VOL. CLXXIII NO.91
SUNNY
FRIDAY MAY 27, 2016
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Faculty petition calls for changes to the tenure process
GOAL, SET, MATCH
HIGH 87 LOW 60
By CARTER BRACE
The Dartmouth Staff
TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
SPORTS
THE D SPORTS AWARDS PAGE 8
OPINION
VERBUM: THE NAKED TRUTH PAGE 4
ARTS
ARTS EXPLORES: ARCHITECTURE STUDIO PAGE 7
Students play soccer in front of Baker-Berry library taking in the good weather.
Search for new dean begins By MICHAEL QIAN
The Dartmouth Senior Staff
In the wake of Michael Mastanduno’s announcement that he will step down as Dean of the Faculty at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year, the College has launched a search for the next dean. Mastanduno, a
government professor, was appointed to the position in 2010 and reappointed in 2014. Biological sciences professor Kathy Cottingham and geography professor Mona Domosh will lead a six-person search committee, which also includes history professor Robert
Bonner, mathematics and computer science professor Peter Winkler, Italian professor Graziella Parati and music professor Steven Swayne. The committee will collaborate with an executive search firm and begin work immediately. SEE FACULTY PAGE 2
A group of roughly 20 faculty members have drafted and circulated a petition calling for a review of the tenure process, which 113 faculty members signed as of press time. The petition cites concerns about candidates being recommended for tenure by their departments ultimately being denied by the College’s Committee Advisory to the President. The petition also raises questions of unconscious bias and a lack of transparency in the tenure process. In particular, the petition’s authors raise the use of quantitative metrics as a concern. The authors, who call themselves Concerned Faculty, prefer to remain anonymous to preserve their collectivity and because some of the members have not been granted tenure yet, art history professor Mary Coffey said. History professor Bethany Ellen Moreton, a member of the Concerned Faculty, echoed Coffey saying that she has heard
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some faculty did not sign because they disagree with the remedies put forward in the petition but agree that there are issues in the tenure system. Moreton has also heard from junior faculty concerned with the mixed messages they are receiving regarding standards for tenure but who nonetheless are uncomfortable putting their name on a petition. The petition was catalyzed, in the opinions of several professors interviewed, by the denial of tenure to English professor Aimee Bahng. However, some noted that the signatories of the petition represented only one portion of the Dartmouth faculty. In an email, anthropology professor Sergei Kan wrote that the petition was mainly signed by humanities professors. Biology professor Lee Witters, who signed the petition, said that people should not read too much into the fact that most
By PAULOMI RAO
The Dartmouth Staff
Over 400 participants will gather this Saturday at 10 a.m. on Red Rolfe Field in support of the second annual Memorial Challenge. The event includes a community workout circuit followed by a barbecue during which participants can reflect on the lives of Blaine Steinberg ’15 and Torin Tucker ’15, two active Dartmouth studentathletes who unexpectedly
died in 2014. According to the Challenge’s official website, the event was designed for participants to remember the ways in which Steinberg and Tucker “admirably brought the community together and how each approached challenges as an opportunity to grow.” After concussions forced Steinberg to halt her lacrosse career, she continued to chalSEE CHALLENGE PAGE 3
The Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center was packed with hundreds of students and faculty yesterday afternoon for the Karen Wetterhahn Science Symposium, an exhibition of undergraduate research in the sciences. There were almost 250 student poster presenters this year, a notable increase from the 46 who presented in the 1992, the event’s inaugural year. “It is the one place on campus that is really a celebration
of the sciences at Dartmouth and students doing research and other academic things outside of the classroom,” undergraduate research director Margaret Funnell said. Students assembled from every science department, and 149 undergraduate posters were displayed at the symposium. The programs represented included computer science, education, engineering, environmental studies, mathematics, music and psychology, among others. The symposium — named for the late chemistry professor and Women in Science
Project founder Karen Wetterhahn who died following a laboratory accident in 1997 during her work on toxic metal exposure — originally featured only WISP projects, but today hosts several varieties of undergraduate science research. Sophomore Science Scholars, James O. Freedman Presidential Scholars and senior thesis writers were all well represented at Thursday’s event. “This specifically brings the undergraduate research in all the sciences together,” underSEE SYMPOSIUM PAGE 2
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
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FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2016
Search includes internal WISP, senior theses present projects and external candidates FROM SYMPOSIUM PAGE 1
FROM FACULTY PAGE 1
In an email, Cottingham and Domosh wrote that they hope College President Phil Hanlon will announce a new dean by the beginning of the 2017 spring term. Both emphasized that candidates must understand how Dartmouth works, describing the College as neither a small liberal arts school nor a large research university. Instead, they defined it as a “research college” or “liberal arts university” that combines the two environments. Cottingham and Domosh said that they are currently speaking with faculty members to develop a profile of an ideal dean. The Dean of the Faculty oversees the direction of the College’s Arts and Sciences division, which encompasses over 600 faculty members in 40 academic departments and interdisciplinary programs. Moreover, the dean is a member of several administrative committees, which include the Steering Committee of the General Faculty and the Committee Advisory to the President — an organization which has come under some scrutiny for its recent denial of English professor Aimee Bahng’s tenure. The College has traditionally selected the Dean of the Faculty from an internal pool of candidates. Mastanduno has taught at the College since 1987. Outside of his deanship, Mastanduno has chaired the government department, directed the Dickey Center for International Understanding and served as associate dean for social sciences. In a letter to the Dean of the Faculty search committee, anthropology and Native American studies professor Sergei Kan said that, in his 27 years as a Dartmouth faculty member, the College has never con-
sidered external candidates for the position. “I consider this a major change and do not favor it all,” he said. “While some Dartmouth traditions are not worth preserving, the tradition having to do with the Dean of Faculty being a member of our faculty is a time-honored one that makes very good sense and should be preserved.” The last three deans, Carol Folt, Michael Gazzaniga and Jamshed Bharucha, were Dartmouth biology, psychology and psychology professors respectively. Kan added that he was opposed to external candidates “in the spirit of maintaining our traditional [sic] of faculty democracy and in opposition to the development of an increasingly bureaucratic and hierarchical administrative structure, increasingly removed from the faculty, staff and students, which seems to be developing at Dartmouth.” In a press release, Hanlon praised Mastanduno for his history of contributions to Dartmouth. He said both internal and external applicants will be considered, and he encouraged Dartmouth faculty members to apply. The Dean of the Faculty is typically appointed for five years at a time. According to a Dartmouth press release, however, Mastanduno requested a shortened two-year reappointment so that he could return more quickly to his professorial activities. Mastanduno has continued to teach courses during his tenure. Search committee members were chosen by the CAP and the Committee on Organization and Policy, which together compiled an initial list of up to 24 candidates. This list was subsequently winnowed down through a series of meetings and examined by Hanlon.
COURTESY OF MICHAEL MASTANDUNO
Professor Michael Mastanduno will be stepping down as Dean of the Faculty.
CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com.
graduate research assistant director Kathy Scott Weaver said. “There’s a real community that doesn’t get together very often. That’s what makes it special for me.” The symposium opened with an award ceremony hosted by chemistry professor Dean Wilcox and librarian of the College Jeffrey Horrell. Several awards were presented for Library Research in the Sciences and others were given for outstanding senior theses, part of the Sigma Xi Christopher Reed Competition. Students receiving the latter award were nominated for membership in Sigma Xi, a national science excellence group similar to Phi Beta Kappa. “As usual, we were truly astounded by the research we were presented by these senior honors theses,” Wilcox said. The award ceremony was followed by a lecture from Arizona State University mathematics professor Anne Gelb who will join Dartmouth’s faculty in the fall. During her remarks, Gelb discussed not only her research but her personal journey in the sciences. She came to teaching and research by way of her early days in Pennsylvania’s Rust Belt and a small town in rural Wyoming, followed by a
post-college stint on an Israeli kibbutz. Gelb discussed her work in applied mathematics at length. The early part of Gelb’s talk focused on her doctoral work on the Gibbs problem, a mathematical difficulty first noted in 1898 that makes Fourier transforms of images difficult to convert back to normal images due to the sawtooth graphs that emerge when Fourier transforms are first taken. That difficulty has informed Gelb’s later work, which focuses on magnetic resonance imaging, in which clarity is key. Through her work, Gelb hopes to clarify images taken through MRIs, something that has immediate applications in the medical field. She said the ability to work with the Geisel School of Medicine was a draw in her decision to accept a position at Dartmouth. “It’s a very elegant way of using the wrong data to come up with the right solution,” she said of Fourier transforms and the Gibbs problem. Responding to an audience question, Gelb said undergraduate research is key to producing future scientists and mathematicians. “We have a lot of bright students who can solve a lot of good problems that are in the back of the book,” she said. “But we’re not doing as well at giving them problems that are more
open-ended. I think it’s really important for undergraduates to think about that every step of the way. Following her talk, Gelb said in an interview that she believes programs like WISP and the Sophomore Science Scholars can make a significant difference for up-and-coming researchers. “In mathematics, I think the sooner you can make the connection between why what you learn in the classroom is actually useful for research, the more likely you are to actually think that way when you’re learning and the richer your learning is,” she said. At Dartmouth, many of those research opportunities already exist. The projects at the symposium ranged from analysis of music in neural networks to mathematical modeling of cancer symptoms to the impact of termite mounds on the grasslands of the African savannah. “What always amazes me is the high level of research that students are doing here,” Funnell said. “They’re doing research that is at the cutting edge, that is getting published, that is the level of graduate students at most other places.” Fredrik Eriksson ’16 conducted SEE SYMPOSIUM PAGE 5
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2016
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Memorial Challenge to raise funds for cardiac research FROM CHALLENGE PAGE 1
lenge herself athletically through CrossFit workouts and staying actively involved in the Dartmouth community. Tucker, remembered for his compassion for others and commitment to the Dartmouth Men’s Nordic skiing team, is being honored for his ability to push the limits of his comfort zone. Former men’s Nordic skiing head coach, Ruff Patterson said that Tucker will always be remembered for his compassion. One of the student leaders directing the event, Kristen Hinckley ’17, is from the same area of Philadelphia as Steinberg was. As a member of the women’s lacrosse team, she remembered Steinberg’s genuine compassion for others. “Blaine would stop her busy day to have a full conversation with someone,” Hinckley said. “At a place where people are always busy, she truly cared about how everybody else was doing.” Hinckley noted that the Memorial Challenge is unique because it is for all types of people — from varsity athletes to person who never go to the gym. She said that leading the event was rewarding because she worked to keep the larger vision and goals
of the event prominent in all of the their own actions,” she said. “Most planning committees’ smaller tasks. importantly, it’s much more than just “We are really hoping to foster a remembering their legacies. It’s about sense of community — one of the continuing their legacies.” main reasons why I wanted to come This year, all donations raised to Dartmouth was that everyone from the Memorial Challenge will seemed to be involved in one shared go directly toward supporting athlete space,” Hinckley said. “Being able cardiac research and services at Dartto work towards mouth-Hitcha common goal “Most importantly, cock Heart and is really excitCenit’s much more than Vascular ing and thinkter. An undering about their j u s t r e m e m b e r i n g researched field, legacies really leaders their legacies. It ’s student inspires so many of the event said people to see the about continuing their they hope the challenge as an additional fundlegacies.” opportunity to raising will allow grow.” doctors to find Hinckley said a breakthrough she looks forin discovering ward to seeing -KRISTEN HINCKLEY ’17 early detection how the event of heart anomawill continue in lies. the coming years, given that many Mary O’Connell ’16, a head of the people who personally knew organizer for the event, said that Steinberg and Tucker will graduate one of the goals for this year was to in the next few years. She hopes that expand involvement into the Upper by focusing on the shared experience, Valley and to increase the number of and reaching out to younger partici- partnerships. pants and donors, the Challenge will “I have met a lot of incredible endure as an annual event. people through the committee. For us, “It reminds us of them, and re- it’s about planning an event around inspires us each year to remember working together, getting out of your what they have taught us through comfort zone, and the power of com-
President Hanlon invites you to
Open Office Hours
munity,” O’Connell said. The challenge has teamed up with several sponsors in the Hanover area to increase this year’s proceeds. Their goal is to raise $60,000, almost double of the $36,000 raised last year. Hanover-based Positive Tracks, a sport-based youth development organization, will donate $23 to each student’s fundraising page once they raise $50 on their own. “The most powerful part of The Memorial Challenge is that it is totally student driven,” said Ray Shedd, partnerships and marketing director at Positive Tracks. “They have created this amazing event where the public comes together to get active, rally a sense of community, and truly make an impact towards research at a local hospital.” The Memorial Challenge is the largest student-run event to use Positive Tracks’ U23 Challenge program, which provides the resources to enable young people to create their own charitable athletic effort in support of their favorite nonprofit organization. “We are so remarkably proud of the student leaders,” Shedd said. “From marketing, to the technology
platform, to the fundraising, it is truly a large task to undertake.” On campus, several clubs, Greek life organizations and extracurricular groups have created teams for fundraising and completion of the circuit challenge. As of press time this year, Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority leads team fundraising efforts with a total of $2,384. Currently, they are ranked first out of 47 teams, surpassing their fundraising goal of $1,000. Steinberg was a member of Kappa during her time at Dartmouth. Jill Dayneka ’16 is helping lead the challenge this year after participating in the circuit last year alongside the women’s soccer team. “It was so incredible to look around and see more than 400 people around me all focused in on the same thing,” Dayneka said. “In that moment, I noticed everyone trying to truly remember these two incredible people through their experiences, and I’m excited to share this feeling with others this Saturday. Remembering their stories, remembering them, and getting out of your comfort zone is an overall gratifying thing to be a part of.”
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You are invited...
ARTS AT
DARTMOUTH AWARDS CEREMONY Guest of Honor
MICHAEL RAFTER ’82 Emmy award-winning television and Broadway music director
For Faculty and Staff*: (Parkhurst 207) Friday, May 20th, 3-4 pm
Meetings are held on a first come, first serv served basis
Friday, May 27th, 4-5 pm
Celebrating the talent and accomplishments of students in the arts
tue MAY 31 4:30 pm THE MOORE THEATER
A reception will follow in the Jaffe-Friede Gallery
Friday, June 3rd, 3-4 pm Check www.dartmouth.edu/~president/officehours for any changes **Please note that these Office Hours are now open to Staff
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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
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VERBUM ULTIMUM THE DARTMOUTH EDITORIAL BOARD
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Naked Truth
Voces Clamantium
Streakers may be well-intentioned, but they need to be considerate. As the spring term comes to a close, there are various things on the minds of Dartmouth students. Storing their belongings and moving out of their rooms, preparing for final exams and final papers and wondering if their bodies will ever fully recover from Green Key may be just a few among them. As finals loom closer and closer, students prepare themselves not only for their tests, but for another, equally concerning possibility: that their final may get streaked. For decades, it has been a time-honored tradition for Dartmouth students to run through the biggest finals on campus completely naked, save for the occasional mask. Even though everyone who does this probably means to carry out a funny, well-intentioned prank, it can actually be a lot more harmful than people realize. First and foremost, streaking finals is incredibly distracting. The largest classes are the ones that are most targeted, and these classes are almost always lecture classes in which the grades are based solely on exams. In classes like these, the final exams are worth up to 40 percent of the final grade. Finals are already high-stress enough, and all of our focus needs to be devoted to the most important test of the term. Perhaps many could bounce back from a distraction like this, but there are also many people who, already nearing their breaking point, would not be able to recover from someone frantically running butt naked through their classroom while everyone else cheers them on. This could really take people out of the exam mindset and hurt their performance on it going forward. Imagine preparing for weeks for this one two-hour period, only to have your focus shattered by something so absurd. We’re not saying that Dartmouth students aren’t “tough enough” to handle seeing a naked person and continuing to take their test, but we are saying that it isn’t fair that some of us have to be subjected to this massive distraction. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, is that streakers do what they do without regard for the experiences of the people who they are streaking. Many people on this campus have been the victims of sexual violence, a trauma that can stick with a person for the rest of their lives. For someone for whom a naked body
could represent such a terrifying and harmful experience, having a naked person appear out of nowhere without their prior knowledge or consent could be incredibly traumatic, no matter where it occurs. Now, imagine someone who has suffered through being reminded of one of the worst experiences of their life having to take a deep breath and go back to taking their final exam like nothing happened. A streaker may not have bad intentions, but they can’t control what the people who their actions effect experience. What one person intends as a hilarious joke could be incredibly harmful to someone else. As we enter adulthood, we need to understand that our intentions, no matter how good, don’t absolve our actions. There’s a reason why “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions” is a cliché. This is not meant to be a condemnation of pranks or of humor in general. This is a plea to consider context. At a comedy show or a performance art exhibition, the audience has entered into an implicit contract with the performer that some of the things that they see may blur the lines of what they consider to be decent or may be outright offensive. When someone attends Lingerie for example, they do so with an understanding of the event and the fact that it will probably feature nudity. However, there is no such understanding going into a final. A person shouldn’t have to implicitly agree to see someone’s genitalia in agreeing to take a psychology exam. There’s a time and place for everything, pranks and nudity included, but we as students need to recognize that this just isn’t it. This isn’t us being “soft” or “coddled,” it’s us recognizing that not only do many people at Dartmouth take their final exams very seriously, but that nudity, especially unexpected and unwanted nudity, can be particularly harmful to those among us who have gone through some of the most difficult experiences imaginable. There’s nothing wrong with having a good time, but there really is a time and place for everything. The editorial board consists of the editor-in-chief, publisher, both executive editors and the editorial editor.
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Letters to the editor about the tenure process, assault and Memorial Day. Tightening Tenure The uproar over the denial of tenure to English professor Aimee Bahng might be seen as a return to rigor in the process of promotion and tenure at Dartmouth — a process that has been in decline, spectacularly in the humanities, for the last five decades. When I joined the faculty in 1967 there were annual reviews of faculty members by department chairs and the associate dean. Publication and teaching evaluations were the primary criteria for evaluation. A renewal of the three-year initial appointment was not nearly as automatic as it is today. Objectivity in promotion and tenure decisions is difficult in the tight knit community that is Dartmouth where collegiality is highly prized. As the number of positions in the humanities declined over this period the focus of new faculty efforts became not the quality but quantity of publication. New faculty sought student approbation by lowering grading standards because they knew their students might have input into the promotion and tenure decisions. Fortunately, there is still a degree of confidentiality in the process. When the Committee Advisory to the President makes a recommendation concerning promotion and tenure they are privy to information that none of those protesting the denial of tenure to professor Bahng have seen: confidential letters from distinguished peers, honest student appraisals and the requirement to actually read some of the published work. I wonder how many of those protesting this decision have in fact read this material? Tenure is thus granted through the experienced judgment of a diverse group of women and men who themselves have made significant contributions to their fields and to the College. Former College President John Kemeny recognized and sought to reverse the “old boy” hiring practices of the earlier Dartmouth faculty by limiting tenure to “two per ten per decade,” meaning that in every decade only two of every ten faculty in a given department should be granted tenure. Since that time, and especially since the reign of James Wright as dean, provost and then president, these standards were relaxed. The perusal of the publication records of current senior faculty reveals a majority who have done very little since they were granted tenure. These are professors for whom the sinecure of tenure was more important than work in their disciplines. - Jon Appleton, Arthur R. Virgin Professor of Music Emeritus
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ISSUE
FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2016
NEWS EDITOR: Lauren Budd, LAYOUT MANAGER: Rachel DeChiara, TEMPLATING EDITOR: Jaclyn Eagle.
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.
A Hard Conversation Senators Kirsten Gillibrand ’88 and Kelly Ayotte wrote an April 25 guest opinion-editorial, “Students Deserve Better,” discussing the need for colleges and universities “to go public and be transparent about their ability to prevent and respond to sexual assault on their campuses.” Their proposed bill, the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, calls
for institutional changes that increase resources for survivors, require more staff training and data transparency, implement a uniform disciplinary procedure, and impose clear and stiffer penalties for Title IX violations. I applaud the senators’ bipartisan effort to bring about serious reform in sexual violence on college campuses. Yet calls to increase campus transparency and data collection are not enough. Students themselves must also take on the task of changing campus culture surrounding sexual assault. Students are wary of talking about sexual assault because it makes them uncomfortable. The truth is, talking about sexual assault is uncomfortable. It is difficult. In theory, students recognize right from wrong. In hypothetical scenarios, we are able to discern between appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. However, the difficult part is applying theory to practice. The difficult part is holding our teammates, classmates, fraternity brothers, sorority sisters and friends accountable for their actions, day and night. We must be supported by effective and trustworthy institutional resources, but at the end of the day, it’s up to us to do something about sexual assault on our campus. Difficult conversations have never stopped Dartmouth students before. There’s no reason for them to stop us now. - Julia Decerega ’18 A Day to Honor Memorial Day is among the lonelier dates on the Dartmouth academic calendar. Events celebrating the service of living alumni who have answered their country’s call now draw large crowds on Veterans Day. But Memorial Day’s mournful reflections on those who gave their lives in the service of greater ideals and graver dangers are more sparsely attended. As the large numbers of Dartmouth alumni who find their calling in the Peace Corps, Teach for America, and, yes, the military can attest, service is woven into the fabric of Dartmouth. But so is sacrifice. At least 528 Dartmouth alumni have given their lives in wartime. In the Class of 1863 alone, 53 men served to emancipate their countrymen and preserve the Union in the American Civil War. In the Class of 1945, 4 percent fell in World War II to emancipate fascist conquests, end genocide and preserve free government. Death’s brown seal may quiet the lips of these alumni, but it should not for us. Instead of going about a usual Monday, passing Richardson Hall’s cenotaph on the way to Baker Library, the Civil War dead on the doors of Rauner Library or the Class of 1945 Weather Post in the Hanover Inn, I invite every member of the Dartmouth Community to join the Dartmouth Uniformed Service Alumni in honoring the memory of our fallen classmates this Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, at 11 a.m. by the flag pole on the Green. - Nathan Bruschi ’10 , Dartmouth Uniformed Service Alumni president
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2016
Symposium held in honor of Wetterhahn FROM SYMPOSIUM PAGE 1
research on vegetation that feeds antelope in Mozambique, a country where environmental restoration efforts have only been somewhat successful. Where termite mounds exist, however, vegetation is returning faster and more fully. Eriksson was one of two students awarded second place in the Sigma Xi Christopher Reed Award for his work, a senior thesis in biology. Ultimately, he said his work produced few answers but was highly rewarding. “My study is more about characterizing in excruciating detail what diversity looks like across those landscapes,” he said. One of the WISP interns presenting at the event was Morgan Lee ’19 who worked at the Thayer School of Engineering for a year conducting molecular analysis of circulating tumor biomarkers from liquid biopsies. She said the work could help to ultimately diagnose cancer through biomarkers in cells rather than through invasive biopsies and similar procedures, something that could revolution how the disease is treated.
She applied to several WISP opportunities upon arriving to Dartmouth and hopes to continue her research, she said. Lee is currently applying to be a Sophomore Science Scholar following her year in WISP. “It’s a really great opportunity for first years and women in general to get involved in science. I’ve been really happy with my experience so far,” she said. Yixuan He ’18, a mathematics major who has worked with the same professor for two years and will continue her research in the future, presented on drug-dependent growth of a branch of lung carcinoma that she modeled through ordinary differential equations. For her research, she received one of two Library Research in the Sciences awards. “The results are really immediate, they’re really applicable,” she said. Lee said she was impressed by the volume of research at the event. “You have psych people over there, you have earth sciences people, you have me in engineering and a [computer science] person next to me,” she said. “It’s really interesting to be exposed to everyone else’s research, something that I definitely don’t have any real knowledge of.”
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Petition garners 113 signatures FROM PETITION PAGE 1
signatories were in the humanities, attributing the preponderance of humanities faculty to the catalyzing event of Bahng, a humanities professor, being denied tenure. Moreton also noted that, as Bahng was a scholar with appointments in multiple humanities programs, her denial of tenure would have reverberated more in the humanities. “If this tenure decision had been made about someone in the sciences, there would have been science faculty signing it,” Witters said. Multiple professors in the social sciences supported the general tenure system as it is and what they saw as its system of checks and balances. Economics professor Doug Irwin said that he did not know of any particular flaws in the tenure process and did not think the petition addressed specific problems. Irwin, as well as psychology professor David Bucci, speaking at a faculty meeting on Monday, said that the CAP disagreeing with departments was an intentional part of the system of checks and balances. Irwin also noted that College President Phil Hanlon has pushed for a higher level of scholarship, suggesting that tenure denials may be the result of more rigorous standards. At the faculty meeting on Monday, Dean of the College Michael Mastanduno said he believed the tenure system was still working, but announced that the Committee on Priorities would conduct a review of the tenure process in the next academic year. One potential change to the tenure system that Mastanduno raised was an extension of the period a professor teaches at the College before they are up for tenure review. The change would extend the period from six to eight years, in line with some other institutions, a change that Jewish Studies professor Susannah Heschel said she was interested in. Coffey said many are wondering whether Dartmouth should hire any faculty directly out of graduate school due to the increased standards for tenure that are expected to be completed in the same six-year period. Coffey noted that those who held postdoctoral fellowships had more of an opportunity to work on their scholarly output before they came to the College. Coffey said faculty in some departments were not expected to have made significant progress on a second book by the time they came up for tenure. Coffey also said the College should be concerned about the impression outside of Dartmouth that “the system is rigged” in tenure evaluation, as evidenced by the CAP overturning departmental recommendations and the expert judgments of outside scholars.
“Nationally, its considered unusual and a cause for concern when unanimous departmental recommendation gets overturned,” Moreton said. Junior faculty’s mentors should more heavily emphasize the tenure requirements, Heschel suggested, as a potential improvement to the tenure system. Coffey noted that the tenure standards in the faculty handbook, which faculty are referred to when they have questions about the process, are vague. When Coffey came to the College 13 years ago, she said there was an informal culture of deans telling candidates verbally what they needed for tenure, which Coffey said has become less common in the past five years. At the faculty meeting, German and comparative literature professor Irene Kacandes said that while reviewing the tenure process is good, action was needed now to reassure and inform junior faculty about the standards needed for tenure. “We feel like we are not being respected when decisions that seem very, very clear to us come back differently,” she said. At the faculty meeting, Bucci noted that there were already some resources available to mentor junior faculty but that they were not necessarily taking advantage of them. He cited a workshop on faculty mentoring attended by only three people. Another proposed method of helping junior faculty was to burden them with fewer service commitments, which Kan suggested at the faculty meeting. The petition also raised concerns about the use of quantitative metrics in evaluating tenure candidates, mentioning the College’s contract with the metrics company Academic Analytics. Coffey made it clear that the petition did not suggest that Academic Analytics’ services were used in tenure evaluation at Dartmouth. In addition, at Tuesday’s town hall, Hanlon denied that Academic Analytics was used in the tenure process. However, Coffey said the use of Academic Analytics may speak to a more general culture in the administration that is interested in a quantitative approach to measuring people’s value. Anthony Olejniczak, co-founder and chief knowledge officer of Academic Analytics, confirmed that Dartmouth is a client of Academic Analytics but said he was unable to comment on what a specific university does with resources the firm provides. Coffey said that it seemed that many denials of tenure have been made on the grounds of productivity. Coffey said that quantitative metrics cannot convey a lot of work in the humanities, which may not appear
in journal articles but rather in anthologies or as creative works, such as directing a play or curating an exhibition. These scholarly outputs cannot be measured in citations. In addition, senior researcher for the American Association of University Professors John Barnshaw said that there is a lot of faculty work such as teaching commitments, mentoring students or junior faculty and serving on committees, that cannot be easily quantified. Olejniczak agreed that it was difficult to attribute citations to books, anthologies and translated works. However, he added that it was only a concern if one compared citation counts across disciplines. Olejniczak also said the weights given to different quantitative metrics, such as determining the fieldspecific prestige of a university press, are decided by Academic Analytics’ clients. The service of Academic Analytics was controversial at Rutgers University, whose faculty senate denounced the service and the university’s contract with the company, saying its data was inaccurate and not transparent. Barnshaw noted that there are many technical problems with attribution for quantitative metrics such as misattributing articles to a different author with a similar name to another scholar, databases lacking certain relevant journals or coauthors not always getting credited for their work. Olejniczak said that he had never heard dean or provost who only looked at one number to evaluate a faculty member. “We want them to make sure they understand our position that we’re one tool when it comes to making any decisions that administrators need to do,” Olejniczak said. He added that he thinks in some cases, Academic Analytics has been painted as less transparent than it really is. Coffey said that the Concerned Faculty group wanted more transparency after tenure decisions so that people, or at least the person being evaluated, can be informed as to why a candidate did not receive tenure. However, Witters said the process could not be totally transparent, as faculty have to be able to evaluate their own colleagues. Moreton said that one of the motivations in making the petition was to find a pattern in CAP overturning the tenure recommendations of departments. Coffey similarly noted the desire of the Concerned Faculty to generate public data on promotion and rates across departments. Mastanduno and the members of the CAP did not respond to requests for comment.
PAGE 6
THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS
FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2016
DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY All Day
Fall term course change period opens and will last until May 31
3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
“Epilepsy Surgery and Research,” Charles C. Jones Seminar, Dr. Hai Sun, Louisiana State University Health Science Center, Spanos Auditorium, Cummings Hall
3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
“Controlling and Quantum World in Ultracold Atomic Spins,” professor Ivan Deutsch, University of New Mexico, Wilder 104
TOMORROW
4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
“The Jungle Book,” live-action film directed by Jon Favreau, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center
8:00 p.m.- 11:00 p.m.
Dartmouth Dance Ensemble, performance includes five pieces, Moore Theater, Hopkins Center
8:00 p.m.- 11:00 p.m.
Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, accompanied by the Dartmouth Handel Society and the Dartmouth Glee Club, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center
ADVERTISING For advertising information, please call (603) 646-2600 or email info@thedartmouth. com. The advertising deadline is noon, two days before publication. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement. Opinions expressed in advertisements do not necessarily reflect those of The Dartmouth, Inc. or its officers, employees and agents. The Dartmouth, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation chartered in the state of New Hampshire. USPS 148-540 ISSN 01999931
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2016
PAGE 7
‘Cotton Patch Gospel’ explores themes of community in theater By SOPHIA SIU
The Dartmouth Staff
“Cotton Patch Gospel,” an honors thesis production by Robert Leverett ’16 will be opening on May 28 at the Bentley Theater in the Hopkins Center. The play is ensemble-based and incorporates live bluegrass music and a potluck dinner. The piece explores the concept of theater as a community and the relationship between the actors and the audience. The play tells the story of a community theater in a rural town in Georgia. The town comes together for an annual production that takes the story of the Gospel and sets it in roughly modern day Georgia. Andrew Sun ’18, the musical director of the production, said that Leverett took the original one-man play and transformed it into an ensemble production that shifts the focus onto the community. As the story of the Gospel is told more through a collection of vignettes and tableaus than through a standard linear narrative, Justine Goggin ’18, an actor in the play, noted that the play often feels like an improv show. Goggin plays a high school senior, Madison, who is part of the church community that puts on a production
of the Gospel. Throughout the course of the show, Madison takes on the role of Mary, Joseph, Jesus and Satan. One of Leverett’s honors project goals was to explore various modes of storytelling. In order to avoid having a production that contradicted the playwright’s original intentions, he chose a play with a storyline that is already familiar to many people. “[Shakespeare and the Bible] in the American canon are so canonized and so firmly entrenched, it is impossible to erase the audience’s relationship to those texts,” Leverett said. Leverett noted that many of the plays he participated in at Dartmouth were very similar aesthetically. With “Cotton Patch Gospel” Leverett hopes to shift the focus to beyond the text and the plot. Instead, the text will be a starting point for him to play with nontraditional staging and aesthetics. “I wanted to look at ways of expressing a point or an aesthetic goal or themes extra-textually,” Leverett said. “I wanted the text to serve as a playground of sorts.” The production focuses on the idea of theater as a communal space — not only between the members of the cast, but between the cast and the audience, as well. Leverett noted that theater is often
thought of as a shared communal livedexperience. In reality, the theater-going experience often falls short. “Often we’re sitting in a dark room trying not to bother anyone, trying not to be bothered by anyone, facing forward watching the journey of a single character go through this romanticized individual journey,” Leverett said. In his production, Leverett actively integrates the audience into the show. Rather than simply telling a story to the audience, Leverett wants the audience and the actors to come together. As “Cotton Patch Gospel” features a Southern community theater, Leverett is able to work beyond the limits of professional theater. The production embraces aspects of community theater, such as liveliness and lack of polish. “I think that at the end of the day if we’re all having fun together, and we’re having fun with the audience, then I don’t care if someone forgets a line or if a line isn’t as smooth as it could be,” Leverett said. “At the end of the day, I didn’t want a perfectly polished piece with no heart or soul to it.” Goggin said the production differs from normal ones in that the entire cast collaborates in decision-making and everyone is able to share their own ideas.
“It makes the show almost more special to present because each of us in the cast has such a claim or a stake in the creative process,” Goggin said. “We didn’t just create our own characters, but we created a community in the process.” The arrangement of the seats in the theater will have a significant impact on the actor-audience relationship. Leverett plans to add seats for the audience in the pit and on the stage, effectively erasing the boundary between actor and audience. “We’re really thinking about the audience as a part of the ensemble, as a part of the set and as a part of the space,” Leverett said. The cast not only breaks the fourth wall, but the show also includes a potluck dinner served to the audience in the middle of the show. “We wanted it to be a funny show,” Goggin said. “We wanted people to feel like they could be a part of this community and invite them into it, so we spent a lot of time trying to create something that would welcome people in.” Inspired by the communities he sees forming at Dartmouth, Leverett uses nontraditional aesthetics and staging to explore the theme of community formation and the dynamics and in-
teractions within communities. Leverett, who hails from Georgia, is also interested exploring the complicated nature of Southern identity, and the power dynamics of race and gender in the South. “Regionally, something that defines the South is the need to define itself. There is a way in which identity is part of the American identity and also in opposition to the American identity,” Leverett said. Leverett started acting at the age of six in a community theater as part of a program in his elementary school, and has participated in a various theater programs ever since. He credited the director he had in high school as a major aesthetic influence. Leverett’s decision to experiment aesthetically with actoraudience relationships came from his faculty advisor, Irma Mayorga. Ultimately, Leverett aims to have a production that is aesthetically rigorous and adventurous, pushing the audience out of their comfort zones while still remaining accessible and fun to watch. The cast and crew agree that it is an opportunity for the audience to be transported away from campus. “I want this to be a fun release for the audience, where you can step out of the Dartmouth life into something that’s a lot simpler,” Sun said.
Arts Explores: Architecture studio combines art and science By JOYCE LEE
The Dartmouth Staff
Located by a small nook on the second floor that overlooks the atrium of the Black Family Visual Art Center’s first floor lobby, the architecture studio is a place where students explore a discipline that is about both the aesthetic form and scientific practicalities. With two large studio spaces, a computer lab with specialized software and hardware that includes scanners and plotters and a fabrication room with a 3D printer and router, the studio space for architecture students provides the tools needed to create models and building designs. Studio art professor Karolina Kawiaka, who is currently teaching “Architecture I,” said that the VAC is an example of modern architecture on Dartmouth’s campus. In the VAC, students in different areas of the art department can interact and see each other’s work. She said that because of the open plan, collaboration often occurs between students working with different mediums. Kawiaka said that the space is conducive to the creation of studio culture. She added that the space exemplifies the interdisciplinary nature of architecture — which she called the “mother of the arts” — which incorporates many mediums of studio art. Studio art professor Zenovia To-
loudi, who is teaching “Architecture II” and “Architecture III” this term, also emphasized this interdisciplinary nature. She said that architecture is both the art and science of making new worlds. Being in a space in which there are more mediums of art is helpful for architecture students, she said, because the discipline is always combining different mediums. Students studying architecture are often given access to the materials and tools of the sculpture studio. Those with experience in both fields can combine their skills, Toloudi said, which emphasizes their sensitivity with material. Nick Moolenijzer ’17, who took “Architecture I” with Toloudi, used the architecture studio’s woodshop and computer labs for his projects. Throughout the term, students worked on projects ranging from designing an abstract city to building a house for a famous artist specifically designed to meet their needs. The projects involved coming up with the ideas, digitally designing them and then building mock-ups. “Building the mock-ups was the most fun and most rewarding,” Moolenijzer said. Moolenijzer, a studio art minor, decided to take the class after hearing great things about Toloudi. Students did not need to come in with prior knowledge of the design software required for the projects, but were taught by experts in the x-hour. Although the projects had
specific goals, students were given room to stretch their creativity, Moolenijzer said. An expanded corridor on the same floor as the studio gives architecture students a space to exhibit their work, sometimes for external guests to provide feedback, Toloudi said. “This is one of the most interesting spaces because you can see how the building is occupied and what’s happening in other classes,” Toloudi said. “When they are there, the building becomes a class itself, since you’re not just in a room but you have interaction with everybody.” The space helps open up questions for architecture students about the building, as they can point out different areas, how they move, how they’re used, what works and what doesn’t work, Toloudi said. “We do that in the class as well, but a classroom is a more typical space, unlike the atrium, where we can talk about light, circulation, proximity among different rooms, functions, aesthetic, subjective and practical type of concepts,” Toloudi said, “It helps that [the VAC] is a new building and it stimulates new discussions about architecture.” Such discussions also include conversations about the audience for architectural projects, Toloudi said. Architecture is not about designing for oneself but also for others, she added. There is a need to justify the work to
the people who hire the architect or the people who occupy the building, Toloudi said, as well as people who simply see the building in passing. “There’s multiple levels of the public you have to convince with your ideas,” Toloudi said. “A new space starts new discussions and students learn multiple angles, there’s no right or wrong. You just have to try to engage more publics.” Kawiaka said that students often incorporate aspects of the building into their projects, especially light. She said that students often spend time on the first floor studying, and that she often sees a skylight or courtyard plan that reflects the building in their work. The VAC building engages students with multiple perspectives, such as people who occupy the VAC on a
regular basis as opposed to people who just visit and pass through the building, Toloudi said. Architecture students learn to see the difference between a focus on a building’s aesthetics and a focus on prioritizing the functionality of the building. Students have also been able to directly interact with the building in architectural projects for Toloudi’s “Architecture As a Sensory Apparatus” course, when they were asked to design an interactive project. Some students worked with the VAC, installing sitespecific artwork to see how people reacted to it. Toloudi said that currently, there are projects involving designing observatory towers for the campus that follow this same idea about site-specific installations.
PATRICK IRADUKUNDA/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
The architecture studio includes a computer lab and hands-on studio.
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS
FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2016
PAGE 8
FRIDAY LINEUP
SPORTS : E AT VOT 1Rv0Vzw / bit.ly ttp://
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SAILING AT NATIONALS IN SAN DIEGO
The D Sports Awards Male Athlete of the Year
Brian McLaughlin ’18 Duncan Robinson ’16
Skiing
Baseball
Brian McLaughlin ’18 turned in a fantastic season for the men’s Alpine ski team that earned him All-American First Team honors in the slalom after a third place finish in the NCAA Championships. McLaughlin finished both of the day’s runs in a total time of 1 minute 24.68 seconds. Consistently ranked in the top 15 in giant slalom and slalom rankings for the East Coast, he entered the Championship as the fourth ranked skier in the East. This was due in large part to his incredible consistency on the slopes. He finished no lower than fourth during his carnival season, including five podium finishes in the six races he completed. Those podium results included second place finishes in the first Carnival of the season at Bates College as well as back-to-back second place finishes at the Dartmouth and Williams College Carnivals. The Topsfield, Massachusetts native will play an integral role in the men’s Alpine ski team’s success once again next season.
Although the Dartmouth baseball team had its run of eight consecutive Red Rolfe division titles broken this past season, starting pitcher Duncan Robinson ’16 continued to dominate opposing batters on the mound. Having been a standout pitcher for much of his time in Hanover, Robinson became the Big Green Pitcher of the Year his sophomore year, was the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year his junior year and had a superb senior season, landing him a spot on the 2016 All-Ivy League first team. Winning first team honors for the third straight season, he now joins a group of only 23 Ivy League players all-time to achieve this dominance over three seasons, and the first one from Dartmouth to do so in seven years. Across all the most important metric for pitchers in 2016, Robinson topped all competitors, posting the best strikeout percentage, lowest walk percentage and the best fielding-independent pitching mark in the conference.
Jack Barre ’16
Stefan Cleveland ’16 Will McNamara ’16
Ice Hockey
Soccer
Football
When Nick Bligh ’16 went down with an injury against the University of Vermont on Jan. 8, it seemed the men’s hockey team may have been on the verge of losing the momentum they had gained from their victory in the Ledyard Classic. However, Jack Barre ’16 picked up the slack in the Big Green’s offense created by Bligh’s absence. The Big Green rolled to nine wins in its next 12 games, and during that stretch, Barre was the team’s primary offensive catalyst. In many ways, Barre is the quintessential Dartmouth hockey player. He is highly responsible in his own end, a diligent shot blocker, a key penalty killer and tremendously hard-working in the offensive zone. In the 20152016 season, he consistently went to the dirty areas of the ice and was rewarded on the score sheet. Despite playing just a few shifts in the postseason before being sidelined with injury, Barre led the Big Green in goals, assists and points, while posting a plus-18 rating that led the entire Ivy League. Barre was named First Team All-Ivy and received the Phelan Award as the team’s Most Valuable Player.
Dartmouth men’s soccer won its second consecutive Ivy League title behind the phenomenal season from co-captain and goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland ’16. The senior from Dayton, Ohio posted a .62 goals-against average, .25 points better than the second closest player that saw at least 500 minutes. After losing star striker Alex Adelabu ’15 last year, the men’s soccer team needed to find another driving force. No Dartmouth player scored more than four goals all season, but thanks to Cleveland, who was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-Ivy, the team finished 12-6-1 overall and 6-1 in the Ivy League. Cleveland posted a 9-4-1 record in net, with all nine victories coming from clean sheets. The team’s regular season title propelled the squad into the NCAA Tournament, where it defeated Hartwick College in the first round before losing to No. 6 Syracuse University in the second round. Cleveland was always quick to credit the team’s defense for making his job easier, but nevertheless the goalkeeper played an integral part in the Big Green’s success.
As part of the team that led Dartmouth football to a share of its first Ivy League title in almost two decades, Will McNamara ’16 closed out a terrific Big Green career during the fall of 2015. The Chicago native led the team in tackles for a second straight year, notched the second most interceptions conference-wide and ranked fifth in the Ivy League in stops per game with 7.7. McNamara served as the linchpin of a stalwart Dartmouth defensive unit that led the entire nation with only 10.1 points yielded per game last season. As a result of all of his achievements, the senior captain received a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection at linebacker for the second straight season. McNamara also won the 2015 Reggie Williams Award at Dartmouth for leadership and was a defensive finalist for the Bushnell Cup, the award given to the best players in the Ivy League. McNamara was part of the team that earned Dartmouth its first national ranking since 1996, named No. 23 in the FCS. ANNIE DUNCAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
The D Sports Awards Yejadai Female Athlete of the Year: Dunn
In the closest vote of the D Sports Awards yet, Yejadai Dunn ’16 emerged victorious with 50.9 percent of the votes. Close behind was Kaitlin Whitehorn ’16, garnering 36.4 percent. Jaclyn Leto ’16 took home 9.1 percent while both Katie McEachern ’16 and Laura Stacey ’16 each
received 1.8 percent of the votes. Dunn’s victory marks the third victory coming for women’s rugby in three votes for best moment, best rookie and best female athlete. Dunn will go on this summer to compete among national talent and potentially secure a spot on the USA Eagles.