephant” (2003), “Boyhood” is a chapter book, with honest vignettes of youth in all its happiness and exuberance but also in its vulnerability and disillusionment. While this pure verisimilitude occasionally makes the film drag, we realize that it mirrors life, which also limps at times.

As Mason ages, learned skepticism and reserve often replace the film’s naïve effervescence. We watch Mason change from a precocious, bedtime story-loving child to a pensive, existential hipster.

His sister Samantha (who, played

by Linklater’s daughter Lorelei Linklater, eerily blurs the line between fiction and documentary)

transforms from a nerdy, nosy pest into an apathetic teenager reminiscent of Violet Parr from “The Incredibles” (2004). His father, once the epitome of the fun, “no seat belts and baseball games” dad, becomes a lackluster paunch by the end.

At the film’s close, Mason reflects while stoned in a canyon with his new college friends. He asks what the meaning of it all is and where the rest of his life is headed and his friend, also playing to the stoner trope, says that we don’t seize the day but instead the day seizes us. Hearing this, Mason eulogizes about life’s immensity and our failure to contain it within some concise fortune cookie slip. As his life drives inexorably forward, he discovers a self-reliance, taking the wheel to discover his own way but still using the rear view mirror to remind him where he’s been.

Rating: 8.8/10 “Boyhood” is playing daily at the Nugget at 5:45 p.m.

Students, faculty reflect on summer arts at Hopkins Center B y josh koenig

The Dartmouth Staff

Completing a slate that included performances from the New York Theatre Workshop, Andrew Bird and the Hands of Glory, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and a documentary screening by filmmaker Ken Burns, the Hopkins Center’s summer programming will draw to a close in the coming weeks as the academic quarter ends.

Reflecting back on the term, students, staff and faculty identified a number of highlights across disciplines offered at the Center.

Theater With programming including alumni play festival VoxFest, the respective staging and reading of two plays written by a current undergraduate and a now-alumnus in the Eleanor Frost and Ruth and Loring Dodd play festival and a three-week residency by the New York Theatre Workshop, undergraduates this summer have been treated to a “remarkable experience,” “Drama in Performance” professor Jamie Horton said.

Over the summer, the theater department developed an academic program that partners with much of the programming at the Hop, publicity director Rebecca Bailey said. The department’s programming focuses on allowing students to gain insight into the process behind creating new work, Horton said.

“The undergraduates in Theater 65 have more exposure to the development of new plays in the weeks of the

summer than I probably had in the first five years of my professional theater career combined,” he said. “It’s really substantial.”

Veronica Burt ’16, a student in “Drama in Performance,” said VoxFest and the New York Theatre Workshop have been highlights of her summer.

During VoxFest, Burt worked on a sketch comedy piece.

“I’ve seen a lot of [New York Theatre Workshop] productions and I’ve been familiar with their work over the years, so it was cool to be able to meet the artistic director and the associate artistic director and build those connections,” Burt said.

Music Describing his performance as the “pinnacle” of her summer, Tiantian Zhang ’16 said that Andrew Bird and the Hands of Glory’s July 10 performance stood out among summer musical offerings. Over the past few months, Hanover has also played host to performances by Ricardo Lemvo and Makina Loca, the headliners of the summer’s free concert, and Anaïs Mitchell, among other performers.

“It was a very refreshing and rejuvenating experience in terms of my musical identity,” Zhang said of Bird’s performance. “He’s such a creative genius.”

Across performances, Bailey said that a number of this summer’s live musical performers — including Bird and Mitchell — were selected in part for their festival-style performances, which she said she hoped brought a similar atmosphere to the Hop.

Before his performance in June, Lemvo — who blends musical styles with his Los Angeles-based band — offered a pre-show talk on his musical style. His performance kicked-off the summer’s programming.

Film Highlights in film this summer included screenings from documentary filmmakers Ken Burns and Paul Lazarus ’76. Fewer athletic events and rehearsals over the summer also allowed students more interaction with visiting filmmakers, director of the Dartmouth Film Society Johanna Evans ’10 said.

“There were students who came to meet Paul Lazarus who weren’t even in the classes that he was visiting,” Evans said. “That’s something that’s special about summer, that we can usually pull together bigger groups of students from a broader variety of academic backgrounds than we can in the busier terms when really the students only have so much time.”

Lazarus presented his documentary on Dean Kamen — an inventor who works on water purification — in early August. In July, Burns presented the third episode in his PBS-bound series “The Roosevelts,” continuing his rich history of involvement with the College and the Hopkins Center, where he serves on the board of overseers.

In addition to the two documentary screenings, Evans pointed to several small moments across the summer as particularly memorable, including a showing of the silent film “Asphalt” (1929) that was accompanied by a score

Courtesy of the Hopkins Center and NATALIE CANTAVE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

This summer, community members were treated to a number of acts at the Hop.

performed live by a graduate student in the digital musics graduate program and a Monty Python screening that mixed classic filmed scenes with new jokes.

“We had a huge great audience all singing along at the end to ‘always look on the bright side of life,’” Evans said. “It was great to sort of find other Python fans here at Dartmouth and to celebrate them with like-minded people.”

Dance On June 27 and 28, the worldrenowned company Hubbard Street

Dance Chicago performed in Hanover.

Praised for previous performances by the Chicago Sun-Times, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Cologne Express in Cologne, Germany, the company had never performed in Hanover, Bailey said.

The Hubbard Dance Company also offered master classes while in Hanover.

“The reaction to them was tremendous,” she said. “Our audiences really love accomplished dance, not minimalist but great technique, really beautiful physical movement as well as cutting edge choreography. People loved them.”

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS

PAGE 8

SPORTS

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2014

TUESDAY LINEUP

No athletic events scheduled

Hendricks ’12 holds 5-1 record, low ERA as Cubs pitcher B y Katie Jarrett

The Dartmouth Staff

Since being called up to pitch for the Chicago Cubs on July 10, former Big Green pitcher Kyle Hendricks ’12 has grabbed four straight wins, most recently a 4-1 victory over the New York Mets on Monday. Hendricks has amassed a 5-1 record and 1.66 ERA. Though he was not included in top prospect rankings and has a slower pitching speed, Dartmouth baseball coach Bob Whalen said that Hendricks’s innate understanding of the game has helped him succeed.

“You can work hard and be a grinder and all that stuff, and those things make a difference, but you have to have the ability to compete at the highest level of the game, and he certainly has that,” Whalen said.

During his time at the College, Hendricks prepared for each game to outthink the batters he was facing said Chad Piersma ’13, who

used to catch for Hendricks at Dartmouth.

“If you can imagine all the effort he put into the combination of baseball and school, and then put that all into just baseball, you can obviously see what has come from him,” Piersma said. “It’s amazing how people just take off sometimes.”

In Hendricks’s July 10 debut against the Cincinnati Reds, he allowed four runs, three of which were in his first inning. Since then, he has allowed only six more runs.

On Monday’s game, he gave up three hits and a run.

Dartmouth third baseman said Nick Lombardi ’15 said that while watching the July 10 game, he noticed the umpire squeezing Hendricks’s strike zone and tweeted to the umpire about it.

“I was all fired up,” Lombardi said. “I love seeing our guys get to the next level. It’s pretty cool to see a guy you actually know pretty well getting to pitch in the big leagues.”

Big Green pitcher Duncan

Robinson ’16, who attended Hendricks’s first game, said that part of his skill is effectively working with his teammates.

“He gets a lot of ground balls and double plays and he just doesn’t try to do too much, and just lets his team do the work,” Robinson said.

During his time at the College, Hendricks helped bring the Big Green two Ivy League championships in 2009 and 2010, as well as earning First-Team All-Ivy recognition and being named Dartmouth’s pitcher of the year in 2011.

Second baseman Thomas Roulis ’15 said that despite his high skill-level and level of recognition, Hendricks did not treat the other players on the team any differently.

Whalen said that Hendricks always put the team first, even before his potential professional career.

“His teammates loved him and the coaches all respected him because he was a team-first guy,

despite the fact that his talent was certainly indicative of one of the best players we’ve had,” he said.

Lombardi said that Hendricks was a helpful resource for advice.

“As a guy, he was really respectable, he was always hanging out with us even though he was drafted,” he said. “Personality wise, he was a great dude, always would talk to you and help you out if you ever had a question to ask him about who to talk to or what to do from a baseball standpoint.”

Roulis said that having a recent graduate of the program play in the majors and having success could mean increased visibility for Dartmouth’s program. Hendricks follows Ed Lucas ’04, who joined the Miami Marlins in 2013 after 10 seasons in the minor leagues.

“It shows that there’s talent out there and that a lot of guys in the Ivy League can play with big league prospects in all the SEC and other big time conference schools,” he said.

The level of coaching that Big

Green players receive may have impacted Hendricks’s success, Robinson said.

“It was pretty surreal,” he said.

“Just seeing a guy like us from Dartmouth pitch at the highest level of this game was pretty incredible.”

Hendricks was drafted in 2011 by the Texas Rangers in the eighth-round of the MLB FirstYear Player Draft and was traded to the Chicago Cubs in July 2012.

Hendricks returned to Dartmouth for his senior fall and winter before heading out to play in the spring, and then finished his Dartmouth career in the fall of 2013.

In the minors, Hendricks was recognized as the Cubs’ minor league pitcher of the year in 2013 and started the 2014 season for the Cubs’ affiliated Triple-A team, the Iowa Cubs before being called up to Chicago. In 102.2 innings pitched at the Triple-A level this year, Hendricks posted a 10-5 record and a 3.59 ERA. Hendricks was unavailable for comment by press time.

JULIETTA GERVASE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Plenty of people thought Riding the Pine could never work. How could a warmongering man like Hank ever coexist with a hippie like Fish, a libertine who refuses to be constrained by the hidebound conventions of our college, our era, our society? When two celestial bodies collide, they create a supernova that shines on for a billion years. (Note: This information may be inaccurate.

Fish is doing really poorly in Astro 1.)

Admittedly, a couple things went our way this term. Only one of us got kicked out of formal (not the one you’d think). Hank’s fall housing cancellation fee got waived. Our DBA will roll over.

Programming Board gave away free pinnies on the Green.

Unfortunately, many other things didn’t. Hank became the laughingstock of Zeta Psi fraternity, getting constantly chirped by them for his mediocre Masters performance and his even more mediocre “sports” column. We battled our way to the IM soccer semifinals, only to have our hopes and dreams of a modicum of sports legitimacy ripped from our fingertips by the titans of Tuck.

We naively tried to start a fantasy football league with the readers of our column, but only received three responses, including the expected and unsatisfying reply from Old Man McNulty.

You may have noticed that we’re 400 words deep in this column, and there hasn’t been the slightest hint

of any sports topic. Don’t hold your breath. After nine weeks of wandering through a sports news desert, forced to ask ourselves questions like, “How much do our readers care about women’s MMA?” we have decided to rise above the petty concerns of “The Dartmouth sports section.”

Now, in our swan song, we have finally mustered up the courage to drop the facade and write about what we actually want to write about: our feelings.

We are not excited for junior year.

We’re no longer the fresh-faced, widely adored infants of campus. We are now forced by the Registrar to take an offterm despite our expressed desire to remain in Hanover for the rest of our lives. Hank is slated to be off in the fall, but he keeps running into Craigslist trolls and can’t find an apartment.

With Hank off in the fall, Fish will seek refuge in Robo alone desperately attempting to beat back the crazed hallucinations his mind will produce without Hank’s moderating influence.

Fish has already made arrangements to live at home in the winter, knowing he will need the full term and the unconditional love of his three brothers to recover.

Sophomore summer lived up to all the hype. We, noted skeptics, were completely intoxicated by the spirit of 14X. We lived the cliché. We went to

the copper mines, we swung on the rope swing and we canoed to Gilman. We hiked the Fifty and walked the Prouty.

Along the way, we learned why so many have said these sophomore summer experiences are so meaningful. It’s only because we were fortunate enough to share these moments with the people we love. In the final moments of our final column, we’d like to show our gratitude for our readers and some of the people who have made our sophomore summer and Riding the Pine so meaningful to us.

We would be completely remiss if we didn’t acknowledge Lindsay Ellis, who plucked us from obscurity and put up with all of our juvenile antics along the way. We’d like to thank Hank’s dad, who continues to read the column despite candidly admitting that all it does is “give him a headache.” To everyone who reads our column and to the few who have complimented it/us, thank you. It means a lot to us, even if we don’t always do a great job of expressing it.

Riding the Pine will now be on hiatus for the foreseeable future. It’s been a hell of a ride. To close Riding the Pine, we’d like to leave our readers with a quote from Edvard Munch, the Norwegian famous for painting The Scream.

“From my rotting body, flowers shall grow. And I am in them. And that is eternity.”

Thanks for reading. RIP RTP.

RIDING THE PINE

WITH JOE CLYNE AND HENRY ARNDT RIP RTP. Sophomore summer is over, and, to the delight of our readers, so is our brief stint on the back page of The Dartmouth. What began as a desperate and pitiful attempt by editor-in-chief Lindsay Ellis ’15 to fill the sports section with something “a little more sophomore summer” ended in something not so chill: a weekly opportunity for your boys Hank and Fish to inundate the public with the delusional byproducts of minds warped by insomnia, chewing tobacco and “ship.” Example 1A: the

previous sentence. Example 1B: the quote at the end of this column.

We never imagined we’d be writing this column for 10 weeks. Not even in our worst nightmares did we think we’d make it through two months of 14X without getting Yoko Ono’d.

In a cruel twist of fate, we end 14X the exact same way we began it: sitting in a bed together desperately trying to ignore the impromptu and insufferable karaoke performance of “Dream On”

by Aerosmith taking place next door.